DRAFT

Finance Committee

Minutes

July 7, 2010

            The DeKalb County Finance Committee met on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 @ 7:00p.m., in the Administration Building's Conference Room East.  Chairman Michael Haines called the meeting to order.  Members present were Ken Andersen, John Hulseberg, Paul Stoddard, Michael Stuckert, Ruth Anne Tobias and Mark Todd.  Mr. Scott Newport was absent.  Others present were Gary Hanson, Jim Scheffers and Joan Berkes-Hanson.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Moved by Mr. Andersen, seconded by Mr. Hulseberg, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from May, 2010.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

            Moved by Mr. Todd, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNT PLAN AMENDMENT

Mr. Gary Hanson, Deputy County Administrator, said that there are three amendments needed to the cafeteria plan, which include Michelle’s Law, Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.  This allows employees to re-direct some of their earnings into a special account which avoids federal taxes.  Dependent care, non-covered medical expenses and medical premiums are the current ones that employees can re-direct earnings to.  The federal government requires all of these things to be incorporated.  Our plan administrator is Sikich.  He is asking that the committee send this item to the full board for approval.  He did say also, that he is trying to find out if this is retroactive or not.

            Chairman Haines asked Mr. Hanson if this would affect the budget at all

            Mr. Hanson said no

            Moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to forward this recommendation to the full board for approval.

RECOMMENDATION TO CLOSE OUT THE WORKING CASH AND BUILDING FUNDS   

            Mr. Hanson explained to the committee that it is not unusual to create funds or close them out, but the auditors have asked us to do this more formally, particularly the working cash fund, because it was actually generated from a tax levy many years ago.   This fund was around before he was employed by the County in 1983.  As he understands it, the legislature allowed county governments to do a one time tax levy to create a working cash flow.  It has actually become cumbersome over the years because our General Fund really handles all of the cash flow needs if we need to loan it to another department.  So what he is suggesting is to do away with this line item.  If we need to borrow money for any reason in the future we will simply use the General Fund.  The other fund is the building fund, which we will close out during the year, per the FY2010 Adopted Budget. 

            Chairman Haines said the auditors recommended that things like this - to close out a fund - is to be done through the committee and that is why we are doing this here tonight.

            Moved by Mr. Hulseberg, seconded by Mr. Todd, and it was carried unanimously

 to approve the attached recommended motion.

FY2011 BUDGET CALENDAR

            Mr. Hanson explained to the committee that what he and Mr. Bockman are trying to change on the budget calendar is to have the departments start their budgets two weeks later, because he and Ray want to issue very specific target budgets and what their staffing levels will be.  They anticipate that they will have to cut the budget from where we are.  The only two changes to the calendar are the two items circled on the handout sheet tonight (see online at www.dekalbcounty.org). 

            Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Mr. Andersen, and it was carried unanimously to accept the FY2011 Budget Calendar.

ADJOURNMENT

            Moved by Mr. Andersen, seconded by Ms. Tobias, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

                                                                        Michael Haines, Chairman

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