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By MaryHelen Swanson
During the public forum portion of the Jan. 16 county board meeting,
George Cejka, representing Teamsters Local 320, which involves three
bargaining units, faced the Chisago County commissioners last week with
a concern about proposed layoffs.
He had gotten calls from two receptionists who sit at the front desk in
the government center lobby. County Administrator John Moosey earlier
this month, said they will be laid off in the process of cutting
positions to balance the budget.
Pictured: George Cejka, representing the union, pleaded for jobs.
They are the eyes and ears of the center, Cejka told the commissioners, speaking of the receptionists.
He went on saying when the county lays off people it affects families. You’re dealing with people’s lives, he went on.
He implored the board to look at other ways to trim back the 2008 budget.
Board chairwoman Lynn Schultz replied “we do understand we’re dealing
with people’s lives.” There were no other comments from the
commissioners.
The public forum also brought resident Dave Whitney to the front, who usually has a comment about land use.
Last week, Whitney simply wanted to thank the commissioners for
supporting the county’s roads. They’re taken care of well, he said,
relaying a story about his wife’s accident some years ago on another
county’s roads.
In essence it was a message about the budget, also.
Later in the meeting the board struggled to approve an agreement with
financial consultants from Ehlers and Associates for assistance in
preparation of a financial management plan.
The agreement was approved, 4-1, with Commissioner Ben Montzka opposed.
The end result of two work sessions and one meeting with the financial
consultants is to have a financial management plan for all the county’s
activities which are funded by general property taxes.
It will focus on the review and analysis of cash reserve balances,
project funding and capital replacement to create new strategies and
policies for the county.
Work on the plan will include developing an inventory of capital and
operational needs, develop and inventory of financial resources and
presenting of options and assumptions.
In the process of the work, the county hopes to analyze the financial
impact of each option and prepare an affordable, comprehensive
financial plan.
The goals is for the county to develop a framework to review future capital projects.
The term of the contract is one year at a cost not to exceed $10,000 (at $185/hour).
Montzka contended that $10,000 was a lot of money. He thought the county could use in-house staff for similar planning.
Moosey commented that the $10,000 will be well spent. He said Carolyn
Drude of Ehlers and Associates has offered advice for bond projects,
but she has not done any future financial planning. Dennis Freed, the
county auditor, Moosey noted, has done a lot of work. Every year, he
said, Freed has put a lot of time and effort into the budget. This
time, he went on, the County Road 17 bridge and road bonding is
affecting the staffing. Moosey said if the board had had time to look
look at it in the future sense, it might be different.
Commissioner Bob Gustafson reminded everyone it is “up to” $10,000. He
said the board keeps talking about long range. We had to lay off
because we had our budget where we had it, he went on , noting that if
they had adopted a 14 percent levy increase they wouldn’t have to lay
off employees.
Still, Montzka didn’t think spending $10,000 on Ehlers would solve the
county’s problem and he questioned the credentials of Drude, saying one
in-house staff has a master’s degree in planning.
Moosey replied that Drude’s staff will be doing a lot of the work, too.
And one of them, he added, has a master’s degree in planning.
Schultz stepped down from the chair to move that the commissioners
receive information from Ehlers before approving any new projects.
Montzka and Commissioner Rick Green voted no.
Montzka was troubled by Schultz’s motion saying the new process
is not going to be the “silver bullet” that solves the county’s
problems.
Schultz concluded that every plan has to be fluid and re-evaluated.
The board did go on to unanimously approved initiation of a one-time
retirement incentive program for county employees, another step in
addressing the budget deficit of $300,000.
The voluntary program will pay single health insurance coverage for a
period not to exceed 12 months upon retirement. An employee must be
eligible to retire under PERA standards.
An employee who wants to take advantage of the program needs to notify
the human resource director of their intention to retire by March 1,
2008, and formally retire prior to September 1, 2008.
Moosey figures there are about 15 people who would qualify and if
one third of them take advantage of the program, it would help with the
lay off reductions.
In other actions, the board approved allowing three minutes for public comment period instead of two.
And formally accepted the 2007 donations totalling $40,755 from
numerous individuals, groups and agencies for: Children’s Water
Festival, the Sheriff’s K-9 Program, and the veteran’s van.
Also noted that the proposed adult use ordinance will be discussed at a public hearing of the planning commission on Feb. 7.
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