96th ANNUAL
CONFERENCE
MONTANA ASSOCIATION OF
COUNTIES
Billings, Montana
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
GENERAL SESSION
Bill Kennedy, MACo President, Yellowstone County
The 96th Annual Conference of the Montana Association of Counties opened at 8:30 am.
President Bill Kennedy introduced his fellow Yellowstone County Commissioners John Ostlund and Jim Reno,
the Commission Assistant Paulette Turner, and the head table:
Jean Curtiss, Urban Counties Representative,
Missoula County
Carol Brooker, Past President, Sanders
County
Doug Kaercher, President-Elect, Hill
County
Colleen Landkammer, President-Elect,
National Association of Counties
Paddy Trusler, Co-Parliamentarian,
Lake County
John Prinkki, Second Vice President
and Co-Parliamentarian, Carbon County.
Boy Scout Troup #10 presented the Colors and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Kristie Ostlund sang the National Anthem.
Deacon Bill Daem, St. Pius Parish in Billings, conducted the Invocation.
“…We ask your blessing upon the county commissioners
and other elected officials gathered here.
Be present always.
Bring your peace. Bring your
justice so that all that we do and all that we are
concerned with is for the love and care of those
that you put under the charge of commissioners
here and all across our land.”
John Ostlund, Yellowstone County, and Chuck Tooley, Mayor of Billings and President of Montana
League of Cities and Towns, welcomed the delegates.
“As mayor of the city of
Billings, I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities
in Montana’s largest city. I am also pleased to greet you as President of Montana League of
Cities and Towns.
We labor in the same vineyards, you and I. We work for our people using
our best judgment to make decisions that will
benefit our communities for years to come.
There are people in our society who criticize
government in every level. They haven’t
taken the time to understand the value that
government brings to our lives. They
never
think about the essential services you provide and
the fact that we could not have livable
communities
without those services. I commend all
of you for having chosen the path of
service,
meeting the needs of your citizens, day in and day out, whether at home or
working
with the Legislature. We all learn and re-learn that “politics is the art of the
possible.”
It is a fact that you don’t
get thanked nearly enough for the work that you do to sustain
and improve your communities. So on behalf of people who should say it,
but don’t,
“Thank you.”
Thank you for your dedication and for the work you do to make life more
livable.
I encourage you to be positive and cheerful, be glad
for the opportunity to serve your fellow
citizens and accept with grace that you will never
be thanked the way that you should be
thanked. We
are deeply grateful that we are in America, in this magnificent corner of the
finest nation on earth and we are glad you are here
in Billings.”
President Kennedy recognized dignitaries from Montana Congressional offices and from
Montana State Departments.
President Kennedy announced that he and Commissioners Todd Devlin and Bill Leach
from Prairie County would appear on the Dave Birch show to discuss P.I.L.T.
He reminded the delegates that all agendas for the State Highway Commission reserve
10:00 to 10:30 am in every meeting for local elected officials to speak.
President Kennedy showed a slide presentation on the hurricane disaster and cleanup
in Louisiana / Mississippi and described NACo’s process for county and individual donations.
COLLEEN LANDKAMMER, NACo PRESIDENT-ELECT
Blue Earth County, Minnesota
The text of her comments is on page 45 of the Presentations
Section of these minutes.
ROLL CALL
Bill Nyby, MACo Fiscal Officer, Sheridan County
After an everlasting roll-call consisting of individual county descriptions,
Nyby announced quorum present to conduct business.
MEMORIAL RESOLUTION
James Reno, Host, Yellowstone County
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 convention
duly assembled in Billings, Montana, this
26th day of September 2005,
that the Association does hereby pay tribute
to the memory of
Commissioners
Marvin Cheek, Liberty County 1977-1983
Malcolm John McCrae, Rosebud
County 1977-1987
Tom Hensley, Broadwater
County 1977-1989; 1995-2001
Earl Knight, Powell County 1982-1994
Paul Beausoleil,
Anaconda-Deer Lodge 1995-1996;
2001-2005
Dan Connors, Custer County 1995-2002
Joann Huffsmith, Granite
County 2001-2005
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.
CONFERENCES FOR 2006 and 2007
Bill Kennedy, President
Presentations on behalf of Cascade County (Best Western Heritage Inn) and
Lewis and Clark County were given to announce bids for the 2007 Conference.
Flathead County made its presentation on Tuesday morning.
ELECTION ADMINISTRATION
Vickie Zeier, Missoula County Clerk/Recorder and
Treasurer
Duane Winslow, Yellowstone County Election Administrator
The text of their comments is on page 49 in the Presentations section of these minutes.
MONTANA BOARD OF INVESTMENTS
Louise
Welsh, Bond Progam Officer, INTERCAP Loan Program
Coralie Sciuchetti, STIP Manager
, Short Term Investment Pool (STIP)
Delrene Rasmussen, Assistant
Investment Officer , Infrastructure Loans
The text of their session is on page 53 in the Presentations section of these minutes.
MONTANA STATE AUDITOR
John Morrison
The text of his message is on page 57 in the Presentations section of these minutes.
“OWNING EDEN”
Steve Pilcher, Executive Vice President, Montana
Stockgrowers Association
Ron Aasheim, Conservation Education Administrator, Fish,
Wildlife and Parks
The text of their subjects is on page 59 in the Presentations section of these minutes.
PRESENTATION OF RESOLUTIONS AND BY LAW AMENDMENTS
Mike Murray, Chair, Lewis and Clark County
The first proposed amendment is for an “associate” instead of an “assistant” director.
Hiring shall be by the executive committee and the executive director, with confirmation by the
Board of Directors. The second amendment is to allow a member county’s registered voting
delegate to vote by proxy at any meeting of the membership. The proxy must be in writing,
signed by the voting delegate, shall name the person to whom the proxy is delegated and
the subject for the vote(s). The proxy must be delivered to the President prior to voting
action being taken.
The Resolution is to support of the Mariah Hypersonic Wind Tunnel in Butte Silver-Bow
County at the Mike Mansfield Advanced Technology Center.
We have received one additional resolution. We will have to suspend rules with
2/3 of the voting members to allow it. The resolution is in opposition to returning
federal highway dollars to support hurricane relief efforts.
Bill Kennedy
There is a push nationally to open the highway bill to remove the earmarked projects
to help fund the crisis in the Gulf States. The concern is that if you open up the highway bill,
you are not going to take one or two projects out. You are going to see projects across the
state of Montana go away. We worked very hard over the last two years to pass a highway bill.
Most of the earmarked projects are safety projects. I ask that we pass this resolution today and
send it along to our congressional delegation to resist any push to reopen the highway bill.
A motion by Ted Coffman, Madison County, to suspend the rules and proceed with a discussion
on the resolution was seconded and passed. There was no discussion and the motion to adopt
the resolution was seconded and passed.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT
Bill
Kennedy, President
The nominations are:
Past President – Bill
Kennedy
President – Doug Kaercher
1st Vice President
– John Prinkki
2nd Vice
President – Cynthia Johnson
Mark Rehbein
Jean Curtiss
Fiscal Officer – Allan
Underdal.
The nominations process remained open until the Wednesday General Session.
The MACo By-Laws state that there must be two candidates for the offices of Second Vice President
and Fiscal Officer. If there is only one nomination, then the rules must be suspended in order to accept
only one nomination OR another nomination can be made.
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT CANDIDATES
Cynthia Johnson, Pondera County
I’ve been a Pondera County commissioner since 01-01-01. (That’s easy for blonds to remember.)
I have great fellow commissioners in Pondera County. I’m excited and honored to be nominated from
my district. I believe that MACo is an organization that we all lean on heavily. It is the thing that links
us all together. It can help us do our jobs better and I appreciate everything that they have done for us.
You have great choices this year. I would really appreciate your support.
Mark Rehbein, Richland County
I’m commissioner in Richland County. I came into office in 1999. I’d like to thank the three districts
out east for showing confidence in me to nominate me for this position. I promise I will do
everything that I can do to empower counties to take care of their constituents at home, both financially
and legally, without someone stepping on our toes all the time and trying to cut us down. The best thing
you are going to like about me is that my speeches are real short.
Jean Curtiss, Missoula County
FISCAL OFFICER CANDIDATE
Allan Underdal, Toole County
I’m from Toole County and I’ve been a commissioner since 1993. Here is a bit of useless
information: I’m 52 and was born in ‘52. I figure this was the only year I could ever say that.
I can count and that is one of the prerequisites of being Fiscal Officer. I was the Fiscal Officer
in 1999-2001 and I would like to be able to use my experience to do that again. I would like
thank Bill Nyby, who did excellent work on the hard job actually of getting our dues in line.
I am on the Finance and Governmental Affairs for NACo. I think it is a very important to be
involved in NACo. I also have been involved with the MACo Tax, Finance and Budget Committee
for several years. As Fiscal Officer, I would continue to do that. I ask for your support.
FISCAL REPORT
Bill Nyby, MACo Fiscal Officer, Sheridan County
On January 8, 2005, the MACo Board of Directors approved the FY06 budget.
The FY 06 MACo operational budget shows an overall decrease of 6.03% on the
expenditure side. Bear in mind that this is a non-legislative year, which usually has a
decrease in the budget. The operational budget figure stands at $989,153 compared to
$1,052,661 in fiscal year 2005, with total possible expenses of $1,389,813 compared to
$1,373,080. On the revenue side, the budget shows a 5.17% decrease in revenues due
in large part to the reduction of the MACo dues. In FY 2005, the membership agreed to a
25% increase in dues and .1% assessment of PILT funds to bolster funds mostly in
termination reserves. We accomplished these goals.
Fiscal Year 2006 is the first year for the new dues schedule based on using the
taxable valuable of each county coupled with a reduced assessment of .075 % of the
PILT funding statewide. The new dues structure will bring in $250,750 in dues revenue
and $12,433 in PILT assessment for a total of $263,183 compared to a previous total of
$228,592. Our estimated revenues are 42% collected and the expenses are at 21% spent.
Our dues are fully collected for this fiscal year.
The Fiscal Year 05 audit has been completed and we have received a favorable
opinion that the MACo financial position and statements have been presented fairly.
We have succeeded in fully funding our termination liabilities for accrued vacation and sick leave.
I would like to thank every county for their cooperation in fulfilling this goal. Without you, we
would not have made this happen.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT
Harold Blattie, MACo Executive Director
During the past legislative year we had a great deal of success. We couldn’t have had that success without a tremendous involvement on the part of the members, particularly the Executive Committee. Their leadership, along with a your participation, is what made our legislative session a great success.
MACo is one of the most respected organizations in Helena. Legislators look to us for not only advice, but also information. We serve as an extra research branch so that they have good information to make decisions.
You have a great staff in Helena. The work that your Association does for you happens because of your staff. When you see them, thank them because they are doing a great job for you.
I would like to present our budgeting process and how our money comes and goes. I hope to take this up to a point where we can look ahead.
First we have to take a look at our past or, as they say, we are condemned to repeat it. For you to make good decisions, you need to have good information. So, I present these slides:
First is our current budget and the revenues. We receive revenue from primarily three different sources: Association activities, activities of the Joint Powers Authority (Workers Compensation pool) and our Joint Powers Insurance Authority (property, casualty and liability pool).
Next are the major areas of revenue to the Association. Dues actually account for 25% of the total revenue that flows through the Association. The Joint Powers Insurance Authority is a very significant part at 41%. These services include Greg, who is the Marketing Manager, Jack doing the Personnel Services, and Ray and Emelia doing Risk Management (which is shared between the two pools).
The majority of the dues comes from the member dues that you pay; a small amount of dues is paid by affiliate members. We have the PILT assessment set out separately. The vast majority of MACo’s side of operations would continue to go on with or without the insurance pools.
Another significant source of revenue for the Association is conferences and meetings. We anticipated $47,000 in revenue for this conference that we are attending right now. The Midwinter Loss Control Conference in January and the other miscellaneous meetings that come and go are part of this.
The next major area is marketing and sales. The Directories, which all of you receive free as part of your membership, are sold at a rate of about 1,000 a year. This is a significant source of revenue for us. Some state agencies purchase 30-40 of them, so your names and contact information are pretty widely distributed. They are a wonderful source of information on how to contact you.
Nationwide Retirement Solutions chooses not to do national media advertising. They use the Associations like NACo and MACo for their marketing. The National Association of Counties receives a significant amount of revenue for the efforts to market the Nationwide Retirement Program, and in turn, the Montana Association of Counties receives revenue for their ads in our newsletter. That’s part of our agreement that we help them market the 457 Deferred Compensation Program for your employees.
In addition, we generated a little ($18) from US Communities. NACo has provided, through competitive bidding processes through different counties across the United States, the opportunity for you to piggyback on to large contracts to receive some very favorable pricing on a number of supplies, materials and services. In our agreement with NACo and US Communities, we receive a portion of the proceeds of your purchases. Right now there are four major bids available. This is an area that I hope your county would consider, with an understanding that your purchases are helping MACo to provide services and to keep dues down.
Now let’s look at some of the revenue that flows from the insurance pools into MACo. The insurance pools themselves do not have employees and don’t directly pay for administrative services, which are provided through MACo. We are all MACo employees, although the risk management positions are funded by an even split between the Workers’ Compensation Pool and the Property Casualty and Liability Pool. MACo pays half of the Executive Director and Finance Officer salaries and each of the two pools respectively pays a quarter.
MACo also provides investment administration for the insurance pools through the Finance Officer who handles all of the investments on a daily basis and keeps the cash flowing, just like a County Treasurer invests county money to provide interest income.
The rate of return on MACo money invested through QCI is better than an average return. I think our Association has been doing well and that is a service that MACo provides to the insurance pools. That is the $18,000 of income you see.
In the JPIA, the property and liability pool, the marketing budget of $137,000 includes Greg’s salary and other things like operating expenses.
Some past revenue sources have been one-time grants, such as the GIS/GPS road-mapping project. We also used to receive a fairly significant amount of revenue for the endorsement of Montana Joint Powers Trust health insurance pool that was administered by EBMS. We no longer receive that. We used to sell MACo newsletter subscriptions. Since we’ve gone to a completely electronic format, that’s not a source of revenue anymore, but that has been a huge cost savings in printing and postage. We used to have an agreement with Touch America to receive revenue for counties that were signed up for long distance service through the Touch America plan.
So, let’s look to the future. As we strive to find new sources of revenue, new enterprises, new activities and efforts, we hope to generate revenue to provide services to you and to maintain dues at the current levels. 1) I think we could have a source of funding through an increase of sponsorships that we have not tapped. 2) There are new products that our Association could consider endorsing and, in exchange, receive portions of the sales of those products or services, just like we do with the US Communities Program and the Nationwide Retirement Program. I plan to propose to the Board of Directors Thursday that MACo share back to our counties a portion of the revenues that we receive through such marketing agreements. That might be a way for you to directly correlate the value of US Communities and the Nationwide programs. 3) You are some of the best and brightest people and you might have some new ideas that we could explore. I encourage you to let us know about your ideas for new enterprises. 4) We’ve never actively pursued grants for different projects and programs and that’s another area we could consider.
Now let’s take a look at where our money is going in the operational budget that does not include reserves. You need to understand that $425,000 includes portions of my salary, the associate or assistant director salary and the finance officer salary. This budget supports services that you receive from MACo. In this current budget year, we have an anticipated excess of revenue over expenditures of $22,000. In the case of the two insurance pools, the expenditures and revenues balance. All three pieces are so importantly tied together. The vast majority of the budget is associated with salaries and benefits at around 60%. 60% is typical for any association like ours. The next significant component of that is travel at 16% and that includes member travel.
There were transfers into reserves of $23,000 for terminations, with fully funded termination reserves of $93,417. A building reserve of $10,000 a year is set aside for when major repairs become necessary to our building. The total now is $68,105. We also have auto reserves of $12,000 so when the time comes to trade a vehicle, we have the cash in hand. The total now is $46,145. The Association doesn’t borrow money to buy vehicles, but we save money in advance. In the reserve accounts, $12,000 is associated with the WIR. It is held over from hosting the WIR Conference in Billings a few years ago and has been reserved by the Board of Directors to be used to bring another WIR Conference or NACo Conference to Montana at a later date. We are holding, in a custodial manner for Districts 1, 2 & 3 counties, a small fund that they will chip into for housing during the legislative session.
Here is a ten-year total revenue graph. These numbers are all directly out of the audits. You can see the ebbs and flows of total revenue. There is one spike that was associated with that GIS/GPS project.
In 2003 and 2004 the expenses exceeded the revenue and the prior two years before that were fairly balanced. With the changes in the dues structure, the income enables us to build those reserves. If you look back to 1998, you see a significant increase attributable to risk management and adding the risk management assistant.
Now, let’s look to the future. If we hadn’t had changes and staffing would have remained just the same as it was last year, and if this had also been a Legislative year, what would our budget have looked like? You can see that our expenses would have exceeded revenue had those particular things happened. So, in spite of having the dues increase, we still need to be very cautious and very conservative with our budgeting.
I hope to have passed along to you the importance of the insurance pools to MACo and that our insurance revenue and our insurance costs are even. We are not making money and we are not losing any money. However, if the insurance pools separated from MACo, it would cost all three entities more to operate. Right now the insurance pools have an Executive Director for each of them, each for a quarter of my salary. They each have an Assistant/Associate Director for a quarter of that salary. They each have a Fiscal Officer for a quarter of that salary. So, if they had to go out into the market and hire full time people to fill those positions, the costs would dramatically increase. If the pools were not part of MACo, we would have to have very significant increase in revenues to maintain the staff salaries. All three entities rely upon, are completely dependent upon and benefit from relationships with each other. None of the three can stand alone effectively. The pools are important to the Association and the Association is important to the respective pools.
This is your budget, your money. I would encourage you to be active, ask questions.
TUESDAY,
SEPTEMBER 27
MACo
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Agriculture
Committee
Kathy Bessette,
Chair, Hill County
