Macoupin County Board Finance Committee met June 12.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
PRESENT: Payne, Armour, Adden (Remote), Heuer, Stayton, Duncan, McGartland, Bresenan, Briscoe, Blank, Sanson, Sexton, Kahl, Reinhart
ABSENT: Dragovich, Kiel
II. BUDGET HEARING PRESENTATIONS
1. Amber McGartland - Treasurer
McGartland said her budget was basically only changing the union agreed salary increases for her employees. Overall her General Fund budget was decreasing by 1.02% or a $2,355 in less spending. She did point out that as Duncan had mentioned at the previous meeting, the tax software was having significant issues and it may require them to make a switch would probably require an increase in the tax assessment and collections budget.
2. Corinne Briscoe - Probation
Briscoe discussed her budget request. While it looked great, there were some factors to consider. The Board had allowed for some overlap with retirements happening in the current fiscal year which had unfortunately not happened as they had struggled to find applicants even with the new higher starting salaries. She also discussed that the state was again pushing for operational expenses to not be paid from the Probation Fees Fund. She was hoping next year to move around where things were paid in to keep the overall budgets the same, but better follow the state guidelines. The Probation Fees Fund was down as there was a one time payment to the state to get certified from the state that was reimbursed. The Drug Court Fund was flat this year. She reminded the committee that the salaries for her department for everyone but the secretary position were all reimbursed from the state.
3. John Bresnan - Supervisor of Assessments
Bresnan said that his budget was about the same except for the salaries. He discussed with the salaries for his office, he is understaffed and has been forever. He believe that currently his office should have a minimum of 6 people, which would be 2 additional salaries. He also included some money for overtime this year as well. There is an endless supply of things to do and there needs to be more people in order to get them accomplished, especially if the state were ever require more of the office records to be digital. He also pointed out that his office is very young in experience and it is a possibility that he and the employee with the most experience may be leaving soon, which would leave 2 employees who are still relatively new. He felt that the more they can do and accomplish now before new people were to start, the better it would be for the county.
Bresnan said he had requested a 5% increase for his salary. There was a question about if there were 2 new employees hired, would the need for overtime still exist? Bresnan said he believed it would be necessary as it would take the new employees time to adjust to the position. He said there are things they could do with the overtime hours even with the two new people.
4. Billing Staunton Township for Assessment Work Per State Statute Bresnan said that Staunton township had a vacancy in the assessor's position that required his office to do the work. By statute he was allowed to charge for the work done for the township. There was a question about whether the amount charged was a reasonable amount for the work done and would that be a disincentive to Staunton to not have an assessor employed? Bresnan said he was doing his best to reflect an accurate costs as doing the work took his part of salary as well as his office supplies, the county's electricity, etc. There was a discussion about with the cost of the pictometery flight being about $180,000, the average cost per parcel for that is $4.60. Staunton's cost per parcel than would be $13,840, which over 4 years is about 3,500. Based on Bresnan's workload and the pictometery flight, the committee felt that 100 per hour seemed fair. But the township should be made aware that the cost will be significantly higher next year as more on the ground work will be needed as the pictometery flight will be more outdated.
Motion by Stayton, seconded by Heuer at a 100 an hour with an invoice and letter explaining the costs will be significantly higher due to the lack of new pictometery flight.
RESULT: MOTION TO RECOMMEND [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Aaron Stayton, Member
SECONDER: Gordon Heuer, Member
AYES: Payne, Armour, Adden, Heuer, Stayton
ABSENT: Dragovich, Kiel
5. Shawn Kahl - Sheriff
Kahl said he had increased a few things. The lease agreement for the computer system had gone up with annual increase. He had put $40,000 for body cameras as the state law from a few years ago was going into effect soon. He was putting in for a grant but wasn't sure how much he would get for that. There would be a new yearly fee would be $12,000 going forward. They had three or four times the transfers they had before so he had put in more money for that as these transfers were requiring deputies to complete and often costing the county more in overtime. He wanted to hire two new deputies as well as another court security officer. It was asked if this was included in the budget request and he wasn't sure if it was or not. He said that the jail medical budget was out of control and there was nothing that could be done about it. He had reached out to other companies but none of them wanted to bid it so he was stuck with the current contract. He did not budget for any salary increases besides longevity increases as he was asked to do as the contract is not settled. Even without salary increases for his office, his budget was increasing by 11.6% representing $455,652 in new spending.
6. Christy Blank - Public Health
Blank said that the Public Health Fund, which handles all of the payroll for county health department. She had brought all of the public transportation drivers were brought in as full time employees with benefits. She had also struggled with filling all of the positions as well as supply chain issues. The budget was balanced for the time being, but it would depend on a few grants coming in at full amounts as they come in at later dates in the fiscal year.
The WIC budget is its own fund based on the requirements for the grant. The amount received for the grant went down this year to $159,554 which was easy to handle on the expense side of things.
The Community Care Health Center budget is funded through grants, which many of are decreasing as COVID funding winds down. The expenses are being cut to keep the budget balanced.
The Public Transportation Fund budget is increased mainly due to bringing the drivers to full time status with benefits. To get this budget balanced, there would need to the fare increases and contracts to some local services would need to be terminated, which would be discussed at this month's Board meeting. Without restructuring the program, she thinks the budget is about $700,000 in the hole.
The final budget is the Community Health Centers Inc account. This was made to make up the difference in salaries for the domestic violence employees. Their grants continued to get cut and this fund is for the fundraiser they do each year to help make up that difference.
7. Pete Duncan - County Clerk
Duncan had agreed to switch Reinhart since Reinhart was going to be out of town next week.
8. Tom Reinhart - Highway
Reinhart discussed his six special funds budgets. He had worked through the revenue fund. For the highway fund, the only increases were for the salary increases and fringe benefits increases. The township bridge fund was flat for the year. The county motor fuel fund had a .42% increase of $8,000 which is his guess for what he believes the county engineer's salary would be. The matching highway tax fund which covers the 20% of the local share of local highway projects. He bumped it up to help cover the Brighton-Bunker Hill road project as well as the Staunton-Bunker Hill bridge project as well so the budget was increasing 25% representing $200,000. The township motor fuel fund was bumped up 12% by about $400,000 to help cover the Rebuild Illinois Funds costs from the state which is being run through the Township Motor Fuel Fund. The final Township Bridge Bond Fund which he had left the same.
http://macoupincountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=3841&Inline=True
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