All right, I'm going to go ahead because the time is now 5.02 and we do have just about enough for,
well, we do, not just about, we do have the quorum because if we just about, we wouldn't be doing it.
So I'm going to call tonight's meeting to order. The time is 5.02 and tonight is the last. Woo-hoo!
work session presentation of the twenty twenty seven budgets. Here present we have in the rooms counselor
Iverson. Myself vital and wilts and I believe. More council members will be showing up here very soon
but again y'all are here for a good time not a long time so we will continue. Does anybody wish to make any
I'm not going to go into much field too much with everything because this is the last night, so nothing
else. However, I don't think that the folks that are here presenting will take much longer than there
are a lot of time frames. We've been doing well.
we thank you all, and I thank council members for that. But if we do need to stay on target and task,
the council staff will have a timer that will be presented here. And so when you get down to five minutes,
and when you get down to one minute, I believe that machine will make a nice little beep. That's it.
And then we will wrap it up. So again, these are presentations for tonight.
The public hearing is on October 6th at 5 p.m. Tuesday, October 6th at 5 p.m. And then our final adoption
will take place on Tuesday, October 20th, also at 5 p.m. We also have Councilor LaHoc in the building.
Yay, seems like you got your time frame. Okay, so we will go ahead and get started and for the
Last night of this conversation, I'm going to look at the auditor's office. So I'm going to look at
Ms. Gregory and Ms. Woodruff for your presentations. Thank you.
Good evening, Council. On the screen before you, you should see the deficit calculation that we've been
looking at at the beginning of each of these sessions. This is also printed in front of you and was
emailed out earlier today. The only change you should see on this document are the changes from last
night's session. Those were all within the general fund budget, so you'll notice that the general fund
has changed both in the ending cash balance and the deficit calculation.
Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments? Yes, Councillor Hawke. Right. As a reminder
for some of those who might have missed the announcement, it was made at the end of a meeting, and I
missed it, was that we're going to go over these numbers again on Thursday. I don't want to put words
in your mouth.
you now. So we could do that. We can do that because this is the final night. And so at the end of this
meeting, I unfortunately have a conflict that will start at 6 30 and I have to leave there and head
back to the dungeon. So that being said, we can either do that today and eliminate the conversation
on Thursday.
or we can do that tomorrow as well, because I think there might be some adjustments that we need to
do. I think we wanted to wait until the very end after all the presentations are over and do that.
But again, work smart or not harder, right? So if we can do that tonight, that might be helpful.
Or again, if council wants to do that tomorrow and just have a easy peasy lemon squeezy
that's up to us. But yes, you are correct. And a lot of it depends on what the commissioners say, and
we don't have the okay on that. Exactly. So I don't know how we could finish up tonight. That's exactly.
Exactly. I just wanted to make sure because I had missed that announcement. No, no, it's okay. When
are we going to do this? Oh, no, no. It is all good. So again, if council members want to look at that,
We can, you know, talk about that after we have the last presentation. But again, all of this is contingent
upon the edit use and that conversation our mind, us and folks of the public will be next Tuesday on
the 22nd. Yes, Councilmember Everson and for the record, we also have everybody here because now we
have counselors Henry and Decker. Welcome.
I just wanted to celebrate the four B's are up and we're able to see them. And I just verified that,
at least in the general fund, the numbers match. So, yay, we match. Yes, there you go.
I might just add on, I know that there's some budgetary adjustments as far that you want to make. When
we do that, it would be great if we also look at the levies, because we're going to need some adjustment
there. If you'll recall, we funneled all of the COLA adjustment, the growth quotient, I'm sorry, adjustment
into the general fund. So we'll need to even that out where it's necessary. Good point. Thank you very
much for that. Yes, Council Hawke.
It is everything because it tells us whether or not we need to move the dollars over into the other
funds. And I was contacting some people today to say, you know, the Otter's office has asked us to review
the four B's. Please look at yours and let me know if you think these numbers are going to work for
you because I don't want to put the words in another department. And, you know, the elected official
knows what their budgets look like.
So but I gave them my word. We are going to be looking at it again. Absolutely. Anybody else? All right.
Thank you very much for that. And we will go ahead and proceed. So we will go with the first budget
here in tonight, which is the combined emergency dispatch budget. Council, I move to open for discussion.
That's budget.
second. All right, we got a motion. We got a motion and a second. Um and we are joined by the Bloomington
police fire chief, Mr Michael Decoff and Mr Bailey, the dispatch manager. Welcome. Police chief. Yes,
said that. Sorry. No, no, I want to respect your title. So thank you. We're here to present the budget
The 2027 budget for the Monroe County Central Emergency Dispatch Center. The total amount of the request
is $5,445,934.01. I'm going to just kind of touch on the highlights of the increases and any other specific
questions you might have about the budget. I will let the dispatch manager Jared Bailey answer because
he knows it much better than I do.
The salary lines increases are Cola and the city step increases. And along with that are the FICA and
Perf increases associated with that. So as you're well aware, all the health insurance costs, all of
that's increased. So that kind of summarizes the increases in the salaries. There's no increases in
the supplies.
Um, the communication contracts that we have, um, those, um, have their yearly increases. Um, there's
also an increase of $20,000 for the UPS maintenance, which is a three year every three year process.
And 27 is the, the year that that gets, um, upgraded. Um, obviously the cost for electrical water sewer,
all those, um, will increase.
that we're going to be working on as well next year. Um under machinery and equipment. We're having
some generator issues, so there's some. Cost related expenses to make sure that that generator stays,
stays functioning and working in emergency situations when we lose power. Um. Under other repairs is
an increase of
for the dispatch social worker. And last but not least, there's a slight increase in, um. Under under
other services and chargers for software for the dispatch social worker. So. I will entertain questions
and probably pass them to Jared. Thank you very much. Council I just want to say that the
printing off the updated budget. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. No. Yes. Counselor Hawke. Right.
I know that there's a lot of links that we haven't figured out how to put together in the coming years.
Or perhaps some have and I just don't know what the
so far but in the past we've always handled this with an inner local and I understand that the city
of Bloomington would like their own central dispatch and it's going to be your plan is to put it in
your building when you're finished if you finish with the new building that's being projected. So are
you planning that to be a central dispatch or just the city dispatch?
What's your plan? So there have You're correct. We operate under an interlocal agreement between the
city and the county That agreement hasn't been updated in many years. I know that the city's legal department
Would like to review that I think with the county legal department so that we can get that updated but
the the the plan would be when we
When we move to hopefully a new facility on South Roger Street, that we will bring dispatch along with
us so that everything is under one roof. But as of now, I've the plan is to maintain the city county
dispatch relationship and just just move everything to a new location. It seems to me that in turn,
you know, we get some kind of interlocal agreement that is
has a definite timeline for moving forward with whatever our plan is, but keeping us where we are now
presently so that we're making sure there's no glitch or anything, but making sure it doesn't go beyond
where this gets switched over where the county has more responsibility because that that entire public
safety responsibility is going to be, it appears,
on the county in part of our 1.2 and your portion will be in the city under your 1.2 unless we do it
somehow different but that unless the law changes between now and the time we actually do it so there's
a lot of talking heads that need to start talking to one another and
and committing it to paper so we know when we're budgeting, whether we're budgeting for a growth of
city's expenses that's going to end up being our expense or city's expense that's going to be the city's
expense. So, and I think if you were looking at budgets, you would have to agree and you don't have
to agree with me now, but just to tell you that I think we have some concerns to make sure that we keep
everybody home until it's time
for the cutoff time, whatever that's going to be. I will take back to our attorneys, the county's desire
to look at the interlocal and make sure that we have everything in place. Well, I was just going to
reiterate that it's not just counselor hawk, but I do think it's probably a good idea that we have a
two phase review of interlocal agreement here, you know, one for now,
until you all are able to move and then have something ready to go once you moved, because it sounds
like there are going to be a lot of moving parts. I would agree. With all of that. So I was just echoing
in some respects what the Councilor was saying. Council Member Decker. Thanks for being here, Chief.
My question to you is, when you heard a Councilor say that there's support looking at the interlocal, all that,
Is that the first time you've heard that from anyone on the county? If you can share with me about local?
Yeah, no, it's it's it's there's been conversations about we need to do this. There just hasn't been
any conversations about a date of when we would start doing this. So I sometimes like to ask the obvious
because I worry that we haven't talked about the obvious. No, Councilor Hawke's correct. It's it's.
a pretty old agreement, and it hasn't been updated in a long time, and a lot of things have changed.
And so it does need to be reviewed and updated, because there's things that are in there that we don't
do anymore, and it's just, so it's just, it's time. Logistically, there we go. Logistically, this, I
do want the microphone to pick up,
At best estimate, when would that earliest dispatch be at the other place that's just in the papers?
And I mean that in a, literally just in the paper. I'm no construction person, but I'm guessing 28,
maybe. That'd be ambitious, probably. Probably. Yeah. I like to put that in the scheme of things because, you know,
We've had structure issues all our own. That's a different book. But I'd kind of like to keep that in
the conversation, too. There's a lot going on there. Thank you all for being here. I really appreciate
you taking the time. Just a clarifying question and then a question about the budget.
The information we just handed shows that the total budget here is $5.4 million, and in the packet it
says $5.2, $5.3 million. The total here is $5.4, right? That is correct. Okay. All right. So what you
see on your screens is the budget that was just read out by Richard Deakoff. Okay. My question then
is on line 51110, salaries and wages regular, how many FTEs does that represent?
that. It represents a total of 32 telecommunicators, six supervisors, two management staff, and a dispatch
social worker. Great. That helps. Thank you. Yes, Councillor Hogg. A couple things. First, does this
also cover self insurance out of that for those folks? Can you repeat that?
We have set in the county. We have self insurance and we have to, you know, county pays for portion
of it. And so a large portion of it. And so where are where is the insurance paid for this? The staff
people here? If you look at 51230, there's health and life insurance. OK, so that but it.
Did you figure so much for each position that's there, whether it's filled or not? Because in the past,
we've seen you ask for so many people, but several of those are left unfilled. And we know you're not
going to fill that many in any one given year, because it takes, the chief has made sure I understand
this, it takes a long time to
get people ready to go and be online. And so then you don't want to bring them all in at once. But I
think the number was like six at a time, and then another six at a time, and so forth. So it would be
my hope that if you have budgeted for more than what you actually have filled right now, that you would
come back and do an additional for additional salaries and appropriations.
And that has to do because this interlocal just leaves everybody hanging out. Unless the interlocal
has changed, it has said that if there's a shortfall, the city and the county will share equally the
shortfall. Then it also talks about the distribution of any revenue that's left over and how that's
going to be distributed if ever there's not an interlocal. So you can see why.
the county would want to make sure that we're watching every dollar, just as I would expect you and
the people who represent you and all of the finances in your area would be watching. So I just want
to make sure that we're both staying on top of it and being absolutely fair and equal to one another.
But boy, that interlocal brought up to date would really keep us from having to ask too many questions
that there's truly no answer for.
sure the I'm sure you're aware of the way the city budgets we budget for every allocated position we
so we would we can take that this budget reflects that the dispatch center is funded through PS lit
and I own I know that's going to change in the coming years but I am aware that the controller has been
talking with county officials about
the changes to that fund and how that will impact the funding of dispatch. So I know that that is definitely
being discussed and watched. No questions. So thank you. Are there any other questions? All right.
I just wanted to point out, I don't know if the public's been able to see the whole budget, but if you
could just scroll down to the bottom half, I can't tell because it's so tiny, but in the lines that
are in purple, which are 53-150 and 53-160, are those two lines coming through the county and paid directly?
Is that why they're highlighted differently?
That's my understanding. That's my understanding, too. I just wanted to kind of make sure that that
was correct and that folks got a chance to see kind of how that worked. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else?
All right. Seeing none, may we have a roll call vote on this item? Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor
Iverson? Yes.
Yes. Councillor Hawk. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. And Councillor Deckard. Motion passes
by majority six one six zero one. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up. Here.
take a five minute break so they can reboot the mic so whenever you want to do that. Stay tuned as we
work through technical difficulties. Thank you. Order in the court.
All right, so we are going to go ahead and get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Thank you
all very much for your patience as we work through first world problems. So next up we have the review
of the waste production district.
Council I move to open for discussion review fund eighty two ten solid waste management operating fund
eighty two eighty three solid waste district debt service and finally fund twelve fifteen solid waste
district non-reverting capital. All right a motion and a second we are joined by Mr. McGlaskin and Mr.
Arnold welcome.
Good evening, I'm Tom Lasson, the director of the waste reduction district. I have our controller John
Arnold here with me. I think as we usually do, I will just in essence of time go through and briefly
highlight some of the significant increases and decreases in the proposed budget versus the current year.
In the personnel services category, our budget does include a 3.5% wage increase. That's based on the
Midwest Urban Wager Wagerer Index, the CPIW that we've historically used to do our COLA wage adjustments.
We are also seeking to increase the hours for one position. Our office manager is currently scheduled
for 30 hours a week. We have budgeted to move that position to 35 hours a week, based on the current
workload that's there. And if you'll recall, last year we talked
For this current budget year, we had a pretty good decrease in our health insurance line. We're also,
for 27, that's reduced another $70,000. You might recall last year I explained that through a number
of circumstances and the way that the increases for that budget line had been calculated in our previous
accounting software, it kind of got out of line with what our actual expenses are. And I believe that
With this reduction for 27, that will bring that line more true to what the district's actual expenses
are for health insurance as we move forward. In the supplies category, a fuel increase of $1,500. I
think we're all feeling the bite of fuel right now, but I don't think that's too big of an increase
given where costs are.
I also have a $3,500 increase in road-based materials. That is really for gravel at our rural recycling
centers for lot maintenance and the roads at our landfill that are in need of some additional work from
what we usually do on an annual basis. And the services category, we have quite a few changes.
There's a $2,000 increase in engineering. We need to do a groundwater elevation survey at the landfill.
We do that every few years at items request. As the landfill has been closed for a number of years now,
things are settling and moving, and they want us to survey our groundwater wells to ensure that our
groundwater elevation data is accurate for the sampling events we have to do twice a year.
We're also expecting the $5,000 increase in our laboratory line. We do anticipate a price increase from
our lab. We do have a $22,000 decrease in our consultant line, and that is specific to our multi-dwelling
compost program. We have had a consultant that set that program up and had been running it for the past
couple of years or the first two years of that.
That consultant has since moved out of state and we've elected to bring that program in-house and manage
it in-house moving forward. We did talk last year, it was our first year with a community grant program.
I think we've awarded five grants this year, about 18, a little over $18,000 in total on those.
But we're pleased with that and have increased $10,000 in that line for 27 and plan to do some better
promotion of that program for 27 and hope that we can get that money out to local entities to do things
to promote and further our mission.
are doing a $5,000 increase in media advertising. We'd like to expand our media presence on some new
platforms. We're currently right now pretty much specific to television and radio, and with the advent
of social media and so forth, we'd like to expand our media presence.
There is a $60,000 increase in our liability line, and that is specific to we are required to have a
pollution prevention policy at the closed landfill. It is a 3-year policy, renews every 3 years, and
that will be due in 27. Vehicle repair and maintenance is increasing $9,000. That is based on expenses
that we have seen year to date this year and over the previous few years.
The same with machinery and equipment, repair and maintenance, a $13,500 increase just based on our
recent and current experience. I have a $9,500 decrease in snow removal. We have purchased snow plows
for our pickup trucks, two of our pickup trucks, and we're going to be managing snow removal at our
facilities in-house moving forward.
We have a $15,700 increase in machinery and equipment rental. We've talked with our board officers,
the board's executive committee, the compactor units that we use at our recycling centers are all about
20 years old. It's time to replace those, and that will take some time to do, but that new equipment
is going to have a higher monthly lease cost on it.
I got a $3,000 increase in education and training just to try to get some more training and education
for our employees. A $10,000 increase in the leachate disposal line. That's kind of based on what we've
seen this year and, you know, trying to anticipate long range forecasts and what we think we'll need.
A $25,000 increase in household hazardous waste disposal costs are increasing. The types of materials
that we're getting and the volumes of those materials.
Some of them are costly, and that is really increasing our costs. We do have a $35,000 decrease in our
hauling contract. That is based on where we are year to date. You might recall we were under a new agreement
with a new vendor that was entered into in June of 2025, so some of that is still a learning process.
But with that new vendors processes and how they haul materials, we've also made some operational changes
that are decreasing the amount of hauling that we need done. A $10,500 increase in waste tire processing.
That's related to the waste tire amnesty days that we have started doing over the past year and a half,
I think, which and for those listening, we have an event this Saturday at the fairgrounds.
Uh, we also, um, do get, uh, have $10,000 annual grant from item, uh, that we've been awarded, uh, uh,
to do those events. Um, uh, recycling fees is decreasing, uh, $2,100. Uh, that's again based the new
vendor agreement. And when we did the 26 budget, we had just entered into that agreement and we kind
of overestimated what our expenses would be for the recycling on that.
And in a $2,000 increase in permits and licenses, we know we have some increases coming on some of those
software licenses in particular. In the capital category, $50,000 decrease in vehicle purchases. We
don't have any vehicle purchases planned. And a $31,000 increase in machinery and equipment purchase lease.
In addition to having 20 year old compactor units, most of our roll off containers are 20 plus years
old and repair costs have started approaching or in some cases exceeding the cost of purchasing new
containers. So we've started. You might recall earlier this year, we came to you with an additional
appropriation request to replace a number of those containers, and we're budgeting next year to replace
more of those. That's what I have to highlight from the operating fund. We can
deal with questions on that now or I can do go move on to the debt fund if you'd like, whatever your
preference. Yeah, in an interested time we should keep going. Okay, so on the debt service, final payment
is due in February. Yay.
And, I mean, everything is, and talking with DLGF should balance out, but the way that the tax disbursements
fall when the payments are due, the operating fund is going to have to loan a little over $47,000 to
the debt service fund in January to cover that payment in February, and we'll get tax disbursements
in June and December that should balance that fund out at the end of the year.
And then in the the capital improvement fund, that's one we have money in that fund We generally pass
a zero-sum budget every year So that as we had to do this year if we need to appropriate money out of
that fund The budget is on file with the state and it eliminates some steps to get that money available
Thank you very much for that any questions or comments from council members counselor Hawk and
Yes, it's good to see you folks again. Just as a reminder for some folks, it might be new to many years
ago. Well, many years ago, the county did all the solid waste and it wasn't a combined issue. But we
had for years, they also received a portion of the income tax. And then a few years back,
We said, well, we're not going to share that income tax with you anymore. Now, my question is, have
you looked at, because we know the growth of the income tax is supposed to be, growth of the property
tax is not going to be the same, the growth portion of it, and because you don't get the income tax
to make up for the shortfall like some of the other units do,
have you looked at that? And are you going to be all right? Are you going to just play the waiting game
and then come back next year and tell us where you are? Because as a reminder, if some waste district
would get any portion of it, if that would come up to be decided, that is the same 0.2 that could be
reduced to 0.1 because all we get is 1.7. But that's where the
Townships get money. That's where Bloomington Transit gets money. And that's where the library gets
money. And so that's going to be a tough nut to say extra money for solid waste. So I don't know. If
you're looking at it, are you going to be OK?
Well, obviously, we have looked at the proposed changes to the property tax laws and the potential impacts
that that might have on us. Obviously, at this point, nobody knows exactly what is going to happen and
what the true impact is going to be. But we are, at least in the short term, we are okay. We have ample
cash reserves that we would be able to survive.
Probably at least one, if not two budget cycles absorbing any decrease in property tax revenues that
may come. But yeah, we'll have to, in order to be able to maintain our existing level of programs and
services for the community, we will have to find other sources of revenue to offset those losses in
the long run.
Um, I just wanted to say, since I am the, the council designated the board that, um, you know, we approved,
we, we reviewed this, we've gone over in detail, I think almost every single line here. Um, and I really
appreciate the stewardship that, um, you both provide to the account lines here because that is,
obviously a point of discussion that we've had in our executive committee meetings about, okay, so things
are changing, how are we addressing it? And I've been very appreciative of the way in which Mr. McGlasson
has led his staff and stewarded the budgets to really provide that cushion.
for that all right seeing no councilor vital so I can't help but notice that the and I'm not disparaging
it but I noticed that the salary increase is three and a half percent and for the county in general
is two at this point so I wonder if you could elaborate on that a little bit
Well, we have historically used the Midwest Wager Index, the CPIW, and that is historically what we've
used. And unfortunately, it comes down to timing because our budget has to go through our board so early.
We have to kind of settle in on that before we know exactly what the county is going to do. And to be
blunt and honest, you know, at the time that we
elected that COLA increase. What I had was the county was going to be anywhere from zero to six percent.
Okay. All right. Thank you for your honesty. All right. Well, thank you very much for that. And may
we please have a roll call vote. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Well,
I thought we were still having the conversation about the salary increase. How do we go straight to
the roll call? I'll just have to say no, because I was going to suggest that they had the same salary
increase that the county does. So I'll just have to say no. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes.
Councilor Decker? Yes. And Councilor Crossley? Yes. Motion passes by majority six one.
All right. Thank you very much for that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up is item seven, which
is the Monroe Fire Protection District Council. I moved to open for discussion and review fund eighty
six oh three special fire general and fund eighty six ninety one special fire cumulative fire and finally
fund zero zero six one rainy day. Second.
We got a motion and a second and joining us is our fireteeth. Mr. Diller and Lori Robinson, our financial
manager. Welcome. Good evening. Thanks for having us. Ready for me? Yes, sir. Go ahead. All right. Better
get the clock up so I know. Oh, yeah. You got it.
And you can just roll through all of them. Sounds good. So I'm going to cover the general fund and cumulative
fund. And then Lori's going to talk about our rainy day and a couple of donation funds that we have.
So, you know, first and foremost, there's been years of discussion, work and meetings, um, to get to
where we are currently. Um, you know, we now have a staff station coming in in January and being blossom
township. Um, and, and that's, uh,
something that took several years. Because of that, we're looking at a $1,089,000 increase over last
year's budget to staff that station 24-7. We've once again submitted assistance to firefighters grant,
which, if that's successful, could hire some additional firefighters over the next few years and offset
some of the costs that we've
that we've previously looked at. So things are changing. We're still adding geographic area. We're still
adding firefighters, and we'll kind of discuss some of the details as we move through here. So if you
look at our cost of living adjustment, it's kind of a good transition from solid waste to ours. We are
at 4% cost of living adjustment with this budget.
We do understand that the county is doing too, but we are still playing catch up slightly on competitive
fire service in Monroe County specifically and really in our region. So while we're close, we're not
quite there and we need to continue to make progress on that.
In this budget, there's fewer chiefs once again. Last year, we made a permanent elimination of an assistant
chief position, and we made a temporary reduction in the battalion chief positions due to vacancies
in our current organizational structure. And I can tell you that we have definitely felt the need to
work back towards getting the second battalion, but this just wasn't the year to try and get that done
mathematically.
We senior chiefs, myself, the deputy chiefs, and the assistant chiefs have been assisting in covering
those roles when needed.
I do see that there are some shifts occurring since the merger. It was discussed early on that we were
top heavy, and there definitely was truth to that. But as time has went on and we've gotten more organized,
we have reduced those positions as we go. So I hope you all, each year when I talk about this, you know
that we are still paying attention to the way we're structured. In the office for pay category,
Um, you know, there are vacancies, uh, currently in some of the positions, captain, lieutenant, sergeant,
chauffeur, and those are merit positions. So we have to go through a specific process to fill those.
Um, and with that, there's really no reason to budget for an entire year.
When we know that those vacancies probably won't take place until next fall Won't be filled until next
fall. So this budget takes that into consideration and we've reduced that In the full-time firefighters
category we are increasing by six firefighters, but those are dedicated to being blossom township So
there are six firefighters still
that we've been working on. We've been working out there that our grand plan, if you will, was to phase
up to, but we're holding on those six firefighters. The firefighters that were adding this year are
those needed to staff that being blossom stations. So, um, again, um, I'll mention those six firefighters
again. And probably again next year and the year after that, and if we can add them 123 at a
we're going to try and get those positions filled this time around. As you know, over the years, we've
hired so many full time folks that we've depleted our volunteer ranks and our part time ranks really
about every time we did a process. This time we're building those up and with us hiring less full time
positions. Uh
really a big hit this time around for us was the state mandated employer contribution increase in the
77 fund police and fire. They increased that statutorily from 23.5 to 26.5 for the certified salaries.
So really, whatever salary we are paying or giving an increase to, there was a 3% increase on top of
that this year as well. So it really, really kind of
We've had a lot of volunteers. We've had a lot of volunteers who have tied our hands and some other
areas. Um but on a very efficient and cost effective practice. Um. Our volunteer volunteer association
is definitely alive and well again. Um you know, there was a time when a lot of our departments were
needing to merge because our volunteer numbers just weren't where they needed to be. But we've really
revitalized that. And while we do
non-emergency responder volunteers that help supplement the many tasks that we were also taxing our
firefighters with. So whether that be our fire prevention details, our community events, we have a robust
group of volunteers who are really helping us thrive in the public relation area. So outside of personnel,
we're looking at supplies categories, we really just
Well, it was difficult for Lori and I. No, I'm kidding. We took the red pen to most of those categories
based on our actuals. So if you look at our actuals over the last few years, you'll see that really
we slimmed those down to where they're exactly where we need them to be. And that included quite a few
changes in those categories. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that you see a reduction in all those
categories because
there was an anticipated increase for some of those with bean blossom. So what we did before we did
this budget is we took that bean blossom expectation. We carved out the fire district's 2026 budget
and then added those two together. So some of those lines don't show as drastic decreases what Lori
and I saw looking at 2026 is fire district budget. And that's because every category was impacted by
that merger.
And the services categories, you know, those are reflective of the budget, um, that we presented during
those bean blossom mergers. And we tighten those up also based on 2025 and the first half of 2026. Um,
so we're pretty happy with, with where we're at in those services category. Uh, but there's really not
anything left in supplies and services for us to shift.
Uh, if I'm moving into cumulative fund, uh, which I teased Lori and said, I usually did that anyway.
And then you guys caught me and told me that we weren't on that budget. But since we're doing it all,
um, you know, our cumulative fire rate is still at the 0.0333 and that applies to all of our townships
within the fire district. We've completely paid all of our debt off.
effective this 2026 year. So we are going to have a lot of funds available in cumulative fund to start
catching up on equipment. When we merged five years ago, there was a vast variety of different apparatus,
different equipment, and we have slowly mitigated some of the issues and the complexities of having
a fleet that really is a code of many callers, if you will.
But we're to the point where it's time to start replacing a lot of that equipment and freeing up those
debts, being debt free and using the cumulative fund and the rainy day fund to to make those purchases
cash outright. It's going to save our taxpayers a lot of interest. So we're happy that that is something
that we promised years ago. And we're finally to the point where we're able to execute that.
So with that, we've got
the rainy day fund that L'Oreal mentioned that's got some equipment in that that we're going to pay
cash for. Hello, counselors. The rainy day fund, as Dustin mentioned, we're using that to purchase new
to new apparatus. We budgeted for that for twenty twenty six one point seven million. That's a fire
boat and a new engine. But it takes a long time to
we're not asking for any new budgetary numbers for 2027. For the rainy day. Um those are all the
that we have to mention is that we are following the state Board of accounts directive and creating
budgets for our special programs, donation fund and our restricted donation fund for this year. But
since our board of fire trustees has authority over those home rolled funds, we don't didn't really
present them at this meeting, but our board did have a public meeting and voted those two.
to approve those numbers. Auditor Gregory will be submitting it with the form three for advertising
through this form. Okay, thank you very much for your presentation. Councilors, do you have any questions
on their budget? Councilor Hawk? Yes, I understand that the commissioners will be meeting. Is that tomorrow?
They're going to be meeting to discuss your tax rate or tax levy. What is it? It's the max levy is the
max levy. So and and I. So is this budget? Did you include what you anticipate will be approved at the
commissioners meeting?
Okay, so what we're voting on right now is not that vote on yet by the commissioners, but this is not
the final vote anyway, but I just wanted to okay, so I'd like to know what what the difference is going to be
where it was before, and then what's been bossed and added. So there's just a change in process,
if you will. So the law changed in how we've done this previously. In the past, when we had a merger
the numbers that we presented during those public meetings. We then drafted a letter and sent it to
DLGF to increase our maximum levy. The process now requires the commissioners to have a resolution allowing
us to do so. So once they do that, I'll take that letter, just like we did the previous, and we'll send
that to DLGF. So we're not doing anything different than what we have in the past. It's just the process
is different this year. But the numbers.
So the former max levy, the previous max levy was estimated at $12,668,400. With the new beam blossom
budget, our new max levy that we have asked for is $13,757,526. On the 4B, we're not asking to tax on
the full max levy.
we'll only be taxing on $13,257,526. And that increases $1,089,126. Wait a second. We'll only be taxing
on $13,000. Say that again, please. The 4B shows our requested tax levy is $13,257,526. OK, and then
Destin said,
It's $1,089,126. It's for? That is for the addition of Bean Blossom Township. That's the addition for
it. OK, and do we know what the tax was going to change for the tax rate? Yeah, the rates, I believe,
with current
twenty twenty seven tax code it was point three one four zero. Lori can cited off the paper I'm going
off of a lot of numbers. We expect the tax rate to settle at point three one four zero our advertised
rate is slightly higher than that based off ninety seven percent of the. Net net eighty.
This is a lot to learn. And it's been a joy trying to get through it. We've been working on this together
for a long time. And we just think, oh, this is awful. Every year is something else. And we do it somehow.
It's exciting. So I appreciate you bringing all this in. I appreciate you answering questions. Because
as you know, this is in my district, where Bean Blossom is. And some people are delighted, and some
people aren't.
And they all think it's my fault, whichever it is. So I'll take it. I got broad shoulders. Counselor
Iverson. Well, I'm happy the fire protection district is in my district as well. And I think for all
of those folks watching, the increase in the personnel lines gives a little bit of extra hope that there's
going to be someone responding when they need it. And in fact, that's the question that I wanted to
ask is down in the supply lines. 83 or four is your EMS supplies.
It's a healthy growth there. Thirty seconds. Can you give us kind of where EMS is in the county these
days? Because I know when we were talking about giving extra vehicles and all that stuff, it was, it
has changed.
We currently have one ambulance that is got dedicated staff to it 24 seven so that there are actually
bodies in that apparatus. We have a second ambulance that's cross staffed with a rescue. So if a second
call goes out for the ambulance still hop in the ambulance and not take the rescue truck that
we traditionally would have taken in the past. So we essentially have
I'm going to call it 1.5 ambulances live and well on the street. We're also doing a lot of special events
with those, which has alleviated some of the staffing burdens for IU Health. One big, I guess, important
thing, and if Jeffrey wants to walk up here, he might be able to give you more detail.
We are getting really close to ambulance dispatching in the county going to avl which is the automate
Automated vehicle location. So the closest unit when that happens our call volume with the ambulances
will definitely increase Right now we're in that reserve capacity because the two systems don't necessarily
work well together So when that happens um
Jeffrey can probably give me a timeline on that, but that is a big part of this. We do anticipate EMS
calls going up in 2027. Jeff, I'll tell you why. Yeah, so basically the way that we've structured the
county on AVL engines is we send the closest resource. It doesn't matter jurisdictional lines,
township lines, anything else. We send whatever the closest resource. So once the AVL units work,
on the ambulance side of it, which ours are alive and well and functioning as our engines do. It's getting
IU Health to add that component to theirs that will allow the closest ambulance resource in the county
to be sent to the appropriate calls. Do the surrounding counties and their ambulance services, do they
have AVL as well?
I can't answer that. I don't know. I can tell you that I changed those to AVL engines probably back
in 2023 to where we send the closest resource, appropriate resource, and that has tremendously made
a difference on call volumes. And then I think we were talking that we're expecting call volumes to
increase. Why is that?
Vanebearing Township, which is the township that the staffed ambulance is in, sees a large number of
medical calls in Monroe County. So they'll get that resource every time it's close. And they'll get
it automatically, not back up. Good to know. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? All right.
I would like to make one comment since we talked about that ambulance stuff. And this is like not even
off the press yet, but yesterday at the countywide fire chief's meeting, we finally put into stone countywide
automatic aid. So Monroe fire, the city of Bloomington and Ellisville will be running jurisdiction free
to structure fires October 1st. Oh, wow. That's great.
Wow. Very good. Thank you. That's great. That's awesome. Thank you very much for that. Particularly
for people way out on the edges of the county. Took a while. That's fantastic. Yeah, and especially
in your areas, your urban areas, like your Perry areas, your Van Buren areas, where there's city resources
stacked on top of county resources in those same jurisdictionals, it'll be night and day to what services
they get quick. Fantastic. Yeah.
On the south side, we are half county, half city station 22. All right. So with that being said, may
we please have a roll call? Councilor Wills. Yes. Councilor Henry. Yes. Councilor Decker. Yes. Councilor
Crossley. Yes. Councilor Iverson. Yes. Councilor Fiddle. Yes. And Councilor Hawke. Yes. Passes unanimous
seven zero.
Thank you all very much. I keep looking forward to having their meetings here so that we can all participate.
I ask that every year. I know. Don't let it happen. I was waiting for that. I know. You're sick of hearing
it. All right. So we will thank you. Counselor Henry has left, but we still have a quorum, and we will
continue on with the next presentation, which is from the Monroe County Public Library. Counsel, I move
to open for discussion and review, Fund 0101, General Operating.
fund zero one eight zero debt service and finally fund zero zero six one rainy day. And we are joined
by the financial manager welcome good evening good evening I'm Gary letler finance director Greer Carson
is at a library board meeting tonight or he would be here.
I'll start by summarizing the library's 2027 budget information that's in the county budget system.
For 2027, the total budget amount proposed for the library is $14,619,210. It's a 6% increase from the
2026 total library budget. The rainy day fund budget is $730,000.
We have that in place for large unexpected spending needs like building repairs. I'm not expecting any
actual spending from the rainy day fund next year. The debt fund budget is $640,713 and it covers the
payments that will be due on two bonds. The first bond is a $2 million general obligation bond that
will be paid off
at the end of 2027. The 2027 amount due on that bond is $271,000. We do not plan to renew the six-year
$2 million bond after it is paid off next year. We have used the general obligation bond to fund the
library's technology needs, including public use computers and software. It's also been used
for the library's facility repairs and improvements. A new book mobile will be delivered later this
year, which is being purchased with funds from this bond. After 2027, we plan to pay for technology
and facility needs out of the operating fund budget. This is one reason the library will need the full
amount of the growth quotient increase for the next several years.
The second bond being paid for out of the debt fund is a 20-year, $6 million bond that helped pay for
the Southwest Branch construction. That payment is about $370,000 a year. After 2026, we will have 15
years left to pay off the Southwest Branch bond. Most of the proposed $14.6 million budget
is for the operating fund. The operating budget is $13,248,497. About 70% of the operating fund budget
is for wages and benefits. For 2027, there are no plans for major increases to current levels of library
service. There may be some slight staff adjustments
But there are no dramatic changes in library service plan for 2027 that would require more staff. For
the 2027 budget, we're using an estimated wage increase of 2.75% or 75 cents an hour, whichever is greater.
When we get to year end and we know what health care related costs
will be for 2027, then we will make a final decision on wage adjustments for 2027. We have had some
indications that health care costs for 2027 could rise by more than we have seen in the past several
years. Questions that many libraries are probably being asked in the new
library budget approval process is, why do you need a 6% increase in the tax levy? The answer is based
on the long-term plan for the library service in Monroe County. The change to library service that has
had the most impact on Monroe County in recent years has been the addition of the Southwest branch.
I hope you've had a chance to go and maybe participate in a teaching kitchen program. After the completion
of the Southwest branch, the rainy day fund was drained down to its minimum level, which is a million
dollars. Since then, we've had an operating surplus each year that has grown the rainy day fund balance
to about $3.3 million.
The library is not planning for any major service expansion for at least the next five years. For the
long term, the library is planning for service expansion as the county continues to grow. The growth
quotient, which is 6% for 2027, is a reflection of the average growth in personal income for Indiana
residents over the past six year period.
The mission of the library is to provide the best possible service with available income. Increases
to the library revenue from property taxes in future years will help the library grow along with the
county's need for library service. In 15 years, the current loan for the Southwest branch will be paid
off. One scenario for the next
service expansion would be to build a branch on the east side of the county after the current branch
bond is paid off. Funding would come from operating surplus that has accumulated in the rainy day fund
and possibly another construction bond. 15 years is a long time. Another scenario is that the library's efforts
in cultivating philanthropic sources of revenue are successful, and we pay off the bond early. In the
next five years, the library plans to put more resources into cultivating philanthropic giving, including
exploring what is available from charitable foundations and planned giving from donors. Monroe County
has seen the impact of philanthropy
The original downtown library was paid for by the Carnegie Foundation. Our goal is to pay for Bloomington's
next library branch construction with revenue from philanthropic sources instead of a bond issue. Any
questions? Thank you very much for that. Council members, do you all have any questions? Councilor Hawke. Yes.
As you already know, I love our libraries. I love the old library. I still call it the old library.
You know where the history center is? That's the library I grew up with. And it's so special to so many
people in this community. And so I'm very interested in the health of our library. I also have to look
at the fact that,
you have for years counted on receiving a large portion of the revenue from the income checks, which
unless something happens, you will not be receiving that. The years keep mixed up when you're going
to stop getting it. Or if you're going to get a portion of it, and I'm sure you're already aware of
this, it has to come out of that portion that the county gets. It's like 0.2.
that's available that might come down to 0.1, because we can only get 1.7 for the whole county.
And so 1.2 for operations, 0.4 for fire and EMS, and 0.2 for townships and library and solid waste,
if we want, and Bloomington Transit. And so since we can only do 1.7, one of those has to lose 0.1.
And I don't know which one will be. It won't be my decision. But how much having said all that, how
much is the library hoping that they will or working around what your revenue might be once this comes
into place? Because I don't think there's anybody here right now that knows what's going to happen.
We've seen the local income tax projections for 2027. We're fine with that. And if something down the
road causes a decrease in that revenue or a big change, we'll make adjustments. We'll just deal with
it. I just wanted you to know that that's something we're facing to have to make decisions on, so it's
not a surprise. And I'm sure it's not, because you're staying on top of it. Just wanted to remind you.
I wanted to start off by thanking you for mentioning the bookmobiles. I have people in my family and
many people in my district who simply can't get out to one of your branches, and your bookmobiles make
sure that they have a steady supply of fresh reading materials. So we really appreciate you including
those populations in your bookmobile services.
You know, you did mention that the majority of your budget is in those personnel lines. And, you know,
that's just something that we deal with as well. So I think, you know, one of the things that we keep
talking about is healthcare and the rising cost of healthcare. Could you talk a little bit about how
you're dealing with that in your organization? We have been fairly fortunate the last several years.
Our increases have ranged from 0 to 5 percent. You know, I think maybe last year was 8 percent. And
next year we expect that based on our claims history so far this year, we expect that we could see a
lot larger, 15, 20 percent.
I have built that contingency into the personnel category. So whatever happens, we've got it covered.
I really like your attitude. It's a really positive can-do attitude. That's fantastic. Yeah. Okay. Anybody
else? Yeah. Thank you very much.
And may we please have a roll call on their budget. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes.
Councillor Fiddle? Yes. Councillor Hawke? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Motion
passes unanimous six zero. All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate all that you do. Thank you.
Next up, I will say, council, I have to leave after the start of this next upcoming budget. I again
have to go back to the dungeon across the street. So I we will hear from our convention center. Council,
I moved to open for discussion and review fund eleven twenty seven dash zero zero
zero zero convention visitor tourism fund forty nine oh nine dash zero zero zero zero convention visitor
capital improvement fund and finally the twenty twenty seven combined CIB convention center budget we
need a longer table. Yeah you all can pull up chairs on the to the table because and we also have a
familiar face around here welcome everybody did ask him if it was weird sitting back there rather than
somewhere else. I didn't see. I didn't see. Special person here. Yeah, it's like the Avenger team united.
That's right. Yep, collecting infinity stones. Yep, go for it. Well, folks, thank you for having us.
My name is Mike Campbell. I'm the president of the Convention Visitors Commission. And 2027 will be
a landmark year for hospitality and tourism in Monroe County.
with the opening of the expanded convention center in January and improvements to the existing building
and later that summer. Also the opening of the Visit Bloomington downtown center on the corner of West
Walnut Street and Third Street and hosting our first hundred team lacrosse tournament at the expanded
Carson Farm Athletics Park.
We've anticipated this year and its arrival for many years, and this budget reflects those preparations.
And over the past few years, we've intentionally conserved funding in order to maximize our impact during
this expansion. We plan to invest more in operations, marketing, and sales than we anticipate generating
this year in innkeepers' tax revenue.
And to cover the difference, we will draw down on the reserves we've strategically saved specifically
for this purpose. As a reminder, 100% of all of this funding for these line items comes exclusively
from the innkeepers tax. So our proposal with this budget is an increase of 24% to visit Bloomington.
This will reflect an increase in salaries and the creation of one new convention sales manager position
to go with our recently promoted director of convention sales and also incorporating the sales position
from the convention center management company. And so the revenue or the expenditures and salary will
reflect that. We'll be
spending more in our convention sales for funding for lead generation, website SEO, advertising and
event support, and sports marketing to capture even more tournament opportunities in our leisure marketing.
As you know, much of advertising and convention
lead procurement has to do with destination marketing and bringing people to our community who might
not otherwise come to Bloomington. This budget also shows a 136 percent increase to the Convention Center
management company. This is a substantial increase and fills the gap
what we believe will be the revenue generated from the expanded convention center. And that is anticipated.
In the first few years, we would expect as the business starts to mature and the demand starts to mature
that that percentage will decrease and we will be generating more revenue out of the convention center.
But the first few years, we anticipate there will be
running at a substantial subsidy. This budget also shows a one-time $1.593, $819 funding allocation
to the Capital Improvement Board. And this is for three projects and alternates that were brought forward
before us from the Capital Improvement Board.
for use by the innkeeper's tax in order to make some updates to the existing building. And then finally,
the commissioner's expense and the capital reinvestment asset protection fund, we anticipate staying
the same. Our long-term financial outlook, we do estimate a drawdown this year of 1.78
million dollars out of the innkeepers' carryover balance. That still leaves us with a balance that we
would be able to respond to any shortfall in the next few years after that. As the business matures,
this is 2027, and we are not anticipating a host hotel being attached to the Convention Center
Till 2030. And so at some point, when that happens, we feel that we'll be running at a net positive
again. Any questions on the general fund? Just keep going through all the funds and then we'll touch
on the questions later. OK. So that's the general fund. And then I think the other fund is
the capital reinvestment fund, and we do have $100,000 allocated to handle any things. We do still have
a property on North Walnut where the current visitor center is, and then anything that would come up
with the new downtown commission. Great. Thank you. Does anybody else want to say anything about these
budgets? All right. We'll go to council.
Council member Hawke. Right. As we're moving forward with the plans that people worked for so many years
to get going. Has there been any further discussion about raising the income tax, raising the innkeepers
tax? I know that throughout the state we're seeing that opportunity to grow tourism
by increasing their innkeeper's tax. Are you thinking that might be helpful or are you holding off on
that until you get your host hotel or? What's that there? I don't think we need it at this point, very
bluntly, as far as an increase in that. I think we have great funding mechanisms with both the food
and beverage innkeeper's and innkeeper's tax both being able to handle them. And the plan here allocates
and funds our plans for the foreseeable future
with the current percentage. Now, once we do have the host hotel and there are two other hotels that
are also being talked about, we do think that those will also add to the tax base. And so if you're
thinking about this over the course of three to five years, when those will be built, I don't see a
need to advocate for that.
Good to see you all. You mentioned in the first budget that you had a line that you had, I believe you
said three projects from the CIB that you wanted to fund. Can you talk a little bit about those? Sure.
So it's 1.593 million and those are for a DOAS system to be added to the existing
Convention Center, which will help with air make-up and air handling and to make that more efficient.
And then window replacement, we wish was cheaper, but it is a big building, and so that was brought
forward as well. It was around $800,000 itself. And then some masonry repair. That was actually the
smallest amount.
Any other comments or questions from council? Do you have another one? I would love just the, you know,
short version update on the new Convention Center project and how that's going. I know we're slated,
you said early January. I think it's Elvis's birthday that was like,
it slated for opening. That's what I remember the target being, you know, things that stick with you.
Anyway, I just would love to give you the opportunity to share any updates. Sure. Thank you for the
question. And I also would like to take the opportunity to thank the county council, obviously, for
your support throughout this project. And I want to thank Mike and the commission. We actually had six
Alternates that we needed to fund for the expansion I'm not the expansion but the renovation of the
current building and we were able to fund two of those which were the kitchen repair and a not not repair
kitchen remodel and IT connections So the two buildings were talking to each other and people were having
the same experience But there were four there were actually four we couldn't fund and so we went to
Mike and the Commission and they very generously have helped us fund those so
The HVAC replacement was the fourth one. So HVAC replacement that I'm learning a lot. DOAS system is
a direct outdoor air support system, but it improves the efficiency of the HVAC system. The
window replacements and then the masonry repairs. We're on track to have the building completed.
On January 8th, I remind everyone that's Elvis's birthday. And so I've put a picture of Elvis in the
construction office, and the construction people see it every day. We will then move over to the renovation
of the current building. And that's due to be completed by the end of June of 2027. We are well within
our construction budget. And everything is, we had our meeting today, our CIB meeting today, and everything's
going extremely well.
So I'd be happy to answer any questions. But we're on track. We're on budget. I think you'll be pleased.
And people talk all the time about seeing what's happening at the building. And I think our community
will be very pleased with the aesthetic and the architecture of the new building. And we've been excited
to be a part of it. And again, I want to thank you for all you've done. And Galen Cassidy, your appointee
to the CIB, is here with me this evening. So I wanted to make sure that
You realized he shows up for your meetings. So I wonder if you know or can give us a timeline on the
art that will appear after it's built, right? The art? Yes. Well, we've got the the the large
art installation project, which is the wisteria mine. So people quit calling it a snake. It's a wisteria
vine. There will be.
Some on the north face of the building if you ever look at the construction, there's there's Mason or
there's a masonry, but there's a space that's going to be limestone and
and it's Quarry Cut Stone. And there are three panels within that that we are working with Amy Breyer,
who's a master sculptor, for what we can put in there. And today we had an announcement at our meeting.
We're moving, the art installation was $400,000, approximately, at $520,000, which is the 1% art budget.
So today we are moving forward with the local art
proposals and our committee is going to put out a call for artists for local art. We've identified local
art as being Monroe County and adjacent counties that touch Monroe County. So about $80,000 is still
left that will be awarded for local art which will be installed in the building and gallery spaces and
spaces that have been identified for the architect within the building for art.
So another outside concern is, of course, the road construction, right? Can you give us a timeline and
remind people where that all falls? Well, Third Street in particular, Friday at noon, Third Street will
be reopened. That'll all be completed by Friday at noon. So this Friday, the 18th. So paving happens
tomorrow, and striping happens Friday morning. And so Friday by noon, it's scheduled to be reopened.
That's very exciting.
Yes, yes. All right. Any other comments or questions from council? I literally was going to ask that
last one because I was in traffic today and I'm using some choice language while I was heading there
and all this convention center is a real road. But I'm very excited that this is going really quickly
into plan. And it sounds like with that timeline, by the next time we have a comic con,
It'll be under two very new facilities, am I right on that? The renovation goes through June 2027, so.
August of 27. It'll be a whole new experience, and that keeps growing. And that is kind of why I'm excited
about all this. Well, Comic-Con is an example, but it's, you know, I've watched it for years, and it
grows every time. And every not-for-profit in their
about the fact that they want more space for these big events and galas, and this is awesome.
Thank you. Let me wrap it up, Mr Campbell. You are a master at what you do. I've served on the board.
I've gone through a couple of these budgets with you, and I just really hope you're wrong this time.
You had. Yeah, I know. Get ready. You had said that you think the first couple of years might be,
you know, needing to have some additional help. Our revenue might be a little low.
I don't know. I think Monroe County is a special place and I think we're going to have the business.
We just had a dinky little recovery summit as the county folks. We're just going to have like local
folks come and talk about how substance use disorder was, you know, how to recover from people recovering
from that. And we had people from all over the state that came to Bloomington just to go to this event.
And I remember standing at the window
looking over at the construction of the new center. I was standing with a probation officer from Evansville
and a probation officer from Fort Wayne, and they were agog at what we were doing here. And we're like,
we have to come back. So I hope you're wrong. So Peter, we're probably going to need to talk afterwards
and get some of those leads from you so that we can follow up on some of those bookings. All right.
I love working with you. Let's do it. All right.
If there are no comments or questions from Council, can we please have a roll call vote? Councillor
Hawke? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. And Councillor
Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous, five zero. Thank you for what you do. Thank you very much. Thank you.
All right, next, we're going to move on to our next department, which is the council office. Mr. Deckard,
could you read our motion, please? Council, I move to open for discussion and review fund one thousand
zero zero six one general fund and fund one one eight six zero zero zero zero rainy day fund. We have
a second. Second.
All right, we have a motion and a second. And this is the council office. So I'm looking over at the
table. Ms. Kim shell, are you walking us through? Yes. All right. What do we got? Okay.
The personnel lines, except for a three-year bump, have the 2% COLA. Our assistant council administrator
will reach her three-year bump in October, and so that's why you'll see a big increase right there on
that line. The supply lines are flat from what we did last year. I just kind of flipped
the amounts from the office supplies into the printers. We're using a little bit more office supplies.
The printers and the copiers, copying supplies is where I purchased the paper from. I got a good deal
last year, so I'm still kind of running on that. So I haven't really had to buy a lot of copy paper
this year. The dues is the same.
The contractual services right now is what we're budgeting for FSG. We're also using WIS on an as needed
basis. The current contract with FSG is 30,000 or not to exceed 28,000, I mean, but I have had to dip in
with regards to WISC, because we've done a couple things this year with WISC. I did leave it flat, and
I have been able to move some things around for this year, so I, unless something happens where we open
up PAC and that kind of thing, which I don't want to. I do.
you know, we would have to like go back and revisit the contractual with regards to that. Right now
I have a dollar with regards to professional services and that is for the ongoing litigation with regards
to the ACLU. For this year you appropriated $30,000 but no one has
you know, giving me, you know, I've only had one invoice at this point. I have not received any other.
So I didn't know what to budget moving forward. So I didn't know if you wanted to budget another $30,000
for next year or if you wanted to have, you know, come back with additionals as we did it, you know.
So that's a conversation I needed to know.
what to do with. Sophia Travis, I left flat, but the MLGQ is at 76%. If you wanted to increase it, that
number would be 201,400, which that's what we've done in the past years is,
use the growth quotient to increase that amount. The other thing that we've done in the past is the
BEDC. We had 30,000 in there. We have not spent that donation amount for the last couple of years.
The deduce amount is $5,925. I do need that amount at least, so if you would want to reduce that down.
I believe there was talk earlier of just getting rid of that additional amount to BEDC as tax abatements
or you guys are working into it that they were getting like an amount
BED was to receive an amount from them. I can't remember. That was that one time? Okay. So I wasn't
sure what we were doing with that. So I just went with the 15,000 with regards to BEDC, because that's
what we budgeted for 2026. Just keep going through all the budgets. We'll ask questions later. Oh, rainy
day is the same thing.
We didn't, I didn't change anything in rainy day. It's a million dollars for each category, 11.86. So
there's a million dollars in the supplies, a million dollars in the services, and a million dollars
in the capital. And let's see, is that, that's my budget. All right, thank you so much. Council, any
questions about this budget? Council Member Wilts, do you have your hand raised? All right, lead us off.
It sounds as though you, and I'm assuming under the guidance of our leadership, left a lot of things
the same in anticipation of discussion. Correct. Got it. So I'm curious with the professional services line.
how much we've already spent from that. Right now I've only spent $3000, but that was the retainer amount.
I have yet to receive an invoice yet. I was going to reach out to them and figure out is this it.
You know, I'm assuming they're going to bill us quarterly, you know, so that's that's why I didn't know
how to budget. With regards to moving forward next year,
I believe when we looked at the commissioner's budget, they had money set aside in their budget for
litigation. I think it would be appropriate so that we're able to respond quickly to go ahead and appropriate
the same 30,000 again. I think so too. We saw from the latest judge's order where there's something
of a timetable set out that we're going to be going through at least this spring.
At least. Yeah. So I, Councilmember Welch, I think you're right. Okay. Do you want to talk through other
things or do you want to amend or how are we doing? Let's amend as we go. Okay. So I'm going to move
that we set in county general line 30013 at 30,000. Second.
All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any conversation about this professional services
line as it relates to the ACLU litigation? Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor
Decker? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Hock. Councilor Hock? Yes.
Yes. Motion passes, unanimous 5-0. All right. And as a way of guiding the conversation, Council, do
you think 6% is enough for the Sophia Travis increase? We're going to give raises to the folks here
before we think about giving raises to the folks there. That's what the money goes for.
So I'm understanding your comment, Councilor Hawk. Are you saying that we wanna ensure that we've addressed
COLA for county employees? We don't know until the county commissioners say we can start moving money
over there because if we don't move the money around, we are in deficit. We have, but we in every budget
have built in the COLA we expect.
some might say the minimum COLA we expect. So in that same spirit, I think I would suggest that we put
in the minimum increase that we expect for this fund, whatever we agree that might be. Are you suggesting
then the 2% because that's what kind of raise you're talking about? I think 2% would be a minimum. I
think that
Um, round numbers are also a way to go. So you could say 200,000. That's what I was going to recommend.
And I would remind council that adoption isn't for another month. We have time to, to, to think about
this, but I do think, uh, it would be nice to signal to the community that we have not forgotten our
nonprofits because they're also paying higher gas prices. They're also paying higher grocery prices.
So council, I move that we set the Sophia Travis line 30031 to $200,000. Second. All right. We have
a motion on the floor with a second to raise Sophia Travis up to $200,000. Are there any other questions
or comments regarding this motion? Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Council votes. 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.
So am I remembering correctly that there is some sort of a process going on with legal and BEDC trying
to come up with something? Not that I'm aware of, but it could be that Mr. Cockrell's handling it. I
think there's something in the works, as I remember. I know in the past we've tried to do a contract
that was not approved. So I don't know.
if they're still working on the contract. There's a new initiative, because I observe on the BEDC it's
part of my liaison assignment, and I'm pretty sure there's discussions going on between BEDC and Mr.
Cockrell about this. That's all I want to say. That, if I may, that may be, I do not know that. I do
know that our past, I wish Councillor Crosley were here to hear this, but I know that she probably already
knows this, but our past angst
on this is I think no more on a contract basis because the commissioners I think entered into one a
few months back. The majority. I think so too. Yeah. So I think that sea change is moved, which I appreciate
very much to the commissioners. I think that was an appropriate move that we got a lot of gray hairs
on, but now we can ship gray hairs to other headaches. So, but I don't know about what
councilor Fido on this I think excuse me I think that's why conqueror was involved because of that he
was working with the commissioners and BEDC maybe I didn't make that clear what's this contract so this
there is a contract that was my understanding there is I don't know if it's fine they were that might be yeah
They would, you all would know if this were right, the auditor's office? We have not yet seen it. Okay,
so maybe that is. And I'm looking in the contracts folder and I don't see any approved contract that's
been added to the folder for BEDC. From what I understand. Any change needs some help after all. Good,
I'm glad we talked about that. All right, councilor, member Hawk.
Yes, just as a reminder, many years ago, we had a position in the county commissioner's office at his
own office. It was, I don't remember that young man's name. I should, but I don't remember. But at any
rate, we did a lot of work in house and we're not doing that now as much. And it's important that someone
be doing it because we need to,
be prepared to reach out to companies that we might miss and encourage them to come here and grow their
workforce here. And if we're not going to do that in-house, and certainly if we support this BEDC, it's
going to be cheaper than trying to do it in-house. We know how quick that department could grow. So
I'm just saying that we shouldn't
I think what we should look at is if this is not a part of our responsibility, because it certainly
was for years, and it should still be thought of. You know, the chamber works at it, and the also chamber
works at it, but they do a lot of other things, but the BEDC, that is their mission, and we should want
to grow jobs here.
That's why I support it. All right, Councilmember Wilts. I agree that it is something, and I think we've
all supported this in the past. I think the question then becomes, do we wait to find out what this
contract asks for or requires of us, I guess, or do we put something in there? I mean, I don't have
any basis except for last year, and it looks like it's changed every year.
So maybe we just wait until we have a contract to sign. My understanding, though, is that the council
pays dues and then other departments also pay dues if they want to be part of the BDC. I guess the question
I'm asking is, is this $5,925 for the entire county or is it just for the council? It's just for the
council. I would feel comfortable moving forward so that Councilmember Feidl can continue to represent
us with that amount. And then if we need to increase it,
That's good. In a month. Sound good? You don't need a contract then for that. Right. No. Council, I
move to set line 33032 BEDC to $5925. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional
conversation? My own conversation would be if we wish to include it, we can look at it again at our
final decision time.
All right. May we please have a roll call vote. Councilor Hawk. Yes. Councilor Wilts. Yes. Councilor
Iverson. Yes. Councilor Deckard. Yeah. And Councilor Feidl. Yes. Motion passes unanimous five zero.
Council any other comments or questions on the council budget?
All right, seeing none, may we have a roll call vote on the overall council budgets? Councilor Deckard?
Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawke? Yes. And Councilor Woods? Yes. Motion
passes unanimous 5-0.
Well, thank you so much. This concludes the budget review for the county council office. And before
we recess, just a quick note for council and the public. Do take a moment to look through the budgets.
Tomorrow we will be bringing back budgets for further review. So any items you think you want to tackle,
bring those back. And as a handy guide, this colorful chart of the four B's provides a good resource
on where to look.
If there's nothing else, then this meeting is recessed to Thursday, September 17th, 2026 at 5 p.m. right
here in the NatU Hill meeting room and on Teams. Thank you very much.