Notes November 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
11/9/2011
Present: All Council Members present, Secretary Heather Barton.
The council approved the minutes of the October meeting.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS: All Approved.
Surveyor(Ken Hedge):
Requested $1200 from spray/clerical and $400 from photo/blueprint to travel to pay for fuel for the remainder of the year. The council, Surveyor Hedge and Auditor Price discussed the desirability of changing the name/coding of the travel line to more accurately reflect the standard use of the line for fuel expenditures.

Prosecutor(Tonya Thayer):
Requested $1500 from fugitive extradition to dues and $2000 from fugitive extradition to library. Those categories cover continuing education dues as well as subscriptions and research fees.

Superior I(No one present):
Requested $1000 from extradition -- $500 to library and $500 to med/psych evaluation, as well as $200 from office equipment -- $100 to library and $100 to other operating expenses. Several members discussed the propriety of the annual transfer of funds to library, dues and subscriptions from the judges’ and prosecutor’s offices and asked that more information be presented in future.

Superior II (No one present):
Requested $200 from dues/subscriptions to library.

Circuit Court (No one present):
Requested $1500 from juvenile counseling to library and $3000 from juvenile counseling to pauper attorney fees.

Highway (Rick Carney):
Requested $6000 moved from road maintenance to road striping.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Sheriff (No one present):
Requested roughly $2400 in various transfers for Inmate Medical and Postage reimbursements. Approved.

Coroner (No one present):
Requested $4480 for travel expenses and $1000 for cell phone to reimburse expenditures. The council has had an ongoing conversation with the coroner about the inadequacy of the budgeted lines for the increasing caseload of that office. Coroner Harris has largely been paying expenses as they arise. Approved.

Community Corrections (No one present):
Withdrawn as a duplicate submission.

County Corrections (Ken Campbell):
Requested $25,000 for the federally-mandated VHF radio upgrade in conjunction with the highway department. The council asked Sheriff Campbell and Mr. Carney several questions about the radio upgrade and the contracts from the highway and sheriff’s departments. This discussion had been inadvertently placed on the agenda for next week’s joint council/commissioners meeting (my fault!), but following today’s discussion it will be withdrawn. The sheriff’s department portion of the contract is covered by this additional, while the highway department’s will need to be on the agenda for the council’s December meeting. Approved.

Highway (Rick Carney):
Requested $133,000+ as reimbursement from INDOT grant money for the 146th Street extension project. Approved.

NEW BUSINESS:
Recorder Sam Baldwin addressed the council regarding her desire to hire a new part-time employee to cover absences in her office. This is a new employee, but not a new position. No additional funds will be budgeted.

County Attorney Bob Clutter addressed the council regarding a resolution authorizing transfer of $600,000 from the Rainy Day Fund to a newly-created fund housing monies for the I-65 West TIF re-development bond. This essentially serves as surety for the reissued bond for that development district, as proposed by the RDC board and discussed last month. Additional language in the resolution and the segregation of this money into its own fund it is hoped will prevent expenditure of this money on other projects as happened with the surety from the original bond issue. The council approved a motion adopting the resolution.

Auditor Melody Price presented the monthly financial update, including an estimate that the county’s general fund operating balance will be roughly $2M at year-end, with the prospect of additional unspent and unencumbered funds from the 2011 budget reverting to that fund January 1.

More importantly, Ms. Price took the council through a discussion of the state DLGF’s rejection of the council’s resolution to reset the Cumulative Bridge Fund rate to reflect the end of the county’s commitment of $500,000 from that fund’s annual revenue to the county 4-H building program. State statute requires such resolutions to be published as public notice in two newspapers in the county. As both the Lebanon Reporter and Zionsville Times-Sentinel are owned by the same company, the county submitted the information for publication to the single individual who then forwards the submission to both papers. In this instance, the Times-Sentinel failed to publish the notice. As a result, the fund rate will actually drop in an amount equivalent to roughly $500,000, and result in the Cum Bridge fund being underfunded. The fund does have sufficient balance to cover the budget despite the loss, but the council is uncomfortable with the lack of “cushion” which will be left. Several options for appeals were discussed, and Attorney Clutter, president Jacob and the commissioners will discuss options. In the face of this rejection, Auditor Price submitted an increased levy rate for the county’s general fund which would allow for roughly the same amount of revenue to be collected, just into a different fund. In the end the consensus was to proceed with the appeal currently underway and then to adapt to whatever the result. It was also agreed with the commissioners to propose a change to the statute language in the legislature through the Association of Indiana Counties.

Councilman Thompson asked a question about possible use of the Sheriff’s Pension Fund account to help offset the county’s portion of the sheriff’s pension plan. Auditor Price and Ms. Barton answered that they had just received clarification to outstanding questions on that issue and that it appeared next year the county could allocate a set amount from the fund to the budget for the pension plan.

OLD BUSINESS:
None.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Council member Wilhoite asked Commissioner Wolfe for an update on the status of the county health insurance plan renewal. Wolfe stated that Commissioner Applegate is meeting with representatives of three companies this week and was expected to report back to the commissioners by month’s end.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 9:55.

Next regularly-scheduled council meeting will be Wednesday, November 16th, at 6:00 p.m. when the council and commissioners will conduct their “quarterly” joint meeting at the Zionsville Town Hall.