MASWCD MINUTES
November 12, 2008
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Present |
Not
Present |
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Steve Radcliff, Area II Kenny Lovelace, Area III Beverly Dometrorch, Area IV George Engelbach, Area V Sharon Gifford, Area VII Steve Huber, Area VIII
Alternate Peggy Lemons, Executive Director |
Fred Feldmann, President Bruce Biermann, Area I Harry Robbins, Area VIII |
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Richard Hoelscher, Area V Alternate Shelly Sumpter, District Employees Association Roger Hansen, Ronny Margason,
Parliamentarian Marie Iiams, Area VI (2:20
pm) Steve Oetting, Past
President (4:15 pm) |
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Due to
the absence of President Feldmann, Vice-President Steve Radcliff welcomed everyone
and called the meeting to order at 1:40 p.m. with a quorum established by roll
call.
It had
been previously requested to record the meetings for accuracy of the
minutes. Beverly Dometrorch motioned no
on the recording. George Engelbach
motioned yes on the recording and pointed out that you can’t make a negative
motion. Kenny Lovelace seconded the
motion to record the meeting. Motion
carried with a vote of 3 yes and 2 no.
The meeting will be recorded.
George
Engelbach motioned to approve the meeting agenda. Motion died due to no second. Beverly Dometrorch moved to revise the agenda
to include bringing up the items tabled at the last meeting and adding a new
item of election of Supervisors. Sharon
Gifford seconded the motion. Motion
carried with a vote of 5-1 with George Engelbach casting the opposing
vote. Agenda was revised.
The
minutes from the September 9, 2008 meeting were approved as mailed. The motion was made by Kenny Lovelace,
seconded by Beverly Dometrorch. Motion
carried unanimously (6-0).
A
treasurer report prepared by
NRCS REPORT: Roger Hansen reported their budget is still
on a continuing resolution through March 6, 2009. There are a lot of unknowns, and have been
told to be very conservative. They are
not sure if a full budget will be passed in March or another continuing
resolution. No earmarked funds are
released until there is a full budget approved. EWP funding will help close the
budget gap. They are on limited travel
with no hiring. Roger also commented on the
recent national financial audit for NRCS.
He stated that due to the level of funding they are now receiving that
triggered this audit. The auditors
expect a lot of paper trail and want to be able to know exactly what the fund
balance is at the end of a quarter. Due
to findings in the audit, there are $100 million of open obligations that need
to be addressed. Between now and
December 29, they will have to open all case files, answer questions, document
and send to headquarters. There are over
10,000 case files to go through. He
stated that audits will now be ongoing, hopefully everyone will be able to get
back to the field in January. He stated
he planned to talk more about this at the Business Meeting at Tan-Tar-A. Beverly Dometrorch stated she had received
concerns from districts in her area asking if there were things they needed to
worry about concerning the memorandum of understanding. Roger stated, yes, probably do. He talked about the partnership, it works
best when look at the work as one big program, not a lot of individual
programs.
Marie Iiams joined the meeting at 2:20 p.m.
Roger
stated that the Technician II’s will still have NRCS job approval authority,
will not be having authority for large jobs, but will do terraces under a
certain size. He stated he is not as
concerned with the Technician II certification as he is with keeping the
offices working together as 1 team. He
stated NRCS will continue to offer training as always to District
employees. There is plenty of work to be
done for both programs. George Engelbach
questioned about the 6-month liming requirement, he stated he wanted
clarification that it was an NRCS requirement not a Commission
requirement. When asked, Roger commented
on his recent award – Secretary’s Honor Award.
Six individuals received this award in the
Ronny
Margason, professional parliamentarian joined the meeting. She was asked to review the current bylaws
due to questions as to if an election for officers was required this year or
next year. She stated in reviewing the
bylaws she saw several areas that needed clarification. A lengthy discussion ensued about proposing
changes to the current bylaws and going over the bylaws section by section to
see what should be changed. A motion was
made by Kenny Lovelace, seconded by Beverly Dometrorch to approve payment of
$150, mileage at the state mileage rate and Tuesday lunch, to cover the cost
for having Ronny Margason’s work so far and have her at the Business Meeting at
Tan-Tar-A. Motion carried unanimously (7-0).
Brad McCord, Bill Wilson, Mike Well, Steve Oetting
and Henry Heinze joined the meeting at 4:15 p.m.
COMMISSION REPORT: Bill Wilson stated the next
meeting is December 1 at Tan-Tar-A, also the joint meeting with the MASWCD Board
in the morning on December 1. They are
helping with a couple of workshops at the conference. The proposed Supervisor election rules were
tabled. They are proceeding on with the
cost-share rules changes and equipment incentive program rules. There was nothing changed on the pond policy,
but they are looking at ways to clarify some issues.
Mike
Wells, DNR Deputy Department Director for Water Resources, stated Fred Feldmann
had called him and asked how DNR was addressing the issues raised recently on
the work study and allegations related to the work study. He stated that after the Employee meeting
allegations DNR asked an internal audit group to do an audit review of the BIS
company. There were 2 program staff
assigned to help compile the information from the work study into the
spreadsheet. They were never told to
change any numbers and there was no pre-determined outcome. One employee had been a coordinator for some
of the counties participating in the work study that had shown up with 0’s in some
categories and had pointed it out to the contractor. Mr. Wells said he took information from the
Warren and Pulaski work study figures and couldn’t track it. He stated he did have some concerns, and
asked the auditors to look at all 22 of the work study counties
information. They saw some incomplete
forms or forms not filled out properly.
Obviously there was a strong disconnect between the information provided
and what was presented. The contractor
had made notes from personal interviews, which the auditors say is an accepted
procedure. The contract did not require
the contractor to keep the interview notes.
He has agreed to try to find his notes.
Shelly Sumpter indicated the employees involved have told her there was
no discussion on hours in the interviews.
Chris and Joyce did what the contractor told them to put on the
spreadsheet. The original intent of the
study was staffing levels, adequate compensation for employees and addressing
the issue of cost-share dollars spent compared to funds spent for
salaries. In the audit review they
wanted to make sure nothing illegal had occurred, the auditors are not
recommending taking anyone to court, they have concerns but don’t feel there is
sufficient evidence for any charges.
Bottom-line is that they are not prepared today to ask for a full audit,
not overly optimistic they will get the interview notes. The work study was never intended to be used
for anything more than a snapshot of the workload, making sure they have the
right people in the right place based on the needs of that county. The Commission is struggling with what to do
now. In looking at the qualifications of
the contractor, he was an efficiency expert, no reason to say he was not
capable. He was not familiar with
districts and what is federal and what is state. He stated they did ask the Office of
Administration to make sure everything was handled properly on the DNR
end. How do we put this behind us? Mr. Wells also stated that the 319 program is
not making a request for proposals this year in agriculture due to trying to
work with the SALT funding and come up with a program for a 40% match.
Kenny
Lovelace stated he felt the only way to put this behind us is to get rid of
Bill Foster. Beverly Dometrorch stated
it would help to not have any more Memo 44 issues (saying we support an issue
or approve something when we have not discussed it). Mike Wells stated they wanted Bill Foster to
get out in the Districts. He stated they
also felt like the coordinators were not coordinating. They are hopefully are trying to improve
communications. In the past month any
communication sent out has been reviewed by Mr. Wells. He stated he doesn’t see DNR taking any aggressive
personnel actions between now and January 12.
It was suggested a document that outlines the Commission role and the
Program Office role might be a good idea.
He stated they need to respond to every piece of communication. Everyone feels the door to communication has
been shut. Putting something out to the
Legislature retracting the work study information would be good Shelly Sumpter
suggested.
DISTRICT EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATION REPORT: Shelly
Sumpter stated they are working on the Trade Show for the Training
Conference. There are 18 booths so far,
which is down from last year. She stated
she has been getting questions on insurance, what about the State Association
getting bids and handling the insurance.
There is a lot of concern about the Commission DVD’s being altered,
public comments from the end of the meeting.
She stated the Attorney General has information about the work study
process, also Kenny Hulshoff. A new DNR
Director will be coming on and they are taking the issue seriously. She said they are looking at criminal charges
potentially, bringing in an outside attorney to handle the issue.
MDC REPORT: No report.
Old Business:
Plans
for the Training Conference were discussed.
Quite a lot of pages need to be printed for the conference bags, about
12,500 copies. A bid from a local
printer to print these copies and the program booklets is approximately
$1100.00. George Engelbach made a motion
to approve this printing bid. Kenny
Lovelace seconded the motion. Motion
carried unanimously (8-0). Will check
the bylaws, if not required by the bylaws, the internal financial audit will be
done at the next regular meeting following the Conference. Steve Oetting made this motion, seconded by
Beverly Dometrorch. Motion carried
unanimously (8-0). The Board discussed
having a cash bar at the Tuesday banquet.
An approximate cost is $75 for the bartender. A motion was made by Steve Oetting, seconded
by George Engelbach, to pay for the bartender if it can’t be negotiated for
free for cash bar at the banquet. Motion
carried with a vote of 7 yes and Sharon Gifford opposing.
New Business:
The
discussion of who will be attending the NACD meetings will be held for the
meeting at Tan-Tar-A.
Committee Reports: Beverly Dometrorch reported she
had attended the quarterly FAC Meeting.
Area Reports: Marie Iiams stated she had been
defeated at her area election. She had
been approached by people in the area asking about the legitimacy of some
Districts travel expenses to attend meetings when they felt they were not
attending any of the meetings. She also
stated she had been contacted by an employee who stated they wanted her to know
that all employees were overworked, was happy with their job but was concerned
about personal business being done on official time.
Beverly
Dometrorch stated she wished the Commission would step up and do their
job. The family health insurance cost is
outrageous. She was requested to attend
a District board meeting and was asked about the survey and the 5-year needs assessment. She indicated they stated they preferred a
3-year plan, not 5 years. She stated
someone had indicated to her that they had heard a rumor there was going to be
recruitment for educated farmers and that they would be paid.
Kenny
Lovelace stated his area had expressed concerns on Mr. Foster.
Correspondence: There was no correspondence,
only outstanding bills. A motion was
made by Kenny Lovelace to pay all 4 outstanding bills. Marie Iiams seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously (8-0).
Other Business: A motion was made by Kenny Lovelace
to no longer use the BIS work study recently completed. Sharon Gifford seconded this motion. Motion carried with 6 votes yes and 2
opposing. Kenny Lovelace made a motion
to bring off the table the motion from last meeting to send a letter to the
Commission requesting removal of Bill Foster.
Sharon Gifford seconded the motion.
Motion carried with a vote of 5 yes and 3 opposed. A roll call vote on the original motion
passed 5 yes and 3 opposed. George
Engelbach – no, Steve Huber – yes, Kenny Lovelace – yes, Sharon Gifford – yes,
Beverly Dometrorch – yes, Marie Iiams – no, Steve Oetting – no, Steve Radcliff
– yes.
The
next regular meeting will be held on Monday, December 1, at Tan-Tar-A Resort in
Respectfully
submitted,
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____________________________ Peggy
Lemons, Executive Director |
___________________________ Steve
Radcliff, Vice-President |