Cerro Gordo County approves one-year fiscal-agent agreement with three child-services regions

At a 3 p.m. special session the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors approved a one-year agreement for the county to serve as fiscal agent for three child-services regions, a move board members said sets up an upcoming regional consolidation and secures short-term funding for staff support.

Board members described state-driven changes that will lead the three regions to operate as separate boards for the coming year with an intent to merge by July 1 next year. A board member explained the reconfigured grouping (referred to in the discussion as Floyd, Mitchell and Chickasaw regions and the North Iowa Children’s Alliance area) is consolidating operations and that the agreement would name Heather as the fiscal agent to manage financial accounts and reporting in preparation for the merger.

Members clarified financial terms: each region will pay $5,000 to the county, for a $15,000 total, and the county plans to appropriate those funds toward staff time to perform fiscal-agent duties. A board member stressed the county would not assume program governance, saying the county would act as fiscal agent while a separate board of record remains responsible for program oversight.

Concerns about liability were raised and addressed: a member asked whether the county would take on additional liability by serving as fiscal agent, and the response in the discussion was that no extra liability was expected given the county’s limited role as fiscal agent.

Board members described a recent fix to outstanding discrepancies that had been resolved earlier in the week and noted urgency to finalize the agreement because it needed to be routed through Iowa grants and submitted to the state by the end of the day Tuesday.

The agreement was described in the meeting as a one-year contract. A board member corrected earlier language to state, “either party may terminate this agreement by providing 30 days written notice,” creating an explicit exit clause should the arrangement not work out.

With a motion and second, the board voted in favor of the agreement; the record notes the motion carried but individual roll-call votes were not specified in the transcript. After approving the agreement the board moved to adjourn and ended the special session.

The board did not record specific mover/second names or a roll-call tally in the available record; the funding amount per region, the proposed fiscal agent (Heather), the one-year term and the 30-day termination clause were the substantive outcomes recorded in the discussion.