Includes committee reports.
Minutes for meeting of the Iowa County Information Technology (ICIT) Organization on Thursday, May 23rd, at the Polk County Administrative Building in Des Moines.
In attendance:
Pete Buckingham, GIS Specialist (Washington County)
William Buttrey, Deputy Assessor (Marion County)
Robert Canney, MIS Director (Black Hawk)
Mark Castenson, GIS Coordinator (Warren County)
Wayne Chizek, GIS Director (Marshall)
Micah Cutler, GIS Administrator (Harrison)
Denise Kalbus, DP Assistant Director (Warren County)
Jim Rice, MIS Director (Cerro Gordo)
Jason Siebrecht, GIS Coordinator (Linn)
Randy Snyder, Data Processing Director (Warren County)
Scott Williams, IS Director (Marshall)
Ray Willis, Mapping Specialist (Polk)
Wayne opened the meeting with a brief summary of a phone conversation with Bill Peterson of ISAC about e-government. ISAC would like to organize an e-government committee made up of representatives from the ISAC affiliates. The board is in support of helping ISAC and the affiliates. Wayne will get back to Bill on our interest in being involved.
Wayne suggested that we might add some information to the ICIT web site on the issue of e-government. He thought that it might help other counties if we put together guidelines or a checklist of technology issues for counties investigating e-government such as county internet access, hardware, infrastructure, and county personnel training/ expertise requirements. The hot topic for Treasurers is paying taxes on-line. Micah mentioned that Iowa Interactive (www.iowai.org) is actively involved in e-government.
Mark and Denise presented the Education & Schools Committee report on their May 17th meeting. Discussion about the Engineer’s affiliate having a web page design at fall school; Scott and Randy plan to attend. The Recorders may ask for a panel discussing digital signatures. Wayne said that he thought that Utah had recently passed new legislation dealing with digital signatures. Discussion about holding a Friday morning ICIT session; all agreed that if we have an interesting topic we should put on a session and take the chance on getting a reasonable turn out. Wayne commented that any member of an ICIT committee is welcome to attend any of the board meetings.
Bill reported that the Legislative Committee had not met yet, but that they had heard from the Iowa Bar Association about their desire for a central filing system allowing digital filings. Bill will be in touch with other affiliates to get their feedback on legislative issues.
Micah reported that the Membership Committee had not met yet. Discussion about the fact that potential members may be waiting for the beginning of the new fiscal year to submit their membership dues.
Scott reported that the on-line committee had met and proposed to add committee areas to the web site. He is actively exploring portal development software that would allow ICIT members to post updates to the web site and allow setting secure areas on the web site for members who have paid dues. Discussion about putting on-line survey forms for frequently asked questions.
Jim reported that the Business Continuation Committee had not met yet. They currently have three members and Jim would like to have at least five. He would like to organize a workshop type meeting. Jim commented that Kingland Industries is continuing to work with the State on homeland security issues. Randy volunteered to help on the committee.
Wayne said that he had taken part in the ICN homeland security session. He said that they were emphasizing establishing good lines of communications between government agencies. He has sent a letter to Ellen Gordon, emergency management, describing ICIT and our efforts.
Ray reported that 57 members have paid dues as of Wednesday, May 22nd. After expenses for Spring School’s speaker room and check printing, the balance of the ICIT account is $ 1,234.17.
Discussion about approval process for ICIT expenses. Micah volunteered to prepare an “ICIT Claim Form”. Consensus of group was that a majority of the four current executive board members should approve claims over a certain dollar amount. Motion by Micah to set the limit at $50, second by Jim, passed by unanimous vote. Micah suggested that it would be interesting to see a thematic map showing the member distribution across the state.
Discuss ICIT sessions for ISAC Fall School. Jim mentioned that he was already working with the Recorder’s Records Modernization Committee and would find out from the committee if they want to do a joint session on digital signatures. At the ICIT Business session, we will include the voting and bylaw changes. Scott reminded everyone that we need to have proposed bylaw changes posted 30 days prior to the vote. Discussion about a “Best Practices” session leads to several suggestions and a consensus that this would be a good topic.
Discussion about hosting a ICIT Social, everyone agreed that we should have a social Wednesday afternoon and that it should be open to all ISAC affiliates.
Wayne brought up the suggestion from Barb Berquam, Black Hawk County, that the ICIT web site could link to other web sites and possibly act as a data warehouse. Scott said the portal development software he is exploring should allow for secure &\”behind the scenes” web content.
Discussion on establishing a Cadastral Data Committee. Board members disagreed on whether this should be a committee. Discussion in support was centered around giving “non- GIS” counties some guidelines for establishing mapping standards and a check-list for moving toward a GIS system. Discussion opposed raised the concern that ICIT not try to set “minimum standards” that a county would be required to meet. Wayne proposed bringing the Cadastral Data Committee issue up for a vote of the members at Fall School.
Return from lunch break and discuss data sharing between various levels of government agencies. Bob said that he is close to having a signed agreement between Black Hawk County and the U.S. Census Bureau for the sharing of the county’s cadastral data. Bob indicated that he felt that since the county expected to get better data back from the Census Bureau after the next census, the county would not charge their normal fees for the data they would be sending to the Bureau. Pete voiced concerns over the reaction of government agencies within Washington County if they found that he did not charge other government agencies for county data. There is a wide range of concerns over “cost recovery” between the counties represented on the ICIT Board. Wayne said he would be discussing this issue with ISAC at their next meeting on June 16th.
Discuss preparations for promoting ICIT receiving affiliate status. There was a consensus on not paying the fees to have a vendor booth but rather using the money on an “ICIT Social” activity on Wednesday afternoon between 4:00 and 5:00. Wayne will contact ISAC and possibly the hotel to determine options and associated costs for hosting a social in the Ambassador Room. Ray suggested giving out a brochure promoting ICIT becoming an ISAC affiliate along with a ticket for a drawing during the social as a way of encouraging people to stop in. Jim presented the cost estimates that he had received on getting the ICIT logo embroidered on shirts. Micah made a motion to have ICIT pay the initial $195 setup charge for the logo, seconded by Pete, passed unanimously. Jim will explore the various shirt types and prices so that the board members can order their own shirts; logo fee expected to be either $8.50 or $7.50 per shirt.
Meeting adjourned 2:00.