- All right. Good evening, everybody. I would like to go ahead and call tonight's meeting to order of
- the county council. Today is Tuesday, February 24th, twenty twenty six. And present here in the net,
- you know, we have counselors, Spido, Wilts, Deckard, Iverson's back in the building. And we also have DGH.
- Councilmember Henry. So we are still waiting for Councilor Hawke to enter the building here soon. But
- we have a quorum, so we will go ahead and get started. And next up, all those that are able to stand,
- please stand for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.
- with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all. All right. Next up is the adoption of tonight's agenda.
- Is there anybody that would like to make amendments to tonight's agenda? And seeing none, we will just
- roll on with the business. All right. Next up, we have our public
- that are not on tonight's agenda. And so if you are a member of the public and you're here in the Net,
- you help room and would like to make a public comment on items that are not on tonight's agenda, you
- can come forward to the lectern here in the Net, you help room, state your name and you'll have up to
- three minutes. Or if you are joining us virtually via teams, you can raise your hand and do the same
- as well. So are there any takers here in the room for public comment?
- seeing none. Are there any takers via teams that would like to make public comment on items not on tonight's
- agenda? Okay. Seeing none, we will move on to the other. Um excuse me.
- department updates. And so these are for departments to come here virtually or here or virtually rather
- to give or updates on items not on the agenda. And each department will have up to 10 minutes to make
- those department updates to the council. So are there any department that would like to see the auditor
- has her hand up? So Miss Gregory? Yes. Thank you. Good evening, counsel. Good evening.
- Just a quick update regarding the 2024 financial audit exit meeting that occurred last week, Wednesday,
- February 18th. Representatives from the State Board of Accounts and Forbus, who was our outside audit
- contractor, attended in person to review the audit results with us. I'm pleased to share that the county
- received an excellent audit with no reportable findings. This is the strongest audit outcome the county
- has achieved in a very long time.
- And as you know, audit results play an important role in influencing bond ratings, grant opportunities,
- and loan rates. This successful audit reflects the dedication, diligence, and fiscal responsibility
- demonstrated across departments. It validates the hard work of my team and contributes to maintaining
- the county's strong financial standing. So I just wanted to thank you for your continued support and
- all the work we've done. Appreciate it. Thank you.
- My apologies again for not being able to make that but Sounds good and congratulations to you and your
- hard work and staff on that Really? It's a congratulations to all of us. It's all of us working together
- to achieve this. So, thank you All right. Are there any questions or comments for miss Gregory?
- Thank you, madam president and thank you auditor for that that's no small feat and I think you know
- the last year we had that that rating
- I don't Mr. Garrett has do you happen? You have a good history of the county. Do you happen to know
- when we've had the last audit with no reportable findings?
- It's it's been a really long time. I look forward to asking Mr. Gerritas later how many counties in
- Monroe County enjoy that there are several counties in Indiana that enjoy that, you know, opportunity
- there. And so it's a huge piece of making sure we can get the best possible rates with our bonds. It's
- also a testament to how we manage our funds at the minimum fund balance to keep us there. So thank you
- for the work. All right. And just for the record, Councillor Hawke has entered the room and she will
- get situated. All right.
- Are there any other further questions or comments for miss Gregory on her report? All right seeing none.
- Thank you very much So I see some other department heads that are here so I want to go back and see
- if there are any other department heads that would like to Give a department updates for items not on
- tonight's agenda Right seeing none are there any department or
- heads that are joining us via teams that would like to give a department update. Seeing none, we will
- move forward. All right, next up is the citizen appointment with the one going for the Sophia Travis
- Grant Committee. Council, I move to approve the citizen appointment of Catherine Hopkins to the Sophia
- Travis Grants Committee.
- to complete a two year term that expires December 31st, 2028. All right, we got a motion and a second,
- and I'm going to look to my fellow Sophia Travis Grant Committee team members, counselors, Decker and
- Fiddle to give an update on our applicant. Well, I just wanted to make a comment that
- Catherine's with us today. Even if you want to come forward here to the table and say a couple words,
- you're more than welcome just to say hi, not to put you on the spot, no pressure, but come on up. Yeah.
- I'll start this and Councillor Fiddle, anything you want to add in. Folks, this is Catherine Hopkins
- and she comes to us through our Sophia Travis grant.
- process to be the new community member. We are excited that we had a chance to meet with her and to
- talk with not only her, but of course other applicants, but in that process, Catherine's commitment
- to this work as a citizen appointment, keeping that balance and that fairness in that process while
- working alongside council was abundantly evident, and we're just so delighted that you are willing to
- do this with us.
- Yeah, I just want to say I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve. I am looking forward to serving
- with you on this committee and honoring this role and the legacy that is this committee. So thank you
- very much for placing your trust in me. So I'm looking forward to serving with Catherine. I've served
- with her in several different capacities over the years. And this will just be another one. So I'm looking
- forward to serving with you in that capacity, because I know you'll be great. It'll be a fun team.
- All right. So are there any other questions or comments from the council? for our candidate for the
- Sophia Travis grant committee All right and Seeing none because this is a citizen appointment. We don't
- do public comment on this So I'm going to ask for a roll call vote, please Counselor cross Lee. Yes,
- sir. Iverson. Yes, sir
- Yes. Councillor Hawke. Yes. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Motion
- passes unanimous. All right. Thank you and congratulations. And we'll see you in the next few weeks.
- Thank you. All right. Next up on our agenda is the consent agenda items. Council, I move to approve
- the council summary minutes of January the 13th and 27th in 2026.
- Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion on our consent agenda
- items as presented? All right, and seeing none, I will go to public comment on this item. If you have
- public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here, the night, you know, room or raise your hand
- via teams.
- And seeing none, we can go ahead and do voice vote because all of us are here. So all those in favor
- of approving the consent agenda items as presented signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed,
- same sign. All right. Motion carries. Thank you so much for that. All right. Next up is item eight,
- which is our budget review process. And we know that the state house is still doing some of the
- little last minute things here, but we generally do this around February anyway. So I wanted to have
- Greg Garitas, our financial, with financial solutions group come forward and give his presentation.
- So welcome Mr. Garitas. Thank you and good evening. You should have three pages, pieces of paper in
- front of you. We worked over the last couple of last week and
- Yesterday when kind of putting these together to kind of give you where we're going And the key is also
- we're working with the auditors numbers now on 2025 and updating our sustainability so in our next report
- we will have Our next meeting we will have our sustainability which is the line-by-line revenue and
- expenses and then projecting ahead in
- twenty seven twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty nine. We are hoping that- boys and girls in downtown
- Indianapolis leave soon and we'll be able to- I call it play damage control. Or maybe we'll be overwhelmingly
- surprised and we get really good news
- it's really kind of unknown until they leave. So at this point in time, I'd like to focus on the one
- page that is labeled 2025 financial results. So as you know from my presentations last year, that we
- were expecting the general fund to have expenses exceed revenues.
- and you see the summary right there that it did exceed by 6.9. Now we also put into account or put on
- this piece of paper a couple other key funds which went actually the other way as you see. At it, we
- didn't spend any of the expenses in 2026 and that was as was expected, okay.
- 25 in 25 it was expected that you wouldn't spend anything in 26 when we get there Obviously, we're gonna
- have a little different story in 25 for PSAP lit you can see that there we slightly overspent by $65,000
- basically spending what we took in jail lit
- for twenty twenty five we did not again we had a very positive six point nine million that was somewhat
- but by design because as you know we were accumulating those monies in order to move forward on possible
- new projects that were coming up. I also put the piece app lit for nine three three for a reason when
- we get to a couple of the other pages
- And as you can see there, you had a positive 215,000. Can I just clarify something? I think when you
- mentioned the PS lit, you called it PSAP lit up above. So I just want to make sure that that is PS lit
- up above. And that's what you were talking about up above. So the 1170 is public safety lit. 4933 is
- public safety lit.
- Is basically the piece app or the e911? Just think it got miss Spoken, I think you inverted the PS lit
- with the PS AP left right earlier Okay So it's okay So PS lit public safety lit was positive. It was
- a negative $65,000 public seat or PSAP lit 4933 was 215,000 positive
- Thank you. Sure. And then you see down below, so I don't only focus on the change in revenues versus
- expenses, but the cash balance that you ended up at the end of the year. And as of 12-31-2025,
- subject to, I don't think you have any, Bree, you have any adjustments coming through at this point.
- I don't think so. If anything, it would be very, very minimal as we go through and audit the CFA, which
- is the federal award. So perfect. So you see that we ended the general fund with twenty three million
- at it. Twenty three million also. Keep P.S. lit or public safety lit eleven seventy two point nine million
- jail lit seven point one million.
- PSAP lit 4933 2.9 million and then I put down the band capital. This is the bond anticipation note that
- we issued in 25 for basically land purchase. Okay. And so when you look at those in comparison to our
- top numbers there,
- I feel like we are in good shape when you take all of those funds into account. And so questions on
- kind of the 25 financial results until you get the actual line by line revenue expenses. We'll be putting
- together in sustainability. Yes. Yes. Since we budgeted so much in
- these other funds in the edit fund and the jail fund. I want to make sure that you've covered what we
- projected to spend out of those budgets. I wouldn't want anybody to think this money is actually going
- to be available for the jail. Not all of it, because we budgeted what was it, how much in the edit,
- money as well as we budgeted in the jail lit for 2026. So even though you might see a balance there,
- it's going to change drastically for this coming year because we budgeted it for 2026. That's why I
- was going to go page two. OK, I just I'm just saying that I think if you just looked at this sheet,
- you would. I know you don't want to just look at that one. You want to look at that.
- The twenty five twenty six. Okay so the second page which is the twenty twenty six budget summary as
- we know it today with and you do have I believe three you have some additional appropriations I always
- caution on additional appropriations especially very early on but you can see that the general fund
- 26 estimated revenues is 52 million, 52 million and 8, and budget is 51-0 or 51-100, basically leaving
- a balance or a difference between revenues and expenses at this point in time at 1.724953. Now, as you
- additionally appropriate,
- those funds will be less. Okay. And so, you know, that's what kind of catches up with you as time goes
- on. And it really happens in every county. And at it, you see we are projecting estimated revenues of
- 12.7. The budgeted expenses and Councillor Hawke, I believe this is what you were kind of pointing at, is
- estimated to be 4.6 or 4.7 million with a then estimate over revenue over expenses of about 8 million.
- So that 4.7 or 4.688 is what you actually have budgeted out of edit to spend. And I've got the detailed
- budget and I looked through it. There's two big items in there.
- But with consultation with the auditor's office, we believe those are somewhat reoccurring, the bigger
- ones in edit. And I'm sure you know your edit budget inside and out, but I've looked at each of those
- line items. So to a certain degree, they're state. Yes, lit or public safety lit 1170, 3.6 million
- 4.7 you have more you're basically budgeting in to it the a cash reduction of 1 million dollars okay
- so if you went back to the first page you would see that the balance in ps public safety lit and watch
- that is 2.9 so you can get pretty close with utilizing one
- 1 million of that so I would advise you be very careful on additional appropriations there. Jail lit
- in revenues 2.6 in budget leaving a revenues in excess of budget of 5.2 million. So that one was is safe in
- and obviously then available as we go forward. And then again, we put down the PSAP lit 4933,
- three million, 2.9, 100,000. And I think on that one, you generally pay out what you bring. So questions
- on how 25 interacts with 26 and kind of where you've got your glide path going
- or 2026 on these major funds. Councilor Henry, and then I'll go to Councilor Haag. Yeah, thank you for
- that. I'm zeroing in on the 1.7 and the general fund net revenue because as you mentioned, we want to
- avoid additional approves as long as we can. But one of the things we've experienced over the past year
- are very large additional appropriations to shore up our health insurance in the county. We had a series
- of those votes last year that
- That doesn't feel like a lot of margin to work with if we're expecting or anticipating this similar
- hit. So I keep looking at the auditor because I'm trying to remember what our sum total of those were
- over last year. Do you have a ballpark on what that was? Some total of additionals? Yeah. Three million
- sticking in my head, but I don't, I'm not positive I'll have to look. Michelle, do you happen to recall?
- We can pull it. Okay, it's not small.
- And so at that point, we're looking at what's then available. And I guess maybe the question, Greg,
- is that if we are looking to continue our service offering that we do for health insurance and we're
- looking at a general fund that's maybe tapped because the resource might not be there, it's possible
- the edit would then be next in line to possibly use for that.
- And there are other what other funds would you think might be available then to look out for that? Well,
- well, let me point out that you did in in at it budget two million dollars. Right. So that that is there.
- You know, I
- Obviously, I did send Molly a message, you know, first place I go on, especially the doughnut counties,
- is food and beverage, but yours is not available, my understanding, for those type of things. So what
- you're going to have to do, and remember, we saw that glide path happening very, very strong last year.
- I think we budgeted stronger this year to try and hopefully not have that same issue.
- But quite frankly, it's eating every county alive. You know, left tipping a new county a couple weeks
- ago, and they were, you know, they were up there. Cities have gone to 25,000 per, and now they're
- experiencing 28. So it's one of those we just carefully have to watch. I was asking where we stood year
- to date already, and we don't have that information yet.
- but I think because it's a little early, but after February, we're gonna wanna know here to date how
- we're doing. Okay. I'll go to the auditor and then I'll circle back to Councilor Hawk. I just wanted
- to correct the number I mentioned. Michelle was able to pull it up faster than I can get logged in here.
- It's about 3.9 million, so I was definitely off. Thank you. That's a lot. Okay, Councilor Hawk. Yes,
- I think one of the,
- things that the council did was we reduced the levies for the other levy control funds that we have
- to really kind of think of as all being general fund because if you we have to cover some of these other
- funds too and when we were doing that I think it was clear we had to make up that we had to put it back
- you know and we had to put it back
- It cannot stay where we put it. And of course, it has to stay that way for a year because you can't
- move money back and forth during the year. But that means that our levy growth will not be realized
- in the general fund to the extent that you might think it would be. And I'm not sure we know the levy
- growth number.
- Did they tell? We don't know that number yet as well, do we? He levy for for 2026 in the general fund.
- Well, I'm talking about for for. I'm already thinking about 2027. We know what it was absolutely not.
- Yeah, you you. I do know because we put together this comparison of your budget for January, January
- 7th of 2026.
- and the general funds levy and that was one cautionary note I wanted to make on the 1.7 million for
- the general fund is yes that levy went up 6.2 million okay so all points bulletin to you that 52 million
- includes that and you did have a migration from 15 reassessment and a couple other funds
- that you will have to make up more than likely in 27 or 28. Another one was aviation. And so that was,
- did you give them a copy of our document that we put together for the comparison? I believe Ms. Sheldon,
- I think it went directly to her. Okay, because that's what we put together and sent out early in the
- year to confirm your budget. And that on the very back page 10 of that, it shows the migration of the dollars.
- of your maximum levy. Keep up the great questions. I'm ready. Anybody else have any questions so far?
- I just wanted to note that I think there was a consensus that we're aware that we're going to have to
- shift some levy back. However, I think
- We were trying to supplement the general fund to support as much as necessary and that's why we also
- have that navigation of some expenses to the edit fund because we simply can't continue and support
- all of our services with less so One thing that's not on here is the special purpose lit that we had
- reduced but we likely should
- increase back now because we were spending it down a little bit. And so I just wanted to throw that
- out there. Since we've got the list of let's, it does seem like it might be worth remembering that.
- That's for YSB. Yeah, the Chief and I'll remember that towards the end of budget season because they
- were very concerned about needing to put that back next year or which is this year. Yeah.
- So yeah, I believe the consensus was, I might not be remembering this correctly, but I thought the council
- preferred to wait until we establish all those rights in 27. But we can do that, you know, this year,
- next year. We just need to watch it very carefully. I think that was the general thing. So yeah. Okay.
- Yes, Councillor Decker. I was just going to say that.
- When we did that, we promised that we, to our judicial partners, that we would watch that vehemently.
- And even when the concerns came up that we might not remedy that sooner, we promised again. And so that
- cannot get lost off that radar because that is a winning system and nobody wants to break a car engine
- that is running really well.
- and I see a lot of nodding heads from some of our judicial friends that seem to agree with me. Yes,
- Councillor Wilks. I have a naive question. Is there any logic, I believe I'm saying this out loud, but
- is there any logic to putting that lit back up in place this year, knowing that we are
- benefiting from some reductions and by we, I mean the glorious grand we of everybody from reductions
- in property tax and we're headed toward likely increases in the future and maybe this eases us in the
- future of income tax. Does that make sense? So it makes total sense to me
- And that's why each of the councils that I work with, we say, let's review the lit rates each and every
- year, even though, you know, SB, remember SB2 is coming to a theater near you and SB2 it won't be, but
- I call it that, right? And so each and every year, and I think right on our schedule here, we should
- say, we're gonna review that come June or July.
- And I think it's, I call it lit migration. And you should look at how you're migrating lit versus what
- you're migrating on property taxes and set the strategy. So each and every year, so that makes total
- sense to me, whether you change it or not, that's one thing, but review it and set your course.
- And oh, by the way, you gotta do it really early because the DLGF has been awful busy
- And it has taken awful long time to review your ordinances or your resolutions and they get the right
- to comment on it. And sometimes they take up 90 days. You always want to start early. Okay. Thank you.
- And Mr. Gregory. Thank you. I completely agree with Councillor Wilts and I think our justice partners
- would feel at ease if we could take care of that this year if the council does choose to do so.
- And I did know about it, by the way. I consciously didn't put it on the sheet. I just want to comment
- that the reason we did what we did was that the cash balance was much higher than what was needed for
- the youth services and yet we were looking at trying to put together
- dollars out of that jail tax. We had not taken that up to as far as the jail tax could go. We bumped
- that up a little bit and reduced the YSB a little bit. But we promised that we would look at their cash
- balances and
- I'm not saying we have to return the full rate because that rate is bringing in more than what is needed.
- But certainly look at their cash balance and making sure they are whole and that we have not done anything
- to jeopardize their position. But every time you talk about percent in the rate,
- We really need to look at what does that mean? What kind of revenue does that mean you're bringing in?
- Because that's really what we're talking about. So whether or not you would reduce that jail rate again
- and put it over into YSB, because that's what we did. We moved it there. Will we reduce it and move
- it back? Or will we actually put a new additional rate on the people of this county?
- And I do have the 1231 results. It is 4.2 million in special purpose lit 1114. 4.2. What was that number?
- I'm sorry, 4.2. 4.2. Thank you. 4256697. I have one other page.
- That staff said thought I should discuss tonight and this is the top part looks should look kind of
- familiar to you because the top part is exactly what I covered within our sustainability and when we
- kind of gave the update on SB one and as you know, current law is
- And 27 you will review for 28 your introduction of your new county lit rate. What do I firmly believe?
- I firmly believe that will become 28 review for 29 implementation. And I would say stay tuned for further
- developments on that even. So as you know, we put in a break even and I believe
- Breeze number also verified it, that we were a break even of .93. So that's what you see next door to
- it, which says estimated minimum future lit. So meaning you would need 93 basis points out of the 120
- basis points to break even on the rest would be your option.
- Okay now obviously then what we've done now in the second part of this page is we've sat down and said
- let's talk about where we sit if we were to do any type of financing for a new project going forward
- using lit. If you look under the column that says county share 2026 certified lit
- These are the LITs that you have exclusive again of the special purpose. So that totals up the 42,951.
- Currently, you see right below that 10,000,737. Right now in SB1, and you remember this from last year,
- you should,
- that there is a limit of being able to obligate over and above 25%. You can only use up to 25% for any
- debt payment. So what Jeff asked me to do was estimate a bond size based upon that, and that is 135
- million. Significantly different, obviously, than the numbers that we had in the past.
- Now, we also said, but that's one issue. If you circle that one, that's one issue in SB1. Now there's
- also a practicality issue. And that is if you go to the far right-hand section, you will see what we've
- done is we've said, okay, the estimated available lit for debt service after paying
- budgetary expenses for 2026 means that really unobligated, we've got about 11,000,732. Again, that could
- be plus or minus depending on how you do additional appropriations and things like that. And we also
- added in obviously the negative 1,000,002. It means that we have to have when you do a revenue bond,
- you know, you have to have 125 coverage.
- You have to have $125 coming in for every $100 of debt service. You've heard me talk about that last
- year. And so what we do is basically use 80% and we say $9.3 million is what you would have available
- from leftover or remaining funds on an annual basis. It could be less than that as time goes on, but
- that would estimate at about $117 million bond issue.
- that's the one that we're truly at we believe okay unless you made some significant changes in the 26
- budget or 27 budget obviously notice i said 27 budget then that might change that 11 million fairly
- significantly but that's kind of trying to boil down where we are on sb1
- requirement of not going over 25 basis or 25 percent and of your annual lit revenue and then also playing
- it off on how does it format how's it look with the 26 budget and what would be a left left available
- for debt service assuming no changes in rates of any kind obviously okay and so that's the two numbers that
- We wanted to point out on where we are today, far from, like I said, where we were in the past, because
- that was you enacting up to the max and other things. Questions on that? I'll go to Councillor Iverson
- and then Henry next.
- So for those of you watching, this is exactly why I think this council unanimously and bipartisanly
- took a vote at the end of 2025 when we were looking at a facility to the size of 225 million dollars.
- And tonight, I think we have the clearest enumeration of why that was the right decision. I mean, these
- numbers are staggeringly smaller.
- than the $225 million that we were asked to be spending. So not only appreciate the county share certified
- lit, but also that third column, the estimated lit available for debt service. This helps put a very
- fine point on what we are allowed to do
- given what our friends in Indianapolis have passed in Senate Enrolled Act 1. So I really appreciate
- this analysis. We've been looking for this for a while, and I'm glad we finally have it. Good point.
- Thank you. Peter just stole all my words. I will ask a question, because I completely agree with all
- of that. We had great foresight up here, and I think it just showed for the community. I guess my question is on the
- Estimated bond size and the debt service. So that's all bonds for the county not a particular project,
- right? So if we have It is a particular project. Okay, that's new project. So that's not inclusive of
- other bonds. All right No, sir No, that that's really the clarifying question. I had see Peter said
- it better. Anyway, thanks keep in mind the ones that we
- have our outstanding or majority of them are either redevelopment and or general obligation bonds. And
- I would make the note that neither that the 135 nor the 117 included any type of cash balance that remains
- in edit remains in jail lit or in the band capital. I didn't we would just add those two
- A total project cost, but not a total debt service. Well, then the follow up there is that those additional
- funds could be used for other projects in the county. Those are those are that's obviously so so I don't
- want to give the impression that this new number plus those
- Lits would equal some larger project that we would given just the fact we had a conversation about the
- 1.7 million in revenue for the general fund We may need those other lits to be able to do additional
- appropriations So I appreciate that this one's about a specific project, but understand that those other
- available lits We may be using for other things. Yeah Yes, councillor Hawk Yes, we won't know until
- the people of the state says
- They're through and this is where we set with the changes that they're making but one of the changes
- was that they would have Sort of a committee set up with a representative of the county and a representative
- of the Municipality so there would be one from the city one from town of Ellensville maybe one from
- Steinsville. I don't know. But anyway, to decide how to split up the revenue that's coming in from lead
- now. And so I think it's important that we recognize that that what we're trying to get in the legislation,
- I hope it got in there, that it is a we it's up to the county council to call that meeting. And it is
- a may and not a shall.
- and that meeting where they decide to have to split up the revenue, it is merely a suggestion. It is
- still up to the county council. Now, if that goes through and ends up being that way, this is why we
- need to look at our future and know that we're not rolling here in the money and the city needs to recognize
- that as well and the townships
- Bloomington Transportation, et cetera, because they might have a feeling of the county is setting on
- a lot of money. And we have to do things that they don't have to do. And this whole justice system is
- not inexpensive. And I just want to throw that in there, because I know we've got a lot of people that's
- watching or is following along that really are hoping that city
- will be able to use a part of our revenue. And I think that's going to be difficult to do. Yes, Councillor
- Decker. Thank you very much. Remind me again, I know you said at the start, when do you think the General
- Assembly is roughly done for this time? Hopefully this week. If someone answered it, they'll be done
- when they do the last vote. And the last vote, I think, has to occur by the end of this week. Yeah,
- the 27th. Well, I guess the reason I ask that is they have some wiggle room there, right, to stick around
- longer. They also have wiggle room if the governor and I believe the leaders of the chambers want it
- to come back in throughout. And the reason I point that out is
- Sometimes I've noticed there's a little bit of euphoria around, well, this bill didn't move forward,
- and I think they're roughly done by this time. But if they want, they can insert language anywhere,
- anyhow, anytime, any place, and sometimes not even known to the public for better or worse,
- right or wrong. And so I am patient and curious when we will know
- what we're dealing with and what we're not dealing with and whether they're coming back or not. I mean,
- I saw, I know it's not related to this exactly, but I saw some jubilation yesterday that early voting
- hours would stay at 28 days versus 16, but friends, you don't know that until they're done and they're home.
- You don't know Jack until they're done in their home. And one of the things that I was, as I was listening
- to just our comments here that I get very worried about is there's someone in Steinsville that will
- need us to do something soon. And I'm not sure we know fully what that law is going to look like, how
- that's going to be, or what gets worked out in some of the meetings that Councilor Hawks in, but they
- may need that may to be a really willing
- set of participants on this end, but not only that for that, but for public transportation and fire
- protection and townships if they exist or whatever form they exist in. And that is a lot. I mean, and
- I'll even hazard this to counselors. I have never before in this role thought budgetarily wise around
- our school districts, but I think every
- counselor up here has had some sort of conversation with one of our school districts because they also
- are in a pickle and Kids got to get educated and you can't wave the flag on that So I throw it all out
- there and that we're dealing with a gel and bonding and changes and a pause or not a pause or what have
- you but this our years ahead and when I say our I mean everybody and
- beyond these walls out in these subdivisions of government are gonna be different and very difficult
- or even continuously changing. I do appreciate the clarity on your numbers as always and the passion
- by which you bring them to us because you can tell you love what you do and that helps us to figure
- out what we have to do. So thank you. I just, you know, once they quit moving the cheese, I love that.
- I love that.
- Then we'll know where the cheese is. We probably won't know flavors of the cheese until we get a little
- further down the road, but stay tuned. Not all cheese is good too, right? OK, are there any other questions
- or comments for Mr Garrett says? If that's my prepared, yeah, I was gonna say, do you have any final?
- Nope, that's my prepared comments. We will like aside.
- the sustainability we will kind of what we do want to wait until we see where the cheese lands and to
- a certain degree and be able to put that into 28 29 and 30. But you've got a lot of work coming on the
- 27 budget. So I like to say start now. Yes, counselor. Yes, I think
- We really don't know what our revenue is going to be this year. In 2026, we know that some of the estimates
- was going to be a $300 reduction on all properties. We'll know it's not. It's 300, depending on the
- price tag, or 10%, whichever is less. So we don't know what's going to happen with that. But there's
- also a whole lot of credits out there. And remember, there's a
- big difference between a deduction and a credit because a credit means it's straight off of the bottom.
- Revenue, you know, good for the taxpayer. They're not going to pay it, but it also means less revenue
- coming into the county. And they didn't even have to apply for this if they were already had a homestead
- or if they were
- already had the over 65. There are a lot of things that would just be automatically adjusted. And so
- we I think it's really difficult to judge what we think our revenue is going to be for this year.
- I mean, we'll. I know Miss Gregory had her hand raised and then I'll come back to Councilor Iverson.
- Thank you. I'm sure it does. I just want to confirm, the estimated minimum future lit necessary, does
- that include like expense increase projections and so forth? Oh, heck no. OK. So that's your room between
- 93 basis points and 120. OK. So then, I mean. It wasn't in yours, I don't believe. And it definitely
- is not in ours. Right. OK. So then, with that in mind, I mean, we're going to have to be a lot closer
- to that 1.2. Absolutely.
- So thank you for coming. We always learn a lot when you come here. We really appreciate the report that
- you sent in January. That was really helpful to prepare for this. And I want to I think in closing,
- just note that on the second sheet that we talked about, the twenty twenty six budget summary, ninety
- six point seven percent, that's greater than ninety five percent of our general fund revenues are already budgeted.
- We have such little wiggle room for additional appropriations, folks. There's just such little wiggle
- room. So when we're up here saying we need to figure out with our department heads how we're going to
- work with the funds that we have, this is a really fine way of putting it that 96.7% of all of our revenues,
- at least the estimated revenues are budgeted. There's not a lot of wiggle room this year.
- And just one quick comment on that. Remember, that contained a pretty strong interest income. And I
- still really believe that there may be a tide that will turn midyear this year. And I know everybody's
- doing well, and we've got a strong balance. But that rate of interest may go down. If not, it will go
- down in 27. All right.
- Keep looking at our belts and see how tight we can make them. Yeah. Yes, Mr. Gregory. One final comment.
- I am going to work with the treasurer, get all of the financial reports from her, the investment reports,
- and send them to FSG. So we have that piece as well. Yeah, and I think it's something we ought to update
- council each and every month on year to date earned interest income along with year to date expense
- on insurance. Yeah.
- very key ingredients. Yeah, yes. We provide a revenue report monthly and so that's part of that as well.
- Yeah and one final thing is I really appreciate this third page bringing it home for us when we think
- of our specific task that we have at hand. How much we have
- like our budget versus our actuals. So that that's a lot of food for thought for some of the things
- that we might have to do this evening. So I appreciate that. So thank you very much. Thank you. And
- good evening. Yes. Any other questions? No. Yes. You get to have some daylight back. Thank you.
- All right. Next up, council, we are getting into the county council business. And first up, we'll start
- with item A, which is from courts.
- Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the court's request to be exempt from
- the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0225 County General Courts, a part-time hourly
- public service coordinator position. Second. Okay, and I see that we have Judge Seekoff and Ms.
- Abraham here. Welcome. Thank you.
- And we had about a month ago, a little over a month ago, a vacancy in our office. So we've done our
- due diligence to not fund it, not do anything with it, which required my staff to basically have been
- taking shifts, myself included. I was there almost all day to day at the front desk to do it. Because
- some of the jobs that we have, though,
- We have a jury trial. My other person has to do the jury trial. So it's kind of been a little hindrance
- on us. So trying to find a workaround that I'm asking if we can maybe get a part-time position to help
- out. I have the money in my part-time so it wouldn't be any additional funding.
- for that. I do know I have a couple of people that have recently retired. One of them is interested
- in doing it, which would be easy for the committee chair. We would know everything would be minimal
- training. So, and like I said, only do six days, or six days, I'm sorry, six hours a day, three days
- a week. So, excuse me, very, very minimal. So that's why we're asking you to ease a little burden of
- my staff and myself to make sure that position and all of those duties get covered. Okay. Thank you for that.
- This is also a prime example of what counselor Everson was saying earlier about how we have to figure
- out how departments are working. I think in prepping for our meeting for this evening, you just said
- you had it vacant for a month? Yes, I think the second week in January, I believe. You were able to
- get us that fiscal impact of how much for that time frame that position remain vacant? Right.
- I think Tim has said before that to her. Right. And I think we got it. We got it. And this was full-time
- originally. It was a full-time position. So these are things that I think personally, myself, I'd like
- to hear when we have people coming forth because you're obviously trying to say and state your case
- of why you need this position, but you were able to, one,
- look at how long that vacancy was able to. Two, we heard how everybody in office, including yourself,
- are taking turns to figure out how you can manage that. And three, taking that from full time to part
- time. And so that's the embodiment of trying to partner and figure out how we can do this and how to
- work. So I just want to say,
- Thank you for setting the bar for how these things should be going. Today was a little rough. I have
- two people down out of five. Of course. One is getting ready for a conference this Friday. Another one
- was getting ready for a jury, which left me. So I was the one at the front desk, so some stuff I could
- not do at the front. So it's sitting. I'll try and tackle that tomorrow. Well, we appreciate that. And
- thank you very much for that. All right. Any questions from counsel? Yes. Counselor Hawk. Yes.
- We know at the end of this year, one of the courts will no longer be. And so we have to look at what
- that percent of reduction needs to come from the court's budgets, because we can't just make up the
- difference. If you've been paying attention to what we were told, we just can't. So I'm just wondering,
- are you watching
- people who are still employed in that court that will be going away for opportunities for them to move
- to another slot someplace so that they don't have to just be laid off. Well, actually, we're doing that
- right now. Our one judge did lose a court order, and she's the one that might be doing this part-time
- one. And with that being in Judge Haunton's, we are not filling that because obviously we can't say
- you're hired, but in nine months
- you're fired again. So we are not filling that spot. We had another one that also retired into different
- judges. So what we're going to do is the other court reporter from Judge Haughton is going to take over
- to fill that vacancy at the end of the year in Judge Fawcett. So we will not need to hire any new ones.
- So we already got those two that were leaving vacant the rest of this year. And then you'll get another
- one because our official court reporter is retired in the year, which is for Judge Haughton.
- No one's going to lose a job. So that's the nice thing. A question. So the part-time person then would
- no longer receive insurance or any benefits? Correct. Yes? No? She will not receive any benefits at
- all. She's already doing her insurance right now because she retired at the end of December. She already
- has her own insurance. All right. Are there any other questions? Yes. Councillor Decker.
- the title here, is this the role that years ago, Pat Haley, when she left office, that she kind of fulfilled
- out there, kind of helping people? That's what she did, yes. That's one I already have a part time for
- that spot. But yes, Pat Haley was a different one, but she's already, that was a part time one that
- now Glenda Campbell fills in downstairs at the front desk. This is actually full time that's upstairs
- in our office in court services. Gotcha, gotcha. I actually personally experienced kind of what that
- role does in
- in my private life as I was kind of entering that building. And for a lot of people, the intimidation
- in there on am I doing the right thing? Am I in trouble? Am I blah, blah, blah, you know, and navigating
- is a lot. So I kind of understand that. I also appreciate managing this around as you have described
- well. I think sometimes people outside don't understand that on a public office, you can't just say,
- well, we're a little low on this. We're just going to close the door.
- on this and everybody's just not here. I mean, you can do that. You're not supposed to because the public
- is paying for that. And so working through the time period is appreciated. Are there any other questions?
- Yes, counselor. I think what we're going to see is we're going to see departments throughout county
- government saying we're really missing this slot.
- we really need that slot filled in because it's difficult to make a, you know, and try to figure out
- how to make it work. And I said to another department head not long ago, that's your job, figure out
- how to make it work. Our job is to try to make sure we're not spending money that is going to force
- us to do more draconian cuts than what we want to do. And so,
- I won't be supporting this because I just think people need to take turns filling that, you know, go
- sit at that desk or do whatever, make it work. Don't ask us to come to you and say which one of your
- people we can no longer support. We need to do it through attrition. It sounds easier when we just say,
- let's do it through attrition. It's a lot harder when they come and say, no, I really need this lot filled.
- So, okay. All right, anybody else? Yes, Councilor Woods. To that same point, I just wanted to indicate
- that I will support this hire based on the efforts that have been made thus far.
- taking something down to part time is not just reducing hours as Councillor Hock pointed out, it's the
- benefits as well. So this is, I think, and I will support this higher, because I think it's been well
- managed. Thank you.
- Any other questions or comments for counsel on this item? All right, and seeing none, we'll open it
- up to public comment. If you have public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here,
- or you can raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor
- Wilts? Yes. Councilor Haas? No. Councilor Henry?
- Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Motion passed six to
- one majority. Right next up item B. Council I move to approve the court's request and fund 1213-0000
- CASA-GAL grant an additional appropriation of $1,500 in the services category. Second.
- Right. And you mentioned you were coming back because you had some good news and so grants today. So
- this is great. Yeah. Costs inform me that they got another fifteen hundred dollars on their pass through
- grant. So it's already been received in the auditor's office. So I'm just here to ask that we can get
- appropriated so we can get them their money. All right. Looking to council colleagues to see if anybody
- has any questions or comments on that. Of course congratulations on that.
- All right, and seeing none, we'll go to public comment. If you have public comment, you can raise your
- hand via Teams or come here to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, may we please have a roll
- call vote? Yes. Sir, Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes.
- Yes, sir. Hawk. Yes motion passes unanimous. All right. Next up is item C Excuse me council. I move
- to approve the court's request and fund 91 13-000 Family Court grant additional appropriations of $83,000
- in the services category All right
- This year, once again, we were lucky enough to get a family court grant, and we received $83,000 forward.
- And I'm here to get it appropriated. And Judge Stafford is one who monitors that grant, so she has come
- to speak on it. All right.
- What do you have to say, Ms. Stafford, or Judge Stafford? Excuse me. That's all good. As long as it's
- not a swear word, I'll answer it anyway. That's all good. That's what I tell people who come into court.
- They're like, ma'am, sir, and I'm like, it's all good. No offense taken. Judge Stafford, yes?
- Thank you. I am proud to say that we are the largest recipient of this type of grant in the state. We
- are also one of the longest term grant recipients of this type of grant in the state. You all have heard
- me say this before, so I'm going to keep it as brief as possible. You know that when people come to court for
- when they are accused of a crime, that they have a right to appointment of counsel, that they have access
- to probation officers. We don't have that in civil or family court. And this grant allows us to have
- an attorney available to give advice only, not representation, not going to court with them, not going
- to mediation with them, two afternoons a month for low-income people only on family cases. And I will
- tell you, it's not enough.
- but it helps and we're so grateful for the money. This grant actually helps not just Monroe County,
- but Green, Lawrence, Owen, and Sullivan. And we are the financial manager of those funds. I monitor
- and with the help of Lisa Abraham and Melissa in the court services office, we monitor the time sheets,
- the mileage, we make sure everything is perfect before we do their monthly,
- outputs and reimbursements and we have asked and gotten great cooperation from Pro Bono Indiana, used
- to be known as District 10 who does the legal advice to make sure that they're tracking what kinds of
- advice they're giving and how they're doing it and we're trying to really build a good partnership with
- them. So we're always appreciative of that and as not just a department but of course a separate and
- co-equal branch of government we appreciate the chance to receive this grant and move forward with it.
- Thank you.
- Thank you. And congratulations again. Any questions or comments for Council and Judge Stafford? I think
- Councilor Hawk might have a question for you. Congratulations again. I see that the balance in February
- 20th is seven thousand seven thirty five. So your grant is in the amount of eighty three. And so
- I don't know how much of that even though it says it's a balance it might already be appropriated to
- my understand is that some of it was for December output I don't know if it had already gone through
- yet and we generally in the past have rolled that over and they had a
- of staff about a year and a half ago to two years ago that caused them to get behind on their request
- to have that grant spent out. And we worked with them very closely to make sure that they were increasing
- their hours and using the money that was funded, because we don't want to be in a position of losing
- those funds. Right. I just wanted to know where you stood on that $7,000. So I'm sure everybody's watching
- it. Oh, absolutely. Kim, I will look it up. I think that paid some of the January bill, because I don't
- think there's enough right now.
- We received the January bill, but we're holding it because there's not enough to pay it until this gets
- appropriated. And we've told them that. We said, you'll get it after I get to counsel today. Don't want
- to lose the penny of it, because if you don't spend it by the time the time's up, you could not agree
- more. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Yes. I just was going to offer a commentary, Judge,
- and we say this a lot, but we're grateful for any
- let alone our judicial branch going after grants to do things that are extremely beneficial to folks
- that we otherwise financially probably could not do for ourselves. And we have a long track record,
- a lot of folks even sitting out there in the audience that go after those and make that public service
- component more complete for us. And I appreciate very much the court doing that, maintaining that. And
- for taxpayers, that means that these fine folks are taking
- additional time their own time to really chase things down out there in the world state federal. To
- bring those dollars here versus somewhere else and that saves for us and it serves for us so thank you
- so much. Yes counselor vital and I just want to say how much I truly appreciate the impact it has on families.
- Thank you. It really does. And frankly, it makes my job easier from a very selfish perspective when
- someone could get legal advice on what they should file and where they can file it and what they can
- do. It helps every other case move more quickly. All right. And seeing no other questions or comments
- from counsel, we'll move on to public comment. So if there's public comment on this item, you can come
- forward to the lectern here or raise your hand via teams.
- And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor
- Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Beidle? Yes. Councilor Locke? Yes. Councilor Williams?
- Yes. Motion passed. Anonymous. Thank you. Next up is item D.
- Council I move to approve the court's request and fund 9136-0000 court reform grant. An additional
- appropriation of $12,453 in the services category. Second. All right. Okay, this court reform grant
- is was up this year for a technology and what we did three years ago, we did a grant and we're able
- to purchase with the grant money digital signage in our
- justice building we have two downstairs and one upstairs and it gave us a three-year maintenance agreement
- well that is up as of June of this year so we thought well let's try again so we tried and this will
- cover then the next three years of the maintenance so that we can continue to use our digital signage
- without having to cost the county anything so I'm asking this be appropriated and that pay
- for our maintenance for the next three years congratulations again thank you very much all right any
- questions or comments from council on this item
- and seeing none, we'll go to public comment. Please come forward to the election here, raise your hand
- via Teams. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor
- Cross? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hogg? Yes. Councillor Wilts?
- Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes.
- Passes unanimous. All right, thank you very much. All right, we are done with courts and now we are
- moving on to item E, which is from the probation department. Council, I move to open for discussion
- and possible approval of the probation's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed
- to hire and fund 9142-0000 Community Corrections Grant, account line 11493, legal secretary slash receptionist.
- And joining us at the table again is Judge DeKoff and Ms. Linda Brady, our chief office. Thank you.
- Good evening, county council. I want to give you a brief update about staffing in the probation department.
- I've recently met with a couple of county counselors and they've asked me about our staffing levels.
- and that sort of thing. So just to update you, before COVID, the pandemic, the staff turnover was very
- low. For probation officers, we averaged about two probation officers a year leaving the department.
- We did have a high turnover rate with our community corrections field officers, and any of you who've
- gotten emails from me know that. Usually, I would lose about four officers a year out of a total of eight.
- that staff. So that has traditionally been a high turnover position. But since the COVID pandemic, we've
- had unprecedented turnover with all levels except for support staff. So since 2020, the only time we
- have had full staff in 2024, we had three weeks for the whole year of 2024 with a full staff. And then
- in 2025, we went three months, and that's been our record since COVID.
- So we continue to have that as an issue. Prior to the hiring freeze, we employed 71 full-time employees
- plus 16 part-time employees. And you all have our organizational chart. I had sent that through email.
- So hopefully you have that. So at this time, to let you know, we have 18 staff vacancies in the probation
- department. Can I please repeat that? 18. We have five full-time positions that are vacant.
- One being the legal secretary, receptionist, two probation officers, two community corrections field
- officers. We have 13 part-time positions that are vacant. 12 were probation officer assistants and one
- probation officer that's a part-time is vacant. So again, 18 total. Also, we have two community corrections
- field officers who've already advised us they will be leaving employment either in the next couple of
- weeks or the next couple of months.
- But one of them is up for a job, and we don't know the date he's going to be leaving us. The other,
- as soon as she's applying for other jobs, and if she gets one, she's out. And no matter what, she's
- leaving by May because her lease expires. So we're going to have a couple more very soon. So what I'm
- not here to do is to ask to fill 18 positions. OK. I'm here to ask to fill one position.
- the most crucial position, which is our Community Corrections Legal Secretary position. In late 2025,
- when she resigned, our department, as you probably know, we have two separate offices, so we have a
- receptionist in each of our offices. Since the person who left the position, we've been dividing up the
- sitting at the receptionist's desk as much as we can with some part-time staff, but because we have
- so many part-time vacancies, we're down to only two probation officer assistants in the community corrections
- office, one male and one female, and they spend all of their time that they're allowed to work as part-timers
- collecting urine for the department for our drug testing program. And so at this
- At this point, we've been assigning some of those duties, other receptionist duties, to our
- other receptionist in the other office. However, she is going on maternity leave in about a month. So
- we have waited as long as we possibly can to fill this position. So we're here to ask to be able to
- refill. The position is not funded by county general. It's funded by the community corrections grant
- and community corrections user fees.
- We've already got it budgeted for the year. And I noticed that another department came up and you asked
- how many calls the receptionist answered. And in addition to the people walking in the office, we did
- actually ask TSD to run a report for us. And our main office receptionist gets about 150 phone calls
- a day on average. And at Community Corrections, we get about 108 calls a day on average. And that plus
- the walk-in.
- clientele, but that's what I got from technical services. So just wanted to give you something that
- you had asked another department for. And so I'm asking for you to please consider approving this. Happy
- to answer any questions. All right. Thank you for that. And you said this was vacant since late of 2020.
- She resigned at the end of 2025. Then she had to be paid out for benefits and that sort of thing.
- Okay, I'm gonna start over here with council member questions, and I'll go to Councilor Becker. Thank
- you for the context, and you're always good about sending us the vacancy list and all that when I was
- your liaison. I remember that. One question I have for you, and I should know this, but jog my memory.
- On these 18 staff vacancies, which probably seems high to a lot of folks, especially yourself and that
- department, those are in our budget now, but are sitting vacant.
- Yes. It's been a while since I've been your liaison, but is that 18 number higher than normal, average
- on normal? No, way higher. I mean, the probation officer assistants who run our drug testing and day
- reporting program, we cut way back on that because they've been paid out primarily out of community
- corrections user fees. And our more recent liaisons know we have been trying like crazy to keep that fund
- in the black. That's why we haven't refilled that. We've tried reassigning and the judge has approved
- this. We've reassigned some of those drug testing duties to our field officers. That is not what they
- signed up for when they became field officers, but that's what they're doing. Part of the time, not
- all of the time, but part of the time. Now we're starting to lose them and have the two vacancies out
- of the positions and two more coming up.
- We're just, it's stretched as about as thin as it can get. Let's see if anybody else has any questions.
- Okay. I'll take it back over here. Councillor Hawk. Yes. Can you remind us again, uh, the reduction
- you saw, uh, was it 10% reduction in revenue for this grant fund? Well, what was the reduction? You
- said that you said that the state had
- Reduced the amount of support for this program. Let this come what? This program is the Community Corrections
- program and the Community Corrections program did not get reduced. It was flatlined This year it's been
- flatlined is actually Reduction. Well, it's right. It's it's been flatlined for six years right, right,
- right, so This is this is
- Regretfully, this is a program that's going to have to not be able to provide the services that you
- had in the past. It's just like for our funds, when we see a reduction in the revenue coming in, we
- can't do what we would like to do in the past. I just wanted to ask a question. I thought sure, I heard
- you say a 10% reduction.
- Or maybe that's in some meeting. As far as the 10 percent, you have a good memory, Marty. The state
- reduced the community corrections budget line by 10 percent. So the community corrections grants in
- the state budget was reduced by 10 percent this last. So that's a good good. I knew I wasn't making
- that 10 percent. That was in the state budget. But what happened to us, though, was just a flatlining.
- at this point. And you may also make another good point about if there's gonna be a reduction because
- this is a system, the program isn't just, we don't just operate in a vacuum. We take people who otherwise
- would be serving their time in jail, serving time on community corrections. So I don't know if you wanna
- say anything about that. I would like to add that the group that I work with from the state have been
- advocating
- to not reduce the funds coming into there. Many of the counties rely heavily having to do with,
- you know, a work release using these programs or so forth. And so it's heavily relied upon in the counties.
- And so they're all having to reduce their staff and their budgets. And that's what's going to happen
- throughout the state.
- I didn't see a change this year of putting that money back in, did you? Well, this isn't a budget year,
- but I did watch, there was a state JRAC meeting, which is called the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council,
- and it's run by Justice Goff, and I did watch it, it was on Friday, and every
- Entity that was around the table was upset about this because it's affecting every county and it's affecting
- sheriffs is affecting community corrections work really everything across the state and justice golf
- actually is he's talked about getting a committee together to try to educate the legislature that here's
- you did this and here's the impact and to try to get ready for the next budget session.
- Any other questions or comments from council on this item? Councillor Wilts. First of all, that's a
- lot of phone calls. Yes, it is. I was not expecting you to say that. I know. I heard the clerk's office
- when they were up here saying that people call there for everything. People will call us what's the
- number of the Monroe County Public Library or you name it. That's a lot. They know our phone number.
- information that they need, whether it's for food pantries or treatment or I mean, there's just a lot
- of people calling. And plus we have around 1500 people under community supervision with our department.
- So if you think about that, that's a lot of people that are being supervised by our department. I just
- wanted to pick up on something you said, which is that your community corrections
- program doesn't operate in a vacuum, and in fact, if we were to cut back on that program, what we would
- in fact be doing is putting people into jail. Is that right? Did I interpret what you said? It would
- reduce the options that the judges have for community supervision if we don't have that program. I think
- that's important for us to think about.
- as we're looking at our options across the justice system, because pulling a string over here is going
- to impact something on the other end. And we have to remember that we are doing a lot, and by we,
- I mean you, but the county is doing a lot in
- the form of diversion. We have these programs that are working really well by all accounts. And so I
- guess I just wanted to make sure that that one little piece that you brought up was sort of laid out
- a little bit. I like that analogy of pulling the string because I just think of something unraveling
- and being a big deal. And as we
- consider a lot of things related to that. That is a very valid and good point. I appreciate that. Thanks,
- Counselor Wilts. Yes, Counselor Decker. Well, one thing, occasionally I hear things floated. I need
- to go look at legislation and see what's happening, but I hear about problem-solving courts, some targets
- on that. Judge, I don't want to speak for you, but I recall when you were talking about, I think recidivism numbers,
- The record that Problem Solving Courts is amazing in what that does, but also at the same time, it's
- keeping people from getting them out of our system. Am I right on that? We get them out of jail faster.
- We keep them out of jail. We get them into treatment. We work on them getting housing. We work on them
- getting jobs. We help them with their relationships.
- So definitely, and we partner a lot with treatment providers, with other people in the community. We
- have people working in various jobs through Center Stone has a program. I was just talking to, I was
- in mental health court today. I have one of my participants who could not get a job and has a very promising
- job opportunity. And we have heard
- that problem-solving courts funding is going to be reduced in the community corrections grants. We don't
- know that for sure, but that's what we've heard. And to go to Councilwoman Gwilts's point is I did a
- sentencing today. I put the person on home detention and then probation. Had there not been their alternative,
- alternative, but to incarcerate him. He had been out. He had been on home detention. He had been doing
- well because of pre-trial. We had been monitoring him, and he's very, very well. He came to court with
- a quiet day to speak for him.
- That's the goal. The goal is to get people out of the system, to keep people out of incarceration, to
- get them into treatment, to get them what they need. To do that, of course, we need to have programming
- and we need to have people who can assist them and supervise them. And based upon how we do things,
- we really work with individuals and work with
- what they need in their lives because the impact is great. If you don't have those alternatives to offer,
- then we have fewer choices as judges. And quite frankly, I like to have the choices to be able to help
- people's lives. Thank you. I appreciate that.
- Okay, if there are no other further questions or comments from Council, we'll move on to public comment.
- If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here or raise your hand
- via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Crossley?
- Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feigl? Yes. Councilor Hawley? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor
- Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Motion passes six to one. Great. We appreciate it. Thank you very
- much. Have a good night. Thank you. All right. Next up is item F for, or next up is the aviation department
- with item F.
- Council I move to approve the aviation department's request and fund 4801 dash zero zero zero zero aviation
- construction the creation of account line for one 104 vehicle purchase and Simultaneously transfer five
- thousand dollars from the services category to the capital category second Good evening
- At the January 27th council meeting, the department requested an additional appropriation to purchase
- an SRE dump truck for $5,000. The department has discovered this purchase must come from a capital asset
- line. Therefore, the department would like to set up 4801.41104 and do a transfer from 4801.30006. Pretty
- straightforward.
- Sounds like it, but maybe some folks got questions. So I will look to see if we got some questions for
- Mr. Labarty. And yes, Councillor Decker. I don't have any question about this, but I think the elephant
- in the room is what you have been through. And I'm sorry about that. But if you wanted to say anything
- about it, I would love to hear more about that than this transfer, which seems appropriate.
- Yeah, sure. Do you want to do it now or after my second item or whatever you want? Because you've had
- the week, not me. Yeah, let's let's let's talk about it here after item G. I figured I figured we were
- going to get to that tonight. OK, OK. All right. Yes, Council. Yes. As a reminder, this is coming from
- the construction fund aviation construction. So it is not a part of what we can use for other things
- that we're trying to save money for.
- Thank you. It's always great for that reminder for me. All right. And seeing no other questions or comments
- on this item, we will go to public comment. If there is public comment, you can come forward to the
- lectern here or raise your hand via teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote.
- This is a category transfer. You can do a voice. Oh, that's right. Thank you. So all those in favor
- of this item signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. All right. Motion carries.
- Next item, item G. Council, I move to approve the aviation department's request and fund 4801-0000 aviation
- construction, an additional appropriation of $35,000 in the services category. Second.
- Okay, what would you like to add to this item? The department seeking additional appropriation of $35,000
- and from the airport in the airport construction fund to make repairs on the aircraft rescue firefighting
- vehicle and two pieces of snow removal equipment Already this year we have a specialized airport rescue
- fire truck That's required by the FAA for some of the airlines the airliners that we
- we allowed to operate in and out of the airport, and it's had some significant
- to keep it operational. That piece of equipment is already at approximately $25,000 in repairs, and
- that is something that we have to keep operational. So when we know there's a problem with that truck,
- we have to just pick up the phone right away and make those phone calls, and it's not cheap. It's a
- specialized piece of equipment. So we're already at $25,000 there. And then for one of our runway snowblowers
- And one of our runway plows, we have some transmission issues and these are really large pieces of equipment.
- And so it takes another specialized vendor to service that stuff as well. So on top of the 25,000 that
- we need for the fire truck, we'd like to appropriate $10,000 to make sure we have enough funds to make
- a repair to the snow removal equipment that we have. Okay.
- Once again, this is the airport construction fund. Any questions from anybody? Yes, Councillor Hawke.
- Yeah. Is this the firetruck that I remember that's almost new? It seems like it's almost new. Time flies.
- It was 2019 and we had you in it in the Fourth of July parade, I believe. Right. It's a huge piece of
- equipment. Yeah. But you have to have it.
- That's correct. This isn't like you have a choice. That is correct. And what we are looking for, we're
- looking for another one on the used market, maybe 10, 15 years old that we can acquire secondhand, a
- pretty good rate to kind of have as a backup spare. Because when this thing goes down, if charters cannot
- operate out of Bloomington,
- So this is a must have. Any other questions or comments? Now would you like to speak on the interest
- in situation that happened last Thursday? Do you want to have a vote first? Let's vote on this first. OK.
- I feel like I can do, but I do, because I sit in the seat. So I will listen to my colleagues here, since
- everybody got all the things. And so I will move on to public comment. So if anybody has public comment
- on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here in the night. You remember, raise your hand via
- teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hogg? Yes.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- It came right over from Cave Creek Road. There's several homes over there that received extensive damage
- and just kind of traversed right across airport property northeast from, yeah, the Cave Creek Road.
- It went right over the runway, didn't cause any airfield runway damage.
- but did destroy some hangers on the east side of the property. We're still assessing all of the damage
- that occurred at the airport, but here's what we do know that we have damage. We have over 8,000 feet
- of wildlife fence destroyed, and this is a specialized fence too. It's not your typical chain link fence.
- It's eight feet tall, has barbed wire on top, but then it goes,
- The chain link goes three feet underground as well to stop animals from burrowing. We had contractors
- out the very next day affecting repairs on that, but that's gonna be ongoing for a very long time. We
- had about 2,000 feet of fence go out last year from those straight line winds that we had, and that
- took months. So for maybe approximately two miles of fence line, this is gonna be
- This is going to be a very long project just in the fence itself. We had two pole barns that were destroyed
- with everything that was inside of them. We had backup regulators for our airfield lighting system,
- spare signs and lights for the airfield, other maintenance related equipment. We're still trying to
- kind of get an inventory of everything that was in those pole barns.
- We have a very large hanger that received extensive damage. It's the old Indiana University corporate
- hanger that we now use for transient aircraft. It has some very big, very heavy accordion style doors
- that shut.
- laterally, they open and close, they're on a roller system. One of those panels was blown in and landed
- on a plane that suffered minor damage, but it's still being assessed as far as that plane's damage.
- But that whole hangar door assembly was compromised. We had engineers looking at it yesterday that specialize
- in that type of system.
- They basically said no one should really go in and out of that hanger until some emergency repairs can
- be affected. And then they also called out a structural engineer to make sure that this hanger is still
- square and is gonna be worth saving. So there are juries still out on that hanger. We had another smaller
- box style hanger and the trusses on that were all pushed back. So that is unsafe at the moment.
- Our tea hangers have minimal damage, but all of the gutters are destroyed on our tea hangers. And those
- tea hangers are kind of very long structures. We have three different rows of that. So it's actually
- a lot of gutter. We had several light poles, airport light poles destroyed, a significant amount of
- airfield and landside signage destroyed, missing, blown away.
- We had a bridge on the west side of the airport property that was actually picked up and thrown about
- 25 feet away from where it used to be. Multiple automated vehicle gates on our perimeter fence have
- been destroyed, and those are significantly expensive for just one vehicle gate. There's debris.
- All over the air, the airfield is actually good. The runways, taxiways, but once you get away from the
- airfield and into the farm fields that we have and the trees, there's just a tremendous amount of debris
- everywhere. We're gonna be cleaning that up for the rest of the year, if not longer. And we're kind
- of concerned a little bit too about the cleanup because it's sharp pieces of metal. And we've had offers
- from different organizations in the community to come
- clean up here and there, but we're a little bit concerned about accepting that help because of the potential
- hazards there could be with cuts and whatnot. There's a lot more damage also to other buildings all
- over the airport. I've just kind of given you a rundown of what the airport-owned property is. The BMG
- Jet Center received extensive damage. They had half of their roof blown off.
- And they were describing to me what the engineers told them is gonna be required to return that building
- to service. It's gonna be an extensive repair for them as well. The Cook FBO received some damage and
- they're looking at that themselves. So it's gonna be a pretty long process for us to kind of clean up
- and get all of our buildings and equipment
- Where where they should be so we plan on working with the assurance company started a claim with us
- on the day after The adjuster should be on site tomorrow at noon But we're looking at I think the wind
- damage for our for our policy is about a hundred and fifty thousand dollar deductible but
- We may come and ask later on for some other creative ideas on how we can affect the cleanup, because
- I've only got a staff of five folks out there, and we've got a 1,300 acre property with debris all over
- it, and we're still trying to put a game plan together. We're going to ask the insurance company if
- they will fund any kind of cleanup, but I don't think that they will.
- Like like a contractor to do debris cleanup because when we had the the issue last year with straight
- line winds I think this question was raised then and I don't think that they allowed anything for that
- But we're gonna ask again tomorrow But that's what I'm kind of worried about really is just getting
- all of the debris cleaned up to a reasonable amount right now There's still stuff all over the place
- But operationally
- there was only a three hour period where we didn't have lights. So the airfield itself never really
- closed. But from about 7.05 to about 10.30, we didn't have any lights for the airfield. But I can't
- say enough about how quickly REMC crews got out there and restored power to the airport. I was really
- surprised at how quickly the service was restored.
- And the air traffic controller who was in the tower that night, he took shelter for about 10, 15 minutes.
- And after that, he went back to the station. So the airport, really, a testament to the tower controllers
- and our maintenance crews and all of the private entities that are also at the airport. But operationally,
- we're doing pretty good. I appreciate you giving that.
- or report on that, I was able to see the videos and the footage from when the tornado actually hit and,
- of course, the damage done and the aftermath of it. So, yes, and I know I reached out to you and said,
- anything that we can do to try to figure this out, let's try to figure this out together. Yeah, I printed
- that email and I got it sitting on my desk.
- Thank you. I'll be brief.
- and didn't plan for it. It was a lot windier than I thought. You know, we'd be out there for a bit.
- But, yeah, thank you for retelling that. And I think the news here about the insurance piece and the
- IOU that's now framed in gold at your office that we'll be looking at later. Are we concerned about
- the debris continuing to blow on the field? Are you having to do extra, like, passes over the airfield
- to make sure that stuff's not keep blowing at this point? Yeah, we are. Okay. Yeah.
- I guess I'm not going to do emergency management on the fly, but I will call Jamie to see what could
- be done there. You're right to say that that's some specialized cleanup, and we don't want to create
- another emergency with people getting lacerations from trying to touch some of that stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
- I do want to say something about the community here. Friday morning was a busy, Friday was a busy day
- for us, and my inbox was blowing up with a lot of requests for information.
- And my and same thing for my phone, you know, text messages, it was blowing up all day. But I'll be
- honest, the majority of those communications were from different individuals or different organizations
- in the Monroe County community offering their support one way or another. You know, at that time, I
- still wasn't ready and we're still not ready to figure out how to accept all of that help and support. But
- It was very heartwarming and endearing and encouraging individuals and organizations that we the airport
- never really even interacts with and It was just it was constant and I was still getting you know, some
- of those messages over the weekend So that was that was really that was really awesome Counselor Hawk
- I'm sure this is not at the top of your
- thought processes right now. You've got so much on your plate. But at some point, someone will have
- to look at lots of revenue and how that will affect your budget. And I'm not asking you to think about
- it right now. You've got too much on your plate, but something we have to keep in mind that they count
- on this revenue for the lease and for the farm ground and for whatever. And so
- At some point in time, when you have time to think on that, then let us help you with what you need.
- Yes, we can. Yeah, we're broke. I heard all that. Yeah, I heard all that just a minute ago. But that
- is it is a conversation that we had today and it's a conversation we intend to have with the insurance
- company if we're insured against loss, because
- all of that debris, there's fiberglass insulation all over these ag fields that we have. And we haven't
- spoken to the farmer yet, but that's gonna be a significant issue. And so yeah, we are concerned about
- that loss of revenue. Yeah. Any other questions? Yes, Councilor Feidl. So speaking of insurance, and
- you mentioned about it maybe not covering some of the things that you wanted, is there
- a way to reevaluate your policy to see if you can change something that might help with any future claims
- like that? Yeah, that's a that's a that is something that we'll have to talk about. I think with the
- commissioners, you know, they do this kind of countywide policy that we get lumped into. And so I think
- if we negotiate any kind of changes, we would probably have to work with the commissioner's office there.
- I know that there's some other companies
- that specialize in airport insurance. Maybe that's something that we could look at, entertain. But sure,
- yeah, there's probably some things that we could tweak. I'm not advocating for one thing at this time,
- but I definitely think it might be something worth taking a look at later on down the road. Evaluate
- it and see what you might need for the future. Yes. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for Mr.
- Leverty on
- What just happened? Which is also really scary, because this is only February. And so to be serious,
- a tornado in February when we already not even one year out of what we had last May is a little concerning.
- So that's also something to keep in mind as we see the dollar signs float and as you cash in on your IOU.
- Yeah, we had a tornado on Thursday, and then on Saturday, we were out there monitoring the snow conditions
- at the airport. And the tornado that we had in May was visible from, you know, did everybody, was everybody
- able to see the pictures that we collected? Okay, and you saw the video. So that same camera also captured
- the tornado in May. We're thinking about changing the name of the airport.
- I don't know, something about Tornado Alley in the name or something. He monetized the videos somehow,
- maybe, I don't know. Yeah, we had Fox 59 out on Friday, and they were talking about, yeah, maybe we
- should put a camera on this tower also.
- Well, if you do that, let me know, because I want to be a storm chaser so bad. So seriously, but we
- appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Moving back into the agenda here,
- we will start with the clerk's office with item H.
- council I'm gonna be combining items H and I into one motion so I move to open for discussion and possible
- approval of the Kirk's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0001
- County General Clerk account line 12,000 chief deputy
- and simultaneously create account line one six eight zero zero transitional temporary training to allow
- for the crossover between the new and old chief deputy and amend the twenty twenty six salary ordinance
- to add the temporary transitional account line. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second and
- we have our county clerk, Nicole Brown and I see Mr. King has
- something to say. I wanted to interject real quick before Miss Brown spoke to advise counsel. I do think
- that statutorily the clerk is allowed to appoint a chief deputy and I wanted to make you aware of that
- statute. We appreciate that. Thank you. Yes. Clark Brown.
- Good evening, Madam President and members of the council. As somebody just pointed out, I don't have
- anything nearly as exciting as what you just listened to. My effort to help last week was I stayed out
- of the way so as not to impede cleanup efforts. But it may please the council to know that I am not
- here this evening to ask for additional appropriations.
- My former chief deputy left to pursue another professional avenue, and I am requesting to fill that
- position. The clerk's office touches every other justice building office and justice agency, including
- some of the members that you heard from this evening, as well as, of course, overseeing elections.
- being allowed to appoint a new chief deputy would offer me the opportunity to face the headwinds that
- are coming, not only with the courts and elections, but the move of election central to a new location,
- and I am respectfully requesting to fill that. Now, I'm not as good with the fiscal piece of it, so
- I asked Michelle if she would help me, but the county attorney explained it perfectly. We wanna be able
- to pay out the previous chief deputy
- but we understand we can't put people, two people in the same line and so this would allow me to do
- that without asking for additional appropriations. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, is there
- any questions or comments for the clerk? Yes, Councilor Decker. And Councilor, stop me if anything I
- say should not be something I say or she should answer or whatever, Ms. Turner King. Is the present occupant
- in there now and roughly for how long will they be in there? The current deputy, she has left, but we
- still have to pay out. And I got some guidance from HR and direction from Kim Shell as to how to ask
- for what to do with that money, but she is not in the world at this time. OK, and the reason I asked
- that just was I was trying to I was trying to figure out
- Are you looking for that? You're not looking for her to train the incoming person in that role? No,
- sir. Okay. Okay. That's what I missed. I see Ms. Turner King has something. To better clarify, I think
- what Clerk Brown is saying is that the current or the
- The chief deputy who is departing is not physically in the office every day, but she is using out some
- vacation time before she's officially ending employment with Monroe County. So she's still in the position,
- but not there. Yeah, right. And you want to fill it while she's got you. OK, all right. And to clarify
- that, we are not allowed to pay two people out of that same line. So our only remedy is to use the temporary
- training line.
- Yes, Councillor Hawke. Yes. What's the date when you think that the person who's leaving will be complete
- in all of her draw down of her benefit time or whatever she's? I'm not sure. That's what we need to
- know so that we know what day she's going to the new person would start.
- we're not paying two people out of the same line. It would be no different than if this chief deputy
- who's leaving was actually on vacation. There's no difference. Just, you know, if it's going to be another
- two weeks or a month, well, then that's how it just sits there and we'll pretend she's on vacation.
- I think there's anything in statute says that we have to replace immediately. And further, it says when
- we saw the fiscal, it said zero because they were going to transfer money up and down in that line.
- Well, you know,
- That is still a cost to the county because we don't, you know, every dime we spend out of each of those
- lines that we would not have to, that is money that goes in to operate next year. So are we looking
- at how long? Yeah, I'm trying to. Okay. And I don't think we have to use
- we do this? Um, because we got some of the as you all are trying to find this out, um. I'm going to,
- um recess for five minutes. So, um, we the time is 6 55. Um and we will come back promptly, promptly,
- promptly at seven o'clock. So we'll recess for right now.
- I'm going to call this back into order. Took a little bit longer than 705 or seven o'clock because we
- had some technical difficulties with folks computers. And so before we raised us, we were trying to
- get information from or regarding the length of time this person still has. And so I'm going to look
- to Kim Schell and Ms Turner King for this information.
- After Michelle checked the available folders where that information might be, and I tried to reach out
- to human resources, but those efforts failed, so I don't think we have that information available for
- council. We don't know what the last day is. So she would have just earned some vacation time, and we
- believe that it's less than three weeks.
- So the overlap would be minuscule in that I hope to have someone appointed in the position by March
- 9th. And our next meeting would be March 10th. So, three. Can we wait until that meeting? I mean, some
- election things
- start up next week. I would rather not if it pleased the council. I think the overlap would be very
- small. Sorry. Very small. Yes, Councilor Rolts. Could we separate the item, approve the hiring so that
- she can advertise
- interview, get that together, paperwork, and let the person know that we will be meeting again on the
- 10th. They can start shortly thereafter pending, you know, if there's still an overlap or start once
- the term of the previous person ends. But if we can separate the two so that we can just approve the higher
- with the understanding that you can't really pay them yet. So essentially what we could do is we could
- separate H and I, or yeah, H and I have a separate thing for H and table I until our March 10th meeting.
- Yes. Okay. Yes. Councillor Decker. And I believed what Molly Turner King said is I, the clerk
- is a constitutional elected official.
- H is just us being nice, but that's her right to do anyway. Correct. Sorry, is there an official
- Motion we're still and we're in the process. So I'm gonna go to counselor Henry and then I'll circle
- back to vital and so that I guess that's where I'm when I saw it was his training I had a different
- idea of what this was and now I have I understand this better but yeah because the incumbent is still
- in place there is not technically a end of service yet, so so so Calling at a training position. It's
- Not that we're training the person. I mean, we're creating a space here. And there's no dollar amount
- associated other than in-house transfer. So I'm presuming the, like if we were to do this,
- it's the pay, what we're paying the person is their rates as chief deputy clerk coming in, right? And
- that dollar amount's of course not here for us to contemplate because you're using in-house transfer.
- Okay. Now I concur with the idea of dividing the question here just because, I mean, the person's still
- in the job.
- I know it's tight to the election. I'm glad to hear that the chief deputy would be put to work on the
- election once they are brought on, because I think I heard that correctly. So yeah, I would agree with
- the idea of dividing the question and hopefully getting this passed on the 10th. I'll go to Fidel and
- then I'll go back to Iris in next. So I heard you talk about the vacation payout, right? And so I don't
- know, I don't remember, have all the policies
- So is there a payout for a sick time or any other payouts? You don't get paid out for a sick.
- None of that. Okay. So that would be the only payout would be for the vacation. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Not
- really a payout if someone's taking the vacation though. There won't be a lump sum payout. She's using
- the vacation time. Okay. Yeah.
- We don't owe her money for her vacation. So I'm gonna bring it back here and then Yes clarifying questions
- because I mean gosh, this is so in the weeds But the person is drawing on vacation pay because they're
- still on benefits for the county They're not cashing out their vacation. I'm leaving right. Okay, right
- sounds like Okay councilor Iverson Council I move to divide the question between items H and I second
- All right. We got a motion and various seconds. Is there any further question from council? Councillor
- Hock, did you have a question on this? Well, I don't know. Now that they've called the question that
- I can ask this, let's go ahead and vote. But I want to discuss the second part.
- the question. Yeah, we're dividing that, and that's where we can go. OK, so if there is no further question
- or comments on this, all those in favor of dividing the question signify or separate in H and I signify
- by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. OK, motion carries. All right, so we'll go with the
- first part here with the request to fill a vacancy and any other further questions or comments from
- Council on that?
- All right, seeing none, we'll go to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can
- come forward to the lectern here in the night. You know, room or raise your hand via teams. And seeing
- none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Hawk. And this is just to separate the question,
- correct? No, they've already already done that. This is to age.
- This is to allow the clerk to hire for the chief deputy. But are we going to give it? How are we going
- to give her the time frame? Are we going to do it as as Councilman World said? Because if they're if
- they're hired eight is tomorrow, there will be no money to pay it.
- Well, that's with the next where the item I can come in and that's where we can discuss that. But this
- motion right now is to give the clerk approval to go ahead and start the process for the chief deputy.
- Or a higher at a later date. Point of information? Yes. Not tomorrow. Councilor Decker. I think it's
- moot because H is
- H is just ceremonial anyway. It's us saying the clerk is the constitutional officer that hires a chief
- deputy as the Indiana law allows. I'm trying to summarize that. So H is like, if we said no, she still
- retains that. The timing in the second part, that is kind of more of the detail. Correct. So can we
- please still? Yes. I think to clarify.
- The timing issue, I think H is ceremonial. The clerk does have the statutory authority to appoint her
- chief deputy. The timing bit of it comes in with the fact that two people can't be paid out of that
- same line. So until that line is vacated, someone else wouldn't be able to be hired in and paid from
- it. Which is why the separator, because we'll move on to I. So can we please finish with the roll call?
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Yes. Yes.
- So item I currently be asking for a temporary training line to be instated and then used to pay a new
- chief deputy should that person be hired prior to the current chief deputies term ending. And we do not know
- the end date, which is what we were trying to find out is like, you know, what are we talking about
- here? It sounds like it might be really small, but it sounded like it might be a hurdle for council
- to wrap their heads around. So I wanted to separate it so that we could support you in moving forward.
- And then maybe we want to table this until the 10th.
- Just so we know what we need. Like, I mean, if we come back on the 10th and you're like, it's a moot
- point. Never mind. You know, her vacation ended yesterday and I'm hiring the guy tomorrow or whatnot.
- Great. If you come back and you say, hey, there's a whole other week. I've got the person lined up.
- They agreed. Can we start them before the end of this? And it's, you know, then we could vote on that.
- Does it help you to know that I do have someone lined up?
- And if I can just, you know, in the spirit of no good deed going unpunished, I wanted to make sure she
- left with what she had earned during her service. I reached out to HR for guidance. That was the guidance
- that I was given to do what I've done today and that Michelle would help me to explain it. So there
- is a precedent for having
- done this in the past because I wouldn't have known how to do it. I don't know that we've used it this
- way but I think I get why it was suggested. It allows you to do this. So I was following the guidance
- that I was given and this person is ready, willing and able to start on March 9th. We don't know
- how long the overlap would be. That's the question. Right. Okay. I thought I heard and saw some other
- questions or comments from this council. Yes, Councillor Decker. I looked at the packet. My original
- email said that the I think this is where I got confused that the position would go I'm not looking
- at the wrong I'm sorry here. Now here we go. That the position
- would be vacant on the 23rd, which was yesterday. And I guess my question is, is it possible for the
- leaving chief deputy to do the weakest part of that? And then that would, since there's not a cross training
- purpose and you're trying to honor some of the time that this person has. Let them finish off this week,
- start the next person on the 9th, and then we kind of take care of this. I don't know how long that
- kind of window of days is out there, and that makes me a little hesitant in some ways, unless somebody
- can kind of convince me otherwise just to have it kind of ongoing forever without a different plan.
- And then there's the concern of paying two people at the same time when we are telling most people,
- hey, be really tight with the budget. Okay. So because we like, this is the one thing again, we just
- hired us or this evening and we were trying to be very mindful of what we are doing in terms of tightening
- our budget.
- and what not. And I think that. Maybe as a compromise. Um. Because you have the green light and staturally,
- you also had it to, um to have this person and mind and then come back the very next day on the 10th. And
- I think it's a little less just like that shouldn't be a very long. That meeting there should just be
- a quick once we can gather information and figure out when this person is officially done and have moved
- on because I can see the concern that everybody has in terms of paying somebody out of that same line
- at the same time for that. Um
- So because you have the nice or this person can, you know, go. But then we have the 10th, which is the
- very next day. Could you I will be returning from the clerks, the Southern District Clerk's Spring Conference
- on the 10th. I mean, typically it lets out by four o'clock and it's in terrible. I expect that I would
- be back by five. I'm not, you know. Could you attend virtually?
- for us or, and maybe not necessarily you, perhaps somebody from our office, and we've done this before,
- where if you're not here, that should allow for somebody else to be able to give that clarifying point
- that we're all asking for in terms of when is this person vacating? So if you can't be here, then I
- would look to staff to see if we can get that clarifying point in your stead.
- That part that piece would be fine I guess the only other piece that I would be wondering is if we learn
- tomorrow after speaking with HR that It's sooner rather than later And I'd like that person to start
- on the 9th Do I have options to start If if that's not an issue if the if the crossing is not an issue,
- yeah, we just approved going ahead and hiring so
- Yes, if it's if it's vacant to me, the Constitution making you a constitutional officer is your ability
- to say I have a new chief deputy when it is vacant. So I mean, literally right now, if the current walked
- in here and said, I'm done, I think we would have to honor whoever you say. However, H.R. would figure
- out the next starting day. So because it is the big as I understand it, you have to start them at the beginning
- of a pay period, that's... Unnecessarily. No. Do you? No. My understanding is employee service doesn't
- want you transferring people from a position to a position mid payroll, but you can start a new employee
- anytime. So Ms. Turner-King, so to clarify this,
- It to counselor decades point if we end up table in the second part to March 10th in two weeks and say,
- for example, we hear somebody say like this person at the end of the week is dying. And we've already
- given her the green light and statutory. She already has that in her purview. Does she need to come back if?
- for the tabled item if this person vacates earlier than March 10th. I just got a text that her last
- day is the 27th. Does that help you today? I think we should probably confirm. Yeah, I think we need
- to confirm with HR just to make sure everything is all clear. And I'm happy to confirm that tomorrow.
- I think that the return to a council meeting on the 10th
- only as necessary if the leaving chief's deputies. Last day is after March 9th, which is when the new
- person is committed to being able to start. If her last day is indeed the twenty seventh, then you're
- clear. I'm sorry. I got a qualifying text that it is March twenty seventh. Oh, so then I'm going to
- ask for this. So
- Sounds like that is opening up a can of worms. And so we need to get with HR and employees, well, employee
- services to figure out when this is because this is becoming a little sticky. And so I'm going to say
- council and we don't have any objections. I would like to table item I until March 10th so that we can
- get clarifying question or clarifying response. Second.
- Okay, we got a motion in a second. And again, if that means if we get clarifying response that says.
- If we check with employee services and they say that, you know, actually this person is done as of February
- 27th, then. They blend is moot and then you can go about it. However, that's something that we need
- to take up on. All right. So is there any other further questions or comments on council for in table
- in this decision?
- Okay. So all those in favor of table in item I until March 10th signify by saying aye. Aye. All those
- opposed same sign. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. All right. Next up we got item J council. I moved
- to open for discussion and approval of the clerk's request be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed
- to hire and fund 12 15 dash 0062 election fund election board.
- the 473 positions as outlined on the agenda. Second. And we still have the clerk and we have Miss Ferris
- here. Hello. Hello. So I want to tell you, I'm a little bit embarrassed. The last hiring freeze that
- I remember, which would have been during the pandemic, we were still able to hire poll workers. And so
- just like a recent elected official came and told you that they did not it did not occur to them that
- they would not be able to pay an intern and considered them employees. It never occurred to me that
- the hiring freeze froze out our poll workers. And so tonight we're here obviously to be able to navigate
- the election. We will need our invaluable
- early absentee and Election Day poll workers, and so we are asking to be able to hire those people,
- and we need them as soon as next week. Yeah, so a couple of these, the absentee worker B,
- There it shows that there are four individual sorry absentee workers see there's eight individuals four
- of those generally would start March 3rd. That's where they've started in the past so they should have.
- been starting next week on Tuesday. These are all the individuals who process the applications for vote
- by mail, military overseas, and the first round of ballots of anybody who had filed an application as
- of December 1st until March 21st have to be out by March 21st. So those four, for sure, I'm going to
- have to try to get in as quickly as possible in order for us to meet that deadline.
- Also looking at this, I noticed on poll worker B that number four for total is my minimum. So questioning
- on how, if I need backups, what will that process look like as well? Yes, Councillor Henry. Thank you.
- And thank you for bringing this one back. I gotta say, this isn't directed at you, this is more
- into the ether and hopefully it hits the right office in the building. This is the fourth time this
- cycle, right, that we've had a conversation about temporary workers in the county that are getting jammed
- up in our HR process. So it was the treasurer, it was the parks, it was the courts, and now it's you
- all with elections. And that's the process change, right? This is something that's affecting yet another
- temporary hire. So when these folks are hired by you all for the primary,
- Are you going to have to fire them so and rehire them for the general election at this point? Yeah,
- so we'll have to terminate between the primary and the general and we'll have to go through the process
- of the paperwork Again, so and then we're hearing are you hearing from those poll workers like some
- frustration? Are we concerned about filling out w2s? And then we're gonna be doing a lot of paperwork.
- This is a lot of this is a lot of paperwork
- Yeah, we've had some back and forth on this. Another thing that is starting to concern them as well
- is the background checks through the process of the hiring as well. So we're waiting on background checks
- for people to work a few hours. Okay.
- Ms. Turner King, can you walk me through one more time why we're going through this process? Actually,
- I'm going to do a point of order because this was something that I had asked because I know that was
- a concern that the clerk had and I had reached out to E from employee services and I can read for the
- record what was sent to me and it says when a full or part time employee leaves employment,
- We terminate them in payroll in all systems after their final paycheck. Election workers and part-time
- property tax employees in the treasurer's office are the only workers that have fixed spring and fall
- employment periods, meaning we keep them active during that brief time between periods and remove them
- from payroll at the end of the year. So we should only have to go through this hiring process once if
- they request enough to cover both spring and fall.
- employees. And so. Based on those prior challenges term in these employees at the end of the year helps
- us avoid all costly mistakes. So technically, um, it like they could do. Like we could get through our
- primary right now with hiring for primary, and if I'm working primary and I want to work in general, I get to
- Is that my understanding? That is also my understanding from HR. I guess that's some good news tonight.
- I'll just scream into the ether about the other ones then. I just had two other questions here. Well,
- one's a comment. I want to thank Ms. Ferris for giving me a little nickel tour of the current state
- of things in voter registration and sort of where things are heading in the showers building.
- I wanted to say, having served on the election board as a president, I have a lot of concerns about
- what I saw, and I would encourage
- fellow colleagues to go toward the current state of things and voter registration. Some of the things
- that got my attention were the fact that I did not see a secure space. There was cabinetry that's not
- secure, that you have boxes everywhere. Also the fact that we don't have phone lines in that space.
- So as a result, people will be calling cell phones to try to get information during voting when we used
- to just transfer phone numbers. Can you
- Maybe walk through the impact on these people that we're hiring on what that's gonna look like upstairs
- for you all. I think it's important to get into space. Would you rather? You're fine. You know, this
- is a sore spot for me. Some of you may recall a council or not a council, pardon me, commissioner meeting
- last year where I was given one opportunity to weigh in on
- the space that we were being given in the showers building. At the time, of course, the variables were
- a bit different in that you were talking about building a new justice complex. And so I I had been hopeful
- not only looking at current but future the future needs of the clerk's office to be able to look at
- more spaces. I was
- told this is this is the space that you have. We have weighed in with our concerns. I have mentioned
- accessibility concerns for some of the older people who have to navigate those stairs because we're
- not fully on the first floor. We meet regularly with Mr. Crider who gives us updates. I never ever believe that
- Deadline was a true deadline. I've never seen anything finished, any construction finished when you
- say it's going to be finished unless there's a financial incentive to do so. And I know good, as my
- grandmother would have said, good and teen well that the council is not paying financial incentives
- to get us in this space early. So, you know, I've said to other incarnations of the council,
- We make it work with what you give us. That's what we do. That doesn't mean that it's in the best interest
- of the people that we ask to come and work for us. So if there is something that can be done to make
- it easier for my staff to to get our people in and make sure they're comfortable and able to do the
- work, I would welcome that. Is that a fair? That's fair. And I know, Mr. Iverson, I have been
- And disposed over the past week. But again, I would encourage all the members to take a look at what's
- going on there. You're going to be in the upstairs space through the primary. Is that right?
- Yeah, as of right now, we're looking at being in the upstairs space through June. We've been working
- with Krider to see if there's a possibility of us being in the downstairs space on election day. But
- right now, it's kind of a back and forth on trying to figure out how things are going to go furniture
- wise and just trying to get some of the
- details squared away. The phone line is one of the biggest issues right now just because of the amount
- of calls that we've had coming in within the past couple of weeks. We have myself and two our two full-time
- employees have county cell phones that are being transferred from the current lines that were voter
- registration and if it is
- multiple callers coming in at one time, it's going straight to a voicemail instead of going to an answering
- machine. And so then they're just assuming it's a number that was not connected to the county. One more
- question then. And it's related to this is all related because these people are going to be working
- in this space, right? You you have do you have complete access to the whole floor that you were given
- or is there's been there's urban square footage that's been held back like
- Are you able to use all the suite at this point? Or is it being used? On the top. The top. So part of
- it, we do have access to. The other part, we don't currently. Last thing, the precinct sheriffs, is
- that new this year? Can you walk through with this? I thought there was a maybe this is an account line
- item. Are there any new positions listed here from the last election cycle? I think it's a courier line.
- And that's the one that we are also on the agenda for tonight. That's not a new. I mean, we've always
- had couriers. We just haven't filled.
- We have. It was in the same line as travel board because they were essentially doing the same things.
- Thank you for that. That's all, Madam President. Thank you. Yes, Councillor Decker. I want to go back
- to the phones that Councillor Henry raised. Have you been given an estimate on phone lines when that
- No, in the upstairs space, we're running off of some splits that they put in for temporary just because
- they know that we're going to be there temporarily. I'm still waiting on some communication about some
- extra computers for the lead staff as well. Okay. Well, just based on what past issues have been, when
- all these people start filing in there,
- that's going to be a headache. So whoever in Etherland, as I said, is listening to this that might have
- authority on this, and I think we can follow up too, that is a logistical nightmare of one kind and
- another, and particularly as the election, which is what you all do for a living, starts to become its
- thing. It won't
- It won't make life any easier for anybody, let alone the public. So anything we could do on that one
- would be one in the ether that would help tremendously. And I do want to add that in the 2024 election,
- we had 10 phone lines. All of these phones answered to the same line. So anybody in the office could
- pick up that line at any time. And so we're going from 10 to having
- three and two of them are posted on the county website. And the third one is my desk number that not
- a lot of people call very often. They normally were transferred to my line. So that's another instance
- of where we're having to go get the other cell phone instead of being able to be transferred. And as
- I understood you, it's a lot of calls now. We're getting a lot of calls asking about the SAVE Act. We're
- getting a lot of calls as we're ready to, you know,
- prepare for early voting in elections. And so a lot of calls are going to board up, excuse me, voicemail
- that would otherwise not have. Correct. So the only other question that I have, because I thought and
- preparing for tonight, seeing this number and seeing some previous numbers for all of these positions,
- is this for both primary and general, or is this
- for just primary. This is primary. This is just primary. Okay. Okay. And I will say that a couple of
- these spots, we will be getting pretty close to what we'll need. And that's why I was kind of questioning
- about for backups, because I mean, on election day, up until like the hour before we're opening, we're
- still replacing people who have called in or just didn't show up at all to a polling location. Other
- questions or comments from Council on this item? Yes, Council votes.
- I'm in no position to impede your ability to make these hires. So that's not what this question is about
- at all. I am really just curious about what these positions represent, because it only comes up for
- me maybe once a year or less. So bear with me.
- The inspectors, you have 28 of those, and that is on election day, and it looks like you probably have
- one-ish per precinct. So it's one per precinct. They are the manager of the poll. So that is the main
- individual who's contacting our office. So if there's an issue, they call us instead of it being all
- of the individuals at each polling location trying to contact our office.
- That makes sense. And so you have 28 listed. You said you were anticipating 22. The election board moved
- forward with 28 polling locations. Okay. Awesome. Okay. You're welcome. Yeah. But then judges, you probably
- have to have two, one from each party. Yes. So it's a minimum of two. Some of the polling locations
- will have four based on the number of registered voters that will be going to that precinct.
- everyone else just bored to tears because I need my civics lesson. So then you have the sheriff's looks
- like one per but it's still at 22 not 28. Yeah. So some of the locations will not have any sheriffs
- whatsoever. We generally only use them in the general but we have looked at potentially having some
- during the primary. Like I said they help with the flow they go out if the inspector at one
- Three times the day, the sheriff will go outside and count how many people's in line, and we have to
- have that reported back to us. So they really help with filling in in different roles. When people are
- taking breaks, making sure that the poll's running smoothly, helping whenever there's a backup somewhere,
- just making sure that we're getting things processed pretty quickly. OK, but not every polling place
- will have one. So Burgoon don't need no sheriff.
- very small. They take great care of themselves. I would want that job just so I could be sheriff for
- the day, right? That's the one you want. It's a fun job. And then you have a lot of clerks slash student
- workers and that's day of election and those are the folks that are just
- get doing all the work, right? Those are the folks that are checking every individual in as they're
- coming in to vote. So those poll books that are at the front, we have to have a bipartisan team at each
- one of those. So depending on the size of the location, how many registered voters are each one. I think
- the smallest one we have three, no, Burgoon has two poll books. The second one is a backup. The first
- one is the only one that they really use. And then Saint
- St. John's in Elksville is our largest location and they normally have about 14 clerks there. Okay.
- All right. And then we have craziness. We have 90 absentee worker A's.
- Yes. So those are going to be, again, your check-in, your printers. They are the main bulk of processing
- individuals in and out. They also take care of checkout. So if you go to early voting, they check you
- in at the poll books, they print your ballot, or they're checking you out at the end of the day. And
- they're going to be paid hourly now after we kind of made the thing up a few years ago. Okay. Absentee boards.
- The counters are on Election Day. They are the individuals who open up the absentee early voting ballots
- and separate the envelope from the ballot itself for the ballots to be processed and counted. Can somebody
- be more than one of these positions if like there's an Election Day one and then there's a
- So you could work at early voting as an absentee A, B, or C, and work on election day. But the absentee
- counters are on election day, so they would not be able to hold more than one of those. And then B and
- C, absentee B is going to be travel board and reconcilers. We generally have one to two teams for the
- travel board.
- And then we have two reconcilers that are at early voting every day. And they come in and reconcile
- the ballots from the day before. They're the ones that organize the ballots in alphabetical order by
- precinct, by date, and ensure that every ballot is accounted for.
- are the leads. So we have four early voting, four in the office at voter registration. The four early
- voting are essentially your inspectors on election day. They're the manager of the early voting location
- and really are the main communication back and forth between our office and their
- down at early voting if they need help with anything or if they're running out of something. And then
- the four that are in our office take care of mail-in ballots, military overseas, voters with
- print disability, getting together the travel board individuals to go out and processing applications.
- OK. And so then you have two people who are recruiters. And my understanding from the note on the page
- in our packet is that those folks are working
- about five and a half weeks ahead
- Generally, they would normally start around the second week to the third week of March, and then they
- would work all the way up until Election Day. They are the ones who will be calling the individuals
- if they don't show up to a polling location and replacing them out for us. That takes a lot of stress
- off of our office on Election Day, but we do sometimes still get those calls and then have to communicate
- with the recruiters themselves. Why are they paid daily instead of
- hourly? Because they get paid, whether they make one call or a hundred calls, they get paid a daily
- rate. They're given the number of positions that need to be filled. You know, and some of them like
- we've had recruiters that say while they were waiting for Easter dinner to be prepared, they were making
- calls. I see. So it's almost like having them on call.
- Yeah, as long as the positions get filled. Yeah, so if they get a phone call, they're supposed to take
- it. Because generally, it is one of the individuals who's wanting to work. I do know that last year,
- I actually had one of our recruiters send me a text message at 3 AM saying they just got off the phone
- with somebody. So they are constantly working around the clock. OK. Right. And then I know what a courier
- does. Yep. Because I've seen those folks zooming up
- when I've been outside. Okay, that's everybody. I appreciate you going through each of them with me.
- Okay. Are there any other questions or comments on this item? All right. And seeing none, I'd like to
- go to public comment. Raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the Nightingale
- room. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote?
- Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Cronin. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor
- Feidl. Yes. Councillor Hock. Yes. Councillor Quilts. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Next up
- is item K. Council, I move to approve the clerk's request on 1215-0062.
- Election fund, election board, the creation of account line one seven five one two election board couriers.
- Second. All right. We got a motion and a second on this item. Seems like we have to do this because
- of what we just did in the previous item. But if you have anything else to add, please do. So, I mean,
- this is one where someone higher than me
- We we had them in the same lines in previous years because they did the same thing. Travel and getting
- the different things to where they needed to be. And someone decided that the couriers had to be delineated
- from the travel board. And so we didn't know what we didn't know. And so we're not asking for additional
- money. We're just asking to be able to pay couriers and and travel board.
- It seems self-explanatory, but I'll look to council colleagues to see if anybody has any questions or
- comments. All right. Seeing none, we'll go to public comment. You can come forward to the lectern here
- or raise your hand via Teams. I just want to also say that this is just for the creation of the line.
- It is already in the salary ordinance, so we don't have to add it to the salary ordinance. Right. Okay.
- And seeing none, because this is a creation of a line and all of us are present here, we can do a voice
- vote. So all those in favor of approving this account line signify by saying aye. All those opposed,
- same sign. OK, motion carries. We have a question before we go. So on item J,
- I'm not sure that I got clarification on. If we go over the numbers that were on here, do we need to
- come back or? Much more do you think you need? Well, the absentee B line, I'm definitely going to more
- than likely need to come back because we only put down four on that line. And if we have a team for
- travel board and a team for reconcilers for during early voting,
- then we might need an additional travel board team if we have a high number of travel board requests.
- So, Madam President, when you and I spoke and we were talking about primary and general versus just
- primary and just general, I wanted to have that wiggle room if we needed more people to be able to pull
- them in without having to come back. And I don't think we're talking about a significant number.
- No, so in 2024, the primary, we ended up with I think it was two or three teams that were going out
- at one time for travel board just because of the vast difference of directions. We had one team that
- was in Indianapolis, one team that was in Anderson, and another team that was down south towards Lexington.
- OK. Did they go that far? If somebody's out of town and they're in a hospital and the election board
- approves it, they can go to that far. We stopped short of Chicago. We did deny that one.
- because that's all that team would have done all day. But we have, you know, people who get in car wrecks
- or, you know, have an unexpected emergency surgery. You'd be surprised if it's out of state. We generally
- I literally just heard the story today that Charlize Theron asked for a ballot the day before she died.
- So, OK, I'm going to go to counselor because we just got done and we need to really kind of
- keep moving on the agenda here. Councillor Decker, I would draw no comment. OK, I. I would think you
- would need to come back because we approved what we have here. Is that? I think that would be correct
- if they're going to need more than what was just approved. There have to be a subsequent request. OK,
- so it sounds like. You'll need to come back if you need more.
- Okay, all right. Well, we. No, I was thinking, do we have we missed the window if she wanted to come
- back on the 10th? Um, you can get with Kim Schell and if needed, that could be added. Okay. Okay.
- Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Moving along here, I will go to L, which is from the highway
- department.
- Council, I move to approve the Highway Department's request and fund 11 35 dash 0000 cumulative bridge
- and additional appropriation of $42,000 in the services category. Second. OK, and we got a motion and
- a second. And I think Miss Ridge is online, so her hand is raised. You should be able to unmute and
- go ahead. OK, can you hear me? Yes.
- Okay, this is pretty straightforward. I was contacted by in dot last fall about taking over 100% of
- the responsibility for the right way on this project. So I agree to that. It's kind of our relationship
- of a give and take. So I'm just needing to create request that additional appropriation.
- All right, thank you for that. Council, look into everybody to see if anybody has any questions or comments
- on this item from Ms. Ridge. All right. And seeing none, we'll go to public comment. If there's public
- comment, raise your hand via Teams or come here to the podium. And seeing none, may we please have a
- roll call vote? Councillor Crossley.
- Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Noting for the record that Councillor Hawke has left
- the meeting. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Motion passes unanimous
- 6-0. Okay. Next up is item M.
- council I move to approve the highway department's request and fund 1176 dash zero zero zero zero motor
- vehicle highway an additional appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars in the personnel category
- and thirty thousand dollars in the services category for a total appropriation of one hundred thirty
- thousand dollars second all right we got a motion in a second what can you tell us about this miss ridge
- Well, I think you know why I'm asking for overtime at this time of year. We usually do typically come
- in and ask for an additional throughout the year. If we don't, I don't think we used all of our additional
- last year when we came in. We try and use it wisely, but when we had the big snowstorm in January and
- then a tornado last week, we just want to be prepared with their upcoming spring storms.
- that we are prepared, if need be, to pay our employees if they need to work overtime. Thank you.
- All right. And fingers crossed on the insurance. Yep. Yeah, we just we're just given an estimate. I
- think we increased it by 10%, but our our insurance went was a little bit more than that. So that's
- what that's for. OK, and hopefully no major storms. Anytime soon. We hope not. Yes, fingers crossed.
- All right.
- I Lisa, I know that we had text a little bit night up, but was with that proximity to the airport was
- the highway garage largely OK or were there issues there? Actually, actually we saw no damage.
- at the garage. I did not go out there because I was I lived by the airport so I was at home dealing
- with my own issues but we did have a crew out. Toby was out the entire evening checking the facility
- and being available with our crews for whatever help was needed. I think they stayed out till midnight
- then we sent all the crews out the next day going to the troubled areas making sure that if we needed to move
- trees in the roadway or whatever. A lot of times we have to wait for the utility services to remove
- the lines out of the trees. So yeah, luckily the garage facility was not touched. Alright, are there
- any other questions or comments from Council on this item? Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment.
- There's public comment. You can raise your hand via teams or come forward to the lectern in the room.
- Seeing none, may we please have a roll-call vote? Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor
- Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Motion passes unanimous
- 6-0. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Ridge. All right. Next up we are going to items
- from the Health Department with item in.
- I move to approve the Health Department's request and fund 8111-9623 local public health services grant.
- The creation of account line 10124 COVID-19 school liaison.
- and simultaneously transfer $17,539.39 from the supplies category and $63,075.61 from the services category
- for a total appropriation transfer of $80,615 into the personnel category. Second. All right, we got
- a motion and a second. Yes, Ms. Kelly.
- So this is some old grant funding that we're continuing to spend down We do have our public health nurse
- and school liaison that started with us just this week So essentially we're just trying to move these
- funds to cover those salary expenses Thank you for that any questions or comments from council on this
- item Right seeing none we'll go to public comment you can raise your hand via teams or come forward
- to the lectern and
- and seeing none, we can do a voice vote on this item since we all are in person. So all those in favor
- of approving this item as presented signify by saying aye. All those opposed, same sign. All right,
- motion carries. Next up is item O.
- I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the health department's request to be exempt
- from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1161-9626 local public health services. Account
- line 10177, health services director position. Second. All right. Ms. Kelly?
- So this is a request to be able to recruit and fill for the position of our health services director.
- So this position is really important for overseeing the operations of our entire health services division.
- In addition, we'll serve as additional capacity with the services that are being provided. So vaccination
- services, health screenings, communicable disease investigations. This position does serve as our VFC
- coordinator, which is required for our vaccine program through the Indiana Department of Health. And
- since we currently do not have a position to do patient intake and answer the phone schedule and do
- billing, the thought was that this position would be really crucial for being able to cover those front
- office duties while the nurses are doing their day to day activities. So providing those vaccines, doing
- the health screenings and the case investigations.
- Questions or comments from council related to this item? Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment.
- If there's public comment, you can make your way to the podium here in the night, you hill room or raise
- your hand via teams. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor
- Henry? Yes.
- Yes, sir. Cross. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Idol. Yes. Motion passes unanimous six zero. OK, thank you.
- Next up is item P. Council, I move to approve the health department's request and fund ninety one thirty
- dash ninety six twenty six syringe services program grant the creation of account line two zero zero
- one one other supplies and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of twenty five thousand
- dollars in the supplies category.
- Second. All right. So this is grant funding that the department has been receiving for many years. So
- this helps to support the purchase of the syringes that are used for the syringe service program and
- related supplies. There is a shorter period for spending for using these funds just due to some of the
- changes that may be coming with the operation of the syringe service program. So we'll really just have to be
- Diligently making sure that we can you just utilize these funds Yes, I will look to council comment
- or yes and already saw almost did it again Council Henry almost called you DGH. That's fine Thank you
- for that so I think since probably this item got added to the agenda and now My understanding is the
- General Assembly did pass to continue the search program at the state level
- Is that your understanding that have you heard about legislation moving in the past week that that program's
- continuing? I've just heard about some of the changes that were being discussed. And so I guess one
- question I have is the program has a lot of merit, obviously, for reduction of spread of disease in
- the community. But then at the same time, we do have sharps that are left around town for a variety
- of reasons. Is there a programmatic opportunity to
- Purchase drop boxes for sharps in public spaces here. I guess maybe another way of asking is the department
- thought about how to reduce the risk or mitigate the syringes that are distributed but then do not get
- disposed of properly in the community? Yes, so we do try to encourage providing containers and offering
- education to individuals. And individuals can come into the health department to get syringe containers.
- also at the Indiana Recovery Alliance. And I've also been speaking with our program coordinator recently
- about really ensuring that she is going out and doing those site visits when these services are actually
- being conducted. So are we following the protocols about asking for the number of syringes that an individual
- needs and helping to, again, just encourage some of that education around that? So those that are taking
- syringes from the program, they're known persons?
- Is that right, or at least the providers that are getting the syringes for distribution, they're known
- to the county, is that right? That are working the program? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's a gap that
- I know we've been trying to close for years in the community. I don't know if it's literally just buying
- drop boxes or red boxes and putting them on county property to encourage that. I know that's not related
- per se, but yeah, I'm just kind of curious about that piece of it, especially if the program has been
- renewed and we know it will be with us for a bit, so that's it.
- I definitely think that's something that we can further explore those additional opportunities.
- Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments on this item? Seeing none, I'll move on to public
- comment. If there's public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here, raise your hand via Teams.
- And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councillor Wilz? Yes.
- Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Cronk. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Fiddle. Yes. Motion
- passes 6-0. Thank you very much. All right. Next up is item Q from the auditor's office.
- Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the auditor's request to be exempt from
- the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0002 County General Auditor, the Accounts Payable
- Financial Administrator position. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. I see Ms.
- Gregory is here. Yes, thank you, Council.
- Okay, so I'd like to provide a little context regarding the claims position within my office and the
- operational necessity necessity for maintaining both roles So currently there are two claims positions
- and both are essential to completing the weekly camp
- claims cycle. The full claims process requires approximately one and a half to 1.75 to full-time equivalence
- to complete accurately and on time. The process includes receiving claims from departments, auditing
- claims for accuracy and compliance, communicating and resolving corrective actions when needed, processing
- approved claims, printing checks, auditing printing checks, preparing docket reports for commissioners,
- and mailing or distributing checks following docket approval.
- So, one position is dedicated 100 percent to claims processing. The second position dedicates approximately
- 50 to 75 percent of its time to claims, with the remaining responsibilities including assistance with
- GAAP and AFR reporting, which those are just two annual reports that we have to do, drafting and implementing
- financial policies and procedures, general auditing, and maintaining financial records.
- So not filling this position would create a significant bottleneck of the claims process and result
- in a lapse in internal controls. This would also limit our ability to continue strengthening financial
- oversight, policy development, and departmental partnerships. Ultimately, this would be a disservice
- to the county as a whole.
- So my team and I have made meaningful progress in tightening internal controls improving processes enhancing
- collaboration with departments on financial matters However, we cannot sustain or build upon that progress
- with reduced staffing I mean I spoke to you earlier during department updates like clearly we made great
- progress and are doing well and I'm looking to you to allow that to continue so happy to answer questions
- Okay, I'm sorry if I may just one more note. This is actually this I'm coming to you with this request
- Because I had requested to fill my internal auditor position Last year at some point and I did fill
- that successfully. However, because I filled it internally So I don't need the internal auditor role
- now, but I need this role
- if that makes sense. So it's not really an additional ask. It's just this instead of that. With this
- request, I'm asking to fill any subsequent roles that become available if I do fill this internally.
- All right. Makes sense. Thank you very much. Looking to counsel to see if anybody has any questions
- or comments for the auditor on her request. And seeing none.
- I'll go to public comment on this item. If you have comment, you can come forward to the lectern here.
- You can raise your hand via teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councillor Henry?
- Yes. Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes.
- Councillor Wilts? Yes.
- Motion passes unanimous. All right, thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Next up, we don't have
- any items for presentations or discussions, but we do have a couple of you remain in County Council
- business items, which will start with item A. Council, I move to open for discussion possible approval
- of resolution 2025-41A amendment to the use of overtime budget and reporting. Second.
- And I'm going to look to Mr. King for this item because the agenda tells me. So I have displayed on
- the screen the draft and what this draft does is amend the overtime resolution that was passed in September
- of last year to encompass the account line that was approved by for the clerk's office at the last meeting. So
- The editor in red, so it changes the title and I've added a
- after the 41 to ensure that it's an amended version and then under one it says in addition to the departments
- listed above the clerk's office will be provided an overtime line along with an appropriation in said
- line in the amount of $5,000 into fund and it identifies the election fund for the stated use
- of administration of elections. Transfers into this overtime line is governed by section two of this
- resolution and section two prohibits in-house transfers into the overtime line.
- council approval and it outlines the process to obtaining council approval. And then the only other
- change is at the end where we add the amendment date if adopted. So this is just basically solidifying
- what we did way back when at the last meeting. Correct. Way back. It seems like February feels like
- it has 32 days in it right now. OK. All right. Any questions or comments from council on this item seems like
- We all should remember what we did a few weeks ago. Yes, Councilor Decker. I appreciate this. This is
- sort of an editorial comment I'm just going to make because we're always talking about budget constraints
- and how do we reduce things we are becoming. And this is not a critique of legal or anything, but we
- are becoming a very resolution intensive county. And I would love to know the 91 other brother and sister
- counties out there.
- How many of them do as many resolutions as us? And the reason I say this is legal's got a lot of headaches
- and constraints. And I feel like they're always having to chase one resolution or another for us. And
- no one does them better than Molly Turner King. She's like the resolution champ.
- One of the first instincts, as I said to fellow councilor earlier today, is we have a problem in the
- community. Let's go drop a resolution and perhaps we'll end this conflict that's happening across the
- globe. And I just think as we think about what we ask department heads to do with part-time hours, we
- may have to think about economies of scale on things like resolutions
- when Ms. Turner-King could be thinking of any number of things, and that maybe are more substance.
- I mean, as we were sitting here, several of us were going, is this that thing we did last time? So I
- just offer that. It's just an editorial comment about something we've got to think about, because if
- the, you know, FSG, if the buckle is tightening on
- all spinning. We have to think about how long we leave the people up in cats up there, the demands on
- them, demands on TSD, demands on all this tech that we have, other things that perhaps we've grown accustomed
- to but may not be able to. So I'll be quiet. All right. Yes, Councillor Feidl.
- I'm just asking a procedure question, so I see it's labeled 2025-41A. So how would someone who's looking
- at something we did in 2026 find this? I left it as 2025-41A because I think it's easier to find the
- amendments to the original
- resolution than getting a new resolution order or number. So if I got a new number for this amendment,
- it's going to be like 2603. And then you have to reference back the previous document. So there are
- two ways to do it. We can leave it the 2025 number. Or in the future, I can just have you keep re-adopting
- a new resolution under a different number and then put language in there that says, this is the current
- version. Any previous versions is now repelled.
- It's really a council preference, but I think they're labeled pretty clearly as to what the resolution
- title is, so that if departments are looking on the P drive, S drive actually, they can find the overtime
- resolution. And if any department's looking for it, they can easily reach out to myself or Kim for also
- guidance. Yes, I was wondering more about how
- the timeline of it all, right? So if I'm thinking about what we did in whatever time period it was,
- and thinking about this one, how would I know it was done in 2026 when it actually is coded under 2025?
- Oh, like is there an as amended? Is there a placeholder in 2026 that refers back to this? No.
- At the end of the resolution, it's always going to have presented in the date that it was approved.
- So it'll have that 2026 date. But if you look at the whole chronology of resolutions for 2026, this
- will not show up, or am I incorrect? It would not be in the list of 2026 resolutions. That's what I'm asking.
- I wonder if we could talk to Miss Freeman who maintains that list and have her like put 2025 41 a approved
- on Today's date on the list her chronologically. I'm happy to have that very happy with that.
- Thank you. I'm happy to have that conversation with her tomorrow
- Miss Gregory, I may just add I believe she normally like it will be in the original You know 2023 folder,
- but then she'll actually add it to the current folder as well because it's like two versions And I can
- confirm that but that's my understanding Okay. Thank you Are there any other further questions or comments
- from council on this item? All right
- Seeing none, we'll go to public comment. If there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams
- or you can come forward to the lectern here. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote?
- Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor
- Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous six zero. All right. Thank you. And it's the moment folks have
- all been waiting for. All right. It is the next item, which is item B.
- Council I move to open for discussion and possible approval of resolution 20 26-0 to Renewing the Monroe
- County Council's commitment regarding a new jail facility Second all right. We got a motion in a second
- and I'm gonna look to miss Turner King because I'm sure you will Share on the screen there
- If I may, I'm trying to switch it between the last document and the next resolution. So just give me a second.
- Oh, the resolution itself.
- Okay, I'm now displaying this resolution. This is a resolution that I drafted based on the responses
- I got from council members regarding what you would like to see in this resolution. So in essence, this
- is a Frankenstein document piecing together the responses that I did get.
- And what I did was I looked through the responses. And if there was a common theme among two of the
- responses, I wrote a whereas clause. Now, I recognize that two responses is not a majority. But if there
- was a reoccurring thought, I wanted to somehow incorporate it in the resolution. There was a version
- in the packet. But then after I was looking at this this morning, and with the help of Councilor Wilts,
- there was some grammatical errors that my brain read differently. So I did correct those in red.
- only the clause about how the exhibit is attached, but it doesn't have any context changes. So that's
- how this draft came about. I'm happy to edit accordingly based on discussion. Oh, do you really want
- me to read this into record? I mean, I'm happy.
- It is in the amended packet that was posted on Monday. But I'm happy to read this. Big changes first.
- Yeah, let's look at it first before we do that. I mean, we have it. It's posted. And so I know the biggest
- thing that folks were asking for is to have the resolution ahead of time to read it. And if, yep, so
- it's good. Get it, get it, good. We're good.
- All right, so I'm going to look to council colleagues to see. Yes, Councilor Seidel, and then I'll circle
- back. So could the edited version be, the changes be highlighted verbally? Yeah, usually that's what
- we do when we... Oh, sorry. No, no, no, that's fine. When Ms. Turner-King is editing something that
- we are asking, like we'll see it in red in real time there. Did she not have things already in red,
- or did I mistake that?
- I do have some things in red. These are the grammatical corrections. As the clause on how the exhibit
- A was attached was half a thought, so I completed that. Is it just procedurally, do you want me to keep
- the resolution displayed, or do you want me to take down the resolution, make the edits so that
- the public viewing sees council or do you want them to be looking at the document? I think this is totally
- fine. Um, I think the biggest thing is to have people read along as they are at home and they can see
- our faces later. Um, okay. So I'm in a yes. And the only thing is I would ask that is if anybody makes
- a motion, um, can we like complete that motion and do that and not have people talk
- on top of the other. It makes it really hard to keep up with in the notes. So and with. Yes. Just a
- suggestion. Procedurally, we could just go where like clause by clause. And I can say like the first
- whereas clause, is there any issues or edits? And then that might structure the conversation. Yep.
- All right. No objections there. Nope. I put my hand. OK. So did you have no. I agree with this approach.
- Let's do this. This could take all night. And I think we should do it this way.
- So the first whereas clause just acknowledges the statutory responsibility of the councils. Is there
- any proposed amendments to that whereas clause? OK, the second whereas clause also further elaborates
- on council responsibilities as it pertains to adopting the annual budget, fixing tax rates and appropriating
- public funds. Any proposed amendments?
- I'm not seeing any, so I'm going to keep moving. The third whereas clause, maybe I can count, relates
- to the private settlement agreement in Richardson v. Moore. It in part states what that case requires.
- It acknowledges that it's been extended multiple times, and that is currently extended till April 15th
- of 2026. Any thoughts? OK.
- No head shakes, so keep moving. Fourth, it acknowledges in 2024, a purchase agreement was brought to
- the council for a property referred as North Park and that that was voted down in 2025. Yes, Mr. Well,
- I think Mr. Henry has a comment, but I don't I'm I don't know that I should recognize him president.
- Yeah, OK. I took the wheel there. Yes. Thank you, counselor. Sorry.
- It's a comment more than an edit. It has been a subject in joint meetings with the board of commissioners
- that they're looking for qualifications as to the why of that vote. I would just say that I find this
- phrase to be sufficient because we only went to about midnight that night discussing the various whys
- of different members of the body as to their objection to moving forward with that. So I'm fine with
- leaving it. I just want to make, I'm just kind of curious of the sentiments of others that
- if we need to qualify this any farther other than we did it. No, and the other thing that I'll add to
- that before I move on with other council comments is the fact that I think Councilor Iverson said something
- earlier on in this meeting that basically solidified what we were presented with F.S.G. And I would
- recommend that anybody else that has any questions, comments, concerns of what happened nearly five
- months ago to either go back to October 28th
- or see this earlier meeting where we talked about financially, that was a thing. So, Councilor Decker.
- Well, one of the things that I do hear out there is that there is there's dispute about why something
- was moving forward and then not moving forward. I think we all know something was moving forward and
- then not moving forward based on a variety of these conditions that
- changed in that time period. And so I guess if you're not trying to illustrate to the other side of
- this, Mr. Falk and the public, that it was just flippant, like we just randomly switched on that.
- I mean, you could always, for a variety of reasons, that phrase alone could encapsulate a little bit
- more of what happened or for a variety of said reasons, because it wasn't just
- We were going to get cheeseburgers, and then suddenly, no, we decided we want hot dogs. There was a
- whole host of things that involved one painful process going into a second painful process.
- Am I misremembering any of that? No, but you just made me hungry. I'm starved. I am starved. Sorry.
- Maybe this bridges the two.
- comments I'm not sure but my thought was we did just receive very specific confirmation of our financial
- restraint so maybe there's a little bit of a opportunity to put that directly in either this whereas
- clause or it's on its own but that it relates so it would go right next to it in some fashion that just says hey
- And we found out we could only afford half of what was being sold. I was going to offer that as an operative
- clause later. I think the FSG validated what our suspicions have been. I was going to offer that as
- an operative clause later. But if there's an edit that would fit here, I think that's fine, too. Councillor
- Decker? I think literally in that third sentence when it says not
- In October of 2025, the council voted against the appropriation for a variety of stated reasons. I think
- after North Park property in the fourth line for a variety of stated reasons in that and subsequent meetings.
- And I say for a variety because I think, yes, what Councilor Wilts has raised is a valid concern, but
- I think that I heard a lot of things that night. It was flying out of the walls. And when people asked
- me, why did this thing happen this way? I'd tell, well, there's a whole lot going on there with that
- council and that vote and everybody kind of gets to that point, but that vote became unanimous in that sense.
- Go ahead. To that whereas clause, I just added language that Councilor Deckard cited, which is for a
- variety of stated reasons at that meeting and subsequent meetings. That seems sufficient. Does anybody
- have any objections to that? Councilor Fiddle? We're not going to mention anything about what we heard
- today or that'll be somewhere else. I think that's what Councilor Henry was alluding to is maybe,
- you know, I think
- we could get through the rest of the resolution and figure out where if we find it necessary to bring
- it back here or if we find it in a different spot. I do think that maybe we should spell it out for
- the folks that need to have it spelled out for our things here and just kind of go from there. But that
- is a good point. Yes, Councilor Woods. I just really would really prefer if you switch the two words
- stated in reason so that it.
- Please. I accept that. I know about my problems. I am. I'm sorry. And if you wish major wanted to incorporate
- the FSG presentation, I think you could easily say for a variety of reasons stated at that meeting and
- somewhat subsequent meetings, including the meeting on February 26th or 24th. I don't know the date
- either. 24th of 2026. County Council meeting where FSG made a budgetary presentation.
- or you could do it as a separate class? Yeah, let's get through the rest of this and then we can kind
- of go for it. So I saw one other hand. Is there any more comments on this whereas clause? Yeah, I continue
- to think that it would be better sort of like we were talking about the whereas before and that other
- one about having it all together, the things that apply to this. And I think today's meeting applies
- to that. So I would like to have it all together. I'll continue to.
- advocate for that. Okay. All right. So I have to zoom out a little. The next whereas clause reads in
- October of 2025 the City Council provided the County Council with a letter requesting that the County
- Council not move forward with the purchase of North Park in addition to the letter representative of
- the City Council committed to working alongside the Monroe County Council to find a solution
- And the quoted language was what was stated at the meeting, which was rooted in justice and that meets
- the needs of every residents of Monroe County. Is there any edits to that works close? Yes, I'm not
- questioning what happens with the City Council or what that was. But when we say a representative of
- the Bloomington City Council, we make that sound like they designated that individual to be a rep committing
- to that. I would.
- To be clear, I would just say a member of the Bloomington City Council. Of the Bloomington Common Council.
- Yeah. I agree. Just to be safe. Yeah. We don't want to assume their policies. Oh, sorry. Yes, Councillor
- Henry. Yeah, I can see that being a good clarification. I also just wonder if the second sentence is
- even necessary because one was a matter of public comment.
- And one's a formal communication. I know we just had a discussion about the value of resolutions and
- letters, but that's the way governments communicate with each other. So we had a formal communication
- in the first sentence. The second was a matter of public comment from one of the nine, right? So I'm
- not sure the second one has the weight of the formal letter from counsel, if that makes sense to others.
- Yeah. I guess this is...
- what I remember and what I recall from watching their meeting at the time, they actually discussed this
- and voted on passing this through to present to us. So I think maybe we just need to simplify, like
- we got correspondence with them that have kind of really pinpointed who did what and when. And I can
- give you the rationale as
- to why I included the second sentence. So the letter itself just talks about not purchasing North Park
- and there isn't any reference in there to what I believe is the city's commitment to work with the council.
- That came from the public comment when the letter was presented. And so I think if you delete the second
- sentence, I would suggest some
- reference to the commitment from the city that to work with us. And the only reason I say that is because
- I included that second sentence because under the now therefore clause there is a clause that discusses
- pursuing that partnership.
- So yeah, I would agree. I like the change to member though. Yeah, so you got the member. Okay. No objections?
- The next whereas clause reference Senate Bill 1, what Senate Bill 1 did to residential property taxes,
- personal property taxes, and the reform to local income tax structures that is going to be forthcoming.
- It references Senate bills prohibition on our bonding capacity, which is limited at 25% of its local
- income tax and that the significant changes implemented by this bill of how it impacted our ability
- to move forward with the project. Any questions, comments or concerns on this one? Yes, Councillor Decker.
- Normally it's not me doing this, so I apologize. Trent talks a lot tonight. But I mean, this could be
- a place where we reference confirmation of the FSG presentation because this was the fear. Then he came
- in tonight and he said, your fear was correct. So that could go somewhere in here. And then you kind
- of close the loop. I've said a few times to folks, there's a question of what you can actually do
- versus what you would do if you could do anything. All right. And Councillor Henry. So I would be okay
- with a reference here as long as there's a parallel clause operatively later that references what we
- heard which in my view was the cap, right, because we had a presentation that said here's the finite
- amount on the bond.
- right, so if there are perceptions by those in this building that somehow 257 million is still conceivable,
- I think Mr. Guirata has put that to bed this evening. It might be useful to start the reference point
- here if we're going to add a clause later that suggests this is really the risk tolerance of council.
- Well, and what we heard in our joint meeting too a while back, anything is possible.
- But there's going to be a cost for it. And so that would mean that we'd have to implement a tax, which
- was something that Councilor Williams had mentioned as well. So not that she wanted to tax. No, absolutely
- not. I don't either. So there were adding this is the red language here. I think that.
- This is where former council member McKim would say this is how the sausage is getting made. Sorry.
- So the sentence in red just I placed it at the end of the paragraph and it says the impact of Senate
- Bill one was further confirmed by the financial solutions group presentation at the February 24th, 2026
- Monroe County Council meeting. Yeah.
- going to be further explained what that dollar amount is somewhere. I think the dollar I would like
- to see the dollar amounts. You want that down in there? Where do we going to put that? Well, maybe if
- that is something that you would like to see counselor vital, which I think that is not a bad idea.
- I think maybe we put a pin for that and kind of get through and maybe see where it falls. Exactly. Oh,
- that's fine.
- Yes. I think one way to incorporate that budget amount in the presentation is you could say the impact
- of Senate Bill one was further elaborated on by the Financial Solution Group presentation at the council
- meeting and you could attach the FSG document. We could incorporate the FSG document as an exhibit into
- the resolution. I like that even better. All right. All right. Look at that. Move this train along.
- better than watching the starts in 20 minutes.
- So I added that last sentence. The FSG presentation is attached to this resolution as Exhibit A acknowledging
- there's another Exhibit A and when we get down there I'll fix it. Incorporate it here in and made part
- of this resolution.
- Thank you. Okay. The next whereas clause acknowledges that anticipation of the private settlement agreement
- that being Richardson expiring Mr. Falk, the attorney for the ACLU provided counsel with orders from
- two other federal cases that outline specific benchmarks that the defendants in those cases were going
- to complete those tasks by.
- I'm not seeing any comments. I'm gonna keep moving. So then it's now therefore be it resolved by the
- Monroe County Council that one, the County Council is no longer wishes to consider the North Park property
- for the location of the new facility. I think Mr. Iverson. Yes. I would move to strike this. Delete
- this clause. And would you like to say why? Okay. Well, I didn't know if we were gonna talk about it
- before a second.
- There's two reasons. Number one, the second clause seems to contradict it. It could be read as contradictory.
- And I think we need to keep that in mind. And the second reason is we've all been through the location
- debates before. And the location we thought was not going to be the location became the location. I
- do not want to get into the prediction game. I understand why this clause is here. But I'm also worried
- that we might need it. And if this is in there, that might stymie our efforts.
- but then that would kind of suggest that we might need North Park. And I think. And I like where we
- already have mentioned earlier for various reasons why we decided to say no North Park. I think my personal
- thing would be I want to stick with the idea of since we keep hearing that North Park is coming back
- around the circle is that I would like to express
- That I think we can look at other places and our no to north park Should be abundantly clear Yes, councillor
- decker, so I recognize that the phrase north park is the great Difficult subject area for a lot of folks
- a lot of different reasons, but when I look at this document
- the importance and strength of this document is that we're saying we have to tell Mr. Falk and the public
- that are watching this, that a constitutional care jail matters and that that is a priority of the council.
- So I guess I would question why the number one that we have now, whether or not that stays in, and I'm
- sure the council's gonna debate that in a second, why does that have to be number one? I mean, I get
- that that is a,
- massive point in this contextual time, but we're dealing with a lawsuit that or a private settlement
- agreement that has been going on since 2009 and we're trying to communicate to the other party that
- the most important thing is that we're moving forward with this facility in this kind of new life is
- here with all these situations outlined in the whereas and we
- to do that we're committed to this. Whether or not it stays in or not or just moves down, to me that's
- the prime message I think that has to be sent because this is clearly to illustrate we're not giving
- up on this, we're moving on this. I think that that's what, if that weren't for this, that timeline
- and those things, we would be in a different situation but we're trying to illustrate that even though
- the law change,
- that circumstances change, the council's changed, that despite all that, we are still committed
- to constitutional care. And we want to talk about that to this in the folks on the other side, as well
- as the public. So Henry or Councillor Henry's hand. So I'll go Henry and then I will go to Iverson next.
- So I would agree that the pecking order of where we discuss where the council's desires are doesn't
- have this doesn't have to be the first thing.
- but I would say that the only, there are more consumers of the resolution than just ACLU. One of the
- consumers of this resolution is the board of commissioners who still, or at least some have an impression
- or keep floating an idea that there's viability in this location. Frankly, I wasn't here when you all
- took the vote. I know that some folks might be having heartburn about taking a vote and then two years
- later having to go a different direction.
- It's my view from this seat, I pretty much left a no hole in the wall when we had this vote, that this
- has never been a good solution for this project. For so many reasons, not least of which, uprooting
- the entire economic activity of the court system three miles north. That's how we ended up back in this.
- So some of us have different reasons on that. And I appreciate, again, some people are having some heartburn
- about it, but this is, for me,
- It's almost a non sequitur. It's almost obvious at this point that this is not a space that we would
- be pursuing. And it's not good for the future of the county to close off an interstate exit with a jail
- facility that the plan commission has worked very hard over the past year to down zone so nothing else
- gets built there. There's some other things that went on in that purchase agreement. It's really important
- that, you know, like if we're going to have the debate about north parking, fine, but it doesn't have
- to be the primal
- statement but I don't want to leave a door open on that space when we have an executive session to find
- and found some other opportunities that address the other clauses here that would answer the public's
- overriding concern that facility design for that location is too expensive and a desire to keep the
- justice enterprise close to services and the county seat that is the city of Bloomington.
- I'm okay with moving it down, but I'm not okay with not saying it out loud that we're not for that.
- All right. Councillor Iverson. I'm going to reiterate my motion that we take out number one for the
- rationale that the only clause I think we need is clause number five. I'm going to second that motion
- just so we can take that. Yeah, let's make that decision. Are we to remove or not remove? Okay.
- Sorry. So the motion is to strike clause number one and the rationale is the only clause we need is
- clause number five. It's number five. It's the constitutional care is the overwhelming why we need a
- facility. Is there discussion now? Yeah, because there was a motion and a second. So anybody Council
- fighter, do you have something? So I just want to
- Make sure I understand we're eliminating one through four then, is that correct? No, just one. Just
- what happens two through four? Nothing. We'll discuss in a second. So you're saying that five then we
- will serve the purpose of one. I'm going to make the same motion for the next subsequent ones, but we've
- agreed that we're going to go line by line. Oh, I see. OK, never mind then. I'm with you. Never mind.
- I'm with you. Thank you for bringing me up.
- Any other further question or comment? I'll vote no on it because I feel like for a reason stated with
- Council Henry, what he was saying, I just, again, maybe not the order of how it is initially, but I
- want it to be abundantly clear because we keep hearing people in meetings and commissioners, we've had
- two joint meetings where it's like, tell us more, tell us more. At the end of the day,
- My whole thing is I want this to be spelled out for any kind of questions that I've left remain on unsolved.
- This is it. And so I think that's important to me. And so I'm in favor of keeping this and not striking
- it. Yes, Councilor Williams. So I am part of the motion, meaning that I will support removing this
- from the resolution, because I do think it's important that we move gingerly forward and that this vote
- will likely lay bare how we feel. This discussion is laying bare how we feel. This resolution maybe
- was called for by the commissioners in some senses,
- It's not the result of the commissioners and it's not for the commissioners. And those are the folks
- that I think, you know, y'all are talking to. And so anyway, I've said. Molly, did you have your hand?
- I have a thought that kind of goes toward what Councilor Wilt is saying, but I think that I will save
- it until after the
- Discussion of whether to leave this closet in or out One thing I would just say is I want the best document
- that gets this damn thing done And I want anyone watching this to know that we're committed to getting
- this damn thing done Because we have dragged on forever Part of my frustration counselor final had to
- hear me say this at lunch. But part of my frustration is we had a plan and
- And then everybody started changing the plan and that's fine. That's fine. But one thing about this
- is I would say for anyone observing that live in this county or otherwise, it is abundantly clear with
- problem solving type eyeballs watching that it's not going to be at North Park. We could not resuscitate
- that corpse of a concept. Pardon me. We could not resuscitate that.
- with the best of magic and the holiest of our faiths. So to me, whether one is in there or not, and
- to get council okay with it, I'm probably gonna vote to keep that in there, but that ship has sailed
- so hard that it's crashed into the shore. I am surprised that I hear it, but then again, people come
- to me with all sorts of things on this facility, but again,
- There once was a dream that's called North Park, and it doesn't appear that that dream is going to be
- for this. As Councilor Henry said, it may be other things. So kind of with that in mind, I do want to
- make sure that someone looking at this says, whether it's commissioners or otherwise, we are committed
- to getting this damn thing done. Thanks. I think that's a good point, and I appreciate you saying that.
- I just think to add to that point once before,
- We've heard now twice in our meetings that we all thought North Park was done, and we have heard several
- times that North Park continues to be something that commissioners potentially are still working on,
- even after the purchase agreement is expired, even after our, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- How many more ways can we spell and say no? That's why I'm just advocating for this is I think at the
- end of the day, I definitely, I think all seven of us wanna get it done. I would hope and think that
- all the commissioners wanna have it done. And I don't think this is for them. I think honestly, this
- is more for us because we have talked about this type of resolution for so long in some way,
- shape or fashion. And the community has been asking us because it's been
- you know, charged us balls in your court. What are you doing? And this is the final result of all of
- these things being thrown at us. And it's sticking now. And this is what we're doing. So I appreciate
- those comments there. So all right. So we had a motion and a second to strike item one from this resolution.
- Is there any other questions or comments on this? You have to do public comment.
- I think you can do public comment on the entire resolution. Got it. Okay. All right. So before we vote
- on this, just to be clear again, this motion that Councilor Iverson may and was seconded by Councilor
- Wilt is to strike item one from the resolution. So may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Iverson?
- Yes. Councilor Feidl? No.
- Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. No. Councillor Deckard. No. Councillor Crossley. No.
- Motion passes. No. No. Motion fails. Two to four. Yes, Councillor Deckard. Madam President, I move that
- Item one be moved to bottom of the clauses and remain there despite editing. Second. All right. We got
- a motion and a second to move this to the very end of the resolution. Is there any further discussion
- on this item? Okay. All right. Seeing none, can we please have a roll call vote? I'm catching up. I
- can do the roll call. Councillor Henry.
- Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor
- Feidl? Yes. Who made the second? You. Look at that. Okay. All right. It was unanimous motion passes
- unanimously to move it to the bottom.
- Prior to moving off this clause, now recognizing that it's at the bottom, I did want to offer maybe
- a comment that I think, like a suggestion for council consideration that goes to Councilor Wilts' comments
- about proceeding gingerly. I think you could amend the clause to say the Monroe County Council no longer
- wishes to consider the North Park property
- for the location of the new facility unless there's a substantial change in circumstances. We don't
- know what's going to happen in the future. If I did, I win the lottery and it'd be a different story
- here. But so I I'll be I understand. And I think it is very clear what counsel's position is. But that's
- just a suggestion for consideration. Well, and to that point, though, we can if we don't know it, we
- don't know. And, you know,
- If some catastrophic moment happens where we, I mean, we could come back to revisit that. But the intent
- that it sounds like we want to send a very clear message that I always know on North Park. Anybody else
- have any questions or comments on that? I'm just that's just my opinion that I think, you know, that's
- that's just me, J.C.
- Oh, sorry. And maybe I'll hop in. Yeah, I guess we're doing this. Maybe my only comment on that, I concur.
- And I appreciate the spirit in which that was offered. I think that's a quote that I actually I'd never,
- that's Kate Wills' thing. And I just said it, the spirit in which that was offered. But actually, I
- was kind of in a different direction. Is this an opportunity then to lead with a clause that addresses
- the dollar amount?
- So I mean, there's comment by Councillor Fiddle about where to put the dollar amount. Should we lead
- a clause one here with the dollar amount that FSG had given us this evening? Councillor Wilks. Two things.
- I don't think we should lead with the dollar amount. Because I think, in my opinion, we should lead
- with what we collectively
- ultimately will agree on is the most important point and That well that is the most Maybe important
- reason or at least the Reason that's right here in front of us. It's not the most important point in
- the now therefore as part So I think we should have a
- quick rundown of like which of these or what is our main main point so that we can get to this because
- Molly did an amazing job of laying out as I could think of I don't know how you did that and then and
- then putting together a set of here's here's what we feel and I think that it reflects what we said
- but what's missing is we need to put a point on
- what we're saying. So I guess I'm just asking y'all, what's your most important hill for this resolution
- to say? That made no sense. Yes, Councillor Iverson. The new, yeah, what's highlighted on the screen.
- We all took an oath to defend the constitutions of Indiana and the United States, and right now, this,
- I think, is
- utmost importance that we provide constitutional levels of care for those who are inmates within our
- facilities and within our lives. This is primary. I think everything else can go away. Everything else
- is less than this. This clause of itself talks about needing a location to build a new facility. This
- clause talks about needing the funding
- to build that new facility. This is it. In my humble opinion and my sole opinion, I think this is the
- only clause we need in this section. Would it be helpful that I read the clause that Mr. Iverson is
- referencing?
- I just want to point information first. Clause four that he's referring to, two paragraphs, right? It's
- the one paragraph highlighted. It's in the draft resolution, formally clause five, because we moved.
- Okay. For clarity, I'm going to read the clause.
- The Monroe County Council recognizes that providing constitutional care within the jail facility is
- an utmost priority that must be met and that Monroe County is in need of a new jail facility to provide
- adequate medical care, mental health treatment, classification opportunities, humane living conditions
- and to ensure the safety of inmates and staff within the facility. The Monroe County Council commits
- to funding the construction of a new jail facility, which is what the Richardson lawsuit necessitates
- and funding the staff thereof to ensure that inmates housed within the Monroe County Jail will receive
- said constitutional care. What more do you need?
- Let's say you. No, I'm just asking if anybody. Yes, Councillor Henry. Probably goes without saying that
- the fourth line that I don't think this is a contrary position among all of us that the statement that
- funding the construction of a new jail facility. Now the question is whether or not the Richardson lawsuit
- necessitates that. I don't think it's actually mentioned in Richardson that a
- facility is what's required but we are committing to saying that in this sentence but Mr. King that's
- not a requirement in Richardson it's Mr. Falkas says as much that he's not saying we have to build a
- new Jane so make sure that phrase we're saying that which is fine I think I'm just not sure Richardson
- says that can we be crystal clear on that nitpicky but important
- And I can clarify that sentence. The intent of the sentence was to state that, as Mr. Falk has indicated,
- Richardson addresses the jail. Which is what the Richardson lawsuit, but that clause references to the
- previous, the funding of the construction of a new jail facility. Unless I'm misreading that, I might
- be getting into a crammer here. Does anyone else read it that way? And if that's the case, then it's
- not clear and we gotta be clear.
- I was reading it the way you were reading. I did too. I guess we could get rid of that phrase, which
- is what the Richardson lawsuit necessitates. But I would maybe and I agree number five is the important
- one. I don't know if we voted on that. No, I just I said it very passionately.
- Yeah, well, it sounded like a vote. It was that way. Does anyone else, is there any interest in putting
- a timeline in here? Putting a date or, you know, we commit to fund it, you know, maybe it's on a date,
- maybe, yeah, go ahead.
- It kind of jumped around clauses. But I do think there is a date in clause three and it says no later
- than April 7th of twenty twenty six. I picked that date because that is the last council meeting before
- before the 15th deadline or no. I even highlighted that you don't have a selection of property yet.
- Is it conceivable to have a purchase agreement in 45 days?
- We could possibly meet that. That's not on us. The language says that we'll be working towards. Working
- toward executing. It's not requiring the execution of a purchase agreement because I do think that's
- virtually impossible. We've essentially identified the funding sources tonight. Yep. Yes, Councillor
- Darkin. Well, at one time some of my suggestions that you see in here, I think you see in here, Mr.
- King's better than I am at these things.
- they were meant to illustrate that we were moving towards things and giving us kind of the urgency of
- the situation. I mean, we've sat at a round table in the middle of that room and we've heard from different
- parties as well as ourselves why a commitment to those is important. I think five is the current five
- that Councillor Iverson talked about. I do think it's important. I just worry at times
- that it sounds very consistent with where generally every council and commissioner has been since 2009.
- I mean, they all had a dream to do it. And I know that when you get detail, you get issues that can
- become part of other things. I know that. I get that. I've heard that from numerous people repeatedly.
- But I also know that the dude on the other side who is
- literally been in this private settlement agreement since 2009, he's looking for a bunch of politicians
- to do something on this. And whether you like North Park or not, or this side, or where at, or city
- council thinks or not, he just wants to make sure that, not to speak for him, but this is the gist I
- took, he doesn't care. I said to him at one point, and some of you recall this, I think I've said it twice,
- You know, the General Assembly keeps messing in our kitchen here so we can't serve dinner. Do you want
- to add them as a party? And he basically was like, I get it. They're problematic. But you took the oath,
- brother. And so I think that for me, when I think about both site selection, maybe a reference to best
- possible towards death, that's why I kind of wanted that in there so that you're showing
- I'm not just saying, yeah, of course, this is a resolution, we love this, but that we have it. So that's
- where my worry is. I don't know, do you say, do you reference some of that into five so that you're
- showing your own teeth? Because I worry that if it's too bland, it's like, well, of course you want
- to build one. You're no different than whoever took the oath in your seat in 2010.
- Are you saying that we should put the timeline? I think that you, he's, our ultimate deadline's what,
- April 14th? 15th. 15th, tax day. The private lawsuit, the private settlement agreement expires on April
- 15th. Now, do I know if Mr. Falk is going to file a new lawsuit on April 15th? No, could he? Yes, it
- just depends on communication between
- which consists of inmates. I do know inmates have requested a letter to send back to Mr. Falk, but I
- don't know the nature of those communications. So can I say April 15th is the day we get sued? No. I
- just think you've got to show the advance of that. We're trying to move quick, which, you know, I know
- we can't talk about everything out in the world, but I think there are entities in this county trying to do
- many of these things to get this moving again. I'll go Wilt and then I'll come back to Henry.
- First question, does everything that we do to this have to be done through a motion? Or can I just ask
- for like consent on an idea that way we don't have to burden with the whole roll call vote? And if it
- gets like obvious disagreement, like I felt like we had some disagreement we needed to clarify earlier, but
- in that sphere, if you think that's okay. I was gonna say, as long as staff can keep up with... Our
- staff left. I think it is clear with a motion, but I don't think a motion is required. Okay. I am going
- to suggest that acknowledging that we still have work to do on wording or moving around, that we make
- current number four
- up to the top at number one. So it is a very clear statement of, hey, we recognize that we got to do
- something followed by the one that has the date in it. So put number four first and followed by the,
- on our drafts, it's five and four.
- So that we immediately then get to that, hey, and this is what we're going to do. We saw that we had
- some benchmarks. And then I would like to strengthen that language. But for right now, it makes sense
- to me to go ahead and put what used to be the last paragraph first, because it's so important, followed
- by something that contains some detail, meat, something on the how. OK. I consent.
- and then I'm gonna go to Councillor Henry. Yeah, thanks. I'm gonna withdraw. I think we just made some
- progress there. Okay. And Ms. Turner-King. I guess I'm just waiting for guidance on do you want me to
- cut this and move it to the top? Yes. Actually, I remember.
- All right. So it actually was related to what Mr. Hurricane was talking about. So I mean, we're speculating
- on what happens on April 16th. Isn't it also possible that a current inmate would straight of process
- to claim a constitutional violation that this sheriff can investigate and try to resolve, or maybe the
- sheriffs didn't in 2009? I mean, it's not necessarily that it goes right to court. It could trigger
- the whole administrative process again, where a
- find a new variety of things. And so we're not really talking about April 16th at that point. It's working
- through the legal process that is under the administrative process before we get to litigation. Isn't
- that also a possibility? I mean, I think, yes, I do think there is a process that inmates would have
- to follow when alleging violations. There's an internal grievance policy.
- I cannot say right now where if there's a complaint in that grievance policy, where that complaint is
- at in that grievance policy, and if that complaint results in a lawsuit. If I had a magic ball that
- predicted when we're going to get sued, I would definitely be sharing that date, but I don't have that
- magic ball. I'm just saying that the 16th is a possibility, but there are a lot of other. There's a
- lot of possibilities. We're very much speculating after the 15th is what I'm getting at.
- Councilor Becker. When I would just say, depending on the nature of the complaint, and I think some
- of us have heard this from the sheriff, some of us have heard this on the tour with Mr. Fogg, depending
- on the nature of the complaint, there are things for which a sheriff can do and things for which if
- the sheriff could do them, they'd already been done. So just depending on that, and depending on what
- a council would say to their party,
- that could quickly get guided. So I think that that date is a really live environment for those things.
- Without instructing people myself, that, yeah. Okay, so I've amended it so that what was formerly clause
- five in the draft is now clause one. Before moving on to the new number two, are you
- all okay and I just want to make sure with the highlighted sentence that there might have been concern
- about whether the language that reads which is what the Richardson lawsuit necessitates needs to be
- there. Do you want me to remove that which is what Richardson necessitates? And I think that all depends
- on if you think that clause is modifying the construction of the new jail facility. It's the cleanest
- cut from my seat otherwise we have to
- qualify by saying this is what the council thinks answers that. So I think it's just better to cut it.
- I agree. Cut it. And we had also agreed to move number four to be right after. Is that correct? Where
- we talked about the date? Yeah.
- Because I think that might have been where Molly was going next. Yeah. I moved number. I moved the last
- clause. And now the question is, do you want to move this highlighted clause to two? OK. Both parts.
- So on this one, I view
- that last sentence is almost like a checklist, right? Actively work toward executing purchase agreement,
- identify funding source, I guess it's two check boxes. So I feel like if that whole sentence is about
- the momentum that Councilor Decker described, right? But is not, but it's, oh, it's,
- not restrictive in a way that forces us to have it all figured out by the seventh. It's that
- we're identifying the source and working toward the execution of. I'm comfortable with that. I'm hopeful
- others are. Yes. And I would also point out the exhibit A, I think the new exhibit A, which is this
- document FSG showed tonight, lists out the funding sources.
- Bostiff? Maybe not. But there's enough here where FSG thinks that we can have an estimated bond size
- of 135 million to 117 million. Exhibit A reaches what was being said here. Anybody else have any questions
- or comments? Yes, Councillor Wilks. Move your microphone, please.
- Okay, we are now in the No, we aren't We're not doing the one that god. This is so hard to read it.
- We kind of skipped around When we get to the one that references the other lawsuits, let me know. I
- Don't think we're there yet, right? We're there we are well
- that we're debating whether to move up to the second one, it incorporates an exhibit. The second paragraph
- of that clause. Got it. So in that, is there any interest in instead of incorporating with the exhibit
- the big long pile of ruling, couldn't we just cut out the two lists of benchmarks that we're talking about?
- And so that, because it took me a little bit of time to sort through and be like, where are the benchmarks?
- And it just would make it clearer. And then we could say, hey, and these are the things we're going
- to do. I like that idea. I agree. That would be a good point. Yes. The Word version, I could do it real quick.
- Oh, I have a second version that incorporates the benchmarks in preparation for this exact thought.
- So give me two seconds. Molly, you're amazing. So all the while we do this, I would just like to kind
- of make a general comment of is this accomplishing the goals that we want to have happen here? You know
- what I mean? Are we drifting apart and getting way too specific and
- not leaving ourselves any wiggle room, and how will this impact any potential lawsuit in the future?
- What will that do to us if all this is written down? Yes, Councilor. That was my argument, is that the
- only thing we need is the first clause. And I think Mr. Deckard very eloquently stated the opposing
- side of that, that we have very eloquently been saying, we're gonna do something for a long time, and
- it's time to put some teeth to it.
- I'm just worried about the coming back to bite us part, right? Will this document ever be able to come
- back and bite us should things not go well and we don't get where we need to be by April 7th or 15th
- or whatever? I mean, even if we don't, it's not like, I guess, with the April 15th deadline, if it comes
- and goes, are we just supposed to stop working?
- Um, no, I think we have to, you know, obviously still keep going and moving forward. Right. So I think
- adding the benchmarks and personally, I just think being specific.
- of what it is that we are trying to accomplish because people have been looking at us. We've gotten
- lots of emails, phone calls. I've seen meetings where people are asking. I was in an interview last
- fall with Commissioner Thomas and Mr. Spoonmore for the Greater Chamber of Commerce where it's been
- mentioned to us several times that the ball is in our court. I think as the fiscal body, we have a lot of
- responsibility that we don't realize we have until this very moment and so for us to be very clear and
- to spell it out for people and to express this is what you know people have been asking us for and been
- on council since December of 21 this is the closest that I've ever seen us really try to
- get to this point where council has really kind of set the tone for a lot of things. I think we all
- had intentions of doing things by way of CJRC and JPEC and all the other acronym meetings that we have
- here in the county. But this specific moment that we were in right now, there's a call and now we have
- to respond. And so do I think anything could be held against us? I mean, our words can, but
- this document, this is spelling out specifically what it is that we are looking to do. And some of these
- recommendations have come from JFAC and other different types of things. So I think this to me, like,
- ooh, I'm gonna say it, mission accomplished with, I just said it, with what it is that we are attempting to do.
- as the fiscal body of the county council. I just am interested to know about any potential ramifications,
- that's all. I think that all possibilities are endless. But my goal is, like I've said before in previous
- meetings, and I know some people are, you know, think I'm a, or maybe I'm a positive patty autocrat,
- I don't know. But what I do know is that I think
- despite whatever happens when April 15th comes and goes, we still, I just want to keep going. I feel
- the same way. But I just want to prevent any potential bad things that could happen to the county as
- a result of what some of this may or may not say. And I think, you know, to Councillor Deckard's point
- earlier, we kept, you know, we've been in this since 2009. And so we, you know,
- lots of things have happened since then. But that being said, I think inactions had led us to this point,
- and this is the most that I've seen any council kind of really get to action. And so I think
- the ramifications is,
- You know, we got the information back in January of this is what's happening. This is how this is going
- to be. And we did nothing. But I would make the argument of we are doing something, which is sitting
- here almost four and a half hours into our evening and really trying to get to the meat and potatoes
- of how we progress forward and how we're sending the message. So that's my strong standpoint on that.
- I'm definitely interested in action. I don't want to imply that at all. Oh, of course. Listen. I don't know.
- One thing I'll just say generally as kind of an observation commentary before we go to wherever we're
- going next, but a lot of times in our comments, and I'm guilty of it, others here, I think I recall
- you doing it too, but I'll just say I'm guilty of it, we will go back to whoever didn't do what over
- the years to remedy this. Even when I came into office, people were kind of like,
- You know, that one is whatever. And I would say on this issue, because of that, sometimes we always
- cast stones that way. And sometimes there's great things with that, and sometimes there's not. I'll
- say on this particular issue, it kind of reminds me of sometimes when people talk about a reason they
- wouldn't give a raise to someone. They're like, well, right now it's not good because of this.
- And then later, not good becomes something else, and something else, and something else.
- I think there were always in this county a lot of good reasons not to do anything. I think we're now
- hitting a point in current events where the not doing anything because of the circumstances and many
- others starts to become exceedingly convenient. And I think that probably every county is going through
- this on a different scale with some project or or whatnot.
- I think because of that, there's even more focus on us. Because if you haven't done it for a variety
- of reasons before, now under the pressure, the only thing that will get you to do it is to hold you
- accountable in a court of law for constitutional care.
- And so we all talk about values and things like that. However, this ends up tonight, I think that that's
- kind of the paradigm that we're under on constitutional care. What will you get done for those folks
- in there versus what you will not do? And that's part of why we're being held to something where we're
- trying to figure out what communicates best to all entities.
- I did edit that was the previous clause and referenced the incorporation of the federal cases. And so
- now it reads the Monroe County Council recognizes that the federal cases provided by Mr. Kinfolk and
- referenced in the whereas clauses above outline the following benchmarks. And then there's the benchmarks
- listed within the federal cases. And then I did not change, I removed all the previous language.
- left the last sentence which says the Monroe County Council commits to working in conjunction with the
- Monroe County Commissioners, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and the Monroe County Board of Judges
- along with other justice stakeholders to develop a plan that establishes a timeline for completion and
- for clarity. I'm going to add of these benchmarks. Scroll up. Once you got it.
- that I can get all of the edited language in there without making it smaller. So where are we at as
- far as what remains besides what you've just read? If you don't mind, I just want to take a look at
- these clauses you added, if we can just pause here for a second. Yeah.
- Do we understand the word facility to mean the same thing as jail? Is that consistent? Because I just
- want to be clear that when we say facility, we're talking about jail, which is the ACLU's, that's the
- purpose of why, that's what we're under, right? I mean, so it's a consistency question about what building
- type we're talking about. Does that make sense? It does, but I'm gonna,
- clarify that in the use of facility in there that's a copy and paste of the benchmarks that are in the
- federal case that was previously incorporated. The second question that I have is and maybe this is
- more of a style thing but I mean we refer to the attorney and not the organization that has brought
- suit against the county. Is there value in saying ACLU Indiana as opposed to referencing the attorney?
- I appreciate he's a significant
- I referenced the attorney just because he's the individual who handed me those cases. So in this case
- you're saying that that makes sense but like we have referenced Falk and other places where it really
- is ACLU Indiana, right? I mean in the whereas clause it acknowledges that Mr. Falk's the attorney for
- the ACLU. Would your reference in Mr. Falk
- because of the benchmarks that he. He's the one who emailed me the cases that I was going to incorporate.
- Got it. Okay. Okay. Any other questions, comments or concerns on this item? Are we going to reorder
- this so that it's below clause one? This is the new clause two.
- If you if that's the direction you're providing me, didn't yes. Yeah, we had it. Yeah, we had agreed
- on that. We direct you. It's very direct. Right. That's what happens after nine o'clock. OK, so I'm
- going to go. Clock one used to be four and we're OK with how it reads. Clause two is now what used to be
- I don't remember what number in the original draft but we just moved it up. Are there any other additional
- edits to clause two? The new clause two. Anybody? Do you want me to read it or? Thank you.
- My dream world. I would be more specific but I don't feel like there's an appetite for that in my
- when you say specific what on dates and but I feel like and I respect others who don't want to be you
- like that's a separate document okay yeah because there there are benchmarks we can commit to as a council
- we cannot necessarily assure that the other partners and I agree with mr. Henry's point which is why
- that last clause says that you'll work in conjunction because I think some of those benchmarks are out
- of council control
- So the first paragraph in clause two acknowledges that there are two explicit, there are two benchmarks
- explicitly that require council approval and those benchmarks are the financing for the project and
- the execution of the purchase agreement. But that latter one isn't just council. I know. Those are the
- two that do require us but that number two differs from number one in that it really requires another
- body as well.
- Correct, which is why it says council actively work towards the execution of a purchase agreement.
- All right. So moving on, moving on, we have not discussed what is now the current three. It talks about
- council evaluating properties and then that properties currently owned by Monroe County within
- the geographical vicinity, which
- is close to the current justice facilities and service providers will be considered as possible locations.
- Are there any concerns, edits to that? Clause. Anybody? It's probably fine, but that last sentence is
- where I believe we have an opportunity to honor the concerns of
- not just internal stakeholders, but the public. We get very close to the idea with that with the phrase
- public interest. There's been a lot of public interest, and what's in the public interest is maybe an
- opportunity to acknowledge that that external input, because I mean, it's my view that this whole part
- of why we're in this position today is that we had funneled
- who the stakeholder set was, which is always dangerous once you start excluding stakeholders. I've always
- believed stakeholders are stakeholders, whether you think they are or not, and a lot of the agita in
- the community came from people being excluded at a certain point. There's something about that. I think
- public interest is enough, or public interest of citizens. I wonder if there's some stronger language
- to honor that we heard people.
- and verbs at this moment, but I'm curious if others share that thought. I feel like that's encapsulated
- in that sentence. I'm sorry, Mr. Decker. No, go. That's all I needed to say. Okay. Councillor Decker.
- I understand kind of that sentiment there. One thing that I'll just offer is that when a new site emerges,
- it will have those who support it and those who disagree with it.
- And that's why I say there's always a reason people, this is a hard thing that we're dealing with. This
- isn't an ice cream stand or a scholarship announcement. This is a thing that is a very, it is what it
- is. And I just say that, I say that because we're gonna have to buckle up because it is, the public
- interest on this will,
- change and who is happy today will be unhappy tomorrow and it will be difficult. And I think that's
- incorporated in there just as in a lot of these different discussions. Various things have been shaped
- over time. That will continue with whatever site it is. What was once good will become not good. I mean,
- it's just going to be what it's been. Every site we've had has had what I call an El Dorado moment where
- people said, yes,
- And then later, oh, I can't even believe that. And that will happen again and again. So yes, you try
- to incorporate as much of that as possible, but at the end of the day, there will be some hard way to
- define this. Well, being one of the former stakeholders that tried to guide that during CJRC as a stakeholder
- in the room, I appreciate that thought. But it's the funneling that got us here.
- So of course, we're always going to find someone who doesn't like its proximity. It's just my firm belief
- that the moment we close the door even on this council where decision making is being made by unelected
- persons on the size scope and floor, that's where we lost the narrative with the public. But I'm okay
- with Councillor Iverson's observation if he feels it's sufficient to leave it.
- Yes, Councillor. I have a suggestion. This is the location clause. About taking clause number five and
- appending it into this clause. Keeping location stuff together. We keep constitution stuff together.
- I actually like that a lot. Yeah, good call.
- Highlighting it in red, not that the closet changed, but its place did. I said I highlighted it in red
- so it's easier to find that we moved it there. OK, I see it. OK. So I would. Yes, I don't know. Again,
- revisiting that price point, I mean, Mr. Iverson said, hey, the exhibit says 117 through 135 or whatever from SFG.
- So just as that phrase indicates a specificity, and I do think this, I mean, I don't know how others
- feel about this on council, but I do believe from my understanding, what was reported in the media when
- you all took the vote in October of 24, that you did not expect that in February of 25, the bill came
- back at 257. And I might be wrong, but as a, you know, just citizen at that point,
- I think that was surprising to a lot of people, and we have tried a few times as counsel to signal our
- risk tolerance that that number has been a problem. In fact, when we submitted our version of the edit
- plan to the Board of Commissioners, we tried to lower that dollar amount to pretty much what FSG just
- told us, almost to the nickel, almost, 125, whatever.
- We've tried to signal this a few times, right, that we were anticipating this and it turns out we were
- validated this evening. Is this the place to say that, to say, look, there is sort of a, it's not the
- ceiling, but anything beyond a certain dollar amount, we can't have a plan that comes back a few months
- from now that's a 200 million when we just heard that we really can't bond for it. I would hate for
- DLZ to design a new facility that is over cost.
- Should we not say the number in this resolution? Two thoughts. I'm not opposed to it. But number one,
- it bears pointing out that the numbers are estimated lit numbers. We do not know the concrete number,
- so it's an estimate. Number two is a good one. I lost it.
- I actually got so distracted by that first point that they are estimates. We need to keep that in mind
- and I think they're already in there by reference. Yeah, as the exhibit. I think it's good.
- I think it's good. I would just add for considering a
- Consideration during this conversation that bonding capacity changes the 25% cap is not forever more
- It's true as well Because I have to say I mean this respectfully I know that's the opinion of other
- people in County legal. I know some folks in County legal Asserted repeatedly this that the 257 is a
- number that we can sustain and If they really believe that they need to run to sit up here and make
- that decision
- There's a big difference between being able to say that from the sidelines and being up here. I don't
- believe that's your position there, Mr. Henry King, but I know it's shared by others in that office.
- So having said that, our job is to be able to maintain the totality of what we bring in revenue. Some
- of us went to AIC, right?
- heard our estimates from our organization saying that we're going to need half of that lit just to keep
- revenue neutral. I went through this before. I mentioned key lime pie last time. If we were saying something
- like 30% is going to be necessary to meet the bond, which we now know is not the case. In fact, it's
- not going to be a 19 million bond debt service. We just heard that tonight. We also need to think about
- everything else that we have to pay for in the county.
- So it's one thing to say, oh, you know, that number can change and we can accommodate that. But relative
- to everything else, which includes COLA for our employees, which includes maintenance of, I mean, so
- we're not in a place where we can say, I think, with any confidence.
- that our revenue is going to be, that we can meet that number. If we came back and here's the 250 million
- plan again and say, well, you know, you could, but relative to other things. So we have to throttle
- that or else we will not have resource for 20 years to do anything else in the county if we have an
- emergency at risk. And that's just the view I have. Yeah, good point. Councillor Wilts. I recognize
- that you are correct. It's not going to be percent.
- And for clarity and legislative update, as we go along, it just got passed. It's twenty twenty nine.
- So our capacity will change in twenty twenty nine. Well, we have to figure out stuff now is the is our
- problem. And I mean, now, as in like this coming month would be ideal. And to Councillor Henry's point,
- it reminds me a whole lot when
- we were buying a house and told we could afford X, right? And everybody, and this was back in the day,
- but everybody's like, oh, you can afford to spend this much on your house. And you start looking around
- and you're like, but I would love to be able to put curtains on the windows, you know? It makes you
- house poor. And what we're saying here, and this is actually, I'm glad you're using this analogy.
- I'm sorry, I'm getting excited. I had all that Snickers or whatever we're handing around here.
- But this is a serious point, right? Because we could buy the house, but in terms of prevention
- and restorative justice programs and diversion programs and things that keep it empty, we will not have
- the resource to do that. So we will build it and have a very not justice center the way that we think
- about it. I mean, we do need to reserve back on that to think about other ways to put that money to
- work. I can't max out the credit card on it. I mean, that's it.
- I don't know, so I guess we're back to is this the place to say it explicitly or is it the sentiment
- of my peers here that the exhibit does the job without saying here's your number? Yeah. Yes, Councillor
- Decker. Well, and one thing I believe, by the way, the house poor kind of reference really resonates
- with me because pre-financial crisis, I mean, good heavens, you could walk in with no work and the things
- they would guarantee.
- And it was creepy. It was creepy. But that said, I think here's another thing that we have to be kind
- of circulating really heavily through our brains on this, is we've heard from our entire justice system,
- not just the jail, that wherever you end up, you have to have operational costs that truly understand,
- even though I'm not sure folks necessarily
- believe we'll ever fully understand how you operate the other portions of the system that are not in
- the jail and make that work. And the operational costs to do that, what that looks like, how that is,
- et cetera. And whether we're in a phased status where you're operating
- right now jail's here and we're doing this where you're in a accelerated phase status or really super,
- we're trying to replace co-location with as close to co-located, whatever it is, it's going to have
- a cost because we've been in a co-location system since 1986, approximately, maybe longer. And so it's
- gonna, there's a factor to that that you, we're gonna have to have the wiggle room
- to respond to it, just like tonight, the entire night has been wiggle room as elections change, court
- administration changes, grants change, and that's just one night. So anyway, I just want to throw that
- into the mix because there's a lot of folks watching who want to make sure that we're not losing sight
- of that in the scheme of things. How do you operate that beyond?
- Are we in agreement that I cannot, readers and I can't see anything anymore. Sorry. No, no, no,
- you're fine. And the screen is just too far away for me. Are we in agreement that the exhibit of what
- was presented to us today clears this up? Just to reference, I know there's a strike through with the
- word exhibit up above. It's still there, right?
- That just strikes exhibit what was B. That was the federal case exhibit. The exhibit referencing FSG's
- presentation is incorporated within the whereas clauses. Got it. All right. Thank you. Okay. So it seems
- like everybody is good to go with the exhibit being the tangible concrete evidence of the amount. Okay.
- So. Then I think there's just one. Excuse me. One last clause that we haven't talked about.
- Which is the clause that says the council pursue opportunities with its local government colleagues
- at the city to advance selection Zoning and purchase of a property for the purpose for the purpose of
- constructing a new facility And we continue to rely on said partnerships to further design and construction
- of the new facility. Yep The only thing i'll add to this is I know council hawk has said this repeatedly
- that you know, there's
- They're not so new anymore, considering they're in year three, but we have new administration in the
- city as well as majority new council on city council as well. I have shouted this from all the meetings
- from CJRC, JFAC, even gone to city council, even had city council meetings with city council representatives.
- Like they want to help assist with us understanding that this is
- our project. However, we always talk in both city and county about how great we are at collaboration.
- And as the kids say, call Cap on that. This is the moment right now.
- that we can do this together, just like we did everything with the CIB and look at how the convention
- center got moving and look how fast that's moving as opposed to what's been sitting in front of us since
- 2009. If we take egos out, that is as big as this building.
- and really get it back down to size, I truly believe in my little five foot heart that if we work with,
- if we truly want to work with city, and I do believe that the city wants to work with us, that we can
- make this happen. And that's all I'll say about that. Yes, Councillor Henry. Thank you. And thank you
- for that. I I'll just say it because I think I think this is being offered in in goodwill.
- The last phrase to further design and construction of the new facility, is it meant to suggest that
- the City Council would have input into design? It's one thing to say selection zone purchase because
- by all means we're going to need variances and the like if it isn't city limits but that design and
- construction I'm just curious what others may think about it. That's a good point.
- You're in those city council meetings. That room is teal and I don't like the color of it. The whole
- building is weird now. You get what I'm saying. I don't know what we're saying. Are we offering up something
- that we really don't need to and that we just need to just say that they are our partners and we want
- to work with them with the zoning and planning part? I think you could change design and construction
- to say we'll continue to rely on said partnerships to further progress on the new facility. Or just
- say take out the whole. Or do you just take out the everything from two all the way down to facility
- and just keep said partnerships? Because that's the intent is to just be partners. The kiss method.
- That's the last whereas clause. So I don't know if you want me to read this. It is displayed and we
- were doing all the edits live or you want to add things that are in there or? So Council, as we have
- gone through all of this, is there any further adds? Yes, Councillor Henry. No further adds. I would
- just say I think this is a good compromise document.
- that in being here and also my observations as a person that's lived here during this entire ordeal
- that we are the closest we've gotten. I know I provided in my notes a rather robust resolution. And
- that's just my style. But I think there are opportunities to revisit some ideas here. We're going to
- be in a period of a few years regardless once shovels are in the ground where
- We have an inner inner regnum here of trying to get folks moved and taken care of. We do have I think
- after tonight I mean we learned that our resources are going to get thinner over the next few years.
- But there is also an opportunity to really lean into some of the values that I know others of this body
- had tried to get into the original design of prevention programs and other programs to if we're going
- to build the facility to try to keep it empty.
- Right. And so while I don't think they fit in this resolution I do think that we should really think
- about ways we can use the edit and resources we have to put it to the test that if our partners in the
- community are saying a moonshot funding of prevention programs may help to reduce incarceration we should
- try for that.
- especially in light that we've had legislation now moving through the General Assembly this evening
- while we're sitting here that criminalizes homelessness. It's going to the governor's desk. We're going
- to be five years from now looking at a facility that may be housing people very differently. So I'll
- just end it there to say this is a good start, but I will maybe hold some of my language back for future
- I hate to say it, Councillor Decker, resolutions, because that's the way governments communicate that
- may express the will of council to fund some of these programs that really our partners are saying we
- need in the community. Thank you for that. Appreciate that. And yes, Councillor Pio. So I'm wondering
- about Mr. Falk and will he be receiving a copy of this? Or is that the intent? Or what do we think about that?
- If the council wishes for me to distribute it to Mr. Falk, I am glad to email it to him tomorrow. Would
- you take out the red line part? Yes, the red line was for tracking purposes of the meeting, so I'll
- take out the. He could get an update of this is what we've is that necessary?
- We could deliver it to Mr. Falk via email but I have a sneaking suspicion he's probably watching these
- meetings and is going to be aware of what you did even if you don't send it to him. Yeah. I think that's
- kind of what I was thinking. Yes, Councillor Decker. I would say that were you done? Did I cut you off?
- No, you I don't want to cut I was just gonna say I just think in an attempt to be really Communicative
- about this with him. I think it would be a good professional thing to do. That's all I was gonna finish
- with I Would jump on that with counselor vital and say that would show the county being
- upfront with where you're at and proactive. And I think it could be communicated with the spirit of
- that. I think council, there's a respect between Mr. Falk and council based on what I picked up. And
- much like when Lisa Ridge goes up to NDOT, you send your best person to do that. But I think that can
- be communicated. The other thing I'll say is this. I had a lot of comments earlier about resolutions.
- Resolutions are only as good as what happens next.
- for Mr. Falk, he's watched a process already by which we got to the edge of something. He now wants
- to see the movie that looks like that with this script and all the other parties there. So I just,
- I wanna be, I want us to be mindful of that because it doesn't just end with this. This is a process
- that goes on and we have to listen to how others within our own county and by both the public
- and the other officials begin to react to this. And I know we've all heard little things here and there
- already, but like this is this is now a doing thing. Yeah, and I guess I could get on board with us
- delivering something because again, this is again showing
- progress and what it is that we are doing that we're not sitting here dwindling until, you know,
- April 15th. Lots of good things happen in April, which is my birthday. But, you know, that being said,
- like we are delivering like. And it is the county council who is really
- Like we are really sitting here five, almost five hours in now and really trying to make an effort to
- say this is what we are trying to do here. So yeah, yes. Can I do a point of information just to know
- we're at six out of seven of us. The roll call on this, if we adopt this tonight, which I assume that's
- where we're heading, that roll call is going to show six.
- And one not here unless she's online. I don't I don't know counselor hot. My recommendation is that
- we not only adopt this time, but it come back to the top for adoption. So the a admit a new copy of
- this could go with all seven counselors because I wouldn't want to send any signal that this is not
- where this council's at.
- And if it's not where the council's at, I think that's something that has to be articulated on the public
- because, again, we're all rowing on this together. I agree. And no, she is not online. I thought she
- was, but she's not. Anybody else have any final questions, comments or concerns? Okay.
- He made a motion with it was a discussion and possible approval. Right. So we should need a motion to
- adopt. First, I think you need a motion to adopt all the changes that we made because we made all those
- amendments and ultimately we said we would
- adopt them all in one motion. So I think you should do a motion to amend the document as reflected by
- the conversation and on screen. And then if you're going to move to adoption, you would take public
- comment. Right. That's that's kind of where I was getting. Of course, obviously, I think we got folks
- here that might have have public comment and then we definitely have some online. So, yeah, so.
- Council I move to adopt all the changes that we made to this document as displayed on the screen second
- All right. We got a motion and a second to Adopt the changes on screen any additional further questions
- or comments All right We can do this by voice vote To make the amendments. Yes. Okay. All right. So although
- Those in favor of approving the resolution as amended signify by saying aye. All those opposed,
- same sign. Okay. Motion carries. Council, I move to adopt the updated resolution 2026-02. Is that zero?
- We got a motion and a second, and the second was by Councilor Decker. All right. Any last final comments
- or questions from Council on this?
- Okay. Seeing none. Um this is the time for the public to, um, make your comment on our resolution as
- presented. Um and amended. So this is your time to speak. So if you have time to speak, you can come
- forward to the lectern here in the night.
- up to three minutes and three minutes only. And so if you want to also raise your hand via Teams, you
- can do so as well. Yes. Prior to Miss Wilson providing public comment, do you want me to stop sharing
- so that? Yeah, yes. Thank you. But again, if you are on Teams and you want to make public comment, go
- ahead and raise your hand and we'll alternate back and forth between our room here and via Teams.
- So welcome. Hi. Good evening.
- My name is April Wilson. I live in Bloomington, and I'm a Monroe County resident. Although I work for
- the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office, I wish to be clear that all statements made herein are my own
- and made in my personal capacity. I really appreciate the discussion tonight around this resolution.
- However, it remains honestly unclear how the resolution will help solve the problem. Respectfully, the
- problem is at North Park,
- And the problem isn't funding. Funding goes to the scope of the project. Respectfully, it's also not
- the fact that there is a lawsuit. The lawsuit is a symptom. The problem is that there is about 230 souls
- in a building down the street from us, and they will continue to be in that building when all of us
- go home tonight. And there has been a report in front of this council, in front of this government,
- that has shared that it's not providing constitutional standards of care.
- Now the question of cost came up several different times tonight in a lot of different capacities, and
- I want to come back to that. Whether the county takes action or fails to take action, there will be
- a cost. The question is what that cost, how much is going to be, and at whose expense? Failure to build
- a jail has been a cost borne by some of the most vulnerable in our community.
- On December 29, 2025, Ken Falk said, I cannot in good conscience agree to extend the PSA for another
- year at this point, as doing so would make me complicit in allowing conditions to continue that are
- obviously dangerous and unacceptable. Respectfully, this problem is not gonna be solved with resolutions.
- At the end of the day, it's gonna be solved by a county council and commissioners that are gonna sit
- down and jointly work together to start making tough decisions.
- Resolutions don't have to be the only way that governments communicate. It's not just identifying benchmarks,
- it's about meeting them. I remain hopeful, as you know, I remain hopeful that the council will take
- concrete and meaningful steps to start addressing these dangerous and unacceptable conditions that are
- affecting members of our community. And I respectfully request that you please move forward and please
- build a constitutional jail. Thank you.
- Okay. Are there any takers here in the night? You Hill room. How about online via teams? Please raise
- your hand. Okay. All right. And so seeing no more takers here in the night, you know,
- Councillor Wilz. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Cronin. Yes. Councillor
- Iverson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Yes, Ms. Turner-King. With the passage of this motion, I just want to
- for the guidance do you want me to send this to mr. Falk tomorrow via email or do you want to wait to
- readopt it at the next council meeting so full council will be included on the signature page assume
- well not full council so that the signature page will reflect councilmember Hawks vote could we say
- to him that this is like
- because she had she left early could we just go ahead and send it and then once we circle back here's
- a completion of what we've done with all seven signatures should she sign on to it I'll send him an
- email clarifying that six members were present and that this will be reconsidered by the seven the full
- council at the next meeting got it okay thank you
- And also as a clarification, because I think I've heard a lot of times that sometimes what we do here
- on Tuesday night does not get met or a clear message gets sent to the commissioners. Is there anything
- that we need to do to send to them to let them know this is what we've done? I know we've had some online,
- but just because they are doing it online, I would like to formally do it.
- Because I watch meetings online too, but that's a more of an informal thing I think the idea is I've
- heard them say in meetings They didn't know certain things and so this is no excuse now to say that
- they don't know Now, you know by way of delivery If this the council's wishes I can make sure I can
- email the commissioners a copy of the resolution to
- as an alternative, there is a commissioners meeting on Thursday where it can be provided to commissioners.
- It just depends on what the wishes of the council is. And I personally am not going to go to any like at 10 a.m.
- when all of us really have lots of things to do at 10 a.m. I think this is a cleaner way of just sending
- an email and therefore there is a copy that is being sent to them and they have it and it is acknowledged
- by way of saying it here.
- while they are watching or like live or we'll watch later and by way of email too. Okay. All right.
- Thank you very much. Yes. I'm just wondering if I could request that the full council receive a copy
- of what we just adopted as a resolution as well. Yeah, of course. All right. Well, thank you all for
- that. Okay.
- So last but not least, we are on council comment and liaison updates as well. So because it has been
- a very long night. Of which again, this is something that we knew was going to happen, and I appreciate
- that. So that being said, I'm going to start down here to my left and just keep on going. I'm ready.
- Okay, I'm color coded and ready to go. Let's go.
- So I keep getting conflicting remarks about House Bill 1359, which is the early voting issue,
- 28 to 16, that's part of it. And as others have said before, it's still going to be put under something
- else, even if that one fails. So until all the votes are in, so to speak, we won't know about that for
- a while. But I'm very concerned about that.
- I've been working with numerous constituents regarding their snow plow service and the lack thereof.
- I'm still very concerned about the 60 neighborhood situations, which doesn't include their roads being
- plowed and road service being done where they live in our area. I think that one of the main things
- I think about now is the fact that everyone probably pays
- gas tax and as I understand that is the funding where these services come from they're not getting their
- gas tax benefit so to speak and so I'm very concerned about that so for the long haul I'd like to think
- about that at some point working on that and going to the Kirkwood Avenue meeting group and in open
- if you don't know that already happy to
- to work on the Sophia Travis grant committee and adopted tonight Katie Hopkins who is going to serve
- in that role for us there. I did attend the Perry Township Trustee Dan Combs celebration of life on
- the 15th of February and that was a lovely, lovely event. I'm happy to be there. I've known Dan for
- a long time. I miss him a lot.
- We had the joint session of the county council and commissioners on the 16th, Monday the 16th. That
- was the third one we had. I felt like that one was a really positive, probably the best session in my
- experience of that whole series of events. Attended the BEDC annual meeting, got to meet the bison and
- touch the trophy. So that was kind of cool.
- Then I've been doing all these Ellitsville Richland Township meetings. And now they're having a series
- of three fire protection joint hearings. I went to one on the 18th and the next two will be on the 25th
- and March 11th, but they're the same as the 18th. So if you heard at that time, you don't need to go
- to the other two. The next meeting of the Township joint hearing or the joint reorganization is
- every other Wednesday and that'll be March 4th. They do have their subcommittees and their committees
- and all those things now and the contact information on their website now. So I'm very happy about that.
- And that website is Ellisville Richland info.org. So there'll be the committee reports are due back
- to the reorganization committee by the 27th of February.
- The recommendations then will be done and voted on on the March 4th by the committee. The council itself
- and the township will vote in June. Each one of those entities, as I understand it, has to have 50%
- plus one to make it happen. Then I did want to mention that as part of the Downtown Bloomington Inc.
- group board that I serve on,
- There is hard hat videos of the Convention Center project. And it's at monroecib.com. And those are
- just kind of fun to look at. So that's what I've been doing and thinking about. Councillor Woods. Would
- say you. I saw the latest installment of those hard hat videos.
- Just yesterday, I hadn't realized they were a thing and it somehow popped up. It was quite fun. Yeah,
- definitely. See John Weickart having fun out there on the construction site. It's pretty fun. So I've
- been spending a lot of time thinking about our community and how we respond or don't respond.
- after crises, specifically tornadoes or snowstorms. And I think we have a glaring opportunity. I'll
- call it a glaring opportunity to do better. And I'm not sure how to proceed, but it's clear to me that
- We don't have the structure or the protocols to take care of each other after a tragedy of any sort
- in our community. And I'm looking at you, because I know you're just like, yeah, see, I told you. But
- after last week's tornado, I went back and I looked at the report that Dan Combs had put together. And
- he's sitting in it.
- plan is day, we aren't ready. I think one thing that we did really well was that we pre-appropriated
- emergency funding so that it's ready to go. And so to me, I feel like, okay, we've made a step, but
- there's more to do. And it has to do with not just accounting for damages, but accounting for people.
- in the aftermath and so I'd like to challenge us to think on that and like I said the tornadoes was
- sort of the impetus but I'm thinking about this in terms of how we respond to our neighbors who get
- snowed in and can't leave their neighborhoods. We have to think about things a little bit more in terms
- of people and a little bit less in terms of
- you know, highway miles and, you know, fence lines that might need repair. So that's where my head is
- right now. Thank you. Thank you very much. I know it's late. I'll try to be really quick, but there's
- a lot going on and I want to be I want to talk about it just for a second. Number one, it was a pleasure
- to join Councillor Fiddle in the Sophia Travis
- Grants interviews for a community member that we celebrated tonight That's always a positive thing in
- this service that we have and I I appreciate it very much a light-hearted note in a light-hearted week
- or in a not light-hearted week the reality of last week is as counselor cross Lee said earlier either
- in this meeting or today or some point we went and
- Last week during the weather, we went from decent weather to a tornado in February to then back to snow.
- I was talking to my students who were very like kind of upset about the weather changes. And I said,
- I'd like to tell you that this doesn't happen all the time, but it seems like some bad weather event
- of one kind or the other is all over the place, whether it's May, June, et cetera. And CARP comes and
- Council Henry
- have talked about these things at length over time. I also have to say, I was in Whitehall, which is,
- you know, the farthest reaches of what we have, the at larges and Councilor Hawk. I was in Whitehall
- and the fog was so absolutely thick and absolutely creepy right after that event. The hell so thick on
- a car that it looked like a car had literally gone through at that gas station, had gone through a snow
- pile. And I was like, good lord, this is what just hit our airport and beyond. And so one thing is,
- when I was talking with neighbors, somebody said something, you know, I always like to be available
- to kind of figure out what's going on and to assist where I can.
- But knowing that it's just me standing there with my loafers on, and that's probably not much other
- than that I care, and I'll try to give someone a bottle of water. The first thing someone said to me,
- particularly just east of the airport, was when I said, people were walking around with pin lights.
- I said, has someone been through here? And they said, you know, immediately after that event happened,
- they were at our doors.
- saying, everybody okay in here, what's going on? I think our emergency responders in that initial, they
- do a tremendous job in getting right to it, whether that's the fire folks, our law enforcement, all
- the folks that come out. But one thing that going to what Councilor Wilts just said that concerns me
- is we always have this gap between the long-term and immediately afterwards. And I think that's where
- families hit that struggle.
- and they abundantly struggle with, how am I gonna get to point A, point B? I'm gonna point out something
- here. Trustee Rita Barrow, Van Buren Township, who has notoriously worked these since, I can recall
- in 2008, I remember she had an awful tornado that went down Weaver Road, but she posted earlier today
- that there's cleanup opportunities in Fieldstone and Stonechase where they need volunteers for Van Buren
- cleanup, 9.30 a.m.,
- 228, so this Friday, or this Saturday, and to meet at the community center, which is located at 352
- South Fieldstone Boulevard. I see this being shared like a million times out there, which is awesome
- and good. But that gap between that immediate moment, how's everybody doing, and beyond, that uncertainty
- for those families, even me just kind of observing this and my family was fine, that's the thing I think
- that we've got to
- We've got to get in there and know and also know who has truly been displaced here. I feel like we don't,
- I feel like the gap between that looks really bad, but I'm hearing that no one's displaced. I'd like
- to see that be something that we make more professional. I said years ago that emergency management
- issues will continue to professionalize and expand and respond to the moment. Council Henry could write
- the book on that, but I think we're kind of at that point.
- we're at that point where that's what we do and what's expected is just gonna be larger, not to make
- it harder on anyone, but to make it easier on those families. So I wanna thank everyone that helped
- with all that. I'll note that the helping is still going on and then there's a longer term process that
- kicks in, doesn't kick in, et cetera. And Councilor Henry.
- Love this chorus. Welcome to the choir, everybody. It's never too late. I'm going to talk about some
- other stuff before I get to that. Some of my liaisons were here tonight. So speaking in terms of Carlos,
- with aviation, he told us the story out there with Clerk Brown. We talked a little bit about the concerns
- I have with early voting and voter edge in the current showers building. And I think we've covered that.
- that's been surfaced. I want to talk about Plan Commission a little bit, because Councilor Wilts, you
- brought it up. Really, this is going to take an education, not just for the first responders that do
- a great job in our community, the volunteer networks that are trying to help people. I'll be honest.
- We were in Plan Commission talking about the snow removal piece a few weeks ago, and there are members
- of the Plan Commission that don't get it. They're caught up in the idea that a developer that has not
- completed the
- the mirror checklist of things and the county development ordinance can't move a road in inventory.
- This is after, of course, the county takes the bond. We'll take the money, but we won't take the roads.
- And there's a lot of finger pointing. And it's almost, well, it's a point of frustration. I mean, because
- inside those neighborhoods are humans and those humans are trying to get the things. And so there's
- a learning curve among people that are very specialized in their bucket
- You know, but maybe can't see the force for the trees and what we're really trying to do as a community
- here. I think that education is going to have to continue, but those comments are made in the public
- and can be played on cats TV all night long if you want to watch them. But there's got there's some
- work to be done. I think in some of our partner commissions to understand truly what it means to.
- you know, either be part of the county or not when we get into this discussion there. I will say, ironically,
- the EMAC was canceled last week due to a lack of quorum, which there's some irony with that in the sense
- that, you know, I think to get to the point about, you know, are we proactively thinking about hazards
- in the community if our appointees don't show up to the meeting to have the conversation to plan for things.
- We have a challenge there. I'm not going to call out who and where, but the core partners that usually
- go to that meeting, like our public health department, our emergency manager, our partners at IU, they
- were there. That body has a very large membership. If we can't meet, then we can't prepare. If we can't
- prepare, then we shouldn't be surprised when we have challenges.
- mindset shift that has to happen for us to get to what some folks have talked about tonight, which is
- in the off season, you have to fund and prepare for these things. Tonight, as the folks in Washington
- are discussing the State of the Union when they start cutting FEMA funding, that is half our budget
- for our staff in emergency management in this county.
- So we may need to be in a place where we're using resources here to fund things like exercises that
- educate everybody on their roles and responsibilities. I'm glad folks are joining in the choir here
- with this. I want to say only two things about the tornado. I appreciate Councilor Decker making comments
- about volunteers this weekend in Van Buren there. That was one I was going to mention. But also in my
- observations going out to take a look at things in that neighborhood, I think the public's aware that
- the Mountain Row County Humane Association had a particularly
- a nasty hit from the tornado, and there have been an incredible amount of outpouring and outreach to
- donate to them to rebuild that facility. That's one of the good news stories, but, you know, having,
- being, you know, in the moments on scene there, seeing the damage was shocking, and I know those images
- have been out over media.
- If you want to nerd out on what happened, I met with a surveyor this week and our G.I.S. coordinator
- for the county, Dr. Baten, has created a dashboard in Esri that outlines all the paths of all the tornadoes
- going back 20 years. And this is the data that should get our attention. We have had five touchdowns
- in Monroe County since 2019 and two in the last 11 months.
- And that should be the wake up call that this is our new normal, that we are in tornado alley and it
- is moving east as climate change affects our continent. And it shouldn't be surprising, it's not an
- if, it's a when. And so I guess that's the message tonight. I will leave one note to say one opportunity
- I think we should pursue, maybe talking about opportunities, Councilor Wilts, is I've learned a lot
- tonight and in the past few weeks about
- People coming to us to ask for funding for things in their office, phone operators, people picking up
- the phone. We've heard multiple times about staff saying, well, we're basically a 411. People get the
- first county phone number they can find and start asking questions that have nothing to do with their
- office. We may need to really look into what a 411 number looks like for this county.
- Because it's not going to be EMA taking the phone calls. I mean, where can you call to get the basic
- information about government? And I know others have brought that up. Boy, I've heard it all week long.
- You know, if it's people texting us as elected officials to find out where the dumpster is for their
- neighborhood, we may need to consolidate this with some creativity in the future. But that's way too
- much. Thanks, Joan. J.C., back to you. J.C., thanks. All right.
- So one thing that I will say is I want to give a special thanks to Ms. Turner-King for compiling all
- of our thoughts and putting everything all together. I know that was not an easy task because all of
- that could be a lot, and I could assume that it was. And so I just want to say thank you for doing that.
- I'm so grateful for all of you for putting it together and working through with us on that, so I appreciate
- that. I also want to say I do appreciate every single last one of my council colleagues here. Even Council
- Haku isn't here. Hopefully she'll go back and watch it. But I do appreciate the conversations that we
- continue to have, and we are really trying to do our job and look out for the best interest
- I do have one less mentioned here is that as a reminder that. The Sophia Travis Grant Committee is doing
- a kickoff earlier this year, and so the 2026 Sophia Travis Grant Committee kickoff this year will be
- on Wednesday when March 11th, starting at 5 PM here in the net you
- For those that are watching or will watch back later, you can go and like our Facebook page and share
- it. I humbly ask our council colleagues here, if you would so help us to get the word out about that,
- to share our page as well and that post related to the Sophia Travis. Speaking of the Monroe County
- Humane Association, they are usually recipients of Sophia Travis, so I'm sure
- we'll see them again this year, considering all things. So major thank you to anybody and everybody
- that had anything to do with the work of the tornado. I was downtown working, and it was a little scary
- having the shelter in place. And then I saw another photo of just where I work at versus where the tornado
- actually hit. And it was a very sobering experience. So this is now twice.
- where I have been in the path of a tornado because on the south side back in May, literally had kids
- frantically calling saying that they saw a tornado, you know, on FaceTime. And so climate change is
- real and that's something that we should not forget because we had a tornado in February. Lastly,
- the public comment. The only thing that I will say about you know this resolution that we passed here
- since it was mentioned in our comment here and public comment is that I think all of us are committed
- to doing what we need to do, and I think we acknowledge that. Um we 234 is the pops, uh, count that
- I saw this morning is 6 45. When it came in,
- are needing to do for those that are housed in that building every day as we go home and are fortunate
- enough. So I don't want that to think that, and we sat here for a really long time trying to put together
- a resolution to speak on that very issue of trying to make sure that we acknowledge that we are committed
- to having a humane and constitutional facility. All of that cost though.
- And so the fiscal body is responsible for making those costs. And so I hope that it is incumbent of
- all of us that are in the criminal justice system in the city and county to work together to make that
- happen. But, you know, just as we have human costs, there's a lot of different costs that are associated
- with that. But I don't want anybody to think that any of us sat here and don't have that in mind because
- We do, we seriously do. And if people think that, I welcome all any conversations via emails, coffee,
- and whatever we need to do. But I would love to have that conversation. So happy 24th day of Black History
- Month. And with that being said, I thank you all for your time and service this evening, and we are
- adjourned.