Notes -- January 2011 Council 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
1/11/2011
Present: All Council Members present, Secretary Heather Barton.
The council approved the minutes of the December meeting.

Council president Steve Jacob welcomed new council member Brent Wheat.

The council elected officers to serve for the 2011 calendar year. Steve Jacob will again serve as president and Marcia Wilhoite as vice president.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS:
None

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Sherriff (Ken Campbell):
Requested $227 to medical and $20 to postage, which had been recovered from inmates and deposited to the general fund. Approved.

Commissioners (no one present):
Requested a transfer of $4228 which had been received from the Indiana Department of Transportation for the Farm Heritage Trail. Approved.

E-911 (Ken Campbell):
Needed $3125 for lease payment to WTH (mapping for emergency response). The additional is necessitated by a shift to calendar year due dates. Approved.

CCD (various department heads):
During the budget hearing process last summer, the council approved budget items from various departments be moved from those departments’ general fund budget lines to the Cumulative Capital Development fund in an effort to alleviate the budget shortfall in the general fund. A few proposed expenditures were set aside due to lack of clarity on whether they were still needed (re-assessment & highway) with the understanding that those departments could return later if needed. In total just over $900,000 was drawn from this fund for various departments, mostly for IT-related projects. For the remainder of the year, departments affected will submit their claims directly to the CCD fund. Approved.

Rainy Day:
Even with the above shifts to the CCD and the 8% cuts from the general fund overall, the general fund operating balance provided virtually no margin for additional expenditures. In order to maintain a reasonable operating balance cushion of just over 10% of the annual budget, the council agreed last fall to shift two lines from the sheriff’s budget, those paying salaries for sheriff’s deputies and correctional officers and totaling roughly $1.85 million, to the county’s rainy day fund. Essentially, because of the ongoing revenue shortfall, we are using our reserves to pay for public safety. Approved.

NEW BUSINESS:
County Attorney Bob Clutter presented a resolution for the council’s approval as a follow-up to last month’s creation of a county employee health insurance fund. As the county health and highway department pay their health insurance through separate funds, this resolution would create specific funds within those departments’ budgets to serve the same purpose as the other fund does for other county employees. There was some discussion as to the necessity and wisdom of creating these separate funds. Some council members questioned restricting funds within these two departments’ budgets for these specific uses, while others questioned why the auditor’s office couldn’t just use the newly-created county employee health fund for these two departments. Members of the auditor’s office explained the complexity of the current situation of accounting for the separate expenditures. Cindy Murphy of the Health Department spoke to her desire to have such a fund to alleviate the impact of possible future catastrophic illnesses for employees. Several other questions were asked in attempts to clarify how the various insurance funding mechanisms impacted these funds, and whether the smaller funds would be practicable. A group including myself, commissioner Jeff Wolfe and the auditor’s office will meet this afternoon to address these questions and others regarding the county’s health insurance. Follow-up meetings will likely be required. Some members wanted to wait until next month to create the funds, after these meetings take place and the commissioners have made their decision on how to proceed, but eventually the council voted 4-1 to proceed.

The council made several appointments/reappointments to various boards and commissions as follows:
Alcoholic Beverage: Bob Miller
Area Plan: Jay Schaumburg
Solid Waste: Marcia Wilhoite
PTBOA (Property Tax Board of Appeals): Charles Ewing (Democrat) & Carol Nist (Republicans)
Convention & Visitors Bureau: Debbie Shubert
Redevelopment: Marcia Wilhoite & Greg Slipher

OLD BUSINESS:
Last month the council approved an additional appropriation to cover a shortfall in the highway department’s retirement and social security lines, but several questions remained as to why those were necessary. Supervisor Tom Kouns reported that after checking it appears that both resulted from a simple miscalculation in planning the budget. The numbers for 2011 were double-checked and found to be accurate.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Highway Supervisor Tom Kouns presented summaries of snow removal costs so far this winter (not including today’s snow). As of December 27, the costs were approximately $55,000, up from $47,000 on the same date the previous year.

Kouns also presented the newly-received breakdowns from the state of the expected distribution to his department from the state. Motor Vehicle Highway funding for 2010 is slightly less than the 2001 allocation, while Local Road & Street funding is just under the 2004 allocation. Kouns answered questions about costs, indicating that while the county has saved money by joining the state’s salt purchasing agreement, costs for all other materials have risen.

Cindy Murphy of the Health Department updated the council on the loss of vaccines due to mechanical failure last fall. Insurance did pay the department’s claim, minus a $1000 deductible. Some of that money will be used to reimburse the state for their lost vaccines. Murphy reported that the department is also planning to use grant money to replace all their units and install back-ups to avoid such a problem in future.

Dax Norton, Director of the Boone County Economic Development Commission, reported briefly on the county’s success in attracting development in 2010 and building momentum in 2011. The Amazon expansion and the D-A Lubricants project in the Lebanon Business Park rank as two of the four largest projects in Central Indiana. The EDC recently made its first loan under its newly-created small business loan program. Related to that future development, Norton and Kouns reported that the reconfiguration of the intersection at 400 S & 400 E (where I-65 connects to the north end of the Anson development) is currently in the design phase and will move forward this year, alleviating the congestion there, particularly during shift changes.

Council Member Gene Thompson asked Highway Supervisor Kouns to provide information at the February meeting regarding the Ford Road Bridge replacement project, which continues to move forward and cost money for engineering fees. Thompson opposes the used steel truss bridge (as do I) which has been designated for the past several years to be put in place when that bridge and intersection is redesigned. Council members will convey specific questions to Mr. Kouns so that he can research answers before next month’s meeting.

Treasurer Deanna Willhoite asked the council for clarification on policy for encumbering part-time wages for employees who worked during 2010 but will not be paid through the payroll cycle until 2011. Previous county policy allowed most wages to be encumbered from year to year, but that policy was stopped in recent years for all but part-time. The county currently has no specific policy in this regard. Willhoite has planned on using encumbered funds from the 2010 budget to pay $500 of wages, which would otherwise come out of this

Meeting adjourned at approximately 10:30.

Council Agenda -- January 2011

BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL
BUSINESS AGENDA FOR JANUARY 11, 2011
LOCATION: CONNIE LAMAR MEETING ROOM, ROOM 105
116 W Washington St
Lebanon, IN 46052


Call meeting to order – 8:30 a.m.

Approval of December 2010 Minutes

Re-Appropriation Requests: None

Additional Requests:
Sheriff, Commissioners, Wireless 911, CCD, Rainy Day

New Business:
Bob Clutter, County Attorney – Ordinance 2011-01- Health Insurance Funds for Highway & Health Dept
2011 Board Appointments

Old Business:

Public Comment:

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

Adjournment


This agenda is subject to change.