WEBVTT 00:00:00.418 --> 00:00:08.563 - Good evening, everybody. Welcome to spring and welcome to yet another county council meeting. Today 00:00:08.563 --> 00:00:16.790 - is Tuesday, March 24th, 2026. And we have a quorum. So we will go ahead and start here in the night. 00:00:16.790 --> 00:00:25.586 - You know, we have counselors, David Henry, Iverson, Decker, Wilt and Fidel and not present yet or virtually 00:00:25.586 --> 00:00:27.134 - is counselor Hawk. 00:00:27.522 --> 00:00:35.905 - So we'll announce her when she's here. But since we have our quorum and we can go ahead and do our business, 00:00:35.905 --> 00:00:43.672 - first thing is first. All those that are able to stand, please stand for the reciting of the pledge. 00:00:43.672 --> 00:00:51.747 - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, 00:00:51.747 --> 00:00:57.054 - one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:01:00.258 --> 00:01:09.577 - Okay, all right. Next up is the adoption of tonight's agenda. Does anybody wish to amend tonight's agenda? 00:01:09.577 --> 00:01:18.461 - Yes, Councilor Iverson. Madam President and Council, the Aviation Department has requested that their 00:01:18.461 --> 00:01:27.344 - request for additional appropriation, item 8C, to be tabled to our April 14th meeting. All right, and 00:01:27.344 --> 00:01:29.086 - are there any other 00:01:29.570 --> 00:01:44.459 - amendments to tonight's agenda. All right. And seeing none. All right. So seeing there are no other 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:52.350 - amendments or changes to tonight's agenda, we have a 00:01:52.514 --> 00:01:59.189 - We still don't have anybody joining us virtually, so we can still do this by voice vote. So all those 00:01:59.189 --> 00:02:05.865 - in favor of adopting tonight's agenda as amended signify by saying aye. All those opposed, same sign. 00:02:05.865 --> 00:02:08.286 - OK, motion carries. Next up, we are. 00:02:08.482 --> 00:02:14.911 - Item four which is public comment. And so this is for items that are on that are not excuse me on tonight's 00:02:14.911 --> 00:02:20.863 - agenda So if you are here present and then at you Hill room, you can come forth to the lectern here 00:02:20.863 --> 00:02:26.995 - sign in you'll have up to three minutes to You'll state your name and speak on items not on the agenda 00:02:26.995 --> 00:02:33.364 - If you are joining us virtually via teams, you can raise your hand. It looks like we already have somebody 00:02:33.364 --> 00:02:36.638 - but again, you can raise your hand state your name and 00:02:36.834 --> 00:02:49.344 - and y'all have up to three minutes in Teams land as well. And you can speak on items not on tonight's 00:02:49.344 --> 00:03:03.326 - agenda. So before I go to Teams, do we have anybody here present in the Natt U Hill room? Okay. Anybody, anybody. 00:03:06.146 --> 00:03:12.322 - My name is Talisha Coppock. I'm with Downtown Bloomington and the Convention Center. And I'm here to 00:03:12.322 --> 00:03:18.558 - speak tonight about the properties and the residential units at 424 South College, 432 South College, 00:03:18.558 --> 00:03:24.734 - and 222 West Second. As you know, those were purchased by the innkeepers revenue with the purpose to 00:03:24.734 --> 00:03:28.158 - develop the Convention Center and tourism 16 years ago. 00:03:28.962 --> 00:03:36.297 - It's been part of a long-term vision for that area. I wanted to share with the council tonight that 00:03:36.297 --> 00:03:43.925 - we're super grateful to the Monroe County Apartment Association. Together with local landlords, they've 00:03:43.925 --> 00:03:51.701 - come together to provide some housing options for the 17 residential tenants that are in those buildings. 00:03:51.701 --> 00:03:58.302 - A letter was sent to the tenants last week listing five apartment buildings in one house. 00:03:59.298 --> 00:04:07.284 - that represent over 35 units. It's a variety of rental rates from $549 to $800 a month, and we also 00:04:07.284 --> 00:04:10.558 - included a heading home telephone number 00:04:10.626 --> 00:04:19.308 - the 812-955-0538 number to call for additional assistance if they're interested in deposit information 00:04:19.308 --> 00:04:27.736 - or utilities. But I would like to share also that those landlords have come together with some ways 00:04:27.736 --> 00:04:34.142 - to reduce a few of the barriers for a tenant who's moving into a new place. 00:04:34.210 --> 00:04:43.106 - waived application fees, some credit checks that will save them a cost if they use their current payment 00:04:43.106 --> 00:04:52.340 - history. So it's taking some time to work through all those little nuances, but I think it's very beneficial 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:53.950 - and educational of 00:04:54.210 --> 00:05:01.556 - you know some of the properties that are out there and are available. Yesterday we sent a flyer and 00:05:01.556 --> 00:05:04.862 - today we posted some flyers in the hallways. 00:05:04.962 --> 00:05:13.371 - About an open house that those apartments are going to be hosting on April 11th from 1 p.m. To 4 p.m. 00:05:13.371 --> 00:05:21.698 - There'll be representatives on site that can help address questions and address some of the You know 00:05:21.698 --> 00:05:26.974 - different nuances of those those units. So I think that'll be a 00:05:27.234 --> 00:05:36.040 - helpful. It's a tough time and recognizing any kind of help like that is important, and these are options. 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:44.352 - Nobody has to take them, but they're just options and they're available. But we'd just like to thank 00:05:44.352 --> 00:05:52.829 - the apartment association for coming together to help provide that for them. Thank you. Thank you very 00:05:52.829 --> 00:05:56.286 - much for that update. We appreciate that. 00:05:57.474 --> 00:06:07.438 - Now you can go ahead and come on up. And again, sign in, state your name for the record, and you'll 00:06:07.438 --> 00:06:17.601 - have up to three minutes. Okay. Good evening, council, county council. My name is Tia Arthur. I'm the 00:06:17.601 --> 00:06:21.886 - executive director for Monroe County CASA. 00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:28.635 - I think this is my first meeting that I've been to in my official capacity, although I've been with 00:06:28.635 --> 00:06:35.285 - CASA for 14 years. I wanted to just share with you a few things that we have going on at CASA. A lot 00:06:35.285 --> 00:06:42.331 - of people ask, why should I be at CASA? Why is this important? And it's important to our community because 00:06:42.331 --> 00:06:48.916 - we have a problem with child abuse, and that's why CASAs are needed. So the month of April is Child 00:06:48.916 --> 00:06:50.430 - Abuse Awareness Month, 00:06:51.234 --> 00:06:59.216 - Also Prevention Month, so we'll be kicking off this month of April with a rally here at the courthouse. 00:06:59.216 --> 00:07:07.044 - We'll have some speakers, including State Senator Shelley Yoder. She'll be offering some remarks. And 00:07:07.044 --> 00:07:15.333 - after the speakers, we'll be doing a walk around the courthouse square. We'll have signs, we'll be offering 00:07:15.333 --> 00:07:16.638 - blue ribbon pins 00:07:17.218 --> 00:07:24.097 - in order to promote awareness about this issue in our community. Beyond that, we'll be doing every Friday 00:07:24.097 --> 00:07:30.781 - in the month of April walks around the courthouse in the afternoon. So feel free to bring someone with 00:07:30.781 --> 00:07:37.271 - you and just have a walk around the courthouse square. We'll be on the south side with, there'll be 00:07:37.271 --> 00:07:44.020 - a representative from CASA to offer blue ribbon pins to you, signage, some talking points. So if anyone 00:07:44.020 --> 00:07:47.070 - asks you what you're doing, you can tell them. 00:07:47.170 --> 00:07:53.904 - And also beyond that, I would like to, in addition to inviting the whole community and the council to 00:07:53.904 --> 00:08:00.639 - participate in that, we've moved to a new office and we'll be having an open house. It's next Tuesday 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:07.439 - from 5 to 6 30. We're in Fountain Square Mall now. So we are just right across the street. We love our 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.014 - new space. We just moved in yesterday. 00:08:10.306 --> 00:08:17.132 - officially. And so I would invite anyone in the community who's interested in talking with us or seeing 00:08:17.132 --> 00:08:23.826 - our new space to please come and visit us. We're in Suite 321. And in addition to that, we are always 00:08:23.826 --> 00:08:30.389 - in need of volunteers. We've got a wait list for kids waiting for a casa. We are always looking for 00:08:30.389 --> 00:08:37.018 - board members who are interested in supporting our mission. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. 00:08:37.018 --> 00:08:39.774 - And I have these if anyone is interested. 00:09:11.426 --> 00:09:18.242 - We actually have an extra one up here for her, so you're good. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank 00:09:18.242 --> 00:09:25.126 - you very much for that, and we look forward to participating. And for the record, we do have Councilor 00:09:25.126 --> 00:09:31.875 - Hawke that has joined us, all seven of us that are here. All right. Next up, we will go, since we've 00:09:31.875 --> 00:09:36.286 - already had two public commenters here, I'm going to go to Teams. 00:09:36.418 --> 00:09:44.572 - and it looks like the person with the screen name of Susan Hingwa has their hand raised, so you should 00:09:44.572 --> 00:09:52.252 - be able to unmute yourself, state your name for the record, and you'll have up to three minutes. 00:09:52.252 --> 00:10:00.406 - Good evening, this is Susan Hingwa with the Monroe. Can you hear me okay? It's a little faint. I don't 00:10:00.406 --> 00:10:05.790 - know if TSD would be able to help us with that. Is this any better? 00:10:06.434 --> 00:10:12.292 - much better. Okay, perfect. Okay, good evening. This is Susan Hingle with the Monroe County Women's 00:10:12.292 --> 00:10:18.266 - Commission. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak. I wanted to briefly address an incident 00:10:18.266 --> 00:10:24.534 - that occurred last week involving the Monroe County's Women's Commission, not to assign blame, but because 00:10:24.534 --> 00:10:29.630 - it raises an important issue about process and support for our boards and commissions. 00:10:30.018 --> 00:10:36.407 - Our March meeting was properly noticed in full compliance with Indiana's open door law. When commissioners 00:10:36.407 --> 00:10:42.558 - arrived, the building was locked. After some time, we were eventually let in, only to be told we could 00:10:42.558 --> 00:10:47.454 - not remain in the room because our meeting was not listed on the county calendar. 00:10:47.714 --> 00:10:54.618 - It was also spring break, which may have contributed to the confusion. This was inconvenient and frustrating, 00:10:54.618 --> 00:11:01.397 - but more importantly, it put us in a position where a public body that had followed the law was effectively 00:11:01.397 --> 00:11:07.422 - prevented from using public space to conduct public business. What we did, we did what we were, 00:11:07.650 --> 00:11:14.067 - what we were required and allowed to do. We had forum and agenda and a lawfully noticed meeting, so 00:11:14.067 --> 00:11:20.612 - we met anyway outside on the benches on county property. I want to be clear, I don't believe this was 00:11:20.612 --> 00:11:27.094 - intentional, but I do think it is symptomatic of a deeper issue, namely the fragility of the systems 00:11:27.094 --> 00:11:30.238 - that supports boards and commissions, especially 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:36.579 - volunteer bodies. Boards and commissions rely on basic infrastructure, access to meeting space, clear 00:11:36.579 --> 00:11:42.910 - scheduling processes, and consistent staff coordination. When those systems fail, even unintentionally, 00:11:42.910 --> 00:11:48.510 - it sends the message that this work is optional or incidental rather than an essential part 00:11:48.578 --> 00:11:54.894 - part of county governance. This matters all the more in a moment when there are conversations about 00:11:54.894 --> 00:12:00.705 - reducing or restructuring support for boards of commissions. More broadly, if meeting rooms 00:12:00.705 --> 00:12:07.210 - and administrative coordination are uncertain, then public service becomes unnecessarily difficult and 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:13.589 - public participation suffers. My ask today is simple and constructive. First, that the county review 00:12:13.589 --> 00:12:17.758 - and clarify the internal processes around room access and calorie 00:12:17.826 --> 00:12:23.566 - calendaring to ensure that a properly noticed public meeting cannot be displaced by clerical 00:12:23.566 --> 00:12:30.171 - or communications gap. Second, the council reaffirmed its commitment to boards and commissions by ensuring 00:12:30.171 --> 00:12:36.961 - that the basic logistical support required to function is treated as a core responsibility, not an expendable 00:12:36.961 --> 00:12:43.257 - one. The Women's Commission and all county boards are often made up of volunteers who show up because 00:12:43.257 --> 00:12:46.590 - they care about this community and want to contribute 00:12:46.722 --> 00:12:53.347 - meaningfully. The county created these bodies for a reason. Our system should make it possible for them 00:12:53.347 --> 00:12:59.781 - to do their work not harder. Thank you for your time and for your attention to this issue. Thank you 00:12:59.781 --> 00:13:06.279 - and we appreciate you bringing that to the attention of the full county council. Thank you very much. 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:12.777 - Next up I will go to the screen name Maria Douglas. You can unmute and state your name for the record 00:13:12.777 --> 00:13:15.134 - and you'll have up to three minutes. 00:13:24.034 --> 00:13:31.148 - Good evening, my name is Maria screen name Maria Douglas and I serve on the Monroe County Women's Commission 00:13:31.148 --> 00:13:33.694 - as well at this Council's appointment. 00:13:33.890 --> 00:13:41.097 - I also want to speak about what happened at our last scheduled meeting and why it matters beyond a single 00:13:41.097 --> 00:13:47.964 - incident. So, as Susan already said, when commissioners arrived for our monthly meeting, we were met 00:13:47.964 --> 00:13:54.763 - with locked doors. The meeting had been properly noticed in accordance with Indiana open door laws. 00:13:54.763 --> 00:13:57.822 - We finally, you know, were able to, I think, 00:13:58.338 --> 00:14:06.057 - Well, somebody let us in the building that knew that we have been meeting there for about four years. 00:14:06.057 --> 00:14:14.153 - And then we were told by Joshua Huber, which I believe is on this call today, that we had to leave because 00:14:14.153 --> 00:14:22.023 - we were not on the internal calendar. So we did, as Susan reported, we met on the Sophia Travis benches 00:14:22.023 --> 00:14:28.304 - out on the south side of the lawn with the lovely placard that has a commitment to 00:14:28.304 --> 00:14:35.084 - women and women in this community. And just as a reminder, the Women's Commission does exist to advise 00:14:35.084 --> 00:14:41.865 - local government on issues affecting women, girls and marginalized genders to bring gender equity into 00:14:41.865 --> 00:14:48.645 - policy decisions. Over the years, it has included civic leaders such as Shelley Yoder, Senator Shelley 00:14:48.645 --> 00:14:55.360 - Yoder and current county council member Liz Fiddle. It has historically served as both a watchdog and 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:57.598 - a pipeline for public leadership. 00:14:58.338 --> 00:15:04.929 - Despite this legacy, this commission, in my time, the last four years, has been largely underutilized, 00:15:04.929 --> 00:15:11.776 - even as commissioners continue to show up and do substantial work. Attending public meetings, contributing 00:15:11.776 --> 00:15:18.687 - to justice reform discussions, and most recently developing a gender equity rubric to help county officials 00:15:18.687 --> 00:15:23.934 - or businesses to evaluate how our policies impact women and marginalized genders. 00:15:24.098 --> 00:15:30.228 - It would be easy to dismiss the locked door incident as a scheduling mistake, but process, as Susan 00:15:30.228 --> 00:15:36.418 - has said or alluded to, is the backbone of public accountability. So when the commission follows law 00:15:36.418 --> 00:15:42.548 - and is still prevented from using a public meeting space because of an internal clerical oversight, 00:15:42.548 --> 00:15:43.774 - it sends a message. 00:15:44.930 --> 00:15:52.838 - There's also broader history here. This commission has experienced internal tensions, leadership turnover 00:15:52.838 --> 00:16:00.895 - and years of being sidelined. That context makes incidents like this feel less isolated, less like isolated 00:16:00.895 --> 00:16:08.505 - miscommunication and more like a pattern of marginalization. So as you know, Susan mentioned and said 00:16:08.505 --> 00:16:14.846 - that we are volunteers giving up our time because we believe in civic participation. 00:16:15.202 --> 00:16:21.850 - We had quorum and we fulfilled every legal requirement to meet, so we went ahead and meet. I personally 00:16:21.850 --> 00:16:28.305 - take this body very seriously, especially in this climate when women's rights are being rolled back. 00:16:28.305 --> 00:16:35.081 - And I do ask also for a review to what happened and to ensure that this advisory commission, all advisory 00:16:35.081 --> 00:16:41.473 - commissions are supported in practice and not just in name. Thank you so much. And again, thank you 00:16:41.473 --> 00:16:43.774 - for bringing that to our attention. 00:16:44.578 --> 00:16:52.311 - All right. I don't see any other movers here in the night you who room or hands raised via teams, but 00:16:52.311 --> 00:16:59.969 - kind of want to go back to both rooms here. So just want to do last minute call for anybody that has 00:16:59.969 --> 00:17:07.702 - not had an opportunity to speak on items not on or that are not on tonight's agenda in the room here. 00:17:07.702 --> 00:17:14.526 - If I may, Madam President, provide some commentary based on the last two public comments. 00:17:17.570 --> 00:17:24.383 - became aware of this issue the night of the meeting. Contact was made with TSD. They did say it was 00:17:24.383 --> 00:17:31.333 - an oversight. The TSD was prepared to come in for that night, but the meeting occurred outside on the 00:17:31.333 --> 00:17:38.146 - benches and we are looking into the matter. Okay. And then I'm glad you had mentioned that. And has 00:17:38.146 --> 00:17:42.302 - anybody reached out to formally apologize to the commission? 00:17:45.538 --> 00:17:54.470 - the information that I just provided. In reality this is the first time I'm hearing of this incident 00:17:54.470 --> 00:18:03.491 - in detail. I do know that a contact was made with Commissioner Madera that night but I don't know I'm 00:18:03.491 --> 00:18:12.512 - assuming she did apologize but other than that I'm not sure. And then I guess once we have a protocol 00:18:12.512 --> 00:18:13.662 - put in place 00:18:13.954 --> 00:18:20.371 - like to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. In part, this oversight happens because 00:18:20.371 --> 00:18:26.787 - typically boards and commissions adopt an annual meeting calendar, and that hasn't occurred yet for 00:18:26.787 --> 00:18:33.204 - the Women's Commission. So that led to part of the unusual circumstances for this event, because if 00:18:33.204 --> 00:18:36.990 - a board and commission adopts the annual meeting schedule, 00:18:37.154 --> 00:18:43.111 - the beginning of the year, the meetings get put in the book, and then it's a reoccurring thing. This 00:18:43.111 --> 00:18:49.244 - board meets every Thursday. And I think that led to some of the confusion, and that's neither the fault 00:18:49.244 --> 00:18:55.378 - of the Women's Commission for not adopting a schedule yet, and I don't want in any way to make it sound 00:18:55.378 --> 00:19:01.807 - like that. But I think that led to some of the confusion because we do get in the habit of those reoccurring 00:19:01.807 --> 00:19:05.758 - meetings. Right. And just to be clear, they don't have to as well. 00:19:06.690 --> 00:19:13.141 - knowing like my other job and dealing with boards and commissions. You don't have to. Right. Routinely 00:19:13.141 --> 00:19:19.654 - all of the boards and commissions do. Correct. And I just like I know you said it but I don't want them 00:19:19.654 --> 00:19:26.105 - to hear like just because they didn't this was again a clear oversight. And so something like this you 00:19:26.105 --> 00:19:32.493 - know happening. So we'll apologize. You know and we want you all because we have council appointments 00:19:32.493 --> 00:19:34.622 - as well want to make sure that we 00:19:34.754 --> 00:19:41.389 - have an understanding that we don't want you all to feel like this is something that is completely 00:19:41.389 --> 00:19:48.292 - intentional. And being a liaison to the boards or the Women's Commission before and seeing some of the 00:19:48.292 --> 00:19:55.128 - past history, we don't wanna make you all feel that way at all. And I hope you all hear the sincerity 00:19:55.128 --> 00:20:02.366 - in our voices that we will work to rectify the situation. Let me present that, yep. Hand raise. Okay, okay. 00:20:02.562 --> 00:20:12.321 - And so I see Commissioner Madeira has her hand raised. And before we move on, I just wanna take a look 00:20:12.321 --> 00:20:21.132 - at any more last minute public comment here. And then I will go to Commissioner Madeira. Hi, 00:20:21.132 --> 00:20:24.638 - thanks so much. And just to confirm, 00:20:24.770 --> 00:20:30.996 - Yes, it was very, very unfortunate. It will definitely not happen again. We don't want any commission 00:20:30.996 --> 00:20:37.100 - to feel disparaged. We don't want anyone to show up and feel that their time was wasted. And it was 00:20:37.100 --> 00:20:43.754 - very unfortunate. I could not attend that meeting since I was on the road and for the meeting was absolutely 00:20:43.754 --> 00:20:49.858 - properly noticed. And we will absolutely get to the bottom of what happened and make sure that that 00:20:49.858 --> 00:20:51.262 - does not happen again. 00:20:52.930 --> 00:21:03.019 - Thank you very much for that, Commissioner Madeira. And seeing no other hands raised virtually, we appreciate 00:21:03.019 --> 00:21:12.190 - all the public comment that we have received tonight, so thank you all very much for that. Next up. 00:21:12.322 --> 00:21:19.701 - we will have department updates. And again, these are for items not on tonight's agenda. So if there's 00:21:19.701 --> 00:21:26.865 - a department here in the Net Youth Room that would like to give the council an update, you can come 00:21:26.865 --> 00:21:34.530 - to the lectern here, or you can raise your hand via Teams, and you'll have up to 10 minutes per department 00:21:34.530 --> 00:21:41.694 - to speak on those items. So do we have any takers? Seeing none there, and do we have any virtually? 00:21:43.458 --> 00:21:50.502 - also seeing none. Okay. We will move on. So thank you so much for that. All right. So next up is item 00:21:50.502 --> 00:21:57.753 - number six, which is consent agenda items. Council, I move to approve the following consent agenda items 00:21:57.753 --> 00:21:59.134 - for March the 24th. 00:21:59.298 --> 00:22:07.158 - A, the treasurer's request to fund 1000-0003 County General Treasurer, the creation of account line 00:22:07.158 --> 00:22:15.096 - 38010 service maintenance slash repair dash equipment. B, the probation department's request to fund 00:22:15.096 --> 00:22:23.113 - 9143-0000 JDAI coordination grant for a category transfer of $1,800 from the supplies category to the 00:22:23.113 --> 00:22:24.606 - services category. 00:22:25.026 --> 00:22:32.105 - C, the probation department's request and fund 9145-0000 JDAI programming grant for a category transfer 00:22:32.105 --> 00:22:39.253 - of $820 from the supplies category to the services category and finally D, the approval of the following 00:22:39.253 --> 00:22:46.332 - summary minutes as presented January 22nd, 2026, joint council and board of commissioners work session. 00:22:46.332 --> 00:22:52.254 - February 9th, 2026, joint county council and board of commissioners executive session. 00:22:52.354 --> 00:22:58.819 - February 9th, Joint County Council and Board of Commissioners Work Session. February 10th, 2026, County 00:22:58.819 --> 00:23:05.346 - Council Meeting. February 16th, 2026, Joint County Council and Board of Commissioners Executive Session. 00:23:05.346 --> 00:23:11.562 - And February 24th, 2026, County Council Meeting. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second on 00:23:11.562 --> 00:23:18.276 - tonight's consent agenda items as presented. Does any council members rather have any questions or comments 00:23:18.276 --> 00:23:20.638 - on these items? All right, let's see. 00:23:21.538 --> 00:23:28.639 - none. We'll go to public comment. If there's public comment on tonight's consent agenda items, you can 00:23:28.639 --> 00:23:35.050 - come forward to the lectern here in the night. You have a room or raise your hand via teams. 00:23:35.050 --> 00:23:42.426 - Seeing none, since we have everybody here in person, we can voice vote. So all those in favor of approving 00:23:42.426 --> 00:23:49.182 - consent agenda items as presented signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay. 00:23:49.282 --> 00:23:56.692 - Motion carries. Next up, we are into item seven, which are the hiring freeze reviews. Council, I move 00:23:56.692 --> 00:24:04.246 - to open for discussion and possible approval of the clerk's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze 00:24:04.246 --> 00:24:11.002 - and be allowed to hire and fund 1215-0010 election fund voter registration and one part-time 00:24:11.002 --> 00:24:17.758 - voter registration clerk with a request to fill date of March 25th, 2026. Second. All right. 00:24:18.146 --> 00:24:26.033 - We got a motion and a second, and I see that we are represented here with the county clerk, Nicole, 00:24:26.033 --> 00:24:33.999 - or county clerk Brown and Kylie, hey, welcome. Okay, call me Nicole. No. Informal settings, you will 00:24:33.999 --> 00:24:42.044 - get your title. All right. And what do you have to add on this item? Are we just doing them in a row? 00:24:42.044 --> 00:24:45.278 - Yes, we're gonna do each one separately. 00:24:45.570 --> 00:24:55.709 - So this one is the voter registration clerk. I'm largely going to let my election supervisor speak about 00:24:55.709 --> 00:25:05.849 - the vacancy, but it was very unexpected for a very good reason. Our part-time voter registration deputy, 00:25:05.849 --> 00:25:12.222 - her partner in life got a fancy smancy chef's job in Michigan and 00:25:12.610 --> 00:25:20.206 - Was leaving and so she wants to be with her partner understandably. It was it was a shock. She's a very 00:25:20.206 --> 00:25:27.802 - talented young lady Obviously it comes at the most inopportune time given that we're preparing To start 00:25:27.802 --> 00:25:35.252 - early voting and we will miss her dearly, but we do need to fill that position as quickly as You take 00:25:35.252 --> 00:25:41.022 - over so for this position it is a part-time position so for them they are very 00:25:41.314 --> 00:25:47.885 - mainly focused on getting all the materials ready for Election Day. So while the rest of us, the full-time 00:25:47.885 --> 00:25:53.534 - employees and myself are busy helping with early voting and making sure things are covered, 00:25:53.858 --> 00:25:59.857 - They help with covering lunches for us so that we do get a break. And they help with making sure items 00:25:59.857 --> 00:26:05.740 - are getting finalized. And it's just very crucial that we have a bipartisan team of them. So at this 00:26:05.740 --> 00:26:11.622 - point, we are short on the Democratic side. So it's very important for us to get this filled so that 00:26:11.622 --> 00:26:17.447 - we do have the bipartisan. And we're not having to pull our full-time employee to help with the tax 00:26:17.447 --> 00:26:23.038 - that they're doing. As for early voting, we will have to have one of our early voting full-time 00:26:23.426 --> 00:26:31.733 - voter registration clerks at early voting. Thank you. I already saw hands raised, so I will go to Councilor 00:26:31.733 --> 00:26:39.502 - Hoff first and then I'll go to Councilor Iverson. Yes, you answered the question that I was going to 00:26:39.502 --> 00:26:47.194 - ask because I know you have to do the bipartisan. I'm sorry that it didn't click with me when I was 00:26:47.194 --> 00:26:49.886 - speaking with you at earlier time. 00:26:50.018 --> 00:26:56.035 - But you've already covered that, and so I appreciate that. So I understand it needs to happen. Of course. 00:26:56.035 --> 00:27:02.052 - Councillor Iverson. As always, we put this hiring freeze in place because of our concern about the fiscal 00:27:02.052 --> 00:27:07.899 - situation here in the state of Indiana and particularly Monroe County. Can you talk a little bit about 00:27:07.899 --> 00:27:09.886 - the fiscal impact of this request? 00:27:10.626 --> 00:27:16.632 - So for this individual, they are here typically 28 hours a week. We do have them currently set up on 00:27:16.632 --> 00:27:22.638 - a schedule of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. They're leaving earlier on Friday that a way 00:27:22.638 --> 00:27:28.585 - that they are able to still be within that 28 hours. But if there is an instance where they have to 00:27:28.585 --> 00:27:34.829 - stay over, they are just working their normal hours. So it's not increasing by having overtime or having 00:27:34.829 --> 00:27:39.646 - any of the comp time or any of those individual items. It's just their base pay. 00:27:43.010 --> 00:27:50.656 - Any other questions on this item? Yes, Councilor Hall. To be clear, there's no benefits covered. You 00:27:50.656 --> 00:27:58.227 - wanna make sure, thanks. And seeing no other questions or comments from Council on this item, we'll 00:27:58.227 --> 00:28:05.798 - move forward to public comment. If there's public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here 00:28:05.798 --> 00:28:12.990 - in the room or raise your hand via TAMES. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. 00:28:15.810 --> 00:28:24.074 - Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hawthorne? Yes. Councillor Wilz? Yes. Councillor 00:28:24.074 --> 00:28:31.956 - Henry? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Next 00:28:31.956 --> 00:28:32.798 - up is item 00:28:33.954 --> 00:28:40.651 - Council I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the clerk's request to be exempt from 00:28:40.651 --> 00:28:47.348 - the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0001 County General Clerk a full-time cashier 00:28:47.348 --> 00:28:54.177 - clerk with a request to fill date of March 25th 2026. Second. Okay and clerk Brown what would you like 00:28:54.177 --> 00:28:59.614 - to add to this? Madam President esteemed members of the council as I stated in my 00:29:00.642 --> 00:29:07.971 - paperwork that I was submitted. This is a critical role. We are down to two cashiers from four with 00:29:07.971 --> 00:29:15.227 - my predecessor and we bring in an incredible amount of money on behalf of the courts on behalf of, 00:29:15.227 --> 00:29:22.997 - you know, prosecutor's office, uh, infraction diversion program where you can pay to avoid getting points 00:29:22.997 --> 00:29:25.342 - on your license. And of course, 00:29:25.826 --> 00:29:34.097 - As you know, we are subject to the State Board of Accounts, and so those two people help to cover, we 00:29:34.097 --> 00:29:42.286 - have a limited number of people who handle the money, and that is to be able to trace back errors or 00:29:42.286 --> 00:29:50.881 - concerns or issues, and so it is imperative that we have two people in that role. One person is absorbing 00:29:50.881 --> 00:29:55.422 - it now, but the sooner we can get someone in that role, 00:29:55.810 --> 00:30:04.497 - Thank you. Thank you for that. I actually had a quick question because I was looking at this. It says 00:30:04.497 --> 00:30:13.013 - currently down to down from four. So you already to be clear, like you're asking for one right now. 00:30:13.013 --> 00:30:21.785 - OK. And then the other thing that I wanted to ask a couple of things is it says and the checkbox here, 00:30:21.785 --> 00:30:24.510 - which Michelle, is this the one 00:30:24.738 --> 00:30:33.609 - that you created recently. Okay, it helped tremendously, so thank you for that. Let's see, sorry. Ah, 00:30:33.609 --> 00:30:43.002 - this is where it is. It says, have you attempted to distribute these duties among current office personnel? 00:30:43.002 --> 00:30:51.873 - And it checked yes, but I just wanted to check in with you since you checked yes. How is that working 00:30:51.873 --> 00:30:52.830 - right now? 00:30:53.282 --> 00:31:02.133 - One person obviously is very difficult, and if there is an absence, an emergency, a vacation, I do not 00:31:02.133 --> 00:31:11.070 - have someone. As far as internal controls, we do not want everybody in previous clerk's administrations 00:31:11.362 --> 00:31:18.021 - Everybody had access to the money. Anybody could collect money. There were clerks having to pay out 00:31:18.021 --> 00:31:25.146 - of pocket because I know of at least one clerk who took some copy money and put it in their pocket instead 00:31:25.146 --> 00:31:32.271 - of receding it in. That does not happen under my administration and largely that is because my predecessor 00:31:32.271 --> 00:31:33.470 - narrowed it down. 00:31:33.570 --> 00:31:41.000 - so that only a limited amount of people are touching the money. And that helps us. We have always had 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:48.504 - a clean state board of account audit. I want to continue that. I'm sure the future clerks as well. And 00:31:48.504 --> 00:31:56.080 - so because of that, the limited number of people who touched the money, I want more one, which is where 00:31:56.080 --> 00:31:59.358 - I'm at now with this unexpected vacancy. OK. 00:31:59.522 --> 00:32:06.941 - Okay. And then the last thing is because I know other departments have kind of looked at the idea of 00:32:06.941 --> 00:32:14.434 - trying to do this as well, but I wanted to ask you since so there's currently a full time person that 00:32:14.434 --> 00:32:22.000 - is a cashier clerk right now, right? Okay. Have you given any thought to potentially making the second 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:23.102 - one part time? 00:32:26.050 --> 00:32:33.823 - the amount of money that comes through the clerk's office which is in the millions I would be concerned 00:32:33.823 --> 00:32:41.596 - with only having a full time and a part time. My preference would be to have it be the full time. Okay. 00:32:41.596 --> 00:32:49.070 - Okay. All right. Well, I will open it up to council members and I'll go to Councilor Haug first and 00:32:49.070 --> 00:32:54.078 - then I'll kind of background. Right. I know you have a large staff 00:32:54.530 --> 00:33:01.470 - So I'm wondering if rather than to see if there's someone that you could move part of the duties over 00:33:01.470 --> 00:33:08.411 - maybe you look at the full staff and see which duties you could combine and move one full-time person 00:33:08.411 --> 00:33:15.623 - over here so that you know you have that double eye setting on that because that's what I would certainly 00:33:15.623 --> 00:33:19.774 - suggest and what I've suggested to other departments who say 00:33:19.970 --> 00:33:26.766 - I'm short a person, and I'm going, you're the department head, you're really smart, you're going to 00:33:26.766 --> 00:33:33.563 - have to work hard to work this out. And remember, when everybody's talking about how much money the 00:33:33.563 --> 00:33:40.223 - county's going to have when we get this income tax, the city will keep their hands to themselves, 00:33:40.223 --> 00:33:46.407 - at any rate, that's not going to happen this year, and it's not going to happen next year. 00:33:46.407 --> 00:33:48.990 - So we're still, and then to be short, 00:33:49.090 --> 00:33:55.973 - But nevertheless, I appreciate if if you've looked at the full staff and see what you might do. Right. 00:33:55.973 --> 00:34:02.857 - I actually thank you so much. I would just gently remind the council that my predecessor started seven 00:34:02.857 --> 00:34:09.674 - people down. I've lost people as well. And I know of at least one other position that I have not been 00:34:09.674 --> 00:34:16.958 - able to fill. So we have distributed the work and we have you know, there does have to be cross training and 00:34:17.538 --> 00:34:26.182 - respect to the State Board of Accounts. We don't want any one person to not only handle the money, but 00:34:26.182 --> 00:34:34.827 - be able to write themselves checks. So there is a division of labor. And so that's why I'm saying that 00:34:34.827 --> 00:34:43.555 - it is critical that I fill this role. Thank you. Councilor Wilts. How long has this position been open? 00:34:43.555 --> 00:34:45.150 - Less than a month. 00:34:49.346 --> 00:34:57.088 - Thanks. All right, are there any other questions? Yeah, Council Member Blair. Same questions before 00:34:57.088 --> 00:35:05.527 - the fiscal impact of filling this position. I believe that would have been submitted to you, and I apologize 00:35:05.527 --> 00:35:13.424 - that I don't have it with me. But the person who left had some seniority, so I mean, I feel that this 00:35:13.424 --> 00:35:19.230 - person would just be starting out, so we wouldn't be paying out longevity. 00:35:19.362 --> 00:35:28.014 - you know, or anything like that. Great. That appears in the documentation. And I think it's up on the 00:35:28.014 --> 00:35:36.582 - screen here. So thank you for putting whoever put that up on the screen. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. 00:35:36.582 --> 00:35:45.149 - Any other questions or comments on this item? Yes. I just wonder if there has been any consideration 00:35:45.149 --> 00:35:46.846 - to delaying hiring. 00:35:46.978 --> 00:35:55.248 - I know this is a busy time of year on the voter side, but, you know, is it possible that you could put 00:35:55.248 --> 00:36:03.599 - this off? Counselor, my preference would be not the person who the only person that I have as a cashier 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:11.709 - now is getting ready to go on an extended vacation out West. And so I have somebody who covers lunch 00:36:11.709 --> 00:36:16.446 - and bathroom breaks, but they are in a primary role within 00:36:16.834 --> 00:36:23.572 - the clerk's office, and so the opportunity to get it advertised, get someone in there and get them started 00:36:23.572 --> 00:36:29.870 - so that they can at least take simple payments. There's all kinds of payments that come through the 00:36:29.870 --> 00:36:36.357 - clerk's office, as you know, garnishments, judgments, things like that, and so even just taking simple 00:36:36.357 --> 00:36:40.702 - payments and building on that knowledge base would be helpful to me. 00:36:46.498 --> 00:36:55.051 - you're saying maybe I misunderstood that. Oh, one of your staff members is his name on the ballot in 00:36:55.051 --> 00:37:03.690 - a primary. So their time is sure. I didn't understand what I did not. I heard you say something about 00:37:03.690 --> 00:37:12.158 - primary, so I didn't know what you meant. Did you not hear? I don't know what I don't think she did 00:37:12.158 --> 00:37:13.598 - asking me about. 00:37:16.610 --> 00:37:25.831 - asking when you if you look back there I think you'll see that that there was something said about there 00:37:25.831 --> 00:37:34.963 - was one staff member who was in a primary what I don't understand their primary task are something else 00:37:34.963 --> 00:37:41.374 - not to do primary task okay thank you sorry oh my goodness you scared me 00:37:41.954 --> 00:37:50.160 - I thought if you get off work to go because you're running a primary we need to know about it. Councillor 00:37:50.160 --> 00:37:58.135 - Henry. Yeah, thank you. I'm back on that. Picking up on Councillor Wilz's question though. So you have 00:37:58.135 --> 00:38:06.032 - staff that's taking vacation? The cash year, the loan cash year that I have now had already put in to 00:38:06.032 --> 00:38:11.838 - go on vacation and it had been approved. I think what she was referring to 00:38:12.034 --> 00:38:19.261 - I have someone who typically covers very simple payments so that someone can go to the bathroom or get 00:38:19.261 --> 00:38:26.278 - a lunch. It's those garnishments. Yeah, I track that part. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is 00:38:26.278 --> 00:38:33.295 - the position has been open 30 days. Do you have a candidate in mind and one staff on vacation where 00:38:33.295 --> 00:38:38.558 - you're short staffed? I have some resumes that I can go back to, but I do. 00:38:38.658 --> 00:38:44.922 - It's been long enough that I do need to advertise for that. And so I'd like to advertise and get some 00:38:44.922 --> 00:38:51.431 - other candidates and get them hired as quickly as possible. So just going a little farther with Councilor 00:38:51.431 --> 00:38:57.572 - Walts question. And so is your person that you're so you have a how long is the person on vacation? 00:38:57.572 --> 00:39:03.712 - This like does that vacation hit before you expect the person to start? Because if the idea is that 00:39:03.712 --> 00:39:08.318 - you're trying to expedite the hiring to cover a I don't know how long this 00:39:08.450 --> 00:39:15.791 - If I can advertise. But yeah, if there's advertising hire, the vacation happens in here. There's some 00:39:15.791 --> 00:39:23.059 - cross training. I'm just trying to understand your timeline of what you're trying to cover and when. 00:39:23.059 --> 00:39:30.544 - So I believe that I can get someone hired quickly. I have a trainer that can work with them to get them 00:39:30.544 --> 00:39:35.294 - through or. Understanding having. Having an understanding of what 00:39:35.810 --> 00:39:43.996 - the different kinds of payments. We can, not for very long, but for some time, like a garnishment doesn't 00:39:43.996 --> 00:39:51.797 - have to be processed today, but it should be processed relatively quickly. So simple payments, I can 00:39:51.797 --> 00:39:59.674 - get a new person to learn how to do those are pretty easy to pick up with our Odyssey payment system. 00:39:59.674 --> 00:40:04.926 - But the more complicated payments that are gonna take more training 00:40:05.282 --> 00:40:11.186 - It helps to have both of them in the office, somebody who's processing those payments while the other, 00:40:11.186 --> 00:40:16.919 - the new person is getting trained. I understand that. I mean, I'll get off of it, I guess, but just 00:40:16.919 --> 00:40:22.995 - one more time. So the one's the vacation for the employee? When are they leaving? When they are in leave? 00:40:22.995 --> 00:40:29.072 - In April. So that's like two weeks from now. Yes, I believe I can have someone hired in less. And they're 00:40:29.072 --> 00:40:31.422 - back presumably in May? In end of April. 00:40:32.770 --> 00:40:41.628 - And then, but we need to re-advertise the position. Yes, but I'd be prepared to do that tomorrow with 00:40:41.628 --> 00:40:50.312 - your approval. So, but you're not going to have coverage for that person with this new hire in that 00:40:50.312 --> 00:40:58.910 - time period? They'd have to start like in two weeks, right? Yes. Thanks, Madam President. I guess, 00:40:59.650 --> 00:41:10.300 - Again, I just kinda wanna go back to the fact that is there a consideration to potentially, because 00:41:10.300 --> 00:41:21.163 - I think this is where, again, just crunching numbers and kinda going through my head and hearing our, 00:41:21.163 --> 00:41:29.470 - or remembering our presentation of what we have. I'm a little concerned about 00:41:29.570 --> 00:41:38.962 - this full-time and I'm just wondering could it work if you have the full-time person and potentially 00:41:38.962 --> 00:41:48.261 - partner that with a Part-time person could you take that into consideration? Because that's kind of 00:41:48.261 --> 00:41:54.398 - what is on my head on whether or not like how to vote on this and 00:41:55.426 --> 00:42:01.563 - Yeah, I'm just I'm curious again to think or to wonder if because it sounds like other other departments 00:42:01.563 --> 00:42:07.642 - have done this as well. And I'm not saying one size fits all approach for other departments, but I know 00:42:07.642 --> 00:42:13.721 - the further and further we get into the year, the further and further it's going to be really difficult 00:42:13.721 --> 00:42:19.858 - for us to continue to keep saying yes to positions. And so I'm just wondering if there is an opportunity 00:42:19.858 --> 00:42:23.774 - where you could take a look at this and go, maybe we could get by. 00:42:23.906 --> 00:42:31.349 - with having this as a part time instead of full time. And if we were talking about something other than 00:42:31.349 --> 00:42:38.577 - significant amounts of money, it might be something that I could entertain, but there's not a lot of 00:42:38.577 --> 00:42:45.805 - margin for error, of course, and to keep it as far as keeping the clean record that we have with the 00:42:45.805 --> 00:42:46.878 - money. And so, 00:42:47.170 --> 00:42:54.046 - We've we've we tried when we had to full time into part time because that allowed you know for some 00:42:54.046 --> 00:43:00.991 - more flexibility. I no longer have that flexibility and it's very positive. So when I talk about the 00:43:00.991 --> 00:43:05.598 - employee who can cover lunches and bathroom breaks right now she's 00:43:05.954 --> 00:43:12.338 - Having to take off to take care of her mother-in-law and again Which I think is what counselor the counselor 00:43:12.338 --> 00:43:18.311 - heard me say her primary duties are not that she's just covering intake Excuse me She's just covering 00:43:18.311 --> 00:43:24.168 - and taking simple payments so that long enough for you to go to the restroom long enough for you to 00:43:24.168 --> 00:43:29.790 - get you know some lunch down and most of the time, you know lunches are not even possible if if 00:43:29.954 --> 00:43:36.813 - It's a day, especially where Mondays and Fridays are really, really tough days because people are they 00:43:36.813 --> 00:43:43.472 - got paid on Friday. So they're trying to get tickets and judgments and, you know, child support and 00:43:43.472 --> 00:43:50.131 - all kinds of payments through through the system. And so it would leave me tighter than I am. And I 00:43:50.131 --> 00:43:56.990 - started at a deficit following my predecessor. OK, thank you. Thank you. Yes. I appreciate the clerk's 00:43:57.282 --> 00:44:03.681 - comments here and some of the back and forth that we've had trying to figure out a solution for it. 00:44:03.681 --> 00:44:10.272 - Let me throw something else out to see if this might help the situation and see what the clerk thinks. 00:44:10.272 --> 00:44:16.735 - I appreciate that you said because of the financial components of this position that this is not the 00:44:16.735 --> 00:44:23.262 - one where you want to try one full time, one part time, and I wonder if a path forward here is as the 00:44:23.262 --> 00:44:25.246 - clerk either looks at upcoming 00:44:25.698 --> 00:44:33.135 - vacancies in other roles or upcoming opportunities in other roles as this would make itself available 00:44:33.135 --> 00:44:40.864 - if that down the road since that whatever role that might be would not have a financial component perhaps 00:44:40.864 --> 00:44:48.302 - that goes to a part-time to help the county council start to meet some of these obligations gives you 00:44:48.302 --> 00:44:54.718 - what you need now on the financial end of this and maybe gives us sort of a path to get 00:44:55.074 --> 00:45:02.003 - where councils got the financial considerations and you also have different financial considerations. 00:45:02.003 --> 00:45:08.795 - So thank you, counselor, and that is a sell. If you're gonna do a sell today on a path forward, you 00:45:08.795 --> 00:45:15.860 - have given me the best sell in terms of consideration. Obviously, it would depend on the role. I didn't 00:45:15.860 --> 00:45:23.060 - anticipate my voter registration person moving to another state to get another job ahead of early voting, 00:45:23.060 --> 00:45:24.894 - early and absentee voting. 00:45:25.442 --> 00:45:33.745 - It just depends on which department it is. I have some that are incredibly busy, like my criminal division, 00:45:33.745 --> 00:45:41.587 - for example. They kind of are appalled when they see the number of arrests from the previous weekend, 00:45:41.587 --> 00:45:46.430 - and we just start off behind the eight ball on Monday morning. 00:45:46.978 --> 00:45:53.855 - I could maybe consider a path forward in a different division, but it would just be, I couldn't promise 00:45:53.855 --> 00:46:00.467 - you, the very next role, I'd be ready to go to a part-time opportunity. It would just really depend 00:46:00.467 --> 00:46:07.211 - on who left and how dire it was that that role be filled. But I again would remind you, I started off 00:46:07.211 --> 00:46:10.782 - with lower numbers than my predecessor, and you know, 00:46:11.874 --> 00:46:18.479 - their regard thing to say is you can always come back and ask us for another position that has never 00:46:18.479 --> 00:46:25.149 - happened under my administration and I don't I'm not a crystal ball reader that's not in my job title 00:46:25.149 --> 00:46:31.820 - but I don't see you approving a brand new position if I came and said I needed one. I appreciate that 00:46:31.820 --> 00:46:37.182 - very much and you know I've had that conversation over the years. Yes I wonder if 00:46:37.442 --> 00:46:44.711 - maybe to specify a little bit clearer for me. I look at the calendar and I'm amazed how fast this year's 00:46:44.711 --> 00:46:51.841 - going, but it's still March 24th. There's still more year ahead of us than not. And we will do budgets 00:46:51.841 --> 00:46:59.041 - August, September. I wonder if the clerk would be willing to commit between that this time now and then 00:46:59.041 --> 00:47:04.510 - we would find another role that could do that, help us hit some of this fiscal 00:47:05.250 --> 00:47:11.461 - concerns that we've legitimately gotta hammer down and figure out. To be clear, do I understand you 00:47:11.461 --> 00:47:17.673 - wanting me to ask a full-time person to go part-time? No, just as we, as you're looking at other, I 00:47:17.673 --> 00:47:23.884 - mean vacancies occur, other things occur, can we look at some other role that might fit this shoe a 00:47:23.884 --> 00:47:30.095 - little bit? Should other things occur? Yeah. I would be honored to sit down with you and figure out 00:47:30.095 --> 00:47:34.878 - if there was a path for it, is that fair? And I don't know that that council 00:47:35.522 --> 00:47:44.330 - is willing to take it, but we gotta figure out a way forward around what you do running your own department, 00:47:44.330 --> 00:47:52.815 - but also how we're going to get through the gate on some of these constraints that we've probably yelled 00:47:52.815 --> 00:48:00.976 - about too much up here, but are important to mention. All right, any other questions or comments for 00:48:00.976 --> 00:48:03.966 - the clerk on this item? Seeing none. 00:48:04.098 --> 00:48:10.928 - None we'll move on to public comment if there's public comment on this item You can come forward to 00:48:10.928 --> 00:48:17.825 - the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via teams Yeah, oh looks like I thought a hand raise 00:48:17.825 --> 00:48:24.723 - okay This is a screen name is a telephone number so you will Unmute yourself state your name for the 00:48:24.723 --> 00:48:29.982 - record and you have up to three minutes to make your comment on this item. I 00:48:36.194 --> 00:48:45.198 - Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Go ahead and state your name. Yeah, this is Garrett Fig. I'm 00:48:45.198 --> 00:48:54.292 - a Monroe County resident and also work at the Monroe County Clerk's Office. And I just wanted to say 00:48:54.292 --> 00:49:02.846 - real quick, I just. Can you still hear me? We can hear you. I'm sorry, yeah, I just wanted to. 00:49:03.298 --> 00:49:10.569 - kind of reiterate what Nicole was saying, that it is a very important position, especially I believe 00:49:10.569 --> 00:49:17.984 - to have two full time ones, mainly just because like she said, they are, they're very complex payments 00:49:17.984 --> 00:49:25.183 - on some of them. And when you get, you know, a hundred checks in the mail on Monday or something to 00:49:25.183 --> 00:49:31.806 - be processed, you know, some will be garnishment, some will be just other random checks for 00:49:32.002 --> 00:49:38.661 - all kinds of different stuff. It could be case fees and people are just confused on what to pay, 00:49:38.661 --> 00:49:45.252 - how to pay, because they're paying a different party. But yeah, it's coming through our office, 00:49:45.252 --> 00:49:52.117 - you know, it kind of gets lost in translation once they get out of court and stuff. And it's just a 00:49:52.117 --> 00:49:59.326 - constant, a constant turnover, constant questions. And it takes probably two years for someone to really 00:49:59.938 --> 00:50:07.116 - start to understand all the details of like the different payments that there are. And it is good to 00:50:07.116 --> 00:50:14.721 - just have someone seasoned who's full time and you know, it's part time people are good too to be helpful. 00:50:14.721 --> 00:50:22.113 - But I think in the past, we've had a minimum of two full times and then hopefully a part timer as well. 00:50:22.113 --> 00:50:27.230 - And yeah, I just don't see how it would be possible for that one person 00:50:27.554 --> 00:50:35.327 - to be covered with a part-timer in the meantime. But I know that there's obviously fiscal decisions 00:50:35.327 --> 00:50:42.867 - you guys have to make. So I just wanted to throw that out there and thank you all for your time. 00:50:42.867 --> 00:50:50.950 - Thank you. Are there any other public commenters wishing to speak on this item? All right. Seeing none, 00:50:50.950 --> 00:50:55.070 - maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Feidl. 00:50:56.738 --> 00:51:10.713 - I would like to hear again exactly what we're voting on. Can we do that? You are voting to allow Clerk 00:51:10.713 --> 00:51:25.502 - Brown to hire a full-time cashier clerk. Yes. Councillor Hawke? Councillor Wilz? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. 00:51:27.010 --> 00:51:41.716 - Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Motion passes majority five to seven or five to two. 00:51:41.716 --> 00:51:50.078 - All right. Thank you for that. We will move on to item C. 00:51:51.202 --> 00:51:58.784 - Council I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the clerk's request to be exempt from 00:51:58.784 --> 00:52:06.441 - the hiring freeze and allowed to hire in fund 1215 dash zero zero six to election fund election board 00:52:06.441 --> 00:52:14.023 - 45 additional election day positions as outlined on the agenda Second all right. We got a motion and 00:52:14.023 --> 00:52:18.302 - a second and yes, okay, so most of these are going to be 00:52:18.434 --> 00:52:25.782 - Judges and clerks, those additional numbers that we have added are corresponding with our numbers that 00:52:25.782 --> 00:52:32.987 - we have anticipated to be working at the polls on election day. So I think originally our number for 00:52:32.987 --> 00:52:40.193 - judges was 70. We're asking for an additional 10, which would bump it up to 80. Right now we have 76 00:52:40.193 --> 00:52:44.830 - that will be stationed out on polling locations on election day. 00:52:44.994 --> 00:52:51.339 - These are to give us that space for the backups for individuals who call in on Election Day the morning 00:52:51.339 --> 00:52:57.562 - of or they don't show up or they leave halfway through the day so that we have those backups to cover 00:52:57.562 --> 00:53:03.358 - and ensure that there is a bipartisan team for all of the different tasks during Election Day. 00:53:03.426 --> 00:53:12.908 - And for judges, that's going to increase us to $1,750. For clerks, it would be an additional $2,550. 00:53:12.908 --> 00:53:22.578 - And absentee counters, it's an additional $1,750 for that line. And then our absentee worker B, we are 00:53:22.578 --> 00:53:27.742 - increasing to another eight. And they are $25 an hour. 00:53:27.874 --> 00:53:34.927 - that is again for us to have those backups in case if a team that we have for travel board is unavailable 00:53:34.927 --> 00:53:41.714 - to go out or if one of those members of the travel board are unable to go out that a way that we have 00:53:41.714 --> 00:53:48.368 - them already in their paperwork's ready and if we need them we can pull them. And then the last one 00:53:48.368 --> 00:53:55.088 - is the absentee worker C and those are the ones of requesting that they begin immediately. Those are 00:53:55.088 --> 00:53:56.286 - our leads who are 00:53:56.610 --> 00:54:02.953 - taking care of absentee military overseas ballots, mail ballots, and then also training will begin next 00:54:02.953 --> 00:54:09.052 - week on Wednesday, Thursday, sorry, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and just ensuring that we can 00:54:09.052 --> 00:54:15.334 - get them in here, get their paperwork done, and for them to go through their training for early voting 00:54:15.334 --> 00:54:16.798 - in less than two weeks. 00:54:25.506 --> 00:54:32.897 - Thank you for that. I'll start off because I had a quick question and thank you for the breakdown of 00:54:32.897 --> 00:54:40.653 - the absentee workers because that was one of my questions here, so I'll cross that off. My other question 00:54:40.653 --> 00:54:48.702 - is, I know when we did the 473 positions that we approved back in February, February 24th meeting, absentee C 00:54:48.834 --> 00:54:56.882 - Had eight and originally they were supposed to start early voting And so this group of C says that we 00:54:56.882 --> 00:55:04.930 - need to start immediately. So would we approve in February also start immediately or would they still 00:55:04.930 --> 00:55:13.214 - be in early voting? This is the same eight so it's not increasing the number of positions. It's just the 00:55:13.346 --> 00:55:20.620 - those that line needed to start immediately. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Okay. 00:55:20.620 --> 00:55:28.118 - Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments from Council? Yes, Councilor Iverson. Could I 00:55:28.118 --> 00:55:35.992 - have someone please pull up the fiscal impact, which is page 59 of the packet? I'm a very visual person. 00:55:35.992 --> 00:55:42.366 - I like to see things. So this helps me a lot. And for older eyes, could you zoom in? 00:55:43.522 --> 00:55:52.356 - Please. I'm not going to. All right. First of all, I the the recruit the note I wanted to make the first 00:55:52.356 --> 00:56:01.021 - one I wanted to make here is that there's on the bottom in I guess that salmon. It says the recruiters 00:56:01.021 --> 00:56:10.107 - start March 28th. That's four days from now. Correct. So there's there's some some urgency to this request. 00:56:10.107 --> 00:56:12.126 - Yeah. And then the blue 00:56:13.282 --> 00:56:20.444 - are the numbers that you articulated earlier. That's ten positions for judges, 17 for clerks, 18 for 00:56:20.444 --> 00:56:27.676 - absentee board, and then zero for absentee workers because of the change in time. So we're looking at 00:56:27.676 --> 00:56:33.278 - an investment in elections about for a total of it's in the green box $22,050. 00:56:34.402 --> 00:56:40.107 - Okay. So that's the total fiscal impact of these, what did I say, 45 additional positions. Yeah. So 00:56:40.107 --> 00:56:45.869 - that will be also covering your absentee worker B line. Those are where you're going to have quite a 00:56:45.869 --> 00:56:49.406 - few hours because they are our travel board. They will travel 00:56:49.506 --> 00:56:55.970 - Monday through Friday. They also travel on Saturdays sometimes on Sundays if they need to they're also 00:56:55.970 --> 00:57:02.309 - occurring mileage. So if they are going further away, they will be getting extra same thing with the 00:57:02.309 --> 00:57:05.886 - hours. I do know that last year we did have one into one 00:57:06.018 --> 00:57:11.727 - of our teams that did travel up north went past Indianapolis to go to a hospital. An individual had 00:57:11.727 --> 00:57:17.437 - been in a car accident and they wanted to be able to vote. They got to vote, but we had to bring in 00:57:17.437 --> 00:57:21.662 - a second team of travel board members in order to cover the rest of those 00:57:21.730 --> 00:57:28.174 - trips that we were supposed to do that day and so that's just giving us that extra cushion in case if 00:57:28.174 --> 00:57:34.745 - something happens. That way we're not having to rush in here and get a couple of people approved. We're 00:57:34.745 --> 00:57:41.379 - not having to try to get paperwork finalized in the last couple of hours and just making sure that we're 00:57:41.379 --> 00:57:47.950 - covered for this election. Council Henry. Thank you for pulling together the fiscal impact. So I wanted 00:57:47.950 --> 00:57:51.614 - to maybe ask a few questions here. So help me understand. 00:57:51.778 --> 00:57:59.581 - of the judges and the clerks and the Election Day staff. So our numbers increased for the Election Day 00:57:59.581 --> 00:58:07.157 - staff. Our judges went up in a couple of locations. We've had to increase to four judges at some of 00:58:07.157 --> 00:58:14.430 - our locations due to the number of registered voters at them. So our highest location will have 00:58:16.610 --> 00:58:24.131 - 7,215 registered voters that will go to that location if they do not take early voting as a benefit 00:58:24.131 --> 00:58:31.651 - for them. And then our next highest location is 6,179 voters. So ensuring that there's enough staff 00:58:31.651 --> 00:58:39.247 - at those to cover those people and not knowing the anticipation of who's going to go to early voting 00:58:39.247 --> 00:58:44.286 - and who's not going to go to early voting. Okay, that makes sense. 00:58:46.690 --> 00:58:52.854 - Are these judges that could float or be moved to another polling location in the event? Like those locations 00:58:52.854 --> 00:58:58.508 - aren't as robust as you're hoping for. Yes. So what we've done in the past is if a polling location 00:58:58.508 --> 00:59:04.276 - has somebody that leaves in the middle of the day due to them not feeling well or any of those items, 00:59:04.276 --> 00:59:09.478 - then we'll ask a location that has more if they are comfortable with sending somebody over. 00:59:09.478 --> 00:59:15.246 - If they are, then we do that. If not, then we pull from our backup list. And I guess the question I'm 00:59:15.246 --> 00:59:16.094 - getting to is, 00:59:16.386 --> 00:59:21.590 - These are this is kind of surge numbers right like this would be if we needed to call them in but right 00:59:21.590 --> 00:59:26.895 - so you actually want to process them as ready to go employees, but they wouldn't actually start incurring 00:59:26.895 --> 00:59:30.398 - a like we wouldn't start paying them unless they actually are called. 00:59:30.690 --> 00:59:36.530 - Yeah, so we've actually already worked with HR and E on this. We have we're going to get the paperwork 00:59:36.530 --> 00:59:42.314 - ready for these individuals, but it will not be processed until we know they are going to be working. 00:59:42.314 --> 00:59:48.381 - So for early voting, we're doing it by week. And so then we have their paperwork. They're trained. They're 00:59:48.381 --> 00:59:54.278 - ready to go if need to be. But if we don't need them, then they know that they're not necessarily going 00:59:54.278 --> 00:59:56.830 - to work. I appreciate the amount of work and 00:59:56.962 --> 01:00:03.240 - Unfortunate amount of paperwork. I kind of missed the days of just hey, it's a pretty I'm here some 01:00:03.240 --> 01:00:09.706 - money or not And now they're almost employees that may or may not get an hour's worth of work in Yeah, 01:00:09.706 --> 01:00:16.234 - I guess the comment then is that while this is the fiscal impact it is a ceiling and it's possible that 01:00:16.234 --> 01:00:22.700 - we will not actually incur the 22,000 depending on how things go. Thank you for that Councillor Fiddle 01:00:22.700 --> 01:00:25.086 - and I'll go back to Councillor Decker 01:00:25.314 --> 01:00:31.136 - Yes, I was going to follow up on that. So it seems like this would be the max that it would cost but 01:00:31.136 --> 01:00:37.131 - it could cost less. So there are they essentially on call. Yes. So for all of our backups we treat them 01:00:37.131 --> 01:00:42.954 - as on call individuals. They understand that whenever they're signing up they know that they have to 01:00:42.954 --> 01:00:48.718 - go through the training even if they are almost positive that they're not going to work because for 01:00:48.718 --> 01:00:52.350 - every election every single poll worker has to go to training. 01:00:52.610 --> 01:00:58.070 - election so even if they work in the primary they still have to go to training in the general even if 01:00:58.070 --> 01:01:03.422 - nothing changes so I mean we're constantly making sure that they're getting their training done and 01:01:03.422 --> 01:01:08.935 - only utilizing them if we absolutely have to if there's a way for us to during early voting especially 01:01:08.935 --> 01:01:14.448 - if somebody in the morning leaves early we just call somebody from that afternoon shift to see if they 01:01:14.448 --> 01:01:19.801 - want to come in a little bit earlier and then that away we're not having to pull in extra people or 01:01:19.801 --> 01:01:21.246 - any of those situations so 01:01:21.634 --> 01:01:28.789 - I don't know. Remind me do they get paid for the training? Yes. So they get paid for the training and 01:01:28.789 --> 01:01:35.804 - then they're on call but there's no pay unless they actually go in. Correct. Is that correct? Yeah. 01:01:35.804 --> 01:01:43.520 - Okay. So they have to sit at the ready. Yes. Go in if necessary. Chancellor Decker. First of all I appreciate 01:01:43.520 --> 01:01:49.342 - very much always an election administrator that's thinking about the management of 01:01:49.506 --> 01:01:55.389 - the people that you have in both early and election day voting. So I'm going to ask you some questions 01:01:55.389 --> 01:02:01.329 - because I think this is a public education component that people truly need to understand because these 01:02:01.329 --> 01:02:07.326 - are relevant to things going on. So first, just the travel board. Can you walk through a story scenario? 01:02:07.650 --> 01:02:13.157 - of how that, if somebody's out there watching and they think Travel Board is someone that helps you 01:02:13.157 --> 01:02:18.939 - take your trip to Panama City, what actually is the Travel Board and what do they do with an interaction 01:02:18.939 --> 01:02:19.710 - with a voter? 01:02:20.130 --> 01:02:26.972 - So for travel board, there are multiple different people that can take advantage of this. We have individuals 01:02:26.972 --> 01:02:33.192 - who are just homebound or they're uncomfortable with being out and about on their own. So we send a 01:02:33.192 --> 01:02:39.785 - team to their homes or if they are in a facility or if they're in a hospital, they'll go to that location 01:02:39.785 --> 01:02:46.067 - that the individual's at. They come in and they help them with filling out their ballot if they need 01:02:46.067 --> 01:02:50.110 - it. They have a communication with them that is better than what 01:02:50.466 --> 01:02:57.065 - they sometimes can get at early voting. And so having that is very crucial for all different types of 01:02:57.065 --> 01:03:03.663 - people. We've had a couple of individuals who take advantage of travel board as they're blind, and it 01:03:03.663 --> 01:03:10.391 - would be easier for them to just have somebody read it to them than to try to use our VPD system, which 01:03:10.391 --> 01:03:14.014 - is through, we just switched brands. It's the election, 01:03:19.938 --> 01:03:26.347 - We just switched brands. We used to use not micro vote, omni vote and the state just switched over to 01:03:26.347 --> 01:03:32.631 - a new one. Enhanced voting. And sometimes it's difficult for them to use those so travel board is a 01:03:32.631 --> 01:03:39.040 - much easier solution for them and just being able to have that as an accommodation that we can use is 01:03:39.040 --> 01:03:45.324 - very crucial. Is two travel board members why? One Democrat, one Republican so everything is always 01:03:45.324 --> 01:03:46.078 - bipartisan. 01:03:46.530 --> 01:03:53.744 - see that really throughout that entire both election day and and early voting and just about everywhere 01:03:53.744 --> 01:04:00.750 - throughout the election office. So if anybody thinks that their local election is fixed, they've not 01:04:00.750 --> 01:04:07.964 - met our workers yet who are pretty tough and they're on both sides, right? I had to tell something that 01:04:07.964 --> 01:04:12.126 - Miss Kylie said. I'd like to gently remind the council that 01:04:12.642 --> 01:04:19.398 - While I don't expect these kind of numbers in this election, we had an increase in the number of travel 01:04:19.398 --> 01:04:26.285 - board members who went out during COVID because, and a lot of it was, my recollection is on the IU campus 01:04:26.285 --> 01:04:33.041 - because students who intended to vote early take advantage of that polling site at the Indiana Memorial 01:04:33.041 --> 01:04:40.382 - Union. That was me, sorry. Okay, take advantage of that polling site that we have at the Indiana Memorial Union. 01:04:40.738 --> 01:04:47.961 - wake up on election day, realize that they have COVID. So I got in my car ahead of time, went to Lowe's 01:04:47.961 --> 01:04:55.323 - and we bought the goggles and we brought hoods and things like that so that they could be safe and that's 01:04:55.323 --> 01:05:02.407 - back when we put things in plastic bags because we didn't realize that it really doesn't transfer via 01:05:02.407 --> 01:05:09.630 - paper. So I don't expect those kind of travel board numbers on election day now like I did when we were 01:05:09.922 --> 01:05:17.334 - in the midst of a pandemic, but people certainly as they become aware of Travel Board, certainly it's 01:05:17.334 --> 01:05:24.891 - an option that leaves you with some dignity still allowing you to be able to vote and I appreciate your 01:05:24.891 --> 01:05:32.303 - consideration of that. I also wanna add the ABSB line is also our reconcilers during early voting. So 01:05:32.303 --> 01:05:35.646 - they are the ones that are in the ballot room 01:05:35.778 --> 01:05:41.507 - Processing the ballots from the day before alphabetizing by precinct by day and putting them into each 01:05:41.507 --> 01:05:47.069 - of the bins So that is also including in case if we need a backup for one of them that a way we can 01:05:47.069 --> 01:05:52.798 - bring them in and not have to worry about Not having a bipartisan team or having to pull a lead or one 01:05:52.798 --> 01:05:58.583 - of our full-time staff members to help take care of that Here's the last question that I swear. I won't 01:05:58.583 --> 01:06:01.086 - I don't there's no more when you think about 01:06:01.186 --> 01:06:07.139 - the kind of headaches of Election Day. Election Day is a little different than early, and it's almost 01:06:07.139 --> 01:06:13.209 - like two different sports games, but Election Day, what is the headache that you think about that makes 01:06:13.209 --> 01:06:19.220 - you say we might need additional staffing at either the bigger ones or whatever needs floated to? What 01:06:19.220 --> 01:06:25.232 - is it that you are thinking of so the public kind of hears a little bit about that in your management? 01:06:25.232 --> 01:06:30.718 - So the main thing on that is just ensuring that we are providing the most accessible possible 01:06:30.818 --> 01:06:36.867 - interaction of voting for each of the voters. And it's not necessarily making sure that we're covered, 01:06:36.867 --> 01:06:42.976 - it's to make sure that the voters are covered. Knowing that they can come in and they know that there's 01:06:42.976 --> 01:06:48.849 - gonna be a team that's bipartisan, ready to help serve them and help them. And it generally is just 01:06:48.849 --> 01:06:54.722 - on election day, when you come in, you don't know if you're gonna come in to 15, 20 people who just 01:06:54.722 --> 01:07:00.478 - didn't show up, or if you're gonna come in to only having one or two. In 2023, my first election, 01:07:00.578 --> 01:07:06.763 - within the office. I was just down there as a helper, honestly, and we had made phone calls to five 01:07:06.763 --> 01:07:13.196 - different people who just didn't show up, didn't call, didn't do anything, just completely were nowhere 01:07:13.196 --> 01:07:19.381 - to be found. So then we had to bring in extras to cover those positions, and a couple of them ended 01:07:19.381 --> 01:07:25.628 - up coming from another location. And then in 2024, my primary, very first election as supervisor, we 01:07:25.628 --> 01:07:28.350 - came in and there was about 25 of them that 01:07:28.578 --> 01:07:34.929 - Either are called in saying they weren't feeling well or they just didn't think that they could do it 01:07:34.929 --> 01:07:41.219 - or they didn't show up. So it's Really? That's your main concern on Election Day coming in is is the 01:07:41.219 --> 01:07:47.508 - staff going to be there and Do we have enough time to get them replaced before 6 a.m? And we in this 01:07:47.508 --> 01:07:49.438 - community if we have bad lines 01:07:49.570 --> 01:07:55.842 - Everybody up here will be screaming, yelling, and they won't remember this meeting, right? And you will. 01:07:55.842 --> 01:08:02.174 - You will, but that's not enough in the moment. And that's 6 a.m., 6 p.m. So I just appreciate you talking 01:08:02.174 --> 01:08:08.685 - through that. I think sometimes that gets skipped past and people need to understand for what is essentially 01:08:08.685 --> 01:08:15.256 - a part time public service that acts kind of like a part time business. This is a real struggle, particularly 01:08:15.256 --> 01:08:16.510 - in that finite time. 01:08:17.634 --> 01:08:24.078 - We're doing everything that she said and more, but also on election morning, we're using couriers because 01:08:24.078 --> 01:08:30.279 - you may have gotten there and thought you had everything that you needed or there wasn't something in 01:08:30.279 --> 01:08:36.783 - there, and we've gotta get those to the polling sites. I get out and drive to the polling sites if someone 01:08:36.783 --> 01:08:42.923 - has forgotten something or we didn't have it available at that time, but we would have it before six 01:08:42.923 --> 01:08:46.814 - o'clock. There's just a number of balls being juggled ahead of, 01:08:47.106 --> 01:08:55.391 - six o'clock and I may remind you that I believe there was a home in Ellitsville that caught fire a few 01:08:55.391 --> 01:09:03.595 - election. And the fire department was our polling site, can you imagine? And so there's just a lot of 01:09:03.595 --> 01:09:12.041 - different balls trying to get somebody to help us do what we need to do. So because at six o'clock we're 01:09:12.041 --> 01:09:12.926 - wanting to 01:09:13.378 --> 01:09:21.063 - open those polls and get everybody who's in line ahead of going to work ready to rock and roll. Thank 01:09:21.063 --> 01:09:28.823 - you for your consideration. I'm still a little confused on absentee worker C. Are you asking for eight 01:09:28.823 --> 01:09:33.118 - positions tonight or is that part of a previous request? 01:09:33.378 --> 01:09:40.138 - No, so the previous request was the eight positions, but their start date was early voting. And these 01:09:40.138 --> 01:09:46.765 - individuals are the ones that take care of military oversea ballots, mail ballots, and all of those 01:09:46.765 --> 01:09:53.458 - ballots had to be out by the 21st. So they worked last week to process those and get them out in the 01:09:53.458 --> 01:10:00.086 - mail. But then also the other four ABSC workers are our leads for early voting, and they need to be 01:10:00.086 --> 01:10:03.134 - making phone calls, getting people scheduled, 01:10:03.458 --> 01:10:11.132 - We're coming down to the last couple of weeks, actually days, honestly, because we have training next 01:10:11.132 --> 01:10:18.882 - week. That helps. Thank you. Yeah. So in this just kind of conjured, another thing is for absentee see 01:10:18.882 --> 01:10:26.707 - because originally it was said that these are additional positions that we are needed, that we approved 01:10:26.707 --> 01:10:29.566 - from almost in May, February 24th. So 01:10:29.794 --> 01:10:35.980 - because absentee see originally back in February, we approved had eight and then there's eight here. 01:10:35.980 --> 01:10:42.227 - Are we saying this is an additional eight? So that's 16 total or no, it's just eight, just eight. And 01:10:42.227 --> 01:10:48.351 - this is the group of people that are going to be started immediately. Yes. Got it. Yes, Michelle. I 01:10:48.351 --> 01:10:54.782 - just want to say there there there's this confusion with requests that they begin immediately. There was 01:10:54.882 --> 01:11:05.027 - no timeline with regards to absent worker C, that only applied to the recruiters per that fiscal impact. 01:11:05.027 --> 01:11:14.785 - So is absent worker C and recruiters the same? No. So when I looked at the one that was approved the 01:11:14.785 --> 01:11:24.254 - original time, it says early voting dates. So it would have been prior to the early voting dates. 01:11:25.570 --> 01:11:33.090 - Well, OK. Early voting dates begin on April 7th. All right, because that was what was forwarded and 01:11:33.090 --> 01:11:40.158 - I put that in there. So let me I want to pull something really quick. Yes, for clarification. 01:11:52.354 --> 01:12:03.634 - I think it was right when we pulled up the fiscal impact on the screens, absentee worker C was blank 01:12:03.634 --> 01:12:14.914 - in terms of positions for tonight's request. This was what was submitted for the 473. So it says no, 01:12:14.914 --> 01:12:22.174 - absentee or down at the bottom it says ABSB and ABS and mileage. 01:12:23.970 --> 01:12:31.996 - The only thing that says recruiters start March 28th and through including Election Day. There's nothing 01:12:31.996 --> 01:12:39.869 - else on this that said any other dates. So that's why I was confused on why you were saying could they 01:12:39.869 --> 01:12:47.207 - start immediately. So when I looked at it, it was showing that it says that the judges, clerks, 01:12:47.207 --> 01:12:53.246 - not judges, clerks, absentee worker A, B, and C would begin early voting dates 01:12:53.346 --> 01:13:00.204 - And my assumption was that that would be April 7th, which is the first day of early voting. And I'm 01:13:00.204 --> 01:13:07.200 - not seeing that. Where are you seeing that? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Where did that come 01:13:07.200 --> 01:13:14.127 - from? What is that on? That was on the document that was presented to me. I'm not sure where it came 01:13:14.127 --> 01:13:21.054 - from. From our last meeting? I think it might have been from the meeting where we approved it. Yeah. 01:13:24.738 --> 01:13:32.049 - This doesn't really have a fiscal impact though. I was just saying there shouldn't have been a timeline 01:13:32.049 --> 01:13:39.080 - because there was never one stated. The only one would have been for the recruiters, correct? Yeah, 01:13:39.080 --> 01:13:46.110 - there was only one for the recruiters. Okay. So there any other questions or comments on this item? 01:13:48.642 --> 01:13:57.822 - All right, and seeing none, I'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, 01:13:57.822 --> 01:14:07.186 - you can come forward to the lectern here in the room, or you can raise your hand via Teams. Seeing no 01:14:07.186 --> 01:14:16.734 - hand movement, or anybody coming in the room here, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Hock? 01:14:19.170 --> 01:14:29.697 - Sorry. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor 01:14:29.697 --> 01:14:39.355 - Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Thank you very much. Have a 01:14:39.355 --> 01:14:45.246 - good night. Next up is item D from the probation department. 01:14:45.474 --> 01:14:51.645 - Council, I move to open for discussion and approval of the probation department's request to be exempt 01:14:51.645 --> 01:14:57.876 - from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire two part-time probation officer assistants with a request 01:14:57.876 --> 01:15:03.868 - to fill date of June 1st, 2026. The two positions will be paid from several funds that are outlined 01:15:03.868 --> 01:15:05.246 - on the agenda. Second. 01:15:05.346 --> 01:15:11.883 - All right. We got a motion and a second. We are joined here by our chief probation officer, Linda Brady. 01:15:11.883 --> 01:15:18.358 - Welcome. Thank you. Good evening. Thanks for taking the time to listen to my request. I did come before 01:15:18.358 --> 01:15:25.143 - you the last time at your February 24th meeting. And at that time, I mentioned that the probation department 01:15:25.143 --> 01:15:30.622 - had 18 staff vacancies. There were five full time vacancies and 13 part time vacancies. 01:15:30.882 --> 01:15:38.126 - However, in the past four weeks, we've had two additional probation officers resign plus one community 01:15:38.126 --> 01:15:45.440 - corrections field officer resign. So yeah, so at this time we have 21 staff vacancies. So of that eight 01:15:45.440 --> 01:15:52.473 - full-time, 13 part-time. So at this point, we also know that two of our community corrections field 01:15:52.473 --> 01:15:59.506 - officers have advised us they're gonna leave us in the next one to two months. We don't have dates, 01:15:59.506 --> 01:16:00.350 - but one is, 01:16:00.450 --> 01:16:08.097 - Leaving when her lease ends in May and the other has been given a job opportunity in another county 01:16:08.097 --> 01:16:16.051 - He's waiting on to come through so we know we're losing two more So at this point, we're asking to only 01:16:16.051 --> 01:16:22.398 - refill some part-time positions our probation officer assistance just a reminder I 01:16:22.786 --> 01:16:29.143 - spoke about this last time I was before you and also during the county budget hearings that we didn't 01:16:29.143 --> 01:16:35.375 - refill 12 probation officer assistant vacancies in 2025 to save money in our user fee funds because 01:16:35.375 --> 01:16:41.857 - at the time we those of you who've been council liaisons to our department know that our user fee funds 01:16:41.857 --> 01:16:48.089 - were just dipping and dipping and dipping and so in order to stabilize those funds we didn't refill 01:16:48.089 --> 01:16:49.086 - those positions 01:16:49.378 --> 01:16:56.178 - So we're down to now two probation officer assistants, and what their job is is to operate the day reporting 01:16:56.178 --> 01:17:02.540 - program. Some people call it blow and go. People come in in the morning, somewhere between 100 to 200 01:17:02.540 --> 01:17:08.778 - people in the morning between 7 and 9 a.m., and take alcohol tests. And also, if their number comes 01:17:08.778 --> 01:17:15.016 - up, their color comes up, they would submit to a drug test. And all of our drug tests, for the most 01:17:15.016 --> 01:17:17.886 - part, are urine drug tests. They're observed. 01:17:18.018 --> 01:17:24.790 - Collections with most of our clients being male and so we only were down to one male and one female 01:17:24.790 --> 01:17:31.629 - On staff at this point and they are working the maximum number of hours that they're allowed to work 01:17:31.629 --> 01:17:38.469 - as part-time workers So we reassigned POA duties probation officer assistant duties to our full-time 01:17:38.469 --> 01:17:45.240 - community corrections field officers However, we're now three short of them and two more leaving so 01:17:45.240 --> 01:17:47.678 - we're just down to the bare nubs of 01:17:48.130 --> 01:17:55.485 - being able to reassign duties. We just, we can't do anymore reassignment. So the season for filling 01:17:55.485 --> 01:18:03.135 - POA positions is right now after IU spring break. That's the time their students start looking for jobs 01:18:03.135 --> 01:18:10.564 - for the summer and for the next fall. And so we would like to go ahead and during this hiring season 01:18:10.564 --> 01:18:15.198 - to go ahead and refill the equivalent of two 28 hour part-time 01:18:15.362 --> 01:18:22.640 - probation officer assistance for up to 56 hours a week. Now, we always work around class schedules, 01:18:22.640 --> 01:18:29.918 - so we never know. It's almost always IU students who get these jobs. That's who applies. That's who 01:18:30.210 --> 01:18:37.105 - It's not the most glamorous job. Let's just be honest about that. So IEU students want to get some experience 01:18:37.105 --> 01:18:43.498 - and that's typically who applies for these jobs. So we try to work around their class schedule. So it 01:18:43.498 --> 01:18:47.134 - could potentially take two, three, or even four people to 01:18:47.202 --> 01:18:54.544 - get to the 56 hours it just depends on the class schedule because we have very specific times the 7 a.m. 01:18:54.544 --> 01:19:01.607 - to 9 30 ish a.m. in the morning is our big big day reporting time and then we have an afternoon drug 01:19:01.607 --> 01:19:08.740 - testing session as well so we need very specific times for them to be working and so I can't sit here 01:19:08.740 --> 01:19:12.446 - and say I've got it's going to be two people because 01:19:12.610 --> 01:19:20.122 - I have to be sure that we have at least one if not more males and have to make sure their class schedule 01:19:20.122 --> 01:19:27.634 - matches. So I'm really asking for the ability to fill the equivalent of two 28-hour POA positions around 01:19:27.634 --> 01:19:35.218 - 56 hours. So that's it in a nutshell. Thank you for that explanation. Thank you. Looking to my colleagues 01:19:35.218 --> 01:19:39.582 - here to see if anybody has any questions. Councilor Iverson. 01:19:39.714 --> 01:19:46.545 - Yeah, I was wondering if you could walk us through briefly the different funds that you're utilizing 01:19:46.545 --> 01:19:53.511 - to make this happen. I was afraid you were going to ask me. Well, if it's confusing me, then I imagine 01:19:53.511 --> 01:20:00.275 - it's confusing other people too, so. Well, it is very confusing. We have eight different funds that 01:20:00.275 --> 01:20:07.038 - pay for probation officer assistance, and I can read them here. It's also in the packet on page 61. 01:20:07.138 --> 01:20:16.398 - In case folks want to look at it, too. I have it. I have it with me. So so county general is one special 01:20:16.398 --> 01:20:25.394 - purpose lit and the public safety lit for alcohol and drug program user fees and adult probation user 01:20:25.394 --> 01:20:34.654 - fees, community corrections, user fees, problem solving court, user fees, juvenile probation, user fees. 01:20:37.154 --> 01:20:43.644 - be it. They're eight. Right. And those eight accounts are then on the screen here. And so what you're 01:20:43.644 --> 01:20:50.133 - doing is you're taking the percentages listed on the right hand column from those accounts and that's 01:20:50.133 --> 01:20:56.623 - how you're splitting this up. That's how Anthony split them up to be clear. I was on vacation. Credit 01:20:56.623 --> 01:21:03.049 - due or credit is due. Right. I think Anthony's watching. Anthony Williams, he's the one who came up. 01:21:03.049 --> 01:21:04.830 - It's very confusing because 01:21:04.930 --> 01:21:11.639 - So many of these budgets have very specific things that we can spend them on. And so if it's adult, 01:21:11.639 --> 01:21:18.617 - it has to be for adult services. Juvenile has to be for juvenile services. So we just have to be really 01:21:18.617 --> 01:21:25.528 - careful how they're used. So it all fits together. But just to let you know, we were very careful with 01:21:25.528 --> 01:21:32.573 - how we assign duties. And what I guess the takeaway that I'm coming from here is that reduces the burden 01:21:32.573 --> 01:21:33.982 - on the general fund. 01:21:34.658 --> 01:21:44.149 - by using these different funds to split out? It does. That's how we've done this for the past couple 01:21:44.149 --> 01:21:54.391 - of years this way, so the general fund is just one of the many funds. Right. Okay. All right. Any questions? 01:21:54.391 --> 01:22:04.446 - Yes, Councillor Hock. Yes. What's the dollar amount that you're suggesting come out of the special purpose 01:22:06.658 --> 01:22:14.473 - because we're watching. Whatever is budgeted. I don't have that in front of me. I'm sorry. Whatever 01:22:14.473 --> 01:22:22.366 - is budgeted. The reason why I ask that is we know that we're running tight, trying to make sure that 01:22:22.366 --> 01:22:30.259 - we get through before we need to change the rate there. Just for the public, we reduce that rate and 01:22:30.259 --> 01:22:33.854 - purposely in order to spend down because that 01:22:34.018 --> 01:22:42.096 - Oh, you're talking about the I'm sorry. I was thinking the special public safety special purpose. Yes. 01:22:42.096 --> 01:22:50.016 - OK. So that I'm asking because we need to be watching that very carefully because we did reduce that 01:22:50.016 --> 01:22:57.937 - rate and the dollars going into there. And we know we're going to have to adjust it at some point in 01:22:57.937 --> 01:23:02.878 - time to make keep making them whole, which we promised. Right. 01:23:03.106 --> 01:23:09.338 - And I don't want to break that promise. So I want to make sure whatever is happening that we are watching 01:23:09.338 --> 01:23:15.395 - it carefully. Well, to let you know, all of this is already I mean, it's all budgeted. There's nothing 01:23:15.395 --> 01:23:21.392 - there's no appropriations being asked for. That's all was already approved during last year's budget. 01:23:21.392 --> 01:23:27.742 - So everything's accounted for. I understand that we have to recognize that even if we did approve a budget, 01:23:27.906 --> 01:23:34.554 - we approve budgets far more than what our revenue. See, that's what a deficit is. When you plan to spend 01:23:34.554 --> 01:23:40.885 - more than you plan to bring in, that's what brings in a deficit for some reason. Some people didn't 01:23:40.885 --> 01:23:47.406 - seem to understand what a deficit was. I know that you don't. Well, I do understand what a deficit is, 01:23:47.406 --> 01:23:53.801 - Marty, and I also want to point out that we've been around this a lot before. So I just want to make 01:23:53.801 --> 01:23:54.814 - sure that we're 01:23:54.946 --> 01:24:02.708 - keeping an eye on special purpose. Yes, we are. And which of the other positions are you speaking of? 01:24:02.708 --> 01:24:10.469 - You're saying I heard you say 28 hours. So. On some of them at any rate, so I'm just asking, is there 01:24:10.469 --> 01:24:18.078 - anything that is needed for benefits for any of these folks? I'm sorry, you're you're talking about 01:24:18.078 --> 01:24:24.318 - the POA. Sorry, I need to say benefits for any of these folks that you're hiring. 01:24:24.514 --> 01:24:32.802 - And also to let you know, Marty, we had a long-term 20-year-plus juvenile probation officer retire at 01:24:32.802 --> 01:24:41.415 - the beginning of this year, so her salary in special purpose lit is sitting there not being spent because 01:24:41.415 --> 01:24:49.865 - we haven't asked to come refill that, so it's more than covering that. Good, don't. Let's keep us whole 01:24:49.865 --> 01:24:54.334 - there. Okay, but the others, you were talking a lot of 01:24:54.818 --> 01:25:05.744 - The part-time only gets FICA. That's my question. That's it. Okay. No health, no overtime. No. We don't 01:25:05.744 --> 01:25:16.460 - have any paid overtime for anybody in our department. No. Health benefits. No health benefits, no. No 01:25:16.460 --> 01:25:22.974 - part-timers that I know of in the county get health benefits. 01:25:25.826 --> 01:25:34.009 - Correct. Okay. And considering how long you've been in county government, is it between 38 and 40 years? 01:25:34.009 --> 01:25:41.802 - 41st year. Okay. Thank you. I'm pretty sure you know what deficits are and how to run budgets. So I 01:25:41.802 --> 01:25:45.854 - appreciate that. All right. Council members Decker. 01:25:47.234 --> 01:25:54.060 - Well, one thing, I'm sorry, I can't use the microphone. You should probably be careful about the advice 01:25:54.060 --> 01:26:00.690 - you take from this side of the podium sometimes. But one thing I just want to say is, when I look at 01:26:00.690 --> 01:26:07.385 - this and what you've done, essentially, you've had a pantry of things we've not gotten into. And it's 01:26:07.385 --> 01:26:14.080 - now at a point where, what, two to three years, maybe beyond, it's got to get in a little bit so that 01:26:14.080 --> 01:26:15.262 - functions happen. 01:26:15.426 --> 01:26:22.578 - Am I trying to sum this up pretty well? I'm not sure. I'm not sure which one. Basically, you've kind 01:26:22.578 --> 01:26:30.013 - of held the fort and we've not had to engage these positions, but you've reached a point where... Right. 01:26:30.013 --> 01:26:34.686 - We, on our own, came up with a way to try to cut spending because 01:26:34.978 --> 01:26:41.617 - All of you know who worked with us before that the user fees are just going down, down, down in terms 01:26:41.617 --> 01:26:48.192 - of the collection percentage. There's only so much you can do to get people to pay. We don't want to 01:26:48.192 --> 01:26:54.961 - put people in jail, and we don't. Our judges would never put anybody in jail for not paying their fees, 01:26:54.961 --> 01:26:57.630 - but because people can't pay their fees, 01:26:57.922 --> 01:27:04.541 - It gets absorbed somewhere. And I believe one of you had even asked me the question about what about 01:27:04.541 --> 01:27:11.161 - like pretrial? Does that if someone can't pay fees to be on pretrial, does that keep them from being 01:27:11.161 --> 01:27:17.780 - on the programs? No, it doesn't. But it gets paid somewhere. So if they're being ordered to get drug 01:27:17.780 --> 01:27:24.531 - tests, it's coming out of our budget, meaning our budget. And if they're put on home detention instead 01:27:24.531 --> 01:27:27.742 - of being in jail, it's coming out of our budget. 01:27:27.938 --> 01:27:34.232 - budgeted by you all and being absorbed for those kinds of things. So we don't turn anybody away because 01:27:34.232 --> 01:27:40.406 - they can't pay or can't afford to pay. That just that doesn't happen here in Monroe County. Well, and 01:27:40.406 --> 01:27:44.158 - the reason I asked that question and my metaphor is poor, but 01:27:45.090 --> 01:27:51.962 - the reason I ask that is if we have a department head who is being exceedingly thrifty and trying to 01:27:51.962 --> 01:27:58.835 - figure out how to manage it and also the state is always watching how you do it and trying to either 01:27:58.835 --> 01:28:05.639 - model it or the legislature trying to change it or whatever, but if we have that I think we need to 01:28:05.639 --> 01:28:09.790 - occasionally say thank you and reward that a little bit with 01:28:09.922 --> 01:28:15.460 - Otherwise other department heads will say I didn't matter if you don't save them or you do save them. 01:28:15.460 --> 01:28:21.379 - It'd be better just to kind of con them and and move on down the road because they just they don't recognize 01:28:21.379 --> 01:28:27.189 - it. So thank you for doing that. I also think that the values of the community are reflected in supporting 01:28:27.189 --> 01:28:32.510 - the effort to keep people either out of jail or into programs that help to keep them out of jail. 01:28:32.802 --> 01:28:39.104 - So I just want to offer that. Well, thank you. And you bring up a good point, too, because we have an 01:28:39.104 --> 01:28:45.406 - annual justice services conference in Indianapolis every year. It's all the probation officers in the 01:28:45.406 --> 01:28:51.585 - state, pretrial officers, court alcohol and drug program officers, and problem solving court staff. 01:28:51.585 --> 01:28:57.887 - So it's a really big conference. And they have asked our department and Judge Dikoff to present about 01:28:57.887 --> 01:29:00.606 - our pretrial program. And so they know that 01:29:00.770 --> 01:29:10.606 - we are a high quality program or they wouldn't be asking us to train other programs in the state. So 01:29:10.606 --> 01:29:20.832 - that's a compliment to our judges, Judge DeKoff and our staff. Any other, yes, Councilor Wilts. It looks 01:29:20.832 --> 01:29:27.454 - like it's 6% of the position what comes out of special purpose lit. 01:29:27.554 --> 01:29:35.455 - It's a really small amount that comes out. Regardless, I thought I would get that out there. 01:29:35.455 --> 01:29:44.121 - First of all, thank you for your diligence. I support this for all the reasons that Councillor Decker 01:29:44.121 --> 01:29:52.702 - points out. You've been very thrifty and it's much appreciated and obviously we need these positions 01:29:52.702 --> 01:29:55.166 - and you're cobbling together 01:29:55.362 --> 01:30:03.421 - Basically, you're cobbling together this role out of part-time positions. I think this is a great example 01:30:03.421 --> 01:30:11.328 - of what we were talking about earlier, or I should say Councilor Deckard was talking about earlier with 01:30:11.328 --> 01:30:19.008 - different departments. Looking at these, what can we do? So thank you for that. This past week, as a 01:30:19.008 --> 01:30:24.862 - member of the Community Corrections Advisory Board, I received an email from 01:30:25.282 --> 01:30:34.666 - Becca, and in it, we were being asked to look at several things that need to be submitted, and that's 01:30:34.666 --> 01:30:44.234 - fine. One of those was the collaboration plan that is being submitted to the Department of Corrections. 01:30:44.234 --> 01:30:51.134 - That's required by statute, right? So when I read that, it really lays out 01:30:51.458 --> 01:30:58.465 - beautifully. I mean, if not a little stilted because it's question answer, but it really lays out what 01:30:58.465 --> 01:31:05.472 - y'all do. And I was wondering, is it possible to share that with the rest of council? Yes, absolutely. 01:31:05.472 --> 01:31:12.343 - That would be for your reading pleasure, just because it's not long. It's not long, but it really is 01:31:12.343 --> 01:31:19.349 - like, okay, so this many people work on this, and that does this, and so this many people work on this 01:31:19.349 --> 01:31:20.574 - anyway. It's just 01:31:21.026 --> 01:31:26.526 - Those are the types of things where you're like, oh, this is just a handy resource. It is. And it was 01:31:26.526 --> 01:31:31.973 - actually required because years ago, there were many probation departments and community corrections 01:31:31.973 --> 01:31:37.527 - departments across the state. They were in competition with one another for the same clients you might 01:31:37.527 --> 01:31:43.028 - have in some county. You might have a probation officer and a community corrections officer, which is 01:31:43.028 --> 01:31:45.886 - kind of redundant, as we know, and because there are 01:31:46.082 --> 01:31:51.646 - There are only about 20 counties like ours where community corrections is part of probation. So the 01:31:51.646 --> 01:31:57.322 - legislature wanted to ensure that everybody's collaborating with all the different partners. And this 01:31:57.322 --> 01:32:02.998 - was even before the local JREG, Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council. And we always post this on our 01:32:02.998 --> 01:32:08.951 - website. And I do get calls from judges, actually, from other counties and other chief probation officers, 01:32:08.951 --> 01:32:11.678 - you know, can we borrow your collaboration plan? 01:32:11.874 --> 01:32:18.914 - have at it, we'll share with anybody. So absolutely, we'll send it to you. That'd be great, thank you. 01:32:18.914 --> 01:32:25.885 - All right, any other questions or comments from Ms. Brady on this item? Seeing none, we'll move on to 01:32:25.885 --> 01:32:32.719 - public comment. If there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the 01:32:32.719 --> 01:32:37.982 - lectern here in the room. And seeing none, may we please have, before we do? 01:32:38.178 --> 01:32:47.459 - I think what I would like is to have the motion restated because the motion says two positions, 01:32:47.459 --> 01:32:57.320 - but Ms. Brady is actually needing two to four positions with a maximum hours of 56 hours per week. So 01:32:57.320 --> 01:33:05.054 - we don't wanna limit her to two people, but she's actually going to need three. 01:33:05.570 --> 01:33:12.072 - Am I understanding that request correctly? Correct. Council, I'm going to restate the motion given the 01:33:12.072 --> 01:33:18.764 - information just shared. I move to open for discussion and approval of the probation department's request 01:33:18.764 --> 01:33:25.519 - to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire two and up to four probation officer assistants 01:33:25.519 --> 01:33:31.958 - with a request to fill date of June 1st, 2026. The two positions will be paid from several funds that 01:33:31.958 --> 01:33:33.726 - are outlined on the agenda. 01:33:34.210 --> 01:33:45.286 - And limited to 56 hours per week. And limited to the 56 hours per week. I think that should say 56 hours 01:33:45.286 --> 01:33:55.518 - for total of all positions. So it's not 56 hours per position. Right. Gotcha. The total request. 01:33:56.226 --> 01:34:02.498 - All right, so I'm going to restate the motion so that it's nice and clean because I can see the legal 01:34:02.498 --> 01:34:08.646 - department screaming over there. I move for I move to open for discussion and approval of probation 01:34:08.646 --> 01:34:14.980 - departments request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire two and up to four part 01:34:14.980 --> 01:34:21.436 - time probation officers assistance with a request to fill date of June 1st, 2026 and the minimum numbers 01:34:21.436 --> 01:34:24.510 - of hours needed to 56 per week for all positions. 01:34:24.802 --> 01:34:32.073 - The two positions will be paid from several funds that are outlined on the agenda. Why did you say minimum 01:34:32.073 --> 01:34:38.868 - instead of maximum? I meant maximum. Okay. That's all they're going to get paid. The most that they 01:34:38.868 --> 01:34:45.935 - could get paid and they could use is 56 hours. And we're good. At a minimum but a maximum, right? Isn't 01:34:45.935 --> 01:34:52.798 - that what you're saying? That is exactly what I said. Okay. And you don't need them before June 1st. 01:34:53.474 --> 01:35:02.762 - It just depends if I can get them hired before June 1st. Any other changes? Okay. We're going to open 01:35:02.762 --> 01:35:12.051 - for discussion and approval of the probation department's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze 01:35:12.051 --> 01:35:19.518 - and be allowed to hire two and up to four part-time probation officer assistants. 01:35:19.842 --> 01:35:28.145 - with the maximum number of hours needed 56 per week for all positions. These positions will be paid 01:35:28.145 --> 01:35:36.613 - from several funds that are outlined on the agenda. Second. That was beautifully stated and restated. 01:35:36.613 --> 01:35:44.916 - Okay. So we all got it. Okay. So everybody clear on the motion? And as we were going before, may we 01:35:44.916 --> 01:35:49.150 - please have a roll call vote? Thank you very much. 01:35:50.114 --> 01:36:01.948 - Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. 01:36:01.948 --> 01:36:12.978 - Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Hawke. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 01:36:12.978 --> 01:36:17.918 - All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. 01:36:18.818 --> 01:36:25.035 - All right. You need to buy a lottery ticket. All right. I know. Next up, we're going on item eight, 01:36:25.035 --> 01:36:31.315 - which is council business. And first up is Highway Department Council. I move to approve the Highway 01:36:31.315 --> 01:36:37.657 - Department's request and fund eleven sixty nine dash zero zero zero zero local road and street for an 01:36:37.657 --> 01:36:43.999 - additional appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars in the services category. Second. Right. And 01:36:43.999 --> 01:36:47.294 - we have Miss Lisa Ridge here. Welcome. Good evening. 01:36:47.938 --> 01:36:56.089 - We're still working on closing out these projects. We've been negotiating back and forth with contractors. 01:36:56.089 --> 01:37:03.706 - So we did actually get it down to a decrease of $58,370. So we just need to do the appropriation so 01:37:03.706 --> 01:37:12.086 - we can work towards getting this project closed out. Pretty self-explanatory. But checking with my colleagues 01:37:12.086 --> 01:37:15.742 - to see if y'all got any questions on this item. 01:37:19.938 --> 01:37:28.912 - Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment, you can raise your hand via 01:37:28.912 --> 01:37:38.242 - Teams or come forward to the lector. Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Henry? 01:37:38.242 --> 01:37:47.394 - Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. 01:37:47.394 --> 01:37:49.438 - Councillor Hawke? Yes. 01:37:49.794 --> 01:37:57.720 - Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right, thank you. Next up is item B. Council, I move to open for discussion 01:37:57.720 --> 01:38:05.502 - and approval of the Highway Department's request to amend the salary of account line 15815 Highway Engineer 01:38:05.502 --> 01:38:12.780 - SO Special Occupation Exempt. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Ms. Ridge, what would 01:38:12.780 --> 01:38:14.942 - you like to say on this item? 01:38:15.554 --> 01:38:22.759 - I provided some information in your packets for comparisons for county and licensed engineers across 01:38:22.759 --> 01:38:30.463 - the state. Also for the four current licensed engineers at the city of Bloomington. I believe they actually 01:38:30.463 --> 01:38:37.811 - were getting ready to hire their fifth. You have those comparisons in there. We've had this job posted 01:38:37.811 --> 01:38:42.590 - since November with not much luck of getting some good candidates. 01:38:42.722 --> 01:38:51.140 - We also can receive a $40,000 stipend which we have for the last ten years for having a licensed engineer 01:38:51.140 --> 01:38:59.160 - on board. Since we had one in 2025 we've already received that. We would really like to work hard of 01:38:59.160 --> 01:39:07.419 - getting another licensed engineer on board so come 2027 we can apply for that 2026 stipend and continue 01:39:07.419 --> 01:39:11.390 - forward. So my request is increasing that salary. 01:39:11.682 --> 01:39:24.529 - I believe in my work back here. So if you did an average across the state of Indiana for engineers, 01:39:24.529 --> 01:39:36.990 - it came out to comparable counties, $109,440.63 as an average of just those comparable counties. 01:39:37.122 --> 01:39:43.411 - Those counties which was Clark County Gibson County Harrison County Morgan Bartholomew Madison Vigo 01:39:43.411 --> 01:39:50.077 - and boom Monroe County right now in the salary ordinance our engineer would be paid ninety seven thousand 01:39:50.077 --> 01:39:56.618 - three sixty five if you look at the current 2026 salaries for the city of Bloomington The city averages 01:39:56.618 --> 01:40:02.970 - a hundred and twenty one thousand four hundred and seventy four dollars I believe they were actually 01:40:02.970 --> 01:40:04.542 - getting ready to offer a 01:40:04.738 --> 01:40:13.223 - the fifth position at a higher rate than the base of the 92-474, which will go up. I'm just asking to 01:40:13.223 --> 01:40:21.625 - come up to the county comparisons. The extra funding, right now the county engineer position is paid 01:40:21.625 --> 01:40:30.194 - from 1176 and 1197, which is Stormwater and MVH Motor Vehicle Highway. I would be requesting that this 01:40:30.194 --> 01:40:33.854 - additional be paid out of cumulative bridge 01:40:33.954 --> 01:40:41.474 - we've always considered of taking some of the salary from that because it is such an important role 01:40:41.474 --> 01:40:49.370 - for our bridge program and our federal aid projects and overseeing those projects. So if it is approved, 01:40:49.370 --> 01:40:56.966 - the extra funding from the difference between the 109-440-63 to the 97-365, I would come back to you 01:40:56.966 --> 01:41:00.350 - and create the line in the Kuhn Bridge Fund. 01:41:05.090 --> 01:41:12.152 - Right. Thank you very much for that. And council members, do you have any questions? Council Member 01:41:12.152 --> 01:41:19.354 - Henry's hand first. So Council Member Henry. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Lisa, for walking 01:41:19.354 --> 01:41:26.698 - through that. So the use of the CUMBridge caught my attention in that you had mentioned certain federal 01:41:26.698 --> 01:41:28.958 - activities there. Do we have to 01:41:29.730 --> 01:41:35.994 - Identify if the engineer do they have to bill against that fund? The hours must only be for federal 01:41:35.994 --> 01:41:42.570 - or certain things. Are any of these restricted in that way? Counties actually pay 100% of their engineer 01:41:42.570 --> 01:41:48.959 - out of Cambridge. So we're tapping three funds to fund the position at this point. Again, we wouldn't 01:41:48.959 --> 01:41:55.348 - have to catalog. Correct. Our engineer does serve on different capacities with all those divisions of 01:41:55.348 --> 01:41:56.350 - the department. 01:41:56.546 --> 01:42:04.212 - They will look at plane reviews. They help with drainage calculations. They help with the stormwater 01:42:04.212 --> 01:42:11.877 - projects, especially the ones that are in-house right now. Redbud Heights is going on. So we utilize 01:42:11.877 --> 01:42:19.998 - that engineer. Bid documents, bid preparations. So. I got that. And then the benchmark counties, are those 01:42:20.514 --> 01:42:27.148 - for just this role or are they the ones you usually go to as benchmarks for like county highway things? 01:42:27.148 --> 01:42:33.590 - So I went through the most recent copy that I had that LTAP puts out that are comparable counties to 01:42:33.590 --> 01:42:40.160 - us and I think there's around five listed in that list and they list that out by population. I believe 01:42:40.160 --> 01:42:46.857 - the latest copy I had of that was 2023 so I just pulled those counties but then I went online to Gateway 01:42:46.857 --> 01:42:50.238 - and pulled what the salaries were. I appreciate just 01:42:50.562 --> 01:42:57.526 - for public edification where the basis of why those counties we have had other department heads I think 01:42:57.526 --> 01:43:04.423 - select counties that might have maybe bumped the average up a little bit if we're comparing to say you 01:43:04.423 --> 01:43:11.185 - know Hamilton County for example which would not be comparable. I see the smiles because we all know 01:43:11.185 --> 01:43:18.149 - what that means. I looked at some of those. I appreciate that. I appreciate the good benchmarking there 01:43:18.149 --> 01:43:20.158 - too. I think we're good here. 01:43:22.754 --> 01:43:36.231 - Yes. I'm just wondering really how much the reluctance here for administration here at the county for 01:43:36.231 --> 01:43:49.576 - allowing housing starts and be assisted so that people will want to live here and can afford to live 01:43:49.576 --> 01:43:51.294 - here because 01:43:51.618 --> 01:43:59.653 - an engineer can pretty much choose to live other places and so we need to put our best foot forward 01:43:59.653 --> 01:44:08.171 - and make sure that these folks want to come to Monroe County and that we welcome them with an opportunity 01:44:08.171 --> 01:44:16.206 - for housing. Now it's not our place to build houses but it certainly is our place to get out of the 01:44:16.206 --> 01:44:19.902 - way and let others build this housing for the 01:44:20.162 --> 01:44:28.791 - people we'd like to employ and in addition to which I would like for them to live here so that when 01:44:28.791 --> 01:44:37.852 - they pay their income tax we'll get it to help support county services so I know you don't have anything 01:44:37.852 --> 01:44:46.568 - you can't stop or start housing projects but I think that's something we have to keep in mind at the 01:44:46.568 --> 01:44:49.502 - forefront is what are we doing to 01:44:49.826 --> 01:44:58.172 - make sure that we are putting our best foot forward to get the best employees we can and that they'll 01:44:58.172 --> 01:45:07.009 - want to live here and that they can afford to. Any other questions or comments on this item? Yes, Councilor 01:45:07.009 --> 01:45:15.192 - Wilts. I am just now, I'm sorry, seeing this because I missed the email. So I got, you know, I read 01:45:15.192 --> 01:45:19.774 - the agenda request but I'm just now seeing the numbers. 01:45:19.970 --> 01:45:30.430 - And so I just want to make sure that I'm understanding that your request is asking for an additional 01:45:30.430 --> 01:45:40.993 - $12,000? $75,000? Okay. I'd have to come back to do the official create the line and I just wanted to 01:45:40.993 --> 01:45:49.278 - start the discussion that if it's possible to move in that direction to be able 01:45:49.410 --> 01:45:57.872 - So I have to come back to create the line, do the salary ordinance, and do an additional encumbridge. 01:45:57.872 --> 01:46:06.499 - I'm going to go to the auditor since I saw her hand up. Sure. I was just going to comment on the health 01:46:06.499 --> 01:46:14.961 - of this fund. The cash balance is currently $2 million, roughly $29,000. It's budgeted at $2 million, 01:46:14.961 --> 01:46:17.118 - almost $73,000, and we're 01:46:17.538 --> 01:46:25.352 - we're expecting, you know, for two settlements to get about $2,362,000. So it's, you know, it will roughly 01:46:25.352 --> 01:46:32.654 - have that balance remaining that we expect to get this year between the two settlements. I was just 01:46:32.654 --> 01:46:40.248 - going to say I also appreciate you bringing it forward discussion. In fact, I think when we were having 01:46:40.248 --> 01:46:42.366 - the conversation about this, 01:46:43.298 --> 01:46:49.669 - or three weeks ago. The recommendation was that this is now an issue that's larger than what a department 01:46:49.669 --> 01:46:55.799 - head can do. It's larger than what a liaison and a department head can do, and you have two of those, 01:46:55.799 --> 01:47:01.869 - and now the council has to, with all the constraints that we have, have a discussion out here in the 01:47:01.869 --> 01:47:05.054 - open about this, and I think that what you presented 01:47:05.602 --> 01:47:12.424 - And again, when we have thrifty department heads who figure out how to bring money in and manage money 01:47:12.424 --> 01:47:19.246 - in that kind of way, I think we often need to just stop sometimes and say thank you for that. And also 01:47:19.246 --> 01:47:25.936 - we've got to be aware that there's a reason there's a vacancy here and how do you get this moving so 01:47:25.936 --> 01:47:32.626 - that you fill it. So I appreciate the discussion and look forward to hopefully this coming back with 01:47:32.626 --> 01:47:34.878 - the specifics that we'll vote on. 01:47:35.362 --> 01:47:42.441 - So I have a question about engineers. So it says 2025 engineer salaries, county comparison, and I get 01:47:42.441 --> 01:47:49.937 - that. But then down below, it talks about the city of Bloomington and you have different types of engineers 01:47:49.937 --> 01:47:56.669 - there. So I'm wondering why those figures were there. That's the they're all licensed engineers, 01:47:56.669 --> 01:48:02.430 - transportation engineer, but I don't know why they call them what they title them. 01:48:02.722 --> 01:48:10.536 - Are your engineers what type of engineers do you have? Basically a transportation can special specialize 01:48:10.536 --> 01:48:18.276 - and do minimal drainage calculations and such can do some bridge design review Paul was Paul was unique 01:48:18.276 --> 01:48:26.686 - as our engineer. We were very fortunate to have him for ten years. He was very knowledgeable on railroads and he 01:48:26.882 --> 01:48:33.630 - learned more about the bridges, but he was a much more transportation type engineer when he came in. 01:48:33.630 --> 01:48:40.377 - But he had he brought so much knowledge of everything else and different aspects of the projects. So 01:48:40.377 --> 01:48:47.258 - we would probably be looking more of a transportation engineer like other county highways tend to hire 01:48:47.258 --> 01:48:54.474 - versus a drainage engineer or some specialty in that area. So are the engineers you have, are they licensed 01:48:54.474 --> 01:48:56.478 - professional engineers, LPEs? 01:48:56.802 --> 01:49:04.587 - The one that I'm requesting to hire, I only have one. OK, yes. And to be able they have to be licensed. 01:49:04.587 --> 01:49:12.597 - OK, and that's in the job classification. And then that's the only way that we can get the $40,000 stipend 01:49:12.597 --> 01:49:20.157 - back into the county. Thank you. Michelle, did you have something? Yes, I have a couple of questions 01:49:20.157 --> 01:49:24.798 - if I may. Currently have a highway engineer on in the salary. 01:49:24.962 --> 01:49:32.325 - ordinance or he's retired? He retired February 6th. February 6th. Okay. Because I was just going to 01:49:32.325 --> 01:49:39.761 - ask where, you know, this salary needs to be effective just for the new person because I didn't want 01:49:39.761 --> 01:49:47.271 - there to be any confusion with the current person and the new hire. So that's why I wasn't sure if we 01:49:47.271 --> 01:49:48.670 - still had someone. 01:49:48.834 --> 01:49:58.179 - It's bacon. It is bacon. Okay. All right. And then the other thing is, if you could, when you make your 01:49:58.179 --> 01:50:07.434 - salary recommendation, could you round it up to the nearest dollar? Because that's what we do with all 01:50:07.434 --> 01:50:16.510 - of our salaries. So there's no change. All right. Councillor Wilts. So in just still processing your 01:50:16.962 --> 01:50:26.566 - your information sheet here. It does sort of look as though you are comparing 2025 salaries from your 01:50:26.566 --> 01:50:35.511 - comparison counties to the 2026 salary for us. So you're actually shorting your request. Sure, 01:50:35.511 --> 01:50:44.926 - I'm sure I am, but that's the only way I could find it in Gateway was the 2025s and calling around. 01:50:45.058 --> 01:50:51.522 - compare it then, but if you compared that to the $94,000 salary, which is our 2025, and then you look 01:50:51.522 --> 01:50:58.176 - at that difference to request. Ours is... Okay, I see what you're saying. See what I'm saying? You could 01:50:58.176 --> 01:51:04.577 - be asking for more and justifying it, and I'm making... I don't know why I'm doing that, but it just 01:51:04.577 --> 01:51:11.041 - seems like... No, I totally... I completely understand. That makes more sense. If we're really trying 01:51:11.041 --> 01:51:14.526 - to look at, hey, getting this on par with others, that 01:51:14.882 --> 01:51:23.543 - And that's why I kind of threw City of Bloomington in there, even though I knew it was really out of 01:51:23.543 --> 01:51:32.290 - range for us. But it was their 2026. Yeah. And I didn't want to. You also have to look at the special 01:51:32.290 --> 01:51:40.866 - occupations and things and where other positions fall and where they fall in the classification and 01:51:40.866 --> 01:51:42.238 - the flow chart. 01:51:42.338 --> 01:51:53.590 - in the organizational chart. So that's also keeping that within that chart, if that makes sense. Okay, 01:51:53.590 --> 01:52:03.422 - thanks. I'm just doing a little. And you know, I don't even know if the salary will work. 01:52:03.522 --> 01:52:10.394 - I could be coming back to negotiate something else. You know it's really hard to get an engineer right 01:52:10.394 --> 01:52:17.200 - now. They're in high demand and then other places offer you know they work from home. So many days we 01:52:17.200 --> 01:52:24.006 - don't really do that because we don't do VPN and everything anymore. But some work 35 hours some work 01:52:24.006 --> 01:52:27.742 - 40. So it might come down to have to negotiate if I get 01:52:28.194 --> 01:52:35.393 - It's just this is getting us into at least a more competitive area to be able to get candidates to even 01:52:35.393 --> 01:52:40.446 - be able to talk to. Councillor Henry, I think you had your hand up next. 01:52:40.546 --> 01:52:46.365 - Yeah, I did. Thank you. And I thank you for bringing up the VPN. It seems like every three months we 01:52:46.365 --> 01:52:52.300 - hear about that. It's a benefit that never came back. And yeah, I know that at least the commissioners 01:52:52.300 --> 01:52:58.523 - and their staff are listening to this on our meeting tonight. But there's another example of how a benefit, 01:52:58.523 --> 01:53:04.343 - which gives us really no cost, would give us an opportunity to bring people to the counties an added 01:53:04.343 --> 01:53:07.742 - benefit and the offer to somebody. I guess my question is, 01:53:08.290 --> 01:53:15.284 - Focused on the benchmark counties, we may have already touched on it, but I just may want to ask this. 01:53:15.284 --> 01:53:22.141 - So Harrison County and Morton County, and yeah, those are counties that population and geography are 01:53:22.141 --> 01:53:29.474 - considerably smaller than ours. Do we know what mix they're using to get to the salary band there? Harrison 01:53:29.474 --> 01:53:34.974 - County has, I believe, the riverboat. Okay, so. They have more money than we do. 01:53:35.074 --> 01:53:41.043 - Is the city wants to create a district north of here that maybe we can put a riverboat in Miller showers, 01:53:41.043 --> 01:53:46.787 - I don't know Morgan Morgan County, I mean that we it's neighbor neighbor But do we know the mix as to 01:53:46.787 --> 01:53:52.757 - how they're funding or I do not okay? Cuz that's like right up the street and they're paying considerably 01:53:52.757 --> 01:53:58.782 - I do know they've had a lot of turnover in the last few years So I don't even know if they have a position 01:53:58.782 --> 01:54:01.598 - filled at this point Probably the Harrison County 01:54:02.754 --> 01:54:10.002 - Okay, anyway, so I guess the reason I'm asking this is that, yeah, I'm looking at counties, but I understand 01:54:10.002 --> 01:54:16.784 - those populations are a third to a half of ours, and they're finding ways to fund this position north 01:54:16.784 --> 01:54:23.433 - of us in terms of it is a comp. So we're lagging a market of counties that are much smaller in what 01:54:23.433 --> 01:54:30.814 - I'm seeing here to try to attract that personnel. In this case where maybe. Some counties split engineers now. 01:54:31.106 --> 01:54:38.461 - Some of them will hire one engineer but then split them within within two counties. It's just it's so 01:54:38.461 --> 01:54:44.446 - broad over the whole state of how everybody is dealing with the engineer capacity. 01:54:46.050 --> 01:54:53.264 - I see your hand raised. Yes. Thanks for mentioning the fact that many counties share the same engineer. 01:54:53.264 --> 01:55:00.200 - That's something I was going to bring up. I know that's something we talked about road school years 01:55:00.200 --> 01:55:07.622 - ago that it was so important for us to get a good engineer and to pay them the proper amount many counties 01:55:07.622 --> 01:55:13.726 - had to share one and it worked better because you could get someone who was top tier to 01:55:13.922 --> 01:55:21.692 - to make sure you get the job done right. I think when we talked about this, it's been a month or so 01:55:21.692 --> 01:55:29.540 - ago, that I was suggesting, I know highly unlike me, but I was suggesting you go for a higher amount 01:55:29.540 --> 01:55:37.388 - because that lower amount, it's clear, unless they just love Monroe County and want to live here and 01:55:37.388 --> 01:55:40.030 - can afford to do so, I don't know 01:55:40.226 --> 01:55:48.296 - that what we would be offering would be enough of enticement to get them to take a position here rather 01:55:48.296 --> 01:55:56.289 - than someplace else. I don't remember the number we were talking about, but I know I was talking about 01:55:56.289 --> 01:56:04.281 - something higher. I think we were just talking like the 110 range, basically. If I recall right. Well, 01:56:04.281 --> 01:56:07.230 - at the time I was trying to hopefully 01:56:07.330 --> 01:56:14.159 - thought maybe we could take it out of major bridge but that didn't get us where we wanted to go because 01:56:14.159 --> 01:56:20.725 - we could get that done. It's much easier if we could take it out of major bridge. More money there. 01:56:20.725 --> 01:56:27.423 - There is more money there. You just need to get that restriction taken off at the State House. That's 01:56:27.423 --> 01:56:34.121 - your answer. It's been done. That's just your answer. I've reached out. Allen County did it. If Allen 01:56:34.121 --> 01:56:36.222 - County can do it, we can do it. 01:56:37.442 --> 01:56:46.065 - I know somebody up there. That's next year's agenda. All right. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know 01:56:46.065 --> 01:56:54.774 - if we're getting to anything, you know, settling on anything except that it looks like you're making 01:56:54.774 --> 01:57:03.397 - the case and it makes sense. I would point out that Kim added change our put in the difference that 01:57:03.397 --> 01:57:06.846 - would be make a make it a line with the 01:57:06.978 --> 01:57:15.105 - I felt I needed to go this route because I can't post it. I can't post it without having approval that 01:57:15.105 --> 01:57:23.627 - the salary is going to be higher. That's that is correct because the motion was a discussion and impossible 01:57:23.627 --> 01:57:31.517 - approval. So if we I cannot read that. But OK, hang on. Oh, you're putting in the total. Thank you. 01:57:31.517 --> 01:57:34.910 - That's what I was going to ask. So this is 01:57:35.234 --> 01:57:48.593 - The 109, 440 is the total of, it's the current amount plus the 12, or the 112 is the current amount 01:57:48.593 --> 01:58:03.422 - with the 14, 924. Basically, you know, adding the 3% from last year. Correct. I guess I can't read the number. 01:58:03.842 --> 01:58:14.257 - I'm going to move to open for approval for the Highway Department's request to amend the salary of account 01:58:14.257 --> 01:58:23.991 - line 15815 Highway Engineer SO Special Occupation Exempt and set to $112,289.63. I think she wanted 01:58:23.991 --> 01:58:33.822 - us to have a rounded up. But we didn't have the cents in there. All right, then I will. You're good. 01:58:34.018 --> 01:58:41.145 - That we approve the highway department's request to amend a salary of account line one five eight one 01:58:41.145 --> 01:58:48.203 - five highway engineer SO special occupation exempt to one hundred twelve thousand two hundred ninety 01:58:48.203 --> 01:58:55.749 - dollars All right, we got a motion and a second by counselor Henry. Are there any other further discussions 01:58:55.749 --> 01:58:57.566 - on this item? Seeing none 01:58:58.402 --> 01:59:07.673 - We'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to the 01:59:07.673 --> 01:59:17.035 - lectern here in the NatU Hill Room or raise your hand via Teams. And still seeing none, may we please 01:59:17.035 --> 01:59:27.774 - have a roll call vote? Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. 01:59:28.258 --> 01:59:38.046 - Yes. Councillor Hogg. Yes. Councillor Wilz. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 01:59:38.786 --> 01:59:45.122 - All right. Thank you very much. All right. And as you recall, we tabled the aviation department's request 01:59:45.122 --> 01:59:51.399 - to April 14th. And next up is item D from the surveyors office. Council, I move to approve the surveyors 01:59:51.399 --> 01:59:57.377 - request and fund ninety one eighty dash zero zero zero zero IGIO seed grant the creation of account 01:59:57.377 --> 02:00:03.355 - line three zero zero zero six contractual and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of 02:00:03.355 --> 02:00:07.838 - twenty nine thousand nine hundred thirty dollars in the services category. 02:00:08.738 --> 02:00:17.745 - second. All right, we got a motion and a second and coming up next is the surveyor, Mr Tron. Welcome. 02:00:17.745 --> 02:00:26.840 - Hi. I'm going to just kind of start it off. Unplanned I was high fiving Linda Brady just a moment ago, 02:00:26.840 --> 02:00:36.201 - not because she got the support and approval, but she was been with the county for 41 years and I thought 02:00:36.201 --> 02:00:37.790 - that was amazing. 02:00:38.658 --> 02:00:47.260 - As of Saturday, last Saturday, I've been with the county for 21 years. So that's pretty cool. 02:00:47.260 --> 02:00:55.863 - Thank you. And this is the first time I've ever worked on a grant and I'm excited to be here. 02:00:55.863 --> 02:01:05.014 - So as stated, I'm looking to create a line and simultaneously appropriate the grant, the full grant 02:01:05.014 --> 02:01:08.126 - amount. It's a contractual grant. 02:01:08.290 --> 02:01:19.212 - So we'll be meeting milestones. And as we meet those milestones, we'll upload it to Unigov. The state 02:01:19.212 --> 02:01:30.562 - Indiana office or GIO, Indiana Geographic Information Office will send us the installments of that grant. 02:01:30.562 --> 02:01:35.166 - And I'm here for any additional questions. 02:01:35.298 --> 02:01:45.731 - Sorry about the 100 plus probably pages I put in your packet, but I'm very thorough and gave you everything 02:01:45.731 --> 02:01:55.392 - that I had. We appreciate your thoroughness. All right. Any questions or comments for Mr. Randolph? 02:01:55.392 --> 02:02:05.246 - Council votes. I'll at least say congratulations on the grant. Yeah. It's fantastic. Thank you. Yeah. 02:02:05.378 --> 02:02:12.984 - I think going through this I've learned a lot and I think I'm going to try to keep my eyes wide open 02:02:12.984 --> 02:02:20.516 - and cast a larger net to bring in other funds through grants to, you know, invest in our county. So 02:02:20.516 --> 02:02:28.574 - I'm excited. I'm sorry, Madam President. I am the department's liaison. I already said that to Tron behind 02:02:28.738 --> 02:02:36.190 - So I'm sorry. I just I should have publicly taken the baits, but thank you for the praise. Good job. 02:02:36.190 --> 02:02:43.641 - Thank you. Any more kudos for or any questions? I have to say it's it's a team effort at the office. 02:02:43.641 --> 02:02:51.241 - So all your thank you and congratulations is also for everyone at the office that helped support this. 02:02:51.241 --> 02:02:57.438 - And that's our G.I.S. team. John Baten and Nick Angelo's our new G.I.S. technician. 02:02:58.850 --> 02:03:07.529 - Okay. Seeing no other questions or comments from the council here, we'll move on to public comment. 02:03:07.529 --> 02:03:16.555 - If there's public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here in the night you Hill room or raise 02:03:16.555 --> 02:03:26.102 - your hand via teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor 02:03:26.102 --> 02:03:27.230 - Fiddle. Yes. 02:03:29.058 --> 02:03:36.616 - Yes. Councillor Wilz. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Councillor Cross. Motion passes 02:03:36.616 --> 02:03:44.032 - unanimous. All right. We appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Next up is the Health Department. Council 02:03:44.032 --> 02:03:51.163 - I move to open for discussion possible approval of the Health Department's request for the creation 02:03:51.163 --> 02:03:57.438 - of a new position, clinical assistant. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second. 02:03:57.858 --> 02:04:06.481 - Looks like we have Lori Kelly here and then board member Lisa Robinson joining us. Hello. Good evening. 02:04:06.481 --> 02:04:15.021 - Good evening. So just to start us off this evening, as we know, we are transitioning our public health 02:04:15.021 --> 02:04:23.396 - nursing services to public health nurses that are county employees within the department. So we have 02:04:23.396 --> 02:04:25.054 - had two new nurses. 02:04:25.122 --> 02:04:33.156 - who will complete six weeks of training as of April 6th. And we are going to be again starting services 02:04:33.156 --> 02:04:41.035 - for the public in April. So opening up our vaccines and our health screenings. So the request tonight 02:04:41.035 --> 02:04:45.438 - is to discuss a clinical support position that will help 02:04:45.762 --> 02:04:53.101 - supports the nursing services and in the clinic. So this role will essentially be answering the phone, 02:04:53.101 --> 02:05:00.441 - scheduling appointments, be able to do inventory, medical records, be able to pull vaccine records for 02:05:00.441 --> 02:05:07.780 - public, be able to assist with our milk bank. So if people need to come up and pick up their supplies, 02:05:07.780 --> 02:05:13.694 - we'll have somebody who's in the office Monday through Friday to assist with that. 02:05:15.554 --> 02:05:26.773 - and handle billing for our services through our vaccines. And we would like to be able to expand our 02:05:26.773 --> 02:05:39.326 - billing services for the lead testing, lead risk assessments, and for maternal child health. Thank you for that. 02:05:42.114 --> 02:05:48.469 - Council for any questions or comments. Yes. So this is news. Congratulations on the forthcoming press 02:05:48.469 --> 02:05:54.699 - release. And can I mean I don't want to break the news cycle. But can you tell us more about what's 02:05:54.699 --> 02:05:59.870 - going to be in this clinic and kind of more about what's going to be part of that. 02:06:00.578 --> 02:06:08.037 - Sure, so we will be providing vaccines, so both public stock and private stock, so if you have private 02:06:08.037 --> 02:06:15.351 - insurance or if you just need access to a free vaccine, we'll be able to stock and provide those for 02:06:15.351 --> 02:06:23.027 - all age groups. As far as our health screenings, we're really focused on chronic disease, so cholesterol, 02:06:23.027 --> 02:06:30.558 - glucose, A1C, blood pressure, so those are all free for anyone who comes in to schedule an appointment. 02:06:30.658 --> 02:06:37.665 - because the nurses will have to balance the work that they're doing in the clinic with other duties, 02:06:37.665 --> 02:06:44.672 - so our communicable disease investigations, school health, community outreach programs, we will have 02:06:44.672 --> 02:06:52.096 - dedicated times where we'll schedule the services in the clinic, and then there will be times that they'll 02:06:52.096 --> 02:06:57.854 - be out in the community working. And who's gonna be directing this new clinic? Me. 02:06:59.554 --> 02:07:07.683 - We don't have a health services director. Okay. And how long has that position been vacant? Most recently, 02:07:07.683 --> 02:07:15.509 - maybe six weeks. Almost. Okay. And then underneath that direct or you or in the best of times a health 02:07:15.509 --> 02:07:23.486 - services director, are there other vacancies that we currently have within that administrative structure 02:07:23.486 --> 02:07:24.702 - for the clinic? 02:07:25.698 --> 02:07:33.817 - No, but we have one other public health nurse position that is vacant. Okay. I'm going to I have a lot 02:07:33.817 --> 02:07:41.857 - of questions. I'm just going to stop talking and let my colleagues ask questions. Well, let's look to 02:07:41.857 --> 02:07:49.897 - see if anybody has any other questions or comments first. We're enjoying the listening. I thought you 02:07:49.897 --> 02:07:54.942 - were doing great, Peter. I don't want to like. Just keep going. 02:07:56.194 --> 02:08:06.777 - I was asked to share the org chart. So here's the org chart. You have one of the largest departments 02:08:06.777 --> 02:08:17.255 - in the county. Where in this org chart should we be directing our attention? So the purples and the 02:08:17.255 --> 02:08:21.342 - pinks, if that looks right. Let's see. 02:08:21.826 --> 02:08:30.295 - We'll also note that we have two vacancies within that division. When those became vacancies, we did 02:08:30.295 --> 02:08:38.932 - not backfill those positions. So that is our senior community health specialist towards the left there 02:08:38.932 --> 02:08:47.401 - and the community health specialist tobacco MRC. So those duties were transferred to other positions 02:08:47.401 --> 02:08:49.246 - within the department 02:08:49.538 --> 02:08:58.746 - to oversee some of those services. And then the three nurses are down there in that purple color. So 02:08:58.746 --> 02:09:08.411 - all of the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight direct reports to the health services director, 02:09:08.411 --> 02:09:17.619 - they're all in place. There's no vacancies. So there's a vacancy with the public health nurse. Okay. 02:09:17.619 --> 02:09:18.622 - All right. 02:09:18.978 --> 02:09:27.943 - So, and we don't currently have an intern, but those, you know, come and go. So the public health nurse 02:09:27.943 --> 02:09:36.908 - positions, the way that they are structured is and why their titles are a little bit different are they 02:09:36.908 --> 02:09:38.718 - have primary duties. 02:09:38.882 --> 02:09:46.643 - And then they each have duties where they're cross trained to provide cross coverage and make sure that 02:09:46.643 --> 02:09:54.181 - we're covering all of our nursing services, but also making sure that we still consistently have who 02:09:54.181 --> 02:10:02.240 - that main person is for our school health liaison, who is our main person with there's a large communicable 02:10:02.240 --> 02:10:06.942 - disease outbreak, who's focused on those health first Indiana, 02:10:07.170 --> 02:10:20.398 - core services that we have to meet while they will all be providing vaccinations and health screenings. 02:10:20.398 --> 02:10:32.862 - So they do a lot. And to think about having to add on, when you're doing that case investigation, 02:10:32.994 --> 02:10:40.036 - You're also going to need to answer the phone and schedule appointments or make sure that you're entering 02:10:40.036 --> 02:10:46.680 - insurance in and doing the medical records. So they're still trained to know how to do those duties 02:10:46.680 --> 02:10:53.324 - and be able to cover lunches and vacations and short term absences, but not take these on in a full 02:10:53.324 --> 02:10:58.174 - time capacity day to day that this clinical assistant position would be. 02:10:58.306 --> 02:11:06.831 - And where does the clinical assistant fall into this organizational chart that you're showing us today? 02:11:06.831 --> 02:11:15.191 - So it would be going to the director. So it's an arrow yet to be determined. Correct. There's no it's 02:11:15.191 --> 02:11:22.814 - not currently on this. And where is the financial manager? I think all the way to the right. 02:11:35.234 --> 02:11:43.522 - Thank you. Laurie, thank you for answering an email earlier today to get me a little caught up on our 02:11:43.522 --> 02:11:51.648 - timeline here. I just had some questions I wanted to ask on it. There's a startup activity going on 02:11:51.648 --> 02:11:59.774 - to get ready for all this, right? So before the clinical position, if that were to be put in place, 02:12:00.610 --> 02:12:07.570 - Who's managing some of those activities right now? Because before you open the doors, you have to have 02:12:07.570 --> 02:12:14.801 - some processes in place. There might be already invoicing behavior at the state. Where's all that activity 02:12:14.801 --> 02:12:22.302 - going on right now in this potential future position? As far as developing and creating some of those systems, 02:12:22.850 --> 02:12:29.544 - That's really where a lot of my time has been spent. So creating the forms, what patient intake forms 02:12:29.544 --> 02:12:36.172 - are we going to have? Making sure that we have all the vaccine information statements available that 02:12:36.172 --> 02:12:42.865 - we're required to have available to the public. How are we going to compile the medical records? What 02:12:42.865 --> 02:12:49.625 - is our scheduling system? So creating the scheduling templates, submitting all of the paperwork to the 02:12:49.625 --> 02:12:51.134 - state and to our third 02:12:51.362 --> 02:13:00.021 - party backs care for the vaccine program. So I've really been pulled away from other duties that have 02:13:00.021 --> 02:13:08.849 - kind of fallen to the side to be able to work on some of these. Yeah, thanks for that. How much of that 02:13:08.849 --> 02:13:16.574 - has to be recreated or can be borrowed from either the last clinic we had or the IU health 02:13:16.738 --> 02:13:23.544 - public health clinic or other clinics the counties run. I mean are you whole cloth recreating this or 02:13:23.544 --> 02:13:30.351 - are we absorbing their processes? We're creating everything from scratch essentially. I mean even the 02:13:30.351 --> 02:13:37.091 - VAX care was a huge issue trying to transfer that from IU and Laurie got it transferred to us and we 02:13:37.091 --> 02:13:43.830 - basically are starting all over again. So we're trying to create the infrastructure to have patients 02:13:43.830 --> 02:13:46.366 - be able to call, make an appointment. 02:13:47.202 --> 02:13:54.800 - business side, so to speak, of this clinic, which will generate some income, but we're just having to 02:13:54.800 --> 02:14:02.548 - recreate everything, and we have to be ready to go mid April. We're going to be administering vaccines. 02:14:02.548 --> 02:14:09.997 - You know, we had abruptly IU left, or deciding not to renew their contract, so we're doing this all 02:14:09.997 --> 02:14:16.702 - from scratch. Yeah, and I appreciate that. I guess when we last really talked about this, 02:14:16.930 --> 02:14:22.568 - You know, late last year, early January, there were two kind of overriding questions. You know, one 02:14:22.568 --> 02:14:28.263 - was an urgency that we had to have something in place come the beginning of the year. You know, it's 02:14:28.263 --> 02:14:34.127 - April now. And the good news is we're going to have something open. But in the intervening months, have 02:14:34.127 --> 02:14:40.047 - we had any communication from State Department of Health on our activities or lack thereof or not having 02:14:40.047 --> 02:14:43.486 - the clinic in the county? Has there been any correspondence? 02:14:43.842 --> 02:14:49.842 - As far as like providing updates and where we're concerned that we wouldn't be meeting our obligations 02:14:49.842 --> 02:14:55.900 - I think that was the big question that if we didn't have a clinic we would be in some sort of hot water 02:14:55.900 --> 02:15:01.784 - Have we received anything on that from the state? No, we're providing we're referring individuals to 02:15:01.784 --> 02:15:07.609 - the Morgan County Health Department For that for that vaccine all of for that particular but we are 02:15:07.609 --> 02:15:11.454 - providing Access to all of the other services. So we're doing the 02:15:12.386 --> 02:15:19.139 - investigations. If someone needs testing, we can technically provide that. We're just not fully open 02:15:19.139 --> 02:15:25.826 - and functional to the public for all of these. So we're building it up and getting ready to hand it 02:15:25.826 --> 02:15:32.646 - to hopefully a clinical assistant to manage these things. I guess my last thought is do we have a you 02:15:32.646 --> 02:15:39.934 - mentioned kind of the gender revenue generating piece of this. Do you know how many referrals we've sent out 02:15:40.162 --> 02:15:45.710 - in the past quarter, because it's been three months, there would have been potential Monroe County patients. 02:15:45.710 --> 02:15:50.851 - Do we have a number of how many humans that is, or how many? I don't have a number on that. And this 02:15:50.851 --> 02:15:56.094 - may go back to, I know when we had this conversation, Councilor Hawk and I were talking about, I think 02:15:56.094 --> 02:16:01.235 - we called it a business plan and confused half the county when we used that word, business, but some 02:16:01.235 --> 02:16:06.326 - sort of operational plan. It sounds like that's been, that's what you're building right now is that 02:16:06.326 --> 02:16:09.278 - plan. Is that something that's shareable to us to see how 02:16:09.442 --> 02:16:16.635 - Operations would work. I think the issue has been thus far We had a really difficult time trying to 02:16:16.635 --> 02:16:24.331 - get data and information from IU When we made that transition, so it was entirely unclear You know exactly 02:16:24.331 --> 02:16:31.524 - they had different employees doing part-time work and exactly how many full-time employees they had 02:16:31.524 --> 02:16:36.990 - and then I frankly, you know, I I kept asking for sort of an accounting and 02:16:37.506 --> 02:16:43.827 - some sort of PNL and they just weren't, I mean, that wasn't available to us at all. So we're creating 02:16:43.827 --> 02:16:49.961 - all of those things real time. We don't have any past data for you. No, I appreciate that because, 02:16:49.961 --> 02:16:56.530 - I mean, and you raise a good point there too to say these aren't one for one. Like we didn't have however 02:16:56.530 --> 02:17:02.912 - many employees they had and there's 15 over here to catch 15 people's effort over at IU Health, right? 02:17:02.912 --> 02:17:06.878 - It's really, I appreciate that this is sort of being recreated. 02:17:07.266 --> 02:17:19.763 - a government service rather than a what? Thank you for that. I appreciate it. The contract amount was 02:17:19.763 --> 02:17:33.118 - $350,000 and so that is at least that is what they were using to provide services for our county. Thank you. 02:17:33.282 --> 02:17:39.768 - just take a liberty here and ask a couple of questions, because I wrote this down just to make sure. 02:17:39.768 --> 02:17:46.254 - And I think Council Henry kind of touched briefly on the January deadline, since that was one of the 02:17:46.254 --> 02:17:52.869 - things that we kept hearing about last year. So since this is something that we're moving to that will 02:17:52.869 --> 02:18:00.126 - be open in mid April, which sounds great. Are we in jeopardy of losing any funding because this is open at late? 02:18:01.954 --> 02:18:08.535 - Not to my knowledge, and the state's been working with us well, and we've been keeping them up to date. 02:18:08.535 --> 02:18:14.990 - I just met earlier this month, I think a week or two ago, with the Director of Immunizations, so came 02:18:14.990 --> 02:18:21.509 - down and did the site visit, reviewed our vaccine management plan, and our refrigerators, and the data 02:18:21.509 --> 02:18:27.837 - loggers, and everything that kind of goes with that system. So, you know, making sure those ongoing 02:18:27.837 --> 02:18:30.558 - communications are occurring with updates. 02:18:30.946 --> 02:18:38.332 - From my understanding, the state understands that, you know, even there's times that a health department 02:18:38.332 --> 02:18:45.437 - only might have one nurse, and if that position becomes vacant, then they're gonna have a little bit 02:18:45.437 --> 02:18:52.190 - of a gap in times that services are being provided, so. And the other question that I wanted to 02:18:52.866 --> 02:18:59.381 - ask is since you just talked about the vaccine plan. So because it's my understanding that we had to 02:18:59.381 --> 02:19:05.961 - have everything like the plans and everything put into play before this could open. So it sounds like 02:19:05.961 --> 02:19:12.605 - we're good on that front. So I've submitted all of the paperwork and we have that's been approved from 02:19:12.605 --> 02:19:16.862 - the state. Okay. And then the only other question that I had left 02:19:16.962 --> 02:19:25.544 - was going back to this position and seeing how it says process and payments and billing. Is there any 02:19:25.544 --> 02:19:34.209 - particular reason why the financial manager that you currently have couldn't do some of that financial 02:19:34.209 --> 02:19:42.875 - or process and the payments and billings or payment and billing for this instead of putting it on this 02:19:42.875 --> 02:19:44.894 - particular person here? 02:19:45.090 --> 02:19:54.229 - the financial manager handle that? So I have thought about this and so I think potentially some of those, 02:19:54.229 --> 02:20:03.368 - yes. If we start kind of divvying up certain who's billing for which services and is it private insurance 02:20:03.368 --> 02:20:10.782 - for one position and Medicaid for another position, you know, is that going to create 02:20:11.106 --> 02:20:17.336 - more kind of confusion and chaos and then you have a financial manager who's reporting in a different 02:20:17.336 --> 02:20:23.688 - division but it's crossing over now to the clinic and so then that's kind of getting involved in clinic 02:20:23.688 --> 02:20:29.795 - duties but then they're really supposed to be working in this other division. When I've gone to see 02:20:29.795 --> 02:20:35.964 - how our VAX care system works so when people are coming in you have to you know enter in all of that 02:20:35.964 --> 02:20:39.934 - information you have to make sure that you have a go button that 02:20:40.098 --> 02:20:47.657 - You're not gonna get chargebacks is what it's referring to. So then are we having the financial manager 02:20:47.657 --> 02:20:55.362 - sitting at the desk entering that in? So it's just kind of, I think it would be too chaotic. And visiting 02:20:55.362 --> 02:21:02.776 - and talking with other health departments, they really have a person who's kind of working that front 02:21:02.776 --> 02:21:06.846 - office and taking on those duties within that position. 02:21:07.266 --> 02:21:15.724 - Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. There's also insurance denials are very frequent and so there's 02:21:15.724 --> 02:21:24.267 - going to be a small margin to aid if it's private insurance. So if that's rejected then there has to 02:21:24.267 --> 02:21:32.894 - be someone who's versed enough in rejections and appeals to try to get paid for those services. Thank 02:21:32.894 --> 02:21:34.078 - you for that. 02:21:34.466 --> 02:21:43.087 - A question about the motion that I read. This is a new position. So does this need to be factored by 02:21:43.087 --> 02:21:51.025 - WIS and classified by WIS? So we're not actually... I'll let you answer the question. Sorry. 02:21:51.025 --> 02:21:59.731 - You're correct. This would have to be... It needs to go through the process of filling out the forms, 02:21:59.731 --> 02:22:02.718 - going through the process with the 02:22:02.978 --> 02:22:10.708 - council office, and then it would have to be forwarded to WIS for classification and review. So council, 02:22:10.708 --> 02:22:18.511 - should we be approving this, or simply approving it to go to WIS, we're not saying that this is available 02:22:18.511 --> 02:22:26.241 - to be advertised immediately? Yes. I mean, we can't advertise because we have no salary. I mean, there's 02:22:26.241 --> 02:22:27.934 - no way to classify it. 02:22:28.482 --> 02:22:35.013 - So if we do approve this, it will come back to council once there's a classification which allows us 02:22:35.013 --> 02:22:41.672 - to put it into the salary good. Correct. Ernie King, were you like, I couldn't tell if you were. I had 02:22:41.672 --> 02:22:48.332 - a thought. Part of the process to that we have to go through is I think in other job descriptions that 02:22:48.332 --> 02:22:54.475 - were recently created, there might be some duplicative duties. So we need to look at the other 02:22:54.475 --> 02:22:56.350 - job descriptions to clarify. 02:22:56.930 --> 02:23:05.908 - how those interact and things of that nature, like we would with any other job description that's created. 02:23:05.908 --> 02:23:14.298 - I'm going to switch over here now. Yeah, I go to Councilor Decker and then Wilts next and then I'll 02:23:14.298 --> 02:23:22.773 - circle back. So the clinic opens April 1st. Am I saying that right? No, we're looking at starting to 02:23:22.773 --> 02:23:25.374 - schedule April 7th, April 7th. 02:23:25.474 --> 02:23:33.352 - OK, I'm sorry. I had it wrong. One one question I had just is kind of listen to this. I would be curious 02:23:33.352 --> 02:23:41.305 - to know about referrals, particularly folks getting vaccines in Morgan County, because the thing I always 02:23:41.305 --> 02:23:48.958 - think about is just distance traveled. Right. And I always get a little heartburn over sending anyone 02:23:49.410 --> 02:23:56.247 - somewhere else for anything, let alone for vaccinations. And I'd just be curious about that if you all 02:23:56.247 --> 02:24:03.083 - have it. But the one thing I as I listen to kind of some of the things you're talking about and I know 02:24:03.083 --> 02:24:10.053 - that we get into the details of like a WISC classification and the org chart and those are all important 02:24:10.053 --> 02:24:15.230 - things. But when something opens and it it's going day to day and managing it 02:24:16.418 --> 02:24:22.789 - It's just got to be managed well. And so when you were talking about the clinic manager position bacon 02:24:22.789 --> 02:24:29.035 - right. And you're kind of filling in doing that in addition to your own role and you're looking here 02:24:29.035 --> 02:24:35.220 - to create this position to help kind of manage the managerial kind of you know who's coming in what 02:24:35.220 --> 02:24:38.622 - they're getting scheduled for. Am I saying that right. 02:24:40.322 --> 02:24:47.783 - that that's fair. So who's that point person who's interacting with patients who can help you know here's 02:24:47.783 --> 02:24:54.963 - the scheduling template. So you know if I've identified this is when nurse A B and C can schedule and 02:24:54.963 --> 02:25:02.213 - see these types of point of appointments then this position is basically then plugging in appointments 02:25:02.213 --> 02:25:06.014 - for that time. So I could see that kind of being like 02:25:07.554 --> 02:25:14.367 - So when I think about it, and I'm not in your field, I'm just kind of listening, and I'm glad that the 02:25:14.367 --> 02:25:20.982 - chair of our board is someone who manages the practice and knows the hard questions to ask that I'm 02:25:20.982 --> 02:25:27.596 - too dumb to figure out. But when I kind of look at this for the function as it starts, as it starts 02:25:27.596 --> 02:25:30.110 - off, getting someone that is managing 02:25:30.466 --> 02:25:37.979 - how people get into the services that are offered to see what I would call the talent, the talent who 02:25:37.979 --> 02:25:45.567 - then treat or do all the things. Again, I'm not smart enough to know. To me, that's a bulk of the kind 02:25:45.567 --> 02:25:53.006 - of management that's missing, at least for the public's need. Like I got to get in there. That's all 02:25:53.006 --> 02:25:56.542 - I really care about. And while having a manager 02:25:56.642 --> 02:26:02.899 - is probably ideal. I am worried about that function. I am also I just want to say I'm worried about 02:26:02.899 --> 02:26:09.219 - you having to do both because public health is a massive thing and here in 12 seconds something else 02:26:09.219 --> 02:26:16.039 - is going to be invented that becomes a headache and then in two months the legislature will change something 02:26:16.039 --> 02:26:22.046 - else or Congress will or a bird flies the wrong way and suddenly we have something else. I just 02:26:22.306 --> 02:26:30.651 - long-term I worry about it I feel better if the person making sure people get in and all that were managed 02:26:30.651 --> 02:26:38.761 - better so I guess that's more of a comment here's just the last question I'll throw out to you is there 02:26:38.761 --> 02:26:47.262 - anything we are doing not doing not asking not considering that makes that April 7th not possible so I think 02:26:48.514 --> 02:26:55.232 - this is tricky right because some of this is reputational so and for our clients and for our taxpayers 02:26:55.232 --> 02:27:01.755 - I mean they have to have a level of hey I can pick up the phone I can call I can get what I need so 02:27:01.755 --> 02:27:08.343 - if we can't provide that then they're going to be going to another county and then we're going to be 02:27:08.343 --> 02:27:13.822 - dealing with another futures situation where the health department is on everyone's 02:27:14.018 --> 02:27:20.820 - not good list. So you're right. We have to get this right. But the thing that we need from council is 02:27:20.820 --> 02:27:27.488 - I guess maximum cooperation to try to. Well really what we need to know from council is do you want 02:27:27.488 --> 02:27:34.423 - us to be providing these services take over these services that you can no longer provide. And you know 02:27:34.423 --> 02:27:41.358 - we we are moving forward hoping that we can provide those things. So is that is that what council wants 02:27:41.358 --> 02:27:43.358 - from us because I would think 02:27:43.938 --> 02:27:50.927 - you know, the taxpayers would expect that. And I expect that. So yes, we need this person. We need this 02:27:50.927 --> 02:27:57.915 - person yesterday. And I would like to see cooperation so that we're not then in budget time, September, 02:27:57.915 --> 02:28:04.837 - and we still don't have this person so that we can provide the services we need to provide adequately. 02:28:04.837 --> 02:28:11.892 - Thank you. I appreciate that candor. I think that's the kind of thing we've all just got to say a little 02:28:11.892 --> 02:28:12.766 - bit more of. 02:28:13.186 --> 02:28:19.735 - among the semicolons and other things that we get into in here, and those are all important. I'm not 02:28:19.735 --> 02:28:26.413 - discrediting that, but ultimately someone at that phone saying the 8 a.m. or some system. So the next, 02:28:26.413 --> 02:28:33.092 - right, I'm sorry to interrupt you. The next scenario will be someone's gonna be publicly saying, well, 02:28:33.092 --> 02:28:39.705 - they're sending people to Morgan County to get these vaccines, and the person has to get on the road, 02:28:39.705 --> 02:28:42.558 - as you said, and that is not gonna be good. 02:28:43.202 --> 02:28:50.974 - short for anyone. So we're the only we were and we heard this in the Community Health Day. You're the 02:28:50.974 --> 02:28:58.745 - only I think we're the only health department, maybe one of two that is not providing these services. 02:28:58.745 --> 02:29:06.745 - So it is a for anyone watching at home. This is a going from what we use. We did for a long time. Right. 02:29:06.745 --> 02:29:11.774 - Yes. To a new system. And that's really what we're bridging here. 02:29:12.450 --> 02:29:18.680 - So before I go back to, there's lots of hands, so I want to make sure we get adequate time. I see Ms. 02:29:18.680 --> 02:29:25.032 - Turner-King has something, and then I'm going to pop over to Councilor Wilts next. I just had a comment 02:29:25.032 --> 02:29:31.139 - related to Councilor Decker's comment about the April 7th and if that's possible. And I just wanted 02:29:31.139 --> 02:29:37.430 - to note that since this would be creating a new position and there isn't a job description and there's 02:29:37.430 --> 02:29:41.950 - a whole process, there is no way the WISP process can occur by April 7th. 02:29:45.090 --> 02:29:55.434 - even after it comes back from West it has to come back to council and there's salary amendments and 02:29:55.434 --> 02:30:06.399 - that's not gonna happen before April 7th. So yes we're we're behind and so you know it's it's frustrating 02:30:06.399 --> 02:30:13.950 - for me because it's really challenging to try to set systems up in place 02:30:14.370 --> 02:30:22.576 - you are going to have to work with. So we're a little bit behind in that way. So, I mean, what we're 02:30:22.576 --> 02:30:30.863 - going to have to do is the phone calls are going to have to go to a voicemail and try to return those 02:30:30.863 --> 02:30:38.988 - calls and schedule appointments when you can because that's like without a dedicated person kind of 02:30:38.988 --> 02:30:42.238 - filling that capacity that's, you know, 02:30:42.434 --> 02:30:53.415 - the option. We have to slowly just start providing the services that we can and try to adjust along 02:30:53.415 --> 02:31:05.054 - the way. We can get positions if we can fill the director role and just kind of adjust. But you know I've 02:31:05.538 --> 02:31:15.151 - I've talked with the nurses and said, you know, we're moving forward. We're going to do this. It's going 02:31:15.151 --> 02:31:24.582 - to be okay. And, you know, we'll start slowly. But I'm not comfortable just sitting back and not doing 02:31:24.582 --> 02:31:35.294 - anything. We have to move forward. Councillor Wilts, did you still have something? I do. Yes. The director position. 02:31:38.146 --> 02:31:51.196 - still open. You'll have presumably this position open. That's two important pieces to the puzzle of 02:31:51.196 --> 02:32:04.898 - making this work that have not been filled. So Mike, I guess what's happening with the director position 02:32:04.898 --> 02:32:08.030 - right now? It's posted. 02:32:08.674 --> 02:32:18.959 - You know, it's Morgan County, their starting rate just for their nurses, their starting pay is $36 an 02:32:18.959 --> 02:32:29.143 - hour. These positions in this health services, the nurses and the health services director covers so 02:32:29.143 --> 02:32:37.310 - much. I think it's really hard to bring in the qualified candidates at that pay. 02:32:37.538 --> 02:32:45.888 - You have to get all the work done in 35 hours a week. I think it's just really challenging. So you're 02:32:45.888 --> 02:32:54.402 - not getting qualified applicants still? We have not gotten received any applicants recently. We've done 02:32:54.402 --> 02:33:01.278 - paid advertising. But yes, for the qualifications, background, history, experience. 02:33:06.242 --> 02:33:14.196 - Yeah, so, I mean, clearly, that makes me a little nervous. It makes me a lot nervous. I mean, as one 02:33:14.196 --> 02:33:22.071 - of your liaisons, clearly, I mean, I see it posted, and I know it's been posted for a long time. So 02:33:22.071 --> 02:33:30.182 - the creation of a new position, that makes me really nervous. As a fiscal agent, right? I mean, that's 02:33:30.182 --> 02:33:33.726 - just another FTE that we're going to have to 02:33:33.826 --> 02:33:43.056 - be putting and considering for our future budgets. So feeling a little nervous. I guess one of the questions 02:33:43.056 --> 02:33:51.523 - that I think about where to take this. Are we still going down the route of having that mobile unit 02:33:51.523 --> 02:34:00.076 - that can provide vaccines at like township trustee offices or other community sources? Like, is that 02:34:00.076 --> 02:34:01.854 - still happening too? 02:34:02.626 --> 02:34:09.897 - Yes, we are still working on that. OK, all right. And but. That's also a yes. Councilor, I think proceed. 02:34:09.897 --> 02:34:17.099 - I mean, again, this is a huge department. You have a lot of FTEs. You're dealing with a lot of community 02:34:17.099 --> 02:34:24.576 - like issues. OK, so I there's a lot of grace that needs to be given here. And there's a lot of understanding 02:34:24.576 --> 02:34:31.230 - that those of us sitting up on the dais do not do what you do. And and there's there's a lack of 02:34:31.362 --> 02:34:38.822 - I think there needs to be some some empathy here. OK, so I think that needs to be put out there. So 02:34:38.822 --> 02:34:46.730 - but but I do think if we're going to have this clinic and have the mobile unit, that's that's I'm asking, 02:34:46.730 --> 02:34:54.712 - is that still the vision? Yes, that vision has not changed. OK. All right. And then the the the generators 02:34:54.712 --> 02:35:00.606 - still coming and that's that's coming soon, right? So we have the generator to 02:35:02.274 --> 02:35:10.141 - I know when they were doing the installation, they found out that the gas line needed to be resized 02:35:10.141 --> 02:35:17.850 - because it was not going to meet the capacity of the generator. So that work has been being done. 02:35:17.850 --> 02:35:25.874 - All right. And the generator is important because that's how we keep vaccines at the temperature they 02:35:25.874 --> 02:35:27.998 - need to be kept at, right? 02:35:28.578 --> 02:35:36.343 - It's our backup. Should the electricity go off? Otherwise all the stock is ruined. Right, right. Okay. 02:35:36.343 --> 02:35:43.882 - I'll go Councillor Henry and then I'll go to Hock next. Thank you. I appreciate that. The longer we 02:35:43.882 --> 02:35:49.310 - go sometimes the more questions come up and much of it's been answered. 02:35:49.474 --> 02:35:57.205 - Let's talk about mitigation here because we got a timeline problem. So at best, if we approved a position, 02:35:57.205 --> 02:36:04.574 - this person wouldn't be in place for a bit because of the WISP piece. I appreciate Dr. Robinson, your 02:36:04.574 --> 02:36:06.814 - comment about what it comes to 02:36:07.810 --> 02:36:13.839 - what led to other clinic failures, which was in part the trying to manage the paperwork, right? When 02:36:13.839 --> 02:36:20.285 - we lost those paperwork management positions, we had nurses that felt overburdened and then left government 02:36:20.285 --> 02:36:25.956 - service as a result. So to avoid that happening again, if we go live on the seventh, you know, 02:36:25.956 --> 02:36:31.925 - right now, Lori, you're handling the paperwork. Is there an opportunity to train other staff in the 02:36:31.925 --> 02:36:37.118 - health department to handle the finance piece and the other pieces? Because this might 02:36:37.218 --> 02:36:43.220 - be a bit you know as I'm trying to I'd like us not to have that conversation again in a few months I 02:36:43.220 --> 02:36:49.579 - agree but I but right now it's I think I kind of need to understand you open the doors you start invoicing 02:36:49.579 --> 02:36:55.582 - people. What is your mitigation for that right now while we're trying to work through our process if 02:36:55.582 --> 02:36:58.910 - we do move forward with. So the nurses will be trained. 02:36:59.010 --> 02:37:06.957 - but they'll be doing so one will be covering like that front office some of these capacities when the 02:37:06.957 --> 02:37:15.138 - patients are coming in and the other one will be doing like the vaccinating. So they'll be flip flopping 02:37:15.138 --> 02:37:23.241 - but doing those sort of dual roles so that they have knowledge of that. We could look at training other 02:37:23.241 --> 02:37:26.046 - employees in the department. That's 02:37:27.522 --> 02:37:32.725 - take us down a different path. So it's not going to have this position. And so so doors are open and 02:37:32.725 --> 02:37:37.979 - voices are coming. I guess on one one difference here from the last time we went through this is that 02:37:37.979 --> 02:37:43.130 - the new hires understand this is part of their job description. It's not an added duty just already 02:37:43.130 --> 02:37:48.436 - been hired and then has been asked to do other things like these folks are hired understanding they're 02:37:48.436 --> 02:37:53.742 - going to have other things to do. Right. That was in the job descriptions. That's good news. These are 02:37:53.742 --> 02:37:57.502 - the same people that are also potentially going to be driving the mobile 02:37:57.634 --> 02:38:04.983 - unit out from the building. How soon do you think that mobile unit goes into operation? I'd have to 02:38:04.983 --> 02:38:12.332 - check with facilities to see where they're at. Soon. It's not going to be like, is it possible that 02:38:12.332 --> 02:38:19.828 - gets mobile and active before we have a clinician assistant in place? I think that's possible. You've 02:38:19.828 --> 02:38:25.854 - got two clinics for managing with staff. I mean, one's moving around, one's here. 02:38:26.242 --> 02:38:33.595 - and we don't have that administrative piece. And it sounds like at least the nurses can handle some 02:38:33.595 --> 02:38:41.169 - of the administration piece, but then there's other pieces that you're either doing or being delegated 02:38:41.169 --> 02:38:48.816 - at this point. Okay, that's it, thanks. Council Hawk. Yes, when I was hearing all of this and thinking, 02:38:48.816 --> 02:38:54.846 - well, this is a great thing, we've decided to do what I hope we do to begin with, 02:38:56.674 --> 02:39:04.069 - instead of running around in a mobile unit, keep it where the public knows where it is, where they're 02:39:04.069 --> 02:39:11.536 - able to get to it, where public transportation can get it there, and it's a better operation. We don't 02:39:11.536 --> 02:39:19.003 - have to worry about what we're going to do if the mobile unit is broken down or repairs or where we're 02:39:19.003 --> 02:39:26.398 - going to store it or whatever. We're going to have it in a county building and where people will know 02:39:26.914 --> 02:39:35.472 - every day where that is. And now you're saying, no, we want to do both. And so that sort of spoiled 02:39:35.472 --> 02:39:44.029 - my joy. I just don't think it's wise whatsoever. And because I think wasn't that almost like a half 02:39:44.029 --> 02:39:51.902 - million dollars or something like that for that mobile unit? We had covid funds. A big one. 02:39:52.386 --> 02:40:01.028 - We had COVID funds left that we could use for a one-time purchase. And so those funds we decided would 02:40:01.028 --> 02:40:10.090 - be best served, the board did, with a mobile unit to go to where people were for chronic disease management 02:40:10.090 --> 02:40:13.950 - or what people needed. But you do understand. 02:40:14.082 --> 02:40:20.491 - the money fell out of the sky, which you're saying it just fell out in your pocket somehow. And so we'll 02:40:20.491 --> 02:40:26.656 - go out and buy this mobile unit. But let me tell you what. Buying that piece of equipment is not the 02:40:26.656 --> 02:40:32.760 - end of an obligation. You still have to maintain it. You have to have the insurance on it. You have 02:40:32.760 --> 02:40:38.925 - to figure out where you're going to park it, how long it's going to last, where's the money going to 02:40:38.925 --> 02:40:43.198 - come from to replace it, and repair costs. It's just I thought, well, 02:40:43.490 --> 02:40:51.406 - they woke up there and we're going to put it where the public can see it and reach it and everybody 02:40:51.406 --> 02:40:59.481 - throughout this county will really know right where to go and it won't be running around trying to be 02:40:59.481 --> 02:41:06.526 - chasing around where they are so anyway and I don't see an operational plan and you know 02:41:06.690 --> 02:41:14.863 - I remember when Bill Cook could say ready fire aim because he could afford to say that. He had the money. 02:41:14.863 --> 02:41:22.573 - Well guess what? This is not ready fire aim. We cannot do that in county government. We need to see 02:41:22.573 --> 02:41:30.437 - an operational plan, something. I applaud your enthusiasm for moving forward, but for the fiscal body 02:41:30.437 --> 02:41:33.598 - to move forward with you, we need to see 02:41:33.730 --> 02:41:45.427 - more of a an operational plan. For me, I'm disappointed that you're going to go consider going ahead 02:41:45.427 --> 02:41:57.124 - with this boondoggle of a moving van. So I was excited about having a clinic. We department building 02:41:57.124 --> 02:42:00.830 - has a clinic on the main level. 02:42:00.962 --> 02:42:10.042 - the public will be coming to the health department just across the street to access these services. 02:42:10.042 --> 02:42:19.849 - The purpose of the mobile unit is to be able to go out on certain scheduled times to provide these services 02:42:19.849 --> 02:42:30.654 - in special capacities because if you, for example, want to have a large testing event, it can be challenging to try to 02:42:31.234 --> 02:42:38.857 - have a whole lot of people coming into the department. If you can, we were going out and providing community 02:42:38.857 --> 02:42:45.991 - outreach services, now we have a mobile unit that has the equipment and has the personnel that can go 02:42:45.991 --> 02:42:52.985 - out into the community to provide these services. But that's separate from the clinic that's on the 02:42:52.985 --> 02:42:59.070 - main level of the health department. The only thing I'll say to kind of get us back to 02:42:59.490 --> 02:43:07.182 - where we are here is, I guess from my understanding, last year, late last year, I was, maybe it's just 02:43:07.182 --> 02:43:14.875 - me, was thinking that you all were, in addition to trying to get the clinic up and running, the mobile 02:43:14.875 --> 02:43:22.418 - unit always was something that you were doing to both of those at the same time. Okay. A lot of hair 02:43:22.418 --> 02:43:27.870 - changes have changed for me too, so I just wanna make sure I understand. 02:43:27.970 --> 02:43:35.950 - Then it was something that we had had discussions about with IU Health and before Health First Indiana 02:43:35.950 --> 02:43:43.930 - and these new positions about how can we have this mobile unit and work collaboratively to go out into 02:43:43.930 --> 02:43:51.910 - the community. So it was something that was already in discussion. Yes, Councilor Wilts. Okay. I still 02:43:51.910 --> 02:43:56.094 - have basic questions and then a bigger picture would. 02:43:57.314 --> 02:44:05.782 - Just to clarify something that was said very early on, do any of these services overlap with the IU 02:44:05.782 --> 02:44:14.251 - community health services that are now? I know they used to, but are there is there now overlaps of 02:44:14.251 --> 02:44:23.058 - what you will be doing in the clinic? To my understanding, I think they're going to try to provide some 02:44:23.058 --> 02:44:27.038 - vaccines, possibly two days a week. But I know 02:44:29.570 --> 02:44:37.651 - The last we were aware of, they're really focusing on reaching these other counties within the southern 02:44:37.651 --> 02:44:45.499 - region and being able to do some community health and outreach. I don't know what specifically those 02:44:45.499 --> 02:44:53.347 - plans are, but a lot of kind of tapping into more of those rural areas instead of having people here 02:44:53.347 --> 02:44:55.134 - in full-time capacity. 02:44:56.514 --> 02:45:09.021 - Is there any level of coordination with them at this point? They're separate from them. Okay. Yeah. 02:45:09.021 --> 02:45:21.904 - That makes it difficult, I'm sure. Have you? I guess my question now is given kind of the fact there's 02:45:21.904 --> 02:45:24.030 - no director yet. 02:45:24.354 --> 02:45:33.705 - clinic or office manager type of position, whatever this is. Is there a reason you're targeting April 02:45:33.705 --> 02:45:43.057 - 7th and would there be a possibility to delay that or are there implications that we're not aware of? 02:45:43.057 --> 02:45:52.958 - Well, so then you're going to have staff that we've hired, I think, waiting to get vaccines and we have the 02:45:53.250 --> 02:46:01.032 - refrigerators and we're working on the generator. And so you want to, you know, utilize those people 02:46:01.032 --> 02:46:08.892 - and those resources. I guess I'm kind of envisioning. Yeah, and I appreciate that you've got stuff in 02:46:08.892 --> 02:46:16.829 - place. Let's not just sit there and twiddle our thumbs. But my understanding is there are other things 02:46:16.829 --> 02:46:23.070 - they mentioned that these nurses would be doing so they probably are able to do. 02:46:23.970 --> 02:46:32.182 - whatever the outreach components of their jobs are, right? They could certainly stay busy doing other 02:46:32.182 --> 02:46:40.313 - things. I think the concern in my mind would be, well, how long are we not going to be providing all 02:46:40.313 --> 02:46:48.847 - of the services by law and by our funding? Totally agree. And don't get me wrong, I'm just, I'm concerned 02:46:48.847 --> 02:46:51.262 - about starting something that 02:46:53.090 --> 02:47:00.921 - not ready and then fails and how does that, like how do we make sure it's going forward with its best 02:47:00.921 --> 02:47:08.828 - foot forward? You know, is there a difference in your mind between maybe soft launching, like starting 02:47:08.828 --> 02:47:16.582 - to provide, but then, you know, we've got these positions filled to kind of announce and go with it. 02:47:16.582 --> 02:47:21.726 - If we wait until we have positions filled, it will be probably set 02:47:21.826 --> 02:47:29.313 - October. And so we've missed this window where we're communicating with the public, hey, this is where 02:47:29.313 --> 02:47:36.946 - we can provide you, you know, we have taxpayer dollars, your money to take care of public health issues. 02:47:36.946 --> 02:47:44.215 - And so while I don't want it to be all focused on reputation, that is part a piece of it because we 02:47:44.215 --> 02:47:46.686 - don't want to lose that momentum. 02:47:47.746 --> 02:48:00.311 - Because people will be kind of lost as well. So I understand I understand your concern. I certainly 02:48:00.311 --> 02:48:13.254 - do I Think I would it would be helpful for me to know like well, how are we defining failure? Question 02:48:13.254 --> 02:48:15.390 - but I mean Maybe 02:48:20.482 --> 02:48:30.392 - I think we've seen it in the closing of the clinic before. I think that probably... I don't think it's 02:48:30.392 --> 02:48:40.013 - the only way in which that could happen. I guess I have concerns around... I don't think there is a 02:48:40.013 --> 02:48:47.710 - lot of momentum in the public. I feel you all have momentum and I guess it's... 02:48:48.098 --> 02:48:56.432 - we're trying to get on board that train and see that momentum and I sense my colleagues having some 02:48:56.432 --> 02:49:04.765 - trouble with that and while I would be supportive of a position like this because I think that is a 02:49:04.765 --> 02:49:13.099 - critical piece to make it work, there's more, I see more need and I'm concerned about the whole and 02:49:13.099 --> 02:49:17.182 - maybe I'm looking for reassurance that it's been 02:49:18.178 --> 02:49:29.422 - thoroughly thought through. So on this I went and looked at the health services director job posting 02:49:29.422 --> 02:49:40.777 - and then I got thinking again about where you want to go from what I'm picking up today and I thought 02:49:40.777 --> 02:49:47.902 - about the April 7th opening the fact that you're sort of double 02:49:48.450 --> 02:49:55.651 - kind of double teaming administration of both, and you're looking for someone to come into this role 02:49:55.651 --> 02:50:02.924 - and to do the clinical assistant position. If I were having my druthers today, like if this were left 02:50:02.924 --> 02:50:10.053 - to me and what I would be doing, I would say, and again, there's seven of us up here, but for me, I 02:50:10.053 --> 02:50:18.110 - would say that we would send this to WIS for evaluation of what that clinical assistant position would look like 02:50:18.562 --> 02:50:25.995 - But when I think about what the service that's provided I think about this kind of reality. We've got 02:50:25.995 --> 02:50:33.355 - to get people successfully from the public into the facility to meet the medical talent that we have 02:50:33.355 --> 02:50:40.715 - that treats them. And I'm wondering if it's not fully dependent upon the clinical assistant being in 02:50:40.715 --> 02:50:42.974 - the role but it's dependent on 02:50:43.138 --> 02:50:49.701 - the department much like you're saying you're kind of double timing the administration of both. It's 02:50:49.701 --> 02:50:56.198 - the department managing that intake through what we have until the council would get something back 02:50:56.198 --> 02:51:02.891 - from with get the position codified. I mean if we're really talking about the schedule and again I may 02:51:02.891 --> 02:51:08.414 - be way off here but we're talking about scheduling people getting people in matching 02:51:08.706 --> 02:51:16.018 - A to B with the right personnel or right medical personnel in there, to me that would be a holdover 02:51:16.018 --> 02:51:23.403 - until WISC came back with something. I will also say this council, as long as it has 48 hours notice 02:51:23.403 --> 02:51:30.716 - and has, and I'm not committing the council to that, I'm just making this comment, but the council, 02:51:30.716 --> 02:51:38.174 - as long as it has 48 hours notice, can be in here as long as we've notified the public and our media. 02:51:38.466 --> 02:51:45.990 - there's there's flexibility and ability. I'm thinking if we have the administrator who's kind of managing 02:51:45.990 --> 02:51:53.088 - both and trying to figure out how to get this started. I'm wondering if the task of managing here's 02:51:53.088 --> 02:52:00.470 - here's some openings for this software or whatever would would be in. And perhaps that gives confidence 02:52:00.470 --> 02:52:07.710 - for opening. I do worry about it not opening and people getting there and getting a hard reputational 02:52:09.250 --> 02:52:15.184 - Because, you know, and to be honest with you, all these questions come from places, right? They come 02:52:15.184 --> 02:52:21.060 - from things. In 2024, I had to sit in a public meeting, I'll just say, of an electoral nature where 02:52:21.060 --> 02:52:27.346 - somebody, they wanted answers. And I said, well, I was council president. I'm sorry it happened. Shouldn't 02:52:27.346 --> 02:52:32.811 - have happened. I'll accept responsibility. So for the solution, I'd like to accept some sort 02:52:32.811 --> 02:52:38.686 - of responsibility of perhaps a path forward. But ultimately, it's you that could say whether or not 02:52:39.202 --> 02:52:48.414 - that sort of, we've got someone that can manage intake while I continue to double so that people get 02:52:48.414 --> 02:52:57.626 - to the medical personnel. But if that isn't possible, it might be April 7th is a week too early, two 02:52:57.626 --> 02:53:07.020 - weeks too early, or something along those lines. My concluding remarks, I think, are going to be along 02:53:07.020 --> 02:53:09.118 - the lines of, I think, 02:53:09.730 --> 02:53:16.299 - of this new position, clearly the building is needed. That's a needed service, right? And particularly 02:53:16.299 --> 02:53:22.996 - when you have the doors open in the clinic. But I mean, if you were gonna ask me as a fiscal agent where 02:53:22.996 --> 02:53:29.692 - I would invest taxpayer dollars, it would be in fixing whatever's wrong with the health service director 02:53:29.692 --> 02:53:36.261 - position. It seems to me that when you're in front of an open mic with the cameras going saying, we're 02:53:36.261 --> 02:53:38.366 - just not getting any applicants, 02:53:38.754 --> 02:53:45.616 - there needs to be some tweaking done there. And I think that for me, that would be top priority moving 02:53:45.616 --> 02:53:52.279 - forward. That would be a salary increase, essentially. There's a lot of options. Okay. I'm sorry. I 02:53:52.279 --> 02:53:58.142 - come at things from a business owner perspective and not necessarily county government. 02:53:58.402 --> 02:54:05.054 - But the bottom line is if you need someone who's talented in this realm and you're dealing with people 02:54:05.054 --> 02:54:11.512 - and they're a nurse, so you have to have a competitive salary. And so the end of the day, no matter 02:54:11.512 --> 02:54:18.035 - how we get there, it would be an increase in the salary. Because if this comes back at a salary that 02:54:18.035 --> 02:54:24.493 - you like, at a classification that you like, and there's still no director, that's still a problem. 02:54:24.493 --> 02:54:26.366 - But if we get a director in, 02:54:27.266 --> 02:54:34.977 - and this person comes on board, I think that's a path forward. And I share Trent's optimism, Council 02:54:34.977 --> 02:54:42.994 - Member Decker's optimism, and I think we want to see this done, and we want to see it done well, because 02:54:42.994 --> 02:54:50.629 - we're part of county government with you, and we want to see this succeed. Yes, Councillor Feil. So 02:54:50.629 --> 02:54:55.134 - I've listened a long time here. Ultimately, at this point, 02:54:55.618 --> 02:55:01.752 - How do we even know what the need is if we don't know what everybody's doing? I'm struggling with that. 02:55:01.752 --> 02:55:07.651 - You mean by what everyone is doing? I thought I heard that we don't know what IU is doing as far as 02:55:07.651 --> 02:55:13.608 - serving things, or did I misunderstand? IU's finished. IU's finished, but is there something that, I 02:55:13.608 --> 02:55:19.625 - thought I heard some verbiage at some point during the conversation about not knowing something about 02:55:19.625 --> 02:55:21.630 - IU, and I'm concerned about that. 02:55:22.946 --> 02:55:29.586 - I don't know what their regional plan is for going in and into those rural counties. So this we have 02:55:29.586 --> 02:55:36.160 - taken over the services that are required that were required by law as a local health department to 02:55:36.160 --> 02:55:42.800 - provide. They are no longer providing that they don't do any of that. What's that? They don't do any 02:55:42.800 --> 02:55:49.374 - of that. IU doesn't do any of that now. I believe that they are still planning to vaccinate provide 02:55:49.374 --> 02:55:51.806 - some vaccinations. I don't know what 02:55:51.938 --> 02:55:57.612 - that stock is, but they are not providing a communicable disease investigation. I mean, we've taken 02:55:57.612 --> 02:56:03.400 - all of those other services back over. Well, I think some of us went to an open house on Miller Drive 02:56:03.400 --> 02:56:09.075 - also for IU Health recently, and it seems to me like there were some conversations there about some 02:56:09.075 --> 02:56:11.742 - of the things we're talking about in services. 02:56:12.162 --> 02:56:18.040 - seems to me like they are doing some things. Now, whether it's under the same umbrella that was done 02:56:18.040 --> 02:56:24.035 - before, I don't know, but I'm concerned about what the real need is. It would be really nice to figure 02:56:24.035 --> 02:56:29.506 - that out. I don't know how to do it, but it'd be really nice to figure that out. I think from 02:56:29.506 --> 02:56:34.046 - our perspective, our need is we have services that we have to provide by law. 02:56:35.842 --> 02:56:42.121 - as in vaccines, those kind of things, or? As the communicable disease, we also have to provide all of 02:56:42.121 --> 02:56:48.646 - the additional core services under Health First Indiana, so the trauma and injury prevention, the chronic 02:56:48.646 --> 02:56:54.248 - disease, the school health fatality review, lead case management, tuberculosis, infectious 02:56:54.248 --> 02:57:00.403 - disease prevention. Let me just interject this question. Is there a way to figure out, we know what 02:57:00.403 --> 02:57:03.358 - the population is, is there a way to figure out 02:57:03.458 --> 02:57:11.644 - how many people have actually had those services in our county? Is there data somewhere that tells us 02:57:11.644 --> 02:57:19.909 - this? Is that previously, is that what you're saying? Does the state keep track of the things that you 02:57:19.909 --> 02:57:27.934 - provide or whoever provides in vaccines or whatever, right? Yes, so we have data from 2025. So that 02:57:27.934 --> 02:57:32.990 - shows some of our services. So for access and linkage to care, 02:57:34.306 --> 02:57:42.310 - Let's see we had nine hundred and one referrals for adult referrals for clinical care immunizations 02:57:42.310 --> 02:57:50.474 - two thousand four hundred and ninety six children in twenty twenty five adults two thousand and forty 02:57:50.474 --> 02:57:58.557 - eight. So I mean there's there's data that's on the Health First Indiana Web site that shows some of 02:57:58.557 --> 02:57:59.998 - this information. 02:58:00.834 --> 02:58:12.345 - But then that still doesn't tell me what percentage we're missing, right? Who are we missing by not 02:58:12.345 --> 02:58:23.856 - providing these things? I think we're missing Monroe County. OK. All right. OK. So I guess. Lastly. 02:58:23.856 --> 02:58:29.726 - You're opening April 7th, no matter what, is that? 02:58:30.370 --> 02:58:46.957 - we're slowly going to start scheduling appointments. I mean, I suppose that we cannot, but that's not 02:58:46.957 --> 02:58:59.966 - a decision that I can make. Okay. Yes, Councilor Wilts. So what's it before us? 02:59:00.546 --> 02:59:10.145 - I'm looking for a little clarification that we can take the next step here. So we should decide yay 02:59:10.145 --> 02:59:20.319 - or nay on sending a job description to WIS and following the normal processes. In the meantime, it sounds 02:59:20.319 --> 02:59:29.534 - like it's the hope of at least some of the people here on council that the health board and the 02:59:29.922 --> 02:59:39.173 - the health department can, as a whole, consider the idea of a soft launch while maybe really re-examining 02:59:39.173 --> 02:59:48.598 - how the director position in play as we're working on administratively trying to get this clinic assistant. 02:59:48.598 --> 02:59:57.150 - That, because that's the messaging I'm hearing. It's like we don't, I think Dr. Anderson said it. 02:59:58.146 --> 03:00:08.459 - And as one of two liaisons and part of a seven-member body, I think that's something that we can continue 03:00:08.459 --> 03:00:18.968 - to talk about. Clearly, the motion before us today is simply to take this position and ask WISC to classify 03:00:18.968 --> 03:00:26.654 - it. And no, it's, and Council Member Feidl, to your point, that will come back 03:00:26.914 --> 03:00:34.338 - to council, we'll have to have a conversation about it. And to Ms. Molly Turner-King's point, that is 03:00:34.338 --> 03:00:42.127 - going to take longer than anyone wants. Well, to be clear, though, there is no, like, this is a discussion 03:00:42.127 --> 03:00:49.406 - to figure out what we want to do next, right? And so it sounds like if it is the will of council to 03:00:49.406 --> 03:00:56.830 - say yes and take this to wilt, take this to wilt, to not take this to wilt, but to take this to wits, 03:00:56.930 --> 03:01:06.239 - then somebody would have to make that motion. So that is the decision that we, yes, council member Decker. 03:01:06.239 --> 03:01:15.026 - Council, I would ask that the position of clinical assistant for the health clinic within the health 03:01:15.026 --> 03:01:22.334 - department be sent to WIS for potential classification to be considered by council. 03:01:24.482 --> 03:01:32.241 - All right, we got a motion and a second for this position to be considered by WISC. Is there any other 03:01:32.241 --> 03:01:40.151 - further discussion that has not been exhausted yet on this item? I'd like to declare. So I want to offer 03:01:40.151 --> 03:01:47.759 - this to preserve us this option to help the department figure out how this is done, because I've not 03:01:47.759 --> 03:01:51.902 - I've not yet heard us have something that will solidly 03:01:52.578 --> 03:02:00.929 - make us feel comfortable. This is what they've proposed, and I think that we need every option on the 03:02:00.929 --> 03:02:09.281 - table for the public good that's got to be done. Any other questions or comments? Councillor Hock. So 03:02:09.281 --> 03:02:17.714 - is there a job description that's ready to be sent to us? If we can't do it, we'll send something that 03:02:17.714 --> 03:02:18.942 - we don't have. 03:02:20.674 --> 03:02:30.101 - There's one in the packet, but I will need to work with the health department, as well as Molly, just 03:02:30.101 --> 03:02:39.620 - to ensure that duplicative duties over other job descriptions. Can that happen? Yeah, I will reach out 03:02:39.620 --> 03:02:47.198 - to Lori tomorrow, and we'll schedule a date to get that done as soon as possible. 03:02:50.274 --> 03:02:58.441 - Any other further questions or comments on this motion? All right, seeing none, I'll ask for public 03:02:58.441 --> 03:03:06.689 - comment on this item. If you have public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here and raise 03:03:06.689 --> 03:03:15.428 - your hand via Teams. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor 03:03:15.428 --> 03:03:19.838 - Hawk? No. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. 03:03:21.602 --> 03:03:29.007 - Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Motion passes six to one. 03:03:29.007 --> 03:03:36.558 - Okay. Thank you very much. So the next step is you all will work with Michelle and Ms. Turner-King and 03:03:36.558 --> 03:03:44.109 - we will go forth and we'll await and see what WIS has to say. All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. 03:03:44.109 --> 03:03:49.534 - Thank you for your time. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you so much. 03:03:51.490 --> 03:03:58.545 - Next up is item F from the legal department. Council, I move to approve resolution 2026-07, approving 03:03:58.545 --> 03:04:05.946 - the interlocal cooperation agreement between the Bloomington Public Transit Corporation and Monroe County. 03:04:05.946 --> 03:04:13.001 - Second. All right. And I believe Ms. Turner-King is going to be presenting. So this is the interlocal 03:04:13.001 --> 03:04:19.710 - agreement that would provide for that transit route that was discussed at a couple meetings ago. 03:04:19.810 --> 03:04:26.515 - I believe that the interlocal was already presented to the commissioners and approved with a vote of 03:04:26.515 --> 03:04:33.087 - three to zero. And so this is a resolution that would approve the interlocal agreement by council. 03:04:33.087 --> 03:04:39.194 - All right. And is there any other further questions or comments from council? I see that we 03:04:39.194 --> 03:04:46.031 - have a commissioner aligned. I want to put them on the spot, but not sure if they need to say anything 03:04:46.031 --> 03:04:48.222 - or add to the conversation here. 03:04:49.954 --> 03:04:59.108 - I'll go to Council Hogg. Yes. Could you tell me the beginning and ending date of this interlocal? The 03:04:59.108 --> 03:05:08.352 - term of this agreement shall begin on January 1st of 2026 and shall end on December 31st of 2026. It's 03:05:08.352 --> 03:05:17.505 - just for one year. Is there anything in there that says it's going to be extended? But unless we give 03:05:17.505 --> 03:05:19.390 - them so much notice, 03:05:30.466 --> 03:05:39.068 - certainly not trying to stop this. I'm trying to figure out where we need to budget for the dollars 03:05:39.068 --> 03:05:44.574 - because it's not going to go on for free. Why not? I like free. 03:05:56.258 --> 03:06:06.846 - I don't see language regarding an extension. I just see language in the agreement regarding 03:06:06.846 --> 03:06:18.585 - early termination. So I think that is a set term. And if I recall when this was being presented to us 03:06:18.585 --> 03:06:20.542 - a few weeks ago, 03:06:20.994 --> 03:06:29.033 - that this was a conversation where it was said that we need to figure out the funding mechanisms going 03:06:29.033 --> 03:06:37.072 - forward on how we would like to have this. And so considering that it's a year, it looks like it's the 03:06:37.072 --> 03:06:45.190 - end of the year, yep, December 31st, 2026, and that's a conversation that we should probably have maybe 03:06:45.190 --> 03:06:48.702 - prior to budget, definitely prior to budget. 03:06:49.122 --> 03:07:02.817 - So that we could start thinking ahead of some things Throwing it out there And I was just whispered 03:07:02.817 --> 03:07:17.470 - that there is an LTF meeting coming up so maybe that's something they could talk about all right As to why 03:07:18.946 --> 03:07:26.316 - We have the pleasure of signing on to the interlocal. The interlocals have to be approved by both the 03:07:26.316 --> 03:07:33.830 - commissioners and the county council and if that doesn't occur the interlocal gets sent to the Attorney 03:07:33.830 --> 03:07:41.416 - General for approval and since also have to be approved by transit so for example when we do interlocals 03:07:41.416 --> 03:07:47.774 - with city it's approved by all parties to the interlocal. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. 03:07:51.554 --> 03:08:01.264 - Any other questions or comments on this item? Seeing none, we will move on to public comment. If there's 03:08:01.264 --> 03:08:10.604 - public comment on this item, you can come forward to the left and if you're still here or raise your 03:08:10.604 --> 03:08:19.944 - hand via Teams. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor 03:08:19.944 --> 03:08:21.054 - Wilts? Yes. 03:08:21.634 --> 03:08:30.730 - Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor 03:08:30.730 --> 03:08:39.325 - Feidl? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. All right. Next up is item G. Council, I move to approve the resolution 03:08:39.325 --> 03:08:48.254 - 2026-05, updating a Sophia Travis community service grant for people and animal learning services or PALS. 03:08:51.906 --> 03:09:02.910 - This is an amendment to the 2025 Sophia Travis agreement that Powell's received. 03:09:03.042 --> 03:09:11.118 - So originally in the agreement it provides that PALS will offer weekly equipped sessions for four eight 03:09:11.118 --> 03:09:18.882 - week sessions totaling 32 sessions. However PALS had the opportunity to partner with Girls Inc. and 03:09:18.882 --> 03:09:26.880 - kind of change the structure of those lessons. So what they would be doing instead is offering an hour 03:09:26.880 --> 03:09:29.598 - and a half grounded based equipped 03:09:29.762 --> 03:09:37.983 - sessions for up to ten youth in each session and it's going to be ran more like a camp that will serve 03:09:37.983 --> 03:09:46.204 - 20 girls. The camp will run from ten to four instead of the original plan. So they are still doing and 03:09:46.204 --> 03:09:54.185 - providing the equipped lessons. This is just to clarify the structure of the lessons and so we just 03:09:54.185 --> 03:09:58.814 - wanted to do an amendment out of basically precautionary. 03:09:58.978 --> 03:10:06.739 - And this was presented to the Sophia Travis committee. Correct. It was presented to the Sophia Travis 03:10:06.739 --> 03:10:14.043 - committee and they approved unanimously the amendment or recommending the amendment to council. 03:10:14.043 --> 03:10:21.880 - I was there. All right. Any questions or comments from council on this item? Council Henry. Thank you, 03:10:21.880 --> 03:10:26.750 - Madam President. Mr. King, thank you for bringing this forward. 03:10:27.458 --> 03:10:34.588 - Are you able to speak to the sentiment of the water commissioners and their support of this? No, because 03:10:34.588 --> 03:10:41.651 - I doubt it hasn't been brought up to them yet. So I don't I don't know. I think it's worth raising this 03:10:41.651 --> 03:10:48.442 - evening from the dais here that we've had. I've seen something like this before come through with I 03:10:48.442 --> 03:10:54.078 - think it was the Women's Commission, in fact, that attempted to fund stem program. 03:10:54.178 --> 03:11:01.610 - for young girls and at the time the board of commissioners had I guess some concerns about I guess gender 03:11:01.610 --> 03:11:08.621 - based STEM training and I'm raising it because it's been raised publicly in the past. My concern is 03:11:08.621 --> 03:11:15.983 - that's basically what this is but through a different. I do think that was a different situation because 03:11:15.983 --> 03:11:20.190 - the Girls Inc. or not the Girls Inc. the Women's Commission 03:11:20.482 --> 03:11:27.538 - STEM camp was in partnership with Luddy and there was concerns expressed by IU about not opening the 03:11:27.538 --> 03:11:34.593 - camp to both genders, and this is not specific. The PALS, they're not going to use all of the Sophia 03:11:34.593 --> 03:11:41.998 - Travis funding for the Girls Inc camp, so they will still have additional funds to provide other equipped 03:11:41.998 --> 03:11:44.862 - lessons that would be open to all youth. 03:11:45.314 --> 03:11:51.446 - I appreciate the distinction. I mean I'm in support of this period. I was also in support of that activity 03:11:51.446 --> 03:11:57.177 - before period. So I just want to make sure this is not another round of the council's expressed its 03:11:57.177 --> 03:12:03.022 - will on a Sophia Travis grant only to bump into something on Thursday. So if you're if the thought is 03:12:03.022 --> 03:12:08.925 - this should be kosher you know because of the variations of the funding. Great. But again I don't want 03:12:08.925 --> 03:12:14.942 - the deja vu all over again. It feels like deja vu night between the Board of Health conversation and now 03:12:15.138 --> 03:12:22.388 - So thank you, Madam President, on that. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or 03:12:22.388 --> 03:12:29.566 - comments on this item? Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment, you 03:12:29.566 --> 03:12:36.959 - can come forward to the electorate here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none, may 03:12:36.959 --> 03:12:42.558 - we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Wilz? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. 03:12:44.290 --> 03:12:55.186 - Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. And I want to note for the record that Councillor 03:12:55.186 --> 03:13:06.298 - Hawke has left the meeting. Motion passes six to zero. All right. Last but not least, item H. Council, 03:13:06.298 --> 03:13:10.398 - I move to approve resolution 2026-06. 03:13:10.498 --> 03:13:17.564 - reestablishing the Long Term Finance Planning Committee and amending membership composition. Second. 03:13:17.564 --> 03:13:24.629 - All right. We got a motion and a second. And look into Mr. King for this item. So when the Long Term 03:13:24.629 --> 03:13:32.254 - Finance Committee was originally established, it's by resolution, the resolution provided that the committee 03:13:32.254 --> 03:13:39.390 - shall consist of the council president and two additional members selected by the president. However, 03:13:39.874 --> 03:13:47.509 - this amendment makes it so that the committee would either consist of the Council President or the Council 03:13:47.509 --> 03:13:55.214 - Pro Temp and two other Council Members selected by the President. Pretty self-explanatory. Council Iverson. 03:13:55.214 --> 03:14:02.849 - I'm in full support of this because I think at the time that President Crossley was running for presidency 03:14:02.849 --> 03:14:09.342 - the comment was made we need to be really careful about how much we put on the President's 03:14:09.794 --> 03:14:18.171 - And I think that's slowly crept up and up and up and up. And presidents are expected to do more and 03:14:18.171 --> 03:14:26.549 - more and more. So I think this is a good step out of the direction. And I'm willing to share. Other 03:14:26.549 --> 03:14:36.350 - questions or comments on this? And also for the I'll say I know Council Iverson has been very much interested in and 03:14:36.482 --> 03:14:44.565 - trying to like with budgets and things like that. And so I think it's only fair that you get an opportunity 03:14:44.565 --> 03:14:51.601 - to. So I'm sharing the wealth. You're welcome. All right. Yes. Is this just kind of codifying 03:14:51.601 --> 03:14:59.610 - the appointments that we made in January? OK. Thank you. And it also there was the appointments in January 03:14:59.610 --> 03:15:05.822 - and then I believe there was a modification to the LTF appointment as it went from 03:15:05.922 --> 03:15:14.501 - President Crossley to Councilmember Iverson. So it's to ratify everything that we've done. Thank you. 03:15:14.501 --> 03:15:23.248 - So the other two people are still the same? Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure. And the wealth between 03:15:23.248 --> 03:15:28.126 - the pro tem and the president. You're welcome. All right. 03:15:28.354 --> 03:15:36.727 - Seeing no other further questions on this item, we'll go to public comment. If there's public comment, 03:15:36.727 --> 03:15:44.937 - you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern in the room. And still seeing none, 03:15:44.937 --> 03:15:53.066 - may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Henry? Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Crossley? 03:15:53.066 --> 03:15:57.374 - Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. 03:15:57.666 --> 03:16:05.555 - Motion passes unanimous six zero Great. Thank you all for that And we don't have any other presentations 03:16:05.555 --> 03:16:13.368 - or discussions. And so now we are at the tail end of our Items here, which is council a liaison updates 03:16:13.368 --> 03:16:21.032 - and comments and so I'm gonna surprise everybody and start over here to my right this time I'll start 03:16:21.032 --> 03:16:26.366 - with councilmember Henry. Thank you, madam president. I don't have any 03:16:26.722 --> 03:16:31.945 - real thoughts to share about community activities or liaisons. I actually wanted to reflect a little 03:16:31.945 --> 03:16:37.168 - bit about the beginning of our meeting with I think the public comments from the Women's Commission. 03:16:37.168 --> 03:16:42.443 - And it's not just about I think the Women's Commission in terms of the volunteers and people who give 03:16:42.443 --> 03:16:47.666 - their time to the boards and commissions in the county. We're having some challenges I've noticed in 03:16:47.666 --> 03:16:53.406 - some of my other boards and commissions that I'm on. For example, the EMAC, the Emergency Management Advisory, 03:16:53.698 --> 03:17:00.185 - commission, we've now had two consecutive meetings where we've not had quorum to meet. And so we haven't 03:17:00.185 --> 03:17:06.363 - had a formal meeting of that body since October. A challenge with that is that people do volunteer, 03:17:06.363 --> 03:17:12.541 - and if they feel like they all can call in on a hybrid, we can't do the quorum for the meeting. And 03:17:12.541 --> 03:17:19.214 - some of that is just, I think, it raises questions for me about how we maybe value our board and commission 03:17:19.214 --> 03:17:21.438 - volunteers or assignees or proxies. 03:17:21.538 --> 03:17:26.021 - Yeah, if they feel supported I mean we heard from two women's commission members about feeling supported 03:17:26.021 --> 03:17:30.333 - and their work and whether or not their work maybe has value or is heard you know because if you why 03:17:30.333 --> 03:17:32.510 - would you come to meetings if you don't feel like. 03:17:32.578 --> 03:17:37.903 - what you're producing is actually impacting as an advisory body in the community. So I think what's 03:17:37.903 --> 03:17:43.653 - on my mind is I heard that this evening, you know, and I don't know how much it is, you know, us recruiting 03:17:43.653 --> 03:17:49.138 - people and trying to attract people to serve in boards and commissions, or if we're just treating this 03:17:49.138 --> 03:17:54.569 - sort of box checking, which is a challenge. You know, I actually remember I wrote an op-ed about this 03:17:54.569 --> 03:18:00.053 - about a year ago in the Herald Times that talked about what our board and commission composition looks 03:18:00.053 --> 03:18:01.118 - like in the county. 03:18:01.250 --> 03:18:07.051 - You know, when I ran the data, it's mostly white, mostly over the age of 65, mostly men and mostly people 03:18:07.051 --> 03:18:13.015 - that own houses in the community. They're half a million dollars or more. You know, that's a very homogenous 03:18:13.015 --> 03:18:18.707 - group of people that get appointed to things. And so when I hear a body like Women's Commission members 03:18:18.707 --> 03:18:24.398 - who are much more diverse than that, you know, speaking up about maybe being locked out of the building 03:18:24.398 --> 03:18:27.134 - or forgotten about it, it has my concern tonight. 03:18:27.490 --> 03:18:32.358 - The last thing I want to say about this is, I mean, I think we do a great job of pointing diversity 03:18:32.358 --> 03:18:37.470 - to our boards and commissions and trying to attract new or newer different voices from our council seat. 03:18:37.470 --> 03:18:42.338 - But there's another thought on my mind, too, about this, is that some of the boards and commissions 03:18:42.338 --> 03:18:47.255 - operate as patronage positions. I think of the Affordable Housing Advisory Commission I was on a few 03:18:47.255 --> 03:18:48.862 - years ago. That was a project of 03:18:48.962 --> 03:18:54.243 - former Commissioner Barge and when she left office the commission was disbanded shortly thereafter. 03:18:54.243 --> 03:18:59.576 - I think about the opioid settlement fund committee that Commissioner Giddens was involved with quite 03:18:59.576 --> 03:19:04.962 - a bit that still has money to disperse and hasn't met probably as frequently as it should to get that 03:19:04.962 --> 03:19:09.662 - money into the community. And so I guess that's just a lot of meditation on what I think 03:19:09.762 --> 03:19:15.513 - I heard this evening to make sure we value the people are serving in these bodies that we support them 03:19:15.513 --> 03:19:21.544 - We pull their work into our decision-making. Yeah, and if there are blocking blockers making you preventing 03:19:21.544 --> 03:19:27.296 - their good information getting to us We need to open that up a little bit but but I don't want to lose 03:19:27.296 --> 03:19:33.438 - good board members over things that feel like I don't say neglect is the right word, but it just feels like I 03:19:33.762 --> 03:19:39.860 - maybe showing more gratitude and appreciation for the hard work people put in. On that note, again, 03:19:39.860 --> 03:19:45.470 - EMAC did not meet today, which I think was the long way of me saying that, but we have a... 03:19:45.602 --> 03:19:50.577 - We have a scheduled meeting in April and that list is getting longer. I will ask my colleagues to if 03:19:50.577 --> 03:19:55.748 - there's someone who would like to be my proxy for that meeting in the spirit of making sure that meeting 03:19:55.748 --> 03:20:00.674 - happens, I would appreciate some cross coverage. And I know they're working hard to make sure there 03:20:00.674 --> 03:20:05.698 - are proxies that that meeting continue those good conversations. But thank you for letting me indulge 03:20:05.698 --> 03:20:10.722 - here. But I just wanted to let folks know I heard them at the beginning of this meeting and we got to 03:20:10.722 --> 03:20:13.086 - do some we got to do better on this. Thank you. 03:20:15.842 --> 03:20:25.323 - All right, thank you, Madam President. I have four things this evening, and I'm going to start with 03:20:25.323 --> 03:20:35.088 - the cost of an unconstitutional war. We now know that what is going on now over in Iran has cost 1,407 03:20:35.088 --> 03:20:44.190 - lives. Of those, 214 are children. This is a costly unconstitutional war, but it's coming home. 03:20:45.314 --> 03:20:54.085 - The Circle K gas station in the first district, it's on East 3rd Street over by Brewster's Ice Cream. 03:20:54.085 --> 03:21:03.028 - One week ago the price for a gallon of gas was $3.89. Today on the way over it was $4.19 and everything 03:21:03.028 --> 03:21:11.626 - that we know is that this is not going to get better, it will only get worse. The second thing that 03:21:11.626 --> 03:21:14.206 - I'd like to point out is that 03:21:14.370 --> 03:21:22.538 - If you're interested in the ways that fiscal policy is impacting Monroe County, the Long-Term Finance 03:21:22.538 --> 03:21:31.106 - Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday at 1.30 p.m. That is on the county calendar. You can join virtually 03:21:31.106 --> 03:21:39.194 - or come here to the NatU Hill Room. We will be discussing topics that include but are not limited to 03:21:39.194 --> 03:21:43.518 - the health of Monroe County, employee self-insurance, 03:21:43.842 --> 03:21:51.657 - jail funding, and potentially more. It's going to be a very full agenda, and we're actually talking 03:21:51.657 --> 03:22:00.096 - about maybe even splitting it into two. We hope that you can join us Tuesday at 1.30 p.m. for the Long-Term 03:22:00.096 --> 03:22:07.989 - Finance Committee meeting. I will note that the Substance Use Disorder Advisory Commission continues 03:22:07.989 --> 03:22:13.694 - to be very busy. We are moving full speed ahead with the Recovery Summit 03:22:14.018 --> 03:22:23.336 - which is going to be September 1st and 2nd. We are very close to publishing the Eventbrite page where 03:22:23.336 --> 03:22:32.654 - you can register for this event. In the meantime, if you or your organization can sponsor this event, 03:22:32.654 --> 03:22:41.790 - we are taking those sponsorships now. And the last and final thing that I'll be sharing is that the 03:22:41.922 --> 03:22:48.833 - A lot of us at the last meeting came into this meeting and were surprised to hear that yet another eviction 03:22:48.833 --> 03:22:55.360 - was happening in Monroe County on Monroe County property and our hearts went out. And I know a lot of 03:22:55.360 --> 03:23:01.887 - us talked about the different resources that were available to folks. And I think at the beginning of 03:23:01.887 --> 03:23:08.734 - today's meeting, we heard that the Monroe County Apartment Association is going to be hosting an apartment 03:23:08.734 --> 03:23:09.502 - open house. 03:23:09.730 --> 03:23:16.709 - particularly targeted to people who are facing this special eviction. That'll be April the 11th. We 03:23:16.709 --> 03:23:23.758 - will at least I will post the flyer on my socials and on my website. We want to make sure that folks 03:23:23.758 --> 03:23:30.877 - are aware of this and that we are not throwing people out into the cold. Instead, this county council 03:23:30.877 --> 03:23:35.134 - is part of the solution, not part of the problem. Thank you. 03:23:39.138 --> 03:23:46.968 - Well, I also want to join in comments honoring those folks that stand up as volunteers serving on our 03:23:46.968 --> 03:23:54.952 - commissions, our committees. You know, a long criticism that I've had over the years is that often some 03:23:54.952 --> 03:24:03.550 - of these ad hoc organizations come about due to the tremendously bright ideas that people have during campaigns 03:24:03.682 --> 03:24:10.077 - But unfortunately, sometimes those things go away when something changes, either an office holder leaves 03:24:10.077 --> 03:24:16.288 - or they get settled into a job and they get busy or the headaches are there. I truly think if you ask 03:24:16.288 --> 03:24:22.379 - someone to come forward to serve on a board or commission, you should honor what they do, listen to 03:24:22.379 --> 03:24:26.398 - what they do. And here's a big thing with all of that, accepting. 03:24:26.626 --> 03:24:33.462 - what comes from a boarding commission. The Sophia Travis Grants Committee, which has met since the last 03:24:33.462 --> 03:24:40.429 - time we met, it's got two community reps that join three council members. The ordinance very specifically 03:24:40.429 --> 03:24:46.477 - cites how we get our membership. Those individuals in turn wrestle and make decisions about 03:24:46.477 --> 03:24:49.566 - which not-for-profits receive crucial dollars. 03:24:49.890 --> 03:24:57.414 - probably more crucial by the day due to larger economic factors that go beyond our borders but still 03:24:57.414 --> 03:25:05.460 - affect us much the same, and I think that when there's a recommendation the county at every level, council, 03:25:05.460 --> 03:25:12.984 - commissioners and beyond, has to honor some of those wishes, and I know that you can always do a lot 03:25:12.984 --> 03:25:19.838 - of things under the law, but it doesn't mean you always should. So I think that all of that 03:25:19.970 --> 03:25:27.450 - said I appreciate those folks that step up public services hard enough public service that you're doing 03:25:27.450 --> 03:25:34.642 - as volunteers even harder and we definitely don't want to discourage it. Beyond that I just want to 03:25:34.642 --> 03:25:42.050 - say I had a very lovely meeting with our superintendent and I appreciate Dr. Winston very much because 03:25:42.050 --> 03:25:45.214 - of the way that she outwardly communicates. 03:25:46.114 --> 03:25:53.758 - on a lot of crucial issues that really affect the public. And I just enjoyed the ability to sit down 03:25:53.758 --> 03:25:57.694 - with her, learn more about the MCCSC school system. 03:25:57.794 --> 03:26:04.382 - not from the view of a parent, but from one leader sitting and talking to another. And I think that 03:26:04.382 --> 03:26:11.496 - that was just, it was a real breath of fresh air. Sometimes as a constituent looking inwardly into schools, 03:26:11.496 --> 03:26:18.084 - school policies, school calendars and everything, things get overwhelming. But I was really pleased 03:26:18.084 --> 03:26:21.246 - by the way that the superintendent really takes 03:26:21.346 --> 03:26:27.787 - all the complexities of that and makes it so clear and is so engaging with care for our kids. She said 03:26:27.787 --> 03:26:34.040 - just a wonderful thing is she said, you know, I worry about when the babies get here until the last 03:26:34.040 --> 03:26:40.418 - school bus drops them off. I think sometimes in public service, we've got to get down to those basics 03:26:40.418 --> 03:26:46.796 - in turn ourselves. But I'm going to keep it short and wrap it up from there. I know we all have a lot 03:26:46.796 --> 03:26:48.734 - going on and I just appreciate 03:26:48.866 --> 03:27:00.419 - The ability to kind of report out on what what's going on Okay I'm gonna just talk for a second about 03:27:00.419 --> 03:27:11.859 - the housing summit that is taking place in our community on April 14th, which is rapidly approaching 03:27:11.859 --> 03:27:17.182 - I cannot believe it but it is and That's being 03:27:17.442 --> 03:27:25.081 - brought to you by Heading Home of South Central Indiana and the Community Foundation is sponsoring. 03:27:25.081 --> 03:27:32.797 - To that point, they are accepting other sponsorships as well. Since we already had the one plug, I'm 03:27:32.797 --> 03:27:40.742 - gonna give the other plug if you're feeling in the sponsoring frame of mind. Here's another opportunity 03:27:40.742 --> 03:27:44.638 - for you and you can contact Marriott Heading Home. 03:27:44.770 --> 03:27:55.183 - for that. The keynote speaker is Vu Lee, who is an internationally known keynote speaker, writer, and 03:27:55.183 --> 03:28:05.698 - nonprofit leader. So that's pretty exciting. And there'll be a variety of sessions, breakouts, and all 03:28:05.698 --> 03:28:13.150 - kinds of things really focusing on all aspects of affordable housing and 03:28:14.338 --> 03:28:22.609 - community-based housing efforts, and a lot of the types of barriers to housing that people experience 03:28:22.609 --> 03:28:30.879 - in the community. So it's really coming at things from a variety of viewpoints and positions. I think 03:28:30.879 --> 03:28:38.988 - there'll be something for everybody there. So be sure to check that out. And then again, that's the 03:28:38.988 --> 03:28:43.934 - Housing, Regional Housing Summit taking place on April 14th. 03:28:46.242 --> 03:28:57.535 - The other thing I wanted to mention also has to do with housing and heading home and a small group of 03:28:57.535 --> 03:29:07.720 - just those of us in government, city and county have met and begun kind of thinking through 03:29:07.720 --> 03:29:12.702 - what possibilities there are for coordinated 03:29:12.898 --> 03:29:23.774 - Action addressing homeless encampments in our community and we're at the very beginning stages, but 03:29:23.774 --> 03:29:35.411 - we are looking at Working with heading home and their partners Who offered a technical assistance training 03:29:35.411 --> 03:29:39.870 - actually a couple of weeks ago on moving 03:29:40.194 --> 03:29:50.289 - folks from encampment to directly to housing. And it's a really innovative approach. There have been 03:29:50.289 --> 03:30:00.683 - other communities around the country who have employed this specific kind of methodology to really just 03:30:00.683 --> 03:30:03.582 - rapidly address encampments. 03:30:03.682 --> 03:30:11.641 - and meet people's needs working intensively over a shorter period of time. So we're looking at that 03:30:11.641 --> 03:30:19.918 - as a possibility among other things trying to think innovatively. But I just wanted to let you all know 03:30:19.918 --> 03:30:27.957 - that we are we are working on things and hopefully bringing opportunities and discussions to broader 03:30:27.957 --> 03:30:29.310 - community focus. 03:30:33.346 --> 03:30:39.972 - So I participated in seven events or meetings, and I want to highlight three of those meetings and things 03:30:39.972 --> 03:30:46.660 - I learned there that I wanted to share. So I learned that the Indiana Avenue Safety Committee improvements 03:30:46.660 --> 03:30:52.973 - will happen in twenty twenty seven and twenty eight. And that will be a big project. They're they're 03:30:52.973 --> 03:30:59.224 - looking forward to all those things. So stay tuned for that. The little five hundred this year is a 03:30:59.224 --> 03:31:01.662 - special year. It's seventy five years. 03:31:01.762 --> 03:31:10.336 - so I'm not sure everybody realized that. There's gonna be a documentary about the Little 500 on April 03:31:10.336 --> 03:31:19.331 - 21st at the Buskirk Chumley. There will be a concert on Little Five on the 22nd at the auditorium. There's 03:31:19.331 --> 03:31:28.158 - an alumni race on April 23rd. The upcoming graduations for graduate students is Friday, May 8th at 2.30. 03:31:29.314 --> 03:31:35.620 - coming graduation for undergraduate students this Saturday, May 9th at seven fifteen at the Memorial 03:31:35.620 --> 03:31:41.988 - Stadium, which I will see a grandson graduate. I'm excited about that. The Convention Center, you may 03:31:41.988 --> 03:31:48.543 - or may not know, is scheduled to open on January 8th, which they're billing as Elvis Presley's birthday. 03:31:48.543 --> 03:31:54.911 - So that's a nice tie in. Then so far they have right now they have 100 contractors working down there 03:31:54.911 --> 03:31:56.222 - now, it's been told. 03:31:56.834 --> 03:32:04.995 - There's nine conferences scheduled in the new space already. So the downtown Bloomington group has been 03:32:04.995 --> 03:32:13.313 - working on a five year downtown activation plan and excuse me I've got it mixed up. So there's a downtown 03:32:13.313 --> 03:32:21.396 - activation plan headed up already in Bloomington April through October. It will include each the first 03:32:21.396 --> 03:32:25.790 - week of the month will include Bloomington Bites Bingo. 03:32:26.018 --> 03:32:33.191 - The family night out on Kirkwood the second Wednesday five to eight thirty each month. Downtown shop 03:32:33.191 --> 03:32:40.435 - night will be the third Wednesday four to seven. The bus get dusk. I'm still learning about that will 03:32:40.435 --> 03:32:47.750 - be the fourth Thursday each month from five to eight. Then it was mentioned at that meeting that there 03:32:47.750 --> 03:32:54.142 - was the vote for Hopewell should be tomorrow with the city. The city economic development 03:32:54.594 --> 03:33:06.035 - group that I go to talked about the opportunity zones and they'll be identifying them and working on 03:33:06.035 --> 03:33:17.590 - it with ROI which is regional opportunities initiatives. It was highlighted that the city has 52% tax 03:33:17.590 --> 03:33:19.742 - exempt properties. 03:33:19.970 --> 03:33:29.117 - It was announced and reminded us that Senate Bill 89, this time, approved two additional alcohol permits 03:33:29.117 --> 03:33:38.176 - for Bloomington. And David Hittle is working on small business UDO. The last Downtown Bloomington group 03:33:38.176 --> 03:33:46.887 - talked about the annual Shred Day coming up at Comprehensive Financial Consultants on South College 03:33:46.887 --> 03:33:48.542 - Thursday, May 7th. 03:33:48.930 --> 03:33:55.823 - 130 to four only, so they won't do it in the morning and not until 130 in the afternoon. Applications 03:33:55.823 --> 03:34:03.054 - are coming in for their two arts positions they have. They've had over 156 applications so far. Sidewalks, 03:34:03.054 --> 03:34:10.015 - I learned, are going to be power washed. I don't remember that ever being done before, and nobody else 03:34:10.015 --> 03:34:16.840 - could either. Between College of Walnut and Kirkwood and Eight. I don't know the exact date yet, but 03:34:16.840 --> 03:34:17.854 - it's upcoming. 03:34:19.362 --> 03:34:27.783 - Then the strategic action plan for the downtown Bloomington group is a five year plan. And some of the 03:34:27.783 --> 03:34:36.122 - highlights I thought were interesting. They've discovered where that 81 percent of households connect 03:34:36.122 --> 03:34:44.461 - with IU. They're going to be create creating engaging environments and having an authentic experience 03:34:44.461 --> 03:34:48.958 - for visitors. Exploring creative partnerships with IU. 03:34:51.170 --> 03:34:59.185 - thought about doing was selfie stations, right? Then maybe promoting wearing red days and then more 03:34:59.185 --> 03:35:07.439 - murals. Who doesn't like a good mural? And that's all I got. Thank you all, as always. The only couple 03:35:07.439 --> 03:35:15.454 - of things I wanted to remind people of is just a couple of, since Councilor Decker had talked about 03:35:15.586 --> 03:35:21.759 - or mentioned something about Sophia Travis is the fact that this year we've done Sophia Travis a lot 03:35:21.759 --> 03:35:28.116 - earlier this year and so for the public and I know our council staff has asked all of us to really help 03:35:28.116 --> 03:35:34.289 - spread the word so anybody here that wants to help continue to spread the word since we've bumped up 03:35:34.289 --> 03:35:36.062 - Sophia Travis since it's not 03:35:36.514 --> 03:35:44.043 - bumping against our budget seasons so we are now accepting applications and applications will be accepted 03:35:44.043 --> 03:35:51.572 - from by now up until Monday April 27th and so this is a great opportunity for any social service programs 03:35:51.572 --> 03:35:58.675 - and organizations that are really doing some good work and you need a little bit of help of funding 03:35:58.675 --> 03:36:01.374 - this is your opportunity to apply for 03:36:02.018 --> 03:36:09.099 - I think also the city of Bloomington is bumping up their Jack Hopkins grant as well this year. So it 03:36:09.099 --> 03:36:16.250 - sounds like all of us are doing the same thing around the same time. But since I represent the county 03:36:16.250 --> 03:36:23.612 - in this regard, I'm representing Sophia Travis. And so again, applications are available through Monday, 03:36:23.612 --> 03:36:27.678 - April 27th, and that deadline will be fastly approaching. 03:36:27.842 --> 03:36:35.020 - I'm speaking of Sophia Travis. I think sometimes we don't get to hear the good deeds of what council 03:36:35.020 --> 03:36:42.199 - does as well as our committee does in terms of what people are receiving and their gratitude. And so 03:36:42.199 --> 03:36:49.377 - we got an email today from Catholic charities and I just wanted to just kind of read a little bit in 03:36:49.377 --> 03:36:54.494 - the record for this because I really and a lot of darkness and a lot of 03:36:54.882 --> 03:37:00.633 - hopelessness that I think we all feel right now. Sometimes you just need a little bit of light. And 03:37:00.633 --> 03:37:06.613 - so they said, Dear Council, it is with a grateful heart that we say thank you for your partnership with 03:37:06.613 --> 03:37:12.882 - Catholic Charities. Your cash contribution has been received and allocated to Catholic Charities Bloomington 03:37:12.882 --> 03:37:17.022 - where most is needed. In a time of widespread mental health challenges, 03:37:17.186 --> 03:37:23.395 - Catholic Charities Bloomington is a vital source of hope and healing, providing essential mental health 03:37:23.395 --> 03:37:29.484 - care to our community's most vulnerable. With a dedicated team of professionals, we ensure that every 03:37:29.484 --> 03:37:35.513 - dollar of your generosity makes a meaningful impact, directing 92% of your gift straight to those in 03:37:35.513 --> 03:37:41.543 - need. Your support is more than a donation. It's a lifeline, a fresh start, and a beacon of hope for 03:37:41.543 --> 03:37:45.662 - those struggling to find their way. So we just appreciate, you know, 03:37:45.890 --> 03:37:53.896 - Hearing those types of things come about and so I just wanted to read that into the record until Then 03:37:53.896 --> 03:38:02.530 - thank you for your words And I'm sure we might see them again this cycle Lastly, I know some of my colleagues 03:38:02.530 --> 03:38:08.574 - kind of touched base on this But I also again want to reiterate as well that 03:38:08.802 --> 03:38:16.465 - In the time where people feel like they are wanting to be called to action and they want to be able 03:38:16.465 --> 03:38:24.127 - to do something because of whatever we feel, I got myself started and activated by actually being a 03:38:24.127 --> 03:38:31.790 - member of Jack Hopkins Social Service Committee. I was a young lad and was trying to figure out how 03:38:31.790 --> 03:38:36.158 - to be involved in any way possible. And if it wasn't for 03:38:36.674 --> 03:38:43.953 - Miss Beverly calendar Anderson who is now retired from the city who I talked to to say get involved 03:38:43.953 --> 03:38:51.377 - You know, that was my jump start to where I am and sitting in front of y'all and so I say all that to 03:38:51.377 --> 03:38:58.729 - say that You know as we think about boards and commissions it is really hard to find true talent and 03:38:58.729 --> 03:38:59.966 - to really try to 03:39:00.066 --> 03:39:07.939 - to be in these seats and to actually stay in those seats for a really long time. Um and so new fresh 03:39:07.939 --> 03:39:16.358 - faces and perspectives are always needed. And so again, I know we had two members of the Women's Commission 03:39:16.358 --> 03:39:24.309 - speak, and I know I said it earlier at the meeting, but I also want to reiterate that we do take your 03:39:24.309 --> 03:39:25.790 - participation very 03:39:26.306 --> 03:39:32.940 - intentions or any way of you all feeling like no one cares about the work that you're doing, because 03:39:32.940 --> 03:39:39.575 - you are doing some good work. I see the work that they do in conjunction with the Women's Commission 03:39:39.575 --> 03:39:46.406 - in the city, and I'm pretty sure we'll see those members tomorrow at the Women's History Month luncheon 03:39:46.406 --> 03:39:53.369 - that's also happening tomorrow as well. So I just want to make sure that anybody that's watching, anybody 03:39:53.369 --> 03:39:56.062 - that wants to get involved in something, 03:39:56.418 --> 03:40:03.538 - you are definitely wanted and needed and we appreciate the work of the Women's Commission, all of the 03:40:03.538 --> 03:40:10.867 - commissions and hopefully we can get quorum happening on all of these commissions so Council Henry could 03:40:10.867 --> 03:40:18.126 - finally meet with ERAC in April. So with that being said we close out March and we are closing out this 03:40:18.126 --> 03:40:24.478 - meeting and without that being as my last thoughts being said we are adjourned. Thank you.