- Good evening, everybody. Today is Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. And this is night five out of six
- for our 2026 budget sessions. In the NatU Heal Room, we have a quorum, so we will get started, even
- if we are just a little bit behind. But to my right here, we have counselors David Henry, Peter Iverson,
- Kate Wilt, and Liz Vital. And we don't have counselors Deckard or Hawk, just
- we haven't heard from them yet. But again, we will introduce them, and it seems like we have Councilor
- Hawk walking in the building right now. All right, but we will still go ahead and get started. So, um,
- the next step is the item, uh, two, which is adoption of agenda. Is there anybody that would like to
- make changes or wishes to or same thing which is to amend tonight's agenda?
- And since we are all here in person, we can do a voice vote to adopt agenda. So all those in favor of
- adopting tonight's agenda as presented signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign.
- All right. Motion carries. All right. So the same.
- speech that I've given for the previous four nights of our budget sessions. This is not a final
- We are here to make a decision tonight we are hearing. Departments of Monroe County to present to us
- the county council their 2026 budgets and so just want to remind people of that each department when
- they come up we'll be able to sit here and then at you Hill Rome and discuss their budget items and
- council may will ask questions- and can make amendments as well as we feel the need to do so- but again
- each department I like to remind
- and keeping track of time. And I wanna continue the flow of that today. So each department will have,
- has been given a certain amount of time to present. And once your time is up, we will politely say that
- your time is up so that we can further move along through our agenda here. And also for council to stick
- to the items that are related or items that are budget questions related to tonight's budget as presented. So again,
- we do have the public hearing that is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30th at five o'clock and then
- the final budget adoption, which is Tuesday, October 14th, also at five o'clock. So as we have gone
- over before, we also before we get started with the department budget,
- hearings, we are going to look to the auditor's office. And I see that we have Ms. Carly Woodruff in
- and want to give her an opportunity to do what our auditor regradery would do, but she is not here.
- So Ms. Woodruff. Good evening, council. Good evening. If I may share my screen, we've received some
- requests to show our calculations for how we're coming up with the deficit. So we have that ready to
- share here.
- On the screen, you should see a simple calculation that we've been using thus far. This shows the maximum
- property tax levy that were allowed in 2026. This is an estimate, but is calculated based on a state
- calculation tool. We'll take the maximum tax levy plus the county major bridge levy, which is outside
- the max levy.
- and we'll add in the miscellaneous revenue that has been calculated by departments. The sum of those
- compared to the requested budget that's in Gateway right now, if you reduce out the requested budget,
- you're gonna come up with a total deficit for the entire budget of just over 8.1 million.
- This is a simplified calculation that we've been using. We did do a little bit of a deeper dive and
- we created a deep dive calculation for our levy funds. And this is an analysis that takes lines from
- the 4B and shows you on one spreadsheet where we will probably end up if we adopt the budget as it is
- right now. So you can see that in general fund,
- based on what is anticipated for the end of year 2025 cash balance plus all of that revenue minus the
- expenditures. If we adopt the levy at 23 million and change, we should end up with about 14 million
- at the end of 2026. If you follow that down, you'll see that we have some fund balances that are anticipated
- to end in the positive and others that are anticipated to end in the negative.
- and this spreadsheet is only showing the levy funds. Okay, thank you for doing that. I want to look
- to council to see if anybody has any questions for Ms. Woodruff. Councillor Hawke. Yes, do you have
- that in hard copy for us to look at this evening? Or could you get it for us, have somebody get it for
- us? We can definitely get it. It was emailed out earlier, but if you prefer in hard copy, we're happy
- to do that. Would you like for that for the whole council?
- When you say you emailed it out earlier, you mean today? Yes. It was an hour ago, it was emailed out,
- yeah. An hour ago. Well, yes, an hour ago. Yes, I would like to see it in hard copy, thanks. We can
- definitely do that. All right, anybody else have any questions related to this item? Okay.
- Did you have more to add to that? Or is there anything else you needed to add? I'll stop sharing my
- screen now. All right. All right. Well, if we don't have any other questions, we can go ahead and get
- into our first department budget presentation tonight, which is the treasurer's office.
- Council I move to open for discussion review fund 1000-0003 general fund with a category requests of
- personnel $511,130, supplies $3,500, services $59,150, capital is at $0 for a total of $573,780. Second.
- We got a motion in a second. We have our treasurer Miss Kathy Smith here to present tonight. Welcome.
- Hi everyone. Thank you for having me. This is a pretty simple budget. I tend to go from the hard auditor's
- office to the easy treasurer's office. So this is like a win just only having one budget and it being
- pretty simple. So
- I congratulate myself and you guys on that. So what you see here is the minimum pretty much that it
- takes to collect taxes for the year. Next year is going to be an extremely painful year because there's
- so many different changes and you know I think it's only fair to tell you that things are getting more
- difficult in collecting taxes in that
- used to most people either had a mortgage or they didn't have a mortgage they didn't have a mortgage
- that came in and paid once a year with a check right or maybe twice a year now people have multiple
- mortgages and so we have to deal with multiple mortgage companies and if they're if they pay by themselves
- a lot of times they pay in partial payments with credit cards or e-checks to run those so instead of
- making one payment they can make up to 26 payments based on their pay cycle or how they do it so in a
- dish into all those extra payments, if you look around all the new construction, you can see there's
- thousands of new pieces of property. So what we're looking at, say five years ago with the number of
- tax payments that we took, it has grown astronomically. So what we're trying to do is keep it as minimum
- minimally evasive to the budget as possible. And just adding what we absolutely had to add for all the
- different, all the extra accounting that we have to do now and all that. It's really busy work. It's
- not necessarily harder work. It's just a lot more work. And so the only other real change is, and Kim,
- correct me if I'm wrong, you're trying to combine things to make it easier for
- So you don't have a lot of account lines that sound very duplicated. So we really don't have equipment
- vehicle repair. What we have is service maintenance and repair equipment. It's a very minimal budget
- of $600, but I think it's a better choice. They picked it. I think it's a better choice of the language
- for what it truly reflects. I don't know if you guys have any questions. Okay. Thank you very much.
- Does anybody have any questions for our treasurer?
- Okay, you're looking at me, I wasn't sure if you had any questions. I just wanted to make sure that
- you know that I appreciate you working to make, to keep this budget very lean, again this year, and
- look forward to working with you to see how we're doing with our revenue because of course, you'll be
- the one letting us know if we start running short on what our,
- revenue might be for interest. I'm working very hard to keep the interest up. Working with new people,
- like we've had the credit union added to the list of public depositories because they can be a little
- more generous with interest. But I'm trying to make sure that loss of interest, I got it up really good
- last year. I don't want you guys to lose, I know you need that money.
- So I'm working very, very hard to keep it as high as possible and working with a lot of different companies
- and community people that work at the banks. Banks pay a finance tax, FIT. A lot of people don't know
- that they pay taxes on the money, a different set of taxes, financial institution tax. And it costs
- more for them to have public
- fund money than it does to have regular money because there's more regulations on it. So it takes kind
- of like a community partnership with the banks, and we have wonderful banking people here. People have
- been banking, long-term bankers, German-American and, you know, First Financial and Chase, just really
- wonderful people. I've known the 20-some years I've been doing finances here at the county of nothing
- but wonderful things to say about them.
- They all want to be on that team with us. They care about the county. All right. Does anybody else?
- Counselor Woltz. Yes. So it looks like you're requesting an increase in the hours for one employee from 35 to 40.
- Yes, one employee it is it's because of the all the different transact increase of transactions. It's
- not an increase in pay as far as per hour. It's just there's more so many, many more transactions and
- this is not these are not things that part time people can do this. This is the cash book. So we have
- a very, very small staff. We don't even have a cash book backup person because there's only four people
- in the department.
- So just from 35 to 40 hours, because there's more just transactions. And what are the rest of the employees
- at 35 or 40? So right now, three are at 35 and one is at 40. This would be making a second one at 40,
- just the cash book manager. May I ask another question?
- I had another question. Let's see. All right, Councilor Iverson. Thank you for being here. Thank you
- for your service to Monroe County. You've been here for a
- a long time, like you said, and we're really appreciative of everything you're doing and the institutional
- knowledge that you bring. My question is your only line in the twos, which is office supplies, which
- went up by a pretty significant amount. And I just wanted to hear what's going on. OK, so office supplies
- is a loose term. It's actually the equipment and the pieces, I guess I should say, things that you buy
- from Office Depot that you need to run the department, like envelopes.
- We do lots of things throughout the year with all kinds of different taxes, but we're very instrumental
- in snowmelling things back and forth. And when people are overseas or when people just don't use, older
- people a lot of times just don't use email. And of course we try to talk them into using
- people into using email, so we don't have to print stuff out and send it to them. We can just send it
- to them. But a lot of people, because of their taxes, paying their income taxes, they want that piece
- of paper with that hand stamp on there. And so can you, as it's related, also talk about in your threes,
- your postage line, which is pretty high, and there was also an increase there. So your twos are for
- mailings and then your postage line is high as well so because postage has went up and we mail out thousands
- and thousands of things every year right like the tax bills that covers the tax bills and last year
- we were short and what we the last and what we did was we scraped everything we had back into that postage
- line so we didn't have to ask you for any more money right but postage just went up twice in the last
- 12 months so
- questions. T s D. It looks like counselor Decker is trying to get promoted. Can he be promoted, please?
- Oh, perfect. Thank you. Um, I just had a really quick question. You mentioned earlier that is becoming
- a little difficult to collect payments in a previous life. I used to be familiar with how the county
- was collect or
- Is that something that is still? We still do. I drive to the banks and I pick them up, make it easier
- for them. And that's very nice of them to do that, but they don't want somebody giving them 26 payments.
- They only do that during tax season for the people that are basically their customers, but we do it
- in several different banks. And then I physically drive and pick them up. It's harder on people to come
- down to the square when we're busy and our office is full because there's no spaces left.
- And, and Marty can testify this if someone can't get up the steps they just call us and we'll run down
- there and pick them up because we're, we really try to be very very good to, to, to all of our people.
- And if when it's really hot outside especially in May.
- and there's only one place really to park, it's very difficult for someone if they're not just in a
- wheelchair, if they say they're using a cane or they've hurt their foot or, you know, I mean, you know,
- people from Elstow don't come downtown Bloomington a lot. And so we just wanna make sure, especially
- the only pay once a year, you know, or twice a year people, we wanna make sure that we really hold their
- hands and do a good job with them. The people who pay automatically,
- many times over they do pay on computers and it's so what happens is we can't like if you go to Walmart
- you spend you spend a thousand dollars Walmart doesn't get a whole thousand dollars they get something
- less than a thousand dollars two or three percent less than a thousand dollars we can't do that so we
- have to charge a thousand dollars and then have to have a third party run it through them and that's
- how they get their um that's how they get their service fee right so if a person pays every two weeks
- It could be a week or two weeks before that payment actually comes through. Well, we're showing it paid
- in our system, but it's not paid in our bookkeeping. So then the next one can come through before the
- other one's even been credited. So it becomes a cash book nightmare. And that's what we've run into.
- That's really what we've run into this year. And it's getting worse because everyone's used to, younger
- people are very much used to paying everything online or through their phone applications. Yeah,
- that's true. And I wish we got a cut of that, but we don't.
- but it makes more work for us. It's a lot easier to pay 26 small payments than one really big payment.
- Yeah. Well, it looks like we are out of time on this one and we appreciate you doing that and all the
- many different ways that you take the payments from our county residents. But if we don't have any other
- questions, I see Councilor Decker is online and so since we have a member that is virtually, we will
- do a roll call vote.
- May I ask for a roll call, please? Councilor Hawk? Yes. Thank you. Councilor Decker? Yes, and I'm sorry.
- Thank you. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes.
- Councilor Iverson? Yes. Thank you. Motion carries 7-0. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck with
- the rest of your work. We appreciate it. Thank you.
- All right, moving along on the budget train is item number six, which is the health department.
- Council, I move to open for discussion and review Fund 1159-0000 Health Fund with the category requests
- of personnel at $1,553,039, supplies at $795,202, services at $337,516, capital is at zero for a total
- budget of $2,685,759.
- Second. All right. And I see that we have Miss Lori Kelly here to present. Welcome. Good evening, counselors.
- So just to walk you through what we have planned for 1159. So as we're aware, we've transitioned a lot
- of our positions from the previously from the state fund into this local
- health department funds. So that's, we've kept that pretty consistent in the requests for 2026. There
- are a couple of positions that we have not refilled. So those are vacant positions and we are not gonna
- be filling those in addition to our part-time lines. So looking at just being able to cut some costs
- there. Move to
- our supplies, so we've reduced amounts in many of our supply lines and have been able to transition
- some of those costs over to the Health First Indiana Fund to try to help make up some of the difference
- there for the additional costs and personnel. Same with service categories, so just gone through and
- made a lot of reductions to that as well.
- Looking at one of the service categories, the personnel healthcare line for $228,866. So that was previously
- planned to go to IU Health for nursing contract services. So we will be looking at removing that or
- transferring that to be able to provide nursing services in 2026.
- Did you have anything else to add?
- Okay, all right, and so I'm gonna look over here, because I already saw a hand that went right up. Counselor
- Iverson. Well, first of all, thank you for being here. Thank you for meeting with your two liaisons
- on this. I think we're really appreciative of a lot of the reductions that you made and in preparation
- for tonight's hearing. So thank you for doing that. I will note that the 4B on this fund is not looking
- very healthy at this moment. So we have some work to do.
- in this fund to the tune of a little over a million dollars. So council is gonna have to do some pretty
- big work here. And I just wanted to kind of set the table with thanks to the health department for doing
- the work and making sure that there are reductions here, but also that we're gonna have to do a little
- bit more work here. Okay, all right. And looking over here.
- You just keep looking at me. So every time you look at me, I'm going to keep calling you. I like your
- shades. I'm very curious to see what the outcomes are going to be here because it appears to me that
- this needs to be adjusted and move this personnel back into the 1161 fund.
- and I'll wait to see what the liaisons have come up with. Yeah, Councilor Henry. Thank you, Madam President.
- Thank you, Lori. So maybe, yeah, maybe we can get into some of it. So I think when we moved things out
- of HFI in here and trying to quickly put out a fire from the state, right? I mean, we had the change
- in legislation. We didn't really understand what those implications were other than there were services that
- We thought we would not be able to provide to persons that couldn't provide documentation of immigration
- status and we had to split funds. We've been at this, how many months have we been in this model of
- two funds at this point? I think it's around June is when, May, June is when it first started. So we
- have like three or three-ish months of data. Are you seeing personnel spending most of their time,
- I mean, I don't know how we figured this out, but like serving,
- people correctly under the law? I mean, if people are coming in and getting services or you're out testing
- for mosquitoes or whatever, are those people typically Indiana residents or US citizens? Do you have
- any idea at this point? The whole point of moving this out was because HFI couldn't cover certain
- circumstances, right? So what's the office look like? What's going on with the personnel? Sure. Well,
- so with our nursing services, for example, I mean, they're not
- obtaining or asking for that information because they were moved to this other funding. So positions
- that have invested program supplies with some of those HFI dollars, we're seeing some mixed results.
- So there are individuals, we do run into circumstances where either someone is not an Indiana resident
- or they do, they have not had documentation. And so those individuals are not qualified for those services
- or supplies under those
- under these new guidelines. So I think that it would just be a matter of what positions can we most
- easily have fall under the Health First Indiana compared to ones that it's really just going to be very
- challenging to try to
- and obtain the required documentation or run into scenarios where we're turning those individuals away.
- And I appreciate that we really did build this on the fly. And this is at the recommendation of County
- Legal and Mr. Schilling had the kind of ideas about how to do this. It seems like three months of it
- already. We can sense that we have outliers, but what we've done is we've budgeted as if to protect
- everybody and say, look, regardless of status,
- this fund is taking care of our whole community. We're not, we can't even possibly figure it out when
- we're at the door. I guess just, it's a very long way of saying what Councillor Hawke said is that
- we probably do need to figure out what can move back in HFI. I don't know if there's more creative ways
- to go at it, and I would be curious what the auditor's office thinks about an account line that we tag,
- or an account line that we fund for those one-off scenarios where we have to provide a service that
- we can't use HFI for. Not the position, but the service offering, right? Because that would, it's almost
- like a cost center model. We'd bill, like that's the one we use for, does that make sense?
- I'm thinking out loud here in the time we have, just because clearly we got to do something with it,
- right? I guess the other question I have regarding these is the positions that we moved in that were
- no longer covered by HFI, right? And that was tobacco and public health preparedness, is that right?
- Public health preparedness positions, those have been moved to grant funding. Which grant funding was
- that? The COAG. That was COAG, okay. 8111.
- So we have two full-time preparedness positions that were moved to the 81 11. So the public
- health coordinator, oh, that's right. It's here. I'm looking right at it. Okay. So I will hold back
- on that comment, but yeah, thanks. Okay. Thank you. And looking over here into my left, if anybody has
- any questions, counselor. Yes, thank you. Um, the, the coag grant has a,
- cash balance. So are there things that it can pay for that it's not currently budgeted for? So the two
- preparedness positions we're planning on keeping there at least for the next couple of years until we
- can kind of see how things may or may not change with Health First Indiana that also will support our
- school liaison services. So my best
- thought beyond that would be to use that for nursing services. That could be an alternative.
- It says PHC, the personal healthcare line, that it was something I think that was a contract with IU
- Health, is that right? And that's gonna change. Correct. So does that mean, what does that mean for
- that line and your requested budget? So in my mind, it means it would be zero. We could zero that out.
- in my mind. Okay. Then I think that we would want to doing that, right? That's $228,866 that we could
- zero out right now. I would look to the liaisons to.
- I mean, if that's what the department is saying and that's what we're thinking about, I would also reflect
- back on something that was said earlier that these funds might also be looked to be transferred into
- another line for other services. So I think this change, this loss of a contract is so new that we are
- really scrambling to try and figure out how to provide a statutorily required service.
- I would be really nervous about zeroing this line out at this moment, simply because we just lost a
- 60-year contract, and we need to provide these services, and we are required to do so. So that's something
- that you are thinking through still? That is something that conversations are ongoing right now. Now,
- back to what President Crossley says every meeting.
- We can make a change tonight, and it's not permanent. So we can keep that in our minds as well. And
- I'm getting a stern look from the council. It's a stony look, not stern. It's either that or my readers
- are a thing. No, you're not meant to be a stern look. I was thinking. I think for clarity, what I hear
- Ms. Kelly saying is that,
- The structure, we're still gonna have this budgetary need for providing these services. Just how it's
- structured will change. It won't be a contract, but it could be personnel. So it's kind of similar to
- what I said about the coroner's contract or coroner's budget. His budget has all the personnel lines
- at 12,000, but it's potentially changing to a contract. So I think the need is still going to be there.
- It's just, we're not sure yet on
- what category or how it's going to be there. So I would also be cautious of zeroing it out. So along
- those lines then with I mean with the coroner you have just the one budget one fund with this department
- you have a lot and we're trying to ease the pressure on this particular one. So
- Is it reasonable to think that you would be looking at other funds to pay for the required services
- that are lost through this contract? That we would be looking at other funds? Yeah, I mean, that my,
- the COAG grant would be the next best fund that could pick that up. We could, I do not think that, I
- would not feel comfortable moving it to health first.
- funding, just because of again, we have too many ongoing like TV cases, for example, there's there's
- too many ongoing situations with those nursing services that we would be running into roadblocks to
- where we could not provide the services. So I guess I'm really I mean, this is unusual in in the health
- department is unusual. So I grant you that.
- I mean, it's just a lot of different, you have so many grants and so many different sources and it's
- a lot to manage. But we haven't yet sat here and heard from a department that if we look at the 4B,
- we are a million dollars, if I'm correct, that we have to dig out of this budget. I'm just looking for ideas.
- And time is of the essence. I realize that tonight is not the night we finalize anything. But again,
- you're way more qualified than I am to know where and how to do that. I mean, coming up with that amount,
- I think, is going to be really challenging. And if we move all these positions back
- to 1161. Again, I think also just giving some consideration for the burden that it puts on our employees,
- having to go through the process of asking, obtaining this verification, how do you navigate
- those circumstances then when people are upset about why are you asking for that, doing all the internal
- controls and tracking. So I would hope that we could find some way to
- of less than that burden as well. Okay, I'm going to I'm going to ask a question that I see some hands
- waving at me. So I'm going to go there. So yes, Councilor Hawking, Henry and Everson all are saying
- right now and Wilts is we got to figure out what to do with this because I know that we were up against
- trying to do something that was in a flurry. But now
- that we are in this budget constraint right now, we have to make do with what we have to do. And so
- whether that means we have to unwillingly put those positions back into HFI. And ideally, it would be
- nice to see how we can work with our partners at Health Net and some other places that would be able
- to help that won't turn people away for various reasons. It's a shame we're in this point, but unfortunately,
- just like some other projects here in the county this is where we are. The other question I guess while
- we are on this contract that I kind of just want to ask since it is in the contract and now hearing
- that it's not a thing anymore is why is it canceled? Can you speak to that? Sure I certainly don't want
- to speak for IU Health as an organization but I think that essentially
- They are moving into a new model of care. So taking on a regional approach of care. And currently the
- community health center, some of the other programs there have been covering multiple counties. The
- nurses have not because they've been with Monroe County providing the services on behalf of the health
- department. But the plan and the goal is that to move into a regional hub essentially and covering multiple counties.
- which doesn't really align with the services that we provide at the health department in just Monroe
- County. And then I'll go to Councilor Henry, and then I see Councilor Decker now has his hand up.
- Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Lori. So I think, again, in the spirit of we're not going to
- get there tonight, but maybe talking strategically about what has to happen here, given the news and
- some of the other stuff, is,
- I think the approach, and I think I heard Councilor Wilts say it, and maybe I'll say it my own way,
- is to the extent that we can move costs into the grants is what we're after first to protect this fund
- and the local county tax dollars using everything we can coming in here first. So if it means getting
- creative about that and looking at funds that
- You know, I think, and maybe I'll look over Carly here. The fund that it predates, HFI, is that, which
- is that one again? The one that we used to use for stuff like this, the local public health. I believe
- those are two funds that were kind of replaced with one. One of them is 1168, which is local health
- maintenance. Right. And the other one is 1206, local health department trust account. So all of those
- where we have boluses of funding are what
- I think we're all looking to go to first to draw down on before we get, we're touching this fund, right?
- And that's the general strategic, I think, goal as I hear it. So I just think as we work on this over
- the next few weeks, like that's the target. Like how much of that can we move into those spaces? And
- then what we see we're dealing with. I think we touched on the clinic a bit or that, and I do think,
- you know, there's kind of,
- You know, as organizations in the community are trying to figure out their strategic missions and how
- they fit in this new health model, they may figure out a way to answer a request for proposals. I mean, it's not
- nothing for an organization to pivot and go hire the staff you need to go win a contract. I mean, I
- speak from a little experience because that's my life's work. I've been on government contracts for
- 15 years. You go find your team and you go win the work. And so I do wonder if there's a way to go at
- a RFP approach again and find a vendor that'd be willing to answer a good
- our request for proposals with a statement of work on what they can do to succeed IU Health. And that
- would answer that question basically in 30 days. Once the contract's out and we get an award, hopefully
- we get people back to work and not have to wait for alternatives there. But I'm on my stump at this
- point. I do want to zero in on the other piece of what seems to be taking the fund out of balance, which
- is that supply line, what 26, sorry, I got new glasses, this is horrible.
- 997 the COVID supply line so that's the one that that does I mean move us you know you know 750 ish
- 746 what's going on there in that fund again just so we can understand why that's sitting here instead
- of maybe one of those other spaces. Sure so that was specific to COVID reimbursement dollars so back when
- This was prior to my time when that was going on, but some of the money did come in during my time here.
- So it was basically the state was helping to, they were working to help do the billing for that, reimbursing
- these dollars to local health departments and using the funds, local health departments to use the funds
- for one-time investments in public health. So that money was appropriated. We'd had discussions in the past.
- even starting last year about using a large portion of that for a mobile unit. But the money had never
- actually been appropriated. It was just kind of like hanging out. So we got the money appropriated this
- year. So we would still like to move forward with using that to purchase a mobile unit. Can those funds
- be used for other things?
- They're not supposed to be used for ongoing costs like personnel they're not supposed to supplant local
- appropriations so Dr box, who is the state health commissioner at that time, submitted a letter out
- to local health departments with.
- basically just talking about the funding that it needs to be held in 1159 and to use the money for one
- time investments in public health, essentially to help increase vaccination efforts, address well visits
- and basic health services. Thank you, Madam President. Okay. Councilor Decker has been waiting and then
- I'll go to Councilor Hawk.
- Thank you very much, Madam President. Again, I apologize for being remote. Are you all hearing me okay?
- Yes. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to say quickly, and also, Councilor Henry, my eyes are also doing
- wild things, so I appreciate you saying that. But I just want to say on this, obviously,
- We're going to have to be artful in a number of ways to get to goal on every front, both financially
- and from a service model. And I'm not sure what that looks like. And I don't think we really do know
- yet what that looks like. So I will say that. And I do agree that, of course, we're not at the end yet.
- But one thing I do think is, it seems like a lot of, and this is just an observation, when we're thinking
- about whatever's going on with this contract happening, not happening,
- It seems like a lot of health discussions are, pardon me, a little bit inside baseball. Things that
- are kind of like in the net of how, I don't know, how boards function and how other things. And if IU
- Health is going to a regional discussion or regional option, we're part of that region too. And I think
- somewhere at some point, the public has to know what that means for them in a really clear term.
- I have to be honest, I struggle as a county council member that is supposed to know all these things.
- I struggle to figure out these things myself. And I just wonder if either the Monroe County Health Equity
- Council, large discussions there, if it's a large discussion with groups like Health Net or others that we're
- where people actually know what those things are more publicly. I just wonder if maybe we need to think
- about that in some of this process, because I mean, I feel like I'm chasing mystery on these lines and
- mystery on these things and all that. And I don't mean that as a criticism, because you all are in the
- trenches, but if I can't figure this out roughly, I just think the public can't either. I think maybe
- we've spent a little bit too much time
- talking to ourselves. I don't know. I don't know. But we've got to figure that out because again, we
- hear all the time from people talking about regional healthcare issues locally and all that. And I don't
- know if we don't step in and talk about it. I don't know who will. So anyway, I just offer that thought.
- Okay. Councilor Huck, you had your hand up. Yes. When I was reviewing this earlier,
- And I saw that line that said reimbursement and I don't recall the dollar amount, but it was a hefty
- amount. Was it 700 some thousand on the screen? I'm sorry. 746. Okay. Okay. I was going through what
- I felt like. Well, at any rate, what we're talking about, when we get a reimbursement, that means we've
- already spent the money.
- And then this is coming back to us to reimburse us for the fact we spent the money. And so I just, I
- think we need to investigate this further before we think that this money could not be used for whatever
- we would want to because we've already spent the money that this reimbursement is for. We don't have
- to prove that. We have already proven that. So this is dollars just sitting there. It appears to me
- they can be used
- for any purpose necessary for that fund. And why that would be questionable, I don't understand, but
- I will work at trying to understand it. All right. Since we have other items that are on the health
- department, we're about 35 minutes into, oh, 35 minutes left, rather.
- I haven't said anything yet. Go for it. I just am concerned about the regional parts as well, which
- means that we are a part of the region. And I just think we need to really keep that in mind and figure
- out what that's going to look like. Definitely agree. All right. Seeing no more questions.
- Just not right now, because it sounds like
- I think that's a good point. I think that. Collectively there's definitely some things that folks want
- to go back and look at in this I know I definitely do as well- and that's not just to you that's. Kind
- of thinking about all the departments that have kind of gone through here to go back so seeing no questions
- that we have now at this time maybe please have a roll call vote.
- I know I can't say pass, so I'll just say no. We have no answers. Why would we say yes to this? Councilor
- Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Wilz? You already voted me.
- Take a dip. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes 6-1. Okay. And next up is item B.
- Council, I move to open for discussion and review Fund 1161-0000 Local Public Health Service with a
- category requests of personnel at $274,310, supplies at $148,321, services at $391,885, and capital
- at $0 for a total of $814,516. Second.
- Okay, what would you like to add to this. So, I don't think there's probably much to add about the personnel
- line so basically what we had in this fund or some of those administrative positions that aren't providing
- the direct patient care. So that's what we have budgeted they're keeping.
- A large portion of our program supplies that are related to those core public health services within
- this fund. That's where those programs originated. So it does make sense to to keep those costs there and have
- We've really made some adjustments and some reductions in some of the other categories, but we still
- have some money set aside for our partnerships. So community partnerships and grants to provide core
- public health services. You'll see that in the contractual line and plan to use this fund for employee
- training and travel as the
- primary fund for those sources as well. Moved department insurance costs into this fund as well, so
- that was a new change. Okay, and I'm gonna start over here to my left to see if anybody has any questions.
- Councillor Wilts. What's the anticipated revenue for this fund? It should be right at that 814
- So he's fully budgeted. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Looking over here to my right. Anybody got any questions?
- Councilor Iverson. Again, I think a lot of the moves here are pursuant to conversations that we had
- with together. And we're trying our best on this fund to kind of figure out the tea leaves.
- I don't know if you want to talk more about those tea leaves. I don't want to put you on the spot. So
- if you don't want to, that's fine. But we're really in this unique situation where the next two, three
- to five years are really unknown, and we're trying to do the best that we can with the resources we
- have now. Sure.
- Originally, I think the plan was to be able to use some of our carryover funds, so funds that we haven't
- used from Health First Indiana that we won't use this year and the year before to help us kind of keep
- things moving along over the next couple of years. I'll be honest, I feel like we're in circles with
- the whole legislative changes, that that's really what has caused the issues here. I'll be honest, I felt
- really, really good going into a budget before we knew that those changes were coming. So that's really
- the challenge that we're having to try to navigate here. And I'm happy to work with the council on whatever
- changes that we can make and knowing that some tough decisions I guess will have to be made.
- And we appreciate your willingness and I think you're putting it kindly that the legislative changes
- and the things that we just don't know have really hurt public health. Public health really needs certainty.
- We really need to have supplies in place to address health concerns. We really need to have nurses and
- other trained professionals in place to address health concerns and uncertainty just puts a whole
- a bunch of this stuff in limbo, and that's just not good for public health. And so I appreciate your
- willingness to work with us and the understanding that we're in this tough situation where we have to
- make hard decisions. Oh my gosh, I had a brain fart. Council Henry. To be the receiving end of that.
- Anyway, so I guess, are you hearing from IDOH any
- conversation about how a fund like this would pick up the slack for funding the governor's new initiative
- of the Make Indiana Healthy Again. What's that? Are we hearing anything that might help with adjusting
- some of that to help deliver these services or what do you know? Well, what I know is that the Indiana
- Department of Health is
- compiling information from local health departments about how these reductions and how the changes are
- impacting communities at the local level so that they can provide that information on. There have been
- surveys, they're gathering information. So I know that they're working actively to try to get these
- funding levels back up in the future. Okay, thank you.
- I'm gonna ask a quick question and then I'm gonna circle back around. I'm actually surprised Councilor
- Iverson didn't ask this since that's been his theme as the training and travel. So it looks like the
- budget for 25 was 200,000 and it looks like to date we've spent 11,532. You've come down on that travel
- But I guess my question to you would be what types of training and travel do you foresee that y'all
- will be doing here in the next year?
- So we've already made some reductions to really limit it to the scope of what's necessary and required.
- So that's the same thought that we'll be using for next year. So making sure that we're only going to
- conferences or training events that actually align directly with someone's position or is required training
- certifications for their position. So really just trying to kind of streamline that and be cognizant of,
- making reductions where we can. Would you be opposed possibly to maybe reducing that a little bit more?
- No, I think we're flexible. I'd be happy to kind of look at some numbers and look at some of those required
- trainings that we have been supporting for employees in position and kind of see what
- room we might have there to work with. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, I'm going to go
- to Councilor Wilts, and I think Michelle also had a clarifying question too. Okay. Looking at the same
- services category, my first question is, other services, it says something about Fresh Connect, and
- I don't know what that is. Could you just tell me what that is?
- Yes, so this was a program we were actually really really excited and it was supposed to start in June,
- but unfortunately.
- Again, due to those legislative changes, the organization that we were going to be working with no longer
- felt comfortable moving forward with that. So we are exploring partnerships with other organizations
- because we would like to get this program out there. It's nutritional support. So essentially, we are
- aligning it to chronic disease. So individuals who have high blood pressure, who are diabetic, and they
- also have food insecurity, being able to provide credit
- cards for those individuals that they can use for fresh fruits and vegetables. We would be loading the
- card, also obtaining biometric screening data so that we have some program data. But that's essentially
- in a nutshell kind of what that program is. So it's a nutrition support program. And then the one right
- above that that you said was just for
- working with the community, the 232,000? Yes, so a portion of that we'd like to continue with our Health
- Net Homeless Initiative program. So we're providing some funding to help cover positions and they're
- offering screenings and health services at the Wheeler Mission, for example. They do do some street
- outreach, but that's
- one of the programs in there. There's some money set aside for a hardship fund. So looking at, are we
- gonna continue with environmental, for example, to have hardship funding available for programs? And
- if there's any new community partnerships that we can work with to address chronic disease and trauma
- and injury prevention. I mean, yeah, it's just really tough and unfortunately,
- some of these really amazing things might have to wait. I don't know how else to do it. You do seem
- to have a cash balance in this fund that, so you could appropriate more than, you could start to spend
- down that cash balance from previous years. But the way to do that, that would then, you'd have to be
- looking for stuff to come out of general
- fund and go in here? Well, I think it's hard because we still have to also be meeting those core service
- requirements. So it's, you know, really this balancing act of making sure that we're meeting all of
- these health first Indiana core services at the same time. Thank you.
- Okay. And then Michelle, did you want to ask your clarifying question? Yes. So you mentioned something
- earlier about the insurance. Are you speaking with regards to the self insurance? No. Vehicle. Okay.
- That's what I wanted to make sure that because I didn't have anything budgeted in here for self insurance.
- So it's like that kind of threw me for a second. So. All right.
- and I don't see Councilor Decker has his hand up. So if there's no other further questions on this item,
- can we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Feidl?
- Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Motion
- passes 6-1.
- Okay, and next up is item C. Council, I move to open for discussion and review Fund 1168-0000 Local
- Health Maintenance with a category request of personnel at $26,913, supplies at $2,000, services at
- $36,800, capital is at $0 for a total of $65,713.
- So this is our old state funding so previous to health first Indiana it does fall under the same newly
- updated code so that that was a big chain once I once I learned that again that just says that this is
- We have those same restrictions in this fund as we do with Health First Indiana. So do have a small
- amount set aside for part-time. That's really just in the event of some unexpected emergency or need
- that might come up that we would need temporary or part-time position to be able to fill. Otherwise,
- just a small amount in supplies and software.
- printing and advertising the personal healthcare line in this. So some adjustments would be made with
- that. Originally 30,000 was gonna be going to IU Health. So that money could be moved differently at
- this point. Okay, anybody have any questions over here to my right? Councilor Hawk. Yes, the line that
- I think is just called services.
- What's that for? I'm sorry. What's it? What's the line? I think when you were reading it off, it was
- just like services or contract or something. I was looking at earlier today. I thought, well,
- what is this? Doesn't say the personnel health care.
- If that's what you're referring to, the personal health care that was going to be going, 30,000 of that
- was going to be going to IU Health. And so it's not now, so what's going to happen with it? Well, it
- could be moved to another line. So you just said 30,000 was supposed in item
- 35 to 10. Yes. Was supposed to go to IU Health, but because that is no longer a thing, that's okay.
- Okay. But because, so, and this is where I would look to Ms. Turner King, because we didn't do anything
- previously. And the first one, since we,
- Since that contract is no more, would somebody be wrong in making a motion to reduce this line item
- by 30,000? I guess I have a clarifying question for Ms. Kelly. Is that part of the public health services
- contract, the $232,000 one?
- No, it's not because we lost, we did not receive immunization grant funding this year. At least we have
- not as of this point. That was supposed to be around $30,000. So my plan was to put this $30,000 in
- here to make up for that immunization grant, essentially to be able to supplement costs for vaccines.
- I think so.
- Anybody else have any other questions or suggestions? Okay. All right. Well, and not seeing a hand raised
- via teams, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor
- Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes.
- Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Motion passes 6-1. Okay, and next up is item D. Council,
- I move to open for discussion and review fund 1206-0000 Indiana Health Trust Fund with a category request
- of $61,121 in the personnel lines. Supplies, services, and capital are all at zero.
- for a total budget of $61,121. Second. Go ahead. So this request is to move the maternal and child health
- coordinator position into this fund for 2026. That should pretty much spin down the entire balance of
- this fund next year then. So that position is currently providing the tobacco cessation services for
- for maternal patients. Okay. And Councillor Hawke. Okay. So we no longer receive dollars for the tobacco
- cessation, right? And so that position, you're just moving over to this fund since we don't, we're not
- going to be getting that grant money. Is that what you're saying?
- So this is remaining. So my understanding of this is this is just remaining money that the department
- has had for years that has just been slowly being used. So this, we do not receive money anymore into
- this fund. We will just be spending down the remaining balance. And at that point then, since it was
- a grant position, just that person,
- understand that when the grant goes away, that normally means that the position goes away. All of our
- employees are aware and they sign the documentation that's provided by the county that their position
- may be eliminated if there is no funding. Council Henry. Thank you. So I think May is, if that's the
- word in the document, not shall, right? That's important.
- And I only say that to say, like, I know we're trying to deal with the fiscal year in front of us, but
- what do you project out or have you all at the Board of Health kind of projected out the next few years
- for some of these positions? Because, I mean, as you just indicated, this is a fund that will drain
- out and it's not being added to. So whether it's this year or two years from now or three years from
- now, like, this fund may
- drain out to fund that position. Have you all thought about long-range financing within the Board of
- Health at this point about some of these positions that the board has decided to absorb into the county's
- funds? I know that's maybe an extension here, but it is where we're heading. Some fiscal year we're
- going to be asking this question, so I'm kind of curious where we are right now. What's the thought?
- So the thought has been to use some of the
- carryover funds. So the remaining funds from Health First Indiana from 2024 and 2025 to be able to sustain
- services over time. The stipulation with this program is we would not be able to move it into the Health
- First just because it is providing those tobacco cessation services and those funds cannot be used for
- tobacco cessation right now. Do you have the fund balance for this account or does the auditor
- As of mid-August, it was roughly $96,000. So we're going to spend this down very quickly. So let's put
- a pin in this one. We'll need to have a strategy for this within the next year or two. Year. Did you
- have a question? Well, yeah. No, I don't disagree.
- It looked like this was moved in here for one year to spend it down. I mean, this is exactly the kind
- of thing I think they need to be doing. So to me, it's like perfect. I don't know how many times and
- how many different ways we can say, I think that the next few years are going to see us not be able
- to provide the services and the ways we want to provide them.
- I mean, we have other funds that are flush with money that we cannot spend because our hands are tied
- when we are allowed to spend that money on. And I'm 100% behind that. But at some point, if it's no
- service at all to anyone, we're going to have to make a really bad decision or difficult choice, I guess.
- I'm just upset about it. Yeah. Hashtag, thanks Cindy. Somebody should make a Facebook page for that.
- All right. Anybody else got any questions? Councilor Iverson. And not to put too fine a point on what
- Councilor Wilts was saying, but we are talking here about maternal and child health in a state where
- maternal mortality is not looking great. In fact, it's getting worse. So there's a lot to do in this
- state and it doesn't seem like we're getting a lot of help doing it.
- I see another hand up over here, Councilor Hawk. Right. It appears to me that what the state was trying
- to say is these other grants are going to be rolled into the House first, instead of having a little
- bit of grant here, a little bit of grant there. They're going to have the one big one. That's what,
- from what I could hear, the debate back and forth by the state when they were putting this together.
- And this was not what the state wanted to do as a reminder. They didn't want to cut this. They had plans
- of growing this funding. But then when they got their revenue projections, just like when we get ours,
- and it wasn't what they wanted it to say, they had to make adjustments. So that's where we are, folks.
- No one insisted that they put restrictions on who you can serve. The other thing I would like to make
- it clear is that when we are offered a grant,
- It is so imperative that we understand what the grant is going to require of us. And if we don't want
- to do it, we should not accept the grant. And we've been told this even back when Steve Galvin was our
- counsel attorney. It was clear. Look at that grant. See what it says we have to do. Is that what we
- want to do? Is that what we can do? And if it's the what we can't do or don't want to do, we say thank
- you, but no thanks.
- Is this a situation like that? Because I don't think that's what happened here anyway. Oh, I'm just
- saying that I thought that the first of all, I thought that when they took away the tobacco cessations,
- whatever, they thought it could be made up with this out first. And so that's the reason why she's moving
- around. And I get that. It's just I think we should try to understand why
- The money isn't coming in like they had hoped. I'm going to go see Councilor Decker has his hand up
- and then I'll come back to Councilor Henry. Well, I don't mean to belabor points that may not be helpful
- to us, but kind of listening to the comments. I just, I just want to say that, you know, years ago when
- we first began our correction discussion, there were also a lot of folks that were talking at that time about
- Either go mental health or don't do the other. And I can remember in that discussion saying vividly
- a number of times to former mayor Hamilton and others that once you start funding something or you start
- down a lane on a program, you have to be in it and committed to it. And so, uh, counselor Hawk, um,
- when the state started down their health reform and health funding option,
- The intention was that they were going to maintain some level, do something, literally to get two years
- in and then say, well, we got a bad revenue forecast because we didn't anticipate tariffs.
- I'm not so sure. I think some of this could have been better planned, because the people that actually
- have to do service and aren't over at Government South in Indianapolis, the people that actually have
- to do service are now scrambling to figure it out. And the reality is, it's not easy to cut things at
- the local level, because you actually see that people have needs, and you deal with, tend to those needs.
- So I just, I mean, it's
- These things are just not extension courts that plug, unplug. I think that's convenient when you go
- work half a year in the legislature and then go home. But here, this is a reality that we'll have to
- live with. And what will happen, if I may, what will happen is groups will have to come in to fill that
- vacuum. And when they don't fill that vacuum, that service will go untreated. Then that becomes an extensive
- cost to the taxpayer because that'll show up emergency room, you name it. So we're going to pay for
- it one way or the other.
- Let's bring that right down to what we have promised or at least planned to provide for government services
- before we started looking at our numbers and we thought, whoa, now we have to cut. Does that mean we're
- the bad guys? Or does that mean the numbers just are not going to let us do maybe what the big plan
- would have been? And I'm going to go to Councilor Henry like I was intended to. Thanks. That's OK. I
- appreciate the excited utterance.
- I mean, I agree with my peers up here. This is not happening in a vacuum. I just want a point
- of clarification. The reason why the tobacco cessation is now in county dollars is because it was something
- HFI funded and we moved it in there. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So just to be very clear that we were
- committed to that at the state and then the state changed its mind for reasons. And we obviously are
- trying to maintain that service here at a local level. It's something the board decided to try and we
- were trying to fund it as best we could because as
- Councilor Decker just mentioned, yeah, we just can't.
- start and stop at the whims of people that are not using evidence-based solutions to do public health.
- And I think for those that complain about mental health in the community, this is another fine example.
- We've been battling 40 years of whataboutism from the state on this, and the end product is what we
- see in communities all over the state of Indiana, not just downtown in Bloomington of people suffering
- from mental health concerns that are no longer funded by the state government. And so that's just, it's
- a remarkable place that you're in. You are in a frontline position
- on this stuff and thank you for tolerating some of the speechifying here on this this evening but um
- thank and i'm glad we were able to sustain this program a little longer while we try to figure out next
- steps with the resources we have thank you madam president yep thank you and again hashtag thanks indiana
- um all right so since we don't have any other uh questions on this um just come and may we please have
- a roll call vote
- yes counselor henry yes counselor hawke yes counselor crossman yes counselor iverson yes counselor decker
- yes motion passes seven zero all right and it looks like we have the last item on the health department's
- budget is item e council i move to open for discussion and review fund 4906-0000
- public health emergency fund with a category requests of personnel $0 supplies $10,000 services $10,000
- capital is at $0 for a total budget of $20,000. Second. All right. And Miss Kelly, what else would you
- like to add to this? So this is
- old local health maintenance funding so 1168. So this was created years ago to have money appropriated
- and available to be used in the event of a public health emergency. And so that's essentially why my
- understanding of this funding. I think
- As has been discussed previously tonight, this now falls under those same restrictions. So I'm not sure
- how beneficial it may or may not be in the event of a public health emergency, depending on what that
- is. All right. I'm going to look to Councilor Henry first.
- I feel as though this is a count line because this unfortunately dates back to my time in the department.
- So a lot of what I recall using this for had to be if we had to pay for services to isolate an individual
- that had, say, tuberculosis that was not cooperative with isolation and quarantine. Gosh, that's a really
- old story Jeff Cockrell and I worked on 18 years ago around here. So I guess that's the question.
- I mean, the uses of it
- Have you identified uses for it? Would it be for things like tuberculosis for Indiana residents? I guess
- that's kind of where we are with it, right? Yes, that's essentially kind of where we're at. Yeah. So
- what would fall into that category? All right. Anybody else have any questions over here? Counselor
- Hawk. Well, I'm just saying, let's say if someone came from Illinois because maybe they're not giving
- them their
- public health services, so they go, well, let's go to Bloomington. We can get it there. Is that what
- we want to have happen? Whatever. Anyway, thanks, Bloomington. I think to protect local public health,
- that's exactly what I would want to have happen. Madam President. Yes, Councilor Henry. I'll give the
- use case for when we used it. I mean, we had an instance where an individual in the community
- this was like 2006 or so, had drug-resistant TB or what was thought to be drug-resistant TB, that they
- were unable to self-isolate and quarantine because of home situations. The county paid to put them in
- the hospital until they cleared sputum to show that they weren't there. During that, it was discovered
- that the person had a warrant for their arrest in Florida. So to answer the counselor's question, yeah,
- they weren't a resident of Bloomington, but they were
- they were a vector in the community that could spread a disease. And that was, to Councilor Wilts's
- point, that it doesn't care what state your driver's license is from. And so that was the point of that
- behavior years ago. It's just now we have a restriction to ask papers, please, on the disease. And that's
- kind of intriguing. But we're off the rails here. Madam President, I just wanted to be clear on it.
- Yep. OK. I'm going to look. No, no, no, no.
- Nope, no sours. I'm going to look over here to my left to see if anybody has any other questions or
- comments. All right. Again, hashtag thanks to Deanna. All right. With that being said, may we please
- have a roll call vote? Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Hawke? Thanks, Bella Bankton.
- Yes. Councilor Crossley?
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- The discussion, the obvious is being like, this is not an easy job. And so disease knows no form or
- boundary or status or whatever the case is, much like has been discussed. So we appreciate all the things
- that you all are trying to accomplish. Again, we know that coming back to the larger budget topic at
- hand, there's some things that we need to finesse. And I know that your liaisons are on that with y'all.
- I appreciate you sitting here and going through this discussion with us. And now you get to go home.
- Thank you. Have a great night. May you have the night you deserve, which is a good one. All right. That
- being said, we are 19 seconds under. And so I do think that at this time, it is much more intent to
- have a little bit of a recess right now.
- I'm going to say we come back at 640. Because I know y'all never come back on time when I ask. So if
- we could come back at 640 and then we can finish out the evening and maybe have a little bit of daytime
- left to enjoy. So again, come back at 640 and we will be back. Thank you.
- So we are going to go ahead and get started and jump back into some of the final items that we are going
- to go through on budget. And next up on the agenda is the, I was wondering where that came from. It
- sounded like a slow burn. All right.
- So next up on the agenda is the auditor's office. That's going to be on the record. Council, I move
- to open for discussion and review Fund 1000-0002 General Fund with a category request of $1,122,171
- in the personnel line, $0 in the supply lines, $133,000 in the services line, and $0 in the capital
- for a total of $1,225,171. Second. You said 225. I'm sorry, let me amend that for a total budget of
- $1,255,171. I'll second. All right, we got a motion and a second. And I know our auditor is virtually,
- but we have Carly Woodruff here.
- I'm just gonna look to see who would be able to present. And it looks like Carly is smiling, so tag your it.
- All right, so we have our general fund budget here. We tried to keep it pretty flat. We did implement
- the salary changes that were suggested. We did increase postage just a little. We do pay for the postage
- for the claims countywide, and we did have to transfer some appropriation to those lines this year.
- So we'd like to increase that by about $2,000 to be able to support the expenses associated with mailing
- those claims out.
- Thank you. And see a hand raise, Councilor Iverson. Let's start in your ones. Am I addressing this to,
- I guess, to you, or? Oh, yeah. OK. That was confusing. All right. The part timeline, that's been pretty
- consistent for the past three budgets. How many part time employees do you have in your office? We have
- one part time employee. OK, all right. Thanks.
- anybody else have any questions for the auditor's office. So I have a quick question and then I'll go
- to Councilor Fido. You said that you or y'all increased for a postage and you do claims. Could that
- mean that other departments that also possibly do claims, could they run postage through you all as well?
- They don't have access to our postage meter code. So any postage that is paid for by our office is run
- by our office. Now, if we have another department that submits a claim and those checks do need to be
- mailed out, we would mail a claim out on behalf of the department. Okay, that makes sense. Okay,
- thank you. And then Councilor Vidal. So bear with me if I've not been here before and understand what
- this is for, but what is the contractual in the
- 3,000 or 3,0006 line. What is that for? We have multiple contractual vendors. One of them is TMA and
- they will investigate nationwide tax credits and deductions that
- are basically duplicated or not eligible for the person who's applied for them. And if they find that
- somebody has applied for a deduction that they should not have, then we pay them 30% of that amount
- that we recoup and the county gets to keep their remainder. So the more that we spend in that contract,
- the more the county gets. I see. Does anybody else have any questions?
- Just as a reminder, the revenue that comes in for that is budgeted in another line, another fund. Let
- me get there.
- Yes. Auditors in eligible deduction fund. Yes, and I apologize. I can go further into other contracts
- that we have. We have a Hartman and Williams contract that is for our gap compilation that is required
- of us by the state. We also have Sidewell and they deal with the parcel fabric integration.
- And then the last contract is going to be Baker Tilly. They're assisting us with ARPA regulation, making
- sure that we're staying compliant there. Right now, the majority of that contract is budgeted in the
- ARPA fund, but we wanted to make sure not to over-obligate that project so the auditor was able to move
- some of that into their budget if we were to exceed what is appropriate in ARPA. So the FSG is not funded
- in this line at all?
- I don't hurt yourself. FSG is through the council's budget. And commissioners because I think they have
- a contract for bond purposes. Okay. Okay. So it's budgeted into two departments, us and commissioners.
- Got it. Councilor Iverson. You have a new account line in 17-7-9-3 for an alphabet soup.
- It's for GASB and GAP. So first of all, what is that line? And second of all, why is that important
- for the county to have this supplemental?
- I don't quote me because this is more in Bree's wheelhouse, but I believe this is a supplemental paid
- out to the auditor for getting the gap compilation together. Again, this is not my wheelhouse, so if
- I have misspoke here, I'm sure Bree would be happy to follow up with a correct answer to that. That
- sounds accurate to me, and this is important for us to have accurate books.
- Yes and there are certain parameters that Monroe County needs as to why we need to file a gap report.
- I believe it deals with size and what I was going to say is for 2025 there was a change in I believe
- a statute or something like that where the auditor can only receive a supplemental with regards to being
- the clerk for the
- for the council and that maximum was $2,500. So in order to keep her in parity with the clerk, council
- made a decision after budgets had been approved to create a line called Gatsby Gap Supplemental. So
- the original amount was in the
- the clerk's supplemental part of 5,000, but then once the year started, it was divided up. So you don't
- see it as the adopted amount, but it was in-house transferred. And this was a decision in order to keep
- that $5,000 in parity with the clerk who also receives a supplemental for her additional duties throughout
- the year with the voter registration, as well as clerking different
- excuse me, along with the election fund and voter registration. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions?
- No. Councilor Hawk. So does that show when you're looking at the salaries, does that show that the auditor receives
- whatever it shows on the salary line. And then this is a supplemental, does it show that way? So that
- if the public wants to say, how much does the auditor make? What's her salary? Would that show up? So
- it would... Yes, we have it set up in payroll so that she receives her salary amount and then
- the supplementals come out of these two different lines.
- So it is set up that way via through AOD payroll. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Seeing none,
- may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Hawk? Councilor Crosley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes.
- Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes.
- Potion passes six zero. Okay, next up is item B. Council, I move to open for discussion and review fund
- 1181-0000 Platte Book Fund with category requests of personnel at $0, supplies at $500, services and
- capital each at $0 for a total of $500. Second. Okay, and what do you, this is a pretty simple button,
- but what would you like to add to this?
- I just want to note that this is a record-keeping fund. We do bring in money by charging legal description,
- even plat fees of $10 per item. All right. Any questions? Councilor Hawk. Yes. Can you share with us
- what the balance is in there right now? Because we used to put, tried to put other things in that fund.
- So is that, does it have a low balance?
- right now the cash balance is just over 80,000. I believe that money is being reserved to digitize some
- of our records. Over here to my left, see if anybody has questions. All right, anybody else? All right,
- and seeing none virtually, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Huck? Yes. Councilor Crosley?
- Yes. Councilor Iverson?
- Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Feith? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. All right, next
- up is item C. Council, I move to open for discussion and review Fund 1216-0000, Auditor's Ineligible Fund.
- with category requests of personnel at $82,353, supplies at $21,000, services at $138,500, capital at
- $0 for a total budget of $241,853. Second. All right. And what would you like to add to this?
- This is our auditors and eligible fund that is used to, um, we received that money in the TMA and our
- property side through investigative work, um, fines whenever those deductions are applied that should
- not be applied. And again, we have the contractual line in here that does share the expenses of TMA
- and other contracts. All right.
- Councilor Hawk. Okay, I'd like to know the balance and how much the last year's revenue was in there
- because I thought we believed that this revenue was going to be coming down over time. At first, there
- was a lot more because there were more people that were not aware of what the rules were.
- That's a nice way of putting it. But so I'm just wondering how much of this has been spent down and
- where we are now. The current cash balance is just over $504,000. When we started 2025, the cash balance
- was almost $268,000. Oh, but right now, it's
- over 504,000. Thank you. So I'll go. I'll come back to Councilor Wills, but I saw Councilor Decker had
- his hand up. Yeah, I don't want to interrupt the train of thought, but I'm just looking at that contractual
- line and it looks like we had a big spike
- Was it 2 years ago? We had a yeah, big spike in the budget for 2 years ago, but it looks like. The spend
- is lower and then it looks like we went down and I I'm not suggesting that I just trying to figure that
- out a little bit more on contractual. We typically spend out of one fund for all our contractual expenses
- and then switch over to another fund so.
- whenever you can look at contractual expenses, you'd have to look at both funds together. All right,
- thank you. Council votes. So I'm wondering if then more of the contractual could be moved to this fund
- to alleviate that line in the general fund.
- if it's only for one year and spend it down. It does make sense. I can consult with the auditor. I do
- believe that this fund is under her. I can consult with the auditor. Should we just put a little pen?
- Yeah, I'm writing it all down. Thanks. So the idea is to potentially move the contractual
- which is 3-0-0-0-0-6. 3-0-0-0-6. No. We're moving from general, though. That would be from general into
- this particular line I am. OK. OK. So I'll make a note of that, Giselle. That one is in contractual,
- and the general is 125.
- $125,000. And I did... No, go ahead. I did just receive a note from the auditor that we can move some
- of our contractual expenses into this fund, but the funding is slowing down, so we do want to be aware
- of that. Okay, but Council, I think, I think it was Council Hock that said that, but even if we did
- it for a year,
- and possibly move it back for 27. That's something that would help with that balance there. Okay.
- I think, yes. I thought I saw Councilor Decker had his hand up. I did, and I don't know if this is germane
- here, but it could be for further consideration. I know that we, the question about FSG a second ago,
- where that was divvied up, it was commissioners and council, if I heard it right. I just think because
- long-term finance has, I believe, treasurer is an ex-officio and auditor is an ex-officio, and everybody's
- kind of using from that bucket. I think at some point, having that expense divided among the four entities,
- I mean, if another's eligible, I don't know, but the reason being is I think that keeps everybody engaging that.
- Service and then invested in it and then if they decide they don't want that service. It's not just
- council Using it or commissioners using I don't know. That's a long-term thought but I just I to me
- Dividing that up among people that actually use it might be a good apportionment of the cost Okay Does
- anybody have any
- Councilor Prado. So I wondered about the training and travel 30028. I see that looking in the previous
- year's expenditures, it hasn't come close to this amount that's being requested. Upped in 2024, but
- not 23 and 25.
- noticed him. So, Miss Woodard, do you have anything to add to that? We typically try to utilize the
- other funds that are available for training and travel. I can definitely talk with the auditor about
- her willingness to reduce this. All right, does any Councilor Wolz?
- I was not wanting to speak. I was getting ready to vote, I thought that's where we're. I'd like to make
- a motion to go ahead and de-appropriate line 30006, general fund auditor. I know we're not there. Okay,
- you're throwing me there, okay.
- appropriate that whole line by down to zero and then. Increase. The one I guess it's not the appropriate
- because it's not really appropriate, but you know what I mean and then increase the. Same line in the
- auditors ineligible. By 125,000. Second.
- and point of order or clarification. Do we need to open the previous budget to make this amendment?
- Yes, we do. Okay. In that case, may I offer a friendly suggestion to your amendment? Yeah, take it over.
- That we open for
- for discussion and review fund 1000-0002 to accomplish your motion. With a cleaner way before Councilor
- Wilts to withdraw her motion and then Councilor Iverson. I think we should do them separate because
- as I'm going back and looking at your motion. I agree, yeah. You said
- the same line in the auditors and eligible by 125,000. And you're talking about training and travel.
- I was talking about training and travel. I'm talking about line 30006. Okay. That's where I kind of,
- we were talking training and travel. But regardless, I'm going to withdraw my motion and let Councilor
- Iverson take it. I'm also going to withdraw my motion. And I think Madam President, in order to keep
- this train moving,
- that we get through all of these budgets here for the auditor and if we have time then we can open up
- the previous because we have to open up two budgets to do this. So we've got one open now. That's what
- I was going to say you've got the auditors and eligible open now make the change now of what you want
- it to say. Council I move to set line 3006 contractual
- to be an additional $125,000 for a total of $250,000. Second. Okay, we got a motion and a second to
- increase this lawn item in the ineligible fund to that amount. Is there any further discussion? All right.
- And again, I think the idea of doing this is because of the balance that is in this account. And then
- we'll go back. So, all right. I was going to ask, can we, I was about to say all in favor, but then
- I realized we can't because I looked at Councilor Deckard's face. So in that case, can we please have
- a roll call vote? The roll call vote on the amendment. Correct. So read this side first.
- Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Ivers? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor
- Hawke? Yes. Councillor Wills? Yes. Motion passes six zero. So that motion carries. So that motion, okay.
- So then rereading the totals for auditors and eligible.
- personnel is 82,353, supplies is 21,000, the services is 263,500 for a total budget of 366,853.
- Now the vote. Okay and can we please have a roll call vote for the overall? Councilor Crossley? Yes.
- Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Decker?
- Yes. Councilor Feidl. Yes. Councilor Wilts. Yes. Councilor Hawk. Thank you. Motion passes 6-0. Okay.
- And then do you- We're gonna go backwards. Yes. Council, I move to open for discussion and review Fund
- 1000-0002 General Fund for an amendment. Second. Second. Okay. All right.
- Council, I move to set line 3006 contractual to zero. Council, I heard you, but it wasn't on camera
- or on microphone. Second. Okay, thank you. All right, we got a motion and a second to reduce this line
- item to zero. And again, for those that might watch this later,
- We increased this in the ineligible font, and then just went back to open it up to decrease this to
- zero. So a clean move here. All right. Any further discussion on this item? All right. Seeing none,
- may we please have a roll call vote? Oh, before we do, our new total. We need to vote on the amendment.
- Vote on the amendment first.
- I'm just moving ahead. All right, so can we please have a roll call vote on the amendment? Councillor
- Iverson. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Hawke.
- Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Motion passes 6-0. Okay. And now can we have a new grand total? Yes.
- in the auditor's general fund personnel, $1,122,171, no supplies, a new services total of $8,000,
- no capital, with a new total for that budget of $1,130,171. Okay. Thank you.
- and with us doing a few little housekeeping things here that is no we need to vote no hey yeah that's
- right all right so can we please have a roll call vote councillor wilts yes councillor hawke yes councillor
- crossley yes councillor iverson yes councillor deckard yes councillor fiddle
- yes motion passes six zero okay thank you now we are done with this item so we thank the auditor's office
- um and carly you did a wonderful job all right next up which is the final budget item of the night is
- our council office council i move to open for discussion and review fund 1000-0061 general fund
- with the category requests of personnel at $374,071, supplies at $1,350, services at $350,728, and capital
- is at $0 for a total budget of $726,149. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. I'm gonna
- look to Ms. Kim Schill to tell us about the council budget.
- Thank you, Council. So earlier this, well, August, I believe, we had a review of this budget. And so
- based on what you guys suggested, I reduced and removed in the services category the amount in that.
- So I changed that to zero.
- And then what I'd like to do then as well, we had always in the past had to pay for the postage with
- regards to anything Sophia Travis. So with the auditor's office now paying for all of those claims,
- because everything's now going through claims, I'd like to reduce that line down to zero.
- I would also like to. We have $100 in the legal notices that was being used prior to us being able to
- use Facebook and also posting things.
- better on our website. So we would use a legal notice in the papers to say, hey, Sophia Travis grants
- are starting. Now we're utilizing the Facebook and we're doing a kickoff meeting, which we've done that
- two years now and that seems to really, we've gotten the word out and people are doing that.
- have not used that legal notices for a couple years now. So we could reduce that down to zero as well.
- I know that there was talk about reducing the BEDC amount. If you do choose to move forward, the dues
- for that for next year is $5925. So I would like to recommend to reduce that line to 5925. My one last
- thing, which it's totally up to you guys. There was a request to have the Sophia Travis grant up
- increased to $250,000. The growth that we would have done normally would have been at $181,000. So that's
- the numbers there. If you wish to continue with that or not, I'll let the council talk about and figure
- that out. But that's my only recommendations as of now.
- I'll gladly go with whatever you guys decide. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. And thank you for giving
- us the updates on the reduction. So we appreciate that. Council, do you have any questions? Councilor
- Decker, we will go to you since I saw your hand go up first. Thank you very much. I appreciate
- the explanation here for items. I'm not quite ready maybe to make a move
- officially here on this, but a couple of thoughts I have around line 331, the Sophia Travis grant dollars
- and 33032 BDC dollars. I think some, I understand rationale for action on both lines. Pardon me, I'm
- losing my voice. But I think a middle of the road
- kind of approach here may be a little bit more advisable as we figure out this budget. The move beyond
- 181 to 250, while always will be needed in the community, I'm not sure that that is a thing that we
- can get to. And so I might be looking for a compromise number that doesn't quite go to that quarter
- of a million.
- there at the same time, I don't know on the BDC line that we necessarily, because of the financial
- circumstances, need to take that just down to the membership level. And so there may be a medium approach
- there as well. And I just kind of throw that out to council as kind of where my thoughts are at this
- point. Okay, thank you. Councilors, I'll go down the line here. Councilor Feidl, and then I'll go to
- Councilor Wilts.
- So I too am concerned about the BEDC. I see that we have quite a long history of being at the 35, well,
- at least a few years from what I'm seeing here. These are the number. I'm budgeting it, but it hasn't
- been paid. Oh, I see, I see, I see. Well, it looks like it was paid in 2023. And then this shows,
- was paid, right? Expended in 2023? Am I looking at that right? It wasn't expended back then, so I don't
- know what that's about. I don't know what really happened. Anyway. Oh, anyway.
- I think BEDC is very valuable. I have some history besides this council with BEDC. And I think that
- they do a great job working with businesses to come into our community and provide jobs and that sort
- of thing. So I would be remiss in not mentioning, I'd like to keep it. Councilor Woltz. So I wanna comment
- on both Sophia Travis grant line and BEDC.
- I do not think that given our situation and our needs, dire needs to make cuts, that we can have Sophia
- Travis grants increase as much as we would like. I think we should return to the normal pace of increase,
- which would be the 181.
- and I think for BEDC, my intent when working on the tax abatement and including a payment to BEDC part
- of those terms was to then take it out of our budget because it has been so controversial and knowing that we
- are looking to cut things. So my intent was to cut it down to just our dues. The 59, 25, I didn't know
- the total. And it's not because I don't support BEDC. I fought for this to put it in place. I 100% support
- it. I just, you know,
- that we need to make cuts, just like we're asking everyone else to. Well, and I was going to say real
- quick, not so much controversial in terms of who BEDC is, because I think it's been controversial in
- the way that council has had it budgeted and how it has been stifled to not been paid due to opinions
- from other folks here.
- None of us on this side of the dais, but maybe up there. But that being said, yeah, so not controversial
- in our thought process. Because I do think that all of us definitely support the BDC. And I know your
- idea when we were going through the abatement was to be able to kind of negotiate that part into it.
- So yes, Councilor Vidal.
- So I would like to know, I remember the abatement and that supported that very well, but I would like
- to know when that becomes effective. Is that for next year's budget? Would the abatement be paid then
- paying that amount in 2026 or do we still need to pay this until the abatement kicks in? When does the
- abatement, the 30,000 or 40 or whatever it was kick in?
- The abatement starts in 2026, but I do think I would look to council and if Ms. Turner King doesn't
- have that information, we should ask Mr. Cockrell about the exact timing, but it looks like she's looking
- stuff up frantically. Not frantic, fervent. She's fervent. I'll go with that.
- I'm not seeing the date in the tax abatement or the resolution, and I keep looking. I do know Mr. Cockrell's
- out of the office until Monday, and so I'll keep looking, and if not, I'll ask him on Monday and get
- back to you. All right, does anybody else, Councilor Iverson? I'm gonna put in my quick two cents on
- both of these topics.
- we cannot talk about Sophia Travis service grant without talking about Cheryl Munson. If she was sitting
- here, I'm sure she would have said we need to do everything we can, particularly given what's happening
- in our economy. And so I, at the same time, am really worried about the numbers presented at the top
- of this meeting. And so I think we retain the spirit of what
- Councilmember Munson would want to do. At the same time, understanding the realities of where we're
- at by keeping with the 4% maximum living growth quotient in this fund. Once we return to healthier economic
- times, I'd love to push the gas pedal on this. In terms of BEDC, I certainly want to defer to Councilmember
- Deckard on this as he is the liaison.
- to that organization, and I certainly think that he's got his pulse on that pretty well. So if Councilmember
- Deckard has a compromise number in mind, it would be a good time to utter that. However, if not, I can
- come up with one as well. Thank you. Yeah, the only thing that I would add to the conversation,
- I've been on council now for about four, almost four years in December. And so I have time supply when
- you're having fun. Um, and I've been fortunate enough to be on Sophia Travis that entire time and I
- chaired this
- And so we haven't heard our presentations yet, but I can only imagine that the dire need from inflation
- and all the other things that have increased. We will hear those in those budget presentations or in
- those, those proposals that we'll hear here soon.
- I will take Councilor Deckard up to task in trying to figure out a compromise, because I do recall us
- trying to think how we can get to that level or try to, I know we do the quotient levying, we try to
- follow that every year, but I would like to see how we could do that also at the same time, knowing that
- We also are asking other departments to make sure like how they can cut and do certain things as well.
- So this isn't fun for any of us, including, you know, in our backyard with our council budget. So I
- think I'm willing to look at some things here and wanna go, I hear what people are saying. I really
- would like for us to see how we could do that.
- Heck, I would really like to see how, in the spirit of collaboration, not certain how this would happen,
- how we could put grant funding together with other entities as well. So I think that's something that
- we can talk about for future years. But for now, in 26, I'm willing to kind of go back to the drawing
- board and think what would be if we can increase it or if we still go with the,
- the growth quotient, which is the 4% this year, which is the 181. So willing to think about that. And
- I see Councilor Deckard's hand is up again. Yeah, Madam President, if you would be willing, since we
- do have to come back to several different budget lines, I specifically would like to do some further
- homework on those two line areas, bring it back to a public meeting, and then I would be happy to offer
- that motion if other
- for both lines on some either compromise or if someone wants to divide the question, but I'd be happy
- to do that so that we're moving it expeditiously. I appreciate that. And again, everything we do tonight
- is not final. All right. Are there any other questions related to the council budget as presented?
- on the first two zeros. Oh, yes, but we do have some amendment. Yes. Yeah. I'm looking at you, counselor.
- Go ahead. All right, counsel, I move to set line three zero eight zero zero postage to zero dollars.
- Okay. All right. We got a motion in a second. And again, this was something that Michelle has suggested
- to us. So we are thankful for that suggestion there.
- Every little bit helps. So any other further discussion on this item? Seeing none, can we please have
- a roll call vote? Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Crossley?
- Yes. Councilor Hawk?
- saying yes or no for the record. Thank you. Councillor Feidl. Motion passes or yes 6-1. All right and
- my final motion of the night is to set line or this budget is to set line 3-2-0-0-5 legal notices to
- zero dollars. Second.
- All right, we got a motion and a second. And again, that's what was discussed earlier. Are there any
- other further discussion that is needed on this item? All right, seeing none, may we please have a roll
- call vote? Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilks? Yes.
- Councilor Hawk. Councilor Crosley. Yes. Motion passes five one. Okay. And I don't see any other. Oh,
- hey, Councilor Wilts has her hand waving. Totally will respect Councilor Deckard's wish to do more homework
- and come up with numbers. I would encourage us to remember
- time is of the essence. I know we're not finalizing things tonight, but after this week, we really do.
- We have to take action on these things that we've just talked about. And we're just setting ourselves
- up for a really long night ahead at a different time.
- because we have pushed so many things off and I'm just expressing that that makes me a little uncomfortable
- and I hope that we can be really expedient with decision making and then motions and voting because
- we'll have a lot of it to do since we put so much of it off. Sam. Yes, Councilor Hawk.
- All along with that, I think we need to look at the big ticket items, big, big, because we're not going
- to fix this with 20 bucks here or a thousand there. And nobody likes to make unpleasant decisions.
- But that's what we get paid the big bucks for. We've got to do it. I don't know if it's big bucks.
- But yes, absolutely. So again, as we hear Councilors Hawken and Wilts, definitely, I think we all share
- that same sentiment. So I guess the task for all of us is after tomorrow, tomorrow's our last night
- of budget, we've really got our work cut out. So any
- extra time that we have or don't have, I would highly recommend us getting that extra time and really
- kind of going back at each, looking at each and everything that we have discussed, talked about, and
- really trying to look at some of the big items that could be come or could cut down. So, yes, I almost
- called you Councilor Schell. Michelle. That's okay. So just as a reminder,
- Yes, we do have a meeting tomorrow. That has typically been a longer meeting, and we've always had time
- to be able to go back and open and talk about budgets and this kind of thing. With that being said,
- we do have a meeting on September the 16th. It's a regular council meeting, and so we can also address
- some of those concerns at that September 16th meeting,
- Following tomorrow's meeting, we are going to, with the help of the auditor, give you an update of where
- we stand after all of these budget sessions. So we'll do that. And then hopefully you guys can make
- some of these hard decisions at the September 16th meeting. Because we then have to roll everything
- into Gateway the 17th, which is the next day. So we have to have some decisions by the 16th.
- All right, and I see Councilor Decker has his hand up. Thank you very much. I wanna add to the hard
- decisions that we have to make is I think that the council has to determine if the resolution on minimum
- balances that we passed with those numbers at 23 million or between 15 and 23 million,
- If we can continue to afford that when that was passed under a different iteration of how things function.
- A couple of counselors have heard me say this more than a few times. We've got
- rainy day funds that we've set aside for things. I'm not sure what qualifies as raining, but we have
- those, right? We've been through a pandemic, we had those. On top of that, we've got these high, high
- minimum thresholds. And I know that according to good housekeeping rules, that means that we feel really
- good about all this pad. But the issue is we're starting now to get into cuts that are now beginning
- to eliminate
- services. We're having debates over what this is and what that is. And I don't know that anyone in the
- community subscribed to their dollars to make government a bank. And the state may have the leisure
- to hold on to dollars, but I don't think a lot of counties do. And so you got to ask yourself after
- a while, if you're making a rainy day and a pad for your rainy day and a pad for your general budget, what
- What are you doing there? Are you running old national bank or are you running a government? And I think
- that we have to have a serious talk about that because it would be nice. It'd be nice to do that.
- but you can't say, I cut this service so that I feel better about my ledger or conversely down the road,
- I went to people for more tax dollars so I feel good about my ledger. And I say that with all due respect,
- you just can't have that conversation with a straight face from the Village Inn to the East side of
- Bloomington. So that has to be part of this discussion because I think that's flying past us.
- I just want also want to remind us we have one more item left for council and we need to vote overall
- but before we do that we'll need to get a new total. For the county council's general fund budget personnel
- three seven three hundred and seventy four thousand zero three hundred and seventy four thousand seventy
- one dollars. Supplies
- 1,350 services, a new 350,000 for a total budget of $725,971. I can't talk tonight. Okay. And so that
- we've all heard our new grand total. And so may we have a roll call vote? Councilor Crosley? Yes. Councilor
- Iverson? Yes. Councilor Deckard?
- Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wills? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Okay. Just to note for the record
- Councilor Hock left the meeting. All right and next up is the last item which is item B. Council I move
- to open for discussion and review fund 1186-0000 rainy day fund.
- with a category requests of $0 in the personnel line, supplies at $1 million, services at a million
- dollars, capital at a million dollars for a total budget of $3 million. Second. All right, thank you.
- We got a motion and a second. Michelle, what do you have to add to this? This is what we call rainy
- day, which is our savings. We have,
- budgeted per recommendation from our financial person FSG to set aside at least a million dollars in
- each category in the hopeful not to be used you know state of emergency when we have used all of our
- other funds
- with regards to a disaster or an emergency that has occurred into the county. So this is just being
- budgeted as a precaution for a, what if it happens kind of scenario. Okay. Am I mistaken? Cause I'm
- looking at this now. I thought because of the tornado that we had earlier this year, that emergency
- management dipped into. Nope. We, we had it ready, but they were able to utilize all of their funds. Okay.
- Good job. Yep. Okay. All right. Anybody else have any questions on this item? Councilor Wilt. What's
- the cash balance on this? Like, what do we have in here? I was thinking it was around 10 million, but
- current cash balance is $10,177,000. 171? 77. Thank you. I'm sorry, that is 117. 117. My apologies.
- 117. Got it. OK. So we have $10 million in rainy day. And I think that's a good thing. Think about,
- I know that in the past, we have used it
- In fact, the line's still there for paving. And I think very healthy rainy day fund. So I still am very
- much in favor of trimming the current budget. I like the idea of cash balances being in place for after we've
- all the other measures. But thank you for the balance. Yes. So I wonder if there's a way to find out
- what other counties in Indiana might be doing do the if they have a rainy day fund based on the size
- population we have or that sort of thing or the size budget they have or maybe both. It's a way to figure
- that out. We could definitely inquire
- That would be a good metric to look at. What are other counties doing, right? I mean, we don't have
- to reinvent the wheel. Are they keeping 10 million around or how are they doing thinking about that?
- Thank you. Okay. Anybody else have any other questions? Councilor Iverson. I feel like I need to speak.
- This is a very healthy balance and we've already heard voices saying that we're supposed to keep this
- for an emergency rainy day.
- some people feel like it's raining. And so we need to take all that into account as we move forward.
- But I certainly think that Councilmember Wilts is spot on here. We need to go through the motions. We
- need to make cuts where we need to make cuts because the importance is that the hands that have dealt
- us this blow is going to be here for the next three years. In addition,
- We are just now seeing the national economy start to downturn if it gets worse. That's an if. I'm not
- saying that economy is going to get even worse. If it does get worse, we're going to need things in
- place in the next two to five years. Understood. All right. So.
- Seeing no further question or comments on this particular item, may we please have a roll call vote?
- Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor
- Deckard? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.
- thank you and so that is all the business that we have for night five of our budget work sessions again
- we have our final budget session which is tomorrow september 11th at five o'clock and that one will
- be a long one so i hope that we are all to task we all heard all the things and all the
- Burdensomes. Heshek thanks Indiana that we have to do. And so I think we are up to task forward. Again,
- it's just the idea of having us be in this position to begin with. And so I just ask for all of us to
- come ready over tomorrow, the 16th and beyond to think about what else we need to do, because there's
- definitely some go backs.
- With that being said, I appreciate everybody's thoughts and intentions for tonight. And we are in recess
- until tomorrow, September 11th. Thank you. Have a good night.