DAUPHIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
WORKSHOP MEETING
JANUARY 30, 200810:00 A.M.

MEMBERS PRESENT

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

STAFF PRESENT

Chad Saylor, Chief Clerk; William Tully, Esq., Solicitor; Marie E. Rebuck, Controller; Janis Creason, Treasurer; J. Scott Burford, Deputy Chief Clerk; Randy Baratucci, Director of Purchasing; Kay Lengle, Personnel; Mike Yohe, Director of Budget & Finance; Greg Schneider, Budget & Finance; Leila McAdoo, Solicitor's Office; Mitch Baylarian, Solicitor's Office; Josiah Frederick, Commissioners' Office; Amy Richards, Commissioners' Office; Stephanie Strayer, Human Services Director's Office; Dave Schreiber, Personnel; Steve Farina, Prothonotary; Gertrude Farling, Controller's Office; Joe Dougher, Acting Director of Children & Youth; Jena Wolgemuth, Commissioners' Office; Dan Robinson, Director of Community & Economic Development; Tom Guenther, Director of IT; Kacey Truax, Commissioners' Office and Richie-Ann Martz, Assistant Chief Clerk

GUESTS PRESENT

Angela Mazur, Jon Carder, Doug Paskowski, Garry Lenton, Evelyn Hunt and Rev. Alvin Taylor

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 six sets of Meeting Minutes that will be taken up at next week's meeting.

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. J. Scott Burford, Deputy Chief Clerk and Greg Schneider, Budget & Finance
   1. Update on Vehicle Program

Mr. Burford: We are here this morning to discuss a pilot program and give you an update to the Vehicle Program. As you know we have a large number of employees, through the course of their day, who spend a lot of time on the road. With that said, that gives us some increased challenges as we move forward. In the last quarter of 2007 we conducted a pilot program, because of some of the issues concerning travel; such as cost of maintaining our current pool cars and just in general increases in travel cost and liability issues. We wanted to explore more cost effective ways of allowing our staff to do their essential job functions. We decided to identify some specs. First we wanted a program that would be user friendly. We wanted competitive pricing and we wanted a program that would also transfer our liability to some degree. We engaged with a nationally recognized rental car company. The basics of the program is that for any trip any employee that travels greater than 100 miles we would lease a car for that trip. For any trip less ideally the employee would use our pool of vehicles. The attempt here was to reduce the maintenance costs and also to allow us to reduce overall costs. If for some reason a trip was less than 50 miles and all of the County vehicles were checked out the employee would be faced with using their own car. So, we did this program for 90 days and what I would like to do is turn it over to Greg to walk you through the numbers and then maybe I could summarize for just a few minutes.

Mr. Schneider: In the packet that I gave you earlier there are statements for October, November and December. What we tried to do was to show you how much it would have cost if these people drove their own vehicles and then how much by using the rental cars we saved or didn't save on it. The process that we went through was we mainly used Children and Youth, almost 99.9% except for Tim Truax in the November rental. They would fill out the form, a copy of which is in the packet. Once they filled that out they would have that signed by the Supervisor and then they would fax it over to me. In the beginning I had to make a lot of calls, but once we got the program rolling by December with Enterprise it was pretty much all I had to do was relay the fax over to them. Basically what I was doing was just checking to see that they did have the amount of miles and everything that was required to make this cost effective. Some I let through or they just didn't exactly do it and that is why you see some negative numbers on some of these things, but that was mainly to show you that if these parameters aren't followed then it is not a cost savings measure. On almost everything, in fact on the Tim Truax one in November you see his was 105 miles, we made $.79 on that so that is why you see that cut-off. If you look at the December one you will see how much increased activity we had. Children and Youth really took to the program. I never would have realized before this started how many long trips they make in a day. For those that are 300 and 400 miles this saves a lot of money. The pilot period is over. Enterprise is trying to get the State bid and they are working on that right now. With the guidance of Mr. Tully, he said that if approved by the Commissioners we could continue this beyond the trial period on a month-to-month basis until the State contract is either approved or not approved.

Mr. DiFrancesco: I want to make the recommendation. Obviously this is a very good idea. It is an innovative idea, but I would suggest too that we continue to do these reports.

Mr. Schneider: Right.

Mr. DiFrancesco: I'm assuming these were done so we could make a decision with good basis, but I would suggest that we continue to use these reports so we can see what the long term savings are. If it gets to the point where it is no longer a viable way to go then.

Mr. Schneider: The savings would be even more if we go up to 50.5 cents per mile.

Mr. DiFrancesco: I think it is a great innovative idea. It is going to save tax dollars.

Mr. Schneider: Garry and Donna really like it because of the insurance aspect. We got a fee of $5 more so that everything was included with the insurance so we didn't have to worry if there was any kind of accident. Everything is covered.

Mr. Haste: Those savings aren't on your analysis are they?

Mr. Schneider: No.

Mr. Hartwick: And maintenance as well.

Mr. Burford: The user friendliness of the program was a big success for the staff. That was the feedback that we got.

Mr. Haste: So Enterprise actually brings the vehicle here?

Mr. Schneider: They have the option of picking it up at the Cameron Street location, which is the main reason or they can drop it off at our building. Folks from Enterprise are right behind me. Mr. Dougher came to the meeting if he would like to add anything.

Mr. Dougher: The program was well received by Children and Youth and we would like to see it continued.

Mr. Hartwick: How committed is Enterprise to maintaining these rates and how long are the rates in effect and what variables do you have that would affect the rates obviously gas prices are one? You are going after a State contract so you are going to want to try to get in as low as possible. Once you achieve the State contract do those rates automatically adjust?

Mr. Paskowski: I'm Doug Paskowski from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. We actually have a contract that is signed until 2/1/09 so the rates will be in affect until that time. We have been working with the Commissioner and Secretary Naomi Wyatt and her staff and the new Jean McDonald for travel. The bid actually is in draft form right now in committee and that should be done by the end of this month. So, it will probably hit the streets March so April 1st is the timeframe that the State is looking for. Whatever is the most beneficial for obviously the County, whichever contract is the best, most likely it will be the State contract we would just honor those rates for the State.

Mr. Hartwick: It could get better and is that going to be a yearly.

Mr. Paskowski: We would be looking for a long term probably a five year contract with multiple extensions. I have done this in other states so that is what I'm looking at doing here.

Mr. Haste: Why would we have to wait on a State contract? Why couldn't we do our own bid if that doesn't work?

Mr. Schneider: We would have to do a bid. This would be getting around doing a bid.

Mr. Tully: Essentially we had our trial basis. We have an understanding that it will be up for a vote next week for us to continue on a month-to-month basis until such time as the piggy-back contract is available through the State. That will be for your review and vote next week.

Mr. Hartwick: Are we expanding this to other departments?

Mr. Schneider: Yes, we will be expanding to other departments.

Mr. Burford: We would approach this as a phase in. We would, of course, have a track record with Children and Youth and the Human Services Departments, then we would phase in other departments over a specified period of time.

Mr. Hartwick: I don't know if you factored in the yearly requests for additional vehicles and what that means to the budget impact. I think there are a lot of other things that you can factor in here to really make the case that this is a good value and to get a final number for the total cost savings to the taxpayers. It, based upon the convenience from what I've heard from Children and Youth, is something that I certainly support.

Mr. Haste: It looks like in the first two months we saved about $1,100 a month.

Mr. DiFrancesco: I know this shows that the cut-off is 100 miles is there any reason why at some higher amount for longer trips it would not be cost effective?

Mr. Schneider: It is really 100 miles per day. Say you go to a three-day conference and it is only like 150 miles that would not be cost effective, because it would be sitting there for two days.

Mr. Haste: No matter what the situation.

Mr. Burford: Defining the specs, we flushed out several scenarios and conferences is one of those scenarios that it may not be cost effective depending on the distance traveled and how long the conference is.

Mr. DiFrancesco: It would be 100 miles per day that the car is out.

Mr. Burford: Yes. So, if someone was going to a conference that was greater than 100 miles and the conference was four-days, it would behoove us possibly to use our own pool cars. Those were the decision-making factors that went into this type of program.

Mr. Haste: Who is going to continue to monitor this?

Mr. Schneider: Well, hopefully we will have more people. I would like to take vacation now and then. Definitely the statements and all of that I would take care of.

Mr. Hartwick: Was this a budget request for additional personnel?

Mr. Haste: You can tell he has been schooled by Mike Yohe, because you don't get a true answer. Who will be responsible for this program?

Mr. Schneider: I will.

Mr. Burford: Initially it will be Greg. He has been part of this from the ground level. In time there will be others trained in what to look for and how to process the requests.

Mr. Paskowski: One last thing, certainly you alluded to the cost savings just on the pure financial aspect, the liability, damage waiver those certainly add to that value, as well as really what we see is the breakdown service. If someone is heading to Baltimore for a meeting and whether it is in a County car or in their own personal car they are basically on their own. With us you are going to get another vehicle brought right to you and you can continue on your way. There are a lot of other soft costs that are added to it. There is a tool that I would recommend that you look at a little deeper and add it into your Intranet system is what we call our mileage calculator. We actually take those parameters of how far you are going, what the gas price might be, what the rental costs would be and you kind of plug it into an excel spreadsheet and it will literally tell you whether it is more cost effective to rent a car or to take your own personal car.

Mr. Haste: Do you fill it back up or is the employee responsible? How do we handle the gas?

Mr. Schneider: What we have been doing with Children and Youth is that when they are done with their trip they were supposed to and I think it has been going pretty well to fill up at the County pumps. They get a full tank and it is returned with a full tank. We are paying the County prices not the out-of-town prices.

Mr. Hartwick: With Children and Youth are we going to be authorizing a formal action to continue this as of tomorrow? What department does it go to next and what is your plan to phase in the rest of the departments in County government?

Mr. Burford: With your approval we would look at Human Services and all the different categoricals within Human Services first and then we would go from each department to another. We have not clearly defined which department is going to be next. I can tell you the different categoricals within Human Services will be the obvious next step.

Mr. Hartwick: Can we include JPO in that? I think they are frequent users of vehicles as well as Adult Probation.

Mr. DiFrancesco: I'm not sure that JPO will be over the 100 miles. Some of them definitely will.

Mr. Haste: It's not hard to hit 100 miles.

Mr. DiFrancesco: It is no question the person who has Lower Dauphin School District will obviously do 100 miles every time they are out. The District is so massive. Probably upper County will do it and the electronic monitoring, but some others may not put that kind of mileage on their car.

Mr. Hartwick: Even when I was working with Adult Probation and we only did City stuff we did close to 80 to 90 miles.

Mr. Saylor: Why don't you guys put together a plan and show it to the Commissioners.

PERSONNEL

Ms. Lengle: Are there any questions on the Salary Board items?

Mr. Hartwick: I just have some questions in discussing them with Joe this morning related to the Children and Youth positions. I would like to make it clear with the Salary Board on what positions will be eliminated and which ones are created. It is good to show where one is being created and the other one is being eliminated.

Ms. Lengle: Just list it.

Mr. Hartwick: List it in parenthesis and say to be eliminated just so we are aware of the total fiscal impact of the actual changes.

Ms. Lengle: Like in the case of the one Children and Youth Families Program Specialist a Casework Supervisor is going to be.

Mr. Hartwick: Is eventually going to be eliminated, that is correct.

Mr. Haste: We just need to make sure we follow up and do that.

Mr. Hartwick: I do want to make sure that we are staying on top of the eliminations and you know what the plans are.

Ms. Lengle: Are there any questions on the Personnel Packet? (There was none.)

PURCHASE ORDERS

Mr. Baratucci: You should have all received your Packet yesterday. Are there any questions on it?

Mr. Hartwick: I will ask this since Tom is in the crowd, the Contract with Metro where are we at with that? What are the long and short term goals as it relates to our future contract with the City of Harrisburg?

Mr. Guenther: I probably hated signing that one this year more than any other time in the past. I would hope that within the next six months we would have a better answer to the long term impact of Metro. Departments that are on that, Emergency Management, CID, and the DA are still using the service, because of the wealth of information that is in Metro.

Mr. Haste: There are some municipalities hooked up.

Mr. Guenther: The County-wide police are on that system and the evaluation is ongoing. An RFP is out and that has been spearheaded by the Emergency Management folks and Dave from Derry Township. I think we are almost at the final stage to release that. The City has cooperated at some level in that, but is really resistant in moving onto any new technology. We are going to have a lot of work to do in that area over the next six to twelve months.

Mr. Hartwick: I remember the meeting that we had that we talked about Metro still being used for City codes.

Mr. DiFrancesco: This has been a very long road and there has been a lot of very diligent research done to make sure that whatever the records management system is for the County-wide system would be the right one, but there are also a lot of site issues that go into this and in reality it is really time to bite the bullet. I understand we are moving closer now. I understand there is a consensus on the direction that we are going and it is probably not going to be too long before a system is agreed to, but there are still issues that cannot take away from the core mission and that is we need a records management system. We need a new one that is not going to cost us as much money as this one has and unfortunately this decision has been pushed off way too long and probably more because I'll call it the drama around the issue than the actual technical aspects of the issue. It is time to move.

Mr. Hartwick: I'm all for a decision.

Mr. Baratucci: The rest are budget issues that we will fix between now and next week.

TRAINING PACKET

Mr. Saylor: There is nothing that needs action today.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Mr. Haste: We have Items for Discussion. I see the first item is our annual Liquid Fuels Tax Report that needs to be filed with the State. Are there any questions on these Items? (There was none.)

1. Approval of the 2007 Dauphin County Liquid Fuels Tax Fund Report. (***A VOTE IS REQUESTED 1/30/08***)
2. Approval to exonerate/strike the following properties (Mobile Homes):
   1. 29-007-077-023-0084 - Preston & Lynnette Conley
   2. 34-026-005-042-0179 - Richard & Edna Still
   3. 34-026-005-050-0050 - Robert Kinney
   4. 34-026-005-053-0053 - Candy Dunn & Edward Stoppard
   5. 34-026-005-068-0452 - Eric Rouch
   6. 34-026-005-127-0092 - Larry Bell & Ann Redey
      Total tax to exonerate/strike - $2,862.79
3. Refund of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Real Estate Taxes - Parcel #35-120-149 - Gregory & Sharon Hommes - $1,118.04.

It was moved by Mr. DiFrancesco and seconded by Mr. Hartwick that the Board approve Item A listed above, the 2007 Dauphin County Liquid Fuels Tax Fund Report; motion carried.

SOLICITOR'S REPORT - WILLIAM TULLY, ESQ.

Mr. Tully: There are no changes to the Report and we would expect all the items to be ready for action next week.

Mr. Hartwick: I would like to get a copy of Item 9.

Mr. Tully: I'll get that to you.

CHIEF CLERK'S REPORT - CHAD SAYLOR

Mr. Saylor: I have one item. As you know the State has in the last year enacted a law increasing the hotel tax for Dauphin County from 3% to 5%. I have received correspondence from the Dauphin County Lodging Association expressing their support for the increase and ask that we enact it no sooner than March 1st so they have time to implement and get ready for it. I just wanted to let you know that the Solicitor's Office is drafting the Ordinance to do that. We will advertise it and I expect to see it on next week's Agenda for your consideration. Other than that I have nothing unless there are any questions for me. (There was none.)

COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS

(There was none.)

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.)

I will just note that we have a very lengthy Retirement Board meeting today. So what I would like to do is as soon as we adjourn this we'll start the Retirement Board Meeting at 10:55. If we can go through the regular things first, we will then recess and come back at 1:00 p.m.

ADJOURNMENT

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