County Board OKs creation of director position

By a split 5-2 vote, the Gage County Board of Supervisors Wednesday created an administrative services director position but must wait to see if there will be enough money available in the 2008-2009 county budget to fund it.

In a separate 5-2 vote, the County Board also passed a related resolution creating the Gage County Economic Development Fund, which the administrative services director would administer.

“The world has changed and we have to change with it,” said Supervisor Gary Barnard, who presented County Board members with an eight-page document Wednesday outlining plans for the administrator position.

Supervisor Ron Fleecs, another supporter for the plan, said an administrator would be valuable in helping carry out board policies and keeping projects moving.

The two votes against the proposal came from Supervisors David Anderson and Harlan Hagemeier.

The plan creates an Office of Administrative Services which would combine several positions to be administered by a director working out of one office. Barnard said the plan would be flexible to allow for additions or deletions to the administrative services director duties.

The director, who would be appointed by the county’s planning and zoning administrator, would be responsible for making recommendations to the County Board and may act as an advisor to the board.

Among other duties would be assisting the County Board, department heads and other elected officials and planning and developing short- and long-term improvements; assisting the County Board with analyzing proposed state and federal legislation that could affect Gage County; coordinating the county’s activities, programs and projects with cities, villages and townships in the county; and assisting the County Board with strategic planning.

The director would also be appointed Gage County Convention and Visitors Bureau director upon termination of any outstanding contracts with other agencies or entities.

In addition, the director would administer the newly created Gage County Economic Development Fund, which the County Board approved Wednesday by a 5-2 vote. Anderson and Hagemeier also voted no to the Economic Development Fund resolution.

The Economic Development Fund is meant to provide an avenue of additional financial assistance for the exclusive use of infrastructure improvements such as highway, road and bridge construction and public works projects.

Any infrastructure project using money from the fund would be an immediate need situation, a long-term or strategic planning project or a project connected to economic development that may be necessary for the advancement of the county economy.

Plans are to use $30,000 from the General Fund and $30,000 from the Inheritance Fund for initial funding. No projects would be approved for the first year.

In year two, the same amount of money from the two funds would again be allocated, but no more than 40 percent of the Economic Development Fund would be dispersed in the second year.

In year three, the same amount from the two funds would again be allocated, but money dispersed from the Economic Development Fund would not leave a balance of less than $60,000 in the fund.

The funding mechanism shall repeat itself in successive years, while County Board-initiated projects would have priority over other requests.

The administrative director’s salary and benefits would total $46,000 a year. With training and office expenses and other miscellaneous supplies, equipment and vehicle expense, the total expenses would come to $58,000 a year.

Income would come from a $5,000 reduction in the highway superintendent’s salary to make up for loss of planning and zoning duties, a $5,000 increase in planning and zoning fees, $30,000 a year from ending funding for Gage County Economic Development and $18,000 a year from savings from the Gage County Tourism and Visitors Bureau.

Barnard said no property tax money would be used to fund the position. Board Supervisor Rex Adams said, however, a final determination on whether the county could afford the position would come when the county goes through the proposed 2008-2009 budget in another month to six weeks.

Anderson made an unsuccessful attempt to delay voting on the administrative director position until the next County Board meeting on July 16 to give the public more time to make input.

While he thanked Barnard and others for their work in developing the plan, Anderson said he could not support it. He said he thought the position had too many responsibilities, an efficient administrator could mean less active County Board members and in his opinion the system before was not totally broken.

In addition, he questioned where funding would come from.

Adams, however, said the vote Wednesday was solely to create the position, not to fund it.

“Our budget will dictate whether we can afford it,” he said.