County committee continues search for potential budget cuts

Options to free up money in the county’s budget could result in city residents having to pay more.

During the April 19 meeting of the county’s special budget review committee, committee members continued to meet with department heads reviewing department expenses, contracts, and potential for cost saving or areas to generate additional revenue. The information gathered by the committee at these meetings will be used to generate suggestions to the full county board for possible areas to cut or to increase revenue. The committee was formed as a result of a budget deal last fall with the direction to identify $500,000 in either cuts or new revenues for the county to avoid having to use short-term borrowing to balance the budget in the future.

At the meeting, committee members met with the information technology, human services, buildings and grounds and land conservation department heads.

According to information technology director Melissa Sarver, the county has provided computer, phone and network support services to the Medford police department at no additional charge. As the county is looking for ways to carve $500,000 from its budget, Sarver highlighted this as a place where the city could be paying for the services to increase county revenues.

Under longstanding agreements the city rents space for the police department within the courthouse and pays a negotiated payment based on square footage and including routine services.

According to Sarver, the city police have five phone lines and 10 officer email accounts through the county. She estimated the cost of these to be about $4,080 per year. In addition, she said the police department uses about 3/4 of a terabyte of computer storage space and suggested that the city should pay a share of the Spillman evidence management software that is used by the sheriff’s department and dispatch.

Chairman Chuck Zenner noted the partnership between the city and the county for law enforcement has been a positive one for all residents as the two agencies work closely with one another.

“I certainly want the partnership to continue, I just want it fair for both sides,” Zenner said.

Finance director Larry Brandl noted it works well to have them be in one office and cautioned that they may not be talking apples to apples with the services provided versus the rent paid by the city. Under terms of the most recent rental agreement services such as internet and phone are included and there is a clause to have the rent go up 1.5% per year. “It is gradually going up,” he said.

Sarver said she was not picking on the city and said the alternative to the IT department providing the services is the city would not be allowed on the county system and have to purchase their own records management system. She noted this would cost a lot more than the city increasing what it is currently paying the county.

Committee members also asked about the proposed position to manage the county’s broadband project and make sure terms of contracts are being met. Committee member Greg Knight said he felt there was a need for someone to do that position and that it is not something that could just be absorbed over several people.

Sarver also brought some good news noting the county has saved $36,000 a year from being able to drop internet service to the county buildings due to the broadband project and through switching the phone network to an online service rather than TDS Telecom, was about to save another $22,000.

Land conservation

The land conservation department operates primarily through state grants which cover about 62% of the department’s staffing budget. County taxpayers are responsible for about $89,497 in costs for the three- person department.

County conservationist Brent Tessmer explained that a lot of the programs they work with deal with grant funds coming in and then going out for specific projects.

Human resources director Nicole Hager asked about the drinking water testing program, questioning if this duplicated a drinking water testing program offered through the health department.

“Some of our tests do overlap,” Tessmer said, however their tests are targeted for different areas such as presence of certain metals or other minerals rather than the presence of biological contaminants.

Buildings and grounds

The buildings and ground department is making a virtue of necessity. Director Joe Svejda, explained that the department is currently working short-staffed and has been for some time as they have been unable to fill positions that have come open. He noted that at one point they had just one custodian where in the past the county had four.

As a result, he along with other members of the department have had to pick up additional duties to ensure the work was done. He said hiring quality workers has been the major challenge with very few applying and then having people go through the interview process to never showing up for work. He said he feels the county has made improvements to be competitive for wages for now, but also noted that anyone applying for one of his positions could just as easily work at any of the factories in the area.

As far as looking for alternative revenue areas, Svejda said he has worked with forest administrator Jake Walcisak to apply for grants. “Jake does a good job writing grants,” Svejda said.

In other areas, revenue suggestions were to look at the rental fees charged for building use, winter camper and boat storage and for the rental of the whole fairgrounds. It was noted the buildings and grounds committee looks at those fees yearly.

Human services

The desire to trim costs runs into the wall of mandated services when it comes to the human services department.

“We have costs we cannot control,” said Susan Stanfley, human services director. Major costs include those for placements for both youth and adults. She said a youth placement in a facility could cost about $600 per day and the county has had children there for over a year. By comparison an adult placed in an inpatient program such as at Winnebago costs the county $1,527 per day.

“We have costs we cannot control with services we are mandated to provide,” Stanfley said.

She cautioned against the county being too aggressive with compensatory time, noting that as a 24/7 response time department that is an important tool for being able to keep the staffing budget in check.

Stanfley praised the overall process to look among the departments for ideas about ways to be more efficient or reduce expenses. “Sometimes I think we are stuck in our silos,” she said. She said more needs to be done between the department heads to act collaboratively for the good of the residents.

Some areas within her department she is looking at include revenue enhancement through tweaking the fee schedule charges for clinic services, increasing productivity so that the department can bill more services.

“We can’t make a profit, but we can recoup our expenses,” she said.

She said she is also encouraging staff to look at stepdown placement options which cost the county less.

In addition she said they are constantly searching for grant funds to supplement the budget. “Every chance we get we are applying for grants,” she said.