Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County  

Agenda for November 25, 2008

 

 

9:00 Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance

 

9:00 Public Health Director Tonda Scott to discuss a staffing proposal

 

10:00 Bill Noyce with Walnut Street Securities to discuss investment of the county’s retirement funds

 

10:30 Land Use Administrator Ken Morrison to give the Land Use Board’s decision on Amendment 1 to Development Permit Application 07-10 for Cedar Point Wind LLC’s wind farm project

 

 

 

 

1.      Approve payroll and expense vouchers

2.      Approve the minutes from the November 17th meeting

3.      Review a letter of resignation from Gary Maskus, effective November 14, 2008, as janitor for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program office in Flagler

4.      Review the Certification of Votes Cast for Referendum 1A, the county lodging tax issue, and a request for payment of the county’s share of the cost of the election, both received from the Lincoln County Clerk

5.      Review the amended and restated Lincoln County, Colorado Employee’s Pension Plan and Trust as submitted by Stephen Rickles with Berenbaum, Weinshienk & Eason P.C., which brings the Plan up to date with all required changes in the law

6.      County Commissioners’ reports

7.      County Administrator’s report

8.      County Attorney’s report

9.      Old business

a. Discuss joining the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority

10.  New business

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Board of Lincoln County Commissioners met at 9:00 a.m. on November 25, 2008.  The following attended:  Chairman Ted Lyons, Commissioners Steve Burgess and Gary Beedy, County Administrator Roxie Devers and Clerk to the Board Corinne M. Lengel.  County Attorney Stan Kimble was present in the afternoon, and Kay Christie with The Limon Leader and the Eastern Colorado Plainsman attended from 9:45 a.m. until 11:15 a.m.

 

Chairman Lyons called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance, and then before Public Health Director Tonda Scott met with the Board to discuss a staffing proposal, Social Services Director Colette Barksdale stopped in with a brief update on the commodities program.  She showed the Board some information she intended to put in the newspaper regarding areas where needy families and individuals can pick up food items, and also explained that churches with proper storage space can register to become food banks.  She said she would contact the local churches to see if they would be eligible and interested.  Mr. Burgess said he hadn’t known that food commodities could be purchased with food stamps, and Ms. Barksdale informed everyone that the county actually receives more commodities based on the number of food stamp applicants there are.  Therefore, those who feel that it really isn’t worth applying for food stamps don’t realize that they will be eligible for even more food if they just take the time to apply.

 

Ms. Barksdale also said that the Limon school has requested changing tables for the restrooms there, and the department will use TANF funds to make those purchases.  She also offered to purchase changing tables for the fairgrounds restroom facilities when they are redone.

 

Karen Kovar had told Ms. Barksdale that they may not be able to continue the commodity program for much longer because they have lost the portion of grant funding that pays to heat the building they are in.  Ms. Barksdale asked the Board if it would acceptable to contribute about $1,200 in county TANF dollars in order to keep their heat on, and the Board agreed.

 

After Ms. Barksdale left, Tonda Scott and Karen Mosher explained that they are having problems keeping the STEPP Coordinator because it is a part-time job without benefits, as well as having difficulty finding someone who even wants to apply for the position.  Ms. Scott proposed to combine the STEPP Coordinator position and the School Nurse position to create a full time job with benefits.  She said that the new hire could also take over some of the emergency preparedness duties, as well, but the only downside would be that the county would have to come up with funding for another benefit package.

 

Mr. Burgess suggested she contact job services in Limon and Ms. Scott said she would do that, and that she had also put the advertisement for the STEPP Coordinator on the Centennial AHEC, as well as other websites.  However, they were having no luck so far.

 

Mr. Burgess added that the problem he saw with creating a full time position was that the funding for the tobacco program could be pulled at any time because it was a grant, and Ms. Scott responded that the state has started looking at population-based funding and wants to get tobacco grants in every county possible.

 

Mr. Lyons commented that he felt a lot of changes would be coming in January; maybe for better, maybe for worse, but he felt they should wait until the first part of February before making a decision.  Ms. Scott said that the tobacco grant doesn’t end until sometime in June anyway, so that was fine with her.

 

In regard to the 2009 budget, Ms. Scott said she had miscalculated Karen Mosher’s salary and that they would need to increase that line item by $400.  Also, since money has been received, but not spent, for the Cavity-Free at Three Program, Ms. Mosher asked that they change the expenditure back to $10,000 for 2009.  No money has been received yet for the Dental program, so she asked that that amount be changed back to $10,000 as well.

 

Ms. Scott said that Plains Medical Center is looking into a dental program in the schools, and she was worried that they would try to compete with the Public Health dental programs, but PMC is more concerned with older children, where the county programs deal with younger ones.

 

Mr. Lyons asked how many hours the school nurse position would involve, and Ms. Scott replied that it is eight-to-twelve hours a week, and Ms. Mosher put in that if BOCES would simply hire a full time nurse instead of all the part-time people, it would be more beneficial.

 

Mr. Burgess asked Kay Christie to come up as she had some news about the Town of Limon, and Kay reported that there have been some changes in the organization of Limon’s administration.  Dave Stone will be taking over Joe Kiely’s position as town administrator, as Mr. Kiely has accepted a full time position with Ports to Plains.  Mr. Kiely will continue to be active in the financial aspect of the administration, but he is now the special assistant in an advisory capacity to Mr. Stone.

 

There was one correction to the minutes from the meeting held on November 17; change
“a timer for it.” to “timers.”  Mr. Burgess made a motion to approve the minutes as corrected, Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously.

 

The Board reviewed a letter of resignation effective November 14, 2008, from Gary Maskus, janitor for the Flagler RSVP office.  Mr. Burgess made a motion to accept the resignation, Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously.  Ms. Devers said she’d asked Stacey Phythian if she knew how she wanted to handle getting someone to clean and Ms. Phythian said she would have to wait and see.

 

The Certification of Votes Cast for Referendum 1A—the county lodging tax issue—and a request for payment for the county’s share of the cost of the election, both received from the County Clerk, were reviewed, and Ms. Devers said the bill would be paid as soon as the county receives payment.

 

At 10:00 a.m., Bill Noyce and Dan Mayer with Walnut Street Securities met with the Board to discuss the investment of the county’s retirement funds.  Mr. Burgess asked if Metropolitan Life Insurance is in a bail-out situation right now, but Mr. Mayer assured the Board that they are actually in the stage where they are acquiring other companies.

 

Mr. Noyce explained that he wants to close out a couple of the funds that the county currently has money in and re-invest in some different ones, as those current funds are not performing up to the level that fits Walnut Street’s policy.  He said they always want their funds to be in the top thirty-five percent performance level, and these funds just aren’t doing that.  He believes thinking prudently is the answer and would like to continue on with a growth and income portfolio, even though the market is very unsteady right now.  Mr. Noyce discussed closing out the Jennison Natural Resources Fund because of recent performance, but stated he felt more inclined to hold onto it and monitor it for awhile, as he feels it will come back.

 

Mr. Lyons said that investments are definitely not his area of expertise and trusted what Mr. Noyce and the company recommended, so the decision was made to replace the Fidelity Value Fund with Gateway Fund A, which are both growth and income funds, although Mr. Noyce said he may need to re-address the situation in six months or so.  The Loomis Sayles Strategic Income Fund will be replaced with PIMCO Total Return A, and the Third Avenue Value Fund will be replaced with Mutual Discovery A; a global equity fund.

 

Mr. Beedy made a motion to approve the changes recommended by Bill Noyce with Walnut Street Securities regarding the county’s retirement funds.  Mr. Burgess seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

 

At 11:00 a.m., Land Use Administrator Ken Morrison met with the Board to give the Land Use Board’s decision on Amendment 1 to Development Permit Application 07-10, for the wind farm project submitted by Cedar Point Wind, LLC.  The amendment was passed unanimously by the Land Use Board according to Mr. Morrison, but he did add that the project is on hold at this time due to financing difficulties.  He also said that the Town of Limon had agreed to allow wastewater to be purchased for the project when the roads need to be built.

 

Mr. Morrison also said he has been fairly busy with building permits lately.

 

After reviewing the amended and restated Lincoln County, Colorado Employee’s Pension Plan and Trust as submitted by Stephen Rickles with Berenbaum, Weinshienk & Eason, P.C., which will bring the plan up to date with all required changes in the law, the Board chose to table the subject until Ms. Devers receives a summary of those changes.

 

Mr. Beedy reported that he met with David Seymour on November 20 to discuss roads and other issues in District Three, and on the Twenty-first he attended the Strategic Allocation Committee meeting for Colorado Works.  He also went by the county landfill.

 

Mr. Burgess reported that he attended the Child Welfare committee meetings on November 19 and 20, and asked the others to consider whether or not they felt that the state should take over county Social Services departments.  He said that since many counties do not have commissioners that take an active role in the departments, there seems to be little or no oversight in many areas.  On the Twenty-fourth, Mr. Burgess met with Roger Noakes to discuss filling the two positions in their district that have recently come open, and earlier this morning he stopped by the landfill.  He said that the county has an exceptional team at the landfill and commended them for how good it looks, as well as for getting all of the steel stacked and baled.  Mr. Burgess also said he stopped in the Treasurer’s office this morning and the county received another $11,180 from the contaminated dirt taken to the landfill from the old Flying J lot.  Roughly $30,000 will be collected when all funds are received.  He also drafted a letter regarding drought in Lincoln County, which will hopefully be sent to numerous officials.

 

Mr. Lyons reported that he attended the Southeast Colorado Recycling meeting on November 18, where they discussed purchasing the building they are in.  They made an offer and gave Reva Phillips the authority to act on their behalf if a counter-offer should be received.  On the Twentieth, Mr. Lyons attended the hospital board meeting, and he also stopped by the landfill and spoke with Brian Johnson about the living windbreaks that District One wants to put in.  He said he would speak with Mr. Kimble when he arrives to see if he needs to send a letter to the lessee of the property requesting permission, since the property is owned by the state.

 

Ms. Devers reported that Doug Lehnen with the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority told her that most directors are appointed or elected officials or staff and that Lincoln County was the first to inquire about appointing someone from the public.  He didn’t believe there would be any reason preventing it, but told her he would check further.  She has not heard back from him, so believes it would not be a problem to appoint Scott Ravenkamp or someone else with the CARR group if he is not interested.  Mr. Lyons will contact him and Ms. Devers asked if they would like to wait until the end of December to pay the dues to join the organization, which they agreed to do.  She added that they will also need to appoint an alternate, so Mr. Burgess said he would do it

 

Ms. Devers also said she’d spoken with Diane Dougherty, an auditor with the sales tax division, about the county’s issue with sales tax collection on agricultural chemicals.  She told her that if a company is filing returns, they go back three years and audit, but if returns haven’t been filed, there is no time limit on the years they will audit.  Ms. Devers added that in 1999, the state decided to exempt agricultural compounds, fertilizer, and pesticides from state tax, but she didn’t believe that the county ever exempted them.  Mr. Lyons said that he’d learned from Dolle Lehrenkamp that they do not collect sales tax on fertilizer, but that they do on chemicals, and Ms. Devers said that most businesses in the county do collect the tax the way they are supposed to.  In 2007, over $20,000 was collected in sales tax on agricultural chemicals.


Mr. Lyons said they either need to leave it the way it is or do away with all of it and Ms. Devers said she would pull the resolution that was passed to see if it addresses fertilizer.

 

The Board reviewed the letter Mr. Burgess had written regarding drought in Lincoln County and Mr. Beedy suggested that they needed to add that the rains received were large, single-event rains that basically ran off immediately, rather than soaked in.  It was determined that the letter would be sent to Ken Salazar, Marilyn Musgrave, Betsy Markey, Mark Udall, John Stulp and southern region representatives.  A copy will also be sent to Greg King.

 

Mr. Lyons called for old business, and Mr. Burgess said that since gas prices have been going down, he has been wondering if they acted hastily in increasing the mileage rate to forty cents per mile in 2009.  Mr. Beedy didn’t feel that gas prices would stay as low as they are, and Mr. Lyons said that they could monitor the usage and if it looks like employees are taking advantage of the increased rate, they can always decrease it again.

 

As for new business, Mr. Burgess asked if they were going to all contact the various boards for new appointments for 2009 and Ms. Devers said she would bring the list to the following day’s meeting so that they could divide them up.  Mr. Beedy said he’d received an e-mail from Jeff Coleman regarding bridge consultation, which got him to thinking that they may need to begin considering what they will do if the money to replace bridges actually does come in.

 

When the Board re-convened at 1:00 p.m., Mr. Lyons called for the County Attorney’s report, and Mr. Kimble thanked the Board for allowing him to attend the county attorney conference last week.  He said they had a session on roads, one on financing renewable energy, workplace investigations, passing of legislation, and the Public Health Re-Authorization Act.  He reiterated that there should be no reason why the Treasurer’s bond would need to be increased, even though that had been the rumor.

 

Ms. Devers asked Mr. Kimble if he could get her the county attorney’s TABOR opinion on the county “de-Brucing,” as it was now a requirement for the DOLA grant, and Mr. Kimble said he would see what he could find since he was not the county attorney at that time.

 

The Board reviewed letters from Mr. Kimble regarding autopsies not being mandatory on all unattended deaths and the easement and right-of-way lease regarding the tower at Cedar Point.

 

As for autopsies, Mr. Kimble said that state statute basically leaves autopsy requirement up to the discretion of the coroner, and Mr. Burgess felt that the Board should send Ms. Nestor a letter requesting that she consult with law enforcement agencies as to whether or not they feel an autopsy should be performed.  Due to the high cost of autopsies and the increase in the number of cases, he said it would be beneficial if she would consider such an option and that it may help save the county some money.

 

In regard to the lease on the Cedar Point tower, Mr. Kimble said that state law allows assignments unless there is a lease agreement that specifically says otherwise.  He added that he did not see a no-assignment prohibition or other exclusion in the old lease agreement that he’d been given to review, but did say that he noticed a strict provision regarding the fact that the tower would be used for television only.

 

Mr. Kimble also informed the Board that none of the people he intended to speak with about the prairie dog issue attended the conference, so he was unable to discuss it with anyone.  The Board said they intended to have a regional meeting about it at the CCI conference next week, so they hoped to have something more to report at the December 8 commissioner meeting.

 

Mr. Lyons asked Mr. Kimble if he would need a written agreement for permission to build living windbreaks on leased state property and he responded that it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a Right to Enter agreement in place when Mr. Lyons explained that the county would be responsible for taking care of the trees.  Mr. Lyons said he would speak with John Valentine first, since he will need permission from the state, and then he will go from there.

 

The Board approved the payroll and expense vouchers for the month of November and then, with no further business to come before them, the meeting was adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on November 26, 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________             ______________________________

                    Corinne M. Lengel, Clerk to the Board                                      Ted Lyons, Chairman