Go ahead and get started. Good evening, everybody. Tonight is budget session work or budget session
number three. Today is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026, the time is five or four. And we have a I will
call this meeting to order.
We have counselors and we actually have a quorum of council members. Two council members have stepped
out for the moment. Council members Henry and Hawk, but the rest of us are all here and we are here
to do the people's work. And we're here for a good time, not a long time. All right. Next up, and I'm
sorry you all have caffeinated Jennifer, so sorry, not sorry. Okay. Adoption of the agenda. Does anybody
wish to add or remove items on tonight's agenda?
I hear that there is a change. So one moment, please. All right, Council, I move
that we create a new item for B following the budget review and before the clerk where we open fund
1000-0068 county general commissioners. They have a Scribner's error that we need to fix. Okay, we got
a motion and a second to adjust a tiny bit of the agenda here. Hopefully that change won't take too long.
Are there any questions or comments on that amendment? Okay, so because we have nobody present virtually,
we can do this by voice vote. So all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda as amended, signify
by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. Are there any other changes
to tonight's agenda? Okay.
seeing none, we will move on. It might be repetitive for some of us, but I'm gonna do it again for those
of us that have not watched our sessions or if this is your first time presenting this evening. So I
wanna welcome everybody to the budget sessions. These again are not, we are not approving these. We
are just listening to the departments present their budgets. The public hearing is on Tuesday,
October 6th, starting at 5 p.m.
The adoption of 2027 budget is going to be Tuesday, October 20th. So again, this isn't a movement of
all things finalized tonight. So again, we have been doing so well with our time and I'm going to ask politely.
and requests for departments that are presenting. You all got your timelines and your timeframes to
stick within that time frame. So your time frame total includes Q&A. If you are at your five minute
mark, it will be on the screens in here, but there is a five minute mark ding. And then a one minute
ding is also happening. So that just helps us keep on
Um, track with everything. And before, if you had like multiple items within your budget, um, we would
kind of stop and make a, um, like a motion and council Iverson would do that. Um, just present everything
all at once so we can get in and get out and do those things expeditiously. Um, I also ask council to
remain on topic and we'll ask items related to budgets only. All right.
That being said, as we have done so before, we will look to the auditor's table. In fact, we are joined
by Ms. Carly Woodruff. And Charlotte, hello, welcome. So we will have you all give your daily updated
budget regimen, if you will. Good evening, Council.
We've been working hard in Gateway, and we have the three Bs submitted. We also have four Bs ready to
share with you. Those were all emailed earlier today. They were also provided on the desks in front
of you whenever you got here.
Those documents on your desk should fit nicely into the binders that you already have. And we tried
to label them with the numbers that correspond with that grid you see on the front page. If you have
any questions about that, please feel free to let us know. But for now, I think we're just going to
dive into the form three. And I'm going to share my screen.
This is the form three, it's the county's advertisement. The amounts you see on here are inflated by
40% of the budget.
before the COLA. The reason that it's before the COLA is just because it would have taken a significant
amount of time to make a minimal change in our documents. So the council office and auditor's office
decided that it was best to stick with that pre-COLA inflated amount that should be sufficient for all
of our budget changes that are needed. This has been submitted in Gateway. We would like for additional
sets of eyes to review this information.
The auditor's office and council office have both thoroughly reviewed this, but the more eyes the better.
And again, this is in your packet. It's also available on Gateway in that email you got earlier today.
Is there anything else? Go ahead, sorry. I'm pulling up the 4B right now.
Ah...
It's not letting me pull up the 4B. So while I work on that, I will talk to you about what that document
looks like. So the 4Bs are accurate, as far as we know right now, aside from a handful of funds. We
have a few funds that are highlighted in yellow on the spreadsheet you'll see in a moment. Those funds
are not pulling accurately into the 4B. Aside from that, everything should be exactly how it needs to
be. If you guys are reviewing those and you notice any changes or anything, this seems encouraging
please reach out to us. But as far as those documents go, we believe they are accurate representations
of what is in the budget right now. And as in the past, you'll see that left-hand column that'll have
the advertised amount, and that's gonna be the inflated budget. And then in the right-hand column, you're
gonna see the adopted amount. Give me just a moment so I can pull that up for you guys.
So we have a 4B for every fund that's going through the budget projection process. And just like what
we discussed just a moment ago, our advertised budgets are inflated, and our adopted budgets is what's
currently in the system right now. If you look down, every line has new information, but the most important
lines that you guys are probably going to be looking at is going to be the revenue total for 2027, which
is reflected on line 14.
and the expenditure total for 2027, which is reflected on line 18. I'm sorry, the expenditure is on
17 and then the net, so what we expect the 2027 December cash balance to be is on 18. Moving on, do
we have any questions about that?
Moving on to the document that we've shared before, and that's that Excel document. It's the sandbox
for the deficit. You can see that the county's deficit is not a deficit this year overall with how we
are calculating this. We are actually positive by over $2 million. And that change and that increase
that you're seeing is going to be directly correlated with the changes that you guys made at budget
session number two. So those have been implemented in both gateway
and in this spreadsheet. You can also see those changes, for example, if you look at the deficit in
the general fund, this was a negative, and now you're seeing that it's a positive, and that's because
those expenses were moved from county general into the edit fund. And I believe that's all I have to
share, unless you guys have any additional questions. Okay, let me see if we have any questions, and
it looks like Councilor Wilts is first up.
Just the point that you just made about moving expenses from general to edit. Those are still pending
commissioners approval and a discussion with them, right? Correct. Okay. Okay. But it's what we said
we wanted to do. And so you put it, which is great. I just wanted to make sure I understood. Thank you.
Yes. I'll go counsel Iverson and then half next.
On the portion that's on the screen here, some of the largest negative numbers are associated with two
funds, cumulative capital development and county major bridge. I just want to reassure the public that
those negative numbers do not mean that we'll not be able to work on major bridges in 2027. That's correct,
right? Correct.
So the negative you see is the deficit. That means that we are spending more than we are receding in
in that fiscal year. That doesn't mean we can't beat into those cash reserves. But if we are eating
into those, we just have to be conscious of what we're doing and know that we have to have a plan going
forward. OK, so it's probably incumbent on the liaisons into those departments to work with those department
heads on that plan. Correct. Got it. Go, Chancellor Iverson and then Henry. Oh, sorry.
Councilor Honk, then Henry. Oh, no, I insist. I just wanted, I did review these earlier this afternoon,
but I was having the money that the county will put into the self-insurance fund over and above what
is budgeted in each fund, dollar amount that the county would put in.
You can't hear me? Okay. The self-insurance fund, I know that we're pulling the money out of the different
funds to be able to be used for self-insurance. But is there another dollar amount that the county has
to use for a budgeted amount that would be coming out of our general fund? Because I didn't see, that
was not clear on there.
No, the amount of money that you moved from, it was in the employee services fund was for the entire
general fund. So that was like 7.3 million, I believe. And that was then moved to the edit fund. That
was only for general fund. Okay, so we do not need to adjust the general fund
as long as the commissioners will allow that to happen. Correct. And that dollar amount was over seven
million. So that helps. And remember that grand total was seven million three hundred fifty two thousand
one hundred and nine dollars. Who's counting? All right. Next up, counselor Henry. And thank you.
Thank you, Carly, for walking through all that. I. Yeah, I mean, we're in the middle of the game here
right now. I
I am hopeful and optimistic that we'll continue to leverage the edit this year and potentially in the
next year or two. But there will be a moment where we can't. And so there's a long-term question about
that resource is doing its work now for us, for a variety of reasons, or hopefully we continue to use
that resource. But it does give me pause to say if it weren't there, we would be having a slightly different
conversation tonight, I think.
keeping an eye on subsequent years to come. I wanna pick up on Councilor Iverson's comment about the
CUME cap, the CUME bridge. And it strikes me that after the commissioner's presentation on CUME bridge
that we are still finding a lot of our IT stuff out of that. And those costs, if you think about the
costs there, of what we're seeing in that space, I'm not surprised about that deficit, but there are
some expenses that feel
There's a lot going on there. And likewise, when we've had other funds like this, they're not the general
fund. Last year, I think, when we took a deeper dive on some of these other funds to think about the
appropriation, encourage the finance managers for those funds to come back to us for additional approves
so we can understand the spending a little better might be something to consider for that as we're getting into
Subsequent meetings here, but this is a good. This is a good snapshot. I appreciate it Yes, and this
might have been in some of the information I did try to review as much of us I could but do we have
a grid yet as to Where we think with the other funds are going to have to be shored up and that will
then have to come out of the levy for the general fund it looked to me like maybe the
Election fund was short and perhaps reassessment was not funded enough, maybe aviation. And so we really
need to understand how much we need to save back out of that levy in general that might have to be spread
throughout some of the other funds.
Now we have the grid set up to where the levies are at where they were last year. And so we just put
those in as preliminary numbers. We know that there's expectation for that to shift at some point, but
we thought we would work through that together later on in the budget sessions. But for now, the entire
increase to the levy is applied to the general fund.
When I reviewed that, it didn't look like any of the other levy funds had an increase at all. It was
the exact same thing as it was this year. So if that's already been advertised that way, is that going
to be a problem for us to adjust it? It should not be a problem. We advertised across all funds 40%.
I think she's talking about the levy rates. So we can make adjustments as needed.
that further with our auditor, but I do not believe that that will be a problem. Maybe that's something
that can be addressed tomorrow on our fourth night. Definitely. Okay. Thank you. Any other further questions
before we get into our business? Okay. Seeing none, thank you. And we will go to the amended part of
the agenda. All right. Council, I move to open
fund 1000-0068 County General Commissioners and make a change in account line 30071 Community Access
TV. I want to set that line to $319,226. All right, we got a motion and a second. Michelle, would you
like to explain what this is all about?
Yes, we received an email from. The commissioners administrator stating that this is only half of a
year for the. Cats TV and that she did not budget for the entire amount. So I asked that we go ahead
and just amend that account line and then
to the requested amount that has been stated. All right, thank you very much for that. Any questions
or comments from council? Yes, councilor Williams. I haven't pulled up, so I can't see, but is this
line doubling? Essentially, the difference is $157,508.
We will move on to... Okay, that's right. May we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Feidl? Yes.
Councillor Hock? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor
Crosley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Motion passes unanimous.
I'm sorry, sorry. I was told you I'm jacked up on caffeine. Okay. All right. So that motion carries.
Next up, we will go back into the flow of the agenda, starting with our clerk. Council, I move to open
for discussion and review funds 1000-0001 County General Clerk.
Fund 1119-0000. Clerk's record perpetuation. Fund 1215-0010. Election fund voter registration. And fund
1215-0062. Election fund election board. Second. Okay. Thank you very much. We got a motion and a second.
And we are joined by the county clerk, Nicole Brown. Welcome. And I want to make sure TSD gives you
your time, right?
There we go. Which budget are we on? All of them. All of them. OK, I heard different. No, it's OK. Just
want to be sure I had them in the right order. Of course. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the
council. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I don't believe as we address any of the
clerk budgets tonight, there are significant deviations. I did meet with both liaisons.
and my budgets are pretty straightforward. Should you find anything about which you might have concerns,
I would offer that, and I got this number just this morning while I was at a conference, my office has
returned to Monroe County government $125,776.44 in the past 365 days, and so I am hopeful
that is for your unrestricted use because of my efforts to collect child support on behalf of Monroe
County. And so I would hope we'll be hopeful that that would assuage any concerns that you might have.
Should you see something that is concerning to you? Thank you. You can go through all of them. We go
through all of them. Yes, ma'am. I've never done it this way. It's been easy. So it's new. I appreciate that.
I guess I just want to answer your questions. They're they're not significant. Yeah, having no control
over the tens going into the twenties. We pretty much tried to stick to what we've asked for previously.
and not ask for more than that. I believe that this is the one where we actually returned a job back
to Monroe County. So it should be you should find that it is less money than what we have previously
asked for with respect to personnel. Do you have any questions about the general budget? Keep going.
OK, person or perpetuation.
same, um, no significant deviations and, um, please excuse me. I'm just making sure I'm on the right
one. Um, it's okay. Absolutely. You know, this is user driven. So, um, you know that I did not ask for anything
that would be outside of what we anticipate being able to spend. We do pay for personnel out of that
salary and, of course, all record maintenance. I can move on to voter registration. Ain't no significant
from nothing significantly more than what was asked for last year.
with election budget, I would only remind the council that with it being a municipal year, that the
city will be responsible for reimbursing a portion. It's not all of it, but it it's based on a math
formula that is created by somebody smarter than me. We will be asking for money for the Epoch books.
Um, it is time to replace those. And we did share that with our liaisons during that meeting. So that
that costs its time. Um, certainly we've done our best to give you our best estimate of what they will
cost. Um, but obviously that'll be a contract decided with the with the vendor, um, probably right after
the elections.
That is all four of my budgets, unless there is something you have significant concerns about. Let's
open it up, and did you? Sorry. Yeah, so I was just going to add to what she brought up, our equipment
line. She did mention we discussed that with our liaisons, and they did mention that we could potentially
pay that out of a
We included it in our budget, but there might be other avenues to pursue to pay that because it's kind
of an infrastructure thing where we need to replace all of our poll books and our server infrastructure
down at the election central. So we included it on our budget. But if we do, if we are able to handle
that through another avenue, then that won't be on the final budget. Thank you very much. I will open
it up to colleagues to see if they have any questions. Council Iverson. Thank you. I know
Unfortunately, Council member David Henry and I couldn't be at the same presentation, but we did enjoy
going through this with you. And I think it is my understanding that the election board has reviewed
these budgets and that there is bipartisan support. There is bipartisan support. They were given the
budgets at the same time you were and have had significant opportunity to express objections, concerns.
I have received none. But again,
I there is bipartisan support. We were trying to get a letter of support to read into the minutes. I
was at a conference today. I'm guessing we did not get the letter of support. But at last week's election
board meeting, the Republican board member did express that he was supportive of my budget request for
twenty twenty seven with respect to the election budget. Thank you. Other questions or comments for
the clerk on her budget?
Yes, Councilor Decker. I had a general question. If you all need to look at this and get back later,
you can. What is an average poll book, e-poll book cost these days? Sixteen hundred dollars. Sixteen
hundred dollars. And the average time they last or have lasted, what is that roughly? So we don't have
an estimated date, like amount of years that they've given us. But our last time purchasing the poll
books was in 2013.
I know we purchased them since 2013. I'm going to say it was right around the pandemic, so I'm going
to I'm going to guesstimate a five year shelf life. So the ones that we currently have are a generation
five iPad. We are going to be upgrading to a generation 11 iPad. We're actually currently having issues
with the pull books that we have right now. I'm trying to get the update to go through on them, so we're
troubleshooting with our vendor, but this is something that will definitely need to happen next year.
Well, and I like to ask questions like that for the public that listens, because this is a cost we wouldn't
have had back in the day. But a county also in this era can't, you can't thrive and do what you got
to do, particularly with the world out there on voting without it. And I also would say for our election
board members, that if we're really living into the use of e-poll books,
This would make a really good argument for what we spend on them for vote centers, because it would
allow you to flip around. And if anyone remembers back in the day of old voting systems of the Iron
Maiden days and the poll, which was the metal thing you went into to vote, and then the poll book itself
was a giant piece of paper that if it had an error or they got Deckard wrong, that's just out there.
This is like a modernized thing, and this would make a really good case for vote centers to lean into
the modern in a safe way so that voters working in the town could vote in the town, whatever town you
define that as, Steinsville or otherwise, and it just seems like this would be a natural thing to do
in a modern era.
Councilor Decker you were you and I were on the same path mentally because I was going to gently remind
you of the ABC poll books and that I served as a poll worker during that time so that who night and
day and having to check off.
you know, having to go find a voter. So it's so much easier, which allows us, of course, to be in compliance
with the Secretary of State's mandate that we send something out at 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock, midnight
if we're still there. And so that is at least in part why we are able to get you some of the totals
that we are able to get as early as we are.
you know, barring unforeseen circumstances because we no longer have to deal with those huge, huge poll
books. Thank you. I'll go to Councilor Henry and then Hawk President. I just had a chuckle down here.
This room's funny to me sometimes, but I agree with Councilor Deckard on the the vote center situation
there. Of course. And I have no control over why I know we tried and tried. So
I want to talk about the machines a little bit. So the account line is 692-600. I'm just doing math.
I mean, is that 400 ePollbooks? Like, how many iPads are we buying? So that's not just for the pollbooks.
We also have to replace our servers that we currently have for our HART equipment. That's what we input
all of the results into at the end of the night, and that totals everything up for us.
Those all have to be replaced. And in addition, we will be getting two extra ones so that we have backup
servers for in the future. I would like to add to this. So relying on my tech background here, the prices
for these are only going up. This is the quote that we have received a few weeks ago now. In the past
year, the price for memory has doubled. These prices have gone up.
And it's only going to continue to go up. So I would kind of stress some urgency on this. It would be
better to take care of it sooner rather than later because the price is only going to increase.
You're right. It's like 30 percent since last year in some of these cases. So this number is reflecting
150 poll books to be replaced and the six servers. I really appreciate the depth there because it is
a large number. It is the difference and really the lion's share of the difference in the election fund.
I will ask the question because I think, Clerk, you mentioned it is a municipal year and there's some
magic math that I don't understand either. So I don't want to scare the voters. It is not magic math.
There's a formula that is scientific formula by very smart people, very smart people. And so so the
question is just that reimbursement process, how that works like so against the budget is presented
like what's the dollar figure we would expect to see. So of course we would have to wait and we can't
do anything prior to the election after the election and
Ms. Terry making sure that all of our valuable poll workers have been paid. Um, we start pulling the
bills together in the receipts and looking at how much the election cost us. And then, um, there are
some things we cannot charge for, but there are a lot of things that we can. And so, uh, the formula
for that is, is again above my pay grade, but
It does allow some money to come back to Monroe County, and that is for each election, the primary and
the general. I appreciate that this is the last time you'll have to do this. Praise the Lord.
But on your way out, you know, one one variable that's waiting for us is what happens in November in
Ellisville. Have you all started to put math together on what a potential municipal city of Ellisville
primary would do to this at all? I mean, it might be too soon to say, but I'm just curious. Yes, we
haven't done a lot of doing any math on this besides the looking at how many more polling locations
will have to open up because of it not just being inside of the city of
Bloomington will also have to extend to the polling locations that are in Ellitsville. So we would be
adding at least two additional, if not three, early vote, no, election day locations. And looking at
that, it will just depend on how many people we need to staff at each of those. We expect additional
tropes in this budget, probably, depending. OK, that was the budget question. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Councilor Hook. Yes.
When I'm looking at the 4B, I think I'm looking at the right one, because there's two there. But it
is showing read by 987,100. Now, what am I missing here? That was going to be my question. Which fund
does the city respond to put reimbursements in for?
Which funds the city put money into for reimbursements for elections? I believe it's general fund, but
I can research that right now. What I'm looking at right now is. DLGF fund of 0102. And it's the election
red slash registration. And under the adopted amount, which is a lesser amount, it shows that we are
in the red
by $987,161. Am I, is there something I'm missing? That fund does have a deficit budget and does expect
to have the cash balance below zero at the end of 2027. After the address.
So just building on that, what we're saying is the budgets that we're talking about right now with the
second two of the four budgets are directly related to the election registration for B that we're looking at.
the solution that we talked about earlier was to change the levy. Yes, that is an option. Is it fair?
As we are just being presented and digesting a lot of information right now to the excess on this budget
fund analysis summary page that you just went over the excess in general as available to
move over directly. So in our heads, you know, rather than think, got to change the levy by x percent,
you know, we can kind of say, okay, that eats that much out of general that we no longer have extra.
Is that fair? It's simplified. That is correct.
We also need to be aware that the overall levy increased, I believe it's roughly $600,000. And so with
this fund having a deficit of almost two million, it's going to consume that, I don't know if I'm making
sense, it's going to consume more than the growth. So that's just something we have to be aware of.
And that's why we set the levies at where they are last year is to show
how much you're gonna have to move that around and how much of the increase in the overall levy each
fund is going to have to consume. So if this budget were to be passed right now, it would consume a
larger portion of the levy increase overall. Okay, so it's, I think what you're saying is it's not quite
as bad as it looks. And we also have that option of moving.
I do wanna, we didn't get our timer, but we are under the three minute, under the five minute mark,
we're at three minutes. So I'm gonna go to Councilor Fido since she hasn't asked the question. I just
wanted to raise a general question. I noticed that there was a decrease in election inspectors as well
as absentee boards and counters. And I wonder if that was because it's a city election.
Yes, it's a smaller election. I didn't hear everything you said, but I believe I got the gist of what
you said. And yes, it's a smaller election. It's about the election inspectors and judges and absentee
boards, encounters that were less. It's fewer because it's a smaller election. A small 20, 27, smaller.
Thank you. Anybody else?
Other further questions or comments from council on this item, I would like to congratulate you on your
last and final budget. I know this was a lot and thank you for your service that you have given to the
folks in the voters of Monroe County, plus your employees. I know your employees speak very highly of
you. I think highly of them. We see the emails. I think highly of them. Yes, yes. And I know you'll
continue to take great care of them long after I am gone.
and for all that you've done. Thank you. All right. Next up, maybe please have a roll call vote. Counselor
Iverson. Yes. Counselor Fiddle. Yes. Counselor Hawk. Counselor Wilts. Yes. Counselor Henry. Yes. Counselor
Deckard. Counselor Crossley. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. She passed. Thank you.
Passed already, but she passed. I thought she said yes.
vote. Because it wasn't clear if you said yes or pass. I'm passing. Okay. All right. So not necessarily
unit 601. There you go. All right. Thank you. Answer Hawk. Can you pull your mic a little closer?
All right. Here we go. And next up is the Treasurer's Office. Council, I move to open for discussion
and review Fund 1000-0003 General Fund Treasurer. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second. We
are joined by the Treasurer, Ms. Kathy Smith. Welcome. Hi, everybody. Hope you're having a good evening.
Yes. Hopefully this budget will make you happy.
looks like we need some smiles up there, so hopefully this one will do it. Seriously? Okay, so as you
guys know, you proposed a 2% increase in salaries and we added those. However, our overall increase
in our budget is just 1.76%. If you take the $578,302 and divide it or subtract out the $568,280 that
we had this year, it's only a $10,000 increase
increase, $10,020, which isn't that much. And when you divide the larger by the smaller number, it's just a 1.76%
increase, which is less than 2% for raises. And you're probably thinking, how can we do that? Well,
we've had a person who was very long tenured and was at the very high end of the scale retire. And that
helped us show you a budget that's less than 2%.
We couldn't have done that. We can't sustain that because we only have, you know, she's gone now and
she's a wonderful person. You know, her name was Deborah Long. She worked here many years. She's an
absolutely amazing person. And we honor her by, you know, letting her retire and be happy. We will miss
her. She'll probably be back to work part-time in the spring.
But that's the only way we could do this because we did truly have some increases, small increases,
but some increases. Postage is going up. Printing is going up. And even the
The contract went up by a couple hundred bucks to do our equipment that allows us to process our checks
and do all those kind of things. However, losing that chunk of salary and having somebody come in with
no longevity, you can see longevity dropped and a salary drop, it just kind of took care of itself.
So it's less than that 2% threshold. So I hope that does somewhat make you guys happy tonight. It just
worked out. Sometimes math is good.
questions. Thank you. Let's see if council has any questions for the treasure. Council will have a tiny
increase in part time. Is that just to account for inflation? Or what do you what do you? Well, OK,
so if you look back at 24 expended, you'll see it was $32,000 and we're only asking for $32,000 in this
budget. So it's it's only less than the last couple of years, which
which we were kind of waiting for the changes. Now we're really seeing the changes come up in people's
tax bills. So it'd be a lot more explanations, a lot more discussing with them how they're not just
not their assessment change, but how their exemptions and the governor's new initiatives. Let's just
make it nice. The governor's new initiatives is a little confusing because a lot of people come in
by hand and pay their taxes tend to be older people, and they tend to be paying cash check or funds
that are readily available. And they really want to question, why did it go up? Why did it go down?
Is this right? Is my veteran still on here? Is this still on here? And now that the homestead did change
substantially, added credits, it also removed, mortgage deductions are gone. It just restructured. And
so it takes more time to explain that.
Thank you. Governor's initiatives is a nice way of putting it. I appreciate that, because I wouldn't
be. Yes, Councilor Henry. Thanks, and thank you for coming in. So on that part-time line as well, I
recall we had, over the last year, some challenges with seasonal hiring and people coming and going.
Is it the thought that the part-time people might be working a little more for the governor's initiatives?
Or how have you handled your part-time since last year? I think it wears them out, explaining it.
They tend to be older citizens who've worked, you know, were, you know, retired from banks, wonderful
people, work very, very hard, very good at cash, counting cash management, but it takes, it slows them
down and you get people who you explain something several times and they're still not quite getting
it, then they have to go get a full-time person. It pulls a full-time person away from, we try to process
things as fast as we can. We almost always get all the money we collected one day in the bank that night.
If that money comes in before 2.30, we get it in the bank that night. And think about that. When you're
getting the interest rate, my benchmark for interest rate is 4% and above. If it's a million dollars,
one day's worth of interest is a lot of money. And it is not a joke when I say cash can be a million
dollars in a day, not to mention checks and everything else. We want to get that in the bank as fast
as possible. And the few extra dollars it takes to have part time to help, that we're
that are really good workers pays for itself by far in interest. Other questions or comments? So if
you know of anyone who is, if you know of anybody who fits those criteria, especially very good at handling
money, because this group is aging, right? And we're going to be losing people. We really would love
to hear their names, and we'd love to have them come talk to us. It means a lot to us.
anybody else any questions or comments? Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councilor
Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson?
Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. I do want to thank Marty for
being an excellent
She works very well with Christina Ellis, our chief deputy, and she understands some of the hardships
that people have that are either sick or elderly and trying to stay in their house. So she really does
understand that. And I direct a lot of people to talk to her. So thank you. Thank you. Doing the good
work. All right. Thank you very much for that. All right. Next up is one of two items.
um jail slash correctional center council i move to open for discussion review fund 1000 dash zero three
eight zero county general jail fund 1170 dash zero three eight zero public safety lit jail fund 1175
dash zero zero zero zero misdemeanor and fund one two three three dash zero zero zero zero lit correctional second
We got a motion and a second. We are joined by our sheriff, Mr. Ruben Marte, Mr. Jordan Miller, and
our jail commander, Kyle Gibbons. Welcome. Good evening, Council. Before I pass the floor on to Jordan,
he's going to do the majority of the actual explaining of the budget. There really is no increase in
the lines for us except for the medical line. And Jordan, get into that. Yes. Good evening.
really, I'll start with County General. There are no major changes. Sheriff Marta has said we anticipate
the potential need for additional funding and overtime, but that no changes have taken place in County
General. So. 1170 public safety lit. Again, no real changes.
You graciously gave us an additional appropriation in 24. I believe it was for meals and that seems
to be a very suitable amount and that has been very sufficient. So I'd like to thank you again for that.
Continuing on to the misdemeanor 1175 fund. Again, it's very straightforward. Nothing really worth noting. And then
on the correctional lit. I'd like to start off that one by giving a huge shout out to Kim Shell. She's
worked a lot with us and were able to make some of the changes I provided to you prior to this meeting,
specific to some changes that we're interested in making, essentially reducing funding for two positions
in an effort to redirect those funds to account for a contractual line.
specific to the funding associated with our transition team director. And again, I've provided you with
that update. One thing I would add, and I think it's worth noting in the correctional lit fund is specific
to the medical services. Again, as Sheriff Marte has stated, that's the only increase we're requesting.
We are in a situation where we will
need some additional appropriation for that. Unfortunately, we've had some high pool cap overages for
this year. And I don't know if the jail commander or others would like to go into detail about that
if you might be interested during the Q&A. However, those are just unfortunate parts of the medical
expense associated with the medical expense. I believe that's really the extent. Unless there's any
specific questions, I might be able to answer.
Thank you. I will go to Councilor Hawke and then Iverson next. Right. Thanks for working with us on
this. I understand you're saying that you might have to come for an additional yet this year on the
jail medical. Is that correct? That's correct. And have you notified the auditor's office so that we
can adjust because there's a place on our four B's that we have to put in there. This is what we anticipate.
you know, adjusting what our budget was for this year. We had to put in a place for additionals. Do
you know yet about what that additional is going to be? I am uncertain exact dollar figure. I can certainly
come up with a figure and present that to the auditor's office as well as our liaisons. It doesn't have
to be exact, but you know, because it's important that we look at that because that's a part of what
what the Home4B is about if we're going to spend more money than was appropriate to begin with. So that
would be a very good thing to do. And the other thing I wanted to mention on some of these budgets where
you've talked about over time, and I mentioned this briefly yesterday when we were talking about benefits,
you know, our benefits, we have great benefits. But when people take some of the benefits that they're offered,
That means they're going to be away from their workspace. And so somebody else has to pick up for the
hours that they're off on benefit time, on family leave time or whatever it might be. And that is not
a fault of you folks incorrectly budgeting, but just as you just don't always know when that person
might have to take a family leave time or whatever. Somebody else has got to pick up the reins and go with it.
So I think we need to remember that. And I can elaborate on that just a little bit because when we talk
about our overtime budget and we talk about medical, it kind of works hand in hand with one another.
So as you said, the coverage is when people are off. I have never been in a place where you have so
much time off in a year. I don't get to take it because Phil Parker doesn't let me, but.
People take it, and they deserve it. I'm not saying anything about that, but here's what I am saying,
especially when, and I don't want to go too much into detail about some of the things that we have to
care for in terms of sickness and stuff that happens, but it costs a lot of money, medically.
to provide continued service for people at the hospital, especially when they're there for weeks at
a time. And that also requires us to staff those positions. So when Jordan's talking about not having
a number, and I know what you're saying, put something together. We get that. But we never know from
day to day. All of a sudden, somebody gets diagnosed with cancer, we're sitting at the hospital for
the rest of the year. And we had the issue with the merit that he's experienced with the guy being in
Indianapolis that we needed to cover.
When they came back to the jail, we were back and forth to the burn unit every three days to change
bandages and all that. So that's part of the issue. It all kind of works really hand in hand together,
unfortunately. And that's one of the things we just can't predict. It's a day to day thing where people
in that facility, if they wanted to get attention one way or the other, we have to respond to that.
And that is medical at times.
Yes. Counselor Wilkes. Oh, you know, I will go Iverson and then Wilkes. Sorry. I want to stay on this
medical services line and I'm going to come at it from a different angle here because mostly out of
curiosity. Do you have the year over year rate of growth that what we have invested last year versus
what we invested this year or what you're asking for this year? Do you know how much your health insurance
is growing?
I don't have that figure currently with me and I apologize for that. If you look on the screen, I have
it highlighted. For 2026, it was 1.6 million. They're asking for 1.7, so there's a $76,000 change.
Last week, we talked a lot about self-insurance and about the medical costs for our other employees.
And this is just something that we're trying to wrap our heads around as we're looking into the future,
that medical costs just keep going up and up and up. And so we want to keep our heads wrapped around
these. So thank you for including this. Well, and specifically, as it pertains to the contract, our
medical service, well, any medical service in a correctional center, pulls from the community.
local hospitals, they take surrounding hospitals into consideration when they're talking about increase
in salary, increase in cost. So we always have to take that into consideration every year as well. 3C
has done an incredible job for us ensuring that our costs stay down. It's a relationship that we built
with them a couple of years ago when we brought them in and they've they've continued to work with us
where they are higher in other places. They understand that our mental health needs are higher than
just about everywhere else around us, especially.
And I will add, just based on some of the calculations I did perform today, we have an unexpended balance
of approximately $185,000 at this point, which is essentially in comparison to where we're at within
the year, looking at about 11% remaining. And just to elaborate on some of those pool cap overages,
just this most recent invoice we received had a total of approximately $26,500 above
that pool cap that we have to pay from our medical line. So and we've experienced a number of months
that have, you know, in relation to that, if that helps. Yeah, that does. Thank you so much. That's
my question. So. Oh, it's okay. That's great. Councillor Henry. I'll take your time and mine. Awesome.
Thank you for coming in. I want to talk about in the merit deputy lines, kind of a hidden cost of something
I observed when I did a ride along, which seems like too long ago at this point, probably should do
another one. When we have deputies on duty and patrol, right, or out doing their work, the demands on
your time for transport.
And what I mean by that, you know, if we have to transport someone out of county, out of state,
you know, you know about that. Also, the transport service that we are, I guess, mandated to provide.
through IU Health, right, to like Meadows, for example, I think that's it, right, or to a mental health
facility. The shift I got to ride on, you know, we spent a considerable amount of time at IU Hospital
or IU Health waiting to move somebody from A to B, and it dawned on me just, you know, how much of an
FT's time was not on the road doing other things as a matter of routine. Do you have that data somewhere
that, like, year in, year out, like,
how many hours we're talking about where a deputy can be pulled into a transport situation where they
have to leave the county or the state or be sitting at the hospital parking lot. And because I'm curious
about if that's adding up to another deputy is really what I'm asking. It's not here, but it is here,
right? It's kind of a hidden cost of operating. But yeah, so comment about that tonight. Yeah, I can
comment on that a little bit. First of all, this is the correctional center. The merits is
the ones after us. We didn't get there yet. I may have jumped ahead. But we both do it. So you're not
wrong. 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, 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
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. It may
be useful for when the day comes. I'm sure I say when, not if. But when the day comes where we are approached
for additional FTEs, that's a data set that may be incredibly useful for me to understand where that fits in a
the totality of a budget. 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. Thank you
for that. Thank you, Madam President. Yes. The other thing I want to remind folks is that, you know,
they're 24-7. They don't take off for the Fourth of July or whatever. And so
I would assume that some of those folks that are serving on what everybody else has a holiday for, they
get some kind of holiday pay or something of the sort. That wouldn't matter how many deputies we had.
The people that work the holidays deserve to be paid some kind of a holiday pay if they don't get to
take the holiday.
So I think those are things that we have to be reminded of, that our jail and our sheriff's department
operates different than some of the other offices. Anybody else have any other questions or comments?
Okay. Oh, sorry, Councilor Wilks. Are the medical expenditures likely to decrease
with a new facility that might have more medical capability within the jail setting. So obviously you're
not thinking, I don't know, so I shouldn't say obviously, but I'm not picturing there's a hospital in
your jail in our next lifetime when this hopefully happens.
I would think that there would be some things that could be taken in-house that currently aren't. Yeah,
that's actually a great question. Right now we don't have a capability. There are times where we have
to send somebody to the hospital because we just can't provide the care in the building that we have,
in the space that we have. There are a good amount of things that we could manage inside the jail, depending on
the facility layout and build in the new facility in the pretend jail that we're always talking about.
But yeah, we could definitely, there are specific things like bandage changings and stuff like that
where we don't have to take them out. Now, there are something like burn units. We don't have somewhere
local. We had to go to Indianapolis for that. But yeah, definitely, we could provide more care with
more space and more capabilities. So yeah. Thanks.
Seeing no other further questions, we need to go back to Council Iverson so he can make his amendments
earlier. All right, Council, I'm going to be making the amendments off this sheet that we received just
moments ago. So if you want to reference that, you can. Council, I move in Fund 1233-0000 to set Line
10648, Corrections Officer, to zero.
Simultaneously to set line one zero six four nine corrections officer to zero and that will resulting
in setting line one eight zero zero one self insurance to one two six two six six that's one hundred
twenty six thousand two hundred sixty six dollars. Also result in line eighteen one oh one FICA to be
set to forty three thousand three hundred sixty three dollars and finally
That will also mean that we'll need to set line 18201 perf to $78,957. All right, we got a motion and
a second. Is there any additional questions or comments on this? I know we heard the conversation of
this yesterday. Yes, counselor Iverson. And Michelle, I just want to make sure that all of those FICA
and perf numbers, are they're all good? Yes, I worked with Jordan this afternoon. We came up with these
numbers and we both agreed.
And it might be worth that. And just in case you were maybe noted them, the figure that was brought
to you last night, we brought to you a figure that was based or represented a base pay for an officer.
In this case today, we essentially associated those two lines in question and we just removed those.
It's a minor difference, but it's a greater cost savings. Any other further questions or comments on
this item?
Seeing none, can we please have a roll call vote on the amended items? Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor
Deckard? Yes. Councillor Crosley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hawke?
Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you and I understand that Councillor Iverson
has another amendment.
Yes, I moved the in fund 1233-0000. That is lit correctional. We set line 30006 contractual to $110,000.
Okay. We got a motion and a second. Is there any other questions or comments on this item? Council Iverson.
It would be nice just to hear an explanation of, you know, where this is coming from and and what,
you know, just a narrative on this on these changes and moving the contractual to one hundred and ten
thousand dollars. Yeah. Yes. So essentially the transition team director position based on the contract
is one hundred and ten thousand dollars based on the way it's paid out. So essentially it'd be December
through November because December is paid in January, which is part of the requirement
and the inability for us to use ARPA funding. So this takes this 110,000 that pays for December through
November, which November is paid out in December, essentially for that transition team director position.
Thank you very much. It is always awkward when a council member makes a motion to move some money and
there's no background. My apologies. No, no, no. You say it better than I could. So as a quick question,
so this goes through December of twenty seven or?
The payment, it goes through payment for December 26 through payment made in December of 27. Yes. So
December time worked would be paid out in January of 28. Gotcha. So this will might be a discussion
that will happen next year to extend the contract again. Correct. Okay. Okay. Council. We're creating
a new line for this. Is that correct?
And is that because the previous contractual line is within ARPA? Correct. Okay. Yes, and this fund
does not have a contractual line, so by adding it, yeah. Yeah, previously we provided invoices to our
commissioner's office to handle those ARPA contracts. Okay, perfect, thank you. Yes, Councilor Honk.
Yes, clarification.
because this is a contract and the contract is with the sheriff's office. Correct. I mean, a lot of
contracts go to the commissioner's office and the ARPA one would have had to. But it seems to me this
contract would not have to. If I understand that correctly, you could just decide what you're doing.
Yeah, that's a contract that could be signed by the sheriff. So I want to make certain we were all clear on that.
and Ford. OK, any other questions or comments? OK, so with that being said, maybe please have a roll
call vote on this amendment. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Crosley. Yes. OK. Councillor Iverson.
Yes. Councillor Fiddle. Yes. Councillor Hawke. Yes. Wilts. Yes. And Councillor Henry. Yes. Motion passes
unanimous.
Thank you. And then, yes, Council. Oh, OK, sorry. You and your microphone are having fun down there
tonight. OK, so can we please have a roll call vote on the overall correctional center budget? Councilor
Crosley, yes. Councilor Iverson, yes. Councilor Feidl, yes. Councilor Hawke, yes.
Councilor Wilts. Henry. Councilor Decker. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. All right.
Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Looks like you get to stick around a little bit longer here. You're
welcome. All right. And next up, we will go with the sheriff's office. Council, I move to open for discussion
and review funds. One thousand dash zero zero zero five county general office.
Fund 1000-0626 County General Animal Control. Fund 1170-0005 Public Safety Lit Sheriff. Fund 1156-0000
Firearms Training. Fund 4009-0000 Sheriff's Sale Administration. Fund 4107-0000 Donations, Sheriff's
Department. And finally, Fund 4108-0000
donations sheriff canine. All right. We got a motion and a second. We are now joined by Chief Deputy
Phil Parker and Miss Jamie Yankee. Welcome. Thank you. So here once again before I pass the floor down
to Jamie there is no increase in any line except for for the pension line. And if we need to get into
that then the chief will get more specific into the pension line.
So like the sheriff said, the only increase that we have is with the pension. The only note of is we
currently have five vacancies with the possibility of having another one come January. So we'll probably
be coming back for overtime. I anticipate us succeeding that as we've already done that this year with
like two openings. So that's the only thing I would note with the general fund.
keep on going through all the funds. Yeah. Animal control that one. The only change would be the animal
inner local. We don't have the 2027 amounts yet. Um, I'm not sure when the city is going to provide
that. Molly. I don't know. Molly, do you know? I don't, but I can check with Mr Cockrell to make sure
that he hasn't received it. That's it with
animal control, nothing with 1170 PS lit, except for overtime. Firearms training, no change there. Same
thing with the sheriff sales and tax warrants and our donations, both the canine and the sheriff ones.
All right. Pretty straightforward. Yeah. All right. Well, anything else from the table?
No? Okay. Let's go to Council. Ms. Wilts, you want to start us off? I do think that it would be valuable
to hear a little bit about the pension line and the reasoning. I know I talked with you all about it
already, but. So where that comes from is the valuation that our actuaries do when they do a study of
the pension. They do it every year.
So they come back with a recommendation, it's called the ARC, an annual required contribution, and they
recommend it in three different phases. One is a minimum, one's a recommended, and then one is an accelerated
ARC. So what that means is the minimum is a 20-year amortization, the recommended is a 15-year amortization,
and accelerated as a 10-year amortization. And what that means is that amortization means is you're
paying off the unfunded liability. And if you just take it in the simple terms like a home mortgage,
that if you have a 30-year mortgage, you're going to pay more in interest over the course of that loan
than if you have a 20-year, than if you have a 15-year. It's the same concept. So that unfunded liability
is basically
It is the amount of promised benefits that the plan has promised to pay out that is in excess of what
is currently set aside to pay them. So when you look at our pension fund, you will see I think I should
have looked at the last valuation, but we were somewhere in the high 70 percent funded. So you have
about a 30 percent roughly or 20 percent roughly, maybe 25 percent unfunded liability. That is what
they are talking about.
What I always caution bodies like this, when you look at those, when you first look at that amount,
you look and go, well, we should pay the minimum. And for the immediacy, that's, I can see why you would
make that decision, but if you're looking over the long haul,
Just like you would if you had a 30-year mortgage or 20-year mortgage, you're going to pay less over
the long haul if you land on the recommended or the accelerated. The minimum is required so that you
don't fall below a certain standard and your pension goes unfunded. The pension is dissolved, so you're
faced with the minimum
the best, but those. Those different levels put you in a category where you're you're attacking. Paying
off those that unfunded liability quicker if you do, if that makes sense. Infunded liability calculated
across the state and all of the departments or is it specific to you specific to our plan? Yes. Yeah,
each Sheriff's Office in
in the state has their own pension plan believe it or not. It's kind of wild. Yeah. And you all budgeted
for which level? Budgeted for the accelerated. That's all I have. I just wanted to hear that explanation
kind of in public because we had
Anybody else have any questions or comments? Yes, Councillor Henry. Thank you. Thank you, Chief, for
being here. I'll just re-ask the question I asked on the jail side about the transport challenges that
merit deputies face moving folks around the county on behalf of calls to IU Health or out of county
or out of state. Does that data that you have on your side as well? We do. Matter of fact, I think 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.
be useful. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. I am on the way to this sheriff's site. The sheriff's site came
up. But like the chief said, the transportation has increased for us, whereas our numbers on the deputy's
side has reduced. So you can't imagine the stress that we are under when we get those orders to transport
someone. And I could tell you, when we had to
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. Thank you. Anybody
else have any other questions or comments? I'll wait until we get to the next next one.
the public safety tax. Well, this is it. So can you want me to go ahead and come in on the public safety
one? Yeah, we think they have read everything out loud. So go ahead. And when I'm looking at. It's just
for us to be knowledgeable is that when you look at at the four B. The public safety tax. It's getting
is doing an adjustment upwards of this. And so that will probably put more money into that at some point
in time. But it actually is going to be a part of the whole 1.2 when we get through with all this moving
around with what somebody said what the governor did. I don't think the governor did it on his own.
But at any rate, I just thought you would want to look at the overall public safety tax, which you rely on.
is ending up the operating balance at the end of twenty twenty seven. A million three eight four. It's
anticipated. And yet it starts that June 30th of this year at two point eight million. And then you
get in your other one point seven million. And so we can see that the non property tax revenue, which
is all then is
at 4,168,000, and yet we're going to be spent down at the end of 2027 to 1,003,000. So I'm just saying
we've got to watch this until we get to when we start throwing all of these funds together. And it's
not just you. You're not the only one who's using the public safety checks, but just heads up.
Anybody else have any other questions or comments on this item? Yes, Councilor Williams. I just want
to clarify so that everyone is hearing the same things. Yes, the PS lit rate is going up, but it's specific
to PSAP. And so the allocations, I mean, there'll be the growth quotient, but there won't be like extra funds
for distribution because of the increase. Oh, then we really better be watching. I was emphasizing your
point. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. OK. Last call for any other questions or comments on this item. Very much.
And we will go to a roll call vote. Councillor Fiddle.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
That concludes our budget review for the day. Stay tuned for budget session number four. If you are
interested, you have a few minutes to go down to City Hall for their deliberative session. OK, with
that being said, we are recessed until tomorrow at 5 p.m. Thank you.