2003-128-Minutes for Meeting February 11,2003 Recorded 2/20/2003DESCHUTES COUNTY OFFICIAL RECORDS
NANCY BLANKENSHIP, COUNTY CLERK CJ 2003.28
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 02/20/2003 09;51;19 AM
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2003-000128
DESCHUTES COUNTY CLERK
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Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
1130 NW Harriman St., Bend, OR 97701-1947
(541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 388-4752 - www.deschUtes.oru
MINUTES OF ADMINISTRATIVE LIAISON
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2003
Present were Commissioners Dennis R. Luke, Tom De Wolf, and Michael M. Daly.
Also present were Les Stiles, Sheriff; Anna Johnson and David Givans,
Commissioners' Office; Rick Isham and Mark Amberg, Legal Counsel; Marty
Wynne, Finance; and Debbie Legg, Personnel.
Also present were media representatives Melissa Burgess of Z-21 TV and Barney
Lerten of bend.com. Also in attendance was Justin Rainey of United States
Representative Greg Walden's office. No other citizens were present.
1. Preliminary Discussion regarding Potential Employee Layoffs.
Mark Amberg explained that this is a general discussion regarding strategy;
i.e. whether each department should handle any potential layoffs internally, or
if layoffs should be handled County -wide. He said there is no firm basis for
specifics yet, as no numbers are available.
He also said that the departments that are primarily affected by state funding
cuts are the Sheriffs Office, Parole & Probation, Health, Mental Health,
Juvenile Justice and the Commission on Children & Families. Health, Mental
Health, Parole & Probation and the Commission on Children & Families have
already gone to a reduced work week.
Commissioner Luke explained that the departments are trying to plan for
possible impacts on staffing. Since the new budgets for Fiscal Year 2003-04
are not yet ready, the final impacts are not known. However, some employees
may not want to stay with the County in any case due to job uncertainty.
ivimutes or A(Inumstranve Liaison Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Page 1 of 4 Pages
Commissioner DeWolf said that some financial reserves are built up, but
would only cover a small fraction of the funds needed, given the severity of
the State budget problem. A Band-Aid approach won't help much. Some
departments are fee based and are holding their own; and those funds cannot
be transferred to other departments that are short of funds.
Sheriff Stiles stated that he has called Personnel to obtain a seniority roster,
which will be presented to the union to validate. It will then become a
working document for him and his staff.
Commissioner Luke said that once budgets are reviewed, the budget
committee will know if anything can be backfilled; however, this won't
happen any earlier than April.
He added that employees will be able to apply for other County jobs, if they
meet the qualifications of the position.
Debbie Legg said that her department is getting a lot of questions, so the
sooner some answers are available, the more helpful it will be for employees.
2. Improvement Agreement.
Rick Isham advised the Commissioners that he has reviewed an improvement
agreement with the City of Bend and the DEQ regarding the parking lot is a
condition of approval for the building permit for the new County/State
building. This document needs Board approval.
DEWOLF: Move approval
DALY: Second.
VOTE: DEWOLF: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
LUKE: Chair votes yes.
ivimutes or Administrative Liaison Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Page 2 of 4 Pages
3. Update on Bond Offering.
Sheriff Stiles explained that equipment for the radio trunk system is needed,
which includes five more channels. A total of ten channels are required by
2005. The FCC extended the licensing to October 2004 and October 2005,
and if the County does not take advantage of these, they will be lost to another
agency or to a telecommunications company. He said that the addition of
these channels and equipment should take care of the radio technology needs
of the various local agencies for twenty years.
Marty Wynne said that Mike Maier had suggested adding this to the bond
offering.
The group then discussed this issue further. There were concerns expressed
about the expected life of the equipment, and whether technology might
change during that time, making the equipment obsolete. Marty Wynne said
an average of twenty years appears to be a reasonable useful life for the
hardware. Les Stiles added that other agencies utilizing the equipment would
pay a prorated share of the annual cost. This item will be addressed further at
the Wednesday, February 12 Board meeting.
4. Other Issues
Sheriff Stiles said that the country is on "orange alert" at this time, and added
that he does have some concerns this time. He is currently involved in threat
assessment meetings that emphasize the development of proactive steps and
coordinate with the military; employees need to pay more attention to public
events, mail and packages, suspicious persons, abandoned vehicles and so on.
He stated that this alert will likely last 45 days.
At this time the Administrative Liaison adjourned, and the Board went into
executive session to discuss possible litigation.
Being no further items brought before the Board, the meeting adjourned at
2: 35 p. m.
Minutes of Administrative Liaison Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Page 3 of 4 Pages
DATED this 11th Day of February 2003, for the Deschutes County
Board of Commissioners.
ATTEST:
( � �- 9
Recording Secretary
ti
D nnis R. Luke, Chair
To DeWolf, Cos,
Minutes of Administrative Liaison Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Page 4 of 4 Pages