Commission Board Meeting on Wed, August 28, 2019 - 5:30 PM


Meeting Information

 

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DOUGLAS COUNTY, KANSAS

 

Public comment will be taken for each regular agenda item as each item is discussed.  Individuals will be limited to one comment per agenda item. Individuals are asked to come to the microphone, sign in, and state their name. Speakers are asked to sign in so that the spelling of names is correct in the minutes of the meeting. Speakers should address all comments/questions to the Commission.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019

5:30 p.m. BUSINESS MEETING  

-Proclamation for “First Responders Appreciation Month” (Michelle Derusseau)

-Proclamation celebrating the 30 Year Anniversary of Habitat of Humanity (Stacie Schroeder)

CONSENT AGENDA   

(1) (a)  Consider approval of Commission Orders;

(b) Review and approve FY2020 Carryover Reimbursements Plan Budget Summary and Budget Narrative for Criminal Justice Services- Adult Community Corrections            (Pam Weigand);

(c) Consider consent agenda approval of relocation of Permanent Road Record No. 553 (N 2100 Road) (Kevin Sontag);

(d) Consider approving an agreement with Headquarters to implement Zero Suicide training for Douglas County in an amount not to exceed $75,000. (Bob Tryanski)

 (e) Consider approval of the minutes from July 24, 2019; and

 (f) Accounts payable.

REGULAR AGENDA

(2) Consider approval of real property disaster relief pursuant to K.S.A. 79-1613 as recommended by the County Appraiser. (Steve Miles)

(3) General Public Comment

General Public Comment will be at the end of each meeting with a limit of one comment per person and keep their comments brief. Individuals may not give unused time to other speakers. As a general practice, the Commission will not discuss/debate these items, nor will the Commission make decisions on items presented during this time, rather they will refer the items to staff for follow up, if necessary.

(4) Committee Reports

(5) Commissioner and/or Administrator Miscellaneous

(6) Adjourn

August 28, 2019

Derusseau called the Regular Session to order at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 with all Commissioners present.

PROCLAMATION 08-28-19

Brandon Young, Douglas County Valor Program, recognized Maddox Holiday, 2nd grader at Woodlawn Elementary school as the winner of the First Responder Drawing for 2019, which will be used on the program cover for the Annual Valor Banquet on September 6.

Derusseau read a proclamation honoring September 2019 as First Responder Appreciation Month in Douglas County. A number of representatives from our 18 Douglas County agencies of first responders were present.

PROCLAMATION 08-28-19

Stacie Schroeder and Erica Zimmerman, with Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, gave a short presentation on the history of Habitat for Humanity and Commissioner Kelly read a proclamation celebrating the 30 Year Anniversary.

 

CONSENT AGENDA 08-28-19

Kelly moved approval of the following Consent Agenda:

►  Commission Order No.19-042 on file in the office of the County Clerk;

►  FY2020 Carryover Reimbursements Plan Budget Summary and Budget Narrative for Criminal Justice Services Adult Community Corrections;

►  Resolution No. 19-26 relocating permanent Road Record No. 553;

►  Contract for Headquarters Counseling Center to serve as the lead agency in convening and implementing Douglas County’s Zero Suicide Initiative with a cost not to exceed $75,000 in year one;

►  The minutes from June 24, 2019; and

►  Accounts payable in the amount of $261,041.14 to be paid on 08/29/19; and payroll in the amounts of $1,079,582.11 paid on 08/16/19; and $1,062,363.43 to be paid on 08/30/19.

Motion was seconded by Thellman and carried 3-0.

APPRAISER 08-28-19

The Board considered the approval of real property disaster relief pursuant to K.S.A. 79-1613 as recommended by the County Appraiser.

Steve Miles, County Appraiser, provided the County Commissioners with 22 applications requesting tax relief under K.S.A. 79-613 for homes with considerable damage and destruction from the May 28, 2019 tornado that hit Douglas County. Of the 22 applications, Miles reviewed and processed 17. The calculated percentage of abatement of the tax was arrived at by determining if the property meets the requirements of the statute, assuming that the land remains as unusable for the purpose intended, and prorating the amount for the time remaining in the current tax year. The abatement only applies to the residential dwelling and does not extend to the detached outbuildings, landscape or land. The estimated dollar amount of the abatement, based on 2018 mill levies, is about $30,800. Each application was reviewed separately.

Kelly asked Miles if he expects the homeowners to rebuild and repair causing the taxes to be put back in place. Miles responded each year he will valuate on what is on the property at the time.

Derusseau opened the item for public comment. No comment was received.

Sarah Plinsky, Interim Count Administrator, suggested the Board approve the program. The Commission can report out and monitor the program through the weekly Manager’s Report.

Thellman moved to approve the real disaster relief program pursuant to K.S.A. 79-1614 as recommended by the County Appraiser. Motion was seconded by Kelly and carried 3-0.

APPOINTMENTS 08-28-19 – None.

GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT 08-28-19

Michael Perryman, 1083 N 1172 Road, stated his property was flooded in the last storm, which is located south of 458 east of the spillway dam. He asked with whom he should have a conversation to prevent this from happening again. He said his property is supposedly not in the floodplain.

Gina Grigaitis, 1136 E 1087 Road, stated she lives near the creek. She was informed the Army Corp of Engineers does not look at the weather report before releasing water from the dam. She feels homes were violated and not taken into consideration. She would like the County Commission to have a joint meeting with those affected by the flooding.

Casey Vangemerer, 1072 N 1172 Road, stated the creek is in his backyard. When the Corp of Engineers let out water at 3000 c.f.s., Washington Creek was already three-fourths full. He feels there is no communication between the Corp and local emergency agencies and that the Corp of Engineers cannot be reached to control the dam.

It was noted that the Corp of Engineers is under Federal jurisdiction and the County has no legal control over the dam. However, staff took contact information from the speakers.

COMMITTEE REPORTS 08-28-19

· Thellman stated 15 people from the City and County attended the KDOT Local Consult Meeting in Topeka on 08/26/19. The Secretary of Transportation was present. The meeting addressed various counties on safety for county roads. Representatives from Douglas County heard several doable safety suggestions.

COMMISSIONERS AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE MISCELLANEOUS 08-28-19

 Information Items:

1. Douglas County Information Technology would like to improve the management of the Commissioners' email. Currently the mailboxes are generally managed with iDevices for iPhone and iPad, which do not allow for full management of the mailboxes. iDevices can only sync the last two weeks of content. Therefore if emails are not deleted from the Inbox within two weeks, they will not show on the iDevice but will still remain in the mailbox. Over time, the mailboxes will fill up, and the user will be prohibited from sending email. The IT department recommended two steps to address the problem. 1) Commissioners periodically use Outlook Web App (https://dgco.douglascountyks. org/owa) to manage their mailboxes. This application will show all email in all folders (Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items). Using Outlook Web App, Commissioners can delete content no longer needed. Additional folders can also be created that can be used for organization to store emails permanently. Amy Barnes can provide training on how to do this, and 2) Allow the Information Technology department to create rules on the email server to automatically delete content from the Sent Items folder and/or Deleted Items folder on a regular basis. If the Commissioners approve of this method, they need to agree on how long items should be kept in the Sent Items and/or Deleted Items folders.

2. Staff provided an interim legislative update of possible issues facing the 2020 Legislative Session. The League of Kansas Municipalities recommended changes for the 2020 Statement of Municipal Policy.

3. The 2020 budget has been published to the Douglas County Open Budget platform on Socrata. A few things to note about the 2020 budget:

· Workers Compensation Fund 2018 summary and audited actuals have been updated from prior year.

· Fund 303 ‘MH Services Sales Tax .25%’ has been added to the dataset extract from ONE Solution. This now shows in both the 2020 recommended and 2020 adopted budget.

· Criminal Justice Services/Youth Services shows operating expenditures out of the general fund for 2020; however, history has been preserved if the user toggles between each fiscal year (i.e. expenditures show in 236 in 2019 but out of 100 in 2020)

· The difference between the revenue and operating budget is the variance in revenue and expense budgeted in the Register of Deeds Tech fund (603).

4. The agenda packet included for Commission review 1) Bioscience & Technology Business Center board meeting agenda for August 29, 2019 and minutes from the May 9, 2019 meeting; and 2) the Bert Nash Governing Board agenda for the August 27, 2019 meeting.

Open Board Appointments

• Douglas County Food Policy Council (Local food system/Ag Producer) - (2) positions open

• JAAA Advisory Council - (1) position open

• JAAA Board of Directors - (1) position open

• Lawrence-Douglas County Advocacy Council on Aging - (10) open positions

• Joint Economic Development Council – (2) positions open

• Public Building Commission – (1) position open

Derusseau adjourned the meeting at 6:30 p.m.

 

____________________________     ____________________________

 Michelle Derusseau, Chair                  Patrick Kelly, Vice-Chair

 

ATTEST:

 __________________________         ____________________________  

Jamie Shew, County Clerk                    Nancy Thellman, Member

Location

County Courthouse
1100 Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas 66044