So we are going to go ahead and get started. I know we were waiting on one more council person, but
we have a quorum here and not to hold up the business of everybody because you're here for a good time,
not a long time. And so we will go ahead and get started. So I welcome everybody to tonight budget work
session number five. We have a quorum of council members present.
We have council members Spidal, Wilts, Deckard, Iverson and Henry and then looks like online virtually
joining us is council member Hawke. So we will go ahead and do our business. Does anybody wish to make
any type of changes to tonight's agenda? Okay, Iverson.
Yes, Madam President and Council, I move to amend tonight's agenda to add item four B reopening fund
1000 dash 0626 County General Animal Control immediately following our budget review and before item
number five, which is tabled from the from the September 10th budget session. Second. All right, we
got a motion and a second. Is there any questions or comments on this motion? All right, see
on. Maybe please have a roll call vote. Councillor Crossley. Yes, Councillor Hawk. And I do believe
she needs to turn her camera on. He does. I'll just get voted tonight. Just listen. OK, OK. Thank you.
Councillor Fiddle, Councillor Henry. Yes, Councillor Woods. Yes.
Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you very much. Are there
any other changes that council likes would like to make for tonight? Okay. Seeing none, we will go ahead
and get started.
We are on our next to the last budget presentations. And so briefly, I just want to say again, like
I've been saying, our public hearing is Tuesday, October six. Our final adoption for the twenty twenty
seven budget here or will be Tuesday, October 20th. And both of those meetings will start at five p.m.
That is the time that public comment will be made during those times. And of course, we have no public
comment during our budget presentations.
Again, this has been going very smoothly. So if you've been watching, help us help you all. Everybody
knows the timeframe that they have for their presentations, and that does include our Q&A. And so staff
is instruct...
there is a timer that will be there. And so when you have five minutes remaining, you'll see it. And
when you have one minute remaining, you'll also see that as well. And I do believe there is a loud and
obnoxious noise that will come from that little machine over there as you are done with your time. So
that being said, we will do what we always do. And I'm going to look to the wonderful ladies from the
auditor's office, Ms. Gregory and Ms. Woodruff, to give us a recap of our
process in progress. Good evening. On the screen before you, the document should look familiar by now.
So this is the document that shows all of the changes that were made
budget sessions are reflected in this document and these numbers are taken straight from the departmental
4Bs on the DLGF website. Speaking of those 4Bs, they have all been updated by the state and I believe
they are correct. So we want everybody to lay eyes on those, make sure they're accurate, make sure there's
nothing we are missing.
that going to say also we added the anticipated additional appropriations that were submitted by departments
for the upcoming meeting later this month. So you'll notice the beginning cash balance for two of these
funds is going to be lower in anticipation of those additional appropriations. If they are not approved,
we can go ahead and make those changes. But for now, we're including them in there.
Also, we received notification from the state that the HFI funding is going to be slightly lower than
what we received this year. So that anticipated revenue has also been inputted into Gateway and is reflected
on this document in front of you. Okay, thank you very much. And I understand the health department
will be one of our first budget hearing presentations of the night. Does anybody have any questions
for the auditor's office? Yes, Council Member Deckert.
I had a question for Ms. Woodruff. When you said everybody should take a look at 4Bs, you mean us, department
heads, elected officials? Is that generally what you mean or other thoughts? I believe the council is
the only body that has access in addition to the auditor's office to the 4Bs at this moment. We're happy
to share those countywide if you'd like. But as of right now, I believe it's limited just to the council
and auditor.
our gateway access. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else have any other questions? Okay. Well, thank you all very
much for that. And we will move on to the amended portion of our agenda.
I move to open for discussion and review fund 1000-0626 County General Animal Control to amend account
line 35040 Animal Shelter Interlocal from $480,808 to $566,547.
We got a motion in a second and I'm looking to miss Molly Turner King for an update on this. So after
the last meeting I did get forward to council an email from Virgil Sonder who is the animal shelter
director that explains the formula formula for calculating the county share and I also provided the
budget information that was in the
cities budget packet for animal control, which reflects the 2024 2025 and 2026 actual budgets and then
the 2027 proposed budgets. And so do you want me to explain those documents or are there questions?
Let's see if we have because you also via email as well. So Council, do you all have any questions or
comments? Yes, Councilmember Woods.
Thank you for doing that. I really appreciate getting that information and having time to kind of digest
before voting on it. So I appreciate that work. And my understanding from your synopsis and then also
looking was that the main difference is that we're looking back to 2025 to base the upcoming budget.
And that's the year that they had a salary review and
Increases were implemented. So that's part of the jump I believe so they did indicate that they use
the 2025 expenses to calculate the 2027 amount and so in the breakdown on the city documents I does
say that Well, it indicates a 2% increase in personnel which is Cola adjustment so I do think that was
the year that they did have the salary increase and
And then also there was an increased cost for veterinary services, and I'm guessing that's under that
services line that looked like it had jumped quite a bit. And in the city documentation, it also indicates
that there was a slight increase in the overall budget because there was a change due to liability and
casualty insurance premiums. In the past, those costs were paid via lump sum through the Public Works
Department Administration Division budget, but now
the animal control share of it is coming out of the animal shelter budget. So that is also an additional
jump in the services. May I continue? Does their insurance cover our people? It wouldn't, right? I do
not believe so. I can look into it, but my gut reaction is no. But I mean, I think the insurance would
cover the shelter. Services provided through the shelter.
Decker. I'm gonna ask it maybe a dumb question but maybe a dumb question that we need to keep on our
horizon. City Bloomington pays in to this. So City Ellitsville and the county pay into it. That kind
of gets to my point. The formula takes into account the area of which we or which is covered right so
unincorporated
parts of the county are gonna fall under us. City of Bloomington falls to city and then town to town.
If the reorganization would go through with Eltsville and Richland Township, Eltsville becomes a larger
entity that would affect the formula. I would anticipate it affecting the formula for the next year.
I don't know how it would
like I don't know if in the reorganization plan for the Richard for the merger if they worked in animal
control. So I don't know if it would be reflected in this year's budget. But I'm happy to inquire. I
would probably ask Miss Darla Brown. Yeah, I I don't know that we need to run down that hallway because
that's a whole thing voters will hand to us one way or the other.
But I do think for counselors that things like that, services piece mill by piece mill, two things have
to be guaranteed. Number one, that we're thinking about how that all gets paid for. And two, how someone
that's in one of those areas picks up a phone and makes sure that they have services and nobody goes,
well, we haven't figured out yet how to get that Doberman off your front yard. I know our folks wouldn't
do that, but it's our job to kind of hover around those things that
maybe no one else is thinking about out there. Any other questions or comments on this item? All right,
so may we please have a roll call vote on proceeding forward with this item? Councilor Deckard? Yes.
Councilor Crosley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wills? Yes. And Councilor Henry?
passes unanimous six zero okay thank you very much now we will move forward with our first
budget presentation which is from our health department council I move to open for discussion and review
fund funds one one five nine dash zero zero zero zero health fund fund eleven sixty one dash ninety
six twenty four local public health services fund
Fund 1161-9627, Local Public Health Services Fund. Fund 1168-0000, Local Health Maintenance Fund. Fund
1206-0000, Local Health Department Trust Account Fund. And finally, Fund 4906-0000, Public Health Emergency
Fund. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. We're joined by Dr. Sarah Ryderband and our financial
manager from the Health Department. Welcome.
Thank you. We are here for. First of all, we'll see you next week when we come to ask for approval to
fill a vacancy in the health administrator position. But this week we are here and I, Mr Gauss and I
are here with this budget and just want counsel to understand that neither one of us had any
in creating this budget. So Mr. Gauss has gone over it, and I have gone over it, and he's the expert.
So he's going to be able to answer, I hope, most of your questions. Some of them we may not be able
to answer, but we will get back to you with whatever answers we can come up with. All right. Well, before
I get started, I just want to say bear with me.
on this. So I'll start off with fund 1159. This year we are looking at a proposed budget that has seven
employees, which would be an increase of one employee over 2026. And we have shuffled some of the positions
have been shuffled from different funds just to maintain
Uh, get following the restrictions that we have with the health first Indiana. So, um, on that 1159,
basically what we're looking at is five of our regulatory positions will be proposed in there with two
other positions as well. So, um, that's part of the change there. And then the biggest change that we
have proposed is that we are
pulling 21 of the 22 positions that are within these five funds, the full-time self-insurance from 1159
was the proposed. So that's gonna be a big jump over 2026 for what we have. The reason for that, and
the auditor's office can verify this, was that the state guidance was
best that we pull this full time self insurance from the health fund. And so far as those other
communications, I can't give you more information on it. That was just what was what was received. So
that's what we're doing this year over what we did last year. So that's kind of the biggest jump for
eleven fifty nine. Our supply lines are relatively the same and the service lines
are relatively the same. I think that covers most everything there. 1161 this year, we are the Help
First Indiana. We are proposing using funding from 9627 and then remaining cash from funds from 9624
to fund 12 positions plus half of a 13th position.
As the auditor office auditor's office said, we just received our funding guarantee for twenty twenty
seven, which was eight hundred and fourteen thousand dollars, eight eighty three and three cents. So
it's a little bit less than what we submitted in that there last year and twenty twenty or twenty twenty
six this year.
we were funding 16 positions out of health first, uh, and we're reducing it down just a little bit from
the shuffling of positions and that, um, and as far as the funding goes, the, um, most of the 20,
$27 will be, uh, budgeted towards personnel and that with a very small amount, um,
budgeted and supplies and services. The. 2024 dollars, the biggest expense out of that fund location
was our health net contract with the minor other expenses and supplies and the services. So we have,
I think, to the two positions
And then, yeah, and then the one split the split position. It's I'm going to jump around just for a
second. It's self-insurance was going to be paid from 1206. We're looking to try and get the older money
spent down. So that's why we're spending twenty twenty four this year. Moving forward to the eleven
sixty eight.
Uh, fund. We have two positions there, um, which, uh, was sorry and jumping through my old school paperwork
here. Um, the regulatory position and administrative assistance. So, uh, the service lines or supplier,
sorry, supplies lines and service lines were minimal. Um, and that's moving one of the,
regulatory over to that. So that health maintenance fund, 1168, we're working to spend that down as
well because that's the remaining funds and then the 12 fund 1206, which is the, uh, uh, health trust,
health department trust account, um, has a split position that up until just recently that position
was, uh, occupied and now is vacant. So we're going to have a little bit more to spend.
Um, from that in, um, 2027, assuming we can get that position filled quickly and all of that. So, um,
I think that covers that. Then moving to the last fund, the health emergency fund, we had drawn some
claims off of that fund. Um, I have corrected those to a more appropriate location or fund.
And so now we're back to the current cash funds that were there originally. We had budget proposal was
just for $1 because we didn't know how much was going to be in each lot or how much was going to be
remaining. Now we know where it's at. So those adjustments can be made moving forward. I think I have
covered what I can and not.
I'll try to answer any questions that you guys have. Well, we appreciate that. Thank you so much. Council
questions. And I saw Councilor Iverson's hand go up. So I'll go Iverson and then Councilmember Henry.
Let me echo Madame President's thanks for being here and for clearly putting some thought into these
budgets that we're working through tonight. You know, this council has a statutory duty to work through
these budgets and we're happy to do so with you in this trying time. I think I'm going to start with
my first question in the 1161 funds, particularly in
Uh, gosh, I think I'm going to ask a more general question here. We know that Health First Indiana revenues
are lower than what we thought. Can these funds handle 10 new positions? And that's either to you or
to the auditors desk. I'm looking at the four B's and it does. It looks. It doesn't look good,
but I don't. I mean, that could be a cash flow issue. I can probably answer that question. So, um,
currently and I've got to grab my numbers here. We still have remaining plenty of, or I'm not gonna
say, I shouldn't say plenty, but we have remaining funds in 2025 and there'll be a small amount remaining
in 2026. So after this completion of this year and that my guesstimate is there will still be remaining
probably about a little over a million dollars from 2025
2025 funding. So moving forward for, you know, 2028, I'm not quite sure yet, but we're good for 2027.
And that includes the 10 positions, the self insurance, the FICA, the perf. Okay. Yep. Okay. I think
if I'm understanding your question correctly, yes. I want to make sure that if we're moving people into
a fund that we're hearing now there's revenue
It's not as much as we thought it was going to be that we're not going to be shortchanging our employees
because if we need our health department employees. Right. Oh, yeah. We'll fund the positions that the
other supplies and services will just have to jumble as we manage as we move forward. And then my final
follow up question is, did the cost of living adjustment follow these positions into these funds?
Councilmember Henry. Thank you, madam president. Thank you for being here. I appreciate doctor Starting
us off with where you came in. So and it's a counselor Iverson just said yeah, we we have to navigate
the space here But there are some questions here. I actually I need a little more I gotta go a little
farther on the the difference between What we thought we were getting in HFI this year and what we heard
from the state I mean, I've got a difference of
Yeah, so for 11619627 of $26,156 between what we're getting and then what has been budgeted. You said
your carryover in the previous year you think will cover that gap? Carryover funds? Yeah, we can cover
that gap. OK. Did I hear you right? So the self-insurance you put into 1159? That's correct. But the
positions are in 1161?
Is that possible? I'm looking at the auditor's desk. I just want to make sure we're not, okay, that's,
okay, good there. I don't expect you to be able to answer this question off the fly, but I think it's
worth asking as the health officer, you're now looking at a bit of a reorganization. You have a temporary
reorganization, a current one. Are there positions that you would envision
consolidating or changing in the first or second quarter of the year that might alter what we're looking
at here. I mean, I know that we had a philosophy for a bit about certain positions and build outs that
may not match the priorities of the current board or, and I guess it's a really way of saying that a
lot of what you mentioned here was created by a administrator who's not here now, but you're presenting
that vision for a whole fiscal year ahead of us.
Do you want to opine? Are there any positions we should be looking at to move around now, or is this
a later conversation? I don't know that I can talk about moving things around now. Indeed, the board
will need to meet. I have a very different vision, perhaps, of how we might work together to incorporate
more of the community and more memorandum of understanding with other
groups in the community to cover services and to keep us in alignment with our HFI goals. But it's not
something that I can necessarily put forth because indeed the board needs to be on board. It's only
been a few days. I appreciate it. And you may have teed up a question that I don't want to steal from
down the desk on
memorandum of understanding and possibilities working with other entities in the community. I'll yield
back, Madam President. Thank you. Thank you. That was actually a question that I had, but you kind of
were on the same page. Didn't mean to steal your thunder. No, I mean, it's best to explain it. So I
appreciate that because that was a big thought that was coming in for today. Any other council members?
Yes. Council member Decker. I have I appreciate the frankness with how you're
indicating this is not the budget that you all necessarily prepared. And I have kind of an honest follow-up
question if you can answer. How long have you both been able to look at this budget? I guess two or
three days now. For me, I was the entry person for entering it in the portal and all of that. And some
discussion with previous as far as
positions here and there, but for the most part, mine was just my part was just entry. And I asked that
I appreciate that, because I think we're at a point now where things we wouldn't ask before, we can't
just blow past those things. And I appreciate that period. Yes, Councilmember Bolts, just following
up on that.
What's your job title? Financial manager. Great. I would hope that we can see this as an opportunity
to better use your skills and bring you in a little bit because I'm not in the health department. I
don't know how how that might differ, but financial managers across the county are intimately involved
in budgeting. And I've never met you.
So it's nice to meet you. It's good to see you. And I hope that we can work together on things. So I
just wonder if it's out of line to say that we have an interim health administration team. And Eric
is part of this. It is made up of our vital records manager, our preparedness director,
and our financial manager working with me to move forward and to see what the possibilities are.
We have this window we have to work in to submit these budgets. Would your administration team and yourself
be amenable to meeting with your two liaisons to try to figure out if there are things we have to correct
right now versus things that can wait until January? Is that something we can work on in the next few
days? Well, that's an interesting question. Again, since we are going to be coming and asking to post
the position of administrator. And we don't know what anything will look like until we've at least looked
for an administrator. We may discover that a team approach to this very large job is actually more workable
in the long run than a single individual trying to capture all of the pieces.
I can't make those decisions going forward, and I'd rather sit with what we have before you that we
know is balanced and works, and then come to you as we work out how things may look different in the
health department moving forward. I hope that answers your question. It does, and I may just reserve our right
In the time we have to maybe reopen this budget if we discover there are some things we want to talk
about that maybe. We are not likely to move forward you know if there's money that needs to
be re appropriated in a different account line or something that you know if you know that this is just
this item flat out we're not doing as of.
last week as well. It's those kinds of things. I appreciate wanting to keep the flexibility in your
budget, but I think we also have to control for what's here given cuts and other things. And I know
that sounds about as vague as it sounds coming out of my mouth right now, but... Just like I sound very
vague because I can't speak for the future. I don't have a crystal ball. I'm very optimistic that we
can find good partnerships and make this a more robust
health department with more opportunities to serve the public. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you.
Councilor Iverson. I'm going to move away from the personnel lines and I have a question about a vehicle
that we were thinking we were going to purchase and now it doesn't seem like we're going to purchase.
Where is that vehicle in these budgets? It is not. It's not included in this budget at the moment. Is
it set to $1 or is it set to $0? $1. Okay.
And we don't know what's going to happen with it. It's on hold, certainly. And again, it will be determined
by what we create moving forward and what kind of partnerships and how, again, how we can best serve
the public. Are there other supplies or capital lines that are like this that you've set to $1 that
formerly were not?
So let's use this vehicle as an example. We, up until probably last week, thought we were going full
steam ahead on purchasing this vehicle. It was more than $1. In this budget now, it is $1. Are there
other items like that, other lines that we should be looking at? Yeah.
Take your time. 11. It's an 11. 59. These were funds. You get there. There you go. I put them all the
way at the back, so. Okay. Those were
In the supply lines, um, that acts care supplies, uh, and lying count line. Got my small. That's okay.
It's two six eight zero zero. Yeah. And then, uh, COVID supplies two six nine nine seven as well as
service line, uh, COVID immunization expenses three six nine nine eight. Okay.
And I'm seeing the other and we're still in 159 in the services category. The other items that you have
put in here are held flat against what they were last year. And in particular, I'm looking at professional
services and postage. Professional services. Is that a new line? Yeah, well, yeah, they move that from
services and charges to
So that line, we pull professional services. That's what we pay our medical waste removal, which we
had it in services and charges in 2026. And then, can I keep asking questions? In 1168, you had mentioned
that's the local health and maintenance fund. You had mentioned that that's one of the funds you're
targeting to spend down. What is the cash balance on that fund?
Uh, as of, as of whenever you pulled it as of nine one, that cash balance was 419,000. Currently in
2026, we're not drawing. The only thing we pulled out of that fund so far this year has been our receipt
tracker. Okay.
And in that fund, that's eleven sixty eight dash zero zero zero. That's the health maintenance fund.
We pulled two positions from eleven fifty nine and put them in here. Is that correct? That's correct.
OK. All right. I have to say, you know, reviewing this budget beforehand and going through it right
now, I expected much worse. So I think
Councilmember Henry's intuition is probably correct that we probably need to take some time and look
through it much more deeply but I mean based on the concerns that I raised about some of the four B's
with these funds and you know moving some of the people around I mean I I think you've done a good job
given the hand that was dealt with you it looks like this is approaching lemonade and you were given
some lemons so that that's my
I don't know, assessment at 540 in the evening. I'd see Councilmember Fiddle had her hand up and then
I'll turn it back over to Henry next. So we touched on a little bit the $500,000 money that we appropriated
for the van. And so I just want to be clear what happens now.
with that money do we need to do something about that or do you appropriate it or what what actually
needs to happen with the the funds that are were appropriated it's currently budgeted in 2026 for 2026
um if they're not going to move forward with it they would just need to fill out a request to have it
de-appropriated like that i just want to give the auditor an opportunity because i think she was pulling
her mic down
I was just going to know unless it's de-appropriated if the amount isn't spent it will just revert so
you know that will be a reversion as we call it. But theoretically it would be available to spend in
26 if it's not de-appropriated right? Right as long as the cash is there which we need to watch the
cash in the fund. Thank you. I know it's like third round here.
I appreciate the comments down the table on that, and the reversion comment is interesting, right? And
maybe I'll look at the auditors so we have it. So total revenue is $848,695 in that fund, but the budget
is north of that.
I'm trying to figure out what the deficit number is and if there's a planned reversion and then there
could also be an additional $500,000 reversion depending on what that really means for the funds. If
you don't mind, I can comment on this. We've been trying to budget better. I think your philosophy has
been let's budget what we're actually going to spend, right? We're easy to talk with, come back for
an additional if you need something else, et cetera.
In this fund in particular, the budget is not being expended. So I think we're under $400,000 expended
at this point of the year, as we're in mid-September now. And the total budget was, I'm sorry, I don't
have it in front of me, but a lot higher. I think it was like 1.3 or something similar.
And so there are some funds that haven't been touched. Like we're talking that $500,000 for the vehicle
line. There's COVID supplies, which $123,287, which hasn't been expended. There's a hefty amount remaining
in contractual services. We have personal healthcare that's nearly 100,000 that hasn't been expended.
Immunization support.
Expenses $123,286. I mean, so there's so there's a lot a lot of potential reversions. I guess that's
good news. Maybe I'm starting to see the lemonade down the table. Okay, so that's good news. And I would
say then back to the point if
If that is a resource to go into the community for MOUs, because we're now talking to maybe $900,000
in reversions plus the van. Exactly. Not plus. I think that included the vehicle. Oh, included? OK.
Well, even still, half a million dollars is a lot to work with. OK. I think we're going to be obviously
into this in the first quarter next year. Thank you for that. All right. I'm done. Thank you. Anybody
else have any other questions? OK.
All right, thank you. And I see we have Health Board member Dr. Robinson also in the audience as well.
So seeing no other further questions or comments, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Crosley?
Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Abstain.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. And you did fine. What's that? You did good. You got it done.
Thank you. All right. Next up is the Youth Services Bureau.
presentation. Council, I move to open for discussion and review fund 1114-0166 lit special purpose YSB,
fund 4100-0000 donations, youth shelter, funds 4106-0000 donations, safe place, funds 4110-0000 donations,
prevention general, and fund 4116.
4111-0000, donations BTCC. Second. We got a motion and a second. We are joined by the director, Vanessa
Schmidt, and we also have our judge, Judge Harvey here. Welcome. Go ahead. Thank you, counsel. Thank
you for having us. Again, as always, you know, YSB really aims to be fiscally conservative and transparent
and not to come back for additional appropriations.
So I just want to kind of start with our overall budget projections for 2027.
There is a reduction by $4,136 from our overall budget. We offset the necessary increases by identifying
reductions in other budget lines. These reductions will allow us to utilize a portions of donations
that are gonna be appropriated in just a few. You may see a overall deduction of 16,636. That is the
decrease, however,
full transparency, $12,500 of that was just moved into the commissioner's budget for agency insurance
cost. So that leaves us with a true reduction of $4,136 to the 2027 budget, and that does include the
COLA increase. And so just to go through our lit budget.
There in the salaries and the ones we had an overall decrease due to just staff transitions, which included
some positions with pretty significant longevity. That was a reduction of two thousand six hundred and
twenty again, still being able to absorb the cola, the proposed cola increase in our supplies line.
We have a decrease of one thousand three hundred and twenty five dollars, and that was based on just
prior year actual expenditures.
In our services, we had an overall decrease of 12,691. However, that's where the 12,500 came from.
And so that's a true decrease of $191 in YSP services. And then for the fours in our capital items,
there are no changes to that budget for 2027. These are funds that we asked to have on hand for necessary
furniture and equipment replacement that we can't really wait on additional appropriations when those
damages happen just due to contract regulations. And we were always allowed that capital line because
our per diems are reverted back into the county general.
fund. So that's our summary for our special purpose budget, just like I said, just an overall decrease
of $4,136 this year. And then I'm happy to move into donations if you guys are ready for that. Okay.
So as opposed to carrying forward, like has been done in the past, we are just requesting smaller
appropriations from our donation funds just to maintain transparency with the council and ensure that
As those funds are appropriated, it's for needs that arise and we're not just asking to appropriate
those all up front. So for 4100, that's our youth shelter donation line. We're asking to go ahead and
appropriate $2,250 of those donations. Those are typically spent on the YSB Youth Garden holiday expenses
and the needs of the clients. With some cuts to our special purpose budget, this will help to offset those.
In our Safe Place donation line, 4106, we are asking to appropriate $1,000. These funds were actually
historically raised in the Homeward Bound Walk Against Homelessness many years ago that I participated
in as the Safe Place coordinator. And again, these will help to offset some recent adjustments made
to our RHY federal grant that supports our Safe Place program. And that was mainly due to the increase
in self-insurance.
Then our prevention general, 4110, we are asking to appropriate $1,220. These funds were received years
ago through a Healthiest Cities project, and these will be appropriated and help to supplement our Monroe
County Youth Council and other YSP prevention programming. And then our 4111 is our BTCC line building thriving
community connections line, we're asking to appropriate $11,800. Those funds are generated from the
Delta Ahead project participation that we're involved in and earmarked for potential donations
and sponsorships for future MC3 events.
And so those are often used to pay the community trainers that are a part of the BTC network, BTCC network.
And then we also anticipate to come back with more appropriations to that fund that have been donated
specifically for MC3 for the 2027 MC3 event. Thank you. Absolutely. I can always say that
Vanessa has jumped in with both feet in a season of not only budgets, but also a pretty big audit for
YSB and has done an extremely good job.
actually very quiet on her end to me. So that means everything's going well. So I would just want to
thank you for doing such a good job with that. Also just to take this opportunity to thank the council
for raising that rate. It certainly facilitates the funding for next year and keeping everything healthy.
So thank you.
And thank you for being here. And all that was recorded. So you can go back and watch as many times
as you want. I appreciate that. And I had lots of help. I do have our financial manager and our deputy
here as well. Great. Thank you. All right. Council, any questions? It was all very straightforward.
Thank you.
As always, thank you for your support and we will see you when we come back to prepare some MC3 money.
Hold on tight. We need to do a roll call vote on this budget. House record. Yes. Councillor Iverson.
Yes. Calls are vital. Yes. Also, costly is not present currently. Councillor Wilkes. Yes. And Councillor
Henry. Yes. Motion passes unanimous five zero. Thank you.
Thank you so much. All right. That brings us to court services. Council. Thank you. Yes, please. Council,
I moved to open for discussion or review.
Fund 1000-0225 County General 1114-0225 Lit Special Purpose Courts. Fund 11700-2225 Public Safety Lit
Courts. Fund 2200-0000 Alternative Dispute Resolution. Fund 2511.
zero zero zero zero jury pay user fees and fund eight eight nine five zero zero zero zero county 4d
incentive second we have a motion and a second and we're joined tonight by judge decaf thank you for
gracing us with your presence and jama chandler so uh please tell us what you have
Great, thank you for having us this evening. Just to do a quick run through of our county general first,
you'll notice in the salary lines, we will fluctuate due to either employees reaching new level and
salary positions, positions being eliminated due to our loss of court and or replacement of some of
the different levels. I wanted to remind council that 75% of our commissioner salary and 25% of our
juvenile court reporter salary are paid out of this fund.
Our supplies line we have decreased by $1,000 this year due to our loss of court and then in our services
category we have increased
due to a reduced state grant funding for our interpreter services, the increased costs associated with
our state mandated popper fees, and the continued high demand for guardian ad litem services. So to
help offset the requested increases in these areas, we've reduced funding in our travel training, our
judicial liability, and our special judge pro tem expenses. So our overall
budget for 2027 that we've requested is lower than our requested budget for 2026 by $147,912. And that
includes our COLA. And our special purposes lit funding. This is the money in the juvenile court that
we identified that could be moved to the lit special purposes years ago. This money helps offset the
county general.
Currently, we do a 75-25 split with 75% in lit special purposes and 25% in our county general. This
was a small increase in this budget due to an employee receiving a step raise. In our lit public safety,
This budget pays for the salaries of the ASI guards that are housed at the Justice Building, the Curry
Building, and part of Community Corrections. This budget has a slight increase this year, and it's only
due to the 2% COLA. Our Alternative Dispute Fund.
This fund is established by statute, and it's funded by a $20 fee collected from each divorce case.
The funds are used to provide mediation, arbitration services, parent coordinator services, and co-parent
counseling, and this budget has a slight increase just due to the demand of such services. Next is our
jury pay. This fund is established by statute and funded through $6 from qualifying criminal infraction
conviction cases and $75 for each civil plenary and tort filing. These monies help offset the cost of
county general. There is a slight increase for the funds in this budget and that's also due to an increase
in postage and food costs. Lastly, is our county incentive for defund a 895. This money is
and this fund comes from the collection of our child support. Monroe County receives federal incentive
money depending on how much child support is collected in comparison to other states. 25% of
our commissioner's salary is paid out of this fund, and there's a slight increase in this budget due
to the increase in full-time self-insurance. And I just want to note that the FICA and PERF numbers
are flipped. That was an error on my part, but there's no change in those numbers, and I apologize for
that error.
I fixed it. Fixed it? Yeah, I fixed it. Oh, thank you. So it's right. Thank you. So what you're seeing
is correct. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. All right. Would you like to add anything, Your Honor? No,
thank you. Other than this is Jayma's first budget session, and I think she has done a remarkably awesome
job. So thank you. Well, I concur. All right. Council, any questions or comments on this budget?
as one of the liaisons. I just want to agree with the judge that it's out of the ballpark in terms of
the explanations as well as keeping it very organized and not not expanding. Thank you. And communication.
I think she's been great at communicating. That's true. Appreciate that too. Absolutely. Thank you.
I agree. Very good. We're good.
good presentation. I want to go back to 1170-0225, the contractual on the, is that where the contractual
line was for the? Are you talking about the public safety? I think so. You mentioned that's the ASI
contract? Yes. We have a discussion about the ASI contract with the commissioners. Is this, and I think
what came out in that discussion was that
that organization seems to be funded out of a few account lines in the government. It's not like one
line. Is this the same as what we were talking about with them in terms of the personnel that are hired?
Yes. I believe the county administrator had mentioned that there was a reduction in security personnel.
I distinctly remember her saying that in her presentation. Do you know of any changes in the contract
that there's a reduction in personnel? No, I was not provided any such information.
Can you clarify? It might be two different contracts. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. I think
it is the same contract. I think what the county or the commissioner or administrator referenced was
that there wouldn't be an overnight ASI guard anymore. So that is part of the reduction. And then that
the building now closes at four. So there is a slight reduction there as well. It was like 120,000-ish.
It was a larger number than
I would have to look at the number. I don't know off the top of my head. The question I've got then
is, is that coming out of this line or is that some other line? It sounds like this is news to the table,
so maybe this is a question back to the commissioner administrator. It's the second time I've heard
this brought up is all, so that's why I'm into it. I'll hold it back for our next, I think for our Thursday
cleanup, but I'm good with that, but I appreciate that. Thank you, Madam President.
Does anybody else have any other questions? I don't, because I paid attention to your budget.
I looked at it, and it's fine, and I think it's great. All right. Yes, Councilor Iverson has one more
question for you. Are the problem solving courts, are those in this budget? No. They're in the next
budget. Next budget, okay. Yes. Great. I'll save my question. Great. Well, seeing no other further questions
or comments on this item.
May we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard?
Yes. Councilor Crosley? Yes. Councilor. And Councilor Fiddle? Motion passes unanimous six zero.
Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. Next up, because the
judge is sticking with us with the last one, we have our probation department.
Council I move to open for discussion and review fund 1000 dash zero two two six county general probation
fund 1114 dash zero two seven three lit special purpose
Fund 1122-0000 Community Correction User Fees. Fund 1170-0226 Public Safety Lit Probation. Fund 2504-0000
Court Alcohol Drug User Fees. Fund 2506-0000 Problem Solving Court User Fees. Fund 4916-0000 County
Offender Transportation.
Excuse me 2100 dash zero zero zero zero supplemental adult probation services and finally funds 2150
dash zero zero zero zero supplemental juvenile probation services Second and we got a motion and a second.
We are joined by the 18 in addition To judge the cop we got Anthony Becca and we have Linda Brady here.
Welcome. I
Thank you. Thank you. Yes, this is the a team for our budgets are to deputy chief probation officers.
Becca strike and Anthony Williams and of course, our presiding judge. Um, before I get into our budgets,
the nine budgets that we have for tonight, did want to give you an update on a couple of grants that
impact our budgets. Um, the
As you know, our probation department relies heavily on grants. About 30% of our funding comes from
grants. The two primary sources of grants are the Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Department of
Correction. So we already know this, that for 26 and 27, there were significant state grant cuts because
the Indiana General Assembly and Governor Braun had different state budget priorities. And so when we
submitted our 2027
we had no information about our 2027 grants. So since that time we have received information about our
grants, and so I'll get into that and how it affects our budget. So we had to assume we weren't getting
what we thought we were going to get when we submitted the budgets. So for the DOC grants,
for 2027 from the Indiana Department of Correction. You probably remember from 2026 is budget that they
defunded all Indiana pretrial programs, and they continued for 2027 to not fund Indiana pretrial programs.
For 2027, the DOC also made a decision to defund Indiana's problem solving court programs
for the most part, there's a couple of them who got a little bit of money, but for the most part, they
defunded problem-solving court programs, including ours. Then from 2026, we received about $1.2 million
for community corrections, drug court, and mental health court. For 2027, we received a 13.8% overall
cut. So they funded the community corrections portion the same
is they have for the past eight years. So it's a flat line, eight years running of the same amount,
which in essence is a cut. And of course, nothing for the problem solving courts. So the entire community
corrections grant will go just to community corrections. So because of that, we did move some problem
solving court staff to the county general budget, which I'll talk about when I get to the county general.
Then we did
As part of our request, though, we did reduce our problem solving court staff for twenty twenty seven
by one community corrections field officer. We have two at this point and we are reducing it by one
for twenty twenty seven. And I'll get into that when I get into the various budgets.
Indiana Supreme Court grant. Now that's one that we just found out yesterday what our budget was going
to be. So we have told Kim Schell and others, our council liaisons, what our budgets were going to be.
But you may recall right before we got into budget hearings last year that because the DOC cut the problem
solving, I'm sorry, pretrial programs that
the Indiana Supreme Court came forward at the very last minute and gave us $271,000 as one-time money
to replace what we lost from the DOC, but they were very clear with us that that was one-time money
that we were not to expect it for this year. So to be safe, we added all of our pretrial
officers into County General. But just yesterday we learned that the Supreme Court is going to award
us the same exact amount for 2027 as they awarded us in 2026, which that includes the one time only
the $271,000 grant for pretrial to make up for the loss of the DOC. And we believe one of the main reasons
that we're getting such a significant grant from them is because of a decision which
give credit to Judge DeKalb for this. We are switching our case management system from Quest, which
is a proprietary system that costs to the state supervised release system SRS. And we're doing that
this year. We've already done it for juvenile. Next week we transition adult. And this is something
the state has wanted our pretrial program to move to SRS for quite some time. And as far as data collections,
because all the other pretrial programs in the state are on that on that system. So I do believe that
had a role. And plus, we're one of the best, if not the best, I think we're the best pretrial program
in the state. And we're one that the state is always referring other people to in terms of our stats
and our procedures and policies and such. So we're really, really thrilled to get this grant award.
So at this point, if it's OK, I don't want to
I'm going to go into the reductions that will result in reductions. If I could do the reductions at
the end and just keep on going, OK, OK, I'll come back to because we will be going to county general
and doing some reductions because of the grants. OK, so just to talk really briefly about each budget
county general, it's nearly all salaries and fringe benefits. I there was one pretrial probation officer
funded in this budget for 2026.
For twenty twenty seven, there still is only one full time pretrial probation officer that will continue
to be funded in this requested in this budget, plus a match money for one part of a pretrial probation
officer of forty nine seventy seven. So when still one full time, but just one piece of for some match
money for a pretrial. We also for twenty twenty six, we had two full time problem solving court field
officers in this budget.
And for twenty twenty seven, we're reducing that to one full time problem solving court field officer
in twenty twenty six. Five of our six problem solving court POs were funded probation officers were
funded in the county general. And in twenty twenty seven, due to the DOC defunding our problem solving
court program, we added the sixth
problem solving court PO position moved that to county general. So we went from five to six in county
general because of that cut. So that's really summary for county general. Special purpose lit juvenile
probation fund and public safety lit both are basically flat lined.
User fee budgets. All of our user fee budgets have statutory purposes and the goal for all of our user
fee budgets is to have sustainable budget that we believe the income is going to match what's what's
going out in expenditures. And just a reminder for you all that the probation of our county general
budget does not have any funding for the 20s or 30s. No supplies, no services except for I think four
thousand dollars.
So we have we rely on our user fee budgets to fund salaries, but also all of our supplies, all of our
services come from the user fee budgets. So juvenile probation user fees, court, alcohol and drug program
user fees, adult supplemental user fees and problem solving court user fee budgets. All of those budgets
have been flatlined. So. Just same as last year, I did want to
It's been just a minute to talk about the community corrections user fee budget, which is known as project
income. And Kate knows this from being on our Community Corrections Advisory Board, that we have had
some issues with this user fee fund because of the community corrections flatlining the grants for so
many years. It's a sister budget. This budget, the user fees is to the grant. So if the grant, let's
say they fund $20,000 for a position, the rest of it has to come out of user fees.
And so doing that for eight consecutive years, it's really eaten into to that fund balance. So in twenty
twenty four, twenty five and twenty six, our fund balance dip to two all time lows to the most dangerous
levels we have ever seen with Community Corrections Program.
We started 2025 with only $110,000 in that fund, which is very low, and 2025 ended with only $86,798,
which is extremely low, dangerously low. We worked for 2026 to cut positions. We didn't refill six community
corrections field officers when they left, and by the end of
By the by June of this year, our cash balance was up to $200,000, which is better, but not stable. But
so for the remainder of 26 and 27, we have reduced full time positions by five community corrections
field officers. They were paid partially from this fund. We did not request them in our grant and we
are not requesting them for the twenty twenty seven budget. So
That's basically it for the user fee budgets and the final budget county offender transportation. But
I just always have to do an annual shout out to Eric Spoonmore, former county counselor. That was his
favorite budget. It has been flatlined again, and we still to this day have never spent any money out
of this budget. So that is all I have. And except for the reductions and however you want to do that.
And we can go line by line or however.
whatever your pleasure is. And I think Michelle Michelle sent us this information and we should have
it ready to go here. So I was all right. This is in the general fund fund one thousand dash zero to
two six county general probation. So council I move to amend the following account lines in that fund
account line one zero zero five five to forty nine thousand and forty nine dollars.
Account Line 11422, set that to $0.00. Account Line 11423 to $0.00. Account Line 14235 to $0.00. Account
Line 14236 to $4,977.00. Account Line 14300 to $49,049.00.
account line 14302 to $9,669. Account line 18101 to $185,395. And finally, account line 18201 to $328,752.
Second. All right, we got a motion and a second to amend those items. Any further questions or comments
on this item?
It you are getting it. I hate the fact that it's coming at the last minute. Yes, it reminds me of the
Chicago Bears. But giving us a heart attack. But except this Sunday. So that being said, yeah, is I
just appreciate that. And so last year, I know we were all kind of sweating bullets and trying to figure
out how that was going to work. And this year you all are getting the exact same. I guess we'll figure
out what happens next year.
But that's next year's problems. We'll be worrying about what's in front of us now. So we appreciate
that. Y'all are the 18th. All right. Anybody else? No. Oh, Council Henry, I appreciate the comment,
though, and it's maybe more general to.
future, thinking ahead, right? Because I've been here just long enough now to have seen this kind of
conversation twice where we have probation funding from the state, and something gets slashed, and then
we absorb it into the general fund, and we try to mush it together a little bit. Do you have a sense
of what, if crystal ball, long term is on this? Because at some point, it feels like it's all incrementally
moving into the general fund, and one could hypothesize 10 years from now that the idea of state-funded
probation stuff might
The one pathway is that while we're upgrading our technology in one direction, they're pushing these
FTs into our budgets. I mean, and you do a great job trying to balance this out every year, but I bet
it feels like it's a
cost it back and forth. And the judge might have something also to say, but just to say with all the
changes that we just gave you, that the difference between last year's budget and this year's budget
is less than a one percent increase. So it's essentially flatlined, even though with adding these positions,
you're basically even this, including the cola, it's essentially flatlined. So did you want to add anything?
I mean, you're you're exactly correct.
Councilman Henry is that we have funded problem-solving courts in pretrial primarily out of grants.
There was a presentation made to the General Assembly by the Indiana Judges Association where they were
presented with especially the importance of problem-solving courts that you just can't stop it this
year and start it up again next year and had some various
things like that explained to them. And there seems to be optimism by the Indiana Supreme Court that
it was heard by the General Assembly and that they are going to do some things to try to address the
funding. And, you know, I agree that, you know, we're all holding our breath waiting to see what happened.
We're very pleased to see what the Supreme Court
gave us. So I understand what you're saying, and every year that's what we kind of do. It's like, okay,
we try not to move stuff to the county general. We try to work on the grants. When there's a problem
solving court, frequently there are still grant opportunities. There's discussion about looking at the
DOC grants and is that going to change to a different way to who will oversee them. So there is some
optimism. And so I'm going to say that I'm
optimistic as well that we'll be able to continue to use grant funding and not rely so much on the general
assembly, I mean the council, but we're also pleased that as Linda said, the increase, at the beginning
we were having panic attacks about what it looked like we were going to have to do to function, but
we all work together to look at how
and the judges to look at how we can do what we can do to not tax the county, try to change things around
and move things around. All I can do is we got where we need to be for 27 and there seems to be some
optimism for 28 coming out of the Indiana Supreme Court.
It's never smooth sailing on this one, but you seem to land and get to porch. I'll just use some water
analogies. I guess the lake's on my mind anyway. Thanks for getting the ship in harbor. Thanks, Madam
President. Sports, water, everything. Okay, Council Member Decker. Thank you very much for coming in
and explaining all this. And also that takeaway of all things considered, this is pretty much a flat
budget request, which is tremendously remarkable.
And I think just kind of listening to how we got here through our friends at the Supreme Court, not
every day you get to say that, but that really, A, hard to argue with the judge, and B, the big takeaway
for us is something that we see a lot of times in departments like this one and in areas like this.
where the credibility of the work that has been done for a number of years is making us shine in places
where it needs to shine. And it's saving us with good reputations that go up there and people that listen.
And not everybody on this side of the bench gets listened to when we just get lost on 465. And that's
that, that hard work in knowing where every
single semicolon on that ledger is and how it moves is been happening up here for a long, long time.
And that's so much appreciated beyond what happens in this department generally. And I was just waiting
in your waiting room one time going through materials that are given to folks that are clients and that
it's stuff I could give to my students to help with their
How do you think of yourself, affirm yourself, be more positive? What are we doing? How do we get out
of this where we're at? And the proof is in that pudding. So anyway, thank you for doing what you do,
because it probably saved our bacon on this one more than we are maybe knowing here.
And I just wanted to say that we've always been very aware as the third branch of government or the
other branch of government to be respectful of the other two and to be respectful of our position in
this county and what we do to be aware that what we do impacts not only our branch, but it does impact
the other branches, the other services, et cetera, and we
try to do our best to utilize and apply for what we can and then be very, very conscientious. The courts
and probation and community corrections were always very conscientious about what we are doing with
the money and how we are spending the money and being very specific about asking for what we need.
And this year for us was different as well because we are losing a court. So that's going to
be an interesting 27 for the judicial branch because we have not done that before to see how that navigates
and we are all working our way through that one as well, so. Judge, can I ask you a follow-up question
on that? When, do you recall the year when we were last at the court level we're now at?
looking at this keep going and I'll come let me do it in my head so keep going because I can do it in
my head I think yes we do need to vote on the amendment you're right you're high five okay so as we
are thinking of that yay um did I say that
Can we please have a roll call vote? You can do a voice vote on the amendment part. Well, amendment
folks, so all those in favor of approving the amendment signify by saying aye. All those opposed,
same sign. OK, motion carries. Did we get enough time or did you need to think? I think we got.
You got another question. OK. Councilmember Iverson has a question. More for you two anyway. So I really
appreciated the deep dive on 1122 the community corrections user fees. We have been looking at those
for years and just seeing kind of the ups and downs the ups and downs. And so that one looks really
healthy. Could you talk a little bit about 2504 the court alcohol drug user fee and walk us through
kind of what's happening there.
That's been our more stable of the user fee funds. And so that's where we've used this year to pay a
majority of the staff that seems to still be in decent shape. One of the things we hadn't talked about
was our use of the Trex program and the tax intercept. And that brought in a good amount of money for
us this year as well to help stabilize those user fee funds. So I think we're in a decent shape for
what we've budgeted. Okay, wonderful. Thank you.
Does anybody have anything else? No? Okay. So seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote to move
this item on. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Crossley?
Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous six zero.
Thank y'all so much. 2007. I think 2007. I think we got the we had seven. There was seven. Then I think
we got the eighth and then two or three years after that, we got the ninth. So it's been. Yes, it's
been a long time. Yes. Thank you very much. Good evening. Yes, thank you. All right. Um, I literally
thought we had something else, but apparently we do not.
And we will recess until tomorrow, Wednesday the 16th. OK. Have a good night. Bye.