Fulton County Board- Special Finance & Insurance Committee Meeting Minutes
Fulton County Board Office, 257 West Lincoln Street, Lewistown, IL 61542
Phone 309-547-0901-Fax 309-547-3326-email csimpson@fultonco.org
Committee: Special Finance/Insurance Committee
Meeting Place: Fulton County Board Office, 257 West Lincoln St., Lewistown, IL 61542
Time: 5:30 p m
Date: August 24, 2022
CALL IN INFORMATION:
Call in number: 425-436-6352
Meeting code: 262 8269#
1. Call to Order
Time: 5:33pm
Members:
Barry Beck (present/xxxxxx)
Susan Duquenne (present/xxxxxx) arrived at 5:35pm
Laura Kessel (present/xxxxxx)
BJ McCullum (present/xxxxxx) – by phone
John Spangler present/xxxxxx)
Lisa Thompson (present/xxxxxx)
OTHER BOARD MEMBERS: Roger Clark, Stan Berry
STAFF: Cindy Simpson – Fulton County Board Administrative Assistant, Audra Miles – Comptroller
ELECTED & APPOINTED OFFICIALS: Patrick O’Brian – County Clerk – by phone, Julie Russell – Supervisor of Assessment, Charlene Markley – Circuit Clerk, Staci Mayall – Treasurer
GUESTS: Media: None
2. Roll Call
Roll call was taken, quorum was present
3. Call for Additions/Deletions To and Approval of the Agenda
Member Thompson moved to approve the agenda with a second from Member Beck. Motion carried by roll call vote (5-0).
4. Announcements, Communications and Correspondence – None
5. Public Comments – None
6. Budget
a. Discussion/Action: FY23 Budget
Audra Miles Comptroller, discussed in the General Revenue Fund, the biggest change is the PPRT projection. The revised General Revenue Fund increased by an additional $1,000,000.00. The other outstanding items are, personnel items. Miles addressed the Contingency Fund and what amount the Finance committee wants to budget. The General Revenue Fund has a sizable surplus and the Finance committee needs to decide what to do with the funds. In the Other Fund Budgets 2 – 88, the Animal Population Control and the Child Advocacy Funds need to be set.
For General Revenue, the biggest change is the PPRT projection. The State of Illinois sent out the estimates for SFY23 and there are timing differences from the Fulton County budget and the State of Illinois budget year. The State Budget starts July 1, 2022 and is through June 30, 2023 and the Fulton County Budget starts December 1, 2022 and is through November 20, 2023. This leaves a big unknown as to what the State of Illinois will project for the budget starting July 2023. The current PPRT projection for Fulton County is approximately $5,000,000.00 and the funds are split between the General Fund, Social Security, IMRF and Health Department.
The current actual for PPRT for August is over $3.7 million and the budget for FY23 is $3.5 million. The current estimate for PPRT is $4.3 Million for Fulton County from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
Treasurer Mayall recommends the Finance committee hold off on making a decision on PPRT until the next PPRT payment is received by Fulton County.
The other tax revenues are based on FY22. Member Thompson inquired why the property tax went up. Miles will follow up with the County Clerk on why the property tax levy was raised.
Miles discussed the personnel related changes for the Sheriff’s office, the deputy position for Astoria that is no longer being funded by the City of Astoria.
In the Zoning Fund, the Zoning Officer salary changed by $10,000.00 due to real__cpLocation from the GIS fund to free up funding for GIS projects.
The Zoning budget does not include the raise of 3% for the Zoning officer. The Zoning officer agreement and raise have not been approved by the Fulton County Board. Member Thompson stated the Zoning Officer should be paid from the Zoning Fund.
The County Board salary of $45,000.00 is for a full time position and a part-time position. The web site coordinator salary is not listed and one of the administrative assistant positions should take over the duties.
Chairman Clark discussed that County Clerk O’Brian is assisting with the posting to the website. Chairman Clark stated there needs to be an outside entity to run the website. The person needs to know how to do the website maintenance and make the website ADA compatible. Member Thompson discussed she has been looking at websites and website designers. CivicPlus is the company that did the website for Peoria County and the website is easy to use and navigate. Member Thompson wanted to look into the cost and asked for the committee’s approval to start this process. Member Beck stated Western Illinois University has a great program for GIS and website coordinators. Member Kessel stated the Fulton County website needs to be accessible to people with hearing or vision disabilities. The County needs someone with government experience and know what government entities need to do to be compliant.
Member Spangler suggested Member Thompson check the estimated cost of CivicPlus and report back to the committee.
Member Kessel discussed it would be good to have a full time and part-time Administrative Assistants for the County Board. Member McCullum discussed if there is an estimate on how much work needs to be done before hiring another person to post materials to the Fulton County website. Member Kessel suggested leaving the positions in the budget and the adjustments can be made before the FY23 budget is finalized.
Chairman Clark stated the committee can look at the quarterly hours from John Young who is posting to the website for an estimate of hours that are needed for this job.
Julie Russell, Supervisor of Assessment discussed the GIS consortium would not be funded only by Fulton County. The consortium would pull in the City of Canton, Farmington, Lewistown and Spoon River College and surrounding areas that would pay a fee to be a member of the consortium. This would fund part of the GIS coordinator’s salary. A similar consortium is done in McDonough County, Champaign and Tazewell, and is not fully funded by their Counties. The GIS Coordinator is a full time position and usually has one staff member. The other entities share the cost of the salaries plus the insurance and benefits. Currently, GIS duties are handled by the Assessment office and is in addition to the normal assessment duties. Western Illinois University is the model on how this process would work.
Member Spangler inquired how confident Russell was that the surrounding entities would contribute to the consortium. Russell stated there have been conservations with Canton, Farmington, Lewistown and Spoon River College to confirm their participation.
Member McCullum inquired what the salary needs to be to obtain a quality GIS coordinator. Russell stated after consulting with Thad Chaney, the Fulton County IT Director, the salary needs to be $50,000 to $60,000 and the Fulton County would need a person with 4 to 5 years’ experience.
Comptroller Miles stated the funds that are needed from the General Fund need to be designated and in the FY23 budget.
Russell stated GIS is funded by a portion of the recording fees from the recorder’s office and the mapping supervisor from Assessment.
Member McCullum inquired if the two new positions would take work away from other employees, or if this would add more employees doing the same work.
Russell stated the mapping supervisor in the Assessment office, does approximately 900 miles of farmland assessments, plats, leases and solar farms in Fulton County. The mapping supervisor does the conservation stewardship program, conservation easement program, values land and is a certified real estate agent appraiser. Russell stated the parcel splits should be done by GIS, when Reba Ford retired she was the only person in the office that could do the parcel splits. Russel stated currently the parcel splits cannot be done by Russell as this is a union job. This job has been contracted out.
Member Kessel suggested the salary courthouse expense be raised $150,000.00 for the possibility of the GIS coordinator position being hired in FY23. Miles suggested putting a place holder on existing ling items and confirming with the Clerk O’Brian about equipment and office costs and make the adjustments to the budget.
Member Thompson discussed the county board Administrative Assistant positions are nonunion positions and these positions need to have a salary schedule for non- union positions. The minimum wage will increase January 1, 2023 to $13.00 per hour. Currently there are five non-union hourly employees. The Finance committee needs to make a salary schedule or follow the union salary schedule or something similar.
Currently, there are two confidential employees, the Courts Administrative Assistant and the Fulton County Board Administrative Assistant. The non-union employees should fall in line with the union pay scale and should not be paid differently. Member Spangler stated the Fulton County Labor Attorney recommended the pay scale should be the same for non–union employees as union employees. The Finance Committee needs to determine where the non-union employees fall on the pay scale based on their pay grade. Member Thompson stated skills assessment needs to be done years of service assessment and years of experience. Grade 4 job need to be a supervisory position. The legal secretaries fall under grade 3. This allow the employees to know what is expected. The salaries for the Fulton County Board Administrative Assistant and part-time person needs to be set.
Comptroller Miles stated when the current Fulton County Board Administrative Assistant was hired, the pay was based on a grade 3 job.
Member Spangler inquired why the union pay scale cannot be followed. Member Thompson stated the Finance committee can follow the union pay scale but there needs to be definition on the salary grade.
Treasurer Mayall inquired if non-union employees will have the same salary and step increases as the union. Member Thompson stated the Judges’ Administrative Assistant and the Fulton County Board Administrative Assistant should follow the union pay increases as these two positions cannot be in the union and the positions should not be treated any less.
Member McCullum inquired what makes these employees confidential employees. Member Thompson stated she spoke with States Attorney Jochums about confidential employees. States Attorney Jochums stated the Judges Administrative Assistant and the County Board Administrative Assistant are definitely confidential employees and are the only two that are required to remain confidential employees.
Treasurer Mayall stated by default the Fulton County Board part time Administrative Assistant would be a confidential employee too. The total salary in the FY23 budget is $54,100.00 for the full time and part time Administrative Assistants for the Fulton County Board, and this would be following the union contract for the wages.
Miles discussed the Sheriff has two non-union positions for animal control and the minimum wage will increase on January 1, 2023 to $13.00 per hour.
Member Thompson stated the Sheriff sets the salary and benefits for these employees.
Miles stated the Sheriff requested the same for these employees as the non-union raise. Treasurer Mayall stated the current rate being paid to the two kennel assistants non-union employees is $12.22 per hour and the switch board employee is union and is a Salary grade 1.
Treasurer Mayall stated if the kennel assistants are a grade 1 salary and the union pay scale is used, the salary on would go from $12.22 per hour to $16.14.
Member Thompson stated since there is not skill level associated with all the jobs, this needs to be determined if the jobs are truly minimum wage jobs.
Member Spangler stated the step increase should be followed.
Treasurer Mayall inquired why the kennel assistants would not get the raises but other non-union employees would get to follow the union raises. The county could have an issue with this if all non-union employees are not included. Mayall stated non-union employees are not paying union dues and reaping the benefits from the union. Mayall stated the county cannot single out certain persons to exclude, as that would violate being an unequal employment opportunity. Mayall stated the county does not want to create a volatile and toxic work environment. Mayall stated the non-union employees’ raises are determined by the Fulton County Board each year by resolution. Currently, the Finance committee is exploring making a change and having rank and file follow one another. If this is going to be considered be sure this is used for all non-union personnel.
Member McCullum stated he agrees with Treasurer Mayall. The Finance Committee is taking the lazy approach on the pay scale.
Member Kessel stated there needs to be pay scale in place for non-union employees and the county has taken the lazy way out by not determining this in the past.
Miles discussed the County Administrator, which is currently in the FY23 budget for the same as in FY22. The Finance committee needs to decide if these amounts should stay the same or be changed.
Members felt the item should be in the FY23 budget and the new Fulton County Board should have a say on this position. Member McCullum stated if the Administrator is left in the budget, the Finance committee needs to know what the job duties are to get the most out of the position for the county’s benefit. The line item will be left in the budget and may not be used but if the position is filled the funds would be available.
Miles discussed the Contingency Fund amount is $20,398.00. The committee decided to leave the amount the same for FY23.
Miles inquired what the committee wants to do with the open salary for the deputy that will not be working for the City of Astoria. The salary should be put back into the Sheriff’s budget.
Miles discussed putting aside the funds for the hourly non-union personnel. There are salaries the need to be discussed for two department heads; the Circuit Clerk, Supervisor of Assessment, as well as Assistant Public Defender, Assistant States Attorneys, ESDA and Comptroller.
Miles provided information on the salaries for the Finance Committee to review for the next budget meeting.
Member Thompson discussed the salary for the Assistant Public Defender needs to be looked at. The salary needs to be reasonable for the education that is required for the job.
Member McCullum inquired if any of the PPRT funds can be used as a stipend later in the year for a bonus for employees. By providing a stipend this would not increase the base salary for years to come but would help the employees now.
Member Thompson discussed one difference between Elected Officials and Appointment Officials is Appointed officials have benefits and Elected Officials do not have benefits. Elected Officials do not have vacation, sick time, comp time. Elected Officials have the cost of campaigns, but can take the time off at will.
The Supervisor of Assessment Julie Russell stated she does not earn comp time as stated in her agreement. Russell stated in the State of Illinois, the Assessment position can be elected or Appointed. Russell stated most counties choose to appoint the Supervisor of Assessment due to the education requirements needed to hold the position.
Member Thompson stated no exempt employee should receive comp time.
Miles discussed a possible Capital improvements fund for Property which would be another new fund, not in the General Fund. This would allow any funds that are left to be carried over and available for future years.
Treasurer Mayall stated in the past Fulton County has not been in the financial position to do this, but currently the county is in the position to do this.
Member Spangler stated this is for building maintenance to keep updating the courthouse. Miles discussed the Property committee has a list of improvements but the Property committee has exceeded the funds received from ARPA. The Property committee needs to look at the list of projects and place a priority order to the projects to be completed.
7. Executive Session: – None
8. Misc. – None
9. Adjournment
Time: 7:21pm
Member Kessel moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:21pm with a second from Member Beck. Motion carried by roll call vote (6-0).
Minutes Special F&I Aug 24 2022
