- All right. Good evening, everybody. And welcome to what feels like spring. But it's still winter. Today
- is Tuesday, March 10th, twenty twenty six. The time is five oh two. And I am calling the Monroe County
- Council meeting to order. We have a quorum, so we will go ahead and get started. We have here in the
- Natu Hill rooms. Council member D.G.H. David Henry, Decker, Wilts and Fiddle.
- and we will go and it looks like we have Councilor Hawk that is also joining the building as well. So
- all those that are able to please stand for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance
- to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God
- All right. Thank you so much for that. All right. Next up is item number three, which is the adoption
- of tonight's agenda. Would anybody like to make any changes to tonight's agenda? I certainly yes. Go ahead.
- I'd like to move to add item 10b, a discussion and approval of resolution 2026-02 renewing the manure
- county council's commitment regarding a new jail facility. Are we doing that? I didn't think we were.
- But okay. Okay. It's it's what's on here. I mean, I mean, that's up to all the rest of us here to do
- that. And I'm getting
- glances at the table here. Oh, okay. All right. Um, so I think already have voted. I wasn't sure if
- we're not going to do it. Okay. That's cool. Okay. I was just following up from last time. Okay. Um,
- then there's the second, the request. You want me to do that? Yes.
- We had a request to move the probation department's additional appropriation up on the agenda. So I
- moved to have item seven H moved to follow immediately after item seven A on the agenda. Second. Okay.
- We got a motion and a second to move the item seven H to seven A on the agenda. Are there any other
- agenda amendments for tonight?
- Seeing none, since we have a quorum and there's nobody participating virtually, all those in favor of
- approving tonight's agenda as amended, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign.
- Okay, motion carries. All right, next up, we see some friendly faces here in the Net-U-Hill room. And
- so this is the items for public comment. And so public comment are for items that are not on tonight's
- agenda. So those that are wishing to speak, you have the right to do so. But those again are for items
- not on tonight's agenda. So if you've never spoken here in the Net-U-Hill room before or virtually,
- you could come up to the lectern here in the room
- You'll have up to three minutes and it'll be displayed on the TV monitors here. State your name for
- the record. And again, you'll have up to three minutes. And if I didn't say so, there's a sign in sheet
- there that you'll just need to sign in and write your name in. For those that are participating,
- rather virtually, you can raise your hand via Teams, and then we will acknowledge you. So if there are
- any takers here in the Night U Hill Room that would like to make public comment for items not on the
- agenda, please go ahead and do so. Welcome. Hi, guys.
- My name is Bryce. I am a member of DSA and a friend of some community members who are facing the loss
- of their homes. I'm sure you all know about the Seminary Square issue. My main point here is to ask
- why the county feels that it is unable to serve the affordable housing crisis in Monroe County. It seems
- that if they were
- interested in doing that, then these people wouldn't be being kicked out of their houses. At the very
- least, I know Councillor Henry mentioned at an event recently that it would be a great opportunity for
- the county to explore alternative models of building and expanding affordable housing by keeping these
- houses under county control and keeping these people in their homes. Alternatively, different ways of
- handling this would be to allow the people who are at that property to
- or allow the property to be sold to an entity that would be willing to continue housing these people
- and keeping them in their homes. So to my knowledge, there hasn't been any public reason given as to
- why that's not an option. And I think that if members of the council are really interested in affordable
- housing, as many of your constituents are, then I think that this issue would be at the forefront and
- would be something that would be
- Uh, seriously pursued and keeping these people in their houses would be a priority. Uh, that's all.
- Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me. What is your last name for the record? Uh, green green with the knee
- at the end. Thank you. I'll write it down here as well. Of you or anybody? Yes. I'm just just to clarify
- the property that this person is talking about is not
- Seminary Square, the park. It's right. It's very, very point. Right. Is it is a name? It's down south.
- It's the one right next to my sister's closet. And the if I'm mistaken, that is the like a furniture
- place, antique furniture place. It's very, very nice little place and has a lot of our friends. We appreciate
- that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, please.
- Hi, I'm T. Randall. I'm a resident of one of the buildings set to be destroyed. I'm here to urge the
- County Council not to displace residents who destroyed the Seminary Point apartments at the corner of
- South College and Second Street. Mineral County is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis, and
- every step should be taken to preserve and expand meaningfully affordable housing. If the county is unwilling
- or unable to maintain the block, they should give it to someone who would be, whether that's a community
- land trust, a cooperative, or some other structure. There's no shortage of funds available in this county
- to preserve affordable housing for those who are willing. Thank you.
- and I'm trying to log into Teams and I wanted to come back to Teams to see if there's anybody that wanted
- to raise their hand to make public comment. Again, for items not on the agenda, you can raise your hand
- via Teams. Seeing none, I'll go back to the room here to see if there are any takers for public comment
- on items not on tonight's agenda.
- My name is Barry Herbers, as you probably just heard. Everyone in the Seminary Point apartments just
- found out that they are being forced out of their homes in July. And I mean just found out, like maybe
- what, two, three weeks ago. This is a college town. That's bad enough on its own. But the Seminary Point
- apartments are also the most affordable housing in their area. There are all kinds of people living
- there, families with young children, recovering addicts trying to stay off the street, people
- with disabilities on a fixed income,
- They're struggling, but they're working hard and they're doing their best. The county, you guys, the
- people in this room, are forcing these people out of their homes. This is not an annoyance. You're not
- just making them move around. If you go through with this, it's gentrification. In the brief snippets
- of communication we have been able to get from the county, each part of the government has
- denied responsibility and pointed the finger everywhere but themselves.
- I understand that nothing about running a county is simple, but you are failing at your most basic task,
- which is taking care of your people, every single one of you. The county claims it is helping these
- people find homes. The tenants I've spoken to disagree. One I spoke to, a father, told me he has no
- idea what his family is going to do, told me he was recently laid off and that the Seminary Point apartment he has
- has been a lifeline for his family in hard times. Why is the county forcing these people out of their
- homes? This is not a rhetorical question. What are you going to do with this property? Why won't you
- tell us when we've been asking for months? Why are you destroying the most affordable housing in our
- downtown area? Because until you give us an answer, I'm going to assume it's so you can build a parking
- lot for the subsidized hotel
- that you're going to cost us millions of dollars. Maybe that's not true. So maybe you should tell us.
- Who have been asking for months whether their leases would be renewed, whether their leases would be
- renewed. What will you do to make these people whole? What will you do to help them decide their own
- future? Their leases. And if you don't want to be a landlord,
- then how about we think about letting these tenants decide the futures of their homes instead of destroying
- what little tiny bit of affordable housing we have left. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Are there
- any other takers? OK. And if there are more people that want to speak on items not on the agenda, you
- can please start to line up as well.
- Hi, my name is Louis Schwartz and I'm a member of the DSA and also someone who's looking for affordable
- housing. I wanted to tell you that the county government shouldn't displace the residents or destroy
- Seminary Point Apartments at the corner of South College Avenue and Second Street Monroe.
- Midwell County is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis and every step should be taken to preserve
- and expand meaningfully affordable housing.
- If the county is unwilling to maintain the block, they should transfer to a grassroots partner and allow
- residents to democratically control their own futures. Community land trusts demonstrate a model which
- can guarantee permanently affordable housing through direct democratic processes.
- Therefore, I urge the county to transfer ownership of the block to local organizations like Avalon Community
- Land Trust or at the very least to the city. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Sarah Mosher and
- I wanted to ask the members of the council not to destroy the seminary point apartments and I think it's a
- good area right there, especially it has Artisan Alley and Friendly Beasts, Barbershop and the shops
- and other businesses. It's a good place for the community to gather and replacing it with a parking
- lot doesn't quite seem like the same kind of payout. And I'd also like to state just that my family
- who has been in here for many generations, at one point my great grandparents, they didn't have a place
- to live because they also struggled with affordable housing.
- And when they finally did find some, they're able to settle down and build their business, which turned
- into May's Greenhouse. It has been a small business implemented for a long time. And the more affordable
- housing that we shut down, those are more families, like my family was, that were pushing out of the
- county, whereas since they were able to finally find some affordable housing, they were able to settle
- down, and now there's
- dozens of my family who have been able to live here for generations and contribute to the county and
- pay taxes and start businesses and contribute in that way so hopefully we can think of some alternative,
- whether that's transferring it to a grassroots partner like has been mentioned, whether it's the Bloomington
- Housing Collective or
- the Bloomington Housing Authority that has a Summit Hill Land Trust, for example, if we could somehow
- find a way to transfer it to a land trust that could preserve it and preserve that affordable housing
- that could lead to other generations that continue to contribute to the county. So thank you. Thank you.
- This is Lily Malcolm, first time resident here at Bloomington, just moved here two weeks ago and first
- time participant here at a council meeting. When I first came to Bloomington, the brain draw, there
- are many draws of this community, but one of the highest draws of Bloomington was the community's commitment
- to one another to uplift each other's hopes and dreams and aspirations and support many businesses that
- I simply never had access to where I came from.
- I think when I think of the city I think of how quickly and earnestly I was welcomed I think about the
- trials I faced also trying to attain affordable housing of my own and for my own family It should not
- take as long as it surely did to obtain Affordable housing for myself and it certainly shouldn't be
- as difficult as it is for my newly
- my new neighbors that I have just met, and it should not be made any more difficult by projects such
- as the Convention Center Hotel Project. Destroying the few buildings that exist for affordable housing
- in Bloomington, which is facing an undeniable affordable housing crisis, and destroying the buildings
- on a block that support local businesses is the antithesis of what I believe this city is about. I implore
- you to transfer this block to a land trust.
- what makes up the fabric and the heart of what Bloomington is. Take care of your neighbors and do not
- succumb to a greed filled project. I implore that the council utilize the two properties that are already
- being retained by this project. And I urge the county once again to transfer ownership of the block
- to a local organization like a community land trust. Thank you. Thank you. And welcome to Bloomington.
- My name is Hugh Farrell. I'm a long time Bloomington resident and I wanted to really focus on the ways
- the communication around this project has been chaotic. That has been extremely unclear what the plan
- is for these buildings and how this affects both residents.
- I think others have already spoken to the ways that having an extremely short timeline, especially given
- how structured the rental market is here, most people are signing leases September, October, November
- these days, and it's what it means to have this short of a runway. And that there's then additionally
- been very chaotic communication with the residents and assurances that people are being rehomed.
- I mean, the kind of language that's been used is mostly how we talk about rehoming animals, but this
- language is going around that residents are going to be rehomed, that it isn't going to have an impact
- on them if there's a certain level of temporary subsidy to move into more expensive units elsewhere,
- but that really there's huge amounts of research.
- that show that displacing people from their long-time communities has decisive permanent impacts. And
- when there's long-term residents here that are on fixed incomes who have been excluded from other forms
- of housing, where you have elderly folks, cancer patients who've depended on walkable housing
- in Bloomington's core, who are now going to be displaced and displaced from people they've known for
- decades, that that is something that's going to have
- you know, not just public health, but health impacts on these individuals, and that they've not received
- clear communication at any point. And likewise, there's not been clear communication with the small
- businesses, and this is just a total disaster, you know, for any of these businesses to survive.
- You know, businesses that have been told that they will have until the end of the season are instead
- being told now that they have to be out July 1st, you know,
- I think season implies October, November already. This is very unclear, but again, it goes hand in hand
- with a lack of clarity that's been displayed around this project, and now that's being moved up till
- July 1st. This is the way that you successfully kill a local small business, is to take away beeline
- fronting and replace it with uncertainty, replace it with quick turnarounds, and
- damage the ability to communicate with their customer base. And so I just would really, really, really
- appeal for clear communication from the county ASAP to figure out what is going on, who the decision
- makers are, why is it that it seems as though one of the small businesses will be allowed to remain
- until next February? Why is everyone else being forced out earlier? So given these inconsistencies,
- just to have clear communication ASAP.
- And I just really think in the next weeks, because otherwise people's lives are really going to be affected,
- businesses will be destroyed, and it will be really clear that it will be on the county's hands that
- this will have happened. So thank you all for your attention. I'm sure we can count on you all to deliver
- that communication as well as real solutions. And I think real solutions mean not displacing people
- and not destroying affordable housing. Thank you. Thank you.
- I want to pop back to teams to see if there's still anybody that hasn't had a chance to speak. If so,
- you can raise your hand and you'll have state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes.
- And still seeing no takers.
- We got one. Okay, so the name is Rowan. So if you are able to unmute, officially state your name for
- the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Yeah, hi, I'm Rowan Morse, lifelong resident of Bloomington.
- I just wanted to join in and have my support on the record for transferring it into a land trust. Thank you.
- My name is Graham Baker. I'm also here to voice my support for keeping the apartments or transferring
- them to a land trust. I'm a student at IU and ever since I've gotten here, the Bloomington community
- is just, it's really something special. There are so many amazing people here and it's been honestly
- kind of a safe space for me
- In a way that I really it's invaluable and the reason that I I care so much about these apartments I'm
- from Culver and We've seen something kind of similar go on there. There's not a lot of affordable housing
- in Culver Because we have we have a big private school and we have the lake there's a lot of a lot of
- tourists and what we've been seeing in the past is a lot of
- like housing for people, for residents in the town that are maybe middle class or lower class has over
- time been bought up, it's been renovated, and then it's been sold. And so a lot of the remaining housing
- in the town has been turned into housing for people to rent out during the school year and then leave.
- I grew up in Culver. My dad grew up in Culver, my grandparents, my grandma lived in Culver for a long
- time, and her parents too.
- I think they had stories about this town, about Culver, about buildings that no longer exist. It was
- a completely different place. And I think allowing affordable housing and space for small businesses
- is the lifeblood of a town. And I still love Culver now, but it's completely different. A lot of businesses
- only make it through the summer because there's no one around in the winter. I know this isn't the same, but
- I've seen something like this before, and that's why I wanted to voice my support for making sure that
- there's affordable housing in Bloomington. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello. Hello. My name's Jessie.
- I've lived in Bloomington for about six years, and most of what I want to say has already been said.
- But I just think it's really important to preserve this very affordable housing that's in a really excellent
- place in Bloomington. I mean, you don't have to have a car. You could walk to the grocery store across
- the street. You can walk downtown. You can bike up and down the beeline. I just think that's really
- important to think about. What are we prioritizing? Is it this affordable housing for people who don't
- need to have cars, who can easily get around town, or is it
- you know, a hotel that's going to have to be subsidized for its entire existence. Yeah, so I support
- really not preserving the Seminary Point apartments. Thank you. All right. Any other takers for? Oh,
- OK. Thank you for remembering.
- Any other takers for anybody who hasn't had an opportunity to speak on items not on the agenda?
- It's okay. Thank you for remembering. And as you all are doing that, I'm just gonna go back to teams
- here to see if there is anybody else that would like to make comment for items on,
- or make public comment for items not on the agenda. Raise your hand if you'd like to do so. All right.
- Still seeing none. I'll pop back here one last time to see if there's anybody here that would like to
- get their three minutes to speak here.
- and seeing no more, we will move on. But before we move on, I just wanna say thank y'all for you all
- to come out and speak. And I am going to ask my pro tem, Councilor Iverson to take over at this point
- because T, I believe that you said, I actually wanna meet you out in the hallway to get some information.
- So we will move on for here and I'll just pop out. So thank you.
- We are going to move on. Before we move forward, and I want these folks to hear, is I'd like to hear
- from our county attorney. Yeah. So that they have the ability to know who, the one of you asked who
- has the ability to change this. So I'd like for our attorney to make sure we understand
- That's actually a good point and so that's kind of another reason why I was going to try to pop out
- here and get information because we all like you know the public is asking us and we need to be in the
- know of making sure like we need to like
- direct the question because in government, there's so many times that people get the run around. We've
- got the run around when it came to the Thompson site and trying to figure out who's responsible for
- what for the encampment that I want to remind people that's coming up around the corner here soon. April
- is coming. So I think we deserve to know who's responsible for what. And I hate to put you on the spot,
- but smile.
- As far as whether the property is transferred out of county's name into a land trust or any other entity
- that would require approval of both the commissioners and the council because the property is valued
- over a thousand dollars.
- In regards to whether the leases are renewed that would be a decision of the commissioners as the county
- executives So the council would not have any way in on whether leases are extended or what happens with
- the leases They would only have council would only have a way in on disposition of the property Yes,
- yes, I'd like also to make it clear one of the reasons why this
- was so delayed is because the city who removed the ability to place some of the development for the
- Convention Center on some ground that they owed. And so this was a part of the delay and the confusion.
- And believe me, I have a daughter going through the same thing right now. I spoke with Sarah just a
- minute ago about that. So I understand.
- you want to know and you want to have enough time to make decisions. But this ground was paid for, if
- I recall correctly, with dollars that is tied to tourism dollars. And so that property must continue
- to be used for that purpose. Now, if that's not correct, I hope somebody will correct us. But these
- good people need to know whether or not
- we could suddenly turn it over to Land Trust. I don't think we legally could do that, but then I'm not
- a lawyer, so that's why I tried to get legal advice from others. But that property, all the property
- that was paid for with a combination of innkeeper's tax, food and beverage tax, whatever, has requirements
- set for it that I don't think we can just turn it over to Land Trust.
- But if there's a way that somebody legally can figure that out, that's one thing. But they asked for
- who the decision makers were. I do not believe it's the county council at this point. I think it would
- be up to the board, the Convention and Visitors Bureau. It would be up to the commissioners. It would
- be up to the people who represent the legal ownership of that property
- and what we must use it for. So that's not an answer anybody wanted to hear, but I think it's better
- to hear what we can and cannot do. So if we can do it, if you can find a way to do that, but I don't
- think we do have. Sometimes it's following the laws, not much fun, but you know, that's what we have to do.
- We would you like to respond to that? Counselor Hawk is correct. I do believe in keepers tax funds were
- used for the properties and then there is statutory restrictions on what those funds can be used for
- and I can look up the statute if you'd like right now, but I don't have it right in front of me. Well,
- the question that I would have because somebody in their public comment made the comment about
- the individual is Hugh, made the comment about a business being able to stay until February. But these
- folks are having to be moved out as of July 1st. Who would be the decision maker who gets to stay, who
- gets to say, rather, that the business gets to stay until February, but they got to go? The commissioners.
- Ah, OK. Right. And when are the commissioners meetings?
- I believe they have one this Thursday at 10 a.m. So, okay, yes, sure. All right, Councilor Decker. Call
- me anything. Thanks for everyone that has come in here and spoken today. I not to try anything splashy
- or anything. I've tried to get pretty solid answers on this, and I'm not getting solid answers.
- I think if I'm not getting solid answers and the public's definitely not getting solid answers, particularly
- the vested public, I think somebody at that decision-making board of commissioners, I think somebody
- needs to come talk to individuals about this and also that there be parity on that between how we're
- treating one affected individual and one affected business. This is what any human would expect given to them.
- and the county doesn't need to add to misery or woe on this. But I am a little bit frustrated that I
- hear, well, this, but I don't know about that, and if not about that. And when people want to live somewhere
- or we're making a decision about it, how they're treated doesn't come down to a legal decision as much
- as a safety. I mean, there's a whole ring of research on this, and I just think that
- that the folks having those conversations with all these entities, the commissioners it sounds like,
- that there needs to be a representative or somebody or them or whoever that is making this more clear
- because I sitting here today, having made numerous inquiries on this, am not getting consistent straight
- answers on this. And I get why people would be frustrated because I am too. I'm extremely.
- I actually have a question that is probably best answered by an attorney. If you have an answer, Molly,
- great. If not, I do understand that I'm just throwing out legal questions. The one question that I asked
- when I did hear about this was,
- whether or I guess why would we have to terminate leases just to transfer a property? I mean I've lived
- in a property that ownership was transferred and the lease was transferred too. So why is that a thing
- for this situation? It might just end up pushing, I get that it's just pushing the buck. Like the new
- owner or it might make a
- horrible decision for these folks. Or they might not. I don't see that we don't have all the information
- either. But that was the question I asked a while back. And I can research it more. But I think that
- would be indicative of both parties agreeing to the transfer of the lease. So if the new owner is not
- willing to assume that responsibility, then
- Council Henry and then Iverson next. Thank you Madam President again. Thank you for your public comment.
- The only way we get sunshine on these things is to hear about them in this room. And so sometimes we
- go down this path of revelation and I it is a one of many stories in the county government on how we
- find out about stuff like this from across the hall. I have just the only information I can offer in
- the room that I asked for today from county legal is that
- My understanding is that the oldest lease is from 2019, one's from 2021, one's from 2022. I only thought,
- and it may be the questions that one, if I were in your seats out there to bring to County Commission
- on Thursday, would be to ask for all the documentation that's been allegedly communicated to you, because
- what I'm being told at this point is that there has been communication to the lessors on an annual basis
- about the nature of the lease. Now, if that's not,
- your shared understanding, I think that's what I would like to know. And short of asking for documentation
- in our packet of what these leases look like, so we have an understanding. If you don't have that shared
- understanding, that would be my first question for all of you that you're to ask. And Ms. Turner, can
- I just make it crystal clear on this, that the lease relationship is solely handled at the board.
- But in theory even if the council had an interest in say preserving the land for other purposes We couldn't
- issue new leases from here the property. It's there's the difference between the contract and the property,
- correct? Correct. The leases would be the board of commissioners. So it sounds like Thursday It should
- be an interesting day. But I mean I have information that says that that
- The county, sorry, the way it was put is informed of the annual nature of the leases. So I don't know
- what that term means, but there's clearly confusion at public comment about what the leases mean that
- we just heard. I think that's just worth sharing what little I know at this point. I agree. Anybody
- else that have any? Oh, sorry, I told you I was coming back to you. Sorry, Councillor Iverson.
- with what we said here, and I've been very vocal about this, we need more housing in our community,
- and the term affordable housing has been made absolutely meaningless by the inflationary nature of what's
- been happening
- And so we do need to have more housing in this community and it needs to be made available to folks
- at a number of different income levels. I completely agree with what the commenters have been saying.
- Now in what my understanding has been is that as folks have been notified of this change and a date
- by which they needed to leave there has been
- a number that folks can reach out to to seek advice on other areas of housing. Do we have, is that a
- contract that the commissioners have? Do we have that number that we can display publicly in this meeting?
- For folks who are really nervous about finding a place to go in July, can we at this time
- that information? Ms. Muller-Turner-King, do you have that? Ms. Kimschel, do you have that? I don't
- have the contact number. I do know that the county is working with Heading Home to create a list of
- comparable properties and I think that's the number or the Heading Home contact that residents or tenants
- had been provided and I can try to find that number but I don't have it really handy.
- I would really encourage the county commissioners, and I know there's a couple that are watching here
- today, you have robust, and I'm talking to the commissioners right now, you have robust social media.
- Put this number out on your social media. There are people who are really scared right now and really
- encourage you to get this information out there. Thank you. Madam President, I have a point of information
- or question for the county. Mr. King, I think we talked about it,
- And I remember in public reporting with CIB that the intention of the development was to move north.
- I mean, that was the property the city was going to contribute. And so the process, the idea that the
- southern parcels would be used any time soon, I think, was was not being considered. But with the city's.
- The bunger property off off the menu for now, that that's the abrupt change that
- perhaps triggered this communication to the current tenants? Because if we weren't using the property
- many times soon, and then now the city has changed the position about how to go north on it. So I guess
- what I'm really asking is, it seems like what there has been reporting, we weren't going to have a southern
- movement of development, and now we are talking about those properties. Do we know if letters went out
- to tenants
- in the past few months on this that would have changed their perception about the nature of their leases?
- I mean, or is it just July 3 is always the renewal date and it's just the options not being extended?
- I'm not sure what letters or what information was communicated to the tenants. I mean, I'm happy to
- check with the Commissioner's office. I just don't know that information. I know for settling that here
- today, but I mean, clearly that's going to come up.
- So thank you for indulging Yeah, well I Always like to say I'm shocked sometimes but it also doesn't
- surprise me about the lack of communication because we don't yeah, I
- I just, this is really frustrating, and I'm sorry that you all are having to see us process through
- all of this at the same time, because we're also realizing all of this at the same time. So I just,
- yeah, I don't know what else to say at this point.
- So to kind of go back, Ms. Turner-King, and to kind of recap, basically what you're saying to us, we
- the fiscal body, seven members of the county council, if we wanted to say, let's go with the land trust,
- if that's what we, like, I'm just saying, just hypothetically speaking, if we wanted to do this, and
- we didn't get the, like,
- the green light or we would have to communicate that with the commissioners. Commissioners would have
- to be in agreement with us, but ultimately they're in control of this. Is that what I'm hearing? I would
- have to check whether transfer to a land trust would be applicable under the innkeeper's tax restrictions.
- If it was an acceptable use of innkeeper's tax
- Which I'm not saying it is because I have not looked up that law just to be clear Transferring the property
- to a land trust require approval both the commissioners and the council Okay, but I'm still kind of
- stuck on the fact that um a Business was okay with getting until February, but they were not I Just
- want to know how that worked
- I'm not saying that that's something that you, of course, can answer because you can't. But there are
- folks that sit right behind us at 10 a.m. on Thursday that I'd like to have answered that as well. So,
- yeah, so. OK, well, I'm still going to meet with you here, T, and I'm going to have Council Iverson
- take over from here.
- All right, that means we are moving on to section number five of tonight's agenda, which you can find
- online, which is department updates. There will be a time limit of 10 minutes per Monroe County Department.
- And I'm wondering if any of our department heads here in the NatU Hill Room or on Teams wishes to give
- a department updates. Let's start with Bree Gregory, the Monroe County Auditor. Thank you, counsel.
- Good evening. I just have a very brief update for you.
- The financial team and I have submitted the AFR, that's the annual financial report. This is an annual
- report available on the Indiana Gateway. It's available to the public. Because this AFR has been completed,
- we were able to close the 2025 financials, and that means I will soon be able to provide you with a
- reversion report, which will be very helpful with budgetary planning that we need soon.
- Additionally it's reporting season for us. We are also working on completion of our gap report. So the
- entire financial team contributes to this process. We work with an outside compiler as well and it's
- kind of all hands on deck until we submit that end of May. So we'll keep you posted on progress related to that.
- On the other side of my office, the property team is hard at work on finalizing the abstract for submission
- to the DLGF, the Department of Local Government Finance.
- The due date is coming up on the 15th here. So we've had a lot of statutory changes, as we're all aware.
- So we've been working with vendors on LAO, for example, as our financial and property vendor. We've
- been working with them on updates necessary in our software. We're also working with another outside
- consultant on some TIF questions and changes.
- But that will be completed shortly and submitted. Just for the public, the abstract is kind of like
- a snapshot of 2025 payable, 2026 excessive values, TIFFs, and taxes. And then regarding taxes, the treasurer
- is graciously allowing us to include
- a little slip of paper for the public that will kind of describe all of the statutory changes that affect
- taxpayers. We're also including contact information, so if they have further questions, they are welcome
- to reach out for clarification. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gregory. Are there any other departments
- online or here in the NatU Hill Room? All right, I'm going to go
- I saw a council member down here. First I'll go to my right and then I'll go to my left. I wanted to
- comment on the auditor's report and congratulations for getting as far along as you have. But for us
- to understand, that abstract is everything. And that is one of the things that our advisor from the AIC,
- Jamie had suggested that we don't move forward with these plans to meet with the city and so forth having
- to do with the changes from Senate Bill 1 from 2025 until we get further information and this abstract
- was a big part
- of that further information. So we're not ready right now, as we said today, to make any long-term plans
- until we all understand what the abstract is going to tell us and the other figures that we put together.
- We just simply would be making a huge mistake to be doing anything large right now because we don't
- have the numbers. Boring as it may be. Thank you for that reminder. I saw Mr. Deckard next.
- I was just going to ask the auditor, can we get a copy of that little slip that's going out? I think
- it will be helpful for us to stay on the same page on the language we use as what you all that actually
- have a counter and interactions with the public.
- Absolutely. We just kind of finalized and had legal approved today, just the consolidation.
- We had information that was too large to go with the tax bill. And we have the consolidated version
- that I can send to you all later today, even during the meeting. Thank you. All right, Mr. Henry.
- Thank you, Mr. President. So, Bree, if you can remind us how last year's opinion was on how well we're
- doing with the
- It generally accepted accounting principles or gap. There's an extra a in there. But would you mind
- reminding us how great we are. I would love to share the county had an excellent audit no reportable
- findings and we are in wonderful shape as far as our reporting. Sorry I got excited about gap with two
- ways. Thank you very much. Anybody else want to nerd out. All right. Seeing no hands. Are there.
- I'll go back here. Any other departments? Seeing none, let's move on to our consent agenda items. I'll
- start with A, with the clerk's office. Mr. Deckard, would you mind reading the motion? Absolutely, Mr.
- President. Council's reminder, this item was tabled from the February 24th council meeting. I move to
- open for discussion and possible approval the clerk's request.
- in Fund 1000 0001 County General Clerk to create a count line 16800 transitional temporary training
- position. Second. We have a motion and a second and I think Kim Schell or Molly King you're going to
- walk us through this. So this is a request that was originally presented at the last council meeting
- at that meeting. The clerk's office was approved as an exemption to hire a new chief deputy
- there was a question as to when the exiting chief deputies last day was. And so after the council meeting,
- we were able to confirm that the exiting chief deputies last day will be March 27th and that there will
- not be any cross training between incoming and exiting chief deputies. Excellent. Anything to add, Ms.
- Kim Schell? No. All right. I think in that case, are there any questions from council I see down here, Ms. Hawk?
- Yes, can you remind us, since the one that's exiting on March 27th, I think you said, when does the
- new one start? Will that be starting like 28th or when? Unless the transitional training line is approved
- by council today, the two people cannot be paid out of that same account line.
- the incoming chief deputy would start on March 30th because the exiting chief deputy's last day is on
- a Friday. So it would be the following Monday. Thank you very much. Any other questions, comments? Mr.
- Henry. Thank you, Mr. President. I think given that this has been overcome by events a little bit, I
- would recommend in motion that we table the item indefinitely. Second hearing a motion and a second.
- Is there any further conversation?
- public comment all right I think we need a we can do a voice vote on this can't we all right all those
- in favor please say aye aye all those opposed the ayes have it unanimously all right we're gonna move
- next into council business and we're gonna start with our technical services department mr. Greg Crone
- can someone please read the motion
- Council, I moved open for discussion and possible approval of the technical service department's request
- to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund one thousand zero one zero six county
- general technical services, a part time sport technician position. Second. All right. And we have with
- us Greg Crone, chief technology officer and director. It's a nice title. Tell us what's going on here.
- Good evening, everyone. And I appreciate you taking the consideration and hearing me on my request.
- So I won't read you the whole summary that I have here, but I will start out by explaining a little
- bit what our part-time positions are responsible for. In our office, part-time does not mean half work.
- They actually are performing the same duties that our full-time employees are expected to carry out.
- Their primary focus is the day and night meeting coverage. One example is sitting above you right now
- in the choir loft carrying out the meeting. When they are not covering meetings, they are expected to
- with the other full time techs. They're building computers. They're deploying equipment. They're handling
- themselves and conducting themselves in the same fashion. When we interview we actually expect the same
- skill set and we only take those employees that show that same skill set as our full time employees.
- In 2025 we were averaging 65 hours out of our full time staffing
- But due to some personal changes for some of our staff and the availability of others, that number has
- been reduced about 44 hours now. I'm merely seeking to recoup those 21 hours that we've lost in the
- last several months. The funding is already there for the for those hours paid. Our part time money
- comes out of one pool out of county general. So this wouldn't come at any additional cost to the county.
- All right. Council, do we have any comments or questions? Mr. Cronin. Mr. Henry. Thank you, Mr. President,
- and thank you, Greg, for coming in. As liaison to TSD, we had a good conversation about this, and really
- it's one of those slow accumulation of things that get
- You can kind of get behind, you know, in terms of what happens when you just don't have those hours.
- Could you maybe describe a little bit what's happened in terms of anything that's been delayed in your
- office as a result of having the extra part-time or is it just getting things, it's really spread thin
- or can you help us understand that a little bit? Well, you should understand when part-time positions
- aren't available to cover these meetings, that's pulling full-time staff off of that. The county has
- over the years since I've taken over increased
- staffing loads in other departments. So we've had an increased volume that we have to support. What
- we're seeing is delayed response time, sometimes of a couple of days just because of availability of
- staffing to do it. So that's created some issues for probation department. It's delayed computer setups
- for voter edge by a few days, things like that. So we're seeing a buildup of that. You have to also
- understand that my full time staff are required to do 24 seven on call rotations. So you have that
- comp buildup. So whenever the part-time staff isn't available, we really feel that impact even greater
- because then I'm out a full-time tech who's had to comp or flex out and I don't have the full-time people
- to cover that difference. Thank you for sharing that.
- Yes, due to the fact that so many of these hours are spent covering meetings, of course it wouldn't
- be as many hours if our meetings didn't last so long, but also because every time you add another board
- or commission, and by that I mean it's the ones that we choose to put together, not one that's required
- by law, but if we choose to have a board or commission, whatever, and they meet here
- or in one of the meeting rooms where we feel like we have to cover it with your staff and other staff.
- And if it's after 5 o'clock, then there's other staff that has to cover it. So there's meeting rooms,
- many available, if I understand correctly, at the library and other places where those different groups
- could meet, and it would not
- the county, the kind of money it costs to cover these different. So I think it would be good if we saw
- a list of the commissions of boards that were required by law to cover, like the Board of Health and
- those, and see if there's any way we can reduce some of the expenses. But that's not up to you to do.
- That's up to the commissioners.
- They're the ones who put together how many boards and commissions we're going to have. But just throwing
- that out there is a suggestion as we're going through trying to make sure that we're working as most
- cost effectively as we can. But in the meantime, you're stuck with what you're given. I would say many
- of the boards and
- It's been with the help of the commissioner's executive. We've reached out to some of the boards and
- where they can self-support on these meetings, they have done so. We've given them training. We've given
- them access. We've given them the ability to do it. So there's been a lot of work to try to reduce the
- number that we are having to cover, absolutely. All right. Way down on the left here. So I'll just say
- for the public record, I hear
- Talk about the other location like the library, but they've had to cut back also their hours and open
- times and they are open only now I think until 7 p.m. So if something goes past that that wouldn't be
- a viable location either. I just want to get that out there Excellent point. All right, mr. Dickie one
- thing I always appreciate thinking about when TSD comes in here is how much this all the
- the things you all have to manage on behalf of the county that I'm not sure anybody in life picked those
- things to come up, but technology, other things that change over time that now take more hours for you
- all. I mean, I look in this room since 2019, even with the pandemic in there, the way this
- room is configured, the way that all this is available, that we were able to literally take team's testimony
- today, we once had Zoom testimony,
- That is additional hours and services that we did not do that we currently do, and that the people in
- this community truly value and expect. They want to be able to weigh in on that. And the other example
- I always give, it's not necessarily tied directly to you, although I know you have to deal with it,
- is the body cams. Any political stripe wants a body cam on an officer, a jailer, they want that
- of all different beliefs, literally our predecessors did not have any of that consideration. That's
- something that it all will evolve. Five, 10 years, it'll be something else and 25 more things. And we
- know a couple of years ago, you were also dealing with external things I won't talk about, but these
- things are just coming to it. So as people always want to talk about how we cut, cut, cut the demands of
- society keep increasing, and we're only skimming past it. So it's just something that I think people
- in our roles have to talk about, because back in the day when this all started, it was not like that
- at all. But everything changes. People expect more, and you got to deal with more demands, too. So I
- appreciate that.
- My office has done very well. The staff in my office have been very diligent to try to find ways to
- streamline processes, automate processes, do anything we can do to improve service without increasing
- costs to the county government. So we're looking at every nook and cranny we can to try to find a way
- to make things flow better, but there's only so much you can do. Councilmember Wilts. Yeah. I haven't
- seen your department come up on the comp time reports that we get.
- And so that says to me that you don't have comp time overage. But I'm not sure, like, can you tell me,
- like, how would I know how much comp time you all have been using? Well, I can provide those numbers.
- We do our best to keep everyone under the 40-hour cap. Now, we've had, have been contacted by HR that
- we've got people coming, going over that 40-hour mark. So that's where we keep,
- I've even put myself on the on-call rotation to take some of my staff. Otherwise, they'd be on call
- every third week for my full-time people. So to try to give them some breathing room and lower that
- comp time, I've picked up an on-call rotation myself. So they're flexing out, they're comping out, and
- we just keep getting a little bit further behind with our tickets and things because we're trying to
- cover that and stay under that 40-hour comp time limit.
- just so you know, you're only seeing reports of departments where they're over the 40 hours. So if they're
- staying under, then you're not gonna see that. We blade around a lot with that. All right, any other
- comments or questions? And let's see, do we do public comment on hiring freeze? Yeah, is there any public comment?
- I don't see any on teams, none in and at U-Hill. In that case, can we please have a roll call vote?
- Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Filion? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Hogg? Yes. Councillor
- Henry? Yes. Councillor Deckard? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. It's very much appreciated.
- We'll see you up in the loft. All right. Next, we have a slew of highway department items. Let's go
- ahead and start with. Sorry. I'm sorry. We moved the probation. Sorry. We amended the agenda. I'm sorry.
- I wasn't here for the beginning. That's my fault. Are then moving to the probation department, which
- is item number H.
- As Council I move to approve the Probation Department's request and fund 81609626 Justice Partner SIM
- 93.788 for the creation of account lines 30006 Contractual Services and 30028 Training Travel
- and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of $40,000 in the services category.
- Second. We have a motion and a second. Mr. Anthony Williams here with us today. Tell us what we need
- to know. Thank you. I think many of you are aware that we've been receiving a grant from the Indiana
- Office of Court Services since around 2019 to provide some services. Over the last few years we've been
- bringing Centerstone into our office.
- to complete intakes with our clients, whether than sending them off to Centerstone. That helps increase
- the attendance rate on that. So we're continuing to do that. This year, they did reduce the amount of
- funds that we are receiving, but we're grateful that we're still getting some funds. We have $30,000
- to continue to pay Centerstone. They've been gracious to continue doing this project while we awaited
- the grant money. And then we have an additional $10,000
- to spend in travel and training to help save in some of the other budgets and spending. Great. This
- sounds wonderful. Are there any comments or questions from council going over to my right? Yes. When
- I was going over these numbers, I was trying to figure out that it said that there was no matching dollars
- and that you received 30,000, but you're asking to spend 40,000.
- So where did the other 10,000, what fund did the other 10,000 come from? So there's 40,000 total, 30,000
- of that is in contractual and 10,000 is in travel training. Oh, then what we have here is incorrect.
- I have it correct on my sheet. It says, I mean, read it.
- says in no circuit court received $30,000 in grant funding. And so then when I looked at it, it says,
- OK, but you want to spend $40,000. So I wondered if maybe the $10,000 was dollars left over, or did
- you really receive $40,000? No, I think maybe there's just a typo in the summary section. It's a typo
- in the summary, yes. Yeah, it just was omitted from the narrative.
- And in the request for the creation of new count lines, the math is correct It does show the $30,000
- in contractual $10,000 returning travel in the packet and that is on page 103 And point information,
- please understand there's a difference when when When it says that you're receiving 30
- And you must spend 40 and I would have liked to have been told that this was a mistake and it would
- save me a great deal of time today. Thank you very much. All right. We're recognizing Mr. Deckard, please.
- So the point of information just for the public watching the packet was
- item or lines 3006 contractual services, $30,000 as a new account line. And then also line 30028 training
- travel, $10,000 for a total appropriation of 40,000. And then my motion I read also matches that for
- the creation of account line 3006 contractual services and 30028 training travel.
- and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of $40,000 in the services category. Thank you,
- Mr. Decker. And Ms. Kim Schell, would you like to weigh in quickly? Yes. So yes, the narrative, Anthony
- says $30,000, but the, if you can look on the screen, do what I asked it to do. One moment. Say this again.
- So on the screen, you have 30,000 and 10,000. So what is correct? 40,000. 40,000 is correct, with 30,000
- being contractual, 10,000 being training travel. Correct. Thank you. All right, Ms. Kate Wilts. So the
- entire grant is 40,000. Correct. Thank you. Ms. Kate Wilts. No wonder. Okay, I think I understand now.
- I just want to reiterate, what's in our packet is an MOU for that 30,000. We don't have documentation
- of the actual award, which is fine as long as it's gone through the right channels to arrive here in
- front of us. But I think that's where the confusion kind of came. But it is legit, according to y'all.
- that there's a $40,000 award. Our auditor is raising her hand. And I will recognize Ms. Brie Gregory.
- Thank you. Could you please confirm there's been a completed grant contract? Yes, there have seen it
- come through. I just want to confirm the money's already came through as well. OK, I see the account
- has a $20,000 balance of the rest is reimbursable, right? Correct. All right. And does anybody have
- last minute clarifications on this? All right.
- We'll then go to the public. Do you have any questions or comments on this agenda item? Seeing none,
- we welcome Councilmember Crossley back to us. All right. I think this can we then have a roll call vote?
- Can I just one clarification from Ms. Gregory? There's a $20,000 balance because they only drop the money in
- So the additional money will come later. It's not necessarily reimbursable. That makes sense. I knew
- there was a another piece missing. OK, we've got a motion, a second public comment. Council questions.
- Can we have that vote? Yes. Councillor Crossley, would you like to vote on this idea? Cause I did my
- homework on this and so I'm going to say yes. Thank you. You're welcome.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm backing in like
- a bad sequel. Okay. Next up is item B, which will be a lot of items from the highway department.
- Council I move to approve the Highway Department's request for the creation of a new account line 31255
- sample road in fund 1169-0000 local road and streets. Second. All right and Ms. Ridge you're in for
- a marathon so welcome. What can you tell us about this? This is actually we're going to have some costs
- possibly to finish out this project so and that
- there's a chance that it will not be some of the change orders will not be participating items that
- would be reimbursement through the grant. So we're creating the line in the local road and streets and
- we'll be able to pay those costs out of that fund. Thank you very much. I'm looking to my colleagues
- here to see if anybody has any questions or comments on this item.
- All right, and so we'll go to public comment. If there's public comment, you can come forward to the
- lectern here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none, Councilor Iverson, thank you
- for taking over while I was out. My pleasure. We could do a voice vote. You can do a voice vote because
- this is a new account line only. Oh, that's right. Okay. So all those in favor of approving this item
- as presented signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign.
- Okay. Motion carries. Next up item C. Council, I want to note for the record that the fund on the agenda
- is incorrect for the request submitted by the department, which can be found in the packet. Therefore,
- I move to open for discussion and possible approval by the highway department's request to be exempt
- from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire in fund 1197-0000 stormwater management two part-time
- intern positions.
- Ms. Ridge. So we have been participating in this program for many years now. We usually have the interns
- from May to August when school starts. They will be no more than the 28 hours a week that is allowed
- at $18 per hour. I attached a brief job description of what we post, of what some of the duties are,
- updating our counties,
- online permitting portal, open gov, assisting with implementation of countywide storm drain marking
- program, water quality monitoring, updating public education and outreach materials. So they're just
- great assistance to the full-time staff in the department. So we're just requesting to participate in
- that program and hire the two part-time interns for the summer. Okay. Thank you. Questions or comments
- from council on this item?
- Yes, I'm happy to support this for this year, but we have to keep a close eye on this budget because
- we know if portions of this county is no longer if it joins another municipality, we will not have the
- revenue from that. As a reminder, the revenue for storm water comes only from those
- properties that sit outside of municipalities. So we would not receive that stormwater. So we want to
- make sure that we're not trying to do any of the stormwater projects inside the city or any
- other municipality, which would be Ellitsville, because they have their own way of providing for that,
- and they charge it in a different way. Ours is charged through the tax system. It's not a tax.
- really, but we have to put it on the tax bills because that's our only method of charging the folks
- since we don't operate utilities. Just as a reminder, if we start losing any major portion of where
- that revenue comes from, then this revenue would not
- and we would always look at that. This is just two part time, so it's nothing that's permanent. So if
- we have to make adjustments in the future, we will do so. Are there any other, excuse me, questions
- or comments from council on this item? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If there's
- public comment on this item, you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in
- the room. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote?
- Councillor Hawke? Yes. Councillor Wilk? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor
- Cross? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Next
- up are items D and E.
- Council, I will be combining items D and E into one motion. I move to approve the Highway Department's
- request and fund 8168-0000.
- 2022 to 2025 bridge inspection to approve an additional appropriation of $42,669.19 in the services
- category and simultaneously approve a fund to fund transfer of cash of $8,534 from fund 1135-0000 cumulative
- bridge to fund 8168-0000 2022 to 2025 bridge inspection.
- So we are wrapping up our 2022 to 2025 bridge inspections. We're appropriating what's left on the contract,
- not that we will be spending the full amount and then the cash to cash transfer is our 20% of our local
- responsibility to finish out those bridge inspections. Okay. Thank you for that. Any questions or comments
- from council on this item?
- Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. You can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the
- lectern here in the room. Seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor
- Deckard? Yes. Councillor Crosby? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hawke? Yes.
- Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Item F. Council, I'll be combining items F and G into one motion.
- Therefore, I move to approve the Highway Department's request and fund 9106-0000 community crossing
- grant program or CCMG to create a count line three zero zero zero six contractual services and simultaneously
- approve an additional appropriation of one million dollars in the services category.
- Plus a fund to fund transfer of cash of $1 million from fund 1112-0530 economic development lit highway
- to fund 9106-0000CCMG. Second. Okay. Would you like to tell us about this one? So this is part of the
- CCMG grant. It's moving over everything into that grant fund. So it is good.
- easy for tracking. We did just receive the million dollars from in dot this week. So I think it's on
- the April meeting I just turned in to come and appropriate that million to put it into the line. The
- projects have already been awarded to a contractor. We're prepping the roads so we're ready to go as
- soon as the plants open to release the roads and get the work done. Congratulations. All right. Any
- other questions or comments from council on this item.
- none. We will move on to public comment. If there's public comment, you can entertain us by doing so
- by raising your hand via Teams or coming forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, maybe
- please have a roll call vote. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes.
- Councillor Hawke? Yes.
- Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Thank you.
- May I ask the question? It's on an item back, but it's about what was in our packet. Sure. So I think
- this is neither here nor there, but in the packet you have the inspection contract, which I'm
- Guessing is almost concluded, is that right? Is it almost complete? Yeah. Yeah, so the remainder of
- that is that $42,000. It's a four-year contract. We are required to do a four-year cycle on
- bridge inspections. So this, go ahead. There's a significant typo in the contract itself, but if it's
- a contract term, it probably doesn't
- It just has the wrong county at one point, not obviously up top. And maybe I pulled it, maybe it was
- corrected after that. I think our financial manager had put this together and it could have been a contract
- overlap and we had it corrected. I can double check though too. It's page 12 of the 15 of the contract.
- I just wanted to make sure that you were aware, but I couldn't tell. I don't know. It might not happen.
- All right. Any other questions or comments for Ms. Ridge before she leaves? Okay. Yes, Ms. Hall. Yes.
- And I'm only mentioning this to you now since you'll probably be leaving and not hearing the discussion
- about the jail, et cetera.
- But just for you to know, and some of the information you sent to me, and I started looking some things
- up, what Allen County did, when we're saying, well, look, what Allen County did, whatever, they took
- away, they took away their Cunebridge fund and used the money that would have come in to Cunebridge
- and put it to their jail project.
- because a court said they had to build something. And then they tied all those expenses that would normally
- be paid from Kuhn Bridge over into Major Bridge. Now, that's a part of the legislation that was all
- tied to Allen County. But we have to recognize when we say, oh, well, look, Allen County did it and
- whatever, but not saying how they did it to hurt the rest of the departments.
- I wanted you to hear that now. I didn't want you to hear it from me later. I didn't want you to hear
- it by accident. We have discussed, there's only approximately, I believe, six to eight counties in the
- state of Indiana that have a major bridge fund that meet the criteria to have a major bridge fund. We
- started out with six bridges over that 200 foot length. Now we will probably have
- at least 10 bridges of that length in the next four years. We have, I think, two of them under design.
- It would be great if the restriction was moved for all those six counties to meet and be able to use
- those funds like Allen County. How you have to get that through legislative, I'm not. That's way out
- of my realm. But do what I support that? Absolutely, I would support it. Bridges get expensive.
- more expensive every single day to maintain. I don't think the funds should be tied just to the length
- of the bridge. I think it should be available to be used to make all your bridges safe for the traveling
- public, whether it be major bridge or cum bridge. And again, the cost and what DNR requires you on the
- length of bridges to be built in certain areas, that plays a big factor into that.
- I am aware of the Allen Allen County and that, but I don't know how to get that restriction moved off
- there. So I think that we should work with the state to make sure that we're using that major bridge
- revenue to its highest and best use. And if there's more dollars there right now, you can only use that
- outside of Allen County in the construction of a of a new bridge. You cannot use it for anything that's
- overhead or anything.
- towards anything else. It just has to be for construction. So it's very restricted fun. The reason we
- had this conversation to begin with was because one of the positions that needs to be paid for, for
- the highway department, I was trying to see
- Could we perhaps get it out of that major bridge fund? And by the way, for everybody who thinks I hate
- new taxes, guess who did the research to get the major bridge fund to begin with? We used to call it
- the Marty Hawk tax on the people of this county. But I'm telling you, everybody who lives in this county
- will eventually go across bridges. And our school buses do, and so forth. So we have to have safe bridges.
- and grateful for the leadership we have in our highway department to make sure we're all staying as
- safe as we can. Of course. And on that note, we are going to give you back your time so you can go forth
- in the evening. Thank you, Miss Ridge. All right. Next up, we are going to jump back. We move. We've
- already done item H. And so next up is item I with the board of commissioners.
- Council I move to approve the commissioner's request and fund that forty nine thirty two dash zero zero
- zero zero food and beverage tax county to create a count line for two five zero two parks dash improvements
- and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of nine hundred and five thousand dollars in
- the capital category.
- Okay, we got a motion and a second. We are joined here by Ms. Kelly Whitmer and virtually Ms.
- Angie Purdy. Welcome. Thank you. This is the commissioner's line, so if Angie needs to speak, I'm just
- here to answer any questions that are in my area. Okay, Ms. Purdy, proceed.
- All right, thank you. This is kind of a housekeeping, if you will, type situation from last year during
- the whole bond process and trying to determine the best use of county funds for the various projects
- that needed to be completed. And at that time it was agreed by, I believe, both boards that the food
- and beverage funds would be the, you know,
- There's not been a word out of that dog all night. I'm sorry till I start talking. Um, and so this is
- just to help ensure, um, Kelly's able to do what she needs to do with her, um, with the, with the nature
- preserve. All right. Is that it? Okay. All right. Um,
- And I'm gonna look to my colleagues here to see if anybody has questions. Councilor Iverson has his
- hand raised first, so proceed. This is a question for Ms. Whitmer, as I'm pecking towards you that no
- one else can see. I don't know what I'm doing. It says in the narrative here that the Monroe County
- Parks and Recreation Department will act as a general contractor and provide labor with the engineering
- firm. And so my question to you is, what is the timeline of all of this?
- pending the approval, what can the public be expected to see out there? My question is more about the
- timeline and when things are going to get going. Our goal is to have it open to the public next year.
- What month? I don't know. We have a very important meeting with NDOT in a few weeks and that will determine
- where our entrance is going and that will determine how fast we can go. But our staff is ready to go.
- We have everything lined up as soon as
- Hopefully you approve this. And we are going to move as fast as we possibly can. And we have our engineer
- on board. We'll go through planning and building and storm water and get all of our permits. And we
- will move fast. Good to hear. Thank you. Yes, DGH. Madam P.
- Kelly, can you maybe just remind me how the selection process for the firm works? So BRCJ, is that a
- contract that supports the entire parks department or were they selected for the nature reserve? How
- does that work?
- Has all of our maps and all of our engineering for all of our parks So it makes sense to us to continue
- working with them. They have given us Extremely good service at a very reasonable price As I would say
- I can't afford Lisa ridges Engineers, so this is a local group who uses our parks So they care deeply
- about what they do and sometimes they've worked for free so
- We can't do better. We really can't. Thanks for sharing that. I appreciate it. Yes, Councillor. Yes,
- of course, the folks are not here now, but the ones who were here earlier, very upset that some other
- friends were being told they had to be out by a certain time frame. And we know
- that the same thing has happened here on this property where a lovely couple who'd lived there in that
- house for so long and they were told, you know, it's time for you to move on. Just as a reminder, that's
- not a decision the county council makes. So I just wanted to bring it back to how we started the meeting
- and where we are now. So, and to be clear,
- We cannot, because of the way we accepted the ground, we cannot build low income housing, affordable
- housing there. We can't turn it over to a land trust to build housing. I want to make sure that I'm
- repeating that correctly. That's correct. Thank you. Yes, Councillor Wilts. I'm interested in the ways
- in which you've been working with
- other entities both in the county and external to kind of bring in all kinds of expertise on this because
- I've heard snippets here and there. And anyway, if you could just enlighten us. We are so excited that
- we're working with Monroe County Soil and Water, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Department of
- Agriculture, the Indiana Department of Agriculture, Purdue University, the watershed for Monroe County,
- Clear Creek, and
- We call her the pheasant and quail gal. I can't remember what organization she's with. But we all meet
- every two weeks, and we are going forward with an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful plan that will bring
- tourism to this particular park. We'll be having prairies, trees, wildflowers, some cover crops.
- things that we actually don't have in this community. And we also will show things of like how farming
- was done and talk about corn and beans. And we're really melting it in to nice to the community. And
- all these people who are helping us with all these expertise plans, it's all free.
- And we are so excited because what this is going to give the community in the future will be drop dead
- gorgeous. And it's not like any of the other parks or places, Pain Town, it's not going to be like any
- of that. It's going to be our own little goose pond without the pond. So, you know, we want color.
- We want beautiful things out there that people can see. We will have wildlife like you wouldn't believe.
- Wild turkeys and deer and every little creature that you can think of lives on this 400 acres. So it
- will be unique because it's right next to the city of Bloomington. You know how fortunate that is? It's
- not yonder, it's right here.
- that you can go into a different world and experience with your family and your kids and come back and
- go home and probably talk about what you saw out there. So it takes time, but we have a great plan and
- we're going to work the plan. You know, we're also coming with money to help us. I mean, they're like,
- they're so excited because they've never had 400 acres to work
- Usually it's like five acres, 10 acres. So they're like, this is special. This will be for decades,
- will be for generations to come. So Nancy Huntington, who owned the land, she just had one provision,
- recreational purposes. That's it. So no condominiums, no apartments, no this or that, recreation. So
- a lot of trails.
- going to have what I call an ADA patio where if you don't have mobility, I want you to be able to get
- on this patio, you know, to have and look at the birds and everything. You can do everything your family
- can do. If you can't move around, you'll have some beautiful place to sit and look at everything. So,
- you know, we're very conscientious about that to make sure it is enjoyed by people of all abilities.
- So I really like this plan a whole lot. And so I intend to take my family there when it arises. But
- I also wanted to know, you mentioned 400 acres. I wanted to know if the whole 400 acres is dedicated
- to this, or what portion would be dedicated to this whole morphing of it? The whole what? The whole
- turning into whatever this is going to be. Is it the whole 400 acres? The whole 409 acres. Great.
- Thank you. And there's already an established woods there. That's a very healthy woods.
- Oh yeah, the whole, every inch of it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from council? I'll
- go to Councilor Decker and then I'll turn back to Councilor Hawke. I'll be quick, Councilor Hawke. Sometimes
- I pick up from constituents an interest in trailage that matches what we see on the west side, kind
- of over on the east side. Councilor Iverson probably could write a book on that.
- Do you ever see a time way down the lane, I suspect, where that might be a source of heading into that
- property, where trails might coming from the nearby community, nearby area, similar to what we see out
- like at Karst? Like trails connecting to the preserve? Oh, yes, I'm glad you asked about that. NDOT
- has a property from Brewster's Ice Cream to this property. We already have another sidewalk.
- right at our property border that we will hook up to. And then we'll, by Hyde Park, there's also a trail
- there that we're going to probably hook up to. So you can walk into this park from four different directions,
- most likely. You don't have to bring a car. You know, you don't have to have a bike. You can walk in.
- So very fortunate. I think that's a, just my little
- opinion and 25 cents will get you not much. I think that is a message that people should hear out there
- on this property because they're getting it in their head for the first time whereas something like
- cars we've lived with all our lives so we see that and I just think it's awesome. So thanks. And this
- is different. I can't emphasize how different this is going to be. You have me at Brewster's. All right.
- As a reminder, I mentioned this briefly at the last council meeting. But who knows? Might be somebody
- else listening. Our next thing we're going to be talking about is money coming out of the economic
- development tax, which is the same thing as it's coming out of the county general. And that has to do
- with transportation.
- State Representative Peggy Mayfield had worked on legislation to encourage the use of this food and
- beverage tax, the portion of it that would have been collected in the town of Ellsville, would go to
- the town of Ellsville for which they could use it for transportation projects. And the county commissioners
- refused, refused to
- accept that or support it in any way, they just said no. And so I just, I mean, there's ways we can
- work better together than we did. And so I'm just saying, I know that this park, that's lovely, the
- parks are lovely, but rural transit would have also been a great thing to assist with that food and
- beverage money.
- and we did not get any support from across the hall. All right, is there any other questions or comments
- on this item? Yes, Councilor Pio. So just one other question about what will be at the facility itself.
- Will there be like benches to kind of sit and relax if you want to do that and enjoy the space? Yes.
- Okay, all throughout the space or? Yes, we've actually bought 40
- benches from Penitentiary I think I remember it's the suicide prevention. Well, yes, we liked them so
- much we put in another order of 40 Okay, so there's gonna be so many trails We will be putting benches
- around. Thank you. And like I said, there's gonna be an ADA patio. That's You can do a lot there
- on. We'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to
- the lectern here in the Nattie Hill room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please
- have a roll call vote. Councillor Fiddle? Yes. Councillor Hawk? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor
- Henry? Yes.
- Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. All right.
- Thank you. Next up is item J.
- Council, I move to approve the Council's office's request and fund 1112-0068 Economic Development Lit
- Commissioners to create a count line 33113, Bloomington Transit Line 13, and simultaneously approve
- an additional appropriation of $195,000 in the services category. Second. All right. And we still have
- Ms. Purgey from or sorry.
- Ms. Purdy from the commissioner's office and then Michelle as well. So one of you ladies will be able
- to take it away. I'll go ahead and start. It was mentioned at the last council meeting maybe February
- 10th or somewhere along through there to have this amount advertised to be brought forth to the council
- for approval. So the amount
- that I discussed originally with the Commissioner's office was 195,000. Ms. Herdy has sent me an email
- and that amount needs to be adjusted to 184,104. Yes, Councillor Iverson, sorry.
- Council, I move to amend my agenda to that number $184,104. Okay. Proceed. Is it appropriate to ask
- why now? Why would that need to change? Angie, can you answer that? I think it's due to the interlocal
- or something. I'm not sure what the question is.
- So what is the, so from 195 to 184, is that the question? Can you give me? Just in general, right? I
- think there might've been some feedback and so I don't know if she was able to hear. Yes, that was the question.
- question why from 195 to 184 something it's not unusual for us to do that kind of situation we don't
- know the amount so we did not know the amount of the so just everybody wants to advertise high so that
- it's covered
- So this is the actual amount then what's being asked to change now? Yes, that is on the new interlocal
- that will be heard by the commissioners on Thursday. And I see the auditor has her hand up. But I think
- my understanding is you always want to advertise higher because in the event that we do get the official
- number, therefore,
- Like if we advertise at a lower rate, we wouldn't be able to discuss it. And we'd have to have, what,
- like 10 days for this to have to be advertised if we got the rate. So I'm still going to go, oh,
- look at me. I'm learning. You're learning. Oh, no. OK. Anybody? Yes. Councilor, I'm so sorry. So for
- those of us on the east side who don't pay a lot of attention to west side bus routes, what, guys, Dave
- just left us weird, what
- Can someone please explain to me that the reason why this is coming to the council office now and the
- budget, the packet information only suggests that this needs to support the continuation of the transit
- line. So is this money supporting the continuation for a year? Is it supporting it for five years? What
- exactly are we approving today?
- This is a one-year interlocal agreement. And my understanding is why it's coming here is despite numerous
- conversations, I know that the commissioners tried to bring it up during the budget session that council
- needed to consider the appropriation of funds for this particular route. I know there was something
- in December on the council's agenda got removed after
- rural transit received their funding that they needed from the state. And I think also given the fact
- that there was no point in getting appropriation for the Bloomington Transit in December of 2025, because
- we just have to come back in in 2026. And so I believe that my understanding is Mr. Thomas and Council
- Member Trent
- have been involved in these communications with Bloomington Transit. And this is a continuation of last
- year's program for line 13. Yeah, I agree with the assessment that was given there on this. And I think
- where this got problematic is that we just didn't have it
- budget time, and then the Council's not kind of used to scheduling that sort of a scheduling that sort
- of an appropriation out for something like this that's not coming from the department. And probably
- that's a lesson moving forward that it just always needs to be coming from the department because we
- will miss the gaps, the cues or
- Bloomington Transit communicated very clearly we have to be paid to run a line that you all support
- That's when we've gone to work here to offer this remedy and get this reinstated I will say also I have
- heard from several different constituency groups about the importance on this I communicated that a
- little bit last time that we talked about it, but I've always said this that
- what we're doing on transportation in this community is probably not really gonna go backwards, meaning
- that needs that you have, particularly for that west side life sciences corridor, the west side IV tech
- location, all of this is probably not going backwards. And even for Councilor Iverson in the east side,
- people have to keep their eyes to these things
- as everything changes with how things are funded, et cetera, because again, our constituents are looking
- for ways to get to work. And as we heard from a constituent, or at least I did in particular on this
- route, this is something that they rely on and ridership increases over time when something becomes
- reliable. So I wanted to kind of add that to that discussion. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Councilor Henry.
- Thank you, Madam President.
- Well, I find that to be clear as mud. So maybe there's some things that were obvious to some folks at
- the table here over the past six months, but I don't have that narrative in front of me. What I understand
- was during the October budget process, I believe a comment was made at the table during the commissioner's
- presentation that we may need to address this. Of course, that presentation occurred at a time when
- we were not
- considering the economic development lit for any funding of anything, it would have been a general fund
- at that point, contribution at least. And then the next I heard about it was in our February 10th meeting.
- And so to the extent that there were conversations going on that were not shared with the totality of
- the body or the public, it puts us in that place where we
- We're doing transportation policy by firefighting where, you know, a bus line is going to run out of
- funding. We have only so many meetings to meet to decide how we're going to fund it. And, you know,
- I got to say, I mean, we do fund other things through the commissioner's office. So I guess my question,
- as I'm prefacing here, is this account line as part of the economic development, is it being, is this,
- is the owner of the,
- Relationship in the board of commissioners office the same way. We'd have a center stone contract or
- something else at this point Like who's the owner like is it is it the board of commissioners? Okay,
- that would have been the presentation we ought to have had in October or November or December or January
- or February, okay I'll yield back in a moment You know, I mean I support the goal We got a patch where
- we got a patch, but I think to counselor Hawks comment earlier It's an inconsistent message to the county
- about how we're doing regional transit
- And I do think of the town of Ellsville who had a similar issue with rural transit where the county
- went to Ellsville and said we need a 60 40 match in order to continue your line. And now we're offering
- 100 percent funding for the route 13 line. I don't really care about the particulars of it. It's how
- we're building a regional transit approach. So
- If this is a short-term fix, great. We all know that it has a lifetime, a short lifetime as well. It's
- about the same time the ARPA funding was frankly at this point. So we're going to be back here in a
- few years trying to figure out how to do a long-term sustainable regional transit approach. Sounds to
- me like that might belong to the MPO or the Metropolitan Planning Organization as a home.
- I mean of course we're going to support people to get to their work. Of course we're going to support
- the public trying to rely on public bus services that they're building into their lives. But the process
- is important to protect the public so they know that the bus is literally going to run on time month
- after month year after year. So I mean so I don't I don't think it's fair to say well this is known
- to the public or this was a known thing. And clearly we don't have a regional transit approach so we're
- approaching it. But it sounds like we need to start working on that.
- That's my opening thoughts on that matter, President. Okay. Councillor Wilks. Yeah, I want to say that
- the timeline from budget sessions in the fall through now, I agree. We heard briefly, didn't know, but
- we're working with a lot of moving parts here, and I guess
- I'm really excited that we're able to just help facilitate the continuing public transit in this part
- of the county that is critical to our economic development right now and frankly has been discussed
- in the public and by the public for years. I mean this has been in the works for
- almost a decade at least that I've been involved. So I, you know, I was not privy to any conversations
- that brought this agenda item to us this evening, but I'm thankful that it was here and I appreciate
- those who were in those conversations and I'm happy to support this. I agree that we have a lot of work
- to do in being strategic about our regional
- public transit. Agreed. Okay. All right. Yes, Councillor Hawke. Yes. Can you tell us, tell the public
- what it is we're getting for our money? Do you have a map to show us exactly where this line is? Is
- it where we thought it was before? Is it coming back and going down Vernal? I mean, is it going out
- and then back and then
- Coming back out Vernal, where is the map for? It's on their website, Councilor Hotpoint information.
- This is not a new route. I want to see it here. I'm not going to be looking at that. Do you have your
- computer? It's on the left. But what I would like to suggest is that in future, that we take a look
- at the different groups that will benefit by this. If I was looking at a map, I might be able to tell
- you which ones.
- For instance, the larger residential areas, apartment buildings, something where maybe they want to
- assist, or maybe even with some of the nursing homes that's out that direction, maybe Ivy Tech, so that
- there'd be a consortium of folks who might want to assist with this.
- because this is actually just saying this is coming out of County General because we know it's all going
- to be melded together before we get turned around. There is special money set aside unless, you know,
- unless changes were made. But this is last minute changes, by the way, of what we thought we were doing
- with the DLJF bill. But at that point, too,
- that was supposed to, one of the things we could cover with that was assistance for Bloomington Transit.
- So we don't know what's gonna happen with that, but there's really not gonna be money available for
- that for, what, two, three years? So we need to figure out how we're gonna get from point A to point
- B. And so, I mean, I want to make sure that
- as we continue to grow the need for it. And people know they can rely on it. So then they won't be thinking
- about, well, I have to have two cars because my partner's going one direction, the other one another
- for their family. So I think it's something that we need to try. But I do not think it should be for
- more than one year.
- And then we'll see where we are with the rest of our revenue. What can we afford to do? Because as the
- commissioners keep trying to push us, make a decision, make a decision about the jail, and yet this
- is a part of the money. They want to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. It's like, what
- is it you want? Oh, you want it all. I get that. I want it all, too.
- So a couple of things, and I see hands raised, and so I'll go to Councilor Decker, and I see the auditor
- has her hands up. One, from my understanding, and reading the packet, and I thought it was mentioned,
- this is just a one-year term. So this isn't a multi-year, this is just a one-year, and this is something
- that we could talk about, too.
- The other thing is from my understanding and looking at the Bloomington Transit website, nothing has
- changed with this route. So there's nothing new or nefarious or anything with that. It's the same route.
- Bloomington Transit dot com and I believe it is route 13 that it is. And again, thankful as a mom of
- a child who goes to Ivy Tech.
- This is another thing if she doesn't have her parents car that she could go to one of these stops in
- and going over to the west side. So I'll go to Councilor Decker and then I'll circle back to the auditor.
- I appreciate the opportunity to bring us back to the public good and talk about this route. And I just
- want to note this is the second year of this route and this is a one year appropriation.
- for this, so let's take this. If we were taking, let's say we're downtown at our transit center, and
- I'm not able to share my screen because I'm not hooked up for that, but if someone on the bench over
- there wants to do it, it's fine, I'll walk you through it. So this route departs from the transit center
- and it goes to Walnut Street and 14th Street here in Bloomington. It then goes to its next stop at Will
- Detmer Park before heading on
- past that to Ivy Tech, which is located on the west side, of course. It goes then to Simtra at Curry
- Pike, an employer that we've worked with here a couple of times, I think, at least, then on to Garden
- Hill at Vernal Pike, then goes to 17th Street and Lismore Drive before heading to College Avenue and
- 11th Street and then back at the Transit Center. Now, if there's any change to that, Transit would need
- to speak to that.
- I'd heard some rumblings about some tightening on it, but that is literally the route. I saw the Ivy
- Tech Chancellor today. He wanted to encourage this council to support this. My understanding is that
- some of the life sciences employers also are greatly concerned about it. And I've spent the better part
- of two to three weeks trying to calm fears on that. And I would really urge all counselors in their
- dialogue and in their discussions
- about this issue and a lot of others, let's try to return maybe, maybe, I don't know, maybe it's not
- time, but to calming the public around resources and trying to direct them to them with information.
- And so this one is, this area is well known, there's more TIFs out there than you could shake a stick
- at, and the focus of this county has been off and on for 20 years there. Some of us think we need to
- get back to that area.
- Thank you. Ms. Gregory? President Crosley, you once again covered my notes, so thank you. Sorry.
- All right. Any other? Yes, Councillor Henry. Thank you. I guess the question I have then moving forward
- is so the cost model for Bloomington 13 moving forward is going to be 100% funding, I guess, for this fiscal.
- this council were asked to consider reviving, like if I were in the town of Ellsville right now and
- I wasn't calm but concerned that we didn't have that offer of 100% funding, are we pursuing other cost
- models for other modes of transit, urban to urban, urban to rural, outside of the city limit? Now I'm
- asking it to the ether, but if Ms. Purdy, is it still on,
- I mean, what prevents us from reconsidering funding rural transit at the same 100% that's being asked
- to do here out of economic development? Do you see any obstacle to that? Well, the fact that they don't
- need it because they're being funded from INDOT. Sure. And they negate that need. So after rural transit,
- Eltsville couldn't afford the match. They went to attempted legislation.
- And then got a grant from the state so they couldn't rely on their home county in the same generous
- way. So my concern is equity across the county for for.
- transit outside of limits. And this is why, again, I think it's a competence question, and I get calm
- when I know things are working well. And so I think our community deserves that conversation, that we
- can handle the big boy conversations of this table, frankly. But my concern here is that we have a community
- that was told one thing two years ago about how to fund transit, and we are working on this solution
- here. And of course, again, I'm very much for keeping the Ivy Tech line running. I'm just trying to
- work on how we get to a place where there's
- consistency in how we're doing county transit. So I guess I'll just come back to the question. We're
- considering fully funding one route. We've tried other models in the past two years to fund transit
- outside of the city of Bloomington or Bloomington to Ellsville. Would the commissioners be open to an
- opportunity to revisit funding other transit once that grant runs out in Ellsville next year? Definitely,
- I think that they would have that conversation about what the need would be for Ellsville next year.
- But at this point in time, they don't have the need this year. And then I would like to note that the
- county did, through ARPA funds, support the rural transit, urban to urban route through ARPA solely.
- And initially, the town of Bellisville did do some assistance
- But then they elected, I believe, not to follow up with that the following year and maybe losing track
- of time. But I do want to note that this county has funded that urban to urban route of rural transit
- up until this point when it was made known to us that they did not need that funding.
- It's possible that, you know, in 23, we weren't using edit for those types of things. Now that edits
- on the table is a resource that maybe there's a whole new opportunity to reimagine what rural transit
- is for economic development in the county. I'd be very open to discussing that as other parties in the
- county see an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Bloomington Transit today. So.
- Thank you, Madam President. I would recommend having a conversation with Chris Myers because the rural
- transit, the only part that's not funded is the urban to urban. They do have their 5311 and the other
- one granting that they get from INDOT every year that provides the rural transit routes. If you want
- to expand that, I think that would be a conversation that you should have with rural transit.
- My conversation derives from the town of Elksville Town Council, but thank you for that anyway.
- Thank you, Madam President. Okay, all right. Miss Purdy, did you have something else to add to that
- or? No. Okay. All right. All right. I think we are going to move on a public comment now. So if there's
- public comment. Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. I'm so sorry. We need to vote on the amendment.
- And then we can come back for the overall. Okay. All right. So let's vote on the amendment first and
- then I'll come back to that here. Okay. Okay. So this is on the amendment to lower the appropriation
- amount from one hundred and ninety five thousand to one hundred eighty four thousand one hundred and
- four dollars. Correct. Councilor Wilts. Yes.
- Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Lee. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor
- Hock. Yes. Motion passes unanimous on the amendment. Okay. Thank you, Michelle, for reminding us about
- that. And Councillor Decker. Just one thing that I would welcome
- folks from transit or legal or really anyone to clarify if I say this incorrectly but my understanding
- on this route is that while and this is from the original inception of it while that it that bus is
- in the city that's not the portion that we're paying for correct so when when that transit bus
- leaves the city and goes out into the county which is something a transit bus traditionally and by tradition
- I mean historically all the time has not done that county that that transit bus is leaving that's what
- we're paying for friends and so I don't I appreciate counselor Henry's commitment to opening up transit
- discussions with Elton I will join you in that I'm sure along with most of the folks here
- but we're only picking up that bus going out into the county as the constituents, industries, economic
- development leaders have demanded of us, not to mention the residents, for about 20 years or so I've
- heard this. So I want that to be out there because I don't want there to be a myth that transit's getting something
- that we couldn't enter into a discussion with Elstville as well as we did with rural transit when we
- made several trips out there to keep that going when that service was threatened from loss. All right.
- Yes, Councillor Hawke. Before we vote on the final issue, just as a matter of curiosity,
- Where are the county commissioners? I mean, it says here that the council is requesting this on behalf
- of the commissioners, on behalf of the board of commissioners. The county council office is requesting
- this. Well, I guess they just don't have enough to do and or maybe they have too much to do and can't
- be bothered.
- but this is kind of a big issue and I think they can reset through this meeting. I'd like to address
- that. Yes, Ms. Purdy. Yeah, thank you. The reason it was done that way is my understanding is that Council
- Member Deckard brought it up during a council meeting the need to have the appropriation put into place
- and as a result of that Ms. Schell did the agenda request and things of that nature. The commissioners
- Once they have the appropriation, we'll sign an interlocal agreement, which I believe is on their agenda
- for Thursday. Okay, there's a major confusion here from somebody. This council does not put together
- an appropriation request from any other budget than from our own budget. That's the way it works. Don't
- do this again, period.
- There's ways it's supposed to work. We don't put in an appropriation request from us that the money
- is coming out of some other fund. We just don't do it. It's not the way it works. No wonder I had a
- question. OK. So at this time, I'm going to move on to public comment. And so if there's public comment,
- you can please raise your hand and come
- Raise your hand via teams, or you can come forward to the lectern here. And seeing that no one is left
- here in the room and no hands are raised, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Henry? Yes.
- Decker? Yes. Councilor Cross? Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl?
- Yes, sir. Hawk. Yes, sir. Well, motion passes unanimous. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
- All right. All right. Next up is item 10. Oh, no. Sorry. Item K.
- Council, I move to amend the twenty twenty six salary ordinance at account line one seven eight zero
- one part time hourly to fund one thousand dash zero zero zero seven county general coroner with a range
- rate of fourteen dollars to thirty five dollars seventy two cents hourly with an effective date of February
- the eighth twenty twenty six. Second. All right, Michelle, I notice we are looking to you because the
- coroner is not here.
- Correct. This is a housekeeping item with regards to you approved the corner having a part time hourly
- person within our salary ordinance. We normally have part time hourly.
- lines already established but with his department he's never had this before and so this was missed
- when the request came to add this to the budget. So this is just to allow him to have this in the salary
- ordinance so we can pay that part-time hourly person out of the budget. All right any questions or comments
- for Michelle on this item?
- Seeing none. We'll move on to public comment. So if there's public comment you can come forward to the
- lectern here in the room or you can raise your hand via teams. And seeing none. Maybe please have a
- roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Eikerson? Yes.
- Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Crosley? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous.
- Thank you. All right. Next up is now item 10. Council, I move to open a discussion of the hiring freeze.
- Second. Okay. I want to look at Michelle for this item because we all in front of us have
- a very colorful chart and I'm sure she's gonna display it on the screen here momentarily. Right, so
- I was tasked, requested to put together a summary of the duration of positions that are out there, that
- are vacant, that have been gone through the hiring freeze and that kind of thing. So I'm gonna go ahead
- and put it on the,
- display I Gave it to you a copy because I know it's going to be kind of tiny and hard to see all the
- way across as well, so The hiring freeze was established and approved by the council on September the 30th and
- And so I had to have a starting date with regards to the like where to start with. So I did a September
- 1st date and so this is a reflection of what I received from the HR department of any terminations as
- of September 1st as well as any new hires
- as for September 1st. And so you see that we have several departments that have come to council, requested
- a position, and then I gave you a duration of how long that that position was vacant. So on some of it,
- You can see here at the very beginning, for example, the auditor's office had the internal auditor.
- It was vacant for three months and 24 days. And this is with regards to it was filled in-house. So when
- someone slid into that position and finally took it over, it was three months, 24 days.
- There's some others down here where the TSD had come in and asked for a support technician and it was
- for a full-time position. That position, when it was finally the person terminated in September, council
- approved it in October the 8th, that position was only vacant seven days.
- Um, we have another one that was, you know, that was well over a year and that was in the health department.
- Um, so another one that was less than 30 days, um, is, was one of the mechanics in the highway and where,
- um, with regards to Lisa Ridge is always real good as soon as some, she knows somebody's going to be
- moving on.
- She's here and asking. So those two positions, one was 11 days, another one was 10 days. The majority
- of everyone that you have approved thus far has been at least a month or more. So like I said, I've
- highlighted there, there's only three of them where they were less than 30 days.
- This is just kind of giving you an idea. This is where we're at. Does it capture every vacant position?
- No, because I started with September, which was when we put this hiring freeze into that. So is there
- any questions with regards to this? Yes, Councilor Iverson. Kim Schell, as you were putting this together
- and as we're trying to answer the question of, is this hiring freeze working?
- Which columns are you looking at to help answer that question? I'm looking at where it would be columns
- J and K. Why? Well, maybe just this whole section right here. Because you're going to see the date that
- was terminated and the dates that they were filled. You can see where we have several still that are
- still vacant. If they have not, like this one right here, which is a clerk's position, it was vacated
- back in August, and then it was approved to be filled in September.
- Let's throw one, sorry. It was the front counter clerk. That one was vacated in October. You chose as
- a council to deny this, and it's still vacant. So there are, you know, several that we have.
- What is it? Did we come up with 17, I think, on this that are still vacant? Departments are not, I want to say.
- Not all departments are rushing here to get things filled. So and like I said this is just a snapshot
- of from September on. So I guess to put a finer point on this that the hiring freeze is working in that
- vacancies are not being filled quickly or immediately and that and that is giving folks at least this
- council some idea of
- of where we are not having to fill these positions quite as quickly as we otherwise would have? Yes.
- And the ones that are vacant are generally the full-time. What we're seeing vacant are the full-time
- positions. I don't have time right at this moment to go and do a deep dive with regards to part-time hourly.
- you know, because that's a whole different animal because people do tend to come and go a lot with the
- part-time hourly. So I concentrated mostly on the full-time where I think you're going to see the biggest
- impact with regards to, you know, are we saving money? And I think that's what you guys wanted to see
- was, you know, people need to, you know, reallocate duties.
- with regards to, you know, these positions or, you know, just leave it vacant so that, you know, can
- you live without this position? Because I know that you guys are going to be, you know, having to make
- hard decisions later on. So with regards to positions. And, Madam President, let me just conclude. As
- PAC President, I know we're not meeting right now, but if you had asked me if there were this many vacancies
- still, I would have not guessed it was this many. So, yeah.
- Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. I was the one that made the comment at one of the meetings about maybe
- this isn't freezing like we thought it was. And so this gives a clearer picture with the full-time vacancies.
- It just feels like a lot.
- Um, you know, because every agenda now, um, because of that pack pause, uh, we are having consistent
- requests. However, I will say I appreciate, um, once again, like the court reporters that were going
- down into the full-time and the part-time, um, and it looks like departments are trying to really figure
- out what they need versus what they, you know, could manage before coming to the council for those particular asks.
- So any other questions or comments on this? So thank you, Michelle, for giving us an opportunity to
- take a look at it. And my question is, do you want me to continue keeping this updated and maybe report
- back again in like another three months or so where we're at? Along that same line,
- up with a form that I hope will help you with regards to the hiring freeze. As we've gone through this,
- we have, and I say we loosely, the council has been asking certain questions and this kind of thing.
- So we don't technically have a request form for hiring freeze.
- what the departments are doing is they send in an email to the council office saying, hey, you know,
- we have this position. So I've come up with this form to maybe help facilitate some of those questions.
- So the department will fill this out. It's going to, you know, ask what is the position, what is the
- status if it's a full or a part-time kind of thing. They will ask, you know, is this a,
- Permanent part-time is a comment with the classifications, how many hours per week, and then the fund
- and that kind of thing. And then give a brief narrative with that. So then also with that, I thought
- these are the questions that you have asked several times is like, when will this position be vacated?
- So that would be one of the questions. Requested effective date for this position to be filled.
- You're always, you're asking,
- Can you hold off as long as possible? And if this is not a permanent part-time position, which we have
- run into, what is the duration timeline for this position? So if it's a seasonal, what are you looking
- at? If it's temporary part-time, what are you looking at?
- Do you anticipate a period of cross-training? This has come up a couple times. If yes, how long is that
- cross-training going to last? Is this a grant-funded position? That's been asked a few times by different
- counselors. Yes or no. Does the grant cover self-insurance? Okay. If no, what fund will cover
- the self-insurance? Have you attempted to distribute these duties among current office personnel?
- Yes or no. That has come up.
- Could you utilize part-time personnel to cover these duties? That one I just recently added because
- we had one department come in. They have a full-time position, but they chose to fill it with a part-time
- position instead. So also, do you have a part-time hourly line in your budget? This is just to make
- sure that we're covering all our bases. Do you have a part-time hourly line in the salary ordinance?
- And then the last one is,
- If this is approved or with regards to part-time hourly and this kind of stuff, can in-house or category
- transfers supply the appropriation if needed? If you guys think of any other questions that you would
- like to see on this, I would like to start utilizing this, but this was just what I've seen you guys
- have asked several times over the course of this hiring freeze process.
- This is something I would like to start using when those requests come in. So I, to help you along in
- the meetings. Hopefully, you know, answer some questions before we get to this point in the meeting.
- I saw some hands down to the left, so I will go to Councilor Pfeiffer and we'll see. So, I don't know,
- can we go back to the other chart that you already did?
- I'd be interested if there's a way to figure out how much we have saved. Is that data available somehow?
- How would we figure that out? That would probably have to come from HR to see, we would have to know
- what classification or level that person was at and where the, and the new ones are mostly, unless it's
- a transfer, will be, you know, at the minimum. So yeah, I mean, that would take me, or maybe HR a little
- bit to do, you know. The auditor has her hand up.
- Yeah, I believe you had the account lines noted. I think what I could do is pull one of those reports
- that say, like, percents unused, which would give us an idea. And that's fairly simple. And I'm willing
- to do that for you. I would like that very much. Thank you. Sure. Of course. And by the way, this is
- really good. I like efficiencies, and this will help. OK. Dream work makes the dream work. OK. Councilor
- Wilts. I need to pass because I got distracted. I had something in my eye.
- Okay, anybody else have any other questions or comments on this item? You still need to pass council
- will tour. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Okay. It's beautiful. Thanks for providing it. Okay. Oh, sorry, Councillor Hawk.
- Right, as hearing this reviewed, I do think one of the biggest things we have to look at, because we
- saw how we struggled, how we were going to pay for that huge increase in health costs. And so this business
- is this position covered with insurance, with what we call county general, or elsewhere.
- I think that there needs to be and should be available a list of how many positions that we have that
- are grant funded or funded in some other way other than local property tax that we are actually picking
- up the expenses of the health, whether we moved it to economic development, whatever it was, because
- that was a gigantic increase in our expenditures.
- If there's been a report such as that, I guess I missed it. And I would like to see it if there is one
- that says this is how many grant positions we have and how many. And for some people to say, well, we're
- not allowed and Monroe County must pay for this.
- Must because there's not enough room in the grant or must because the state says or whoever's giving
- us this grant says you cannot pay any benefits out of this. No insurance, nothing. And if they say that,
- then show me. Show me what says that in grant. Don't expect us to just here say I'm going to see it
- in the grant that says you can't do it.
- because I'm just saying if you've got X dollars in a grant, then you reduce some of your other expenses
- in some way and cover that health insurance in that grant. Because every time you're looking at around
- at another county employee whose job may not be able to be funded if we keep going down a track we were
- going, we need to make sure we're being responsible.
- with these dollars. And of course, we really don't know where we are until we get all of the updates
- on that DLGF bill and any other bills that were all of that last minute stuff. Didn't I say when FSG
- was here before, we're not at the finish line yet and we weren't. So we've got a lot that we have to
- go through. I understand. All right. Is there anybody else that has any questions or comments?
- All right. And I'm looking for some. OK, so again, thank you, Michelle, for putting that together and
- helping us get a clearer view of what that all entails here. And. OK, I was looking for something else,
- but I realize we are at item 11, which is
- council ladies on updates and comments. So I am going to start over to my left here. And I know Councillor
- Fiddle already has her paper out and I saw her at another event this past weekend and I'm sure she'll
- make comment about that. So proceed. Okay. So my update is the things that I think were important and
- relevant to our work here and things that I thought
- were worth reporting on that I've done since we last met here. So did the beam signing event at the
- Convention Center, which I thought was just lovely. There were several of us there for that. And so
- that will be visible. I think somehow I haven't quite figured that all out yet, but I guess we'll figure
- that out when they get the whole building put together. County Fair Association met recently
- And I just wanted to highlight that they did work with the Red Cross and Monroe County Emergency Management
- Services about the most recent tornado. So I thought that was worth mentioning right now. They're currently
- looking for fair sponsors for this year and announced that they received their county appropriations
- for this year and are appreciative.
- I've been going to the Ellisville, almost all of them, if not at least listen to the Ellisville Richland
- reorganization meetings. And at the last one on March 4th, numerous citizens had questions. So it was
- good to see people coming forward and giving their concerns and getting things clarified right there
- in person. I like that. The five subcommittees that were put together, they had given their reports
- about their finding
- One of them was finance. One was planning and zoning one parks, wrecks and cemeteries. One was public
- safety. One was local governance and all of those reports now are on the Ellisville Richland info.org
- subcommittee draft report section. I'm going to be meeting weekly now on Wednesdays at six until the
- end of May or June when the public hearings begin.
- I went to the fire protection territory meetings. They're having a series of three of those I went on
- February 18th, but the 25th of February and March 11th are all the same as the 18th or 25th So they're
- all three the same so you don't need to go to all three there. It's gonna be at 7 March 5th I attended the BEDC
- annual meeting, and there were 115 members. They have 115 members now, and 54 are sponsors, 54 are general,
- and their special membership are seven. And the annual meeting drew 160 attendees, so more than just
- the membership, so that was good to see. The facial meeting met, did that.
- And then the other thing I think that I was really impressed with that I attended was the IU Health
- Open House for Electeds, which others attended as well on Miller Drive. A whole host of services there
- that I think are worth repeating and mentioning, including car seat fitting, which is free, cribs for
- kids, which is free. They do outreach on things like
- blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular, and those are on Monday and Tuesday, 8 to 4.30. The Safe Sister
- classes for young teens, grades six through eight happens. The Stop the Bleed is a free training workplace.
- You can have that done in your workplace or a collaborative organization. They also do vaccinations
- and safe sleep, and I think that they do more things, but those are the things that really stuck in
- my mind and I made a note of.
- The other thing they handed out at that event was a chart, or actually a handout, which highlighted
- the community benefit that IO Health does in this area. And it's a total of $55,656,698. And that includes
- financial assistance, unreimbursed Medicaid,
- community health improvement services, community benefit operations, health professions, subsidized
- health services, community building activities and unreimbursed Medicare as well as bad debt. So that's
- occupying my time. Thank you. Councillor Williams. Thank you. As usual I cannot compete with my neighbor.
- But I have been busy.
- this weekend. I attended the Soil and Water Conservation District annual meeting. Several of my colleagues
- were there. Councilor Iverson and Councilor Deckard specifically. It was a raucous good time as it always
- is. It was out at the fairgrounds and we heard about all the good work and
- Projects going on throughout the county and this is the same organization or one of the organizations
- that our parks department referred to tonight in terms of collaboration and Providing free services
- because soil and water conservation districts are landowner connectors to federal funding for conservation
- practices, so
- Close to my heart, but also nice to see all the work going on with the government and with our landowners.
- Another thing that we did, I also attended the open house portion of the IU health clinic, community
- health clinic and learned a lot. I won't go into that because you covered that level very well.
- I did want to say that we received, all of us on council have received an email from Mary Morgan of
- heading home referring to the beginning of our meeting. So I just wanted to pass along some information
- from her saying that they have indeed been working with the landlord there for those apartments at,
- is it called, what's it called?
- Seminary Point, yes. And they are standing ready to help in any way that they can. There are resources
- listed on the Heading Home Guide website, which is headinghomeguide.org. And if you don't have access
- to a computer, you can always call.
- to ask for some assistance and that number is 812-955-0538. But yes, they are involved and heading home
- is a great resource for anyone who is concerned about their housing stability. So hopefully folks can
- be connected with resources and have
- alternatives as we work from the opposite side on these same things. Speaking of heading home, they're
- having a housing summit in this community on April 14th and it's gonna be a day long event at the convention
- center with lots of different sessions across various sectors all working in various aspects of housing.
- And I would encourage anyone interested in housing solutions in our community to attend. And that again
- is April 14th. And I'm sure they have information on the Heading Home website. The last thing I want
- to say is that Perry Township precincts have been doing meetings that
- I'm going to be speaking at one of them coming up here. And I didn't even know they were going on. So
- I'm learning more about it. But they're at the Southwest branch of the library. And I would love to
- tell you when the next one is. I believe it is March 10th. But I'd love it if somebody wanted to correct
- me. Well, that's today. That's today? Yeah. April 12th.
- I don't even know what time of day it is. I'm sorry. I don't have much information on that, but I thought
- it was really cool that they were doing informational meetings to focus in on people at that kind of
- like that that township level. So I'm interested to go just to hear what what they want and what they
- want to talk about. So that's all I got.
- Thank you. Councilor Decker. Thank you very much. I'm trying to keep up with the first two reports here,
- and I may add a little bit to some of those. But first, I just want to start and congratulate Vam Buren
- Township Trustee Rita Barrow on a tremendous Saturday cleanup. I'm also losing track of dates, Councilor
- Wilts, but my record is telling me the 28th.
- the Saturday morning of the 28th, she had a tremendous cleanup, 125 people came out, and it was just
- for as bad as our aftermath of the tornado has been, it was awesome to see neighbors and folks getting
- together and assisting, and Rita was just absolutely masterful working with the COAD, Randy Rogers,
- United Way there,
- in making that happen. I also want to congratulate the city of Bloomington on a beautiful Black History
- Month gala that concluded Black History Month. There is a video out there of sponsors accepting sponsor
- designations and to do that, sponsors had to dance. There's a video out there somewhere of me dancing
- up to accept it. If that gets loose, my heaven's in the community. I'm excited about Sophia Travis Grant
- season. We have our new member that was added last meeting for us, Katie Hopkins, and she is already
- hitting the ground running already with our other community member. And so I'm excited to
- that we're just going to be doing this, and I'll let others say more on that. I also had a chance to
- attend the IU Health Open House, and I'll add to that discussion, my gosh, the patients and the questions
- we all were asking between Counselor Iverson, Counselor Feitel-Wilts, everybody. They asked tremendous
- questions in the amount of care that was there.
- Sometimes when these jobs get hard to hear that other people are also worried about the things we're
- worried about and to give you a really good example of that I had an offer I don't know if other counselors
- did but I have an opportunity to hold a baby or a simulation of a baby that was experiencing withdrawal
- symptoms and it was
- I said at the time I said if everyone in the county could hold this baby for a second there's a lot
- of things we'd understand and I was really impressed with how the nurse the nursing and professional
- staff that are walked us through
- Now here's what's happening. This is what this means in a home. This is what this means. And it was
- an eye on on experience in the community that I think really benefited all of us. I want to add to the
- soil and water conservation annual meeting district discussion just to say I was very proud to be there
- with other counselors and particularly I was very proud that this year
- In addition to all the tremendous things that Martha and friends do there and the gathering of neighbors
- that were there, they gave out the first annual Sheryl Munson Friendly Conservation Award. And it was
- a beautiful opportunity to remember Sheryl, but also to honor Kevin McConnell, the recipient. And Kevin
- McConnell has been involved in soil and water conservation efforts on that board of supervisors.
- and working with Cheryl directly since at least 1987. And I had the privilege to present the award out
- on behalf of the other counselors and Commissioner Madera that were there. What I didn't say was when
- Kevin started that, I was 10. But as I was up there and thinking about that, that's a tremendous thing
- that someone who loves the community has done that long. Some of us, we get mad an hour into a meeting
- and we just don't go back.
- Kevin has stuck it out over the years with us and Martha as well has been patient in all that. So a
- lot happening, a lot going on. I'm starting to believe that March is the new April with activities and
- various things, but here we go. Thank you. And I'm going to just roll on down the train here. All right.
- Thank you, Madam President. I have five things today.
- I wanted to note that at the soil and water meeting that has been discussed today, we talked a lot about
- the agricultural benefits to the Indian economy. And I don't think that can be overstated that there
- were a lot of cattle farmers in the room. And we're just so thankful that folks are here in this county
- who continue
- to provide the economic benefit of producing the food that we rely on. So thanks to Soil and Water for
- having that meeting. The IU Health Community Health meeting was very eye-opening. I think there's going
- to be a bunch of meetings that come from that, in particular around ways that IU Health
- and the Monroe County Health Department can find synergies in providing healthcare for people here in
- Monroe County. That was really eye-opening. I did want to also refer folks to the third item is that
- if you are indeed experiencing an eviction, particularly from Monroe County government or from, or any other
- folks that there is a resource, a referral resource on Heading Home's website. It's on the top banner.
- It says referral. Click on that. You can make a self-referral and that'll get you the help that you
- need. You can also call Heading Home directly at 812-955-0538. So again,
- If you're needing help finding a new place because of this eviction crisis, you can go to the Heading
- Home website, click on that referral form, or call that number. The fourth item that I want to talk
- about is a huge thank you to Jennifer Crossley. President Crossley has been taking on the helm of trying
- to find ways to make progress with this jail.
- We're not there yet. We're not anywhere close to there yet, but we could not be making the progress
- that we were making without her leadership, and that needs to be recognized. Here here. The fifth item
- that I want to to bring up is a huge thank you to Molly Turner King. The upcoming Recovery Summit was
- in danger of losing its keynote speaker. And Ms Molly Turner King stepped up. She stepped in.
- and she made something that seemed impossible happen. So thank you. I don't have enough credit for all
- the work that you do behind the scenes. And this is one instance where the Recovery Summit that's going
- to happen on September 1st and 2nd, right here at our Convention Center, is now going to have a keynote
- speaker. A few people are going to be able to get their CEUs. They're going to be able to get their
- credits. And it's because of people like Molly Turner King, who's doing this good work. So lots of good
- things happening in Monroe County. Thank you.
- Thank you, Madam President. Just some notes on some liaison stuff. So first is related to emergency
- management. I had the good fortune to join Newton Edition. I was the 27th, I think, for their show on
- the tornado. I'm joining Mr. Krebs from the Humane Association and Steve Higgs, who had co-written Karp
- Combs' assessment of the May tornado of last year. And it was a good program to really help the public
- kind of what happened with tornadoes in February. One of the positives of that was mentioning the Van
- Buren cleanup and getting calls after I was on to where is that happening and sending people in that
- direction which was I guess folks listen to WFIU which is great.
- I would raise to the council's attention that aviation was working through their assessment with insurance
- on the damage to the airport. I would anticipate that not only aviation but maybe other parts of the
- county may be reaching to us for a rainy day fund support. And so we might want to start wrapping our
- mind around what appropriations from rainy day might look like as we start to see those assessments
- come in in the coming weeks.
- I think, you know, I think I'll leave it with those two. Of course, we did have a statewide tornado
- drill today, followed by actual severe weather coming in, so stay dry, everybody. And I'll just say
- on a maybe personal note that for the past year, I've signed every form that's come down this desk with
- my full name, including Junior. And it was the first night I've done that since my dad had passed away
- this past week. And, you know, it's those things that appear every once in a while.
- And that was one that snuck up on me tonight as I sign these things that we do up here hour after hour
- So, um, thank you for that indulgence and have a good evening everybody Counselor Henry, I just want
- you on you to know that our thoughts and well wishes are with you and your family and Having been down
- that road just a couple of years ago two years next month
- I know you've been dealing with a lot. And so I just wanted to say that we appreciate you and your work
- that you're doing here and that our thoughts are with you on the loss of your dad. It's OK.
- On that note, it sounds like all of us really went to this health fair. And I won't indulge a lot.
- because a lot of it has been said, but the one thing that I will say that stuck out to me the most is
- a program where there are nurses that are literally going to homes of pregnant women, and I believe
- it starts at 28 weeks, and they see them all the way up to two years. Oh my God. That was the most
- that I spent I think and I saw the former health administrator Penny Cottle and she was also walking
- with me in the rooms too and we were sitting there talking and I think that's the room that I spent
- the most in and that room touched me so much because as a mom and have you know had some you know
- We all know the struggles of being a mom. Well, I'm not going to say we all, but those of us that are
- very fortunate and blessed to be there.
- There there was a lot with that and the fact that we actually have people who you know have you know
- down on their luck they serve women that are in shelters substance use disorders those women who wouldn't
- really seek help they literally come to them and again have that.
- service provided to them until the child reaches two years. And I believe her name was Camille. That
- was one of the nurses that I spoke to. She was very touched by dealing with the clients that she's dealt
- with. And in particular, there was one nurse, and I'm sorry I can't remember her name, but she actually
- was a client and then turned into
- being one of those individuals that help. So I just, man, I wish that that was something that we really
- knew a little bit more about and that could be broadcasted, but that was the thing that touched me the
- most out of being there on Saturday. So I appreciate that.
- The other thing that I was going to say is, yeah, as Councillor Deckard and Fiddle are members of the
- Sophia Travis grant committee meeting, there is one meeting tomorrow. It's our grant kickoff. And folks
- are probably looking at us going, wow, you're doing a great kickoff now? Yes. As it was talked about
- last year, we've kind of moved all that up so it doesn't
- bump up against our most wonderful time of the year, budget season. And so tomorrow here in this historic
- NatU Hill Room, we will be doing our grant kickoff meeting. And so all those that are able to, you can
- come in person, or you can watch virtually via Teams, or you can watch it back via CATS once it airs.
- But again, this is a really good season. I am very much excited. Our team met last week, and we
- are probably going to see the same things that we've seen over the past couple of years with budget
- cuts and restraints, and our food deserts that are happening, and our pantries that have been depleted,
- and some of the after effects of those that have experienced issues related to the tornado. I'm sure
- we're going to see a lot of that. So I'm really excited to see all this kick off. And again, that is
- tomorrow at 5 PM here in the room.
- The other thing that I would like to say, I wouldn't be remiss if I've been thinking about this because
- I think I've mentioned this for the past couple of years and just like a bad scream cycle or sequel
- rather. It has come back around again. And so the state has now passed into law.
- You know putting the pressure on local municipalities and counties to do something with our unhoused
- folks and You know, I know we keep hearing things that we can't just gel our way through this problem.
- Yeah That's true. But what are we gonna do about it? And I'm just really disappointed in
- why we are here last year and died. But again, it came back again. And they got the green light by the
- Supreme Court. And they've seen other things happening in other states. And so now this is a challenge
- that we will have. And I am definitely concerned and afraid that our jail is going to be filled up with
- folks who cannot help themselves. I believe I read that this is a way for people to try
- force themselves into treatment. Well, if I'm down on my luck, you know, my house forced me into jail.
- And, you know, so I wish that, you know, I know the commissioners that did a body of folks and Council
- votes, I believe is on that.
- meeting where we're supposed to have a member of council and some other community stakeholders to talk
- about this. And I really hope that this is a conversation that we are being had. I know folks are already
- talking about what they will do and things like that, but I really wish we can have those conversations
- as well and we be included in that too as it all relates to that. And yeah, without that,
- That's all, folks, as Warner Brothers says. And so take your medicine. And allergies are real because
- I am definitely affected by it right now. And it's super early. So without that being said, it's almost
- spring break. Be safe wherever you go. TSA will have long wait lines, so be prepared. And without that
- being said, we are adjourned. Thank you.