WEBVTT

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- Good evening, everybody. I would like to call our meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.

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- The time is five o'clock. Here in the NETU Hill Room, we have Councilors Henry, Iverson,

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- um, vital and wilt and other council members, I believe will be joining us here shortly. Uh, we kind

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- of have a packed agenda, so I'm going to go ahead and get into the meat and potatoes of county council

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- business. So we'll go ahead. Um, as seeing that we have a quorum. Um, so next up, all those that are

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- able to stand, please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

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- States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

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- and justice for all. Thank you very much for that. Next up is the adoption of tonight's agenda. Does

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- anybody wish to amend tonight's agenda?

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- know changes and we don't have any council members that are virtual we can do this by voice vote so

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- all those that are in favor of adopting tonight's agenda as presented signify by saying aye aye all

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- those opposed same sign okay motion carries

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- Okay next up is item number four which is public comment and these are items that are not on tonight's

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- agenda so if you'd like to make public comment again for items not on tonight's agenda you can raise

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- your hand via teams you'll have up to three minutes or you can come forward to the lectern here in the

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- net you hill room state your name for the record you'll have up to three minutes as well and we already

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- have a taker here in the net you hill room please good evening madam president this is christopher mg from the

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- Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. I want to just say as a membership organization with 900 entities,

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- 80% small businesses or nonprofits, that we have to evolve with the business community. And I want to

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- invite you, the public, the staff, to our kickoff event next Wednesday, May 6th. It's going to be May

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- already, 530 to 730. At the International Art Project Foundation, we'll be kicking off the Bloomington

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- Rainbow Leadership Network.

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- an initiative of the chamber focused on the LGBTQAI professionals, business owners, and allies across

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- Monroe County. As with the chamber, more than 110 years in this community, we take seriously

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- the responsibility to evolve the needs of our workforce and business community. The effort reflects

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- that, strengthening connections, expanding economic opportunity in a way that's welcoming and inclusive

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- that only Monroe County is.

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- uniquely set to do. We'll have some brief remarks, time to connect, and of course, food and drinks.

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- We'll be glad to see members of this body and the public there, so you can learn more about that at

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- chamberbloomington.org. On a personal note, I want to go on my local high horse on local baseball. It's

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- happening everywhere. Smithville, Unionville, Danny Smith, Ellitsville. I'll be at Winslow Park from

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- 7 to 8, 45, Tuesdays and Thursdays. So if you ever want to reach me,

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- Those are my office hours. I'll be in there enjoying a hot dog or a burger. But this is a great way

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- to talk with community members, see the public, be just enjoying what is outdoors here before it gets

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- really hot. And unlike, say, soccer or basketball, there's a lot of downtime in baseball for those sort

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- of talks that you don't get with parents normally. So I would just encourage the council and anybody here

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- catch a youth baseball game this year, just one at one of our fine locations. I was just at Smithville

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- this weekend, had a lovely time, but I don't get there enough. So anyway, I just thought I'd give a

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- quick little community plug and something to respite from some of the daily grind that is Monroe County

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- government. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much.

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- All right. Do we have anybody else here and then at you who room that would like to make public comment

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- on items not on tonight's agenda or if you are attending virtually you can raise your hand via teams.

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- All right. Seeing none we will move forward.

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- Next up is item number five, which is department updates. And these are for items also not on tonight's

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- agenda. So if you are a department head that would like to make an update, you can come forward to the

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- lectern here in the NatU Hill room. Raise your hand via Teams. You'll have up to 10 minutes. And TSD,

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- can we make sure that we have a timer on, please? All right. Looks like the health department is here,

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- so go ahead. Yes.

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- So good evening, Council. Just wanted to provide a really brief update about a project that we were

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- able to complete last year in 2025. We have our Environmental Health Services Director, Mr. Kuzmka,

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- here to help talk about this project and answer any questions that you might have. I did send a PowerPoint.

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- I'm not sure if TSD is able to share that, but I just wanted to give you a brief overview. So essentially,

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- the Health Department Environmental Health Services, we address testing

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- and remediation for 12 properties that were identified as former methamphetamine lab sites by the Indiana

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- State Police. So properties that were identified go back as far as 2009 with only one of those being

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- vacant. So through the support of Health First Indiana funding in the amount of $50,000 and through

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- approval with our local authorities, we were able to hire a contractor to complete this work. Through

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- those efforts,

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- 11 of the 12 properties were successfully addressed with those $50,000 in Health First Indiana funding.

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- And so we really just hope that these efforts demonstrate a dedication to mitigating environmental health

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- hazards, protecting residents, and maintaining compliance with state regulations. I do see the PowerPoint

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- there. So I thought that, do you want to talk about, if you can't get it back up, that's okay.

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- Let's talk a little bit about the details about the properties. Two of those properties were moved by

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- the owners that owned the property, but five of those properties needed decontamination. After the initial

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- testing, decontamination had to be done. Items from the property needed to be removed, like drywall,

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- furniture, clothing, pictures, personal items, but then a follow-up testing, a final clearance testing

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- had to be done as well. For the decon, with the removal of items, that could cost up to five.

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- But for those properties, we're off the list from the first initial testing. Those properties removed

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- from the list in 2025. Does anybody have any questions? Yes, Councillor Wilson. What happens to the

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- items that are removed? I mean, how are they handled?

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- Um, they're putting a roll off dumpster, but like if you're wanting to keep like a personal item, they

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- could potentially be like laundered, like maybe it was like photographs or like a wedding dress. It'd

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- have to be laundered like several times to see if it can pass that testing in order for the owner of

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- the dress in order to keep it. So, okay. Any other questions? Yes. Council. I understand this might

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- be addressed in the PowerPoint here. Uh, how many, uh, properties are on the list currently?

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- So on the third slide, I tried to include a breakdown of what some of those costs are. So essentially

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- we ran out of funds with that $50,000. The contractor was able to give us a little bit of a discount

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- of the last one that was being worked on.

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- It's hard to tell. The testing process could be around $500 to $1,200. But decontamination, it's really

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- hard to predict what that cost could be. And we had Mike Bolton under contract from Aftermath to do

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- those testing and the decontaminating. Aftermath. And for the record, we have Councillor Hawke here.

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- Yes, Councillor Faital. So I see where it says that

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- The properties were seized by the Indiana State Police as meth labs. Is that the only way you find out

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- about meth labs? Indiana State Police puts them on the list and then we're notified. So you don't find

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- out from the general public that somebody may report a meth lab? We get an occurrence report from the

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- state police or then also checking the clandestine lab sheet on the IDH department website. Thank you.

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- You're welcome. Any other questions?

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- Can we see that third slide? What was that again? Third slide. That is the third slide. Oh,

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- it might be the, I had sent a copy to TS. I can send those figures. It breaks it down per property,

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- the cost for testing. Well, we appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time. Thank you.

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- I also believe we have an update from the auditor's office for a department update as well. So I'm going

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- to look to Ms. Gregory and staff for that. Good evening, Council. We wanted to provide three quick updates

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- on some tools that were created by our office. Some of these are going to be a little newer. Others

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- have been around for a little while.

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- lit special purpose tax. We have reviewed that fund and identified that that fund is scheduled to go

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- negative by 2027. So just to put that on your radar, right now if we account for a 5% increase in both

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- receipts and expenditures, we're looking at a negative balance by the end of 2027 of just over 2 million.

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- Speaking of those values, we threw together

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- an impact chart that will show you how any changes to that lit rate would impact not only the county

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- but the taxpayers. So this has been emailed out to you. And this cell right here, this yellow cell,

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- if you update that, that will update all of the values in the spreadsheet. Moving on, we have the SB1

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- lit at impact. This has a little bit more nuance to it because

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- there's a lot changing in the state. We know that there's likely more to change. But this is showing

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- based on our current lit rates and anticipated with how the laws are structured right now, how we think

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- that will impact both the citizens and the county. And again, this has been emailed out to you. The

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- cells in yellow are the cells that you guys have the option to change at this point.

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- The conversion spreadsheet should look familiar. All the way down at the bottom, you can see our reversions

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- year over year. So our reversions for 2025 are listed in this cell. It's just over 19 million, almost

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- 20 million. Our reversions in 2024 were about the same, but we are trending down. And then in 2023,

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- we have trended down significantly for the funds that we track.

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- That's all I had, unless you guys have questions. Thank you all for that. It's almost budget season

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- time, so it's never too late to look at this. So thank you all for that. I'll look to my colleagues

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- here to see if anybody has any questions for the auditor's office. All right, we appreciate it. Thank

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- you very much.

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- All right. Last call for any other department updates for items not on tonight's agenda. Again if you're

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- via teams you can raise your hand or if you're here in person you can come forward to the lectern here

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- in the room. Seeing none we'll move on. Thank you all for that.

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- Next up is item number six. This is our discussion with our financial solutions group, also known as

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- FSG. And we have Mr. Greg Garitas here that will provide us with an update. So welcome, sir. Thank you.

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- And thank you very much. It's good to be here. And this is the third time I did a pledge allegiance today.

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- and it never gets old today. Yeah, started in Hendricks County and then went to another. So thank you

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- very much for having me. We have given you a document dated April 24th that was in your pocket. It is

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- an update on the proposed justice center financing income tax bonds. And we're quite excited about,

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- we've worked with the team and the Monroe County

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- staff team and kind of put this together and we're as far as we're concerned we're ready kind of to

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- start the process if you all are and that would be beginning the bond ordinances and things like that

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- assuming you like what you see here tonight so let's go there

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- Okay, so first page, the letter, we point out a couple things. We use number one, the certified 2026

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- edit and jail lit revenues with the estimated future changes that we will show in the document.

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- 2026 budget expenses for edit and lit will continue to be allowed in the future. In other words, we're

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- continuing to fund those with certain estimated increases. So we didn't delete them or change that because

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- We also have been very involved in the putting together the sustainability that will be talking at the

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- next meeting about, but I've got a good handle on where all of your funds are. So page one, page one

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- is a similar analysis that you've seen the last time I spoke, but we wanted to put this back in here.

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- And as you know, from the very, very top here, the,

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- current legislation is that you could have in the future for 2029, 1.2% as a lit rate, overall lit rate.

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- We put on this document also then in order to break even with the 2026 lit numbers that are down below

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- that we would basically need a 0.93. So what that is just telling you is there's breathing

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- right? So and it does not if you look at the footnote one does not include the special purpose rate

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- for the juvenile detention fund 1114 and I had them put the fund number so because there's so many different

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- fund numbers sometimes that you may get mixed up or I do and the lit

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- obviously for property tax relief was not included here. So these are, as you see, the COET Fund 1000,

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- which is basically what goes into the general fund, PS lit, jail lit 1233, PSAP basically lit and added.

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- And so we know that might've got confusing before when I spoke about this the last time, but you see

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- now we've put the

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- fund number. So now if we turn then to the next page, the next page is really the telling page,

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- page two. So what we've done here is we have used the estimated or basically the lit revenue as of 2026,

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- and you can see our footnotes, but we took

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- the 2026 numbers and extended those to 2030, basically projecting out five years. And as again,

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- as you know, what I've always called SB2 that's coming to a theater near you will be out there in 29.

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- So we wanted to cover that period, not only the period, but beyond that period.

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- down below, then you see the added fund expenses and the lit fund expenses. These are the expenses that

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- were basically in the budget. And I know there was a lot of supplies included in added and moved over.

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- I went through that in great detail. And so then you see what we've done as we've modeled in the proposed debt

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- service. That proposed debt service comes from Kate's best schedule, schedule three. She loves

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- the amortization schedule that kind of sets forth the debt service. Now, you'll notice that on page,

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- if you go to page three,

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- you'll notice the debt service is a little less in the beginning. What we're proposing as we would do

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- this, if we do it as a basically a building corporation bond, we would basically have smaller lease

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- rental, what I call interim lease rentals. We would use the current jail asset since it's unobligated

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- as our asset and while we build the new building. And then when we build the new building,

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- that the basically the obligated asset will be the new building. Okay, so we are able to kind of give

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- us a little breathing room there and as you can see then back on page two, I'm gonna make you jump back

00:19:28.133 --> 00:19:36.279
- to that Kim, page two then we factor in the proposed debt service. This is again just an estimate. You

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- noticed on the amortization schedule we used

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- interest rate, that is the coupon rate, and I've explained Finance 101 before, how the current rate,

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- if you went out and bought a municipal bond right now, it would be around a $350, maybe a $370, and

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- so the coupon rate would be five. They would pay you a little more. We would basically have a premium.

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- Okay. And so we would get more than 135 million, but that is what the market wants for municipal bonds

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- at this point in time. So you ultimately pay the 5%, but you ultimately get more money upfront to reconcile

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- it back. So as you can see now, the important item that we wanted you to focus on is the net. As you can see,

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- In 26, 27, and 28, we're very comfortable with the net. And we're comfortable in 2029, we haven't introduced

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- the new lit rate or increased the lit rate at that point in time. Nowhere in this have we done that

00:20:52.868 --> 00:21:01.638
- other than we've increased the lit revenues. The revenues obviously are the revenues you receive based

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- upon adjusted gross income of you all.

00:21:05.442 --> 00:21:13.464
- living here in working in Monroe County times the tax rate. And so we did raise those and we raised

00:21:13.464 --> 00:21:21.566
- the expenses. And so we have made an assumption in the decrease in 2028 due to a possible Ellisville

00:21:21.566 --> 00:21:29.748
- consolidation in Bloomington. So we really tried to take absolutely as much as we could into account.

00:21:29.748 --> 00:21:33.438
- It is an estimate. There's no doubt about it.

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- But you can see that we are very comfortable with getting to 20299 and then beyond that, we're still

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- safe. And you could eliminate at some point in time some of the expenses that we assumed in 1112 or

00:21:51.286 --> 00:22:00.052
- 1233. We did not decrease those, we increased those, so you could always switch those back right to

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- the general fund.

00:22:02.114 --> 00:22:10.566
- or something like that. So what we're saying at this point in time, then back to the amortization schedule,

00:22:10.566 --> 00:22:18.392
- we've assumed $135 million for the principal. We have assumed that this would be an income tax bond

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- with a property tax backup, just like we've done every financing here in Monroe County since I've been

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- around. And the way we've done our TIF bonds too, meaning granddad,

00:22:31.874 --> 00:22:40.980
- would basically be backing it. But as you can see here, uh, we wouldn't call on that backing. Also,

00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:50.269
- you know, we got some legislative help in the last session that the let's say for some reason in 2030

00:22:50.269 --> 00:22:59.649
- account, the county council totally changed that. They said we want a lit holiday for a year. We don't

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- want to charge lit.

00:23:02.018 --> 00:23:10.007
- very extreme right and you'll say well Greg then we'd have to have you know the property tax bill go

00:23:10.007 --> 00:23:17.917
- up well no because what happened in the most recent late legislation is that they said your minimum

00:23:17.917 --> 00:23:25.985
- no matter what the minimum lit rate would be 125 of your debt service remember if you went back to my

00:23:25.985 --> 00:23:30.494
- presentation last year I said we were trying to get that

00:23:30.882 --> 00:23:38.554
- because I have, I had Hendricks County go out on a $40 million road bond to finish Ronald Reagan and

00:23:38.554 --> 00:23:46.453
- obviously Representative Thompson heard that. And so that's good. And I feel then, you know, the backup

00:23:46.453 --> 00:23:54.125
- of the property taxes, remember that's only there to enhance the credit rating and make the value to

00:23:54.125 --> 00:23:59.518
- the bond holder better and get us a better interest rate. It's not to,

00:23:59.906 --> 00:24:08.395
- because we've got other safety nets now too. So I think we've got an awesome schematic design. So I'll

00:24:08.395 --> 00:24:16.637
- open it up for questions and witnesses prepared for cross-examination. So go for it. Thank you very

00:24:16.637 --> 00:24:25.043
- much. I serve as an expert witness in utility rates. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Garrett? Yes,

00:24:25.043 --> 00:24:25.950
- Councilor.

00:24:26.178 --> 00:24:32.311
- Let me open this up because I think I was lucky enough to be on a phone call with some of your folks

00:24:32.311 --> 00:24:38.504
- where we decided that it would probably be best if you came tonight to talk about this because of our

00:24:38.504 --> 00:24:44.698
- last long term finance committee meeting. We kind of talked a little bit about needing to look at the

00:24:44.698 --> 00:24:50.891
- schedule for a jail bond and there just wasn't enough time to discuss it. And so tonight hopefully we

00:24:50.891 --> 00:24:55.870
- have that time for discussion. And so I wanted to start kind of where we left off

00:24:56.194 --> 00:25:06.692
- from long-term finance meeting, which I know you watched assiduously. But that is to say, we have received

00:25:06.692 --> 00:25:16.601
- documentation suggesting that we need to move rather quickly on bond action, suggesting that we need

00:25:16.601 --> 00:25:22.782
- to take action in June for this to go to bond council in July.

00:25:22.946 --> 00:25:30.275
- have any thoughts about the timetable in which some of this needs to take place? I know you said that

00:25:30.275 --> 00:25:37.891
- at the top of your remarks that, as far as you're concerned, we're good to go. Can you elucidate a little

00:25:37.891 --> 00:25:45.077
- bit more on timeline? Sure. And I don't know who gave you that specific, you know, said you need it

00:25:45.077 --> 00:25:52.190
- to go by June. But the answer is that we feel pretty certain that we know where the glide path is.

00:25:52.322 --> 00:26:01.044
- This year Okay, and so we obviously the state legislature will come back again next year and you also

00:26:01.044 --> 00:26:10.023
- have your Must group that you may or may not want to entertain going forward I firmly believe you should

00:26:10.023 --> 00:26:19.173
- entertain it and and move forward And so, you know that will come later in my my opinion. That's something

00:26:19.173 --> 00:26:21.054
- you do a little later

00:26:21.154 --> 00:26:32.145
- But that will could change landscapes later on in 2029 and kind of set those stages. So I think the

00:26:32.145 --> 00:26:43.246
- important thing is in the past, I said, we want to go unless a war breaks out. Guess what? Everybody

00:26:43.246 --> 00:26:49.950
- said, wow, you've said that in a war broke out. Yes, it did.

00:26:50.082 --> 00:26:58.407
- Now, as things are settling down, the market appears to be very settled down. Matter of fact, I'm going

00:26:58.407 --> 00:27:07.053
- to Savannah, Georgia, after this meeting, heading down there to go to a national conference with Securities

00:27:07.053 --> 00:27:09.054
- and Exchange Commission.

00:27:09.602 --> 00:27:19.267
- And so we're gonna hear nationally the flavor out there. But I think the answer is that Yush, your architect

00:27:19.267 --> 00:27:28.222
- should be telling you costs are still going up, interest rates are reasonable, we've got a good path

00:27:28.222 --> 00:27:36.734
- between now and year end, so stalling anything off after that could totally change the picture.

00:27:37.826 --> 00:27:47.432
- All right. So your first step by all means would be getting the bond documents started by bond Council

00:27:47.432 --> 00:27:53.214
- Barnes and Thornburg and also then making sure that we've got

00:27:53.410 --> 00:28:00.376
- And I know Brittany was mentioning earlier here, we'll be looking at, we got a good copy of

00:28:00.376 --> 00:28:08.023
- the sustainability. We've got good minimum fund target balances, resolutions we're gonna revisit. So

00:28:08.023 --> 00:28:15.671
- we've got a lot of our homework done for the state for standard and pores. And so it appears to be a

00:28:15.671 --> 00:28:22.334
- good climate for them also, because we're also working with them on other projects too.

00:28:23.522 --> 00:28:30.931
- I'm sorry if that was too long of answer, but there is so many things going on in this equation. It's

00:28:30.931 --> 00:28:38.340
- a simultaneous equation. I think that echoes what we've heard that we, we can go, I don't want to use

00:28:38.340 --> 00:28:45.894
- too colloquial terms here, but, but council could take action now and that would be more favorable than

00:28:45.894 --> 00:28:52.286
- waiting because we just don't know what's going to be coming. Correct. I would say yes.

00:28:53.186 --> 00:29:00.029
- Councilor Henry. Thank you, Greg, for being here and giving us the latest on it. I do have some questions

00:29:00.029 --> 00:29:06.548
- that maybe all will eventually come together, but I'll just ask what's on my mind as we move through

00:29:06.548 --> 00:29:13.585
- this. I didn't have the luxury of being in the other meeting there to hear it. So as I look at the estimated

00:29:13.585 --> 00:29:20.104
- minimum future lit, .93, that leaves us .27 to play with. Presuming all else remains the same in the

00:29:20.104 --> 00:29:22.622
- county in terms of our use of the lit.

00:29:22.978 --> 00:29:30.532
- You mentioned must, that committee. What would that variable look like if the committee of four decided

00:29:30.532 --> 00:29:37.796
- to adopt a policy that moved or basically for lack of better terms keep the certified share kind of

00:29:37.796 --> 00:29:45.205
- formula the city of Bloomington is looking for? How does that weigh in here as a variable if the must

00:29:45.205 --> 00:29:51.742
- committee decides to allow a municipality to have more of that lit? Does that make sense?

00:29:51.938 --> 00:29:59.900
- chewing on my tongue. So I think I understand what you asked. And so let me put it this way. So,

00:29:59.900 --> 00:30:08.354
- you know, obviously, there's going to be a lot of, you know, where the total 2.9 should be shared out.

00:30:08.354 --> 00:30:16.726
- And, you know, must if it if you put together, it's supposed to be unanimous. I'm telling some of the

00:30:16.726 --> 00:30:20.830
- counties, if it's not unanimous, I'd still put my

00:30:20.962 --> 00:30:30.071
- document in, you know, and so, but I think that will take a year or two to make it through the process.

00:30:30.071 --> 00:30:39.093
- So, you know, how will it change? I think most counties have said it is very, very obvious we need our

00:30:39.093 --> 00:30:47.939
- 1.2. We're going to have to stay the course on the 1.2. So either there's another sharing of another

00:30:47.939 --> 00:30:50.654
- increment from someone else or

00:30:50.754 --> 00:31:00.001
- maybe the cap has to change or something like that. But those are all hypotheticals that would really

00:31:00.001 --> 00:31:09.519
- get created later in 27, maybe even as long as 28. But they would impact beyond 27, 28. It would impact,

00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:18.948
- I think, what you put in effect in 28 for 29, which is the current timeline for the new let. All right.

00:31:18.948 --> 00:31:20.670
- Thank you on that.

00:31:21.090 --> 00:31:27.793
- We just heard the auditor's office before your presentation talk about some funds that were some lit

00:31:27.793 --> 00:31:34.628
- that we're looking at economic development lit one of those. We have the look at the table. Do we have

00:31:34.628 --> 00:31:40.734
- the current number on the current amount in the economic development what's been collected.

00:31:42.978 --> 00:31:53.112
- The current cash balance as of today, okay, $24,175,882. So there's a presumption of using the debt

00:31:53.112 --> 00:32:03.955
- service. So I'm looking at the H2 somewhere between 4.9 and 6.1 over five years of that. Stop accumulating

00:32:03.955 --> 00:32:05.982
- in what year again?

00:32:08.834 --> 00:32:15.782
- 2028 is the last year we'll receive collection. So after 2028, we're now burning something. We're no

00:32:15.782 --> 00:32:22.799
- longer collecting an edit on 30. And we used a sizable amount of the edit to balance or to manage our

00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:29.748
- budget this cycle. I guess my question is, Greg, if we're going to keep rating the edit or using the

00:32:29.748 --> 00:32:36.627
- edit to do the business of the county, is that reflected in this estimate that if we keep using the

00:32:36.627 --> 00:32:38.622
- edit for other things? Sure.

00:32:38.818 --> 00:32:47.865
- Let me just back up because I did look at the cash balances too. So the cash balance that she just gave

00:32:47.865 --> 00:32:56.652
- you is an isolated number at one point in time, okay? On page two, the added is going to bring in in

00:32:56.652 --> 00:33:05.438
- 2026, estimated 12.3 million. So you've gotten some of that very, you know, it's last time I looked,

00:33:05.634 --> 00:33:14.647
- We got four months, maybe January, February, March and April using my fingers and my toes. So didn't

00:33:14.647 --> 00:33:24.017
- have to go to the toast. So I have put in then on page two, the budgetary expenses of 4.9. And I believe

00:33:24.017 --> 00:33:30.174
- even in the jail lit, the note was during our discussion with staff,

00:33:30.658 --> 00:33:40.867
- there was an additional that I that's why on page one or note one says edit fund and were actual budgeted

00:33:40.867 --> 00:33:49.342
- expenses to April 30th. Okay, so we took that into account. So I am showing you on this

00:33:49.442 --> 00:33:58.812
- That you keep a level of expenses and it does grow slightly. I would say it's not exponential growth.

00:33:58.812 --> 00:34:08.090
- It is as we have projected right here. So at that point in time, in my opinion, the rubber meets the

00:34:08.090 --> 00:34:13.694
- road here and we've got what we show here to be true without

00:34:14.114 --> 00:34:26.355
- the calculation or implying or utilizing the 24 million cash balance. So that was going to be something

00:34:26.355 --> 00:34:38.714
- that as we move forward, we could add to the 135, the cash balance both in audit or jail lit, but that's

00:34:38.714 --> 00:34:43.422
- not been decided at this point in time.

00:34:43.554 --> 00:34:51.841
- but would also serve as kind of a further buffer if we didn't use it or if we said, you know, let's

00:34:51.841 --> 00:35:00.293
- not use 24, let's use 10, okay? That would give us 14 buffer just from that on top of the nine buffer

00:35:00.293 --> 00:35:08.746
- that's in column 2026. Yeah, thank you for that last question, Madam President. I'll handle it, Mike.

00:35:08.746 --> 00:35:11.646
- Let's talk about that 135 on page,

00:35:11.842 --> 00:35:19.413
- was it three? So the, what's interesting about this number, what jumps out at me is, and this has nothing

00:35:19.413 --> 00:35:26.627
- to do with Greg's analysis, your analysis, this is more about what has been stated in resolutions by

00:35:26.627 --> 00:35:33.769
- the board of commissioners. So the question is, 135 is a number, it's a large number, but the board

00:35:33.769 --> 00:35:40.126
- of commissioners in their resolution call for phasing of the project still in a way that

00:35:40.290 --> 00:35:49.096
- And also a requirement for co-location eventually of whatever we do in terms of their choice of property.

00:35:49.096 --> 00:35:57.404
- And so, you know, a co-located facility we know is well north of 135 million. This is, I guess, I'm

00:35:57.404 --> 00:36:06.044
- not privy to the conversations you may have had with commissioners or their legal counsel. I mean, this

00:36:06.044 --> 00:36:08.702
- only covers a phase one, right?

00:36:08.866 --> 00:36:18.330
- I mean, it wouldn't be a 200. I don't know that for certain. With working with the staff and yes, legal

00:36:18.330 --> 00:36:27.339
- counsel, your legal counsel, this was the amount that we felt comfortable and have been utilizing,

00:36:27.339 --> 00:36:36.894
- I think, for several months now. And so, you know, the project, and again, we have not utilized or shown

00:36:37.058 --> 00:36:43.783
- additional cash but we feel very comfortable that we can get this part started and do you would you

00:36:43.783 --> 00:36:50.710
- have to face everybody has to face I'm facing a fairgrounds right now. Yeah it just takes me back full

00:36:50.710 --> 00:36:57.435
- circle to the point two seven doesn't it because if we had to do another one of these for phase two

00:36:57.435 --> 00:37:04.295
- in say five to ten years or however and I've got point two seven to work with at that point this this

00:37:04.295 --> 00:37:05.438
- gets interesting

00:37:06.114 --> 00:37:12.120
- Go ahead and I do have one and then I got to ask one last question. I'll give it up. But don't forget

00:37:12.120 --> 00:37:18.067
- growth also. Well, that's the question I've got for you. So what's your assumption of growth in this

00:37:18.067 --> 00:37:24.014
- document? Okay, it was it was fell down in the footnote. Yeah. So the expenses expenses in both edit

00:37:24.014 --> 00:37:29.961
- and jail lit were estimated to increase 6% per year. Lit revenue was expected to increase five. What

00:37:29.961 --> 00:37:35.614
- would the what would the population growth need to be to get that kind of growth in the county?

00:37:36.898 --> 00:37:44.091
- I have not done that calculation, but I could. Yeah, I think it might be useful because I'm sure you're

00:37:44.091 --> 00:37:51.007
- great at this stuff, but my concern is, well, you know, what's the county's economic and population

00:37:51.007 --> 00:37:58.407
- growth to sustain a 20-year amortization table? That would be my last. Yeah. And I think we've had pretty,

00:37:58.407 --> 00:38:05.531
- I've got the growth in the sustainability. I think we've had at that percent where we've been over the

00:38:05.531 --> 00:38:06.430
- last several

00:38:06.562 --> 00:38:19.460
- So, sorry, that was a lot. It's okay. Well, did you have a question of that? Under the notes at one,

00:38:19.460 --> 00:38:32.741
- and you were saying that you were using the jail lit fund as expenses as a 430. So I'm not sure whether

00:38:32.741 --> 00:38:35.806
- are you saying justice,

00:38:36.194 --> 00:38:44.259
- actually already been spent out every month as of 430 or are you looking at what we've budgeted for

00:38:44.259 --> 00:38:52.968
- the whole year? And the reason why I'm asking this is because we put in that jail medical in their contract

00:38:52.968 --> 00:39:01.033
- and that was rather large. What was a million and a half? It was a lot of money. So it was meant to

00:39:01.033 --> 00:39:05.630
- be. We on our discussion when we were having with staff,

00:39:05.986 --> 00:39:14.437
- we said we put in the budget. Then we were made aware of, so it is a budget annual amount. We were aware

00:39:14.437 --> 00:39:22.485
- that council had done an additional and one of the funds, I thought it was jail-lit, but I might be

00:39:22.485 --> 00:39:31.017
- wrong, it might be unadded. So we wanted to include that, okay, rather than lowball the expenses, because

00:39:31.017 --> 00:39:34.558
- my assumption is when you do an additional,

00:39:34.690 --> 00:39:40.999
- Sometimes they seem to hang around the next year. So I wanted to make sure we kept. Well, if you're

00:39:40.999 --> 00:39:47.435
- talking about the medical, it was supposed to have been included when we did our budget. And for some

00:39:47.435 --> 00:39:53.745
- reason, it didn't get included. So that I believe, if I'm remembering right. So we just did that to

00:39:53.745 --> 00:40:00.243
- correct that. I saw that in there. But I don't know whether we pay that monthly or we pay it quarterly

00:40:00.243 --> 00:40:03.966
- or how it's paid. I don't think you're paying out of that.

00:40:04.834 --> 00:40:14.778
- The expenses listed are the total appropriations allowed for the year as of that date. So that's going

00:40:14.778 --> 00:40:24.722
- to be anything that is expended and anything that is allowed to be spent that has yet to be spent this

00:40:24.722 --> 00:40:32.638
- year. So that is all of it. I just want to make sure because we do not have money

00:40:33.026 --> 00:40:41.651
- in that property tax fund to cover, that's the reason why we moved that over there so that we knew that

00:40:41.651 --> 00:40:50.276
- that was covered because that jail medical has really grown a great deal over time and I expect it will

00:40:50.276 --> 00:40:58.652
- continue to grow even more. And so we need to make sure that those are expenses. Remember, it was at

00:40:58.652 --> 00:41:01.886
- one time, you could only use 20% of it

00:41:02.114 --> 00:41:09.266
- for operational and then like in that last year or so they said there was no longer a cap of what you

00:41:09.266 --> 00:41:16.417
- could use for operational. And so I think we need to look long term. We build another jail. Certainly

00:41:16.417 --> 00:41:23.429
- our operational is going to be a great deal more because you're going to have to have more staff. I

00:41:23.429 --> 00:41:31.422
- know everybody thinks we're not going to build as big a jail, but then we all know what's going to really happen.

00:41:31.554 --> 00:41:39.624
- So we have to count on what is it going to cost to operate that because it's got to come out of that.

00:41:39.624 --> 00:41:47.615
- And of course, it's all going to be under the 1.2. We talk in separate buckets, but it's all part of

00:41:47.615 --> 00:41:55.765
- the 1.2. If we actually go ahead and take it to the 1.2. And I did look it up. I stand corrected. It's

00:41:55.765 --> 00:42:00.670
- $2 million in the $4 million budget that you passed in at it.

00:42:01.218 --> 00:42:10.830
- Okay, the medical is $2 million? Yes, ma'am. I know it was a lot. Old-time self-insurance account $18,001.

00:42:10.830 --> 00:42:20.173
- That's different. Okay, that's a self-insurance, $2 million. Okay, we talked about the same thing. Now,

00:42:20.173 --> 00:42:29.246
- when I'm talking for the jail lid, I'm talking about the medical contract for folks inside the jail.

00:42:31.106 --> 00:42:43.749
- How much is that? I believe the total budget that was accounted for, right? So in the jail lit, we'll

00:42:43.749 --> 00:42:51.806
- keep our correct fund 1233. It's $1,675,277 in the $2.6 million.

00:42:52.642 --> 00:43:01.034
- Okay, so a million six for the medical. It is labeled medical services number 34100. I just want to

00:43:01.034 --> 00:43:09.594
- make sure that we understand that what we're counting as jail-lit is going to be part of the 1.2, but

00:43:09.594 --> 00:43:18.238
- those operational costs are going to go up a great deal because we're going to have to have more staff

00:43:18.946 --> 00:43:25.985
- And that medical is just not going to get cheaper. I mean, it just isn't. And I'm not trying to make

00:43:25.985 --> 00:43:33.094
- it cheaper. I mean, that's something we have to do. So I just want to make sure that we're looking at

00:43:33.094 --> 00:43:40.133
- that carefully and not planning on spending more. But maybe I guess I thought this was just going to

00:43:40.133 --> 00:43:47.102
- be a discussion of where this might possibly go. But since we haven't really been given a budget of

00:43:47.234 --> 00:43:55.186
- what they're going to do, I can't believe it. Is that correct or are you prepared to just go ahead and

00:43:55.186 --> 00:44:03.370
- do this? Absolutely. Yeah, Councilor Williams. That goes straight to my question, which isn't necessarily

00:44:03.370 --> 00:44:11.323
- one you have the answer to, but feel free to chime in, everyone else does. But the budget for whatever

00:44:11.323 --> 00:44:14.334
- we're thinking might be built is what?

00:44:16.290 --> 00:44:27.282
- Is it 135? Is that been said? Like where did that come from? I'm just, it's not, I'm not trying to be

00:44:27.282 --> 00:44:38.705
- facetious. I'm literally asking. Council member said? Let me take a crack at it, Bree. Please. All right.

00:44:38.705 --> 00:44:45.278
- The last estimate that we got, we were sitting in this room.

00:44:45.410 --> 00:44:54.780
- And the last architectural rendering that we got was a quarter of a billion dollars. That was for a

00:44:54.780 --> 00:45:04.150
- co-located facility that was both phases together. I have not seen an analysis that shows that $135

00:45:04.150 --> 00:45:12.958
- million is phase one. And I will say, I know you've asked during a few different times during

00:45:13.058 --> 00:45:20.854
- conversations that we've had joined earlier this year about like cost estimates for that. And as of

00:45:20.854 --> 00:45:28.805
- April 28th, we still haven't received it. Okay, so basically, and that's the last thing I remember as

00:45:28.805 --> 00:45:36.601
- well. We kind of said, okay, we'll take like about half or whatever of that number and assume we're

00:45:36.601 --> 00:45:41.278
- building half of the project. So we take half of the budget

00:45:42.114 --> 00:45:51.498
- But let's be real about the more expensive half, be your facility, right? So this is ridiculous.

00:45:51.498 --> 00:46:01.365
- I'm sorry. I have a hard time. And it's not at all, obviously. I mean, thank you for this, because at

00:46:01.365 --> 00:46:10.942
- least we know how we will or would. Or affordability. Yeah. But it's just insane, because we don't

00:46:11.522 --> 00:46:21.940
- know what we're buying and how much it costs. If you go even further and you look at your favorite table

00:46:21.940 --> 00:46:32.060
- and Mr. Garrett has this report, the amortization table, if you add in debt service to the principal,

00:46:32.060 --> 00:46:39.998
- we're right back where we started. Yep. Yeah. The interest 223,104,875 dollars.

00:46:41.218 --> 00:46:47.761
- And Michelle, if you could zoom in for old eyes. I'm not in charge of it. I'm not sure who's putting

00:46:47.761 --> 00:46:54.304
- it up there, but they're doing a good job. They are doing a good job. Thank you, whoever's in charge

00:46:54.304 --> 00:47:00.846
- of zooming. So the number I just referenced is that lower right-hand number. The total debt service.

00:47:00.846 --> 00:47:07.778
- That's right. That's right. So even though we are essentially seeking to purchase a $135 million building,

00:47:07.778 --> 00:47:10.110
- we're still investing $223 million.

00:47:12.770 --> 00:47:22.578
- Just like when you buy a house, if you spend, you know, out of $35,000 for a house, it takes you a long

00:47:22.578 --> 00:47:32.103
- time before you've really gained equity. And that's one of the things, since we really have not even

00:47:32.103 --> 00:47:41.534
- chosen a spot yet, where this lovely, beautiful big jail's gonna be built, where we are monetarily.

00:47:42.178 --> 00:47:52.519
- But what I call to your attention, if you scroll up to the top, the first like three years, okay, like

00:47:52.519 --> 00:48:02.056
- see the first year is 3,375,000,000. That's for what's left of this year. And then after 2027,

00:48:02.056 --> 00:48:10.590
- it would be 6,750,000. Now, the reason why I want to call that to your attention is,

00:48:11.490 --> 00:48:21.949
- I was hearing from some of the folks on staff that if we didn't do this and moving forward with whatever

00:48:21.949 --> 00:48:32.110
- happened with courts, I'm not afraid of ACLU, but some people are shaking, that we would be forced to

00:48:32.110 --> 00:48:41.374
- move a certain population, which we've always agreed to from the beginning of the agreement,

00:48:42.274 --> 00:48:51.573
- off to another facility, and that it might be as much as $1 million a year. Well, but if we do this,

00:48:51.573 --> 00:49:00.964
- it is $6,750,000 while we are determining and putting together a known fact so the public knows where

00:49:00.964 --> 00:49:08.606
- we're going and what we're spending. And so, yes, it could be more later to build.

00:49:08.834 --> 00:49:18.432
- just like people's salaries are more as we go along. I get that. It's always more every year to operate

00:49:18.432 --> 00:49:27.754
- county government. But I wanted to keep that in mind that when somebody says, oh, it might cost us a

00:49:27.754 --> 00:49:36.798
- million dollars to move some of these folks someplace else, that shouldn't be the deciding moment

00:49:36.898 --> 00:49:44.502
- figuring out what we're going to do. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it when we've got all the numbers

00:49:44.502 --> 00:49:51.743
- and so forth together. The other thing I would like to remind people is if it is the right thing to

00:49:51.743 --> 00:49:59.057
- do, if we get overcrowded to move that, we surely are going to just do the right thing to do anyway,

00:49:59.057 --> 00:50:06.878
- no matter who has a contract. I mean, if for some reason the folks that are in the facility, if that number

00:50:07.010 --> 00:50:15.858
- grows by a large amount, that new jail is not going to be ready to move into tomorrow or even next year.

00:50:15.858 --> 00:50:24.453
- So I just I don't want anybody to feel like you've got somebody putting a fire under you until we all

00:50:24.453 --> 00:50:32.542
- know what we're doing. Very much agreed. Point taken. Yes, Councillor Iverson. So assuming that

00:50:32.994 --> 00:50:40.534
- There's a lot of assumptions being built into this. We're going to have to make a pretty serious decision

00:50:40.534 --> 00:50:47.648
- in the next two months. Are any of the assumptions in this document going to change in the next two

00:50:47.648 --> 00:50:54.762
- months? No, other than the cash outlay that you may want to put into it, because I've assumed zero.

00:50:54.762 --> 00:51:02.302
- And you have a cash balance that is growing. So in isolating your question just to that, I don't believe,

00:51:02.658 --> 00:51:11.370
- as long as no other wars break out and the interest rates change. There's not. Say something positive.

00:51:11.370 --> 00:51:19.997
- So they settle down and I think they'll be settling down. Okay, excellent. So therefore these numbers

00:51:19.997 --> 00:51:28.539
- will be relevant for the decisions we need to make in the foreseeable future. Yeah, and I think that

00:51:28.539 --> 00:51:30.654
- was the point. Come back

00:51:30.850 --> 00:51:38.608
- get you jump started from where we were before, where we are now with the new legislation. And I think

00:51:38.608 --> 00:51:46.367
- David asked kind of the question, you know, what's going to happen over the next six months? We should

00:51:46.367 --> 00:51:53.899
- be status quo here. But beyond that, things are going to start hitting you again. And so, you know,

00:51:53.899 --> 00:51:59.774
- and what I told you from our standpoint, yes, you need to decide on what your

00:51:59.938 --> 00:52:07.034
- building the county as a whole. I think the guidance our guidance came from Jeff Cockrell and what he

00:52:07.034 --> 00:52:13.991
- was trying to work out with the overall plan. And so we wanted to show you this schematic design on

00:52:13.991 --> 00:52:21.157
- something that I believe is perceived to be able to work. But obviously I'm not the architect. I'm the

00:52:21.157 --> 00:52:23.870
- numbers guy. We understand that. Yeah.

00:52:31.298 --> 00:52:41.005
- Anybody else have anything to add? That's a lot of food for thought. So given the crunch time that we

00:52:41.005 --> 00:52:49.951
- are on, so thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. All right. Have a good evening.

00:52:49.951 --> 00:53:00.039
- Thank you. A county council member burning up my phone. You can go handle that while it's still daylight.

00:53:00.039 --> 00:53:01.086
- Thank you.

00:53:01.378 --> 00:53:08.267
- All right, next up, we're going to go back into item number seven, which is our consent agenda items.

00:53:08.267 --> 00:53:15.291
- Council, I move to approve the following summary minutes as presented January 13th, 2026 County Council

00:53:15.291 --> 00:53:22.315
- Executive Session Meeting, May 10th, 2026 County Council Meeting, and the May 24th, 2026 County Council

00:53:22.315 --> 00:53:29.271
- Meeting. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Are there any questions from council related

00:53:29.271 --> 00:53:31.230
- to the consent agenda items?

00:53:31.394 --> 00:53:37.533
- Seeing none, are there public comment on this item? You can come forward to the lectern here in the

00:53:37.533 --> 00:53:43.734
- room or raise your hand via Teams. And still seeing none, we can do this by voice vote. All those in

00:53:43.734 --> 00:53:49.934
- favor of approving consent agenda items as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed,

00:53:49.934 --> 00:53:56.442
- same sign. Okay, motion carries. Next up is item eight, which are the hire and freeze reviews for various

00:53:56.442 --> 00:54:00.862
- departments. And we'll start with item eight, which is from the courts.

00:54:00.994 --> 00:54:07.158
- Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the court's request to be exempt from

00:54:07.158 --> 00:54:13.262
- the hiring freeze and be allowed to make internal transfers and fund 1000-0225 County General Courts

00:54:13.262 --> 00:54:19.366
- when the court administrator position becomes vacant in July. Second. All right. We got a motion and

00:54:19.366 --> 00:54:23.294
- a second. We're joined by Judge DeKoff and Ms. Abraham. Welcome.

00:54:23.810 --> 00:54:29.712
- Thank you. As I announced at the last meeting, I will be retiring, so myself along with the judges have

00:54:29.712 --> 00:54:35.501
- been trying to figure out how to redo court administration so we don't lose a beat. The thing we came

00:54:35.501 --> 00:54:41.460
- up with is to move the deputy court administrator up to take over my position since I've already trained

00:54:41.460 --> 00:54:44.638
- her. That's what her job duties are when I'm not there.

00:54:44.834 --> 00:54:50.293
- And that one goes from my level is a 25-year level, and she's currently at the 20. So that saves some

00:54:50.293 --> 00:54:55.860
- there. And then promoting the case management coordinator up to the deputy. And that's a complete wash,

00:54:55.860 --> 00:55:01.266
- because they're both at the 20-year level. So that would say the same. And then her position that is

00:55:01.266 --> 00:55:06.993
- then vacant, which is a case management position, not filling at this time with the hiring freeze. They're

00:55:06.993 --> 00:55:12.452
- trying to muddle through and see if they can keep that status quo until the hiring freeze is done, or

00:55:12.452 --> 00:55:13.630
- they deem they really

00:55:14.146 --> 00:55:21.606
- and then they'll be coming back for you. Keeping in mind, I've already lost my front person and we've

00:55:21.606 --> 00:55:28.919
- refilled that with the part time. So I'm going basically from six full time now to four and a half.

00:55:28.919 --> 00:55:36.452
- So trying our best to do the hiring freeze, but that's our proposal that we asked. Thank you for that.

00:55:36.452 --> 00:55:43.838
- Any questions? Yes, Councillor Wilts. I do have a question, but first I just want to say that when I

00:55:44.034 --> 00:55:55.934
- When I read your agenda requests, I'm just constantly between you and probation, just appreciative of

00:55:55.934 --> 00:56:07.833
- the way you are approaching it. It feels as though we're all rowing in the same direction. And I just

00:56:07.833 --> 00:56:10.750
- wanted to say thank you.

00:56:13.794 --> 00:56:19.780
- The question is what does this case manager do? Her main thing is she's responsible for all the statistics

00:56:19.780 --> 00:56:25.597
- that we have to send quarterly up to the state. She also has to make sure that we have an even caseload

00:56:25.597 --> 00:56:31.303
- among the courts, which right now she's on overload because with us losing a court, we have to figure

00:56:31.303 --> 00:56:37.009
- out how to redistribute all those cases. So that's what she does all the time is trying to figure out

00:56:37.009 --> 00:56:39.806
- if we need to read readjust anything, do changes.

00:56:40.386 --> 00:56:46.154
- So that's what her main, but she also is responsible for when we have mental health evaluations that

00:56:46.154 --> 00:56:51.978
- anybody does, she has to get those scheduled, making sure we get the reports in. So then she backs up

00:56:51.978 --> 00:56:57.860
- the jury coordinator. So we keep throwing more things and more things at her. So. Okay. And that's the

00:56:57.860 --> 00:57:03.571
- position you. I keep it vacant. So when she goes to the deputy, she's going to try and take some of

00:57:03.571 --> 00:57:09.452
- that and then disperse the other duties among the others in the office and fingers crossed that we get

00:57:09.452 --> 00:57:10.366
- it all covered.

00:57:15.042 --> 00:57:21.482
- And then I'll go to council. Thank you. Thank you for being here. I know you have a very busy schedule,

00:57:21.482 --> 00:57:27.736
- so I'm glad you could sneak in at the very last second. I wanted to echo Councillor Wilts's remarks.

00:57:27.736 --> 00:57:34.300
- The estimated fiscal impact of this is an actual decrease. So it's due to the different steps that people

00:57:34.300 --> 00:57:40.740
- are on. But still, it's working. And we really appreciate all the work that you put into thinking about

00:57:40.740 --> 00:57:43.774
- this. All the rules and keep our office running.

00:57:45.506 --> 00:57:54.120
- Yes, I'd like to separate the question because I want to support moving forward with the court's

00:57:54.120 --> 00:58:03.089
- administrator and I'd like to postpone making any decision about the deputy court administrator just

00:58:03.089 --> 00:58:12.147
- for a bit, just to see where we are, because as we've already been, if you had time to listen, I know

00:58:12.147 --> 00:58:15.166
- everybody's really busy schedule,

00:58:15.522 --> 00:58:25.378
- We had a lot of information from Jamie Boesler at AIC and it was pretty clear that the message is hold

00:58:25.378 --> 00:58:34.946
- tight. They've got information coming from what is it, something analytics so that we'll get better

00:58:34.946 --> 00:58:36.190
- information.

00:58:37.538 --> 00:58:45.085
- before we start moving forward with spending things. So as you know, I've been saying no to pretty much

00:58:45.085 --> 00:58:51.834
- every request to get around the hiring freeze, but I think it's essential that they have the

00:58:51.834 --> 00:58:58.655
- court administrator in place. And so that's what I'll support. And yes, I appreciate the fact

00:58:58.655 --> 00:59:05.694
- that everybody's trying to watch the numbers, because we have to. I mean, we absolutely have to.

00:59:06.466 --> 00:59:12.794
- And then, if come July, they look at the new numbers and say, you've got so much money, you'll never

00:59:12.794 --> 00:59:19.310
- have to worry. Well, you know what I'd do? I'd say, OK, let's give some back to the public who's paying

00:59:19.310 --> 00:59:25.701
- these taxes. But I know it's probably not going to be something that's going to fly. But I just think

00:59:25.701 --> 00:59:32.092
- we ought to continue to be really, really cautious. So I'd like to split, and then you folks can just

00:59:32.092 --> 00:59:34.974
- vote however you want on the second position.

00:59:35.554 --> 00:59:41.805
- But I'd like to be able to support at least one of them. I will say the reason why we did that is like

00:59:41.805 --> 00:59:47.873
- when I'm not here, the deputy obviously becomes me basically. So we were trying to look out that if

00:59:47.873 --> 00:59:54.124
- we bump up the one and then because usually me and the deputy, we're hardly ever gone on the same day.

00:59:54.124 --> 01:00:00.314
- So we have one there. So we're just afraid that if like I said, if the new court administrator is not

01:00:00.314 --> 01:00:03.166
- there, we don't have a backup for that person.

01:00:03.298 --> 01:00:09.661
- was our thinking going that route. So we still have somebody if something does come up, they can jump

01:00:09.661 --> 01:00:15.962
- in and take over. I'd also like to say that we're in a unique position in that in all the years that

01:00:15.962 --> 01:00:22.263
- I've been in in this this system in Monroe County, we have never lost a court. We are in the process

01:00:22.263 --> 01:00:28.626
- of dealing with losing a court. We're doing that in the same year that we're losing Lisa. And that is

01:00:28.626 --> 01:00:33.118
- a significant loss to our system. For us to we need the position of the

01:00:34.498 --> 01:00:40.078
- We need her position. We need the deputy position. We're not going to fill. We're not asking to fill

01:00:40.078 --> 01:00:45.658
- the third position right now. But we are at this time wrangling over there as to what we're going to

01:00:45.658 --> 01:00:51.293
- do with that caseload and how that is going to look and what we're going to be doing. And we need the

01:00:51.293 --> 01:00:56.873
- assistance of both the court administrator and the deputy court administrator to do that, especially

01:00:56.873 --> 01:01:02.398
- going forward as we start looking at our budget to bring to you for 27 and how 27 is going to look.

01:01:02.594 --> 01:01:10.836
- So I appreciate, and we do appreciate the idea that there is a freeze and we're all trying to look at

01:01:10.836 --> 01:01:19.077
- saving money. But I would also remind you that in 27, there'll be one less court that you're funding.

01:01:19.077 --> 01:01:27.480
- So. And from my understanding, if we want to separate the question here, Ms. Turner-King, we would have

01:01:27.480 --> 01:01:29.662
- to have a second for this.

01:01:31.650 --> 01:01:38.831
- That was a motion. Well, I was going to ask Councilor Honk if you wanted to make a motion on that, because

01:01:38.831 --> 01:01:45.810
- technically you have to have a second. Yes. I would like to move that we separate the question. Second.

01:01:45.810 --> 01:01:52.656
- Okay. All right. So we got a motion and a second. So is there, and so we'll deal with the first part,

01:01:52.656 --> 01:01:59.770
- which is the Director of Courts Administrative Position. Is there any other further questions or comments

01:01:59.770 --> 01:02:01.246
- on this, on that one?

01:02:04.642 --> 01:02:13.496
- Seeing none, we'll move to public. You have to do a voice vote on the separation. Oh, sorry. Okay. So

01:02:13.496 --> 01:02:22.263
- all those in favor of separating these two signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign.

01:02:22.263 --> 01:02:31.116
- Aye. Okay. So we have one, two, three. Okay. So we got motion carries, majority. Do we need to change

01:02:31.116 --> 01:02:32.158
- the motion?

01:02:32.386 --> 01:02:40.595
- Uh-uh, because majority passed. Councilor Iverson was the name in that. Okay, so since there is no further

01:02:40.595 --> 01:02:48.651
- questions on this item, I'll move to public comment. If there's public comment on the Director of Courts

01:02:48.651 --> 01:02:56.323
- Administrator position, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via

01:02:56.323 --> 01:03:00.926
- Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote.

01:03:08.770 --> 01:03:17.748
- Okay this is just to reiterate this is for the court's administrator position only. Correct. Councilor

01:03:17.748 --> 01:03:26.639
- Feidl. Yes. Councilor Hawk. Yes. Councilor Wilts. Yes. Councilor Henry. Yes. Councilor Crossley. Yes.

01:03:26.639 --> 01:03:30.910
- Councilor Iverson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous.

01:03:32.098 --> 01:03:39.164
- All right, and taking it back to the deputy court administrator, are there any other questions or comments

01:03:39.164 --> 01:03:45.966
- on this item from council? Seeing none, I'll move to public comment. If there's public comment on this

01:03:45.966 --> 01:03:52.570
- item, you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing

01:03:52.570 --> 01:03:58.910
- none, may we please have a roll call vote on approving the deputy court administrator position?

01:04:04.482 --> 01:04:18.271
- Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Decker? Oh sorry. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Wilz? Yes. Councillor

01:04:18.271 --> 01:04:27.422
- Hawke? No. Councillor Feinstein? No. Motion passes majority five to one.

01:04:29.186 --> 01:04:35.091
- Thank you very much. Before I leave, can I just say, I want to say thank you again publicly to Lisa

01:04:35.091 --> 01:04:40.997
- for the work that she has done as our court administrator and the work she did before this. She has

01:04:40.997 --> 01:04:47.020
- been exemplary. We will miss her. She did train Jemma. We're excited to have Jemma and Shannon now to

01:04:47.020 --> 01:04:51.390
- help the courts. It helps us help you, but this will probably be the last

01:04:51.490 --> 01:04:57.852
- I think this is probably gonna be, no, maybe not. I'm here in two weeks for a big grant that I just

01:04:57.852 --> 01:05:04.278
- got, so. There you are. She'll be missed, and she's gonna miss us, too. I know. I won't be tuning in

01:05:04.278 --> 01:05:10.704
- to very many county council meetings. See, you're not gonna... But I do tell my office they can call

01:05:10.704 --> 01:05:17.257
- me anytime. When I get out of the pool, I'll call them back. We're leaving now. Take care of yourself.

01:05:17.257 --> 01:05:19.038
- Thank you. Congratulations.

01:05:19.970 --> 01:05:27.059
- All right. Next up is item B from the clerk's office. Council, I move to open for discussion and possible

01:05:27.059 --> 01:05:33.747
- approval of the clerk's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund

01:05:33.747 --> 01:05:40.568
- 1215-0062 Election Fund Election Board, one part time voter registration clerk. Second. All right. We

01:05:40.568 --> 01:05:45.918
- got a motion and a second. We're joined by Clerk Brown and Ms. Ferris. Welcome.

01:05:51.778 --> 01:06:02.297
- All right, so 2026 total turnout on the 16th day of early voting was 2,848 votes compared to 2022 with

01:06:02.297 --> 01:06:12.510
- a total of 1,740 votes. That is a 63% increase from last year's 2022 election versus this election.

01:06:12.610 --> 01:06:21.428
- 2026 compared to the largest turnout year of a midterm election in 2018 was 2,295 votes for a total

01:06:21.428 --> 01:06:30.334
- increase of 24 voters. Today we have ended the day with 90,405 registered voters with a 3.4% turnout

01:06:30.334 --> 01:06:38.270
- for early voting. That's 3,068 total votes, 220 today for an average of 200 voters a day.

01:06:40.418 --> 01:06:47.327
- For this role, it is one of our part-time employees. This is the individual who moved from the part-time

01:06:47.327 --> 01:06:54.038
- to the full-time position to fill that. And then this is just us trying to make sure that we have the

01:06:54.038 --> 01:07:00.947
- bipartisanship in all of our roles and to ensure that we have a smooth flow for the rest of the election

01:07:00.947 --> 01:07:06.014
- and for in the fall. All right. Any questions? Yes, Councillor Hawke. Right.

01:07:06.306 --> 01:07:13.830
- When I was there the other day, and there was a new face there, and if I understood right, said that

01:07:13.830 --> 01:07:21.801
- she was the part-time replacement. And so I thought that surely she was the Republican replacement because

01:07:21.801 --> 01:07:29.475
- there was a Democrat setting there, and you have to have. But no, we had in the room, I'm just saying,

01:07:29.475 --> 01:07:36.254
- we have to be careful about this. In the room, there were two Democrats and no Republican.

01:07:36.514 --> 01:07:42.922
- That may not sound like a big deal to you, but that's what we have to do. That's why we keep it like

01:07:42.922 --> 01:07:49.267
- that. Now, I hadn't been there, but just a few minutes when I commented about that, all of a sudden

01:07:49.267 --> 01:07:55.612
- the room was full of everybody. And I appreciate that, because that just means, yes, we're going to

01:07:55.612 --> 01:08:02.147
- pay attention. But I wanted to call that to your attention, because it wasn't just me there. There was

01:08:02.147 --> 01:08:06.398
- somebody with me. So they saw the same thing, and they understood.

01:08:07.074 --> 01:08:17.523
- So there were only just two of us voting. It's set up so that if there's thousands show up at once,

01:08:17.523 --> 01:08:28.076
- man, you can still run them right through. But we were the only ones there. It just seems like there

01:08:28.076 --> 01:08:36.958
- was a lot of staff there during the time we were there. We were the only two voting.

01:08:37.538 --> 01:08:50.693
- I don't know what you do to get people to get out and vote. It would help a lot if somebody would fill

01:08:50.693 --> 01:08:53.886
- the ballot, wouldn't it?

01:08:56.482 --> 01:09:02.651
- I just wanted to say the early voting space we have like slowly progressed the number of people that

01:09:02.651 --> 01:09:08.819
- have been working We started at the very beginning with only having two poll books two print devices

01:09:08.819 --> 01:09:15.049
- and two checkouts We are now up to having five check-ins and we are set up for ten if needed to be so

01:09:15.049 --> 01:09:21.523
- that if we were to have a increase that we needed to bring in more people we could but we're not staffing

01:09:21.523 --> 01:09:23.294
- all of them at this time and

01:09:23.394 --> 01:09:30.915
- And then I think the incident that she's talking about with the two D's in the office was in our front

01:09:30.915 --> 01:09:38.436
- office where we're normally handling voter registrations as they're coming in. I do know that that day

01:09:38.436 --> 01:09:44.862
- I had a R helping a D in the back office so that did leave two D's in the front office.

01:09:46.562 --> 01:09:54.568
- I just wanted to thank you as one of your liaisons for bringing this forward. Again, the fiscal impact

01:09:54.568 --> 01:10:02.807
- on this is flat and that just so helpful as we're making these decisions. So thank you. All right. Seeing

01:10:02.807 --> 01:10:10.580
- none, we'll move to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to

01:10:10.580 --> 01:10:15.166
- the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via Teams.

01:10:19.266 --> 01:10:32.979
- Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Hawke? Yes. Councillor Will? Yes. Councillor

01:10:32.979 --> 01:10:46.304
- Henry? Yes. Councillor Crosley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feinstein? Yes. Motion passes

01:10:46.304 --> 01:10:49.150
- unanimous. Thank you.

01:10:50.722 --> 01:10:57.879
- Next up is item C from the auditor's office. Council, I move to open for discussion possible approval

01:10:57.879 --> 01:11:05.317
- of the auditor's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund one thousand

01:11:05.317 --> 01:11:12.123
- dash zero zero zero two county general auditor, a full time assistant property director. Second.

01:11:12.123 --> 01:11:19.070
- All right. We got a motion and a second and we have the auditor have one table to the other table.

01:11:21.218 --> 01:11:30.132
- you. This is Stephanie Carter, property director. So we're here today to request to hire one of her

01:11:30.132 --> 01:11:39.580
- team members, actually her right hand. So we're here today to request to be exempt from the hiring freeze

01:11:39.580 --> 01:11:45.374
- to hire the assistant property director. So as many of you know,

01:11:46.082 --> 01:11:51.888
- All positions within the property division are essential to daily operations. These staff members provide

01:11:51.888 --> 01:11:57.200
- direct assistance to the public and ensure that property deductions are accurate and up to date.

01:11:57.200 --> 01:12:03.061
- As you know, that's particularly important right now. Always important, but as we go through these changes

01:12:03.061 --> 01:12:05.854
- with SB1, we have a lot of work that's discarding.

01:12:06.210 --> 01:12:12.273
- In addition, the division is responsible for the transfer of property records, plat mapping, parcel

01:12:12.273 --> 01:12:18.518
- maintaining, coordination with economic development initiatives, and other critical functions like the

01:12:18.518 --> 01:12:24.702
- abstract, tax bill calculation, corrections, certification of net assessments, and the auditor's role

01:12:24.702 --> 01:12:30.887
- in tax sale, just doing a few of our different duties. So in particular, this position is responsible

01:12:30.887 --> 01:12:35.070
- for coordination and implementation of the TIF neutralization study.

01:12:35.266 --> 01:12:42.860
- coordination of an execution of all county tax sales Commissioner certificate sales and assisting with

01:12:42.860 --> 01:12:50.823
- county abstract and settlement of taxes and correction of taxation errors all positions within The property

01:12:50.823 --> 01:12:58.344
- division are cross-trained to back up one another but it is a small division of our team that touches

01:12:58.344 --> 01:12:59.966
- all county properties

01:13:00.226 --> 01:13:08.389
- real and personal. So it is a big job, and it is definitely a necessary one. And we'll entertain any

01:13:08.389 --> 01:13:17.036
- questions you have. Thank you. And just for the record, we have Councillor Decker joining us this evening.

01:13:17.036 --> 01:13:25.683
- Thank you. Any questions or comments for the auditor on this item? Councillor Hawke. Just not particularly

01:13:25.683 --> 01:13:29.886
- a question, but just a note as a note, very recent.

01:13:30.178 --> 01:13:37.809
- First I've seen this, and it's something we don't want to have to do. But Indiana University just announced

01:13:37.809 --> 01:13:45.016
- a reduction in force. And so this, I don't think we should be surprised that we're going to see this.

01:13:45.016 --> 01:13:52.223
- And this is what we're trying to avoid, is a reduction in force. And that's the reason why we haven't

01:13:52.223 --> 01:13:59.006
- filled the empty slots, because we don't want to have to tell somebody to go when they're here.

01:14:00.642 --> 01:14:09.794
- And so I hate being the guy who keeps saying no. But this is why. We just don't want to go to our employees

01:14:09.794 --> 01:14:18.607
- that we already have and counting on that job to support their household and say, oh, by the way, we're

01:14:18.607 --> 01:14:27.166
- going to have to cut. So one time we had an auditor telling us we had to cut 5% off of every budget.

01:14:29.186 --> 01:14:38.534
- understand the budgets and so she was wrong. But we don't want to have to go through a summer like we

01:14:38.534 --> 01:14:47.882
- did that summer. So the other question I would have is have you met with anybody or discussed further

01:14:47.882 --> 01:14:58.238
- what I thought we were going to be talking about when we talked about the auditor staff, the fact that we've got

01:14:59.618 --> 01:15:07.204
- two people setting in another department that should be under the auditor's staff so that when that

01:15:07.204 --> 01:15:15.093
- one person is freed up a little, they can help out here or there or whatever, could learn some of these

01:15:15.093 --> 01:15:22.754
- other jobs and be, you know, cross-training. And I think that fell on deaf ears. I mean, sometimes I

01:15:22.754 --> 01:15:29.278
- think I'm just talking to myself. I don't know why I bother coming to these meetings.

01:15:31.874 --> 01:15:37.935
- was supposed to be doing payroll. You tell me. I mean, you know what the rules are. You tell me. Past

01:15:37.935 --> 01:15:44.055
- decisions made by this council and the commissioners that I didn't have any control over put those two

01:15:44.055 --> 01:15:50.175
- positions under the commissioners. So I can't change job descriptions. That, thankfully, is under your

01:15:50.175 --> 01:15:56.117
- purview. But you know I'm happy to take my statutory duties and handle them efficiently. Right. And

01:15:56.117 --> 01:15:58.078
- I am not finding fault with you.

01:16:01.218 --> 01:16:09.097
- There were errors made in my opinion that we should, and you know this, I've been harping about this

01:16:09.097 --> 01:16:17.601
- for a long time, that those payroll positions need to be under the direction of our auditor. I had mentioned

01:16:17.601 --> 01:16:25.246
- this at the last meeting. I thought we were going to get something and it's not included in this.

01:16:25.602 --> 01:16:32.180
- I mean, I just regret that because I know you need to be full staff. Now, I know we're trying to cut

01:16:32.180 --> 01:16:38.758
- every place, but I also know if you're following what's going on at the state, that the requirements

01:16:38.758 --> 01:16:45.597
- of what's going to have to come out of that auditor's office just keeps growing and growing and growing.

01:16:45.597 --> 01:16:52.500
- And the reason I know that is because our job is growing and growing and growing. There's just not enough

01:16:52.500 --> 01:16:54.910
- hours in the day to learn all of it.

01:16:55.010 --> 01:17:01.804
- I know you're going to be going to Auditor's Conference. When is it? Next week? Or when is it?

01:17:01.804 --> 01:17:08.955
- It's coming up. So you'll be getting more of an update which will really be helping us to make some

01:17:08.955 --> 01:17:16.250
- of these decisions. But I want to support your office because you've got to have full staff. It's not

01:17:16.250 --> 01:17:23.902
- just for county. It's all, you know, they have to do the split of the money for the townships and the city

01:17:24.098 --> 01:17:32.696
- Everything. It is the center of all of the finances is sitting right there on top of the shoulders of

01:17:32.696 --> 01:17:40.030
- that lady sitting right there. And we have to make sure she has the staff to cover it.

01:17:41.090 --> 01:17:47.546
- That is very much appreciated. And thankfully, I have an amazing team. But I have to have the staff.

01:17:47.546 --> 01:17:54.129
- I have to have the team to be able to continue to provide the level of service we provide. And we feel

01:17:54.129 --> 01:18:00.585
- like we provide very good service internally and externally. So we need to maintain that, because we

01:18:00.585 --> 01:18:07.168
- do touch everything in the county. So as far as employee services and payroll, we've had conversations

01:18:07.168 --> 01:18:08.894
- multiple times about this.

01:18:08.994 --> 01:18:14.948
- I'm not opposed to taking that back, but you will not be receiving an agenda request from me to do so.

01:18:14.948 --> 01:18:20.901
- That wouldn't be appropriate. It's not under me to do so. So that would be something maybe the council

01:18:20.901 --> 01:18:26.682
- could discuss. And if you choose to change job descriptions, that's totally up to you. I think they

01:18:26.682 --> 01:18:32.578
- do a fantastic job. I don't think anything's broken, but it is a statutory duty of the auditor that's

01:18:32.578 --> 01:18:38.878
- recognized, understood, and welcomed in our office. And nor do I think that you should be the one requesting

01:18:39.330 --> 01:18:49.637
- We're the ones that did this and we're the ones that need to fix it. I'm not saying at all we change

01:18:49.637 --> 01:19:00.862
- the folks that's actually doing the work. It's just like just rewrite the job description who they report to.

01:19:02.274 --> 01:19:11.391
- I'm going to get back to the agenda request. Thank you. You're welcome. So I was looking at the fiscal

01:19:11.391 --> 01:19:20.419
- impact. And I think there's a slight increase on this position. What's in the packet is a little off.

01:19:20.419 --> 01:19:26.526
- It's OK. But I'm showing something a little north of $92,000 for the

01:19:29.122 --> 01:19:37.269
- So I'm seeing just a little bit of an increase. Do you have the correct fiscal impact in front of you?

01:19:37.269 --> 01:19:45.258
- Or is that something that? I'm going to pull it up here in just a second. I was checking the math. I

01:19:45.258 --> 01:19:53.167
- was doing that too, but I didn't get quite to the FICA or PERF, so I was making assumptions. So the

01:19:53.167 --> 01:19:56.094
- plan is what we intend to do here is

01:19:56.834 --> 01:20:04.359
- move another employee, if you grant us permission to do so, into this role. So it's an employee with

01:20:04.359 --> 01:20:11.884
- more tenure than the previous employee. So there would be a slight impact here, absolutely. And then

01:20:11.884 --> 01:20:19.410
- we're also, next item, requesting to hire the domino effect here for the position that will actually

01:20:19.410 --> 01:20:23.582
- be vacant then, given approval. And so then you'll see,

01:20:23.906 --> 01:20:34.147
- savings there because we intend to hire probably the minimum level more than likely. So give and take

01:20:34.147 --> 01:20:44.388
- yes. So on the screen the current person position is at a twenty nine point zero one hourly rate. The

01:20:44.388 --> 01:20:53.726
- new position will be thirty point seventeen and so you'll see a an increase but I'm assuming

01:20:54.050 --> 01:21:05.822
- There's no, the perf didn't scroll down, hold on. So yeah, with the perf then it is 92, which means

01:21:05.822 --> 01:21:17.829
- there's going to be an additional impact of 2,597. Okay, all right. And that increase was simply just

01:21:17.829 --> 01:21:22.302
- explained by you as that someone with

01:21:23.010 --> 01:21:31.664
- tenure within Monroe County government that is taking on this role. Got it. Okay. Any other questions

01:21:31.664 --> 01:21:40.403
- or comments for the auditor on this item? Seeing none, we'll move to public comment. If there's public

01:21:40.403 --> 01:21:49.142
- comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room. Raise your hand via teams.

01:21:49.142 --> 01:21:51.518
- Like we have a hand raised.

01:21:52.738 --> 01:21:59.487
- Councillor Jeff McKim, so you can unmute yourself, state your name for the record, and you'll have up

01:21:59.487 --> 01:22:06.435
- to three minutes. Thank you very much, Council. Jeff McKim. I will not take anywhere near three minutes.

01:22:06.435 --> 01:22:13.316
- I just wanted to express my support for this request. I think it's really important the basic financial

01:22:13.316 --> 01:22:20.264
- operations remain full staffed, and anything other than that I think would be a false economy. So please

01:22:20.264 --> 01:22:21.918
- do support this request.

01:22:22.722 --> 01:22:33.335
- Thank you. Any other further questions or comments on this item? Public comment. That's what I meant

01:22:33.335 --> 01:22:44.053
- to say. All right. Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Wilz? Yes. Councillor

01:22:44.053 --> 01:22:52.670
- Henry? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson?

01:22:53.314 --> 01:23:02.017
- Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Falk? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right next up also with the

01:23:02.017 --> 01:23:05.150
- auditor's item, item D. You mean E.

01:23:17.410 --> 01:23:24.113
- until I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the auditor's request to be exempt from

01:23:24.113 --> 01:23:31.082
- the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0002 County General Auditor, a full-time economic

01:23:31.082 --> 01:23:37.785
- development coordinator. Second. Great. Okay. As I began to tell you with the previous item, this is

01:23:37.785 --> 01:23:45.086
- the position that will now be vacant since you've just given us permission to fill the other vacant position.

01:23:45.186 --> 01:23:54.007
- So it's really just one request, if you understand what I'm saying. So this position is responsible

01:23:54.007 --> 01:24:02.828
- for abatements, enterprise zones, taxation overpayments, refunds, coordinating taxation deductions,

01:24:02.828 --> 01:24:12.178
- transient merchant licensure, and serving as an internal control for legal property transfers. So another

01:24:12.178 --> 01:24:13.854
- big important job.

01:24:13.954 --> 01:24:22.039
- within the county. So, just requesting again your permission and happy to entertain questions. Great.

01:24:22.039 --> 01:24:30.441
- Any questions or comments for this item for the auditor? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move to public comment.

01:24:30.441 --> 01:24:38.525
- If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise

01:24:38.525 --> 01:24:40.190
- your hand via Teams.

01:24:44.322 --> 01:24:54.276
- Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor

01:24:54.276 --> 01:25:03.499
- Cronin? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feinstein? Yes. Councillor Holland? Yes. Councillor

01:25:03.499 --> 01:25:06.878
- Wilts? Yes. Motion passes unanimous.

01:25:07.650 --> 01:25:13.991
- Next up, item E is also still with the auditor's office. Council, I move to open for discussion and

01:25:13.991 --> 01:25:20.458
- possible approval of the auditor's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire

01:25:20.458 --> 01:25:26.799
- and fund 1000-0002 County General Auditor, a full-time property transfer coordinator. Second. Okay,

01:25:26.799 --> 01:25:32.062
- who would you like to add on this item? Okay, we just received notification from a

01:25:32.194 --> 01:25:40.316
- dear employee that they will be moving to Michigan. And we actually just today received the date. I

01:25:40.316 --> 01:25:48.438
- believe her final anticipated date of employment would be on May 12th. So unfortunately for us, but

01:25:48.438 --> 01:25:56.884
- a great transition for them, they are moving to Michigan to be close to family. And I guess the commute

01:25:56.884 --> 01:25:58.590
- would be too severe.

01:26:02.626 --> 01:26:10.973
- Okay. Is there any questions or comments for this item for council? Best of luck to the employee that's

01:26:10.973 --> 01:26:19.079
- leaving. Thank you. All right. So seeing no questions or comments from council, we'll move to public

01:26:19.079 --> 01:26:27.104
- comment. You can raise your hand via Teams or you can come forward to the lectern here in the room.

01:26:27.104 --> 01:26:31.358
- And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote.

01:26:32.866 --> 01:26:43.291
- Councillor Crawford? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feinberg? Yes. Councillor Wilz? Yes. Councillor

01:26:43.291 --> 01:26:52.863
- Henry? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council. Very much appreciated.

01:26:52.863 --> 01:27:02.814
- You're welcome. I would say have a good night, but you're just popping back over there. Okay. Thank you.

01:27:03.010 --> 01:27:09.831
- Next up is item nine, which is council business. And we'll start with item eight from the health department.

01:27:09.831 --> 01:27:16.089
- Council as a reminder, this item was tabled from the April 14th council meeting. I moved to approve

01:27:16.089 --> 01:27:20.094
- the health department's request and fund 11 59 dash 0000 health

01:27:20.322 --> 01:27:30.818
- fund, the creation of account line 36998 COVID immunization expense and account line 4001 equipment

01:27:30.818 --> 01:27:40.894
- and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of $123,286.79 in the supplies category.

01:27:41.090 --> 01:27:56.502
- $123,286 in the services category and $500,000 in the capital category for a total appropriation of

01:27:56.502 --> 01:28:10.526
- $745,572.79. Second. All right. I was just looking at. Great. Do you see that? So on here.

01:28:10.690 --> 01:28:20.718
- The total says $746,572.79. And then... I thought you said... Oh, it's off by... No, that's what I'm

01:28:20.718 --> 01:28:30.745
- saying. It's off by $1,000. It says $746, and then what you read is $745. Sorry. Right. Which one is

01:28:30.745 --> 01:28:40.574
- the right number? $746. Okay. Council, I amend my motion for a total appropriation of $746,572.79.

01:28:44.290 --> 01:28:51.367
- have Ms. Kelly here. Welcome. Good evening again. So in September of 2025, the Health Department submitted

01:28:51.367 --> 01:28:58.312
- an agenda request for the creation of these account lines and category transfers. So this is for funding

01:28:58.312 --> 01:29:05.190
- that was received from COVID-19 vaccine administrations that were dispersed from the Indiana Department

01:29:05.190 --> 01:29:05.918
- of Health.

01:29:05.986 --> 01:29:12.911
- This request was approved at the October 28th meeting. However, the purchase was not completed by the

01:29:12.911 --> 01:29:19.904
- facilities and fleet department before the end of 2025. So essentially we're coming back to you to try

01:29:19.904 --> 01:29:26.693
- to circle back around to being able to get these funds appropriated so that we could hopefully move

01:29:26.693 --> 01:29:33.278
- forward with the purchase of the mobile unit to begin providing those services in the community.

01:29:37.122 --> 01:29:44.141
- questions for Ms. Kelly on this item from Council. Yes, Council Iverson. Thank you for being here and

01:29:44.141 --> 01:29:51.022
- thank you for supplying the information from Health First Indiana in our packet today as a reminder

01:29:51.022 --> 01:29:57.972
- that that's where these dollars are coming from. That these Health First, you know, the stipulations

01:29:57.972 --> 01:29:59.486
- coming from the state

01:29:59.746 --> 01:30:06.998
- really do need us to be out and about and providing these services. So so thank you for providing that.

01:30:06.998 --> 01:30:14.040
- My question to you is what have you heard from like where where would this mobile unit go. What have

01:30:14.040 --> 01:30:20.734
- you heard from township trustees. What have you heard from other health units in the community.

01:30:21.410 --> 01:30:28.783
- Yes, so currently we have six trustee and food pantry community locations that are interested in partnering

01:30:28.783 --> 01:30:35.747
- with us to be able to provide these mobile health outreach services. So I have a list here that we've

01:30:35.747 --> 01:30:42.779
- been working on collecting this information for where are these partnerships where we could go out and

01:30:42.779 --> 01:30:47.422
- provide them. So the Benton, Bloomington trustee, Perry, Van Buren,

01:30:47.810 --> 01:30:54.604
- the community kitchen pantry 279. So those are all current facilities that we're working with where

01:30:54.604 --> 01:31:01.873
- we could actually have this mobile unit out providing those services. In addition, we did have a community

01:31:01.873 --> 01:31:09.075
- survey that went out in the fall of 2025 trying to gather information from community members about what's

01:31:09.075 --> 01:31:14.782
- really, what do they see the importance of the services that we could be providing.

01:31:14.914 --> 01:31:22.007
- Access to vaccinations kept routinely coming up, communicable disease and infectious disease control,

01:31:22.007 --> 01:31:29.309
- emergency preparedness. So those types of activities are the ones that would we would really be focusing

01:31:29.309 --> 01:31:36.958
- on providing with this having this mobile unit. So we would be able to go out and provide those vaccinations.

01:31:37.058 --> 01:31:44.234
- testing for communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases treatment referrals. And it would be

01:31:44.234 --> 01:31:51.267
- really nice to also be able to have this that we could deploy if we had a surge with, for example,

01:31:51.267 --> 01:31:58.514
- tuberculosis. And we needed to go provide testing for hundreds of individuals. It's going to be a lot

01:31:58.514 --> 01:32:04.766
- easier to have a unit like this, to be able to go to another site rather than trying to

01:32:04.962 --> 01:32:13.089
- get a few hundred people into the health department, given our limitations there with parking and access.

01:32:13.089 --> 01:32:20.987
- The organizations that are on your list, did you just, you didn't just pick those like on Google Maps,

01:32:20.987 --> 01:32:28.654
- like those are actual conversations you're having with community partners that want this service at

01:32:28.654 --> 01:32:34.558
- their location. Am I understanding that correctly? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes.

01:32:34.690 --> 01:32:41.454
- So with that in mind, you mentioned some of the townships, but could I could we assume that you'll be

01:32:41.454 --> 01:32:48.218
- working with all the townships? Yes. So we've put out it's just a matter of what communications we've

01:32:48.218 --> 01:32:55.247
- got back thus far. So I have someone that's working on communicating to find facilities and then working.

01:32:55.247 --> 01:32:59.358
- So they're all kind of in different stages. Councillor Hawke.

01:33:00.482 --> 01:33:09.457
- Yes, I'm really happy to hear that the plan is to go to the different townships and so forth because

01:33:09.457 --> 01:33:18.433
- especially Van Buren's got a lovely place for you to go and provide those services. You really don't

01:33:18.433 --> 01:33:27.319
- need a mobile unit to do that. But I'm glad that you're working with the community. But once again,

01:33:27.319 --> 01:33:28.830
- for some reason,

01:33:29.090 --> 01:33:38.962
- I must have misunderstood what Councilmember Iverson was saying. This Health 1159, that's in that frozen

01:33:38.962 --> 01:33:48.553
- levy fund, right? 1159 is local property taxes. And while this was like sort of a one-time additional

01:33:48.553 --> 01:33:53.630
- dollars that the state had sent in, and at that time,

01:33:53.730 --> 01:34:01.062
- They had suggested since we're not going to be providing these extra dollars every year, you might want

01:34:01.062 --> 01:34:08.183
- to consider doing just for one time that it was not required to do just the one time thing. And it's

01:34:08.183 --> 01:34:15.233
- sitting there in that frozen levy so that it could literally be used to help shore up that fund for

01:34:15.233 --> 01:34:21.790
- while we're trying because remember that fund is going to be covered under that one point to

01:34:22.434 --> 01:34:30.921
- All of that is going to be coming into the 1.2. In other words, we're still going to have property tax,

01:34:30.921 --> 01:34:39.407
- but that's going to be dwindling. It's not going to grow like it has in the past. And so a half million

01:34:39.407 --> 01:34:47.812
- dollars could really help us over that extra dollars that we spent this year. We budgeted for spending

01:34:47.812 --> 01:34:52.382
- this year that's more than we were spending in deficit.

01:34:52.546 --> 01:35:00.853
- So I don't see anything here that's been budgeted for operational costs of a mobile facility, what the

01:35:00.853 --> 01:35:09.483
- insurance is going to be, what the gas is going to be, where it's going to be stored, all of those things.

01:35:09.483 --> 01:35:17.791
- And this is just like opening up a brand new business. If you were going to have a brand new business,

01:35:17.791 --> 01:35:19.646
- you would have to have

01:35:19.778 --> 01:35:27.787
- operational costs included. So I can't support this. I don't know how it got in there. I thought we

01:35:27.787 --> 01:35:36.197
- all had sort of agreed that this was not the time to do this, but maybe we're going forward. I can speak

01:35:36.197 --> 01:35:44.446
- a little bit to the core services and, you know, those required services. You know, although that that

01:35:44.706 --> 01:35:52.358
- We had a pretty significant cut to Health First Indiana, but we are still required to be providing all

01:35:52.358 --> 01:35:59.788
- of those services with those Health First Indiana dollars. Our state funds are essentially covering

01:35:59.788 --> 01:36:07.515
- to make sure, but so I think that that's, we can't just not provide these Health First Indiana services

01:36:07.515 --> 01:36:13.310
- because we have to make sure that even those funds were cut, that we're still

01:36:13.442 --> 01:36:23.932
- meeting those requirements. Some questions have been raised about whether or not we should be treating

01:36:23.932 --> 01:36:34.218
- public health like a business. And I want to push back a little bit on that because I think if we're

01:36:34.218 --> 01:36:42.366
- going to be fully focused on building a car surreal building, that's one thing.

01:36:43.458 --> 01:36:50.367
- But we have to be a little more broader in how we're thinking in providing different services. And so

01:36:50.367 --> 01:36:57.141
- I also wanted to bring up another point. I think that what wasn't raised is that the folks that are

01:36:57.141 --> 01:37:04.253
- going to be working on this mobile unit are already on staff. There's no request from you to fill vacant

01:37:04.253 --> 01:37:11.434
- positions. That's my understanding. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. So we have the staff to provide

01:37:11.434 --> 01:37:12.382
- the services.

01:37:12.450 --> 01:37:19.589
- I did gather some information to just about just services in general. We're talking about access to

01:37:19.589 --> 01:37:26.870
- free public health services. So the Indiana University in Indianapolis recently conducted a study and

01:37:26.870 --> 01:37:34.294
- this was examining improved service delivery under Health First Indiana. So essentially all of the data

01:37:34.294 --> 01:37:39.934
- all of the core services that all of the health departments were submitting to

01:37:40.034 --> 01:37:50.622
- to the state during the initial startup period. So this study revealed that over 14,000 Hoosiers

01:37:50.722 --> 01:37:58.962
- undiagnosed hypertension high blood pressure were identified and nearly seven thousand Hoosiers were

01:37:58.962 --> 01:38:07.121
- identified with undiagnosed high cholesterol. So these were all due to free health screenings being

01:38:07.121 --> 01:38:11.934
- out and available to the community. So this study ended up

01:38:12.034 --> 01:38:19.367
- with estimated over $700 million in healthcare cost savings due to these preventative health screenings.

01:38:19.367 --> 01:38:26.490
- So this mobile unit is really going to give us this opportunity to be able to engage with more people

01:38:26.490 --> 01:38:33.822
- than we can currently engage with in our department and help to be able to contribute to how can we help

01:38:34.178 --> 01:38:41.341
- find those undiagnosed chronic conditions through free screening and testing interventions and connect

01:38:41.341 --> 01:38:48.434
- those individuals to care. Yes, counselor vital. So I heard counselor Hawk talk about the operational

01:38:48.434 --> 01:38:55.527
- expenses. I guess I'm wondering to follow up on that and ask where will the gasoline money come from?

01:38:55.527 --> 01:39:02.550
- Where will the insurance money come from? What happens if you break down? Where are all those things

01:39:02.550 --> 01:39:03.454
- coming from?

01:39:04.066 --> 01:39:11.246
- So we do have funds from our revenue or from what we're getting from like fax care so we do receive

01:39:11.246 --> 01:39:18.427
- some funding through that which would help cover these ongoing expenses and really the hope is that

01:39:18.427 --> 01:39:25.679
- we would still continue getting some of that revenue through what we're billing for anyways and this

01:39:25.679 --> 01:39:31.710
- is just from like our vaccine program and the services that we could bill for if we

01:39:32.130 --> 01:39:40.128
- are able to get a position for that. Otherwise I think it will just change from year to year. So we

01:39:40.128 --> 01:39:48.607
- did have we did talk to Ivy Tech last year about being able to store the facility there. My understanding

01:39:48.607 --> 01:39:51.006
- is that facilities has spoken

01:39:51.170 --> 01:39:57.959
- to the airport about being able to store the unit there. I did collect information from other health

01:39:57.959 --> 01:40:04.747
- departments across the state that have a mobile unit who are routinely going out about some of their

01:40:04.747 --> 01:40:11.872
- ongoing costs. Again, this was last fall, so I don't have all those numbers in the top of my head. That's

01:40:11.872 --> 01:40:17.854
- why I sent you copies of that old proposal, because some of those figures were in there.

01:40:20.194 --> 01:40:30.244
- I think it's completely manageable and from the other counties that I've talked to, they've had really

01:40:30.244 --> 01:40:40.294
- good success. Any other questions or comments from? Yes, Councilor Hawk. Right. I would think it would

01:40:40.294 --> 01:40:45.758
- be not that difficult to get a quote for the insurance.

01:40:46.946 --> 01:40:54.837
- I think it's asking too much and I know I have a business head, but you know, I hope we all do. That's

01:40:54.837 --> 01:41:02.804
- what we're doing here is looking at finding. But any rate, I'm not gonna support it, but I'm sorry that

01:41:02.804 --> 01:41:10.695
- you didn't have ready for us the answers to those questions because we've asked you before. All right,

01:41:10.695 --> 01:41:16.670
- anybody else? Yes, Councilor Henry. Thank you, thank you for coming in again.

01:41:17.154 --> 01:41:23.588
- I was looking at the survey data. I think what I'm trying to understand, there's a strong case to do

01:41:23.588 --> 01:41:29.958
- it. We've got strong partners in the community. We've got some locations we've scoped. The data you

01:41:29.958 --> 01:41:36.647
- had, there were 46 respondents that said that out of 310 that they had aged the public health department

01:41:36.647 --> 01:41:43.272
- in some way. There's percentages here, but I wanted to think about humans. And so 25 of those presented

01:41:43.272 --> 01:41:45.310
- at the brick and mortar clinic.

01:41:45.474 --> 01:41:53.666
- out of the 46% of that. 19 at a public event, I guess, where they would have engaged the desk somewhere,

01:41:53.666 --> 01:42:01.781
- the tent or table. And six at a work or school, I guess, presentation or the health department's there.

01:42:01.781 --> 01:42:09.583
- But what, I mean, so if the van is out and it goes to a part of the community, there's advertising,

01:42:09.583 --> 01:42:13.406
- there's hopefully some lead time with community,

01:42:14.274 --> 01:42:19.504
- Let folks know the van's going to be here for vaccination day. Like how do you envision those numbers

01:42:19.504 --> 01:42:24.940
- going up? Because if it's like, and I know it's like a survey response. So do you have like a good handle

01:42:24.940 --> 01:42:30.170
- on the number of people that have used the clinic historically, right? The brick and mortar. And then

01:42:30.170 --> 01:42:35.246
- what we think that impact is going to be taking the vehicle out to the four corners of the county.

01:42:35.246 --> 01:42:40.528
- I mean, it's a good idea. I'm just trying to wrap my head around some of this and trying to get to the

01:42:40.528 --> 01:42:41.502
- obvious, you know,

01:42:41.730 --> 01:42:48.534
- public health as a business versus what that means moving the vehicle. Can you help me understand that

01:42:48.534 --> 01:42:55.140
- a little? Sure. So ultimately our goal would be to see some of those numbers increase with engaging

01:42:55.140 --> 01:43:02.143
- with the community members. I think the challenge here is these answers were coming from when the nursing

01:43:02.143 --> 01:43:08.947
- services were provided through the Miller Drive Clinic. So I think that that's going to be kind of one

01:43:08.947 --> 01:43:10.334
- of the challenges of

01:43:10.498 --> 01:43:17.952
- the data that we're able to capture now and moving forward versus that data that was more, that was

01:43:17.952 --> 01:43:26.003
- reflective of the IU Health Services. Do you have a ballpark? Like, I mean, because out of 310 respondents,

01:43:26.003 --> 01:43:34.128
- 46 said that they've used the County Health Department for anything. And then there's a split over in-person

01:43:34.128 --> 01:43:38.750
- or, I mean, do you have a sense of what that could look like?

01:43:39.042 --> 01:43:46.846
- I mean, definitely it would be nice to be able to increase that to at least 60% engaging with us. Well,

01:43:46.846 --> 01:43:54.349
- thank you. Thank you for, yeah, I mean, I know it's spitballing, but yeah, thank you for helping. I

01:43:54.349 --> 01:44:02.003
- think it would be helpful, too, the more that we can get the word out and the services and being able

01:44:02.003 --> 01:44:08.606
- to have this unit to make ourselves more visible, to be able to show up to more places,

01:44:09.122 --> 01:44:17.420
- just make that a little bit easier. Thank you. Than having to ask people to come to us at the Seventh

01:44:17.420 --> 01:44:25.799
- Street location. I was reading the comments and the feedback that was in our packet and there was some

01:44:25.799 --> 01:44:34.260
- real interesting ones in there as well. Oh boy. So but the one thing that somebody did say that in this

01:44:34.260 --> 01:44:37.758
- conversation is kind of making me think of

01:44:37.922 --> 01:44:45.305
- This question is, because this is something that you keep saying in terms of getting the word out, getting

01:44:45.305 --> 01:44:52.344
- the word out, what do you envision that looks like? What would that entail? What would we need to do,

01:44:52.344 --> 01:44:59.244
- or what would the health department need to do? The council could support whatever the case is. But

01:44:59.244 --> 01:45:06.421
- I'm curious to know your thoughts on how do we get the word out about something like this? Because this

01:45:06.421 --> 01:45:07.870
- is a big investment.

01:45:08.450 --> 01:45:17.101
- It seems like a lot of people would benefit from it and people like the idea of this. But I'm just I'm

01:45:17.101 --> 01:45:25.752
- curious to know if we don't get the word out. That's a lot that is invested in something that's really

01:45:25.752 --> 01:45:33.646
- not living to to its potential. So I think we would really need to have a structured campaign

01:45:33.646 --> 01:45:36.670
- plan communications plan. So in the

01:45:36.770 --> 01:45:43.643
- old proposal there are some ideas about different strategies of communicating this message but essentially

01:45:43.643 --> 01:45:50.067
- what are those can we work with the different universities how can we work with the city how can we

01:45:50.067 --> 01:45:53.086
- work with our local community organizations so

01:45:53.570 --> 01:46:03.412
- above and beyond just messaging through social media. So I have contacted employee resources. Is there

01:46:03.412 --> 01:46:12.967
- a way that we could look at mailers? Are there radio advertisements? What are the different methods

01:46:12.967 --> 01:46:21.758
- of being able to communicate this and use that more than just our website and social media?

01:46:22.082 --> 01:46:31.926
- But I'll ask, is there anybody on your staff that could help assist with this as well? Yes. So our Director

01:46:31.926 --> 01:46:41.041
- of Public Health Preparedness handles our external communications and all of our messaging. So this

01:46:41.041 --> 01:46:50.156
- person could be working on that and is really excellent at doing that work and very creative. Okay.

01:46:50.156 --> 01:46:51.614
- Thank you. Yes.

01:46:52.226 --> 01:47:00.428
- The question I wondered about hours of operation for people utilize that it seems like we need to work

01:47:00.428 --> 01:47:08.392
- around their working hours. I don't know strategy for that. Yes. And so in one of our one of one of

01:47:08.392 --> 01:47:16.515
- the expectations for our state funding is that we do offer hours outside of our normal business hours

01:47:16.515 --> 01:47:21.054
- for access to these services. So this would be going and

01:47:21.250 --> 01:47:28.412
- providing services for a half day on a Saturday once a month, having some evening hours once a month

01:47:28.412 --> 01:47:35.573
- at a certain location. And of course, you have to adjust employee schedules around that. And we have

01:47:35.573 --> 01:47:42.806
- been working on that and looking at different ways to make some flexibility there for providing that.

01:47:42.806 --> 01:47:50.038
- But essentially, it would be set days, times, locations. But outside of those normal hours, again, to

01:47:50.038 --> 01:47:51.102
- also help just

01:47:51.202 --> 01:48:03.726
- capture those who can't stop by because they're working Monday through Friday. So how long will this

01:48:03.726 --> 01:48:16.498
- program last? The services you mean through the mobile clinics? Well, as long as I'm here and have the

01:48:16.498 --> 01:48:18.110
- opportunity.

01:48:18.690 --> 01:48:25.103
- I appreciate very much some of your comments here. And I think last time this was before us, one of

01:48:25.103 --> 01:48:31.581
- the reference points I made is that whenever they started the Bookmobile, it probably was alien-like

01:48:31.581 --> 01:48:38.123
- for people, but then became a regular feature. I mean, I look out my back window over at Country View

01:48:38.123 --> 01:48:44.600
- Apartments right there. The green thing out there, that's the Bookmobile. It's now recognizable. But

01:48:44.600 --> 01:48:47.358
- that's taken, I would say, since 60s, 70s.

01:48:47.810 --> 01:48:55.780
- I think I remember that. But anyway, if this were working right, ideally that would be the kind of thing

01:48:55.780 --> 01:49:03.598
- that somebody would see either in Trustee Barrow's parking lot or they'd see it down at the Smithville

01:49:03.598 --> 01:49:11.264
- ballpark or wherever the township thinks that you could go there. If it were working right, it would

01:49:11.264 --> 01:49:12.478
- look like that.

01:49:12.674 --> 01:49:18.892
- I think that a lot of the comments that I'm seeing here kind of reflect a sentiment we hear on health

01:49:18.892 --> 01:49:25.415
- matters generally. People don't have time to figure all these things out. They don't have the convenience,

01:49:25.415 --> 01:49:31.755
- particularly if you're dealing with a health issue, they don't have the convenience to figure that out.

01:49:31.755 --> 01:49:37.790
- Health is kind of a tortured process anyway. And I think that between this, Health Net, IU Health,

01:49:37.954 --> 01:49:45.325
- what's offered by IU Health, not offered by IU Health, and our second hospital, Monroe Hospital, along

01:49:45.325 --> 01:49:52.910
- with a whole lot of other folks, I think that that information about all of this, almost in a directional

01:49:52.910 --> 01:50:00.066
- way, almost has to hit not only social media, but a almost like leaflet campaign that somehow we're

01:50:00.066 --> 01:50:07.294
- gonna get out. Somehow we elected officials managed to get our mail pieces and door pieces at doors,

01:50:07.458 --> 01:50:14.301
- don't always get basic services and maybe we help you with that. I don't know. But I think that that

01:50:14.301 --> 01:50:21.077
- has to hit. And then the third thing is for all those students across that gate or even on the west

01:50:21.077 --> 01:50:26.430
- side of this county at Ivy Tech, this is a tremendous opportunity to assist us

01:50:26.530 --> 01:50:33.539
- in a project on helping to figure out how to get the word out, because these things just literally become

01:50:33.539 --> 01:50:40.218
- community mysteries that only add to the haves and have nots. And I do think, Lori, I agree with you

01:50:40.218 --> 01:50:47.227
- immensely on something. Everything being downtown within a stone's throw of this courthouse is not always

01:50:47.227 --> 01:50:54.302
- reaching people where they're at. How, I don't know, presumptuous of us that we would think that it would.

01:50:54.754 --> 01:51:01.431
- It's hard to sometimes get downtown for folks. Sometimes it's easier for others. But I think that things

01:51:01.431 --> 01:51:07.790
- that start meeting them where they're at truly make absolute sense because, you know, one thing you

01:51:07.790 --> 01:51:14.404
- do realize when you run for office in this county and you start delivering yard signs border to border,

01:51:14.404 --> 01:51:15.358
- it's a massive

01:51:15.682 --> 01:51:22.359
- County with a lot of people doing a lot of cool things in different ways. I think somehow our services

01:51:22.359 --> 01:51:29.101
- have to penetrate that, not just when people are putting out yard signs, but when it matters when we're

01:51:29.101 --> 01:51:35.714
- serving. For me, I could see this going that route. Is there additional information that we will need

01:51:35.714 --> 01:51:40.446
- on this? Yeah, 100 percent, but good Lord, look at the survey responses.

01:51:40.994 --> 01:51:46.997
- These are well thought out survey responses which you don't often see. I say that as a teacher reading

01:51:46.997 --> 01:51:53.175
- online course questionnaire answers. These are really well thought out and people are consistently saying

01:51:53.175 --> 01:51:59.178
- they don't know everything we do or they're surprised that we do or they really need it but would like

01:51:59.178 --> 01:52:05.123
- to know this. They want good calls back and they want good reliable information. I think that somehow

01:52:05.123 --> 01:52:07.454
- there's a lot of food for thought here.

01:52:07.714 --> 01:52:15.442
- And so I hope some of my comments kind of add to that, but we got to meet people where they're at in

01:52:15.442 --> 01:52:23.094
- their roughest time. And I think that hearing about the roughest time right there. And so I can add

01:52:23.094 --> 01:52:31.282
- just a little bit because you made me kind of think of some previous conversations with Indiana University

01:52:31.282 --> 01:52:34.878
- that just ongoing conversations, they've known

01:52:35.042 --> 01:52:42.176
- you know, how much we've wanted these services. They have programs that are really focused on, you know,

01:52:42.176 --> 01:52:48.970
- student engagements. We've had a lot of conversations about how can we work with them. They're data

01:52:48.970 --> 01:52:56.240
- collecting experts, right, research experts. How can we create, how can we work together so we can collect

01:52:56.240 --> 01:53:03.102
- data so that they can help us demonstrate our outcomes and maybe where we need to make improvements.

01:53:03.394 --> 01:53:11.485
- how can we engage our students? I love nothing more than when we have the opportunity to work with students.

01:53:11.485 --> 01:53:18.462
- We haven't had an intern or an extern for a few months and it's kind of sad. It's so, it's so

01:53:18.658 --> 01:53:25.163
- It's such a great experience when you're able to bring students into the department, show them all of

01:53:25.163 --> 01:53:31.668
- the services that we are providing, see them learn, grow, and develop. And so I think that that would

01:53:31.668 --> 01:53:38.046
- be a really important aspect of this too, being able to how can we work and also bring our students

01:53:38.046 --> 01:53:44.551
- into this and work with the university to be able to collect data so that we can actually demonstrate

01:53:44.551 --> 01:53:47.166
- the outcomes from having these services.

01:53:52.002 --> 01:54:02.140
- Do you see this actually being an appointment driven model or just drive up and park and be there certain

01:54:02.140 --> 01:54:11.895
- hours or both? Both. Councilor Wilts? A couple of just tiny questions. Did you mention in the list of

01:54:11.895 --> 01:54:18.398
- places you might go? Not in this most recent list, but it was we've

01:54:18.562 --> 01:54:29.407
- talked with the schools before about working with their nursing programs and their students and being

01:54:29.407 --> 01:54:40.358
- able to coordinate for health fairs. So I see that your target audiences, you have a list of like five

01:54:40.358 --> 01:54:46.206
- there. And I'm wondering, you know, if trying to reach

01:54:46.658 --> 01:54:57.187
- unhoused or the older population and some of these other hard to access. I'm going to guess and maybe

01:54:57.187 --> 01:55:08.335
- you can correct me that the survey did not go to these populations. So really there's a bit of a disconnect

01:55:08.335 --> 01:55:15.870
- there that you know it is what it is. But I would think that it would be

01:55:16.258 --> 01:55:26.588
- useful to try to get more information from the target audience specifically, and whether it's direct

01:55:26.588 --> 01:55:36.917
- or maybe going through agencies or organizations who are interfacing with those populations. However

01:55:36.917 --> 01:55:45.406
- you get at it, I think obviously doing a community survey is fantastic, but I find

01:55:46.434 --> 01:55:53.870
- in my day job that when you do that, it's often not exactly the information that the target population

01:55:53.870 --> 01:56:01.234
- would give you. Just a thought. Absolutely. There's definitely ways that we wish and that we know now

01:56:01.234 --> 01:56:08.598
- this year of how we can, and this was a very short time period, so we had, did we have paper forms in

01:56:08.598 --> 01:56:14.302
- the office for people walked, when they walked in, sure, but you know, really,

01:56:14.402 --> 01:56:21.348
- you're exactly right, it would be about getting it out to those community organizations and really being

01:56:21.348 --> 01:56:27.963
- able to capture all that information, maybe having listening sessions in various formats to be able

01:56:27.963 --> 01:56:34.645
- to capture the information. It could be something that McKeck could help with, because I know you've

01:56:34.645 --> 01:56:37.886
- been involved with them, or an IU class as well.

01:56:40.258 --> 01:56:50.742
- Thank you. Thank you for walking us through that. That triggers a question. You purchased the van and

01:56:50.742 --> 01:56:59.582
- then we do the data collection to figure out the demand? I just want to capture that.

01:57:00.322 --> 01:57:06.687
- I think so I think that we work off of the community partnerships that we've already started working

01:57:06.687 --> 01:57:12.988
- on and engaging and we're always going to be adapting and evolving and changing direction with what

01:57:12.988 --> 01:57:19.353
- our community needs are and what we're finding. You know our community health assessments done every

01:57:19.353 --> 01:57:25.717
- three three years for example. So that'll be coming up in twenty twenty seven. But this is a this is

01:57:25.717 --> 01:57:29.246
- a survey that's a little bit different but I think it's

01:57:30.466 --> 01:57:36.847
- In public health, you're always going to be changing and kind of going down a different direction. I

01:57:36.847 --> 01:57:43.481
- get that part against the core services, and I don't want to belabor this, but when I look at the survey

01:57:43.481 --> 01:57:50.114
- results, I'd say high propensity for vaccination, infectious disease prevention, STI testing. I remember

01:57:50.114 --> 01:57:55.358
- when the health officer was here, she talked about the capacity of the van to have

01:57:57.154 --> 01:58:04.090
- I guess a chair with stirrups and a bed. She had some thoughts about other equipment in the vehicle

01:58:04.090 --> 01:58:11.027
- that isn't captured in the survey, but then isn't captured from maybe the target population either.

01:58:11.027 --> 01:58:18.379
- I might just be deep into this at this point, but I'm just trying to understand what the van does against

01:58:18.379 --> 01:58:25.662
- what the data says, against what the demand is. Does that make sense? It does, but our focus would be on

01:58:25.858 --> 01:58:35.469
- service-wise would be testing, screenings, vaccinations, referrals. Thanks for that. Thank you. It looks

01:58:35.469 --> 01:58:42.974
- like the auditor had her hand up. Would you like to look at the 4B for this fund?

01:58:57.826 --> 01:59:05.084
- Based on the budget that was approved during the budget sessions, we are slated to end this fund at

01:59:05.084 --> 01:59:12.342
- the end of this year with $467,446. That is if all of our estimated revenue and the budgeted amount

01:59:12.342 --> 01:59:19.745
- is fully expended as it was when the budget was approved. We appropriated for this when we did it. We

01:59:19.745 --> 01:59:25.406
- made the appropriation, didn't we? Yes. Okay. Thanks. That's good. Thank you.

01:59:27.714 --> 01:59:35.816
- Yes, I think what we looked at was this is one of the funds that we're going to have to add more money

01:59:35.816 --> 01:59:43.996
- into from that frozen levy because this fund has been spent down too far and we moved some of the money

01:59:43.996 --> 01:59:51.861
- around to cover what we need to cover in general and we've got to take from general and put it back

01:59:51.861 --> 01:59:56.030
- into these other funds. Am I stating that correctly?

01:59:57.442 --> 02:00:05.475
- You are this is a fund that has had reversions and just based on that trend We were able to reduce the

02:00:05.475 --> 02:00:13.431
- levy a little bit Right, but but aren't you? We were told that we can count on when we do budgets for

02:00:13.431 --> 02:00:21.464
- this coming year That we will have to put more money in there than we did this year Which means if you

02:00:21.464 --> 02:00:25.598
- do more for there, you've got to do less for general

02:00:27.810 --> 02:00:33.658
- I mean, I'm just saying that's what we did. And so if we didn't do this mobile unit, that would leave

02:00:33.658 --> 02:00:39.620
- enough cash in the balance when you do the 4B to help them get through next year a little bit. It would

02:00:39.620 --> 02:00:45.353
- just help us get through this budget time. But you know what? We've talked this thing to death. I'm

02:00:45.353 --> 02:00:51.144
- ready to vote. Councilor Iverson? I agree. So when you do get this vehicle, would you let us know so

02:00:51.144 --> 02:00:55.902
- we can go out with your staff? I would absolutely love to put you to work. Thanks.

02:00:58.722 --> 02:01:09.378
- All right, so I will go to public comment. So public comment, if you have something to say on this item,

02:01:09.378 --> 02:01:19.527
- you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none,

02:01:19.527 --> 02:01:27.646
- maybe please have a roll call. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes.

02:01:28.450 --> 02:01:37.708
- Councillor Hawke? No. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Dick? Yes. Motion passes

02:01:37.708 --> 02:01:46.610
- majority six to one. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Next up is item B from the highway

02:01:46.610 --> 02:01:47.678
- department.

02:01:48.610 --> 02:01:56.224
- Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the Highway Department's request to

02:01:56.224 --> 02:02:04.371
- be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1176-00001 part-time maintenance laborer.

02:02:04.371 --> 02:02:12.366
- Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. And it looks like Ms. Ridge, oh, okay, so she is there.

02:02:12.366 --> 02:02:14.270
- I wasn't sure if she was

02:02:14.434 --> 02:02:24.049
- or made it to presenter yet. But since you have, you can go ahead and get started. Hello. Good evening.

02:02:24.049 --> 02:02:33.480
- So we have a full-time employee that is going to stop working full-time. So we are requesting to move

02:02:33.480 --> 02:02:42.910
- this employee to a part-time position that is open. We have it in our approved budget for a part-time

02:02:43.266 --> 02:02:51.012
- line and we would not be filling the full-time position at this time. He's a great employee. He actually

02:02:51.012 --> 02:02:58.831
- retired from the county after 30 plus years of service, came back to us in this full-time labor position,

02:02:58.831 --> 02:03:06.429
- maintenance, and we'd like to bring him back just as a part-time hourly, no more than 28 hours a week,

02:03:06.429 --> 02:03:12.478
- and then not fill the full-time position, which should be a cost savings overall.

02:03:16.994 --> 02:03:25.123
- just can't stay away. Exactly. Any questions or comments on this item from council? All right.

02:03:25.123 --> 02:03:33.766
- Seeing none, we'll take public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward

02:03:33.766 --> 02:03:42.323
- to the lectern here in the room or you can raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please

02:03:42.323 --> 02:03:46.430
- have a roll call vote. Councillor Iverson? Yes.

02:03:48.162 --> 02:03:56.744
- Councillor Hawke. Yes. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor

02:03:56.744 --> 02:04:05.408
- Crossley. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Next up item C. Council, I move to approve the highway

02:04:05.408 --> 02:04:13.745
- department's request and fund 1112-0530 economic development lit highway to de-appropriate $1 million

02:04:13.745 --> 02:04:15.870
- in the services category.

02:04:17.698 --> 02:04:24.642
- All right, we got a motion in the second, Ms. Ridge. This is just basically some housekeeping work.

02:04:24.642 --> 02:04:31.656
- We had included this in our paperwork, I think, last month, and we all just overlooked at getting on

02:04:31.656 --> 02:04:38.878
- the agenda to de-appropriate it. We've already moved the funds and created the line in the CCMG account

02:04:38.878 --> 02:04:42.558
- for tracking purposes. So just to de-appropriate it.

02:04:45.250 --> 02:04:55.544
- Any questions or comments from council on this item? Seeing none, we'll move to public comment. You

02:04:55.544 --> 02:05:06.455
- can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. Seeing none, may we please

02:05:06.455 --> 02:05:15.102
- have a roll call vote? Councillor Fein. Yes. Councillor Hawk. Yes. Councillor Wilk.

02:05:15.298 --> 02:05:25.029
- Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous.

02:05:25.029 --> 02:05:34.210
- Thank you. A couple of items from the auditor's office again, starting with item D. Council, I move

02:05:34.210 --> 02:05:43.390
- to approve the auditor's request and fund 4922-0000 Fullerton Pike Economic Development slash TIFF.

02:05:43.682 --> 02:05:52.325
- the creation of account line 32751, interest other debt, and account line 32776, principal other debt,

02:05:52.325 --> 02:06:00.801
- and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of $300,001 in the services category. Second.

02:06:00.801 --> 02:06:07.934
- All right, we got a motion and a second, Ms. Gregor. Or Ms. Woodruff. Whichever one.

02:06:09.826 --> 02:06:16.766
- We received word from FSG that the county's redevelopment commission pledged 50% of the Fullerton Pike

02:06:16.766 --> 02:06:23.638
- area TIF to the 2023 county bridge payments. So in order to make these payments, we're requesting the

02:06:23.638 --> 02:06:30.645
- appropriation in that fund just to carry out their wishes. Thank you. Any questions or comments on this

02:06:30.645 --> 02:06:37.517
- item from council? Yes, council I understand. How many years is that bond payment? Is that a 20 year?

02:06:37.517 --> 02:06:39.134
- I can get that for you.

02:06:39.394 --> 02:06:48.641
- No hurry. You can email is fine. I believe it is but we'll get it to you. Email is fine. Any other questions

02:06:48.641 --> 02:06:57.379
- or comments on this item? Seeing none, we'll move to public comment. You can raise your hand via Teams

02:06:57.379 --> 02:07:06.626
- or come forward to the lectern in the room. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor

02:07:06.626 --> 02:07:09.086
- Hock? Yes. Councillor Wilts?

02:07:10.018 --> 02:07:20.844
- Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Fiddle.

02:07:20.844 --> 02:07:26.206
- Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Great. Next up item E.

02:07:26.754 --> 02:07:33.094
- Council I move to approve the auditor's request and fund 1000 dash zero zero zero two county general

02:07:33.094 --> 02:07:39.937
- auditor the creation of account line three three zero zero one timber sales distributions and Simultaneously

02:07:39.937 --> 02:07:46.340
- appropriate an additional appropriation of twenty five thousand seven hundred and nineteen dollars in

02:07:46.340 --> 02:07:49.918
- this services category Okay, we got a motion in a second

02:07:52.418 --> 02:08:01.676
- We received $51,437.97 from the Department of Natural Resources. This is 15% of the net proceeds from

02:08:01.676 --> 02:08:08.574
- timber sales in the county. Statute says that we are required to distribute

02:08:08.834 --> 02:08:17.046
- 50 percent of this to certain fire districts. And so we have the Beam Blossom Township Fire District,

02:08:17.046 --> 02:08:25.499
- the Bloomington Fire District and Ellisville and then Monroe Fire Protection District. All four of those

02:08:25.499 --> 02:08:31.134
- are expected to get equal payment amounts. Statute does also say that

02:08:31.362 --> 02:08:39.371
- We are capped at $1,000 per unit unless the commissioners approve otherwise. I believe they have intention

02:08:39.371 --> 02:08:47.156
- to approve, give that approval at a meeting later this month or early next month. Questions or comments

02:08:47.156 --> 02:08:54.866
- from council on this item? Yes, councilor. This message is for Ms. Turner King. Do we need to make our

02:08:54.866 --> 02:08:59.806
- motion conditional then on a commissioner action or is the motion

02:09:00.354 --> 02:09:13.209
- find the way it is. I think it's safe to make it conditional. Okay. All right. Council, I do amend my

02:09:13.209 --> 02:09:25.056
- motion to make it conditional on Monroe County Board of Commissioners action. Okay. Seconded.

02:09:25.056 --> 02:09:27.198
- Thank you. Okay.

02:09:29.986 --> 02:09:47.010
- received $51,000. So my question is, what happened? Where's that going to go? That money was deposited

02:09:47.010 --> 02:09:57.918
- into County General. Okay, so it's just County General, it's like

02:10:04.002 --> 02:10:12.166
- this is something that the dollar amount is what the commissioners have said that they, we believe this

02:10:12.166 --> 02:10:20.017
- is what they want? I did receive confirmation from the administrator that they do intend to approve

02:10:20.017 --> 02:10:28.181
- that. Again, that wasn't directly from the commissioners. That's just from their administrator. I mean,

02:10:28.181 --> 02:10:32.734
- they might possibly say we'll distribute all of it to the

02:10:35.714 --> 02:10:55.166
- However, I'm going to support that. Oh, I mean, but you're just going by what they're straighter said, not.

02:10:57.570 --> 02:11:07.234
- Correct, and I don't believe the statute would automatically distribute that. The statute's very clear

02:11:07.234 --> 02:11:17.367
- and it says that we're required to give 50%, but then also puts that cap at $1,000 unless the commissioners

02:11:17.367 --> 02:11:26.750
- allow for the 50%. I mean, so it is up to the commissioners. Correct. Got it. Yes, Councilor Wilts.

02:11:27.202 --> 02:11:36.302
- I apologize if you've told me this, but I'm learning that I didn't read everything that was in the pack.

02:11:36.302 --> 02:11:45.055
- Do you know where this timber harvest took place? That is information I did not receive. I know that

02:11:45.055 --> 02:11:53.982
- it was a while back that we communicated via email about this and then it kind of wandered through the

02:11:53.982 --> 02:11:56.062
- county getting figures.

02:11:59.842 --> 02:12:10.315
- There's just, you know, limited state forested areas within Monroe County. I believe Morgan County also

02:12:10.315 --> 02:12:20.686
- got this money. So I would assume it's the Morgan Monroe State Forestry, but that is a pure assumption

02:12:20.686 --> 02:12:25.822
- based on conversation that I had with that county.

02:12:29.410 --> 02:12:39.225
- I would have to assume as well, because I don't think Yellowwood has even harvested anything. Sorry.

02:12:39.225 --> 02:12:48.943
- Councilor Decker. One question I had, I'm struggling institutionally to just to remember us dealing

02:12:48.943 --> 02:12:58.078
- with this in the last few years, but I may be really wrong on that. Do you all remember much?

02:12:59.202 --> 02:13:07.349
- Whenever I looked at the ledger, I believe it was 22 or 23 that was the last time we received these

02:13:07.349 --> 02:13:15.903
- kind of funds. And we did distribute the full 50% at that time. Well, I just, I think for the own public

02:13:15.903 --> 02:13:24.213
- good on our end, just kind of acknowledging that a lot of us get fired up one way or the other. I did

02:13:24.213 --> 02:13:27.390
- not mean to say it that way, but about

02:13:27.970 --> 02:13:35.147
- There's I've heard from constituents both sides who does it when they do it, why they're doing it. And

02:13:35.147 --> 02:13:42.811
- so just the I'm struggling to remember us talking about it. And I'm just wondering if this is just indicative

02:13:42.811 --> 02:13:50.128
- of the larger numbers that have come through. But that's me misremembering. Yes, Councillor Hock. Right.

02:13:50.128 --> 02:13:57.374
- It would be lovely if we found out that the commissioners are going to use the other half of the money.

02:13:57.570 --> 02:14:07.445
- for the parks department and perhaps they could plant some trees with that and then make everybody feel

02:14:07.445 --> 02:14:16.846
- really good. That's all feel really good about it. This is my funding environmentalist down there.

02:14:16.846 --> 02:14:24.062
- All right. Seeing no other questions or comments from council on this item.

02:14:24.322 --> 02:14:31.316
- We'll move to public comment. If there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward

02:14:31.316 --> 02:14:38.310
- to the lectern here in the room. I need to remind you there needs to be a vote. That's right. Yes, because

02:14:38.310 --> 02:14:45.173
- you made your motion or unconditional. So before we move to public comment, I totally forgot about that.

02:14:45.173 --> 02:14:51.971
- All those in favor of what Councilor Iverson presented as amended signify by saying aye. Aye. All those

02:14:51.971 --> 02:14:53.278
- opposed, same sign.

02:14:55.522 --> 02:15:04.109
- That was the amendment for the conditional. All right. So we'll go to public comment next. Again, seeing

02:15:04.109 --> 02:15:12.368
- if there is any in the room or on Teams. Oh, we got a hand raise. So you will unmute yourself, state

02:15:12.368 --> 02:15:21.118
- your name for the record. And TSD, please make sure we have the timer up. You'll have up to three minutes.

02:15:24.482 --> 02:15:33.115
- Hello, can you hear me? Yes. This is Kelly Whitmer. I'm the director of Monroe County Parks and Recreation.

02:15:33.115 --> 02:15:41.509
- And we do have a park space available for additional trees. So I just wanted to make sure you knew that.

02:15:41.509 --> 02:15:49.583
- And we'd be more than happy to plan. I love it. That's all. I'm done. Thank you. Trees to go around.

02:15:49.583 --> 02:15:50.462
- All right.

02:15:50.914 --> 02:16:00.308
- Are there any other public comments on this item? Thank you for the trees. All right. Seeing none, may

02:16:00.308 --> 02:16:09.428
- we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes.

02:16:09.428 --> 02:16:18.548
- Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawke? Yes. Motion

02:16:18.548 --> 02:16:20.190
- passes unanimous.

02:16:22.498 --> 02:16:31.803
- Thank you. All right, next up is item F, which is from council office. Council, I move to open for discussion

02:16:31.803 --> 02:16:40.855
- and possible approval and fund 1000-0061 County General Council, a request for an additional appropriation

02:16:40.855 --> 02:16:49.314
- of $30,000 in the services category. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second, and I will go

02:16:49.314 --> 02:16:52.190
- ahead and take a comment at this.

02:16:52.962 --> 02:17:03.211
- I wanted to bring this to the council's attention just considering all the moving pieces that we have

02:17:03.211 --> 02:17:13.259
- in front of us with respect to a potential purchase of North Park and we all got the memo what back

02:17:13.259 --> 02:17:17.278
- in a couple of weeks ago on April 10th.

02:17:17.506 --> 02:17:26.758
- basically laying out the conditions of should council not do certain things that we could potentially

02:17:26.758 --> 02:17:36.101
- get into further litigation. I wanted to bring this to the council's attention. Nothing crazy or weird

02:17:36.101 --> 02:17:44.990
- happened that was behind the scenes or any of that. This was me asking the auditor to go ahead to

02:17:45.090 --> 02:17:52.413
- put this out here for a discussion. So I know there was a mass email that went out to the county in

02:17:52.413 --> 02:18:00.029
- relation to this, and I just want to say, checked with the auditor's office to make sure that we didn't

02:18:00.029 --> 02:18:07.498
- do anything that was weird, and would apologize if we did, but it seems like, according to the email,

02:18:07.498 --> 02:18:12.990
- we did not. Okay, so thank you, appreciate that. According to the statute,

02:18:13.890 --> 02:18:21.489
- It does state that we can, should we choose to do so, have our own legal representation. I do know for

02:18:21.489 --> 02:18:29.014
- a fact that other elected bodies in this particular county have had that as an option to them because

02:18:29.014 --> 02:18:37.055
- we also are an elected body. That is just something that I wanted to bring to the attention of my colleagues

02:18:37.055 --> 02:18:40.670
- to say, should we feel like we get to this point

02:18:41.186 --> 02:18:48.214
- where further litigation might ensue, that we would have this as a placeholder for us to do what we

02:18:48.214 --> 02:18:55.031
- might need to do should we get to that level. I hope that we don't. I really hope that we don't.

02:18:55.031 --> 02:19:02.058
- But again, as council president, I'm thinking of all things considering, and I just wanted to bring

02:19:02.058 --> 02:19:09.086
- this to the attention of the council for a discussion, again, should we have to go down this route.

02:19:10.050 --> 02:19:18.896
- So I'm willing to open it up for any other further questions or comments on this. I'm gonna start over

02:19:18.896 --> 02:19:27.915
- here and then I'm gonna work my way back. So Councilor Wills. So if I'm understanding what you're saying

02:19:27.915 --> 02:19:37.105
- correctly, the intent is that this money would not be spent though there was a compelling, like a lawsuit,

02:19:37.105 --> 02:19:39.166
- or are we thinking that

02:19:40.482 --> 02:19:50.303
- money might be used in advance to get a consultation from outside counsel or some other. What's the

02:19:50.303 --> 02:20:00.320
- use case? Well, I mean, that's open for a discussion, but my idea is because we have that stipulation

02:20:00.320 --> 02:20:05.918
- that was put into the extension agreement, should we not

02:20:06.242 --> 02:20:14.630
- It seems like counsel could also be applied to this lawsuit should litigation go further. And so my

02:20:14.630 --> 02:20:23.186
- idea is to see why and protect ourselves from anything. Again, this is not to say anything bad about,

02:20:23.186 --> 02:20:31.575
- you know, I know we have Ms. Turner King that is our assigned attorney, not to say anything at all.

02:20:31.575 --> 02:20:34.846
- So I also want to debunk that as well.

02:20:34.946 --> 02:20:43.138
- But what I'm just saying is, this is just our way of saying, should we get to this level? Again, I really

02:20:43.138 --> 02:20:51.176
- hope to the higher powers that be, we don't. But should we? Maybe that's something that we could enact.

02:20:51.176 --> 02:20:59.213
- But if we need to have a consultation or anything like that, again, that's up to this body to have that

02:20:59.213 --> 02:21:01.918
- conversation. Let others go first.

02:21:04.802 --> 02:21:12.792
- Yes, I think when you go to the meeting coming up in a few weeks, for those of you who are able to go

02:21:12.792 --> 02:21:20.782
- to that meeting, you're going to find out that this is the way a majority of the counties will handle

02:21:20.782 --> 02:21:29.164
- their legal representation. They do it by contract. Certainly, you're not going to find very many counties

02:21:29.164 --> 02:21:34.334
- that have four full-time attorneys working in a legal department.

02:21:34.562 --> 02:21:43.579
- So, and as a reminder, we did have our own county attorney that worked in our office that was, we handled

02:21:43.579 --> 02:21:52.512
- it with a salary because we have the authority. We don't have to go ask somebody else. That's our choice

02:21:52.512 --> 02:22:01.019
- to put an additional person in the council budget and put it in the salary ordinance. We don't have

02:22:01.019 --> 02:22:03.486
- to have permission for that.

02:22:03.586 --> 02:22:12.123
- But if we wish to do it in the form of a contract, you'll just find that in many, many, many counties

02:22:12.123 --> 02:22:20.576
- that's how they handle it. So it's nothing unusual. It really is not. It just may seem unusual to us

02:22:20.576 --> 02:22:29.029
- because we've handled it differently for too long. That brings another question to mind because what

02:22:29.029 --> 02:22:32.126
- I'm hearing is unusual in that we're

02:22:32.610 --> 02:22:41.907
- we're not eschewing our current council. We're getting extra. So it's not that we're switching from

02:22:41.907 --> 02:22:51.483
- one model to another. We're keeping what we have and adding on. And the adding on is, and then I guess

02:22:51.483 --> 02:23:00.872
- that kind of goes back to the first question, which is I get that we need to discuss, but the adding

02:23:00.872 --> 02:23:02.174
- on is because

02:23:02.626 --> 02:23:10.942
- whatever an external council brings, we've decided that's important that it's an external perspective,

02:23:10.942 --> 02:23:19.580
- if I'm understanding the arguments. So, okay, that's just, I just wanted to make sure I was understanding.

02:23:19.580 --> 02:23:27.977
- Madam President, and when you look at what we're allowed to do, it's written in the language, you know,

02:23:27.977 --> 02:23:32.094
- it's legal language that we're allowed to do this.

02:23:32.290 --> 02:23:39.558
- But what I'd like to say, it's a lot like we have our financial person, but then we hire some expert

02:23:39.558 --> 02:23:46.971
- advice when we need it from somebody else. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with what we've got.

02:23:46.971 --> 02:23:54.455
- It means it's just something added to and able to answer questions that we have that might be different

02:23:54.455 --> 02:23:56.542
- than what others might have.

02:24:02.018 --> 02:24:08.337
- I want to make two points, at least at this point in the conversation. The first point is, I really

02:24:08.337 --> 02:24:15.225
- like this conversation so far. If you had gone back to our previous meeting, it sure seemed a lot different.

02:24:15.225 --> 02:24:21.607
- And I'm glad to hear that at this point, this council seems to be in agreement that there is nothing

02:24:21.607 --> 02:24:28.053
- wrong with the current legal representation that we are receiving. And I just want to be really clear

02:24:28.053 --> 02:24:29.822
- with that, that this is not

02:24:30.210 --> 02:24:39.722
- an attempt to replace the legal advice we're getting. All right. That is absolutely correct. And I feel

02:24:39.722 --> 02:24:49.234
- like it has been twisted in a way that just totally dismantling what we have. And that is not the case,

02:24:49.234 --> 02:24:56.094
- which is quite frustrating that this is all twisted up into he say she say

02:24:56.482 --> 02:25:04.331
- Yes, because all I'm trying to do is bring to you all, we got a situation that is coming down the pike

02:25:04.331 --> 02:25:12.256
- really, really soon. And it is really important to us. And we need to look at what we potentially could

02:25:12.256 --> 02:25:20.334
- possibly do. So if and when that time comes where we have to act on something right away, we have already

02:25:20.334 --> 02:25:24.830
- done what we need to do. And we can go instead of waiting.

02:25:25.058 --> 02:25:32.654
- should we get to again, should we get to that point? OK, that leads me to my second point. I have not

02:25:32.654 --> 02:25:40.250
- received any assurances from the board of commissioners that this action would go through. If anybody

02:25:40.250 --> 02:25:47.846
- has received something from the board of commissioners saying that they're willing to work with us on

02:25:47.846 --> 02:25:54.846
- this, I would love to hear it. But I don't think that that's coming, and I'm really concerned

02:25:55.106 --> 02:26:05.184
- that any claims that go forward would be subject to their approval. Any contract that goes forward would

02:26:05.184 --> 02:26:14.782
- be subject to their approval. So I do have some concern along those lines. And is there more to add

02:26:14.782 --> 02:26:16.318
- from the bench?

02:26:17.698 --> 02:26:27.171
- service contract would have to be approved by the commissioners but in the event that the commissioners

02:26:27.171 --> 02:26:36.735
- would deny that contract there is a process that council could engage in since this is a statutory right

02:26:36.735 --> 02:26:45.844
- that would allow it's a it's a process that allows the contract to be approved despite commissioner

02:26:45.844 --> 02:26:46.846
- rejection.

02:26:46.978 --> 02:26:57.380
- That's what was sent to us yesterday by Mr. Schilling from Legal, which again, all we're trying to do

02:26:57.380 --> 02:27:07.782
- is enact on our constitutional right to legal representation. Yes, Councilor Decker. Thank you. Thank

02:27:07.782 --> 02:27:15.838
- you very much. I appreciate the way that President Crosley has described this.

02:27:16.002 --> 02:27:22.355
- but I have no questions for anyone. I have comments, if that's appropriate at this time. This one has

02:27:22.355 --> 02:27:28.645
- been something that's kind of, to be honest, I have struggled mightily with, and I'm just gonna make

02:27:28.645 --> 02:27:34.935
- comments on it. I'll try to be really quick here, but I got things that I wanna say. The description

02:27:34.935 --> 02:27:41.599
- that I've heard this evening, to be very honest, is not a description that I have heard out in the parking

02:27:41.599 --> 02:27:43.966
- lots of this county about this issue.

02:27:44.450 --> 02:27:50.720
- And I'll just be blunt about that. And sometimes when we come to a decision where folks start to come

02:27:50.720 --> 02:27:56.929
- together, I think people may come to those decisions for different reasons, which is legitimate when

02:27:56.929 --> 02:28:03.444
- you're elected by different people or at different times. But I think some of those conversations reflect

02:28:03.444 --> 02:28:09.591
- different thoughts on that. Every counselor's got a right to have those thoughts. But I think maybe

02:28:09.591 --> 02:28:12.542
- people come to different argumentation on that.

02:28:12.962 --> 02:28:21.702
- And I won't repeat all that argumentation because people need to offer that on their own. I'm not going

02:28:21.702 --> 02:28:30.190
- to be their spokesperson. But one thing on this generally is where I struggle with this is I get the

02:28:30.190 --> 02:28:38.846
- need to prepare for day two of day one not going well or if you're following this jail discussion, day

02:28:39.650 --> 02:28:48.600
- depending on who you ask, day 432 or 4,432, I get that. I get it completely. But ultimately, I still

02:28:48.600 --> 02:28:57.905
- come down to some simple math on two different sides of this. Councilor Iverson kind of mentioned before

02:28:57.905 --> 02:29:05.438
- the math on this contract, the steps it needs to go through to get passage adoption.

02:29:05.570 --> 02:29:12.907
- with our partners in the commissioner's office. What I kind of come down to is the math just on the

02:29:12.907 --> 02:29:20.318
- overall issue. And I'm going to start saying this a lot more because I think that we've got to, this

02:29:20.318 --> 02:29:28.022
- has to get to the focus. We have an issue that I believe I'm hearing everyone agrees is a constitutional

02:29:28.022 --> 02:29:34.846
- care issue. And that issue needs the focus of counselors and commissioners around majorities

02:29:35.010 --> 02:29:41.590
- around solutions. And in both bodies, I mean, the public can count the number of people up here. In

02:29:41.590 --> 02:29:48.302
- both bodies, that means four here agreeing around something, ideally seven agreeing on something, but

02:29:48.302 --> 02:29:54.948
- I haven't seen anything controversial in here to get much higher than a six. But it means a majority

02:29:54.948 --> 02:30:01.726
- doing something, and it means when the commissioners are in here doing their meeting, two out of three

02:30:01.826 --> 02:30:09.154
- And I think ideally for them, they'd say three, but it means them moving around a majority towards the

02:30:09.154 --> 02:30:16.482
- overall solution. And that would be location, that would be cost, and that would be, to me personally,

02:30:16.482 --> 02:30:23.667
- how you engage the public on all that, because I don't think people follow very much other than what

02:30:23.667 --> 02:30:31.422
- sort of is their niche like kind of buy in here or anger here. And I think that there's public that doesn't,

02:30:31.522 --> 02:30:41.909
- kind of know that. To me, in my honest, humble opinion, that is the math I would rather spend the next

02:30:41.909 --> 02:30:52.196
- few weeks on, trying to conquer rather than a prelude to legal representation that may send different

02:30:52.196 --> 02:31:00.062
- signals than what I'm hearing and that we don't necessarily want. And I worry

02:31:00.386 --> 02:31:08.022
- mightily that entering two tough negotiation discussions among the 13 others that will emerge tomorrow

02:31:08.022 --> 02:31:15.510
- when another storm hits or somebody needs this and we've not done it or somebody's not rung the bell

02:31:15.510 --> 02:31:23.146
- at the right time, I worry that we just give ourselves maybe the wrong work. I also say that we've had

02:31:23.146 --> 02:31:27.742
- a lot of action from our city colleagues, but really all that

02:31:28.322 --> 02:31:35.790
- with respect to everyone doesn't change the fact that it still comes down to four in one chamber and

02:31:35.790 --> 02:31:43.628
- two in another, ideally unanimous in both, but we know that's hard, moving towards a solution that starts

02:31:43.628 --> 02:31:51.097
- to move us towards constitutional care. And that's kind of the rub of it on it. We as a body seem to

02:31:51.097 --> 02:31:57.086
- get in trouble when our answer, which has multiple meanings for multiple people,

02:31:57.538 --> 02:32:06.220
- turns into an answer that's universal for all. I think it's hard to maintain that majority around something

02:32:06.220 --> 02:32:14.902
- under that kind of vein. Council Henry. Madam President, and thank you for bringing forward the discussion.

02:32:14.902 --> 02:32:23.101
- I think we're in a storm. I don't think it's on its way. I think we're already in it. When we have an

02:32:23.101 --> 02:32:26.558
- agreement that has added stipulations that

02:32:27.362 --> 02:32:34.323
- the council's choices. And that's new language that has not existed in the 17 years of that agreement.

02:32:34.323 --> 02:32:41.082
- It needs evaluation. And as I said at the comment that we had at the last meeting, you know, at the

02:32:41.082 --> 02:32:48.111
- conclusion of our last meeting, I do think that we have a timeline that's counting down that eventually

02:32:48.111 --> 02:32:55.005
- there will be a purchase agreement presumably passed by two or three votes on the commissioner's side

02:32:55.005 --> 02:32:56.830
- that will be in this room.

02:32:56.962 --> 02:33:03.243
- That's a calendar, those are dates, that is happening, right? And there's a timeline that is clicking

02:33:03.243 --> 02:33:09.647
- and ticking on that. What we have, I think in this conversation is something interesting since the idea

02:33:09.647 --> 02:33:16.359
- was proposed that we consider outside council to help us navigate conditions that might be in that agreement

02:33:16.359 --> 02:33:22.270
- and the implication it means for our statutory right to make fiscal decisions as a county is a,

02:33:22.466 --> 02:33:28.014
- a discussion from the council or the county attorney that is, you know, it's hard to navigate. You know,

02:33:28.014 --> 02:33:33.351
- if we have a contract, then there's a claim, and if it's rejected, you know, what happens then? What

02:33:33.351 --> 02:33:39.058
- happens then? And we end up running out of clock where we don't actually get to talk to some other attorney

02:33:39.058 --> 02:33:44.500
- before the deadline, if you will, on the agreement. So those are realities. Like, those clocks are all

02:33:44.500 --> 02:33:49.150
- ticking. And to Councillor Hawks' point, you know, there's another way to go, which was

02:33:49.346 --> 02:33:56.797
- never before the commissioners, which is we actually bring back the council into county council's employment

02:33:56.797 --> 02:34:03.701
- as a matter of a HR practice in defining the job description. I wasn't here when the council decided

02:34:03.701 --> 02:34:10.673
- to move away from having its own in-house attorney that was budgeted for as a salary. As I understand

02:34:10.673 --> 02:34:15.390
- it, some of that was more unconditional about the individual and not

02:34:15.682 --> 02:34:21.518
- and then the opportunity that arrived from the board of commissioners at that time to offer an attorney

02:34:21.518 --> 02:34:27.185
- from the pool that could support the council's work and review law and the like. But the question is

02:34:27.185 --> 02:34:32.965
- really in protecting our county legal department for me. And this is how I look at it. An attorney has

02:34:32.965 --> 02:34:38.576
- to serve one master and can't serve two. And so when we have a schism or a disagreement between two

02:34:38.576 --> 02:34:41.662
- bodies that are borrowing from one set of lawyers that

02:34:42.402 --> 02:34:48.137
- are employed by one elected body, not the other, it puts them all in a hard spot. You know,

02:34:48.137 --> 02:34:54.495
- at what point, if we do find ourselves in a place where we're being deposed in a court, you know, who

02:34:54.495 --> 02:35:01.165
- is guiding us on that, right? Who's guiding the council's statutory, or protecting the council's statutory

02:35:01.165 --> 02:35:07.710
- role in this decision-making process? And not just councils, by the way, the taxpayers of Monroe County.

02:35:08.770 --> 02:35:14.928
- who's protecting that interest if there's a disagreement between two bodies and we're borrowing from

02:35:14.928 --> 02:35:21.329
- the same law department. I want to protect our county attorneys in this respect. I think the opportunity

02:35:21.329 --> 02:35:27.548
- to go explore this idea as a contract idea is not new. We would not be the first county in Indiana to

02:35:27.548 --> 02:35:33.705
- have a contracted attorney to the body. But we have to face some real realities here. And as much as

02:35:33.705 --> 02:35:37.790
- I would like to work on the meta problem, the reality is we have a

02:35:38.018 --> 02:35:46.437
- It's an agreement that has a time clock on it. And we have to address that in the conditions that were

02:35:46.437 --> 02:35:54.774
- placed before us and the votes that will be coming to us. And we would have as much information as we

02:35:54.774 --> 02:36:02.948
- can to make the best possible informed decision for the community. Thank you. Yes, Councilor Woods.

02:36:02.948 --> 02:36:07.934
- Maybe I'm beating a dead horse. Maybe this isn't as relevant

02:36:08.034 --> 02:36:22.960
- as I initially am thinking. But it sounds like to me that we're talking about two different things.

02:36:22.960 --> 02:36:37.438
- One is obtaining outside counsel to review something that has been given to us or, you know, the

02:36:39.458 --> 02:36:50.604
- to us or to review the conditions under which we are asked to sign said purchase agreement. And then

02:36:50.604 --> 02:37:01.970
- what I thought I heard as also a possibility is that this is really to have in case we make, you know,

02:37:01.970 --> 02:37:08.702
- we are sued, you know, as a result of decision or, you know,

02:37:08.866 --> 02:37:18.154
- the ACL he makes. And those seem like two very different things to me. So I guess before I would want

02:37:18.154 --> 02:37:27.259
- to vote on this, I would really like to understand what the intent is. And maybe it's different for

02:37:27.259 --> 02:37:36.456
- different people. Maybe that's what I'm hearing. To Councillor Decker's point, we all come at things

02:37:36.456 --> 02:37:37.822
- from different

02:37:38.306 --> 02:37:51.148
- So if it's different for different people, then the next step would be, I just want to kind of play

02:37:51.148 --> 02:38:04.118
- through what would happen. And I guess this, if we appropriate, it's just, it hangs there until then

02:38:04.118 --> 02:38:06.558
- we have a contract

02:38:07.522 --> 02:38:16.710
- And when we have a contract that has to be done via the commissioners. And that starts that process

02:38:16.710 --> 02:38:25.898
- that's been referred to that is like they might say no. And then if they did, we would appeal back.

02:38:25.898 --> 02:38:35.454
- And it seemed complicated. And that seems like it would take a bit of time. So if we were waiting to be

02:38:37.538 --> 02:38:44.693
- to use this. I guess my ultimate question, I've had like three in the course of this, but my ultimate

02:38:44.693 --> 02:38:51.708
- question then would be wouldn't the whole county have outside counsel at that point? I mean I think

02:38:51.708 --> 02:38:58.864
- I've heard from our county legal that that is a likely scenario. What would likely happen is we would

02:38:58.864 --> 02:39:03.774
- submit it to our insurance company and each entity or body would risk

02:39:04.130 --> 02:39:12.232
- potentially receive outside counsel. What I will say is what I anticipate from an ACLU lawsuit is injunctive

02:39:12.232 --> 02:39:20.408
- relief and not damages, but I mean they could ask for damages. Insurance has been, I'm gonna say inconsistent

02:39:20.408 --> 02:39:28.510
- on whether they will provide outside counsel for injunctive relief. We have outs, they've been inconsistent.

02:39:28.642 --> 02:39:35.603
- We also have a new insurance company. So I don't know their stance on if they would provide counsel

02:39:35.603 --> 02:39:42.912
- for injunctive relief. But typically what would happen is we would submit this to the insurance company,

02:39:42.912 --> 02:39:50.291
- and if they will provide outside counsel, they would. And if they don't, each entity would have to obtain

02:39:50.291 --> 02:39:57.252
- counsel. Would they be providing if they decided yes? Is it reasonable to expect they would provide

02:39:57.252 --> 02:39:58.366
- outside counsel

02:39:58.626 --> 02:40:08.549
- separately for each yes I'll go to counselor vital and then I'll turn back around so I guess I think

02:40:08.549 --> 02:40:18.374
- I understand but not totally they're still ambiguity to me in some ways and I don't know I have the

02:40:18.374 --> 02:40:27.806
- questions formulated to ask that but I do want to ask about the thirty thousand dollars is that

02:40:28.354 --> 02:40:36.223
- the max, or are we talking about 30,000 now and maybe some later, or what are we talking about here?

02:40:36.223 --> 02:40:44.248
- The 30,000 was just simply a placeholder to get the appropriation. I think obviously we would probably

02:40:44.248 --> 02:40:52.428
- be looking at a lot more, potentially. But again, that's just a placeholder for the appropriation should

02:40:52.428 --> 02:40:55.934
- we need to act. That's where that came from.

02:40:58.370 --> 02:41:07.300
- If I had to decide at this moment, I think it's really hard for me to think about appropriating more

02:41:07.300 --> 02:41:16.318
- money since we've been on the budget less, less, less with every department that we've talked to this

02:41:16.318 --> 02:41:25.513
- past budget year. And I just think it's almost hypocritical for us to think that we're going to go into

02:41:25.513 --> 02:41:28.254
- litigation based on that fact.

02:41:29.026 --> 02:41:37.187
- I was going to ask a very similar question to Councillor Faital as to whether or not one of the questions

02:41:37.187 --> 02:41:44.962
- I would want to ask should we move forward is, is the $30,000 placeholder intended to retain council

02:41:44.962 --> 02:41:52.661
- or is it intended to eventually hire council? And I think that needs to be answered as well. Are we

02:41:52.661 --> 02:41:58.974
- going to be using our salary ordinance to hire an individual who is going to work

02:41:59.170 --> 02:42:07.244
- who's going to be working in the council office, or are we using funds to simply use a local law firm

02:42:07.244 --> 02:42:15.318
- for a short period of time or a medium period of time to conduct our business? And I think that needs

02:42:15.318 --> 02:42:23.233
- to be explored as well. Correct. Which, again, it is just simply just a placeholder. This is for us

02:42:23.233 --> 02:42:26.558
- to say, if we want to go into a contract,

02:42:26.690 --> 02:42:34.282
- That is something that we can do. And then we can figure out after the fact, should we explore and go

02:42:34.282 --> 02:42:41.726
- further how much this would cost? I guess at the end of the day, what I'm just trying to do is just

02:42:41.726 --> 02:42:49.467
- have the conversation. And if we wanted, initially coming in, I was saying, in the event that this goes

02:42:49.467 --> 02:42:55.198
- further, because I'll just rip the bandaid off with a lot of this right now.

02:42:56.098 --> 02:43:03.243
- We obviously, majority of us, at least maybe, I don't know, I'll speak for myself. I don't necessarily

02:43:03.243 --> 02:43:09.693
- agree with how we are moving down this train in terms of North Park, North Park, North Park.

02:43:09.693 --> 02:43:16.907
- That's it. And so what I'm also thinking is, what do we do? Because if anybody's read their email today

02:43:16.907 --> 02:43:22.942
- in the commissioner's packet, their purchase agreement is on the agenda this Thursday.

02:43:23.106 --> 02:43:31.847
- And then in looking at our agenda requests that we've gotten, they're wanting this to come back around

02:43:31.847 --> 02:43:40.419
- to council on May 12th. And I remind everybody the memo that we got, April 10th says, should you not

02:43:40.419 --> 02:43:49.330
- do this by May 29th? This is what we're looking at. So I guess in my mind, what I was thinking is coming

02:43:49.330 --> 02:43:50.942
- in here, should we

02:43:51.106 --> 02:43:58.566
- get down to this point where there is a no vote again like we did back in October, again, this time

02:43:58.566 --> 02:44:06.026
- frame around, and should this go further, ideally, again, what I'd like to do in a perfect world is

02:44:06.026 --> 02:44:13.635
- sit down with our colleagues in the city, sit down with the commissioners, sit down with everybody to

02:44:13.635 --> 02:44:19.678
- figure out what are we doing here and next steps as we are working through this.

02:44:19.810 --> 02:44:26.690
- That's what they wanted to do last week, but should we not go down this route, all I'm saying is, I'd

02:44:26.690 --> 02:44:33.570
- rather be a little bit more proactive in this. Now, hey, come time around, like if the powers that be

02:44:33.570 --> 02:44:40.450
- and the skies open up and everything is sunshine and gravy, if we don't go down this route, then this

02:44:40.450 --> 02:44:47.870
- is mute, this is not necessary. But that's what I was just looking for for this. That's all. Councilor Henry.

02:44:48.194 --> 02:44:56.084
- I really appreciate you bringing that clarity and it strikes me that You're the one in these meetings,

02:44:56.084 --> 02:45:03.975
- you know, you're the one if you're the one saying this is your comfort and you're concerned about Path

02:45:03.975 --> 02:45:12.478
- and whether or not your view and sensibly our view is properly voiced and and is also brought to the vendor to

02:45:14.690 --> 02:45:20.800
- I mean, however it is that you're operating those meetings as council president, and if you're telling

02:45:20.800 --> 02:45:26.731
- this body you need that representation, I think that's a pretty clear-cut statement. I'm not in all

02:45:26.731 --> 02:45:32.663
- those meetings, and if you're signaling that that's the concern, I don't know why we would deny the

02:45:32.663 --> 02:45:38.773
- council president an opportunity to seek out council to allay that concern. So, I hear you. As a point

02:45:38.773 --> 02:45:43.518
- of information, though, or maybe, are we taking public comment on this tonight,

02:45:44.578 --> 02:45:51.703
- I would allow it. You would allow public comment tonight? Okay. I just want to make sure, obviously,

02:45:51.703 --> 02:45:59.039
- this is an interesting topic, but thank you for the clarity you offer. I'm supporting you as I've heard

02:45:59.039 --> 02:46:06.587
- it. Yeah. Any other? Yes, Councillor Haug. I would just like to say that when you're in need of something,

02:46:06.587 --> 02:46:14.206
- it's much better to plan for it and have it ready than to say, oh, now I need it and I didn't get it ready.

02:46:14.626 --> 02:46:22.025
- So I'll support this. If we don't need it, it's just going to sit there and it'll just stay in the cash.

02:46:22.025 --> 02:46:29.353
- It doesn't like we're throwing that money away. And we're talking about a gigantic major decision. This

02:46:29.353 --> 02:46:36.682
- is not the kind of decision we'll be making every year. It's the biggest one that we've made since I've

02:46:36.682 --> 02:46:43.728
- been on the council, and that was before some of you children were born. So I'm just saying this is

02:46:43.728 --> 02:46:44.574
- a big deal.

02:46:45.730 --> 02:46:55.444
- And we seem to have a difference of opinion of how we should move forward or not. But it certainly would

02:46:55.444 --> 02:47:04.787
- not hurt when somebody has to go into these meetings to think they could reach out and say, what if?

02:47:04.787 --> 02:47:14.686
- Help me out with this. We're not attorneys here. We're not seven attorneys sitting here. Councillor Wilks.

02:47:20.674 --> 02:47:36.010
- So we were to say, yes, let's appropriate $30,000. Then do you, I assume we would have to vote on whether

02:47:36.010 --> 02:47:50.622
- or not we wanted a contract. That wouldn't happen until May 12th, correct? Is that our next meeting?

02:47:51.010 --> 02:48:01.763
- And at that point, we would submit something, I'm just reading from the email that we received. We would

02:48:01.763 --> 02:48:12.106
- submit a copy of the contract to the auditor and make a request to the commissioners for review. And

02:48:12.106 --> 02:48:19.582
- then also, so the county attorney would get them, get the documentation.

02:48:19.746 --> 02:48:34.037
- Then it says within 20 days of request filing, the county commissioners in the county review the proposed

02:48:34.037 --> 02:48:47.788
- contract and notify the council of the results of the review. So that puts it at June. So the idea of

02:48:47.788 --> 02:48:49.406
- contracting

02:48:50.274 --> 02:48:58.728
- Council prior to the deadline that's given to us for making the decision we need to make doesn't seem

02:48:58.728 --> 02:49:07.348
- viable. I mean, yes, they don't have to wait 20 days. But if the motivation behind this is disagreement

02:49:07.348 --> 02:49:15.969
- with that body, it does seem likely. I'm sorry. I think the 20 days that you're referring to comes into

02:49:15.969 --> 02:49:20.030
- play if the commissioners rejected the contract.

02:49:20.130 --> 02:49:28.390
- originally what would happen just like any other department is you would submit the contract

02:49:28.390 --> 02:49:37.450
- to a commissioners meeting and they would consider it at their next meeting and then if it's rejected

02:49:37.450 --> 02:49:46.421
- that's the process that you're describing. That's not what the email says but I will defer. You have

02:49:46.421 --> 02:49:48.286
- the same email I do.

02:49:48.514 --> 02:49:56.060
- I do have the same email that you do. When you look at number three on that email. That's the process

02:49:56.060 --> 02:50:03.532
- for if the commissioners reject the contract. So for example, the clerk is having a contract on this

02:50:03.532 --> 02:50:11.078
- commissioners meeting for advertising radio ads of the election. She didn't have to go through the 20

02:50:11.078 --> 02:50:16.478
- day process. She's submitting it to the commissioners for consideration.

02:50:16.578 --> 02:50:23.935
- If they reject it that then then that's the process. But the standard operation procedure is fill out

02:50:23.935 --> 02:50:31.148
- a commissioner's request and then they review then they consider the contract. Within that contract

02:50:31.148 --> 02:50:38.721
- you need to know who you want to hire. Right. And it has to be a contract contract. Right. That contract

02:50:38.721 --> 02:50:41.246
- is still reviewed by county legal.

02:50:41.378 --> 02:50:49.138
- just to make sure it has all of our standard clauses such as indemnification, independent contractor,

02:50:49.138 --> 02:50:56.747
- workers' comp, and all of that is governed by county code. Which is why we would start looking now.

02:50:56.747 --> 02:51:04.431
- Should we do that? The earliest the commissioners could hear this would be their meeting on the 14th

02:51:04.431 --> 02:51:10.974
- if they're meeting. Depending on the outcome of our vote, we may want to pursue this.

02:51:11.842 --> 02:51:18.865
- The problem for some folks might be, I don't know if I share that with everybody, but we vote, and then

02:51:18.865 --> 02:51:25.888
- there's an outcome of that vote, one outcome puts us on this path. I'm sorry, is there an interruption?

02:51:25.888 --> 02:51:33.113
- One path, we may require some additional help, another path we don't, and I hope that folks aren't feeling

02:51:33.113 --> 02:51:38.110
- biased or pressured on one way or another to vote on a purchase agreement

02:51:39.042 --> 02:51:45.392
- full understanding of what we're talking about, but either way on the other side of that vote are two

02:51:45.392 --> 02:51:51.679
- places we go. One may require the legwork we're talking about right now to prepare outcomes. I mean,

02:51:51.679 --> 02:51:57.966
- the calendar is what it is. I mean, we should have talked about this a year and a half ago when some

02:51:57.966 --> 02:52:04.253
- of us had thought we should have been bringing our own council in at that point, but we are. I mean,

02:52:04.253 --> 02:52:05.374
- I agree with you.

02:52:05.602 --> 02:52:12.263
- that we've got to move and we've got some big decisions coming up that we need help with. I'm looking

02:52:12.263 --> 02:52:18.989
- at the calendar and even if we moved forward today with a contract, we would still be beyond the point

02:52:18.989 --> 02:52:25.519
- in which we're most likely going to be hearing a purchase agreement. The other thing that I want to

02:52:25.519 --> 02:52:31.593
- make a point is if that's the case where the calendar is working against us here, we do have

02:52:31.593 --> 02:52:34.270
- legal representation sitting right here.

02:52:35.650 --> 02:52:43.860
- From where I'm sitting is doing a fantastic job. If I may, I think the commissioners could actually

02:52:43.860 --> 02:52:51.741
- consider a contract on May 7th. I checked. I don't think they've canceled that May 7th meeting.

02:52:51.741 --> 02:53:00.114
- So I mean, if you had a contract ready by May 7th, they could approve it. But I think that contract's

02:53:00.114 --> 02:53:04.958
- going to have to outline who you're meeting with, a price.

02:53:05.058 --> 02:53:12.438
- And then I think there are two differing thoughts here on when you would consult. The May 7th meeting

02:53:12.438 --> 02:53:20.035
- is still on the calendar for the commissioners. That's helpful. Thank you. So the urgency is the concern

02:53:20.035 --> 02:53:27.342
- for my fellow council member. We could just put the job description out and hire the position again,

02:53:27.342 --> 02:53:33.854
- couldn't we? Couldn't we advertise and just hire the position and go directly that route?

02:53:35.490 --> 02:53:45.000
- up for it and hired. $90,000. And this in, I just want to say this in is where the mud of this has been

02:53:45.000 --> 02:53:54.785
- all week. I'm hearing multiple different things. And sometimes I'm hearing some individuals using multiple

02:53:54.785 --> 02:54:03.838
- arguments in one setting. Is it about preparing for life after us not doing the math right on four

02:54:04.066 --> 02:54:12.300
- and two in both chambers. Is it about preparing for life after that? Is it about preparing so that the

02:54:12.300 --> 02:54:20.774
- council president or the leadership or whoever goes into a meeting has an attorney that's not from county

02:54:20.774 --> 02:54:28.849
- legal there? Is it about returning to the olden day of us having our own council? I'm hearing all of

02:54:28.849 --> 02:54:32.606
- this and I'm kind of looking at it and what is

02:54:32.994 --> 02:54:39.482
- worrying me a little bit more. And granted, it's not me anymore in those meetings. But I also had a

02:54:39.482 --> 02:54:45.970
- lot of meetings over the years where a county legal drove me up one wall and the commissioners down

02:54:45.970 --> 02:54:52.523
- the other. And then they'd alternate the next time. And I'm sure I did the same to them. But I just,

02:54:52.523 --> 02:54:59.076
- when I look at this, what is this about? And Councilor Hawke, to kind of speak to some of the things

02:54:59.076 --> 02:55:00.958
- you discussed earlier today,

02:55:01.090 --> 02:55:08.256
- When a department really wants something, the arguments always really sound good about spending extra

02:55:08.256 --> 02:55:15.281
- money because you have to prepare ahead and you can't do this. I kind of hear this argument here on

02:55:15.281 --> 02:55:22.306
- this that we would not necessarily permit another county department to do on extra funding. And I'm

02:55:22.306 --> 02:55:29.402
- not negating all the causes that folks come to this at, but I still believe that the pressure of the

02:55:29.402 --> 02:55:30.526
- system is about

02:55:31.074 --> 02:55:38.068
- Fixing a look finding a location in looking that realistically both bodies have got to agree to that

02:55:38.068 --> 02:55:44.992
- to do it and then under certain conditions so do our municipal counterparts Right, and if there's a

02:55:44.992 --> 02:55:52.263
- different different location that starts factoring other things in it would fall under that jurisdiction

02:55:52.263 --> 02:55:58.910
- But I don't think anyone's talking about any of that, but it really comes down to just that and

02:56:00.834 --> 02:56:09.124
- One thing, having been deposed or whatever, those council situations do start to work out at those points

02:56:09.124 --> 02:56:16.945
- and it is a miserable process, but it also is when people can't reach to an agreement on something.

02:56:16.945 --> 02:56:24.923
- So I just, I'm hearing like multiple things on this and I am struggling to get what it's really about

02:56:24.923 --> 02:56:27.582
- and I don't like anything that's,

02:56:27.810 --> 02:56:34.860
- vague with what it's about, because I don't want that to become Trent Deckard's vote yes on this opened

02:56:34.860 --> 02:56:41.843
- the sea gate of hell for three different options. I think the public's looking to us for less of that.

02:56:41.843 --> 02:56:48.757
- I also will just say this. A constituent said this to me at a door. If you all go down that route, is

02:56:48.757 --> 02:56:55.537
- this going to be another one body suing another? And I said, well, it would. And then I was like, I

02:56:55.537 --> 02:56:56.350
- don't know.

02:56:56.834 --> 02:57:05.395
- I honestly don't know. And I don't even know if the legal mechanisms for that are possible to even do

02:57:05.395 --> 02:57:14.375
- that, but I think it's about figuring out what is this, where do we go to get it, to get to the agreement.

02:57:14.375 --> 02:57:22.767
- And maybe I'm wrong on that, but I just, that's kind of a perennial thought here. So the only thing

02:57:22.767 --> 02:57:24.446
- I'll say is I think

02:57:26.082 --> 02:57:33.759
- It's okay to have, you know, other different types of conversations of what this could look like, because

02:57:33.759 --> 02:57:41.002
- initially, again, as I came in thinking, my brain is to think about what would happen if, again, we

02:57:41.002 --> 02:57:45.854
- get to the end of May and we didn't agree, commissioners approved,

02:57:46.178 --> 02:57:52.562
- Council denied again, and then we're back at square one. But the idea that I heard earlier is,

02:57:52.562 --> 02:57:59.416
- should we, you know, could we potentially go into these conversations saying, you know, like, to just

02:57:59.416 --> 02:58:06.203
- seek advice. Obviously, that would cost money for us to seek advice. I'm not, again, not saying that

02:58:06.203 --> 02:58:12.990
- we don't have great representation. I'm not saying that at all, and I hope Ms. Turner-King does not,

02:58:13.090 --> 02:58:20.850
- hear me say that and I hope anybody else is listening here in the room or online or whenever you go

02:58:20.850 --> 02:58:28.611
- back and watch it. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm just saying simply is it is just us seeking

02:58:28.611 --> 02:58:36.759
- outside advice of what we should do should we get to next level mayhem because again as I'm being honest

02:58:36.759 --> 02:58:38.622
- I've not heard anything

02:58:38.850 --> 02:58:46.652
- that would suggest that we could potentially agree on the train to North Park right now. I don't.

02:58:46.652 --> 02:58:52.702
- But again, I'm willing to work with our city counterparts, but again, it is

02:58:55.266 --> 02:59:03.772
- Today, April 28th, we got, again, as I said, we have a meeting. They have a meeting on the 30th. This

02:59:03.772 --> 02:59:12.446
- is coming to them. We have a meeting on the 12th that is coming to us. That is all of the moving pieces

02:59:12.446 --> 02:59:20.702
- before the time bomb clicks at zero. Again, it's just if we prepare and we, again, find that we're

02:59:20.802 --> 02:59:27.605
- and Councilor Everson's words sometimes, if we sing kumbaya and we're all being together on this and

02:59:27.605 --> 02:59:34.543
- we are one, then we don't have to go down this route. I wish to God that we don't have to go down this

02:59:34.543 --> 02:59:41.683
- route. But should we do, that is my intent of just trying to prepare ourselves for what is coming because

02:59:41.683 --> 02:59:48.958
- I don't want to get into the mindset of, uh-oh, May 29th comes around, this is stuck now, now we have to do

02:59:49.058 --> 02:59:58.584
- If we want to go down the route of trying to seek out legal counsel, now we are at that point. Yeah,

02:59:58.584 --> 03:00:08.204
- that's a good segue. That's where we would go. That's the only thing that I'm saying. It is tiresome.

03:00:08.204 --> 03:00:14.334
- I have spent so much time on a lot of this. That was my mission.

03:00:14.530 --> 03:00:22.394
- doing this all over again to really try to see this project through. I think we all are extremely frustrated

03:00:22.394 --> 03:00:29.969
- with all of this. I think commissioners would agree on saying that, too. But that's all I'm just asking,

03:00:29.969 --> 03:00:37.184
- which is why I just simply wanted to have a discussion. It's out there. We don't do it. We don't do

03:00:37.184 --> 03:00:44.254
- it. But it will be what it will be after that point. That's all I'm saying. Yes, Councilor Feidl.

03:00:44.354 --> 03:00:51.492
- What happens if we don't do this then? How would that play out? Tell me the whole other scenario, right?

03:00:51.492 --> 03:00:58.426
- If we don't do what? If we don't have this placeholder and we get sued, how does that play out? Is it

03:00:58.426 --> 03:01:05.496
- too late to get counsel at the end of when we have to have this all done by May 29th? No, I don't think

03:01:05.496 --> 03:01:12.430
- so by any means. But again, it's just taking that proactive step, right? It's just when you're in the

03:01:12.430 --> 03:01:13.790
- thick of something,

03:01:14.018 --> 03:01:21.203
- in an emergency setting, the idea is, oh crap, not to have an afterthought of, should we have put a

03:01:21.203 --> 03:01:28.532
- tarp on the thing before it started raining, and boom, it's raining. That's the thing, is just trying

03:01:28.532 --> 03:01:35.789
- to be proactive. Should we get to this point? Because there's going to be a lot of other things that

03:01:35.789 --> 03:01:43.262
- I would assume that would be coming to us. One more question. So let's say this money is a placeholder.

03:01:43.586 --> 03:01:51.649
- Where does it go if it isn't used? Where does the money go if it doesn't need to be used? It reverts

03:01:51.649 --> 03:01:59.871
- back. Oh, it will revert back? I hadn't heard that yet. If you don't spend it, I mean, it'll just hang

03:01:59.871 --> 03:02:08.094
- out in our account line. And then at the end of the year, if you don't spend it, it just reverts back.

03:02:08.194 --> 03:02:14.293
- It's kind of like what happened with Sophia Travis, and we tried to spend the money, and then it reversed

03:02:14.293 --> 03:02:18.494
- that. I just want to make sure this particular placeholder was the same.

03:02:24.386 --> 03:02:31.107
- I just said that I was going to open up for public comment. Um, so, cause I know we still have a few

03:02:31.107 --> 03:02:37.761
- more items on the agenda. So I'll open it up for public comment. If you have public comment on this

03:02:37.761 --> 03:02:44.482
- item, um, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room, or you can raise your hand via teams

03:02:44.482 --> 03:02:51.070
- and, um, you can state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Good evening.

03:02:51.426 --> 03:02:56.940
- My name is April Wilson. I live in Bloomington and I'm a Monroe County resident. Although I work at

03:02:56.940 --> 03:03:02.674
- the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office, I wish to be clear that these statements are made in my personal

03:03:02.674 --> 03:03:08.408
- capacity. The county is currently under a hiring freeze. The justice building is being regularly tested

03:03:08.408 --> 03:03:13.922
- for mold, and it is now two weeks after Ken Falk's deadline for clear movement on the jail. And any

03:03:13.922 --> 03:03:16.734
- coordinated plans in the jail have proved elusive.

03:03:16.930 --> 03:03:24.619
- It is in this context that this Council is now evaluating or asking for $30,000 to get an extra attorney.

03:03:24.619 --> 03:03:32.381
- I recognize that this process has been difficult or high. I would like to share with you a phrase, though,

03:03:32.381 --> 03:03:39.780
- that I frequently come back to as an attorney and in my personal capacity. Sometimes you can be right

03:03:39.780 --> 03:03:42.174
- or sometimes you can be married.

03:03:42.338 --> 03:03:48.364
- You can either continue to focus on relitigating offenses or you can start solving the problem. Appropriating

03:03:48.364 --> 03:03:54.007
- this money is not a step toward solving the problem. Solving this problem means starting to have joint

03:03:54.007 --> 03:03:58.718
- public meetings rather than speaking about it through resolutions or on social media.

03:03:58.850 --> 03:04:03.705
- It means sitting across from each other and talking about the budget and design, rather than solely

03:04:03.705 --> 03:04:08.658
- expressing frustration that you don't know what the answer to that question is. It means spending the

03:04:08.658 --> 03:04:13.610
- time you spent tonight on whether or not you're going to get an extra attorney on figuring out how to

03:04:13.610 --> 03:04:18.806
- move forward. Please deny this appropriation and start working to solve this problem. Someone said tonight

03:04:18.806 --> 03:04:23.758
- they are trying to protect themselves, and I appreciate that. What I'm asking is that you start doing

03:04:23.758 --> 03:04:27.934
- the same for those in the Justice Building, which is what brought us here. Thank you.

03:04:29.378 --> 03:04:39.033
- Thank you. My name is Jeff Richardson. First, Council President Crosley, thank you for being at the

03:04:39.033 --> 03:04:49.171
- City Council meeting the other night. That was really important. And having Julie Thomas and Jody Madera

03:04:49.171 --> 03:04:56.798
- call in was also helpful. It was the first time in years that I actually heard

03:04:58.306 --> 03:05:06.127
- city and county talking to each other. And so that was a positive thing. Some of this, Jennifer, you've,

03:05:06.127 --> 03:05:13.651
- President Crosley, you've heard. I think this whole debacle is the case study and failed leadership.

03:05:13.651 --> 03:05:21.174
- I mean, 16 years. Some are counting as 17 years and still going. So I just want to acknowledge that.

03:05:21.174 --> 03:05:26.910
- And Trent, you mentioned people having a hard time figuring what's going on.

03:05:27.202 --> 03:05:33.836
- just harking back to what our friend just said here, is that there seems to be no acknowledgement of

03:05:33.836 --> 03:05:39.944
- that. I mean, we're talking, we're moving pieces around on the chessboard or on the Titanic,

03:05:39.944 --> 03:05:46.513
- the deck chairs. But the problem is, is that we dropped the ball. And suggestions that somehow ACLU

03:05:46.513 --> 03:05:53.081
- is taking away our local control. We've ceded our local control. We've given it away. And it almost

03:05:53.081 --> 03:05:55.774
- screams out for, like another situation,

03:05:56.034 --> 03:06:02.392
- we have with the conventions that are not to bring up another topic, but do we need someone who can

03:06:02.392 --> 03:06:08.813
- actually govern? Do we need a third body that can come in, an entity, and say, we'll do this for you

03:06:08.813 --> 03:06:15.489
- because you folks can't do it? So one of the things that was actually the catalyst by President Crossley

03:06:15.489 --> 03:06:20.766
- going to the city council is Isaac Azari, the president of the city council, said,

03:06:20.866 --> 03:06:27.385
- Let's get together. Let's roll up our sleeves and not talk about what's going to happen at the next

03:06:27.385 --> 03:06:33.904
- meeting. Even tonight, as it was to happen at the City Council, I said the same thing to my friends

03:06:33.904 --> 03:06:40.619
- there, is we always think in the terms of the next meeting, what do we need to do? But my question is,

03:06:40.619 --> 03:06:47.204
- what do we do between meetings? What are we doing now, right now, like tomorrow, during the weekend?

03:06:47.204 --> 03:06:50.398
- What's the plan? So that concerns me, is what is

03:06:50.530 --> 03:06:57.904
- the plan, what's the timeline, and what's the desired outcome. And I fear sometimes where some of my

03:06:57.904 --> 03:07:05.497
- older friends might remember this, but the old Pogo cartoon that said we've met the enemy and the enemy

03:07:05.497 --> 03:07:12.943
- is us. And I feel in many ways there has to be an acknowledgement that we've had some difficulties in

03:07:12.943 --> 03:07:19.806
- making decisions, and now we've got to do the hard work. So I have no position, incidentally.

03:07:19.906 --> 03:07:26.526
- on North Park versus Thompson or Fullerton, if that comes back up. I have no position whether you hire

03:07:26.526 --> 03:07:33.082
- this attorney or not, but I feel just back to several of you said this, the public, I was having, you

03:07:33.082 --> 03:07:40.087
- folks were saying you have a hard time figuring things out and I'm trying to follow this. I'm very concerned

03:07:40.087 --> 03:07:46.771
- about this. I had a hard time following what's going on. So I feel if nothing else, please provide some

03:07:46.771 --> 03:07:49.278
- clarity of what is the desired outcome

03:07:49.570 --> 03:07:56.800
- What's the end game? And what are you doing in between meetings? And can we frame this in a way that

03:07:56.800 --> 03:08:04.174
- collectively, let's figure this out rather than having someone like Ken Falk, for example, be the fall

03:08:04.174 --> 03:08:11.333
- guy. We can do this. We've got great people on both councils, on the mayor, the commissioner. We're

03:08:11.333 --> 03:08:19.422
- such a blessed city to have the people we have as elected officials. I am confident that we can figure this out.

03:08:19.906 --> 03:08:27.033
- and I pray that we do so. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go before I go back to the room here, I'm

03:08:27.033 --> 03:08:34.160
- going to go to teams. So someone by the screen name of Janet, you can unmute yourself, state your name

03:08:34.160 --> 03:08:37.758
- for the record and you'll have up to three minutes.

03:08:55.042 --> 03:09:22.174
- name Janet can you are you able to unmute yourself? DSD can we help this individual out? I'm gonna I'm gonna

03:09:22.626 --> 03:09:31.038
- Go back to that individual. I see another person's hand raised via Teams. So I'll let this person screen

03:09:31.038 --> 03:09:39.130
- name Eric Spoonmore. You can go ahead and speak and then we'll come back to Janet to see if they are

03:09:39.130 --> 03:09:47.543
- able to unmute. So state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Hi, good evening,

03:09:47.543 --> 03:09:52.510
- Council. Eric Spoonmore. Been watching the meeting all night.

03:09:52.930 --> 03:10:02.510
- planning to comment on this item, but I think it's been a really productive and good discussion. And

03:10:02.510 --> 03:10:12.186
- I just kind of wanted to weigh in from my prior experience as a Monroe County Council member and also

03:10:12.186 --> 03:10:22.430
- president of the Council not too long ago. You know, I was there at that time when the decision was made to

03:10:23.074 --> 03:10:31.393
- relinquish the attorney that worked for the Council. And I can tell you, you know, I have a lot of very

03:10:31.393 --> 03:10:39.712
- wonderful memories of my time working on Council and a lot of things that I'm really proud of that were

03:10:39.712 --> 03:10:48.350
- accomplished. One of my greatest regrets is that we made that decision to relinquish our own legal Council.

03:10:48.350 --> 03:10:51.710
- And there were colleagues that I had that

03:10:52.002 --> 03:11:00.519
- at the time had advised me to think differently about that. And looking back, I wish I would have listened.

03:11:00.519 --> 03:11:08.563
- I look at this request here as kind of more of an insurance policy than anything. This is the biggest

03:11:08.563 --> 03:11:16.449
- project in the history of Monroe County. And if we're in an adversarial kind of situation, which it

03:11:16.449 --> 03:11:19.998
- looks like we are, we've got seven unanimous

03:11:20.290 --> 03:11:26.855
- County council members who have decided to not go to North Park and we have a majority of the commissioners

03:11:26.855 --> 03:11:32.935
- who. Seemingly want to do that. I think it's inevitable that there's going to be some conflict here

03:11:32.935 --> 03:11:39.257
- and you know, I really appreciate what I heard from some council members tonight. This is nothing about

03:11:39.257 --> 03:11:45.518
- county legal. This is to protect them. There is an inherent conflict there. I think and in the private

03:11:45.518 --> 03:11:48.862
- sector, an attorney would have to admit that conflict.

03:11:49.378 --> 03:11:56.737
- when they're representing one client yet beholden to another client. And so to me, this just seems like

03:11:56.737 --> 03:12:04.166
- an insurance policy. Get your ducks in a row because when you get involved in these kinds of situations,

03:12:04.166 --> 03:12:11.383
- this is gonna impact the community for decades. You wanna be represented and you wanna know that your

03:12:11.383 --> 03:12:19.166
- best interests are being represented. And I think that's what the community elected you all to do as a check.

03:12:19.522 --> 03:12:29.561
- and balance in county government. Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna go and I'll pop back to Janet online.

03:12:29.561 --> 03:12:39.214
- State your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Hi, my name is Kaden Smith. I'm

03:12:39.214 --> 03:12:47.902
- a resident of the county. Good evening. I appreciate you all on these very long meetings.

03:12:48.706 --> 03:12:52.638
- But I think it's important that the council votes.

03:12:52.738 --> 03:13:00.686
- no on this. I think the county and the state were at a time where we're trying to be financially responsible

03:13:00.686 --> 03:13:08.270
- as the council is the fiscal body. I think approving additional funds for ourselves while we're telling

03:13:08.270 --> 03:13:15.561
- other departments to continuously cut back is very hypocritical of ourselves. I support many of the

03:13:15.561 --> 03:13:22.270
- words that Councilor Feidl said. And I also raise the point that this additional $30,000 is

03:13:22.434 --> 03:13:28.753
- quite arbitrarily and I respect the idea of a placeholder but I'm concerned about the fiscal impact

03:13:28.753 --> 03:13:32.734
- if we don't exactly know what we're voting on when it could be

03:13:32.834 --> 03:13:39.996
- a lot more or it could be a lot less. And then finally, I'll also state that the $30,000 still doesn't

03:13:39.996 --> 03:13:47.435
- solve the problem that we have a constitutional key requirement and that while we're here having a healthy

03:13:47.435 --> 03:13:54.527
- conversation about whether we should or should not approve the money, there's still people sitting in

03:13:54.527 --> 03:13:59.742
- a jail like two blocks from here that don't have that constitutional right

03:13:59.842 --> 03:14:08.566
- Being protected right now and we need to discuss further places rather than Continue then trying to

03:14:08.566 --> 03:14:17.464
- hire an attorney when the council already has a legal Attorney that's sitting across the room from me

03:14:17.464 --> 03:14:24.094
- so I would encourage the council's vote now on this Resolution or amendment

03:14:33.826 --> 03:14:55.516
- Thank you. All right. I'm going to go back to Teams and is Janet able to unmute? TSD, are you able to

03:14:55.516 --> 03:15:01.470
- help this individual? Okay.

03:15:02.434 --> 03:15:08.594
- Oh, can you hear me now? Yes, yes, we can hear you again. State your name for the record and you'll

03:15:08.594 --> 03:15:15.001
- have up to three minutes. My name is Janet Johnson and I live in the county and I just want to say that

03:15:15.001 --> 03:15:21.654
- I agree that you need the representation. I think Mr Spoonford Spoonmore did a very good job of reiterating

03:15:21.654 --> 03:15:28.123
- some of the points that were brought up earlier as far as conflict of interest with the county attorneys

03:15:28.123 --> 03:15:31.326
- like you. I have no doubt they're doing a good job.

03:15:32.354 --> 03:15:39.707
- and are perfectly capable, but I think there's a conflict of interest there that needs to be exposed

03:15:39.707 --> 03:15:46.987
- and it needs to be covered. You need to have your own representation. I agree with the other people

03:15:46.987 --> 03:15:54.412
- who spoke on the fact that we just need to work together and get this done. I mean, it's obscene that

03:15:54.412 --> 03:16:00.382
- it's gone on so long, but it just needs to get fixed. People need to sit down and

03:16:00.802 --> 03:16:07.257
- no matter what the decision is, nobody's gonna love it. If somebody is really happy, that means too

03:16:07.257 --> 03:16:13.970
- many other people are unhappy. So there just needs to be true negotiation and a good spirit to get that

03:16:13.970 --> 03:16:20.618
- done. And I'd like to see everybody come to the table and get a resolution quickly. But I believe that

03:16:20.618 --> 03:16:27.072
- you need to protect yourself because I think you should stand strong that what they wanna do is not

03:16:27.072 --> 03:16:30.558
- the best choice. That's really all I have, thank you.

03:16:31.138 --> 03:16:56.038
- Please go ahead and state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. My name is Leigh

03:16:56.038 --> 03:16:59.358
- Kroon-Tayfer.

03:17:00.866 --> 03:17:11.355
- I know, and as other people have spoken, we really need to come together and talk. But many years ago

03:17:11.355 --> 03:17:21.639
- now, the commissioners took the ball and ran and told us, the taxpayers, to stay in our lane. Well,

03:17:21.639 --> 03:17:30.174
- and I just want to say that I applaud each of you for protecting the taxpayer from

03:17:30.370 --> 03:17:39.874
- a bad idea. And we've said this many times and many ways to get the commissioners to come to the table

03:17:39.874 --> 03:17:49.102
- and start a real, true negotiation. And if it takes outside counsel to do that, that's unfortunate,

03:17:49.102 --> 03:17:58.699
- but it needs to be done. It needs to be done. Thank you. All right. Last call for public comment before

03:17:58.699 --> 03:17:59.806
- we move on.

03:18:02.594 --> 03:18:12.257
- Raise your hand via Teams. Great. Seeing no other further comment on, or public comment rather, I'll

03:18:12.257 --> 03:18:22.589
- take final comment and then we can wrap up. So did I see a hand here? Council Hock, did you have something?

03:18:22.589 --> 03:18:31.678
- Right, I'm just wondering if we're going to vote on this this evening and before it's morning.

03:18:31.874 --> 03:18:40.200
- Well, I think the idea is there was a discussion, so somebody would have to make a motion. I'm sorry,

03:18:40.200 --> 03:18:48.281
- it was on the mic. I can make a motion, Madam President. Council, I move to approve the additional

03:18:48.281 --> 03:18:57.016
- appropriation of $30,000 for contractual legal services and to authorize the Council President to identify

03:18:57.016 --> 03:19:01.342
- and solicit proposals from qualified outside Council

03:19:01.538 --> 03:19:08.918
- and to bring a recommended engagement, including scope and terms, back to council for approval with

03:19:08.918 --> 03:19:16.593
- any contract to be executed in accordance with applicable Indiana law. Okay. All right. We got a motion

03:19:16.593 --> 03:19:24.120
- and a second. Is there any other final comment from council on this item? I have a lot. Could we read

03:19:24.120 --> 03:19:30.910
- that motion again? Yep. Let's catch it on transcript. I'll leave the Pittsburghese at home.

03:19:31.234 --> 03:19:38.865
- I move to approve the additional appropriation of $30,000 for contractual legal services and to authorize

03:19:38.865 --> 03:19:46.064
- the Council President to identify and solicit proposals from qualified outside Council and to bring

03:19:46.064 --> 03:19:53.263
- a recommended engagement, including scope and terms, back to Council for approval with any contract

03:19:53.263 --> 03:19:57.438
- to be executed in accordance with applicable Indiana law.

03:20:03.714 --> 03:20:10.477
- a lawyer to interpret what you said? It's three clauses. No, just the last part. All right. Well,

03:20:10.477 --> 03:20:17.654
- I mean, we just got to do it in accordance with law. Isn't that a given? I don't know. OK. It'd be like

03:20:17.654 --> 03:20:24.555
- he's saying he's made a motion to approve this and to have the president bring the information back

03:20:24.555 --> 03:20:31.870
- to us, and then we can vote on it then. And boom, we're done. Let's not make such a big deal out of this.

03:20:32.674 --> 03:20:38.089
- Any other further questions or comments? We may not even need it. Yeah, to that point, I know we're

03:20:38.089 --> 03:20:43.504
- all out of place, but to that point, Madam President, to defend the motion, that we're not spending

03:20:43.504 --> 03:20:49.082
- it. We're just putting it there so she can go forth and look. And she asked, and I'm going to take her

03:20:49.082 --> 03:20:54.713
- word that she needs it. And I'm just going to stand by what I said earlier. The varied reasons, it does

03:20:54.713 --> 03:21:00.670
- not require a linear conversation. And all of us have different conclusions. But the council president asked,

03:21:00.930 --> 03:21:08.365
- This is a way for her to move forward to go solicit and figure it out and bring it back to us. So a

03:21:08.365 --> 03:21:16.171
- question about how the president will select an organization and have the scope and the other qualifiers

03:21:16.171 --> 03:21:23.903
- that were in that clause that I don't remember off the top of my head, can that email or does that have

03:21:23.903 --> 03:21:29.182
- to be done in a council meeting? Because we would have to vote on that

03:21:29.538 --> 03:21:36.422
- It's that organization, right? You would have to approve the contract in a council meeting. But if you

03:21:36.422 --> 03:21:42.971
- are delegating, you know, the initial conversations to get the terms of the contract and contract

03:21:42.971 --> 03:21:49.654
- negotiations to one person, then that doesn't have to occur in a council meeting. The end result of

03:21:49.654 --> 03:21:56.605
- those conversations would have to be approved in council. So the council president would be negotiating

03:21:56.605 --> 03:21:58.142
- the full contract with

03:21:59.330 --> 03:22:04.737
- term by themselves? I think that was Mr. Henry's motion, but I hear him saying no, so I'm not exactly

03:22:04.737 --> 03:22:10.356
- sure. No, I'm saying that's the intent here is to empower the council president, that we have a precedent

03:22:10.356 --> 03:22:15.762
- in the other body to empower the commission president to go forth and do. I'm simply trying to answer

03:22:15.762 --> 03:22:21.169
- her request and go forth and do. Bring it back. And you're not authorized to spend a nickel until you

03:22:21.169 --> 03:22:26.523
- bring it back. So bring it back. Let us know what the proposal is. And just to follow up, that would

03:22:26.523 --> 03:22:27.742
- be brought back on the

03:22:27.874 --> 03:22:36.197
- Our meeting of the 12th, correct? She does all that work by the 12th. I mean, if it takes longer, it

03:22:36.197 --> 03:22:44.437
- takes longer. I appreciate all the questions. I mean, it's very static here, but the truth is that,

03:22:44.437 --> 03:22:52.677
- you know, Council President asked, there's a timeline. Preparedness is a good idea. Go forth and do

03:22:52.677 --> 03:22:57.374
- is all I'm saying here. Any other questions or comments?

03:22:59.554 --> 03:23:09.325
- Again, it's just gathering information and bringing it back. Much like other conversations that I've

03:23:09.325 --> 03:23:19.192
- had, it's gathering information and bringing it back. That's it. Yes, Councillor Wilts. First, I want

03:23:19.192 --> 03:23:28.382
- to thank you, Councillor Crossley, for bringing this to us so that we can have the discussion.

03:23:28.962 --> 03:23:40.140
- It's important that we kind of think through our options. And I do trust that you can do many things

03:23:40.140 --> 03:23:51.428
- at once. I've seen you do it. So I am going to trust that you can go and find outside council and put

03:23:51.428 --> 03:23:58.622
- something together for us to consider. I would add, please don't

03:23:59.714 --> 03:24:07.723
- that to the exclusion of trying to work on the bigger picture. I don't think you will, but I feel like

03:24:07.723 --> 03:24:15.498
- in public comment on something, I need to just say the reason I'm going to support you is because I

03:24:15.498 --> 03:24:23.895
- know that it's not to the exclusion of doing these other bigger picture things and having the conversations

03:24:23.895 --> 03:24:28.638
- with our city colleagues and the commissioners and those who

03:24:28.834 --> 03:24:37.648
- We'll listen. So I just wanted to say that. Thanks. Any other questions or comments? The only thing

03:24:37.648 --> 03:24:46.638
- else that I would say is, and I thank the public commenter for a couple of public commenters tonight,

03:24:46.638 --> 03:24:55.892
- is I'm not going out to seek, oh, well, this person needs to be on our side because all of this is going

03:24:55.892 --> 03:24:56.862
- to happen.

03:24:57.058 --> 03:25:04.209
- No, absolutely not. I think at the end of the day, like one of the public commenters made when I went

03:25:04.209 --> 03:25:11.219
- to last week's city council meeting is the fact that we have folks that really want to sit down and

03:25:11.219 --> 03:25:18.440
- talk with us. And I understand the deadline that we are on. I've been on council since December of 21.

03:25:18.440 --> 03:25:25.310
- And we're still working towards a solution like folks party in like it was 2008. But here we are.

03:25:25.570 --> 03:25:33.898
- Yes, I understand that we could do these things and we're not thinking about people in that building.

03:25:33.898 --> 03:25:42.062
- We think about folks in that building every single day. Wouldn't be in there fighting as hard as we

03:25:42.062 --> 03:25:50.308
- are for those types of things. So yes, I am doing that. I do that publicly and go into other things,

03:25:50.308 --> 03:25:51.614
- whether we have

03:25:51.970 --> 03:25:59.021
- a lot of things that are happening. I want to be able to have those conversations with commissioners,

03:25:59.021 --> 03:26:06.140
- with city council, with the mayor, all of us here to sit down and figure out what we can be doing. But

03:26:06.140 --> 03:26:13.260
- in the event that things go sideways, this is my way of trying to say, hey, council, I'm just bringing

03:26:13.260 --> 03:26:19.550
- this back to you all. And it could be that I bring it back to you all and it doesn't work.

03:26:19.778 --> 03:26:26.107
- And it is what it is, and that's fine. I've worked at it. I'm a mom. I multitask. I do all the things.

03:26:26.107 --> 03:26:32.252
- That's what the good book says. I can do all things. So that's all I'm trying to do. I'm not trying

03:26:32.252 --> 03:26:38.396
- to take power or ownership of any of this. This is just something I've been working my ass off for.

03:26:38.396 --> 03:26:40.670
- Excuse me. And I'm just trying to do

03:26:40.898 --> 03:26:47.539
- what we can for taxpayers, because we have had the conversations. We've had the CJRC meetings. We've

03:26:47.539 --> 03:26:54.312
- had the JFEX. We've had all of those things. But yet, we are still having this conversation right now.

03:26:54.312 --> 03:27:01.151
- And so I would hope that my colleagues would trust me enough to know that I'm not going to go in a room

03:27:01.151 --> 03:27:07.793
- and do something weird, and I come back in that whole different ball game. All I'm just saying is, I

03:27:07.793 --> 03:27:10.686
- just want to go gather, and then that's it.

03:27:10.818 --> 03:27:24.907
- I'll say to that. So without that being said, can we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Iverson?

03:27:24.907 --> 03:27:40.638
- Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hawke? Yes. Councillor Decker? No. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Henry?

03:27:41.922 --> 03:27:50.314
- Councillor Crossley. Yes. Motion passes majority six to one. Yeah, I appreciate that. All right. Next

03:27:50.314 --> 03:27:58.541
- up is item G from the legal department. Council I move to approve resolution 2026 dash 15 approving

03:27:58.541 --> 03:28:07.509
- the renewal of the inner local cooperation agreement between the city of Bloomington Monroe County regarding

03:28:07.509 --> 03:28:09.566
- building code authority.

03:28:11.298 --> 03:28:19.282
- We got a motion and a second, Ms. Turner-King. So this resolution is council's approval on the proposed

03:28:19.282 --> 03:28:20.126
- interlocal

03:28:20.322 --> 03:28:25.849
- building code authority. What I will note is that there are a few changes from previous years. Otherwise,

03:28:25.849 --> 03:28:31.064
- it's the same as it has been since 1995. The changes include that previously the interlocal was for

03:28:31.064 --> 03:28:36.539
- a period of two years. It's been extended to five years. However, it contains a clause that either party

03:28:36.539 --> 03:28:41.910
- may terminate by providing written notice so long as the other party has been notified by July 1st and

03:28:41.910 --> 03:28:44.830
- then termination would be effective the following year.

03:28:45.570 --> 03:28:52.366
- It agrees to honor the city's fee waiver. However, the city must provide a fee waiver document and identify

03:28:52.366 --> 03:28:59.035
- the respective projects for which the fee waiver is applicable. And in regards to stop orders, the county

03:28:59.035 --> 03:29:05.516
- will issue stop orders upon the request of city planning, but they must identify the code or ordinance

03:29:05.516 --> 03:29:12.249
- violation for which the stop order is being requested. These changes basically are codifying the practices

03:29:12.249 --> 03:29:13.822
- that have been in place.

03:29:16.898 --> 03:29:24.710
- Yes, Councillor Hawke. The only thing I noticed on that is it sounded like it was extending it much

03:29:24.710 --> 03:29:32.757
- longer than normal and it won't be the same people at all involved. I mean, because it's taking it out

03:29:32.757 --> 03:29:41.117
- so long. So I don't know why we would do that because in the meantime, we're going to be a whole different

03:29:41.117 --> 03:29:45.726
- financial structure. But, you know, you folks do whatever.

03:29:47.010 --> 03:29:55.191
- I think it's very strange, and are you advising us that it is proper and appropriate that we, given

03:29:55.191 --> 03:30:03.617
- the financial changes that we will see during that time, that we would do an interlocal agreement that

03:30:03.617 --> 03:30:05.662
- locks us into something?

03:30:06.594 --> 03:30:13.069
- Well, although the interlocal is for a longer duration and period of time, it's five years instead of

03:30:13.069 --> 03:30:19.545
- two, there is that clause that allows either party to terminate with the proper notice. So I mean, it

03:30:19.545 --> 03:30:25.893
- doesn't lock you in without an exit plan. Well, I understand that it just, I mean, by that time you

03:30:25.893 --> 03:30:32.432
- have different commissioners, you could have different mayor. It just seems to me we should just leave

03:30:32.432 --> 03:30:34.654
- it at the two years. Why would we?

03:30:36.514 --> 03:30:45.031
- You know, it's sort of like you're trying to rule from the grave is the way we used to put it when you

03:30:45.031 --> 03:30:54.126
- tried to do contracts that was beyond your time being there. I just thought I'd say that sounded problematic,

03:30:54.126 --> 03:31:02.974
- but maybe everything's cool. Do we have other contracts that go five years? I don't know. I mean. Or more.

03:31:05.666 --> 03:31:12.930
- have to look at some of our inter locals. I'm not sure how long the I think animal management is a year.

03:31:12.930 --> 03:31:19.987
- Um, so I can't think of any inter local off the top of my head that goes in this duration, but I will

03:31:19.987 --> 03:31:27.459
- note that all of the changes that were in essence proposed were proposed by the county, um, county building

03:31:27.459 --> 03:31:32.510
- and city was an agreement. Do you have any concerns about committing us?

03:31:33.858 --> 03:31:43.277
- to this type of agreement for this? I don't because of the clause that allows you to terminate.

03:31:43.277 --> 03:31:53.481
- Thank you. Yes, go ahead. One of the things that we were told by AIC, the list of things that we needed

03:31:53.481 --> 03:32:03.390
- to look at was what kind of interlocal agreements that we might have moving into this time period of

03:32:04.770 --> 03:32:12.724
- it using more of the income tax stop rate and that's when you have time to review that and I know this

03:32:12.724 --> 03:32:20.524
- is a busy time for everybody but it is in the list of things that we are supposed to look at was the

03:32:20.524 --> 03:32:28.246
- inner local agreement so I just find it curious indeed I don't know whose idea it was to take it to

03:32:28.246 --> 03:32:34.270
- five years was it the city was it the commissioners I do not know but I would

03:32:34.626 --> 03:32:45.929
- I just think it's curious that we're doing this at a time of so much information that we're waiting

03:32:45.929 --> 03:32:57.796
- to get. And as Jamie Boesler said, we should know more come July, August, something like that. But maybe

03:32:57.796 --> 03:33:04.126
- this is all fine. I don't mean to be throwing whatever.

03:33:05.826 --> 03:33:11.828
- Pretty much unheard of in reading the whereas clauses in the building interlocal I would note that it

03:33:11.828 --> 03:33:17.712
- the third whereas is whereas in 1996 the city and county entered into a five year interlocal. So in

03:33:17.712 --> 03:33:23.656
- the 90s it was also a five year interlocal. I don't know when the shift became to have a two year it

03:33:23.656 --> 03:33:29.599
- might have just been during the extension process. But for this interlocal the five year period does

03:33:29.599 --> 03:33:31.070
- not seem to be abnormal.

03:33:41.954 --> 03:33:53.252
- If we thought that perhaps it would be in our interest to only do a two year, could we make that change

03:33:53.252 --> 03:34:05.310
- here now and approve it or does it need to be taken back? I think I would recommend taking it back and getting

03:34:05.410 --> 03:34:10.558
- rewritten because I know that Mr. Schilling, the city and the building department have had

03:34:10.558 --> 03:34:16.272
- ongoing conversations and so I wouldn't want to make that change without I mean I wasn't involved in

03:34:16.272 --> 03:34:22.043
- those conversations so there might have been some in depth discussion as why they wanted to do a five

03:34:22.043 --> 03:34:27.814
- year change and so I know the commissioners are considering this on Thursday and then I don't know if

03:34:27.814 --> 03:34:33.471
- the City Council has approved it yet but instead of making a unilateral change I would like to have

03:34:33.471 --> 03:34:34.942
- those parties discuss it.

03:34:36.834 --> 03:34:44.612
- What I'll say is it is also retroactive, so it looks like our current building code agreement is going

03:34:44.612 --> 03:34:52.390
- to expire. But I mean, since this one is going to be retroactive to the data expiration, I don't think

03:34:52.390 --> 03:34:59.942
- it would be problematic to go back to them and say, would you consider a two year? Why didn't we do

03:34:59.942 --> 03:35:04.926
- a two year? Any other further questions or comments on this item?

03:35:11.426 --> 03:35:17.839
- Yes. There's clearly a question about the five and there's clearly not an ability to get agreement on

03:35:17.839 --> 03:35:24.189
- that five. I lost mine. And Councillor Hogg's not here. Does this have to happen right now? It seems

03:35:24.189 --> 03:35:30.539
- like of all the buses that are careening towards this building, this one's not the one that I had on

03:35:30.539 --> 03:35:37.266
- my mind when I walked in here, Councillor. What do you think? I mean, other than the fact that our current

03:35:37.266 --> 03:35:40.158
- interlocal is going to expire, I don't ‑‑

03:35:40.514 --> 03:35:46.459
- Under an interlocal, I guess they could tip it. Each party would have the right to be like, we're not

03:35:46.459 --> 03:35:52.288
- under an interlocal. We don't have to operate under what has been our procedure for some time. Do I

03:35:52.288 --> 03:35:58.234
- anticipate that happening? No. The last thing we need right now is anything that looks like we're not

03:35:58.234 --> 03:36:04.121
- doing some of the things we regularly do well together, that that needs to stop. So if we had to buy

03:36:04.121 --> 03:36:09.950
- billboards for that, I would be OK with an additional appropriation. But I take that under account.

03:36:10.370 --> 03:36:19.266
- You know, the, yeah, sometimes the creating things that are coming towards us aren't necessarily always.

03:36:19.266 --> 03:36:27.909
- Other further questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none, I'll take public comment on this item. If you

03:36:27.909 --> 03:36:36.466
- have public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your

03:36:36.466 --> 03:36:37.822
- hand via Teams.

03:36:40.226 --> 03:36:53.786
- And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor Crossley?

03:36:53.786 --> 03:37:08.702
- Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Hawke has left the meeting. Councillor Wilts?

03:37:10.722 --> 03:37:21.816
- Councillor Henry. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Item H. Council, I move to approve resolution 2026-16,

03:37:21.816 --> 03:37:32.695
- establishing meal allowance for absentee board members. Second. All right, we got motion and second,

03:37:32.695 --> 03:37:34.526
- Ms. Turner-King.

03:37:35.522 --> 03:37:42.124
- So statutorily there are some election workers whose compensation is established by the council and

03:37:42.124 --> 03:37:49.121
- some established by the commissioners. The council is in charge of establishing compensation for absentee

03:37:49.121 --> 03:37:55.855
- board members. However the compensation that was established by resolution I think it was in 2024 did

03:37:55.855 --> 03:38:01.598
- not contemplate absentee board members receiving a meal allowance in the same way that

03:38:01.762 --> 03:38:08.167
- Precinct election workers who work day of election receive a meal allowance. It came to our attention

03:38:08.167 --> 03:38:14.697
- that there are some absentee board members who work election day, and the practice has always been that

03:38:14.697 --> 03:38:21.101
- they've been getting a meal allowance. And so this resolution is just codifying the practice that has

03:38:21.101 --> 03:38:26.878
- been taking place for quite some time. Any questions or comments on this item from council?

03:38:35.522 --> 03:38:44.502
- Um, we will take public comment. Um, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your

03:38:44.502 --> 03:38:53.656
- hand via teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor

03:38:53.656 --> 03:39:02.463
- Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker.

03:39:02.463 --> 03:39:05.054
- Yes. Motion passes unanimous.

03:39:06.210 --> 03:39:15.311
- Thank you. Next up is item 10 presentations discussions from the Auditor's Office. And that's me. I'm

03:39:15.311 --> 03:39:25.214
- going to look to the Auditor's Office, Ms. Gregory and Ms. Woodruff for your presentation on the ARPA project.

03:39:28.578 --> 03:39:36.712
- So hopefully this spreadsheet looks familiar. This is the ARPA update we've been sending out pretty

03:39:36.712 --> 03:39:45.089
- regularly since we started the ARPA programs. On your screen you should see a bunch of gray cells that

03:39:45.089 --> 03:39:53.223
- have a zero dollar unexpended balance. These are completed projects. And as we scroll down, we will

03:39:53.223 --> 03:39:57.534
- see some green cells that are current open projects.

03:39:57.762 --> 03:40:04.556
- We have received notification that at least two of these projects are scheduled to come in under budget,

03:40:04.556 --> 03:40:11.285
- which means that we need to figure out how those dollars are going to be re-obligated, re-obligate them

03:40:11.285 --> 03:40:18.209
- and then spend those dollars before the end of this year. We are against the time clock with these because

03:40:18.209 --> 03:40:24.809
- we are legally required to spend them before the end of the year. Or if we don't spend these dollars,

03:40:24.809 --> 03:40:26.750
- we would have to be returned.

03:40:26.882 --> 03:40:34.706
- turning those to the federal. Those two projects that are expected to come in under budget are highlighted

03:40:34.706 --> 03:40:42.164
- in red. That's the septic project and the jail locks project. Right now, we are just looking for some

03:40:42.164 --> 03:40:49.915
- questions that you may have about what we need to research before we come together with the commissioners

03:40:49.915 --> 03:40:55.838
- in a joint session to figure out how we're going to proceed with these projects.

03:40:56.226 --> 03:41:03.311
- The auditor's recommendation is to keep any obligation changes within the green cells. So within line

03:41:03.311 --> 03:41:09.910
- 44 to 54, if you're looking at the Excel spreadsheet, that is going to be the simplest process

03:41:09.910 --> 03:41:17.065
- for re-obligating and reporting. We do know that this will be heavily tracked and monitored during our

03:41:17.065 --> 03:41:22.622
- single audit. And so we want to do things as easy and clean as we possibly can.

03:41:23.394 --> 03:41:30.832
- We have received some additional requests for funding and those were emailed. Right now I believe the

03:41:30.832 --> 03:41:38.344
- list includes jail plumbing. There's a county parks request that would fall under the drainage project

03:41:38.344 --> 03:41:45.855
- for the airport. There's a second parks request for some paving that is needed as a result of the turf

03:41:45.855 --> 03:41:47.678
- project that is ongoing.

03:41:48.162 --> 03:41:55.954
- We have a fire district request for some additional funding. And then we also have Beacon. It looks

03:41:55.954 --> 03:42:04.214
- like I received a request to research that a little bit. Thank you. And so if I understand you correctly,

03:42:04.214 --> 03:42:12.006
- what's highlighted in green, what you're saying is ideally the best way is to keep this, like if we

03:42:12.006 --> 03:42:17.694
- wanted to take some of the money and put it towards anything, ideally we

03:42:17.922 --> 03:42:26.518
- would do it within this category instead of popping back up here. We would keep it within those open

03:42:26.518 --> 03:42:34.347
- projects. Got it, yeah. OK. OK. Any questions or comments on these items from council? Yes,

03:42:34.347 --> 03:42:43.453
- Council Iverson. It seems to me that some of these green line items were already done or the fire district

03:42:43.453 --> 03:42:47.198
- ambulances, that really seems to me like we

03:42:47.298 --> 03:42:56.850
- You tackled that a long time ago. They have roughly $5,000 unexpended, and they do have a request for

03:42:56.850 --> 03:43:06.215
- some additional funding. Okay, so do you want to explain further? Sure. So my understanding is what

03:43:06.215 --> 03:43:15.486
- you provided and they're very grateful for is we provided ambulance, right, but we did not provide

03:43:15.842 --> 03:43:22.640
- everything to outfit the ambulance, all the supplies and things necessary. So there's other expenses

03:43:22.640 --> 03:43:29.439
- that they've incurred, and this could go toward that cause, which obviously would aid the community.

03:43:29.439 --> 03:43:36.439
- So we're bringing it forward to you as was requested by the fire district. Okay. So in all of the green

03:43:36.439 --> 03:43:42.430
- sections, folks are working toward expending all of these. They're just in process. Yes.

03:43:42.690 --> 03:43:57.535
- And if you notice to the very far right column, it has an expected end date for each project to show

03:43:57.535 --> 03:44:10.910
- that they are on track for the most part. Yes, Councilor Williams. So right now, the fire.

03:44:13.794 --> 03:44:24.771
- Fire Protection District is planning to have spent $5,100 more by October. Is that? Yeah, and whenever

03:44:24.771 --> 03:44:36.494
- I talk to Lori, she mentioned that she has spent those dollars. They just haven't requested the reimbursement

03:44:36.494 --> 03:44:43.102
- from us yet. I think that's in the works of what's happening.

03:44:43.202 --> 03:44:54.416
- So it would be adding a view. We would be adding on to that project if we were to move things around

03:44:54.416 --> 03:45:05.741
- in response to their request. So that's one of the options. And then the other thing that we might be

03:45:05.741 --> 03:45:11.070
- adding on to would be the Karst Fields project.

03:45:12.002 --> 03:45:20.622
- I'm just trying to highlight the ones that we haven't have options for so far. And then you had mentioned

03:45:20.622 --> 03:45:28.835
- that would be paving. Would the stormwater one be the airport or would it also? Yes, so we would try

03:45:28.835 --> 03:45:37.129
- the first project for the parks that would be for the water runoff. They've already spent that money.

03:45:37.129 --> 03:45:40.382
- It would be a correction in our ledger.

03:45:40.482 --> 03:45:49.893
- for last year, an expense that incurred, that was out of the parks fund. So we would move that expense

03:45:49.893 --> 03:45:59.122
- from the parks fund into that airport drainage account. And by doing that, we would utilize the ARPA

03:45:59.122 --> 03:46:08.350
- dollars and free up the expended dollars from the parks fund. Which then they could use to pay. Yes.

03:46:11.074 --> 03:46:20.779
- That is a lie. Can you point me to the correct cell that shows how many dollars we think we're going

03:46:20.779 --> 03:46:30.677
- to have left over giving back to the federal government as of December 31st? That's a loaded question.

03:46:30.677 --> 03:46:40.286
- So the unexpended dollars are here. Line 55, J55, those are the unexpended dollars as of right now.

03:46:40.386 --> 03:46:46.813
- do not expect that that will be the unexpended dollars at the end of this year. Let me ask a better

03:46:46.813 --> 03:46:53.369
- question. I'm sorry. That was a loaded question. Do you expect that number will be zero at the end of

03:46:53.369 --> 03:46:59.796
- this year? I would like it to be zero. That's our goal. That's why we're coming to you now. We came

03:46:59.796 --> 03:47:06.608
- to you last year and we keep bringing this up so we can have a plan to re obligate the funding. Obviously

03:47:06.608 --> 03:47:09.822
- there's a lot of need and anything that goes back

03:47:09.986 --> 03:47:18.574
- to the government is not staying in our community. I completely agree. The money needs to stay here.

03:47:18.574 --> 03:47:27.077
- Let me try and ask my question. I'm just not good at asking questions tonight. The sum of the green

03:47:27.077 --> 03:47:35.579
- lines, I didn't do that math, I'm sorry. Is that more or less than the unexpended total? I'm sorry,

03:47:35.579 --> 03:47:37.790
- which column for the sum?

03:47:37.922 --> 03:47:47.086
- I'm so sorry. All right, so the unexpended cells, that's column J. Yeah, what is that sum that you have

03:47:47.086 --> 03:47:55.897
- highlighted? The 2.13. Okay, great. Excellent. Okay. Is there a question? Yeah, exactly. Is there a

03:47:55.897 --> 03:48:06.206
- question? Yeah. Sorry. My fear was that if you added up all of those cells that you were just highlighted, the total

03:48:06.498 --> 03:48:17.061
- would be either more than or less than that bottom number. This bottom number is a sum function. Excellent.

03:48:17.061 --> 03:48:27.037
- For those numbers. Yes, Councillor Decker. Would it help on this? Because I can tell we're kind of...

03:48:27.037 --> 03:48:35.742
- And it's not just us on this. It's us and the commissioners. It would help if we offered

03:48:35.906 --> 03:48:45.232
- to our counterparts, a date in you all for your comfort, a date certain to just finalize it's this or

03:48:45.232 --> 03:48:54.649
- not. Yes, that would be fantastic. And we did lay out in the cells over here the plan of what we would

03:48:54.649 --> 03:49:03.518
- need from both bodies combined and then each body individually. You have a date certain that you

03:49:04.098 --> 03:49:12.431
- like because we're like my students, we work well with, well, we don't always work well with deadlines,

03:49:12.431 --> 03:49:20.685
- but we might try on this. Do you have one you want? Like June 15th or something? No, is that too late?

03:49:20.685 --> 03:49:29.259
- Okay, all right. I would say by mid to late May, we would need some definite answers as to how to proceed.

03:49:29.259 --> 03:49:31.262
- Just curious about that.

03:49:33.218 --> 03:49:41.258
- Yeah, go ahead and then I'll go to Councillor Feidl. This is helpful, thank you. I know that you've

03:49:41.258 --> 03:49:49.539
- emailed it to us. I assume you're going to talk or have talked with the commissioners, same topic? The

03:49:49.539 --> 03:49:57.819
- same information has been provided to both bodies. The plan is to go to their meeting. I don't believe

03:49:57.819 --> 03:50:01.598
- we can make it this week, but next week. Okay.

03:50:01.762 --> 03:50:12.769
- get to that date so if you're able to talk with them next week and then maybe we let them know that

03:50:12.769 --> 03:50:23.997
- we are ready to at least you know have a vote because I guess the question is do we need to meet with

03:50:23.997 --> 03:50:28.510
- them in public to have a conversation or

03:50:28.834 --> 03:50:37.248
- have a conversation and then they have a conversation. We've always done it jointly. Together. Yes.

03:50:37.248 --> 03:50:44.568
- So that you guys could say, you know, hey, we need to deappropriate this, appropriate,

03:50:44.568 --> 03:50:53.319
- you know, deappropriate that. I mean, we've always held a joint ARPA meeting, so. But if council wanted

03:50:53.319 --> 03:50:57.694
- to make a recommendation, we could try that avenue.

03:50:59.074 --> 03:51:07.873
- not going to be talking with them until first week of May. And I'm just saying you just said you needed

03:51:07.873 --> 03:51:16.334
- it fairly quickly. So wait till after that to then like let's schedule a group meeting. And then oh

03:51:16.334 --> 03:51:24.794
- we decided so now we have to appropriate. Oh wait we have to put notice out for that. You know it's

03:51:24.794 --> 03:51:28.094
- a lot of time going. So maybe we could

03:51:28.514 --> 03:51:37.919
- actually advertise maybe we could might say let's pull it out like you know how we used to do super

03:51:37.919 --> 03:51:47.513
- big appropriation the appropriation amounts can we do that so that we're ready to roll in three weeks

03:51:47.513 --> 03:51:56.542
- or whenever however long it takes what big number you gonna choose million dollars I'm sorry so

03:51:57.282 --> 03:52:05.397
- We can't appropriate or advertise by categories anymore, so we would need to know what exact line you

03:52:05.397 --> 03:52:13.512
- guys would like advertised. It's not a request. Yeah, DLGF has changed the way we can do that, so now

03:52:13.512 --> 03:52:21.467
- we can't just do a blanket amount. Couldn't you just advertise all of them and just do it that way,

03:52:21.467 --> 03:52:26.718
- just in case? All the green ones? Yeah. So if we did it that way.

03:52:27.170 --> 03:52:35.882
- We can have those lines open if we choose to put those things in. Did all the green ones or all of them?

03:52:35.882 --> 03:52:44.595
- Well, I think ideally they were saying all the green ones because that would be the easy, more palatable

03:52:44.595 --> 03:52:49.822
- way in doing this since the ones in gray are done technically.

03:52:51.618 --> 03:52:59.574
- So what I'm hearing is we can do additional appropriation and the appropriation for all of the green.

03:52:59.574 --> 03:53:07.608
- We'll just say for a million dollars. We won't hit that. We won't use it. But it will be a flat amount

03:53:07.608 --> 03:53:15.876
- that we have plenty of wiggle room. I don't have anything now. Okay. Do we vote on this? Okay. All right.

03:53:15.876 --> 03:53:20.478
- Any other questions or comments from council on this item?

03:53:21.154 --> 03:53:31.010
- We direct staff to work on setting up a joint meeting with the committee sometime after their next meeting.

03:53:31.010 --> 03:53:40.501
- Just as soon as possible? Yeah, after they present. So not a week from Thursday is when I think they're

03:53:40.501 --> 03:53:45.246
- going to talk to them, right? This coming Thursday?

03:53:45.922 --> 03:53:53.412
- I'm so sorry. I have an obligation on Thursday. I can't be at that meeting right now. I was saying a

03:53:53.412 --> 03:54:00.828
- week from this Thursday is when you you're going to. So if you could start now because you know how

03:54:00.828 --> 03:54:08.466
- we are to set up something for after a week from Thursday Thursday the 7th is that what you're saying.

03:54:08.466 --> 03:54:11.358
- Yes. OK. So after the 7th OK. Oh busy.

03:54:16.642 --> 03:54:24.994
- Unless you guys have any further questions that you want us to research between now and that joint meeting,

03:54:24.994 --> 03:54:32.960
- I think that's all we have. That would be appreciated. Thank you. Anybody else got anything? Okay. Can

03:54:32.960 --> 03:54:40.694
- I ask a question? Yes. Since this is going to be a joint meeting, are we looking at an evening time

03:54:40.694 --> 03:54:45.566
- or during the daytime? I think evening probably would be best.

03:54:45.858 --> 03:54:57.755
- considering folks work during the day. And usually that's been what we've done before. Yeah. Okay. I

03:54:57.755 --> 03:55:09.771
- just want to make sure you do it at seven a.m. Well, thank you all for that. Lastly, can I can I have

03:55:09.771 --> 03:55:14.718
- one other question? Yes. What if we did a

03:55:14.946 --> 03:55:24.100
- maybe a joint meeting like before the May 12th or during the May 12th meeting. I will not be available.

03:55:24.100 --> 03:55:33.077
- That is a very busy day personally for me. So I won't be available. But don't let one person stop the

03:55:33.077 --> 03:55:38.974
- show. So that's just one out of seven. So I will not be available.

03:55:48.034 --> 03:55:55.682
- Yeah, I think that's completely fine. You're going to be able to make it. Yeah, yeah. But not before.

03:55:55.682 --> 03:56:03.404
- But not before. Yeah, let me. The 12th is a really bad day. But no, no, no. But again, like I got some

03:56:03.404 --> 03:56:10.902
- things that outside of here that I've been pushing off for way too long with a lot of other things.

03:56:10.902 --> 03:56:17.950
- And so it's all kind of piling up on the 12th. So but again, that's just me. Like if I'm not.

03:56:18.690 --> 03:56:25.796
- available, I'm totally fine with, so if it works for a majority of people, I think we could just send

03:56:25.796 --> 03:56:32.762
- it out and if it works for a majority of people, then it works and I just won't be here. I was just

03:56:32.762 --> 03:56:39.938
- trying to feel everyone out, see, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Next up, we have the council

03:56:39.938 --> 03:56:45.790
- liaison updates and comments. But first and foremost, we have a women's commission.

03:56:46.146 --> 03:56:56.217
- Councilor Feidl has some scheduling conflicts with the Women's Commission meeting and will need to step

03:56:56.217 --> 03:57:06.385
- down. So if there is anybody here that would like to be the new liaison to the Women's Commission, speak

03:57:06.385 --> 03:57:15.294
- now or forever hold your peace. Usually Thursdays. Thursday at 5.30. Is it second Thursday?

03:57:16.962 --> 03:57:26.688
- I thought it was the third. Councillor Deckard has volunteered himself to the Tribune. All right. Well,

03:57:26.688 --> 03:57:36.975
- thank you so much. All right. So next up, we've had a long meeting this evening, but we will go to Councillor

03:57:36.975 --> 03:57:46.046
- updates and comments. So I will look down to my left here because I already see the paper color.

03:57:46.338 --> 03:57:55.798
- coming out, so you go for it. Okay, so I've done several meetings and activities and I'll focus on them

03:57:55.798 --> 03:58:04.893
- and go along after that. So I went to the BEDC board meeting where they sort of did lessons learned

03:58:04.893 --> 03:58:11.806
- on the Skyforge project. They worked on which they didn't get to do because

03:58:12.610 --> 03:58:20.649
- came a readiness issue. So there's infrastructure problems and all kinds of other things that made the

03:58:20.649 --> 03:58:28.766
- company decide to locate elsewhere instead of out at the airport. So that was disappointing. So there's

03:58:28.766 --> 03:58:36.727
- been two downtown Bloomington meetings. They have 27 conventions scheduled for 27, 2020. And then the

03:58:36.727 --> 03:58:41.566
- current convention center will now be closed January of 2027.

03:58:42.274 --> 03:58:52.385
- through July of 2027 for renovations. Then there is a survey on the public art for the new convention

03:58:52.385 --> 03:59:02.496
- center. I don't know if people got that, but I can read to you the string that performs the execution

03:59:02.496 --> 03:59:10.526
- of that to make a link. It's HTTPS colon front slash front slash FORM dot TY dot

03:59:10.722 --> 03:59:24.166
- p e r f or excuse me dot p e f o r dot com front slash t o front slash v l r l excuse me k l k i know

03:59:24.166 --> 03:59:29.438
- it's confusing and then plus sign and k

03:59:29.762 --> 03:59:36.682
- So I'm sure you can get that if you go on to the current convention website. That's really what I would

03:59:36.682 --> 03:59:43.603
- do. But that's how I got it, was using that one. But I know it exists. And so there's a survey. There's

03:59:43.603 --> 03:59:50.324
- four different public art projects that have been submitted. And so people can choose which one they

03:59:50.324 --> 03:59:56.978
- like the best by May 1st. And I think if you have trouble finding it, I think I would just call the

03:59:56.978 --> 03:59:58.974
- convention center themselves.

03:59:59.106 --> 04:00:10.156
- Somebody there will know how to do that. So somebody announced that Merth is doubling in size downtown

04:00:10.156 --> 04:00:20.992
- with the addition of Ellie Mays space. The elect connect event with the chamber I thought was really

04:00:20.992 --> 04:00:26.142
- good on the 21st for the candidate forum there.

04:00:29.282 --> 04:00:39.099
- Just personally, I just wanted to say I really enjoyed my first ever glamping weekend with my grandson's

04:00:39.099 --> 04:00:48.541
- wedding this past weekend in Irwin, Tennessee. That's all I got. Congratulations. Yeah, let's see. I

04:00:48.541 --> 04:00:56.862
- am exhausted, and so are you. So I will just say that I appreciate everyone's hard work.

04:00:59.106 --> 04:01:16.987
- at it. We'll also pass tonight. Thank you. I'm also passing tonight. Thank you. It's graduation time,

04:01:16.987 --> 04:01:28.382
- so congratulations to all the graduates that will be graduating.

04:01:30.274 --> 04:01:37.704
- Yeah, Townie Summer is upon us by the time we convene for our next meeting. So with that being said,

04:01:37.704 --> 04:01:39.838
- we are adjourned. Thank you.