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MINUTES
BOX ELDER COUNTY COMMISSION
DECEMBER 06, 2005
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The Board of County Commissioners of Box Elder County, Utah met in a work session at the County Courthouse, 01 South Main Street in Brigham City, Utah at 8:00 a.m. on DECEMBER 06, 2005. The following members were present:
Scott Hansen Chairman
Clark N. Davis Commissioner
Suzanne R. Rees Commissioner
LuAnn Adams Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor
The following items were discussed:
Assignment Review – Commissioners
Staff Reports
Correspondence
The work session adjourned at 8:50 a.m.
Chairman Hansen called the regular session to order at 9:00 a.m. with the following members present, constituting a quorum:
Scott Hansen Chairman
Clark N. Davis Commissioner
Suzanne R. Rees Commissioner
LuAnn Adams Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor
Commissioner Davis offered the prayer.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF NOVEMBER 29, 2005 WERE APPROVED AS WRITTEN ON A MOTION BY COMMISSIONER REES, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER DAVIS AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED.
AGENDA: ATTACHMENT NO. 1
FOLLOW-UP BUSINESS
Cancellation of Commission Meeting
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to cancel Commission Meeting on December 20. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.
Ron King, resident on 13600 North, North Garland said he is speaking for other neighbors on 13600 North Street regarding concerns about drainage. He acknowledged the $10,000 they will be receiving from the State to go towards a study. Mr. King said the north drain on their street is of most concern. He said because of the rainstorms last spring, he would like to get ahead of the drainage problems for the coming year.
Mart Anderson has talked to Boyd Munns about the cost to run a camera through the drain pipes. The rate is $100.00 an hour for a total cost of $800.00. Mr. Anderson said the drain is plugged, and they are trying to negotiate with Boyd Munns on the cost and raise the rest of the money from the neighborhood.
Chairman Hansen said the County could provide in-kind work.
Commissioner Davis said the County doesn’t provide municipal services to the unincorporated areas. He said in the long-term, the County is moving towards forming a special service district.
The question was asked if the state has a camera. Chairman Hansen will talk to Cory Pope from UDOT to see if they have a camera to bring in.
Garth Day explained the scope of the works for the $10,000 grant awarded by the state. He said the first part is to get all the information and put it into a digital map program. USU will also be assisting to find out where the water comes from.
SET PUBLIC HEARING FOR REVISION OF 2005 OPERATING BUDGET – COMMISSIONERS
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to set the public hearing for the revision of the 2005 operating budget for December 27 at 8:00 a.m. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
ORDINANCE – SNOW REMOVAL AND PARKED CARS – AMY HUGIE/JOHN COLLOM
County Attorney Amy Hugie reviewed the ordinance with the Commissioners. She has discussed the ordinance with Sheriff Jensen who is also in favor. The ordinance allows the Sheriff’s Department to issue a citation to individuals violating the ordinance and punishable by a fine up to $500.00. Attorney Hugie said this ordinance should become effective immediately upon its publication in a newspaper.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to adopt Ordinance No. 284, an ordinance regarding the parking of vehicles on streets after snowstorms. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
(See Attachment No. 2 – Ordinance No. 284.)
WARRANT REGISTER – COMMISSIONERS
The warrant register was signed, and the following claims were approved for payment: Claims 40902 thru 40905 in the amount of $6,077.00. Claims 40906 thru 41004 in the amount of $718,322.42. Claims 41002-41002 were voided.
PERSONNEL ACTIONS – COMMISSIONERS
SHERIFF DEPT: Nathan Stowell, compensation change, effective 11/12/2005
SHERIFF DEPT: Riley Riser, compensation change, effective 11/30/2005
SHERIFF DEPT: Janea Vandehi, compensation change, effective 11/30/2005
SHERIFF DEPT: Gregory Hill, separation, effective 12/03/2005
ASSIGNMENT REVIEW - COMMISSIONERS
The Commissioners reviewed assignments.
The Commissioners took a recess at 9:45 a.m. and reconvened at 7:00 p.m.
PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED 2006 BOX ELDER COUNTY OPERATING BUDGET
(See Attachment No. 3 – Attendance List.)
Chairman Hansen declared the public hearing for the proposed 2006 Box Elder County Operating Budget open at 7:00 p.m.
Chairman Hansen said the funding structure is quite interesting. He said the County loses inflation on about one-half of our money and does not get adjusted for inflation. Chairman Hansen said on $20M it is about $250,000 the County has to adjust. He said growth is another factor. Chairman Hansen took a look to see how the County was doing at the time of Governor Leavitt’s term and County taxes went up 50%. He said 50% is for inflation, and if you adjust for inflation the County really didn’t raise taxes. The state’s taxes went up 150%. He said money to pay the extra taxes for the state came from unfunded mandates from counties and cities. He said we just got an unfunded mandate from the federal government to change our election system. The State bought voting machines, but the additional costs will add up to $43,000 to fix a system that is not broken. He said we have unfunded mandates with our county bailiff and state prisoners. The County does not have much flexibility, and if the legislature keeps going, he doesn’t see how the counties can exist. Box Elder County is number five in land mass. We are twenty in the tax rate. He said we tax at a lower rate. For every dollar of road money the state gets over $50.00 which comes from the gas tax. He said lets get gas tax back to subsidize the roads. Box Elder County has money enough to oil less than a mile of road a year. He stated these are some of the long-term problems we have, and we are trying to maintain.
County Auditor Roger Handy outlined specifically why the County is proposing a tax raise for 2006. He said the actual planning and discussion for the 2006 budget started in July of 2005. At that time the Commission met together to look at what was coming down the pike to face in the 2006 budget. In the first or second meeting the Commission soon recognized there would be at least a 20% increase for 2006. Those meetings continued up through October with the departments. Capital improvement requests, which are major improvements, were due in August. The departments completed their budget requests in September. Meetings were held with the Commission and department heads the first two weeks in October. The Commission presented the budget on November 15, and then the public hearing was noticed for two weeks.
Mr. Handy reviewed elected officials salaries. He said they would receive a 3% increase. The County policy is that elected officials get 1% higher than the normal employees because the regular employees get step increases. He said our Justice Court Judge also got a $6,000 increase. If you look at salaries for different judges of our size, Judge Christensen is still well below average. Mr. Handy said there are 19 counties that have tax rates higher than us. We are fifth in square miles and eighth in population.
Mr. Handy explained that the General Fund and the Municipal Fund contain most of the administrative departments, also other departments like the Fairgrounds. The Municipal Service Fund controls the Road Department, Sheriff’s Department plus Fire and Community Development Departments. Between those two funds is where most of the dollars in the County are spent. The other funds stand on their own: Solid Waste Management (paid for by landfill fees), RDA (paid for from tax increment and sale of property), MBA Buildings (fund to rebuild things like the road department shop in Park Valley that burned down – By using the MBA, the County can build cheaper), Debt Service (fund is for the public safety bond to pay off the jail and public safety complex), Capital Project (primarily contains money from the restaurant tax which is mandated to be used for recreational purposes. In 2006 the County is appropriating surplus money to build the grandstands at the County Fair), Mineral Lease (receives $125,000 a year. It is a specific fund with a special committee and money is spent for road projects or to help the Sheriff’s Department. The Committee decides how to spend the money), Justice Court Special Revenue Fund (This year the Commission set up the Justice Court Special Revenue Fund. We are not setting any more funds aside for the purpose of the justice court as we did last year) Box Elder/Perry Flood District (a Special Service District run by the County. This district has a special levy)
Mr. Handy reviewed major sources of revenue:
2005 2006
Sales Tax - $2,145,000 $2,297,000
PILT - $1,750,000 $1,744,000
Class B Road Fund - $2,200,000 $1,950,000(overpaid county in 2004)
Jail Fees/State Prisoners - $610,000 $599,000
Use of Surplus Funds - $1,051,000 $369,000(less expenses in Road Dept)
The offsetting expense cuts are $500,000 for roads and $104,000 for the Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Handy said if you add up the expense cuts and revenues we are about $190,000 short in revenue in the major revenue sources. There are other revenue accounts that go up and down, but these are the major accounts.
Mr. Handy pointed out we will have an increase in gas and oil costs of $275,000; employee 2% pay increase $162,000; election expense, $102,000 for general election year and new equipment; employee group insurance $83,000; employee annual step increases $60,000; structural fire fighting contracts $58,000; two new positions $94,000 (one for a patrolman in the Sheriff’s Department and Security Officer for the Justice Court). The total is $834,000. The total shortfall will be $1,027,000.
Mr. Handy said the only flexible revenue source the County has to pay for the revenue shortfall is property tax. He said we cannot control PILT or what the state pays for state prisoners. Property tax for 2005 is $4,170,485 and projected for 2006 is $5,132,849, an increase of $962,364. This is a 23.08% revenue increase but is only a 20.92% tax rate increase because we do capture some growth and other factors. This adds $48.00 to a tax bill for every $100,000 of taxable value. The total revenue increase from the general and municipal service funds from property tax is 6.44%. Mr. Handy emphasized that the County’s taxes is only a small portion of their overall tax bill.
Mr. Handy reviewed what the County was doing with Justice Court money. There will be $1,089,700 in revenue. Justice Court expense is $321,896, $118,003 is set aside for court security and a transfer will be made to the public safety fund to fund the new court security person and other public safety expenses in the amount of $649,811.
Mr. Handy reminded everyone that the County hates a tax increase too. He said it is important to remember there are positive things. He said we covered all the cost of increase oil-related expense, continue to provide employees with a competitive living wage, provide greater security to County residents, maintain the County’s working capital, provide sufficient funds for important public services to County residents (services which demand is increasing), and the budget covers the budget gap for providing those services with the only flexible revenue source available to the County, which is a tax increase.
Chairman Hansen then opened the public hearing up to those in attendance for comments.
Todd Jensen said he wanted to address the increased property values and increased revenue from that. Roger Handy said it is addressed by the state by the way the certified rate goes down. He explained how the truth and taxation law works. He said if we get new values, the state will reduce the certified rate so the certified rate only gains us the same amount of money unless we increase the tax rate.
Ron Germer, Brigham City, asked about the gas and oil increase of $275,000. He asked if that amount is over budgeted what happens to that money, where does it go? Mr. Germer expects that gas prices will not be the same rate they have been over the last 120 days. Chairman Hansen explained that the Road Department budget is bare bones, and if there were a surplus it would go back into the Road Budget.
Commissioner Davis said the Road Department is the largest department in terms of gas and oil. There may be some mitigation there or there may or may not be a surplus. He said the isolation on one particular line item is hard and department heads made the best guess at the time the budget was put together. We do not know what will happen in terms of the market. In 2005 we are over $500,000.
Roger Handy said every year there are departments that under spend what has been appropriated and their money goes back into the general fund as surplus, and this helps to keep the taxes down.
Bonnie Germer said on July 12 she came to Commission Meeting, and the Commissioners talked about the Justice Court Fund. The Commission was specifically asked about building the Justice Court and would we have our taxes increased. The Commission said no. She said how did that change from no taxes, to 23% and it will go up 43% over the last couple of years.
Commissioner Davis said in answer to the July 12 meeting question that if we build a new Justice Court would property taxes go up. He said the County was looking at using the court security surcharge to pay for the majority of the debt by a revenue bond. Commissioner Davis said based on public response to the Justice Court issues, the Commission decided to not put it on the ballot and decided to have a cooling off period. This property tax is not to fund the Justice Court. He said just because we haven’t funded a new Justice Court, doesn’t make the security issues go away. He said we still have security issues to address. We have tried to address those issues, but he does not know where the misunderstanding came from. There is nothing in the 2006 proposed budget to fund the construction of a new Justice Court. There is no capital facility cost associated. He said at the time we had the discussion, it was his recommendation to set up a separate fund to track the revenues and expenses. He pointed that out in the 2006 budget, $659,000 is being transferred to fund public safety and at some point in the future if there is construction of a new Justice Court facility, it is only logical that it be reinvested in a Justice Court building. He said that debate would be in the future.
Floyd Johnson, Tremonton, appreciates the trauma that the Commissioners go through to put the budgets together. He is an average citizen and everyone wants money. He understands the County has to operate but hopes the Commissioners will keep their pencils sharpened and remember they are working for the benefit of each citizen in the County. He said there is another public hearing tomorrow for the Bear River Water Conservancy District. He said on TV the news is saying companies across the United States are canceling retirement programs for their employees and putting more strain on the people. There are a lot of things that are nice, but we may not be able to have them. He asked the Commissioners how all the new home building would affect the budget. He said every new home generates a substantial amount of new taxes.
Debra Kay Hansen told the Commission that in a home and in a business, and many are independent small businesses, you have to look at the budget and make a cut. There are a lot of good services the County provides, but an increase in salaries is not always given to employees. She said the salaries look pretty good to her. She would like the Commissioners to look at where they can cut the budget.
Mike Miller doesn’t understand all the insurance ins and outs and echoes what Debra Kay said. Some things are nice but we cannot afford them. He said a lot of expenses seem to be on a variable nature and wondered what happens if some of those go down. He asked if the County has ever seen a decrease in the rate. At some point you may have to say we can’t afford this and maybe look at something different or go without. He wanted to know why there was such a big increase of one million dollars this year. He said at some point is there anything we can do to make it more fixed or perhaps go down as far as expenses? He wanted to echo that sometimes in government we think everyone needs to have the best benefits and raises but that is not the real world. Most people do not get an automatic raise or more benefits. They get less. He would like the Commission to take that into consideration as they look at the budget.
Lynn Darley had a question on sales tax revenue. He wanted to know what percentage of sales increase comes from sales tax revenue. Chairman Hansen said a little less than 10%. Commissioner Rees said sales tax is a city tax. The County only gets ¼ cent of the sales tax. The County’s tax is property tax. Mr. Darley wanted to know what the County is doing to attract new industry. He said what could we do to bolster and increase revenue? Where can we generate revenue other than property owners? The property owner seems to get stuck with almost every deficiency. He wanted to know if there was some way to generate income other than property owners.
Commissioner Rees said Mr. Darley’s point is well made. One of the things that the state needs to hear is that counties are quite limited and the tax that is given to the county is property tax. The cities have sales tax. She said we could increase fees for services that are offered and property tax is our only variable
Roger Handy said the base needs to increase, and we have an active redevelopment effort and are trying to seek other new business and help businesses that are here. He said economic development is one of those things that some people say we should cut out of the budget.
Brent Shaffer is sympathetic to the County Commission. He said it is a difficult thing to raise taxes, and we get a little sticker shocked when we hear 20%. He wanted to know if the health and accident insurance is fully funded by the County. The Commissioners told him it is 85/15 and 15% is funded by the employees. Mr. Shaffer said the trend is that the employees are participating more and more, and it will have to be the trend in the future. Mr. Shaffer would like to make sure every dollar spent is done as efficiently as possible. He said it is the Commission’s charge to make every dollar count.
Ron Germer asked about the sale of the Pioneer Nursing Home and the nursing home in Tremonton. Commissioner Davis said the County is under contract with Avalon for the sell of the Pioneer Nursing Home. The County has received $100,000 as a down payment. The total sell price is $1.2M and it has not been appropriated for any other expenditure. Avalon is paying the county 9% a month on the remaining balance, which is equivalent to the bed rents. The County has no formal activity on the nursing home in Tremonton.
Mike Miller said he is having a hard time grasping the inflation and with growth it is budget neutral.
Roger Handy said the tax rate is set up so that we don’t get the full effect of growth unless we raise the tax rate. We will recover part of the growth, but if we don’t raise taxes, the rate goes down.
Chairman Hansen said we lose inflation on property tax to the extent of $250,000 a year. He said the state readjusts our rate. For us to capture, we have to increase our taxes.
Commissioner Rees said the taxes are driven by the state. We see new growth and new homes and feel we should have more. It keeps us neutral to what we can collect. She said it is hard to understand, but as we see new houses and new growth, our expenses go up.
Commissioner Davis said the Truth and Taxation Law requires us to deal with fixed dollars. If we increase, we must advertise to prevent the increase of fixed dollars. It does not account for inflation. If we advertise on a certified rate, we maintain the same certified rate. We would capture the growth and capture the increase in the certified rate. Commissioner Davis said on a $20M budget $15M is passed thru from state and federal funds. The only flexibility we have is property tax. Our hands are almost tied in terms of funding any increased expenditures.
Mike Miller asked if there is something that can be done to help the homeowner.
Commissioner Davis said there is a State Tax Advisory Commission set up to study the state tax system and perhaps modify the current deduction structure and possibly repeal the tax on food. He said it is important for individuals to track what is going on with other jurisdictions. A lot of the things that we are required to do, do not have a funding source. The state and federal government just say do it.
Commissioners Rees said people should watch the redoing of the tax structure like tax on food. It would really help the urban counties and cities, but hurt the rural ones.
Kris Powers, Brigham City Citizen, commented that this summer 8,100 citizens spoke very clearly that they wanted the Commissioners to be fiscally responsible for their money spending. She asked the Commission to go back to the budget and look at every dollar that can be cut. She said every dollar is important, especially for those on fixed incomes. There is waste. Ms. Powers said gas prices are way down. She said as a citizen that represents 8,100 other citizens she would like to charge the Commission to go back and cut some more. She said 20% is a lot to all of us.
Don Tuft, Brigham City Citizen, said the 20% tax hike is not easy to swallow. He would suggest that maybe the Commission ought to try and budget or look ahead and make the tax increases that are needed to fund the budget and balance it. Maybe the increases should be made on a yearly basis; a small increase over a period of time is much more palatable to the average taxpayer than 23% a year. He urged the Commission to readdress the budget again and see if there are places where some cuts can be made. He said we must tighten our belts. He asked the Commission to revisit the budget again and expressed appreciation to the Commission for the responsibility they have. He said the average citizen is not here tonight and does not understand in any way, shape or form what the Commission is trying to do. He said it is too bad more are not here. He wanted to leave with two points and a challenge to the Commissioners.
Gina Allen, Box Elder County Employee as well as a citizen, said she must answer as a department head. She said all of the departments were approached and told they needed to cut from their departments. Gina said she is over solid waste and there was a substantial cut made. She said in regards to cost-of-living, she is a single mom with a family to raise, and she treats her work budget the way she does her personal budget. She expressed appreciation to her bosses and co-workers for the services they provide to the citizens.
Chairman Hansen thanked those in attendance and said the Commissioners appreciate the input very much and will take it to heart.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to close the public hearing. Commissioner Rees seconded the motion and the public hearing was closed at 8:23 a.m.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to adjourn. Commissioner Davis seconded the motion, and the meeting adjourned at 8:24 p.m.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED in regular session this 13th day of December 2005.
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Scott Hansen, Chairman
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Clark N. Davis, Commissioner
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Suzanne R. Rees, Commissioner
ATTEST:
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LuAnn Adams, Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor