Johnson County conservation director outlines FY24 accomplishments, proposes organizational changes

Brad Friedoff, Johnson County Conservation Director, presented the conservation board's fiscal year 2024 annual report and outlined proposed changes to the department's leadership structure at the Board of Supervisors work session on April 2.

Friedoff said the report collects staff time, program participation and project details for public review and that he came in person so supervisors and the public could ask questions. "I thought it would be good for me to come in. I could've just shared this with you, but there's a lot of data in there," he said.

The report documents conservation activities and results over the 2023-24 fiscal year. Friedoff highlighted environmental education, prescribed burning, park maintenance, and cost-saving measures tied to ARPA projects. He said the conservation department ran about 240 programs and reached just under 10,000 participants during the year. He also reported completion of an ARPA-funded dump station and work toward a prefabricated shower house, where he estimated "about a $1,500,000 cost savings" by changing the design and procurement approach.

Friedoff described staffing and structural items: three natural resource technicians were added during the reporting year, the operations superintendent position is vacant, the natural resource manager planned to retire April 18, and Friedoff said his own prior duties pulled him toward administrative tasks. He proposed converting the conservation program manager role into a deputy director position to centralize grant writing, contract administration and high-level project management. He said operations superintendent and natural resource manager requests-to-fill would be brought to the Board of Supervisors soon.

Friedoff detailed maintenance and infrastructure priorities, including ongoing woodland work, emerald ash borer removals, water-quality sampling and phased work tied to Cedar River Crossing wetland-credit sales. He said Cedar River Crossing had reached 90% credit release but that sales were slower than anticipated.

Supervisors asked timing and implementation questions about the prefab shower house and staffing. Friedoff said Connolly Construction was completing phase 1 and the county had directed a prefab vendor, Huffcutt, to prepare a design; he said construction could be completed in a short onsite assembly once the vendor builds the module, but lead times could push assembly to next fall and site work into next spring. On staffing, Friedoff said the department employs about 28 full-time staff and 31 seasonal staff and is seeking to fill a mechanic position approved in the budget.

Friedoff said the conservation bond program remains active: he noted the county's 2008 conservation bond ($20 million) and matching commitments and explained that about $3 million in federal reimbursements tied to the Clear Creek Trail had not yet been posted to the county accounts. He said the conservation bond dollars would transition into the 2024 bond program once reimbursements and accounting are complete.

The presentation closed with supervisors expressing support for the report and the proposed deputy director concept. Friedoff encouraged the public to review the full report posted in the board packet and asked citizens to direct detailed questions to staff.

Discussion items in the presentation were informational; no formal board action was taken on the organizational proposal during the work session.

Ending: Friedoff said staff would follow up with hiring requests to fill the superintendent and natural resources manager positions and that the conservation board would continue to coordinate with the Board of Supervisors on bond projects and ARPA-funded work. Supervisors signaled general support and asked staff to proceed with the personnel requests that would be placed on a future agenda for formal action.