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.