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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPub Prop Oct 27, 20101 PUBLIC PROPERTY/TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE MINUTES October 27, 2010 The Public Property/Technology Committee of the Grant County Board of Supervisors met in the Grant County Administration Building, Lancaster, WI Room 266 on October 27, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. pursuant to the adjournment of the September 22, 2010 meeting. The meeting was called to order by Chair Larry Wolf, Don Splinter, seconded by John Beinborn moved that the meeting was in compliance with the open meeting law. Motion carried. The following committee members were present: Larry Wolf, Don Splinter, Dwight Nelson, John Beinborn, Vern Lewison and Lester Jantzen. Robert Keeney, First Vice Chair was also present. Lester Jantzen, seconded by Dwight Nelson, made a motion to approve the agenda amending to allow the discussion of the third floor of the Administration Building (Line item 13) before David Bainbridge addressed the committee on his proposal. Motion carried. Dwight Nelson, seconded by Vern Lewison, made a motion to approve the minutes of the September 22, 2010 meeting. Motion carried. Courthouse Maintenance: Mark Udelhofen reported that the Blue Boy Statue had been successfully crated up with the help of the Highway Department, Maynard Behncke and Jon Angeli to be transported for repair. In taking the statue down, they found that the bolts holding the statue to the platform were rusted through leaving the statue unsecured. The dome was holding up with all the high winds we had been having. The heating and cooling system in the Courthouse was operating fine. Larry Wolf had asked the question as to who plows the parking lot in the winter. Mark informed the committee that Bennett’s Auto was contracted to do that service. Administration Maintenance: Brenda Halverson reported that she had been doing some of the fall maintenance on the heating system, being unaware since she had been hired, that WHV usually does this service. She has worked with them to assure that the boilers are ready for winter. Brenda inquired if she could look into using a chemical to circulate through the system instead of having to drain the pipes in the fall. She felt that the chemical would also help to maintain the condition of the pipes from rusting and maintain the seals. The committee directed Brenda to go ahead and look into the cost and pro and cons of this method. Correspondence: Gloria Fuller with the art club at Lancaster High School requested permission to place a banner for their up coming Annual Craft Sale on November 6, 2010 on the courthouse lawn. Motion was made by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Lester Jantzen, to approve posting the banner on the courthouse lawn. Motion carried. Chamber of Commerce Request: Angie Day was present to request the use of the Courthouse for Santa and Hometown Heartfelt Holiday event. She asked for the use of the building on December 11th and 18th. The events for December 11th would be a full day event with Santa, carolers, and a bake sale with the use of the first floor only. On December 18th the event would be Santa’s visit. Don Splinter, seconded by Vern Lewison, made a motion to approve the use of the Courthouse to Lancaster Chamber of Commerce for Santa’s visit and Hometown Heartfelt Holiday event. Motion carried. 2 Insurance: Marty Malloy, A.J. Gallagher & Company, reported that everything was fine with Grant County Claim history. He handed out the Renewal information for 2011 and indicated that our experience modification number had decreased 15 points which means that our premium for the 2011 renewal for the Workers Compensation Insurance decrease about $77,000.00. Marty feels that this decrease is due to the safety trainings for the employees that the Personnel Office has been holding periodically through the years, which he is very pleased with. Randy Peterson, TRICOR Insurance, reported that the Traveler’s Renewal information for 2011 will be available in a couple of weeks, all the renewal papers had been sent in. He had one claim that has caused some concerns at this time; it has now been assigned to the attorneys of Traveler Insurance. Randy felt that a good practice to follow in dealing with terminating an employee would be to have a Labor Attorney look over the information before the County takes action to terminate an employee. The claims made by an employee that has been terminated tend to be costly with attorney fees and time consuming with grievances, and arbitrations. At this time, Larry Wolf, took this time to update the committee on the study of the third floor in the Administration Building. Larry informed the committee that Grant County would need to start looking into cutting their fixed costs for the future. The Administrative Committee (Strategic Planning Committee) has been discussing ways to utilize the vacant space on third floor of the Administration Building. One alternative being discussed is to house Social Services, ADRC and Unified Counseling Services on that floor. This option has been discussed at this time because of the affect Family Care has had on the County when they opted to leave Grant County. Social Services, Unified and ADRC had to cut their staff because of this, and there is the possibility that the Iowa County employees that now work in the Lancaster Office for Unified will be moved to the Dodgeville facility. The committee has discussed the option of combining Social Services, Unified and ADRC into a Human Services Department. Other factors that enter into this discussion is the 52 Building which houses Social Services and ADRC is in need of major repairs that may not be beneficial to the County to proceed on. At this time, Social Services has about 1 million dollars in carry-over and Unified has about 1 ½ million in carry-over, that could be used; but the best options need to be discussed before any final actions are taken. Cost is a factor; parking is a big factor in the number of employees that would be utilizing the Administration Building in an already tight parking situation. It has been discussed to rent the third floor to other entities outside the County and house the Social Services, Unified and ADRC in other locations. It has been estimated that it would take about 1 million to renovate the third floor to use. The City of Lancaster would have to join in with the county in order to furnish enough parking for regular parking and handicap parking. Other factors to consider are the State and Federal Mandates that would have to be in play to utilize the third floor for health services. In regard to this situation and the ongoing study of the space on third floor of the Administration Building, David Bainbridge had asked to address the Public Property/Technology Committee on a proposal. David Bainbridge Proposal: David Bainbridge owns the buildings that house the Unified Counseling Services and the Land Conservation Services. In view of the fact that Unified Counseling may be moving out of their building because of down sizing, he is offering to sell the Unified Counseling Building and the building that houses Land Conservation to the County. He is asking $1,400,000 with 6% interest for a Land Contract sale or $1,600,000 buy out sale. Elevators: No action at this time, Joann Millhouse, Corp Counsel, still reviewing the contracts. 3 Focus on Energy: After discussion, the committee agreed that it would be better to wait until January to have Focus of Energy hold an energy class combined with other municipalities, schools, etc. The cost would be $99 per person. Focus on Energy would offer a coupon for a rebate of tuition for $99 upon completion of the course and implementation of an energy project within 6 months. They felt this would be beneficial also to meet with other people and hear about their energy challenges. This may get them motivated at a new level knowing others are interested too and have tackled some of the issues our facility is facing. The Executive Committee also addressed this issue and agreed that a January training would work better. Larry Wolf, Chair called a short recess, called meeting back to order at 10:39 a.m. Jeff Anderson, IT Director, reported on the trouble when one of the radio towers went out at the sheriff office. The tower that went down was the one that services the Administration Building and Unified Counseling Services. The computer service was very slow on Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday because they were operating through the DSL on the internet which was supposed to happen as a back up method. When this happens the VPN scrabbles the script so the information remains safe and secure. Tech support sent a new radio that arrived on Tuesday, but this radio was defective. Tech support sent a second radio which was installed and by late Wednesday the computers were running up to speed. There had also been an issue with a back up of a lap top computer of Louise Ketterer, Treasurer. Jeff explained that he was not sure what happened in that issue and why an error message had not appeared on the screen. The backup was not and had not been operating in that lap top. Louise did lose the data that was stored on her lap top, but the tax data that is stored in the Treasurer Office was backed up and secure, nothing was lost in the Treasurer’s main files. Jeff felt that though some things had been lost; the system did operate as it should of in an emergency and the default systems that the IT had in places did function as they should. The committee also discussed the possibility of having a back up person on stand by for the County when major things like this go wrong and the IT Department can not address all the issues. Jeff stated that he had contacted a previous person who had worked in the IT department for a short time and he would be interested in doing that for $25.00 an hour. In the discussion it was pointed out that it would be hard to have a person come in to help who did not have some knowledge of the Counties computers and systems. There would be too much time wasted in training instead of being an asset. Another option that was talked about was adding the Child Support systems to the Counties system and using their current support providers to help in emergency situations. Jeff would assess this issue and get back to the committee. Adjournment: Dwight Nelson, seconded by John Beinborn, made a motion to adjourn the meeting pursuant to November 24, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. Motion carried.