DAUPHIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Legislative Meeting
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 (10:00am)

MEMBERS PRESENT

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

STAFF PRESENT

Bill Tully, Esq., Solicitor; Chad Saylor, Chief Clerk; Marie Rebuck, Controller; Bob Dick, Treasurer; Elke Moyer, Human Services; Sharon Chatman, Human Services; Kay Sinner, Personnel; Edgar Cohen, Facilities Maintenance Director; Guy Beneventano, Esq., Solicitor's Office; Faye Fisher, Personnel Director; Leila McAdoo, Solicitor's Office; Randy Baratucci, Purchasing Director; Mike Yohe, Budget Director; Diane McNaughton, Press Secretary; Tom Guenther, IT Director; Mary Ann Boyer, Registrations and Elections; Carolyn Thompson, Court Administrator; Bob Hawley, District Court Administrator; Gary Serhan, Controller's Office; Steve Suknaic, Director Juvenile Probation; Jeff Patton, Juvenile Probation; Dave Schreiber, Personnel; Merle Foust, Personnel; Brooke Beard, Personnel; Richie Martz, Commissioners' Office; Lena Martinez, Commissioners' Office and Jena Wolgemuth, Commissioners' Office.

GUESTS PRESENT

Reggie Sheffield, Patriot-News; Channel 8; Channel 27 and Brook Bear.

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 November 1, 2006 Workshop Meeting minutes for approval, is there a motion?

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco to approve the November 1, 2006 Workshop Meeting minutes; motion carried.

EXECUTIVE SESSIONS HELD BETWEEN MEETINGS

Mr. Saylor: Commissioners as you know we met once in Executive Session and that was on the 15th of November to discuss some personnel matters.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

There was none.

ELECTION BOARD

A complete set of Election Board minutes is on file in the Chief Clerk's office.

SALARY BOARD

A complete set of Salary Board minutes is on file in the Chief Clerk's office.

PERSONNEL

Ms. Sinner: I have an addendum to the Personnel Packet.

Mr. Hartwick: That is what I was going to ask, we got that done?

Ms. Sinner: Yes.

Mr. Haste: It is my understanding that we are going to do a Lieutenant next week?

Ms. Sinner: Yes and I am going to request a vote on Wednesday.

Mr. Haste: Just so the Board is aware they finalized the Lieutenant testing and promotion this week. They have a candidate, but did not get it in, in time. That particular shift that this Lieutenant is going to be on is short staffed. The other Lieutenant is off ill. They asked if we could fast-track it.

Ms. Sinner: Yes.

Mr. Hartwick: Were we able to get the Assistant Public Defender on here?

Ms. Sinner: Yes, that is change number 8. I also have to make a rate change to a new hire in the other packet. New hire number 20 will change to $30.14 and that is a step 11. That's it.

Mr. Haste: Any questions? (There were none.) Is there a motion to approve the Personnel Packet as amended?

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick to approve the Personnel Packet as amended; motion carries.

REPORT FROM BUDGET & FINANCE - MIKE YOHE, BUDGET DIRECTOR

1. Investment Report
   Report from the Office of Budget & Finance
   November 22, 2006

• November 9, 2006 transferred $8,902,846.90 to the Payables account and $1,987,875.07 to the Payroll account from the County's Concentration account for checks issued that week.
• November 17, 2006 transferred $478,798.53 to the Payables account from the County's Concentration account for checks issued that week.
• Total Term Investments - N/A
• Balance today in INVEST account $131,797.82 rate 5.210%
• Balance today in Community Banks investment account $25,756,417.83 rate 5.440% (This rate equals today's Community Banks 91-day TBill rate of 5.040% plus 40 basis points)
• Balance today in Graystone Bank investment account $10,630,403.05 rate 5.620% (This rate equals last month's average 1-month LIBOR rate of 5.320% plus 30 basis points)
• Balance today in Commerce Bank investment account $23,500,327.29 rate 5.405% (This rate equals today's 91-day T-Bill rate of 4.955% plus 45 basis points)
• Balance today in Sovereign Bank investment account $115,696.08 rate 5.320% (This rate equals today's 1-month LIBOR rate of 5.320% plus 0 basis points)

No T.R.A.N. Line of Credit required for 2006.

1. Presentation of proposed 2007 budget

Mr. Yohe: The second item on the agenda today is the day we have advertised to make the proposed 2007 budget available for the 20-day inspection period. I have some reports here to hand out. (Mr. Yohe passed out information.)

As you know this process started back in July when we distributed the budget packages. I met with each of the departments throughout September and October. We had a public hearing in mid-October. I think the three of you are pretty familiar with what is contained in the budget and what we went through to get to this point. It is good news. The budget picture looks very well. The first page on your summary sheet lists the 11 funds that run on a January to December fiscal year. We are proposing today a grand total for the 2007 calendar year budget of $187,495,256. This represents a decrease from the 2006 budget of $18,520,997 or about a 9% decrease. We'll focus on the general fund throughout the course of this presentation, but I wanted to just highlight the other 9 funds that are on this sheet.

Domestic Relations is self-explanatory. Liquid Fuels is our fund for the maintenance of the county bridges. Low Income Housing Fund and the hotel tax fund are administered through our Economic Development office and our Treasurer's office. The Capital Projects Fund primarily the cost for next year is the continuation of the EMA radio project. That is what the bulk of that $22 million is in there for next year. Spring Creek, this reflects the pending sale of the facility. We have a $2 million budget in there just as a contingency for next year. I am not sure what is going to get carried over or when we are actually going to close everything off. That is what the $2 million represents. The 911 Communications Fund is the land-line tariff fund for EMA. Solid Waste Management Funds are self-explanatory. The EMA Act 56 Wireless Fund is the third year for that fund and again that is self-explanatory. The parking garage/office fund is our Human Services Building. That is the operations of that building for both the parking garage and the office building.

Mr. Hartwick: Just one quick question. If in fact the sale of Spring Creek does close will that $2 million have a benefit to the bottom line of the General Fund?

Mr. Yohe: If we don't use it?

Mr. Hartwick: Yes.

Mr. Yohe: Yes, definitely.

Mr. Haste: That is in there to cover in case we get bills months after they are due. It is just to cover all of that.

Mr. Yohe: The rest of my presentation is going to focus on the General Fund. The General Fund is our main operating fund. All other county funds, both calendar and fiscal, are tied into this fund via transfers. I have outlined nine key points to what is contained in the General Fund for 2007.

First, there is no tax increase. That speaks for itself again. We have a different perspective here on the prescription and medical costs. We are actually budgeting a decrease for next year. Again, that is very unusual in this day and age. The good news for the county is the budgeted portion of this cost dropped by $400,000. The impact on our projected budget: prior to laying this out is more like a $2 million dollar hit. When I went into this budget process I was anticipating about a 15% increase in these costs. By actually coming in at a reduction for next year we have saved about $2 million off of the bottom line of the General Fund.

Again, our pension fund is doing very well. This allows a reduction in our ARC for next year. This will be the second year in a row where we have had a reduction in this piece and the ARC was a driving factor in early 2000, which had caused a lot of problems financially for us. We continue a $600,000 salary and benefit vacancy adjustment. Again we are anticipating rolling, freezing positions and only hiring every quarter, enables us to budget for a $600,000 reduction in the bottom line of the General Fund. There are three new positions for next year that will cost approximately $130,000 and those are detailed on the second page. Even with these three new positions for the second year in a row the total salary and wages budget has grown under 4%. That is very important for keeping the costs down in the county because as we get further along how much the salary and benefit costs are to the General Fund. As long as we can keep that under 4% we are doing very well.

The Union wages, those that are settled, I've included at the settlement at whatever is in their contract. Non-union wages as of right now are at 4%. We will finalize those prior to approval on December 13, 2006, I think it is. I should have final numbers for all employees for the approval process at that time.

This budget does include $650,000 for some capital improvements to the Courthouse and the Prison. Again these are both continuations of what we started in 2006 and our good financial picture enables us to do some much needed repairs at these facilities.

The total if you look at the top of the General Fund is actually dropping by $1 million going into next year, or a .78% decrease.

Page 2 highlights the relationships between all of the other county funds. Like I said the General Fund supports each of the county funds in one way or another and you can see the dollar impact of that support on this page.

I would like to point out the Children and Youth transfer we are anticipating a drop. We have been able to handle the cuts in the State funding. I think financially we have been able to handle it, but programmatically I don't know what the impact has been. It probably isn't good, but so far we have been able to handle the cuts in that area.

Another large decrease again is the transfer to Spring Creek and this is where you are going to see the impact on closing that facility to the county. Next year this $2 million is going to drop to nothing. You are looking at a $6 million gain each year from this point forward.

Transfer to the Capital Projects Fund at this point in time that covers the capital improvements and allows us to build-up a little bit of a balance in the fund for some unanticipated projects going into next year or years after that.

Do you have any questions on any of those transfers? (There were none.) The new positions are outlined here. We have added two Assistant Public Defenders for next year at a cost of about $132,000 and we have added one IT Network Technician to the Prison and that position is going to cover the whole campus out there from a computer stand point and that will be funded with non-General Fund dollars. There is no impact from that addition. The only other position that we had added was to the 511 Fund and that is a CAD Administrator for next year at a salary and benefit cost of about $60,500. Again, four new positions are all that is included for 2007.

The next four pages are pie charts that show breakdown of revenues and expenditures from two different stand points. Taxes are still the majority of the income, although I think we are making some headway in some of the other areas on this chart. The next page, page 4, you will see how large the salary and benefit cost is to the General Fund, about 51%, which is just over half the cost. Again, without the reduction in the benefit cost next year that probably would have been close to the 60% figure as it was in years past. That is good news to actually see that coming down somewhat as a percentage of the cost.

Pages 5 and 6 then just break down the revenues and expenses by function, general government, human services, public safety and judicial. You can see how much revenue is generated by each of those areas. Taxes I throw in there just to complete the chart. Taxes are 68%. The next highest support on the revenue is from general government and that would be offices like the Recorder of Deeds, Tax Assessment and IT, different places that generate income for the county. The same with the expenses. If you look at that it looks like judicial has now taken up the largest segment of the pie for the General Fund for 2007. Public Safety is next followed by general government. Those are the three big ones, after that they drop pretty substantially. Debt service is only 7% of the total. Human Services is 11% and that just represents the transfers. The Human Services piece of the county as a whole is much greater than 11%, but 11% of the General Fund costs go to support the various Human Services.

Finally on page 7, it outlines the General Fund budget. The millage rate remains at 6.876 mills for real estate and .350 mills for library and underneath there you can see what that impact is on various assessments. I have just attached a summary that breaks it down by department for the last four pages. It breaks it down by department by General Fund and the other funds together. That is basically my presentation I am just here to answer any questions now and after that we will vote to actually make this available for a 20-day public inspection period.

Mr. Haste: Any questions or comments?

Mr. DiFrancesco: I have a couple observations. I want to give a thank you once again to the folks who have been championing the wellness program. I know you all have worked very hard but obviously again the goals that this Board has set several years ago to reduce our usage costs and get our experience rates down and starting to save money and the budget shows that. I want to commend you all for your efforts in driving that forward. Each month and each year it becomes a little bit more aggressive by incorporating another program for our employees to take part in. I want to thank you for that.

Very obviously again one of the real key issues going into this has been the retirement fund. I want to thank the folks up here because through hands on management and making good choices we have really been able to maximize our returns in the marketplace.

One other thing I would like to point out, what the budget shows and you referred to it a little bit in terms of the Human Services cost that we have been able to keep under control from a financial standpoint. I think there is a direct correlation between the spike that we are seeing now in juvenile crime and some of the prevention programs that we have had to cut back on. In fact the positions that we are creating, the Public Defender's position, just goes to support the fact that there is more and more pressure being placed on the court system. It is a good opportunity to take a look from a financial perspective and connect the dots on why it is so important for us to continue our message and our push out to the community. The community needs to rise up. Neighbors have to become more involved. We have got to change the way we are doing things in this community. We need to reach out to these kids. We have a lot of problems on the streets. We have a lot of drugs on the streets. Today is the day where those issues get transformed into dollar figures so that the public can understand exactly what the cost is. There is the human cost that we are very concerned about, but there is also a very real financial cost. I think this budget highlights that. It is a great day, the trend is going in the right direction and we continue to cut government. For the first time as you mentioned Dauphin County is running as a business or a household from the perspective that because of our financial position, because we are being more responsible, we have the means to do the capital improvements. We have buildings out there where the air conditioning systems are completely out of date. They are passed their expected life and certainly that kind of stuff is going to break down. I would much rather manage that by replacing it on a rotation rather than having them all need to be replaced at once. Then we are scrambling to find where we can borrow money. This budget shows the county is in a great financial position and we are going to continue to manage this budget well. Thanks Mike for all of your efforts also.

Mr. Hartwick: I am also not going to go into great detail because I remember many times looking at this budget, through hard financial times it was Jeff Haste's picture on the front page of the paper, so I also want him to talk about the good news.

That said I would really like to say thank you to my colleagues on this Board. We have gone out to meetings and talked about working in a bi-partisan way to try to address the structural budget deficit that existed when we took over as this Board of Commissioners. My recollection is we were facing a $50 million projected deficit. Reading this it looks as though we will have a fund balance at the end of the year of about $33 million. By my calculations and I am not a math major, but that is an $83 million swing in three short years. That is remarkable for this Board of Commissioners. That can only happen by working cooperatively and addressing the costs that we can control. We don't want to try to grow government we want to figure out how to concentrate on the most essential services, reduce the overall size of staff and personnel and control healthcare costs. All of those things have happened and it wouldn't have happened with just us standing up here and having a vision. It happened from some very hard working Directors in Dauphin County who took this charge as well to move forward and help us with implementation. One individual who is here and I know has gone through a lot of transition so far in the Personnel office, but the amount of savings that we are going to be able to realize within the healthcare side, I want to thank Faye Fisher for an even transition of employees. I would like to thank you for continuing to go down the road. We would like to continue to see deeper reductions in our healthcare costs. We are going to be doing further in that by negotiating an upcoming deal. We are doing that by not compromising direct services. That is important. We are concentrating on what we are doing well and what we are mandated to do by county code. We are paying the bills. We are paying down our debt and not incurring a great deal of new expenses. I think if you talk about fiscal management that is something this Board has focused on, it's something the Director's have taken the call up on and it is something that has obviously shown real results. This budget is reflective of not only that vision and us getting in the trenches and trying to work together with Directors and trying to make some changes to government. Also the realization of a budget that has been put forth that the taxpayers can be proud of this Board for.
Thank you.

Mr. Haste: Just a couple final points. Again, to reiterate, we have come a long way from where we were when I first sat here. I remember going through the very first budget process and at the end of it I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I gave a phone call to Mike Yohe to say, am I reading this right? It turns out I was and it wasn't a good picture. Nick already did, but another thanks to Marie and Bob for their perseverance over the years in making sure the Retirement Board got to where it needed to be. I have said this before, when we talk about how well the Pension Fund is most folks say that is good for the employees who are going to retire, but again it is good for the taxpayers because that is less that we have to put into it. I want to thank you for that.

George talked about the Directors but I also think we need to recognize the employees. More and more employees are getting the point that we look at revenues, as well as, expenditures and people are trying to get creative in ways that we can get alternative funds coming in here other than just tax dollars. The other people I would like to thank at this time really are our private partners. If we think about some of the things we have been able to accomplish especially with some of the cuts that the State has given us in Human Services we wouldn't be able to continue with the little bit of pro-activity that we do in that area if it wasn't for our private partners and the faith-based community in stepping forward and helping us out in that. This budget is also a thanks to those folks. I also wanted to say thanks to my two colleagues sitting here because over the years we have had to make some difficult decisions that weren't popular, both externally and internally. We have stuck to our guns and I think we have turned the corner with our finances and we are in good shape. We will be able to weather the storm that the State and the feds continue to throw at us.

Just one final point Mike just to note, the final budget vote will be on December 20, 2006. We will have this budget laid on the table until December 20th. Is there a motion to lay this proposed budget on the table until the 20th?

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick to display the County's 2007 Budget for public inspection until December 20, 2006; motion carries.

Mr. Yohe: The budget will be available at the reception desk on the 4th floor of the Administration Building. I will meet with Mr. Guenther to get it on our website also.

PURCHASE ORDERS

1. Bid Award-District Attorney flooring project.
2. Remote Access Policy

Mr. Baratucci: Commissioners since last week there were a number of items added to the Purchasing Packet. All of them were reviewed by the oversight Commissioners. Pages 17, 23, 24 and 25 are all items from the District Justice budgets. That was the pool money that they have been asked to take care of this year. Some items are from night court and they are spread out over those four pages and they were all added with the approval of Commissioner DiFrancesco. Also on pages 6 and 7 there are some items from Act 8 monies. They are microfilm products that the committee authorized spending and those were added again with Commissioner Haste's blessing. Lastly on the very last page, page 36, is an item that was added for Spring Creek. Again those were some items that we still needed to purchase briefs in order to make sure the residents were taken care of. We thought that we wouldn't need any more of those prior to the sale, but we did. Those items were added and all of the budget issues were resolved. I have a couple other issues, but if you want to vote on the Purchasing Packet first.

Mr. Haste: Is there a motion to approve the Purchase orders?

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick to approve the Purchase Order Packet as presented; motion carries.

Mr. Baratucci: The second item I have is last week I presented the Remote Access Usage Policy and Agreement that Mr. Guenther had worked on. You had a week to review that and we were hoping that you could vote on that today so that we can get that into the policy. We will do the same thing as I mentioned last week that we do with the BlackBerrys. As requests come through they will run through Tom's office first and if he blesses it then it will come here for your approval each week with the Purchase Orders.

Mr. Haste: Is there a motion to approve?

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco to approve the Remote Access Policy and Agreement; motion carries.

Mr. Baratucci: The last thing that I have is part of the renovations of the District Attorney's Office. I know most of that is being done internally, but there was one thing that we needed to put out for bid and that was the flooring. We did put out a public bid for that and the people that are listed on the sheet there were invited to bid. We received 3. The low bid came from Spectra Flooring here in Harrisburg at $27,622. I am asking that you approve the low bid today. They will be required to submit a performance bond before they start the work. That would progress, along with Edgar's time table, for the rest of the renovations for the office. If you have any questions on that I can answer them or Edgar is also here in case you have any specifics.

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco to accept the bid from Spectra Flooring in the amount of $27,622; motion carries.

REPORT FROM CHIEF CLERK/CHIEF OF STAFF - CHAD SAYLOR

Mr. Saylor: Commissioners I have nothing for you unless you have any questions of me.

SOLICITORS REPORT-BILL TULLY, ESQ., SOLICITOR

Mr. Tully: Nothing to add to the amended report, but would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

MATTERS REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

Mr. Haste: We have Matters Requiring Board Action Items A through Z. Are there any items that need to be discussed or pulled out separately? (There were none.) Is there a motion?

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick to approve Matters Requiring Board Action Items A through Z; motion carries.

1. Training Packet
2. Satisfaction Pieces with the following individuals:
   1. Amy J. Kern for property located at 1895 Market Street Ext., Middletown, PA ($5,000.00)
   2. Angela E. Bovard for property located at 5807-O Hidden Lake Drive, Harrisburg, PA ($3,500.00)
   3. Manuel Maldonado for property located at 1240 Walnut Street, Harrisburg, PA ($1,868.00)
3. Agreement for Harrisburg Parking Authority Juror Parking for 2007.
4. Approval of contracts and Statements of Work for continuation of the Tablet Project for Adult Probation
   1. Mobility Application Support Services
   2. Mobility Application Enhancements Services
   3. Mobility Application Conversion Services (To integrate data between Adult Probations Tablet PC application and the new DSI Adult Probation case management system).
5. Adopt Resolution #28-2006 approving the financing by the Cumberland County Municipal Authority of a project for the benefit of Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries, (Includes Fry Village located in Dauphin County).
6. Purchase of Service Agreements between Area Agency on Aging and:
   1. American Red Cross
7. Purchase of Service Agreement Amendment between Children and Youth and:
   1. Children's Home of York - Amendment #1
8. Adoption Assistance Agreements between Children & Youth and:
   1. 2006-35, 2006-36 and 2006-37
9. MH Purchase of Service Agreements between MH/MR and:
   1. Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging, Inc
10. Purchase of Service Agreement Amendments between MH/MR and:
    1. Riverside Professional Development, LLC - Amendment #1
    2. CMU- Amendment #1
    3. United Cerebral Palsy of Central Pennsylvania, Inc. - 4. Amendment #1
    4. ARC of Dauphin & Lebanon Counties - Amendment #1
    5. Cumberland/Perry ARC - Amendment #1
11. Approval of the Blueprint to End Homelessness
12. Approval of the HealthChoices: Comprehensive Agreement between the Counties of Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and Healthassurance Pennsylvania, Inc
13. Approval of GIS License Agreement with Campbelltown Volunteer Fire Company
14. Approval of Purchase of Service per diem rates for FY 06/07 between Children & Youth and:
    1. It Takes a Village, Inc.
    2. YWCA of Greater Harrisburg
    3. Gaudenzia Chambers Hill Adolescent Program
15. Approval of Purchase of Service Agreement FY 06/07 between Children and Youth and It Takes A Village.
16. Approval of the Herbert, Rowland & Grubic proposal to provide Supplemental Engineering Services for Dauphin County Bridge #122
17. Approval of proposed Tax Assessment Appeal Settlement of Robert and Susan Goduto, 401 North Hanover Street, South Hanover Township, Tax Parcel #56-012-024.
18. Approval of recommendation of settlement of Pennsylvania-American Water Company, East Canal Street, South Hanover Township, Tax Parcel #56-007-030.
19. Approval to contribute the County's pro rata share ($223.00) for appraisal services and trial costs needed to ascertain the true value of property of Priscilla and Dennis Schwenk, located at 900 Sunnside Road, Derry TownshipTax Parcel #24-051-013
20. Real estate Tax Refunds/exonerations:
    1. Exoneration of 2004, 2005, 2006 real estate taxes for Cliff Renyo, owner of Clean Properties, Inc. on parcel #36-019-039-003-0003, 115 Wick Lane, in the amt. of $328.04.
    2. Exoneration of 2005 and 2006 real estate taxes for Christian Life Center on parcel # 09-013-011, 1245 Block Alley, in the amt. of $545.06.
    3. Refund of 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 real estate taxes to Gladys and John Bower, 1347 River Road, Halifax, PA 17032 on property on unmapped parcel # 29-000-031 in the amt. of $619.07.
    4. Refund of 2005 taxes to Countrywide Tax Services Corporation on 2005 real estate taxes on parcel # 13-063-026 for 709 Benton Street in the amt. of $397.98.
21. Appointment of Stephen Shaver to LEPC.
22. Approval of application to DEP for GP-5 permit (utility line stream crossing) for Gibson Blvd. project.
23. Appointment of Laurie Reiley and Sanford Krevsky to the Schaffner Advisory Board. (term to expire 12-31-2010)
24. Approval of the Addendum to Professional Services Agreement with The Program for Female Offenders, Inc. 2007 Per Diem Increase.
25. Conservation Easement Agreement between Dauphin County and The Central Pennsylvania Conservancy.

FORMER BUSINESS

(There was none.)

NEW BUSINESS

(There was none.)

COMMISSIONERS' DISCUSSION & ACTIONS

Mr. Haste: Is there anything else to be brought up by the Board at this time?

Mr. DiFrancesco: I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. As we go into the holiday I would like to highlight and invite people to come in and see the display downstairs. We are partnering with Goodwill to highlight some of the good things they are doing in the community. We have a festive holiday display downstairs that we want to try and get people in to see over the holidays. We will be inviting some of our friends off the street on Market Square as they pass on their lunch hour and we will try and get the jurors and all Dauphin County residents to come in and celebrate the season in high style.

Mr. Hartwick: I don't want to belabor the point and stand up here and rail about this again today, but I would be remiss if I didn't make a comment on the article that was in today's paper related to the Dauphin County Executive Commission on Drugs and Alcohol. This Board of Commissioners received a letter on November 17, 2006 talking about the money being all; invoices will now cease being processed by the Department of Health until the Executive Commission actually responds in an appropriate way with a Quality Improvement Plan. To my knowledge this is the first time this has ever happened in county history. As I read today in the newspaper it is just another example of not just the county that it is talking about the lack of performance of the Executive Commission on Drugs and Alcohol, now the State is withholding money from the Executive Commission on Drugs and Alcohol. I understand and I have done a little digging to find out what the issues are related to these findings. I found out that they are minor language issues that the Executive Commission was made aware of on May 24, 2006. The first concern I have is the State contract with the Dauphin County Board of Commissioners. Any audit that is supposed to occur or any findings should be relayed immediately to this Board of Commissioners upon those findings occurring. Based upon the performance and track record we have seen so far we need to make sure that we are aware so we stay on those individuals in order to address those concerns. The second issue is it is another example of talking out of both sides of the mouth. I would like to read this to you real quick. I will read it to you as the Patriot-News put it.

The State wants the agency to provide more details on the services the State is paying for, said June Bord, Health Departments Director of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the author of the letter. Until the wording is changed the State won't pay the agency for drug and alcohol treatments that are arranged for clients. So the State is withholding payments as of November 17, [2006] until these issues are rectified. The comments by the head of the Executive Commission, Smittie Brown, were as follows, "People are trying to make a bigger deal out of this than it is. They are trying to bring the bad light on me. The agency is working with the Department of Health to try and fix the problem and has been assured that no payment will be stopped."

Are you about as confused with that as I am? I got an audit letter saying that on November 17, 2006 payment has been stopped and no invoices will be processed. Then I got the Executive Director telling me that payments are going to be made and everything is fine. It's another example of truly contradictory statements even within one newspaper article about the truth of this situation. Quite frankly I am very tired of it. I am tired of this being about politics and everything else except for performance. The bottom line is nobody has any other political agenda except to make sure that the people who are suffering with addictions in Dauphin County receive the services that should be made available to them. Clearly we are not getting money into treatment in the way that we need to be. There has been a failure of the agency that is talking out of both sides of their mouth. I personally am distraught again by the statements in the paper. This is more reason that I think we are going to continue to move down the path of making a model change. Thank you.

Mr. Haste: I'll just add one more thing. At yesterday's CCAP conference, one of the last presenters was Secretary Biehler from Transportation. The Commonwealth's approach to trying to come up with future funds for the transportation needs were interesting. What it came down to was 25% of future funds they expect local governments to come up with, particularly counties. He was talking about how we would become partners in it and get to share in it. The bottom line is how we would get the shares to impose a local tax. It did not go over very well at the conference so I am not sure where that is going to head. It did make for a quite lively afternoon.

Just a reminder that we have Retirement Board and we will go into that at 11:00 a.m.

CORRESPONDENCE

Mr. Haste: There is correspondence on the agenda that has been received by the Board this week that will be handled by the staff appropriately.

1. Notification from United States Bankruptcy Court of Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, meeting of Creditors and deadlines for Debtor, Amy L. Puglaski, 548 Highland Street, Enhaut, PA 17113.
2. Notification from Entech that Stroehmann Bakeries, L.C. Harrisburg plant, located in Swatara Township, submission of a synthetic minor state only operating permit renewal application.
3. Notification from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole Bureau of Probation Services approving the 2006-2007 grant-in-aid continuing program application and grant agreement for the improvement of adult probation services.
4. Notification from Pennoni Associates, Inc. indicating a joint permit application for realignment of approximately 900 linear feet of Spring Creek at the Valley View Student Home for Milton Hershey School, Derry Township.
5. Notification from Haines and Kibblehouse, Inc. of a PA DEP AQ permit application for Handwerk Materials, Lower Swatara Township.
6. Notification from Ecological Solutions, Inc of a PA DEP application for GP-7 minor road crossing for river road, Dauphin, PA.
7. Notification from Navarro and Wright Consulting Engineers, Inc. of a PA DEP application for a general NPDES permit for stormwater discharges associated with construction activities at ? mile south of intersection of 80th street and chambers Hill Road, Harrisburg, PA, Swatara Township.
8. Notification from RGS Associaties of a of a PA DEP application for a general NPDES permit for Southpoint Meadows, Derry Township.
9. Notification from OES that the Harrisburg Resource Recovery Facility has received approval from DEP to submit applications to accept certain types of residual waste for processing for a case-by-case approval by the Department.
10. Notification that the County's liquid fuel tax fund allocation in the aount of $299,515.91 will be electronically transferred to our liquid fuels account on December 7, 2006.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

(There was none.)

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. DiFrancesco to adjourn the meeting; motion carried. Meeting adjourned.