Chambana Sun

Champaign County Strategic Planning Committee met May 31.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

Members Present: Jim Goss, Robert A. King, Pattsi Petrie, Jon Rector, C. Pius Weibel (Chair)

Members Absent: None

Others Present: Kay Rhodes (Administrative Assistant), Tami Ogden (Deputy County Administrator/Finance), Rick Snider (County Administrator)

Call to Order:

Weibel called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

Roll Call:

Goss, Petrie, Rector, and Weibel were present at the time of roll call, establishing the presence of a quorum.

Approval of Agenda/Addendum:

Motion by Rector to approve the agenda; seconded by Goss. Motion carried with unanimous support.

Approval of Minutes:

Motion by Petrie to approve the Strategic Planning Committee minutes of April 25, 2017; seconded by Rector. Motion carried with unanimous support.

Public Participation:

There was no public participation.

Review Department Head Input:

The following departments provided input: Circuit Court, County Clerk, GIS, Highway, IT, Planning & Zoning, Public Defender, Recorder, Supervisor of Assessments, and the Treasurer.

The committee agreed that overall, most of the requests involved staffing and software, which require funding. Snider said that the ERP System seemed to be a priority for most departments. Goss asked if the ERP had a tax cycle module that both the Supervisor of Assessments and the Treasurer requested. Snider believed the company did offer a tax cycle module, but it was not included in the company’s initial quote of $1.8 million. Weibel asked if the CAMA System was another module. Snider explained that this system request was on a smaller scale and expected to cost $20-$30,000.

Weibel suggested a review of each response and categorization of the requests. King entered the meeting at 4:20 p.m.

Circuit Court-

• Courtroom Evidence Presentation Systems Updated/Expanded – Equipment

• Jury Box Chair Replacement – Equipment-Estimated Cost $30,000

• Foreign/Sign Language Interpreters – Staff

Snider noted that the Circuit Court had tried linking an interpreter from a remote location, through video conferencing. However, the staffing and technology were lacking so it did not work out. Discussion followed regarding costs to hire full-time interpreters or on-call. Ogden pointed out that sometimes an interpreter is hired and then the case is dismissed.

County Clerk-

• Restore Programmer/Analyst Position and Transfer to County Clerk Budget - Staff

Snider agreed that there is a need for this position, however he believed that other departments could also benefit from it as a shared resource and the county would be better served if the position were under the Information Technology department. He stated that the core functions of IT need to be more centralized in order to operate more efficiently.

• State level – Vote Center Legislation – N/A for purposes of this exercise, although supported.

• Replace Accounting System - ERP System

GIS-

• Replace County Tax and Accounting System – ERP System

• Competitive Salaries for Skilled/Professional Positions – Staff

• Implement Central Document Management System – Software

Snider said that a Document Management System (DMS) is an excellent idea however, it is a large project and another large expense. He suggested that the county continue with Cloud servers and Office 365 SharePoint as a bridge towards a DMS.

• Implement Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity for County Systems – Partial plan

Snider said that departments should be encouraged to utilize the Cloud servers and the current shared drives could be moved over to the Cloud as well.

Highway-

• Compensation packages for higher level professionals-Staff/Salaries

King asked if a salary survey had been performed recently. Snider responded that a comprehensive salary study for Champaign County had not been done. There may be areas in Champaign County government that are below market.

• Electronic fillable forms – in-house

Ogden stated that Highway staff should be able to do this with a small amount of training and the appropriate software.

Information Technology-

• Move off IBM iSeries Platform – ERP System

Snider pointed out that other programs run off the AS400 system as well: jail management software- New World and the County website.

• Implement more Cloud Based Technology Systems

Petrie asked about the total cost of all the technology improvements. Snider indicated it was in excess of $5 million. He said much of it has been listed in the IT response. Snider noted that the phone system listed in the response should also be replaced with VoIP system. He estimated the phone system cost at $500,000 to $1 million depending on the configuration.

The committee discussed storage of digital evidence for access to the State’s Attorney, Public Defender, and all County police agencies. Snider suggested housing these files at METCAD.

• IT Staffing Level is Inadequate – Staff

Planning & Zoning-

• Increase Staff for MS4 Program – Staff

Ogden pointed out that the County Board approved a budget amendment this year to extend the time for temporary staff to work on the MS4 Program. Petrie supported more staffing and noted that other counties contracted their MS4 Program work out.

• Reestablish budget for interns – Staff

• Add FTE for enforcement and compliance - Staff

Public Defender-

• Add a Social worker/Case Manager Position – Staff

• Access to U Drive for Digital Discovery Files – in house

• Additional Office Space – Office Space

Recorder-

• Integration of Data between County Offices – Software

Snider indicated that Mr. Shelden was interested in purchasing a particular software for his office. Ogden added that Mr. Shelden wants to move 2 FTE positions out of his Automation Fund into General Corporate Fund. This would enable him to purchase the desired software for his office. These positons were originally in the general fund until the budget cuts were implemented.

Supervisor of Assessments-

• Tax System Software - Software

• CAMA System - Software

• Designated FOIA Officer/Department

Ogden noted that Ms. Bates had eliminated the Chief Deputy Assessor position last year and planned to utilize the savings to help purchase the CAMA system. However, since that time, Ms. Bates had done some more research and the costs were higher than expected. She also had concerns about integration with the rest of the county systems so she decided to place this project on hold.

King left the meeting at 5:16 p.m.

Treasurer-

• ERP System

• Tax Cycle Software

• Move Office

Next Meeting Date:

Rhodes would contact members to determine the best date two weeks from now at 4:00 p.m.

Other Business:

There was no other business.

Adjournment:

Weibel adjourned the meeting at 5:27 p.m.

http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/StrategicPlanning/2017/170515_Meeting/170515Minutes.pdf