93rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE
GENERAL
SESSION
The 93rd Annual Conference of the Montana
Association of Counties convened at 9:00 am.
Ennis, Montana, Boy Scout Troop #1601 presented the colors and led the
delegates in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mike Murray, Lewis and Clark County, provided Invocation.
President Harmon
introduced the head table:
Past
President Gary
Fjelstad Parliamentarian
John Prinkki
Fiscal Officer Dan Watson 2nd Vice
President Carol Brooker
1st Vice
President Victor Miller Urban
Representative Mike Murray
MACo Executive Director Gordon Morris
MEMORIAL RESOLUTION
C. Ted Coffman, Madison County
After reading of the Resolution and accepting additional names, the seconded motion to adopt the Memorial Resolution passed by unanimous consent and is hereby inserted in this record.
RESOLUTION IN MEMORIAM
WHEREAS, the members of the Montana
Association of Counties, with great sorrow and a deep sense of loss, wish to
remember and honor those members who have been taken by death since the last
annual convention of our Association; and
WHEREAS, each of these county
commissioners has rendered innumerable public services to his or her respective
county, to the State of Montana and to the people thereof; and
WHEREAS, the absence of these
persons is keenly felt as a great personal loss to their families, friends and
colleagues;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by
the Montana Association of Counties in conference duly assembled in Big Sky,
Montana, this 23rd day of September, 2002, that the Association does
hereby pay tribute to the memory of Commissioners:
Delane Beach, Fallon County
Don Corrigan, Lake County
Dallas “Pete” Hagfeldt, Daniels
County
Burt Hurwitz, Meagher County
Art Koenig, Fallon County
And, on behalf of its members and the citizens of the
State of Montana, does hereby express gratitude for their achievements and
contributions to the public good of their counties and to Montana.
WELCOME
Dick Wiggins, Director, Big Sky Owners’ Association
Welcome to Big Sky, both
the community and the resort!
Big Sky Owners Association formed in 1972 to function as quasi-government for the area. The Association is unique because it oversees an area which straddles both Madison and Gallatin Counties. We have experienced great growth, particularly in this upper area around the ski mountain. In spite of economics elsewhere in Montana, Big Sky is growing. We had our biggest number of skiers last year.
We are exploring the
feasibility of forming a local government by holding town meetings and many
committee meetings. Our thanks go to
Ted Coffman and the other commissioners for their support on this project.
It is an important part
which county commissioners play in the everyday life of Montanans. The current financial climate and the “big
bill” have made it difficult and take your energy to do things well for the
people. I encourage you to keep up this
good work.
Welcome and we hope you will
have time to enjoy the big outdoors—golf, hiking and fishing--which we have
here.
Growing up on the High Line
in Montana, I read about Chet Huntley.
He was from the small Montana town of Saco and had dreams beyond
Montana. I re-read some of his memoirs
for this morning. He had a vision of what was the best Montana had to
offer. He scouted and found Big Sky,
which had all ingredients to showcase our great State.
In terms of what we all
represent, as county officials who are doing the work of the people, we are
also the best Montana has to offer. We
get it done, even though paths are sometimes laid out by State and Federal
levels.
We are blessed to be
here. We now will work hard and play
hard. We will do this because we are
all in this together.
Dan Watson, MACo Fiscal Officer, Rosebud County
At the call of the roll, 52 of the 55 member counties responded and Watson announced quorum present to conduct business.
President Harmon announced
that the E911 special
revenue account is at risk. Last
session a senate bill threatened to sunset the funding. Becky Berger is here to assist counties who
are not yet in the E911 system. Please
stop by the 911 table in the exhibits to see her.
Mike Murray, Chair, Lewis and Clark County
Murray read the following Delegate
Assembly Rules:
“Rule 1 Any resolution or bylaw change from a member district or county not submitted at the District meeting must be submitted to the Resolutions Committee no later than the Sunday before the Annual Convention in order to be presented to the Board of Directors for their approval.
Rule 2 Any resolution or bylaw change not
submitted through Rule 1 will not be considered by the Delegate Assembly unless
two-thirds of the delegates present and voting elect to suspend the rules to
consider late proposals. Late proposals
shall be accompanied by copies for all delegates and shall be available prior
to the Introduction and Consideration of Bylaw Changes or Resolutions.”
Murray announced all the “High Priority” Resolutions
and added
2002-39A County Government’s Role in Relationship
with State and Federal Agencies
2002-40B Crediting Interest to Individual Funds
2002-42 Allowing Payment of Fees and Taxes by
Credit Card
For “Medium Priority”, he read the
list and added
2002-32 Annexation of Land Contiguous to Zoning
Districts (had been
tabled
by Committee until re-drafted)
2002-41 Increased Funding for New Cooperative
Extension Service Positions
2002-43 Counties with Less than 15,000 Population
Allowed to Create an Office of County Auditor
He
announced that 2002-44 Evacuation
Refusal Authority had been tabled at the Board of Directors Meeting. It was to be referred to Montana Sheriff
and Peace Officers Association.
Jean Curtiss, Missoula County,
moved that the Resolutions as listed be accepted for action at General Session
on Wednesday. The motion was seconded
and passed.
Murray
announced that on Wednesday, the session to segregate resolutions for
discussion will occur. He called for
further resolution introductions.
Bill Kennedy, Yellowstone County, moved that Resolution 2002-45 Alter Fire District or Fire Service Area Boundaries upon Municipal Annexation be considered with the high priority resolutions. The motion was seconded and passed.
Ed Arnott, Judith Basin
County,
asked that a resolution on endangered species be allowed for introduction on
Wednesday. Chair Murray explained that
there will need to be a motion to suspend rules at that time in order to have
introduction of the resolution.
Gary Fjelstad, MACo Past President, Rosebud County
Most of the proposed amendments were brought forth during the Glendive conference
as a result of the process there. They were presented at district meetings.
AMENDMENT ONE
Section IV DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
c) The Executive Committee shall serve as an Evaluation Committee
for purposes of annually evaluating the performance of the Executive Director by
surveying the member Boards of County Commissioners. Such evaluation shall be reported to the
Board of Directors.
This will allow every county’s board to have input
on the executive director evaluation.
Article V EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Section 1 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
(add paragraph to
existing text)
The hiring of an Assistand Director by the Executive
Director requires the concurrence of the Executive Committee and confirmation
by the Board of Directors.
This will allow the Executive Board to participate
in the hiring of the Assistant Director.
AMENDMENT THREE
Article VI BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Section
3 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
j) function as the nominating committee and select at least two
candidates each for the offices of Second Vice President and Fiscal
Officer. No candidate can be
nominated and run for two offices simultaneously. Nominations may be made at district meetings
of county commissioners and submitted to the Board.
AMENDMENT FOUR
Article IX ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND PROCEDURES
Section 4 NOMINATIONS
c) All nominations will be remain open until the time
of the election during the closing closed at the conclusion of the
opening general session.
This will allow nominations to remain open until election, to always have an opportunity to nominate a candidate.
The
first four amendments will become effective upon adjournment of this Annual
Conference and will not affect this year’s meeting.
AMENDMENT FIVE
Article III OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Section
1 OFFICERS
The officers are the President, First Vice
President, Second Vice President, Class 1-A
County Representative, Fiscal Officer and the Past President, all of whom
must be qualified and acting commissioners of member counties. The officers shall serve as the Executive
Committee. These officers, excluding
the Class 1A County Representative, will be elected at the annual
conference by the membership. No two
of these officers shall be from the same county. They shall hold office until their successors are elected and
qualified, so long as they shall remain in county office as county
commissioners.
William
Duffield, Fallon County
The issue was not that there
were two candidates from same county, but that the Bylaws required two
candidates for each election.
Gayle
Morris, Cascade County
How will these amendments
affect the Urban Counties representative?
Fjelstad responded that the Urban Counties Representative is determined by urban counties, not by the conference delegates as a whole.
Todd
Devlin, Prairie County
I brought this concern up at
the last conference. You may have
thought I was picking on big counties, but rather I was pointing out the
possibility that three of six people on our Executive Committee could be from
same urban county.
Mike
Murray, Lewis and Clark County
Urban counties are meeting
twice during this conference to discuss this.
Janet
Kelly, Custer County
What is the effective date
on this proposal? If we delay until our
next annual conference, then this next year’s session will allow nominations as
we do now--with the possibilities of double/triple representation. It is unwise and unfair.
Chair Fjelstad responded that the amendments would not affect currently serving officers but we are facing a shuffle as a result of Vic Miller’s situation.
Bill Kennedy, Yellowstone County
The Urban County
Representative is the only position excluded.
What if the rural counties later want to put on a representative?
Bill
Tande, Daniels County
What is the process to
appoint a second vice president and why not change the amendments to become
effective in 2002?
Chair
Fjelstad responded that the Bylaws allow the President to appoint a new second
vice president, if there is a vacancy.
A change in an effective date can be made by amendment on Wednesday.
Peggy
Beltrone, Cascade County
I need a flow chart to show the possible shuffling that will need to be done.
President Harmon suggested minimizing reports and
reminded the delegates to fill out workshop evaluation forms. The evaluations are used to determine future
workshops.
He also reminded everyone that the biographical
forms need to be completed to assist the next president in appointing MACo
committees.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Your involvement in upcoming
legislative session is needed. The most
important thing is to make your county felt.
For example during the recent session, there was a proposal to limit the
requirement for the State to pay detention centers for state held
prisoners. When it came up in
committee, we counties lined up. The
sponsor admitted that she wrote it and that she made a mistake. We made a difference.
I urge all of you to get in for this session and
help protect all of us.
You have a copy of 2002
final report and proposed 2003 budget.
To summarize, 2002 report shows a one-time expense and revenue for the
WIR convention. Revenue from the
Billings WIR convention exceeded expenses by $8,000. This money will be held for bids on future conferences.
Overall, revenue exceeded
expenditures by about $200,000. About
$15,000 was shifted to capital items.
This is not reflected on the expenditure report.
The Committee members were
Frank Nelson, Madison County; Alan Underdal, Toole County; William Duffield,
Fallon County; Mike Hutchin, Lake County; Gayle Morris, Cascade County; and
Sandra Boardman, Clerk and Recorder from Blaine County.
Gayle Morris, Cascade County
On the 2003 projection for
revenues, does it reflect a general increase in dues or is it reflecting the
increase for the proposed IT position?
Watson responded that the increase was primarily due to changes in the classification of some counties. The IT position would be in a separate line item.
NACo INTERNET
UNIVERSITY (NIU)
Lois Kampinsky
It is very difficult for NACo
to do workshops at every conference. At
some big conferences there are up to 50 workshops, so it is hard to reach
everyone. So, NACo partnered with US
Department of Transportation to develop training to be accessed over the
Internet. This allowed the size of the
libraries to be big enough to offer at low cost.
The slogan for the sessions
is “e-learning for county problem solving”.
There are 500 courses in each of the libraries. The libraries are Information Technology
Library and the Professional Skill Development Library. A county can purchase access to the full
library for use by individuals or by groups.
The fee is $195 per person per year for access. No individual courses are sold. The courses
are in text format, with some visuals.
There are two free courses, one in Risk Management and one in Retirement
Planning.
NACo is hoping to work with
state associations to promote the use of NIU.
More information on NIU can be found at www.nacoiu.org
Chief Justice Karla Gray, Montana Supreme Court
The
district court assumption was MACo’s bill.
Implementation was handed to us after the end of the legislative
session. On July 1, 2001, we started
assumption with one year to implement.
Employees, programs and policies were ready on time-July 1, 2002! No one had a clue what they were asking us
to accomplish in one year. The District
Court Council consists of five voting members (myself and four district court
judges) and four non-voting members.
Mike Hutchin of Lake County is your representative.
The
employee part is where counties did well and the judicial branch will have real
problems in future. We assumed 275
employees from counties. With them, we
assumed 44,000 hours of annual leave, 91,000 hours of sick leave and 4,000
hours of excess annual leave.
Legislators were aghast to learn of these benefit obligations. This item alone results in about $1 million
of unfunded liability. Excess annual
leave must be used by March first of 2003.
Many of our employees will be away from jobs. We grew from a branch of 61 employees to 330 employees in one
swoop.
Appropriation
is $18.3 million for this year; those numbers were based on county reports to
DOR. Even though $25 million was the
original amount, we were significantly under-funded. There was no funding for IT and connecting to state system, which
by itself is quarter million a year.
The District Court Council approved, at MACo’s suggestion, an initial reimbursable
cost rate of 65% during the first year, with the understanding that the rate
might be reduced as the year goes on.
It is up for reconsideration in October. This percentage will not go up.
Funding for the new judgeships in Cascade and Ravalli Counties was
obtained during the special session; it had been missed during last regular
session.
The
future? We must work together on budget
and funding areas. We are far behind
schedule; our budget is just now going over to the Budget Office. For indigent defense (estimated at $12+
million), for IT, for the employee pay plan, it is critical that we get the needed budget. A future test is the reallocation of
resources among the district courts.
The bottom line is that someone has to pay I don’t care if it‘s the state or the counties, although during
the last session, the state said it would do it. For me to run this, anything we don’t get from the legislature to
run and fund the courts adequately, WILL BE PUSHED BACK ON YOU. The judicial branch will not be
under-funded, so we need your help on the budgeting side to keep this from
falling back on you. When we get the
budget to the Budget Office, we will have a clearer picture.
For
IT, we are proposing increasing the surcharge fee from $5 to $10. We need an increase of around $2 million out
of general fund in next session for IT.
It's not very likely we can get it given the state's fiscal straits, so
we are trying to backfill the IT funding through the surcharge. We must have your support on this fee. We cannot operate our branch without
adequate IT funding and coverage.
Whatever our squabbles may be about the surcharge, we need your support
for this bill.
Another
legislative proposal is to clean up the state assumption bill, such as to
provide an exemption from workers comp. for independent contractor court
reporters, etc. We're not proposing any
substantive changes to state assumption, just trying to get the money we need
to run the state courts. This is still
your bill and any changes the legislature might want to make are legislative
issues.
One
area reviewed by the Judiciary is the mandate enumerating involuntary and youth
court proceedings to determine what are district court costs and what are
not. Indigent defense should be state,
not county, expense. We identified
which functions and portions of the process are judicial branch costs and we
followed current law in doing that. We
did identify some costs that are executive functions, but did not try to say
whether a state executive agency or the counties should be paying.
QUESTIONS
Jean Curtiss, Missoula
County
Reimbursements
still aren’t done for ’02. Will FY ’03
be like this year?
Because
of staffing levels, the need to get state assumption up by July 1, the special
session and the upcoming regular session, we are tardy with this and with other
things. Right now we are a full month
behind in getting the budget to the Budget Office. I apologize for being late.
We will get caught up as soon as we can and stay current after.
Jim Deckert, Dawson
County
Whose
responsibility is it to keep law libraries current?
Law
libraries were for the county, the public and the courts. The county part and the public part are not
coming under assumption. We are paying
for basic resources for judges and staffs only.
What
is the definition of legal resources for staff and for the district? The expectation is that the law library
will be kept current. In a multi-county
district, is that the responsibility of our county alone? Other counties have not helped. We are confused about how to handle it.
I
don’t know how this will shake out in multi-county districts. If what you have is a public, county
employee AND judicial law library, we are not funding library materials for a
public and county law library. We are
funding only minimally adequate resources for judges and staff.
Harold Blattie, MACo
Assistant Director
In
no place in statute does it state that a county is responsibility to maintain
county law library. How the District Court
Council chooses to distribute money is yet to be known.
Judges
themselves have just this week begin noticing that their resources are
inadequate and this will be taken up at the next meeting.
Bill Kennedy, Yellowstone
County
If
the moneys we sent for the law library have gone to district courts, and we
have our own library open to public, will the court use it?
We
will fund research resources as we said, but funding is so low. Judiciary will not fund public access
library, only minimal legal resources
Mary Sexton, Teton County
ACLU
sued on indigent defense; we hope to have counties out and shifted to
state. Won’t public defenders have
access to the law library?
I
cannot comment as this relates to lawsuits.
Will public defender costs come back to counties during the next
session? It depends. I think the bottom line is that what I
cannot get to cover our costs, the fall-back to the counties will not end July
2003, but will continue so that counties will stay on the hook. We need to work together on big ticket
items.
Art Kleinjan, Blaine
County
I
don’t feel comfortable contracting for public defenders. When we negotiate a contract, we are
spending your money, which you may not have.
It was amazing that the lawyers made sizeable increases in bids to us.
The
Judiciary is not the employer of public defenders, so we have no contractual
authority to hire them. Frankly I am
not interesting in having them. Part of
these questions may be answered at the end of ACLU lawsuits. There is a proposal out there to create a
public defender commission to take on statewide management/contracting. Your Resolution 2002-35 is to consider
this. Senator Walter McNutt of Sidney will
carry this.
Jim Reno, Yellowstone
County
What
is your position on justice of the peace courts as a court of record?
We have no position. We have no position on the "Larry
Herman" bill.
(Justice of Peace Larry
Herman, Yellowstone County)
Carol Kienenberger,
Phillips County
Sizeable
increases in support staff salaries were given by district court judges. Is there consideration for consolidating
support staff as a cost saving measure?
Are
we looking consolidating judicial districts?
No, and I don’t anticipate doing that.
Raises
given just before transition made the Governor’s Budget Office unhappy. However, nothing can be done about it
now. We had to take employees over at
their existing rates of pay on July 1.
I wrote to district judges who ran up budgets via sizeable salary increases,
stating that they harmed other districts by doing that.
Cutting
staff? Certainly not. Some districts are understaffed; most are
probably at adequate staffing levels. I
don’t know about any over-staffing.
Elaine Mann, Broadwater
County
County
funding is hard to find. We don’t mind
helping as we can. How can we help
support you to get funding from the legislature?
That
is part of your MACo legislative strategy.
You’ll be hearing from Gordon and Harold when we need help from
you. I don’t want costs back in your
laps, but I can’t do this by myself.
We
had this bill because judges could order us to do things. Can they order you?
No
In
the area of public defense, judges often don’t ask if there are other means for
reimbursement. They seem afraid of
lawsuits for inadequate defense, so they just allow reimbursement from the
county without asking each case if there are other sources.
Statutes
require judges to ask about other sources available to pay for defense. If there is a problem out there, I have not
been aware of it or of their not asking.
If the judges are not requiring legal showing for appointment of public
defense, then they are not operating right and I need to know. If you can document any examples, I will be
happy to look into it.
Pat Conway, Hill County
When
the legislature funds at certain levels, and the counties are to pick up the
tab for the leftovers costs, who will watch the expansion?
Judges
are aware they have lost control over their funding. I keep trying to get them to understand that the legislature now
has control of FTEs. The judges will
not run wild, because neither I nor the District Court Council nor the
legislature will stand for it.
Harold Blattie, MACo
Assistant Director
Please
elaborate on the efforts of the Council on the analysis for workload and
staffing.
Resource
reallocation by the District Court Council has just begun. State assumption has been an enormous
workload, but we are through the first year. We are behind in the budgeting
process, but now we are beginning to look at workloads, staffing, costs, etc.
in the various district courts to come up with what costs are minimally
adequate. We want to move the have-not
judges up without separately increasing the size of the pie. We hope to find the cheapest quickest way to
get to equalization of the district courts, so that all will have at least
minimal resources. It is going to be a
painful process
The
notion of the five of us refereeing disputes regarding needs and funding among
district courts is not an attractive prospect, but we will do it as well as we
can. State assumption is and will
continue to be a work in progress and I hope we can work together.
Earl Martin, Granite
County
In
past we have had District Court command us to raise their budget.
You must call us the instant that
happens. 444-2623 is my direct number.
Jane Jelinski, Director
You will be receiving a
letter from the Local Government Center.
Recently the Montana Department of Health and Human Services has
received funds for homeland bio-terrorism training. They have contracted with us to convene a summit for public
health officers. We have had a
difficult time identifying the part-time and shared health officers. We ask you to encourage all health officers
to attend the meeting in November.
Travel expenses will be paid by the grant.
Dean Harmon, President
The slate of candidates is:
President: Victor Miller, Blaine County
First Vice President: Carol Brooker, Sanders County
Second Vice President: Bill Kennedy, Yellowstone County
John
Prinkki, Carbon County
President Harmon called for further nominations. Seeing none, the motion to close nominations was seconded and passed.
MACo 2003 Conference will be
in Lewistown, hosted by Fergus County.
We
invite and welcome you all. All facilities are ready, including our two
golf courses.
Cascade, Missoula and Yellowstone Counties have indicated their bids. Voting will be on Wednesday morning.
Jean
Curtiss, Missoula County
We invite you to choose
Missoula County, where Lewis and Clark visited, named the Clarks Fork River and
had the first Independence Day celebration west of the Mississippi near
Missoula. Convention hotel will be the
Holiday Inn. Missoula is a walkable
community with ten acres of parks and trails along the river and a free
trolley. We promise great food. The packets before you have brochures.
Peggy
Beltrone, Cascade County
In Great Falls, the Best
Western Heritage Inn will host us with no meeting room charges. The center has had extensive
remodeling. Lewis and Clark spent 23
days in the area; we are asking you to spend three in 2004.
Bill
Kennedy, Yellowstone County
Yellowstone County withdraws
its bid in order to bid on WIR next year.
LUNCHEON SPEAKER WAS
KAREN MILLER, boone county Missouri,
NACo VICE PRESIDENT AND INCOMING NACo PRESIDENT. TEXT OF HER PRESENTATION IS ATTACHED TO THE MINUTES. (Attachment One)
TRANSPORTATION
COMMITTEE
Vern
Petersen, Fergus County
Our last two meetings dealt
with resolutions, so my report is on that.
2002-9
County Use of State Waters
We endorsed this and we have
a sponsor.
2002-12
Surveying Contracts
This is for the request for proposal (rfp)
process. We’ll be working with professionals
and their lobbying organizations so that we will not be blindsided.
2002-16
Revising Competitive Bidding Requirements
Currently, over $5,000 we have to contract. We will attempt to get that out. We have both Senate and House sponsors. We have been working with Contractors
Association. This is not an easy bill.
For all of these, please go
to legislators before they go to Helena to make them aware of what we are
trying to do.
2002-27
Municipal Annexations to Include Streets and Roads
We would like to see them take the entire rights of
way, rather than only to the center of the road. The City Manager in Lewistown, points out that if they annex
entire right of way then they have adjoining strip of land, but they cannot
asses it for maintenance funds. So we
will need a little more work to solve this problem
2002-28
County Ability to Set Lower Speed Limits
The Committee doesn’t support this resolution. We will talk about it tomorrow during the
Resolution discussions.
2002-29 City
Funding and Maintenance of Bridges
We recommended that this
Resolution be tabled.
2000 10
Prevailing Wage Rate Requirements
2000-11
Bidding Requirements for Local Governments
2000-32
Limitation on County Road and Bridge Depreciation Reserve Funds
These are all repeats. There should not be any problems.
Purchase of easements across
state school sections was heavily discussed in the Committee. This is a Constitutional issue at both the
state and federal levels. We are not
sure how we are going to solve this, if we have to change constitutions.
However, we can make good arguments that we are providing county roads with no
one else participating. We need
prescriptive easements for these roads.
TAXATION,
FINANCE AND BUDGET COMMITTEE
Dan
Watson, Rosebud County
1998-26 Ownership of Records
We recommend not reaffirming
this resolution because SB 176 addresses it.
1998-18 Safeguarding County Interest Income
We OK’d this.
1999-8
Revisions to County Capital Improvement Program Laws
Reaffirm
1999-7 County Treasurer Duties and Responsibilities--Reaffirm
2002-6
Continue Entitlement Growth Rate of at Least 3%
We agree with the “table”
because of HB 18 and the formula from HB 124.
2002-26 Interlocal Agreements to Create Regional Jails
The “do pass” recommendation came from Public Safety
Committee. Our committee recommended
“do not pass” because we questioned why MACo should be paying for only those
counties that are interested in regional jails. This is not an obligation of the Association.
2002-34 Prevent State Deductions from County Monies
We recommend “do pass” as
proposed. We discussed clarifying code
language.
2002-35 State Public Defender System
Do Pass
2002-40B
Crediting Interest to Individual Funds
We concur because this gives
commissions the authority to decide distribution.
2002-42 Allowing Payment of Fees and Taxes by Credit Card
We concur and we want to
find the State Code section, which may authorize state government but just
mentions local government. We want to
specify counties.
RESOLUTIONS
COMMITTEE
Mike
Murray, Lewis and Clark County
We have two new resolutions.
2002-10A Payment of Local
Registrar Fees.
This will be segregated as a new or changed
resolution. It is being printed and
will be available tomorrow. It adds a
proposed language change.
2002-45 To Alter Fire
District or Fire Service Area Boundaries upon Municipal Annexation has been
given a “do pass with high priority” recommendation and was referred to Public
Lands Committee.
PUBLIC
LANDS COMMITTEE
Connie
Eissinger, McCone County
Wally Congdon, Missoula, an
attorney working with Beaverhead County as an advisor on cooperating agency
statute, informed the Committee on how important it is to have a resource plan
in place as part of your growth plan.
We would like to have MACo’s
assistance in getting us together in a workshop on growth plans.
2002-39
Establishing County Role with State and Federal Agencies
The Committee made a minor change this morning in
the second “Be It Resolved” section by adding Section “F”.
Elaine Allestad, who is
serving on a committee on endangered species, requests copies of land use plans
which have language on endangered species to use in her committee work.
LAND
USE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Howard
Gipe, Flathead County
2002-30
Charging Fees for Process Exemption Applications
2002-32S
Annexation of Land Contiguous to Zoning Districts
2002-45
Alter Fire District or Fire Service Area Boundaries upon Municipal
Annexation
There will be a Growth Planning
meeting at 9:00 am on October 24th.
We invite any counties with growth problems to the MACo office. Growth policies have major problems, along
with district courts and the Big Bill.
JUSTICE
AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
Dan
Gutebier, Park County
2002-26
Interlocal Agreements to Create Regional Jails
We recommend passing, although the recommendation
was not that MACo would pay for a study.
Regardless of how it turns out, please contact the Committee because we
will be moving ahead.
2002-35
State Public Defender System
This is a resolution for
administration.
2000-25
Detention Costs for Department of Corrections Inmates
The State should pay for incarceration costs. The last legislature didn’t pass this
proposal. It has been given a “Do Pass
with Low Priority” recommendation. We
think it should be changed to “High Priority” because it affects every
county. Even though this will be hard
to pass, we need to keep on this.
HEALTH
AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Bill
Kennedy, Yellowstone County
Chair Kennedy introduced
Gail Gray, Director of Department of Public Health and Human Services, and John
Chappuis, Deputy Director.
2002-8
Administration of Indigent Defense and Youth in Need of Care
The Committee supports state
assumption and supports the high priority.
2002-19
Communities as Focal Points for Mental Health Services
We are working with county attorneys and peace
officers on regional services
2002-20
Increase Assessment on Medicaid Provider Rate
All of us serve on boards
and know rates haven’t changed in years.
2002-21
Retain Control of Substance Abuse Dollars
This is about the money that was switched from
substance abuse funds and other money shifted in. We would like to go back to original SB 264, providing a cap with
dollars coming back to counties. The
sunset provision from the special session is supported.
2002-22
Reimbursement for Increased Indirect Costs
We have gone back and forth with DPHHS for
forgiveness on money owed by counties.
We are asking for reimbursement for those who did pay the bill.
2002-23 Prisoner Medical Expenses Assumed by the State
We may make changes in this
from all medical expenses being assumed to
if prisoner has personal insurance or is eligible
for Medicaid, then that should be used.
The costs would revert back to county on the third step if nothing was
available from insurance or Medicaid.
We want to use other insurance before the cost comes back to counties.
2002-24 Involuntary Commitment Expenses Paid by the State
We want to expand costs assumed by state to include
transportation and lodging. County
attorneys and Sheriffs/Peace Officers have been included in discussions.
2002-25
Mental Health Pre-commitment Costs
We think that other services should be used before
coming back to the counties. We ask
that counties be payers of last resort, so that if there is other insurance, it
is used before counties pay.
2002-37
Funding of Summer Youth Employment Program
2002-38
Maintain Standard Utility Allowance Through FY 2003
We will continue to work to
carry funds through.
2000-3 Funding for Local Boards of Health Inspections
We met with public health officers and will work
with them. Jean Curtis will take lead.
AGRICULTURE
COMMITTEE
Kathy
Bessette, Hill County
We have three resolutions
and a fourth (2002-41) from this morning.
2002-3
Wildlife Management to Prevent Depredation of Crops
Elaine Mann, Broadwater
County, brought this to us. We have a
sponsor.
2002-4 Local Drought Advisory Committees
These are both “High
Priority.”
2002-5 County Weather Station Project
This is “Medium Priority.” The State Drought Advisory Committee requested results of the
surveys from the new county weather stations because the information has soil
conditions. The National Drought
Committee will use this information, too, if the information can get to
them. Ed Diemert, Liberty County, and
Tom Gordon, Toole County, are to be commended because they helped establish
this.
2002-41 Increased Funding for New Cooperative Extension Service Positions
The concern from the Committee and from visitors to our meeting is that if the new 8½ positions were funded, what would happen to counties which have no positions now because of the hiring freeze. We made recommendations which will be presented tomorrow. Dr. Bryant, MSU Extension, was on hand to help in discussion. Chair Bessette introduced Dr. Bryant and thanked him for his help.
Weeds and water rights were
also discussed. The Committee will be
watching other groups and will be proactive instead of reactive.
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
Mary
Sexton, Teton County
Main reason for Board
Resolution 2002-1 is a matter of fiscal responsibility and efficiency. Large counties have information technology
support, but not others. There is
continued complexity and change in information technology. MACITA has been dormant recently because of
lack of communication, so their assisting counties has been quiet.
How
will this position be funded?
It is the intent that this position become self-funded. For the first two years, the State (Information Technology Services Division) will fund half the costs. ITSD is an enterprise entity, outside the State general fund. The other half will come from a 25% dues assessment for a two year period. The intent is to have the second year be much less, with the assessments ranging from $5 to $1,700 a year.
What
will be the benefit for large counties?
Bulk purchasing
Standardization among
counties
Communications among
counties and between counties and the State
Are
other office holders participating?
Will they have ‘outsiders’ telling them what to do?
No, this would have outside
information available, which could be of use to other department heads and
staffs.
What
will be the continued State involvement?
The position will be
overseen by MACo IT Committee and housed at MACo. The position can be used by all counties for communication,
technical assistance and coordination.
A SYNOPSIS OF THE
PRESENTATION BY DEE LEE, “GROW YOUR OWN NEST EGG,” IS ATTACHED TO THESE
MINUTES. (Attachment Two)
COMMENTS FROM THE
HONORABLE JUDY MARTZ, GOVERNOR OF MONTANA ARE ATTACHED TO THESE MINUTES. (Attachment Three)
The
remainder of the day consisted of choices of the following workshops:
Rules
for Lobbying Mike Murray,
Lewis and Clark County, Moderator
Joseph
Mazurek, Attorney-at-Law and Lobbyist
Mona
Jamison, Attorney-at-Law and Lobbyist
Gordon
Morris, MACo Executive Director
The Top Ten Ways to Guarantee
Employee Lawsuits
Jack
Holstrom, MACo JPIA Personnel Services
Intergovernmental Transfers Bill Kennedy, Yellowstone County,
Moderator
Mike
Hanshew, DPHHS Long Term Care
Legislative Lobbying Mike Murray, Lewis and Clark County,
Moderator
Senator
Emily Stonington, Bozeman
Joseph
Mazurek, Attorney-at-Law and Lobbyist
Mona
Jamison, Attorney-at-Law and Lobbyist
Contemporary
Issues Dean Harmon, MACo
President, Roosevelt County
Gordon
Morris, MACo Executive Director
Harold
Blattie, MACo Assistant Director