Notes -- January 2012 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
1/10/2012
Present: All Council Members present, Secretary Heather Barton.
The council approved the minutes of the regular December meeting. Minutes for the special meeting on December 30 were not yet available for review.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS:
None.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Auditor (Melody Price):
Withdrawn. Ms. Price had asked for funds to repair and rebind several old record books, but was able to pay for the repairs out of office supplies. Price has also created a fund from plat fees which will build up to cover such expenses in the future.

NEW BUSINESS:
Probation Director Kari Ragsdale addressed the council regarding her desire to hire a new full-time employee (field officer) to supervise juvenile home detention services. The position, including benefits, would be funded by user fees, which have been above projections for the past year-plus. Council approved the hire.

Ada Hawkins, director of Maple View Home, notified the council of her plan to replace a cook position. She had been trying to make do without the position to save money, but is finding that overly-burdensome for the remaining employees. Commissioner Jeff Wolfe also spoke in support of the replacement. Council approved the replacement plan.

County Attorney Bob Clutter presented a resolution requested by the council formally eliminating the defunct Jail Leasing Fund, which had been out of use since 2005, and transferring the remaining monies, about $18,000, to the general fund. Council approved.

Steve Jacob brought up the possibility of one-time employee “bonus” payments, since employees have now gone three years without a raise. A wide array of opinions were aired by the board. No consensus was reached. A payment of $500 to each full-time non-elected employee would equate to just under $100,000 (roughly equivalent in cost to a 1.5% raise); a $1000 payment was also discussed. Jacob and I will meet with the commissioners and the auditor to discuss the numbers and the mechanics and report back to the council in February.

Jacob asked Commissioner Wolfe and Assessor Lisa Garoffolo to address the issue of appointments to the Property Tax Board of Appeals. Currently the board is budgeted for five members, though the assessor and commissioners have considered reducing to three members. If the board stays at five, the council need to make an additional appointment. Garoffolo reported that having more members allows the appeals to be processed more quickly. The size of the board is somewhat dependent upon the number of appeals. As the current budget allows for five member, the council approved the re-appointment of Carol Nist and Charles Ewing.

Sheriff Ken Campbell reminded the council that it had discussed looking into the possibility of enacting a Public Safety Local Option Income Tax.

Health Department Environmental Director Greg Inman notified the council that a full-time food inspector will be resigning effective at the end of the month, and asked approval to fill that position, which has already been budgeted. Council approved. (I also passed along kudos from a state health department employee I had heard about our health department’s performance and professionalism.)

OLD BUSINESS:


PUBLIC COMMENT:
Boone EDC Director Dax Norton addressed the council regarding the closing of ASI in Whitestown, noting that no official word has been received, and phone calls not returned, though many rumors and conflicting reports from employees have been floated. Norton assured that if he had concrete information from the owner, he would pass it along. Norton also noted that the EDC is waiting to hear about a major project in the Jamestown area which he believes the county has a strong chance of landing, and that Lebanon Business Park has four major companies planning to expand in 2012, as well as several other signs of interest in Lebanon, Whitestown and Zionsville. The only real drawback is that no industrial buildings are available in the county.

County Recorder Sam Baldwin reported that her office is about to have all its indexes available online, with scanning of images to begin soon.

Cindy Lamberjack, (along with Fritz Kunz and Barb Munson) rural Zionsville, Marion County, addressed the council extensively on her concerns about the Ford Rd Bridge project. She gave estimated costs for multiple scenarios if the bridge project did not move forward, as well as lengthy analysis of accidents in the area. Mr. Kuntz addressed an IBJ article regarding a recent study on the safety component of roundabouts; he compared the speed of the roundabouts to the current design of the curve south of the bridge. Steve Jacob disputed the validity of the comparison.

Gene Thompson commended Rick Carney of the Highway Department, passing along compliments received from constituents for the nice job done on the clean-up following a project on South Ford Road.

Ken Hedge, Surveyor, stated that he was awaiting clarification on some budget items taken from the Cum Capital Development Fund before spending on those tasks.

Auditor Melody Price presented her monthly financial update. General fund expenditures at year’s end were roughly $780,000 below budget, but not all encumbrances of those monies were yet processed. We should know more next month how much of that will revert to the general fund. Questions were raised regarding the INDOT payment of $1M to the county for taking control of the bridges on old State Road 33, as well as the reponsibility for repairing a dip in the road as it connects to the westernmost of three bridges on the road, between the Stonegate entrances.

I asked about the scheduling of the next joint commissioners/council meeting. Mr. Jacob stated that it will most likely be in February, but discussions are ongoing.


Meeting adjourned at roughly 10:00.
Next regularly-scheduled council meeting will be Tuesday, February 14th, 2012.

Agenda -- January 2012 Council Meeting

BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL
BUSINESS AGENDA FOR JANUARY 10, 2012
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 2011 minutes

Re-Appropriation Requests: none

Additional Requests: Auditor (tabled from December 2011)

New Business:
Kari Ragsdale, Chief Probation Officer – New Employee
Ada Hawkins, Mapleview Superintendent – Cook Position
Bob Clutter, County Attorney – Resolution 2012-01
Employee Bonuses

Old Business: Board Appointments tabled from December 2011

Public Comment:

Document Signing: Additionals, December 2011 Minutes

Adjournment

This agenda is subject to change.