WEBVTT 00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:10.663 - So I will call to order this special session of the Bloomington City Council. Today is the 26th of October. 00:00:10.663 --> 00:00:20.424 - Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilmembers Schaffer? Here. Pia Huntsman? Here. Zulek? Here. 00:00:20.424 --> 00:00:23.806 - Massari? Here. Bailey? Here. Ruff? 00:00:25.794 --> 00:00:33.651 - All right, fantastic. Well, this is just a special meeting for some matters concerning the PS lit that 00:00:33.651 --> 00:00:41.432 - we didn't address during the budget season or during our normal sort of budget window. And so this is 00:00:41.432 --> 00:00:49.213 - what we're here for. Can you just go up so I can say what's on the agenda? So we just have one matter 00:00:49.213 --> 00:00:52.798 - on the agenda today, which is resolution 2026. 00:00:52.898 --> 00:01:03.624 - So, is there any amendments to the agenda? Thank you very much. Are there any motions? I move that the 00:01:03.624 --> 00:01:14.975 - clerk read resolution 2026-23 by title and synopsis only. Second. Okay, motion and a second. Any discussion? 00:01:14.975 --> 00:01:20.702 - All those in favor say aye. Aye. It has so been moved. 00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:27.705 - Would you kindly read this by title and synopsis? Yes. Resolution 2026-23 resolution proposing an ordinance 00:01:27.705 --> 00:01:34.544 - modifying local income tax rate and allocations in Monroe County and casting votes in favor of the ordinance 00:01:34.544 --> 00:01:40.880 - regarding increasing the public safety answering point rate and the total public safety local income 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:46.526 - tax rate and total expenditure tax rate without changing other allocations. The synopsis. 00:01:48.834 --> 00:01:56.073 - is as follows, Resolution 2026-23 increases the public safety answering point rate and subsequently 00:01:56.073 --> 00:02:03.313 - the overall public safety income tax and total expenditure tax rate in order to fully fund dispatch 00:02:03.313 --> 00:02:10.697 - operations as recommended by the PSLIC Committee of the Monroe County Local Income Tax Council. Okay, 00:02:10.697 --> 00:02:17.502 - thank you very much. Is there another motion? I move to discuss Resolution 2026-26. Approved. 00:02:17.602 --> 00:02:30.814 - I'm all messed up. I move to adopt resolution 2026-23. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? 00:02:31.586 --> 00:02:37.130 - All right. All those in favor say, oh. What? There's an amendment? Oh, there's no amendment. Sorry. 00:02:37.130 --> 00:02:42.673 - Don't we need to have a presentation to understand what we're voting on? Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. I 00:02:42.673 --> 00:02:48.494 - also am confused because I'm sitting on this table. So let's get to this. I think Jeff is going to talk. 00:02:48.494 --> 00:02:50.878 - Do you want to talk about it a little bit? 00:02:50.978 --> 00:02:57.984 - Okay, Larry do enjoy can you come sit here so it'll make it less confusing. Thank you So thank you all 00:02:57.984 --> 00:03:05.195 - very much the PS lit committee which is part of the Monroe County Tax Tax Council as a countywide Council 00:03:05.195 --> 00:03:12.541 - that the city of Bloomington is a member of as is this legislative body met over the summer and recommended 00:03:12.541 --> 00:03:14.718 - an increase in specifically the 00:03:15.042 --> 00:03:20.575 - public service answering point service or the dispatch service rate. The city of Bloomington for its 00:03:20.575 --> 00:03:26.162 - portion has been running a deficit for several years now. Jeff has those numbers, so I'm not going to 00:03:26.162 --> 00:03:31.640 - walk on him too much because he is the expert in that particular item. We also have representatives 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:37.228 - of the Bloomington police and the dispatch here, so thank them for joining us this evening. So if you 00:03:37.228 --> 00:03:42.760 - have any questions for them, they're also here and available, I believe. The recommendation was just 00:03:42.760 --> 00:03:43.582 - to, in lieu of 00:03:43.746 --> 00:03:50.030 - Senate Enrolled Act 1, there is likely going to be funding difficulties in the future. And so in order 00:03:50.030 --> 00:03:56.192 - to capture as much as we possibly could potentially, that was one of the recommendations for raising 00:03:56.192 --> 00:04:02.293 - this particular rate to close that deficit number for the City of Bloomington's share for the Joint 00:04:02.293 --> 00:04:08.578 - Dispatch Center to collect under what's called the PS Lit Rate. The PS Lit Rate is public safety local 00:04:08.578 --> 00:04:11.262 - income tax rate. It's made up of two parts. 00:04:11.490 --> 00:04:17.319 - the public service answering point, the PSAP, which is the part that goes towards the dispatch, and 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:23.382 - then there's general public safety local income tax. The part that we're raising is only the PSAP rate. 00:04:23.382 --> 00:04:29.328 - It would have the effect of raising the overall local income tax rate in the city of Bloomington, but 00:04:29.328 --> 00:04:35.390 - not by very much. It's a relatively modest increase as these go, and it would be on top of a prior rate 00:04:35.390 --> 00:04:41.278 - increase that the county has already done. Just really quickly, talking about the voting procedures, 00:04:41.570 --> 00:04:48.751 - Each member of the Monroe County Tax Council is given a proportionate share of votes according to its 00:04:48.751 --> 00:04:55.933 - population. By what could be considered almost special legislation of the General Assembly, they have 00:04:55.933 --> 00:05:03.185 - decided that our votes count proportionately per member of council. So a yes vote counts for one ninth 00:05:03.185 --> 00:05:11.070 - of Bloomington's total votes. And a collective unanimous agreement votes all of the share of votes that we have 00:05:11.202 --> 00:05:17.464 - to the county. If we have five members here, that's five out of nine, we would likely need county support 00:05:17.464 --> 00:05:23.489 - to increase this rate as well for it to actually go into effect next year. Happy to answer questions. 00:05:23.489 --> 00:05:29.515 - We have Jeff here. I believe he has some spreadsheets for you. And if there's anything that I've left 00:05:29.515 --> 00:05:35.481 - completely unclear, which I'm sure there's many things, I'm happy to answer those questions as well. 00:05:35.481 --> 00:05:39.262 - Thank you so much. Controler McKim. Great. Thank you very much. 00:05:39.874 --> 00:05:48.219 - Let's see, is it possible to project my, okay, Larry's going to work on this. So I gave kind of a bigger 00:05:48.219 --> 00:05:56.644 - presentation at the committee meeting. What I want to do now is just kind of give you the most up-to-date 00:05:56.644 --> 00:06:02.366 - numbers that we have available so that you can understand not only both 00:06:02.466 --> 00:06:10.614 - what the position is of the city's PSAP-lit fund, but also what the available sources of reserves are. 00:06:10.614 --> 00:06:17.022 - So basically, I just want to give you the financial information that you need to 00:06:17.122 --> 00:06:24.081 - to make your decision. We do have Jared Bailey here from the, who's the director of the Dispatch Center 00:06:24.081 --> 00:06:30.772 - from Police, who can also answer more specific questions about the Dispatch Center if you have any. 00:06:30.772 --> 00:06:37.531 - But I just want to talk about kind of where we are vis-a-vis reserves. Just to recap just a bit from 00:06:37.531 --> 00:06:44.289 - my presentation at the committee meeting, there were really two problems that we identified. Kind of 00:06:44.289 --> 00:06:46.430 - a short-term problem, which is, 00:06:46.658 --> 00:06:55.112 - Do we actually have enough to fund the budget for the next year for the dispatch center? And then the 00:06:55.112 --> 00:07:04.229 - longer term problem is as the Senate Enrolled Act 1 new lit structure goes into place, how can we essentially 00:07:04.229 --> 00:07:12.766 - buy ourselves enough time to come up with a new funding system since this dedicated rate does go away? 00:07:13.186 --> 00:07:20.543 - So that's the bigger picture. What you'll see here is that I think the first question, the short term 00:07:20.543 --> 00:07:27.756 - in 2027, has actually been dealt with. So really what we're looking at is the longer term issue. So 00:07:27.756 --> 00:07:35.329 - let me first start with where we are on the column B there labeled city PSAP lit. This is kind of almost 00:07:35.329 --> 00:07:42.398 - up to the minute, well, at least up till yesterday, funding picture for the city's PSAP lit fund. 00:07:43.074 --> 00:07:52.003 - And you may remember that this has come up in multiple discussions, both amongst yourselves, but also 00:07:52.003 --> 00:08:00.757 - in members of the public, that it used to be that the city had commingled PS-lit and PSAP-lit funds 00:08:00.757 --> 00:08:08.286 - in one fund, but that the city council had passed an appropriation ordinance in 2025, 00:08:08.386 --> 00:08:15.057 - that reconciled and came up with a transfer amount out of PSAP lit, PS lit into PSAP lit, all those 00:08:15.057 --> 00:08:21.928 - transfers have been made. So the numbers that I'm showing you here are after all of those corrections. 00:08:21.928 --> 00:08:28.666 - So they are kind of real numbers, what we're actually working with. So we start with our, and so the 00:08:28.666 --> 00:08:35.070 - question is, okay, what is our current position and what kind of reserves do we have available? 00:08:35.746 --> 00:08:44.266 - We start with the yesterday's balance, essentially, which is about $1.2 million in that fund, and then 00:08:44.266 --> 00:08:52.870 - look at what additional revenue we expect. Fortunately, the revenue for PSAP and PSLIT is very regular. 00:08:52.870 --> 00:09:01.142 - We know exactly what it's going to be. So we know that after that cash balance, we're gonna get two 00:09:01.142 --> 00:09:05.278 - more months of $245,000 payments from the county. 00:09:05.378 --> 00:09:12.120 - to that fund. So we know what we're getting in revenue. The remaining expenditures is an estimate. 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:19.406 - And so Mr. Bailey from the Bloomington Police, director of dispatch, did an estimate as to what he thought 00:09:19.406 --> 00:09:26.488 - the remaining expenditures in the year would be. And that's where that number came from. So that number 00:09:26.488 --> 00:09:27.646 - is, I would say, 00:09:27.810 --> 00:09:34.073 - not as hard as the additional revenue numbers because it really just depends on what's going on, 00:09:34.073 --> 00:09:40.530 - on Mr. Bailey's projections of what's going to happen to the end of the year. And you're welcome to 00:09:40.530 --> 00:09:47.244 - ask him questions about that, which leaves us at a projected end of the year balance of about a million 00:09:47.244 --> 00:09:49.246 - dollars. Then we move forward. 00:09:49.634 --> 00:09:58.123 - projected revenue for 2027 is $4 million. Now, why is it $4 million? Because that's what the county 00:09:58.123 --> 00:10:06.782 - council has adopted as their budget. Because what happens is the money flows into the county PSAP lit 00:10:07.330 --> 00:10:13.567 - fund and then the county transfers it over through the interlocal agreement to the city. And they have 00:10:13.567 --> 00:10:19.623 - put in four million dollars into their budget, which is actually less than the amount of income tax 00:10:19.623 --> 00:10:25.739 - that is going to be coming in if you don't make this move and increase the income tax. And we'll get 00:10:25.739 --> 00:10:32.037 - to that in a minute. But in any case, the projected revenue is going to be four million dollars because 00:10:32.037 --> 00:10:33.854 - the county appropriated that. 00:10:34.018 --> 00:10:42.698 - The budget for 2027 is $4.8 million, which is the budget that you all have already adopted through your 00:10:42.698 --> 00:10:51.211 - budget proceedings, which leads us to then, and as you can tell, that is an actual deficit budget. So 00:10:51.211 --> 00:10:59.557 - you do have a deficit budget, so what we're really talking about is what kinds of reserves we might 00:10:59.557 --> 00:11:03.646 - be using. So you'll see that at the end of 2027, 00:11:03.810 --> 00:11:12.779 - So essentially, the reserves, we'd be projecting reserves of $188,000, which is pretty small. So in 00:11:12.779 --> 00:11:22.016 - the PSAP-lit fund itself, the reserves are nearly zero. However, we do then have the county's PSAP-lit 00:11:22.016 --> 00:11:26.590 - fund. And now, why does the county have a PSAP-lit 00:11:26.946 --> 00:11:34.277 - Why did they have reserves in the county's PSAP fund? It's because the county has traditionally distributed 00:11:34.277 --> 00:11:41.133 - less money on certain occasions than they've actually received. So that money is statutorily limited 00:11:41.133 --> 00:11:42.558 - to use for the PSAP. 00:11:43.074 --> 00:11:50.044 - but the county has not always distributed all of the money that they have received. One of the reasons 00:11:50.044 --> 00:11:57.082 - for that is because of these supplemental lit distributions. So every year there's a supplemental local 00:11:57.082 --> 00:12:03.984 - income tax that comes from excess collections and the state distributes it. So that money has kind of 00:12:03.984 --> 00:12:10.142 - built up in the county's PSAP lit fund, among other things. But I essentially did the same 00:12:10.338 --> 00:12:18.882 - analysis with starting with the current balance, which is of the county's piece app lit, which is $3.2 00:12:18.882 --> 00:12:27.425 - million, because they are paying out currently exactly what they're getting in paying out to the city. 00:12:27.425 --> 00:12:35.720 - The end of the year balance should be $3.26 million also. So then we look at what where we are with 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:36.798 - 2027. And if 00:12:37.442 --> 00:12:46.509 - you do not adopt an increase in the PSLIT or the PSAP lit rate, we would expect or the county would 00:12:46.509 --> 00:12:55.667 - expect to get in about $3.3 million and that includes their estimate of a supplemental distribution. 00:12:55.667 --> 00:13:01.470 - So that's being taken into account in that particular estimate. 00:13:02.722 --> 00:13:11.616 - The county has adopted a $4 million budget for their PSAP lit, which then gets distributed to the city. 00:13:11.616 --> 00:13:20.509 - So as you can see, the county is, we are already using some, but not all by a long shot, we are already 00:13:20.509 --> 00:13:29.318 - using some reserves that are sitting at the county. Because they expect to get $3.3 million in and pay 00:13:29.318 --> 00:13:30.686 - $4 million out. 00:13:31.138 --> 00:13:41.894 - leaving reserves of about $2.5 million at the end of 2027. And so those are the funds that are typically 00:13:41.894 --> 00:13:52.957 - used as the operating funds. They pay out the salaries, they pay out most of the operations of the dispatch 00:13:52.957 --> 00:13:56.030 - center. There's another fund, 00:13:56.194 --> 00:14:05.677 - the county 9-1-1 tax that's paid by the tax that's on people's phone service, and it's also restricted 00:14:05.677 --> 00:14:14.975 - to dispatch related functions. This funding is used by, or typically used in the dispatch center for 00:14:14.975 --> 00:14:24.734 - their contracts, so their technology contracts, and also for their training. And Mr. Bailey may have some 00:14:24.834 --> 00:14:33.552 - additional comments about that. And so there's also some reserves there. If we essentially do the same 00:14:33.552 --> 00:14:42.102 - exercise, there's also reserves in the 911 fund. So what that means if you look at the numbers here, 00:14:42.102 --> 00:14:50.651 - you essentially have about $2.5 million in reserves for the operational funds, and then another $2.7 00:14:50.651 --> 00:14:54.206 - million in reserve for the 911 fund. Now, 00:14:55.234 --> 00:15:03.602 - Remember, I told you that I felt like the short-term problem had already been resolved because the county 00:15:03.602 --> 00:15:11.813 - did appropriate $4 million. And that leaves us a non-zero operating balance at the end of 2027 for PSAP 00:15:11.813 --> 00:15:19.866 - lit. So really, I think what we're talking about is the bigger picture. What happens when the new lit 00:15:19.866 --> 00:15:20.734 - structures 00:15:20.962 --> 00:15:30.015 - take and come into effect. The other thing I want to throw in there, and I'm hoping actually Mr. Bailey 00:15:30.015 --> 00:15:38.894 - can elaborate on this, is that the dispatch center, you may remember, was created about 12 years ago. 00:15:38.894 --> 00:15:47.598 - And a lot of the major technology is nearing the end of its useful life. And so we might think, oh, 00:15:47.598 --> 00:15:50.558 - there's $2.5 million in PSAP lit, 00:15:50.914 --> 00:15:58.209 - It's just there for the taking. We don't need to increase the tax rate because we have all that money 00:15:58.209 --> 00:16:05.361 - in the bank now. The problem is that at some point in the near future, all that technology is going 00:16:05.361 --> 00:16:10.654 - to need to be replaced and refreshed. We'll probably do it in the kind of 00:16:11.490 --> 00:16:18.352 - Assuming that we do eventually be able to move forward with a new police station, it'll probably be 00:16:18.352 --> 00:16:25.214 - done in conjunction with moving to a new station. But regardless of whether we use the old dispatch 00:16:25.214 --> 00:16:32.076 - center or a new dispatch center, the equipment still needs to be replaced. And Jared, I don't know, 00:16:32.076 --> 00:16:38.046 - can you just speak for a couple? You'll want to come up so you can use the mic, sorry. 00:16:38.434 --> 00:16:47.970 - I don't mean to put him on the spot, but I think the issue of technology replacement and maintaining 00:16:47.970 --> 00:16:57.506 - reserves for that is relevant to this discussion. Some of our mission critical equipment that we use 00:16:57.506 --> 00:17:05.342 - to communicate with the first responders out in the field is nearing its life now. 00:17:05.442 --> 00:17:13.925 - Um, and I received a quote on that and that alone is 2.3 million and that's a quote for this year. Um, 00:17:13.925 --> 00:17:22.326 - and in 2027 they are expected to see a significant jump in pricing just for our radio equipment to be 00:17:22.326 --> 00:17:30.974 - able to communicate to the field responders. Excuse me. First responders out in the field. Jared Bailey. 00:17:37.474 --> 00:17:46.762 - I think those are the numbers that I have and I'm happy to answer any questions about what we have up 00:17:46.762 --> 00:17:56.506 - there. Thank you so much and thank you. Are there any questions, council members? I have a basic question. 00:17:56.506 --> 00:18:03.518 - That's probably, anyway, I won't preface it. So my basic question is though, 00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:12.317 - things aren't good for a lot of people right now and hearing about a tax increase is really worrisome 00:18:12.317 --> 00:18:18.904 - just across the board. On average, and I know that's going to be tough, but can you say approximately 00:18:18.904 --> 00:18:25.684 - like how much this would add to each person's annual family budget? You know, I don't have that in front 00:18:25.684 --> 00:18:30.334 - of me. I know we discussed that at the committee meeting. Yeah, I mean, 00:18:31.202 --> 00:18:37.541 - I don't disagree with you that raising a tax is difficult. That's why I'm kind of just wanting 00:18:37.541 --> 00:18:44.347 - to transparently present you with what the options are as far as the reserves so you can kind of make 00:18:44.347 --> 00:18:51.486 - that decision. Do you find would you just continue to move on with existing reserves or do you build up in 00:19:00.098 --> 00:19:09.507 - I guess I was just wondering if PSAP funds are the only way to fund some of the new equipment that we're 00:19:09.507 --> 00:19:19.095 - talking about. Or, like, for example, could we use general fund dollars? Like, is... That was my question. 00:19:19.095 --> 00:19:25.278 - Yes. I mean, you could certainly use general fund if you want. Okay. 00:19:26.850 --> 00:19:37.530 - The thing about using the general fund is that in that case, the money would be coming only from city 00:19:37.530 --> 00:19:48.000 - taxpayers. And of course, the dispatch center is a city county. It's a unified dispatch center that 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:56.062 - dispatches to all corners of the county. OK. Thank you. Any other questions? 00:19:56.162 --> 00:20:06.104 - Yeah, I'm trying to reconcile the numbers that Controller McKim had projected just a few minutes ago 00:20:06.104 --> 00:20:15.948 - with what we talked about at the PSLIT meeting, where the revenue estimate overall for PSLIT was 14 00:20:15.948 --> 00:20:24.414 - million. And then if I calculate the percentage out, it's about 4.9 million for PSAP. 00:20:25.218 --> 00:20:35.799 - And how does that relate to the 4 million that the county has now budgeted? Because they're going to 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:46.905 - get probably more than that as revenues from the state, right? Because we had talked about a $4.9 million 00:20:46.905 --> 00:20:53.086 - revenue estimate for PSAP. Right, if you make this change. 00:20:53.986 --> 00:21:02.943 - That's if you choose to increase the rate, you'd wind up with about 4.9 because we have looked at matching 00:21:02.943 --> 00:21:11.481 - the rate as closely as we could to the actual budget. That was kind of the strategy, was to match the 00:21:11.481 --> 00:21:20.187 - rate to the budget. So you're essentially funding the current budget with new revenue coming in. Right, 00:21:20.187 --> 00:21:22.782 - the budget is 4.7. 4.8. 4.753. 00:21:23.074 --> 00:21:35.335 - The one you actually adopted is 4,808,542. Do you remember there were some changes that came related 00:21:35.335 --> 00:21:47.596 - to the insurance rate and then the 2.7 percent COLA. Yes, a little confusing because we had two sets 00:21:47.596 --> 00:21:51.966 - of figures in our packet for today. 00:21:53.922 --> 00:22:01.560 - I forgot that we had talked about that change during the committee meeting. Any other questions? We 00:22:01.560 --> 00:22:09.503 - do have an amendment as well. I have so many questions. So you want to ask them? Yes. Well, I feel like 00:22:09.503 --> 00:22:17.522 - this is kind of showing my like, oh, like how much have I ever thought about this before, sort of newbie 00:22:17.522 --> 00:22:22.334 - status still even after three years and still learning things. 00:22:22.530 --> 00:22:29.772 - Procedurally, what it sounded like to me is that City Council approves the budget for dispatch, right? 00:22:29.772 --> 00:22:37.015 - But it gets paid into with the other sources, but we approved the budget before we knew how much money 00:22:37.015 --> 00:22:44.187 - the county was going to pay into it, and that seems really odd to me. So, Jeff, can you maybe clarify 00:22:44.187 --> 00:22:47.070 - that? Like, is that how it always works? 00:22:47.202 --> 00:22:55.052 - The city and the county approved the budget for Dispatch Center. So you vote on it during your budget 00:22:55.052 --> 00:23:02.825 - process and the county council also voted on their process. And so you can't each wait for the other 00:23:02.825 --> 00:23:10.520 - to be done. Somebody has to go first. Right. And that's just... So the county and the city approved 00:23:10.520 --> 00:23:13.214 - the same dispatch budget. Correct. 00:23:14.018 --> 00:23:21.031 - But then the amount that is being distributed to us was approved after that, though? Like, what is that 00:23:21.031 --> 00:23:28.044 - based on? That was being, that was appropriated by the county council. And how they exactly, they chose 00:23:28.044 --> 00:23:35.057 - that number, I don't know. I mean, I certainly communicated with the commissioner's office that we were 00:23:35.057 --> 00:23:42.070 - going to need more than the, we were going to need to eat into reserves if we wanted to have a positive 00:23:42.070 --> 00:23:43.486 - budget. And so they, 00:23:44.322 --> 00:23:56.682 - presumably put that number in and voted on it. So can I follow up on that because it relates to my previous 00:23:56.682 --> 00:24:08.583 - question as well. So both the City Council and the County Council approved a budget for dispatch funded 00:24:08.583 --> 00:24:11.902 - by PSAP lit of $4.8 million. 00:24:12.866 --> 00:24:22.797 - So why is the County Council only allocated $4 million from, for PSAP? Because we have reserves. But 00:24:22.797 --> 00:24:32.630 - they have reserves too. They have the reserves. And they are using some and they will presumably be 00:24:32.630 --> 00:24:35.678 - asked to continue to use them. 00:24:39.490 --> 00:24:45.502 - I mean, yes, those reserves, those numbers that I showed you, those reserves, you have to take that 00:24:45.502 --> 00:24:51.814 - are even if they happen to live on the county side, you need to keep those into take those into account. 00:24:51.814 --> 00:24:58.067 - You're thinking about this issue. They are certainly reserves that are that are available. The question 00:24:58.067 --> 00:25:04.199 - is, are you also going to want to use them to buy equipment at some at some point in the near future? 00:25:04.199 --> 00:25:07.806 - Or do you just want to use them for for current operations? 00:25:10.210 --> 00:25:16.906 - So speaking of those reserves there's the reserves that you showed on the screen that were like the 00:25:16.906 --> 00:25:23.736 - county reserves and then there were the reserves that were like the 911 reserves and so those are two 00:25:23.736 --> 00:25:30.633 - different pots of reserves but like and they have different restrictions okay so I guess I'm wondering 00:25:30.633 --> 00:25:37.330 - what those different restrictions are I guess especially on the the 911 restrictions yeah that that 00:25:37.330 --> 00:25:38.334 - I would not be 00:25:39.554 --> 00:25:48.091 - an expert on. The county maintains those and actually pays our, pays dispatch center invoices for technology 00:25:48.091 --> 00:25:56.237 - and training out of those funds. So the 911 fund is used for technology and training? Currently. Jared, 00:25:56.237 --> 00:26:04.070 - do you want to? I will say that the state has very strict guidelines of what that money can be used 00:26:04.070 --> 00:26:08.926 - for. And so I can get that information and send it on to you. 00:26:14.594 --> 00:26:23.275 - I have a question to your question, Councillor Sasberg, and possibly to our legal counsel. Can you talk 00:26:23.275 --> 00:26:32.374 - a little bit about the details of our agreement with the county? I can't, but let me... What's the specifics 00:26:32.374 --> 00:26:41.055 - that you would like to... Well, about this question about both timing, how much is getting transferred, 00:26:41.055 --> 00:26:42.558 - how much is being 00:26:43.490 --> 00:26:50.152 - why those specific amounts, and particularly as relates to the scope of action that we can take on this 00:26:50.152 --> 00:26:56.943 - piece of legislation. I'm also interested in why this comes as a resolution, not an ordinance, but that's 00:26:56.943 --> 00:27:03.734 - a minor second point. I can speak to the latter point, actually, first, before I speak to the interlocal. 00:27:03.734 --> 00:27:10.268 - So the resolutions, as opposed to an ordinance, is because of a kind of a court of state law. Because 00:27:10.268 --> 00:27:12.510 - you are a member of a tax council, 00:27:12.834 --> 00:27:19.332 - And you are just a member, you are not part of the county, the actual tax council itself. The resolution 00:27:19.332 --> 00:27:25.768 - is an initiating resolution to recommend an ordinance to the tax council as a whole. And so by statute, 00:27:25.768 --> 00:27:32.267 - you're authorized to be able to initiate that process through resolution. Very simply, that's the reason 00:27:32.267 --> 00:27:38.455 - for why it's coming as a bizarre resolution that recommends an ordinance that's embedded within the 00:27:38.455 --> 00:27:39.198 - resolution. 00:27:39.298 --> 00:27:46.074 - you're essentially making a recommendation to the entire Monroe County Tax Council, which includes the 00:27:46.074 --> 00:27:52.850 - City of Bloomington, the Common Council, the Monroe County Council, Steinsville and Ellsville and most 00:27:52.850 --> 00:27:59.692 - of the else. And then the question about the interlocal. If you give me maybe two minutes and come back 00:27:59.692 --> 00:28:02.718 - to me, I'm happy to answer. And I can answer. 00:28:02.946 --> 00:28:10.373 - Councilmember Daly's question about the tax. Yeah, so I just did the calculation on an adjusted gross 00:28:10.373 --> 00:28:17.799 - income of $100,000. It would cost, this increase would cost about $37. Okay, thank you. That was what 00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:25.226 - I got too. I'm glad I did my math right. I was thinking to myself, okay, if I did my math right, then 00:28:25.226 --> 00:28:32.798 - I should be 37, but I don't know. So, and I'm sorry if it sounds like I keep asking the same thing, but 00:28:33.058 --> 00:28:41.328 - The county council approved a four million dollar budget for PSAP. The four million million is the revenues. 00:28:41.328 --> 00:28:49.369 - Right. No, they adopted the same budget for PSAP. Well, the same budget for dispatch that you did. Right. 00:28:49.369 --> 00:28:57.184 - The exact same. They adopted a four million dollar budget for the interlocal agreement that pays money 00:28:57.184 --> 00:29:00.446 - out of their PSAP lit fund into your PSAP. 00:29:05.346 --> 00:29:13.625 - Okay, and the remaining $800,000 will come from the city's reserves? No. That comes out of the counties. 00:29:13.625 --> 00:29:21.825 - So where is that budgeted? Don't they have to budget that transfer to the city as well? No, that's just 00:29:21.825 --> 00:29:29.789 - the difference between the revenue that comes in. I know it's complicated. It's kind of watching the 00:29:29.789 --> 00:29:30.814 - moving ball. 00:29:31.202 --> 00:29:40.463 - $3.3 million will go into the county's PSAP Lit Fund. They will transfer $4 million out to you. So the 00:29:40.463 --> 00:29:49.635 - rest of it just sits in that reserves bucket that we talked about, which you should absolutely should 00:29:49.635 --> 00:29:58.896 - consider resources that are available to fund the dispatch center. Wait. Okay, so the revenue from the 00:29:58.896 --> 00:30:01.054 - state income taxes that 00:30:01.250 --> 00:30:09.615 - we get for PSAP goes to the county. Correct. They're expected to see $4.9 million. No. Sorry, 00:30:09.615 --> 00:30:18.691 - that's the... That's P, that would be the whole PS. That would be if we approved the new rate. Right, 00:30:18.691 --> 00:30:27.678 - they expect to see, right now with the current rate, they expect to see about $3.3 million, and that 00:30:27.678 --> 00:30:30.526 - even includes their estimate of 00:30:30.818 --> 00:30:38.526 - the supplemental, a potential supplemental distribution that we don't necessarily know exists yet. Okay. 00:30:38.526 --> 00:30:46.307 - So they're expecting to see 3.3 million. They budgeted to transfer to the city 4 million. Yes. So they're 00:30:46.307 --> 00:30:53.647 - using. Which we need, otherwise we would wind up with a negative balance. So we need, we need those 00:30:53.647 --> 00:31:00.254 - reserves just to get through the year or to get through next year. But the PSAP budget is 00:31:00.578 --> 00:31:09.512 - $4.8 million. So the other $800,000 is coming from where again? Which reserves? Our reserves. Our reserves. 00:31:09.512 --> 00:31:17.784 - So they're only transferring to us $4 million. They're transferring $4 million, correct. Our budget 00:31:17.784 --> 00:31:26.801 - for PSAP is $4.8 million. Yes. So where is the other $800,000 coming from? Just like Councilmember Stossberg 00:31:26.801 --> 00:31:30.110 - said, your reserves. Our reserves. Yes. 00:31:30.274 --> 00:31:38.191 - Which are only what? Like a million. A million as of the end of this year and will probably be less 00:31:38.191 --> 00:31:46.107 - than 200,000 by the end of 27. Okay, gotcha. It would be very, very useful if we could have for our 00:31:46.107 --> 00:31:54.024 - records and for the public's records your presentation from tonight as well as the presentation you 00:31:54.024 --> 00:31:59.486 - made at the PSLIT committee meeting which is still not online. Yeah. 00:31:59.842 --> 00:32:08.233 - And I provided this actually with Mr. Allen was actually showing his copy of this. Okay. Yeah. So if 00:32:08.233 --> 00:32:16.873 - we could get that stuff online. Thank you. Isaac. Go ahead. Thank you. Sorry, I was reading them. Yeah. 00:32:16.873 --> 00:32:25.264 - So I feel like I want to go back because I feel like we're missing a larger problem. And I also want 00:32:25.264 --> 00:32:28.670 - to clarify Councilmember Piedmont-Smith. 00:32:29.026 --> 00:32:36.215 - question because she started out by saying PS lit I think it's confusing because there's PS lit and 00:32:36.215 --> 00:32:43.621 - there's PSAP and PSAP is a smaller part of PS lit right so the 3.3 million is just the PSAP part right 00:32:43.621 --> 00:32:51.026 - correct okay all right I just want to clarify that but I think that we have a much bigger problem that 00:32:51.026 --> 00:32:58.215 - the state is expecting 3.3 million in revenues from PSAP right now and we have a 4.8 million dollar 00:32:58.215 --> 00:32:59.006 - budget and 00:32:59.970 --> 00:33:07.966 - That's like, that's a $1.2 million deficit budget. Did I do that math right? No, I did. I'm doing totally 00:33:07.966 --> 00:33:15.810 - different math. 1.5. Don't look at my math. No, I know. I'm looking at your 3.3. And then, so it's $1.5 00:33:15.810 --> 00:33:23.504 - million deficit budget. And so we just have like a $1.5 million deficit budget every year in terms of 00:33:23.504 --> 00:33:24.862 - what is coming in 00:33:25.154 --> 00:33:34.233 - from PSAP and what is going out through dispatch? So we used to have more of a surplus. And so we built 00:33:34.233 --> 00:33:43.050 - up reserves too. So for years, we had definitely been, we being the city, had been receiving and not 00:33:43.050 --> 00:33:50.558 - spending everything that we received. And part of that is because of staff vacancies. 00:33:50.754 --> 00:33:58.881 - You know, in the past we've had large vacancies in the dispatch center. And Jared may have comments 00:33:58.881 --> 00:34:07.089 - about staffing levels. You may want to ask about that because, you know, obviously it's a major goal 00:34:07.089 --> 00:34:15.297 - to become fully staffed. But in any case, we've kind of moved from accumulating reserves to spending 00:34:15.297 --> 00:34:19.198 - them down. We started spending them down in 23. 00:34:19.426 --> 00:34:26.999 - And then in 25, that was when the city implemented the salary study. And so the salary dispatchers went 00:34:26.999 --> 00:34:34.354 - up significantly, and the overall costs went up significantly, but the revenue didn't. So again, you 00:34:34.354 --> 00:34:41.854 - kind of moved from years of receiving more than you spent and having a decent cushion to spending that 00:34:41.854 --> 00:34:48.990 - cushion down. And now we're essentially at the point where we're spending it down to nearly zero. 00:34:49.378 --> 00:34:57.324 - Because we're spending significantly more than the revenue is. Yes. Consistently. And that's going to 00:34:57.324 --> 00:35:05.505 - go into the future that way. I mean, I know there's a whole tax change thing. But it's not like suddenly 00:35:05.505 --> 00:35:13.607 - our dispatch budget is going to reduce significantly in order to, because most of that is staff, right? 00:35:13.607 --> 00:35:19.294 - The majority is personnel. Yeah. And I absolutely agree that we need to, 00:35:20.610 --> 00:35:29.137 - have consistent staffing. It's so important. We need to be able to call 911. Our residents need to be 00:35:29.137 --> 00:35:37.748 - able to call 911 and have somebody answer the phone and that somebody needs to be not stressed out and 00:35:37.748 --> 00:35:46.192 - overtired. And yeah, all of those things. So we need to have good, stable, plentiful staffing. But I 00:35:46.192 --> 00:35:49.118 - guess I'm like, is there any other 00:35:50.594 --> 00:35:58.210 - way to, I guess that goes to what Councilmember Zulik said is like, so we can fund dispatch with general 00:35:58.210 --> 00:36:05.609 - funds, we can fund it with anything, but that would maybe involve a whole different interlocal. We're 00:36:05.609 --> 00:36:12.935 - gonna need a new interlocal anyway. This, I don't suppose anybody from City Legal is here, but we're 00:36:12.935 --> 00:36:15.038 - gonna need a new interlocal. 00:36:15.682 --> 00:36:22.604 - We were already talking about the kinds of revisions we need to the inter-lobal agreement. It was written 00:36:22.604 --> 00:36:29.329 - a long time ago when the city and the county were still trying to kind of equalize what the city spent 00:36:29.329 --> 00:36:35.859 - on the construction of the building versus the technology that was purchased. There's just a lot in 00:36:35.859 --> 00:36:42.846 - there that isn't useful. And the other thing we have to do is we have to anticipate the new lit structure. 00:36:43.266 --> 00:36:50.500 - So we're really only talking, when you're talking about voting on a rate increase, we're really talking 00:36:50.500 --> 00:36:57.525 - right now about something that would have a two year or potentially only one year impact if it's not 00:36:57.525 --> 00:37:04.759 - able to be adopted by the end of this month by the county. Wait, so the county would have to adopt this 00:37:04.759 --> 00:37:12.062 - by the end of the month too? Is there even a meeting scheduled for the county to potentially adopt this? 00:37:12.194 --> 00:37:20.228 - They could do that. We don't. We don't know if there's a meeting schedule. They can adopt it after November 00:37:20.228 --> 00:37:27.890 - 1st as well. Just it affects when the tax is actually collected. So whether it's going to be collected 00:37:27.890 --> 00:37:35.478 - on January, starting January 1st or starting next fall. Hope they can meet. Yeah, it's a very but but 00:37:35.478 --> 00:37:38.974 - regardless, we know that there had been a new. 00:37:39.106 --> 00:37:48.371 - inter-local agreement is needed, and it's going to need to be something that's a little more future-proofed 00:37:48.371 --> 00:37:57.036 - with respect to the sources of funding. Can I ask one more question? Please ask seven. So that 9-1-1 00:37:57.036 --> 00:38:02.526 - reserve fund, I don't know if you will know, Jared, right? Yes. 00:38:03.298 --> 00:38:09.757 - You were talking about the potential technology needs and those upgrades. Is that something that those 00:38:09.757 --> 00:38:16.090 - funds can be used for in terms of, because I heard technology and training. Technology and training, 00:38:16.090 --> 00:38:22.549 - yes, you could use those funds for that. But at this rate, again, we're looking at aging equipment all 00:38:22.549 --> 00:38:29.007 - around. Right. And that's going to far exceed what's in that account. Well, what was your $2.5 million 00:38:29.007 --> 00:38:31.390 - budget or a million dollar quote for? 00:38:31.490 --> 00:38:40.308 - Just radios. That's one piece of technology. Okay. But what are some other examples? You've got computers 00:38:40.308 --> 00:38:49.458 - that we work off on a regular basis. You've got phone systems that need to be upgraded. You've got antiquated 00:38:49.458 --> 00:38:56.446 - technology that's running in the server room that needs to be replaced and updated. 00:39:00.290 --> 00:39:08.025 - and you've only gotten a quote on the radios. Vendors are, there's been some back and forth between 00:39:08.025 --> 00:39:16.534 - vendors, but yes, that's all I have right now. I have a question, are you done with that line of questioning? 00:39:16.534 --> 00:39:24.656 - Possibly for the clerks. So, within the interlocal agreement, it says that the city and county are going 00:39:24.656 --> 00:39:29.374 - to meet once a year, I'm paraphrasing, will meet once a year 00:39:29.666 --> 00:39:39.912 - and talk about the budget for dispatch. Did we do that? When was the last time we did that? The last 00:39:39.912 --> 00:39:50.868 - time I remember it was last year. I don't remember. Do you remember during the last year? Were you present? 00:39:50.868 --> 00:39:55.230 - I don't remember. I was in there a second. 00:39:55.874 --> 00:40:01.248 - We're furiously looking for that because we have the same question as like whether that has happened 00:40:01.248 --> 00:40:06.888 - in years past. It doesn't appear so. Or whether there was some delegated authority to the PSLA committee. 00:40:06.888 --> 00:40:12.209 - Which I think though raises, I mean, yes, question about needing a new interlocal fine, but I think 00:40:12.209 --> 00:40:17.530 - it also raises an interesting question because we're having a conversation about future expenses as 00:40:17.530 --> 00:40:23.330 - well, making choices right now about future expenses that haven't been agreed on by the interlocal committee 00:40:23.330 --> 00:40:24.926 - that's supposed to be set up. 00:40:25.858 --> 00:40:32.154 - just stated for the good of the order. Thank you. Any other questions? Otherwise we'll go to, well we 00:40:32.154 --> 00:40:38.451 - have an amendment I know so I don't know if we want to do public comment then do amendment or I don't 00:40:38.451 --> 00:40:45.056 - know how you, I think we'll do amendment then public comment. Can I follow up on the inter-local agreement 00:40:45.056 --> 00:40:47.710 - since you have it in front of you? Is that 00:40:49.858 --> 00:40:55.371 - It doesn't say that all members of the local income tax council are supposed to meet or who? It says 00:40:55.371 --> 00:41:00.938 - annually the city council and county council shall meet in a joint work session to review the central 00:41:00.938 --> 00:41:06.560 - dispatch budget. Said joint work session shall occur after July 1st and prior to September 1st of each 00:41:06.560 --> 00:41:07.870 - year of this agreement. 00:41:07.970 --> 00:41:14.058 - The city council shall be responsible for scheduling the joint work session and arranging a space for 00:41:14.058 --> 00:41:20.205 - the joint work session. Each year the city shall send notice to the county council at least four weeks 00:41:20.205 --> 00:41:26.233 - prior to the date selected for the joint work session. Said notice shall include the date, time, and 00:41:26.233 --> 00:41:32.439 - location of the joint work session. And then within 14 days we'll have to meet and that we need to vote 00:41:32.439 --> 00:41:37.214 - and affirm the budget during that session. So I don't remember ever doing that. 00:41:37.762 --> 00:41:45.326 - I remember once we had a meeting of the Monroe County Income Tax Council with Ellsville, Steinsville, 00:41:45.326 --> 00:41:52.964 - County Council, City Council, when we first started with this 2016 or something like that, but I don't 00:41:52.964 --> 00:42:00.528 - believe there's ever been that kind of. There have been others. And I'm looking at the PSLA committee 00:42:00.528 --> 00:42:06.238 - because it met last in July of 2025 that I just pulled up and then it met in 00:42:06.882 --> 00:42:15.562 - July of 2024, and the last time the entire committee with the county was here was the same year that 00:42:15.562 --> 00:42:24.415 - Lois was retiring from Steinsville, and I just don't remember what year that was. Do you remember, Jo? 00:42:24.415 --> 00:42:31.806 - Two years ago? I'm pegging it to her absence, but that's the only thing I can recall. 00:42:32.034 --> 00:42:41.130 - I mean, I don't even remember having, when I was on the county council, I don't remember having such 00:42:41.130 --> 00:42:50.407 - a... I'm sure we did, but it's been a long time. I think Cheryl was the representative from the county 00:42:50.407 --> 00:42:59.413 - on the committee. It was Cheryl Munson, Oldham Purcell, and Sandy before she retired. Oldham in his 00:42:59.413 --> 00:43:01.214 - capacity as county. 00:43:01.570 --> 00:43:09.626 - I'm just wondering that in our local that you're reading from when was that signed? 2018. And so like, 00:43:09.626 --> 00:43:17.603 - does it not have an expiration date? No, it's open. And it went through it also provided for the city 00:43:17.603 --> 00:43:25.737 - was making payments as payback for the new dispatch center up until last year. I don't think we've made 00:43:25.737 --> 00:43:30.430 - that offer early. I think we actually didn't make our final 00:43:33.410 --> 00:43:39.942 - Just going back to the previous question, which is changing the rate. I'm sure you saw that the Interlocal 00:43:39.942 --> 00:43:46.229 - Agreement allows for the rate to be changed. If there is a shortfall in the budget, so if that happens 00:43:46.229 --> 00:43:52.456 - in future years, the Interlocal Agreement, as it's currently constituted, requires that the shortfall 00:43:52.456 --> 00:43:58.743 - be made up equally between the county and the city. The city has to cover it first, and then they have 00:43:58.743 --> 00:44:01.246 - to ask for reimbursement from the county 00:44:02.498 --> 00:44:08.660 - And that shortfall would be the shortfall from the 3.3, right? No, I think that shortfall would be only 00:44:08.660 --> 00:44:14.940 - if the reserves on the county side. That's only if reserves are exhausted. So there's no other applicable 00:44:14.940 --> 00:44:21.101 - source of funds covered. So reserves are first, obviously the income that you're getting from the, yes, 00:44:21.101 --> 00:44:24.478 - let us first, then you go to reserves and then that's if 00:44:24.578 --> 00:44:33.720 - So with that in mind and so back to the original questions, how does the county have any reserves? Like 00:44:33.720 --> 00:44:42.863 - why are accounts not equal then? What am I missing about? So this equal drawing equally from each would 00:44:42.863 --> 00:44:51.390 - be if once these reserves are exhausted for everybody, those reserves haven't been exhausted for 00:44:51.490 --> 00:44:57.631 - But how can we spend money that they don't spend or vice versa? How can they not spend money that we 00:44:57.631 --> 00:45:04.320 - spend? Because in the past, we have spent less than they have sent to us. In other words, we have reversions. 00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:10.462 - We being the city has reversions, especially when there's a lot of vacancies. So when we don't spend 00:45:10.462 --> 00:45:14.718 - their portion, we send it back? No, it just builds up in our account. 00:45:14.946 --> 00:45:21.855 - And it's like we've grown over the years since the dispatch center was found. We grow our reserves, 00:45:21.855 --> 00:45:28.971 - and now we're shrinking them down to almost nothing. And then why did they have reserves then? Because 00:45:28.971 --> 00:45:35.879 - over most recent years, they've basically been paying out exactly what they've received in. So what 00:45:35.879 --> 00:45:43.479 - they've accumulated in the past, particularly with respect to supplemental distributions. So the supplemental 00:45:43.479 --> 00:45:44.446 - distributions 00:45:44.738 --> 00:45:50.897 - that the state gives us, they go to the county. I see. And the county's just let them sit in. I see, 00:45:50.897 --> 00:45:57.055 - I see. So their reserves are almost that extra $2 million of reserves is supplemental distributions. 00:45:57.055 --> 00:46:03.214 - That's a large portion of it. I think at one point, they had also decided that our reserves were too 00:46:03.214 --> 00:46:09.007 - high. I mean, I was kind of part of this on the county. Exactly. But roughly speaking, without 00:46:09.007 --> 00:46:11.934 - the supplemental, our funds should be the same. 00:46:13.410 --> 00:46:19.927 - Without the supplemental, the counties really should be zero, ideally, because it's kind of a holding, 00:46:19.927 --> 00:46:26.381 - it's just sort of a holding tank. Yeah, because the county's not doing anything with that money other 00:46:26.381 --> 00:46:32.962 - than getting a test to run the dispatch center, right? It's just a holding tank. But there are probably 00:46:32.962 --> 00:46:38.846 - discrepancies between what they budget to give the city and then what they actually take in. 00:46:40.226 --> 00:46:46.662 - Well, that's mostly the supplemental but and and then there was at one point and I remember this from 00:46:46.662 --> 00:46:52.971 - being at the county side We thought the city was building up to but we being the county thought the 00:46:52.971 --> 00:46:59.281 - city was building up to higher reserve and so we withheld Distribute and the city was building up a 00:46:59.281 --> 00:47:05.906 - high reserve at the time. It's just that that's no longer the case I Wonder if another way that we could 00:47:05.906 --> 00:47:09.502 - think about this reserve thing with peace up peace up is 00:47:10.594 --> 00:47:16.694 - I mean, we're kind of, we're talking about it like, like it's three different reserve buckets, but really 00:47:16.694 --> 00:47:22.737 - it's kind of like two different reserve buckets. The 911 clearly has like a different set of regulations 00:47:22.737 --> 00:47:28.722 - behind it from the state, but our reserves and the county's reserves are essentially the same. So while 00:47:28.722 --> 00:47:34.477 - it could make sense to say like, well, we should have equal reserves. I think it could equally make 00:47:34.477 --> 00:47:36.894 - sense or like Jeff, you were saying like, 00:47:37.186 --> 00:47:42.526 - Like, oh, it makes more sense for the city to have the reserves because we're spending it and for the 00:47:42.526 --> 00:47:47.866 - county to not have any reserves. I think it could also make sense for the city to not really have any 00:47:47.866 --> 00:47:53.205 - reserves and for the county to have all the reserves. And, and then it would just have to potentially 00:47:53.205 --> 00:47:58.597 - get more appropriate. I guess I'm just not sure that we really need to think about the county reserves 00:47:58.597 --> 00:48:03.833 - and the city reserves as two different pots. And if we combine those pots, then essentially we have 00:48:03.833 --> 00:48:05.246 - 50% reserves of the entire 00:48:05.634 --> 00:48:12.568 - yearly budget right now, right? And we would normally say that like, like that's plenty of reserve to 00:48:12.568 --> 00:48:19.570 - have for a budget because it's pretty consistent revenue sources, right? So I guess I'm not unless I'm 00:48:19.570 --> 00:48:26.368 - like thinking about that totally wrong. And I realized that I should be asking a question right now 00:48:26.368 --> 00:48:33.438 - with that. So like, does it matter who has the reserves as long as they exist between those two bodies? 00:48:34.114 --> 00:48:41.535 - I mean, I think you're looking at it the right way, that the county's reserves are also money that's 00:48:41.535 --> 00:48:49.030 - been received from this PSAP lit that the taxpayers are paying and it is for use in the dispatch. And 00:48:49.030 --> 00:48:56.378 - whether it's being held in their savings account or your savings account isn't necessarily that big 00:48:56.378 --> 00:49:03.358 - of an issue. So what makes all the difference is what does it say in our interlocal agreement? 00:49:04.098 --> 00:49:11.625 - And can we tap their reserves whenever we need them? It's just that the expenses have to be paid out 00:49:11.625 --> 00:49:19.077 - of the reserve. So if there are expenses that exceed what you have available to you, then it has to 00:49:19.077 --> 00:49:26.678 - come out of that fund. OK, so that's. So that's set in stone in our. That's within the interloquence. 00:49:26.678 --> 00:49:33.534 - OK. But we need a new one. It's eight years old. We definitely need which is significantly. 00:49:37.506 --> 00:49:43.427 - Any other questions before we introduce the amendment? And we'll have plenty of time for public comment. 00:49:43.427 --> 00:49:49.123 - Okay, do you want to answer, or comments that were missing? I was just going to make a note. This is 00:49:49.123 --> 00:49:54.705 - a public hearing, so public comment mandatory. We have it anyways, but just so the public's aware, 00:49:54.705 --> 00:50:00.344 - you know, this is your time to make your official statement, and council has to consider any public 00:50:00.344 --> 00:50:06.040 - comment before voting and making a decision on this one. Thank you. Okay, so let's, should we do the 00:50:06.040 --> 00:50:06.942 - amendment? Yes. 00:50:07.394 --> 00:50:16.010 - I move amendment one to resolution 2026-23. Second. All right, motion and second, go ahead. So this 00:50:16.010 --> 00:50:24.711 - amendment corrects the rounding error. Section one, item two. So there's one place in the resolution 00:50:24.711 --> 00:50:33.499 - where it says 0.27 and then another place where it says 0.2, no. 0.287. 0.287. And then another place 00:50:33.499 --> 00:50:37.118 - where it's not rounded where it says 0.2. 00:50:37.922 --> 00:50:50.838 - So it's just making sure they're both say 0.2869. And then the other correction through this amendment 00:50:50.838 --> 00:51:04.507 - is just one of the points in item five where it's the property tax relief rate is not changing. It's 0.0518% 00:51:04.507 --> 00:51:05.886 - and that's 00:51:06.498 --> 00:51:16.029 - 518 10 thousandths of a percent and not, there was an error in the rendering the percentage in words. 00:51:16.029 --> 00:51:25.840 - And then I just formatted that number five as bullet points because it was all kind of globbed together. 00:51:25.840 --> 00:51:33.502 - So that is the amendment. Thank you very much. Are there any comments, Jeff, for? 00:51:34.882 --> 00:51:43.484 - Okay. Any questions? Okay. We'll go to public comment just on this amendment. You're going to have time 00:51:43.484 --> 00:51:52.085 - to do public comment on the full thing, but would anybody like to make public comment on the amendment? 00:51:52.085 --> 00:52:00.521 - Anyone online? Okay. In which case, any final comments from council? Thanks for catching it. And will 00:52:00.521 --> 00:52:04.574 - the clerk please call the roll on the amendment? 00:52:04.834 --> 00:52:18.514 - Thank you very much. Okay, well now we're back as amended. Would we like any further comments before 00:52:18.514 --> 00:52:33.278 - we go to public comment? Yes. Okay, so we'll go now to a time of public comment. If you'd like to comment on 00:52:33.922 --> 00:52:45.739 - on resolution, the whole thing is amended. Now, 2026-23 is amended. Now is your chance. Is there anybody 00:52:45.739 --> 00:52:57.105 - in the room? Okay, anyone online? Okay. Mr. Keogh, go ahead. I'm sorry, Mr. Keogh, I'm so sorry. You 00:52:57.105 --> 00:53:03.070 - said an operative word at the beginning that I think 00:53:04.770 --> 00:53:11.325 - We couldn't hear you. I couldn't hear if you said oppose, if you said I love, if you said. Yes. I oppose, 00:53:11.325 --> 00:53:18.004 - oppose, increase the ESAP global income tax. I want to begin with a non-dispute about the central dispatch. 00:53:18.004 --> 00:53:24.744 - It's a critical public safety service for the county. That's what we describe in the Interlocutory Equipment 00:53:24.744 --> 00:53:31.052 - County. The meeting package shows a projected gap between the council's ESAP tax revenue and the full 00:53:31.052 --> 00:53:34.206 - dispatch budget. Control room agreed that we would 00:53:34.594 --> 00:53:41.116 - has also raised legitimate concerns about equipment needs and uncertainty when the Indiana Folkland 00:53:41.116 --> 00:53:47.898 - Contact System changes in 2029. But a projected gap is not by itself an analysis of how much additional 00:53:47.898 --> 00:53:54.746 - tax revenue is needed. Actual spending has differed from the budget spending, in part because the center 00:53:54.746 --> 00:54:01.398 - has struggled to recruit and retain dispatchers. This has been a long history of unspent payroll, the 00:54:01.398 --> 00:54:03.550 - lion's share of the PSAP budget. 00:54:03.842 --> 00:54:10.176 - The county also continues to hold restricted dispatch reserves. Just found out that a portion of those 00:54:10.176 --> 00:54:16.387 - reserves will be used to cover the 2027 funding gap. But it seems that taking more time to flesh out 00:54:16.387 --> 00:54:22.782 - a plan and future options would be a defensible choice. The question then, what reserves should be kept 00:54:22.782 --> 00:54:28.931 - for equipment emergencies in the 2029 transition? And how that amount should be determined? We just 00:54:28.931 --> 00:54:32.990 - heard an assertion about cost, but it's not really a formal plan. 00:54:33.218 --> 00:54:39.553 - And I've not seen a combined city and county financial forecast with documented reserve targets. That 00:54:39.553 --> 00:54:45.765 - answers the questions that show any effect of the proposed rate increase. The county has to control 00:54:45.765 --> 00:54:52.162 - the interest in the success of the dispatch center. They control purse rates associated. My review has 00:54:52.162 --> 00:54:58.436 - raised other concerns on matters of this decision. The city established a separate PSAP account fund 00:54:58.436 --> 00:54:59.678 - on April 2nd, 2025. 00:55:00.066 --> 00:55:05.811 - After years of recording dispatch activity within a broader public safety fund, the complete historical 00:55:05.811 --> 00:55:11.501 - PSAP financial position still needs to be reconciled. The city and the county also needs to review how 00:55:11.501 --> 00:55:17.523 - they're in the local agreement has been followed. Updated for current conditions to strengthen the financial 00:55:17.523 --> 00:55:23.268 - reporting and the oversight. None of this suggests that dispatch funds are missing. It means the public 00:55:23.268 --> 00:55:28.958 - needs a clear, reliable financial picture. Finally, funding and staffing cannot be planned separately. 00:55:29.314 --> 00:55:35.268 - personnel accounts is most of the dispatch budget. Residents should be able to see a plan for recruiting 00:55:35.268 --> 00:55:41.335 - and retaining dispatches with measures that shows that it's working, you know, your outcomes-based budget. 00:55:41.335 --> 00:55:47.005 - I recognize the November 1st deadline and the risk of drawing down reserves before 2029. Even so, I 00:55:47.005 --> 00:55:52.732 - do not believe the information presented establishes this proposed increase is necessary now or that 00:55:52.732 --> 00:55:54.206 - this amount is justified. 00:55:54.434 --> 00:56:00.768 - I asked the council to vote no tonight, and then set dates and responsibilities for public reserve, 00:56:00.768 --> 00:56:07.103 - for the reserve plan in it, and the interlocal agreement would be stronger controls, and a dispatch 00:56:07.103 --> 00:56:13.881 - staffing plan. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Keogh. Is there anyone else online who'd like to comment? 00:56:13.881 --> 00:56:16.478 - There's one person. All right, Ms. Rose. 00:56:17.218 --> 00:56:25.609 - I don't know. Is it yes? Go ahead, Ms. Rose. Yes. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. 00:56:25.609 --> 00:56:33.839 - Thank you. My name is Eric Gohs. The durable funding and accountability of the shared operation of an 00:56:33.839 --> 00:56:42.230 - effective, accessible dispatch center is an unquestionable mandate. It is essential infrastructure that 00:56:42.230 --> 00:56:46.910 - directly supports the safety of members of our community. 00:56:47.938 --> 00:56:53.902 - The administrative participation of each encumbered taxing body is a critical element of durable 00:56:53.902 --> 00:57:00.358 - accountability. The fact that no records exist for the required annual meeting of taxing agencies raises 00:57:00.358 --> 00:57:06.569 - material questions. The fact that the required dedicated budget fund did not exist for public safety 00:57:06.569 --> 00:57:12.840 - revenues until 2025 raises material questions. The gaps in tracking of the amounts of timing and flow 00:57:12.840 --> 00:57:16.222 - of revenues for prior years raises material questions. 00:57:16.962 --> 00:57:22.953 - The fact that the county holds more reserves than the city, but apparently the city effectively runs 00:57:22.953 --> 00:57:28.707 - the dispatch and raises material questions. The fact that SEA 1 and uncertain future legislation 00:57:28.707 --> 00:57:34.698 - significantly affects local income tax structure raising material questions. The fact that there are 00:57:34.698 --> 00:57:40.689 - still questions regarding comportment of the inter-local agreement with Indiana Code raises material 00:57:40.689 --> 00:57:41.342 - questions. 00:57:41.666 --> 00:57:47.379 - The fact that the dispatch center now requires tangible investment, notwithstanding the potential to 00:57:47.379 --> 00:57:53.376 - entirely move to a new location raises material questions. All of these questions should be duly attended 00:57:53.376 --> 00:57:59.146 - to and answered immediately. The council should not recommend to increase the PS flip rate until such 00:57:59.146 --> 00:58:05.086 - time as these questions are addressed and transparently answered. In follow up to the work of the common 00:58:05.086 --> 00:58:07.518 - council at this evening's special session, 00:58:08.002 --> 00:58:14.429 - A meeting of the Public Safety Local Income Tax Committee, including all taxing entities, should be 00:58:14.429 --> 00:58:21.499 - immediately scheduled, as required, to discuss all of these matters and endeavor to answer the aforementioned 00:58:21.499 --> 00:58:27.926 - questions as soon as possible before moving forward. I really appreciate your serious commitment to 00:58:27.926 --> 00:58:34.546 - your work and this very important matter. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Ostum. Thank you for those 00:58:34.546 --> 00:58:37.438 - well thought out words. Anybody else online? 00:58:38.850 --> 00:58:45.046 - Okay, we'll come back to council then. Any final comments before we take it further? Council members? 00:58:45.046 --> 00:58:51.486 - Thank you and thank you to everyone who's been here to answer questions and to the public who has brought 00:58:51.486 --> 00:58:57.804 - their thoughtful comments. I can't vote to raise taxes without being able to explain how people's lives 00:58:57.804 --> 00:59:03.940 - are improving. It might not seem like a lot of money to people who have it, but it is for people who 00:59:03.940 --> 00:59:07.038 - stretch every dollar to get by on an average week. 00:59:07.202 --> 00:59:12.927 - Many of our city's residents are on a fixed income. And I've heard arguments prior to today that we 00:59:12.927 --> 00:59:18.709 - may need the reserves in the future, so we can't use them now. My argument is that we need them now, 00:59:18.709 --> 00:59:24.434 - or that we need to use other funds. As hard as we have been hit with SEA 1 changes, the county will 00:59:24.434 --> 00:59:30.331 - be hit exponentially harder. It would have been even worse if any of the city's annexation efforts has 00:59:30.331 --> 00:59:36.170 - succeeded. We could have all saved some money without the lawsuit, but that's in a different fund, so 00:59:36.170 --> 00:59:37.086 - I will digress. 00:59:37.442 --> 00:59:43.309 - I recognize that Controller McKim's comment that dispatch is both for county and city. To that, I wonder 00:59:43.309 --> 00:59:49.176 - if it is perhaps time for the city to step up and be a good partner to the county. Lord knows that we'll 00:59:49.176 --> 00:59:54.987 - need to stand together moving into tougher times. I appreciate what our dispatch does, and every person 00:59:54.987 --> 01:00:00.574 - who works there, I think that we all agree that dispatch is a critical service. Even so, I won't be 01:00:00.574 --> 01:00:04.318 - a part of making people's financial decisions even more difficult. 01:00:04.418 --> 01:00:11.604 - And I'm absolutely not saying no to dispatch being fully funded. I am saying no to a tax increase. Times 01:00:11.604 --> 01:00:18.721 - are tough for many folks, and I can't, in good conscience, add to people's bills. Thank you. Thank you, 01:00:18.721 --> 01:00:25.564 - Councilmembers. Any other comments? Councilmember Daly? All right, thank you. I want to say I fully 01:00:25.564 --> 01:00:32.476 - agree with the speaker's comments about the importance of our dispatch, obviously, and all that this 01:00:32.476 --> 01:00:33.982 - budget would provide. 01:00:34.402 --> 01:00:40.978 - However, I do not think that this funding needs to come as a further burden to our residents. I do think 01:00:40.978 --> 01:00:47.304 - that there are many residents who this will deeply, deeply impact them. And it will be just an extra 01:00:47.304 --> 01:00:53.818 - burden on their back. And I think we have other ways of covering this and that we should do that first, 01:00:53.818 --> 01:01:00.144 - especially with as many questions as we have raised. We have more questions than answers tonight. So 01:01:00.144 --> 01:01:03.902 - I cannot support this either. Thank you. Thank you so much. 01:01:04.386 --> 01:01:12.914 - All right, so first off, I have a question actually first. Are the capital investments that sound like 01:01:12.914 --> 01:01:21.276 - they're needed in terms of this type, are those things that could be covered by GO bonds in terms of 01:01:21.276 --> 01:01:29.639 - GO bond regulations? Because they're capital stuff, right? So wouldn't that fall under a category of 01:01:29.639 --> 01:01:32.702 - a GO bond in terms of other funding? 01:01:33.346 --> 01:01:40.930 - I don't see any reason why they couldn't. Larry, you agree? Yeah, I think they could. Okay, great. Thanks. 01:01:40.930 --> 01:01:48.230 - That's what I thought. So I also think that I'm not going to support this tonight. It's for a slightly 01:01:48.230 --> 01:01:55.318 - different reason, though. Honestly, $37 a year on $100,000 salary works out to 71 cents a week. And 01:01:55.318 --> 01:01:59.358 - I think that even when you're having a hard time, that's 01:02:00.258 --> 01:02:09.664 - not going to make as huge an impact as some other things will. However, if that spreadsheet was up there 01:02:09.664 --> 01:02:18.713 - again, in terms of looking at our county plus our city reserves, it's over 50% of the yearly budget. 01:02:18.713 --> 01:02:24.894 - And I think that that's plenty of reserves between those two things. 01:02:25.058 --> 01:02:31.136 - even considering the capital expenses and those investments that need to be made, I think that, 01:02:31.136 --> 01:02:37.657 - you know, we've been thinking about those capital investments at the city level as saying, okay, we're 01:02:37.657 --> 01:02:44.052 - going to use go bonds for those things for at least a couple budget cycles now in terms of planning. 01:02:44.052 --> 01:02:50.446 - And I think that I'm not sure how much the dispatch center has been included in those considerations 01:02:50.446 --> 01:02:51.966 - for what we should have 01:02:52.226 --> 01:02:59.376 - go bond money for, but that is a conversation I think that maybe needs to happen between city and county 01:02:59.376 --> 01:03:06.254 - and all those other entities to figure out how we can make sure to invest in those ways. But I don't 01:03:06.254 --> 01:03:13.063 - think that expecting those expenses to come out of our reserves is reasonable. We just, I mean, 2.3 01:03:13.063 --> 01:03:15.038 - million just for the radios. 01:03:15.586 --> 01:03:21.634 - And that doesn't count all of those other things. There just are not enough reserves, no matter what, 01:03:21.634 --> 01:03:27.919 - for all of that. And so that is going to have to be funded in another way anyway. And so I think a GoBond 01:03:27.919 --> 01:03:34.263 - is a much better way to do that. And then it would be more directed. And it could be somehow split between 01:03:34.263 --> 01:03:40.252 - those entities and figured out. And that is also that conversation that I think we need to have with 01:03:40.252 --> 01:03:45.470 - our partners, our community partners that all depend on the Nine Woman Dispatch Center. 01:03:45.570 --> 01:03:55.640 - So, basically, yes, I think that we definitely need some funding in there, but this particular tax increase 01:03:55.640 --> 01:04:05.057 - is not the answer. Thank you so much. Councilmember Beall, would you like to say anything? Sure. So, 01:04:05.057 --> 01:04:10.558 - I was chair of the PSLA committee last year and this year. 01:04:11.138 --> 01:04:18.458 - I'm surprised to hear from my colleague, Councilmember Daly, that she's not supporting this because 01:04:18.458 --> 01:04:26.071 - she didn't vote in favor of the recommendation as a member of the PSLIT committee. I feel strongly that 01:04:26.071 --> 01:04:33.464 - I do not trust the Indiana State Legislature to give us any leeway to make up the PSLIT when it goes 01:04:33.464 --> 01:04:35.294 - away on January 1, 2020. 01:04:36.450 --> 01:04:47.613 - I'm very concerned about maintaining the services that our community relies on. At the top of that list 01:04:47.613 --> 01:04:58.669 - is 911 service. I stand by my vote as chair of the PSLIT committee. I think it is wise to increase our 01:04:58.669 --> 01:05:06.398 - PSLIT rate in order to fully fund dispatch. We have reserves, but those 01:05:07.170 --> 01:05:14.929 - we will need when it's really raining. And it may well be pouring on January 1st of 2029. And so we 01:05:14.929 --> 01:05:22.765 - need to save those reserves as much as we can till then. The GEO bond as a funding mechanism is also 01:05:22.765 --> 01:05:30.834 - tax financed. It is financed through property taxes. And rest assured that people with low incomes also 01:05:30.834 --> 01:05:34.558 - end up paying property taxes through their rent 01:05:35.394 --> 01:05:45.857 - So I don't think that that's any better as a mechanism. I understand that there are a lot of questions. 01:05:45.857 --> 01:05:56.924 - I'm frankly quite disappointed that we members of the city council didn't know the contents of the interlocal 01:05:56.924 --> 01:06:03.966 - agreement for PSAP and didn't know therefore that we were not meeting 01:06:04.162 --> 01:06:12.616 - the obligations under that agreement. I think that is a problem with the city legal department not sharing 01:06:12.616 --> 01:06:21.227 - with us the agreements that they make or giving us adequate updates. And I do think we need to expeditiously 01:06:21.227 --> 01:06:29.918 - meet with the county council and discuss these matters. However, if we don't get this passed by November 1st, 01:06:31.138 --> 01:06:40.837 - We're not going to collect a year's worth of the local income tax for this purpose next year. And I 01:06:40.837 --> 01:06:50.827 - think that we can walk and shoot down at the same time. We can pass this much needed increase to fully 01:06:50.827 --> 01:06:58.974 - fund dispatch. And we can clarify the interlocal agreement between city and county. 01:06:59.586 --> 01:07:09.430 - as it stands currently and as we want to have the new one reflect as we move forward into the future. 01:07:09.430 --> 01:07:19.371 - So although I understand there are some open questions, I also have great faith in our controller that 01:07:19.371 --> 01:07:29.022 - the accounting for PSAP is, has been comprehensive and I'm not concerned about that record keeping. 01:07:29.954 --> 01:07:39.738 - And so overall, I would encourage my colleagues to support this increase, which, as my colleague, Council 01:07:39.738 --> 01:07:49.060 - Member Stossberg said, is not really that much money per week, if you think about it spread out over 01:07:49.060 --> 01:07:50.814 - a year. Thank you. 01:07:51.298 --> 01:07:59.711 - I guess that leaves me to say some words. I'll just very briefly say first, thank you so much for the 01:07:59.711 --> 01:08:08.288 - controller and to all of my colleagues for being here in an extraordinary session, for being here after 01:08:08.288 --> 01:08:17.278 - another meeting that you have, just so appreciative of your tireless dedication to the city. I think I share 01:08:17.410 --> 01:08:24.581 - First, and also thank you to the public commenters. I also want to thank, of course, I think we often, 01:08:24.581 --> 01:08:31.822 - I think the comment was made that we often, you know, dispatch often seems to be the last thing we talk 01:08:31.822 --> 01:08:39.062 - about when we're talking about public safety. And I think that all of us on this council share a desire 01:08:39.062 --> 01:08:43.518 - to support our Dish Pass services as they need to be supported. 01:08:43.810 --> 01:08:56.099 - My position on this, though, is that we have lots of reserves in many of our accounts. And as was argued 01:08:56.099 --> 01:09:08.153 - during our budget hearings, we are in a sound financial situation. And so because that is the position 01:09:08.153 --> 01:09:10.494 - that the controller 01:09:10.626 --> 01:09:17.703 - has taken, I share the views of all of you that I don't think that it's the right time to increase a 01:09:17.703 --> 01:09:25.201 - tax. I will say. Not all of us. Yes, thank you, those of you who said that. And I will say to the argument 01:09:25.201 --> 01:09:32.349 - that it's only x amount of dollars. I think the reality is that this doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's 01:09:32.349 --> 01:09:37.534 - not like this is the only conversation. We're about to have conversations 01:09:37.826 --> 01:09:46.686 - the potential rate increases in sanitation, where there's a natural rate increase happening with inflation. 01:09:46.850 --> 01:09:53.509 - 71 cents may not feel like a lot in a week that those things compound. And again, I think we have the 01:09:53.509 --> 01:10:00.364 - reserves. And when we get to the conversation, fundamentally, I think, though, to come back to something 01:10:00.364 --> 01:10:07.023 - both that Mr. Keough said and that I was getting at in my questions, I find it a little bit difficult 01:10:07.023 --> 01:10:09.438 - to be basically increasing a tax now 01:10:09.506 --> 01:10:18.180 - for just a handful of unknown future capital expenses, of which we have one example, when the interlocal 01:10:18.180 --> 01:10:26.523 - agreement says we should all sit down, discuss what it is that we're going to be budgeting, and then 01:10:26.523 --> 01:10:35.197 - act appropriately. So with all those things in mind, I'm also going to be voting no. Any other comments? 01:10:35.197 --> 01:10:37.758 - Okay, Council Member Sussberg. 01:10:37.858 --> 01:10:45.781 - Quick question to Councilmember Piedmont-Smith. The vote was 6-0 to move this forward. Who were the 01:10:45.781 --> 01:10:54.417 - two people who weren't there? Councillor David Henry and Councilmember Andy Ruff. I'll just say I appreciate 01:10:54.417 --> 01:11:02.419 - your words and I also appreciate that you're sticking by your original thoughts and feelings on this 01:11:02.419 --> 01:11:07.806 - and I really respect that. And I, yeah, I'm gonna stick with what I 01:11:08.866 --> 01:11:23.528 - All right, if there's no other comments, then will the clerk please call the roll? Yes. Zulek? No. Asari? 01:11:23.528 --> 01:11:36.254 - No. Bailey? No. Stosford? No. Okay, that motion does not pass. Is there any other business? 01:11:38.082 --> 01:11:47.168 - Any other motions? Seeing none, any announcements about future activities or meetings that we must have? 01:11:47.168 --> 01:11:56.082 - Oh. Yes. I'll say that Wednesday night, there is a special plan commission session that is about state 01:11:56.082 --> 01:12:03.870 - changes, essentially, for housing-related stuff. Oh, and that's an open hearing, correct? 01:12:04.066 --> 01:12:10.283 - Yeah, I actually, I can't remember like what format it's going to be, but it is an official special 01:12:10.283 --> 01:12:16.687 - session of the planning commission. So it will probably be sort of like a blend between something very 01:12:16.687 --> 01:12:22.966 - official and something more casual. I do not believe there's any business in front of us. We're just 01:12:22.966 --> 01:12:29.556 - supposed to hear a lot of information. Okay, fantastic. Anything else for the good of the order, friends, 01:12:29.556 --> 01:12:30.302 - colleagues? 01:12:31.426 --> 01:12:37.733 - Oh yes, and there's a fiscal committee meeting Friday and that is the one that we had to cancel last 01:12:37.733 --> 01:12:44.290 - time. It is a star of the show, a controller, Jeff McKim, who will be telling us all about third quarter 01:12:44.290 --> 01:12:50.721 - reports and I can't remember all of the other things, but yeah, more fun bunny stuff. Talk about bonds 01:12:50.721 --> 01:12:57.278 - too. Excellent. Thank you all so much. We are officially adjourned. Have a lovely Monday. Thank you all.