Budget and Finance Committee Meeting

April 8, 2004 – 7:30 a.m.

DRAFT Minutes

Members present: Kurt Behrenfeld, Chairman; Dr. Giovanni, Vice Chairman; Marilyn Brown, Kay Breed, Carol Tytler; Danny Ross, Newell Willcox

Others present: Scott Steve, Chairman of the Legislature; Ann Homer, Secretary to the Legislature/County Attorney; Scott Schrader, County Administrator; Bob Duell; Lee Price; Dave Wern, Eric Mulvihill, Jim Willis, Annette Barber; Carolyn Kennedy; John Steger

Chairman Behrenfeld called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m.

Mr. Willcox moved adoption of the minutes; seconded by Mrs. Breed; all members voting in favor; none opposed; minutes approved.

 

1. Authorize Agreement, Cortland County Convention and Visitors Bureau/Innkeepers – Mrs. Brown moved adoption; Mr. Ross seconded. There was discussion about when the financial reports were due – why are they due annually if we are paying the CVB quarterly. The explanation was that they submitted a budget at the beginning of the year to project their usage and they will submit financial statements at the end of the year in accordance with law to verify they used the money as appropriated. Mr. Behrenfeld would like to see account numbers on the resolution showing what account this money is coming from. All members voting in favor; none opposed; motion adopted

2. Requesting New York State Legislature Enact S. 6221/A.3483 Standardizing the Treatment of Collateral Services- Mrs. Brown moved adoption, seconded by Mrs. Breed.  Mrs. Tytler asked for an explanation. Mr. Schrader explained this issue is for fairness regarding how government is treated for personal injury/workers compensation cases as  opposed to how the public sector is treated in the same type of cases. All members voting in favor; none opposed; motion adopted.

3. Amend Budget/Transfer Funds, Public Defender’s Office – Data Processing Department – Mrs. Tytler moved adoption; Mrs. Brown seconded; all members voting in favor; none opposed; motion adopted.

Items 4 through 25 were presented as a Consent Agenda. At the request of Mrs. Tytler, agenda item 11 was removed from the consent agenda; at the request of Mrs. Brown, item 14 was removed from the consent agenda.

Mrs. Brown moved adoption of items on the consent agenda; seconded by Mr. Willcox; all members voting in favor; none opposed; all items on consent agenda adopted.

CONSENT AGENDA:

4. Authorize Agreement/ Accept Additional Funds, Health Department/ Administration (Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program)

5. Authorize Agreements/ Accept Funds, Health Department/ Administration (Community Coalition for Diabetic Prevention Project)

6. Authorize Agreement/ Accept Funds, Health Department/ Administration (Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Grant)

7. Authorize Agreement/ Accept Grant Funds/ Amend Budget, Health Department/ Administration (Healthy Heart Disabilities Initiative)

8. Authorize Agreement, Health Department/ Nursing Division

9. Authorize Grant, Mental Health Department (Family Support Services)

10. Award Material Bid, Highway Department

11. Authorize Design Build Agreement, Highway Department – removed from consent agenda

12. Authorize Agreement, Highway Department (Environmental Monitoring)

13. Replace Radio Equipment at Virgil Tower Site, Fire and Emergency Management

14. Replace Tower Equipment at Virgil Tower Site, Fire and Emergency Management – removed from consent agenda

15. Authorize Agreement, Fire and Emergency Management (State of New York – FF 2004 LEMPG)

16. Setting Tower Lease Rates/ Authorize Agreements, Fire and Emergency Management

17. Accept State Homeland Security Grants Awards, Fire and Emergency Management (Division of Criminal Justice Services – DCJC)

18. Authorize Agreement, Youth Bureau (Bus Lease – Cincinnatus Central School District)

19. Appoint Director, Weights and Measures

20. Authorize Agreement, Coroner’s Department (Cortland Memorial Hospital)

21. Authorize Agreement, Data Processing (Systems East)

22. Authorize Purchase/ Placement of Four Drop Boxes/ Authorize Agreement, County Clerk’s Office (Department of Motor Vehicles)

23. Amend Flexible Spending Plan, Personnel – Civil Service Department

24. Support the Elimination of the Sunset Provisions/ Establish Permanently the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) and the Cultural Education Fund (CEF), County Clerk’s Office (Records Management)

(title was corrected per Personnel Committee)

25. Establish Policy, Resolution of Encumbrances on Real Property, County Attorney

Item number 11 –Authorize Design Build Agreement, Highway Department – Mr. Steve explained the purpose of this resolution. Mr. Willcox moved adoption; Dr. DiGiovanni seconded; all members voting in favor, none opposed; motion adopted.

Item number 14 – Replace Tower Equipment at Virgil Tower Site – Cortland County Department of Fire and Emergency Management – Mrs. Brown moved adoption; seconded by Mr. Ross. Mr. Schrader explained his concerns with this resolution and he feels that Bush should pick up the labor expense and the County should pick up the equipment expense. The connectors were provided in accordance with specifications, however, they are failing. Mr. Schrader believes the funding for resolution 13 and resolution 14 should come from contingency fund. Mrs. Brown asked what the balance in contingency is. Mr. Schrader said that the contingency fund has not been touched at this point. Mr. Steve indicated the balance should be about $350,000. Mr. Willis expressed his concern that this needs to be done as the connectors are failing. We can deal with the replacement issue by the contractor while we are having them replaced. Mr. Schrader and Mr. Willis indicated that this is a back up plan. If the contractor assists us, and we don’t need this, it will not be carried out. Mrs. Breed expressed her concern that our pursuit of the contractor replacing the connectors/working with us on replacement is not dropped if this resolution is adopted. Mr. Behrenfeld wants the account numbers put in the resolution. Mrs. Tytler moved to amend the resolution to reflect the dollars coming from the contingency fund; seconded by Mr. Willcox; amendment adopted. All members voting in favor of the amended resolution; none opposed; amended resolution adopted.

Referred by Mr. Steve:

26. Create/Appoint – Deputy County Auditor/ Amend Management Compensation Plan/ Amend Budget – Dr. DiGiovanni moved adoption; seconded by Mrs. Brown. Mr. Steve explained the purpose of the resolution. This will move Mr. Fumarola to the position of part-time Deputy Auditor and number 27 will create a full-time auditor position. There is no fiscal impact on the budget as there is a half-time auditor in the budget. All members voting in favor; none opposed; motion adopted.

27. Appoint County Auditor/Abolish Accountant/Amend Budget – Mrs. Tytler moved adoption; Mrs. Breed seconded. Mr. Steve explained where the funding for this position is coming from. The net difference to the budget is the $17,184 coming from the contingency fund. Mr. Steve explained the background and credentials of the candidate for the full-time Auditor position. There was clarification that this appointment, by law, cannot extend beyond the term of this current Legislature. Mrs. Tytler asked about the pattern of service of the candidate being in positions only one or two years at a time. Mr. Behrenfeld inquired about a job description and a time line. Mr. Steve explained that there is a civil service position description and then he will be sitting down with the Chairman and the County Administrator and a time line will be developed. Mr. Willcox expressed his comfort level with doing this. Mr. Schrader said this should lead to a better financial understanding across departments, which are lacking now. All members voting in favor; none opposed; motion adopted.

28. Mrs. Breed moved that we change providers from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to RMSCO. Seconded by Mr. Willcox. All members voting in favor; none opposed; motion adopted.

DISCUSSION/PRESENTATIONS/REPORT:

1. Review of proposals received on health insurance coverage. RMSCO will freeze rates for three years. RMSCO provides a stop loss program, which we currently do not have. This plan should save us $500,000 from now to the end of this year if we go to RMSCO. The drawbacks are that you use a blue card but less than 10% utilize the blue card. This plan has the same providers as BlueCross/Blue Shield. We need to move on this as we have a May 1 expiration day with BC/BS. Mr. Steve is going to give BC/BS one more chance to

 

1. Audit Findings – Rick McNeilly CPA. Mr. Schrader introduced Rick McNeilly to the group and explained his function for the County. Mr. Schrader engaged Mr. McNeilly in November to do an audit of the County Clerk’s Office to set a benchmark for the new County Clerk. Mr. McNeilly explained he was engaged to take a look at the internal control structure in the County Clerk’s office. He took a look at their job duties, who does what, what segregation of duties there are, control over receipts/deposits, etc. and then go through and test a few months. He presented a boilerplate report to the committee. This report reflected that the internal control in the Clerk’s office is adequate. He found a few minor problems (e.g. with new software in June). By the time he left in January, he was able to resolve the issues. He has not heard from the Clerk that there are any further problems. Mr. McNeilly believes they are adequately staffed for the work they are doing. Even though there is a small staff, there is an appropriate segregation of duties. Mr. Behrenfeld asked how we stack up County-wide against other counties. Mr. McNeilly said that it fluctuates based on who is in charge in certain departments and who the employees are. Mr. Steve asked Mr. McNeilly to address closing the books. He is estimating another week and a half to close the books. Mr. McNeilly said that he has spoken to Mr. Ferris and the bulk of the hard work is done and that is it just some of the minutia that is holding up the closure. Mrs. Kennedy said the books should be closed within a week and a half. Mr. Schrader stressed that the AUD should be able to be filed by the April 30 deadline. Mr. Behrenfeld asked when the audit would be done. Mr. McNeilly responded probably sometime in July. It will be a challenge this year to get the GASB 34 statements done. Because of the GASB 34, it will be extremely difficult to compare this year to last year, since the format required is entirely different. Mr. McNeilly indicated that with the Treasurer’s office getting up to speed, this committee should have a few sessions with Don about the specifics of the reports that this committee wants and on what time frame they want it.

 

2. Mr. Wern indicated that he has put in every member’s mailbox a request from Homer for funds for advertising. They are looking for $7,000 to promote various events. Mr. Steve indicated that there are several other agencies that have asked for money. Mr. Steve hopes to present at the next committee meetings all those agencies who have asked for money to date. This will be done at the May meeting.

 

3. Mr. Behrenfeld felt the budget workshop was a success. He has sent an e-mail to all department heads for information. The next workshop will be Thursday, April 22 at 7:30 a.m.

Meeting adjourned at 9:07 a.m.

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