DRAFT

December 5, 2012

The DeKalb County Finance Committee met on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 @ 7:00p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman Stephen Reid called the meeting to order and let the record reflect the following members present were Ruth Anne Tobias, Misty Haji-Sheikh, Julia Fullerton, Anthony Cvek, and Charlie Foster. Mr. Paul Stoddard was absent. Others present were Greg Millburg, John Gudmunson, Joan Hanson and Jim Scheffers.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
Mr. Cvek stated that he wanted to amend the November 2012 minutes to reflect that the statement Ms. Tobias made at that meeting (“to have the word account spelled correctly in the minutes of the October 3, 2012 meeting”) needed to be typed under the title, Approval of the Minutes. He also mentioned that Mr. Ken Andersen’s name was not spelled correctly on the first page of the November 2012 minutes under the first paragraph.

It was moved by Mr. Cvek, seconded by Ms. Fauci, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended minutes.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
It was moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. Haji-Sheikh, to approve the agenda. Chairman Reid asked if there were any additions to the agenda. Mr. Cvek asked if another item could be added to the agenda to discuss the Public Defender and the budget. It was carried unanimously to add this item to the agenda.

FLEXIBLE BENEFITS PLAN DOCUMENT
Mr. Gary Hanson, County Administrator, said that last month the county board did approve changes to the Flexible Benefits Plan. On November 27th our consultant sent more changes that need to be added so that we will be compliant with the Federal Law. He would like to take this item to the full county board for approval in January 2013.

It was moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to forward these new changes to the full board for approval.

RECRUITMENT FOR THE FINANCE DIRECTOR
Mr. Gary Hanson, County Administrator, said that currently what the County Code states is that the Deputy County Administrator does some of the County Administrator’s duties and does the Finance Director duties. He is asking that we separate that out so that the Deputy County Administrator’s duties could be assigned to the Finance Director or to other department heads. He feels that it would give the county board more flexibility. That part of it may be the Executive Committee’s decision, he said. We will probably have to discuss this at both committees, Mr. Hanson further stated.

Mr. Hanson said then that you could use it as a stipend, you could add to their range like $15,000 to $20,000. We are not creating a new position.

Mr. Hanson said that the salary range that we are talking about is between $85,000 to $100,000 for the Finance Director and it would be a full-time position.

Mr. Hanson said that the Deputy County Administrator could fill in for the County Administrator.

Mr. Foster asked if we could divide up the DeKalb County Administrator to multiple department heads.

Mr. Hanson said that we could do that depending on a person’s expertise.

The committee then discussed the procedure for the search for a Finance Director. Mr. Hanson said that the ads would be going out to the Daily Chronicle and to a professional financial publication. He said that he would like to get the applications down to 10 or 15 people. The committee then would pick 3 or 4 people to interview. The ad will run in December and again in the beginning of January 2013. He would like to get someone in for interviews at the beginning of February with a choice made shortly thereafter with a start date of March 1, 2013.

The committee consensus showed that they were in favor of the dates proposed by Mr. Hanson.

ADDITION OF PUBLIC DEFENDER IN THE BUDGET
Mr. Cvek asked if we could freeze the budget for 1 lawyer to be approved and added to the budget at the County Board Meeting for the Public Defender’s budget. He wondered if the Law and Justice Committee could take a look at it at their January 2013 meeting.

Mr. Foster said that he appreciates what Mr. Cvek is saying on this specific matter, but the “horse” has left the barn” and the vote was taken.

ADJOURMENT
It was moved by Ms. Fullerton, seconded by Ms. Tobias and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

________________________________
Stephen Reid, Chairman
_____________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary