County transferring thousands to pay medical bills

The Brown County Council unanimously approved the transfer of $200,000 from four funds managed by the Brown County Commissioners into the county’s health trust fund last month.

“The problem is we have some big health things that have to be addressed before reinsurance comes back, and that could be a lot of money. Not that we’re going to have to pay all of that money out, but we have to make it available for bills coming in between now and reinsurance time,” council President Keith Baker said.

Auditor Beth Mulry said the health trust fund had about $35,000 left in it before the transfer was approved. Toward the end of July, the fund had had about $260,000 in it to pay medical bills for the rest of the year.

The $200,000 came from various funds in the commissioners’ general fund: the local income tax economic development fund, cumulative capital development fund and local income tax public safety fund.

“Some of the money was additional money left in a fund after the annual contract was paid,” Biddle said in an email Sept. 4, citing contracts with Centerstone and truck leases. Other money used was from separate “fuel funds” that are no longer used, since the county highway department now just tracks fuel usage within the fuel system.

The biggest transfer was $100,000 from the facility maintenance line in the general fund.

“The other funds that we used just reduced the funds available in those funds. We still have money for grounds, utilities and maintenance, etc.,” Biddle said.

The council also will be asked at its Sept. 17 meeting to approve two $400,000 additional appropriations from the county’s general and rainy day funds to be used to cover expenses in the health trust fund.

“The objective to that was to get through these budget reviews and see where we were for the 2019 budget. If we can use county general and stay out of the rainy day fund, I would prefer to do that,” Mulry said.

The county council had budget reviews Aug. 20, 21 and 22, where its was tasked with cutting more than $700,000 out of budget requests.

“We may need to approve both of them, because it’s still a volatile year. We could need more than $400,000 to get through the year,” Mulry said.

Biddle said it usually takes no more than 60 days for reinsurance money to come back in if the county pays claims out of the health trust fund.

In July, Mulry said the county had put $1.3 million into the health trust fund from the county’s budget, reinsurance, refunds, and people writing checks for the fund. The county has spent almost $1.1 million of that money in July.

Maple Leaf executive director search narrows to two

A committee formed to find an executive director for the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center has narrowed the applicant field down from 78 to two candidates, committee chair Bruce Gould announced Sept. 11.

Gould is a member of the Maple Leaf Management Group and also chairs the the human resources/staffing committee. A selection committee was created to pick the executive director for the 2,000-seat music venue.

At the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission meeting Sept. 13, Gould said the committee is still on track to have an executive director in place by the first of November. He said they were scheduling and conducting face-to-face interviews with the last two applicants.

The salary range for that position will be $75,000 to $100,000.

The executive director will then be tasked with hiring the rest of the Maple Leaf staff, including a marketing director.

Gould said some of the executive director applicants who did not make the cut expressed interest in serving as marketing director.