- I hope you were able to enjoy. Recording in progress, sorry. I'm already interrupted. I hope you were
- able to enjoy the nice day out and we're gonna get started here with our meeting tonight, our reorganization
- committee. Thank you for coming. We're going to start with a word of prayer and a pledge of allegiance.
- Father, we thank you for this day and time that we
- get to come together like this as citizens of a place we truly love. Thank you for all the ways that
- you bless us. Let everything that's done tonight be according to your will and the way that you'd have
- it to be done. Whatever the outcome of all this, Lord, we pray that your will be done in that. It's
- in Jesus' name, for his sake and his glory, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
- States of America
- and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
- for all. Thank you. All right, the committee has received the meeting minutes from Wednesday,
- February 4th. Do we have a motion to accept? So moved. Second. All right, I'll go second.
- Can you grab the roll call first real quick? Sure. Sorry, I was... Oh, you mean in attendance? Yes.
- Okay, sorry about that. So, Andrew Henry, present. Scott is here on Zoom. William Ellis, here.
- Jerry Sanders, here. Kevin Farris, here. Don Durnall, here. And Mike Corman, here. Thank you. All right,
- now we can do the minutes. We already had a first and second, so, Andrew?
- On the approval of the minutes as submitted, I vote yes. Scott, we don't have an electronic policy for
- committee members to attend digitally, so we're gonna count you as absent for today's meeting. So William?
- Yes. Jerry? Yes. Kevin? Yes. Don? Yes. Mike? Yes. Motion passes, thank you. Thank you again for coming
- tonight. We will have
- a period of public comment at the beginning of the meeting and then again at the end of the meeting.
- So the beginning of the meeting is just something you would like for the committee to consider before
- we even get started. And so I would like to invite anybody here or anybody online to speak now during
- the public comment.
- It's like we don't have anybody right now, so we don't really have an agenda tonight. So we do wanna
- talk about a couple of important matters and other matters that come up or will come out of the discussion
- tonight. But I think if it's okay with the committee, we see if anybody, any of our subcommittees would
- like to give a report. Is that okay with the committee? Do we have any, yes, Diane?
- We have met twice since February the 4th, and we meet again on Sunday at 4.30, have gone over everything
- on our, what our objectives were, and we should have, we will submit our report on time by February
- 27th. And what is your committee's? Planning and zoning, sorry. Planning and zoning. Questions? Questions?
- That sounds great, Diane, thank you very much. You're welcome.
- Way to stay on top of things. I'll report for the Finance Committee. We've met four times. And we have
- had a meeting with Mike, Noelle helped us some, and of course Baker Tilly. And we worked, Baker Tilly
- put all our thoughts and information from supervisors and everything together.
- But we still need to tweak it a little bit. And we're meeting again tomorrow. So hopefully, are you
- meeting next Wednesday or two weeks from tonight? We are definitely meeting two weeks from tonight.
- We may meet next Wednesday, depends on how the meeting goes. Okay. Well, if you do meet, we should have
- our report ready for you then. And when it is finalized, we will get it emailed to you so you can all
- look it over before so you'll be able to comment. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks.
- Our subcommittees are on it tonight. I'm Parks and Rec and Cemeteries. We've met twice since I think
- the last meeting. We are on schedule to have the draft completed on time and we've got a lovely little
- inventory for the park system to follow up with it if you're interested. But other than that, it looks
- like we're going to be good.
- I'm Michael from the Public Safety Subcommittee. We had our public meeting last Tuesday from six to
- seven. It was really supposed to be till 7.30, but with limited attendance, we cut it short. Had some
- good questions from those that attended. We'll be meeting again tomorrow in a work session format at 3 p.m.
- at the Heritage Center, and we should have our draft into you on time. Just out of curiosity, what questions
- It's more just general awareness of how things work currently and how they might work in the future
- if this passes. So just a lot of basics, like who responds, when do they respond, that sort of thing.
- Thank you. Thank you. Let's pause. I know I said we'd have a public comment at the end.
- based on the subcommittee reports, does anybody from the public wanna ask a question, ask a question
- or make a comment? Okay. So I know one of the other items that I think the committee would like to talk
- about is public outreach. Was that your, that was your item, I think? Yes, I think there's just,
- Would that some signs in? Right. They're out back. They're in the back. They're yard signs. We put them
- out there. So if you want to take one, put it in your yard. Sure would appreciate it. If you know a
- business or somebody else that could use one, we have plenty and we can get more. So please take them.
- We're going to try to put some out in public areas tomorrow. And since we're on public outreach, I'll mention,
- I need some direction. We'd like to put a billboard up. We think it's appropriate. And utilize one across
- from the fire station is the one probably that's seen best with the same information that the billboard
- has. But rather than just do it and tell you about it later, I'd probably see if anybody has any thoughts
- about it. I think that's a good idea.
- I do, too. I agree. We're just going to one billboard. Well, it'll be a big billboard. It'll be up for
- a month. And I think the timing may be right to make sure we get the word out. I think it'll have to
- be... We could do more, but... Closer to the boat, I think we would have. Go another one? Yeah.
- But we can. I think there's some limitations to the funds we can use. But I would hope that
- any organizations that donate to put the billboard up, would do that closer to the vote, and I would
- suggest the digital one also, by Kinser 45, 46. Okay, and since we're on outreach, I'll say I met with,
- I met with the, who's your upland board member? The Indiana Upland Realtor Association. And I met with
- them and went,
- why we're doing it and how it works. And so I think the word will get out amongst them pretty good tomorrow.
- I meet with the building association. I believe there's going to be 92 people there. So I thought I
- was meeting four or five people. So anyway, so I think that'll be a good outreach.
- The other thing is, when I talk to the Billard's Association, they're having a home show, not this weekend,
- but next weekend, and they wonder if we would like to have a booth for free so we could provide information
- and answer questions. And so it's on, I believe it's on Thursday,
- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Thursday night there's a VIP. So if someone wanted to be there on the
- half of it, Thursday night that would be. So really the booth will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- So I didn't know if anybody was interested. Where would that be? I'm sorry? Where would that event be
- held? At the warehouse. At the warehouse, yeah. At no charge. I'm sorry? At no charge. At no charge, yeah.
- If we want to put something together, I need to let them know as soon as possible. So between the committee,
- if we think it's a good idea and we'd like to have some time, then please let me or Denise know so we
- can get back to them. Unfortunately, I'll be getting down next weekend, so. Do you have a timeline for
- that? I do not know what the times are. I'll have a timeline, but they need
- as soon as possible. Do we have a hand in the public? But I think they mean what time. What time does
- it open? Yeah, what hours are we talking? I don't know that. Dr. Sanders. Yes. I'm on the Home Show
- Committee, so I could probably help you with the specific. We just actually had a meeting this afternoon.
- So it's the planning piece of it. And I'm sure it's all accepted whenever you guys decide, but sooner
- or later. But it opens on Friday. It's like 4 to 8 on Friday.
- and I think 10 to six on Saturday and 12 to five on Saturday and Sunday. Thank you. On the same discussion
- about public outreach, but I want to go back and review, what's the timeline for having the plan finished?
- From the subcommittee, it's the preliminaries on the 26th, then finalized on March 4th,
- Don't you get it? Baker Tilley would like to have a draft to them by April 1st so that we have time
- to revise it before end of May, 1st of June. Okay. And then at that point, is that when we would present
- the plan to the public? Well, that's when it would be voted on by the Township Board and the Town Council.
- Okay, and then in November, is that, is the, are we asking the community to vote
- on the plan or just voting yes or no? Well, it's both. It's reorganization, but it's based on the plan.
- Right. If that makes sense. Yeah. So here's my question about public outreach. At some point, we're
- gonna start talking about sharing that plan with the community and then having some feedback on the
- plan or maybe some... Absolutely. I think that would have to be before the votes. Right. There are public
- hearings that are required before
- town council and the township board vote on it. Right. How many public hearings are there? Just one,
- I believe. So if we got the preliminaries from the subcommittees on the 27th, finalized March, yeah,
- March 4th, then while we decide all that stuff, that'd be the best time for the public comment. But
- don't we need to come up with a plan for June and November of how we're going to
- provide more information to the community so they can make an informed vote? Yeah, might have been grassroots
- stuff. This is where it gets tricky and I don't know the particulars of the law, but there's a certain
- point in time where no public funds can be used on this effort, very similar to a school board referendum.
- So if you're familiar with those rules, it's the same that applies to this. And I think that clock starts
- ticking once the state approves the plan or when we submit the plan, do you know?
- you do not have that statute with me. But yes, you're correct, there's a time limit. Yeah, there's something.
- So I don't know, I mean, we could make suggestions, but we really need this to be a voter-led effort
- down the home stretch. I think I have had, excuse me, I have had some offers for help with monetary
- and labor, whatever it takes to get that word out, so I can talk about that later, but I have had some
- offers to help with that effort.
- Are you able to find out exactly what event triggers the prohibition of public funds spent? Sure. That
- would be very helpful to know. Yes sir, you want to come up? It's just a question. Okay, yeah, you probably
- need to. That'll teach you.
- Good evening, Mason Greenberg. I'm a Realtor with Century 21 Sheets, and I sit on the Government Affairs
- Committee for the IURA, the Indiana Upland Realtor Association. I just wanted to ask, the February 27th
- date was mentioned for the subcommittee to make a decision, and then there was a March date mentioned.
- So the subcommittees are supposed to have their preliminary reports
- no later than the 27th. And then finalized, a little back and forth stuff that's warranted. And then
- the finalized recommendations by the fourth. Then this board starts finalizing everything. So when would
- it be possible to start disseminating information
- perhaps some sort of marketing campaign to the public? If the public wants input into the, no this is
- the process, but if they want input to what we're deciding, now. From now until it's finalized. Okay.
- If they got questions or concerns or suggestions or anything like that.
- Isn't it our responsibility to make sure that voters know what they're voting for when it comes to November?
- Well, that's afterwards, though, after the plan's done. Right. Yeah. Right. Once the plan's done, we'll
- be able to put the full plan. Question I have for the committee is, as we approve each subcommittee
- plan, should we post that for the public to review? Yeah.
- You mean once we get it. Yeah, I mean, once before we say, yeah, that's a good submit that and then
- let the public. Right. Yeah. I'm thinking that way instead of us afterwards having to reopen and say,
- well, I got this comment and we need to address this this way. We've got the subcommittee report. Then
- we have a window for public. We vote on it. But
- before we even vote on it too, we'll have those public meeting, but this would just clean it up before
- the public meeting, before the final plan. Yeah, so my understanding is we've gotta have it to council
- no later than June, was that it? Correct, the final vote will be sometime in early June. When do they
- wanna see the plan? Whenever you can get it to them. Yeah, so if we had it,
- That should be enough time for everybody to. We'll be getting the final, I mean, the final altogether,
- it'll be April. But I mean, do we want to make it as a living document as we get the subcommittee plans
- in and present them? I guess what I'm saying is at that point, that'd be too late for public feedback.
- Once we say, okay, that's it, this is ready to submit to council. So we need the feedback. No, it won't
- be because you have to have a public hearing. Right.
- The township board and the town council have to have at least one public hearing. Okay. So it won't
- be too late. Okay. So they've got to have it finalized to go to the state by when? By June. By June,
- okay. And as to your question if it's too early, it's never too early. The only thing is that people
- want particulars as how are the nuts and bolts of X, Y, and Z supposed to work.
- We don't, we have a general idea, but we don't have those particulars yet. So that could cause some,
- yeah, you're promoting this, what's the particulars? Well, kind of have a grand vision, but if you want
- the nuts and bolts, that's what this process is for. Great. Just putting the pieces together, subcommittees
- are putting those nuts and bolts together, and then the overarching committee is going to be able to
- make sure that it makes sense, it's seamless. Yes.
- IURA is very interested in supporting this. I came tonight to see if there was any public opposition,
- any reason why we wouldn't want to support it, just making sure we're having all perspectives in mind.
- So if there's anyone here with that perspective, I would welcome hearing it, but I also just want to
- know that we're interested in
- being a vocal resource, a resource in getting this out, and so understanding when and where we can,
- that's important for us. I've heard public concerns, and I'm not downplaying those concerns at all,
- but I haven't heard outright opposition. I think it's because we don't have a plan, yes or no, to oppose.
- So I think right now it's concerns that that's what we're trying to address, the concerns now.
- So it doesn't become opposition, if that makes sense. Right, right. So in a government affairs meeting
- today, it was discussed the not in my backyard mindset perhaps being an issue. And we were trying to
- think, well, on the thinking about education and getting things out as seamless as possible, what numbers
- are available to make infographics, to put on these billboards, just very short and sweet snippets,
- little nuggets of information, if you will. I don't think we have anything that's. We actually have
- a fact sheet. Numbers is what he's talking about. No, we don't have numbers. Because those haven't been
- nailed down. That's OK.
- But we don't have numbers because we'd be getting ahead of the subcommittees and even the main committee
- because it's being formulated right now. There's all kinds of numbers out there, I can tell you that,
- but nothing's landed yet. We can be patient. Again, I'm just here to kind of put the pieces together.
- Yeah, and I appreciate that. Bingo.
- or guidance or suggestions. I think you could contact Mike Farmer, email us. I'll certainly be in touch
- with Mike. I've got his contact info. Plus, I like your hat. Thank you. Did they win a game or something?
- A little one. I think that's it for me. I appreciate you all. There were a couple questions we got raised
- here in committee in that past discussion that I wanted to make sure I have a clear handle on what was asked.
- publishing subcommittee reports before we synthesize them into a committee proposal was raised. I really
- like that idea because I want people to be able to see the unfiltered report from the subcommittee.
- I also wanted to note there have been a bunch of updates to the website, which is elwitsvillerichlandinfo.org.
- All the contact info for all the subcommittee volunteers is now listed there. So if you want to contact
- any specific
- subcommittee volunteer on any one of the committees, all their contact info is now there and you can
- ask them questions, give feedback, give suggestions while they're still submitting and drafting their
- reports before they come to us for review. So at the end of February we get draft reports, we have a
- week to go back and forth with the subcommittees, then they submit final drafts in early March and we
- have the rest of March for us to put together a comprehensive proposal
- drawing on all those subcommittee reports. I would like, as a committee, for us to publish those subcommittee
- reports as soon as we receive the final versions. I don't think it makes sense to publish the initial
- drafts at end of February in case we have adjustments or corrections or questions. But I would really
- like the public to have access to all those subcommittee reports, unmodified, unredacted, unsynthesized,
- so that anybody can look at them and see exactly what the subcommittee gave to us.
- and then compare that later with our proposal. That's pretty much what I was, when I said a living document
- too, as we make changes, I'd like to upload the changes as close to real time, which we can do. So do
- you envision us making changes to the subcommittee reports or are we gonna have a posted draft with
- a rev number of our entire proposal where we say, you know, on this and this date, we've now updated,
- this is rev two of our proposal,
- Here's about three of our proposal. I think that would be good. Okay. Because I think that, you know,
- first of all, if we get public comments that, you know, the subcommittees hadn't considered, because
- we don't wanna just change it without consulting the subcommittees, I'd like to go back to them and
- say, this has been brought to my attention or brought to our intention. Did you talk about this? Or
- how you arrived. How you arrived at this conclusion, correct. And then we'll be,
- more of an informal process, I think, getting with the subcommittee and kind of like where the House
- and Senate gets together and works out all the details. Yeah, exactly, that works well. I probably should
- have brought that up. Sorry about that. Your organization fails now because I brought that up now. But
- I think that would be a good thing to do and that way they can see the evolution. And we can also respond
- individually to them
- they say why was this that doesn't need to be part of the plan necessarily but if we get a lot of questions
- with that well that might be something worth in in the comprehensive plan okay to explain because I
- think Sheridan and Adams did that too on some things mentioning Sheridan Adams the Sheridan and Adams
- township complete reorganization proposal is now available it's hosted on the Ellisville website it's
- linked correct Ellisville richland info org so you can download
- the entire document from their reorganization and look through it all in detail. And we are referring
- to that as a guide to understand how they did that. We're not just transposing it onto our situation
- because our situation is a little bit different, but you can look at that and get a good sense of what
- our reorganization proposal is probably going to include by the time we have our draft done at the end
- of March, beginning of April. Exactly. But what's the committee's thoughts about putting
- once we get the final draft from the subcommittees, putting that up and discussing that at our other
- meetings, our other concerns. Should we have a motion for that? Do we need a motion? All right, I'll
- make a motion to post the final draft reports before the final subcommittee draft reports, before we
- form them into a final draft plan.
- Is that clear enough, you think, Darla? I understand what you're talking about. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
- Moved by Williams, seconded by Dawn. Any discussion on that proposal to post the subcommittee final
- reports prior to creating a comprehensive reorganization proposal for the council? Okay. I vote yes.
- William? Yes. Dr. Sanders? Yes. Kevin? Yes.
- And Mike? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And Denise, I figure what we'll just do is we'll put them on
- the town website and link it to the main website like we did with the reorganization plan. Do you foresee
- any issues with that? No. Okay. Any other items that the committee would like to bring up or discuss?
- Do you have anything? Well, yeah, I failed to mention that. We're about to print some flyers. That's
- an updated fact sheet. They'll have a QR code on it. And once we have them, then we'll put them in public
- places like library, post office, here. And actually, they'll be available for your use if you're talking
- to some people. And it's nice to leave something with them so it's easier to retain some of the
- talking points and it's pretty short and, you know, it's to the point. So we're working on that. They'll
- probably be ready in about eight days. Denise wanted me to ask you, did you get permits for those signs?
- Hot in here tonight, isn't it? At our last public meeting it was just after the snow and some of the
- attendees from the public had not yet received their
- small hand bills, notifying them in the mail. I wanted to just pull the public while you're here. Have
- all of you received a mailer? If you live in the area of Richland Township or the town of Ellisville,
- have any of you not received a mailer about this? Okay. If you have not received one, please come find
- me. As soon as the meeting is done, I want to talk to you briefly.
- And then the second question was, Dr. Sanders, you talked about the period after the council, after
- we submit the plan to state and council approves it, and there's a period of time in which we have to
- make sure the public understands exactly what they're voting on, but there's some event that triggers
- the point at which we can no longer spend public funds to advertise any of the details about it, right?
- And something about elected officials
- Well, we can. I don't think we can use town phones or resources to lobby for it. But we can do things
- as private citizens. But there's no restriction on maintaining and updating the website during that
- period. I would not think so. I mean, I don't know what other updates we would need to put on there.
- Because once the final plan's on there, then it's kind of like after the state approves it, there's
- no changes that can be made. Correct, Darla?
- The only change is it passed or failed. Correct. I mean, once you've supported it to the DLGF. Yes.
- And if it's after July 15th, you're in it for the long haul. It's going to be on the ballot in November.
- Okay. If the two boards approve the plan. On the question of how we communicate to the public,
- Because we have a fairly short window of time from now until we submit our proposal to the council and
- the township board, I really want to focus on making sure that the people in the affected area know
- as much about it while it's still in draft form before it locks. At which point, we're only trying to
- make them understand what it has to be or not. And it's all or nothing, pass or fail. Right. Where we
- could have overcome some issue or concern they had now. Yes.
- And my goal wasn't to lobby for it, as much as to make sure that, you know, we've probably all gone
- to the voting booth. Well, in my day, we call them voting booth. It's probably different now, but. Still
- call it that. Going and all of a sudden you have something before you that you're being asked to vote
- on and you don't have a clue what it's about. And I just want to make sure that
- I don't wanna violate any restrictions as far as lobbying, but I do want people to be able to go to
- the voting booth informed. Absolutely. And I've said, and I know there's a couple other volunteers that
- have been willing to do that. I will get every door knocked in the entire township in the town of Ellisville
- when it comes to, and once we have
- brochures and a firm plan, a fact sheet to hand out. So if they aren't home, I'll leave it on their
- door, like we do political things. There's still going to be people to say, I don't know anything about
- that. But then during Election Day, there's two polling places, we should actually, as members of the
- public, be doing the same thing, talking to people as we're going into the polls, answering their questions.
- I mean, nobody was required to do that, but I will be doing that. And it's, that's the only way I can
- think of that we get, I don't know if the mailer was costly and it didn't deliver. We still had a lot
- of people that it didn't. Right. And actually it was a lot less than we thought. And so if you think
- we ought to have another go at it,
- It's affordable. Okay, I like that. It's less than $2,000. I believe that's what we pay. Including postage?
- Yeah. I'd have to look it up, but it was very affordable. We was happily pleased. Okay. So that went
- to all residents in the township or registered voters? Well, all registered voters. In the township
- and the town.
- and I've gotten a couple of names so far and I've looked, I've gotten seven names have not received
- postcards. All seven of them were on the master list we sent and addresses were correct. I have no idea
- why they haven't gotten them. You're not gonna know this, but 6,500 households in the township. Do you
- know how many we mailed out?
- 6,500, all of them, yeah. So all of them are registered voters? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I was looking up how
- much it costs right now, so. Well, I take that back, you did now. While I was looking that up, if we
- have the funds, if it was more affordable than we initially projected to send the mailing out to the
- entire affected area, at what point would be the appropriate time to send a follow-up mailer? Where
- in the process is the information going to be actionable
- and still helpful before it gets locked? I think we need to send it by the first of March. Yeah, by
- the time the subcommittees. Right, because if we send it the first of March, they'll start getting them,
- I would say between the 10th and the 15th of March. I hope that's not true. I hope it's faster than
- that. Well, but at that time, that would still be in the window of when we haven't finalized the plan
- yet. Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm getting at.
- get it to the public before we finalize it. Are you saying that there are laws permitting us to share
- information to the public in October? I mean, yeah, as long as we're not using town or township funds.
- That's my understanding, isn't it? Correct, Darla? I'll have to look at this. I don't think there's
- like a gag order. I think it's just that at that point in time, I think it's public access, not necessarily parking.
- Well, yeah, I mean, if somebody has, you can present the factual plan, you can't say you need to vote
- yes on this plan. I'm pretty sure that's correct, but Darla's gonna double check, and if you know anybody
- that's done school referendums, it's guided by the same statute, I believe, so, yeah. It was $1,000.
- It had to be more than that. 7,200 cards.
- Yeah, that can't be the postage too. Because the postage would probably be close to $3,000. The postage
- was. Right. Okay, well, Mike's looking that up. I was looking for my postcard.
- And when it came, four other mailers at about the same color and same size came in my mail on the same
- day. I'm not sure that would be true for everyone else. But what that tells me is that perhaps if your
- second mailer needs to look a little different. And the other thing is that when I looked at it, I waited
- for something to say
- something about citizen of township or citizen of the town, something to that effect. And I didn't see
- anything like that hitting me in the face. So I thought maybe you might want to think a little bit about
- that as well. Well, the reason we didn't, because it went to the entire township, not everybody. That's
- what I'm saying. If you're a resident of the township or you're a resident of the city, something to
- that effect, it didn't hit me is all I'm saying.
- and I was waiting for it to. And then it talked about the meetings, but it just said the next meeting,
- and then every two weeks. I wonder if it would almost be worth it to actually print those days. I have
- them on my sheet, and without them, I wouldn't remember. Is this the week, or was it next week? So it's
- just a thought. I think we have thought about that. It's just that you get so many words. I know.
- And it was, but it was very good. But I'm just saying, I think maybe it was a bad
- that situation. 16 point font is probably the biggest disability Americans really most worldwide have
- is vision. And 16 point font is the smallest they recommend you put on those things. Yes. Okay.
- All right. That is good to know.
- No print on blue? Okay. What time do we have to stop? Ten till. Ten till. Ten till. Okay, I want to
- make sure I'll give the public some more time. What time was the home show again? What were the dates
- and the time?
- I just commented on stop time to make sure everyone here understands we have a 650 hard stop because
- of other scheduling this evening. So we have about 12 more minutes, 11 more minutes to wrap up anything
- else for this meeting. I have something I'll mention. Oh, we got it. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead,
- Jason. Jason Barrett, I was just making a comment with my body brain that a lot of people are, depending
- on their news and information from their phone,
- Today, you look at the demographics we have here, and everybody's around my age or older. How do we
- get to that younger group that I'm not sure everybody's reading their mail? So I know there's a lot
- of social media that we can do that's probably free or cheap. Any way to do that, high neighbor, I'm
- not sure that's the best one, but there's a lot of people out there might get a lot of feedback you
- don't want to. Maybe it's just a posting of things. But I do think it's a really good way to hit a broad audience
- F, we're just trying to depend on the mail to inform people. Excuse me. We have a question on chat.
- OK. Jenny W wants to know, is there a specific reason informational postcards are only mailed to registered
- voters? Yes, because they're the ones that's going to be voting for this and making the decision.
- Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
- Hi, this is Final County Council. So I wanted to know about the public question when you get to the
- point of having it on the ballot. So now I do this. So I wanted to know about the public question as
- far as who's going to craft that, how that process looks. The public question on the ballot. What will
- the question be? Because I'm sure you've all had public questions before.
- You know, and it's all about. And sometimes the wording. Oh, it's difficult. It confuses people to vote
- for something that they didn't want to vote for. Is there a word limit? I mean, who craps it? There's
- a statute that suggests what the language is, shall blank in certain name of political subdivision and
- blank in certain name of political subdivision reorganize as a single political subdivision. And then
- that language goes to the DLGF and they decide whether or not it's accurate, fair, not biased.
- but it's basically a sentence. Okay, so it's pretty kind of almost short and sweet at that. Yes. Okay,
- thank you. Hi, my name's Lisa McCarchuck. I live in Kelly Heights and I'm grateful that y'all are working
- so hard to keep Ellitsville intact. I think we have great public services here.
- And part of that is because they're local. And I think it's a great idea to expand the tax base in order
- to preserve Ellitsville. But being within the town limits, I'm wondering, I know you said you don't
- have numbers yet. There's more than twice as many voters in my understanding outside the town.
- limits as in. So and right now my understanding of how the taxes will change. It's an easier sell to
- that majority to join Aletsville. It's not going to impact their taxes tax rate as much. And so I think
- you know where I'm going with this.
- I would hope that as soon as possible, there would be a clear communication to all the residents of
- the affected area as to how this will affect their taxes. I've been trying to educate myself about all
- this. It's not easy to do.
- I only found out about this happenstance through an IDS article last fall. I didn't know about the meetings,
- but anyway, I better cut myself off, because I know we're running out of time. I do want to let you
- know that if it goes to referendum, that the township will have to have 51% or more, and the town will
- have to have 51% or more.
- in the township that vote for it versus the town, it still has to be that 51% or more. So it's not because
- the township has more residents than the town. You don't have to worry about, because there's more people
- voting, that they're going to automatically be the pickers of how this goes. And I guess one last thing would be,
- Is that differential in the tax change set in stone already? No, okay. That's still fluid. It's gonna
- depend on the services. It's gonna depend on what the plan is and they'll back into it. And I would
- say I'd recommend that if anybody is, the stuff I hand out, I would encourage whoever pays for that,
- because it wouldn't be the town, but that they put a comparison
- before and after and also what your taxes would be if the fire district goes in, which is a real concern
- for residents. So you can kind of see the different options. So option A is this, option B is this.
- Trying to get it, I hope it can be as simple and straightforward as possible so it's not confusing to
- the voter.
- and publicize that conduit. Like, if you're always gonna post things in a certain place, just make sure
- everybody knows where that is. That's what Andrew's been promoting, the website. That's probably the
- biggest place, because that's linking to everything else that we talk about. Our website is
- ellensbillrichlandinfo.org. Okay, okay. And if there's something not on there you need, email me, we'll
- email us, and I will get it on there. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lisa. Thanks everybody. You might
- mention that there's
- approximately 7,000 people in Ellisville and 8,000 to 8,500 in the township. So we'd sent out
- some information that would have made you thought different, but it's not even, but it's close to even.
- And I don't know if there's legal statute that we have to follow on how the vote is done. I know that
- the township votes and the town votes, but is that,
- a legal requirement that it meet a standard by both. Participation. Or is it a decision we make how
- it gets voted upon? Okay. My understanding that's by statute, isn't it? Thank you. Thank you, Lisa.
- Okay. We're running out of time. Oh, I just have a couple quick questions. Will this, when taxes are
- affected, will this be referendum taxes? I think they call it like when a school is gonna be built and they add
- So that it can be above the 1% or 2% limit? No. Right. My understanding that correctly, Darla and Eric,
- this just sets the new tax rate for the new entity. It can't go above caps and can't go above the traditional
- levy amount. Am I correct on that? It's not like a referendum tax. A referendum tax can go on top of
- the current taxes. Right. So this would just reorganize. That's not the way this works. This is just
- set a new tax rate.
- right? It's not that plus. The reorganization. The reorganization tax rate that goes through. There's
- an estimated tax. But it's still going to be capped at the one or two percent. It's not going to be
- a referendum tax. I'm seeing Paige back there from Baker and Tilley. She's saying yes, the caps would
- still apply. Okay. It's not a referendum tax.
- And are there any town council members for Alexville that are opposed to this? None that I know of.
- Okay. You had said something earlier that made me think there are organizations that are supporting
- this and maybe contributing funds or time or something. Not yet. Not yet. There's been offers to help
- with getting the information out and
- and maybe even supporting it, but it's just offers. There's no been any formal arrangements. Okay. And
- if there are, will there be public information like on the website so that people know? I think everything
- I do is public information. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. All right. We have two minutes.
- Real quick.
- Kathy Waller, I just have a comment. I did look at the Sheridan plan and I was impressed because there
- were so many graphics, right? A lot of plans and delineations and explanations of what areas this would
- affect and maybe graphs, I don't know. I'm just saying, hopefully, that, I know you're pressed on time,
- but to get some graphics out there on the website would be helpful. Okay, there, okay. William, should
- you mention that there's a fire territory hearing after this?
- Yes, there's a fire territory meeting after this for the town and township boards. Quickly, I just want
- to add the finance committee report is going to add so much information that people are asking. It's
- going to answer a lot of their questions. So if they can hold on for another week, they'll be in good
- shape. I appreciate you saying that. Good. Thank you. I'm Gary Teller Tondo.
- I'm sorry if you have any other comments, feel free to contact any of us. Yes, we'll contact us on the
- way out. Meeting is concluded. Thank you.