Notes -- May 2013 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
5/14/2013
Present:  All Council members present, Secretary Crystal Raub.

The council reviewed and approved meeting minutes from its February, March and April meetings. 

NEW BUSINESS:

County Attorney Bob Clutter presented for approval a four-year contract with GUTS for IT services on behalf of the county commissioners.  Because of the length of the contract, state statute requires approval from both the commissioners and the council.  Some discussion followed regarding the budget implications of this contract, as well as its relation to other IT contracts (such as those for re-assessment services and the health department).  The contract fees are already in the budget, so no additional appropriation was required, just approval.  Approved.

 

RE-APPROPRIATIONS:

Assessor (Lisa Garoffolo):

Requested $500 from state meeting to travel to fund additional training expenses.  Approved.

 

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:

Sherriff (Ken Campbell):

Requested $1400 for “Safe Keeping,” which is a payment to the Indiana Dept. of Corrections to care for a prisoner who was deemed unsafe under local supervision.

Requested roughly $1900 for a variety of other reimbursements of funds for such things as postage, inmate medical, damage reimbursement, etc.

Councilor Thompson asked Sheriff Campbell to address whether it was necessary to reimburse the inmate medical fund some $1400 when that fund was budget $200,000 for the year and in fact already has a balance of over $300,000.  Sheriff Campbell gave an extensive answer regarding his fiscal prudence and the propriety of his actions. Approved.

 

County Corrections (Ken Campbell):

Requested roughly $210 for reimbursement of inmate supplies.   Approved.

 

Statewide 911 Training (Ken Campbell):

Requested $90 of reimbursement.  Approved.

 

IT (no one present):

Requested $5268 to cover the final expenses of the Harris financial software contract.  Councilor Wilhoite asked for clarification that after Harris is no longer under contract the county would still be able to access past data, and was assured that it would be.  Approved.

 

Drug Free Boone County (Officer Phelps):

Requested an additional of $2400 for the Drug Free Boone County Chairperson Stipend.  The stipend, as with the entire user fee-based fund, is overseen by a local coordinating council, which moved in November to increase the chair’s salary in light of the state’s cutting of funding for the liaison who had previously performed many duties now being picked up by the chair.  Approved.

 

CCD (Mike Miller):

Requested $10,178 to replace a large compressor as part of the Courthouse Annex air conditioning system.  After discussion, the council declined to make a motion at this time in light of an account balance of nearly $125,000, and nearly 90% of the annual budgeted amount still remaining, but did advise Mr. Miller to return later in the year should the fund run short.

 

Rainy Day/Highway (Rick Carney):

Requested $18,325 for payment on a lease agreement for the five dump trucks leased in 2011. This should cover the remainder of this year’s payment.  Carney was asked to update the council next month on the remaining balances on this lease agreement.  Approved.

 

Highway (Rick Carney):

Requested $30,000 for truck driver overtime largely related to the snow and rain events thus far this year.  Approved.

 

Cum Bridge (Carney):

Requested $35,000 to finish the Bridge 312 (Grant Street in Lebanon) project.  Approved.

 

Economic Development/Highway (Carney):

Requested $64,000 to transfer reimbursement from INDOT for right-of-way purchase on the 400 South project at the north end of the Anson development. 

Lebanon resident Aaron Smith addressed the council regarding the 400 South project and the Anson development in general in relation to their impact on taxpayers to fund the developments. Approved.

 

Highway Equipment (Carney):

Requested a total of $701,000 for new equipment (one Gradall and two dump trucks), as discussed at the previous two months’ meetings.  After extensive discussion, including concern about the upcoming request for summer road maintenance funding and the possible additional funds from the state thanks to the legislature’s recent actions, the council opted to move $381,000 from the Rainy Day fund for the Gradall and $320,000 from the Food and Beverage fund for the two dump trucks.  Approved.

 

Commissioners (Jeff Wolfe):

Requested $6000 from the Rainy Day Fund for updating of the Washington Street office building, as discussed at last month’s meeting:  $350,000 for the base remodel, plus $250,000 for addition of an elevator. Commissioner Wolfe cautioned that both those numbers are at the high end of estimates, with the goal of the project coming in significantly lower.  Some discussion followed about the propriety of adding the elevator at this time vs. adding it on at a later date.  Eventually, the council approved a motion instructing the commissioners to move forward with the full project – elevator included – by financing the project out of the CCD fund.  I agreed to work with Commissioner Wolfe to work out the details of the additional which will be needed next month for moving forward with an RFP before full financing will be in place. 

 

OLD BUSINESS:

Councilor Thompson asked Sheriff Campbell to present some information regarding the uses, revenues and disbursements from the Commissary Fund as a follow-up to his report in March. Campbell cited state law and Boone County resolutions governing the fund.  The fund exists primarily from sale of personal items to inmates, including telephone usage time.  Other revenue comes from such things as fees for use of the county’s shooting range.  The funds are then disbursed primarily for expenses related to those items, plus equipment and training for the sheriff’s office and jail and their employees, psychological testing for employees, the sheriff’s Shred It program and advertising for various sheriff’s department activities.  Thompson raised the possibility of using the commissary fund to support expenses for such items as the jail kitchen or jail record-keeping, or supporting the GED classes offered at the jail.  Campbell stated that he did not consider those appropriate uses of commissary funds.

 

Councilor Wilhoite raised the availability of council members having read-only access to the new financial software, which had been the understanding given the council during the purchase process.  Deputy Auditor Chelsea Young stated that Auditor Wilhoite had informed her today that that access was not possible due to technical deficiencies with the software.  Council President Jacob stated that he would speak with GUTS and the Auditor to address the situation and to find at least a work-around to allow the council and commissioners to view the information the new software should be making available.

 

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Lebanon resident Aaron Smith addressed the council to laud the state legislature on its recent actions to bolster funding for both the state and local highway distributions, as well as pointing out the need for additional changes to further increase transportation funding. 

 

DOCUMENT SIGNING

 

The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:35.

 

Next regularly-scheduled council meeting will be Tuesday, June 11^th, at 8:30 a.m.