Notes -- March 2014 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
3/11/2014
Present:  All Council members present except Brent Wheat (ill), Secretaries Crystal Raub and Chelsea Young.

The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m.

The council reviewed and approved meeting minutes from its February meeting without amendment.  

RE-APPROPRIATIONS: None.

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:

Assessor (Lisa Garoffolo):

Requested $346,500 from the Rainy Day fund to cover the remaining contract obligation for assessment, which had been cut by the council at our budget hearings last fall. The council was reluctant to draw down the Rainy Day fund so significantly(this would be nearly 10% of the fund’s balance), and discussed multiple possibilities for taking all or part of the amount from other funds. As no such action had been advertised, some action was required today. In the end, the council approved three months’ funding for the contract ($115,000) and asked Assessor Garoffolo to return in June with another request for the remainder, if feasible from another fund. Approved.

Soil & Water (Kathy Clawson):

Requested $1716 in transfer of funds to align funding numbers with recent transition. Approved.

Highway (Rick Carney):

Requested $150,000 from Highway into Bridge Reinspection. Carney stated that he will in future plan to include this funding transfer in the regular budget process to accommodate state reimbursement procedures and fulfill the requirement of quadrennial bridge reinspection. Approved.

Community Corrections (Kari Ragsdale):

Requested creation of a new fund for Juvenile Alternative Detention Initiative under a pilot program in conjunction with Boone Circuit Court and the Prosecutor’s Office. Though grant funding has yet arrived. Boone County has already been implementing some of the procedures the JADI in order to limit the incarceration of juveniles through home detention and other community corrections programs. The initiative grant will provide additional staff funding ($19,000) and technology funding ($1700) support. Approved.

Coroner (Shon Hough):

Requested $900 into the Training Fund. This amount had been eliminated during the budget hearings due to a misunderstanding of payments required by the state. Approved.

Sheriff (Sheriff Campbell):

Requested roughly $400 in to inmate Postage and Medical for reimbursement.  Motion failed 3-3.

County Corrections (Sheriff Campbell):

Requested transfer of $62.10 in reimbursement for damages to inmate supplies. Motion failed 4-2. (By council ordinance, Additional Appropriations require a super-majority of FIVE affirmative votes.)

Health Dept: Withdrawn

NEW BUSINESS:

Sheriff Campbell requested an amendment to the salary ordinance to reflect shifting responsibilities to increase the pay of an assistant jail commander while reducing that of another position commensurately. Council approved the change.

Steve Tyler, Director of Lebanon’s Aspire office, along with VP of Finance Craig Baird and Crisis Manager LouAnn LeMarie-Pyle, updated the council on changes made since the council’s October meeting. Tyler stated that he has made efforts to increase communication with Lebanon police, Commissioner Marc Applegate and Mental Health America of Boone County, as well as joining the monthly meetings of the county’s Crisis Intervention Team. Ms. Marie-Pyle explained changes to Aspire’s after-hours procedures for immediate detention requests from local law enforcement, as well as other efforts to improve procedures for getting residents the help they need in a timely manner.

OLD BUSINESS:

Councillor Thompson asked for clarification from Sheriff Campbell regarding the recommendations in the jail staffing analysis he presented to the council last month.  The report recommended a doubling of jail staff, which caught the council by surprise. Campbell reminded the council that he has regularly noted in his budget presentations that he would prefer to increase staff at the jail, though he, too, was surprised by the recommendation for a 100% increase. Thompson also asked Campbell about the possibility of additional breakdown of expenditures from the sheriff’s commissary fund, as provided by Tippecanoe County’s sheriff’s office. Campbell stated that he was presenting a report, as mandated by state law. Finally, Thompson asked Campbell about the possible impact of a recent FCC ruling that could limit the amount the county collects from inmate phone calls and thus funding of the commissary fund.  Campbell explained at length that he and the sheriff’s associations disagree with the ruling, as jail phone calls require much greater expenditure on the jail’s behalf. He asserted that if the FCC ruling stands it will have a radical impact on provision and costs of inmate phone calls.

Council President Jacob followed up on last month’s discussion of contracting a financial adviser to assist in analysis of the county’s financial status and future projections.  His conversations with Umbaugh indicated that they recommend a Rainy Day Fund balance equal to roughly half the county’s annual budget.  Much discussion followed about what services would be expected and useful, and whether the council should spend beyond its current budget for consulting. The council eventually voted unanimously to approved a three-member committee (Jacob, Wilhoite, Rodgers) to refine the scope of any service with Umbaugh and to have a presentation available at our April meeting for the board to approve before engaging Umbaugh.

Marcia Wilhoite asked for council feedback on a request by the County Extension to provide breakfast and make a presentation about their services before next month’s business meeting, as they did last year.  The council recommended that Extension be on the regular meeting agenda to present rather than go to the trouble of providing breakfast and coming in early.

Gene Thompson presented some updates on the county-related activities of the state legislature, having attended a presentation of the Association of Indiana Counties.

Thompson and Wilhoite made some comments and requests of Auditor Willhoite regarding new reports of financial status, which the council is now receiving regularly as the dust settles on changes to both state and county accounting procedures and software.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Aaron Smith made several comments regarding the council’s plans to examine minimum fund balances.

DOCUMENT SIGNING

The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:20.

Next regularly-scheduled council meeting will be Tuesday, April 8^th, 2014, at 8:30 a.m.