Monday, once again, started off the week, and inevitably brought with it the Tama County Supervisors Meeting. Trudging through the slush of melting snow remnants and shoe-sticking mud, supervisors and meeting goers alike gathered. This week’s discourse was mainly centered around two hand-in-hand agenda items regarding the county switching from paid sick/vacation leave to paid time off (PTO).

Chairman Mark Doland kicked off the conversation on the subject.

“So, this has been a discussion topic throughout the county. I have met with different departments. I’ve had discussions with the treasures office, with the auditors office, recorders office, they are all in this building I guess, but when they went through and they had questions, would ask questions, I don’t know all the answers. I can just tell you in a general context why would we go to PTO? The reason why we started to consider going to PTO was that we have an unfunded liability. Which is a, that’s against general accepted accounting principles, which is what our auditors go by when they audit us,” he said. “And so that is, same thing with IPERS right now, they are trying to fix something with IPERS, they have more money promised out than what they’re carrying on their books, than what they have in their account. So, right now, everybody used all their sick time that we have on our books, which is not gonna happen, but it’s just an accounting principle, they could, you know, then that goes against us. We don’t have the money to pay up. So, that’s why we started looking into the PTO.”

After some discussion on the details of the PTO, the supervisors approved to move forward with option two from their presented PTO plans.

Next, the supervisors discussed the ins and outs of short/long term disability. After a thorough discussion, two motions were approved. The first was to move forward with option four from their presented plans for all non-union employees, contingent on the price. The second approved motion was for HR to extend the PTO plan and the short and long term disability plan to all union negotiations.

This week’s roads report stated that they dealt with snow, and they cut brush. They completed the bridge guard rail on T Avenue. This week, they plan to haul rock, cut brush, and fix some sink hole issues.

The supervisors approved a resolution moving $500,000 from the general fund to the health fund. This is another repayment after the supervisors took a loan from that account last to cover expenses. Claims totaling $353,659.15 were approved.