HomeMy WebLinkAboutCounty Board of Supervisors - Minutes - 6/8/2010351
Minutes of the
Bayfield County Board of Supervisors’ Meeting
Of June 8, 2010 – 4:00 p.m.
Bayfield County Board Room, Courthouse, Washburn, Wisconsin
The special budget planning meeting of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors was called to order by
Chairman Kacvinsky at 4:03 p.m. Roll call was taken by Bayfield County Clerk, Scott Fibert as follows: Kacvinsky-
present; Rantala-present; Williams-present; Bichanich-present; Miller-present; Crandall-present; Rondeau-present;
Meyers-present; Bussey-present; Jardine-present; Maki-absent; Kittleson-present; Bennett-present. Total 13: 12
present, 1 absent. A quorum was present to conduct business. The following were also present for the meeting:
County Administrator, Mark Abeles-Allison; Deputy County Clerk, Dawn M. Bellile; UW-Ext. Community Resource
Agent, Tim Kane; Forest Administrator, Jason Bodine; Chief Deputy, Paul Susienka; Human Services Director,
Elizabeth Skulan; and HS Financial Manager, Nikki Revak.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all in attendance.
There was no public comment.
Welcome and Purpose – William Kacvinsky and Tim Kane.
Chairman William Kacvinsky welcomed the Supervisors and mentioned that this evening’s meeting was intended to
start planning for the County’s 2011 budget. He turned the meeting over to the facilitator Tim Kane, who
reiterated the meeting’s purpose. Kane further commented that the purpose of the meeting was to:
1. Provide budget overview background;
2. Identify important issues;
3. Review county department head input;
4. Review county levy and budget history;
5. Identify county budget priorities for 2011; and
6. Develop a target tax levy for the 2011 budget.
Kane also explained that his role as the session facilitator was to: help guide the process, keep the meeting
on time, keep on task and record input. Kane then turned the meeting over to County Administrator, Mark Abeles-
Allison.
Budget Overview
County Administrator Mark Abeles-Allison provided some background information on County revenues and
expenditure trends by reviewing the following handouts or PowerPoint slides: Bayfield County Summary of Adopted
Budget Totals 1985 - 2010 table; Levy by Fund and Levy by Department pie graphs; Sales Tax table and Sales Tax
2006 - May 2010 graph; Bayfield County Shared Revenue 1995 - 2010 graph; and Personnel Expenses (Wages &
Benefits), Capital Expenditures and Utilities cost tables and graphs. He also gave a short report on behalf of the
County Treasurer by discussing a Treasurer’s Report 2010 slide and noting the recent decline in interest income
earned by the County.
Human Services Department - Elizabeth Skulan, Director and discussed some important issues that were
impacting her budget, including the Family Care program buy out recession and increased demand for services. She
also distributed and talked about a Summary of Human Services Levy Increases handout.
Forestry Department - Jason Bodine, Forest Administrator, presented graphed information on his
department’s: annual budget depicting total revenue, stumpage revenue and expense from 2004 -2015; sustainable
timber harvest goals and accomplishments with and without an additional forester from 2006-2015; and
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sustainable timber harvest projected goals and accomplishments with and without an additional forester from
2010-2015. He commented that the County realizes $700 per acre from timber sales, and that 4,500 additional
acres could be captured with the addition of another forester. This would increase annual County timber sale
revenue from its current amount of $2.1 million to $3 million in the future.
Sheriff’s Department – Paul Susienka, Chief Deputy, mentioned that maintaining staffing levels was the
most important issue for his department. He talked about revenue sources for his department including: state
inmate contract revenue, inmate canteen revenue, license sales revenue, and fines and forfeitures that don’t
actually go to the Sheriff’s Department. Paul commented that that they have been averaging 10 state prisoners
per day being boarded in the County Jail at $51.46 per day per state inmate. He also briefly commented on the
$50,000 Wisconsin Department of Corrections re-entry program grant that his department was recently awarded.
A list of recent County Accomplishments for 2009-10 was included in the handouts provided to County Board
members, but not discussed.
Identify Most Important Issues Facing Bayfield County Government
Then Kane commented that in order for County to focus its resources to address important issues, it was
necessary that the County Supervisors identify what they believe are the most important issues facing County
government. He asked Board members to write down as concisely as possible on provided index cards the answer to
the following question:
What are the most important issues facing Bayfield County government
that the County needs to address?
Then in a round robin fashion, Kane asked each Board member to indicate what they thought were the most
important issues facing the County, which he recorded on a flip chart. The following 20 issues were identified:
1. Health insurance costs and benefits costs
2. Highways
3. Different people doing the same job within County government
4. Ability to continue to provide quality human services to seniors and at risk populations
5. Sufficient resources for family intervention to reduce out of home placements
6. Property taxes
7. Review need for County positions when persons retire or leave
8. Coordinating the implementation of County and town comprehensive plans
9. Bring more business and industry to the County that provides employment beyond tourism
10. More cooperation between departments to reduce costs to all
11. Public safety/law enforcement
12. Trying to provide County services more cost effectively
13. County personnel costs (wages and benefits)
14. Formal management training for County managers
15. Look at consolidating Human Services and Health Departments
16. Funding libraries
17. Look at putting County parks under the Forestry Department
18. Look at increasing County revenues where possible (e.g., adding another County Forester, etc.)
19. Trail(s) issue(s)
20. Bicycle registration fee
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Important Issues Identified by County Department Heads Affecting Department Budgets
County Administrator, Mark Abeles-Allison referred to a handout summarizing input from County Department
Heads on important issues impacting their budgets that will affect the County’s 2011 budget. He discussed some
of the issues when Supervisors had questions about a particular issue.
Break for Snacks
The Board recessed at 5:40 p.m. for a ten minute snack break.
History of County Levy and Budget
Abeles-Allison referred to and discussed a 1985-2010 Levy and Mill Rate, Bayfield County, WI graph handout with
the County Board.
Identify County Budget Priorities for 2011
The Supervisors were asked to think about the most important issues facing Bayfield County government that they
identified earlier as well as the list of issues from the County Departments Heads as they consider the County’s
budget priorities for 2011. In order to identify these priorities, Kane asked the Supervisors to write down on an
index card, as concisely as possible, their answers to the following question:
What do you consider to be the top County budget priority(ies) for 2011?
He then asked in a round robin manner for the Supervisors to tell him what their budget priories were for 2011,
which he recorded on a flip chart. The following 17 County budget priories for 2011 were identified:
1. Taxes/levy/mill rate
2. Highways
3. Retaining younger people here
4. Health and safety of citizens
5. Add a County Forester to increase revenue
6. Libraries funding
7. Funding for Human Services
8. Coordinating towns and County’s comprehensive plans
9. Cutting County costs
10. Resolve the trail issue
11. Stop spending money to create more public land
12. Have County Board lead by example with a 10% cut in per diem
13. Support reduction in number of County employees through attrition
14. Supporting the County Fair
15. Better visitor information for tourists on where to go and what to do
16. Coordination of issues between Zoning and Land Conservation Departments
17. Continue County efforts in energy efficiency
Kane reviewed the suggested budget priorities and asked if any clarification was needed and if any of the priorities
were duplicates. It was agreed to combine the “Health and safety of citizens” issue with the “Funding for Human
Services” issue leaving 16 identified priorities items. Board members were then asked to vote on their top three
2011 budget priorities.
The top budget priorities for 2011 in rank order were as follows (the number of votes received are indicated in
parentheses at the end of the budget priority):
Taxes/levy/mill rate (8)
Health and safety of citizens/funding for Human Services (6)
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Highways (4)
Cutting County costs (4)
Libraries funding (3)
Retaining young people here (2)
Add a County Forester to increase revenue (2)
Coordination of issues between Zoning and Land Conservation Departments (2)
Continue County efforts in energy efficiency (2)
Coordinating towns and County’s comprehensive plans (1)
Support reduction in the number of County employees (1)
Supporting County Fair (1)
Discuss and Develop a Target Tax Levy for 2011 Budget
Abeles-Allison walked the Supervisors through the calculations shown in a handout titled, “2011 Budget Planning
Calculations.” He subtracted the dollar amounts for the exempt Act 420 library ($90,437), County libraries
($187,950) and bridge aid ($10,000) funds from the 2010 actual levy of $8,850,305 to get a County levy base for
levy calculations of $8,561,918. Mark then added a 4.1% allowable levy increase amount to the County levy base to
come up with a levy cap max amount of $351,039. He also referred to a handout titled, “2010 Budget Planning
Calculations” that showed the calculations used to come up with the County’s 2010 potential levy. A discussion
followed. It was recommended and agreed to by the County Board members to set the 2011 target tax levy at 3.2
mills, the same as 2010, plus the amount of the exempt funds.
Adjourn
There being no further business, Chairman Kacvinsky adjourned the meeting at 7:04 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott S. Fibert,
Bayfield County Clerk
SSF/dmb
