Meetings so far

So far, I have started getting to know the people I will be working with for the next 2 years.

Late yesterday afternoon I met with the County Administrator in a one-on-one meeting.  It was a very productive meeting, as we shared philosophies regarding a variety of issues. 

• We spent some time talking about ways in which we could work collaboratively with employees to reduce the health care costs of both the county and the employees, while strengthening the dwindling reserves we have for covering health care costs.  Since the County has a self-insured plan (meaning the taxpayers directly pay every medical bill an employee incurs) we have a lot more flexibility in how we work to collaborate with employees.
• We spent some time talking about the County's role in economic development, and some of the projects that are currently underway.  I also shared much of the feedback I had received from my neighbors while campaigning for office.
• We spent some time talking about the current budget, and upcoming budget initiatives.  We seem to share a common vision regard the desire to either continue to deliver property tax reductions or, at a minimum, maintain the current tax level.  Neither of us expressed any interest in increasing taxes.
• We talked about committee assignments.  It looks like there is a strong possibility that I will be put on the Administrative committee, which in the new committee structure will oversee the County Clerk's office, the Human Resources office, the Information Services office, the Finance office, the Treasurer, the Register of Deeds, the Library, the Historical Society, and the Agriculture and Industrial Society.
• We spent some time talking about ways in which we could recognize the accomplishments of some of the best County Employees.

At Monday's (4/11/16) County Board Orientation meeting, we received some clarification regarding a budget overage that was reported in the West Bend Daily news on 4/9/16.  Essentially, one line of the budget was over in 2015 by 229% due to several very high risk behavioral health clients.  We incurred $1.8 million dollars in expenses but were only budgeted for $800,000, so the shortfall is about $1 million dollars.  The budget overall for the Human Services Department is $21 million, so the department is now 1.4% over budget.  To remedy this for future years, the Human Services Department is working with the Winnebago County Inpatient Unit on some improvements, working on some procedural improvements within their own department, and increasing the 2016 budget.

In looking through the expenses by year, it does look like costs for this budget item are very erratic and unpredictable.  While expenses seem to average slightly more than $1 million per year, the variance to that average is significant.  On one extreme, 2009 incurred only a little more than $400,000 in expenses, while 2015 was the most costly year with $1.8 million.

Since Human Service was another committee I expressed an interest in, if I am placed on that committee I will be working fairly directly on this issue.