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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-11-10 Commissioner Minutes TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015 The Franklin County Commissioners met Tuesday, November 10, 2015, with the following members present: David S. Keller, Robert L. Thomas and Robert G. Ziobrowski. Chairman Keller presided and after calling the meeting to order, a Moment of Silence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, proceeded with the business of the day. On a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski; seconded by Robert L. Thomas; unanimously approved to adopt the agenda. Kim Wertz provided public comment and asked a question concerning board action #4, amendment to the Human Services Enhancement Grants with United Way. She said she understands what the budget modification is but if they don't use the full $28,500, will the County be able to maintain the remainder of those funds? The minutes of the November 5, 2015 meeting were reviewed. These will be approved Thursday, November 12, 2015. The Board reviewed Agreements, Contracts and Reports. Chairman Keller asked John Hart, County Administrator, to answer Ms. Wertz's question from public comment. Mr. Hart explained that the grantee submits a preliminary budget with this grant and estimates the expenditures. The Controller reviews all line items and if an expense exceeds a line item, payment is denied and a budget amendment is required. This contract allows staff to adjust line items to pay invoices without amending the budget. He said we can reallocate if the grantee does not spend all the money as it comes back to the County. Steve Malesker from C.S. Davidson was present to explain board action #1 for inspection/inventory of the bridges in Franklin County. The County is in a five year cycle and it is less than previous cycles because some cycles are two years. The items will be approved Thursday, November 12, 2015. Chairman Keller thanked the Herald Mail and the Public Opinion for attending last week's event to kick-off the Coyle Library renovation and expansion. Chairman Keller, on behalf of the Board, also thanked the Chambersburg Rotary Club for their$1,500 contribution to the Franklin County Veterans Outreach Fund. The Board held a public hearing to accept the proposed budget and approve authorization for application for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). Phil Tarquino, Planning Director, and Sam Thrush, Planner, were present for the public hearing. Mr. Tarquino said the Board needs to approve the tentative budget for CDBG and approve the applications to send to PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). Mr. Thrush explained on October 27, 2015, the Commissioners held a public meeting to review the applications that were submitted. On the evening of October 27th the Planning Office held a public open house but the only attendees were staff. He said on October 29th, the Commissioners held a public hearing and discussed Planning staff's recommendations for the program. At that meeting, the Board approved the tentative budget. Mr. Thrush reviewed each applicant, their project and amount the board tentatively approved at the last hearing. Mr. Thrush explained that throughout this process, the only public comments received were in front of the Commissioners and no comments were negative. Chairman Keller said he supports the recommendations because the projects are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, previous types of infrastructure and ADA projects that the board has supported with CDBG funds, and in support of the health, safety and general well-being of county residents. He opened the floor for public comment and none were received. On a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski, Continued on page 2 seconded by Robert L. Thomas, unanimously approved to accept the recommendations and forward all applications to PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) for consideration. Teresa Beckner, Fiscal Director, presented the 2016 preliminary budget to the Board. Ms. Beckner informed the Board this budget is an all request budget and includes all requests submitted. She reviewed and explained the revenues and expense line items. Ms. Beckner said the all services and operations total for revenue is $102.3 million and $110.5 million in expenses. There were a total of 24 full time positions and 5 part time positions requested in this budget for a total additional cost of$773,000. She said general fund makes up 9 full-time and 3 part-time of the positions requested. Ms. Beckner showed the slide to explain the general fund 2015 year-end projected expenses and revenue compared to 2016. She explained the 2016 requested budget includes health insurance, which is in the process of being finalized, and assumes a 5% increase to the county's cost. The next slide of the presentation showed the transfer/support to county operations. The overall increase in needs is $280,000 or 5.2%. The most significant areas of increase were Human Services with an increase of$237,000 or 9.2% and Domestic Relations increase is $36,000 or 5%. Ms. Becker said the recommended reserve balance based on 2015 projected actual spending is 60-90 days of general fund cash requirements which would range from $7.2 million to $10.9 million. Ms. Beckner said if all requests are granted, it would cost$6 million of reserves to cover through the end of 2016. Ms. Beckner wanted to remind the Board that we carry a double bond rating and one question she has to answer is if we have had three consecutive years of deficit spending. She continued that to give a perspective on this, in 2014 we ended the year to the good of$950,000 but had money received from the sale of nursing home at that time which was a big piece of it. In 2013, we used $280,000 of reserves and in 2013 we used 3.1 million of reserves. John Hart, County Administrator, said the budget is on track. Fiscal staff are looking at all line items and discussing budgets with all their departments. Staff will continue to look to improving operations, improving customer service and improving efficiencies. He explained that we have partnered with the Borough of Chambersburg on running fiber to county buildings within the borough and are working with CenturyLink to run fiber to Department of Emergency Services and the Jail. He is recommending to include money in next year's budget to complete the fiber project to DES and the Jail. He notes that we recently completed installing CAMA software in Tax Assessment and Tax Claim. This new software will enable residents to access land records online. Our new website has been very successful and we won a County Commissioners Association of PA (CCAP) award for our website. We are improving information to our customers through the website. Human Services departments are starting outreach programs and holding town hall meetings in various parts of the community to provide education on programs the County offers and assist people that need services to get them directed to the right departments. The GIS Department is up and running and we are sharing information with other entities including FCADC, law enforcement, fire companies and all municipalities. This has been a great success. In Purchasing, we are working on implementing Vendor Self-Serve and Three-Way Match. As a result, in the future vendors will be able to register and submit invoices electronically which will streamline our processes. County offices are doing more with less; we have not expanded personnel, and have streamlined processes with the use of technology. Mr. Hart said there are Human Resources initiatives with online recruitment and wellness programs where employees are provided information and encouraged to live healthier. The Archives Department has scanned over 600,000 documents this year, and some historic documents can now be seen on the county's website. The Court has successfully installed jury selection software which will require less staff when doing jury selection. In Veteran's Affairs, the Save-a-Vet/Save-a-Pet program is up and running and the Veteran's Affairs director is looking at other initiatives to serve veterans in our Continued on page 3 county. Mr. Hart explained staffing in Children and Youth is driven by new legislation. He said Ms. Beckner and her staff is looking at all line items and requested increases. He said there are two facility items to mention, the first is a data center. We have made great strides in consolidating our hardware and software. By virtualizing file servers our footprint has been reduced since we have eliminated approximately 25 file servers. We also need to be looking at relocating the Archives Department to a better facility for safe keeping of records. Ms. Becker mentioned the fund limits and bringing to the Board's attention that today is a good example that at 140 days or more with no state budget, we are continuing services to all people in Franklin County in Human Services. We never know when something like this will happen. The bond rating is based on our finances and we never know when there will be a major incident. Mr. Hart turned the budget presentation over to Carrie Gray, Assistant County Administrator, to explain some capital requests. Ms. Gray provided the following information: Staff is expanding the Human Services outreach effort and developed an intake referral process that will result in improved customer service; the Aging Office is working on improving nutrition in the senior activity centers; Children and Youth is working to provide a crisis stabilization program to assist families in a crisis to avoid placements and working to augment their truancy prevention efforts; Drug and Alcohol has asked for a recovery support specialist to focus on treatment for folks reentering the community; Intellectual Disabilities staff is looking to provide additional day programs for clients and a transitional program; Veteran's Affairs is continuing to implement the Save-a-Vet/Save-a-Pet program and to identify needs of veterans; and County staff would like to focus more resources on helping individuals re-join the community after leaving the jail. Mr. Hart said the county has accomplished a lot and we have gained efficiencies across the board. We are working on efiling in several court offices, and are also looking at efficiencies in the Sheriff's Office. We are looking at improving integrating released inmates back into the community. Mr. Hart said that the Board needs to give staff direction. He asks that they review all the information and give direction at next week's Tuesday meeting. Chairman Keller said he appreciates all the hard work of staff to get to this point. The Board has a lot to think about and will be prepared to provide direction at next Thursday's meeting on how to move forward. He offered his initial thoughts regarding personnel and capital expansion. He said the Board's priorities in the past have been to support requests that result in savings down the road. We have made investments in personnel in Information Technology Services and with hardware, software and training across the organization. Better information gives us the opportunity to make better informed decisions at the policy level. He asked them to continue to make investing in technology and improving public safety a priority when trimming down the all requests budget. He continued with respect to public safety, saying that we need to continue to maintain and improve 911 systems and keep hardware and software up to date. The staff added to Adult Probation has a public safety aspect as well, which improves oversight to offenders and keeps the jail population from growing even more. There is also a savings if the additional oversight to saves jail days by reducing recidivism. He said Teresa and John both pointed out double A bond rating and we want to follow the guidance of accounting experts to maintain 60-90 days balance in General Fund reserves. In general, staff has worked very hard on the Board's initiatives to streamline processes, improve quality of life in the County and maintain a solid fiscal position. He has been supportive of adjusting the General Fund and mill rate in the past when necessary and will continue to do so if necessary. A lot has been said about Human Services and it ties right in with the need to maintain healthy fund reserves and the ability the County has had to continue to sustain existing services in the absence of a state budget. He expressed support for the human services initiatives that Ms. Gray Continued on page 4 talked about. The County needs to continue outreach initiatives and achieve better integration of Human Services and Criminal Justice. We can always do better and he is supportive of crafting a budget with that in mind. Commissioner Ziobrowski said he is struck by hearing our staff talking about so many initiatives. It strikes him how forward thinking our county is, when we are a conservative county and have taken prudent action in terms of fund balance. He said we have been more able to survive the budget impasse than other counties in the state because we have maintained a good fund balance and are being fiscally responsible. He continued that the Chairman talked about the fund balance that we maintain. We have the ability to borrow as we were able to refinance and got a very good interest rate and we need to continue to do so going forward. He acknowledged the fact that we do have aging facilities, so the bond rating will remain very important. We have to look at maintaining a 60-90 day fund balance. He is proud of what we are accomplishing but cognizant of what we are doing going forward. Commissioner Ziobrowski continued that they had a half mill increase over the last 6 years. We have done a good job of holding the line but millage increases are inevitable and they will do their best to keep to as minimal amount possible. Commissioner Thomas said he does not disagree with what everyone said at this point. Last year when we had this budget presentation, he made it clear that if we didn't get 911 funding that is manageable, we knew we would use $2.2 million of surplus this year. We can't go a whole lot further, so we need to get a closer look at what needs to happen and look at priorities. The County will not do anything that would put the public at risk. For example, in Children &Youth, because of the new legislation, we will have to see if the state will fund it. He agreed with the importance of the reentry initiatives. A vast majority of those in our county lock up are going home, so it's imperative we have programs to assist them when they do. We need to keep persons at home with mental health diagnosis rather than put them in jail. We will have three new row officers in the next couple months, so we need to reach out to them on what their priorities are for their offices. He said the Courts have reached out to them, so we need to reach out too. Commissioner Thomas said the new 911 law passed but there is still a huge question of what will be generated in funding for our county. He is reaching out to CCAP to find out what it all means and how we will be affected. He asked John, Carrie and Teresa to look hard at the 911 funding. Mr. Hart said staff will continue to look at ways to add to quality of life and efficiencies, technology, streamlining processes and customer service. We have enough direction to look at best practices. He said quality of life is why we live in Franklin County. We need to look at quality of life, as we are in the people business, so we need to maintain quality of life for everybody. The meeting was adjourned at 11:33 a.m. with a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski; seconded by Robert L. Thomas. FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS