Rock Island County Finance and Personnel Committee met April 10.
Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:
1) Call to order and roll call
Mr. Vyncke noted that Mr. Moreno will be about fifteen minutes late. He called and asked Mr. Vyncke to get the meeting started for him.
Committee members present: Luis Moreno (arrived at 8:41 a.m.), Brian Vyncke, Richard Brunk, Dewayne Cremeens, Scott Noyd, Rod Simmer (arrived at 8:32 a.m.), Kai Swanson
Committee members absent: Don Johnston
Others present: Kurt Davis, Kenneth Maranda, Keko Martinez, Bill Long, Sue Alberts, Chris Payne, Darren Hart, Amanda Van Daele, Hayleigh Covella, Sylvia Gomez
2) Public Comments
There were no public comments.
3) Approval of minutes from the March 13, 2018 meeting
Motion to approve: Richard Brunk
2nd: Kai Swanson
Voice vote
Motion carried
4) Reports to the committee
Treasurer-
Ms. Alberts noted that she’s here today for the Treasurer. Ms. Ewert has submitted a cover letter that tells about the interest rate at this point in time and the financial status of the General Fund and Hope Creek.
Mr. Simmer is present.
Mr. Brunk asked if Ms. Alberts has today’s General Fund balance. Ms. Alberts said it is $2.7 million. That includes the sales tax and Circuit Clerk fees, but the county is waiting for the income tax to come in. Basically, the county has most of the money that it is going to get for the month.
Ms. Alberts noted that she doesn’t know if the committee wants to know Hope Creek’s amount, but right now they are at $357,000. They haven’t quite made payroll yet. They want to pay some bills but are holding off on that until towards the end of the month. Mr. Vyncke noted that they were looking last month to pay some bills and asked if they got anything caught up. Ms. Alberts said yes, they did. They made a payment last month or at the beginning of this month. They are more concerned with the staffing agency. Mr. Cremeens asked if the food bill was paid. Ms. Alberts said yes, part of it. Mr. Davis noted that the agreed upon amount was paid. Mr. Simmer asked if they are doing installments. Mr. Davis said basically yes. He asked if Ms. Alberts remembers what the agreed upon amount was. Ms. Van Daele explained that they paid about $47,000 last month. She thinks they ended up paying $25,000 at the end of the month, but they are still very much behind. Ms. Alberts asked if they are on track to do monthly payments to them or if it’s just as the county can afford to pay them. Ms. Van Daele said she’s not sure. She thinks it kind of depends on when and if the money is coming in. She believes that in the meeting, which she was not a part of so take this with a grain of salt, they decided the county is trying to pay them something every month to get caught up or at least get back to the point things were at last year. Mr. Davis said he believes the county agreed to an additional $7,000 or $8,000 to help catch up a little faster. They did not agree to the larger sum, which he thinks was $80,000.
Mr. Simmer noted that the agency stuff just continues to creep up. Mr. Davis said yes, they are watching that. Mr. Simmer said after closing that one wing or whatever, they should’ve recovered four or five nurses and multiple CNAs, he thinks he heard. He asked why that wouldn’t drive the cost down for agency usage. Mr. Davis said you would think it would. He doesn’t have the figures for back then. Mr. Ross was in charge. Mr. Simmer noted that he has 2016, 2017, and current. Agency is tens of thousands over what it was at that point. Mr. Davis explained that the last three months, comparable to last year for the same three month period, are about $40,000 over. They’re working hard to bring those numbers down. Mr. Simmer asked what Ms. Baker is doing. Mr. Davis said so far, she cut six CNA staff that were hired out through agency. Mr. Simmer noted that he knows there’s a minimum requirement for staffing; he understands that. Mr. Davis confirmed and said Hope Creek has staffing levels over that minimum requirement. They are trying to get the ratings up and trying to appease IDPH. He will meet with Ms. Baker on a weekly basis to go over staffing levels and go over ideas on how to reduce costs.
Mr. Simmer noted that December 2016 was an all-time high at $141,000 for that month, which is unbelievable. December 2017 was $91,000. This year was $110,000. It seems like holidays run higher. Then they dropped in February, which was the last report they got. In the past that has run $60,000 and $77,000. It was $100,000-something, so $30,000- plus up. He just can’t fathom why they can’t get those down too. That’s huge. That’s another $20,000 or $30,000 for PFG. Mr. Davis said they are working towards that. He just received those figures on Friday evening. He hasn’t had a chance to get with Ms. Baker on that.
Ms. Alberts asked if when they call those nurses in they are also paying the nurses that don’t show up. Mr. Davis said they are because of benefit time. He guesses it depends on if they are full-time or part-time. Ms. Alberts noted she was just curious because that that’s costly too. They are paying two sets of nurses. Mr. Simmer noted that is most of the cost sometimes – vacation time, sick time, and stuff like that doubles down on the county. He asked if that is figured into that. He knows agency nurses cost quite a bit more, like $50 or something an hour. Mr. Davis said he thought it was about $44. Mr. Simmer noted that it probably depends on the position, too, with CNAs compared to RNs and LPNs. It’s two or three times the amount.
Mr. Cremeens asked if the $1.5 million from the Liability Fund needs to be paid back by the end of the fiscal year. Ms. Alberts said yes, probably. Her understanding is that the one they are concentrating on as soon as the distribution starts is paying off the tax anticipation warrant. Then, like she did last year, Ms. Ewert will make up a payment plan to hopefully get everything paid back by the end of the fiscal year. The tax anticipation warrant is the one that has interest, so they want to get that paid off as soon as possible. It all depends on the revenues.
Auditor-
Ms. Van Daele noted that Ms. Palmer will be back for the Committee of the Whole meeting and will give her presentation then.
Mr. Moreno is present.
5) Consider Rock Island County Employee Verification registration
Ms. Gomez noted that the committee should have been sent information about E-Verify. This is something the HR Department is proposing to implement in the county. Ms. Gomez noted that they are currently finding that the ancillary departments are not getting the information for their new hires in on time, so the county is putting itself out there for some big fines. Technically when they hire someone, they should have their I-9 information, which is when they show their I.D. or birth certificate or passport to prove they are eligible to work in the United States. HR should have that within one to three days of employment. A lot of times, HR is not getting the file in this building until just before payroll because they want to make sure that person is paid. That’s almost two weeks HR has gone without the I-9 information. If they streamline the process and get this implemented, they can make sure all the departments are getting that information into Ms. McManus so she can verify the employment of that individual and they can be good to go whenever their hire date is. This would really just streamline the process for the county as a whole and for the Forest Preserve District. Ms. Gomez is asking for approval to be able to do that.
Ms. Gomez explained that the catch is if you’re a new hire and turn in your information and for whatever reason your social security number and name don’t line up, E-Verify lets the employer print out a form to give to the employee. That is a legal document. It states that the employee has 10 days to take that to the Social Security Office to get documentation stating that they are eligible to work. If they do not present that within 10 days, Rock Island County cannot hire them.
Ms. Gomez noted that she is asking for implementation because Item 6 is a policy explaining that if they implement this within the county and somebody meets that criteria where their numbers or name don’t match up and they don’t have the documentation needed, Rock Island County can’t hire them and that would require terminating them because they may have been on payroll for up to ten days at that point. She would then be able to and would want to legally terminate them. Ms. Gomez asked the committee to support implementation of that.
Mr. Simmer asked how much the program costs. Ms. Gomez said there is no cost. The only cost would be the implementation and onboarding of a person and then possibly losing them. Mr. Swanson said that’s a lower cost than the liability the county might pay. Ms. Gomez agreed and noted that the county is currently facing liabilities, which makes her nervous. She wanted to make sure everyone is informed of that. She doesn’t think everybody realizes the county is in jeopardy right now.
Motion to approve: Rod Simmer
2nd: Luis Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
6) Consider Rock Island County Employee Verification Policy/Procedure
Mr. Vyncke noted that Item 5 leads to Item 6, the policy and procedure for the employee verification. Mr. Davis noted that they are asking for approval of the policy and procedure pending State’s Attorney review.
Motion to approve pending State’s Attorney review: Kai Swanson
2nd: Richard Brunk
Voice vote
Motion carried
7) Consider vacation time carry-over request in Circuit Clerk’s Office
Ms. Payne explained that the Circuit Clerk’s Office has an employee who currently has an active FMLA in place for her husband. Ms. Payne noted that she does have permission to speak freely of her circumstances, so there is no HIPPA violation. The employee’s husband had both knees replaced on February 16. One of the knees did well. The employee thought she’d be off maybe a week or two. Her husband developed two separate infections in his other knee. He’s since then undergone two additional surgeries and has at least one more. He has to be seen by an infectious disease doctor. He has a port to give IV antibiotics. The employee has exhausted all of her sick time and went into her vacation time. She is back at work but she will be facing more time off. She stands to lose 7.26 vacation hours because she is just a little over the 40 she is allowed to carry over. They would like to allow her to carry over her extra 7.26 hours as well because she is possibly going to need every minute of time she can to take care of her husband. She has no family here. His parents are elderly and can’t assist. They can’t help him out of bed or take him to doctor’s appointments or that kind of thing. She is not paid out of the General Fund. Ms. Payne believes she is paid out of the Child Support Fund. They are just asking to be allowed to let her carry that time over.
Mr. Brunk noted that with the extenuating circumstances, he thinks they should allow the carry over.
Motion to approve carryover: Richard Brunk
2nd: Scott Noyd
Voice vote
Motion carried
Mr. Simmer noted that under the extreme circumstances they need to, but they need to make sure. He remembers in years past people would come about carrying over in general, but this is obviously something extreme. Mr. Noyd said it’s case by case. Mr. Simmer agreed and said to just be careful.
8) Review and award bids received on Monday, March 13, 2017 for two tandem axle snowplow trucks
Mr. Davis noted that the Highway Department went out for bids. There are three different options on the bid sheet. Option 1 is to purchase the trucks outright. Option 2 is to trade in both trucks they currently have. Option 3 was to trade in one truck they have. They decided they wanted to go with Option 1 because they believe they can get more money out of the two snowplow trucks they have by just selling them outright. Actually, they might keep one for backup. They are looking at Twin Bridges Truck City in Davenport as the lowest bid at $291,014. The closest one was Thompson Truck and Trailer. Mr. Massa was stating that the International 7400 truck they quoted was a smaller truck.
Mr. Simmer noted that they know what they’re looking for. He doesn’t want them to buy a cheap one and regret it. He wants them to buy something that’s going to work. He is good with their recommendation.
Motion to approve: Rod Simmer
2nd: Luis Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
9) Consider Motor Fuel Tax Resolution appropriating funds for survey work
Motion to approve: Kai Swanson
2nd: Luis Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
Mr. Simmer asked where the survey work is. Mr. Brunk said the resolution just says, “various county highways.”
10) Consider delinquent tax resolutions
a. Permanent Parcel # (09) 7530 1603240004; Taxpayer ID 094200400; Rock Island Township
b. Permanent Parcel # (10) 3545 1602303016; Taxpayer ID 102691100; South Rock Island Township
c. Permanent Parcel # (10) 175-3-A 1610400020; Taxpayer ID 100171931; South Rock Island Township
d. Permanent Parcel # (10) 175-3-B 1610400019; Taxpayer ID 100171932; South Rock Island Township
e. Permanent Parcel # (09) 7548 1603239002; Taxpayer ID 094210100; Rock Island Township
f. Permanent Parcel # (08) 5920 0832310008; Taxpayer ID 083631700; Moline Township
g. Permanent Parcel # (09) 6718 0735439006; Taxpayer ID 093760400; Rock Island Township
h. Permanent Parcel # (09) 211 1602108096; Taxpayer ID 090220500; Rock Island Township
Motion to approve: Richard Brunk
2nd: Luis Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
11)Consider transfers of appropriations
Motion to approve: Rod Simmer
2nd: Kai Swanson
Voice vote
Motion carried
12)Consider appropriation resolutions for funds
Motion to approve: Richard Brunk
2nd: Luis Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
13)Consider claims and TDs
Motion to approve: Luis Moreno
2nd: Kai Swanson
Voice vote
Motion carried
14) Consider Board member per diem/mileage report
Motion to approve: Rod Simmer
2nd: Luis Moreno
Voice vote
Motion carried
15) Committee member opportunity for brief comments (no decisions will be made)
Mr. Swanson reported on behalf of the Health Care Planning Committee (HCPC), which is the committee that oversees the health insurance benefits for employees. He noted that the latest information they received has the [Employee Health Benefits] Fund at $1.6 million. That is going to flux a little bit. As a reminder to this committee, the HCPC has said that’s still in the green zone, but it is a pretty dramatic drop from the previous month. They do have some higher priced items that have been faced by their colleagues. If that gets lower, he will keep the committee apprised. He just wanted to let the committee know that the fund is not in the yellow zone but it did get a little bit closer. He asked Ms. Gomez if that is accurate. Ms. Gomez confirmed and added that there are two specific claims that were bigger. They are going to get more detail on those next month.
Mr. Moreno noted that contrary to the newspaper, he was not at the [GHA] meeting yesterday. He is pretty sure that was Pat Moreno.
Mr. Simmer reported that he has been doing the Leadership Academy through the University of Illinois. He just started last weekend. They have talked about this before. They are more than willing to come and talk to the County Board about that stuff. He thinks that would be a good thing as a Board now, as well as what they discussed with Mr. Bohnsack when he first started that the County Board members need some sort of orientation. It’s another election year coming up. They are going to have some new people in and out. They’ll need to hit the ground running. They don’t need the learning curve all of the other members needed to do. He thinks it’s ridiculous to throw them out to the wolves. There’s a good program to help do that. The Extension in the area can help with some of that and organize that kind of thing. He would like to see the County Board move in that direction with some kind of orientation program. He still hasn’t been in all the buildings the county has and it’s his eighth year here. He would like to see the County Board move in that direction. He doesn’t know what committee he would need to bring that up in, but probably Governance, Health, and Administration. The Extension could come and work with them. They have a really nice presentation they put on. She’d be willing to work with the County Board on that. Mr. Vyncke noted that like Mr. Simmer said, a lot of the Board members haven’t been through it. It would be beneficial for all of them. Mr. Simmer suggested maybe having a couple of different dates to take them around. He spent a couple hours with Mr. Bohnsack and they didn’t even make it to half the buildings going around and introducing themselves to everybody. He still doesn’t know all of them. They make decisions; it would be nice to see what, where, when, how, why. This would be very beneficial to them as a County Board. Mr. Vyncke noted that the timing is pretty good with the election coming up. Mr. Simmer said it’s something they would have to organize, but it wouldn’t cost anything. Mr. Swanson said he would be happy to help. He does orientations for his Board. Mr. Simmer said that’d be great.
16) Adjourn
Motion to adjourn: Luis Moreno
2nd: Kai Swanson Vice Chair Brian
Vyncke adjourned the meeting at 8:56 a.m.
http://www.rockislandcounty.org/CountyBoard.aspx?id=41261#F%20and%20P
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