Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Monroe County Council met on September 8th.
During department updates, the Sheriff's Office briefed the Council on a plan to keep the jail transition
director position funded past the end of federal ARPA money. Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons presented a
proposal that would leave two correctional officer positions vacant through attrition and use a part
of the savings to continue paying for the transition director.
Two of those positions are worth $119,434 on wages alone. Self-insurance with those two positions is
just over $36,000. You add PERF, that is almost $17,000. FICA is $9,000. And it is just a grand total
of $181,607 for the two positions. The transition director position itself
is contracted for $110,000. So if we took $110,000 from that $181,607 total, we'd have a savings of
$71,607 for the county for every year moving forward.
The council then moved on to spend a significant portion of the meeting considering exceptions to the
county's hiring freeze, approving requests from the courts, clerk's office, health department
and prosecutor's office. Officials argued that the vacancies would put additional pressure on already
busy departments because several of the requests are tied to positions that had become vacant rather
than newly created positions.
For the courts, Judge Catherine Stafford said the county is losing a judicial officer without seeing
a corresponding reduction in the amount of work coming through the court system. She explained the possible
fallout from staff cuts and an increased workload. Without having this court order replaced, everything
will take longer.
in my office. And we're under statutory duty to hear emergency evictions within three business days,
to hear provisional hearings and a divorce within 20 days, to hear orders of protection cases within
30 days. And it's already a struggle to get those hearings in and to do that work.
The clerk's office also received approval to fill a small claims position after an unexpected vacancy.
Clerk Nicole Brown told the council that the office is already under significant strain with a small
staff handling thousands of filings and other court related matters. I mean people are actively either
actively looking or quietly quitting.
answer the second question I had, but how are folks doing right now? Would you be willing to share what's
going on? First, thank you for asking. Thank you for publicly asking. This time has been very difficult
on my staff. I have always said before you, I have the best staff this side of heaven and I am smart
enough to know it, but they're human.
And they're doing the best they can with the lowest wages, trying to do a good job for you and the citizens
and visitors of Monroe County. So I appreciate you asking. We do our level best every day. We appreciate
any updates that we get regarding the opportunity to improve the. The.
Conditions in the office. I heard something the other night as I was watching a council meeting Where
they talked about why the office hasn't been refurbished? I would like for you to know that for as long
as I have been clerk I have asked I've had to beg for new chairs before the furniture dates back to
Most of it dates back to the originality of the building. So if the building is crumbling, you can imagine
what's going on with the furniture and the carpet and the walls and this and that. And our bathrooms
are not ADA compliant. You may recall my sweet lady from Stone Belt who had a wheelchair. She was never
able to use the facilities in a way that would have accommodated her disabilities.
So roundabout way, thank you for asking. I'll certainly pass that along to my staff. The health department
then asked for an exception to fill an environmental health specialist position responsible for food
safety inspections and licensing. Officials said the vacancy comes as Monroe County continues to see
more mobile food operations and prepares for a statewide licensing change expected to increase
the department's inspection workload.
Health administrator Lori Kelly explained the scope of the position.
This is a full-time position that's responsible for completing routine inspections, responding to complaints,
licensing, plan reviews for new retail food establishments, mobile units, and temporary food operations,
and helps to conduct preoperational inspections for new retail food establishments and mobiles. Currently,
this position has around over 200 inspection assignments for the remainder of 2026.
And additionally, the department is working on changes coming to the new statewide mobile food licensing
program where we will be issuing statewide licenses. The prosecutor's office also won an exemption to
replace a departing misdemeanor deputy. This position is already included in the office's 2027 budget.
Prosecuting attorney Erica Oliphant explained that replacing that position is important due to the nature
of the work and because the office carries a large caseload. Prosecutors office is responsible for ensuring
that the protection of our constitutional and statutory rights are there for both defendants and victims,
which includes meeting deadlines, ensuring good procedure, and
carrying the highest burden of proof there is under the law. And we can't do that if we don't have a
full team. So content of our work is very difficult. It comes with secondary trauma. We see the human
misery and suffering that's inherent in mental health and substance use issues, as well as some of the
worst things that people do to each other. The council then unanimously approved an ordinance increasing
the local income tax rate dedicated to juvenile services.
During discussion, councilmembers questioned exactly which expenses can legally be paid from the juvenile
services revenue. County Attorney Molly Turner King explained the statute. So, in reviewing the statute,
it says revenues raised from a tax imposed under this section may be used only to fund the operation
and maintenance of a juvenile detention center and other facilities to provide juvenile services.
The meeting ended with a debate over the county's participation in the new must process, which will
bring Monroe County together with Bloomington, Ellitsville, and Steinsville to discuss local income
tax issues under new state requirements. Councilor Marty Hawk argued that the county should have detailed
financial information from the participating communities before making any decisions about sharing tax
revenue. Now I know everybody's busy.
But that list was extensive of the things that we should be getting, that we always should have from
the city, from Bloomington, from Ellitsville, and from Steinsville. It was a detailed list, whether
or not they had a TIF, what other interlocals that they had. One of the other forensics, do they have
a debt that's tied?
to an income tax. Those are serious questions, and we should not send anybody, I don't care how many
meetings you've been to, we should not send anybody from this county council to go up against that without
that information. I asked for it, I have not received it. And I certainly am not saying I'm giving up
my name to go, because right now,
got my counting hat on, and I'm in no way until we look at all of those numbers in a position to say,
I think we should give up part of our revenue to another taxing unit, nor do I think we should not live
in the city and send
a large majority of that money over to the city. That is taxation without representation. We've been
fighting that for years. Why are we so eager to jump back in there? Other council members said that
the meeting is non-binding and provides an opportunity for the local governments to begin working through
the issues together.
Counselor Trent Deckard argued that continued communication between the communities is important,
particularly as local governments deal with changing state requirements. We have got to talk because
the state's goal, and I know that you disagree with this because you always defend them and DLGF and
all your friends, but the state goal is for us to keep choking each other. They want us fighting. They
want us wallowing in the mud and turning on each other.
because they don't have to do what we do, which is deal with sheriffs and deputies and jail buildings.
They can do wild legislation and fun times and go barbecue with the lieutenant governor. But the reality
is we have to live here with each other. The council ultimately voted six to one to appoint council
member Peter Iverson as its representative to the must task force.
Their first meeting is scheduled for September 18th at 1 p.m. in the NatU Hill Room and will be open
to the public. The Bloomington City Council met for a deliberation session on September 9th. The council
discussed a potential public safety plan with no formal action taken.
Councilmember Hopi Stasberg walked through the deliberation process saying counselors want to understand
what public safety actually means to Bloomington residents before deciding what policies are needed
to address it. Today we really want to hear about your experiences in public safety. That it's one of
those things where there's no wrong answers and everybody's input is welcome because everybody's experiences
are valid and meaningful and worth something.
And the goal today is not to come to any kind of consensus or agreement, and it is not to make any decisions
about policy or programs or what we should do or what we shouldn't do. It's all about experiences. And
the objective, of course, is just to better understand each other and this topic of public safety, which
could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and everybody has different experiences
related to it.
After small group discussions, council member Dave Rollo brought up concerns from his group where residents
said feeling safe and being objectively safe are not necessarily the same thing. The idea of public
safety and the perception of public safety can be two very different things. And those things need to
be addressed separately or together. And that when bad things happen, we need to also share positive
experiences.
So for instance, needle exchange has probably been effective and many other things for the decline in
needles in the community being found by the Parks Department and their experiences there. So there are
good stories to tell as well as the not good ones regarding public safety. Mayor Carrie Thompson reported
on another group's discussion and brought up concerns surrounding gun violence in Bloomington.
Guns were also mentioned and especially unfortunate things happening in large crowds. It wasn't directly
connected to the gun comment, but that the larger a crowd is, the more unsafe it can be. Statistically,
the more you have a chance of somebody
acting in an unsafe way. What we wanted council to know is that the things that the city does to help
welcome people is particularly important and creating spaces where people can feel a sense of belonging
and the notes on the infrastructure, especially lighting, that helps people feel safe.
Councilmember Courtney Daly said her group also focused on the need for the city to develop a shared
understanding of what public safety actually means. Being able to communicate out what makes this feeling
of public safety, what practices to create good public safety and in other words distilling that down
into maybe a more common definition that
City council can start working on as our baseline Getting that shared definition and understanding of
what we're working toward with public safety. So does that mean? Predictability and trust for example
and maybe sharing out. This is what it looks like to support each other Lastly councilmember Sydney
Zulek says discussion will eventually move from listening to action today We talked a lot about our
experiences with purse with public safety
On October 21st, we'll be exploring our community priorities as a whole on how we want to move forward
and solutions that council can address. So if today is more focused on understanding, October 21st will
be more focused on solving the issues. The council will hold a second deliberation session on public
safety on October 21st.
The Monroe County Council met for a budget hearing on September 9th. A multi-million dollar plan to
move dozens of inmates at the county jail to other counties is not included in the sheriff's proposed
2027 budget. The plan would have cost between three to five million dollars in its first year. However,
when Sheriff Ruben Marte presented next year's jail budget, he said there was only one increase being
requested.
There really is no increase in the lines for us, except for the medical line, and we don't want to get
into that. Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons told counselors that the jail and sheriff's office continue to
share responsibility for court-ordered transportation.
We both share that burden. The sheriff's office is an agent on the court, and when we are court ordered
to transport, we provide that transport. And a lot of the time, the jail does that, specifically so
we don't have to pull mayor deputies off the road that are providing public service. But there are times
where, like for instance, we're not going to send a corrections officer to someone's house in an unknown
when they're not trained in that environment. If there's somebody from the hospital to Meadows, we provide
that in the jail. We share that cost. And on the jail side,
we do have a transport log that documents time and mileage and officers going in the number of people
and individuals. Counselor David Henry says he wants to see transportation data because he suspects
that the time spent moving people around could amount to the equivalent of another employee. When the
day comes where we are approached for additional FTEs, that's a data set that might be incredibly useful
for me to understand where that fits in a
I don't think we talk about it enough. It is really granular, but I have a hunch that it's adding up
to a human. It's getting harder and harder every year, actually. Chief Deputy Phil Parker told counselors
that the department has studied the issue and found the demand for transportation has increased in recent
years. We did a pretty in-depth data study on that within the last year.
to show the the increased burden that that has that has brought to the merit side because as the jail
commander said you know if we're transporting from you know someone you know gets ill or or injured
in the facility to a hospital that the jail normally handles that but when we get a court order for
you know this person needs an emergency detention our mayor officers go out and get that person or
You know, we had one instance where we had an individual in Pennsylvania we had to go up and get. So
those have increased incredibly over the last three or four years. So we, I'm sitting here saying, and
Randy Jacobs might call me on my way home and say, what are you doing to me? But I know that we looked
into that, and I think we have that at our fingertips. And we probably need to update it a little bit
before we can get that to you.
Meanwhile, Marta says while transportation demands increase, the sheriff's office has fewer deputies
available to handle them. But like the chief said, the transportation has increased for us, whereas
our numbers on the deputy side has as as reduced. So you can't imagine the stress that we're under when
we get those orders to transport someone. And I could tell you, uh, when we had to, uh,
go to Pennsylvania, pick someone up and come back, that was no easy task based on the manpower that
we have at the present time. And it's worse now, as opposed to when that happened. For now, the inmate
transfer operation is off the table for the 2027 budget. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for
joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.
spring or early summer of 83.