Supervisors discuss mileage reimbursements

Due to questions regarding mileage claims, the Jones County Supervisors met with Lucia Herman, Community Services director, to discuss the matter. 

During the Jan. 14 board meeting, Supervisor Joe Oswald raised the question, noting that the last couple of mileage reimbursement requests for Community Services have been “pretty healthy.” Oswald said the county purchased a vehicle for the department. 

“How’s it being used?” asked Oswald. 

Herman said with four people in the office and only one vehicle, not everyone has access when needed. 

“It depends on where we’re going,” she said of using the county vehicle. “If one person is gone, our times overlap, and we always have mileage when our trips overlap.” 

With one of the employees living in Linn County, Herman said they try and schedule appointments to Cedar Rapids toward the end of the day. That employee doesn’t take the county vehicle because it would stay in Linn County overnight. However, Herman said they do seek mileage reimbursement for the one-way trip. 

“A lot of the time we have emergency hospital mental health appointments after hours,” said Herman. “We’re on comp time.” 

“I just hope you’re using the county vehicle as much as you can and on long trips,” urged Oswald. 

Herman said the staff always talks about where they’re going at the start of the week to plan for usage of the vehicle. 

“When we bought the vehicle, we had two in that office,” noted Supervisor Wayne Manternach. “Now, we have four and they’re taking longer trips.” 

Herman said she does plan to increase her departmental budget not only for an additional employee and mileage, but to cover children’s mental health as well. 

In other county business: 

• The board appointed Anamosa Mayor Rod Smith to the East Central Iowa Council of Governments Board of Directors. 

• The board appointed Kurt Andreesen to the Compensation Commission for eminent domain proceedings. 

• The board corrected action taken during the Jan. 2 meeting regarding the terms of office for Historic Preservation Commission members. Terms for Rose Rohr, James Krapfl, and Joyce Fishwild will expire Dec. 31, 2020. Terms for Tim Fay, Norm Zimmerman, and Dave Balster will expire Dec. 31, 2022. 

• The board received three bids for the two-year lease of the county farms owned by Jones County and the Solid Waste Commission. Bids ranged from $27,500 to $37,200. The board approved the highest bidder, Christopher Hosch with a bid of $37,200. 

The current lease is $38,600. 

The landfill will approve bids during their February meeting. 

• The board approved a bid from Wilson Group Inc. for $476,500 to replace all of the windows at the courthouse. They were the low bidder out of three bids submitted. 

County Auditor Janine Sulzner reminded the board that they could not spend more than $600,000 on this project because the county is borrowing the funds. 

“We have a $14,500 cushion,” she said. 

• Sulzner discussed the closeout of the Wapsipinicon Trail Project with the board, specifically with the project contractor, Boomerang, holding up the project. 

“This has been ongoing for quite a while,” said Sulzner. “There are a few things left, but we have funding held up on this.” She said Parks to People is not happy with the holdup. 

“They won’t pay until the DOT audit is complete,” she explained. “It just looks bad for us and future Parks to People projects.” 

Oswald suggested a representative from Boomerang visit with the board at their next meeting. 

Furthermore, Sulzner said the last payment to Boomerang can’t be released until the audit is done. The audit can’t happen until all of the work is complete and the last items are addressed. 

“This is a lot of financial risk for us,” warned Sulzner.