Council Meeting April 14, 2009

Note: These are my personal notes from the council meeting. They are NOT the official minutes, nor should they be construed as an official record of any kind.

Boone County Council4/14/2009
Present: All Council Members except Bill Soards. Auditor Melody Price, counsel Eileen Sims.

Approved minutes from March 10 meeting. President Steve Jacob noted that an additional appropriations form had not been signed at previous meeting. As this was an administrative error, signatures now were the only necessary correction. President Jacob also stated that he had received many calls regarding the CIB and the county food and beverage tax. Jacob stated he would not favor any additional food and beverage tax to that end.

Jacob also announced that the county budget has been approved by the state. Auditor Melody Price estimates a possible shortfall of 600,000 to 1 million for the current fiscal year. Jacob floated the idea of a hiring freeze and asked for council’s thoughts. Kerry Kries said it was a good place to start, and might also consider a wage freeze and possible cutbacks. Council and commissioners have explored cutting their own salaries, but by state statute cannot. Expected shortfall already coming in 2010. Kries will head a committee with Wilhoite, Shubert & Price to create a “mock” budget for 2010 to evaluate options.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS (both approved):
Auditor (Melody Price):
Asked to move $900 from supplies to equipment to replace broken chairs.

Local Road & Street:
Asked $25,000 from re-striping to consulting. Needs to hire engineering firm to prepare plan for ARRA stimulus funds. Needs to act quickly to get money from state. Plans to submit four project bids for up to $40,000 in hopes of getting $1.3 million in stimulus funds. Commissioner Huck Lewis was asked the commissioners’ take; he stated the commissioners support it reluctantly, as they do not like to spend money to possibly make money. The money would be for scheduled maintenance, and would therefore free up budgeted money for other projects if received.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Circuit Court:
Judge Jeff Edens followed up on last month’s request ($18,500). Funds were not available in Superior Court fund. He believes the county may be able to recover some of the costs from Marion county, and will attempt to do so at trial’s end. Some expenses already paid out of budget line, but additional trials may require additional funds by year’s end. Approved

Assessor (Lisa Garoffolo):
Requested $15,000 for property tax appeals. This is a self-sustaining fund, but needs start-up money for the upcoming appeals for ’08 pay ’09.
Also requested additional funding for GUTS contract for INCOMEWORKS, which assesses commercial property value. Had originally budgeted for last year’s work, which is now complete, and needs additional to continue work. Actually getting ahead. Both approved.

County Corrections (Ken Campbell):
Asked to fund Uniforms, Training and Equipment at $5,000 apiece to allow him to treat them as line items in order to pay claims. Current system requires additional appropriation for every month’s claims, which cannot be paid until after council action. This should reduce time and paperwork. May need an amendment to the original ordinance. Auditor and counsel will have that for next month. Money comes from its own self-generating fund regardless. Approved to pay current claims.

Emergency Planning/Right to Know (Ken Campbell):
Asked $4000 for cell phone signal repeater for Emergency center in jail basement. Funds from Emergency Planning fund, not county general. Approved.

Community Corrections (Kari Ragsdale):
Return on last month’s request to fill new funds as discussed. $15,000 from Projects Income to GPS Monitoring. Approved.

Highway (Tom Kouns):
Requested $1500 to cover overtime truck driver pay from state fund. Will bring fund back into black. Approved.

Local Road and Street (Tom Kouns):
Requested $2,607 from state reimbursement from last year’s unofficial detour on 136 west of Jamestown. Approved.

Boone County Clinic (Bambi McQuade-Jones):
Requested additional $7,500 from grant money in clinic fund to line items to cover office supplies & printing costs for additional patients.

Economic Development/Dust Control (Tom Kouns):
$30,000 for medical dust control program. This money should do about 115 treatments. Discussion as to why this is an additional instead of in the budget, and where the money came from last year. With much concern about spending down the Economic Development fund, request was approved.

NEW BUSINESS:
Jack Belcher of the Howard School restoration group updated the council on the school’s progress. A time capsule is to be placed inside the school’s bell, and the group would like to have every county official’s signature on a document to be included. Council signed and thanked him for his efforts.

Judge Jeff Edens and Guardian ad litem Kandi Killin asked the council to approve new salary ordinances to create lines from circuit court budget and from state CASA grant line to pay ad litem & CASA program. Previously, a 501c3 had acted as fiscal agent no longer available under state rules. Technically the GAL program had been an independent contractor; new arrangement would make program employees officially county employees. The new ordinance should not impact county general fund significantly, as all costs should continue to be paid through budgeted Circuit Court fund and GAL grant money. Wilhoite pointed out that an additional line would need to be created to cover benefits such as PERF, which had not been covered in the past. Next month Judge Edens, Price & Sims will craft an ordinance to straighten out the current mess and also submit an appropriation to fund the new lines and pay Killin, who has been working without pay since mid-January.

Commissioner Huck Lewis and consultant Dennis Falkenburg updated the council on successful awarding of federal funds to Boone highway projects. Senator Lugar & Rep. Buyer helped to fund 146th Street project with $855,000. This should cover most of the preparation costs and open possibilities for additional funding later.

Ken Hedge & Jim Swift updated the council on the cornerstone perpetuation project. They have found &/or established nearly half the corners in the southeast corner of the county, which because of the development there is the most difficult to complete. Swift hopes to have the southeast quadrant done in two years, and the other quadrants in 2-3 years apiece.

Coroner Jerry Harris updated on the department’s activity so far. Fifteen deaths have been recorded with 11 autopsies. Autopsies done locally cost $500, while those sent to IU Med Center cost roughly $1200. Harris plans to request roughly $1100 in additional appropriations for coroner next month.

OLD BUSINESS:
Kari Ragsdale presented numbers from an informal survey requested last month on how many calls to county offices could be eliminated if the CourtView system was in place. Roughly 300+ calls per week involved information that would be on CourtView and currently must be handled by county employees. The departments pursuing the program have submitted their proposals and the council should expect to have a final proposal for purchasing the system next month. It was suggested that the money come from the IT department fund with as much as possible covered by reappropriations and the rest by an additional appropriation request.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Tom Kouns asked for guidance on moving forward with summer road maintenance money that had been approved in the 2009 budget. As the funds were to be primarily from interest from three funds, Kouns needs to meet with Auditor Price to clarify how to access those funds and their actual amounts.

Surveyor Ken Hedge updated on IT transition to new PCs and asked for Council’s input on how to proceed in funding replacements in departments that have their own levies for budgeting. Consensus was that all computer replacement funds should run through the IT department, but departments with levies should be asked to budget reimbursement of the IT fund. Hedge also asked for clarification on what types of computers should be purchased and suggested a better study of needs in extending current use and choosing replacements.
Meeting adjourned at 11:15.