The Board of Island County Commissioners met in Special Session on Friday,
September 16, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. in the Island County Courthouse Annex, Hearing Room, 1 N. E. 6^th Street, Coupeville, Wa. Commission members Mike Shelton, Chairman, and William J. Byrd, Member, attended; Commissioner Wm. L. McDowell was absent due to a prior meeting commitment.

The purpose of the special session was to conduct a budget workshop. Budget workshop times are approximate and may be adjusted. Proposed budget and supplemental requests are taken under advisement by the Board; no final decisions expected as a result of budget workshops. Hand-outs are on file with the Clerk of the Board.

Presentation by: Cathy Caryl; Chris Nelson

Hand-outs: Preliminary spread sheet – Office Equipment

Expenditures: Line items proposed for increases total $4,682, including the following:

Supplemental Budget Request. Adequate funding so that all PC’s and software are on a 3-4 year replacement cycle. Proposal would be to replace 1/3 of the computers and operating software per year, and sufficient funding within the small tools budget to purchase standard equipment when it fails in a Current Expense department. Request the capability to roll over any remaining budget into the next year in order to account for unexpected equipment failures and unplanned purchases – equipment breaks unexpectedly, for example, the Camano Island phone switch which had to be replaced but was not a budgeted expenditure. For actual functioning work station PCs, four years is pretty much the life of the system in that capacity [4-year usability for applications and for the requirements placed on that system for a standard work station]. Estimated cost would be around $150,000 each year (above and beyond the Office Equipment Budget which normally runs between $50,000 - $70,000 per year) which would include not only replacement computers but also having the capacity to keep current on the version of Microsoft Office Suite.

Telecommunications (Budget Workshop page (Budget Workbook page 208-209)

Proposed same amount as 2005 budget. Includes all networking, internet access, CAMA (911) system

and support of circuits and phone lines.

Office Equipment (Budget Workbook page 138)

Handed out a [very] preliminary spread sheet for equipment purchases requested by the various Current

Expense departments. Costs associated with the requests have not been estimated at this point. The item "Ultimate Call Accounting System" is to replace the call accounting system (used to bill departments every month for long distance calls and connected to the phone switch). Current system is a DOS based system and does not allow for reports desired.

Sheriff’s equipment upgrade in the amount of $60,000 has been included [required in order to maintain use of database integrated with ICOM dispatch for 3 jails and all law enforcement].

District Court is requesting video conferencing for second courtroom which will need further discussion [see page 68 in the notebook for District Court’s supplemental budget request].

ICS Upgrade. Dollars were set aside within the capital budget last year for the ICS upgrade and that is still in the budget. Propose looking into doing that upgrade to the existing system to a new platform before the end of the year. This would be an interim system prior to looking at any other types of new systems should that be the decision. Data would be converted so it is on a sequel platform so at some point could easily be converted to something else. It would be less expensive [est. $50,000] because this conversion has been written specifically to move this data to that platform; it moves it at least one step closer to being able to convert it to another accounting system. Current equipment is almost 15 years’ old and constantly having to be maintained; moving it onto a sequel platform will eliminate about 80% of the maintenance. The $50,000 for this upgrade is a good price and money well spent even if the County decides to buy a new accounting system next year; however that question cannot be totally answered until bids are received from different companies. It is not just the software it is the hardware and process as well.

Follow-up:

1. Ms. Caryl to discuss specific request further with District Court. With only one location in the jail for video conferencing, determine what, if any, the advantage would be having two locations at District Court.
2. Auditor requests that Ms. Caryl discuss proposed ICS upgrade with Anne LaCour in order to know what impact this will have on day to day work

SHERIFF/JAIL (Budget Workbook page 188-201)

Presentation by: Mike Hawley

Hand-outs: Island County Sheriff’s Office 2006 Budget Presentation

Overhead presentation [hand-out] included information and charts on:

• Number of commissioned deputies in the last 15 years had a net gain on only 3 deputies. A chart was included to show the 2004 commissioned staffing levels compared with other counties. Demographics working against us; last five years the average staff age increased by 4 years

• Of duties handled and investigations in 2005 only about 11% directly crime related

Island County Sheriff’s Office mission is to prevent crime and disorder. Deputies now are working alone without backup, which is unacceptable. Calls will continue to increase. Note that Island County’s crime rate is higher, for example, than Cowlitz County; the idea Island County has the lowest crime rate is gone.

Sheriff’s request for 2006 includes:

DRUG SEIZURE FUND

No budget proposed

No budget proposed

No budget proposed

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

ISLAND COUNTY, WASHINGTON

______________________________

Mike Shelton, Chairman

__ ____________________________

William J. Byrd, Member

ATTEST:

_______________________

Elaine Marlow, Clerk of the Board