WEBVTT 00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:07.629 - Welcome everyone. I would like to call this Tonight's meeting of the Monroe County Council to order 00:00:07.629 --> 00:00:15.504 - today is Tuesday October 6 and I want to record that we have council members Peter Iverson Trent Deckard 00:00:15.504 --> 00:00:23.003 - Liz vital Marty Hawk and Kate wilt in the room councilmember David Henry had to step out, but he'll 00:00:23.003 --> 00:00:26.078 - be right back and now I would ask that I 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:36.801 - As you are able, please rise with us to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag 00:00:36.801 --> 00:00:48.119 - of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, 00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:53.726 - with liberty and justice for all. Thank you for that. 00:00:54.434 --> 00:01:01.411 - The next item on our agenda is the adoption of the agenda. You can find tonight's agenda on the county's 00:01:01.411 --> 00:01:08.123 - website and you'll see it on the calendar there. And so council, does anyone wish to amend tonight's 00:01:08.123 --> 00:01:14.901 - agenda? I move to add item 9B, Highway Department 2027 budget amendment. Second. We have a motion and 00:01:14.901 --> 00:01:21.679 - a second. Any other discussions about this? All those in favor of the amendment, please say aye. Aye. 00:01:21.679 --> 00:01:22.942 - All those opposed? 00:01:23.426 --> 00:01:30.279 - the eyes have it unanimously. Does anyone else wish to amend tonight's agenda? Is there a place on the 00:01:30.279 --> 00:01:37.333 - agenda where it would be appropriate to put a motion on the floor to no longer be saying we have a hiring 00:01:37.333 --> 00:01:44.186 - freeze and so the people aren't having to come back and spend hours trying to do that? Because clearly 00:01:44.186 --> 00:01:51.838 - we don't have a hiring freeze. It would just save a lot of department head time and our time. So I don't know what 00:01:52.226 --> 00:01:59.252 - where that could be added, but I certainly think it's important that we do that. I will note that for 00:01:59.252 --> 00:02:06.209 - the record, we are going to have a robust conversation about the hiring freeze and KSA and all those 00:02:06.209 --> 00:02:13.234 - those things related things at our meeting on the 13th, which is next week at five p.m. So we'll have 00:02:13.234 --> 00:02:17.918 - plenty of opportunity to be here that night before budget adoption. 00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:29.334 - Are there any other changes to tonight's agenda? Hearing none, all those in favor of the amended agenda, 00:02:29.334 --> 00:02:37.417 - please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? The ayes have it unanimously. Welcome, everyone. This is the 00:02:37.417 --> 00:02:45.741 - public hearing portion of the Monroe County 2027 budget. And before we begin, I want to set some ground 00:02:45.741 --> 00:02:48.382 - rules for these public hearings. 00:02:48.578 --> 00:02:54.527 - We will open a budget and anyone who wishes to make comment will be given the opportunity at that time 00:02:54.527 --> 00:03:00.475 - to make comment on that budget. Those present here in the NatU Hill meeting room will be asked to come 00:03:00.475 --> 00:03:06.250 - to the podium. Those attending virtually are asked to raise their hand feature on your computer and 00:03:06.250 --> 00:03:12.026 - we'll call on you in order. Participants will be given a time of three minutes to make a comment on 00:03:12.026 --> 00:03:16.126 - any budget. You'll be given a 30 second remaining reminder as follows. 00:03:18.498 --> 00:03:25.378 - and we ask that you please limit your comments to the budget that is open on the floor. Following the 00:03:25.378 --> 00:03:32.190 - public comments, Council will have an opportunity to make comment on the budget. And once Council is 00:03:32.190 --> 00:03:39.273 - finished with their comments, the public hearing for each of those budgets will then be closed. So we're 00:03:39.273 --> 00:03:46.422 - going to start with our first reading and public hearing of ordinance 2026-29, the Monroe Fire Protection 00:03:46.422 --> 00:03:48.446 - District 2027 budget. I open. 00:03:48.578 --> 00:03:58.296 - the 2027 Monroe Fire Protection District. And I would ask Councilor Deckard to read ordinance 2026-29 00:03:58.296 --> 00:04:08.013 - into the record. Be it or pardon me here. Councilors, do you all have yours? Because I have multiple. 00:04:08.013 --> 00:04:18.398 - OK. All right. Be ordained resolved by the Monroe County Council that for the expenses of Monroe County Fire 00:04:18.498 --> 00:04:25.406 - Protection District Monroe County for the year ending December 31st, 2027. The sums herein specified 00:04:25.406 --> 00:04:32.587 - are hereby appropriated and ordered set apart out of the several funds herein named and for the purposes 00:04:32.587 --> 00:04:39.495 - herein specified subject to the laws governing the same. Such sums herein appropriated shall be held 00:04:39.495 --> 00:04:46.608 - to include all expenditures authorized to be made during the year unless otherwise expressly stipulated 00:04:46.608 --> 00:04:48.318 - and provided for by law. 00:04:48.898 --> 00:04:55.711 - In addition, for the purposes of raising revenue to meet the necessary expenses of Monroe Fire Protection 00:04:55.711 --> 00:05:02.525 - District, Monroe County, the property tax levies and property tax rate as here and specified are included 00:05:02.525 --> 00:05:09.017 - here in budget form for be for all funds must be completed and submitted in the manner prescribed by 00:05:09.017 --> 00:05:10.174 - the Department of 00:05:10.626 --> 00:05:19.616 - local government finance. This ordinance resolution shall be in full force in effect from and after 00:05:19.616 --> 00:05:28.786 - its passage in approval by Monroe County. And then I go down to council or Mr. President. I just read 00:05:28.786 --> 00:05:37.956 - these main levy type lines if you would please. All right. So jumping to the funds, property tax, max 00:05:37.956 --> 00:05:39.934 - levy type, fund code, 00:05:41.250 --> 00:05:49.688 - zero zero six one rainy day is zero dollars in adopted budget zero for adopted tax levy adopted tax 00:05:49.688 --> 00:05:58.125 - rate is zero point zero dollars under the property tax max levy type civil line fund code eight six 00:05:58.125 --> 00:06:06.648 - zero three special fire fire general the adopted budget is nineteen million four hundred fifty seven 00:06:06.648 --> 00:06:10.782 - thousand fifty four dollars the adopted tax levy 00:06:11.266 --> 00:06:21.051 - is thirteen million, two hundred and fifty seven thousand five hundred twenty six dollars for an adopted 00:06:21.051 --> 00:06:30.929 - tax rate of point three, two, three, seven. Under the outside maximum levy fund, we have fund code eight, 00:06:30.929 --> 00:06:37.918 - six, nine, one special cum fire adopted budget is one million five hundred 00:06:38.242 --> 00:06:57.822 - Pardon me, $1,511,563. The adopted tax levy is $1,406,110 for an adopted tax rate of 0.033 for an adopted budget of 00:06:57.954 --> 00:07:20.571 - $20,968,617 with an adopted tax levy of $14,663,636 pardon me, $14,663,636 for an adopted total tax 00:07:20.571 --> 00:07:24.190 - rate of 0.3570. 00:07:25.698 --> 00:07:33.646 - And I can read the home rule funds as well. Fund code nine five zero zero donation fund adopted budget 00:07:33.646 --> 00:07:41.593 - one hundred and twenty four thousand five hundred sixty five dollars. And then in their fund code nine 00:07:41.593 --> 00:07:46.686 - five zero one restricted donation fund, it's an adopted budget of 00:07:47.010 --> 00:07:56.278 - $1,546 for a total there under home rule and $126,111. Well, thank you, Mr. Deckard. Do we have anyone 00:07:56.278 --> 00:08:05.727 - from the public that wishes to speak on the Monroe Fire Protection District's 2027 budget? If so, please 00:08:05.727 --> 00:08:10.046 - come to the podium or raise your hand on teams. 00:08:20.706 --> 00:08:32.066 - Are there any council members that wish to comment on the 2027 Monroe Fire Protection District budget? 00:08:32.066 --> 00:08:43.094 - Wilts Sure, I mean I think just For transparency sake pointing out that the Budget exceeds the levy 00:08:43.094 --> 00:08:49.822 - on a few of these things is something I believe we discussed 00:08:50.242 --> 00:08:58.547 - at the budget presentations. And we have been assured that there are funds available to make up the 00:08:58.547 --> 00:09:07.600 - difference there. If that is an exaggeration or incorrect, or if you have anything to add, that's absolutely 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:16.487 - fine. Please come up. I just wanted to make sure that it didn't go without saying, I guess, at the hearing 00:09:16.487 --> 00:09:17.982 - that we see that. 00:09:20.386 --> 00:09:26.710 - this on? Yes. Laurie Robinson, Monroe Fire Protection District. Yes, we did discuss that during our 00:09:26.710 --> 00:09:33.414 - budget hearings, and that's due to the merge with Bean Blossom Township. So we presented we're presenting 00:09:33.414 --> 00:09:39.738 - all our information to the state this month to increase our max levy. Our max levy will actually be 00:09:39.738 --> 00:09:46.252 - a little bit higher than what we're asking for for the levy to the tune of about five hundred thousand 00:09:46.252 --> 00:09:47.390 - higher than that. 00:09:49.986 --> 00:09:58.763 - Thank you. Yes, please. OK, it's Lori. You didn't think you could get off that easy, did you? I thought 00:09:58.763 --> 00:10:07.709 - I got away. OK, so you're saying you want us to vote on a levy that's really less than what you're hoping 00:10:07.709 --> 00:10:16.233 - to get, or did you put the max in there that you think you're going to get? So our new max levy will 00:10:16.233 --> 00:10:17.246 - be $12,757. 00:10:17.410 --> 00:10:26.640 - and change, but the we're only taxing for 2027 on 12,257 and change. And then the next thing I want 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:36.055 - to ask is your present tax rate and what your projected tax rate is going to be now that you've added 00:10:36.055 --> 00:10:45.470 - being brought some in there and the expenses. So I see an adopted tax rate of point three, five point 00:10:47.554 --> 00:10:54.563 - talk to me about your tax rates. So our tax rates based on a net assessed value of about 97% of what 00:10:54.563 --> 00:11:01.781 - the auditor's numbers actually were presented. Just to make sure that there are no errors, no mistakes, 00:11:01.781 --> 00:11:09.137 - nothing withheld. When the net assessed value goes to the full amount, then our tax rate should fluctuate 00:11:09.137 --> 00:11:16.355 - down just a little bit more than what you're seeing there tonight. But that's the maximum that it would 00:11:16.355 --> 00:11:17.118 - be at 97%. 00:11:17.986 --> 00:11:26.504 - And how much is it now? Our tax rate right now. Yeah, right. I'm just trying to see what the difference 00:11:26.504 --> 00:11:34.775 - is between 25 right at point 25 to 2469, something like that for our general fund. So it is going to 00:11:34.775 --> 00:11:43.129 - trend upwards a few points. Taking on Bean Blossom, adding an extra million dollars to our budget for 00:11:43.129 --> 00:11:44.030 - next year. 00:11:44.930 --> 00:11:51.907 - I just want to get all the numbers out there because there's a lot of people on social media that's. 00:11:51.907 --> 00:11:58.883 - Making things sometimes seem worse than it is, and sometimes better than what it is, and it's better 00:11:58.883 --> 00:12:05.929 - to just get the exact facts and let people know. Absolutely. Marley's willing to talk to anyone, have 00:12:05.929 --> 00:12:12.974 - some questions. Chief Dillard. Yeah, I was just going to add that that 25 cent rate that we have now, 00:12:12.974 --> 00:12:14.494 - we held that in 2026. 00:12:14.626 --> 00:12:21.954 - We should have modified that to fit Senate Enrollment Act 1. We held the 25 cents because that's what 00:12:21.954 --> 00:12:29.425 - we'd talked about in previous hearings, but this time we looked at what the cost would be per household 00:12:29.425 --> 00:12:36.753 - and we adjusted that rate to kind of keep the revenues where we needed them to be. Any other comments 00:12:36.753 --> 00:12:41.566 - from council? I will just note that the 4B, it looks very healthy. 00:12:42.018 --> 00:12:50.022 - So really happy to see the the revenues over expenditures are solidly in the black so All right, if 00:12:50.022 --> 00:12:58.186 - there are no further comments So just looking at the adopted text rate column I think I would like to 00:12:58.186 --> 00:13:05.150 - see percentages there instead of dollars for those point whatever numbers they are and 00:13:07.362 --> 00:13:14.145 - They're just labeled incorrectly. I think they have dollar signs, but they are written to be percentages, 00:13:14.145 --> 00:13:20.864 - right? The rate would be a percentage instead of a dollar amount, right? This is a form that's generated 00:13:20.864 --> 00:13:27.391 - by the state. We don't have any control over the formatting that's used, but they are percentages. Am 00:13:27.391 --> 00:13:33.790 - I correct? Is that column? It says adopted tax rate. So that would be a percentage. Is that correct 00:13:33.790 --> 00:13:36.862 - or not? So that would be the amount per dollar. 00:13:38.402 --> 00:13:44.386 - Which would also be a percent, right? Yes. Okay. Okay. So yeah. So what this indicates, it would be 00:13:44.386 --> 00:13:50.729 - 0.3. The first one would be 0.3237 per dollar. Is that right? Correct. Is that right? Okay. But it seems- 00:13:50.729 --> 00:13:56.773 - It's not 32 cents. Yeah, it wouldn't be 32 cents. That's why it needs the same percentage. You would 00:13:56.773 --> 00:14:02.996 - have two zeros before to get to the percent. And that's the difference. If they put a dollar sign- Yes. 00:14:02.996 --> 00:14:08.382 - And then left, then adjust it. So it's just confusing. That's per $100 of assessed value. 00:14:08.642 --> 00:14:16.147 - Yeah. 0.3237 cents per $100 of assessed value. Yeah, not a dollar, just $100. Now we got the decimals 00:14:16.147 --> 00:14:23.651 - in the right places. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Councilmember Deckard. Well, to kind of follow up, that's 00:14:23.651 --> 00:14:31.229 - why I read the point on that. But I, you know, I sometimes look at how these things all like structure 00:14:31.229 --> 00:14:38.366 - out. And I wonder how the public can even begin to follow the way the state has us explain that. 00:14:38.594 --> 00:14:44.676 - When sometimes I wonder if it just say there's a bucket of money and it's about this amount and they 00:14:44.676 --> 00:14:50.819 - can take about that much. But that's great. Reminds me. I did catch something that maybe a Scribner's 00:14:50.819 --> 00:14:56.841 - era error or it may not at the top of the form. And when I was reading, I caught it. Be it ordained 00:14:56.841 --> 00:15:02.862 - resolved by the Monroe County. I think that's supposed to be council and I said council when I read 00:15:02.862 --> 00:15:08.222 - it, but I don't know if that's just how they the state has set the form up, but I wonder 00:15:08.418 --> 00:15:15.219 - point that out. I haven't looked at the top of the other ones. We can research whether that is an editable 00:15:15.219 --> 00:15:21.703 - portion or not. Funny name. Council members, keep your eye out because that is going to be on all the 00:15:21.703 --> 00:15:28.060 - rest of the forms. Thank you. All right. If there are no further comments from council, I'm looking 00:15:28.060 --> 00:15:34.671 - on teams. I'm looking in the NatU Hill room. The public hearing for the twenty twenty seven Monroe Fire 00:15:34.671 --> 00:15:37.086 - Protection District budget is closed. 00:15:38.498 --> 00:15:47.545 - All right. You take those kids home. All right. Next is the first reading public hearing of ordinance 00:15:47.545 --> 00:15:56.503 - twenty twenty six thirty Monroe County Public Library twenty twenty seven budget. I open that twenty 00:15:56.503 --> 00:15:58.366 - twenty twenty twenty 00:15:59.874 --> 00:16:07.125 - Hold on, that 2027 budget for the Monroe County Public Library, and I would ask Councilor Feidl to read 00:16:07.125 --> 00:16:14.236 - ordinance 2026-30 into the record. Be it ordained resolved by the Monroe County that for the expenses 00:16:14.236 --> 00:16:21.278 - Monroe County Public Library, Monroe County for the year ending December 31st, 2027, the sums herein 00:16:21.278 --> 00:16:25.182 - specified are hereby appropriated and ordered set apart 00:16:25.314 --> 00:16:33.243 - out of the several funds here in named and for the purposes here in specified subject to the laws governing 00:16:33.243 --> 00:16:40.878 - the same such sums here in appropriated shall be held to include all expenditures authorized to be made 00:16:40.878 --> 00:16:47.486 - during the year unless otherwise expressly stipulated and provided for by law in addition 00:16:47.650 --> 00:16:54.387 - for the purposes of raising revenue to meet the necessary expenses of Monroe County Public Library. 00:16:54.387 --> 00:17:01.460 - Monroe County, the property tax levies and property tax rates are herein specified, are included herein. 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:08.466 - Budget form 4B for all funds must be completed and submitted in the manner prescribed by the Department 00:17:08.466 --> 00:17:14.462 - of Local Government Finance. This ordinance resolution shall be in full force and effect 00:17:14.882 --> 00:17:23.806 - from and after its passage and approval by the Monroe County. Should I say council or not? Yeah, well, 00:17:23.806 --> 00:17:32.470 - whatever, it just says Monroe County. I'll say council. All right, so down on the funds section and 00:17:32.470 --> 00:17:41.393 - fund rainy day fund code 0061. The adopted budget amount is $730,000. Adopted tax levy amount is zero. 00:17:41.393 --> 00:17:43.646 - Adopted tax rate is zero. 00:17:44.706 --> 00:17:54.413 - In the civil fund code 0 1 0 1 general fund name 13 million two hundred forty eight thousand four hundred 00:17:54.413 --> 00:18:03.937 - ninety seven dollars adopted tax levy eight million seven hundred and eighty one thousand three hundred 00:18:03.937 --> 00:18:13.278 - and forty six dollars with an adopted tax rate of zero point zero seven nine three. And the type debt 00:18:13.538 --> 00:18:30.516 - The fund name is Debt Service, fund code 0180, adopted budget $640,713, adopted tax levy $639,713, and 00:18:30.516 --> 00:18:42.878 - adopted tax rate of 0.0058. Then with adopted budget total of $14,619,210, 00:18:43.234 --> 00:18:50.411 - Adopted tax levy of nine million four hundred and twenty one thousand zero fifty nine dollars and adopted 00:18:50.411 --> 00:18:57.589 - tax rate of zero point zero eight five one. Thank you very much, council member Fiddle. Do we have anyone 00:18:57.589 --> 00:19:04.427 - from the public that wishes to speak on the library's fund? If so, please step forward to the podium 00:19:04.427 --> 00:19:09.438 - here in the Natu Hill Room or if you're on teams, please raise your hand. 00:19:16.930 --> 00:19:25.103 - Hearing none. Are there any council comments? Yes. Right. I would like to have someone from the library 00:19:25.103 --> 00:19:33.433 - come up and explain to the public how their budgets are different. Really? They tell us how their budgets 00:19:33.433 --> 00:19:41.448 - work because it is different from the way County Council looks at the county budgets. Come on forward 00:19:41.448 --> 00:19:44.670 - to the podium. Thank you for being here. 00:19:44.834 --> 00:19:54.718 - We're going to give our money for tonight. I'm Gary Littler, finance director. And I didn't could could 00:19:54.718 --> 00:20:04.792 - you go over that question again? I didn't quite understand. Well, because the rules about library funding 00:20:04.792 --> 00:20:10.494 - is different than county government, because it depends on. 00:20:10.658 --> 00:20:19.570 - what your budgets are and so forth. It's really different from the way we do county budgets. Unless 00:20:19.570 --> 00:20:28.660 - something happened in the last few months has changed all that. If you go over a certain amount, then 00:20:28.660 --> 00:20:36.414 - you have to come to the county council. Right. So I mean, I just wanted you to explain 00:20:36.642 --> 00:20:50.302 - Okay, so the growth quotient for 2027 is 6% and half of that, 3%, is that limit you were talking about. 00:20:50.302 --> 00:21:03.567 - So if the library chose to accept a growth quotient of less than half what other units get, then the 00:21:03.567 --> 00:21:05.406 - library board 00:21:05.666 --> 00:21:18.107 - can approve the budget. But we need the full 6%. And so that's why we are coming to the council to get 00:21:18.107 --> 00:21:30.185 - the budget approved. And your board is appointed, not elected, correct? Correct. And so do you have 00:21:30.185 --> 00:21:34.654 - something in front of you that says, 00:21:34.754 --> 00:21:45.404 - how much of a tax this is going to be on the local taxpayers more than what it is presently? Like, what 00:21:45.404 --> 00:21:55.953 - is the amount of tax that they're paying now versus what will they be paying since you want the entire 00:21:55.953 --> 00:22:03.326 - 6%? Well, the tax, what they're paying is the tax rate. The tax rate is 00:22:05.090 --> 00:22:15.445 - 0.0851 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value. We can compare that to last year's tax rate, which 00:22:15.445 --> 00:22:25.700 - I don't have in front of me, but it's very close. I think this rate is slightly more than last year's 00:22:25.700 --> 00:22:31.230 - rate. And just for the public at large, everybody pays 00:22:31.330 --> 00:22:40.482 - If you live any place in Monroe County, whether it's in the city or out of the city, everybody pays 00:22:40.482 --> 00:22:49.725 - the same rate for the library. So it isn't like cheaper if you live one place and the other. It is a 00:22:49.725 --> 00:22:58.968 - rate that is used, that is arrived at. So and I ask at the time that you were presenting information 00:22:58.968 --> 00:23:00.158 - that because 00:23:00.418 --> 00:23:10.183 - You have relied so heavily on a rather large portion of the income tax, which could very well mean that 00:23:10.183 --> 00:23:19.667 - you would not be receiving that in a couple of years. And you have said that you think you've worked 00:23:19.667 --> 00:23:29.150 - your way around that. Is that correct? We know what our projection for local income tax is for 2027. 00:23:29.602 --> 00:23:39.489 - When I know more about the impact of the changes to our portion of the local income tax, and I can compute 00:23:39.489 --> 00:23:48.914 - what that means dollar-wise, then I would have a better understanding of the impact. But I just don't 00:23:48.914 --> 00:23:53.534 - know. I have no idea where we're going to end up. 00:23:55.298 --> 00:24:03.956 - Right. And I just know about next year. I think there's a lot of people that's just trying to work their 00:24:03.956 --> 00:24:12.284 - way through this. But I think it's really important when we're looking at that point to and now that 00:24:12.284 --> 00:24:20.695 - if things should stay as it's written by legislation now, then that point to income tax would have to 00:24:20.695 --> 00:24:24.158 - be shared with the townships and with the 00:24:25.666 --> 00:24:34.329 - with the transportation, Bloomington transportation. And so there's and solid waste if they should decide 00:24:34.329 --> 00:24:42.501 - they want something. So there's a lot of people needing that point too. And I'm just weighing in on 00:24:42.501 --> 00:24:51.246 - this because I don't want anybody to come up short and think they were not advised that this could happen. 00:24:51.246 --> 00:24:54.270 - Appreciate that. And so. Mr. Decker. 00:24:54.690 --> 00:25:00.994 - Since we've kind of broached this topic and feel free to answer or just say I need to get back to you 00:25:00.994 --> 00:25:07.175 - later on this and You can even forget I asked if you want now. I might have Greer answer This might 00:25:07.175 --> 00:25:13.541 - be pretty straightforward does any you all I know we have the one of the best libraries that you could 00:25:13.541 --> 00:25:19.907 - have You talk to your association and your peers and the leaders of that and then yeah I'm sure you've 00:25:19.907 --> 00:25:22.750 - got people up in India and elsewhere that are 00:25:22.914 --> 00:25:30.445 - watching things and making sure that we can still read books tomorrow and all that. But do they know 00:25:30.445 --> 00:25:38.050 - what's going to happen? Or are they in the same boat as the rest of us? Not really sure what is going 00:25:38.050 --> 00:25:40.958 - to happen in the future. I will agree. 00:25:44.322 --> 00:25:49.670 - Thank you. Hi, everyone. That's a very good question. My understanding in talking with peer library 00:25:49.670 --> 00:25:55.178 - administrators and staff and board members across the state is that everybody is very much in the same 00:25:55.178 --> 00:26:00.900 - boat, not really sure how libraries are going to be funded going forward. And so the change in legislation 00:26:00.900 --> 00:26:06.301 - that's impacting us this year and that has us coming to you all is something that has kind of rocked 00:26:06.301 --> 00:26:10.526 - the public library sphere in Indiana considerably. But we feel that we're in a 00:26:10.626 --> 00:26:16.498 - Pretty fortunate position here in Monroe County, enjoy a whole lot of support. We're not worried as 00:26:16.498 --> 00:26:22.547 - much as some of our peers are, but that's the sense that I get from talking with colleagues within the 00:26:22.547 --> 00:26:28.596 - field. Yeah. Let me ask you one more. And again, you don't have to answer this. Are you hearing of any 00:26:28.596 --> 00:26:33.470 - communities making decisions about whether or not libraries will stay open or not? 00:26:33.730 --> 00:26:40.263 - There's a lot of anxiety about that, but I haven't heard of any decisions to actually close public libraries. 00:26:40.263 --> 00:26:46.380 - We do have public libraries in the state that are effectively run by one or two professionals and then 00:26:46.380 --> 00:26:52.319 - a bunch of volunteers. And they were quite concerned about this change in legislation, but I've not 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:58.317 - heard of any libraries actually closing it. I always like to ask because I think we need to remember 00:26:58.317 --> 00:27:00.574 - the values 100 plus years and longer. 00:27:00.738 --> 00:27:07.502 - on how we got here and make the public, we're all watching this, so thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Council 00:27:07.502 --> 00:27:14.073 - members, any other comments or questions? Let me just conclude, I'm gonna point again to the four Bs, 00:27:14.073 --> 00:27:20.644 - which is the revenue over expenses. The rainy day looks very healthy. The general fund looks healthy. 00:27:20.644 --> 00:27:27.280 - It seems like we're in a good spot given the numbers that we know. So we'll continue to rent books and 00:27:27.280 --> 00:27:29.470 - use hoopla and all the fun stuff. 00:27:29.954 --> 00:27:38.034 - Thanks. Thank you. All right. If there are no further comments, I'm just looking to teams real quick. 00:27:38.034 --> 00:27:46.590 - The public hearing for the twenty twenty seven in Monroe County Public Library budget is closed. Thank you. 00:27:48.066 --> 00:27:57.395 - Next we have the first reading and public hearing of ordinance 2026-31 Waste Reduction District for 00:27:57.395 --> 00:28:07.004 - their 2027 budget I open that 2027 Waste Reduction District budget and I would ask councilmember Wilts 00:28:07.004 --> 00:28:14.654 - to read ordinance 2026-31 into the record Ordinance number 2026-31 be it ordained 00:28:15.010 --> 00:28:22.101 - by the Monroe County Council that for the expenses of the waste reduction district of Monroe County 00:28:22.101 --> 00:28:29.475 - for the year ending December 31st, 2027, the sums here in specified or here by appropriated and ordered 00:28:29.475 --> 00:28:36.566 - set apart out of the several funds here in named and for the purposes here and specified subject to 00:28:36.566 --> 00:28:38.622 - the laws governing the same. 00:28:39.810 --> 00:28:46.134 - Such sums herein appropriated shall be held to include all expenditures authorized to be made during 00:28:46.134 --> 00:28:52.520 - the year unless otherwise expressly stipulated and provided for by law. In addition, for the purposes 00:28:52.520 --> 00:28:58.782 - of raising revenue to meet the necessary expenses of the waste reduction district of Monroe County, 00:28:58.782 --> 00:29:04.542 - the property tax levies and the property tax rates as herein specified are included herein. 00:29:05.346 --> 00:29:12.938 - Budget form 4B for all funds must be completed and submitted in the manner prescribed by the Department 00:29:12.938 --> 00:29:20.529 - of Local Government Finance. This ordinance shall be in full force in effect from and after its passage 00:29:20.529 --> 00:29:27.902 - and approval by the Monroe County Council. So for a reading of the specific funds, we have fund 1215 00:29:27.902 --> 00:29:30.238 - non-reverting capital projects. 00:29:30.338 --> 00:29:42.074 - The adopted budget is zero, adopted levy zero, and adopted tax rate is zero. For fund 8210, special 00:29:42.074 --> 00:29:54.397 - solid waste management, the adopted budget is $3,309,451, excuse me. The adopted tax levy is $2,497,199, 00:29:54.397 --> 00:29:58.622 - and the adopted tax rate is 0.0265. 00:30:00.898 --> 00:30:09.177 - We're fund 8283 solid waste district debt service. The adopted budget is one hundred thirty seven thousand 00:30:09.177 --> 00:30:17.301 - two hundred thirty five dollars. Adopted tax levy is forty six thousand eighteen dollars and the adopted 00:30:17.301 --> 00:30:20.318 - tax rate is point zero zero zero five. 00:30:21.090 --> 00:30:36.141 - The total adopted budget therefore is $3,446,686 with an adopted tax levy of $2,543,217 and an adopted 00:30:36.141 --> 00:30:45.054 - tax rate of 0.0270. Thank you Council Member Wilts for that. 00:30:45.186 --> 00:30:53.799 - Now is the time where I invite anyone from the public to speak on the Waste Reduction District's 2027 00:30:53.799 --> 00:31:02.497 - budget. If you're in the NatU Hill Room, please come to the podium. And if you're online, please raise 00:31:02.497 --> 00:31:10.941 - your hand on Teams. All right, hearing none, let's go to council. Are there any council comments on 00:31:10.941 --> 00:31:14.910 - this budget? Stumped them. No comments herein. 00:31:15.746 --> 00:31:27.313 - Okay. Yes, as you might remember, I did not vote in favor of this budget when it was presented originally 00:31:27.313 --> 00:31:38.225 - because. While we have kept the perhaps the race for county employees at one rate, we are approving 00:31:38.225 --> 00:31:44.990 - a larger amount for other employees that we can vote on their 00:31:45.538 --> 00:31:56.394 - raises. And so I just felt that was unfair to our own county employees. But I do know that this is not 00:31:56.394 --> 00:32:07.144 - just the people appointed to that board is not just the county people. So I have to recognize that as 00:32:07.144 --> 00:32:12.414 - well. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? 00:32:13.378 --> 00:32:21.287 - I will just note that the 4B for the special solid waste management fund is remarkably solid. It's very 00:32:21.287 --> 00:32:29.120 - consistent the way it goes from cash balance to cash balance. So that's really nice to see. All right, 00:32:29.120 --> 00:32:36.953 - seeing no other comments or questions, the public hearing for the 2027 Waste Reduction District budget 00:32:36.953 --> 00:32:37.790 - is closed. 00:32:38.722 --> 00:32:46.732 - Next, we will go on to the first reading and public hearing of ordinance 2026-32, the Monroe County 00:32:46.732 --> 00:32:54.982 - Government 2027 budget. I open that 2027 Monroe County Government budget and I would ask for Councilor 00:32:54.982 --> 00:33:00.990 - Henry to read ordinance 2026-32 into the record. Thank you, Mr. President. 00:33:01.442 --> 00:33:06.707 - Be it ordained by the Menor County Council that for the expenses of Menor County for the year ending 00:33:06.707 --> 00:33:12.025 - December 31, 2027, the sums herein specified are hereby appropriated and ordered set apart out of the 00:33:12.025 --> 00:33:17.342 - several funds here named and for the purpose herein specified subject to the laws governing the same. 00:33:17.538 --> 00:33:22.641 - Such sums herein appropriated shall be held to include all expenditures authorized to be made during 00:33:22.641 --> 00:33:27.795 - the year unless otherwise expressly stipulated and provided for by law. In addition, for the purposes 00:33:27.795 --> 00:33:33.101 - of raising revenue to meet the necessary expenses of Monroe County, the property tax levies and property 00:33:33.101 --> 00:33:35.678 - tax rates as herein specified are included herein. 00:33:35.842 --> 00:33:42.616 - budget form for B and all funds must be completed and submitted in the manner prescribed by the Department 00:33:42.616 --> 00:33:49.201 - of Local Government Finance. This ordinance shall be in full force in effect from and after its passage 00:33:49.201 --> 00:33:55.912 - and approval by the Monroe County Council on to the funds. I drew this short stick again. I'm I'm willing 00:33:55.912 --> 00:34:02.750 - to read half of them if your voice falters. Yeah, I brought water. There we go in fund code 0061 rainy day. 00:34:03.074 --> 00:34:15.276 - adopted budget $3 million, adopted tax levy $0 for adopted tax rate of 0.0. And fund code 0101 General 00:34:15.276 --> 00:34:27.359 - adopted budget $49,085,325, adopted tax levy $35 million, adopted tax rate 0.3713. And fund code 0102 00:34:27.359 --> 00:34:31.742 - Election Registration adopted budget 00:34:32.642 --> 00:34:47.146 - $2,000,750,900 adopted tax levy $2,000,199,000 adopted tax rate .0233. In fund code 0124 2015 reassessment, 00:34:47.146 --> 00:35:01.918 - the adopted budget is $916,640. The adopted tax levy is $923,000. The adopted tax rate is .0098. In fund code 00:35:02.850 --> 00:35:09.948 - zero one eight zero debt service. The adopted budget is nine million four hundred fifty four thousand 00:35:09.948 --> 00:35:17.047 - four hundred dollars. The adopted tax levy is eighteen million seven hundred fifty eight thousand and 00:35:17.047 --> 00:35:24.354 - sixty seven dollars. The adopted tax rate is point one nine nine zero. In funds code zero two zero three 00:35:24.354 --> 00:35:31.870 - self insurance. The adopted budget is twelve million five hundred nine thousand nine hundred sixty dollars. 00:35:32.034 --> 00:35:42.754 - The adopted tax levy is $0.00. The adopted tax rate is 0.00. In fund code 0254 local income tax, the 00:35:42.754 --> 00:35:54.430 - adopted budget is $4,530,089. The adopted tax levy is $0.00. The adopted tax rate is 0.00. In 0256 fund code, 00:35:54.978 --> 00:36:06.618 - The adopted budget is $4,176,508. The adopted tax levy is $0.00. The adopted tax rate is 0.00. In fund 00:36:06.618 --> 00:36:17.919 - code 0616 Convention and Visitors Bureau, the adopted budget is $6,187,742. The adopted tax levy is 00:36:17.919 --> 00:36:24.926 - $0.00. The adopted tax rate is 0.00. In fund code one, sorry, 00:36:25.154 --> 00:36:37.869 - The adopted budget is $6,626,647. The adopted tax levy is $0.00. The adopted tax rate is 0.00. In fund 00:36:37.869 --> 00:36:50.214 - code 0706, local road and streets, the adopted budget is $1,720,007. The adopted tax levy is $0.00. 00:36:50.214 --> 00:36:53.918 - The adopted tax rate is 0.00. 00:37:06.306 --> 00:37:22.341 - In Fund 0790 Cumulative Bridge, the adopted budget is $1,819,376. The adopted tax levy is $2,357,553. 00:37:22.341 --> 00:37:28.158 - The tax rate is 0.0213. In Fund Code 00:37:28.418 --> 00:37:49.950 - The adopted budget is $9,434,058. The tax levy adopted is $3,685,751. The tax rate is .0333. 00:37:50.114 --> 00:38:02.139 - The adopted budget is $1,198,150. The tax levy is $788,000. The adopted tax rate is 0.0084. 00:38:02.139 --> 00:38:15.341 - In fund 1310, park non-reverting capital, the adopted budget is $100,000. The tax levy is $0.00. The 00:38:15.341 --> 00:38:17.694 - tax rate is 0.00. 00:38:18.050 --> 00:38:30.945 - 102 aviation airports. The adopted budget is $1,679,089. The tax levy is $1,252,000. The tax rate is 00:38:30.945 --> 00:38:44.478 - 0.0133. In Fund 2391, cumulative capital development, the adopted budget is $3,211,000. $3,211,000, yeah. 00:38:44.578 --> 00:38:56.727 - The tax levy is $3,685,751. The tax rate is 0.0333. In Fund 2402 Economic Development, the adopted budget 00:38:56.727 --> 00:39:08.418 - is $9,496,413. The tax levy is $0, and the tax rate is 0.00. This brings us to a total adopted budget 00:39:08.418 --> 00:39:10.366 - of $126 million. 00:39:10.498 --> 00:39:21.043 - $896,304, a total tax levy of $68,649,122 at a tax rate of 0.7130. On to the home rule. All right. 00:39:21.043 --> 00:39:32.120 - Batter up. All right. Fund code. We are now moving on to home rule funds that are not reviewed by DLGF. 00:39:32.120 --> 00:39:35.102 - There are a number of them. 00:39:35.202 --> 00:39:41.155 - Fund code nine five zero zero extradition and sheriff's assistance adopted budget zero dollars. Fund 00:39:41.155 --> 00:39:47.225 - code nine five zero one surveyors corner perpetuation adopted budget eighty nine thousand nine hundred 00:39:47.225 --> 00:39:53.178 - sixty six dollars. Fund code nine five zero two local public health services one one six one adopted 00:39:53.178 --> 00:39:57.598 - budget one million two hundred sixteen thousand seven hundred two dollars. 00:39:58.498 --> 00:40:09.312 - fund code 9503. Monroe County 9-1-1 fund adopted budget $688,730. Fund code 9505, auditors and eligible 00:40:09.312 --> 00:40:19.918 - deductions. The adopted budget is $348,648. In fund code 9507, community corrections fees $1,122. The 00:40:19.918 --> 00:40:21.790 - adopted budget is 00:40:21.890 --> 00:40:28.047 - one hundred seventeen thousand five hundred three dollars and fund code nine five zero eight user fee 00:40:28.047 --> 00:40:34.143 - jury pay the adopted budget is thirty eight thousand dollars the funds code nine five zero nine user 00:40:34.143 --> 00:40:40.421 - fees juvenile probation two one five zero the adopted budget is seven thousand and seventy nine dollars 00:40:40.421 --> 00:40:45.310 - in fund code nine five one zero user fees adult probation twenty one hundred the 00:40:46.050 --> 00:40:58.070 - adopted budget is $119,403. In fund code 9512, supplemental PD services, the adopted budget is $1,022,838. 00:40:58.070 --> 00:41:00.766 - In 9513, clerk's record 00:41:00.898 --> 00:41:11.381 - The adopted budget is $103,193. In fund code 9514, user fees, diversion and prosecutor, the adopted 00:41:11.381 --> 00:41:22.494 - budget is $95,437. In fund code 9515, user fees, court, alcohol and drug, the adopted budget is $270,175. 00:41:22.562 --> 00:41:32.282 - In Fund Code 9516, Local Health Maintenance, the adopted budget is $190,089. The Fund Code 9517, Emergency 00:41:32.282 --> 00:41:41.457 - Planning Right to Know, the adopted budget is $25,950. In Fund Code 9519, Mr. Mean, what is that? Is 00:41:41.457 --> 00:41:50.814 - that a typo? No, Community Corrections. Mr. Mean. Mr. Mean, thank you. The adopted budget is $128,500. 00:41:50.946 --> 00:41:58.934 - In fund code 9521, alternative dispute resolution, the adopted budget is $27,700. In fund code 9522, 00:41:58.934 --> 00:42:07.160 - sales disclosure county share, the adopted budget is $8. In fund code 9523, convention visitors capital 00:42:07.160 --> 00:42:15.702 - improvement maintenance, the adopted budget is $100,000. In fund code 9524, county offender transportation, 00:42:15.702 --> 00:42:20.606 - the adopted budget is $2,500. In fund code 9525, local health 00:42:20.770 --> 00:42:31.921 - Department Trust account. The adopted budget is $35,420 in Fund Code 9526. User fees, problem solving 00:42:31.921 --> 00:42:43.620 - courts. The adopted budget is $22,544. Third page. Fund Code 9527, Westside Economic Development, Richland 00:42:43.620 --> 00:42:49.086 - Township, TIFF. The adopted budget is $2,040,000. 00:42:49.250 --> 00:43:01.123 - $572,692 in 9528 46 corridor economic development Bloomington Township TIF the adopted budget is $67,001 00:43:01.123 --> 00:43:12.318 - in 9529 Fullerton Pike economic development TIF the adopted budget is $388,001 in fund 9530 Platte 00:43:12.386 --> 00:43:21.676 - the adopted budget is $500. In 9531 Convention Center operating, the adoption budget is $0. In 9532 00:43:21.676 --> 00:43:31.152 - User Fees Cable Franchise, the adopted budget is $0. In 9533 Firearms Training, the adopted budget is 00:43:31.152 --> 00:43:38.398 - $100,000. In 9534 Donations, Sheriff's K9-4108, the adopted budget is $4,500. 00:43:38.466 --> 00:43:47.583 - In 9535 PSAP Interlocal, the adopted budget is $4 million. In 9543 Public Health Emergency Fund, the 00:43:47.583 --> 00:43:56.610 - adopted budget is $2. In 9544, the Identification Security Protection adopted budget is $18,000. In 00:43:56.610 --> 00:44:06.268 - 9548 Park Non-Reverting Operating, the adopted budget is $300,000. In 9551 Recorders Records Perpetuation, 00:44:06.268 --> 00:44:08.254 - the adopted budget is 00:44:08.610 --> 00:44:19.908 - $572,793 in 9522 stormwater management. The adopted budget is $3,416,689 in fund 9559. Excuse me, I 00:44:19.908 --> 00:44:31.431 - think you said 9522 and it should be 9552. Thank you for the correction, Councilor Feitel. I will say 00:44:31.431 --> 00:44:37.758 - 9522 stormwater management. 9552 stormwater management. 00:44:37.954 --> 00:44:43.897 - three million four hundred sixteen six hundred eighty nine thousand dollars and fund nine five five 00:44:43.897 --> 00:44:49.246 - nine county elected officials training twenty four thousand dollars in fund nine five six 00:44:49.314 --> 00:45:01.604 - for Sheriff's Sale Administration, $54,000. In Fund 9569 Aviation Construction, $51,251. In Fund 9571 00:45:01.604 --> 00:45:13.652 - Lane Mile Direct Distribution, $421,932. In Fund 9580 Lit Correctional Rehab Facilities, the amount 00:45:13.652 --> 00:45:18.110 - of the adopted budget is $3,242,150. 00:45:18.210 --> 00:45:29.637 - In fund 9585 donations, youth shelter, the adopted budget is $2,250. In fund 9586 donations, emergency 00:45:29.637 --> 00:45:38.846 - management, the adopted budget is $1,628. In 9587 donations, veterans affairs, the 00:45:39.170 --> 00:45:50.113 - The adopted budget is $160. In fund 9588, federal award title IBD, the adopted budget is $58,518. In 00:45:50.113 --> 00:45:55.422 - fund 9589, curry profile TIF, the adopted budget 00:45:56.354 --> 00:46:07.238 - is $15,000 in 9590 donations. Safe place. The adopted budget is $1000 in 9591 donations. Sheriff's 00:46:07.238 --> 00:46:18.233 - Department. The adopted budget is $12,000 in 9592 donations. Prevention General. The adopted budget 00:46:18.233 --> 00:46:23.070 - is $1495 and funds 9593 donations. BTCC the 00:46:23.330 --> 00:46:29.865 - Adopted budget is eleven thousand eight hundred dollars in fund nine five nine eight donations parks. 00:46:29.865 --> 00:46:36.465 - The adopted budget is two hundred thousand dollars, bringing us to a grand total of twenty million one 00:46:36.465 --> 00:46:43.001 - hundred eighty seven thousand seven hundred forty eight dollars. Thank you so much, Councillor Henry. 00:46:43.001 --> 00:46:47.806 - Well, I'm going to move for a raise. Just kidding. That's across the hall. 00:46:48.706 --> 00:46:56.111 - All right, given all that, do we have anyone from the public that would like to speak on Monroe County 00:46:56.111 --> 00:47:03.443 - government's twenty twenty seven budget? If so, please come to the podium. If you're here in the Natu 00:47:03.443 --> 00:47:11.064 - Hill meeting room or online on teams, just simply raise your hand. All right, let's come back to council. 00:47:11.064 --> 00:47:17.246 - Are there any council comments on this twenty twenty seven Monroe County budget? Yes. 00:47:18.690 --> 00:47:27.342 - Yes. First of all, thank you to council office. Kim Shell for preparing this budget comparison. I hope 00:47:27.342 --> 00:47:35.994 - that we since we just got it, but I'm quickly going down to see if I can pick up some of the something 00:47:35.994 --> 00:47:44.730 - we need to take a closer look at when we look at stormwater management. It looks like we are increasing 00:47:44.730 --> 00:47:48.510 - that budget by a million 26,000 point or six 00:47:48.802 --> 00:47:56.600 - dollars. So that that's quite a bit increase for stormwater because we know that that stormwater is 00:47:56.600 --> 00:48:04.632 - tied to a fee that people are charged on their property taxes, but that's only going to the people who 00:48:04.632 --> 00:48:12.664 - do not live in the city. And so I think we have to keep a very close eye on what we're spending there. 00:48:12.664 --> 00:48:18.590 - The other big one that jumped out that I saw was that peace app interlocal. 00:48:18.690 --> 00:48:29.774 - that we went from $2,781,462 up to $4 million of an increase of $1,218,538. And so when you see those 00:48:29.774 --> 00:48:40.966 - kind of jumps, that percentage of a jump, that means we need to be watching very carefully where we're 00:48:40.966 --> 00:48:47.486 - going to end up with the dollars. Now, I'm looking at this. 00:48:48.322 --> 00:48:55.752 - I would, you know, if I'm sitting here with let it die, nothing else to do. I'd be looking at the four 00:48:55.752 --> 00:49:03.110 - beats at the same time. But I'm which says we just got these numbers. But I'm just this isn't a final 00:49:03.110 --> 00:49:10.395 - decision tonight. Anyway, there's no vote on it. But I think that's just things that we need to keep 00:49:10.395 --> 00:49:11.838 - an eye on. And it's 00:49:12.258 --> 00:49:20.522 - It's one thing reading off all these numbers, but the whole other thing for us to understand where it's 00:49:20.522 --> 00:49:28.468 - guiding us, where it's taking us, what path are we on? And so as I'm looking at it, I think we need 00:49:28.468 --> 00:49:36.573 - to do some studying here to see where we're actually happening. You know, with that lid correctional, 00:49:36.573 --> 00:49:41.182 - we're spending over half a million dollars more proposing 00:49:41.602 --> 00:49:48.137 - than we did before, and I'm not sure that that additional that they had said that they wanted to have 00:49:48.137 --> 00:49:54.737 - in their spending included. So that's it. You know, it's an extra six hundred and seven thousand seven 00:49:54.737 --> 00:50:01.336 - hundred forty five dollars that we're spending down out of that correctional. So those are just things 00:50:01.336 --> 00:50:06.398 - that I'm hoping we'll all have time to take a look at before our next meeting. 00:50:06.690 --> 00:50:14.211 - Thank you, Council Member Hawke. And as a reminder to Council, the Otter's Office has produced a spreadsheet 00:50:14.211 --> 00:50:21.387 - that tallies up the four Bs and where they are above, in the black or in the red. So look in your inbox 00:50:21.387 --> 00:50:28.356 - for that spreadsheet. Council, if it's all right, we do have a hand raised on Teams, and I'd like to 00:50:28.356 --> 00:50:31.806 - go to that hand if that's all right with Council. 00:50:32.290 --> 00:50:39.885 - Jamie Ford, you have your hand raised. Please unmute and you'll have three minutes. Hi, my name is Jamie 00:50:39.885 --> 00:50:47.335 - Ford. I'm a Monroe County resident. I just wanted to say that I heard the reading for the prosecutor's 00:50:47.335 --> 00:50:54.713 - office. Yeah, it seems based on news articles that I've recently read, it seems like our prosecutor's 00:50:54.713 --> 00:50:57.534 - office and the probation office aren't 00:50:58.114 --> 00:51:03.813 - really keeping the people safe. I mean, there's literally going to be a convicted pedophile released 00:51:03.813 --> 00:51:09.738 - tomorrow that is having charges expunged off his record because the prosecutor's office decided to plead 00:51:09.738 --> 00:51:15.663 - that down. There was also somebody at a high school football game that was supposed to be on home arrest 00:51:15.663 --> 00:51:21.588 - because he was convicted for shooting four different people, quote unquote, accidentally at a nightclub. 00:51:21.588 --> 00:51:25.086 - Why are we paying all this money for our prosecutor's office? 00:51:25.218 --> 00:51:32.081 - probation office if they're not going to actually prosecute and keep people you know like I get in jail 00:51:32.081 --> 00:51:38.813 - is bad but so is you know accidentally shooting people and so it's harming children so if they're not 00:51:38.813 --> 00:51:45.742 - going to prosecute I think their budget could be cut. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Ford. All right I'm gonna 00:51:45.742 --> 00:51:51.550 - come back to council and if you do have another comment please raise your hand on teams 00:51:51.842 --> 00:51:57.934 - or a step forward to the podium here in the U-Hill room. And let me just make sure no other council 00:51:57.934 --> 00:52:04.208 - members have any comments. All right, council member, we'll go with you first and then we'll head down 00:52:04.208 --> 00:52:08.350 - the bench. Thanks. Appreciate it, Mr. President. Council, I want to 00:52:08.610 --> 00:52:14.500 - Thank you all. I was in and out of our hearings with my teaching commitments. And so some of the, 00:52:14.500 --> 00:52:20.570 - you know, items that were listed here, I did not have an opportunity to hear during the hearing, but 00:52:20.570 --> 00:52:26.761 - had to do my own work on that. This is a it's a solid budget. I think we are finding ourselves in year 00:52:26.761 --> 00:52:32.771 - two of what the transitions in state tax policy are giving us. You know, last year at this time, we 00:52:32.771 --> 00:52:34.334 - were very concerned about 00:52:34.498 --> 00:52:39.459 - You're making payroll. We started to leverage other funds like the edit to help balance our budget, 00:52:39.459 --> 00:52:44.470 - which we are again doing this year. I wanted to take a moment maybe just to clarify in the ordinance 00:52:44.470 --> 00:52:49.432 - from the auditors table. We have a line item that talks about the status of our estimated levy, our 00:52:49.432 --> 00:52:54.790 - total property tax, and then a status that says over max by twelve million one hundred ninety four thousand 00:52:54.790 --> 00:53:00.446 - eight hundred eighteen dollars. Would you like to share what that means for the public so we can understand that? 00:53:00.674 --> 00:53:08.702 - Absolutely. Thanks for the question, Counselor Henry. So we're over max by design. What we do is we put 00:53:08.770 --> 00:53:14.673 - all of the levy funds, except for the general fund, where we think they need to be. You've got an email 00:53:14.673 --> 00:53:20.009 - recently kind of with an explanation about that. But then for the general fund, that's where, 00:53:20.009 --> 00:53:25.741 - if you recall, FSG usually calls it pennies from heaven, where we wanna make sure we get every piece 00:53:25.741 --> 00:53:31.645 - of the levy available. So we inflate that to make sure all the additional levy is funneled there, where 00:53:31.645 --> 00:53:34.142 - it has the most flexibility to be utilized. 00:53:34.274 --> 00:53:40.584 - I appreciate that. Again, I think a solid approach here for this year. I do worry about long term. I 00:53:40.584 --> 00:53:46.832 - do worry about some of our funds that we've done well, I think, to reduce reversions over the years 00:53:46.832 --> 00:53:52.830 - to have people come to us and ask her what they need. I think a lot of counties in the state do 00:53:53.122 --> 00:53:58.120 - Do not usually appropriate the entire line just because of department asks for it. I mean simply because 00:53:58.120 --> 00:54:02.879 - a department has a fund and there's a balance that's positive Does not necessarily mean the council 00:54:02.879 --> 00:54:07.734 - has to hand over the entire appropriation at that time We're seeing that with our city partners right 00:54:07.734 --> 00:54:12.446 - now as they are throttling some of their full appropriations to have offices come back and explain 00:54:12.738 --> 00:54:18.103 - At a midpoint in the year what if they really do need those funds? I think last year we had a lot of 00:54:18.103 --> 00:54:23.679 - success with that with elections when we worked through that I appreciate that Eric. You're here tonight 00:54:23.679 --> 00:54:28.991 - with the health department. I want to reiterate for the public that In my view it might be somewhat 00:54:28.991 --> 00:54:34.302 - biased that your department in particular got thrown a monkey wrench and to try to present a budget 00:54:34.302 --> 00:54:36.958 - of some kind to us that while it is here and it's 00:54:37.026 --> 00:54:41.953 - good. We're probably going to be revisiting that a few times over the next quarter or two as we really 00:54:41.953 --> 00:54:46.975 - figure out what the future of our health department is and who's leading it and who's also on that board 00:54:46.975 --> 00:54:51.902 - and maybe even the health officer at that point as we understand the future there is really important. 00:54:51.970 --> 00:54:57.645 - I will say I have my own reservations. I don't know if there's time or if there's interest from the 00:54:57.645 --> 00:55:03.319 - Council on looking at some of those padded funds that we still have. And we do have funds that have 00:55:03.319 --> 00:55:09.335 - account lines. I think about like special projects and the cumulative capital fund, which is very opaque. 00:55:09.335 --> 00:55:13.534 - And where we see spending that happens in the Board of Commissioners that 00:55:13.634 --> 00:55:19.381 - We don't really get a vote on it. It's just contracts happen. Things happen in there that we need. So 00:55:19.381 --> 00:55:25.071 - I think get clarity on what those funds are really doing, because this is our one and only chance to 00:55:25.071 --> 00:55:30.706 - set that table. From that point, departments are empowered with their budget to go forth and govern 00:55:30.706 --> 00:55:32.734 - for the year and do their work. But 00:55:32.994 --> 00:55:38.887 - It's like I said, solid budget. I'm proud of the effort we've put in here. I think we're again year 00:55:38.887 --> 00:55:44.838 - two of rocky shoals with the state legislation. And, you know, I imagine the years to come are going 00:55:44.838 --> 00:55:50.731 - to have to get a little tighter on our questions for folks to make sure we're using our tax dollars 00:55:50.731 --> 00:55:56.682 - where folks in our community voted for and want them to go. But thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. 00:55:56.682 --> 00:56:02.398 - When I was mentioning the other numbers that was from one page, there's more than one page here. 00:56:02.690 --> 00:56:12.636 - The two that really jump out from the first page that has like the general fund and airport so forth 00:56:12.636 --> 00:56:22.483 - is that great big jump in the economic development income tax. And that is a major jump. We went up 00:56:22.483 --> 00:56:29.278 - from four million, six, six, seven, seven, one nine to nine million. 00:56:29.506 --> 00:56:40.802 - increase of $4.8 million plus. So that is a big one, and that's income tax dollars is just. And it gets 00:56:40.802 --> 00:56:51.882 - replenished as people who are paying income tax, but that is a major jump that that we took in there. 00:56:51.882 --> 00:56:58.942 - And what I saw on that when I looked at it and I missed the last 00:56:59.138 --> 00:57:08.467 - part of that meeting where this discussion was for the million dollars for a donation. It appeared to 00:57:08.467 --> 00:57:17.978 - me that when you look down at the debt, if we had included, if we had reduced that debt by that million 00:57:17.978 --> 00:57:27.216 - dollars that we're just donating elsewhere and used it for county government expenses, we could have 00:57:27.216 --> 00:57:28.862 - reduced that debt 00:57:28.962 --> 00:57:42.159 - of. Repayment which is the difference between those two numbers is 8,000,523,200. Now we haven't actually 00:57:42.159 --> 00:57:54.983 - voted as yet on that total bond, but that is a gigantic difference. Of what the total expenditures are 00:57:54.983 --> 00:57:58.718 - going to be for the taxpayer. 00:57:59.074 --> 00:58:09.168 - a bond of over $9 million with an increase of $8,500,000, then that's just a big jump. And then you 00:58:09.168 --> 00:58:20.271 - add in that almost $5 million jump in the economic development income tax. I think that's a lot of additional 00:58:20.271 --> 00:58:24.510 - spending the taxpayer will be paying for. 00:58:25.666 --> 00:58:32.900 - Thank you. I'm going to look over to our auditor, Ms. Gregory. Yes, thank you. Great points, Councillor 00:58:32.900 --> 00:58:40.064 - Hawke, as always. You kind of hit it before I raised my hand, but I do want to point out to the public 00:58:40.064 --> 00:58:47.158 - and to the council that our our tax rates that you're looking at now is inflated and will be adjusted 00:58:47.158 --> 00:58:52.862 - by the Department of Local Government Finance. That is because one of the GO bond 00:58:53.058 --> 00:59:00.468 - advertisement. We left that geobahn budget where we advertise essentially and because we haven't closed 00:59:00.468 --> 00:59:04.030 - on it yet and because you haven't voted to adopt. 00:59:04.226 --> 00:59:09.972 - We know it's not going to be that high, but it does include a portion of the budget to pay the 2025 00:59:09.972 --> 00:59:15.775 - geobond. So that's part of it. But then the remainder of it is what hasn't been decided yet. I think 00:59:15.775 --> 00:59:21.578 - the last number I saw was about 4.8 million that you're considering for projects. So I don't know if 00:59:21.578 --> 00:59:27.381 - that's what's going to pass or if you're going to go below that. But the rate obviously is dependent 00:59:27.381 --> 00:59:28.990 - upon the number you choose. 00:59:29.090 --> 00:59:34.780 - In addition to that, we've already talked a little bit about the general fund, which is also inflated. 00:59:34.780 --> 00:59:40.360 - So those are both increasing that bottom line, that rate, the overall rate for the county. So if you 00:59:40.360 --> 00:59:46.050 - look at the 2026 budget order, for example, that's where it all kind of tallies out and the department 00:59:46.050 --> 00:59:51.574 - has adjusted everything. So they'll do the same for 2027, but we'll know a lot more when we can get 00:59:51.574 --> 00:59:53.342 - the corrected numbers in there. 00:59:57.058 --> 01:00:04.439 - Auditor, is there any questions, please? Just continuing in that vein. When will we be we everyone be 01:00:04.439 --> 01:00:11.748 - able to see corrected numbers in there? OK, I was just thinking I misspoke slightly because we don't 01:00:11.748 --> 01:00:19.346 - get the budget order until middle or so of January. Unfortunately, but we can give you a better ballpark 01:00:19.346 --> 01:00:23.326 - prior to that. Once we you know, we know the amount of 01:00:23.842 --> 01:00:31.946 - the bond officially, and we can give you a better idea of tax rate. It won't be exact because the department 01:00:31.946 --> 01:00:39.900 - does that, but better if that helps. So, I mean, right now, if we look at the twenty twenty seven document 01:00:39.900 --> 01:00:47.632 - here, we see point seven one three zero. However, when you take out the inflation for the general fund, 01:00:47.632 --> 01:00:51.870 - we're at point five eight three six approximately. Don't 01:00:52.002 --> 01:00:58.934 - quote me on those numbers, it's just an estimate for you. However, we still, with the .5836, still has 01:00:58.934 --> 01:01:05.933 - the inflated debt service. So it's gonna be reduced again. Does that make sense? Okay. And I would just 01:01:05.933 --> 01:01:10.846 - remind Council and the public that we are gonna be very busy this month. 01:01:11.010 --> 01:01:16.884 - So in one week, we're going to be having a regular session meeting where we're going to be going over 01:01:16.884 --> 01:01:22.701 - some of those general obligation bond conversations. So that's happening in one week. And then we're 01:01:22.701 --> 01:01:28.690 - adopting this budget the week after that. So we're going to be here for the next two Tuesdays, starting 01:01:28.690 --> 01:01:34.910 - at five o'clock to do a lot of this work. I will also mention to counsel that right now the budget is open. 01:01:35.234 --> 01:01:43.171 - So if you have changes or you have adjustments, now is the time to do so. We certainly can do that at 01:01:43.171 --> 01:01:50.407 - our meeting next week. But if there are this, this is one of the times that you have to make 01:01:50.407 --> 01:01:58.344 - those adjustments. Yes, please. Yes. In regards to the million dollars in the edit that was discussed 01:01:58.344 --> 01:02:04.958 - at the meeting at the last meeting, I've asked if I could, if I could, if the public 01:02:05.122 --> 01:02:17.066 - you could see what the grant request was. What it's for. And then also what a copy of the contract would 01:02:17.066 --> 01:02:22.526 - look like. What are we contracting to for them? 01:02:22.626 --> 01:02:29.193 - What do the people, what do the taxpayers get for the million dollars? And it needs to be specific, 01:02:29.193 --> 01:02:35.630 - not generalized. It needs to be specific. Just like when we do the grants with the Sophia Travis, 01:02:35.630 --> 01:02:42.197 - you know, those things influence on, but they're specific and they have to do what they say they're 01:02:42.197 --> 01:02:48.830 - going to do, or there's a callback on there. And so I would like to see, maybe you all have seen it, 01:02:48.830 --> 01:02:50.078 - I haven't seen it, 01:02:50.594 --> 01:02:58.198 - And I've called and asked several people and everybody going, oh, I don't know, you just think it's 01:02:58.198 --> 01:03:05.955 - a donation. Well, we can't, we're not allowed to do donations. I mean, we're just not allowed to just 01:03:05.955 --> 01:03:13.939 - donate. So we'll have to have a, it must be in the form of a grant or something of the sort. So. I mean, 01:03:13.939 --> 01:03:18.654 - I think we all, as with previous conversations, we agreed to, 01:03:20.514 --> 01:03:27.329 - move forward with that as one of the items included in, I believe we were talking about the edit. I 01:03:27.329 --> 01:03:33.666 - would assume that there would be some sort of contractual agreement. Could, does anyone have 01:03:33.666 --> 01:03:40.549 - more information? I just, you know, I was okay with just general, but I agree. We at some point need 01:03:40.549 --> 01:03:48.045 - to see more. I think Mr. Cockrell was looking into that. I know he was talking to SBOA after his conversation 01:03:48.045 --> 01:03:50.430 - with Ms. Hawk, our counselor Hawk. 01:03:51.490 --> 01:03:57.765 - I think there are a couple ways to do it. And I don't want to commit to doing it one way without talking 01:03:57.765 --> 01:04:03.800 - to Jeff. But I think one possible way is to structure it like Sophia Travis, where it's a grant. And 01:04:03.800 --> 01:04:10.015 - there is a grant agreement for that. So that is one of the things we're looking into. But I think there 01:04:10.015 --> 01:04:12.286 - might be other possibilities. Thanks. 01:04:12.930 --> 01:04:19.078 - And I will also point out that not only is the council busy, but the commissioners who handle contracts 01:04:19.078 --> 01:04:25.226 - and who handle this sort of thing are meeting on Thursday right in this room at 10 AM. And you can find 01:04:25.226 --> 01:04:31.137 - the link to join that meeting and ask all the questions you need to about contracts and things like 01:04:31.137 --> 01:04:37.226 - that. Please. Just when they're putting those numbers together, I think it would be very important for 01:04:37.226 --> 01:04:42.014 - the public to know, certainly I want to know, is a million dollars for services? 01:04:42.114 --> 01:04:49.995 - or is it for bricks and mortar? And when I've asked that question, I'm not sure anybody has the answer. 01:04:49.995 --> 01:04:57.649 - If they do, it's not coming through very clearly to me what it is. All right, Councilmember Deckard. 01:04:57.649 --> 01:05:05.605 - Mr. President, I have a suggestion rather than us talking in and around all this. I think that we invite 01:05:05.605 --> 01:05:09.470 - the folks from Beacon to come and talk about this. 01:05:09.570 --> 01:05:17.371 - and where the short for all their campaign is. Also, I would recommend that for any counselor that has 01:05:17.371 --> 01:05:25.020 - not ever paid a visit down there to talk with them on site with some of our constituents, as I have, 01:05:25.020 --> 01:05:32.593 - and I know others have, that might be a good time to do a visit. I also know that I appreciated the 01:05:32.593 --> 01:05:38.046 - invitation I think all of us got when that effort for this new facility 01:05:38.530 --> 01:05:45.981 - rolled out and we were able to go talk about our hopes, wishes for it in the new neighborhood where 01:05:45.981 --> 01:05:53.581 - they were doing the outreach, where it's going to be. As I said in our last meeting, we wouldn't have 01:05:53.581 --> 01:06:01.330 - many of these things that counties and cities and townships and towns have to do if we didn't have many 01:06:01.330 --> 01:06:05.950 - of the issues that we have currently right now in a difficult 01:06:06.082 --> 01:06:12.729 - economy and otherwise. And so counties, cities, maybe even libraries and waste reduction districts will 01:06:12.729 --> 01:06:19.121 - now be figuring out under a new set of rules how to take care of a diverse set of different people. 01:06:19.121 --> 01:06:25.513 - And that's probably not going away. But I think a presentation here just to get to the point and in 01:06:25.513 --> 01:06:31.904 - visits down there, we can maybe get us all in my car and drive down there or walk down there or any 01:06:31.904 --> 01:06:33.758 - number of things to do that. 01:06:33.986 --> 01:06:40.692 - and see what's going on and what this would do and to see the maps and the plans and all those things 01:06:40.692 --> 01:06:47.529 - have been talked about for, I think, three or four years now. I think there's a pretty healthy website, 01:06:47.529 --> 01:06:54.234 - right, light the way? There is a healthy website. That's just not the point, though. We need to, with 01:06:54.234 --> 01:07:01.071 - the fiscal body, we need to see what it's supposed to be for exactly and what the contracts should look 01:07:01.071 --> 01:07:02.846 - like. Yes. That's our job. 01:07:03.266 --> 01:07:09.860 - project or not, we need to see. All right. We're going to we're going to take this down a little bit. 01:07:09.860 --> 01:07:16.065 - If you need to speak, let me know. And I'll acknowledge you, Mr. Decker. I don't have to speak, 01:07:16.065 --> 01:07:22.723 - but I will. I guess the only thing I'll say is, you know, I'm going to go back to a statement. I think 01:07:22.723 --> 01:07:29.317 - I made it the last meeting and I noticed one one or two things happening out there in the world right 01:07:29.317 --> 01:07:31.838 - now. People griping were people doing. 01:07:32.482 --> 01:07:39.591 - griping or doing. And I think in the community right now, we're moving from griping to doing on this 01:07:39.591 --> 01:07:46.842 - kind of a project. I'm not sure everything's 100% perfect, but it's got to be better than what we have 01:07:46.842 --> 01:07:53.881 - now, which is everybody sitting on Facebook complaining about what they see every day while they're 01:07:53.881 --> 01:08:00.286 - driving. And I think that beyond driving, if you get out among the people out of the cars, 01:08:00.450 --> 01:08:06.157 - You see a lot of lives living that. And I hope that this project gets the attention that it deserves. 01:08:06.157 --> 01:08:11.809 - I hope that we schedule a beacon in here for 20 to 30 minutes. I think that we should probably every 01:08:11.809 --> 01:08:17.460 - once a month have a beacon in here. Mary Morgan in here. We should probably have new hope. We should 01:08:17.460 --> 01:08:23.055 - probably ask questions why we have to have so many of those organizations and why that those things 01:08:23.055 --> 01:08:24.734 - are happening elsewhere, too. 01:08:26.562 --> 01:08:36.724 - All right, we have currently the 2027 Monroe County government budget open. Are there any other counselor 01:08:36.724 --> 01:08:46.406 - comments? Oh, or questions? Absolutely, Council Member Wilz. I have a question for the auditor about 01:08:46.406 --> 01:08:52.350 - the debt service. Obviously, that is directly impacted by our 01:08:52.546 --> 01:09:00.114 - and we'll figure that out next week. That kind of thing. Is there anything else in there or is it just 01:09:00.114 --> 01:09:07.462 - all of the geo bonds? OK, so it is just geo bonds. It's just a pair geo bond debt. So right now the 01:09:07.462 --> 01:09:14.810 - only outstanding geo bond we have is the 2025, whereas where we began the six year. Bonding period. 01:09:14.810 --> 01:09:19.806 - Alright, with the when the new law came into effect and so that so. 01:09:20.578 --> 01:09:30.265 - The budget for 2026 covered. That payment. And probably the tail end of 25 or I'm sorry, 24 OK, so then 01:09:30.265 --> 01:09:39.672 - 20 have and then 27 is going to have the 2025 longer term and 26 and 26. You got it and that gets to 01:09:39.672 --> 01:09:49.918 - the point I was making at our last meeting. This is going to get very expensive if we keep doing it this way. 01:09:50.114 --> 01:09:58.317 - Thank you for that. All right. Just second on that. I think you're seeing the snowball coming. Councillor 01:09:58.317 --> 01:10:04.894 - Wilts and kind of ties to my earlier point that we have a solid budget this year but 01:10:05.026 --> 01:10:13.254 - The level of scrutiny that we really need to start putting here is it's just paying the debt. It's it's 01:10:13.254 --> 01:10:21.798 - running up the card And by year five, we'll be paying on five years worth exactly right before the cool-off 01:10:21.798 --> 01:10:29.709 - in year six, right? And so yeah and and wondering where our millions went Good point. Thank you Any 01:10:29.709 --> 01:10:32.478 - other council comments Seeing none 01:10:33.378 --> 01:10:40.503 - The public hearing for the 2027 Monroe County government budget is closed. All right, next we are going 01:10:40.503 --> 01:10:47.629 - to do the first reading for ordinance 2026-38 Monroe County 2027 salary ordinance. There's two of these 01:10:47.629 --> 01:10:54.754 - and instead of making counselor file read both of them, I would like to volunteer to read B if you will 01:10:54.754 --> 01:11:00.030 - read A. Oh good, B is the longer one, right? Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. 01:11:00.770 --> 01:11:09.197 - All right, we'll have the first reading of our 2027 salary ordinance. I will ask Councilor Feidl to 01:11:09.197 --> 01:11:18.467 - read ordinance 2026-38A, the 2027 salary ordinance for the elected officials. Whereas the Indiana legislature 01:11:18.467 --> 01:11:26.978 - adopted Indiana Code 36-2-3, and I don't know what that stands for. Et sec, just say et sec. Et sec, 01:11:26.978 --> 01:11:28.158 - I got et sec. 01:11:28.290 --> 01:11:36.775 - which established the Monroe County Council as the governing fiscal body of Monroe County, and whereas 01:11:36.775 --> 01:11:45.179 - Indiana Code 36-2-5-3 grants the Monroe County Council the power to, one, fix the number of officers, 01:11:45.179 --> 01:11:51.934 - deputies, and other employees, two, describe and classify positions and services, 01:11:52.098 --> 01:11:59.363 - three, adopt schedules of compensation, and four, hire or contract with persons to assist in the development 01:11:59.363 --> 01:12:06.162 - of schedules of compensation. Whereas the Monroe County Council wishes to establish a salary schedule 01:12:06.162 --> 01:12:13.228 - and compensation policies, now be it ordained by the Monroe County Council of Indiana that this ordinance 01:12:13.228 --> 01:12:16.894 - affixes the salary for elected officials of the county 01:12:17.058 --> 01:12:26.281 - from the period of January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2027, whose salary is comprised of funds payable 01:12:26.281 --> 01:12:35.874 - from any county fund or budget as provided by IC 36-2-5 at SEC. These salaries are hereby solidly fixed 01:12:35.874 --> 01:12:43.806 - and follows the maximum level of salary as shown on the elected official salary grid. 01:12:44.290 --> 01:12:51.399 - All payments made pursuant to this ordinance are contingent upon the strict compliance with and adherence 01:12:51.399 --> 01:12:58.173 - to the benefit, compensation, fiscally related, and state and federally mandated requirements of the 01:12:58.173 --> 01:13:05.148 - Monroe County Personnel Policy Handbook. It is the intent of the County Council that this language will 01:13:05.148 --> 01:13:12.190 - encourage compliance with personnel policies which may have a fiscal impact on Monroe County government. 01:13:13.250 --> 01:13:21.180 - For elected officials, time worked on or after January 1, 2027, and prior to midnight, December 31, 01:13:21.180 --> 01:13:29.269 - 2027, shall be calculated and paid within the parameters of the salary ordinance and personnel policy 01:13:29.269 --> 01:13:37.278 - handbook, regardless of when the payment is issued. Elected officials shall not receive compensation 01:13:38.082 --> 01:13:45.509 - above the salary range authorized for their position in the elected official salary grid. The county 01:13:45.509 --> 01:13:53.156 - auditor shall not issue pay warrants for pay that exceeds the authorized amount specified in the salary 01:13:53.156 --> 01:14:00.729 - ordinance. The salary amounts listed are an annual appropriation amount. Calculation of the daily rate 01:14:00.729 --> 01:14:05.950 - may result in a slight variation and will not be adjusted at year end. 01:14:07.042 --> 01:14:13.497 - elected official base rate schedule to establish a more equitable system of setting salaries for the 01:14:13.497 --> 01:14:19.889 - Monroe County elected officials not set by the state. The county council has established within the 01:14:19.889 --> 01:14:26.280 - annual salary ordinance a base rate for elected officials with a schedule of amounts to be applied. 01:14:26.280 --> 01:14:32.799 - The base rate schedule is outlined in section one of the election. Excuse me, of the elected official 01:14:32.799 --> 01:14:33.630 - salary grid. 01:14:33.890 --> 01:14:45.806 - for elected officials whose salary is set by the state. The state mandated salaries are amended annually 01:14:45.806 --> 01:14:57.495 - on July 1st. The sheriff is excluded from the base rate schedule as his or her salary is paid pursuant 01:14:57.495 --> 01:15:01.694 - to IC 36-2-13-2.5 or IC 36-2-13-2.8. 01:15:02.402 --> 01:15:09.555 - It is the intent and direction of the Monroe County Council that all salaries paid by the County Council, 01:15:09.555 --> 01:15:16.438 - which are tied or related to the Monroe County Sheriff, as is mandated by the state of Indiana, shall 01:15:16.438 --> 01:15:23.524 - be automatically amended at the same time as the state mandated salaries on July 1st. The County Council 01:15:23.524 --> 01:15:30.407 - recognizes that this is an exception to the general rule for county set salaries, which are generally 01:15:30.407 --> 01:15:32.094 - modified on January 1st. 01:15:33.314 --> 01:15:41.348 - Additional information regarding payments of certifications, supplementals and or per diems is outlined 01:15:41.348 --> 01:15:49.072 - in section two of the elected officials salary grid. Presented to the Monroe County Council read in 01:15:49.072 --> 01:15:57.183 - full for the first time on the sixth day of October, twenty twenty six. Thank you so much, Councilmember 01:15:57.183 --> 01:16:00.350 - Pytel. Do we have anyone from the public 01:16:00.674 --> 01:16:08.139 - that would like to speak on ordinance 2026-38A, the 2027 salary ordinance for elected officials. If 01:16:08.139 --> 01:16:15.530 - you're here in the NatU Hill Room, come to the podium. If you're on Teams, simply raise your hand. 01:16:15.530 --> 01:16:23.966 - All right, we do have a hand raised. Jody Medeira, Commissioner, please unmute yourself. You have three minutes. 01:16:37.474 --> 01:16:48.863 - I am here because on behalf of the board of commissioners, because my colleague is not able to be here 01:16:48.863 --> 01:16:57.598 - and sorry. Sorry, sick kid. Take your time. We've all we've all had sick kids. 01:17:10.306 --> 01:17:19.252 - Commissioner Madeira, are you still there? Yeah, go. The. I'm sorry, can you come back to me? Absolutely, 01:17:19.252 --> 01:17:28.029 - yeah. If you have public comment again, if you're here in the Natu Hill room, please come to the podium 01:17:28.029 --> 01:17:36.638 - or if you are on team, simply raise your hand. I see Jamie Ford has their hand raised. Please unmute. 01:17:37.058 --> 01:17:44.483 - and you will have three minutes to speak on this elected official salary ordinance. Yeah, just quick, 01:17:44.483 --> 01:17:51.763 - I don't know, maybe this is just me having what these call a crash out, but I know this council has 01:17:51.763 --> 01:17:59.042 - in the past decided to like freeze their salaries because of, you know, budget issues and all that. 01:17:59.042 --> 01:18:06.686 - And to me, that shows great leadership. It would be great for the board of commissioners to do the same. 01:18:07.010 --> 01:18:13.125 - We are literally, the county is gonna be in litigation next year because of this jail situation. 01:18:13.125 --> 01:18:19.555 - And yet, based on the last time I looked at the budget, it looked like they are supposed to get a pay 01:18:19.555 --> 01:18:26.490 - raise. Everybody else that's elected, I don't have a problem with it, but the commissioners, we're literally, 01:18:26.490 --> 01:18:32.983 - I mean, outside council has had to be hired with extra tax dollars. We're literally gonna be in courts 01:18:32.983 --> 01:18:34.622 - paying fees and all that. 01:18:34.818 --> 01:18:42.430 - because of their failure to maintain the building. And so, yeah, I think they should demonstrate leadership, 01:18:42.430 --> 01:18:48.855 - and they, at this point, honestly, I'm angry enough, they should have to pay to continue to 01:18:48.855 --> 01:18:55.559 - be the commissioners, but I'll take a pay freeze at this point. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ford. 01:18:55.559 --> 01:19:02.752 - All right, looking to see if we have any other folks that would like to speak on this salary ordinance 01:19:02.752 --> 01:19:04.638 - for the elected officials. 01:19:07.554 --> 01:19:16.297 - We're gonna go to council questions or comments and we'll hold space for Commissioner Madeira if they 01:19:16.297 --> 01:19:25.126 - are able to come back online. Please. I wanted to point out that they have changed it from a bi-weekly 01:19:25.126 --> 01:19:34.041 - salary rate to a daily rate. I'm sure there's a reason for that, but I see that it's been changed. Yes. 01:19:34.041 --> 01:19:37.470 - What happens is at the end of the year, 01:19:37.794 --> 01:19:49.245 - when there's 2026 amounts and then there's 2027 amounts, we can't just do a bi-weekly check. So we have 01:19:49.245 --> 01:20:00.586 - to do those by daily rate. So then that way we can calculate, okay, you may have six days for 2026 and 01:20:00.586 --> 01:20:02.238 - then four days 01:20:02.562 --> 01:20:12.622 - for 2027. So that's why we changed it to a daily rate so that we can easily calculate that transition 01:20:12.622 --> 01:20:22.780 - period between the 2026 and the 2027. Okay, so may I speak? Does that also apply to the chief deputies 01:20:22.780 --> 01:20:31.262 - because their salaries are tied to the elected official? So it seemed to me you might 01:20:31.618 --> 01:20:41.200 - have to do the same thing with the chief deputies? No, it is not due to the fact that they are not elected 01:20:41.200 --> 01:20:50.244 - and an elected officials is paid through to the end of the year. Per our salary ordinance, the chief 01:20:50.244 --> 01:20:59.289 - deputies are lumped in with the Monroe County employees and they also receive the pay. So regardless 01:20:59.289 --> 01:21:00.990 - of when they work, 01:21:01.506 --> 01:21:09.795 - they will be paid out at the 2027 rate. The reason why question that, and I don't know whether you're 01:21:09.795 --> 01:21:18.653 - around. You probably work when they when we decided to start paying early and I said, look, what's happening 01:21:18.653 --> 01:21:27.186 - is that if you have a new elected person of January one and they have a new chief deputy, that new chief 01:21:27.186 --> 01:21:31.006 - deputies will get paid a different amount than 01:21:31.458 --> 01:21:40.229 - other chief deputies that for the same. Do you see what I'm saying? It made a difference. And I think 01:21:40.229 --> 01:21:49.257 - that's when Jeff Ellington was a three quarter because the chief deputies were not was not. They weren't 01:21:49.257 --> 01:21:58.028 - being paid equally. But that was then. This is now. Yeah, it's like it's like that's before. That was 01:21:58.028 --> 01:21:58.974 - before me. 01:22:00.674 --> 01:22:06.681 - Any other councilors have any comments? Any council members have any other comments before we go back 01:22:06.681 --> 01:22:12.923 - to Commissioner Madeira? Please, Mr. Henry. Maybe a point of clarification for the public and the comment 01:22:12.923 --> 01:22:18.871 - we had. I'll look to the table, Kim and Brian. So our adjustments here this year are just scheduled. 01:22:18.871 --> 01:22:24.878 - I want to make sure for the public's understanding that we're not, it's a raise, but it's a scheduled 01:22:24.878 --> 01:22:29.118 - percentage against what we usually do in the county with the exception. 01:22:29.314 --> 01:22:37.808 - the surveyors' salary, which we made an adjustment on. Is that a fair way to put it? Yes. So in plain 01:22:37.808 --> 01:22:46.218 - English for the public's understanding? Yes. The council decided for a COLA of 2% for all personnel, 01:22:46.218 --> 01:22:54.878 - which included the elected officials. So all elected officials got a 2% raise. We have a grid where the 01:22:56.546 --> 01:23:05.459 - the elected officials based on we have a base rate of 80 for 2027 is going to be eighty two thousand 01:23:05.459 --> 01:23:14.461 - nine fifty five well the council gave each of the elected officials a certain percentage of that base 01:23:14.461 --> 01:23:23.815 - rate so the commissioners therefore get seventy percent of that base rate so yes they do they are getting 01:23:23.815 --> 01:23:26.110 - that two percent increase 01:23:26.242 --> 01:23:31.656 - but they're getting a percentage of that base rate. In Monroe County, the board of commissioners are 01:23:31.656 --> 01:23:37.070 - a part-time position, basically. They're not a hundred percent position. Correct. They're not. Yeah. 01:23:37.070 --> 01:23:42.645 - You have labeled them as not. Yes. As well as the corner and as well as the council. I just wanted that 01:23:42.645 --> 01:23:48.113 - to be fair in the public reading there. I appreciate the public comment, but there's a little more in 01:23:48.113 --> 01:23:53.902 - the numbers there. And I thank you for clarification. Thank you. And the committee commissioners themselves 01:23:53.902 --> 01:23:54.974 - don't get to choose 01:23:55.554 --> 01:24:02.719 - the rate or get to choose their salary, that's all done by the council. Speaking of commissioners, 01:24:02.719 --> 01:24:10.102 - Commissioner Madeira has their hand raised. Commissioner Madeira, would you, are you in a position or 01:24:10.102 --> 01:24:17.557 - a point that you can unmute? If you are, you have three minutes to speak on this budget. Yes, I am now 01:24:17.557 --> 01:24:25.374 - in a position. I'm so sorry. So just because I had to step away and I may have misheard, I wanted to give a 01:24:25.634 --> 01:24:33.304 - a talk a few moments in support for just basically keeping the COLA. And so I want to say that the annual 01:24:33.304 --> 01:24:41.046 - US inflation rate is now 3.4% for the 12-month setting in August. And so I don't really want our employees 01:24:41.046 --> 01:24:48.426 - to take a pay cut. I think we're going to keep pay level not ahead. By keeping our COLA, we are going 01:24:48.426 --> 01:24:54.142 - to keep our employees where they were last year. Turnover is really expensive. 01:24:54.242 --> 01:25:00.161 - And if we replace a deputy dispatcher or clerk, that is just means more recruiting, training and overtime 01:25:00.161 --> 01:25:05.801 - to cover the gap. And we already faced strict competition for workers. And so, you know, I support a 01:25:05.801 --> 01:25:11.386 - cost of living adjustment for our county employees to the max in the council's discretion. And so I 01:25:11.386 --> 01:25:17.305 - wanted to just put that in there in case I heard something. I know we're talking about the elected budget 01:25:17.305 --> 01:25:22.945 - right now, but I just wanted to address that in case I misheard the public comment. I'm sorry, cause 01:25:22.945 --> 01:25:24.062 - I had to step away. 01:25:24.290 --> 01:25:31.816 - And just out of an abundance of caution, I will also say that my commissioner colleagues regret not 01:25:31.816 --> 01:25:39.568 - being able to be here tonight. Commissioner Thomas had to be at the Planning Commission. And so we are 01:25:39.568 --> 01:25:47.620 - both the legislative and executive branch of county government. I think this legislative position requires 01:25:47.620 --> 01:25:53.566 - a great deal of research and preparation. The executive side makes this a 24-7 01:25:53.666 --> 01:26:04.776 - position and so we must make decisions with deliberation and sometimes quickly we operate with an extremely 01:26:04.776 --> 01:26:15.474 - small yet dedicated staff and so we fully manage numerous administrative tasks and I think that, sorry, 01:26:15.474 --> 01:26:22.366 - just lost my, one second, sorry, I would just say with pay equity, 01:26:22.530 --> 01:26:34.176 - This issue will finally be closed, and I leave it to the Council's discretion. I'm so sorry. Thank you, 01:26:34.176 --> 01:26:45.823 - Commissioner Madeira, for your statement. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay. All right, Commissioner 01:26:45.823 --> 01:26:51.198 - Madeira is muted. Council, do you have any more 01:26:51.362 --> 01:26:55.966 - questions or comments regarding the ordinance for elected officials. 01:26:57.218 --> 01:27:02.749 - Oh, Mr. Henry. Thank you, Mr. President. I know council member and Madam President Crossley is not with 01:27:02.749 --> 01:27:08.068 - us this evening, but I think someone should put into the room again her comments that got us to the 01:27:08.068 --> 01:27:13.386 - COLA, which was thanking the commissioners for their flexibility in the use of the edits to be able 01:27:13.386 --> 01:27:18.864 - to deliver that this year for our community. And so I want to thank the board for considering that and 01:27:18.864 --> 01:27:24.608 - helping us work through that process so we could do what we could do there. I also want to say I appreciate 01:27:24.608 --> 01:27:25.406 - this council's 01:27:26.146 --> 01:27:31.458 - strategic pause, if you will, on questions of step and longevity, which are going to take a 01:27:31.458 --> 01:27:37.232 - longer conversation than a month to try to figure out when we're in budget season. But I think when 01:27:37.232 --> 01:27:43.179 - we get questions and comments like Commissioner Medeiros, which I do appreciate, it means that we need 01:27:43.179 --> 01:27:49.241 - a much longer runway of public dialogue about what it is to compensate folks in the county. For example, 01:27:49.241 --> 01:27:55.073 - I appreciate the comment about the board of commissioners and their dual-hattedness. I think there's 01:27:55.073 --> 01:27:56.112 - a part of Indiana 01:27:56.112 --> 01:28:01.066 - code that's a little antiquated where one body suggests a cola and the other one, the fiscal body, has 01:28:01.066 --> 01:28:06.308 - to decide it. I think that goes back about 100 years from my read in terms of the split of the commissioners 01:28:06.308 --> 01:28:11.214 - from not having fiscal responsibilities, but neither here nor there. My view on that is that if we're 01:28:11.214 --> 01:28:16.312 - going to look at that for real, we'd have to look at the counties in Indiana that also employ a full-time 01:28:16.312 --> 01:28:19.486 - county administrator. Now, I know in our county we don't call our 01:28:19.810 --> 01:28:25.446 - commissioner's administrator or county administrator, but statutorily they deliver that service. And 01:28:25.446 --> 01:28:31.026 - not every Indiana county has a full-time executive and a six-figure salary and a full-time board of 01:28:31.026 --> 01:28:36.607 - commissioners. And so if we're gonna really do that class and compensation, working with HR and our 01:28:36.607 --> 01:28:42.298 - WIS even, that's gonna be a much longer conversation than a two or three budget hearing conversation. 01:28:42.298 --> 01:28:47.879 - So I'm open to it. I think that that would be a interesting exploration in county government to put 01:28:47.879 --> 01:28:49.776 - it all on the table on what it is 01:28:49.776 --> 01:28:56.093 - to have a executive office and fund positions in that office. But I've been very hard pressed to find 01:28:56.093 --> 01:29:02.658 - a majority of counties that employ both full-time commissioners and a full-time administrator. But that's 01:29:02.658 --> 01:29:09.037 - just my off-the-cuff remark on that. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Henry. Are there others? 01:29:09.037 --> 01:29:15.478 - Yes, Mr. Deckard. I appreciate very much the grid that we currently have. And I remember when Councilor 01:29:15.478 --> 01:29:17.150 - Wilts worked with Michelle 01:29:17.346 --> 01:29:25.111 - and everyone they could to get that grid. It has eliminated many, many headaches. It's eliminated a 01:29:25.111 --> 01:29:33.186 - lot of, I think, unnecessary discussion around things that really is not a pain point or a crying point 01:29:33.186 --> 01:29:40.950 - or even a concern for the public, and that is why elected officials get paid. I think there's a lot 01:29:40.950 --> 01:29:42.814 - of folks out there that 01:29:43.426 --> 01:29:51.087 - are a little bit more concerned with what they get paid, what they get to keep and what we're doing 01:29:51.087 --> 01:29:58.748 - to make life easier for them. I also like the notion on here that the way that this grid is set up, 01:29:58.748 --> 01:30:06.792 - it appropriates or it designates elected officials by what they do. And it also shows an access by which 01:30:06.792 --> 01:30:11.006 - citizens can take part in this as an elected official. 01:30:11.106 --> 01:30:18.086 - also have other activities outside of the building, but serve as they can ably from where they're at. 01:30:18.086 --> 01:30:25.272 - I mean, tonight we hear a commissioner who's out in the field under a lot of duress. Commissioner Madera 01:30:25.272 --> 01:30:32.389 - doing her job, going about her life, engaging that and then returning back to life. And also eventually 01:30:32.389 --> 01:30:39.438 - at some point, probably tomorrow, returning back to a profession outside of this building. And I think 01:30:39.438 --> 01:30:40.670 - there's a healthy 01:30:40.866 --> 01:30:48.367 - balance with what Councilor Wilts brought when she sat in Councilor Iverson C and really got this kind 01:30:48.367 --> 01:30:55.795 - of nailed out. And so for me, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what elected officials make, 01:30:55.795 --> 01:31:03.077 - and sometimes that makes other elected officials mad, but I just, from the public, the thing I hear 01:31:03.077 --> 01:31:08.830 - over and over is they want us to serve and they don't want to hear a lot about 01:31:09.282 --> 01:31:18.949 - how painful that service might be. That might be right, it might be wrong, it just is, and I think it's 01:31:18.949 --> 01:31:28.245 - part of it. Thank you, Mr. Deckard. Any other comments or questions from council? All right. Now it 01:31:28.245 --> 01:31:37.726 - is time for myself to read ordinance 2026-38B, the 2027 salary ordinance for Monroe County employees. 01:31:38.050 --> 01:31:43.283 - uh... whereas the indiana legislature adopted indiana code thirty six dash two dash three at sec which 01:31:43.283 --> 01:31:48.517 - established the mineral county council as the governing fiscal body mineral county and whereas indiana 01:31:48.517 --> 01:31:53.649 - code thirty six dash two dash five dash three grants the mineral county council the power to one fix 01:31:53.649 --> 01:31:58.730 - the number of officers deputies and other employees to describe and classify positions and services 01:31:58.730 --> 01:32:01.118 - three adopt schedules of compensation and four 01:32:01.186 --> 01:32:06.206 - hire or contract with persons to assist in the development of schedules of compensation. Whereas the 01:32:06.206 --> 01:32:10.430 - Monroe County Council wishes to establish salary schedule and compensation policies. 01:32:10.530 --> 01:32:16.785 - be it ordained by the Mineral County Council of Indiana that this ordinance affixes the number and salary 01:32:16.785 --> 01:32:23.159 - of employees of the county from the period of January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2027, including all officers, 01:32:23.159 --> 01:32:29.119 - deputies, assistants, and other employees whose salary is comprised of funds payable from any county 01:32:29.119 --> 01:32:32.542 - fund or budget as provided by Indiana code 36-2-5 at SEC. 01:32:32.930 --> 01:32:38.091 - This salary is limited by the following lines and maximum levels of salary shown on the salary grids. 01:32:38.091 --> 01:32:43.455 - All payments made pursuant to this ordinance are contingent upon the strict compliance with and adherence 01:32:43.455 --> 01:32:48.819 - to the benefit salary fiscally related and state and federally mandated requirements of the Monroe County 01:32:48.819 --> 01:32:53.879 - personnel policy handbook. It is the intent of the county council that this language will encourage 01:32:53.879 --> 01:32:58.686 - compliance with personnel policies which may have a fiscal impact on Monroe County government. 01:32:58.786 --> 01:33:03.306 - Any Monroe County employee, including those employees under a contractual agreement or whose salaries 01:33:03.306 --> 01:33:07.825 - are determined by the state prescribed rule order guideline or mandate shall not receive compensation 01:33:07.825 --> 01:33:12.389 - above the salary grids outlined within this ordinance. The county auditor shall not issue pay warrants 01:33:12.389 --> 01:33:16.908 - for any payment that exceeds the authorized amount specified in the salary ordinance. The salary, the 01:33:16.908 --> 01:33:21.384 - annual salary amounts are listed as approximate annual appropriation amounts. The calculation of the 01:33:21.384 --> 01:33:25.726 - annual appropriation amount may result in a slight variation and will not be adjusted a year end. 01:33:26.146 --> 01:33:31.593 - Salaries paid on or after January 1st, 2027 and prior to midnight December 31st, 2027 shall be calculated 01:33:31.593 --> 01:33:36.784 - and paid within the parameters of the salary ordinance and the personnel policy handbook, regardless 01:33:36.784 --> 01:33:41.974 - of when the work is performed. Specifically, the salary ordinance is applicable to dates encompassed 01:33:41.974 --> 01:33:47.113 - within claim one as outlined in the 2027 pay schedule. Monroe County personnel policy handbook. Any 01:33:47.113 --> 01:33:52.766 - item not covered within the salary ordinance shall be covered by the Monroe County personnel policy handbook. 01:33:52.898 --> 01:33:57.996 - job description classification definitions. Beginning calendar year 2022, council approved using the 01:33:57.996 --> 01:34:03.448 - updated classifications and levels for the Monroe County government job descriptions. Salary classification 01:34:03.448 --> 01:34:08.496 - levels have been updated using alphanumeric letters A through E. The listing of all classifications 01:34:08.496 --> 01:34:13.645 - is outlined in Section A of the ordinance notes. Full time hire dates, salary step increase schedule. 01:34:13.645 --> 01:34:18.995 - Employees will attain a new salary step increase level on the first day of the pay period, which includes 01:34:18.995 --> 01:34:21.822 - the anniversary of the most recent full time hire date. 01:34:22.146 --> 01:34:26.517 - The salary steps increase schedule is outlined in Section B of the ordinance notes. The salary step 01:34:26.517 --> 01:34:31.020 - increase level given to other county employees will not be given to jail correctional center employees 01:34:31.020 --> 01:34:33.118 - covered by the collective bargaining agreement. 01:34:33.410 --> 01:34:38.104 - knowledge skills and abilities or KSA salary procedures. Employees who have gone through the review 01:34:38.104 --> 01:34:42.798 - process and approved to receive a knowledge skills and employees KSA status may receive a salary at 01:34:42.798 --> 01:34:47.726 - either the three or eight year level based on the salary grid applicable to the assigned job description 01:34:47.726 --> 01:34:52.467 - classification and level. An approved KSA status will remain with the original requesting department 01:34:52.467 --> 01:34:54.110 - for the determined period of time. 01:34:54.210 --> 01:34:59.328 - departments may request an employee's KSA status be transferred when an applicable position becomes 01:34:59.328 --> 01:35:04.805 - vacant within their department. An employee's KSA status does not automatically transfer with the employee 01:35:04.805 --> 01:35:10.076 - and is subject to review. An employee's approved KSA status only adjusts the salary base rate for that 01:35:10.076 --> 01:35:15.604 - employee. An employee's approved KSA status is not included in the years of service pertaining to longevity 01:35:15.604 --> 01:35:20.773 - and or vacation calculations. A listing of approved KSA hires with term dates is outlined in section 01:35:20.773 --> 01:35:22.974 - C of the ordinance notes. Longevity scale. 01:35:23.202 --> 01:35:28.267 - Employees who have an official hire date and begun work within Monroe County government prior to November 01:35:28.267 --> 01:35:33.045 - 1st, 2023, shall receive a longevity payment for complete and uninterrupted years of service. These 01:35:33.045 --> 01:35:38.205 - payments will continue until either there's a break in the employee service or the employee ends employment 01:35:38.205 --> 01:35:43.127 - within the county. Any employee who has an official hire date and begun work on or after November 1st, 01:35:43.127 --> 01:35:48.287 - 2023, is ineligible to receive longevity payments. To determine longevity, the effective date for longevity 01:35:48.287 --> 01:35:51.966 - and employees most recent full-time hire date of employment with the county. 01:35:52.066 --> 01:35:57.295 - All records must be verified at the Employee Services Department that involved any type of interrupted 01:35:57.295 --> 01:36:02.727 - service. Longevity pay for eligible employees is based on a schedule outline in Section D of the ordinance 01:36:02.727 --> 01:36:07.803 - notes of complete and uninterrupted years of service. A break in service will result in the loss of 01:36:07.803 --> 01:36:13.134 - longevity pay at the very higher date is honored before November 1st, 2023. To be eligible for longevity 01:36:13.134 --> 01:36:18.312 - payout, an employee must still be employed on the day after their anniversary date. Elected officials 01:36:18.312 --> 01:36:20.190 - do not receive county longevity pay. 01:36:20.482 --> 01:36:25.605 - employees whose salaries are determined by a state prescribed rule order guidelines or mandated do not 01:36:25.605 --> 01:36:30.628 - receive county longevity pay probation officers would be an exception to this rule and would receive 01:36:30.628 --> 01:36:36.100 - longevity the annual longevity payment given to other county employees will not be given to jail correctional 01:36:36.100 --> 01:36:41.571 - center employees covered by the collective bargaining agreement as longevity is provided by the consideration 01:36:41.571 --> 01:36:46.694 - of the collective bargaining agreement prior years of service credit beginning January 1st 2017 county 01:36:46.694 --> 01:36:47.390 - government of 01:36:47.650 --> 01:36:52.147 - The County Council approved allowing complete years only of prior years of service per each term of 01:36:52.147 --> 01:36:56.779 - full-time mineral county government employment be applied when calculating the rehire of an employee's 01:36:56.779 --> 01:37:01.321 - salary step increase level. Months of service which are less than one full year shall not be counted 01:37:01.321 --> 01:37:05.863 - nor combined to achieve a complete year of service. For example, an employee who worked for one year 01:37:05.863 --> 01:37:08.606 - and three months shall be credited with one year of service. 01:37:09.090 --> 01:37:13.512 - For probation officers who have transferred to other county positions, the start date for probation 01:37:13.512 --> 01:37:18.068 - salary increases will be governed by the start date certified by the state for the employee's position 01:37:18.068 --> 01:37:22.667 - as a probation officer. For a probation officer who has prior years of service either in other counties 01:37:22.667 --> 01:37:27.355 - or states, they will receive credit for said time as determined by the state for that employee's position 01:37:27.355 --> 01:37:31.866 - as a probation officer. Said start dates and prior years of service will be verified by the probation 01:37:31.866 --> 01:37:36.377 - department, documented in the probation officer's personnel records, and be tracked by both probation 01:37:36.377 --> 01:37:37.438 - and the council office. 01:37:37.538 --> 01:37:42.182 - The Council Administrator and HR Director must verify all prior Monroe County Government service with 01:37:42.182 --> 01:37:47.009 - employee personnel records and or with PERF report before being applied to the returning employee salary. 01:37:47.009 --> 01:37:51.563 - The Council Administrator will notify the elected official and department head if the prior service 01:37:51.563 --> 01:37:53.566 - credit total has been verified and granted. 01:37:54.338 --> 01:37:59.429 - the Council Administrator will maintain a spreadsheet of employees with confirmed prior service credit 01:37:59.429 --> 01:38:04.421 - for future use. Any additional information and or explanation of the Monroe County Government salary 01:38:04.421 --> 01:38:09.858 - schedule and policies is included in this salary ordinance for the purpose of clarification and transparency. 01:38:09.858 --> 01:38:14.998 - See the section ordinance notes. Monroe County Council policy regarding salaries tied to state mandated 01:38:14.998 --> 01:38:19.940 - salaries. Annual salaries for the Monroe County Chief Public Defender, Chief Deputy Public Defender 01:38:19.940 --> 01:38:20.830 - and Monroe County 01:38:20.930 --> 01:38:26.018 - and Monroe Circuit Court Commissioner are all tied in or related to the salaries mandated by the state 01:38:26.018 --> 01:38:31.007 - of Indiana for the Monroe County Circuit Court judges, Monroe County prosecutor and or Monroe County 01:38:31.007 --> 01:38:35.947 - chief public chief deputy prosecutor. The state mandated salaries are amended annually on July 1st. 01:38:35.947 --> 01:38:41.085 - It is the intent and direction of the Monroe County Council that all salaries paid by the Monroe County 01:38:41.085 --> 01:38:46.222 - Council, which are tied in or related to the above mentioned salaries mandated by the state of Indiana, 01:38:46.222 --> 01:38:50.174 - shall be automatically amended at the same time as the state mandated salaries. 01:38:50.658 --> 01:38:56.800 - The Monroe County Council recognizes this, that this is an exception to the general rule for county 01:38:56.800 --> 01:39:03.187 - set salaries, which are generally modified in January 1st. Additional detail, including Defense Service 01:39:03.187 --> 01:39:09.513 - Standards, Section Standard G, Supreme Court Compensation for Information, Indiana Code 33-39-6.5, and 01:39:09.513 --> 01:39:15.102 - Indiana Code 36-2-3-17 are incorporated by reference. Monroe County Youth Services Bureau. 01:39:15.490 --> 01:39:20.763 - Due to the requirements established by Indiana Administrative Code for personnel employees at a child-caring 01:39:20.763 --> 01:39:25.842 - institution, the Binkley House Manager, the prevention coordinator and counselors employed at the Monroe 01:39:25.842 --> 01:39:31.454 - County Youth Services Bureau will be compensated at a minimum of the one-year salary for the PAT-C classifications. 01:39:31.554 --> 01:39:38.012 - This salary level meets the current minimum requirements for exempt employees pursuant to the Fair Labor 01:39:38.012 --> 01:39:44.471 - Standards Act. The starting annual salary level for these positions shall be reviewed annually to ensure 01:39:44.471 --> 01:39:50.621 - ongoing compliance with state and federal law and adjusted when necessary. Presented to the Mineral 01:39:50.621 --> 01:39:57.080 - County Council, read in full for the first time on the sixth day of October, 2026. All right, that being 01:39:57.080 --> 01:39:59.294 - read, do we have any public comment 01:39:59.682 --> 01:40:08.287 - here in the now you hear them, please come to the podium or if you're on teams, raise your hands to 01:40:08.287 --> 01:40:17.236 - talk about staff compensation. Seeing none, let's go to council for questions or comments, please. It's 01:40:17.236 --> 01:40:25.840 - amazing because it appears our county employees are not gonna come here to speak, but they have not 01:40:25.840 --> 01:40:28.766 - been the least bit shy of saying, 01:40:30.178 --> 01:40:38.805 - they're just somewhat disappointed that the council has a hiring freeze and if he about their salary 01:40:38.805 --> 01:40:47.432 - increase, and yet we've got a million to hand out to somebody else. And let me tell you, they're not 01:40:47.432 --> 01:40:56.571 - happy about it. They aren't. So I mean, I know it's going to go through, but I think you have to recognize 01:40:56.571 --> 01:40:59.902 - that the county employees see as being 01:41:00.450 --> 01:41:11.773 - and then they see it going back out the door and they feel like they're having to help pay for that. 01:41:11.773 --> 01:41:22.983 - At here. No doubt because they probably are concerned what their department head might think of it. 01:41:22.983 --> 01:41:29.822 - They do not mind telling you privately if you are willing to 01:41:32.802 --> 01:41:41.196 - I'm gonna go back to teams real quick and make sure no hands are raised back here in the NatU Hill Room. 01:41:41.196 --> 01:41:49.191 - All right. To remind everyone, the budget ordinances and salary ordinance will now be placed on the 01:41:49.191 --> 01:41:57.345 - October 20th agenda for a second reading and a vote. Folks, that's in two weeks. So that's coming up. 01:41:57.345 --> 01:42:01.662 - All right. That concludes our readings of the budgets 01:42:02.050 --> 01:42:12.043 - And next we will move on to item number nine, which is our health department. You're on again, yep. 01:42:12.043 --> 01:42:22.237 - This is item number nine from our health department. Okay, wait a minute. I'm not here. That's right. 01:42:22.237 --> 01:42:32.030 - Gotta get on the right page. Oh yeah, I got it here. I have it, thank you. All right, here we go. 01:42:32.706 --> 01:42:40.945 - Council, I move to open budget 1159 dash 0000 Health Fund and make the following amendments. Reduce 01:42:40.945 --> 01:42:49.514 - account line one zero one one four environmental health specialist foods to zero. Increase account line 01:42:49.514 --> 01:42:58.165 - one zero one one eight public health coordinator to fifty six thousand nine hundred eighty five dollars. 01:42:58.165 --> 01:43:01.790 - Reduce account line one eight zero zero one 01:43:02.306 --> 01:43:21.718 - self-insurance to $360,760, increase account line 18101 FICA to $30,042, increase account line 18201 01:43:21.718 --> 01:43:29.214 - PERF to $53,278, then open budget 1161 01:43:29.378 --> 01:43:38.514 - dash nine six two four local public health services HFI and increase account line one zero one one four 01:43:38.514 --> 01:43:47.914 - environmental health specialist foods to fifty four thousand one hundred forty five dollars reduce account 01:43:47.914 --> 01:43:57.050 - line one zero one eight three public health preparedness director to zero dollars increase account line 01:43:57.050 --> 01:43:59.070 - one eight one zero one 01:43:59.522 --> 01:44:17.338 - FICA to $11,513. Increase account line 18201 perf to $21,369. And then also open budget 1161-9627 local 01:44:17.338 --> 01:44:27.102 - public health services HFI and reduce account line 10118 01:44:27.490 --> 01:44:44.202 - public health coordinator to $0. Reduce account line 18101 FICA to $43,855. Reduce account line 18201 01:44:44.202 --> 01:44:55.998 - PERF to $81,404. Increase account line 20011 other supplies to $17,314. 01:44:56.354 --> 01:45:06.540 - Increase account line 30028, training and travel to $50,040. Hearing a motion and a second, we are joined 01:45:06.540 --> 01:45:16.534 - by Dr. Sarah Ryderband, Mr. Eric Gauss, and I'm sorry, could you please state your name for the record? 01:45:16.534 --> 01:45:24.606 - Linnea Amy. Thank you, Ms. Amy. What do we have before us, folks? Well, in essence, 01:45:25.346 --> 01:45:36.090 - Ms. Amy is the preparedness coordinator. And as you've met Eric Gause before, you know that he is our 01:45:36.090 --> 01:45:46.835 - financial manager. The issue is essentially that preparedness, while we initially put it into the HFI 01:45:46.835 --> 01:45:55.262 - funding, we really cannot do preparedness through HFI funding because it limits 01:45:55.714 --> 01:46:05.447 - who we can deal with in an emergency. And Ms. Amy would be happy to talk to you about that. But we thought 01:46:05.447 --> 01:46:14.544 - that with the federal guidelines for treating anyone in an emergency, we could manage it. But after 01:46:14.544 --> 01:46:23.823 - speaking with legal, we found that, no, we are still under state statute. And so we are stuck. And so 01:46:23.823 --> 01:46:25.278 - we've moved it. 01:46:25.506 --> 01:46:33.484 - back into local funding. OK, anything else to add from either of you two? And when you're talking, the 01:46:33.484 --> 01:46:41.152 - mic is close to your mouth as you can, please. It'll just pop on. Yeah, sure. Just very basically, 01:46:41.152 --> 01:46:49.982 - you know, the legislative requirements for Health First Indiana funding require that the funds be spent on people 01:46:50.114 --> 01:46:56.990 - who are residents of the state of Indiana and lawfully present. What that does is create a burden of 01:46:56.990 --> 01:47:04.071 - having to check people's eligibility before we can provide them services. In many cases, that is doable 01:47:04.071 --> 01:47:10.948 - if inconvenient. In the event of emergency response, it is prohibitive. It also sort of flies in the 01:47:10.948 --> 01:47:16.190 - face of the notion that emergency response should be universally accessible. 01:47:17.026 --> 01:47:25.280 - We do have at least two grants that fund our work, the FUP grant, the preparedness grant, and the MRC 01:47:25.280 --> 01:47:33.939 - grant, which are both federal dollars and under federal guidelines, which do require that we intentionally 01:47:33.939 --> 01:47:41.950 - serve otherwise underserved populations, including low English proficiency, children, the elderly, 01:47:42.146 --> 01:47:48.981 - things like that, and requires also that we not obviously discriminate on the basis of national origin, 01:47:48.981 --> 01:47:55.553 - which could get complex. So for simplicity, we are moving those funds back to where they came from. 01:47:55.553 --> 01:48:02.190 - Thank you. Anything final notes to add? No, I think she's covered most of it. All right. Council, we 01:48:02.190 --> 01:48:09.091 - do have a handy dandy sheet here that numerically represents what was read in the motion. And I'll start 01:48:09.091 --> 01:48:10.142 - with Mr. Henry. 01:48:10.402 --> 01:48:16.833 - Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for coming in. I said, Dr. Ryderban, you missed it earlier, but 01:48:16.833 --> 01:48:23.458 - I thank Derek for being here earlier with our overall discussion of the county budgets. I, Linnea, I'm 01:48:23.458 --> 01:48:29.953 - sorry on behalf of some government. It's not my apology to give. I cannot believe a year later we're 01:48:29.953 --> 01:48:35.870 - still in this space of picking and choosing who we help in disasters based on state policy. 01:48:36.162 --> 01:48:42.017 - I'm going to get on my soap box a little, sorry. I teach emergency management at IU. I've been in this 01:48:42.017 --> 01:48:47.758 - space for a long time. I worked at NACCHO for a bit and had the MRC program that went out across the 01:48:47.758 --> 01:48:53.499 - country, among other places. And what I teach in my class is pretty simple. There are no such things 01:48:53.499 --> 01:48:59.411 - as natural disasters. We have hazards. But disasters are caused by policy. And we are setting ourselves 01:48:59.411 --> 01:49:03.390 - up for, the state has set us up for failure in this case, where we've 01:49:03.522 --> 01:49:09.154 - put ourselves in a place where we have to ask for papers, please, before we help somebody in a time 01:49:09.154 --> 01:49:14.899 - of crisis. I cannot understand what that would look like if we actually had a COVID level incident in 01:49:14.899 --> 01:49:20.531 - the county again. It's fortunate we have some federal dollars that let us override what is going to 01:49:20.531 --> 01:49:26.670 - prove out to be a disastrous state policy when the next thing happens. And it is when. I know, Dr. Ryderman, 01:49:26.670 --> 01:49:32.190 - you talked about how contagion doesn't care about county borders or state borders or nationality. 01:49:32.290 --> 01:49:38.873 - And now we're asked to take that on as a local burden because of what can only be described as discriminatory 01:49:38.873 --> 01:49:44.978 - policy at the state level. And I it's it's it's kind of, you know, I won't be I'll be shocked and not 01:49:44.978 --> 01:49:51.082 - surprised. I guess that's the way to put it. And when this when it eventually happens, but we've been 01:49:51.082 --> 01:49:57.187 - putting a pickle here, it's not good. And I hope that crystal ball doesn't come true where we have to 01:49:57.187 --> 01:49:59.102 - try to figure that out based on 01:49:59.842 --> 01:50:07.022 - whether or not you reside in the state or not when a crisis happens. Thank you, Mr. President. 01:50:07.022 --> 01:50:14.806 - Thank you, Mr. Henry. Are there other council members? Yes, Councilmember Wilts. Yeah, I mean. Echoing 01:50:14.806 --> 01:50:22.439 - all of that sympathy and undercurrent of outrage, perhaps. But I do also recall talking about this a 01:50:22.439 --> 01:50:29.694 - year ago with respect to a lot of the different positions and a lot of your different services. 01:50:29.954 --> 01:50:38.856 - My recollection is that the way we resolved some of the concerns was to split how we were paying folks. 01:50:38.856 --> 01:50:47.587 - So we paid them a little bit out of this and a little bit out of that so that they had cover to serve 01:50:47.587 --> 01:50:56.404 - different, well, to serve everybody. And A, is that still the way things were set up? I guess I should 01:50:56.404 --> 01:50:59.742 - have paid more attention. B, what? No. 01:51:00.354 --> 01:51:08.956 - When they approved the budget last year, the administrator chose not to split the pay. So the person 01:51:08.956 --> 01:51:17.643 - or the position, it was full time within that fund. It was never split. But that position, but I mean 01:51:17.643 --> 01:51:26.842 - the other ones. All of them. I can answer it. Yeah, sure. So what we've done is basically we have positions 01:51:26.842 --> 01:51:30.078 - that are from the 1159 fund that will 01:51:30.178 --> 01:51:38.081 - allow those positions to work with the full public with no issues as far as, as requirements go. 01:51:38.081 --> 01:51:46.310 - So we've, we have our senior positions as far as environmental are all paid through, um, either 1159 01:51:46.310 --> 01:51:54.539 - or the health maintenance fund. Uh, we also have one vital records position that this year has, has, 01:51:54.539 --> 01:51:59.998 - uh, simplified, well, not simplified, but helped as far as waiting 01:52:00.354 --> 01:52:08.959 - are serving those individuals that under HFI we wouldn't be able to serve. So we've moved, we've got 01:52:08.959 --> 01:52:17.649 - the positions moved back and forth. The difficulty obviously is with the regulatory and HFI trying to 01:52:17.649 --> 01:52:26.510 - balance that with our limitation as far as how much we can spend on regulatory and having the positions 01:52:26.510 --> 01:52:29.662 - back and forth. So at this juncture, 01:52:30.402 --> 01:52:39.097 - We seem to have everything covered as far as besides the preparedness positions as far as giving us 01:52:39.097 --> 01:52:48.402 - allowing us to serve the public. So instead of splitting positions, you take positions within a department 01:52:48.402 --> 01:52:57.358 - or a service area and split those people essentially between the two funds. Yeah. All right. Any other 01:52:57.358 --> 01:52:59.358 - comments or questions? 01:53:00.578 --> 01:53:08.639 - I will just say as liaison, co liaison to your department, I wish for a year of stability for you. I 01:53:08.639 --> 01:53:16.780 - know that the budget that we are going to adopt in two weeks is going to have your budgets in it. And 01:53:16.780 --> 01:53:24.762 - my sincere hope is that these changes and the budget that we have is gonna allow you to provide the 01:53:24.762 --> 01:53:29.950 - best quality of public health to the residents of Monroe County, 01:53:30.050 --> 01:53:40.226 - uninhibited and to the maximum level that you can and then we can just build from there. So I'm happy 01:53:40.226 --> 01:53:50.502 - to vote for this and really just get out of your hair. Yeah. All right. We have a motion and a second. 01:53:50.502 --> 01:53:58.782 - Could we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Iverson. 01:54:00.610 --> 01:54:10.286 - Councillor Haug? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 01:54:10.286 --> 01:54:21.211 - I said yes. Oh, I thought you said yes. Pardon me. Motion passes 5-0, one pass. Thank you, Dr. Ryderman. 01:54:21.211 --> 01:54:27.038 - Thank you, Mr. Goussen. Thank you, Ms. Nami. Thank you. 01:54:29.922 --> 01:54:38.730 - All right, next we'll move on to the very last item on this agenda. Well, this last substantive item. 01:54:38.730 --> 01:54:47.710 - This is the amendment that we made. I'll read again. Thank you. Council, I move to open fund 1176-0000. 01:54:47.874 --> 01:54:56.391 - excuse me, motor vehicle highway and make the following amendments. Reduce account line 15117, interim 01:54:56.391 --> 01:55:04.661 - transition position to zero and add account line 16800, transitional temporary training with $1.00. 01:55:04.661 --> 01:55:13.426 - Second. We have a motion and a second. And do we have someone here from highway that can walk us through? 01:55:13.426 --> 01:55:17.726 - I'm going to do that for them. Thank you, Michelle. 01:55:18.146 --> 01:55:26.588 - As I was preparing the salary ordinance and I was making the adjustments, I noticed that they had budgeted 01:55:26.588 --> 01:55:34.477 - line 15117, which is an interim transition position. That line is used for positions that are going 01:55:34.477 --> 01:55:42.367 - to be there several months at a time. So after speaking with Lisa Ridge, the highway director, what 01:55:42.367 --> 01:55:48.126 - they're actually needing for the beginning of the year is a transitional 01:55:48.418 --> 01:55:55.889 - temporary training line. So that's why we're making that edit. She only wants a dollar because it's 01:55:55.889 --> 01:56:03.360 - all going to depend on when they get that person in and when that line will be utilized. Thank you. 01:56:03.360 --> 01:56:11.130 - Councilmembers, do you have any questions or comments about this $1 item? This is a very council thing. 01:56:11.130 --> 01:56:17.182 - We deal with millions and millions of dollars and then the very last item is $1. 01:56:17.666 --> 01:56:26.050 - All right. Is there any public comment on this item? Seeing none, can we please have a roll call vote? 01:56:26.050 --> 01:56:34.433 - Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hug? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor 01:56:34.433 --> 01:56:42.573 - Henry? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. That brings us to the other 01:56:42.573 --> 01:56:47.294 - items and Council Member Wilts, do you have another item? 01:56:48.354 --> 01:56:57.774 - I might. I was reviewing the supplemental information that we were given for the health department budgets. 01:56:57.774 --> 01:57:06.670 - And it, Councilor Feidl is double checking, but I didn't hear the reading of the last fund. It wasn't 01:57:06.670 --> 01:57:14.782 - on the. No, it wasn't. And that's because they're going to come back at a later date because 01:57:15.042 --> 01:57:21.239 - They have to have additional appropriations to go along with that because it's a grant. So they have 01:57:21.239 --> 01:57:27.436 - to come back. They have to advertise that and then prepare. Got it. So they they weren't going to do 01:57:27.436 --> 01:57:33.818 - anything until they knew you guys were going to, you know, move forward with these changes. I'm telling 01:57:33.818 --> 01:57:40.076 - you, nothing gets past the left side of this bench. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. And it's like 01:57:40.076 --> 01:57:44.126 - something for a man to take the credit of two women. There we go. 01:57:45.954 --> 01:57:59.504 - We are at the end here and I will just make another plea to folks. We are going to be in this room for 01:57:59.504 --> 01:58:08.318 - the next two weeks. I'm going home. We will be coming back to this 01:58:08.418 --> 01:58:16.425 - room one week from tonight at 5 p.m. for a regular business meeting and then the very next week on the 01:58:16.425 --> 01:58:24.199 - 20th we will be back in this room at 5 p.m. for budget adoption so also be back on October the 27th 01:58:24.199 --> 01:58:32.129 - for a regular council meeting so you're hitting all four Tuesdays and you know it is what we're at it 01:58:32.129 --> 01:58:38.270 - October 23rd at noon is the next must meeting so there's a lot of one it is at 01:58:38.434 --> 01:58:45.650 - One or noon? One. One o'clock. I'm on the left side here. They're really catching all this stuff. So 01:58:45.650 --> 01:58:53.010 - there's a lot of ways to be engaged with the fiscal business of this body, both the short term and the 01:58:53.010 --> 01:58:58.654 - long term. So stay attention. Thank you folks for recording. We are adjourned.