WEBVTT 00:00:07.490 --> 00:00:13.679 - Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Monroe County Council met on September 8th. 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:20.111 - During department updates, the Sheriff's Office briefed the Council on a plan to keep the jail transition 00:00:20.111 --> 00:00:26.239 - director position funded past the end of federal ARPA money. Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons presented a 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:32.367 - proposal that would leave two correctional officer positions vacant through attrition and use a part 00:00:32.367 --> 00:00:36.190 - of the savings to continue paying for the transition director. 00:00:36.578 --> 00:00:46.447 - Two of those positions are worth $119,434 on wages alone. Self-insurance with those two positions is 00:00:46.447 --> 00:00:56.414 - just over $36,000. You add PERF, that is almost $17,000. FICA is $9,000. And it is just a grand total 00:00:56.414 --> 00:01:03.742 - of $181,607 for the two positions. The transition director position itself 00:01:04.066 --> 00:01:14.204 - is contracted for $110,000. So if we took $110,000 from that $181,607 total, we'd have a savings of 00:01:14.204 --> 00:01:19.678 - $71,607 for the county for every year moving forward. 00:01:19.778 --> 00:01:25.985 - The council then moved on to spend a significant portion of the meeting considering exceptions to the 00:01:25.985 --> 00:01:31.706 - county's hiring freeze, approving requests from the courts, clerk's office, health department 00:01:31.706 --> 00:01:37.914 - and prosecutor's office. Officials argued that the vacancies would put additional pressure on already 00:01:37.914 --> 00:01:44.060 - busy departments because several of the requests are tied to positions that had become vacant rather 00:01:44.060 --> 00:01:45.886 - than newly created positions. 00:01:46.562 --> 00:01:52.820 - For the courts, Judge Catherine Stafford said the county is losing a judicial officer without seeing 00:01:52.820 --> 00:01:59.511 - a corresponding reduction in the amount of work coming through the court system. She explained the possible 00:01:59.511 --> 00:02:05.955 - fallout from staff cuts and an increased workload. Without having this court order replaced, everything 00:02:05.955 --> 00:02:07.070 - will take longer. 00:02:07.490 --> 00:02:12.490 - in my office. And we're under statutory duty to hear emergency evictions within three business days, 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:17.489 - to hear provisional hearings and a divorce within 20 days, to hear orders of protection cases within 00:02:17.489 --> 00:02:21.598 - 30 days. And it's already a struggle to get those hearings in and to do that work. 00:02:22.082 --> 00:02:28.692 - The clerk's office also received approval to fill a small claims position after an unexpected vacancy. 00:02:28.692 --> 00:02:35.173 - Clerk Nicole Brown told the council that the office is already under significant strain with a small 00:02:35.173 --> 00:02:41.783 - staff handling thousands of filings and other court related matters. I mean people are actively either 00:02:41.783 --> 00:02:44.222 - actively looking or quietly quitting. 00:02:45.122 --> 00:02:52.041 - answer the second question I had, but how are folks doing right now? Would you be willing to share what's 00:02:52.041 --> 00:02:58.829 - going on? First, thank you for asking. Thank you for publicly asking. This time has been very difficult 00:02:58.829 --> 00:03:05.422 - on my staff. I have always said before you, I have the best staff this side of heaven and I am smart 00:03:05.422 --> 00:03:07.902 - enough to know it, but they're human. 00:03:08.546 --> 00:03:17.647 - And they're doing the best they can with the lowest wages, trying to do a good job for you and the citizens 00:03:17.647 --> 00:03:26.495 - and visitors of Monroe County. So I appreciate you asking. We do our level best every day. We appreciate 00:03:26.495 --> 00:03:32.478 - any updates that we get regarding the opportunity to improve the. The. 00:03:32.642 --> 00:03:39.649 - Conditions in the office. I heard something the other night as I was watching a council meeting Where 00:03:39.649 --> 00:03:46.793 - they talked about why the office hasn't been refurbished? I would like for you to know that for as long 00:03:46.793 --> 00:03:53.662 - as I have been clerk I have asked I've had to beg for new chairs before the furniture dates back to 00:03:54.146 --> 00:04:01.461 - Most of it dates back to the originality of the building. So if the building is crumbling, you can imagine 00:04:01.461 --> 00:04:08.366 - what's going on with the furniture and the carpet and the walls and this and that. And our bathrooms 00:04:08.366 --> 00:04:15.476 - are not ADA compliant. You may recall my sweet lady from Stone Belt who had a wheelchair. She was never 00:04:15.476 --> 00:04:21.150 - able to use the facilities in a way that would have accommodated her disabilities. 00:04:21.634 --> 00:04:28.628 - So roundabout way, thank you for asking. I'll certainly pass that along to my staff. The health department 00:04:28.628 --> 00:04:35.230 - then asked for an exception to fill an environmental health specialist position responsible for food 00:04:35.230 --> 00:04:41.832 - safety inspections and licensing. Officials said the vacancy comes as Monroe County continues to see 00:04:41.832 --> 00:04:48.042 - more mobile food operations and prepares for a statewide licensing change expected to increase 00:04:48.042 --> 00:04:50.526 - the department's inspection workload. 00:04:51.042 --> 00:04:54.910 - Health administrator Lori Kelly explained the scope of the position. 00:04:55.202 --> 00:05:02.978 - This is a full-time position that's responsible for completing routine inspections, responding to complaints, 00:05:02.978 --> 00:05:10.400 - licensing, plan reviews for new retail food establishments, mobile units, and temporary food operations, 00:05:10.400 --> 00:05:17.964 - and helps to conduct preoperational inspections for new retail food establishments and mobiles. Currently, 00:05:17.964 --> 00:05:23.902 - this position has around over 200 inspection assignments for the remainder of 2026. 00:05:24.546 --> 00:05:32.132 - And additionally, the department is working on changes coming to the new statewide mobile food licensing 00:05:32.132 --> 00:05:39.501 - program where we will be issuing statewide licenses. The prosecutor's office also won an exemption to 00:05:39.501 --> 00:05:46.942 - replace a departing misdemeanor deputy. This position is already included in the office's 2027 budget. 00:05:47.426 --> 00:05:54.032 - Prosecuting attorney Erica Oliphant explained that replacing that position is important due to the nature 00:05:54.032 --> 00:06:00.762 - of the work and because the office carries a large caseload. Prosecutors office is responsible for ensuring 00:06:00.762 --> 00:06:07.368 - that the protection of our constitutional and statutory rights are there for both defendants and victims, 00:06:07.368 --> 00:06:11.294 - which includes meeting deadlines, ensuring good procedure, and 00:06:11.586 --> 00:06:17.836 - carrying the highest burden of proof there is under the law. And we can't do that if we don't have a 00:06:17.836 --> 00:06:24.147 - full team. So content of our work is very difficult. It comes with secondary trauma. We see the human 00:06:24.147 --> 00:06:30.520 - misery and suffering that's inherent in mental health and substance use issues, as well as some of the 00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:37.017 - worst things that people do to each other. The council then unanimously approved an ordinance increasing 00:06:37.017 --> 00:06:40.606 - the local income tax rate dedicated to juvenile services. 00:06:41.346 --> 00:06:47.682 - During discussion, councilmembers questioned exactly which expenses can legally be paid from the juvenile 00:06:47.682 --> 00:06:53.959 - services revenue. County Attorney Molly Turner King explained the statute. So, in reviewing the statute, 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:59.996 - it says revenues raised from a tax imposed under this section may be used only to fund the operation 00:06:59.996 --> 00:07:05.854 - and maintenance of a juvenile detention center and other facilities to provide juvenile services. 00:07:07.074 --> 00:07:13.588 - The meeting ended with a debate over the county's participation in the new must process, which will 00:07:13.588 --> 00:07:20.101 - bring Monroe County together with Bloomington, Ellitsville, and Steinsville to discuss local income 00:07:20.101 --> 00:07:27.006 - tax issues under new state requirements. Councilor Marty Hawk argued that the county should have detailed 00:07:27.006 --> 00:07:33.715 - financial information from the participating communities before making any decisions about sharing tax 00:07:33.715 --> 00:07:36.190 - revenue. Now I know everybody's busy. 00:07:37.026 --> 00:07:45.790 - But that list was extensive of the things that we should be getting, that we always should have from 00:07:45.790 --> 00:07:54.468 - the city, from Bloomington, from Ellitsville, and from Steinsville. It was a detailed list, whether 00:07:54.468 --> 00:08:03.319 - or not they had a TIF, what other interlocals that they had. One of the other forensics, do they have 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:05.054 - a debt that's tied? 00:08:05.218 --> 00:08:13.945 - to an income tax. Those are serious questions, and we should not send anybody, I don't care how many 00:08:13.945 --> 00:08:23.191 - meetings you've been to, we should not send anybody from this county council to go up against that without 00:08:23.191 --> 00:08:32.004 - that information. I asked for it, I have not received it. And I certainly am not saying I'm giving up 00:08:32.004 --> 00:08:34.942 - my name to go, because right now, 00:08:35.426 --> 00:08:45.648 - got my counting hat on, and I'm in no way until we look at all of those numbers in a position to say, 00:08:45.648 --> 00:08:56.070 - I think we should give up part of our revenue to another taxing unit, nor do I think we should not live 00:08:56.070 --> 00:08:58.174 - in the city and send 00:08:58.370 --> 00:09:04.724 - a large majority of that money over to the city. That is taxation without representation. We've been 00:09:04.724 --> 00:09:11.016 - fighting that for years. Why are we so eager to jump back in there? Other council members said that 00:09:11.016 --> 00:09:17.685 - the meeting is non-binding and provides an opportunity for the local governments to begin working through 00:09:17.685 --> 00:09:19.006 - the issues together. 00:09:19.746 --> 00:09:25.799 - Counselor Trent Deckard argued that continued communication between the communities is important, 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:32.036 - particularly as local governments deal with changing state requirements. We have got to talk because 00:09:32.036 --> 00:09:38.274 - the state's goal, and I know that you disagree with this because you always defend them and DLGF and 00:09:38.274 --> 00:09:44.635 - all your friends, but the state goal is for us to keep choking each other. They want us fighting. They 00:09:44.635 --> 00:09:48.094 - want us wallowing in the mud and turning on each other. 00:09:48.290 --> 00:09:55.206 - because they don't have to do what we do, which is deal with sheriffs and deputies and jail buildings. 00:09:55.206 --> 00:10:02.257 - They can do wild legislation and fun times and go barbecue with the lieutenant governor. But the reality 00:10:02.257 --> 00:10:08.971 - is we have to live here with each other. The council ultimately voted six to one to appoint council 00:10:08.971 --> 00:10:13.470 - member Peter Iverson as its representative to the must task force. 00:10:14.018 --> 00:10:20.855 - Their first meeting is scheduled for September 18th at 1 p.m. in the NatU Hill Room and will be open 00:10:20.855 --> 00:10:27.963 - to the public. The Bloomington City Council met for a deliberation session on September 9th. The council 00:10:27.963 --> 00:10:32.702 - discussed a potential public safety plan with no formal action taken. 00:10:33.026 --> 00:10:38.618 - Councilmember Hopi Stasberg walked through the deliberation process saying counselors want to understand 00:10:38.618 --> 00:10:43.943 - what public safety actually means to Bloomington residents before deciding what policies are needed 00:10:43.943 --> 00:10:49.375 - to address it. Today we really want to hear about your experiences in public safety. That it's one of 00:10:49.375 --> 00:10:55.180 - those things where there's no wrong answers and everybody's input is welcome because everybody's experiences 00:10:55.180 --> 00:10:57.630 - are valid and meaningful and worth something. 00:10:57.954 --> 00:11:04.421 - And the goal today is not to come to any kind of consensus or agreement, and it is not to make any decisions 00:11:04.421 --> 00:11:10.531 - about policy or programs or what we should do or what we shouldn't do. It's all about experiences. And 00:11:10.531 --> 00:11:16.760 - the objective, of course, is just to better understand each other and this topic of public safety, which 00:11:16.760 --> 00:11:23.108 - could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and everybody has different experiences 00:11:23.108 --> 00:11:23.998 - related to it. 00:11:24.290 --> 00:11:31.454 - After small group discussions, council member Dave Rollo brought up concerns from his group where residents 00:11:31.454 --> 00:11:38.087 - said feeling safe and being objectively safe are not necessarily the same thing. The idea of public 00:11:38.087 --> 00:11:44.852 - safety and the perception of public safety can be two very different things. And those things need to 00:11:44.852 --> 00:11:51.552 - be addressed separately or together. And that when bad things happen, we need to also share positive 00:11:51.552 --> 00:11:52.414 - experiences. 00:11:52.962 --> 00:12:00.044 - So for instance, needle exchange has probably been effective and many other things for the decline in 00:12:00.044 --> 00:12:07.195 - needles in the community being found by the Parks Department and their experiences there. So there are 00:12:07.195 --> 00:12:14.554 - good stories to tell as well as the not good ones regarding public safety. Mayor Carrie Thompson reported 00:12:14.554 --> 00:12:21.150 - on another group's discussion and brought up concerns surrounding gun violence in Bloomington. 00:12:21.570 --> 00:12:33.383 - Guns were also mentioned and especially unfortunate things happening in large crowds. It wasn't directly 00:12:33.383 --> 00:12:45.083 - connected to the gun comment, but that the larger a crowd is, the more unsafe it can be. Statistically, 00:12:45.083 --> 00:12:49.470 - the more you have a chance of somebody 00:12:49.762 --> 00:12:58.940 - acting in an unsafe way. What we wanted council to know is that the things that the city does to help 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:08.298 - welcome people is particularly important and creating spaces where people can feel a sense of belonging 00:13:08.298 --> 00:13:16.126 - and the notes on the infrastructure, especially lighting, that helps people feel safe. 00:13:16.546 --> 00:13:23.295 - Councilmember Courtney Daly said her group also focused on the need for the city to develop a shared 00:13:23.295 --> 00:13:30.378 - understanding of what public safety actually means. Being able to communicate out what makes this feeling 00:13:30.378 --> 00:13:37.194 - of public safety, what practices to create good public safety and in other words distilling that down 00:13:37.194 --> 00:13:39.934 - into maybe a more common definition that 00:13:40.866 --> 00:13:47.327 - City council can start working on as our baseline Getting that shared definition and understanding of 00:13:47.327 --> 00:13:53.788 - what we're working toward with public safety. So does that mean? Predictability and trust for example 00:13:53.788 --> 00:14:00.123 - and maybe sharing out. This is what it looks like to support each other Lastly councilmember Sydney 00:14:00.123 --> 00:14:06.457 - Zulek says discussion will eventually move from listening to action today We talked a lot about our 00:14:06.457 --> 00:14:09.118 - experiences with purse with public safety 00:14:09.570 --> 00:14:16.449 - On October 21st, we'll be exploring our community priorities as a whole on how we want to move forward 00:14:16.449 --> 00:14:23.394 - and solutions that council can address. So if today is more focused on understanding, October 21st will 00:14:23.394 --> 00:14:30.139 - be more focused on solving the issues. The council will hold a second deliberation session on public 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:31.742 - safety on October 21st. 00:14:32.962 --> 00:14:39.376 - The Monroe County Council met for a budget hearing on September 9th. A multi-million dollar plan to 00:14:39.376 --> 00:14:45.919 - move dozens of inmates at the county jail to other counties is not included in the sheriff's proposed 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:52.590 - 2027 budget. The plan would have cost between three to five million dollars in its first year. However, 00:14:52.590 --> 00:14:59.132 - when Sheriff Ruben Marte presented next year's jail budget, he said there was only one increase being 00:14:59.132 --> 00:14:59.838 - requested. 00:15:00.578 --> 00:15:07.232 - There really is no increase in the lines for us, except for the medical line, and we don't want to get 00:15:07.232 --> 00:15:13.821 - into that. Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons told counselors that the jail and sheriff's office continue to 00:15:13.821 --> 00:15:17.374 - share responsibility for court-ordered transportation. 00:15:17.858 --> 00:15:23.219 - We both share that burden. The sheriff's office is an agent on the court, and when we are court ordered 00:15:23.219 --> 00:15:28.373 - to transport, we provide that transport. And a lot of the time, the jail does that, specifically so 00:15:28.373 --> 00:15:33.786 - we don't have to pull mayor deputies off the road that are providing public service. But there are times 00:15:33.786 --> 00:15:39.198 - where, like for instance, we're not going to send a corrections officer to someone's house in an unknown 00:15:39.198 --> 00:15:44.713 - when they're not trained in that environment. If there's somebody from the hospital to Meadows, we provide 00:15:44.713 --> 00:15:47.806 - that in the jail. We share that cost. And on the jail side, 00:15:47.906 --> 00:15:54.469 - we do have a transport log that documents time and mileage and officers going in the number of people 00:15:54.469 --> 00:16:00.904 - and individuals. Counselor David Henry says he wants to see transportation data because he suspects 00:16:00.904 --> 00:16:07.467 - that the time spent moving people around could amount to the equivalent of another employee. When the 00:16:07.467 --> 00:16:14.223 - day comes where we are approached for additional FTEs, that's a data set that might be incredibly useful 00:16:14.223 --> 00:16:16.926 - for me to understand where that fits in a 00:16:17.122 --> 00:16:24.556 - I don't think we talk about it enough. It is really granular, but I have a hunch that it's adding up 00:16:24.556 --> 00:16:32.358 - to a human. It's getting harder and harder every year, actually. Chief Deputy Phil Parker told counselors 00:16:32.358 --> 00:16:40.161 - that the department has studied the issue and found the demand for transportation has increased in recent 00:16:40.161 --> 00:16:45.534 - years. We did a pretty in-depth data study on that within the last year. 00:16:46.018 --> 00:16:52.626 - to show the the increased burden that that has that has brought to the merit side because as the jail 00:16:52.626 --> 00:16:59.105 - commander said you know if we're transporting from you know someone you know gets ill or or injured 00:16:59.105 --> 00:17:05.584 - in the facility to a hospital that the jail normally handles that but when we get a court order for 00:17:05.584 --> 00:17:11.998 - you know this person needs an emergency detention our mayor officers go out and get that person or 00:17:12.098 --> 00:17:18.598 - You know, we had one instance where we had an individual in Pennsylvania we had to go up and get. So 00:17:18.598 --> 00:17:25.226 - those have increased incredibly over the last three or four years. So we, I'm sitting here saying, and 00:17:25.226 --> 00:17:31.855 - Randy Jacobs might call me on my way home and say, what are you doing to me? But I know that we looked 00:17:31.855 --> 00:17:38.419 - into that, and I think we have that at our fingertips. And we probably need to update it a little bit 00:17:38.419 --> 00:17:40.414 - before we can get that to you. 00:17:40.770 --> 00:17:47.981 - Meanwhile, Marta says while transportation demands increase, the sheriff's office has fewer deputies 00:17:47.981 --> 00:17:55.121 - available to handle them. But like the chief said, the transportation has increased for us, whereas 00:17:55.121 --> 00:18:02.547 - our numbers on the deputy side has as as reduced. So you can't imagine the stress that we're under when 00:18:02.547 --> 00:18:08.830 - we get those orders to transport someone. And I could tell you, uh, when we had to, uh, 00:18:09.090 --> 00:18:15.820 - go to Pennsylvania, pick someone up and come back, that was no easy task based on the manpower that 00:18:15.820 --> 00:18:22.751 - we have at the present time. And it's worse now, as opposed to when that happened. For now, the inmate 00:18:22.751 --> 00:18:29.615 - transfer operation is off the table for the 2027 budget. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for 00:18:29.615 --> 00:18:33.182 - joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman. 00:28:50.818 --> 00:29:00.542 - spring or early summer of 83.