Board of Supervisors Agenda and Minutes - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Yeah. We didn't do that on the river. Have you seen any bears? No.

Actually, I'm disappointed, but not disappointed. Saw one. Yeah, right off the trail. Yeah. I saw one grizzly. It was long. It was at a distance, but it was pretty neat. A week before we were there. Literally. Really? I want to go back.

Good morning. It's 9 o'clock. We're going to call to order the Dallas County Board of Supervisors meeting for Tuesday, June 2, 2026. And I will ask for an approval of the agenda.

Move to approve the agenda. Second.

Is there any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Item four is open forum. Would anyone like to go to the podium and speak in open forum? Yes, sir.

Good morning. Apologies for not bringing this to your attention sooner, but I wanted to ask a small favor again. This weekend is our 17th annual All Wheels Car Show here in downtown Adel. It's our biggest fundraiser for Special Olympics. We'll probably have close to 100 different classic cars participating. And in years past, we've used 902 court, the bathrooms. We'd like to use those again with your permission. I did scout the area yesterday. Everything is closed off except for the downstairs area, which we usually block with tables. And we'll do that again if you guys give us permission. But we'd really like to use those bathrooms. The female participants in particular are particularly happy with those accommodations, so it'd be very helpful if that was available again. I don't have any problem with that.

I don't have any problem. I will be participant, so yes, that's probably a good thing.

You have card access.

True. Sounds good to me.

Good, thank you very much.

Is there anyone else to speak in open forum this morning? Okay, we'll move down to consent agenda.

Move approval.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye, motion carries. Supervisors, minutes from 5-26-26. Move approval.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye, motion carries. Payroll change notices, quite a few.

Good morning, yep, I'm gonna start sending through the July 1st payroll change forms. First, we have the Board of Supervisors July 1 payroll change form. Then we have the treasurer's office. The things you see in highlight are the things that are changing. These were approved in the budgeting process. We updated and regraded several positions within the treasurer's office. And I believe the treasurer talked to you about that in her budgeting process. Then we have the recorder and the exception for the one employee that you also approved in the budgeting process. Then we have the medical examiner, information systems, general assistance, planning and development, department 44, which is the weed commissioner. This is new. We haven't typically done payroll change forms for them, but with the new resolution style, you'll start to see these for the weed commissioner. Then we have a payroll change form in secondary roads for an employee for a step increase for the pay plan policy. Then we have the 7-1 change forms for EMS. Then we have the human resources. Happy to announce Tricia has been offered and accepted the HR coordinator position. So she'll move into that July 1. So this changes her from the HR or from the receptionist to the HR coordinator position. Behind that you'll see the requisition to backfill that receptionist position. Then we have Department 99, the mental health advocate. Then we have the receiving file with conservation. We have the health department, emergency management, and assessor.

Questions for Beth?

Move to receive and file the Conservation Health Department and Assessor's Payroll Change Notices. Was there one more? Emergency Management. Emergency Management as well.

Second.

Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries.

Move to approve the balance of the Payroll Change Notices as presented.

Second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Let's move on to capital projects. Item eight is ADEL EMS station notice of approved bidders.

Yep, so Jamie Rocheville with Turner Construction. So we started a pre-qualification process for this project a couple weeks ago, concluded it last, I think we concluded on the 21st, and then we scored and submitted the information. So we have six qualifying Chapter 26A packages that we will be issuing soon. for competitive bids and had really good participation and interest in those packages. I think we average anywhere from five pre-qualified bidders up to 11 for the packages. And so if you, Melinda, if you continue to scroll down, so that's kind of where we get into the list of who will be our bidding pool for those specific scopes of work. So, just making you aware of them. Not sure that you'll take any exception to any of them, as I believe the approved or the qualified bidders that we've got currently have been. uh, qualified and have bid and been awarded contracts on the previous Dallas County projects. So, uh, this really is just for informational purposes. Um, and right now we're planning to issue the documents to bidders, uh, this coming Friday. Uh, if not Friday, it will, it will be Monday, uh, the 8th. And then we'll look to take bids, uh, the latter part of June and, uh, work to get, um, the amendment, uh, submitted in early July for action by the Board of Supervisors.

So any questions?

OK.

This is the process we've done in the past. So it's great to see 11 qualified bidders. Yes.

Was anybody not qualified? I do believe that we had two or three bidders that were not qualified. And we will be reaching out to them to make them aware. I can't think of the names off the top of my head right now. But we can share that information as well.

What caused them not to be qualified?

Just some safety considerations. They had very high RIRs to where I think they were close to eight recordable incident rates, which are thresholds for RIRs. So.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

OK.

Thanks. Thank you. 8B, courthouse renovation project.

Good morning. So quick construction update on the courthouse project across the street. Work over the past month since we last met, obviously outside work, everybody's probably noticed what's going on there. We've wrapped up all the excavation, bentonite waterproofing, drain tile installation, tie into the city storm. Re-spread black dirt. We're just waiting on some irrigation repairs now, and then we'll be sodding all that, so everything will be back to normal outside. Level two, continuing according to schedule, we've wrapped up all framing, drywall finishing. We've first coat painted. We've received all of our millwork for the new jury courtroom on level two, so we're going to be starting the installation of that. Also completed all of our overhead rough-in work, so ceiling grid will be starting middle of this week, and then we'll be starting overhead MEP devices. Up on level three, starting to make some headway up there now. We've completed all the IT closet framing, drywall, electrical rough-in. We've had to do some additional demo up on the old ceiling of level three so that we can get our shoring under there to hold up the fourth floor so that we can finish our demo and move forward with the steel installation. Schedule-wise, we're around 69% complete. Financially, and we'll run through the contingency and allowance log with Christopher, but 92% remaining in contingency and 84% in allowance. Page two's got a few progress pictures. So, again, about a week old. Level 2 jury deliberation, you can see the drywall finishing is complete. That's all been first coat painted now. Upper right-hand corner is the judge's chambers office. You can see the radius bulkhead that we built. Again, painting is complete in there now. And then up on level three, essentially what you're looking at is the old hard lid ceiling that we've had to expose more of so that we can get our shoring up underneath those joists to hold fourth floor up. And then the outside work, you can see the black dirt re-spread. Any questions on the courthouse?

Did you know, do you know when winter dissipated arrival of that steel?

We're anticipating, it should be, Fabrication should be complete by the end of next week shoring has been delivered and we're getting ready to start and solid shoring Talk a little bit about the shoring so yep So that that bottom left-hand corner you can see some of those walls that are scheduled to be demoed so that we can create this large courtroom on level three and those walls are actually holding up those wood joists that you can see in the picture as well. So if we were to pull that wall, fourth floor would be unsupported. So to create the large jury courtroom with, you know, full jury and, and well seating and judges chambers and all that, you need a big open space. So to hold fourth floor up, we need to put sealed beams in. So, um, The steel beam alignment is right where those walls are, so we basically got to build support to hold the fourth floor up so that we can demo those walls, put the steel in, and then when the steel's in, that'll carry the load and we can take the shoring out. Did I say that right?

In relation to that, in the past they talked about different load limits

It'll be unchanged it's considered like a occupancy Like a large occupancy gathering because as you're aware fourth floor is a courtroom so a lot of foot traffic and people in there much different than like a house like a you know where you got just your family members walking around so i think we use 60 psf which is considered like library loading you know lots of lots of foot traffic lots of people so the loading on fourth floor won't will not change when we're done and and fourth floor will be able to continue to operate as normal while um We're doing our work because it'll be short.

Other questions? I don't have any others.

Thank you.

Good morning. Christopher Orth with Farnsworth Group. We have pay application number 14. for the Dallas County Courthouse renovations from Turner Construction for work completed through May 31, 2026 in the amount of $451,574.35. There is some stored material for some architectural casework, the woodwork and stuff that's in the courtrooms, some plinth blocks that is also part of the woodwork. The major work items this month, as Chad mentioned, we had the general trades. Again, the stored materials was a big number, and some of their installation work. Gypsum board assemblies, plumbing and mechanical, and some electrical work. as well as the Midwest caulking exterior waterproofing and the earthwork and site utilities work that occurred on the exterior of the foundations. In terms of the contingency log, we had some refurbished marble table that was accomplished. Was it?

Yeah, this was clerk of court. that we reused the marble that was existing at the recorder's office. So to get that to look good, we had to straighten some edges and join it so that everything fit the way it was supposed to.

some atrium drywall ceiling control joints, and some second and third floor access control panels. We still have a remaining contingency balance of $135,483. On the next slide, I don't know if you're able to, oh boy.

Go to the bottom of this. I'll try to read through. There you go.

We don't actually have anything this month that's a new allowance expenditure. So I don't know what happened with that image. In the packet, it's correct. It's just turned 90 degrees, what I'm seeing here online.

Can I straighten it?

Yeah, I don't know.

I want page per page and straighten it.

That's very odd. Based on that, we again recommend approval of Turner's pay application number 14 for the courthouse in the amount of $451,574.35. I move to approve Turner Construction Company's pay application number 14 for the renovation of the courthouse for $451,574.35.

Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you.

We'll move down to evidence storage firing range.

Yep. So, out at the sheriff's office, Over the past month, outside-wise site work, we've removed our job site trailer, kind of started some preliminary demobilization activities. The purpose for that is because we're moving ahead with site grading for the concrete parking lot. We're actually planning on starting some of that work tomorrow, concrete-wise. The earthwork contractor is out there now. grading and prepping all that. We've also started some black dirt re-spread along the west and south elevations. Firing range-wise, install of the firing range equipment is underway, proceeding well. If you drive by, you'll notice a lot of the The pallets outside are actually a lot of that ballistic treated baffle system. Ductwork and plumbing installation in the firing lanes is complete, as well as electrical rough-in. Now we're just working kind of hand-in-hand with the equipment installer to make connections to their stuff. And then there's a little bathroom on the backside in the atrium area that's been drywalled, primed, and painted. We've installed the FCU units in the atrium as well. At the evidence storage building, mechanical plumbing system rough-ins are complete and pressure tested. Line set installation is ongoing. Pulling wire for electric panels. Drywall there is done as well. First coat paint is ongoing for the training room and the little office and bathroom that are over there. And then, rooftop units and furnace have been installed and connected. Schedule-wise, 79% complete. Financially, we'll run through the contingency and allowance logs in a second, but we're at 72% remaining on contingency and 59% remaining on allowances. Pitchers-wise, upper left-hand corners, the rough of the firing range just as all the mechanical equipment needed to circulate the air when the firing range is in use. You can see it's rather large. Inside the firing range, upper right hand corner, this is kind of looking down range. You can see the overhead mechanical ducts been installed, insulated. You can see it's kind of dark in the picture. We've black painted the top and bottom. ahead of the baffle system install. Lower left-hand corners in the evidence storage building, this is the corridor that kind of separates the vehicle bays from the training room. And then lower right-hand corners, the north wall of the firing range, this is kind of hidden from Highway 6, so it's got a Wayne's coat of brick and then the metal wall panels that match the evidence storage building. Any questions?

We're in receipt of the evidence storage and firing range project pay application number 15 from Turner Construction for work completed through May 31st in the amount of $1,663,973.88. Jayden Electric does have some stored electrical gear and some light fixtures that has been documented accordingly. This month, the big ticket item is the firing range equipment. As Chad mentioned, Action Target delivered significant amounts of material to the site, and they're being stored in preparation for installation. Other items this month, some earthwork with the final spread of topsoil and finished grading, modern pipings, plumbing, and mechanical work. then Jayden electric's electric and low voltage work and this month for contingency there was some a duct ceiling clash some irrigation and lawn repair and some roof penetration boots for some electrical equipment and then in terms of allowance we have On the next page, there we go. Thank you. We had some winter conditions, concrete and masonry winter conditions reconciliations. And then those are shown below as credit. And we had a sub-drain and splash blocks were added for some downspouts. We still have a balance in the contingency of about $177,559 and a balance in the design or in the allowances of $276,958, both of which are very healthy for being near 80% complete. We do have, as I mentioned, the stored material. We recommend approval of Turner's pay application number 15 in the amount of $1,663,973.88. Any questions for Christopher? I don't know of approval of Turner.

Construction company's pay application number 15 in the amount of $1,663,973.88.

Second.

Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Move down to Secondary Rhodes.

I think I said last month that last month would be the last update on this job, but we'll go again this month. We'll have a June pay app. which should be the final and just kind of wrapping things up. So hopefully this is the last update for secondary roads. Um, out here the past month, again, the county moved in and occupied the facility, um, back at the latter in, in April. So, um, what we've been up to out there is kind of what we call day two work, which is some miscellaneous work scope that got added, um, outside the contract and we're kind of handling after occupancy. Primarily, it's the mini split at the IT room. I believe it's getting started up today. We finished condensate piping and the controls on it yesterday. So, That work will be wrapping up, and then it's really just been kind of punchless corrections, which were down to less than 5%. We have completed the exterior punch. We had waited on that because, as many are aware, the county's been self-performing a lot of the paving which has been going good, but we wanted to get all that concrete up against the building poured before we final cleaned the outside of the windows and reviewed the exterior for any punch list work. That's been completed. Really wasn't a lot that popped up on that punch list, but we're addressing the items that did. We've completed some owner training on some of the systems. just some door hardware changes and a few things that have kind of reared their head after the County's occupied. Um, outside the County's continuing with all the site paving, they're getting pretty close to done. And once they're done with that, uh, we'll be able to install the gate arms at the entry gates. And that's kind of our last open scope item. But again, we've been not held up, but, um, unable to complete it until all the paving is done. So it'll be good when all that wraps up. So again, just some pictures of the inside. You can see county employees are occupying and using the space. I think everyone likes it. Upper right-hand corner is the garage. This is the sign shop side. So the county signage shop has moved in and using the space. Lower left-hand corner is paving between the garage and the south shop. I think it's all wrapped up on that end. They're primarily working on the north end right now, and then lower right-hand corners, some of that paving on the north side of the new engineer's office.

We're in receipt of pay application number 18 for the Dallas County Secondary Roads addition and garage project from Turner Construction for work completed through May 31, 2026. Requesting payment in the amount of $61,394.09. There weren't many big ticket items this month. Trinity Construction, General Trades had some work this month. Waldinger.

Flagpole.

Hmm? Flagpole. The flagpole, thank you. Waldinger had some final work and then some landscaping work were really the items this month. From a contingency standpoint, we added some data and power in the training room, fire alarm magnetic hold open, some owner furnished contractor installed cabinet infill strips, some locker room ADA bench, and electrical ground ring repair. We still have a balance of about $51,000 in the construction contingency. And then under the allowance on the next page, there was one item which was a credit for some scope that was moved to the county's responsibility for some gate arm foundations. And we still have a balance of about $29,658 in the allowance. We recommend approval of Turner's pay application number 18 in the amount of $61,394.09.

Move to approve Turner Construction Company's pay application number 18 for the Dallas County Secondary Roads addition and garage for $61,394.09. Second. Is there any further discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Item 8D4, Certificate of Substantial Completion.

As Chad mentioned, the county has taken occupancy of the admin addition. We've completed punch list work, identifying punch list items and And Turner's working on getting those completed. So we recommend that the project be considered substantially complete. We do have May 27 was the day we completed our exterior punch list. And the interior and portions of the garage were completed on April 15. And so we recommend approval and a signature for the certificate of substantial completion for the secondary roads projects.

I move to approve the Certificate of Substantial Completion for the Secondary Roads Addition and Garage Project. I'm authorized chair to sign.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we'll move down to Item 9 as a Resolution for Local Budget Certificate. This is saying that the political subdivisions have certified their budgets to the auditor's office. It's our acknowledgement. Do you have anything to say?

Okay.

Move to adopt resolution 2026-0074. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. We'll wait one quick minute and we'll open our public hearing. Okay, it's 9.30 and we are going to take up item 10, which is our public hearing. So this is the time and the place for the public hearing and meeting on the matters of the issuance of not to exceed a .5 million of general obligation local option sales tax bonds in the order to provide funds to pay for the cost of the county's capital projects, including erecting, constructing, and equipping for the county ambulance and storage facility. with related site improvements. So has there been any communication with the county on this topic, written or verbal? Okay, so I didn't, is there anyone to speak in the public about this topic? Please go to the podium and state your name. Any questions from board members?

Thank you.

We've had several workshops about this topic, but did anyone want any further explanation or any further discussion? Okay, I'm going to again say to the public, is there anyone in the public that would like to go to the podium and speak about this topic?

Eric or Tim, do you want to make any comments while you're here? I mean, you came out

I have nothing further to add. If you have questions, happy to answer anything.

Tim, you the same? Yeah. I move to close the public hearing.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. We'll move down to item 11, which is a resolution initiating proceedings to take additional action for the issuance not to exceed 8.5 million general obligation local option sales tax and revenue bonds. And again, I've asked if there was any public comment. We did not have any and nothing written to the county.

Move to adopt resolution 2026-0073. Second.

Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Item 12 will be the bond council engagement letter.

So the next three items are all related to the action that you just took. And again, I have two out of the three individuals here. The third is Dorsey and Whitney, who will represent us as our disclosure council. If either of you want to talk about the services that this would bring to the county, you're welcome to. I think it's very, it is exactly the same team as what we had last year.

I would just appreciate just a little brief explanation.

Good morning, Eric Bullard with Alders in CUNY. So as bond council, we serve as the Council, relative to the legality and tax status of the securities being offered and ultimately sold and placed, our opinion goes to the investors in the market to assure them that if tax exempt, they do not pay interest or rather federal income taxes on the interest paid. There are obviously limitations and regulations that we walk you through to ensure that you're in compliance with regard to giving those opinions and the legality aspect of a valid and binding obligation is the steps including the hearing that we had today just to establish compliance with the code we walk you through all of that the proceedings etc and so there will be a diligence process and some questions that we'll work through but as as we said roughly exactly like last year so happy to answer any questions thank you thank you second

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item 13 is the Dorsey and Whitney Disclosure Council Engagement Letter.

James Smith is the attorney with Dorsey and Whitney that will be engaged with this, charged with this work. If, Tim, do you want to maybe explain what They do. And you can stand up there and talk about what you do in the next item.

Sure. So Tim Oswald with Piper Sandler. So Disclosure Council puts together the securities offering document. You will be selling securities, so you've got to follow all the federal laws around how we communicate with investors. So Disclosure Council's primary task is to put together that communication document. They'll rely some on the county's representations. They'll rely on input from others. They'll rely on things from us as well. And as a sidebar, when we get to our scope, there is a part of that document that we help you assemble that they don't actually assemble. So fairly straightforward. And then when it's completed, they'll give you an opinion that the securities disclosure document complied with federal regs.

Any questions on this item?

I don't believe I do.

I don't either.

I move to approve the Dorsey and Whitney Disclosure Council Engagement Agreement and authorize the chair to sign.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. And item 14 is our local option sales tax revenue bonds negotiated sales process agreement.

So this is the agreement with my firm. And so we traditionally help the county in serving as financial advisor. Our primary tasks are to help you select an underwriter for the sale of the bonds, tell you where market interest rates are as of the sale date, weigh in as to whether we think the underwriter is selling the bonds at market rates or not, and then we'll prepare all the final schedules and things that the various attorneys use for certificates and documents. And then lastly, one of the scope that we just talked about is to help you assemble what's called the Appendix A document, which is kind of the demographic overview of Dallas County. And that's primarily data that we track and keep. And so we're the logical party to prepare that scope and document. Really no change in this agreement from what we did a year ago when we sold the prior sales tax bonds.

Any additional questions?

I move approval of the local option sales tax revenue bonds negotiated sales process agreement that Piper Singler presented here today and authorized chair to sign.

Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. Thank you for all your work on that.

Could I just ask one question from Tim? Could you explain then what the process is going to be from here?

Yeah, so normally I would put together a timeline of action items that follows your board meeting schedule, share that with council, and we would move through the process. orderly timeline might from here forward see you having bond monies on received 60 days from now and having interest rates fixed maybe 45 days from now or so that turns around to a question because start date would imply you know you you know when you need the money you know how much you need to borrow etc and so When I put together a timeline, usually the first question I ask is, well, where are you at in terms of bid letting? And we heard some of that discussion here earlier this morning. So I would want to start a timeline from what they're thinking in terms of, I know bid letting may not be the exact term, but that's how I think of it. And then following it forward from there. There's just one other edit, which is that in August, the state posts an estimate of... of revenues for the following fiscal year, usually around towards the end of the month of August. It may not really necessarily affect this bond sale, but it is just kind of interesting information to have the estimate for FY27's revenues in hand. So it may be that we want to drag our feet a little bit just to see what that estimate looks like. I'm not expecting anything dramatic either way, but I'm just, where we sit, I'd be interested to know what the estimate looks like if we have that opportunity to do so.

And we have to make our final decision, too, on the reserve.

Yeah, how we're going to fund. That's why it's a not-to-exceed amount. what it would cost for that to be bond funded, but we do have the opportunity to pull it out and fund it with cash if we wanted to. The last I had heard, and the Turner folks are gone now, but it was end of August-ish timeframe, I think, when the construction would start in earnest. breaking ground and dirt work and stuff. So that timing. It might not work perfect. It might not.

So we'll have to work through all that.

Yeah, more to come on that.

More items to come.

Yes. There'll be a reimbursement resolution as well to reimburse the county for what we've been cash flowing. for architectural work completed to date. So that will come later.

Okay, anything else on this topic? Thank you again, appreciate it. Okay, we'll move. We'll move down to our item number 15, which is set time and date for public hearing for cost advisory services. Rob, did you wanna just talk about this briefly?

Sure, so this is a three year agreement that we have with cost advisory. They do the work to review all the allocated costs that we pay, or the state, it's for the reimbursement, I'm not stating this very well. It's the analysis that goes into creating the amount that we get paid back the state for what we help them with.

And we're having the public hearing because it crosses fiscal years.

Correct. So this is a three-year contract proposing to begin on July 1st. It will cross obviously fiscal years, so that's the public hearing.

And what's our dates on that? June 16th, 9.30 a.m.

The reimbursement amounts, that's the term I was looking for earlier.

June 16th at 9.30. I move to set time and date for the public hearing concerning the cost advisory service agreement for June 16th, 9.30 a.m. in the Dallas County Board of Supervisors meeting room. Second.

Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item 16 is our second reading of the ordinance proposed changes to chapter four general assistance program. We approved the first reading last week, and this is rewriting our ordinance for general assistance. And I see that department here in the room if we have any further questions.

Have we received any comments or objections to this?

No, and you guys haven't either.

I move to approve the second reading of Ordinance 2026-0011, Proposed Changes to Chapter 4 General Assistance Program, and waive the third reading. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Thank you for all your work on that ordinance. So item 17 is the TAP grant for the Raccoon River Valley Trail Phase 5 Project Funding Agreement.

Good morning. Kirk Cable, Conservation Director. This is a standard agreement for the federal aid that we received to do the Phase 5 construction that is within the city of Adel. Grant amount was about $504,000. I still don't have final numbers on what that project's going to cost. Once preliminary plans are done, I'll come back and I'll have a presentation for you guys to fill you in on that.

but our timeline on that is next summer, right? Is that our goal? Correct.

Yep. Yep. Bid letting, we are still on track for December of 2026, possibly January 27th.

I would offer an approval of the Iowa Department of Transportation Federal Aid Agreement for Transportation Alternatives Program project presented here today with the appropriate identification numbers listed on the document for our records and authorized chair to sign.

Second.

Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Thanks, Kurt. Keep moving on that project. We're going to skip down now to item 19, which is the second reading of the ordinance for the official Dallas County zoning map. We again had this last week. And this map shows our current zoning. Is anyone, have we had any other further comments come through?

I move to approve the second reading of ordinance 2026-0010 update to the official Dallas County Iowa zoning map and waive the third reading. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. We have about 10 minutes before our public hearing, so let's start our pay plan review workshop so we can talk about those issues. Did you want to kick it off, Beth?

I can't. Or do you want to kick it off, Kim? Yeah. Go ahead. Well, so I think there's three things that we need to discuss today, or continue the discussion that we've been talking about. Excuse me. First would be using the ECI versus the CPI, so a market adjustment versus a cost of living adjustment. Then Kim also wanted to talk about the 10% spread between employees and managers. And then finally talking about pay increases, annual merit increases for employees, the timing of So originally in the pay plan, we had it 90 days before the end of the fiscal year, you're not eligible for a merit increase. I proposed moving that to four months. Kim wanted to continue to talk about potentially having a six month, where employees were hired in the last six months prior to the end of the fiscal year, not getting a merit increase, which I feel that that would be disengaging for employees. But maybe there's a compromise in there. If we say employees hired 90 days before the end of the fiscal year are not eligible for a merit increase July 1, but employees hired between January and March, from six to three months before the end of the fiscal year, they'd be eligible for their merit increase on their six-month anniversary, pending satisfactory performance as deemed by their supervisor and department head. So Kim and I discussed some options like that as well. So those are really the three areas that if I am, I might be missing something, Kim, or the other two, if you wanted to talk about something else. I will say as it relates to the 10% spread between managers and employees, I use that 10% number. That was the recommendation from Condrey and Associates. That's what they had used every time they reviewed our pay plan. I lost two times they've reviewed our pay plan. So I've continued that. So every time we hire a new supervisor, I'm looking to see that their salary is 10% above the employees that they're supervising. Every annually, every year, I look at the sheriff's office because command staff is in the pay plan, whereas the employees are governed by the bargaining unit. Those increases happen on different rates. So employees might increase faster than the supervisors. So I want to make sure that that spread of 10% continues. In addition, we've seen that happen in secondary roads and in EMS for multiple reasons. One of them being we have a lot of long-term employees that are in those positions. And so when we promote into the supervisor positions, we want to make sure that that spread maintains at that 10%. So I do look at that every time we hire a supervisor. I look at it annually during the budgeting process to make sure that that spread happens. We will make changes. A lot of times it's in the sheriff's office. During the budgeting process, we know we need that spread to be a little bit more. We have some tight margins in our sheriff's office between our command staff and our actual employees.

Just my opinion about the... The two ECI versus the CPI, I liked what Brad said last week, that those are really a guideline for us. So whatever one we pick, let's just be real transparent in this plan about which one and how we're going to use it. But I looked at both, and I think they do look at slightly different things, but I don't know why we wouldn't be at least acknowledging, if we're looking at one in the paper, but at least acknowledging looking at the other one, too. So I don't know if we can write both of them in or not. But whatever we're doing, let's be clear, whether it's market or pricing.

And either one. I mean, it's your pay plan, what you would like to use as your guidelines. That's really up to the three of you. I will probably always look at the ECI just to see where we are in relation to the market. Because since we started using the ECI, it's been a lot easier for my seat just to recruit. We've had a lot of applications. I mean, for one administrative position, we're getting over 100 applications right now. And we consistently have seen that over the majority of the positions that we've been recruiting for. And so I like that. However, it's still just a guideline. You know, ECI was, what, 3.4 at the end of the fourth quarter last year, and you approved a 1%. So Brad was absolutely correct in the knowledge that that's just a guideline for a place for you guys to start, so we know what the market is doing. And I understand what Kim was talking about. Are we looking at the CPI, so giving people a cost of living based on the inflation of the goods that they're trying to purchase? So really, it's two different ways of thinking about it and two different guidelines for you to review. Either one will work as a starting point. And it's really just how you want to communicate that and look at that to employees.

I just thought we ought to continue this discussion so we can clarify in the pay plan what it is we're trying to achieve. Because it is the way it's written now, and I appreciate Beth's effort to try to clean this up some. It is confusing a little bit, I believe. And as I discuss with Beth, I think in all actuality, in a few short months, the pay plan will probably be under review by five supervisors rather than three. So it's going to be subject to change regardless of what we do today. But for discussion today, I think it ought to be whether we're looking at the CPI inflationary Cost index, or if we're looking at the ECI. What is it we're trying to achieve?

And I've been guilty of saying cost of living, not market, many times. I have too. I guess if I'm sticking to what I'm actually saying, then the CPI is what I guess I'm referring to.

Is one historically higher than the other one?

I haven't looked at that. I know through COVID, the CPI was a lot higher than the ECI, like double. But the ECI was relatively high at that time. So I don't know the trending. I don't know if you've looked at that, Rob. I am right now. He's looking at it right now. But we did in the pay plan cap it at a 6%, saying, you know, I mean, a 6% cost of living or market adjustment is really high. in my opinion.

Yeah, it's controlled. So, I think... What I would say is that the ECI is not as bouncy. So from that perspective, when we do our budgeting, we like to budget kip-kap and to smooth things out. The ECI would be a more steady number, less variability in it, which is what I would expect. Really? Right. Cost of goods can fluctuate depending on what the good is. If it's fuel, you know how volatile that can be. But if it's, you know, I don't know. Well, I guess everything's volatile these days, but some more than others. Just as a finance guy, I like the ECI because it is a little bit more predictable and it's not as variable. And to Beth's point earlier, and I can only say what she's already said, I haven't experienced it myself, but from a recruiting standpoint, it seems like it's been pretty good.

I would say so. And we are in a fast-growing market. Our compensation consultants have said over and over again that Central Iowa is one of the fastest-growing markets that they've seen. So with the ECI, it helps gauge that market adjustment based on what our competitors are doing. But it is just a guideline, like Brad mentioned the other day.

Hold that thought, I'm sorry. We're gonna go right into our public hearing and I did wanna have to stop you in the middle of your comment, I apologize. So it's 10 o'clock and this is the place and the time for our public hearing as advertised for the first reading of the ordinance 2026-0015 proposed changes to chapter 45 zoning ordinance regarding home based businesses.

Okay, yeah, this is another code alignment to meet up with state code. The code's a little behind as you've been made aware of with the previous changes that we've done. This is an update to the home-based business regulations. Currently, our current code is FAIRLY RESTRICTIVE, REQUIRES PERMITS, ET CETERA, WHILE STILL ALLOWING HOME-BASED BUSINESSES. IN 2022, REALLY AS A RESPONSE TO COVID, STATE OF IOWA MADE SOME AMENDMENTS TO THE HOME-BASED BUSINESSES OR HOME OCCUPATIONS TO ESSENTIALLY Make it a little easier for them to occur without cities or counties regulating them as much as they historically have. So it removed most of the barriers, the big ones, number of employees and outdoor operations. It gave us some really vague language. That's really hard to interpret and enforce, but we'll do our best with what they gave us. It does require some screening requirements for anything that may have exterior operations. Most codes across the state do not allow exterior operations, but now the state says you can as long as you screen it. Big thing is... Permitted uses, so they're permitted across any residential district in the county. Reduce licensing. Again, current Dallas County code does require licensing after they ever did it or applications, but it specifically prohibits that. It does not get in the way of HOAs or any underlying bylaws of associations, so they can still regulate their neighborhoods as they see fit. And then they use the word no impact throughout the code. So basically, any no impact home occupations allowed. Now, what is no impact? We really see it as not really increasing traffic or off street parking and where the activities are not visible from the adjacent property or street. So what does that constitute? Well, if you live in a residential neighborhood and you have a semi pull up every day to unload, that's probably impact based business. A semi unloading every day is not typical to a residential neighborhood. maybe even a straight truck, but a couple of cars, that's pretty standard vehicles and equipment you might see on the street. Let's talk about on-street parking. If you have 15 employees showing up and they're occupying the entire street, that might be seen as an impact, but a few cars may not. Again, the state did not give us hard numbers, so it's kind of an interpretation-based. And if we do get a complaint, we'll go out and look at it and see if we can mitigate We'll work with the homeowners and try to mitigate any of the issues that may be occurring. Kind of hard to see here on the screen, but this is in your packet. I really deleted the entire previous existing section of the code. and then readopted. We have new definition and then we have the new regulations. Again, this is pretty much for the most part following state code. They did allow us to identify uses that may be impact. I've identified eight of those that may be impactful. I'll read those. So these would be prohibited in our residential districts. Motor vehicle sales and rental repair. medical and dental clinics, restaurants, kennels and veterinary clinics, funeral homes, nursery schools, but not in-home daycares, repair shops outside of like your small equipment, like your lawnmower, typewriters, or computer repair, those would be allowed. Then any other uses that are not compatible, that kind of is our big, if we get a complaint, we can go out and look at it and make some adjustments and work with the homeowner to address those concerns. Again, trying to follow state code. There's a little bit of vagueness about it, But we'll do our best to interpret it and interpret it consistently as it comes up. This is public hearing, so there's one reading, two subsequent readings, unless you choose to waive those. Okay. Planning and zoning commission did recommend approval.

Okay. Is there anyone from the public to talk about this topic? Please go to the podium.

Board members?

Correct your R1, R2, and R3. Agricultural is a residential but it has its own kind of unique standard so some of these uses like a kennel or you know equipment repair you may already those are allowed uses in the A1 so they're not a home occupation. This would be definitely be more for your your neighborhoods in the county, those true developments in the county. That's where it's going to apply most of the time.

So does this update clarify some of the questions that have come in the past with requests to do things?

It definitely does, but it confuses it a little bit, too, by saying no impact without a measurable metric.

So that metric is addressed how in somebody's application?

Well, there's no application for it. Well, there was. It's never been really used. If somebody came in, if you came in and said, hey, I'd like to open up a barbershop out of my home, out of my garage, obviously you have to get your building permit, but then We'd probably just ask general questions. How many folks are you having? I got one in the chair. I got one paying, one arriving. Three an hour or so. OK, we don't see that necessarily as an increase in traffic. We said, hey, I'm going to have my chair and three other chairs for a total of four. All of a sudden, you're at four times three. You're at 12 people, not including the four barbers. So you're at 16. That might be getting a lot of character. So if you did open that up, We'd have to kind of see how you operate. Hey, you have a parking problem. How can we address this? Again, the state did not give us anything to measure that against, so it's really, it's a little subjective, but as long as we stay consistent.

Right, so that decision process is an internal process.

Nope, nope, it'd be the zoning official myself. If somebody wanted to appeal that decision or my interpretation of the code, they'd have to go to the Board of Adjustment to appeal my interpretation. So we're doing our job and doing it consistently. Hopefully that won't come up, but it could. Or somebody could come with a home occupation. When you look at number eight, any other uses that are incompatible with residential uses. Somebody could come with a new business plan that none of us are thinking of today. And I could sit there and say, no, that's commercial. They could say, I disagree. They'd go appeal my interpretation. So it's about really hopefully having a good understanding and hopefully residents and folks coming to us first rather than just doing it.

So the attorney is sitting in here. So are these things defensible when some big issue comes up?

I think the issue is going to be, as David said, is applying it consistently. And as far as these enumerated eight items, again, I don't necessarily see a problem with any of those restrictions. Again, consistency is what it's going to come down to. John on this side of the street can have a repair shop, but Ben on this side of the street can't have a repair shop, something like that. I think, I don't know what David's reasoning was specifically for each of those eight, but in reading them, they do all make sense to me as outside of what you would normally find in a typical residential You know, of course, just due to the increase of traffic, that would be affiliated with most of those items. So, to answer your question as to whether this is defensible, I would say yes, with the caveat that consistency in interpreting on planning and development side and the Board of Adjustment side. will be the key.

And you're updating this due to House Files 2431, or are you expanding it on your own?

Updating per 2431, again, those eight items, seven items technically, are high-traffic uses that just I don't see would fit to a residential neighborhood. There's just no way around it. Now, again, you could come and say, hey, I'd like to offer a appointment only tea room Okay, that I'd probably say no, that's a restaurant by our definition happy to go run to the appeal and Once the appeal is made if the board of adjustment says no, that's not a restaurant Then we'll allow tea rooms as a as a permitted home occupation so it's kind of using our board of adjustment for its its purposes to help peel and interpret a differences between my interpretation and a resident's interpretation. That's what they're there for. Not historically used, but our previous place, we used it all the time to help us bridge those gaps between uses or interpretations. Again, that's one of their roles, not just variances and conditional uses. So yeah, one through seven is really what I have added above and beyond the house file.

Again, we're in public hearing. Is there anyone to speak on this topic from the public? Anything else from board members?

Yes, Mr. Hockett, under section 220 E and F, does the Iowa code specifically require a solid six foot high fence?

Could you give me that code section again, please?

Well, it's on mine. I'm sorry.

Yes, on mine. Yes, it does. How to say it? If you can give me one second here, I'll find it. It does require a screening.

I thought it was just screening.

It says screening typically. Historically, I've always identified that as at least a six foot solid fence now. It could be a six foot wall Which is essentially a fence as well, but typically six foot is the maximum fence you get by height without a permit Six foot is typically enough to screen the average So if I'm in a property and I have several acres of land even if I don't have say several acres of land But my home is screened with trees or whatever where it's

What I'm doing cannot be viewed by the public. Are we still requiring a solid six-foot fence?

As the code has stated, you can screen it with buildings. You can screen it with potential landscaping. But the way that does read, it probably does require some screening from any adjacent right-of-way or public property with a fence. It could be amended, say, unless screened from view by an acceptable acceptable fence structure or landscaping.

I don't even know why we need to say that if it's screened.

Or shall be screened. That's fine too. That leaves it. Then we can do any method we choose. And again, we got to think, this is applying to residential neighborhoods as well. I mean, yes, there are big lots out there in the county. I know there are two multiple acre lots. So it might not be as big an issue. It runs into it when you get into your smaller. Your smaller development or smaller lot developments might be difficult to screen with landscaping or other methods. But if we want to leave it vague, we can, not vague, but if you want to say screening, that will leave Samuel and I to be able to work with the landowner to find the best method for that property. No issues with that.

I'd be okay with that.

Okay.

Did you have another one?

I thought you had another one. It was E and F. It's the same verbiage. Oh, okay. It's the same verbiage on both of them.

Any other comments? Yeah, any other public comments? Brad, did you have anything else?

Move to close public hearing. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

And is there approval as amended on this?

I'm just thinking if since it's amended if there's a need to have a third reading. I don't know that there truly is because we didn't change the We changed the verbiage, but the purpose of that section didn't really change.

And there's been no comments?

There's been no comments. Legal, do you have any opinion as to why we would be required to do a third reading or should do a third reading?

It's entirely up to you.

All right, then I would move to...

What you should do is do them separate so that you approve the, if you're going to, approve the first reading and then have a motion to waive second and third and then vote on that. Or just waive second or whatever, however you want.

You can do whatever you want when we can vote on it, but we have consistently the last few done the second reading the next week. I mean, to be consistent. It's up to you. But it's up to, we can vote on it.

I move to approve the first reading of Ordinance 2026-0015. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

I agenda the second reading for next week. Okay. We've been doing that pretty consistently.

Okay. Thank you. David. So let's go back to the paid plan review workshop. And I had to cut Supervisor Golightly off here. Sorry.

I might have forgotten my whole question. So did you say that our documentation, whether it's in the employee manual or whatever,

Correct. We did that two or three years back. So it says...

So in either case, whichever one we're looking at, this is a little bit like our compensation commission. They'll come up with a recommendation and we'll adjust it to whatever fits the budget anyway.

Right. So it says the cost of living adjustment will be set by the Board of Supervisors and may be capped at 6%. So it does give you guys a little bit of wiggle room.

But it's set by the Board of Supervisors, so it doesn't really matter whether there's a cap or not.

Right. I think Rob and I discussed that, and we put that in there because it had gotten really high there for several years, and we wanted to put a ceiling to communicate that most likely that would be the cap. But you could go above that if you...

Well, if you're going to have a cap, I would say it's not a may. It is.

It is a cap. We can do that.

I think the cap would be more applicable to the if you were to use CPI because of how it can fluctuate so greatly, whereas the ECI is not as volatile.

So I think the question in my mind that needs to be answered is, are we talking about doing an increase to compensate the employee for inflation, or are we trying to stay in the marketplace? Is that the purpose of this? And once we have that answer, then we can determine which index should be used.

As an employer, I would want to be up to date in the marketplace.

Theoretically as well, if I'm just thinking economics wise, employees are going to, I believe, demand a pay that would take care of the increased costs of goods and services. So we have employers in here. I mean, would you agree with that?

Yes. Not to put you on the spot or anything.

Lance Farrell, District 4, Dallas County Supervisor candidate. Vote today. I may lose some votes for what I'm going to say. I believe in incentivizing employees. Our staff don't get paid just because they've been around a long time, and increases. They get paid because they're performing. So that's something I'm going to take a look at, which I was chat GPTing just now to see if there's something we could do to reward people that are doing a really good job. That's what it's about, right?

And we have that. So we do reward for merit increases.

Awesome.

Either a one-step, which is about a 2.5%, or a two-step, which is about a 5% increase, based on their performance reviews. So this is in addition to that merit increase, whether it's a cost of living or a market adjustment.

I question why there's two, but that's just a question I have. It seems like there would be one solid thing for performance, and that should cover it.

Right. So historically, we've looked at, we have a grid in our pay plan. So you have grades 1 through 26, and you have steps A through R. And that grid is what stays up with the market. And so historically, we've looked at using the ECI as a market adjustment, where that whole grid will move to stay up with hiring. So regardless of how long you've been with the county, if you're a good employee, a bad employee, You get that adjustment to keep those salaries up to date with what the market is doing. And then another piece of that reason that there's two is because we wanted to give a portion of your increase that you had control over. So the harder you work, the more money you can earn. Or if you are a poorer performing employee, maybe you don't get that increase, and then you have something to work towards maybe next year to get that salary increase. So that was the thought behind it. And so what we were discussing is how those ranges move and what we utilize to move those ranges. So as Kim said, is it a consumer price index, a true cost of living, what it costs to purchase goods? Or is it their employment cost index, which is more of a market adjustment? So what are your employees in the same area doing and rewarding and paying their employees? So how do we decide? where to move those ranges is what we're discussing. And it's really a philosophy and a starting point of where the board wants to discuss how those ranges move moving forward.

That makes sense. And as an employer for many years with a franchise, I've learned that you get what you get with a person. If you pay them more, they don't necessarily do any better. You get that person. And so more money just doesn't make them more productive. So when you talk about a bad employee or a poor employee, you give them a chance. You talk to them. If they don't improve, then you probably need to replace them.

Yep. I would agree with that.

Thinking back on some of the comments, one measure versus the other, was there one of those that included benefits as well as just salary?

The ECI. It's total compensation package for local governments in our region.

And so, too, after your recent explanation, it's almost like there's two phases to what we're doing in human resources. One is to keep our paid plan in the market, and the other one is to reward the employee for their performance.

Correct. Through the yearly assessment.

So can we do that with just one measure, or do we really need all of those measures?

I think we need two.

I would agree with that. The way it's structured right now, I think it's two. The pay plan shifts to keep up with the market, and then your performance review determines how much.

Correct. So for example, 7-1. This coming year, the payroll change forms that you're seeing come through now. On average, the increase was 3.5%. So 1% of that was what you approved. So the ranges will move 1%. And then a portion of that, 3.5% on average, was performance. So either a one-step increase or a two-step increase. Historically, we have only about... 8 to 10 employees who get that two-step increase. Likewise, we have about 8 to 10 employees who get no increase because they're not performing. So the bulk of our employees are landing somewhere in the middle. So it's a bell curve.

So where are we at on this discussion?

I think there's a lot of information.

Yeah, I would like to use something that's not volatile, but then are we really addressing inflation? I don't know that we are.

Well, that's what I was trying to say earlier, is that I think in part the ECI does, because it's what the employers are demanding to be paid to be able to keep up with what they're paying.

And it's their entire compensation plan, not just.

Yeah.

So they are incentivizing something else within it. Okay, after all that, Kim, where did you want to go? I just want to be consistent, and I don't think I was saying it correctly. So whatever we decide, I'll make sure I use the correct verbiage.

Well, I don't necessarily agree with what you just said, Rob. I think your chart kind of indicates that with the CPI. It's either below or it's above. It's rarely right there with it. It's also reactionary.

That's what inflation is You know higher wages can Push costs of goods and services to increase whereas If the goods and services lead then the employers are going to require higher wages. It just depends on the environment, the economic environment that you're in. If one's leading, I think then the next, then it's going to lag, and then the other one is going to increase.

And I think with the ECI, it depends what region you're comparing to, you're looking at.

It's national or local.

Or even, well, what's local? Is it the Midwest? Is it the state? I mean, so there's different regions that can be measured.

Same with the CPI.

Yeah. And I think with this legislation that just reformed property taxes, I think this market that we see with the ECI is probably gonna change, as I talked with Beth yesterday, because of the caps that are put on governments in the state of Iowa. Anyway, so that's yet to be determined, but.

Well, right, we might not be able to offer anything.

Well, I do think there'll be a change.

Right. But wouldn't that be more conducive to using the ECI then? Because that's not going to change what the costs of goods are going to cost everybody else.

Yeah. I don't disagree with that.

Yeah. And in the end, I think kind of my personal opinion is it's all circular. Let me get back to where you kind of started. I think it's just how you want to communicate what it is that you're doing.

Right. Well, we have to be on board with one another what we are doing. Right.

Yeah. And for the reason that you can adjust it down from wherever you are, I mean, whatever index you use, like we're under the ECI right now. And the ECI was 3.5%, but you only improved one. you have that ability whether it's the ECI or the CPI. But I do think to be clear in the pay plan, you need to be able to say what it is that you're doing. And I do agree that I think that it's been a little confusing because we're using ECI but saying cost of living.

Yes. That was my fault. I've said that and I'll say it again. trying to remedy it right now and be more consistent. We've had a lot of questions. So I want to, a lot of the changes that I've proposed are clarifications or explaining more in depth how it operates.

Well, it seems to me that, I mean, I've only been here for, I mean, I've been here a while, but only on this side for a year. And it seemed like though over the years that the East, since we've been doing ECI for the last, Since 21, you guys said? Mm-hmm. And I guess I feel like we should try to be with the market since it's the complete compensation plan, but we are comparing ourselves to central, I mean, you told us, I'm sorry. We're comparing ourselves to other government agencies? State and local government, correct. Within the Midwest? No, I believe it's national. Oh.

Okay.

But the CPI would be the same thing?

I haven't looked at the CPI in a while, to be quite honest, since we stopped using it. So I don't know what it's done.

Well, for today, which I agree, it's all probably going to, we're going to move, probably make some more changes. I kind of think we need to stay within the market, and I feel like it has worked the last few years. So I would say let's stick with the ECI. But I still think we need to start looking I know you look at the CPI, too, for comparison. But in our documentation, and then change it. What did you say? Market instead of cost of living.

I have other things, too.

And I can maybe get my arms around that if we also limit that region. to what's applicable to us, and that's not national.

Yeah, I don't...

I haven't looked, but there probably is a state and local... Can you guys dig into that a little bit more? There's supposed to be, yeah. It's probably more Midwest-based than it is Iowa, per se.

But even Midwest would be better than... If you guys could dig into that, that would be great. Yeah, I can dig into that. Please. Okay, so then let's talk about the, when the new employee comes on, we currently have Three months, they're not eligible for the merit increase. And then you proposed four months. And then it sounds like that there maybe was options for something else in there. So what was that? Let's go back over.

So anybody hired three months prior to the end of the fiscal year would not receive a merit increase, would not be eligible for a merit increase. That's a short time to really evaluate performance, in my opinion. And then employees hired January through March they may be eligible for a merit increase on their six-month anniversary date pending satisfactory performance as deemed by their supervisor and department head.

That's a compromise to just doing flat four months.

So three different options. One, we stay at 90 days. Two, we go to 120 days or option three, you say no increase 90 days prior to the end of the fiscal year, and then delaying the merit increase until your six-month anniversary if you're higher between January and March.

So in your example, if the matrix increases, they'll get that as it changes, and then you're only talking about merit now.

Correct.

I kind of like that idea because it gives that department head not just that I'm going to do them all at once. I have to take that new employee and do a little bit more in-depth, whether they get it or not, and hopefully give them some more additional feedback since they're new. Right.

Does a merit increase apply to the new salary range or the previous salary range?

The new salary range. The new fiscal.

It's an increase-increase.

It's an increase-increase. Correct.

But there may be some years coming forward, depending on how we look budgetarily-wise, that we don't do a market adjustment. We can't afford to do that. So then it wouldn't be an increase-increase. It would just be that merit. We would hold steady, and then we would just look at merit if you wanted to. which I think is within the realm of possibilities based on this recent legislation.

Or we could just do flat 120 days. They don't get anything until the next year, which is kind of a long time.

Or we could do 180 days.

What's more common practice in the world around us?

They don't do merit increases in the world around us. It's typically just a cost of living adjustment or those types of things. It's rare to have it coupled with a merit increase.

I think that's starting to change because it seems like every time I go to ISAC, everybody wants to know about our pay plan and doing the reviews. The old world view where you're a county employee and you get to do whatever you want whenever you want for the next 30 years has definitely gone, in our area, gone out the window.

And a lot of rewarding for the amount of time you've been with the employer. I want to go back to that. Just because you've been with us for 20 years doesn't mean that you're a high-performing employee. But I agree with Julia. It is starting to shift even in my HR conferences that I go to. I've had a lot of questions about how we reward performance. And so I've started to give out that information to other entities. But not a lot of them are rewarding for performance.

Because it's labor. I mean, it's laborious. It's hard as a department head to have the time to get that done.

But it needs to happen because it's worth it in the long run. Correct. In the government sector, it's hard to figure out how to do that logistically. I think we figured out something that's worked, in my opinion. I hope department heads feel the same way, to reward for that performance.

So with such a rich benefits program, maybe that's OK.

It's OK.

Or to be more consistent with the world around us, I guess.

Well, but I also think we're leading the pack with the world around us. Correct. I mean, I think that gives us an employer of choice. So there's different things that go into being an employer of choice, and pay is just one of those. And I think if you tell employees you're going to be hired, but if you come on in January, you've got to wait a year and a half before you see a merit increase. For me as an employee, that would be disengaging and would make me second guess taking this job.

But that's not a true statement either, because there is still a step increase.

No. What we're saying is that there would be no step increase. There would be a market adjustment.

But this year, that was- There's still an increase.

There's still an increase, a 1%.

It's not like they're not getting an increase.

Okay, so this year, for example, they would have gotten the 1%, correct? Correct. But not the 2.5%. Correct.

In my opinion- But it's still under inflation.

Right, and my opinion, I think that that's a disengaging statement to employees. We value you, we want to hire you, but we're not going to reward you for your performance for a year and a half.

I like your compromise where the person doesn't get that pay thing until their six-month, whatever, anniversary, and it has to be through their employer has to say, their department still has to do the work and do their review.

When you compare. If I say so.

Yep. I don't know. Absolutely.

For everything you do, there are always unintended consequences that you will not necessarily see. So if you do the six months, I could see where I have to not just look at individuals, I also have to look at positions. I'm trying to make sure that I have the best lawyers to do the best job that I can. And I can get kind of behind on positions, too, budgetarily, and if you wait six months, if you do a six month, I think you'll find at least with the elected officials coming to you asking for budget increases and exceptions in the middle of your pay for brand new, if I have a brand new attorney who's doing awesome, but I can't get him or her a real pay increase for a year and a half, I may not keep that person. So what you may see is me coming to you in the middle of the budget, asking for an amendment, and then asking for a pay increase for that individual, which is not something I would probably do under the current system. So, I mean, there could be unintended, and that's okay, too. I mean, you can permit or deny it, you know, but I think you'll find certain departments starting to now come to you in the middle, asking for increases outside of the July 1st If you get, and I'll just use Ben as an example. I have an all-star lawyer that I hired in the beginning of this year. If we were under a different system, you would see me coming in the middle of the fiscal year asking for an increase for Ben. Now, I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do that because of the way the system is set for this particular year, but that's just a real-world example of what I would run into in my department So whatever you do, there could be, and I'm not saying it's bad, I just think you should be aware that there could be unintended consequences for whatever decision you make. The way it's operating now will give you the same kind of expectation for the future, but if you change it, there may be some other things that happen.

Well, there's always consequences to every decision, every choice you make. So are you suggesting that if we just defer that increase for six months, for that six-month period, that I'll never hear a request for another exception? No, I'm not.

I'm just telling you, you may end up hearing more. You know, one of the things I do that I don't think any other department does is we do buy-in overviews, not just an annual overview, so that we can, you know, better track the performance of the employees in my office, which we have completed. I still have to give the results to them. I've given the results, but I haven't gotten everything to that. But it helps me. I really focus on the goals. Rather than it being an annual goal, now we're looking at a six-month period of time and seeing if people achieve their goals or how they need to be adjusted. If they're performing poor in one area, it gives them another six months to improve that area. I find it to be a much better tool in my department. And so, you know, in that situation, if it was, if you made this decision, you probably would see me coming to you for exceptions because I evaluate my employees on a six-month basis rather than an annual basis. So, because I think it's, more difficult for me to base somebody's salary increase based on a fall or even September to go in effect in July. And so I like to make sure that I have a spring evaluation as well where I get a direct impact on where the fall, instead of the fall being the benchmark, the fall is a plan, so to speak. And it allows somebody to improve and then have a final say in the spring. So that's why I do that and do it differently. But it is a lot of work. Not every department would want to do that, but I find it to be beneficial in my office. Since we're talking to the public, I figured I'd give a plug. There you go.

Are there any other public comments? We're not in public hearing.

OK. So what do we want to do? As it stands right now, it's 90 days.

I told you about it. Well, the recommendation from HR is to make a change in the 90 days. It's just what that change looks like.

Right.

So I could go along with the compromise that Beth and I spoke about yesterday and defer that increase in compensation to that six-month employment mark.

So to get that, they will have to give you paperwork?

Correct.

I will have the department or supervisor do that six-month review. I want there to actually be a review and not just, okay, you've now been here six months.

Right, right. And we will have the capacity in HR to do that moving forward. Okay. With this HR coordinator. Right now, if we wanted to do that, it might be a little bit of a stretch. It would be logistically difficult. Logistically a little hard. However, we will have the capacity to do that moving forward and to follow up on that. So yes, I would require a new one. Okay. I will update that. I'm going to make all these changes and I'll bring it back to you, but I will update that as well.

The other thing was that was the 10%, so I'm not sure, was there a change to that, or were you just explaining what we were doing? What actually happens in the world. Correct. Was there anything else? Those were the three things I had written down. Was there anything else? So this is a discussion action. Do you need consensus or do you want a motion?

What I would like to do is I would like to make these updates that we discussed today and then bring it back to you for your one final review to make sure that it's everything that you would like it to be. And then next week, if I could get an approval or maybe moving forward in a different direction. I'd like you to see the final document before it's approved, if that's OK. OK. OK. We plan. OK. We put that back on the agenda next week, Melinda? I'm already governed.

But not as a workshop. Not as a workshop. Like under, yeah.

I'll send it to you ahead of time for you.

Under item seven.

Yeah, item A and B. Okay. Thank you very much. That was my plan.

Okay, anything else for that workshop? If not, we'll move on to other business. Is there any other business to come before the board?

Yes. Okay. Me again. So the receptionist position has been vacated. or will be as of July 1. I would like to start that recruiting process as soon as possible, if you're OK with it. Off the top of my head, I thought the chair and I could do the bulk of the recruiting lift and then bring final candidates in front of the board, the three of you. Would that be OK, or would you like to be more involved in the process? Would you like to see resumes off the cut? I mean, I guess I'm just trying to gauge your level of involvement.

I'll work with Beth, but then I didn't know what you wanted. Did you want to see final candidates come through? Or what do you want? Or you just want me and Beth to hire?

No.

I knew that was coming. But because we could do a, we've done that before where we bring the final candidates in.

Yeah, ma'am. Depends on the position that you have.

Yeah, but this is a direct report to us. So I think that would be worth it.

Well, we need to see the final candidates for sure.

But do you want to see all the resumes? Or do you want to see who we're going to interview? Or what do you want to do? We can give you as much.

I mean, it doesn't hurt for you to send the resumes to us. You want to look at them? You look at them if you don't.

OK. Last time we posted this position, we got close to 150 applications. So what I'll do is we'll pare it down. Jackie and I will pare it down.

I probably shouldn't ask this question, but I'm going to. What does that tell you? I think we're- 150 applications?

I mean, we're doing something right.

Well, what is it we're doing right?

I think it's pay. I think it's benefits. I think it's our workplace. IPERS, too. IPERS. I think we are a growing community that's exciting. We provide amazing workspaces for our employees.

I think that would be a good question to ask your applicants. Why are you interested in this position? What do you need to apply?

Jackie does in the phone screens. And this isn't the only one that we got. I mean, Matt, your position last I looked this morning was over 110 applications.

Are you going to ask for an exception?

I mean, we had 50-some for that PIO position. But yeah, so we'll pare it down. We won't send you 100 summit. We'll pare it down and send the top candidates.

All right.

Fair enough.

Thank you.

The only other business is that I've had some staff members come to me after some things that happened yesterday and just wanting to talk about workshopping. our GIS, our drainage, and some other things. And I told them I didn't know if that would even be appropriate. So I want you to just think about that. And maybe we'll talk about if we want to do something, or if it's out of our purview because it's elected.

I will most likely be sending you some follow-up information after I have a chance to speak with the cabinet.

OK. OK. Is there anything else before the board today?

Thank you for your attendance today. Appreciate you coming to this board meeting.

Sir, yeah, and you can always speak in open forum at the beginning.

Yeah, but we could let him speak.

Yeah, if you wanted to say anything, we can't really debate or anything, but if you wanted to go to the podium and say what you wanted to say, that would be fine.

I didn't realize that open forums are every Tuesday. I've been complaining to the zoning department about a noise issue. It's an age-old story of industry moving in right next to residential, and this has been going on for like four years now. In the noise department, it's heavy equipment, and These trucks coming in with the clanging and banging end gates. And I've called here before and the comparison was made to farming and I beg to differ at that time. It's different from farming because I said to the person that I wish it was a farm because I'd rather have a combine going back and forth than this noisy dirt grinder that these guys keep running. They parked it about 120 feet from my patio door, and it was emitting hearing-damaging noise. They got it quieted down now. It was 87.7 decibels, and hearing damage starts at 80 to 85, so they got it down to, like, 73 to 75 now, which is tolerable, but still irritating when it's 120 feet from my house. And so I'd like to propose that the board consider something other than noise forming, a non-forming noise clause to get started. And so, I've had zero luck with zoning, and I only found out, I've been to three of their meetings, just like last February, oh, Dallas County doesn't have a noise ordinance, I finally found out. And it was new guy Dave that informed me of this. And so, he was pretty helpful in providing a form letter and how to go about getting the motion started for a noise ordinance other than farming. And so that's mainly the gist of it. I've been complaining about it directly to the owner. And I should probably bring up I'd been intimidated twice, once by him and once by a couple of truckers. So, that's a couple of things I want you to keep in mind on that. So, I'll be sure to get on the agenda for future discussions on this.

Can you state your name, sir, and your address?

Yeah, Cyrus Hill. I'm at Granger. And the company in mind is MPE Equipment Services. It's 18941 Windover, Granger, Iowa, 50109. And so if anyone could Google that, as well as my address, 18932 Jordan Lane, Granger, Iowa, 50109, and you'll see on that map how close they are in this machine they're using. They've been a very, very inconsiderate neighbor for years. And so that's my proposition. Oh, Dallas County called them and I told the phone up out the door when this noisy machine was running. They said, oh, yeah, that sounds pretty loud. And that was about the extent of it. So they have suggested you got to go upstairs for noise, so. That's why I'm here now. So I guess that's about the gist of it. It's an age-old story of industry moving in right next to residential. And so if something can be done about it, rather than just me and myself, me, myself, and I, to put some teeth into my complaints. some recourse along that line, just to get something legal going about it. Not just for me, but close neighbors in the Homestead area. I'm sure they'd be appreciative of that also. So anyhoo, for what it's worth, that was the gist of my trip here today. So unless someone has questions, that's about all I have for now. So, I'll probably be being on the agenda for in the future. I could tell you about the intimidations if time allows or save it for next time. So...

Okay.

Thank you, sir. You bet. I'll be coming back. Thanks.

Any other business?

Move to adjourn. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. You're adjourned. Don't forget to go vote if you haven't already done so. It's only that. It's only that. Sorry.