Kankakee Times

Members of the Kankakee County Finance Committee met Tuesday, April 26.

The finance committee makes recommendations to the county board regarding all financial matters in the community.

Here are the meeting minutes as provided by the Kankakee County Finance Committee:

Finance Committee Meeting April 26, 2016

REVISED MINUTES

Members Present Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Enz, Mr. Payton, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Einfeldt, Ms. Peters, and Mr. Johnson Members Absent Mr. Skutt and Mr. Reid In Attendance

• Board Members Mr. Bossert, Mr. Byrne, Mr. Mulcahy, and Mr. Wheeler Department Heads Jamie Boyd, Bruce Clark, Mike Downey, Lori Gadbois, Nick Allen, Erich Blair, Mark Rogers, Sandi Cianci, Debbie Woodruff, Steve McCarty, and Bonnie Schaafsma

• Media Present

1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Mr. LaGesse, at 9:00 a. m. Quorum present.

2. Public Comment

• Sandi Cianci commented on the situation with the Collective Bargaining contract

3. Approval of Minutes – April 5, 2016

4. County Auditor’s Office – Debbie Woodruff

• Monthly Claims The Committee reviewed the March 2016 Highway Claims that totaled $623,638.77.

The Committee reviewed the March 2016 General & Special Funds Claims. The total General Fund Claims was $746,808.73, and the total of the Special Fund Claims was $3,173,251.89, for a grand total of $3,920.060.62.

The Committee reviewed the County Board Payroll for February 1-29, 2016.

Mr. Enz made a motion to combine and approve the monthly claims, and Mr. Washington seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 10 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. Washington, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Einfeldt, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Enz, Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Payton, Ms. Peters, and Mr. Johnson.

Ms. Peters suggested that they pass it now so that they’re covered, and then if the State’s Attorney finds any problems, then they could do an amendment to it.

Ms. Woodruff stated that, in the past, any time there has been an issue that has arisen between committee and County Board, at the Board meeting, they just send it back to committee to address any of those issues.

Ms. Peters made a motion to approve the credit card policy with the approval of the State’s Attorney, and Mr. Payton seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

• Travel Reimbursement Policy

Ms. Woodruff stated that she is looking for direction from the committee on whether they want to make changes to the policy and, if so, what they would be.

Mr. LaGesse asked if the County pays mileage in-county, and also if they pay meal reimbursement in-county.

Ms. Woodruff stated yes, they pay both.

Mr. LaGesse stated that the County Board members relinquish their mileage in-county, and his suggestion is that the same be done for the travel reimbursement policy.

Ms. Peters made a motion regarding the travel reimbursement policy, and Mr. Payton seconded it.

Discussion:

Mr. Vickery asked how much the mileage rate is right now.

Ms. Woodruff stated that the mileage rate currently is 54 cents a mile.

Mr. Vickery asked what is considered in-county travel.

Ms. Woodruff stated that, what comes to her is a lot of it is the Planning Department and Transportation Division because they do a lot of site visits, so that is the bulk of the in-county that she gets.

Mr. Vickery asked if they have a car.

Ms. Woodruff stated the Planning Department does have a couple of vehicles, but the building inspectors are almost always in the vehicles. She believes they have one additional vehicle, but Planning has not been able to afford to maintain it, so it’s not road-worthy right now.

Mr. Johnson stated that he would be in favor of setting more specific guidelines for in-county travel, such as they are not reimbursed for possibly ten miles within the County.

Mr. Allen stated that his office does submit mileage for whoever goes to collect payments from the banks or, once a year, to swear in the tellers.

Ms. Schaafsma stated that, at the Health Department, their inspectors go out to all of the restaurants, and they do not have county cars, so they use their personal vehicles. It’s the same way with their visiting nurses. The Health Department has a separate policy, so this is just for informational purposes.

Mr. LaGesse stated that he hadn’t been thinking of day-to-day operations, like Planning, etc. He was thinking more of like if someone had to go to Grant Park for a training session, or if someone had to go somewhere for a conference.

Ms. Woodruff stated that she also gets claims from the Probation Department since when they’re on call, they have on-call mileage.

Mr. LaGesse stated that this is pretty much a non-issue then.

Ms. Woodruff stated that, aside from Mr. Allen traveling to some of the banks, the shortest distance mileage that they have on a regular basis is maybe from Kankakee to Bourbonnais, so six miles.

Ms. Peters rescinded her motion, and Mr. Payton rescinded his second.

5. Insurance/HR

• Staffing Levels Report Ms. Mackin reviewed the report with the committee. Currently, the total staff count is at 467. Last month, we were at 470. As far as new hires, 911 hired 1, but had lost 2 full-time, so they went from 27 down to 26. Maintenance had 1 resign full-time, so they are from 11 down to 10. The Recorder also lost 1 full-time, so she is down from 5 to 4. Corrections hired 2 part-timers, but lost 1 full-time person, so their county went from 101 to 102. In the State’s Attorney’s office, they have hired 1 full-time person, but have lost 2 full-time people, so they went from a staff of 26 to 25. So we hired 4 and lost 7 over this term. In comparison to April of 2015, we are down 31 from last year. In 2015, we had 498, and we currently have 467.

Mr.Enz stated that by April of 2015, they had already made some pretty good cuts. He requested that Ms. Mackin take her report back to 2014 so the committee could see from further back how much has been cut.

Ms. Mackin stated that she would have that information at next month’s meeting.

• Benefit Consultant Extension – David Underkoffler, Clemens & Associates

Mr. Underkoffler stated that they have some claims reports in from United Healthcare and they are tracking claims through February. They are running at about a 93% loss ratio, which means that 93 cents on every dollar that they’re paying in premiums, they’re paying out in claims. United Healthcare would like to see that at about 85%. If someone is running at about 85%, they could expect the renewal to look at whatever United Healthcare is using for trends. Right now, they’re using about 9% for trends. Since there is a contract through January 1, it will be a few more months before we get the renewal. If we ran exactly how we’re running now through the rest of the year, his best guess would be that we could be looking at a double digit rate increase, probably around 15% or so.

Mr. Wheeler asked where the HRA is running as far as utilization, and if anyone has maxed out.

Mr. Underkoffler stated that, to date, it’s at $90,000, so there’s a considerable account balance still available. He is unsure if any one individual has maxed out or not.

Ms. Mackin stated that it’s also time to talk about the benefit consultant extension. In the request for proposal that they did last year when it went out to bid, they had in there that there was an extension period of two additional years that could be exercised upon mutual agreement with the County and the successful bidder.

Mr. Underkoffler stated that they would like to entertain continuing their relationship at the current fees for another year. They are looking forward to continuing the relationship, looking at the renewal, and seeing what any options would be in January.

Ms. Mackin stated that they have done a very good job for us. They worked very well with the transition last year. She believes they should be given a chance to see what they can do. They had a rough transition from Health Alliance in getting all of the claims in to United Healthcare, but things are running a little bit better there now. Just to remind everyone, they came in last year with a $13,500 fee annually, and that’s what they are saying they will do this year, too.

Mr. Wheeler asked when the current agreement expires.

Ms. Mackin stated that it was adopted and passed, according to the Resolution, on May 12.

Mr. Wheeler asked if they’re asking for a one year extension or a two year extension at $13,500.

Mr. Underkoffler stated he thought they were doing one year at a time. They would go two years if that would be an opportunity.

Mr. Vickery made a motion to extend the contract for two years with the benefit consultant at the same rate, and Mr. Washington seconded it.

Discussion:

Mr. Byrne stated that, as much as he sees the reason for two years, he suggests that we just go year-to-year on this, especially since next year there will be a new board and to see how they feel about things.

Mr. Mulcahy asked Ms. Mackin if she is comfortable with this since she works with this every day, and if she thinks it would be advantageous.

Ms. Mackin stated that she does. She’s been very happy with how Mike Lynch has reached out and tried to help whenever an employee has called, and has done an excellent job.

Original motion carried with a roll call vote of 11 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Enz, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Einfeldt, Mr. Payton, Ms. Peters, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Bossert.

6. Treasurer - Nick Allen

• County Treasurer’s Report The Committee reviewed the County Treasurer’s Report.

• County Collector’s Report The Committee reviewed the County Collector’s Report.

Mr. Liehr made a motion to combine and approve the reports, and Mr. Stauffenberg seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Allen stated that his office will be mailing tax bills in a few weeks. They did launch their new website recently, so he encourages everyone to take a look at kankakeecountytreasurer.com when they can. They are hoping they are able to get more people to pay online. There will be a demonstration video on there on how to do that.

7. Finance Department – Steve McCarty

• Miscellaneous Financial Reports and Discussion Mr. McCarty reviewed and discussed the various reports with the committee.

Ms. Peters asked Mr. McCarty if there is any way that he could bring the revenue portion of the budget and maybe plug in some of these new numbers just to see what the impact on our budget is going to be with the lower numbers. The inmate bed rental is already at a $623,000 loss, and we’re only four months into comparing. That’s a significant impact on our budget, and it’s concerning, too, that the sales tax is also in double digit losses every month. We need to be on top of this, looking at the impacts.

Mr. McCarty stated that he will have the revenue projections done shortly, and then working on the expense. The audit’s just about finished, so he’ll be working on both of those next.

• Updated Aged Payable Report Mr. McCarty reviewed and discussed this report with the committee.

Mr. McCarty stated that, in last week’s claim run, they paid out about $125,000 worth of claims in miscellaneous expedites and some aged payables.

8. Other Business

• Set Salary for Elected Official to be Elected in 2016: County Board Chairman Mr. Bossert stated that this discussion was deferred from earlier this month when we had our last Finance meeting. The County Board Chairman, since December 2009, has received a salary of $60,000, and it has not changed since then. It’s gone six years at that level. Also, the Liquor Commissioner’s salary at $2,500 has not changed since that time, so $62,500 has been the compensation to the County Board Chairman.

Mr. Vickery made a motion to keep the County Board Chairman’s salary at $60,000, plus the stipend of $2,500.00 for the Liquor Commissioner, for a two (2) year period, and Mr. Washington seconded it.

Discussion:

Mr. Enz stated that a lot of times when you hire someone who has a lot less experience than the person who is leaving, they don’t always command the same salary as an experienced person. He thinks that the committee should consider lowering that salary by 10%.

Mr. Vickery stated that, if you want to go out and compare, the County Board Chairman has a $69 million total budget, and about 470 employees under their jurisdiction. There are a lot of positions out there, and if they did an RFP, he doesn’t know if they’d attract many people who would be interested in taking on that task.

Mr. Washington stated that, over the time he’s been on the Board, the complexities of operating the County Board have multiplied many times. Looking at the complexity of this operation right now, he doesn’t think it would be a very good idea to reduce the salary of the County Board Chairman.

Mr. Einfeldt stated that he realizes they need to trim wherever they can trim. They’re in a lot of financial turmoil here in the County. I don’t think there is any reason to expect a County Board Chairman to be anything other than full time. As the dollars go down, he would imagine that the some of the energy that goes into the job may go down also.

Original motion carried with a roll call vote of 10 ayes and 1 nay. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Einfeldt, Mr. Payton, Ms. Peters, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Bossert. Voting nay was Mr. Enz.

• Collective Bargaining Agreement – Recorder, Treasurer, Auditor Mr. Mulcahy stated that he was part of a team of three, with Mr. Washington and Mr. Hess. They met about six times with the Laborers Local 751. The initial request by the bargaining unit was a three year contract, with an increase of 3% for the first year, 3-1/4% for the second, and 3-1/2% for the final year. The team of three stated the poor financial condition of the County, and made a counter-proposal. We were reluctant to a multi-year contract that included wage increases since the finances of the County from year to year are hard to predict, and seemed to be trending downward. A mediator was eventually called in between the two bargaining units, and both parties agreed to a one year contract, with a salary increase of 2%, beginning December 1, 2015, through November 30, 2016, retroactive to December. The respective department heads have assured us that the money is in their budgets to carry the 2%. These three offices had a three year contract with 0% increase for the last three years.

Mr. Vickery made a motion to approve the contract at a 2% raise for one year, retroactive to December 1, 2015, with the contract being up on November 30, 2016, and an approximate total cost being $2,800, and Mr. Washington seconded it.

Discussion Ms. Mackin wanted to point out that the committee has a synopsis this time. She pushed to get that done for the committee because she knows they can’t sit there and look through the entire contract and know what the last contract was. She thought this might help in the future is she shows them the exact changes that were done in the contract so they know what they’re voting on.

Ms. Peters asked if there were other things added into the contract over the last three years. Even though they didn’t have a salary increase, sometimes benefits are given out instead of salary.

Mr. Mulcahy stated that they did modify their hours. They went from 40 to 35 hours last time, but other than that, he doesn’t believe there was any difference at that point.

Original motion carried with a roll call vote of 11 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Enz, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Einfeldt, Mr. Payton, Ms. Peters, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Bossert.

• Collective Bargaining Agreement – Coroner Mr. Mulcahy stated that, in essence, the negotiations went the same as the Recorder, Treasurer, and Auditor. In wages, we agreed to a 2% for one year, with full opening after that year. There are some differences. The “Indemnification – Performance of Duties” actually stems from the Coroners now carrying firearms with them. They basically wanted the same coverage as the Sheriff’s Department as far as legalities and use of those weapons.

Mr. Mulcahy stated that there is a little bit of a change in the part-time language regarding holiday pay. It now states, “Part-time employees scheduled to work or in on call status on any of the above Holidays will be paid one and one-half (1-1/2) times their regular rate of pay for the above Holidays.”

Mr. Mulcahy stated that the new 12 hour shift paid to the part-time Deputy Coroners will be $130.

Mr. Mulcahy stated that new language was added regarding x-ray pay, as follows: “In addition to any and all compensation set forth within the Agreement, the Employer shall also pay to the employee(s) the amount of seventy-five ($75.00) dollars for each set of x-rays performed by said employee(s). Said x-ray payment shall be made to the employee on the next payroll period immediately following the performance of the x-ray(s).”

Mr. Wheeler asked how many sets of x-rays are performed each year.

Mr. Gessner stated that 20 was the high. They used to be paid $150 per set of x-rays, but now it’s down to $75.

Mr. Enz asked why wouldn’t taking an x-ray fall under their regular job.

Mr. Mulcahy stated that this was one of the points that they bargained on. It was paid prior to this, and they’re just going to make sure they’re compensated the same as before. They don’t have an x-ray technician, so they feel they’ve invested in their training and their skill set, and feel they needed to be compensated for that.

Mr. Enz made a motion to approve the Coroner’s contract at a 2% raise for one year, retroactive to December 1, 2015, with the contract being up on November 30, 2016, and an approximate total cost of approximately $6,100, and Mr. Washington seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 10 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. LaGesse, Mr. Vickery, Mr. Washington, Mr. Stauffenberg, Mr. Enz, Mr. Liehr, Mr. Einfeldt, Mr. Payton, Ms. Peters, and Mr. Bossert.

• Collective Bargaining Agreement – FOP Probation Mr. Bossert stated this is not a vote for the County Board, but for review. The Chief Judge has already executed the contract, and the County Board members were not involved in negotiations.

Mr. Latham stated there were very few changes. For fiscal years 2016 and 2017, both years are at 0%. With that, came a change in hours from 8:00 to an 8:30 start time, which falls in line with most of the offices circuit-wide. They did adjust the clerical wage table so they basically, at the end of a year’s time, brought home the same salary with less hours. They had to adjust the hourly rate. There was no new money and no back pay paid out of the Kankakee office. They had the agreement February 29, 2016, and the contract expired November 30, so they were able to get it done pretty quickly.

9. Old/New Business

Mr. Bossert stated that the Maintenance Department contract, the Teamsters, was not bargained this year. The members of that bargaining unit declined to bring that to the table to ask for renegotiation. They were willing to take the existing contract and just carry forward without change. This bargaining unit deserves some recognition that they understand the circumstances and were willing to do that for a year.

10. Adjournment

A motion to adjourn the meeting at 11:09 a.m. was made by Mr. Washington, and was seconded by Mr. Liehr. Motion carried.

Mike LaGesse, Chairman Diane Owens, Executive Coordinator