3/24/1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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0 • Ms. Pooley continued that the employees in her department must accompany people outside to physically check their vehicles and sometimes they have to circle the entire building to locate the vehicle. Her biggest concern is for disabled persons who have to walk so far to get to their office in the middle of the building. They occasionally have to borrow the County's wheelchair to get these people back to their vehicles. They are averaging 312 transactions per day, which does not include vessel tag renewals. Tax Collector Zimmermann noted that persons applying for handicapped tags for their vehicles must physically come into the office to initially apply for and again to renew these tags pursuant to state law. These persons include those with no sight, no hands, and no legs. The motivating factor in relocating the offices is to set up an efficient and convenient government facility. The Tax Collector's Office would not move into the proposed new County Administration Building if they move now and there will be costs involved whether they move now or later. He does not have an estimate on the moving costs at this time but his office is working in facilities not designed for the computer age. The desks on which computers were installed are causing problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome. The workers' compensation payments, operations and physical therapy involved with these syndromes are enormous. He felt that the results of the informal survey indicated that his office should be set up to accommodate the 96% of citizens who came into the office for services readily available from the Tax Collector's Office, rather than the 4% who were referred to other departments. Those referrals could have easily been handled by telephone or FAX. Mr. Zimmermann noted that he could choose to arrange a budget amendment with the Department of Revenue, using his collected fees for moving costs. His only purpose in requesting the 1¢ sales tax funds was because County staff had requested that he do that. Commissioner Ginn stated that she had the greatest regard for Tax Collector Zimmermann who is an excellent administrator working in terribly cramped, hardly efficient conditions. However, there are many other areas which are just as bad. Everybody in the current administration building is living with less than optimal conditions but we do have a needs assessment by an architect coming up. Commissioner Eggert noted that a space analysis had been done before and they had talked about moving one or several departments but had come to the conclusion that it was important to keep the county departments together. The Sheriff is already under another roof and she felt it is not as important for some of the constitutional officers to be under the same roof if easy communication is not a problem. MARCH 24, 1998 -21-�°;� `� �. F',a C e�