DAUPHIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
WORKSHOP MEETING
December 20, 2006 10:00 A.M.

MEMBERS PRESENT

Jeff Haste, Chairman
Dominic D. DiFrancesco, II, Vice Chairman
George P. Hartwick, III, Secretary

STAFF PRESENT

Chad Saylor, Chief Clerk; Marie E. Rebuck, Controller; Robert F. Dick, Treasurer; Bruce Foreman, Esq., Solicitor's Office; Mike Yohe, Director of Budget & Finance; Randy Baratucci, Director of Purchasing; Gary Serhan, Deputy Controller; Tom Guenther, Director of IT; Carolyn Thompson, Court Administrator; Leila McAdoo, Solicitor's Office; Ed Marsico, District Attorney; Edgar Cohen, Director of Facilities Maintenance; Dave Schreiber, Personnel; Faye Fisher, Director of Personnel; Pamela Hammaker, Personnel; Kay Sinner, Personnel; Steve Shaver, Director of EMA; Dan Robinson, Director of Community & Economic Development; John Goshert, Director of CID; Jena Wolgemuth, Commissioners' Office; Lena Martinez-Fure, Commissioners' Office and Richie-Ann Martz, Commissioners' Office

GUESTS PRESENT

Garry Lenton, Patriot-News; Katelyn Smith and Joe Sanks of WGAL; Myranda Stephens and a cameraman from WHP

MINUTES

CALL TO ORDER

Mr. Haste, Chairman of the Board, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Everyone observed a moment of silence.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Haste: We have the December 6, 2006 Legislative and Salary Meeting Minutes and the December 13, 2006 Workshop/Legislative Meeting Minutes.

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board approve the December 6, 2006 Legislative Meeting Minutes and the December 13, 2006 Workshop/Legislative Meeting Minutes; motion carried.

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Ms. Rebuck that the Board approve the December 6, 2006 Salary Board Meeting Minutes; motion carried.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Mr. Haste: We are at the point in time in the meeting for public participation. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Board at this time? (There was none.)

DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS/GUESTS

1. Mike Yohe - 2007 Budget
   1. Resolution #33-2006 - Adoption of the 2007 Budget
   2. Resolution #34-2006 - Tax Levy & Appropriation Resolution
   3. Resolution #35-2006 - Hiring Freeze for all positions in the County of Dauphin County

Mr. Yohe: Commissioners, today is the day that we advertised to approve the 2007 Budget. I'm not going to have a long presentation, because we went into a lot of detail when we laid it out on the table. I will highlight the changes that we made to the Budget since we laid it out on the table on November 22, 2006. Really in that timeframe most of the tweaking that I would do to the budget is personnel related. As people come and go my salary worksheets change. I keep that up-to-date. This year there was a change in that we had the 2007 salary rates for the non-union folks available for the first time in a long time so we were able to put that into the Budget for next year. The numbers that you are going to approve today include all the salary increases for next year for both the union and non-union folks. Again, the union contracts that are not settled we just put some as a 3 or 4%. The other big change that you will notice is when we laid the Budget on the table back on the 22nd of November, we proposed a $132.4 million General Fund Budget. What you are looking at now is a $130,369,444 General Fund Budget. In the past couple weeks we got the results of the 2005 Indirect Cost Plan. When I put the Budget together for 2006 I was not aware that the indirect cost included the pension allocation. In 2005 for the first time we had actually charged each department a pension charge and an indirect cost charge. So, I carried the indirect cost charge from 2005 over to 2006. That included a pension charge that I didn't need to carry. Long story short, I had to adjust both the 2006 Budget down by $2 million and the 2007 Budget down by $2 million as a result of that Indirect Cost Plan. That will not happen again. 2005 is the first time that we have ever charged indirect costs and pensions to all of the General Fund departmental budgets. We have that straightened out. The bottom line is I reduced both the 2006 and 2007 budget, so we are still looking at a decrease of just over $1 million for 2007 for the General Fund.

Other than that the report that you are looking at, the summary is real similar to what was laid out. I'm going to ask you to approve an overall County Budget for calendar year 2007 of approximately $185 million. Again, highlight #1 no tax increase for 2007. I have already pointed out the two big keys are that we are actually anticipating a drop in our medical and prescription benefit costs. Overall, the General Fund Budget is going to be dropping by over $1 million or .77 of 1%. This Budget does include, as was laid out in November, there are three new positions in the General Fund and one new position in the EMA/511 Fund. Other than that there are no new positions anticipated for 2007.

If you jump to Page 7 of the Summary that just shows what the millage rate is that we are proposing. It is going to stay the same at 6.876 mils. The Library tax rate would remain at .35 mils for 2007. I'm here to answer any questions. I've highlighted the two major changes to the Budget.

Mr. Haste: Any questions of Mike?

Mr. Hartwick: None that haven't been answered about 20 times.

Mr. DiFrancesco: No questions.

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick that Mr. Yohe, Director of Budget & Finance, be authorized to add $200,987 back into the CID Budget that was proposed last month; motion carried.

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board adopt Resolution #33-2006, which is the adoption of the Budget for calendar year 2007; motion carried.

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board adopt Resolution #34-2006, which is captioned as follows:

A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNTY OF DAUPHIN, IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, LEVYING A TAX ON REAL ESTATE IN THE COUNTY FOR THE YEAR 2007; FIXING THE COUNTY REAL ESTATE TAX RATE, AND DISCOUNTS AND PENALTIES APPLICABLE THERETO, FOR THE YEAR 2007; AND APPROPRIATING SPECIFIC SUMS REQUIRED FOR PURPOSES OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT, AS SET FORTH IN THE COUNTY'S BUDGET, FOR THE YEAR 2007; AND LEVYING OTHER TAXES FOR SPECIFIED PURPOSES.

(The entire Resolution is on file in the Commissioners' Office.)

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board adopt Resolution #35-2006 - Hiring Freeze promulgated by the Dauphin County Commissioners for all employment positions in the County of Dauphin; motion carried.

(The entire Resolution is on file in the Commissioners' Office.)

Mr. Haste: Mike, I would like to say thanks for another good job in correcting this budget and putting it through the process. Just to remind people there was a way that the budget was done and then four years ago when I was appointed to this Board I came in and was shocked at the way the budget was done. I think the budget process took probably part of a day. There was very little discussion or debate and very little accountability. Our budget process now takes three days of hearings and numerous other meetings. I want to commend you and the Board for getting back to fiscal responsibility and taking a hard look at everything in the Budget.

Mr. Yohe: Thank you. I would also like to thank the department heads. They have done a great job the last several years in keeping the Budget under control. They make my job a lot easier when they don't come in with outrageous plans for the upcoming year. Hopefully that will continue.

Mr. Haste: Probably 95% of our departments are getting it, but there are still a few that plod along.

PERSONNEL

Ms. Sinner: Are there any questions on the Salary Board requests in the packet?

Mr. Haste: When are the new positions that are in the 2007 Budget going to be created? Will it be the first meeting in January?

Ms. Sinner: Yes, this one is a little early because it is for 2007, but I put it through.

Mr. Hartwick: Are you talking about the Public Defenders?

Ms. Sinner: Yes. In fact, we should change the effective date, because we are trying to not have hires between December 18, 2006 and January 15, 2007. So, we could make it January 15, 2007.

Mr. Hartwick: Chad, when is the first hiring window?

Mr. Saylor: February 21, 2007.

Mr. Hartwick: I don't see any reason why they can't wait until the first hiring window. Don't do the start date. We are going to make a reenergized effort to stick to the policy.

Mr. Haste: Marie, are you okay with that?

Ms. Rebuck: Yes.

Ms. Sinner: Are there any questions on the items in the Personnel Packet?

Mr. Haste: Are there any that need action today?

Ms. Sinner: No.

PURCHASE ORDERS

Mr. Baratucci: I do not have any requests for Purchase Orders, except I did get an email from the Coroner's Office. I don't know if they had a chance to talk to you. They had a request about a chair, but if they didn't get the request to you then I'll just tell them that they have to do it next week or wait until January. There were a couple emails and they said that they were going to contact you.

Mr. Haste: For whom?

Mr. Baratucci: It didn't say for whom. It was a task chair for $249. I'm not sure who it was for. If they need it before January I'll have them contact you. Otherwise I'm just going to try to guide them into the January process.

The only other thing that I have is the resolution on the situation from last week on the Remote Access. You wanted me to bring that back up today. I don't know if you have a decision on that at this point.

Mr. Hartwick: I stated what my position was last week and I don't know what the other Board members' opinions are, but my feelings are that I will only support one of those computers.

Mr. Haste: The first issue is the Policy, the computers are a separate issue.

Mr. Baratucci: We already adopted the Policy, these are the first requests that are coming through based on the Policy that you approved.

Mr. Haste: Either one or two?

Mr. Baratucci: Personnel is asking for approval of two. We had some discussions of different ways last week, so the choice is 0, 1 or 2 at this point.

Mr. DiFrancesco: Actually let me complicate the matter quite a bit. One of the other alternatives that was shared with me as I talked about this over the past week was specific instances where people need access. We talked about the matter in which Personnel needed access to the computers during negotiations where literally they could pick up their office and move it out of here for a week at a time and set up shop some place else. I think we all agreed that we could see the need for that type of circumstance, but what we actually did not want to do, I believe, as a Board, was to start fielding requests for people who simply want to be able to work from home in the evening or whatever it might be. Because of the cost of these computers and the air card, the idea was raised to consider having possibly one or two computers or some number that we come up with assigned to IT. Generally speaking it is not going to be an entire year's worth of every day I'm going to need this. It is going to be periods of time where for whatever reason somebody is going on the road and they might need one. If the computers are assigned to IT they can then be signed out. If you take a computer that has the capacity and service on it can you basically allow anybody in the County to get to their files just in the way it is set up? They said that they could do that. That would be another alternative. Dave or Faye, how many days of negotiations would you actually be out of the office? How many days would be impacted where you would be out of the office in negotiations where you would need that set up?

Ms. Fisher: We spend approximately 30 days for all 4 unions. That is only talking about negotiations. There are other projects that we are working on. I personally have difficulty staying after hours because of my child. I have to take a lot of my stuff home. As I addressed in the email when Dave and I are together at contract negotiations yes we can share a laptop if we have to. It is in those instances where we are in separate places that we can't do that.

Mr. DiFrancesco: To make it a little more complicated, it is not quite as black and white, but that is another option where again, and I think the Board's real concern is that there is going to be this onslaught of requests now, everybody trying to justify why they would need this sort of 24-hour access outside of the building and none of us want to go there.

Mr. Schreiber: I would like to add that it is not just contract negotiations. I'm in meet and discuss meetings, grievance meetings, meetings where I'm trying to negotiate or settle independent things, not necessarily contracts. It is an ongoing process. I'm probably not in the office 2 ? to 3 days a week. There were issues at Schaffner Center that we had a meet and discuss that we could have solved right there. Now both parties are going back to develop language that we could have done right there. In my case it is more than just negotiations.

Mr. Hartwick: That makes Commissioner DiFrancesco's suggestion even better. I can't believe I'd say that I would support the purchase of more computers, but having the flexibility in the pool of computers to be able to use in instances where folks are out of the office is fine. It would be better to have a pool in IT rather than having them assigned to individuals. I don't disagree with that. So, where do we go from here?

Mr. Haste: Why don't we have Tom take a look at this and come to us with an analysis?

Mr. DiFrancesco: While you are doing that analysis we want to make it absolutely clear to all departments that this is not an opportunity to say, oh, we could use one of them. I can guarantee you that every single request that comes in for this type of service will receive great scrutiny. I can't think of another situation where somebody could come in and justify literally picking up their office and having to move it to other locations. This is not going to be a situation where we start doing this for the many people that we have working out in the field. I want to be very clear on that. There are many people that spend a portion of their day out doing their job. Those people are not going to be making requests for these types of services. It is far too costly and it adds up way to quickly.

Mr. Baratucci: If Tom is going to have the units, do you want the requests then to use them to come through here?

Mr. Haste: To use them, I don't think so. I believe Tom can manage that.

Mr. DiFrancesco: It is just signing out.

Mr. Baratucci: We will just let them run through Tom after you determine how many?

Mr. Haste: Yes.

Mr. DiFrancesco: The only way it comes back to us is if there is a problem because there are too many people trying to use them.

Mr. Baratucci: We will try to get something back to you by probably the first meeting of the year.

TRAINING PACKET

Mr. Haste: We have the Training Packet and I don't believe there is anything that needs to be addressed at this time.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Mr. Haste: We have Items for Discussion A through I are appointments to various Boards. Are there any of those items that need to be pulled out separately or discussed?

Mr. DiFrancesco: As listed on the Agenda, I would like to pull out Item C.

Mr. Haste: Item J is the appointment of a tax collector in Lower Paxton. I believe everyone is aware that incumbent tax collector had passed and the Township has appointed a new one. Items K through M are changing of encumbrances for our Liquid Fuels projects so we can move forward with a bridge project.

1. Reappointment of Jay Brandt to the Ag Land Preservation Board. Term will expire December 31, 2009.
2. Reappointment of David Coble to the Conservation District Board. Term will expire December 31, 2010.
3. Reappointment of Daniel Tunnel and Thomas Clark to the Dauphin County Planning Commission. Terms will expire December 31, 2010.
4. Appointment of Marion Alexander, John Killian, Deborah Nifong and Kenneth Shutts and reappointment of Sara Jane Cate to the Dauphin County Library Board. Terms will expire December 31, 2007.
5. Reappointment of Thomas Bell, Nathan Douty, Gary Hoover, Patrick McHugh and Linda Thompson to the South Central Workforce Investment Board. Terms will expire September 30, 2009.
6. Reappointment of Andrea Kepler and Dr. Lee Miller and appointment of Carol Oman to the Dauphin County MH/MR Advisory Board. Terms will expire December 31, 2009.
7. Reappointment of Matthew Steck to the Dauphin County Industrial Development Authority. Term will expire January 1, 2012.
8. Reappointment of Christopher Peterson to the Dauphin County Children and Youth Advisory Board. Term will expire December 31, 2009.
9. Appointment of Shaun O'Toole to the Dauphin County Council on Aging. Term will expire December 31, 2009.
10. Approval to appoint Diane Bair as Tax Collector for Lower Paxton Township. (This is a replacement for Patsy Donmoyer who passed away on December 9, 2006.) Term to be until the first Monday in January after the first municipal election which occurs more than sixty days after the vacancy occurs. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 12/20/06)
11. Resolution #36-2006 Application to Encumber Liquid Fuels Tax Funds - County Bridge #122 (South Hanover/Derry Townships) $1,325,000. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 12/20/06)
12. Resolution #37-2006 Application to Encumber Liquid Fuels Tax Funds - County Bridge #32 (Hummelstown Borough/South Hanover Township) decrease $230,000. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 12/20/06)
13. Resolution #38-2006 Application to Encumber Liquid Fuels Tax Funds - County Bridge #34 (Upper Paxton Township) decrease $220,000. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 12/20/06)

Mr. Saylor: If I may for the record, we did receive a Resolution from the Lower Paxton Township Supervisors which was adopted the 19th of December, 2006 appointing Diane Bair as tax collector.

Mr. Haste: Is there a motion to approve Items J through M?

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board approve Items J through M under Items for Discussion, as listed above; motion carried.

SOLICITOR'S REPORT - BRUCE FOREMAN, ESQ.

Mr. Foreman: There are no amendments to the report as circulated, but I would be happy to answer any questions. Other than that for the Solicitor's Office I would just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Mr. Haste: Thank you.

Mr. Hartwick: Happy Hanukkah!

REPORT FROM CHIEF CLERK/CHIEF OF STAFF - CHAD SAYLOR

Mr. Saylor: I have nothing to add unless there are any questions of me. (There were none.)

COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS

Mr. Hartwick: Just two things. We had a pretty comprehensive review this week with our insurance carrier in an attempt to get a much better understanding of our plan. We want to be able to control and understand a little bit more about the County's utilization. I think it was a very beneficial meeting and it starts us out on the right track. It will help us with next year's benefits negotiations to see even a deeper reduction in our healthcare costs. Our new benefits analyst is here at the meeting. We will be thinking of new ways to change behaviors with a County workforce that has generally not seen changes with regard to healthcare. We will work with the employees to make sure they ask the right questions of their doctor, which will hopefully reduce the overall expenses to County taxpayers with the upcoming healthcare plan.

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and all of that.

This Budget has been one that I have been proud to work with. As you see in other local governments they are struggling with huge increases and we have done a great job of reducing the total number of employees here in the County and not jeopardize our direct services, try to control the cost internally that we can control. After making some unpopular responses, whether we agree or disagree, this Board has done so in an open and public way. The debate between us has always been done in a way that only had the best interest of the public. Thanks for the opportunity to serve.

Mr. DiFrancesco: I want to state for the record that this budget process has been a very positive process. The department heads have really stepped up to the plate and made the Budget in Dauphin County a pretty easy process. Throughout the entire time I don't know that anybody came in here asking for things more than they should. Certainly we had some discussion about some topics, but at the end of the day I think most of the departments are getting it and that there is a real team effort going forward in Dauphin County that more and more as Commissioner Haste had mentioned earlier the set-up that everybody can respect the taxpayers and make sure the decisions and the monies being spent are being spent well and are dollars that should be spent. To the entire staff, every department in the County I just want to thank you for making the job that much easier. I think the statistics will show that Dauphin County is probably one of the strongest counties in the Commonwealth in terms of our financial picture and each one of you has made that happen. With that I want to wish everybody a happy holiday.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Mr. Haste: We are again at the point in time in the meeting for public participation. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Board? (There was none.)

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, it was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco that the Board adjourn.