Notes June 2010 Meeting

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 Council
6/8/2010
Present: All Council Members. Auditor Melody Price, counsel Bob Clutter.
Approved minutes from May meeting.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS: Both approved.
Sheriff (Mike Nielsen):
Requested a total of $9000 to be transferred from dispatch, deputies and corrections to part time and over time to cover staffing shortages in corrections officers.

Health (Vickie Foster):
Requested $3000 from part-time to over-time to cover comp time for an employee who left. Several questions were asked about how the department uses comp time.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Sheriff (Mike Nielsen):
Requested $1795 to part-time to cover expense of an employee who retired with considerable time off accumulated. Approved.

County Corrections (Mike Nielsen):
Requested $3000 for new uniforms for additional communications and corrections officers. Approved.

E911 (Mike Nielsen):
Requested $334 be transferred to cover an unforeseen increase in radio tower maintenance contract. Discussion determined that this fund must be approved by the commissioners, not council. Withdrawn.

Prosecutor (Tonya Thayer):
As discussed at last month’s meeting, requested just over $25,000 to be transferred from four Deputy Prosecutor lines into the general fund, then back into the Prosecutor IV-D #2 (child support) fund to make duties and salary sources align more appropriately and leverage reimbursement monies by placing them in the county general fund. Discussion followed about verifying the receipts and expenditures of the different reimbursement monies. Approved both additional to complete the transfer.

Soil & Water (Kathy Clawson):
Requested $3630 be deposited into Soil & Water fund to pay board member salaries. S & W has previously deposited this money into the General Fund. Approved.

Council: See below under Old Business.

NEW BUSINESS:
Health Department’s Vickie Foster asked to amend a salary ordinance to raise the salary of the department’s part-time coordinator of volunteers from $10/hr to $11/hr. County part-time salary rate is $10, but hires from grant funds are not tied to that rate. No county budget monies would be used, and the grant fund has ample money. Council approved a motion to amend the ordinance.

Linda Howard of the Humane Society for Boone County was present to ask the council to reconsider its transfer of the Surplus Dog Tax Fund to the County General Fund and instead donate it to the HSforBC. Several Council members spoke and asked questions of Attorney Clutter to clarify what steps would be needed and if it would be possible to make that donation. The council agreed in a straw poll that it favors giving the money to the HS, but the process for doing so is unclear. Attorney Clutter, Auditor Price and Ms. Howard will work together to clarify that process and report back to the board for further action.

Jane Myers, president of the Lebanon Public Library Board, presented the council with information on the library’s assessment of the extension of services to unserved townships endorsed last week by the council as presented by the Thorntown and Zionsville libraries. Ms. Myers presented several objections and concerns her board has with the current proposal, and stated that her board has not received all the communication from the other libraries as they considered the proposal in a timely manner. The Lebanon Library Board will continue to meet and evaluate the options for services. Ms. Myers will keep the Council advised on Lebanon’s activities, though the Council does not directly play any direct role in the libraries’ efforts.

Karen Niemeyer of the Thorntown Public Library was present to discuss the library’s capital projects fund proposal. This was to be a mandated public hearing, but due to absence of advertising that hearing will have to be postponed until next month.

Council Member Gene Thompson presented a proposal that he and Marcia Wilhoite have been analyzing for the past several months on doing away with the County Park Tax -- .0027 on all county residents and then distributed to entities which have parks based on their share of the county population – or changing the allocation formula so that the five townships which currently do not receive a portion of that funding would receive some. If the county eliminates that tax levy from the 2011 budget, the local entities could adjust their local park tax levy rates accordingly before submitting their own budgets. Council members Kries and Jacob raised objections to eliminating the county share of the funding. Wilhoite addressed the possibility of alerting the non-funded townships that they could receive a portion of the county fund as well.
Lebanon Mayor Huck Lewis and Clerk-Treasurer Debbie Ottinger spoke in favor of maintaining the current structure. The county’s funding distribution represents roughly 10% of the Lebanon Parks budget.
Former Union Township Trustee and current Zionsville Town Council member Candace Ulmer was present to speak in favor of eliminating the county levy so that the local entities could adjust their rates accordingly and keep that money under local control.
Jamestown resident Vickie Foster spoke in favor keeping the current distribution system, as she likes to use the Lebanon parks and agrees with paying toward their support.
A great deal of discussion – a GREAT deal – followed on the shifting of distributions and its impact on the entities which do have park budgets. Commissioner Jeff Wolfe was present and spoke to that impact being more significant on smaller entities, particularly in areas with lower assessed valuations. The Council agreed to continue the discussions leading up to budget hearings this summer and keep the local entities advised.

Surveyor Ken Hedge and some of his staff were present with a PowerPoint presentation on Legal Drain issues, including a brief history of the surveyor’s office and duties, and an overview of the drainage permit system. The office oversees approximately 420 legal drains throughout the county, over 800 miles in 96 different watersheds.
Heather Barton asked if any Council members would be attending the state called county council meeting on June 26th, as registrations are due next week. Steve Jacob and David Rodgers will attend and report back to the council.

OLD BUSINESS:
Cindy Poore presented her research on the various funds she has been researching for the past year. Highlights included the older reassessment funds (2005 & 2006), totaling over $1M. The Surplus Dog Fund which was transferred by resolution to the general fund last month actually has an additional $371, as last month a check written to one of the townships for disbursement in 2007 was voided (not cashed after three years), so the new total there is just over $7300. A new resolution may be needed to move the extra money and close the fund (which the HSforBC can then request). The Excess Tax Collected fund, which consists of overpayment of property taxes, contains nearly $800,000. The Illegal Weed Control Fund continues in dispute. A Weed Control Board was apparently created in the early 1980’s, then dissolved shortly thereafter, though not before it had created this fund to pay for sparying of noxious weeds. In the same time frame, a marijuana eradication program was created, and the fees collected for that were improperly placed into this fund. Records dating back to 1999 show no disbursements from this fund. It may be possible to fund some current expenditures in the sheriff’s department, but the mechanism for using the funds remains unclear. The State Board of Accounts has been asked to clarify what needs to be done to access these funds without a Weed Control Board, or if such a board needs to be recreated. Newly-condensed Probation Administration and Adult Probation User Fees containing nearly $800K can be used to supplement salaries of probation officers. Ms. Poore will clarify the income of those funds and their availability before budget hearings in August.

Brian Colton of Umbaugh Associates was present to discuss the proposed contract for consulting services. The Council agreed to engage (pending Commissioners Approval) for a baseline circuit breaker model, a comprehensive financial plan, and assistance with the budget process as needed. And additional appropriation of $35,000 was approved.

The Council set its 2011 Budget Hearings for the week of August 23, from 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. daily through Friday. There was discussion of possibly holding at least some of the meetings in the evening. Entities to be involved will be advised of this possibility and asked to respond if they are interested.


PUBLIC COMMENT:
Commissioners Jeff Wolfe was present to announce the awarding of a block grant of $108,000 for energy efficiency upgrades to the county which will be kicked off later this month for upgrades at the courthouse and jail.

Auditor Melody Price asked for clarification on how to advise departments on their budget requests for salaries next year. The council asked that the requests leave salaries constant, with the plan to advertise them at an increase of 3%.

Mike Hancock of the Humane Society asked for clarification on the Dog Surplus fund, and was advised to request $7315 rather than $6900.

Meeting adjourned at 11:40.

June 2010 Council Agenda

BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL
BUSINESS AGENDA FOR JUNE 8, 2010
LOCATION: CONNIE LAMAR MEETING ROOM, ROOM 105
116 W Washington St
Lebanon, IN 46052


Call meeting to order – 8:30 a.m.

Approval of May 2010 minutes

Re-Appropriation Requests:
Sheriff, Health Department

Additional Requests:
Sheriff, Prosecutor, County Council, Soil & Water, County Corrections, E911

New Business:
Cindy Murphy, Health Dept – Amend Salary Ordinance
Humane Society
Lebanon Public Library – Capital Projects
Ken Hedge, Surveyor – Presentation
County Council – County Park Tax

Old Business:
Cindy Poore, Deputy Auditor – Fund Research Update
Brian Colton - Umbaugh

Public Comment:

Document Signing:
Re-Appropriations, Additionals, May 2010 Council Minutes

Adjournment

This agenda is subject to change.