Tama County Administration Building, 104 W State St., Toledo, Iowa. TELEGRAPH FILE PHOTO

TOLEDO – The usual suspects congregated last Monday morning (March 3) for the weekly Tama County Board of Supervisors meeting. The two-and-a-half-hour meeting saw a whopping 25 items on the mammoth-sized agenda be discussed, acted on, and generally mulled over.

The first box to get ticked was the engineer’s report. They hauled rock on P Avenue in Long Point, on F Avenue south of Garwin, and on S Avenue near Clutier. Sand was also hauled to the mix shed in Traer. The motor grader in Dysart went down last week due to engine problems. The S Avenue bridge replacement project was approved to go to PCI for the low bid of $479,993.20. A culvert project on E43 was approved with Iowa Bridge and Culvert submitting the low bid of $425,894.18. The supervisors also approved a resolution for a revamped dust control policy that now includes a fee for each permit.

At 8:45 a.m., the supervisors held a de-appropriation public hearing. Chairman Mark Doland spoke first on the item.

“It allows for us to look at where we’re at right now financially with the recent budget issues that have come to light. We wanted to look and see where people were at, spending-wise. At this point we should be around 66 to 67% of budgets should have been spent that have been appropriated,” he said. “If they’re not, they’re not on track to spend that, there are some departments that are right there, most of them are right there, some of them are under, some of them are over. It’s a time that we can look (at) the line-by-line and see where people are at in their budget.”

In response to being questioned on why they are only taking money from three departments, Supervisor Heather Knebel explained.

“So, it’s more this year next year we’ve pulled a lot of strings to help with next year. It’s hard because we weren’t in these, most of us, weren’t in this position and so the money’s already been granted, so a lot of them have already spent it, over that 66 percent,” she said.

Still speaking on the county’s money issues, Doland highlighted an unexpected expense.

“One thing I do want to mention that just jumps off of our page. We’ve got one expenditure that’s four-hundred or one line item that has spent 406.77% of the budget. This is an unexpected medical bill, many medical bills that are coming in from Central Iowa Detention. We have somebody who is in Central Iowa Detention, a youth that has, we have bills in excess of $180,000,” he said.

Doland went on to explain further.

“This is somebody who is evidently high needs, a lot of mental health needs, was in a placement down in Florida for a period of time that takes pretty much all of the cases in the United States for difficult to place, high needs mental health issues dealing with juveniles. Evidently, they discharged him, he came back to Tama County, he was picked up on a misdemeanor, he’s been in for 57 days and there’s a lot of high needs behaviors that end up in the emergency room,” Doland said. “He needs mental health care and they are using detention at this point because nobody will take him. He’s not able to be placed and so the bill comes back to the county. I don’t know that that’s where it’s supposed to be, so we’re working with our legislator, Dean Fisher, to try to get that addressed. I found a couple of loopholes where we could try to at least be reimbursed or we could bill DHS through Medicaid at the federal level. There’s a law, at the federal level, that says that incarcerated individuals, it doesn’t matter if they’re adults or juveniles, they can’t get Medicaid while they’re incarcerated. However, we could make an argument that he’s not incarcerated, although he’s in a juvenile detention facility he doesn’t make the second part of that test, he’s waiting (for) placement and nobody will take him. He’s not currently serving detention days. He’s serving nothing, he’s just waiting for placement. That’s a big bill that we’re trying to figure out. That’s a whole department, in some situations. So, we’re working to try and get that back.”

After discussion and comments, the supervisors approved de-appropriating Conservation by $100,000, the Board of Health by $125,000, and maintenance by $40,000.

The supervisors approved allowing the maintenance director to send out a request for proposal to see if it would be cheaper to outsource cleaning services for the county buildings instead of continuing to employ the two full-time cleaning staff they currently have.

The first and second tier canvasses for the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District Special Election were set for March 10 and 17 at 8 a.m.

The supervisors approved adding the new Tama County Auditor, Karen Rohrs, to the Health Fund account and removing former HR Director Tammy Wise. The supervisors also approved adding the Tama County Auditor, Tama County Treasurer, and Assistant Treasurer to the EMS Levy account.

The supervisors approved posting for an IT Director. This decision comes out of an Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) IT audit that the county had done. Knebel explained.

“The biggest outcome is we need our own IT director. Most counties have it, there’s, I think, 43 smaller than us that have their own IT person. Today, the Board of Health and the Sheriff’s Office are using CSS. It was an outsourced company in Cedar Rapids, they’re very good, but it also comes at a cost, right?” she asked. “So, good is usually more expensive. There is also Rick with Windstream that’s kind of been helping these buildings. So, today we’re spending about $170-180,000 per year on outside IT sources.”

The supervisors approved a letter of withdrawal from their current funding arrangement with Tama County Economic Development.

“Again, as we were going through the budget for the next fiscal year and then for the rest of this fiscal year we were looking at different departments, essential services, those kinds of things. It was agreed upon by the board that we would implement a transition plan for Economic Development,” he said. “Right now, the operating budget of Tama County Economic Development is about $262,000. The county puts in about $212,000, the request for this year by cutting back was $192,000, something like that.”

Doland then explained what withdrawing from Economic Development would look like for the next year.

“We’re talking about what the county’s funding options are moving forward and going through till June 30, it will be the full amount that they had been funded. And then for the next six months it will be the full amount divided that by half. So, by Dec. 31 of 2025, this year, that will be completely funded to give time for transition,” he said. “And then Jan. 1 until June 30 of 2026, we would cut and we would offer the same per capita rate that other municipalities are paying per person. Which would be $3 per head, basically, per person. And our total amount I think was $116,000 for the next year, around there.”

Doland added that the board would entertain an increase in the per capita rate of services, citing the fact that the cities are paying $3 per capita and the county is paying “way more.”

The 501C3 tax code was discussed for Economic Development hoping it would bring in more private industry investment.

Tama County Economic Development Director Katherine Ollendieck offered her perspective and expressed frustration with the situation.

“This decision is disappointing, and I’m going to be very honest, that I think [that] kind of a cut is such a detriment to the organization,” she said. “But we’re in the situation we’re in.”

The supervisors accepted and filed with the auditor a letter from the Tama Soil and Water Conservation District recommending that land above a 60 CSR2 rating should be reserved for agricultural use only.

The supervisors hired Holly Corkery from Lynch Dallas, P.C. Attorneys at Law to work on the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB) complaint from Tammy Wise. The supervisors approved opening the Treasurer’s office at 9:30 am on March 10 due to a staff meeting.

The supervisors approved allowing Sheriff Casey Schmidt to hire a deputy. The supervisors appointed Chris Behrens to the Conservation Board.

The changes to the Tama County Land Use Plan set by the Zoning Commission were approved.

The supervisors approved exploring options of selling over 100 acres of land in conjunction with the county farm. Currently, the land is being rented out for approximately $50,000. Doland elaborated on the decision.

“We have a budget deficit we’re trying to make up. There is land that we own that is adjacent to the County farm, and as Bill (Faircloth) alluded to earlier, is next to the landfill. I’ve had discussions with the superintendent at the landfill, he said that’s nothing that they would be, they wouldn’t be interested in using that land in the future for expansion of the landfill,” he said. “For one simple reason, there is a gas line that goes through there and it would be prohibited to use that. They have to by the code and through DNR regulations have a plan that goes out I think 25 years. So, they have an understanding of what they’re going to do for the next 25 years with the Tama County Landfill.”

The supervisors also approved repealing their motion to reduce/withhold funds transfers to the insurance fund for FY25.

Claims totaling $311,588 were approved.