COMMISSIONERS PROCEEDINGS

JUNE 28, 2018

 

A special meeting was called with the auditors at 8:30am on June 28, 2018 for an audit and budget presentation.  Commissioner Joe Thompson, Pat Hall and Tron Stegman were present.  Also present was Amy Jo Tharp, County Clerk and RoGlenda Coulter with the Hugoton Hermes.

 

Joe Thompson, Chairman, moved to open the special meeting at 8:30am.

 

The commissioners are in agreement that will allow Koda Rich at the Landfill/Noxious Weed department to obtain overtime hours while an employee has a medical procedure done.

 

Rodney Kelling was in attendance and asked the commissioners if they wanted to relinquish the burn ban and the fireworks ban for the county.  Pat made a motion to retract Resolution 17-13 the County Burn Ban and Resolution 18-06 the Fireworks Ban for the County.  Tron seconded, motion carried.

 

Tony Martin with Road & Bridge and Fair, Ted Heaton with Sheriff, Nancy Honig with Extension and 4-H, Dave Piper and Kirk Heger with Hospital, Paula Rowden with Community Health, Phillip Willis with Landfill and Noxious Weed, Rodney Kelling with Emergency Management, Jim Bell with the Museum and Moscow Senior Center, Kelsee Burnett with Clerk of the District Court, Leslie Bissell with the Southwest Guidance Center and Vanessa Willis with the County Treasurer came in to discuss the 2019 department budgets.

 

Theresa Dasenbrock and Lisa Axman with Lewis, Hooper and Dick of Garden City explained the 2018 County audit and reviewed the 2019 County budget with the Commissioners.

 

Theresa Dasenbrock reviewed the projected path of the budget for 2019.  She projected the landfill will last up to 131 years.  She also explained that due to the Sheriff, Ambulance and Fire funds moving out of the General fund, the tax revenue and expenditures look substantially different as well as the personnel line item because of the employee benefits being broken out into each individual department.

 

Theresa explained the building fund is down and the county needs to try and build it back up for emergency purposes.  She also informed the commissioners the Oil and Gas Depletion is completed and paid in full.

 

Lisa Axman went over the management letter and requested that amounts be entered into the estimated revenues per department.

 

Lisa also instructed the commissioners the airport needs to have the money monitored better so it will not be in the negative.  She said the airport needs to go through the county like all the regular county entities as it is under the county and the airport board is just advisory to the commissioners.  She mentioned the Hospital board is different due to changes with operating but the commissioners still appoint the board members.

 

Lisa instructed the District Court Clerk to look into the Board of Abstractors that is using their Federal Identification Number (FEIN) for some banking and to remove them from their FEIN.

 

Lisa mentioned that any outstanding checks from the county that are over two (2) years old need to be handled properly and possibly be submitted to unclaimed property.

 

Lisa said there were no fraud or management difficulties found during their audit.

 

Theresa went over the population, levy and valuations compared to surrounding counties.  She said the levy is up due to the drop in valuation which is a bad time with the tax lid going into effect.  As the valuation went down the mill levy was raised to keep operating.

 

Some entities did not have enough cash from disbursements to get their full appropriated amount.

 

Leslie Bissell with the Southwest Guidance Center came in to request $1,000 more than last year’s appropriations from $44,676 to $45,676.  The request was approved at this time.

 

Rodney Kelling with Emergency Management requested a slight salary increase for his fire employees due to the unknown amount of fires.  Pat disagreed.  Joe and Tron said that salary increases were not figured in to the 2019 budget.

 

Joe said to table $50,000 transfer to EMS and fire and to review later.

 

Road and Bridge had an increase in value and decreased their budget by a little under $89,000.

 

Landfill, Noxious Weed and Rodent Control was good.

 

Fair was reduced from last year to get their full appropriation.  Request was granted.

 

Paula Rowden with the Community Health Department said the State is cutting some of the grant funds for 2019.  Joe asked Paula about cutting some of the medical supplies budget.  Paula informed them the need to be prepared is why that line item is higher than the average spent.  Paula then told the commissioners the grant fund will take the formula fund away if the maintenance for effort is penalized.  Theresa said it needs to match dollar for dollar.

 

Community Health budget was dropped $15,000 per the requested amount.  Less $10,000 in medical supplies and less $5,000 in capital outlay for budget year 2019.

 

Sheriff’s budget was decreased due to having one less person on payroll and employee benefits.  The Sheriff dropped $25,000 in contractual as well to leave a total 2019 budget of $1,672,452.00.

 

The 2019 budget for Data, Soil Conservation, Airport, GIS, County Attorney, Library Employee Benefits, 4-H, County Election, City on a Hill, County Clerk, County Treasurer, County Appraiser and County Register of Deeds were all approved at this time.

 

Economic Development was set to $35,000.

Stevens County Gas and Historical Museum was set to $65,000.

Coroner was set to $14,000.

Wellness Center was set to $89,530.

SDSI was set to $33,187.

RCDC was set to $22,050.

WKCAC was set to $3,500.

Extension was dropped $5,000 from their request and set to $140,000.

Employee Benefits had some remaining funds and will be left in case it is needed in the amount of $439,283.

 

Dave Piper and Kirk Heger spoke for the Hospital and Pioneer Manor and said they could not afford to cut their budget.  At this time they only have ten (10) days of reserves.  Pat said at this time the hospital is set to six (6) mills and what’s left goes to the Pioneer Manor.  He also stated the county is paying for the $600,000 annual HVAC loan for the hospital and paying for the building of the Pioneer Manor.

 

Pat suggested leaving the hospital and Pioneer Manor at the appropriated amount from last year at $1,500,000 which is $210,000 less than requested.

 

The Pioneer Manor is projected to be paid off in 2026 and the Hospital HVAC system is projected to be paid off in 2021.

 

Library will be at $305,714 due to the mills allowed for the entity.  The Library Benefits request will stay as requested.

 

There are funds left in WEKANDO which can be transferred to the general account and then dispersed on to the building fund if needed.

 

Vanessa Willis said it is very important to follow through with the tax sales in order to gain the lost revenue that the county needs.

 

The Foundation Board needs to start looking at public support or funding gained by investing.  If they do not receive any public support or donations, they will be considered a private foundation by the government and could be liable a thirty percent (30%) tax charge.  They need to look at gaining about $76,000 in donation by the end of 2019 in order to not get charged those IRS tax fees.

 

Since the Budget Hearing is set for August 6, 2018 at 8:30am, it must be published in the paper by July 25, 2018.

 

By motion, the Board adjourned.

 

Attest: Amy Jo Tharp, County Clerk                         ________________________________                                                                                                    Joe Thompson, Chairman