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STATE OF WYOMING ) LANDER, WYOMING ) ss. OFFICE OF THE FREMONT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COUNTY OF FREMONT ) April 21, 2008 The Board of Fremont County Commissioners met in Special Session at 9:00 a.m. with the following members present: Chairman Douglas L. Thompson, Vice-Chairman Pat Hickerson, Jane Adamson, Keja Whiteman and Dennis Heckart. Also present was County Clerk and Clerk of the Board Julie A. Freese. Chairman Thompson announced the purpose of the meeting was to hold budget hearings. County Coroner—Edward McAuslan. Last year’s budget without rental payments was $254,790 and this year’s request without rental payments is $288,188. This includes a total of $4,607 of approved costs for the Elected Official’s salary increase plus benefits and health insurance increases. This budget after those costs is increased by 11.30%. Goals of the Coroner’s Office are to reduce the high mortality rate for Fremont County. They are involved in Suicide Prevention, Child Fatality Review, Sudden and Unexplained Infant Death and Substance Abuse Prevention. Another goal is to be better prepared for mass fatality incidents. A Memorandum of Understanding has been negotiated with the Wyoming State Training School for the use of a building to house the bodies of deceased individuals collected during such an event. They would also like to add another vehicle to their fleet. Under their five year plan, the Coroner’s Office: 1) feels their service need will increase; 2) need an additional vehicle to help accommodate the service increase; 3) increase their staff by one part time employee to ease the work load for office staff based on increased service; and 4) some remodeling will be required for the building at the Wyoming State Training School as well as security. Salary increases are up by 10.58%. Commissioner Hickerson asked McAuslan if he ever looks through his list of deputy coroners and takes inactive names off of the list. McAuslan does look over the list at least once a year, but he likes to have a large list of people available to work a case. They call people on the list and if they can’t work, they have to find others on the list that can work. They aren’t paid unless they actually work a case, so he likes to have a large list to help find people to work these cases. County Buildings—Phil Huff. Last year’s budget without rental payments was $653,284. This year’s request without rental payments is $694,883. Health insurance increases that are approved are $6,109. The budget without approved amounts is up by 5.43%. Salary increases are requested at 9.33%. A part time custodian is also requested to take place of the contractual cleaning position. Goals for this next fiscal year are to paint the Riverton Public Health Nurses building, seal coat the front and rear parting lots and re-stripe and completely finish the Veterans War Memorial. Under the 5 year plan, Huff would like to 1) Replace the two wheel drive with a four wheel drive; 2) increase the salaries of his custodians; 3) complete the Veterans War Memorial; and 4) build a new office complex in Riverton. County Buildings—Detention—Phil Huff. Last year’s budget was $285,667. This year’s budget is $285,629. He requested 10% in salary increases. After approved health insurance rates, this budget is down .69%. In Phil’s goals he would like to get the parking lot a new seal coat this year and to finish the handrails. Phil was requested to return at some time after reviewing the endowment money available with the jail supervisor to determine what they might need to use it on this next year. County Assessor—Eileen Oakley. Last year’s budget without rental payments was $763,648. This year’s budget without rental payments is $853,877. After approved costs for Health insurance and Elected Official’s raises in the amount of $10,836, this budget is increased by 11.09%. Increased costs of this budget are in fuel, postage and the contract with T.Y. Pickett who appraises the industrial plants. Other costs are salary increases which are up by 10%. Eileen has increased the time of one employee from half time to ¾ time. Their goal is to continue to visit and value all property on the new CAMA system. Their GIS system is one of the best in the state and Fremont County is one of the few counties that have completed mapping 100% of the ownership parcels. They have had this done for several years and it is now interfaced with the CAMA system. Now that people are aware this is available, helping the public get maps has been increasing as well. Veteran’s exemptions have increased the amount of personnel time by going from 474 in 1999 to 1,127 last year due to new legislation. They have contracted with a mailing service to mail out their assessment notices which will go out this Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Under their five year plan, Oakley would like: 1) to replace their car used by their appraisers; and 2) provide good wages for her staff. Thanks to the Legislature paying for their state CAMA system, she does not anticipate having any major purchases in the future. It was noted that the Financial Department still needs to get the Fixed Assets report from the Department. Lander Circuit Court—Lorelie Calvert. Last year’s budget without rental payments was $10,650. This year’s request without rental payments is $12,155. This budget is up 14.13%. They have requested the installation of a closed circuit television setup and an intercom system. Both of these combined would be $4,605. Other increases are in the postage line item. District Court—Rachelle Fontaine. Last year’s budget without rental payments was $184,702. This year’s request without rental payments is $194,692. After approved costs of $301 for health insurance increases, this budget is increased by 5.25%. Goals of the District Court are to continue courtroom upgrades. These upgrades would include expanding the jury box, expand the speaker system, replacing chairs or benches in front of the courtroom, and to maintain the video cameras and monitors. They would like to improve the Elizabeth Kail Reading Room as well. Due to increased activity in Sublette County, the State will be placing a District Court Judge in Sublette County. That judge will be able to preside over cases in Fremont County as needed. In their five year plan, they anticipate that another courtroom or office space will be required in the next 2-3 years. A salary increase of 9.96% is also requested. Revenue will be decreased as the GAL reimbursements will now be handled by the Public Defender’s Office. A letter received from the State Public Defender notified the county that their costs for GAL will be 25% of the cost of the services. Planning Department—Ray Price, Michael Peters, Mila Ready, Mikki Barnes, and Philomena Sington. They were joined by Planning Commission members Diane Frank, Bob Joslin and Kristin Paulsen. Last year’s budget without rental payments was $280,359. This year’s request without rental payments is $305,328. After approved costs of $2,553 for the health insurance increase, this budget is increased from last year by 8%. Salary increase requests are proposed at a rate of 12.06%. They have increased from three subdivision permits in 2001 to 56 in 2007. Small wastewater permits from 111 in 2001 to 204 in 2007. Addresses given out in 2001 was 152 and 209 were processed in 2007. Their goals are to continue the quality of service that they have been giving. Maintaining quality staff requires equitable salaries and benefits. The Wastewater staff has been educating the public on the best methods of wastewater disposal for our area. They would like to enhance their skills in customer service for all of the planning programs. For their 5 year plan: 1) They expect the service demands to remain high and constant over the next 5 years. If the Land Use Plan is updated or any other land use management plan is in the future, there will need to be expertise and additional staff to accomplish this; 2) They need to replace their copier and to get one new vehicle this year. They are also wanting a hand held PC and the Arcpad software to take the current addressing layer file out to the field and make real time changes to the addressing layer. A document scanner and external hard drive for the purpose of archiving small wastewater permits in an electronic format is also planned. 3) The county may wish to review current application and permit fees.
/s/ DOUGLAS L. THOMPSON, CHAIRMAN FREMONT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
/s/ JULIE A. FREESE, COUNTY CLERK AND CLERK OF THE BOARD
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