Land Information Council Meeting January 30, 2014

01_30_2014_land_council_minutesapproved.doc (36 KB)

Land Information Council

Thursday January 30, 2014

Committee Members Present: Halfen, Pate, Felton, Burton, Bailey, Cunningham, Dederich

Committee Members Absent: Gavin, Geoghegan, Michalek, Stieve,

Halfen called the meeting to order @ 10:05am

Motion by Pate, seconded by Bailey to adopt agenda.

Motion by Burton, seconded by Pate to approve minutes from September 19, 2013 meeting

Public Comment: None

Communications: Bailey stated that WRDA individuals questioned him on WLIP funds and utilization of Redaction funds.  They were doing their own “audit” of each county, asking what the ROD did with the funds and if WLIP money was shared with the ROD office.

Felton stated that there is an upcoming WLIA Annual Conference in Madison set for February 12-14, 2014.  The Surveyor’s Bill is coming up again for consideration in the state legislature.  Status not verified but DATCP is still questioning the intent versus interpretation, with regards to who can perform certain duties.

Review of 2013 Budget Balance

Pate handed out document illustrating the 2013 Land Records Budget.  The projections were discussed along with Redaction fees collected.  Total redaction fees collected so far (2010-2013) is approximately $262,000.  The Land Records account did not utilize as much as projected mostly due to the Remonumentation funds not be fully expended in 2013.  The Land Records account actually ended up taking in about $20,000 more despite expenditures and an increase in charges for consulting and maintenance. Redaction fees will be collected for the remainder of 2014 and will end on Dec. 31, 2014.

After review of the budget Halfen asked how other counties are doing on their redaction efforts.  Bailey stated that some are done and some are not. Some counties just recently started working to get their projects started at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014.  ROD’s are hiring people to look at their documents.  Most counties will be close to completion at the end of 2014.

Bailey discussed ID protect.  It is in place currently.  The system finds #’s and Bailey gets a report of what’s been redacted or inquiries.  The report tells them what inquiries were questionable.  There are some docs that get “masked” where there is not sensitive information (ex: CSM numbers and some legal descriptions).  The system can’t differentiate.  Burton stated that she see this happening from time to time.  Bailey stated it’s been doing a great job.

ROD’s document books are still being converted.  A portion of the books were taken in December, they are off site in Wausau. It was discussed what processes could be done with QA/QC & getting the information off of the indexes.  The indexes are not being done right now, just document books at this time.  Bailey explained that they are looking at getting the indexes done later onsite.

Discussion of Land Records Activities & Updates by Department

Land Info: Recent GIS staff training on the new processes for mapping and website were discussed.  Work is being done to formulate processes from the training, and some database work needs to be done prior to being able to tackle backlog of mapping updates.

CPZ:  Working with GIS staff on identifying areas subject to farmland preservation agreements.

Surveyor: Report on RFQ and contracts for remonumentation & update on projects

Dederich reported that the quality of the coordinates was an issue in past projects.  He is working on a plan to take some known coordinates around the county and using that as a final qualifier test for those contractors who submit RFQ’s. Those who qualify in the process would be given this final test to see how their coordinates measure to the actual.  This test should weed out those who are not processing coordinates correctly.  Dederich stated he’s spent a lot of time on previous projects searching for why the coordinates do not match up and how to get those corrected.

New contracts will have repercussions for not completing; Liquidation of Damages has been added to the contracts.  Contractors will be assessed penalties.  There remain two projects from the last round of remonumentation projects that are not done.  One of them will get done in the next 30 days. The other one is questionable when it will be done.

Questions were posed of Dederich as to when the RFQ will go out.  Dederich stated that he expects to have contracts chosen by mid-March.  RFQ will be out by March 1^st, the contractors will be awarded or chosen by end of March, that includes the process of the “final” coordinates test for qualifiers. Dederich will work with Felton, and possibly other staff during the review of RFQ’s.

Final 2014 Land Records Modernization Budget

Pate handed out the 2014 Requested Budget document.  Training and Consulting are up due to work on the GIS website and GIS staff training.  Increases in MIS charges are due to the upcoming computer replacements for GIS staff.

The Redaction budget was discussed.  The GIS Interns were discussed and the work needed to be completed and other tasks.  It was discussed what great skill the Interns possess and the added value to the county in having them work on the GIS parcel migration work, as well as the upcoming work to do on the parcel updates backlog.  Currently there are two individuals working as Interns doing GIS work and they will be here for a couple more months.  At this time neither has found a job, but both have graduated from their respective colleges.

There was discussion of adjustments for the Budget with regards to possible projects and tasks.  Obtaining orthophotography in 2015 was discussed.  An RFP will need to be drafted, along with a decision on what kind of products to obtain with this acquisition.  Six inch, color imagery was mentioned as a desired product.  Building footprints has been on the wish list for a while.  Halfen inquired as to whether the actual footprints were needed or if possibly points off the orthos would suffice.  He explained that the footprints could double the cost of the acquisition with the amount of work needed for such a product from a vendor.  It was questioned what is really needed and what the products would be used for.

Halfen discussed that Multispectral Imagery might be a product to consider.  He stated that it could garner a tremendous amount of information as to plants, specifically trees & related health, and could provide many useful data products, including identifying impervious surfaces.  He suggested we look into it as a possible product.

Halfen recommended that an RFP be developed and be ready to present to the Land Info Council in May.  Pate stated that he had the previous RFP drafted in 2009 and suggested that Felton could update it and get specifications needed for it.

Agenda Items for next meeting

• 2015 Orthophotography RFP
• Progress on 2014 Budget
• Update on Status of Remonumentation Contracts

Halfen reminded the Council that this will be his last meeting as he is not running for County Board re-election.  He thanked the Council for its work.

Next meeting (set for Thursday May 22, 2014 @ 10:00 AM; Rm 213 WSB)

Adjournment

            Motion by Pate, seconded by Burton to adjourn @ 11:25am.

Submitted by,

Kelly K. Felton, Secretary