Notes -- March 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
3/13/2012
Present: All Council Members present except Brent Wheat.
The council approved the minutes of the February meeting.

Brent Cardin, Director of the Arc of Boone County, presented his semi-annual update on the Arc’s activities. The county reduced its contribution to the agency’s budget by 5% for 2012; the agency’s overall budget is down 6.9%. One recent development is that the state has asked for competitive bids for distributing WIC program funds, which the Arc has traditionally overseen. Last year Arc received a 3-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, its highest accreditation level.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS:
Prosecutor (Megan McQuern):
This re-appropriation is actually tied to the Additional appropriation below, in relation to the discussion held last month regarding expenses related to the Chamorro murder trial. $5000 was moved into the Capital Litigation fund as an additional, then a re-appropriation of $3000 of that into the Trial Expense fund, which had been depleted through the Chamorro trial. Both approved in separate motions.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
Prosecutor (Megan McQuern):
See above Re-appropriation.

Sheriff (Ken Campbell):
Requested a variety of transfers from the General Fund to specific funds such as medical, postage and insurance repairs, all of which had been received as reimbursements, as well as $324 to part-time to supplement pay for clerical work relating to Sheriff’s sales. Total of roughly $2500. All approved.

Commissioners (Marc Applegate/Kathy Clawson):
Requested transfer of $2240 to Soil & Water Board for meeting salaries. Approved.

Highway (Rick Carney):
Two separate issues were presented.
First, Carney is restructuring the personnel in the highway department to meet budget demands by eliminating the position of Assistant Highway Supervisor and creating a second Foreman position. Requested a NEGATIVE additional for $36,000 to allow that money back into the Motor Vehicle Highway Fund, with the plan to request an additional of roughly $6,000 next month to cover the additional cost of the promotions. The total annual savings, including benefits packages, should be just over $40,000. Approved the negative additional.
Second, the council last year had approved $500,000 from the Rainy Day Fund for purchase and lease of new equipment. With the changeover in personnel, $82,000 of that which had been designated for new pick-up trucks went unspent at the end of the year. Carney requested that money, plus an additional $8,000 to equip two of those with snowplows with the intent of having them do some of the housing addition and small street work which is currently being done by a contractor. Approved.

Probation (no one present):
The probation department is expanding the Courts’ Interventions Services program to serve more offenders. Funding comes from fees collected through the courts. Approved.

NEW BUSINESS:
Auditor Melody Price distributed a monthly financial update. One note of interest was that just over 4% of the county’s general fund budget for 2011 was unspent at year’s end and so reverted back to the fund. There was some discussion of the general fund balance, which at the end of February was just over $1.3M. Roughly $3.3M was moved in February into the county’s health insurance funds to cover the year’s expected expenses. With the decision last year to draw down the general fund balance to cover the shortfall in revenue in this year’s budget rather than budget from the Rainy Day or other reserve funds, the general fund may near depletion before the property tax distributions this summer and at the end of the year. The council will need to monitor any additional appropriations from the general fund closely.

Ms. Price also distributed an updated county salary ordinance to reflect the changes approved for the highway department. Approved.

Price gave the council an overview of the county’s health insurance expenditures over the past five years.

Highway Superintendent Carney noted that the 96th Street TIF district road reconstruction is scheduled to begin March 19th, including road closures.

OLD BUSINESS:
Steve Jacob updated the council on the status of discussions between the County Commissioners and Zionsville Town Council on Bridge 220 (the Ford Road Bridge). Zionsville and the Commissioners are continuing to meet; Zionsville has agreed to hire a third-party engineering firm to examine the design of the project. The council will not be specifically included in all future meetings, but will be asked to have representation when any financial issues might arise. County Attorney Bob Clutter has been hosting the meetings, and updated the council on their progress as well. The next meeting is expected to include the three engineer firms currently involved (county, town, third-party) and INDOT representatives. Highway Supervisor Rick Carney noted that all expenditures so far on the bridge project have been local dollars. According to Carney, INDOT should reimburse the county with matching funding credits even with changes to the project.

Steve Jacob addressed the lack of a joint meeting schedule. A great deal of discussion followed as to the purpose, location and possible dates of such a meeting. Eventually, Tuesday, May 22nd was selected, with further discussion of the agenda to be held in future meetings. The meeting will be scheduled for 6:00 p.m. in the courthouse annex meeting room.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Dax Norton, Boone EDC director, gave an update on economic development. One highlight is that Whitestown is one of seven finalists for the 2012 Stellar Communities grant project, which could mean up to $19M in grant funding for projects to enhance the community, with a focus on regional connections and structural renovations.

Gene Thompson noted that he continues to have concerns regarding the re-assessment funds, one of which is currently running a negative balance. He requested that the Assessor’s office be present next month to update the council on those funds, as well as any changes the legislature may have made in their recently-ended session.


Meeting adjourned at roughly 10:15.
Next regularly-scheduled council meeting will be Tuesday, April 10, 2012.