Notes -- April 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
4/12/2011
Present: All Council Members present, Secretary Heather Barton.
The council approved the minutes of the March meeting.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS:
Health Dept. (no one present):
Request for $3000 from environmental specialist to attorney. The auditor’s office advised the council that because this transfer was considered a “shift” within the same fund series, no council action was needed.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Sheriff (Ken Campbell):
Requested roughly $2200 be transferred from the general to various funds (medical, postage and other equipment) for reimbursements. The biggest single item was moving grant funds of $1230 in grant money for camera equipment. Approved.

Prosecutor (Tonya Thayer):
Requested transfer of $1000 of grant fund reimbursement from a copier purchase. Approved.

Probation (Kari Ragsdale):
Requested $215,623 to cover funding of probation officer salaries. The council had budgeted this amount to come from a probation user fee fund, but a clarification from the state and a decrease in that fund’s income caused that plan to fall through. Approved.

Jail Maintenance (no one present):
Requested roughly $210 to reimburse inmate expenses returned to the general fund. Approved.

Cum Bridge (Carney):
A request for $100,000 for bridge 32 (steel truss over sugar creek) was withdrawn last month due to a typo in the advertising, but is resubmitted to correct a state budgeting error. This is not actually additional money, but correction of a paperwork error. Approved.

NEW BUSINESS:
Member Gene Thompson updated the council on the efforts of the prosecutor’s office to create a new fund in order to track expenses for the Child Advocacy Center. The Auditor’s office has approved this creation.

Council Secretary Heather Barton presented a request to create three new funds for tracking grant funds received for the Sherriff’s Department (OWI, Seatbelt, Aggressive Driving). These are not new grants, but rather an attempt to clarify accounting for future tracking of the funds. Council moved to create the funds.

Dax Norton, Director of the Boone County Economic Development Corporation, updated the council on the ongoing efforts of the EDC. Thursday, April 21, the EDC will sponsor a rural development summit at the Fairgrounds Pavilion, 6:30-9:00 p.m.

Tom Kouns of the Highway Department was on the agenda to discuss highway department equipment repairs/replacement last month, but was attending the Purdue Road School. Today Kouns updated the council on increasing prices of oil, asphalt and other materials in asking for guidance in setting up a summer road maintenance program. Several members discussed the declining road situation, and whether the council could or should continue to attempt to keep roads at their current state as revenues decline. Several questions involved the road inventories in areas annexed by Whitestown and Lebanon, and that involved in the Zionsville reorganization. In those annexed areas, the municipalities are now responsible for road maintenance, while in the “rural” areas of Zionsville, the county continues its responsibility for service. Kouns did clarify that the county still receives its distribution of state highway and motor vehicle funding based on those roads. (In other words, the county’s share of funding has stayed the same, though the overall funding has declined.)
Kouns also addressed the sorry state of his department’s equipment. Kouns spent 70% of the dept’s equipment repairs in the first quarter of 2011, as well as 50% of his gas and oil budget and over half of the tires and tubes budget. Commissioner Charles Eaton spoke extensively encouraging the council to adopt a wheel tax to avoid the impending emergency in road funding. Such a tax would have to be approved by June in order to be in place for next year’s income. The council did not respond favorably to Commissioner Eaton’s suggestions.
Council member Marcia Wilhoite suggested that the council and Kouns consider a total number equaling the amount transferred from the Cum Bridge fund last year, which was $2.1M. The council asked Kouns to come back with a plan which would spend up to $2M.
Wilhoite also asked for a regular update on where the council’s budget stands (over/under) in terms of what was allocated. President Steve Jacob asked Auditor Melody Price to give an update on the operating balance at the end of the year, with the idea of receiving a quarterly update. As part of the discussion, Price advised the council that the county actually spent roughly 94% of its allocated budget in 2010, which left an operating balance of just over $1M, which was up from just under $200,000 at the end of 2009.
Kouns also asked for clarification on funding for medical dust control. Last year, we budgeted $25,000 and spent just over $23,000 for just over 100 applications. After extensive discussion, the council decided NOT to fund medical dust control this year.

I raised the possibility of creating a personnel committee to address issues like extending employee work hours, trimming full-time &/or part-time employees, pay increases/bonuses, tying compensation to performance and job descriptions, and benefits. After discussion which included county commissioner Jeff Wolfe and HR consultant Dennis Dunlap, the council moved to create a committee of two council members, one commissioner and Auditor Price. Assuming the commissioners approve at their Monday meeting, I will serve on the committee, with council member Brent Wheat as chair. There was some discussion as to whether the committee should be a permanent, standing committee, but that question was left open for the time being.

I also moved to have a quarterly joint meeting with the county commissioners, inviting other elected officials and department heads, held in the evening, for the purposes of discussing county issues and allowing more public access to our proceedings. This would be outside the two boards’ regular morning monthly meetings. Whether this would be a business meeting or more focused just on discussion was debated extensively. Commissioner Wolfe asserted that the commissioners would be interested in such a meeting. Council member Butch Smith argued strongly against holding an evening meeting. Marcia Wilhoite questioned the desirability of holding a meeting without it being a regular business meeting. Smith suggested simply attending a commissioner’s meeting once a quarter in lieu of the regular monthly council meeting. Wilhoite asked that any meeting be in the late afternoon rather than later evening. I moved to ask the commissioners to conduct an additional joint quarterly meeting, and that motion carried, with the understanding that Jacob and Wolfe, as presidents of the respective boards, would arrange a schedule and set a time, morning or evening.

OLD BUSINESS:
Heather Barton updated the council on the efforts to determine the county’s portion of employee health benefits. We had asked for that information in order to adjust future funding for grant employees and possibly the CAC employees, especially in relation to the newly-created employee health funds. Through a convoluted process using the COBRA reimbursement rate for former employees, the auditor’s office reached a figure of $1,717, which is a high-end average estimate.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Auditor Price asked for guidance in setting the schedule for budget hearings in August. Tentative schedule is for the week of August 8th, though there is some question of whether the state will have distributed COIT funding information by that date. Price will attempt to find information on that schedule and advise the council next month in order to set the dates.

Steve Jacob asked the council’s input on contracting with Umbaugh & Associates for an update on the budget projections they prepared last year. The consensus seemed to be that while those were very useful, and an update of some sort would be helpful for the budget hearings as well, we will wait to see what information we can gather on our own and what might still be needed, with the possibility of engaging Umbaugh at some level this summer.

Gene Thompson asked Price for clarification on changes to contracting and reporting of IV-D grant funds in the prosecutor’s office. Price said a meeting with the new contractor and the clerk has been scheduled to address that issue. She will have an update next month.

Meeting adjourned at 10:55.

Next regularly-scheduled meeting will be 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, May 10, in the Courthouse Annex, Lebanon.

April 2011 Council Agenda

BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL
BUSINESS AGENDA FOR APRIL 12, 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 March 2011 Minutes

Re-Appropriation Requests:
Health Department

Additional Requests:
Sheriff, Prosecutor, Jail Maintenance, Probation, Cum Bridge

New Business:
Todd Meyer, Prosecutor – New CAC Fund
Heather Barton – 3 New Funds for Sheriff Grants
Tom Kouns, Highway Superintendent - Highway Equipment & Update
Dax Norton, EDC Director – Update
David Rodgers, Council Member – Personnel Committee, Council & Commissioners Joint Meeting and Evening Council Meeting

Old Business:
Steve Jacob & Gene Thompson, Council Members – CAC Funding
Heather Barton – Employer’s Portion of Health Benefits

Public Comment:

Document Signing:
Re-Appropriations, Additionals, March 2011 Council Minutes

Adjournment

This agenda is subject to change.