Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County

September 22, 2009

The Board is meeting to conduct the 2010 preliminary budget hearings. The departments are scheduled as follows to discuss their requests:

8:00 Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance

8:05 Public Health Director Tonda Scott will discuss staffing in her office

9:00 Tonda Scott – Public Health budget

9:30 Jennifer Nestor – Coroner budget

10:00 Stacey Phythian - Retired Senior Volunteer Program budget

10:30 Jim Covington – County Treasurer budget & Estelle Thaller – County Assessor budget

11:15 Tom Nestor – County Sheriff, Jail and Victims Assistance budgets

1:15 Linda Yoder – Extension Office budget

1:45 Ken Morrison – Land Use and Emergency Management budgets

2:00 Colette Barksdale – Social Services budget

2:30 Mike Mosher – Fair budget

3:00 Wayne Shade – Weed Control budget

3:30 Herman Schreivogel – Lincoln Community Hospital budget

Other budgets that will be reviewed during the day as time allows include the following:

Office of the Board Veterans Office

Administrator Pest & Predator Control

Administrative Community Development Block Grant

County Attorney EMS Subsidy

Council of Governments Transportation Enhancement Grant

Clerk & Recorder Road & Bridge Fund

Elections Library Fund

Maintenance of Building & Plant Contingent Fund

District Attorney Conservation Trust Fund

Fire Control Weed Control Fund

Centennial Mental Health E911 Fund

Health Inspector Capital Projects Fund

Ambulance Service Landfill Fund

Eastern Colo. Services for Developmentally Disabled Retirement Fund

Emergency Medical Services Lodging Tax Tourism Fund

Old Business

New Business

The Board of Lincoln County Commissioners met at 8:00 a.m. on September 22, 2009, to conduct the preliminary 2010 budget hearings. Present were Chairman Ted Lyons, Commissioners Steve Burgess and Gary Beedy, County Administrator Roxie Devers and Clerk to the Board Corinne M. Lengel.

Chairman Lyons called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance, and then Public Health Director Tonda Scott met with the Board to discuss her resignation. She explained that she was, indeed, going to leave and gave her reasons for doing so. She informed the commissioners that she felt the Board often scrutinizes specific office budgets too much, and even though she appreciated the fact that they felt they had to be mindful of taxpayer money, they had also approved her original budget to begin with, and there was no reason why she shouldn’t be able to spend the funds that were available on what she saw fit to spend them on. Specifically, she was referring to her request to create more storage space in the office by knocking out an existing wall, mainly to give Office Manager Karen Mosher more privacy, which she needs for some of the sensitive information she handles. Another reason was to increase the waiting area and add more storage space, which is greatly needed.

Mr. Burgess said he had misunderstood her original request and believed that removing the wall would be a workable solution, and the Board reviewed a letter that County Attorney Stan Kimble had submitted, stating that it would seem that the hospital taking over the Public Health department would not be a feasible option.

Mr. Burgess asked Ms. Scott if hiring a full time EPR manager would help enough to free up the Public Health Director to be able to perform their job duties. She agreed that would be helpful, but when Ms. Devers asked her if hiring one person to take over the EPR and School Nursing program would work, she responded that there would be too many hours for a part-time person, as the school nurse would be needed from eight-to-twelve hours each week, and the EPR duties would most likely take fifteen-to-twenty hours.

Ms. Devers also asked Ms. Scott if she felt the person hired for the director position should be a nurse, and Ms. Scott responded that although it isn’t imperative, it would be very beneficial. She offered to help out—remotely—until January of 2010, if the Board felt that was something they would be interested in, and added that she’d had someone pick up an application,. The commissioners appreciated the offer and said they would let her know if they decided it was an option.

The Public Health Agency Fund 2010 budget was reviewed and the Office Supplies line item was reduced to $2,000; the Medical Supplies line item was reduced to $1,000 and the Phone line item was reduced to $3,000. The Dues and Meetings line item was increased to $1,000 and Ms. Devers will create a line item for Contract Labor, which is where Letitia Marrufo will be paid from. Karen Mosher, who had joined the meeting, asked if it would be acceptable to increase Ms. Marrufo’s hourly wage to $10.50, as she has not had a raise in three years. The Board agreed, and the miscellaneous line item, where Ms. Marrufo’s salary had previously been taken from, was reduced to $100.

Mr. Burgess said it would be okay to remove the short wall in the nurse’s office, and that Travis Nall could probably do most of the work. He also asked Ms. Scott if they would have to contract with someone to give the flu shots if she leaves prior to giving them. Ms. Scott responded that that was correct.

At 9:30 a.m., County Coroner Jennifer Nestor met with the Board to review her 2010 budget. Mr. Burgess asked how many autopsies her department had had completed this year, to which Ms. Nestor replied eleven, so far. Discussion was held as to her request for a new pick-up with a camper shell and she was asked how long ago the new motor was put in the coroner’s van, but she wasn’t sure. Mr. Lyons thought there was probably only ten thousand miles on the new motor and Mr. Burgess told her he found it difficult to spend $20,000 on a new vehicle when she travels so few miles per year. He said he understood that something needed to be done before long, and explained that the commissioners have a van available in Limon if she should need it in an emergency situation, such as her van not starting. Ms. Nestor said that Love Funeral Homes has an old suburban, but she didn’t know if they would be getting rid of it anytime soon. She was told to see if she could find some cheaper options, as $15,000 or $20,000 was just too much to spend on a vehicle at this time. They also suggested she speak with Sheriff Nestor to see if he and any suggestions.

No changes were made to the Administrator’s or the Administrative budgets, and at 10:00 a.m., RSVP Director Stacey Phythian met with the Board to review her 2010 budget. She was asked if she had heard anything from Kit Carson County regarding the part-time position, but she said they had taken it under advisement. The Postage line item was reduced to $1,000, the Travel line item was reduced to $3,700 and the Volunteer Mileage and Bus Expense line items were increased by $500 and $300, respectively. Ms. Devers will add a Building Maintenance line item with $200 in it.

County Treasurer Jim Covington, Assessor Estelle Thaller and Jeremiah Higgins met with the Board at 10:30 a.m. No changes were made to the County Treasurer’s budget at this time, and the only changes made to the Assessor’s budget were to add a Contract Labor line item in the amount of $1,120, and the Office Supplies line item was reduced to $6,000.

Sheriff Tom Nestor met with the Board at 11:15 a.m. to discuss the Sheriff, Jail and Victims Assistance budgets, and no changes were made to any of the budgets at this time.

Mr. Burgess then made a motion to accept Public Health Director Tonda Scott’s resignation, effective October 8, 2009. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

No changes were made to the County Attorney budget and then at 1:15 p.m., Extension Director Linda Yoder met with the Board to discuss the Extension Office budget. No changes were made to the budget at this time, nor were there changes to the COG or County Clerk budgets.

At 1:45 p.m., Land Use Administrator Ken Morrison met with the Board to discuss the 2010 budget for his department. The Professional Services line item was decreased to $2,000.

Mr. Burgess said he’d spoken to Ojukwu Abiakam with CDOT, who told him that the county would need to do a hydraulic report for the bridge in District Two. Ms. Devers said that he should call Mick Jaques at the landfill to get the name of the person they used, as they had had one done there at one time. Mr. Burgess added that Mr. Abiakam told him there would be no problem with the county using the arches for the bridge in District Two, if that is what they would like to do.

At 2:00 p.m., Social Services Director Colette Barksdale met with the Board to discuss her department’s budget. No changes were made at this time.

Fair Manager Mike Mosher was scheduled to meet with the Board at 2:30 p.m. to discuss the Fair budget, but Ms. Devers said neither he nor Herman Schreivogel, who was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. to discuss the Lincoln Community Hospital budget, would be available.

At 3:00 p.m., Weed Control Coordinator Wayne Shade met with the Board to discuss the 2010 budget for the department. No changes were made at this time.

No changes were made to the Elections budget or the Maintenance of Building & Plant budget, and the Board briefly discussed what will happen if Mrs. Waite cannot return to work on October 1, 2009. The decision was made to hire Nova Waite’s niece, if she still wants the job, until March 1, 2010. At that time, the position will be opened up to other prospective applicants. The Board will then have time to decide if they intend to offer the job as a full time job, a part-time job, or contract labor.

Other budgets reviewed by the Board and not changed were the District Attorney, Fire Control, Centennial Mental Health, Health Inspector, Ambulance Service, Eastern Colorado Services for the Developmentally Disabled, Emergency Medical Services, Veterans Office, Pest & Predator Control, Road & Bridge (briefly), Library, Landfill, Retirement Fund and Lodging Tax Tourism Fund budgets.

With no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on September 29, 2009.

___________________________________________ _____________________________

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