Board of Supervisors begin tightening their belt

MT. PLEASANT — The Henry County Board of Supervisors discussed potential cost-saving measures such as lowering mileage reimbursement, doing away with cellphone reimbursements, reducing board of supervisor meetings to once a week, and further considering the compensation board’s recommendation for elected official raises at their regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 2.

Faced with a need for Henry County lower their general basic levy from $4.83 per $1,000 taxable valuation to $3.50 per $1,000 taxable valuation by FY 2028-2029, the supervisors began their attempts at cutting back.

“The board is looking to hopefully taking it down 66 cents of the $1.33 we’re over this year, then the next three years or the other,” Auditor Shelly Barber stated.

While Moeller stated that losing employees seemed inevitable, they started small at this weeks meeting.

Supervisor Chair Greg Moeller began the discussion by reading minutes from the Compensation Board’s Dec. 13 meeting.

“There are comments back and forth between the members about the situation hat the county is facing,” Moeller stated. “All the county departments are very professional, and all deserving of their salaries and all employees are very much appreciated. The board felt it was important to allow the supervisors adequate compensation to all employees of the county, it officers and elected officials but the board also recognizes the difficult budgeting situation that has been thrust upon the supervisors.”

According to Moeller’s reading of the minutes, Amy Cornell made a motion to allow the supervisors to set an across-the-board maximum of 4% raises for elected officials. The motion was seconded by Jeff Thomas and passed unanimously.

Supervisors Chad White and Marc Lindeen clarified that approving these minutes did not approve that percentage of raise.

Lindeen motioned to approved the minutes and expressed gratitude for the work of the compensation board.

“I think it would be a big problem if the elected officials got a 4% raise and the rest of us got zero,” Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin chimed in later in the meeting. “I think that would not look good and I think that’d be regretful.”

“I think that would be very selfish and bad for us and for the county as a whole,” Moeller responded to Van Dorin’s concerns. “I appreciate your input.”

The supervisors decided to have further conversation on this topic with the department heads at their monthly meeting later the same week.

“Thursday is probably a more appropriate time to discuss what we are going to do with wages,” Moeller said. “So all the departments are here to hear what we have to say.”

They did, however, make immediate changes in an attempt to bring down the costs for the county by lowering the mileage reimbursement rate from 62.5% per mile to $0.50 per mile.

According to Moeller this reimbursement is used when county employees choose to use their private vehicles to conduct business.

Barber says this mileage reimbursement “adds up to a lot depending on whether they ride together or with other people.”

Moeller suggested reducing the reimbursement to $0.50 to be on par with the Department of Administrative Services.

“The county has a county car for travel,” White commented. “The person using it wouldn’t incur any mileage or anything and we encourage the use of that car at any time. It’s readily available here for check out for that purpose.”

Lindeen made the motion to lower the mileage reimbursement, White seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

Moeller brought up the topic of cellphone reimbursements for consideration to the board.

“Currently we’re reimbursing individuals $15 per month across the county for conducting business on their personal cellphones,” Moeller said. “We all have phones in our offices, and I understand sometimes we’re out on the road, but I believe that is another portion. It’s not a lot of money, but it still is money that comes out of the general budget.”

“We have a lot of money to cut,” Moeller said as the board considered cutting the reimbursement. “How we get there is going to be extremely difficult.”

Lindeen commented that this change might not be plausible in the middle of the current fiscal year, but the supervisors found enough merit in the idea that they unanimously agreed to do away with the cellphone reimbursement effective July 1.

Finally, the supervisors discussed lowered costs by cutting their official meetings from twice a week to once a week.

“The reason we’re going to try to go to once a week is to reduce our publication costs,” Moeller explained.

Due to the crunchtime of budgeting and already scheduled agenda items, the trio opted to wait until May 1 to reduce their regularly scheduled meetings to only Thursdays at 9 a.m.

“We will continue with twice a week meeting Tuesday and Thursday as it is up through and including the first day of May,” Moeller said.

Additionally, the board clarified that special meetings could still take place and individuals will always be able to call in and ask to speak with the supervisors as they have before this.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com