 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you my name is Adam Payne County administrator and co-host of this program with chairman Roger Distruty and today we're very pleased to have a very important very important what a very important department head with us our director Terry Hanson how you doing Terry very good thank you Adam we were just talking off the air a little bit because Terry's been with us now since June of 2010 so he's working on his third annual budget yet it really does not feel that long at the time has gone very quickly it has gone very quickly now as you know with this program we always strive to bring you a focus of a different department have a different department head here and talk about rules and responsibilities and we're gonna get into that a little bit in a few minutes but Terry please start just sharing a little bit about your background and you know tell us a little bit about yourself well like you you mentioned I started for the county in 2010 and prior to that I worked for the city of Sheboygan as a finance director there and previously I had about eight years of experience as a finance director for another community in northern Minnesota and prior to that I had some state-level experience in Minnesota as well as a legislative auditor so a vast experience in governmental accounting which has served me well in this role and also if I always had an interest in technology which has now served me well in the role of finance and IT director that started in 2011 and a little bit about the new finance and IT department one of the first initiatives you were involved with and I and I give you credit for spearheading it was consolidating our finance department with the IT department tell us a little bit about the new and improved finance and IT department well we view ourselves as a service department and making sure that all the departments in the county are getting the services they need from an accounting level as well as a technology level and so we always look and try to find ways to make other departments jobs easier a little more efficient if possible and I was looking to take advantage of the latest technologies so we deal with anything ranging from general accounting budgeting financial forecasting accounts payable accounts receivable dealing with all of that and then dealing with the D&D operations of their computers if something's not working right we have a help desk set up for that we also do some analytics business analytics to make sure that programs fit the department's needs and work with that so we're kind of a all-in-one shop of accounting and technology needs and we're we're happy to serve the departments and then we also have another side where we look at more of security aspect and making sure things are accounted for properly making sure things are properly presented to the taxpayers to the public and then also making sure that our data is secure and that we do have the security over there and that departments don't do anything that does jeopardize that security on our information so how many staff are in the finance and IT department and what what's your annual budget we have a total of 16 staff and our annual budget is about I think it's around three and a half million dollars between the two divisions and with IT of course that was a standalone department now rolled into finance a division of finance you have a very I think solid division manager talk a little bit about the changes that you made there and the hybrid we have now of a public private partnership yes so we brought in an IT manager to handle the day-to-day operations but what we did was we worked with a local company data max IT to come in and provide the essential technical everyday type of services the help desk the my computer won't start or I'm having problems with this or that and they take care of all those daily issues the routine items they help us on the hardware the software and also network items and then we have the the staff that we have on hand helps a little bit with that but most of their focus is geared towards a more project-based making sure that those core programs that we have are functioning properly that departments are getting what they need and solving their problems so they're working on more value-added and data max is working on the day-to-day operations as far as making sure things are running and ticking as they should and this kind consolidation is really a good transition to the annual budget process that were the three of us are certainly very engaged in one of the most important responsibilities of the finance department is to assist with that budget development and every year the county board's been striving to hold the line on taxes in fact we're the only county as you know that's reduced property taxes for the last five years but just holding the line is challenging and I think one of the keys to our success has not only been collaboration and teamwork but the fact that we've had creative ideas to consolidate or streamline departments so again the work you did there I think was fantastic and of course we have other examples as well so the budget process how does the annual budget process work where are we in the process well we are starting to enter the final stages of the budgeting process and I go back to the beginning of it actually this 2013 budget process that we're in the midst of and right now started actually when we adopted the 2012 budget we had some preliminary numbers put together and looking at what we were going to be tackling in the upcoming year and through those following months through the beginning of 2012 we started updating those as we got better information a few updates on what was happening and then we really started firming up those numbers in April and May and then we present that to the finance committee the executive committee and then also the all chairs and those committees work together to develop goals and guidelines for the upcoming budget process setting the levy target and then that gets presented to the full county board at the leadership forum which is at the beginning of June there the whole county board gets to see exactly what we're looking at where we have been with the prior year financial presentation on how last year shape shook out and then what we're looking at for challenges in this upcoming year and what we're looking at if there's any specific focus points then we go on to the budget kickoff where we include all of our department heads the finance committee and then also any key accounting personnel from the various departments and they go through all the different steps that we have to go through for our budget process and then departments are free to go ahead and work on their own budget they have support from the accountant from the finance department they have accounting leads and then they come and present that to the county administrator and myself and we review that and then they bring it to their liaison committee after that and then they end up having a liaison and finance committee meeting a joint meeting between those two committees to hammer through any changes or approve the budget and then that's kind of the stages that we're at right now in our budget process once the finance committee finalize finishes makes a recommendation that gets presented the full county board we have a public hearing with the public and that's scheduled for October 30th this year and then we go ahead and adopt the final budget and I believe that's November 6th that we're adopting the final budget this year there you have it it's as simple as that it's an extensive process and obviously a process that starts as soon as the county board adopts the the last budget and a lot of behind-the-scenes work a lot of number crunching but there again a lot of collaboration amongst all the department heads and the county board supervisors the liaison committees a lot of opportunity for input we don't see a tremendous amount of representatives of the public at our liaison committees their county board meetings but certainly they're welcome and encouraged to provide input and suggestions but in your three years now that your third year working on the budget process what's your perspective or what have your observation been have been what is it how is it different than other budgets you've developed or helped work on for other units of government this is the most well-established process I've ever worked with in the most comprehensive I think it serves the county very well because whereas in other organizations the budget process isn't as defined there isn't that expectations of what what needs to be done and so that can lead to a little bit of confusion and a little bit of you know when do things need to be done but with the county there is no mistake on when things are going to be done how we go about doing it and then the other thing that is the county does very well at is setting the overall goals and targets for the county as a whole and then also setting those for the individual departments and then making sure that the departments do meet those goals and if there is an exception that needs to be granted that there is a process to go ahead and get that exception approved as well too so it's a very thorough process it looks at everything and the other thing that I like about it too is it's also evolving so it's not etched in stone that this is exactly how we do it we always look for ways to improve it and refine it and make it better and I think that that's what makes this budget process the best process that I've been a part of very nice overview. Thank you Terry. Roger. In the past the Sheboygan County has seen it's equalized property values increase around five percent or more however in the last last year last couple years the property value decrease has been has been lower it has decreased in the past three years how does that affect the county's levy and more importantly how does that affect the taxpayers? Okay well the equalized value decreased last year about one point seven percent which is about a hundred and forty five million dollars worth that that was lost through equalized value and that can have a varying impact on taxpayers essentially depending upon what is happening in their property tax value if their property tax value is decreasing by an equal or a greater amount they should see a decrease in the amount of taxes that are paid to the county however if it's equal or the same or stays the same or is it even increasing in some cases they can expect to pay probably more money to the or more taxes to the county and that's just based upon the value and the fluctuation and how the property tax value system works however there are also other factors in there that can impact that so while that's the general rule there definitely are exceptions to that based upon what's happening in individual taxing jurisdictions. Can you explain the levy limits being a factor for the 2013 budget and what's explained the difference between the state levy limits and we have had self-imposed limits ourselves? Yes the state imposes levy limits so we cannot increase our property taxes any more than the current legislation says zero percent or the net new construction and net new construction is the new value that is added to the tax base so if a new store or new factory is built within the county that that is considered net new construction so we can increase our levy by only that amount is the maximum and for us that year this year it's about point seven eight percent so that equates about three hundred fifty five thousand dollars for the 2013 budget but that is mandated by the state there are a few exceptions to that based upon debt service and based upon consolidating services and there's also a handful of exceptions for specific communities or specific certain situations but for the general part everybody stuck at zero percent now that's different from what the county has done in previous years last year for instance the county could have increased its taxes by point five percent higher than what then the previous year however the county imposed its own levy limit last year and we actually reduced the tax levy last year which Adam alluded to before was the fourth out of the last five years that the taxes were actually reduced so the Sheboygan County hasn't always needed the state to tell us not to raise taxes the county has been very conservative on their use of the taxpayer and the property tax levy however now we are under the levy limits imposed by the state which are now capped at net new construction and what is the current tax levy and how much has it changed since 2007 well our current tax levy is 45 million two hundred fifty five thousand dollars back in 2007 the tax levy was actually 45 million four hundred twelve thousand dollars so actually the tax levy was higher in 2007 than it is for 2012 so that goes back to the reducing taxes for out of the last five years which no other Wisconsin County has done by looking at the graphic you can see the 2007 level was at that forty five point two million or forty five point four mark and then there was a reduction in 2008 it was again reduced in 2009 and again in 2010 there was a slight increase for 2011 and then taxes were once again reduced in 2012 for a fourth time and how does the state budget impact the county budget and our operations basically if the state is facing severe deficits which they have in the past the county can almost certainly be looking at reduced aids we have seen our cut in various aids we saw cuts in state shared revenue we saw cuts in transportation aids aids to health and human services and aids to child support as well too so we've seen it all across the board where aids have been reduced and the another aspect is if they're looking at changing something up at the state they might pass on more unfunded mandates onto the county so not necessarily reducing our aids but essentially telling us we have to do more and not providing any funding with it so essentially shifting a burden from a state-funded burden to a local property tax burden in addition that there are some things that the state does that for instance this last cycle went through they talked about actually eliminating something that the county does however due to some feedback from the different counties there was more of a regionalization approach taken but during that whole process there was a lot of staff time that was taken up coming up with a good solution that would have benefit both the residents of Sheboygan County and also Bennett help ease the burdens on the state's tax or the state's budget issues so it we can be impacted directly with state cuts we can be impacted with unfunded mandates and then we can also be impacted with staff time helping the state come up with viable solutions thank you Terry it's a pleasure to have you as our finance and IT director thank you and Terry really hits on an area that has been a long-term challenge for not only Sheboygan County but counties across the state that state local partnership or relationship and unfortunately the history has not been real pretty where the state will require us to administer a program perhaps perhaps provide some of the funding or a good portion of it up front but as the years went by not provide that funding or have reduced that funding in the meantime demands for services continue to go up whether it's health and human services or as I know is near and dear to Chairman Roger Distruty infrastructure costs we have a real extensive county infrastructure here whether it's roads bridges our airport and oils going up and cost of fuels going up and our ability to maintain these roads and bridges is becoming very very difficult of course if we don't maintain them what happens we pay a heck of a lot more down the road it's it's fiscally responsible to take care of them now that when they're in real rough shape plus there's a safety issue so for Sheboygan County and local units of government across the state there are real challenges with unfunded mandates or property tax caps that really a one-size-fits-all approach is not real difficult to come up with but frankly I think not very practical either so we'll see what happens in the future but in the meantime our 2013 budget process is going well and in part it's going well because of again gaining efficiency streamlining getting creative there's been a number of things that staff and board members continue to come up with Terry let's start there please talk a little bit about some of the streamlining and consolidations that have occurred recently in Sheboygan County and other initiatives that are helping our effectiveness well like we touched on we consolidated the finance in the IT department we've also consolidated the planning and conservation departments together recently the city has consolidated their real real property listing with our treasurer's department and then also there was a consolidation with the treasurer's department real property listing so there's been a lot of consolidations between that internally we've also have operational studies that are done consistently this year we're doing an operational study for health and human services administrative support we're doing an operation study for the clerk of courts and then also for the HR department as well so we're always looking at ways to improve and enhance what we do and make sure that we're doing it you know the best that we can and then also looking at some best practices that are out there that we might not be exposed to and and having that on there so we're always looking for ways of doing that we're also looking at ways to we can utilize different technologies and making sure that we can not spend any more than we have to and one example in the I finance and IT as we have changed the way we manage our workstations and that led to about a thirty thousand dollar a year savings in annual software costs so minor changes that actually improve the service that we're delivering but also saves money as well too so I think a lot of departments are getting on board with that mindset and finding ways to to maximize the return on the taxpayers investment another minor example that I know you had a hand in was we for years we were always sending folks their receipt for their pay stub and of course folks would get that in the mail and there's a cost associated with preparing it mailing it now all of that is online some folks perhaps don't like to go online to look at it but from a cost saving standpoint another efficiency that's helping us hold the line and utilize those resources for other priorities yes the other area that the county board's been very proactive in is their five-year planning process with capital infrastructure and just this week as certainly Terry's well aware the five-year capital plan was adopted a number of areas will be addressed as part of that process give our viewers a little flavor for what is the five-year capital plan and what are some of the initiatives in there that are going to be addressed five-year capital plan addresses what we plan on spending our money on our large capital projects which are usually most of the projects usually approach a million dollars if not are significantly higher so that's a plan to say this is what we plan on spending for the next five years so we know what's coming what's on the radar and what's out there that we have to be well prepared for this current five-year plan for 2013 we're looking at investing about seven point five million dollars in projects with three point two million of them being reimbursed from the federal or state just alone in transportation so we're looking at improvements at the airport on the apron improvements then we're also looking at a lot of highway improvements as well too and that's been a focus of the county in the last few years is to focus on that that infrastructure like you mentioned earlier the longer we postpone that the more expensive it's going to get we have county trunk highway jay and ok on on the five-year plan for next year and then we also have a lot of asphaltic resurfacing going on as well and then we also look further out and see what's on there the one item that's on our five that's not on our five-year plan or it is on our five-year plan is the radio tower upgrade for our emergency communications and that's a large project we're looking at about eight million dollars and we're something that we definitely have to fund is the technology that we're currently using is getting outdated so we're going to be looking at implementing that possibly in the next year or the following year and getting that going so we're looking at ahead and making sure that we're properly planning for those larger projects that we have on board as well we're we're actually taping this program I'm sure as most of you are aware here at UW Shabuigan jewel in our community a partnership with Shabuigan County the county owns the buildings and grounds the state takes care of the operations but we've had some beautiful additions here with the acuity technology center the broad science addition just some real nice improvements UW extension now is now consolidated or co-located here at UW Shabuigan and that's been a real win overall and our current and former chairman chairman roger distruity our former chairman Mike van der steen and prior to that chairman bill gehring all three of them I think really deserves some credit for one of the initiatives in the five-year plan and that is building now an engineering lab here at UW Shabuigan they all express support for that we had a thorough planning process here so clearly the staff here at UW Shabuigan deserve most the credit for their engagement but again it's a collaborative effort and that was one of the key improvements for initiatives in our five-year plan as well so looking forward to seeing a new engineering lab here at UW Shabuigan which is going to be great not only for our students but for our economic development and many of the businesses here are looking for trained engineers when you discuss the five-year plan and you discuss the budget process we can't be all things to all people we only have so much money that is available and there's the competing demands for services with folks wanting their property taxes held or reduced how does the county board go about establishing priorities well a lot of that is set in those early stages we were talking about the finance committee looking at where we're at with projections and same with the executive committee those two really taking the lead on setting that tone from the guiding you know principles that are set forth by the chairman you yourself and then looking at that and setting the tone of what we're looking at for the upcoming year the finance committee weighing in setting their opinions on that as well for those supervisors and then with the executive as well so those two committees really spearheading that along with the chairman and yourself and then the all chairs committee all the chairs from all the liaison committees getting together and looking at it and coming to an agreement of this is what we would like to do and then with that pushing that forward in the liaison committees all have a step in reviewing the departmental processes and may weighing that in determining what do we want to fund and what don't we want to fund in these departmental budgets and then the finance committee gets that review as well too and then the county board also gets that review in October and and it also opens up for the public hearing that that is coming up at the end of October so the public can have their sentiment as well too so there's a lot of good discussion by all of the supervisors a lot of time for input and a lot of time for that team building and collaboration to make sure that the resources are getting to where they need to be and as you mentioned earlier Terry we're always looking to improve we have a website and we're in the midst of updating that you're taking a strong leadership role on that we have a paperless system and in play where we're looking to improve our technology and efficiency and TVA the very people filming this are at our county board meetings filming deep the county board meeting so the public can be engaged and watch what's going on but what's the best way for people to share their input or provide suggestions or give feedback to folks like Roger Distruity and the other 24 members of the county board well there's many ways that they can go about it but they can find all the resources that they not need at the county's website the www.co.shaboygan.wi.us and that has links to all of the supervisors so they can get in touch with the different supervisors see which committees are overseeing which departments there's also contact information for myself so that if there's any questions on any part of the budget they can contact me and there's also contact information for you your department as well as the chairman to get a hold of them as well so there that's an excellent resource for everybody and it's a good way to get in touch with whoever they need to and of course they can always pick up that phone and make a phone call or attend a liaison committee meeting and really at the liaison committee meetings there's more discussion there's a we have a strong committee structure in place as you know and a lot of the heavy liftings done there and then by a time it gets to the full county board it's been pretty well vetted pretty well processed uh if folks want to attend the liaison committee meeting whether it's a finance committee meeting or planning and resources or law how do they what do they do how do they find out when it is there's information on the website and that has a schedule for all the meetings and then also the meetings are also posted in the administration building as well with all of the times that they will be meeting so if they walk in and it's right in the lobby they can view it there or else if they go to the county's website they can view it there as well and i believe in the Plymouth review i think we put all of our notices for our public here or all of our public meetings as well too so those those are three good resources or they can contact the county clerk's office who coordinates all those meetings and lists all those postings outstanding well terry hanson finance director been with us now three years doing an outstanding job he's put a great team together with our finance and it department and i know he's well respected throughout shabuagan county where as roger said earlier we're pleased to have him with us he previously worked as some of you may know or recognize him with the city shabuagan and we're glad to have him with shabuagan county so thank you for joining us today terry thank you for having me and speaking of the county clerk julie glancy is going to be retiring as perhaps most of you are aware she's been with the county over 30 years i think 18 years in the county clerk's office she's been fantastic we are going to miss her and we're fortunate to have her as our guest next month so until then on behalf of roger distruity the county board and myself thank you for joining us