Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Scheduled Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 4th at 9 a.m. If we would please rise for the Pledge 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. All right, Rodrigo, would you call roll? Here. Here. All right, we are moving on to item number one, which is our consent agenda. We have a claims of $300,097,753.24. Did I miss something there? 27 cents, I'm sorry. 397, 753, and 27 cents. Moving through, I'll do a little highlight of our consent agenda. We have minutes to approve from May 19th, May 20th, May 26th, special meeting, and then a May 26th work session. Some payroll approvals and removals. And then we will move on to... Some approvals of some six month increases, approval of job reclassification, approval of a new hire for our county attorney's office, approval of our new hire of a legal assistant for the county attorney's office, approval of a new hire for secondary roads, approval of a new hire for secondary roads, approval and application for a firework permit for brandon vonk at st mary's rod and gun club at 4898 nixon street st charles approval of an application for fireworks permit for j m displays inc at carper winery vineyard and winery at 4603 dakota street norwalk approval and application for fireworks permit from j m displays inc at the Vineyard at St. Charles, 15166 20th Avenue, St. Charles, approval of a liquor license at the Vineyard, St. Charles, and approval of an abatement of property taxes on parcel 21000360462, and approval of a policy for disposal of county-owned property. Do I have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. Any questions? All right, right here.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Item number two is consider application to use the Warren County Justice Center Grounds for the ICYF Back to School Bash on August 22nd, 2026 with possible action. Taylor is here. Is there a motion to approve? And then any questions we can ask Taylor?

It'll be the same as last year. So if you came out, it was a great turnout.

They do a great job. They clean up the grounds afterwards, leave it better than they found it. I'd make a motion to approve. Second. All right.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Additionally, back to that, I apologize. Did we want to waive the fee, the rental fee on that?

Yes.

Yeah, okay, so I'd make a motion to waive that fee still on item number two. We've approved the use, but just back to approving the waiving of the fee for that.

Second. All right, where'd we go? Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thanks, Taylor. Thank you so much.

Item number three is consider a 28E agreement with the following counties and Warren County collections with possible action. And we have Appanoose, Decatur, and Wayne. Hi, Jamie.

Good morning. So last week, the county attorney for Decatur and Wayne, and he's the assistant county attorney for Appanoose, reached out and saw that we had some 28Es with some other counties. and asked if we would be willing to take on his stuff. We kinda had to rush this because we have to have everything filed before July 1st, so that's why I didn't have a chance to bring it to a work session for you guys to talk about. Each of those counties have a $25,000 threshold, so within that first year, or every year we have to meet that, but within the first year, if we don't meet it, then we get a you've been warned kind of notice. We haven't had any problems with Clark or Union and Lucas were getting ready to start July 1st as well. So technically we'll be collecting, if you guys approve this, for seven counties. These three counties do not do their own collections currently, so it'll be benefiting their taxpayers because the money will go right back into the county instead of to the state where it's going currently. The county doesn't see any of that. In preparation for that, you guys just approved formally us hiring a new legal assistant and a new collections person. Jean Crooks, we stole her from the treasurer's office, and she'll be retiring on July 7th with 20 and a half years of service. And so then we brought Haley, who interned with us from Simpson, in to be our third collections person. And then Ellie and Shelby are the current team. And then we also snagged Michelle from IPD for our new legal assistant. Assistant so we're ready to go and would ask that you guys approve Great.

I think this is great. I like what you're doing Jamie. I like How you guys are continuing to pick up counties and figure out how to bring in more revenue. I like it Thanks, and I'm excited to see Michelle here from this city.

So I worked with Michelle over there and Jamie I thank you I concur but I just for the record. Can you can you kind of highlight the benefit to Warren County? I understand that our collecting for other counties benefits

those counties but can you explain for the public how this helps warren as well please yes so what happens is we basically just assume all of their collections for that we take 35 percent of whatever we collect that the county gets a portion of so um up until that threshold they get the state gets 72 percent the county gets the rest we get 35 percent of their um 28 once we hit the threshold then that number goes up to 32 percent to the county so we get 35 percent of their 32 percent

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. Aye. Aye.

Aye. All right. Thanks, Jamie.

I will leave these with you guys for Brian.

Oh, design. Yeah.

And then also, she snuck out, but I was going to change the lights for the.

Yes, definitely, great, great pick. That'd be perfect. And thanks for doing that on Simpson softball. That was exciting, that was some crazy games there with the Simpson softball. Item number four is consider quotes and approve contract for painted pavement markings with possible action.

Hi Brian. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, every winter, early spring, we go out and evaluate our pavement markings. And this year I took Justin out and was teaching him how to do all this stuff. Then he got all the quotes together and showed him how to send out quotes to all of our companies that do this type of work in the state. And so we sent out five quotes. We received three quotes back, and I'll read them quotes to you. Quality Striping Incorporated. for $110,434.66. Vogel Traffic Services, $114,527.89. Iowa Planes Signing Incorporated, $202,032. Our engineering estimate for this project was at $117,966.46. So the resolution is to accept the quotes that were received in our office and to award the contract to Quality Striping in the amount of $110,434.66. Any questions? And this is for fiscal year 27, so they won't start until after July 1st.

And within budget, so that's great.

Yep. Yeah, the budget was $110,000. A little bit over, but. Just a little over, but we reserve the right to raise or lower any quantities if we need to, you know, to get it to within the $110,000. So sometimes they'll paint it and it will come in lower than what they actually, you know, quoted at, so.

I would make a motion to award the striping to Quality Striping for $110,434.66. Second. McIntyre? Aye. Erickson? Aye. Newcomb? Aye. All right, thank you. Thank you. Item number five is discussion regarding hiring requests in the following departments. With action we'll start with nutrition department followed by the treasurer's office. Hi Marty.

Good morning.

We have a full-time person that is cutting back to part-time effective July 1 as I explained in the work session and just looking to backfill that part-time position with some flexibility so that When we've got people out and sick and on vacation, somebody falls on the curb and breaks both wrists, you know, things like that.

Did you get in your car yet? We got the car.

Great. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. Exciting.

Yeah.

Great. Gets great gas mileage. Just waiting to get it out to Travis to get the graphics on it.

Yeah.

Wonderful. Can you explain a little bit? We had an employee that was full-time going to part-time, so we're looking to add a part-time to basically make two full-time people? Or are we adding one full-time?

Equivalent of one full-time. It's in the budget for replacing Lisa with a full-time person, and I think we can do it with part-time.

Okay. Is that a motion? Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. All right. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Treasurer's Office with our Treasurer Andrea. Congratulations on your victory Tuesday.

So my request is just that I had an employee tell me they were not going to be returning to work after being on leave. So their last day of employment was May 29th and I'm just asking to refill that position.

I'll make a motion to approve the replacement. Second.

Thank you. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

All right. Item number six is consider agreement between Warren County and Cuyahoga Humane Society of Indianola with possible action. Kelly, I don't believe anything changed on this, did it, from our last meeting? I think it's the same. We just met, to give a little recap to the public, we met in work session last week with Cuyahoga. We asked them to start using a new tracking sheet that we'll start receiving in July. And what that will show is how long the animals that they have are with them. So we'll be able to track how long and how many nights they're there. Here comes Kelly. I bet she's got some info to share too.

Yes, that was discussed that they would be providing additional information. They seem to agreeable to that. The document does not reflect that. So if we wanted to change the contract, that language has not been changed. Or if you want to take their verbal, that they'll provide that.

Maybe take their verbal for now. They're using the same, it's kind of the same setup they're using. We're just tracking it from the time they come in to the time they leave versus just on a monthly of just animal by animal.

Because I think they already have the information that you want.

They just need to present it in a more understandable way and They they seemed I spoke to a couple board many members after we met last week They seemed agreeable to that and felt that it would help give some Clarity. Yeah, how long animals are saying what they need to do for each animal as well, too Could we just add an amendment to that?

I?

It would be best, since we haven't signed it yet, to just tweak the language a little bit. So if you want to hold off or you can bring it back. What's your recommendation? My recommendation, you know, if you want something, you need to make it clear in the contract. If you want to take their word for it, that's up to the board.

So we could table this and when you get back from vacation because you deserve a much needed vacation or some time off next week. I think it's vacation, isn't it?

It's a conference. Oh, never mind.

It's not vacation. It's more work. All right. So we can talk about that when you get back. Yeah. And I mean, I think that We're okay right now. We're still in a contract with them. Okay. For 26. So if we.

As long as it's whipped by July 1. Yeah. Contract's cleaned up by then.

I'll work on that soon then.

We'll approve it whenever. Put it on a special or a work session. Not a work session.

Maybe time at the conference next. It shouldn't be difficult. I'll send you the form too that they're going to use. Perfect. Okay. Perfect. All right. Thank you. All right. So just table that until the next meeting then? Do we need to vote on that to table it?

I think if we don't do anything, it just doesn't.

Yeah, I think it's up to your discretion, Chair.

You nodded. I'm gonna go with what Michaela says. I'm gonna make a motion to table it until our next meeting in June.

Second. Aye. Aye.

Aye. All right, item number seven is consider permission for the administrative audit on White Oak Precinct with possible action. Hello, Allison.

Good morning, everyone. So we are wanting to have this administrative recount because there was a ballot jam for the first ballot that went through. And unfortunately, it went through twice. So we need to have this audit so we can get our numbers corrected with that precinct. Perfect.

One ballot at issue? Yep, it's just one ballot. The very first one.

The very first one. We do go over this in training. Of course, beginning of the day, all the nerves are up there and we just wanna get it corrected.

I'll give you a little positive on that I was a I was a runner and The two places that I went they they followed to a tee the directions asked for my ID Verified who I was with my badge before they handed me anything signed in front of me Locked it in front of me. So good work on your training the whole auditor's office appreciate it I'll make a motion to

permit the administrative audit on White Oak Precinct. And also I'll note for the public that if one ballot is at issue either way, that's not gonna impact a race. I don't think any of the races were that tight, but we still wanna get it right, so. Correct.

Second.

That's my motion. McIntyre?

Aye.

Peretz? Aye.

McCrory?

Aye.

Thank you. Thank you.

Item number eight is establish the fiscal year 2026-2027 COLA wage increase and approved payment matrix for non-union employees with possible action.

So this is the matrix and the approved COLA was the 3.5% for this item and the next item. It's just something we do annually. And I apologize, my Adobe is not working and I have a ticket in with help desk.

I make a motion to approve the 2026-2027 COLA wage increase and approve the pay matrix for non-union employees.

Second.

McIntyre? Aye.

Erickson? Aye. Item number nine is consider fiscal year 2026-2027 wage adjustments for the following departments with possible action. The attorney, the auditor, board of supervisors, conservation, engineering and secondary roads, general assistance, health services, information technology, maintenance, nutrition recorder, treasurer, veterans affairs, weed commissioner and zoning.

And I just want to make another note. The only two departments not on here is the Sheriff's Department and Dispatch. We were waiting on the contract, the union contract still. So those are the only two departments, but everything is within budget.

Perfect. Is there a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. Any questions, I guess, before we vote?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Number 10 is receive and file reports. We have one report from the Veterans Affairs Department.

I'll make a motion to receive and file the Veterans Affairs report.

Second. Aye.

Aye. Aye. And item number 11 is any supervisors reports.

I just want to give a quick kudos to the auditor's office for primary work. I think overall it went well. I enjoyed seeing a satellite location. I think that that that helped. Turnout again wasn't I wouldn't say it was dismal, but it wasn't great. It was middle-ish for a midterm. But they did a nice job. I think the numbers will reflect that when we canvass. Make sure to vote. Voting is important. That's where you pick who you're going to see in November. So choose well there. But if you don't participate, it's tough to look at the ballot in November and say, geez, I don't like my choices. Anyways, nice job to the auditor's office.

I'd second that on what you said. They did work, good work, and they were there late. All right, Crystal? All right. So the next item is public input. Comments will be limited to three minutes per individual. The board cannot take any action on comments due to the requirements of open meeting laws, but may do so in the future. No public input will be allowed on any of today's agenda items. Hello, Skip, if you'll just give us your name and your address.

Skip Phillips with 1341 Bronze Street, Norwalk, Iowa. I'm on the State Board Disaster Response Board as well as the National Disaster Response Board. The federal government has cut back between 20 and 30%, however many of the disaster groups you have, but 20 to 30% of the funding for disasters. The state in wanting to help cut back taxes and they take a great deal of pride that they cut back the property taxes which fund you rather than them. So they've also cut back disaster response, and of course you guys have had to cut back disaster response. I think we're going to have to start looking at doing something to respond to the disasters, especially since they have one that they're talking about today. in southwest Iowa. I wrote the book on When Disaster Strikes, which is a book describing what kind of damage you would expect from fire or wind or flood or earthquake damages. It also then gives how to inspect those areas so that you can then occupy the houses safely, if possible on a more permanent basis. And then it also gives how to mitigate those damages. So I brought a copy that you guys can have. I don't know who takes that. But that'll get you started on at least knowing what kind of things you need to be addressing, because that's what the state and the national teams do. I was at the Rock Valley floods, and it was incredible the kind of damage that water can do. The whole, if it was a concrete block foundation, the entire side of the house towards where the water came from would be knocked out totally. and not on all of them but many houses were if it was a concrete foundation it would knock out the windows and take out the center wall so there's things you do have to look for and there's things that there's techniques for doing that that's safe for your inspectors you may want to have the police the sheriff county people or different groups that can help fill in the gaps because if you don't respond to flood damage the house can be you could have a dangerous situation but you could also have mold and a delay lets mold grow quicker which then the house can become totally unoccupiable.

Thank you. That's good information. Thanks. Thanks for the book. Yeah, thank you, thank you.

Marilyn Alderman, 19057 Drake Street, Carlisle. I'm here to speak on behalf of the Palmyra Township and invite the supervisors to the flagpole dedication on Flag Day, June 14th at 2 p.m. This is being done basically by the Warren County Legion people. So we haven't sent out invitations. We don't have a program, but I got chosen to do this. But I hope everyone can come. I hope it's a good event. The Legion's put quite a little bit in it. Thank you. Thank you, Marilyn. Anyone else?

All right. Seeing none, item number 13, our next meeting is June 16th at 4 p.m. Is that right? And we have a work session before that, correct? Okay. Is there a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second.

McIntyre?

Aye.

Patterson? Aye. Jacobs? Aye. All right. We are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.