NOTES – AUGUST 2016 BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

NOTES – AUGUST 2016 BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

All members present; Secretaries Tiffany Merritt and Chelsea Young.

Meeting was called to order just after 6:30 p.m. by President Steve Jacob.

The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council approved the minutes from its July meeting without amendment.

President Jacob recognized Councilor Brian Buchanan, who was chosen at a caucus last week to replace the retired Debby Shubert.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS:

Re-Assessment (no one present):

Requested $40 from Aerial to Loopnet to cover a slightly higher than expected contract expense.  Approved.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:

Clerk (Jessica Fouts):

Requested of three new lines to collect fees for a new felony diversion program being instituted by the Prosecutor’s Office. These lines (Coordinator, Drug Screening, Monitoring Fee) will be created within the extant Felony Diversion Fund, which has heretofore been unused, to receive funds from a state grant recently awarded. Approved.

Prosecutor (Todd Meyer):

Requested two new lines in Felony Diversion (Electronic Monitoring, Unappropriated (cell phones)) related to the grant above, as well as two new lines in the Prosecutor’s General Fund (Electronic Monitoring – Civil, Electronic Monitoring – Criminal). The Felony Diversion lines will be funded by grant money, while the General Fund lines will be funded by collected tax dollars, though with a 66% reimbursement from the state. Prosecutor Meyer fielded several questions about the program and its future, with broad support from the council.

Requested creation of Payroll, Retirement & OASI lines, as well as amendment to the salary ordinance to reflect this diversion program’s implementation. All approved 6-1.

A motion to amend the salary ordinance to reflect these changes was also approved, 6-1.

Commissioners (no one present):

Requested $14,800 to replenish a line which had been borrowed against in order to make an HVAC payment earlier in the year. Approved.

Sheriff (Mike Nielsen):

Requested creation of a new fund titled “BCSO Youth Programs” to facilitate receipt of donations for the department’s teen academy, as well as any future youth camps. (These programs would be separate from the DARE and related awareness programs.) Approved.

JDAI (Judge Jeff Edens):

Requested increases to three salary lines to reflect hiring a full-time director for the program, funded through a state grant. Judge Edens noted the program’s ongoing success and expansion. Approved.

Judge Edens also addressed some issues raised last month relating to increased funding for detention.

EMA (Rachel Hansen):

Requested transfer of $14,600 in grant reimbursement from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Approved.

Auditor/Settlement (Carla Newcomer):

Requested $45,000 for 4-H and $118,000 for Mental Health to correct an error in communication between the county and the state in the 2016 budget. The SBOA cut the amount budgeted to these two organizations to half of what the council had intended. This additional will correct that cut and restore the budgets to what the council believed it had approved.  Approved.

Requested creation of a new line to receive state COIT distributions into the Rainy Day fund, as approved last month.

NEW BUSINESS:

Paige Sansone of Umbaugh presented a draft of the updated county financial plan. Among the highlights was announcement that the state has recently decided to re-combine the General Fund (property tax) and the COIT Fund (income tax), back into a single “General Fund,” as they had been two years ago.

Councilor Wilhoite announced that a special workshop will be held Monday, September 12^th, @ 5:30 p.m. for presentation of the Wage & Benefit Survey. The council will consider the results of the study in its budget hearings later in the week.

Auditor Carla Newcomer presented information from the DLGF about possible impact of property tax caps on the various taxing units across the county. New state law requires the council acknowledge reviewing the information, though no other action was required.

OLD BUSINESS:

County Attorney Bob Clutter reminded the council that it would be in the county’s interest to regularly revisit the CCD levy rate for possible reestablishment each year or at the least every other year.

Mr. Clutter also noted that in his experience with bond rating agencies related to fund balances, policy statements on maintaining healthy fund balances and higher cash balances in the 15-20%+ range were looked upon very favorably. The Umbaugh report presented earlier in the evening was based upon a 15% cash balance goal.

Finally, Mr. Clutter updated the council on a 2014 bond issue and its related project lists. The proceeds of the bond amounted to roughly $7.5M, and the original project list plus a few added projects have been completed, with two exceptions: Bridge 202 (Lions Park Bridge) & a portion of the 300S/400S Connector Bridge in Whitestown. The $1.8M remaining balance from that bond issue is projected to cover the completion of those projects, though their projected finish dates are still several years out.

Molly Whitehead, Executive Director of the Boone County Economic Development Corporation, presented an overview of the EDC’s activities in the past year. (Ms. Whitehead may be out of the country during next month’s budget hearings, and wanted to ensure she could answer the council’s questions before budget decisions are made.) Whitehead noted that the EDC’s success in bringing business projects to the county is on pace to eclipse last year’s investment totals in the next few weeks, with several more projects under consideration and expected to be announced before year’s end. Whitehead also noted that the EDC has dramatically increased its expenditures in marketing, from 5% in 2014 to 13% in 2016, in part thanks to the funding provided through its contract with the county. 

PUBLIC COMMENT:

I noted that representatives from the council and commissioners – as well as Lebanon, Whitestown and Zionsville – have been in conversations regarding adoption of a Local Income Tax for Public Safety. Sheriff Nielsen has been involved in the discussions as well, and has made several presentations of his business plan proposal for the sheriff’s department in coming years. He will be presenting this proposal – which the county cannot fund under current revenues – at the council’s budget hearings on Thursday, September 15^th. The public is invited to attend to hear the presentation.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 8:45 p.m.

Next regularly scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, September 13^th, at 8:30 a.m. A special meeting for the presentation of the Wage & Benefit Study will be Monday, September 12^th, at 5:30 p.m.

NOTES – JULY 2016 BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

NOTES – JULY 2016 BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

All members present; Secretaries Tiffany Merritt and Chelsea Young.

Meeting was called to order just after 8:30 A.m. by President Steve Jacob.

The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council approved the minutes from its June meeting without amendment.

President Jacob recognized Councilor Debby Shubert, who has resigned from the council effective at the end of the month. She and her husband will be moving to Bloomington for a new job opportunity. The council and audience recognized

RE-APPROPRIATIONS: None.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:

Clerk (no one present):

Requested $2,240 for Meals and $4,500 for Absentee Board. These monies will bring those lines up to the necessary balance for the fall election. The numbers used in the budget were estimates made before the vote centers were approved, and the estimates were a bit short.  Approved.

Highway (Nick Parr):

Requested $136,000 for removal of Bridge 303. The department had waited to make this request until public meetings and discussions with affected landholders could be completed.  Approved.

Requested $450,000 for Land Acquisition for the Whitestown Connector. This higher number was necessary as land values in the area have risen significantly since the project was first estimated. Whitestown has also nearly doubled the amount they will be contributing to the project. Approved.

Requested $1M into a new fund (Road & Bridge Grant Fund) and a new line within that fund (Matching Grant Program), as discussed last month. Approved.

Requested $2.080M into a new line within the Road & Bridge Grant Fund for the Whitestown Connector for a local 50/50 match from the state. After some discussion, Approved.

Health (Greg Inman):

Requested creation of a new fund for the Sharps Program. This will ease moving grant funds each year, eliminating some paperwork steps. Approved.

Probation (No one present):

Requested $50,000 for Juvenile Detention for secure detention. The department had budgeted $60,000, and already spent $55,000 through June, with an outstanding bill of over $5,500. The council was reluctant to approve such a large expenditure from the general fund without explanation, so requested input from the department. Michael Nance, Director of Community Corrections, was called into the meeting to shed light onto the issue. He stated that the number of juveniles being assigned secure detention has skyrocketed this year. Mr. Nance also explained that both the recently-implemented JDAI program and Community Corrections have taken many of the youth who would previously have been detained, but those programs cannot handle all the cases they face. Population increases and increases in crime have led to more juveniles being assigned detention, and thus the increased request. Sheriff Mike Nielsen noted that the county has no facility to house juveniles, which means added cost to the county to send them elsewhere. He also noted that for the first time in the county’s history the county jail housed over 200 inmates (205) this past weekend. Approved.

CCD (Commissioners):

Requested $14,8000 to HVAC to restore money moved last month to make a bond payment. Approved.

NEW BUSINESS:

Nick Parr of the Highway Department presented the Interlocal Agreement for the Whitestown Connector. Approved.

Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry approached the council to inform the county of Lebanon budget discussions regarding charging the county for the parking spaces its employees use. Since 2007, the city has allotted the county 28 permits free of charge. The city is looking to upgrade its parking enforcement efforts, and charging the county may be part of paying for those upgrades. Mayor Gentry will be discussing options with the commissioners moving forward.

Cindy Murphy, Health Department Director, distributed information about the upcoming Boone County Substance Abuse Symposium on Thursday, August 4^th, at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds.

OLD BUSINESS:

County Attorney Bob Clutter presented an updated draft of Resolution 2016-01, as discussed last month, regarding creating a reverting building maintenance fund for the Key Bank Building, dealing with debt repayment issues from the bond as well. The council unanimously approved the resolution.

Chelsea Young of the Auditor’s Office updated the council on the status of the 25% of the state road funding money discussed last month, totaling just over $1.026M. The council voted unanimously to move the money into the Rainy Day Fund, then into a specific line called State Distribution.

Surveyor Ken Hedge introduced Jim Swift and the Section Cornerstone Perpetuation project. Mr. Swift presented this spring at the state surveyor’s conference. Mr. Swift explained the project, its history and the project’s progress in the past year. The project, which began in 2007, is over halfway complete. Swift also noted that the county had recently passed an ordinance assessing a fine for illegally moving a section corner monument.

Steve Jacob brought up some suggested changes to scheduling for the council’s upcoming budget hearings.  After much discussion, it was decided to move the council’s August 9^th meeting to an evening meeting, starting at 6:30. The planned September evening meeting will now begin at 8:30 a.m. on September 13^th. Budget hearings will begin after that meeting, at approximately 10:30, and continue through the afternoon. Budget hearings will continue 8:30-4:00 the succeeding three days, if needed.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Meeting adjourned at approximately 10:30.

Next regularly scheduled meeting will be an evening meeting, Tuesday, August 9, at 8:30 a.m.

NOTES – JUNE 2016 BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

NOTES – JUNE 2016 BOONE COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

All members present except John Hume; Secretaries Tiffany Merritt and Chelsea Young.

Meeting was called to order just after 6:30 p.m. by President Steve Jacob.

The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council approved the minutes from its May meeting without amendment.

Councillor Wilhoite expressed congratulations to the Lebanon Tigers softball team on their state championship.

President Jacob asked Auditor Carla Newcomer to introduce Tiffany Merritt, deputy in the Auditor’s office, who will be assisting the council, including recording its meeting minutes.

RE-APPROPRIATIONS: Approved

Highway (Craig Parks):

Requested $7680 from Truck Drivers to Summer Intern, as discussed at previous meetings. This should not be a problem for the Truck Driver line at year’s end.

CCD/Commissioners (Jeff Wolfe):

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:

Auditor (Carla Newcomer):

Requested $2000 for purchase of a fireproof safe in order to store former employees’ records, as required by state statute. The office’s current safe is overflowing. Approved.

Community Corrections (Michael Nance):

Requested approval of $101,000 in state grant money into the Grant Fund for medication-assisted treatments for drug abuse. This money will be used for injectable treatments of Vivitrol for opioid abusers as part of their treatment and community re-entry. While the treatment program will be open to inmates from anywhere, the Vivitrol shots will be open only to Boone County residents for the time being. This will be part of a collaboration among Community Corrections, the Sheriff’s Department at the jail, and the county’s Health Department. Sheriff Mike Nielsen spoke in praise of the initiative. Boone County will be one of the first in Indiana to implement the program. Mr. Nance answered several questions about the program, as did Sheriff Nielsen. Approved.

Surveyor (Ken Hedge):
Requested $500 to Meetings/Seminars to pay for training at the StormCon conference, including certification as Inspectors of Sediment and Erosion Control. Approved.

Maintenance (Mike Miller):

Requested $11,050 to cover repair costs for the courthouse emergency generator, including rental costs for a back-up generator. Approved.

Requested $3898 to replace a fire alarm enunciator at the jail. Approved.

Coroner (Shon Hough):
Requested $1654 for Training for Mr. Hough and some of his staff to attend a state training on investigation of prescription drug crimes. Hough noted that the county officially has recorded eight drug overdose deaths so far in 2016, which continues a trend of increasing numbers over the past few years but likely vastly underestimates the true number as many individuals who overdose in Boone County are transported to hospitals in Marion County. Sheriff Mike Nielsen was also asked to answer several questions about drug use and overdoses in the county. Approved.

Prosecutor (no one present):

Requested creation of three new lines related to salaries to receive grant money for the Prosecutor’s Diversion program. There were some unanswered questions about how the funds would be distributed, but the only action from the council required this evening was the creation of the new lines. Approved.

Circuit Court (Judge Jeff Edens):

Requested $500 into Office Equipment to purchase two monitors for court recorders to increase their work efficiency by saving the time of moving from place to place to do their work. Approved.

NEW BUSINESS:

County Attorney Bob Clutter addressed the council regarding establishment of internal controls and materiality thresholds, as required by new state statute, to be considered by the county commissioners later this month. The materiality threshold was established at $500, and nearly all the internal controls language reflects practices already in place, which will now be formalized in line with the legislation. No action from the council was required.

Mr. Clutter also presented for the council’s consideration the creation of a non-reverting building maintenance fund, including draft language of an ordinance to create the fund. The fund would be populated by rent payments from the Key Bank building (which the county will likely close on in the coming weeks), and could be used “for the debt service on any outstanding obligations for the purchase of the [bank building], or for the operation, maintenance or improvements to the [building] or any other building or structure owned or maintained by the County, or for the acquisition of other buildings or property . . ..” Mr. Clutter answered several questions about how the fund might be used. Commissioner Jeff Wolfe also spoke to the purpose of the fund. Several council members expressed concerns about some of the details of the language, with Clutter and Wolfe agreeing to work through the concerns and fine-tune the language for consideration of the ordinance at the council’s July meeting.

Auditor Carla Newcomer and Highway Engineer Craig Parks spoke about the deposit of $3,080,188 into a Special Distribution Fund and 1,026,729 deposited into the county’s COIT General Fund as a result of the state’s one-time distribution of “excess” COIT funds for highway maintenance. Newcomer and Parks answered several questions about how the money could be used, though some questions remain about what the state will and will not allow. No action was taken tonight, but the council, auditor’s office and highway department agreed to some general plans for next month’s meeting.

Cindy Murphy, Health Department, presented the department’s 2015 Annual Report, as well as the county’s results from CountyHealthRankings.org. Murphy also presented information about the county’s “Substance Abuse Symposium,” scheduled for August 4^th at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds.

Ms. Murphy also asked for clarification regarding IT needs funding for budgeting purposes, apparently based upon a discussion from the Council’s April meeting (which I missed) in which the Highway Department’s IT budget was discussed as possibly being moved from its own MVH fund into the county’s general or CCD funds.

OLD BUSINESS:

Steve Jacob introduced a letter of interest and a recommendation from the Thorntown Public Library Board to appoint Jason Lester to the board. The board unanimously approved Mr. Lester’s appointment.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Surveyor Ken Hedge asked to be added to the agenda for next month to have Jim Swift present an update on the Cornerstone Perpetuation project.

Lebanon resident Aaron Smith addressed the council with his views on how money should be spent.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 8:30.

Next regularly scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, July 12, at 8:30 a.m.