Floyd County Courthouse: Supervisor meeting minutes and expense report for December 28, 2023

CHARLES CITY – The following are the expenses paid by Floyd county and Board of Supervisor meeting minutes for the period ending on December 18, 2023:

SUPERVIORS CURRENTLY SERVING:

Mark Kuhn
County Supervisor, District 1

Dennis Keifer
County Supervisor, District 2

Jim Jorgensen
County Supervisor District 3

Floyd County Board of Supervisors Meeting
December 28, 2023, 9:00 a.m.
The Floyd County Board of Supervisors met in the Board Room of the Floyd County Courthouse with the following in attendance: Supv Mark Kuhn, Supv Dennis Keifer, and Supv Jim Jorgensen.
Keifer/Jorgensen moved to approve the agenda. Motion carried 3-0.
Public comment: none.
Jorgensen/Keifer moved to approve the December 18 and 20, 2023 meeting minutes. Motion carried 3-0.
The Board discussed claims, specifically concerns of the Bolton Menk Drainage District #3 Open Ditch repair project invoices and will consider approval following the discussion of the Ahlers & Cooney agenda item.
Updates on various boards/commissions/activities: Supv Jorgensen attended Medical Examiner, North Iowa Regional Housing Authority and Central Iowa Detention Center meetings. Supv Keifer attended the Aviation Authority meeting. Supvs Kuhn and Jorgensen had individual conversations with John Robbins, NIACOG rep, and others regarding wind energy. Supvs Jorgensen and Keifer attend the Compensation Board meeting.
Updates on Law Enforcement Center/Courthouse Project: The bollard is in place. Young Plumbing was onsite last week but still has lots of work to finish up. Bill Huey, Prochaska rep, was planning to be onsite to do a final walkthrough but is holding off due to the amount of work yet to be done. John Howe, Custodian, has been working on plaster repair which should offset cost of work for outside contractor approved earlier this year.
Jorgensen/Keifer moved to approve the hiring of William Ungs at $16.57/hour as a Collection Site substitute to replace Travis Hobert. Motion carried 3-0.
Jacob Page, County Engineer, provided an update on Secondary Roads activities including crews working on work orders, drive permits, brushing, blading, clearing trees, general shop maintenance, sign repairs, ditch cleaning and bending steal. Office staff have been working on 155th and Victory Ave bridge replacement project, day labor projects, T26 and B60 drainage pipes and culverts, the RAISE grant with Fayette and Bremer County, budget preparation, and general office work.
Auditor Carr provided an overview of the American Rescue Plan Act funds including $2,204.774.58 committed from the $3,038,275 grant, leaving a $833,500.42 balance. Discussion included potential uses of the remaining balance to be used on LEC/Courthouse pay aps for contracted work and architect services, attorney services for pipeline ordinance and Iowa Utility Board Intervention, potentially additional funds for a gas line to be ran to the generator for the public health generator project, additional funds for higher costs than planned for the three sheriff vehicle upfits, and NIACOG’s services for zoning ordinance amendments for wind and solar.
The Board reviewed the reworked Ahlers & Cooney invoices for the Summit Carbon IUB Permit Proceedings regarding adjustments for percentages of the county’s share of services, not the details of services, from the onset of their contract. The result netted a $901.40 refund from October and a balance due of $43.60 to the May invoice. New invoices for services from September 18 through December 14 total $11,287.99. With the invoices submitted today for action, the county will have paid $21,643.26 for pipeline ordinance services, $38,996.79 for Summit IUB intervention, and $743.82 for Navigator IUB intervention, a total of $61,383.87. Keifer/Jorgensen moved to pay $11,331.59 to Ahlers Cooney for Summit Carbon IUB Permit Proceedings with ARPA funds and to direct the Auditor to process a handwritten claim. Motion carried 3-0.
The Board revisited claims, specifically Bolton Menk claims for the Drainage District #3 Open Ditch repair project where additional comments for services were not added until November 27 as noted on the December 20 invoice. Supv Keifer would still like additional comments.
The Board recessed at 10:50 a.m. to allow time to contact Tyler Conley, Bolton Menk engineer, regarding services identified on invoices. The Board reconvened at 10:55 a.m.
Conley joined the meeting by phone. Keifer expressed his concern of not having enough detail on invoices. Conley provided additional detail of project work for each staff and will ask staff to provide more detail in the new notes section for invoices moving forward. Kuhn asked Conley to provide written detail for services for the December invoice; Conley will provide a written report for the January 9 board meeting.
Kuhn/Jorgensen moved to approve the claims presented: County #1371-1434, Engineer/Secondary Roads #10364-10377 and Drains #15399-15402 but will delay approving claim #15403 for $4,463.50 to Bolton & Menk until additional documentation is provided. Motion carried 3-0.
Kuhn mentioned a concern from Bob Steenson, Charles City Press Editor, after the December 20 listening session regarding whether all of the open meetings law requirements were met at that meeting and spoke with Todd Prichard, County Attorney. Prichard responded that he does not believe the county violated the open meetings law, the notice posted met the compliance of Iowa Code Chapter 21, and only recommended that minutes, rather than notes, be prepared. In favor of openness, Kuhn would like the next chair to make changes in the handling of future listening session meetings. Steenson commented that his concern was not about the notice but was about comments mentioned during the meeting about it not being a public meeting but a listening session. Auditor Carr commented her expectation that NIACOG was going to be running the listening session, similar to past meetings with the LEC/Courthouse project when companies were hired to facilitate public comments, notices of the event were provided, but board members were not engaged. The contract with NIACOG references a maximum of three public open houses or listening sessions to solicit views from local residents and stakeholders related to the ordinance amendment at $200 plus costs per event and a maximum of two workshops with the Commission and Board for the purpose of becoming further educated on issues and topics related to utility-scale wind energy development and battery storage at $300 plus costs per workshop.
The Board reviewed the Board Meetings Policy and discussed updates to the policy, ensuring open meetings requirements are met, meeting locations, having the IT Director ensure technology devices are ready to go, having a podium near the speaker, setting agendas, board input on agenda items, distribution of agendas and agenda packets, consistency in recognizing people and them waiting to be recognized before speaking.
Gail Arjes, Public Health Director, reviewed Iowa Code Chapter 137 regarding requirements for one member of the Board of Health to be a physician, physician’s assistant, advanced nurse practitioner, or advanced practice registered nurse. The Board reviewed applications from Dr Lisa Kapler and Rosemary Tobin, both current members, and Joanne Robinson. Jorgensen/Keifer moved to re-appoint Dr Lisa Kapler to another 3-year term on the Board of Health. Motion carried 3-0. The Board discussed reappointing Tobin, who has served on the Board since 2009, or appointing Robinson, a retired nurse practitioner. Kuhn/Keifer moved to appoint Joanne Robinson to the Board of Health for a 3-year term on the Board of Health. Motion carried 2-1 with Jorgensen opposed.
The Board recessed at 1 p.m. and returned to open session at 1:07 p.m.
The Board discussed appointments of the supervisors to various boards/commissions in preparation for Tuesday’s organizational meeting.
The Board discussed appointing the 2024 chair of the Board at the organizational meeting. Supv Kuhn offered to be chair again if that was the desire of the board.
Jorgensen/Keifer moved to re-appoint Rick Cordes to a 5-year term on the Board of Adjustments. Motion carried 3-0.
Jorgensen/Keifer moved to appoint Candice Brandau Larson to a 5-year term on the Zoning Commission. Motion carried 3-0. Brandau Larson replaces Alison Staudt who was not interested in being reappointed.
Jorgensen/Keifer moved to set the compensation for the county medical examiner at $2,000 annually, paid biweekly, and $200 per body if the medical examiner is needed onsite. Motion carried 3-0.
Keifer/Jorgensen moved to set the compensation for the medical examiner investigators at $65 per body for administration of jurisdiction declined (no autopsy) reporting and $175 per body when an investigation is needed for a simple or complicated authorized autopsy. Motion carried 3-0.
Future agenda items: FY25 departmental reviews, Healthy Harvest FY25 funding request, Compensation Board Recommendations, Human Trafficking Awareness proclamation, and Weed Commissioner.
Keifer/Jorgensen moved to adjourn. Motion carried 3-0.