WEBVTT 00:00:00.258 --> 00:00:07.978 - Good evening, everybody. I apologize for the technical difficulties that we had. I'm calling this meeting 00:00:07.978 --> 00:00:15.406 - to order. Today is Tuesday, August. No August 11th. Happy birthday, Kendall. Um, and the time is five 00:00:15.406 --> 00:00:22.762 - o'clock. We have present in the Natu Hill rooms. Counselors Henry Iverson, Decker, Wilts and Fiddle. 00:00:22.762 --> 00:00:24.510 - Um, I'm not seeing, um, 00:00:25.634 --> 00:00:32.650 - Councilmember Hawk, but I do believe that she's joining us virtually, so everything we do will have 00:00:32.650 --> 00:00:39.876 - a roll call vote this evening as well. So let us jump into it. Again, our apologies for the delay. All 00:00:39.876 --> 00:00:46.891 - those able to stand, please stand for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 00:00:46.891 --> 00:00:54.398 - to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:54.690 --> 00:01:04.147 - indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much for that. Next up is the adoption 00:01:04.147 --> 00:01:11.902 - of agenda and it looks like we have some amendments to make for tonight's agenda. 00:01:12.066 --> 00:01:19.109 - Madam President and council, I have three items. The first is the council. We have a request from the 00:01:19.109 --> 00:01:26.013 - commissioner's office to pull item eight. I request for de appropriation and item eight J a request 00:01:26.013 --> 00:01:32.918 - for a fund to fund transfer. I move to table indefinitely the commissioner's items eight. I and a J 00:01:32.918 --> 00:01:40.030 - second. OK, we got a motion and a second to table those items for the commissioners indefinitely. Any. 00:01:40.802 --> 00:01:48.058 - questions or comments from Council on that item? Okay, seeing none, we're gonna do this by voice vote 00:01:48.058 --> 00:01:55.171 - since we don't have Councilor Hawk yet. So all those in favor of amending the agenda, pulling those 00:01:55.171 --> 00:02:02.285 - items indefinitely, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. 00:02:02.285 --> 00:02:10.110 - Council, I further move to table item K, 8K, a resolution on target fund balances to our August 25th meeting. 00:02:10.946 --> 00:02:19.034 - We got a motion and a second on that table. Any questions or comments from counsel on that item? 00:02:19.034 --> 00:02:27.540 - Seeing none, all those in favor of a table in that item to our August 25th meeting, signify by saying 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:35.962 - aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. And lastly, counsel, I move item eight 00:02:35.962 --> 00:02:40.798 - H, a joint item between the commissioners and aviation to 00:02:40.898 --> 00:02:48.428 - item seven A. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second on that. I think there is some emergency 00:02:48.428 --> 00:02:55.886 - that Mr. Liberty has to handle. So we want to bump that up and get him taken care of so he can handle 00:02:55.886 --> 00:03:03.197 - that accordingly. Any comments on this item? Seeing none. All those in favor of moving that item up 00:03:03.197 --> 00:03:10.142 - on the agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed saying sign. Okay. Motion carries. 00:03:10.306 --> 00:03:15.915 - Thank you very much for that. Next up is our item number four, which is public comment. So if you are 00:03:15.915 --> 00:03:21.468 - here in the Net You Hill room, you can come to the lectern here, state your name for the record, and 00:03:21.468 --> 00:03:27.022 - you'll have up to three minutes. And these are for items that are not on tonight's agenda. So again, 00:03:27.022 --> 00:03:30.046 - if you are a member of the public and wish to speak to 00:03:30.178 --> 00:03:47.731 - you can do the same thing except you can just raise your hand via teams. So are there any takers for 00:03:47.731 --> 00:03:51.902 - public comment tonight? 00:03:59.490 --> 00:04:14.380 - My name is Gerhard Gomm. I reside in Bloomington on Carey, Maryland. 65,765. That is the number of people, 00:04:14.380 --> 00:04:28.574 - as I googled it today, that are currently held in ICE detention. 65,765. Various independent agencies 00:04:28.674 --> 00:04:39.977 - have verified that roughly 70% of those detainees have no criminal record. Every day in this country, 00:04:39.977 --> 00:04:51.612 - injustices occur hour after hour after hour, state by state by state. The powers that be cause suffering 00:04:51.612 --> 00:04:57.374 - for tens of thousands of people and their families. 00:04:59.458 --> 00:05:09.851 - On August 28, at 8.50 p.m., there will be a vigil right outside this building on the southeast corner 00:05:09.851 --> 00:05:20.754 - of the square. A peaceful, reverent vigil for the detainees in the Miami County, in the Miami Correctional 00:05:20.754 --> 00:05:28.702 - Facility. I would like to extend an invitation to each one of you, the staff, 00:05:29.250 --> 00:05:36.830 - the good folks in the audience and the good folks that are watching online. Is it appropriate for me 00:05:36.830 --> 00:05:39.006 - to approach you? Absolutely. 00:06:01.378 --> 00:06:08.889 - invited to attend. Perhaps you can take the flyer home to your other important work shared with your 00:06:08.889 --> 00:06:16.326 - friends, family, and neighbors. So perhaps we can all do a part that this country will be a country 00:06:16.326 --> 00:06:23.838 - where we are all better human beings, where we do not inflict needless suffering on innocent people. 00:06:23.838 --> 00:06:29.118 - Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I like your shirt. All right. 00:06:29.442 --> 00:06:38.241 - Um, is there anybody else here and then that you will room that would like to speak to items not on 00:06:38.241 --> 00:06:47.127 - tonight's agenda. Call and then anybody virtually that would like to speak to items not on tonight's 00:06:47.127 --> 00:06:55.926 - agenda. Okay, seeing none. We appreciate you, sir, for coming up and making that public comment and 00:06:55.926 --> 00:06:57.246 - inviting us to 00:06:57.634 --> 00:07:04.847 - on this event in a few weeks. Thank you. All right. Next up, we will move on to item five, which are 00:07:04.847 --> 00:07:11.988 - department updates. And these are for items that are also not on tonight's agenda. I know there are 00:07:11.988 --> 00:07:19.201 - a couple of people and right now it looks like we have Chris Hardesty that is here. So if you'd like 00:07:19.201 --> 00:07:23.486 - to come up and each department head that would like to give 00:07:24.226 --> 00:07:33.470 - an update for items not on the agenda you have up to 10 minutes. So take it away. Absolutely. 00:08:00.642 --> 00:08:05.335 - you guys for having us and thank you for the ongoing support throughout many years. I just wanted to 00:08:05.335 --> 00:08:09.981 - pop back in again this year and let you know how much we appreciate that. Life Designs DSI has been 00:08:09.981 --> 00:08:14.767 - a part of this community for a long time and want to continue to do what we've been doing and it's the 00:08:14.767 --> 00:08:19.134 - support you guys give us and allow us to do that so we just want to be here to say thank you. 00:08:19.234 --> 00:08:24.559 - that we're going to be able to do that. Um kind of give you some updates. You've got some information 00:08:24.559 --> 00:08:30.093 - in the packet there. We are looking at starting a day program here in town and having our folks something 00:08:30.093 --> 00:08:35.418 - for them to do during the day. We've had folks since I got involved here in Bloomington six years ago 00:08:35.418 --> 00:08:40.795 - that have been on wait lists to attend other programs and still can't get into those services. So it's 00:08:40.795 --> 00:08:46.120 - finally time that we're going to do something about that, and we're going to start the services there 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:49.200 - in our building and have that available for them. And then 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:54.050 - I know we're in the community that are on waitlist and have been for four or five years are looking 00:08:54.050 --> 00:08:58.997 - for those services. And so that's something we're going to be able to start providing to not only the 00:08:58.997 --> 00:09:01.374 - folks we currently serve, but other folks in the 00:09:01.442 --> 00:09:08.336 - community that need those services. We're really focusing on reaching young people and being targeted 00:09:08.336 --> 00:09:15.568 - with technology and how we can utilize that. We have 11 other programs across the state that DSI operates, 00:09:15.568 --> 00:09:22.462 - which gives us a lot of very talented folks. We have music directors and art directors and folks that 00:09:22.530 --> 00:09:27.943 - are in our other programs, we'll be able to work with them through technology and bring that here to 00:09:27.943 --> 00:09:33.303 - our folks. And so looking forward to that, it's very exciting. We're looking at some simulators and 00:09:33.303 --> 00:09:38.985 - some training simulators and being able to do some things for vocational skills, possibly even partnering 00:09:38.985 --> 00:09:43.326 - with local universities to work on certificates where our folks would be able to 00:09:43.618 --> 00:09:48.798 - a certificate for employment somewhere, whether that be as a forklift operator or some sort of a skill 00:09:48.798 --> 00:09:53.977 - that we can teach in a safe, controlled, virtual environment. So really some new, exciting things that 00:09:53.977 --> 00:09:59.257 - we're trying to do and move forward with to serve not only the folks we're currently serving, but really 00:09:59.257 --> 00:10:04.286 - wanting to expand that and serve lots of folks in the community. And again, it's your guys' support 00:10:04.286 --> 00:10:09.314 - that allows us to do that. And we just want to say thank you. I forgot to introduce Eddie. He's our 00:10:09.314 --> 00:10:13.086 - guy here in town that helps us run things and helps stay on top of things. 00:10:13.186 --> 00:10:18.341 - last couple years bringing him along so that somebody else knows what's happening and knows what you 00:10:18.341 --> 00:10:23.445 - guys do for us and just is here to as well say thank you. Appreciate you guys. I mean, on behalf of 00:10:23.445 --> 00:10:28.804 - our clients and staff, we really appreciate the help that we get on the yearly basis. Yeah. So on behalf 00:10:28.804 --> 00:10:34.163 - of our clients and staff, we really do appreciate the help that we get. It means wonders to our clients. 00:10:34.163 --> 00:10:39.267 - I mean, especially when we instilled these programs and this new day program is going to be wonders 00:10:39.267 --> 00:10:42.942 - for us. So thank you guys again. Do you guys have any questions for us? 00:10:43.490 --> 00:10:50.364 - Let's see, does anybody have any questions or comments? Yes, Councilor Woods. I've been recently looking 00:10:50.364 --> 00:10:57.106 - at vocational training in that sphere around parks and recreation. So I would love to connect with you 00:10:57.106 --> 00:11:03.784 - all some other time. Absolutely. Just to talk about ideas. That would be great to reach out to me and 00:11:03.784 --> 00:11:07.646 - we'll get together for sure. So yeah, that'd be fantastic. 00:11:07.906 --> 00:11:13.561 - We're trying to figure out how that fits, where that fits, exactly what that looks like. So any input 00:11:13.561 --> 00:11:19.382 - for that would be very much appreciated. That's all I was saying. One of the reasons why I think funding 00:11:19.382 --> 00:11:24.926 - from these public bodies is so important is we don't necessarily know what's going to happen at the 00:11:24.926 --> 00:11:30.526 - state level. And so I'm going to ask a big question. And if you want to answer it later or are here, 00:11:30.658 --> 00:11:36.245 - Feel free to but we've been reading a lot about some of the changes happening in Indiana Medicaid and 00:11:36.245 --> 00:11:41.777 - you know I don't know is that having pretty profound impacts with your clientele or you know I don't 00:11:41.777 --> 00:11:47.254 - know if you could talk a little bit about that or again if you want to delve into that later we can 00:11:47.254 --> 00:11:47.966 - do that too. 00:11:48.322 --> 00:11:53.743 - Yeah, without going into a lot of detail, yes, it absolutely is having an impact on our folks. There 00:11:53.743 --> 00:11:59.218 - are major changes happening. We're still figuring out exactly what those all are and how that's going 00:11:59.218 --> 00:12:04.800 - to affect us. But yeah, it's definitely kind of an uncertain time. So that's where, like you said, this 00:12:04.800 --> 00:12:10.651 - type of funding that isn't relying on that is huge. Great. OK. And I apologize. That's kind of a non-answer, 00:12:10.651 --> 00:12:16.126 - but I don't want to go into a lot of details. But yeah, it is definitely affecting things. Thank you. 00:12:18.722 --> 00:12:25.492 - as always thank you for coming back it's wonderful to see familiar faces but also I want to compliment 00:12:25.492 --> 00:12:32.393 - you on the certificate approach and that you're exploring that that in my other hat and higher education 00:12:32.393 --> 00:12:39.557 - and out working with you know organizations that are where folks are choosing not to pursue higher education 00:12:39.557 --> 00:12:45.406 - certificates are kind of a hot thing right now and I love the parody and notion that the 00:12:45.730 --> 00:12:51.581 - folks are getting across the community period where they need it, what they need, et cetera. So thank 00:12:51.581 --> 00:12:57.375 - you so much. Appreciate that. Yeah, we're just starting to delve into it, just starting to figure it 00:12:57.375 --> 00:13:03.112 - out, but it's definitely a direction we're looking at. So. I wonder if you could, I did, I tried to 00:13:03.112 --> 00:13:08.906 - fit in your report here, but it may not be obvious. What, what is it that we fund you to the tune of 00:13:08.906 --> 00:13:11.774 - so that we and the public know that what that is? 00:13:13.058 --> 00:13:22.011 - We do not know offhand what the percentage is. I can. I have that information in front of me. Actually, 00:13:22.011 --> 00:13:30.705 - for, um, for DSI for 2027, um, it's actually the same as 26. It's, um, 474,238 dollars. Thank you so 00:13:30.705 --> 00:13:39.572 - much. And auditor, this is in the commissioner's budget, right? Sorry. They have the mental health and 00:13:39.572 --> 00:13:41.982 - developmental disabilities. 00:13:45.186 --> 00:13:51.225 - And again, if anybody is wondering why, like you all come back every year during this time of the year 00:13:51.225 --> 00:13:57.206 - to give us an update. I know I think it was Councilor Woods that had asked for this a couple of years 00:13:57.206 --> 00:14:03.597 - back during our budget here. And so we can just know and have an update and just have a better understanding 00:14:03.597 --> 00:14:09.460 - of where the funding is going and how we can be of service. So right before our budget season kicks 00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:11.102 - off, this is something that 00:14:11.234 --> 00:14:18.247 - you know, we look forward to. Is there anything that, well, my question would be, is there anything 00:14:18.247 --> 00:14:25.471 - that is on the horizon that we should be concerned about with respect, maybe that's what you were also 00:14:25.471 --> 00:14:32.414 - getting at too, but with respect to funding that you might possibly need where you're not getting? 00:14:34.402 --> 00:14:40.855 - Things at a state level are definitely not getting any easier. Every day seems to bring a new challenge, 00:14:40.855 --> 00:14:47.370 - and so having the support as it is is fantastic. And just hoping that it continues and hoping to continue 00:14:47.370 --> 00:14:53.517 - this relationship and the support from you guys is extremely helpful. We appreciate that. Thank you 00:14:53.517 --> 00:14:59.294 - so much. Any other further questions or comments for DSI? No? Well, we appreciate you coming. 00:14:59.650 --> 00:15:09.179 - Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You guys have a great evening. We'll see you next year. If not before 00:15:09.179 --> 00:15:19.067 - then. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Are there any other departments that would wish to make a departmental 00:15:19.067 --> 00:15:27.966 - update? Looks like we have the survey here. There couldn't have been a more perfect storm with the 00:15:28.130 --> 00:15:36.325 - technical issues and the fact I was planning on presenting where It has a lot of visuals. I could come 00:15:36.325 --> 00:15:44.520 - back at another date, but I don't really think there is time So I'll try to be as concise as possible. 00:15:44.520 --> 00:15:52.795 - I was pushing up to my ten minutes maximum already. So Well, here we go and I Think it'll be enjoyable. 00:15:52.795 --> 00:15:58.046 - I think it'll be taking small sips from water hose and I'm hoping 00:15:58.946 --> 00:16:06.799 - that it would be okay if I at least turn this one to the council since I'm going to. Oh, we got this 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:14.807 - one. Yeah. Okay. We can see it. All right. So this is actually just a slide I used for a presentation, 00:16:14.807 --> 00:16:22.738 - but it goes into the history of the surveyors office and I'll get to the point kind of at the closing 00:16:22.738 --> 00:16:28.414 - of this presentation of why I'm presenting today. This is how we used to 00:16:30.946 --> 00:16:37.773 - manage our data. This is a database incense, which is like a print off with handwriting next to it. 00:16:37.773 --> 00:16:45.009 - This is when I came to office in 2005. This is how you used to access the data. You come up to the health 00:16:45.009 --> 00:16:52.041 - department, you pull out these physical copies, and then you would be able to get data that's relevant 00:16:52.041 --> 00:16:56.478 - to section corner in the public land surveying system. These are 00:16:56.642 --> 00:17:05.335 - I'm going to go back to the old monument records monument records of the public land surveying system, 00:17:05.335 --> 00:17:14.029 - which is the framework of property rights. The first one was, I think in 83 no signature, no reference 00:17:14.029 --> 00:17:22.638 - surveys, no theory of location. Then in 95 no. Surveys reference. No theories of location and then in 00:17:22.638 --> 00:17:26.014 - 2013, no theory of location, but we did 00:17:26.274 --> 00:17:34.030 - In 2006, I developed this entire web page to put our records online and upload individual records one 00:17:34.030 --> 00:17:41.710 - at a time, making them accessible to the profession, which I think was really important for decision 00:17:41.710 --> 00:17:49.086 - making. Now, this is kind of using GIS to streamline day-to-day operations. We stitched together 00:17:49.086 --> 00:17:55.550 - a topographical map and then overlaid our section corner data information. Fun fact. 00:17:56.194 --> 00:18:02.619 - The surveyors office provide this to Jason Aiken when he was an assisting plan director when the planning 00:18:02.619 --> 00:18:08.740 - department was still in the courthouse and they promptly started using this information for planning 00:18:08.740 --> 00:18:14.983 - purposes. So it's supposed to show that we've always been using technology, but GIS wasn't a household 00:18:14.983 --> 00:18:18.014 - name back then. Aerials, the state did a flyover. 00:18:18.274 --> 00:18:24.425 - shows how we streamline day-to-day operations and field work. We're able to use this to get out there 00:18:24.425 --> 00:18:30.817 - and be more efficient with our time and more precise with finding where these locations exist. Fun photo. 00:18:30.817 --> 00:18:37.029 - I'm going to skip through it, but that's us working out there with the best equipment available at the 00:18:37.029 --> 00:18:43.119 - time for our budget. This is creating an access database to help streamline operations. Basically, I 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:44.446 - created a model which 00:18:44.834 --> 00:18:51.740 - ran through an arc map and then over there on your right is what it produced. So we were really streamlining 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:58.202 - these tie sheet records. Collaboration between offices, Parks and Recs, VoterEdge, Health Department. 00:18:58.202 --> 00:19:04.600 - Back then GIS wasn't really like a computer interface. It was what it produced. It was that physical 00:19:04.600 --> 00:19:07.198 - map that you hung on the wall back then. 00:19:08.066 --> 00:19:14.773 - Fast forward with over a decade of service to 2016. This is when I took the leadership role, and this 00:19:14.773 --> 00:19:21.676 - was our current org chart. This is going to forecast some of what my conclusion will be, but the elected 00:19:21.676 --> 00:19:28.383 - surveyor was set 75% of other elected officials. The professional surveyor was hired as chief deputy, 00:19:28.383 --> 00:19:30.750 - but that salary was also set 75% of 00:19:31.458 --> 00:19:37.307 - elected surveyors, which means we got a ridiculous deal for the first six months of their service. 00:19:37.307 --> 00:19:43.393 - In 2017, the professional surveyor position was created in appropriately earning more than the elected 00:19:43.393 --> 00:19:49.301 - surveyor. We finally started paying him for what expertise that they provide to the county. To gain 00:19:49.301 --> 00:19:55.210 - support to help offset the financial impact, the professional surveyor position was split 75 coming 00:19:55.210 --> 00:19:58.814 - out of county general and 25 out of the section corner fund. 00:19:59.906 --> 00:20:06.533 - No, this is not just a leadership change. This is a shift in the standards upheld by the Office of the 00:20:06.533 --> 00:20:13.547 - Monroe County Surveyor. Here's a product we're able to create this in house. This is a boundary perpetuation 00:20:13.547 --> 00:20:20.496 - surveyor. We're understanding more of the totality of what's going on on the ground to set these monuments, 00:20:20.496 --> 00:20:26.930 - preserve these monuments, maintain these monuments that again is the foundation of public rights or 00:20:26.930 --> 00:20:29.182 - property rights across the county. 00:20:29.570 --> 00:20:36.057 - Here's our tie sheets. I'm still always excited to show off the one on the far right with the three 00:20:36.057 --> 00:20:42.545 - seals, a licensed surveyor, the elected surveyor, and the surveyor review board, which means once a 00:20:42.545 --> 00:20:49.356 - month I have the opportunity to get five licensed surveyors to agree on one location. That's fun. Here's 00:20:49.356 --> 00:20:53.054 - a quarter record index and a map depicting our progress. 00:20:53.186 --> 00:20:59.391 - wanted to do that. This is like staying on top of new technology and methods. It's not going stagnant. 00:20:59.391 --> 00:21:05.596 - It's making sure that we're implementing best practices and moving forward. And so we start to improve 00:21:05.596 --> 00:21:11.681 - what this is called a field database, which allows us to create accessibility to this information or 00:21:11.681 --> 00:21:17.946 - access issues like topology. I'm going to skip through this, but this is something I'm proud of because 00:21:17.946 --> 00:21:19.934 - I built it out in house or where 00:21:20.130 --> 00:21:27.126 - We need to see how the point doesn't align with the lines. All of those databases to your far left and 00:21:27.126 --> 00:21:34.054 - some offices actually pay services to integrate topology have to move all at once. Here's a fun quick 00:21:34.054 --> 00:21:37.790 - video. I try to trim it down real quick. So basically, 00:21:37.954 --> 00:21:44.862 - All of those separate data sets, once expanded to show you all the multiple layers and fields in there, 00:21:44.862 --> 00:21:51.837 - move simultaneously so we can improve that data, keep that geometry, and make sure that these boundaries 00:21:51.837 --> 00:21:58.944 - are all overlaid. We create databases and develop workflows to streamline operations. We improved internal 00:21:58.944 --> 00:22:02.398 - operations and expand accessibility of information. 00:22:02.850 --> 00:22:09.100 - only if you were there for the eight hours of naming convention discussions to make sure that we had 00:22:09.100 --> 00:22:15.289 - a fundamental way of naming these documents but expanding them as more information came in and make 00:22:15.289 --> 00:22:21.973 - them available and accessible. Here's a fun video. I think this is really important. This kind of forecasts 00:22:21.973 --> 00:22:24.510 - some of why I'm here. I am here all day. 00:22:24.610 --> 00:22:31.943 - So we're searching by that one location. All of these surveys, almost about 7,000 in the database now, 00:22:31.943 --> 00:22:39.134 - pinpoint that one location. We create reports where the profession can gain this information online. 00:22:40.194 --> 00:22:46.167 - collaboration between offices and providing technical assistance and enhancing internal standards. This 00:22:46.167 --> 00:22:52.369 - is something we deployed with planning. And one thing I'd like to point out is the red thing is no monument 00:22:52.369 --> 00:22:58.285 - set at corners. Imagine if you guys had a survey done and the surveyor didn't set the monument at your 00:22:58.285 --> 00:23:04.200 - corners. These were little things falling through the cracks over time. So we deployed this initiative 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:07.646 - with planning department and we still work with them today. 00:23:08.770 --> 00:23:15.282 - more collaboration between offices providing technical assistance and generating cost savings. These 00:23:15.282 --> 00:23:21.730 - are trail projects. One's kind of making its way to Ellisville and the other is still in the works. 00:23:21.730 --> 00:23:28.307 - This is another showcase of it. What I like about the one on the left, that's the Limestone Greenway. 00:23:28.307 --> 00:23:34.819 - The little house with the kind of light blue line going through it, that's the police substation. We 00:23:34.819 --> 00:23:38.494 - literally showed up on the property, did surveying work, 00:23:38.786 --> 00:23:45.128 - discussed what needed to be done with the property owners and negotiate this deal with assistance of 00:23:45.128 --> 00:23:51.469 - legal and parks. The other is a township trustee trying to figure out some issues with the cemetery. 00:23:51.469 --> 00:23:58.125 - Here's another example. This is legal in a property that went to the tax sale. We were able to go through 00:23:58.125 --> 00:24:02.206 - this and eliminate that parcel because it didn't actually exist. 00:24:03.106 --> 00:24:10.029 - Here are all the other professional organizations that we work with that we've collaborated with over 00:24:10.029 --> 00:24:17.155 - the years, and also council has been generous enough to appropriate funds that allow not just my office, 00:24:17.155 --> 00:24:24.214 - but a number of different county departments to work with these groups. All right, we're getting pretty 00:24:24.214 --> 00:24:31.612 - close. 2019, 2020. The elected surveyors, still 75% of other elected officials. In 2019, the GIS coordinator 00:24:31.612 --> 00:24:32.766 - was restructured 00:24:32.930 --> 00:24:39.570 - and appropriately earning more than the elected surveyor. In 2020, the survey technician was created 00:24:39.570 --> 00:24:46.473 - to gain the support and offset the financial impact. That position was split to 50% coming out of county 00:24:46.473 --> 00:24:53.573 - general and 50% out of the second corner fund. Here is, in the same year the GIS coordinator was relocated, 00:24:53.573 --> 00:25:00.542 - Monroe County launched its first internal public facing GIS web application featuring the survey utility. 00:25:01.442 --> 00:25:06.781 - There is a video, basically you can get thousands of documents on here and you can make judgment calls 00:25:06.781 --> 00:25:12.171 - and determinations in the field as a crews out there looking and trying to locate a monument that might 00:25:12.171 --> 00:25:17.458 - have been buried that might actually be the corner of your property, but they can now get on here and 00:25:17.458 --> 00:25:22.590 - find all this information to make that determination on the field instead of setting a new corner. 00:25:23.074 --> 00:25:31.236 - We received a excellence in GIS because we're now using the technology more to its fullest, which means 00:25:31.236 --> 00:25:39.241 - we are maximizing the investment that's already been made. 2021, we worked with elections and did the 00:25:39.241 --> 00:25:42.302 - whole re-precincting and re-review and 00:25:42.562 --> 00:25:49.737 - Actually, the coordinator at that time, he was the technical staff to the Represinking Committee. And 00:25:49.737 --> 00:25:56.982 - after finalizing the Represinking Committee, we created maps that depict the changes and provided them 00:25:56.982 --> 00:26:04.227 - to elections and attached them with the Indiana Election Commission Form 8, which is like the official 00:26:04.227 --> 00:26:09.854 - process. Current, that's where we're at. So here kind of summarizes everything. 00:26:10.018 --> 00:26:18.161 - In 2006, there was a WIS study. The WIS study report talks about total cost of phasing all elective 00:26:18.161 --> 00:26:26.303 - officials to the external midpoint at this dollar amount 20 years ago, all elective officials. Here 00:26:26.303 --> 00:26:34.446 - is the 2021. The study reported salary information for several Indiana counties. However, it failed 00:26:34.446 --> 00:26:37.214 - to note whether the position were 00:26:37.602 --> 00:26:45.567 - full-time, part-time, or had outside employment. These are very important considerations. We reached 00:26:45.567 --> 00:26:53.453 - out to each county in the report and provided this during the 2021 budget hearing. In addition, the 00:26:53.453 --> 00:27:01.892 - study had incorrect salary amounts for my position and also Bartholomew's. This is a fun fact. The average 00:27:01.892 --> 00:27:03.390 - salary between the 00:27:03.618 --> 00:27:12.894 - if you average them all out in this in that chart between the assessor auditor clerk recorder and treasurer 00:27:12.894 --> 00:27:21.826 - compared to the average salary with quotations without with no outside employment so again I have these 00:27:21.826 --> 00:27:30.759 - documentation so I had another column the difference was only 0.15 percent currently it's at 90 percent 00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:32.734 - so still significantly 00:27:33.794 --> 00:27:41.729 - not at equal pay. Here we go. I'll go real quick. 21, I came here, asked for equal pay, didn't get support 00:27:41.729 --> 00:27:49.144 - at that meeting. Ultimately that year, council did adjust the salary at 90%. But then all the other 00:27:49.144 --> 00:27:57.005 - positions got a significant raise. 2021, I did not come to ask for equal pay because I was having trouble 00:27:57.005 --> 00:28:02.270 - with getting a licensed surveyor to the county. So I prioritized that. 00:28:04.130 --> 00:28:11.294 - I did also didn't believe that I could get both requests and thought I was too ambitious. In 2023, I 00:28:11.294 --> 00:28:18.528 - did come back. I did not get the support. I faded that one in. I have requested equal pay in 2026 and 00:28:18.528 --> 00:28:25.833 - discussion with Jennifer Crosley in my liaison. We wanted to make sure we brought this to council, not 00:28:25.833 --> 00:28:32.926 - during the budget hearings because we've been asked not to do that. And quickly, you know, I sit on 00:28:33.250 --> 00:28:41.833 - multiple boards that are really in intergrate intergrined with the development of the county. I'm not 00:28:41.833 --> 00:28:50.332 - going to verbatim made it a priority priority to have higher standards. Do the perpetuation work for 00:28:50.332 --> 00:28:58.915 - per state mandate? Stay on top of technology. Continue to create databases. Also, the GIS division is 00:28:58.915 --> 00:29:03.038 - within the surveyors office and we have created. 00:29:03.170 --> 00:29:13.521 - public applications. And we also have been incorporating other data into a GIS, where we have provided 00:29:13.521 --> 00:29:23.571 - that data to our constituents, colleagues, elected officials, and created valuable tools for policy 00:29:23.571 --> 00:29:33.118 - decisions in general outreach. Here is current today, 83.1% of all the corners under my tenure 00:29:33.378 --> 00:29:41.608 - our survey grade. Fun fact, the Indiana Geographic Information Officer has started the conversation 00:29:41.608 --> 00:29:50.661 - again about getting section corner data for their GIS initiative. That office is in the Office of Technology. 00:29:50.661 --> 00:29:58.973 - By receiving section corner data from Indiana counties, we can improve county boundary data sets and 00:29:58.973 --> 00:30:01.854 - other governmental boundary units. 00:30:02.594 --> 00:30:11.497 - political subdivisions, taxing districts, and also support NextGen 911. If you're not familiar with 00:30:11.497 --> 00:30:20.488 - that, that is what first responders rely on. Since the restructuring of the GIS in 2019, we received 00:30:20.488 --> 00:30:30.014 - four excellence awards, one special award, and a certified platinum certificate for our data harvest work. 00:30:31.842 --> 00:30:40.036 - a fun photo of showing the resources. Again, this is not just a leadership change. It is a shift in 00:30:40.036 --> 00:30:48.393 - the standards upheld by the Office of the Monroe County Surveyor. And I appreciate you giving me time 00:30:48.393 --> 00:30:56.669 - and me being able to give you a recap of what the Surveyor's Office has done over the last 20 years. 00:30:56.669 --> 00:31:00.766 - So thank you, and I will be back later at item F. 00:31:02.242 --> 00:31:09.422 - Thank you. Does anybody have? Yeah, just Councilor Fido. So I would like to know if the things that 00:31:09.422 --> 00:31:16.961 - you demonstrated here for us tonight are available online for the public to access through your website. 00:31:16.961 --> 00:31:24.427 - The first part, sorry. So the things that you demonstrated to us, like maybe some of the charts or some 00:31:24.427 --> 00:31:26.366 - of the graphics or some of 00:31:26.626 --> 00:31:33.401 - is most of the information that you shared with us this evening available on the website. Oh yeah, almost 00:31:33.401 --> 00:31:39.857 - every single thing except that dashboard. I'm working to deploy that where it showed the 83% but you 00:31:39.857 --> 00:31:46.313 - can kind of get that without the indicator. So I would say majority of it. So the public has access. 00:31:46.313 --> 00:31:52.961 - Yes, absolutely. And if anything that the public saw or anyone else wants to see, I can send you a copy 00:31:52.961 --> 00:31:55.070 - and every single thing there has 00:31:55.298 --> 00:32:01.386 - immense amount of information supporting it, so. Appreciate it, thanks. Yeah. Councilmember Henry. Yeah, 00:32:01.386 --> 00:32:05.502 - thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Tron, for coming in. 00:32:05.602 --> 00:32:11.558 - I wanted to say, as you had mentioned, I am your liaison for the council to your office, and I encourage 00:32:11.558 --> 00:32:17.344 - you to bring this forward to us again to have a public hearing outside of the budget process. I think 00:32:17.344 --> 00:32:23.299 - it's been a long road to have five years of need to make a salary adjustment for one of our departmental 00:32:23.299 --> 00:32:29.028 - electeds to make that office whole, and I think it's worth looking into, regardless of our season of 00:32:29.028 --> 00:32:34.814 - taxation. Tron puts in a full 40, which I think is important to say when we look at elected officials 00:32:35.138 --> 00:32:40.237 - statewide where we can have, I think, if I remember, Councilor Deckard last week made a reference to 00:32:40.237 --> 00:32:45.538 - Lake County. I think we were talking about offices where people get elected, maybe don't show up, Tron's 00:32:45.538 --> 00:32:50.637 - not one of those people. One of the things I've learned about working with the liaison role here is, 00:32:50.637 --> 00:32:55.939 - and we're going to hear this, I think, with other department heads that come to us, is these are revenue 00:32:55.939 --> 00:33:01.694 - generating offices in our county. One thing I remember you told me about how you work with other county surveyors 00:33:01.794 --> 00:33:08.917 - near us to figure out where Monroe County ends and maybe Morgan County begins because those offices 00:33:08.917 --> 00:33:16.039 - are revenue for our county. When we think about property tax value, where's that parcel? Is it here 00:33:16.039 --> 00:33:19.102 - or over on the border? Those are some very 00:33:19.938 --> 00:33:25.695 - that you're out there measuring, but that's revenue that's generated for our county when we think about 00:33:25.695 --> 00:33:31.342 - who gets to tax that parcel and whether or not it's ours and you find those. But did you want to talk 00:33:31.342 --> 00:33:36.933 - a little bit about that? I just want to share that's my support of our consideration, but maybe just 00:33:36.933 --> 00:33:41.694 - briefly talk about how you're literally finding parcels out there. Well, not exactly. 00:33:42.466 --> 00:33:49.335 - Well, we're finding the boundaries. But one thing I think is really important, and I've actually said 00:33:49.335 --> 00:33:56.137 - at our last affiliate meeting with other surveyors that aren't prioritizing the perpetuation effort, 00:33:56.137 --> 00:34:02.938 - is the DLGF brought in the IGO to start looking at how they're going to calculate this potential new 00:34:02.938 --> 00:34:09.740 - lit. And they're going to start using address points and things of that nature. And so our dealings, 00:34:09.740 --> 00:34:10.750 - to your point, 00:34:11.554 --> 00:34:18.007 - making sure we're accounting for annexations with the town or making sure that all these parcels are 00:34:18.007 --> 00:34:24.397 - within those jurisdictions and all these GIS points are managed and we have confidence behind it so 00:34:24.397 --> 00:34:30.978 - those dollars start going to it and then to your point there has been certain areas where what we have 00:34:30.978 --> 00:34:33.406 - defined is not necessarily the actual 00:34:34.146 --> 00:34:43.096 - legal acreage and so as we start to go down that path our parcel data will improve so like again that 00:34:43.096 --> 00:34:52.222 - could shift with the way that the assessor uses that data. But it's it's really in my important or it's 00:34:52.222 --> 00:35:00.734 - really important in my opinion that like where this continues to go it's supported regardless of 00:35:00.898 --> 00:35:06.907 - you know, whoever the leadership is, but like again, you know, I was showing a few slides and I'm sorry, 00:35:06.907 --> 00:35:12.858 - I'm derailing in just a little bit where those were previous employees because we've had some turnover, 00:35:12.858 --> 00:35:18.924 - you know, and they have actually, I'm excited. I'll mention it later that of one of our part times taking 00:35:18.924 --> 00:35:24.761 - a career path and has gotten a job. And I've had our already a couple of coordinators that have taken 00:35:24.761 --> 00:35:29.854 - other career opportunities outside of the state. And we have to bring people back in to, 00:35:30.210 --> 00:35:38.439 - continue to meet these standards. But to your point, this will really help improve all of that data 00:35:38.439 --> 00:35:47.490 - that is utilized. If there's a parcel, for instance, we were looking at parcel IDs, property classifications, 00:35:47.490 --> 00:35:55.390 - and we noticed a few weren't accurate, and we worked with multiple departments to correct that. 00:35:55.714 --> 00:36:01.155 - It's kind of the flip. They were actually supposed to be in the city versus in the county. And we took 00:36:01.155 --> 00:36:06.491 - the appropriate steps to identify that and took them to the appropriate parties to make sure. But if 00:36:06.491 --> 00:36:11.985 - that is flipped, that's just important because if there's some properties that have that classification 00:36:11.985 --> 00:36:17.268 - that's incorrect, then this is the data for us to find those anomalies. I thank you for that. Yeah, 00:36:17.268 --> 00:36:22.762 - there's real science going on here. I appreciate you walking us through it. Thank you, Madam President. 00:36:22.762 --> 00:36:25.086 - Thank you. Any other questions or comments? 00:36:26.338 --> 00:36:33.556 - Thank you for bringing this to our attention and definitely making a case. I know you and I talked about 00:36:33.556 --> 00:36:40.637 - that. So this is definitely something to think about before our most wonderful time of the year. Well, 00:36:40.637 --> 00:36:47.787 - I'll be really excited to time how long my presentation went and see if I hit that 10 minutes initially 00:36:47.787 --> 00:36:54.661 - at least. It went over, but that's OK. It's OK. We talked about it. You're good. We'll see you in a 00:36:54.661 --> 00:36:55.486 - little bit. 00:36:55.938 --> 00:37:03.678 - All right. Is there any other departments that are virtual or in person that would like to 00:37:03.678 --> 00:37:12.608 - make a departmental update for items not on tonight's agenda? Okay. None. We will move on to item number 00:37:12.608 --> 00:37:21.284 - six, which is the consent agenda items. Council, I move to approve the following consent agenda items 00:37:21.284 --> 00:37:23.070 - for August the 11th. 00:37:23.426 --> 00:37:31.103 - A, the Highway Department's request to fund 1169-0000 Local Road and Street for a category transfer 00:37:31.103 --> 00:37:38.780 - of $20,000 from the supplies category to the capital category. B, the Aviation Department's request 00:37:38.780 --> 00:37:46.917 - to fund 1107-0000 Aviation to create a count line for 0120 Tools and Equipment and simultaneously approve 00:37:46.917 --> 00:37:49.374 - a category transfer of $95,000. 00:37:49.698 --> 00:37:58.204 - from the services category to the capital category, and C, the council offices request and fund 1000-0061 00:37:58.204 --> 00:38:06.470 - County General Counsel to create account line 30013 professional services. Second. We got a motion and 00:38:06.470 --> 00:38:14.334 - a second. Are there any questions or comments on the consent agenda items presented? Seeing none. 00:38:14.754 --> 00:38:23.429 - and we don't take public comment on consent agenda items. So all those in favor of approving the consent 00:38:23.429 --> 00:38:31.691 - agenda items as presented, signify by saying aye. All those opposed, same sign. OK, motion carries. 00:38:31.691 --> 00:38:39.870 - Now we will move to our amended part of the agenda. Council, as a reminder, this was item eight H. 00:38:40.706 --> 00:38:48.372 - council I move to approve the board of commissioners request and fund eleven eighty six dash zero zero 00:38:48.372 --> 00:38:56.186 - zero zero rainy day for an appropriation of four hundred forty thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars 00:38:56.186 --> 00:39:03.703 - and sixty two cents in the capital category. Second okay we got a motion and a second and Mr liberty 00:39:03.703 --> 00:39:08.094 - are you still with us virtually. Yes TSD could you promote 00:39:08.354 --> 00:39:28.695 - Carlos Laverty as well as Brent Thompson. Thank you. All right, you can go ahead with your items, Mr. 00:39:28.695 --> 00:39:37.470 - Laverty. Can't hear you. We can't hear you. 00:39:44.002 --> 00:39:56.187 - We still can't hear you. So we can see that he's talking. So the system is getting him. It's our problem. 00:39:56.187 --> 00:40:07.682 - Does that make sense? His mic is unmuted, but we're not getting anything. Well, it's coming through 00:40:07.682 --> 00:40:12.510 - Teams, because we can see the transcript. 00:40:12.898 --> 00:40:31.081 - I just got a text that says they can hear him online. We can't hear him in here. I think it's the bottom 00:40:31.081 --> 00:40:40.606 - of the screen maybe. There's an X next to the speaker. 00:40:47.778 --> 00:41:00.839 - We can just read. Yeah. Or is Mr. Thompson able to speak on this as well? Nope. Nope. Can't hear you 00:41:00.839 --> 00:41:12.606 - either. Okay. Technology at its finest. Ms. Gregory, are you able to speak to this because 00:41:12.834 --> 00:41:19.617 - This seems to be a pretty easy going. Like this is something that we've been working on since the tornado 00:41:19.617 --> 00:41:25.568 - happened back in February. And judging from reading the packet, it seems as though that this 00:41:25.568 --> 00:41:31.967 - is a reimbursement from insurance to go back into the rainy day fund. Yes, I'm happy to help. And I 00:41:31.967 --> 00:41:36.382 - think it is pretty simple if Mr. Loverty doesn't mind my assistance. 00:41:36.482 --> 00:41:43.124 - Um, anyway, this yes, we've been working very closely with the aviation team. Um, we all work together 00:41:43.124 --> 00:41:49.895 - on this rainy day policy where when we have emergency events, the rainy day fund can be tapped to bridge 00:41:49.895 --> 00:41:56.407 - that gap between funding for a limited amount of time. And of course, um, you were very clearly made 00:41:56.407 --> 00:42:01.566 - aware of just the deductible that would be coming out of rainy day permanently. 00:42:01.666 --> 00:42:10.634 - So, this is just to appropriate the funds from a third reimbursement check received from insurance, 00:42:10.634 --> 00:42:19.872 - I believe, related to this disaster, and so they can put it to good use. So, I'm happy to try to field 00:42:19.872 --> 00:42:29.020 - any questions, but I think that's the gist of it. Thank you. And we are getting thumbs up. That's the 00:42:29.020 --> 00:42:31.262 - good finger there. Okay. 00:42:32.162 --> 00:42:41.610 - Any questions or comments from Council on this item? All right. If there is public comment on this item, 00:42:41.610 --> 00:42:50.698 - you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or you can raise your hand and hopefully we can 00:42:50.698 --> 00:43:00.146 - hear you via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor 00:43:00.146 --> 00:43:01.406 - Deckard? Yes. 00:43:01.666 --> 00:43:08.759 - Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. Motion 00:43:08.759 --> 00:43:15.920 - passes unanimous. Thank you, gentlemen, for showing your faces on screen. All right. Have a good night. 00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:22.944 - All right. Next up, we are back into the regular schedule programming of the agenda, and we are going 00:43:22.944 --> 00:43:27.902 - with several items for the higher-end freeze. Council, this is item 7A. 00:43:28.610 --> 00:43:36.333 - Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the Probation Department's request to 00:43:36.333 --> 00:43:43.980 - be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire in Fund 9142-0000 immunity corrections grant 00:43:43.980 --> 00:43:51.551 - for part-time probation officer assistant positions. Second. Okay, we got a motion and a second. We 00:43:51.551 --> 00:43:52.990 - are joined. Sorry. 00:43:53.122 --> 00:44:02.147 - We can sit on some pillows. We are joined by Chief Probation Officer Linda Brady and Judge Decoff. Welcome. 00:44:02.147 --> 00:44:11.172 - Thank you. Thank you. Two weeks ago, I came before the county council to set up line items in our community 00:44:11.172 --> 00:44:19.612 - corrections grant to pay for part time probation officer assistance. And the council did create that 00:44:19.612 --> 00:44:23.038 - line item for us to be able to pay them. 00:44:23.202 --> 00:44:30.750 - Now I'm asking for permission to hire them. Tonight we would like to hire up to four part time probation 00:44:30.750 --> 00:44:38.226 - officer assistance and just to remind you where I brought up two weeks ago is that the money that we're 00:44:38.226 --> 00:44:46.206 - going to use to fund these positions would have otherwise had to be returned to the state to the Department of 00:44:46.690 --> 00:44:54.256 - also result in savings to county general of $37,000 and into some other user fee funds in public safety 00:44:54.256 --> 00:45:02.258 - lit public special purpose lit as well by using the grant instead of those other budgets. So we're requesting 00:45:02.258 --> 00:45:09.678 - to be able to fill up to four part time probation officer assistance up to 56 hours a week to run our 00:45:09.678 --> 00:45:14.334 - day reporting and drug testing program. And that's the request. 00:45:16.258 --> 00:45:23.677 - very much. I can see a little better now that I boosted my seat. All right. Any questions or comments 00:45:23.677 --> 00:45:31.023 - from Council on this item? Exploited well last time. So all right. Now we'll move to public comment. 00:45:31.023 --> 00:45:38.514 - If there's public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via 00:45:38.514 --> 00:45:42.878 - Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. 00:45:48.706 --> 00:45:55.447 - Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor 00:45:55.447 --> 00:46:02.255 - Decker? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Thank you very, very much. 00:46:02.255 --> 00:46:09.333 - We appreciate it. Next up is item B from the planning department. Council, I move to open for discussion 00:46:09.333 --> 00:46:16.479 - and possible approval of the plan commission's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed 00:46:16.479 --> 00:46:18.366 - to hire and fund 1,000 dash 00:46:18.530 --> 00:46:28.102 - zero zero seven nine county general planning one full time office manager position. Okay we got a motion 00:46:28.102 --> 00:46:37.218 - and a second and we are here joined by Miss Jelen the director from planning welcome. Hi thank you. 00:46:37.218 --> 00:46:38.494 - So this is my 00:46:38.626 --> 00:46:46.366 - third time here in the last several months. I promise everyone in our department is generally happy 00:46:46.366 --> 00:46:54.261 - with our office. We have an eight-person department, and we've conducted three exit interviews in the 00:46:54.261 --> 00:47:01.150 - past nine months, and every one of them mentions that the reason they're leaving is pay. 00:47:01.410 --> 00:47:08.507 - So this is a request to fill our office manager position Our prior employee was there for 10 years, 00:47:08.507 --> 00:47:15.604 - which was great and they're still staying with the county But as we see a vacancy in our office, we 00:47:15.604 --> 00:47:22.914 - realize how helpful this position is fielding over 3,000 phone calls a year several walk-ins even just 00:47:22.914 --> 00:47:28.734 - the first week with this being vacant we had five calls between 8 and 8 30 a.m. I 00:47:28.962 --> 00:47:36.899 - with several meetings scheduled for 9 a.m. So it was quite distracting and we just would appreciate 00:47:36.899 --> 00:47:43.646 - refilling this position. There has been some changes to this position and I think we 00:47:43.778 --> 00:47:50.376 - you know, in the WIS study that was mentioned, it was categorized across the board. And I noted, 00:47:50.376 --> 00:47:57.247 - you know, AI transcription of minutes has been helpful, being able to take online payments. But just 00:47:57.247 --> 00:48:04.253 - since having taken a maternity leave recently and returning, and I appreciate the support in doing so, 00:48:04.253 --> 00:48:05.886 - I just noticed how much 00:48:05.986 --> 00:48:12.889 - extra outside effort there is to keep the office running. And so we would like to keep this position 00:48:12.889 --> 00:48:19.792 - open at 40 hours. There's also been a state law change that happened starting January 1st. And so we 00:48:19.792 --> 00:48:26.969 - are very busy taking in payments and processing permits separately from the building department, whereas 00:48:26.969 --> 00:48:31.070 - that foot traffic used to start at the building department. 00:48:31.298 --> 00:48:40.588 - And finally, we did increase our fees December 1st, 2025, and I reported earlier when we had a vacancy 00:48:40.588 --> 00:48:49.246 - last month, but we've seen an increase by $24,169.20, just comparing the two fiscal half years. 00:48:49.378 --> 00:48:56.819 - So we are requesting that this be refilled and the fiscal impact, as you'll see, does show a savings 00:48:56.819 --> 00:49:04.260 - of ten thousand three hundred eighty dollars. And that's largely because of the base pay moving back 00:49:04.260 --> 00:49:07.870 - to base pay. But also the longevity is no longer 00:49:07.970 --> 00:49:14.722 - a requirement if they are hired after 2023. So with that, I'll answer any questions that you might have. 00:49:14.722 --> 00:49:21.217 - And also I'll note with the several vacancies that we've had, we've met with our executive committee 00:49:21.217 --> 00:49:27.841 - of the plan commission and I can come back at another time. Aside from the budget hearings, we do have 00:49:27.841 --> 00:49:33.950 - a letter, a cover letter and a document for you on some ideas for how we can better retain our 00:49:34.082 --> 00:49:40.355 - qualified staff, so any ideas on when you'd like me to come back, I'd also appreciate that as well. 00:49:40.355 --> 00:49:46.627 - Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments for Ms. Dellen on this item? I will go with 00:49:46.627 --> 00:49:53.088 - Councilor Iverson and then I'll go to Councilmember Henry next. I'm going to pick up on the last point 00:49:53.088 --> 00:49:57.918 - you made, that this is not the first time we've heard from departments where 00:49:57.986 --> 00:50:04.868 - There are positions within a department that have analogous positions in other taxing units, and that 00:50:04.868 --> 00:50:11.886 - creates a lot of competition. And so I think any ideas that you have about ways to help the county stay 00:50:11.886 --> 00:50:18.835 - competitive is going to be incredibly helpful. We're very aware of this, and hopefully we'll be having 00:50:18.835 --> 00:50:26.055 - conversations coming up. But it's something that we're wrestling with as well. Thank you, Madam President. 00:50:26.055 --> 00:50:27.742 - Thank you for coming in. 00:50:27.906 --> 00:50:34.734 - And I'll just reiterate the good comment that you made and what I said earlier about the surveyors offices. 00:50:34.734 --> 00:50:41.246 - This is a revenue generating office in the county and as we've gone through that fee structure change, 00:50:41.246 --> 00:50:47.568 - it's a giver to the coffers, I guess, in terms of how I think about this department doing its work. 00:50:47.568 --> 00:50:51.614 - Also, and I think it's always worth sharing with my peers about 00:50:52.162 --> 00:50:57.631 - The way that our plan commission meetings operate in that these are hearings, right? It's not like a 00:50:57.631 --> 00:51:03.045 - person taking notes in the corner and kind of gesting the conversation. These are hearings that are 00:51:03.045 --> 00:51:08.622 - treated at a very formal level to capture the exact words that are being said. These words can be used 00:51:08.622 --> 00:51:14.091 - later in litigation in terms of the decisions that we're making as a plan commission or when we have 00:51:14.091 --> 00:51:16.798 - a petitioner or the decisions of that department. 00:51:17.186 --> 00:51:23.914 - That level of detail is important. The extra five hours go a long way to help that department function, 00:51:23.914 --> 00:51:30.449 - and I would be supporting this effort. Thank you. Other questions or comments? I would say to answer 00:51:30.449 --> 00:51:37.565 - your question of when could you come back, I think the next meeting that we have on the 25th for a department 00:51:37.565 --> 00:51:44.294 - update, I think that would be an ideal time for you to do such as what the surveyor did. So I'm looking 00:51:44.294 --> 00:51:46.558 - forward to having that discussion. 00:51:46.914 --> 00:51:53.903 - All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other further questions or comments on this item, 00:51:53.903 --> 00:52:01.093 - we will go to public comment. If you have public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern 00:52:01.093 --> 00:52:08.081 - here in the room or raise your hand via teams. A public comment here. Just real briefly, Tron and right 00:52:08.081 --> 00:52:13.054 - hand off Monroe County Surveyor, also planned commission member. Not only 00:52:13.410 --> 00:52:19.809 - All the other administrative duties that were highlighted and you might highlight it. So if so, I'm 00:52:19.809 --> 00:52:26.463 - going to expand on it is the fact these are hearings and to make sure that we have quorum to have these 00:52:26.463 --> 00:52:33.246 - meetings is very important. And I know that's what the office manager has done. And this is moving along. 00:52:33.410 --> 00:52:40.903 - people's business in a timely manner. So it's really important to have somebody that can wrangle everyone 00:52:40.903 --> 00:52:48.042 - together to make sure that we can hit a quorum and we can move the community's business forward. Any 00:52:48.042 --> 00:52:54.969 - other public comment on this item? Raise your hand via Teams or you can come forward to the room. 00:52:54.969 --> 00:53:02.462 - Seeing none, I thought I saw Councilmember Decker's hand. I just had a quick question. Is there an issue? 00:53:04.162 --> 00:53:11.425 - The meetings are a set time. Is there an issue getting appointed? Appointees to get to the meetings, 00:53:11.425 --> 00:53:18.832 - the dates they've been for a long time. We so our Plan Commission has nine members and we need to have 00:53:18.832 --> 00:53:26.095 - five in person. Sometimes people have conflicts and they want to join virtually, so then we're often 00:53:26.095 --> 00:53:33.214 - trying to figure out if people can join virtually so that we still have the five people in person. 00:53:33.442 --> 00:53:40.894 - It is a little bit of wrangling without turning in my. I got you. That's put anybody in trouble on the 00:53:40.894 --> 00:53:48.201 - spot. Are people pretty quick and cooperative with responding on that? Yes, yes. And it gets lost in 00:53:48.201 --> 00:53:55.508 - the emails. We do have five meetings a month. So I do give people a lot of grace for for receiving a 00:53:55.508 --> 00:54:02.526 - lot of emails from us. So thank you for not throwing me under the bus, Jackie. And I am in state 00:54:02.722 --> 00:54:12.670 - So seeing no other further questions or comments on this item, and we have already went to public comment, 00:54:12.670 --> 00:54:22.247 - may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. 00:54:22.247 --> 00:54:31.358 - Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 00:54:31.874 --> 00:54:38.568 - Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Next up is item C from the assessor's office. Council, 00:54:38.568 --> 00:54:45.067 - I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the assessor's request to be exempt from the 00:54:45.067 --> 00:54:51.566 - hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0008 County General Assessor, one full-time real 00:54:51.566 --> 00:54:58.324 - estate reassessment specialist position. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. We are joined 00:54:58.324 --> 00:55:01.054 - by the assessor, Ms. Judy Sharp. Welcome. 00:55:02.018 --> 00:55:09.611 - Good evening. Good evening. Um, yes. Um, I had an unexpected, um, loss of the, uh, she's alive. Uh, 00:55:09.611 --> 00:55:16.900 - that didn't sound good. Uh, one of my deputies who was there for over three years, who had all, 00:55:16.900 --> 00:55:24.645 - you know, the level one, level two certification, it was really, you know, doing a great job. She had 00:55:24.645 --> 00:55:31.934 - a personal issue where she had to leave and take care of a relative. So she's, um, she left me. 00:55:32.162 --> 00:55:40.670 - And we hated to lose her, but I understand you have priorities. There's never a good time to lose people, 00:55:40.670 --> 00:55:48.777 - but right now in my office with everything that's going on and the appeals that we're inundated with 00:55:48.777 --> 00:55:57.125 - right now, this position would replace her. And just like all of my positions, I need somebody in there 00:55:57.125 --> 00:55:59.774 - that can hit the ground running. 00:55:59.874 --> 00:56:06.049 - learn the job, get the level 1 and level 2, you have to do that. And I wrote all this down, 00:56:06.049 --> 00:56:12.828 - what we need. But this job is just, you just really can't, everybody in the office is cross trained. 00:56:12.828 --> 00:56:19.808 - So if I say they are doing this, they could start doing this over here as soon as they learned a little 00:56:19.808 --> 00:56:26.856 - bit more. That is the only way we can run the office. It is too small of an office not to have everybody 00:56:26.856 --> 00:56:29.406 - up to speed in doing all of the jobs. 00:56:29.666 --> 00:56:37.661 - That's what I would do with whoever came in. So I'm just respectfully asking you all if you can, I've 00:56:37.661 --> 00:56:45.735 - never been here before for a hiring freeze, but maybe let us go ahead and hire because right now we're 00:56:45.735 --> 00:56:53.573 - the skeleton crew. And the appeals right now is taking myself and my two appeal deputies out of the 00:56:53.573 --> 00:56:57.022 - loop. We're doing two to three days a week. 00:56:57.154 --> 00:57:04.347 - on appeals with the board. And tomorrow we go back in tomorrow and tomorrow's Wednesday, right? Wednesday 00:57:04.347 --> 00:57:11.472 - and Thursday. It's just a lot right now. And so I need some people and I need somebody in there to learn 00:57:11.472 --> 00:57:18.462 - and get it going fast. So that's all I'm asking. If you would please consider this, I'd appreciate it. 00:57:18.462 --> 00:57:24.094 - Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments from council on this item? 00:57:28.642 --> 00:57:37.045 - at your case. All right. Now, if there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams or you can 00:57:37.045 --> 00:57:45.942 - come forward to the podium here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor 00:57:45.942 --> 00:57:54.346 - Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? 00:57:54.346 --> 00:57:56.158 - Yes. Councilor Feidl? 00:57:57.026 --> 00:58:05.142 - Motion passes, unanimous. Thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, next up is 00:58:05.142 --> 00:58:13.500 - item D from courts. Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the court's request 00:58:13.500 --> 00:58:21.697 - to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1,000-0225 County General Court's 00:58:21.697 --> 00:58:24.670 - three part-time law clerk positions. 00:58:26.082 --> 00:58:33.878 - And we are joined again by Judge DeKoff and Ms. Chandler. Welcome. Hi, thank you. Hello. So the courts 00:58:33.878 --> 00:58:41.598 - are asking to hire three part-time paid law clerks. We currently have no paid law clerks at this time 00:58:41.598 --> 00:58:49.394 - and are solely relying on two unpaid law student interns. So we're asking for the three part-time paid 00:58:49.394 --> 00:58:54.238 - law clerks to be hired for the fall semester to help the courts 00:58:54.466 --> 00:59:00.807 - improve their capacity, conduct legal research, draft court documents and provide consistent support 00:59:00.807 --> 00:59:07.273 - for the court's daily operations. And I would add that two of them have been have been here during the 00:59:07.273 --> 00:59:13.676 - summer. So they have been working on on legal issues and projects that are going to continue into the 00:59:13.676 --> 00:59:19.326 - fall. So it's it's it's just much more. It's better if we can just continue on with them. 00:59:24.674 --> 00:59:35.292 - Thank you very much for that. Are there any questions or comments from council on the law clerks? No? 00:59:35.292 --> 00:59:45.806 - Okay. If there's public comment, raise your hand via Teams or you can come to the microphone here in 00:59:45.806 --> 00:59:54.654 - the room. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes. 00:59:54.786 --> 01:00:04.138 - Yes. Councilor Deckard. Yes. Councilor Crossley. Yes. Councilor Iverson. Yes. Councilor Fido. Yes. Motion 01:00:04.138 --> 01:00:13.050 - passes unanimous. Thank you. All right. Next up is item eight, which is the county council business. 01:00:13.050 --> 01:00:22.314 - And we will start with item eight, which is the annual review. Because again, it's almost that wonderful 01:00:22.314 --> 01:00:23.902 - time of the year. 01:00:24.258 --> 01:00:33.235 - And so this fiscal body, which is all seven of us or six of us right now, must annually review the estimated 01:00:33.235 --> 01:00:41.471 - property tax limits and estimated property tax caps, or also known as circuit breakers, that impact 01:00:41.471 --> 01:00:50.366 - Monroe County non-binding entities. Do we have any questions from council related to the items we received? 01:00:53.730 --> 01:01:02.923 - related to the items we received today. I haven't looked at them. Well, everything was in the packet. 01:01:02.923 --> 01:01:12.207 - I just kind of solid everything down so that it was easier to read, hopefully. Yes, got it. And seeing 01:01:12.207 --> 01:01:16.894 - none, I'm going to look to the auditor to give her. 01:01:17.410 --> 01:01:26.516 - I reviewed everything Michelle has provided and agree everything looks accurate and on point so thank 01:01:26.516 --> 01:01:35.444 - you. Thank you very much for that and seeing no other further questions or comments from council on 01:01:35.444 --> 01:01:41.694 - our annual review if there are no other if there are no objections or 01:01:41.922 --> 01:01:50.112 - I would like to direct the auditor, which is something that we are required to by state statute to notify 01:01:50.112 --> 01:01:57.994 - the non-binding taxing units that the council has received, or I'm sorry, reviewed the 2027 estimated 01:01:57.994 --> 01:02:06.261 - tax levy limits in the property tax caps with no changes at this time. All right, so seeing no objections, 01:02:06.261 --> 01:02:11.902 - so ordered. All right, thank you very much for that, staff. And next up, 01:02:12.450 --> 01:02:19.757 - We will go back to the courts. Y'all are getting y'all steps in today. Council, as a reminder, due to 01:02:19.757 --> 01:02:26.921 - the lack of unanimous vote at the July 28th meeting, a second reading is required for this request. 01:02:26.921 --> 01:02:34.157 - Council, I move to approve the court's request and fund 1000-0225 County General Courts to amend the 01:02:34.157 --> 01:02:40.318 - 2026 salary ordinance to create a count line 14176, floating court reporter 35 hours, 01:02:40.514 --> 01:02:48.606 - comment D, not exempt, and to remove account line 14167, associate court reporter. Second. All right, 01:02:48.606 --> 01:02:57.015 - we got a motion and a second. Is there anything that you would like to add to this that we didn't discuss 01:02:57.015 --> 01:03:05.265 - two weeks ago? No. OK. That's you. You are on it. OK. Any questions since the past couple of weeks that 01:03:05.265 --> 01:03:07.486 - anybody would have? No. OK. 01:03:07.970 --> 01:03:17.026 - Now we'll move on to public comment. Please raise your hand via Teams or come to the microphone here 01:03:17.026 --> 01:03:26.710 - in the room for this item. And we please have a roll call vote. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? 01:03:26.710 --> 01:03:35.856 - Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Motion 01:03:35.856 --> 01:03:37.470 - passes unanimous. 01:03:38.626 --> 01:03:46.347 - Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Next up is item C from the prosecutor's office. As a reminder, 01:03:46.347 --> 01:03:54.291 - due to the lack of unanimous vote at the July 28th meeting, a second reading is required for this request. 01:03:54.291 --> 01:04:01.714 - Council, I move to approve the prosecutor's request and fund 1000-0009 County General Prosecutor at 01:04:01.714 --> 01:04:03.422 - 67% and fund 1000-0009 01:04:03.746 --> 01:04:11.658 - zero six six zero county general child support at thirty three percent to amend the twenty twenty six 01:04:11.658 --> 01:04:19.493 - salary ordinance account line one three zero two nine forensic analyst and technology specialist pat 01:04:19.493 --> 01:04:27.406 - be. Not exempt from thirty five hours to forty hours with an effective date of August the ninth. Okay 01:04:27.406 --> 01:04:30.974 - we are joined here by our prosecutor and miss 01:04:31.362 --> 01:04:39.020 - Thank you. We presented this two weeks ago. This is a person who does forensic analysis of pieces of 01:04:39.020 --> 01:04:46.982 - evidence such as cell phones, laptops, fitness trackers, other kinds of digital items. But he also makes 01:04:46.982 --> 01:04:54.641 - sure that we have items that we need to present in court in a form that doesn't violate the rules of 01:04:54.641 --> 01:05:01.086 - evidence. And then he also keeps even our desktops and laptops all working smoothly. 01:05:01.346 --> 01:05:08.258 - as an assistant tech services department. So if you have any further questions, I'm happy to answer 01:05:08.258 --> 01:05:15.309 - them. I appreciate the support that was signaled two weeks ago, and I hope that you will go ahead and 01:05:15.309 --> 01:05:22.567 - approve us again. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for the prosecutor on this item? 01:05:22.567 --> 01:05:29.548 - No? Okay. We will move to public comment. You can come to the lectern here in the room or raise your 01:05:29.548 --> 01:05:30.654 - hand via Teams. 01:05:33.730 --> 01:05:41.322 - Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. 01:05:41.322 --> 01:05:48.838 - Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Motion 01:05:48.838 --> 01:05:55.678 - passes unanimous. Thank you. Still staying with the prosecutor's item or office is item D. 01:05:55.906 --> 01:06:03.800 - As a reminder due to the lack of unanimous vote at our July 28th meeting a second reading is required 01:06:03.800 --> 01:06:11.772 - for this request. Council I move to approve the prosecutor's request and fund 1000-0009 County General 01:06:11.772 --> 01:06:20.286 - Prosecutor to amend the 2026 salary ordinance account line 13033 criminal investigator and account line 13034 01:06:20.450 --> 01:06:27.218 - Criminal Investigator, Civ Poll D, not exempt from 35 hours to 40 hours with an effective date of August 01:06:27.218 --> 01:06:33.921 - the 9th. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Anything you'd like to add to this item? Yep, 01:06:33.921 --> 01:06:40.430 - just a reminder, these two folks are folks who help us get our warrant requests from law enforcement 01:06:40.430 --> 01:06:47.198 - process. They do background checks on offenders. They also help us locate missing witnesses and victims. 01:06:47.746 --> 01:06:54.212 - assist with transport to and from trial, those kinds of things. So again, I appreciate your support 01:06:54.212 --> 01:07:00.873 - two weeks ago. If you have questions, happy to answer them, but I'm hopeful that you will go ahead and 01:07:00.873 --> 01:07:07.533 - let us increase them to 40 hours. Thank you. All right. Any questions or comments from council on this 01:07:07.533 --> 01:07:14.258 - item? Seeing none here, we'll move to public comment. Raise your hand via Teams or you can come forward 01:07:14.258 --> 01:07:15.422 - here in the room. 01:07:20.642 --> 01:07:28.372 - have a roll call vote. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor 01:07:28.372 --> 01:07:36.025 - Henry? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. And Councilor Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. 01:07:36.025 --> 01:07:43.678 - Thank you very much and have a good night. All right. Next up is item E from the health department. 01:07:43.874 --> 01:07:49.924 - council I move to approve the health department's request and fund eight one one two dash nine six two 01:07:49.924 --> 01:07:56.032 - six STD strengthening prevention grant for additional appropriations of forty six thousand five hundred 01:07:56.032 --> 01:08:02.316 - eighteen dollars in the personnel category and one thousand eight hundred dollars in the services category 01:08:02.316 --> 01:08:08.307 - for a total appropriation of forty eight thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars second all right 01:08:08.307 --> 01:08:13.182 - we got a motion in a second and we are joined by miss Lori Kelly virtually welcome 01:08:18.178 --> 01:08:28.872 - We're still, uh-oh. I still think it's that bottom. Speaker's off. Oh, I see. Yeah, down here we see 01:08:28.872 --> 01:08:39.461 - that Councilor Decker has been saying this. The microphone is muted down here. The speaker is muted 01:08:39.461 --> 01:08:41.790 - because it looks like 01:08:42.178 --> 01:08:46.706 - Ms. Kelly was speaking in the caption and is picking it up. We just can't hear it here in the room. 01:08:46.706 --> 01:08:48.382 - It's the bottom right of the screen. 01:09:25.762 --> 01:09:34.891 - So, okay, so I'm gonna try to pick this one up since I did my due diligence and read the packet. 01:09:34.891 --> 01:09:44.585 - And Ms. Kelly or somebody. Ma'am, if you'll give me a second, I'll reboot the microphone system to see 01:09:44.585 --> 01:09:49.950 - if that'll bring the Zoom back in. Okay. Standby, folks. 01:10:58.018 --> 01:11:06.657 - Okay, we're back up. Laurie, can you hear us? And she's still talking and it's not picking up. What 01:11:06.657 --> 01:11:15.381 - if we just... What if we just somehow made it come out of here and into there? She could have called 01:11:15.381 --> 01:11:21.342 - on my phone and played on the speaker. Okay. It's also just a grant. 01:11:29.538 --> 01:11:42.239 - Ms. Kelly, if you wanted to call my cell phone number, I apologize, this sounds strange. And maybe we'll 01:11:42.239 --> 01:11:53.730 - try to put it through my speaker off of my phone. My cell phone number, the entire county goes 01:11:53.730 --> 01:11:58.206 - to 812-360-2110. Oh, Elphaba's here. 01:12:09.922 --> 01:12:18.420 - So what would you like to add to this? Thank you. This is just a standard grant amendment. So this funding 01:12:18.420 --> 01:12:25.886 - supports our disease intervention specialists. This funding will last us about into the fall. 01:12:26.050 --> 01:12:35.738 - and we are expecting an additional $110,000 to be arriving soon. That was initiated by the Indiana Department 01:12:35.738 --> 01:12:44.721 - of Health July 1st. So this is just essentially helping to cover an additional gap as we work our way 01:12:44.721 --> 01:12:51.678 - through the grant period. All right, thank you very much for that. Technology. 01:12:52.354 --> 01:13:02.333 - Okay, any questions or comments on this item for Miss Kelly? This is really fun. Okay, seeing none, 01:13:02.333 --> 01:13:12.312 - if there is public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand 01:13:12.312 --> 01:13:20.894 - via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes. 01:13:22.306 --> 01:13:31.184 - Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. And would 01:13:31.184 --> 01:13:40.147 - Councilor Feinle like to vote on this? I would. I'm up to date with it. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Motion 01:13:40.147 --> 01:13:48.602 - passes unanimous. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Councilor Deckard for 01:13:48.602 --> 01:13:50.462 - helping us with that. 01:13:50.722 --> 01:13:58.437 - All right, next up is item F. We're back with the surveyors. Council, I move to approve the surveyors 01:13:58.437 --> 01:14:06.529 - request and fund 1202-0000 surveyors corner perpetuation for category transfer of $4,300 from the services 01:14:06.529 --> 01:14:14.395 - category to the personnel category. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Mr. Randolph, what 01:14:14.395 --> 01:14:18.782 - would you like to add to this item? Just a couple things. 01:14:19.522 --> 01:14:27.029 - I just wanted to backtrack just a little bit. When you're up here sometimes, I don't know, I still get 01:14:27.029 --> 01:14:34.682 - nervous. So when people said it was cold in here after that, I was like, I'm overheating. But to Council 01:14:34.682 --> 01:14:42.116 - Member Henry's point, I wouldn't consider our office a revenue generating, but more of a cost savings 01:14:42.116 --> 01:14:48.894 - where we, it's kind of a flip there, but we don't have permits like when you mentioned that, 01:14:48.994 --> 01:14:55.209 - to planning where they're actually generating revenue. But we do a lot and that kind of goes into this 01:14:55.209 --> 01:15:01.243 - request. So I just wanted to kind of make that one bit of a clarification. I do think we have a lot 01:15:01.243 --> 01:15:07.398 - of return on our investments and we generate a lot of cost savings for the county, other agencies and 01:15:07.398 --> 01:15:11.742 - just property owners and people that live in this community as a whole. 01:15:11.874 --> 01:15:20.583 - I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um with that said, this is pretty simple. Um I need to do a transfer. I decided 01:15:20.583 --> 01:15:29.207 - to do my first time ever out of category transfer instead of additional appropriation. This is a non 01:15:29.207 --> 01:15:38.258 - reverting fund, so those dollars are going to go back. This is my. Effort to show you know, due diligence 01:15:38.258 --> 01:15:40.990 - and my stewardship of taxpayers 01:15:41.090 --> 01:15:49.201 - go back to the reserves. One reason I'm here is because I mentioned earlier we had a part-time person 01:15:49.201 --> 01:15:57.392 - and they had graduated. They indicated they wanted to go back to school for one more year to get their 01:15:57.392 --> 01:16:05.822 - masters, but after this last year they decided to take a career path so that opened up their schedule and 01:16:06.146 --> 01:16:12.154 - Personally, I thought the best investment for the dollars was to utilize as much as time as I could 01:16:12.154 --> 01:16:18.163 - get from them because they've been with the office for multiple years and there's no cross-training 01:16:18.163 --> 01:16:24.352 - and they're actually just really proficient and great at what they did. And they even help cross-train 01:16:24.352 --> 01:16:30.600 - the other part-time person in there. So this is all gonna go into that fund line. I will do an in-house 01:16:30.600 --> 01:16:31.742 - transfer to offset 01:16:31.842 --> 01:16:39.903 - to just the part timeline, but I just figured this would be cleaner and I could do that with the processes 01:16:39.903 --> 01:16:47.511 - behind the scenes. This will get us through the remainder of the year and that's basically it. Thank 01:16:47.511 --> 01:16:54.743 - you very much. Any questions or comments from Mr. Randolph? Yes, Councilor Woods. First of all, 01:16:54.743 --> 01:16:56.702 - this is great. Thank you. 01:16:56.994 --> 01:17:04.110 - I have no problem at all with the actual agenda item. Since you brought up that clarification, I want 01:17:04.110 --> 01:17:11.365 - to say first, I appreciate that because that's exactly what I was kind of in my mind. I'm like, I don't 01:17:11.365 --> 01:17:18.411 - think they actually collect anything. It's just you're getting things straight so that we don't lose 01:17:18.411 --> 01:17:25.457 - money and perhaps are more accurate about how we're collecting money. Right. Maybe other things help 01:17:25.457 --> 01:17:26.782 - other departments, 01:17:27.074 --> 01:17:37.215 - Right to your it wasn't really a request but to your insinuation that we reconsider your salary I wanted 01:17:37.215 --> 01:17:47.260 - to ask and it might be that I need information from staff but the salary ordinance that that I remember 01:17:47.260 --> 01:17:52.862 - back when we set those salaries had a provision in it for 01:17:53.378 --> 01:18:01.771 - the elected official to earn 100 percent of what everybody else all the other what others were doing 01:18:01.771 --> 01:18:10.330 - if they were the licensed. No that's one and a half that's actually something that's I think more like 01:18:10.330 --> 01:18:17.726 - hamstrung the office more or less. So if I was elected it'd be one and a half the salary 01:18:17.826 --> 01:18:25.891 - So this was a discussion that Mr. McKim had in 2023 when I came back to request it. What does one and 01:18:25.891 --> 01:18:33.798 - a half mean? One and a half. So it would be the full salary plus half if I was licensed, which I am 01:18:33.798 --> 01:18:42.100 - not. I'm not going to get my license. One caveat to that is, you know, that bullet point that, you know, 01:18:42.100 --> 01:18:43.998 - this is like, you know, 01:18:44.098 --> 01:18:50.569 - of increasing the standards and service of the office. If you had a licensed surveyor come in and they 01:18:50.569 --> 01:18:56.978 - didn't produce what we do currently with a professional surveyor, you know, would you want to pay him 01:18:56.978 --> 01:19:03.387 - one and a half? I think the council has the discretionary measures to hold those offices accountable. 01:19:03.387 --> 01:19:09.795 - And if a licensed surveyor came in and they had, you know, in the statute, they can run their private 01:19:09.795 --> 01:19:13.502 - firm out of the surveyor's office as the elected surveyor. 01:19:13.730 --> 01:19:21.455 - it was the trend that you saw, I think that would be your ability to adjust that accordingly when it's 01:19:21.455 --> 01:19:29.705 - reflected of the duties in the service being provided. So that's the way I look at the argument. I understand 01:19:29.705 --> 01:19:37.205 - the other side of that, that it's like, oh, hey, let's not get too crazy. Then it's going to be one 01:19:37.205 --> 01:19:41.630 - and a half. Personally, I think the private sector, if you 01:19:42.050 --> 01:19:49.611 - I think it's more of holding the office accountable and to these standards, and I saw Michelle want 01:19:49.611 --> 01:19:57.399 - to raise her hand, so I'll defer to her. I just want to say, I believe there is a statute, and I would 01:19:57.399 --> 01:20:05.187 - have to have Ms. Turner King confirm that. But if Ms. Turner King doesn't have a statute, I would have 01:20:05.187 --> 01:20:11.614 - to have Ms. Turner King confirm that. But if Ms. Turner King doesn't have a statute, 01:20:11.874 --> 01:20:20.013 - An elected official, if the surveyor is a licensed surveyor and they're elected into that position, 01:20:20.013 --> 01:20:28.560 - they get the salary plus a half. Half of the salary? So whatever it is, yeah, so they get, so it's like, 01:20:28.560 --> 01:20:37.025 - you know, how you get like time and a half, they would get, they get the salary and the half, you know, 01:20:37.025 --> 01:20:40.606 - so they get more because they are licensed. 01:20:41.122 --> 01:20:50.153 - as a surveyor. So that was my understanding. So that's why we never went to that full amount because 01:20:50.153 --> 01:20:59.272 - if you did have a surveyor, then you would go to that full amount. I don't know what the basis of it, 01:20:59.272 --> 01:21:08.392 - but I thought there was something with regards to a statute as how to pay for a surveyor if they were 01:21:08.392 --> 01:21:10.270 - a licensed surveyor. 01:21:10.530 --> 01:21:18.940 - a statute. And I'd be happy to bring that to you during the budget hearing, unless you want to put Molly 01:21:18.940 --> 01:21:27.590 - Turner King on the search. But Michelle is accurate. There is a statute where if you're a licensed surveyor 01:21:27.590 --> 01:21:34.238 - and you're the elected surveyor, you get the one and a half. And also within that, 01:21:36.482 --> 01:21:44.698 - you're permitted to run your private firm out of the surveyor's office, which I think is just bizarre 01:21:44.698 --> 01:21:52.834 - to me. But there are a lot of unlicensed surveyors that earn more than what I would be requesting as 01:21:52.834 --> 01:22:01.211 - equal pay. So my whole presentation was to show the development and the heightened standards and making 01:22:01.211 --> 01:22:04.030 - sure that we are being accountable 01:22:04.130 --> 01:22:11.681 - by providing those standards moving forward. Any elected office holder could come in and change their 01:22:11.681 --> 01:22:19.528 - office and their functions and, you know, it's up to the council to, you know, determine does that change 01:22:19.528 --> 01:22:27.301 - their pay. So I feel like it could work either way. And that's been kind of my hope to kind of get other 01:22:27.301 --> 01:22:29.374 - peoples to see it from both 01:22:29.570 --> 01:22:36.813 - sides and both lenses and know that, you know, this would then put the council in a role where they 01:22:36.813 --> 01:22:44.056 - would be wanting to see these standards upheld, you know, but they would want that with any office, 01:22:44.056 --> 01:22:51.806 - in my opinion. Yeah, that's true. Thank you. I hope that was clear. It gets kind of convoluted. I'm sorry. 01:22:52.450 --> 01:22:59.151 - As President Crossey has mentioned, we're heading into the most joyous time of the year, which is budget 01:22:59.151 --> 01:23:05.852 - season. So thank you for helping us budget accurately by doing a category transfer and not an additional 01:23:05.852 --> 01:23:12.552 - appropriation. We really appreciate it. Absolutely. I'm really keeping tight graphs on that corner fund. 01:23:12.552 --> 01:23:16.126 - So thank you. Other questions or comments on this item? 01:23:18.562 --> 01:23:29.903 - Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, raise your hand 01:23:29.903 --> 01:23:41.355 - via Teams, or you can come forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please have 01:23:41.355 --> 01:23:47.582 - a roll call. That's where I'm at. Hold on. There we go. 01:23:50.146 --> 01:23:59.756 - Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes. 01:23:59.756 --> 01:24:09.182 - Councillor Fiddle. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Next up also with the surveyor is item G. 01:24:09.826 --> 01:24:17.235 - Council, I move to approve the Surveyor's request to amend the job description title of Field Assistant 01:24:17.235 --> 01:24:24.573 - to Field Technician and simultaneously in Fund 1202-0000, Surveyor's Corner of Perpetuation, amend the 01:24:24.573 --> 01:24:31.697 - 2026 Salary Ordinance Account Line 17062 from Field Assistant to Field Technician. Second. Okay, we 01:24:31.697 --> 01:24:36.542 - got a motion and a second. What would you like to add to this item? 01:24:36.642 --> 01:24:45.657 - Just I feel like the technician is more in line with the duties that they perform. I feel like the work 01:24:45.657 --> 01:24:54.498 - that they're doing is very high level and this just will go to kind of their career path as they move 01:24:54.498 --> 01:25:01.086 - outside of a part time into hopefully a full time career. Unless sometime I 01:25:01.410 --> 01:25:08.252 - find myself in the reverse where I'm bringing in like a retiree person as a part-time role, not looking 01:25:08.252 --> 01:25:15.159 - for a full-time career, but this is a more line. They do GIS work. They also help maintain the database, 01:25:15.159 --> 01:25:21.803 - but they're also on the field working with the licensed surveyor. Depending on how the day goes, the 01:25:21.803 --> 01:25:28.382 - surveyor might have them use the JVOD, which is collecting survey grade coordinates. I was going to 01:25:29.314 --> 01:25:36.068 - And this, I guess the public won't be able to see it, but that's it. It's just more in line with it. 01:25:36.068 --> 01:25:43.023 - And we got a field picture of their last day in the office email sent to us because unfortunately we'll 01:25:43.023 --> 01:25:49.711 - be losing the person that is going to serve in that role. But it's a butterfly on top of the Javad. 01:25:49.711 --> 01:25:56.732 - And so it's one of our favorite field photos out there. The best part is if we get this done and amended 01:25:56.732 --> 01:25:59.006 - before we have to go through that 01:25:59.170 --> 01:26:07.564 - I hate the word termination process. Before we go through that final procedure paperwork, they can say 01:26:07.564 --> 01:26:15.958 - they served as the field technician versus the field assistant. They're not just handing them a hammer 01:26:15.958 --> 01:26:24.107 - or this or that. So I've worked really hard to get away from the assistant naming convention within 01:26:24.107 --> 01:26:27.774 - my department. Thank you very much for that. 01:26:28.130 --> 01:26:37.382 - Any questions or comments from Mr. Randolph on this item? All right, seeing none, we will move to public 01:26:37.382 --> 01:26:46.722 - comment. You can come forward to the microphone here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing 01:26:46.722 --> 01:26:56.414 - none, maybe police have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. 01:26:56.578 --> 01:27:03.986 - Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 01:27:03.986 --> 01:27:11.702 - All right. Thank you so much. I'm going to go risk it in the rain and I hope everyone makes it home 01:27:11.702 --> 01:27:19.651 - safe. Yes. Thank you. You too. All right. As a reminder for anybody watching publicly, we have already 01:27:19.651 --> 01:27:25.438 - talked about item H moved that up earlier in the agenda and items I and J. 01:27:25.570 --> 01:27:36.570 - and K are also tabled and K is also tabled to our August 25th. So we are winding down here and so we'll 01:27:36.570 --> 01:27:47.146 - move on to item 9 which are discussions for the County Council and it is one that I know some of us 01:27:47.146 --> 01:27:53.598 - have been talking about and learning about and it is our the 01:27:54.018 --> 01:28:04.825 - convening of the must task force. So I am looking to Ms. Turner King and of course the auditor could 01:28:04.825 --> 01:28:15.524 - chime in as the necessary if you choose or you know if you need to but take it away. So the must is 01:28:15.524 --> 01:28:23.870 - a municipal unit strategy task force that was created by recent house enacted 01:28:24.066 --> 01:28:31.015 - bill 1210 to evaluate local income tax structures and future funding priorities among local governments. 01:28:31.015 --> 01:28:37.634 - A representative, if the council chose to form must, there would be a representative from the city, 01:28:37.634 --> 01:28:43.326 - the county, Steinsville, and Ellitsville. And in essence, if it is formed, they would 01:28:44.354 --> 01:28:52.670 - negotiate and establish through unanimous support a local income tax distribution agreement as it pertains 01:28:52.670 --> 01:29:00.441 - to county local income tax. That would be submitted to DLGF. And then there is some question on the 01:29:00.441 --> 01:29:08.213 - binding effect of that agreement that we're still working through, but that is in essence what must 01:29:08.213 --> 01:29:11.710 - is overall. It's confusing because it is not 01:29:12.034 --> 01:29:19.697 - required, although its name is must. It's not a must. It provides communities with an opportunity to 01:29:19.697 --> 01:29:27.284 - coordinate long-term financing planning across local governments, evaluate how future lit decisions 01:29:27.284 --> 01:29:35.175 - affect every governmental unit, access taxpayer impacts, and identify opportunities for taxpayer relief 01:29:35.175 --> 01:29:40.638 - while maintaining essential local services. It balances local autonomy. 01:29:40.802 --> 01:29:50.393 - It is really being encouraged by Association of Indiana Municipalities. And then each entity who participates 01:29:50.393 --> 01:29:59.462 - in MUST if it's formed also has the right to have a financial advisor present. And so I do believe like 01:29:59.462 --> 01:30:08.094 - Financial Solutions Group has reached out to the county offering their services if MUST is formed. 01:30:09.794 --> 01:30:17.071 - Is there any specific must questions that I might ask? And you know it already. You might answer. I 01:30:17.071 --> 01:30:24.711 - see a hand raising and flying my way. Councilor Wilts. Thank you. Although I did not have an opportunity 01:30:24.711 --> 01:30:32.134 - to read all the emails that popped through this afternoon before coming, I did see that Kim forwarded 01:30:32.134 --> 01:30:38.974 - on your behalf a link to a webinar. So I was listening to this webinar as I was driving here. 01:30:39.522 --> 01:30:46.491 - And they emphasize, now I didn't get through the end, but they emphasize that it was non-binding. Okay. 01:30:46.491 --> 01:30:52.588 - I thought maybe they reversed course by the end of the webinar and I haven't heard it, but 01:30:52.588 --> 01:30:59.356 - it's a non-binding, it's an agreement. They emphasize that the process was actually the benefit in a 01:30:59.356 --> 01:31:02.974 - lot of cases and that it was an opportunity for us to 01:31:04.098 --> 01:31:12.966 - in preparation for the meeting become aware of all of the essential services that are supported throughout 01:31:12.966 --> 01:31:21.338 - our county by all the different municipalities and other organizations that rely on local income tax 01:31:21.338 --> 01:31:30.206 - because I'll be the first to admit I probably couldn't name all the services that are provided. So I think 01:31:30.882 --> 01:31:39.567 - Given that and given what FSG has said, and by the way, the question was about that, it being non-binding, 01:31:39.567 --> 01:31:48.089 - and she answered it by nodding, so I just kept going. But given that Mr. Garrett has said that he highly 01:31:48.089 --> 01:31:56.449 - recommended it, I think it's something that we should most certainly do in the spirit of communication 01:31:56.449 --> 01:32:00.670 - and collaboration. So I have a question about that. 01:32:00.962 --> 01:32:09.116 - And so, you know, it's recommended to go with a financial group to provide services. Is that an extra 01:32:09.116 --> 01:32:17.511 - cost that we would take on? FSG's proposal is an extra cost. I do think it's worth talking to them about 01:32:17.511 --> 01:32:25.665 - it to see instead of executing a whole new contract, if we can just amend our current contract and to 01:32:25.665 --> 01:32:29.982 - see if any of the services are already covered in the 01:32:30.498 --> 01:32:37.825 - So we have the current contract. I'm curious if any of the must tasks that they've proposed is included 01:32:37.825 --> 01:32:45.082 - in what we're already paying for. So I do think it's a conversation with Charlie and Greg of FSG about 01:32:45.082 --> 01:32:52.409 - the contract. OK. And the other question that I had, and I feel like I've asked this before, when Jamie 01:32:52.409 --> 01:32:58.750 - Bolser had gave her presentation and then I had listened to the first half of the AIM AIC 01:32:59.266 --> 01:33:10.422 - conversation webinar that we got sent to us. If we had a taxing unit that does not opt in or does not 01:33:10.422 --> 01:33:22.015 - want to participate, does this mean that anybody must no longer a thing because a taxing unit has decided 01:33:22.015 --> 01:33:25.406 - not to be in the game with us? 01:33:26.498 --> 01:33:33.342 - I don't know that I have an exact answer to that question, but there is a similar question in a slide 01:33:33.342 --> 01:33:40.118 - provided by that Michelle recently shared with you. And the common question is, what if not everyone 01:33:40.118 --> 01:33:45.150 - participates? What if we can't all agree on what to include in the report? 01:33:45.442 --> 01:33:51.342 - what if we don't think the structure currently in statute for 2029 works for all our units? And the 01:33:51.342 --> 01:33:57.242 - response in that email is, or that slideshow is, lack of unanimous support can speak to issues that 01:33:57.242 --> 01:34:03.202 - the plan structure doesn't address. If consensus is not reached, discuss why and highlight the areas 01:34:03.202 --> 01:34:09.397 - where agreement has been reached. So I think you would still submit something to DLGF and then you would 01:34:09.397 --> 01:34:11.934 - just highlight what happened. Ms. Gregory. 01:34:12.226 --> 01:34:19.086 - In addition to that, we know that there's still going to be a lot of legislative changes related to 01:34:19.086 --> 01:34:26.357 - the new lit structure. So we have that to be continued as well. Because it sounds like I know Mr. Guirata 01:34:26.357 --> 01:34:33.834 - said, SB1, the sequel is coming back. And word on the street is the elimination of property taxes altogether 01:34:33.834 --> 01:34:38.910 - is something that could potentially come around next legislative session. 01:34:39.234 --> 01:34:45.591 - Yes, they did mention that. And additionally, there's just some funding gaps with regard to townships, 01:34:45.591 --> 01:34:51.763 - et cetera. And I know there's conversations happening about combinations. But we don't have all the 01:34:51.763 --> 01:34:58.306 - information yet. And we don't know the changes coming forward. It's just interesting that we are thinking 01:34:58.306 --> 01:35:04.663 - about doing this. And I understand that it's non-binding. And I'm curious about the whole idea of this 01:35:04.663 --> 01:35:07.934 - must task force. But it's just interesting that it's 01:35:08.418 --> 01:35:15.969 - It's not blinding. We also need to convene our first meeting if this is what we want to do by October 01:35:15.969 --> 01:35:23.519 - 1st. My understanding is that I think there's a date in December that a report needs to be filed with 01:35:23.519 --> 01:35:30.922 - the state from our findings. And there could also be a potential of them changing the lit structure 01:35:30.922 --> 01:35:38.398 - yet again. So then we could be coming back for a sequel that we all might not be looking forward to. 01:35:39.778 --> 01:35:46.339 - next year too. Yes, it's pretty much guaranteed that that's going to happen. But on the positive side, 01:35:46.339 --> 01:35:52.772 - this is getting the conversation going. It's allowing us to understand and look at how the different 01:35:52.772 --> 01:35:59.142 - taxing rates are going to affect different units, what belongs where. I do think it is a good thing 01:35:59.142 --> 01:36:05.511 - to get the conversation started and to see what it looks like at this point, given the current law. 01:36:05.511 --> 01:36:07.422 - Yeah, of course. And I'm not. 01:36:07.778 --> 01:36:14.548 - I'm definitely, I'm very curious, sorry y'all. But this has been the must thing that's been on my brain 01:36:14.548 --> 01:36:21.383 - because I know a similar fashion to our long-term finance committee meetings. The city council has their 01:36:21.383 --> 01:36:28.153 - fiscal committee meetings and about a few weeks ago, their financial services group gave a presentation 01:36:28.153 --> 01:36:34.922 - and I know a couple of us have had an opportunity to meet with some of the city council members because 01:36:34.922 --> 01:36:36.094 - their concern is, 01:36:36.194 --> 01:36:42.859 - that they want to have a fair share because ultimately this gives the county council a lot of power 01:36:42.859 --> 01:36:49.524 - in their hands and we know that fire EMS definitely the library is affected by all of this. So it's 01:36:49.524 --> 01:36:56.455 - you know having the conversation is definitely something that I'm not shying away from and I don't want 01:36:56.455 --> 01:37:01.854 - to shy away from. I'm interested. It's just frustrating that there's this chance 01:37:02.338 --> 01:37:10.030 - that all of this could be changed, and we're all trying to do this, and then the state could come around 01:37:10.030 --> 01:37:17.648 - and go, but wait, there's more, and then re-change or re-calibrate everything that we are thinking that 01:37:17.648 --> 01:37:25.339 - we're doing in good faith, you know? So that's frustrating. I'm not frustrated with anybody in the city, 01:37:25.339 --> 01:37:30.174 - and I know I've met with Council Member Hopi Saasberg about this, 01:37:30.370 --> 01:37:38.618 - She had reiterated that in our conversation that even though we're county councils, some of us also 01:37:38.618 --> 01:37:44.062 - have city residents in this and she definitely made the case, so. 01:37:44.322 --> 01:37:50.813 - I think I made all of you aware that there is a proprietary AIC Association of Indiana County's model 01:37:50.813 --> 01:37:57.241 - for this new lit structure that county auditors received. So I have been playing with that. I looked 01:37:57.241 --> 01:38:03.796 - at it with FSG in a small group of your financial team. And I'm excited to show all of you just to see 01:38:03.796 --> 01:38:10.352 - can so we can all understand together the way it works and play with it. Thank you. I appreciate that. 01:38:10.352 --> 01:38:13.470 - I see a council member vital and I think Decker. 01:38:13.698 --> 01:38:21.010 - had his hand up, so I'll go first. So I'd be curious to know what other counties are doing, right? 01:38:21.010 --> 01:38:28.617 - Do we know? Is there any way to figure out what other counties are doing in the must or with the must? 01:38:28.617 --> 01:38:36.076 - Sorry, I keep pulling the microphone back and forth. I have a county auditor email thread group, and 01:38:36.076 --> 01:38:43.166 - so I can share a little bit of that with you. We're very early into this at this point, so only 01:38:43.362 --> 01:38:49.239 - When I at last I looked at it a couple weeks ago now only a few counties had already convened their 01:38:49.239 --> 01:38:55.117 - must group or we're beginning to set meetings. So we all know that we're all moving toward that but 01:38:55.117 --> 01:39:01.288 - it is just still very early on. I mean initially the guidance was to hold off as long as possible. Let's 01:39:01.288 --> 01:39:04.638 - wait for all the data so we can make informed decisions. 01:39:04.770 --> 01:39:11.587 - still don't have that information. So we're all just going to kind of proceed with what we have, I think, 01:39:11.587 --> 01:39:17.567 - at this time. So it's your sense that most counties, if not all, will participate in a must? 01:39:17.567 --> 01:39:24.191 - I think so. I think so, yeah. Well, I want to say something, because I think there are city folks that 01:39:24.191 --> 01:39:30.622 - watch these conversations, particularly around this. And I think a lot of times government agencies 01:39:30.722 --> 01:39:37.817 - when they're working across jurisdiction, don't send reassuring signals. So I'd like to do that now. 01:39:37.817 --> 01:39:44.913 - For our city colleagues, we all, I think, majority will work wholeheartedly with you, with the town, 01:39:44.913 --> 01:39:52.078 - and then all those other units. And I wanna make sure that as we do this, as we're moving forward, at 01:39:52.078 --> 01:39:59.806 - least from my view, that we're thinking holistically, I hate that word, but we're thinking as big as possible 01:40:00.290 --> 01:40:06.224 - about anything we might be screwing up or leaving out. I wouldn't want to get into this process and 01:40:06.224 --> 01:40:12.336 - then say, yeah, don't forget, there's this one particular thing that you don't normally deal with, but 01:40:12.336 --> 01:40:18.388 - because you're in this one particular situation, you might have overlooked that. So I think we've got 01:40:18.388 --> 01:40:24.322 - to think pretty comprehensive. Now let me talk to you, having offered reassurance, let me echo some 01:40:24.322 --> 01:40:26.814 - frustrations and just get this out there. 01:40:26.914 --> 01:40:32.678 - I don't think anyone knows what's happening. And I think that includes the people that make the laws. 01:40:32.678 --> 01:40:38.554 - And I'm saying that as respectful as possible. But they're kind of saying it themselves, that something 01:40:38.554 --> 01:40:44.262 - is changing. And I have to be honest with you. I'm tired of hearing movies and sports metaphors from 01:40:44.262 --> 01:40:50.138 - Indianapolis over things that are affecting lives. We have police departments that are trying to figure 01:40:50.138 --> 01:40:55.902 - things out, ambulances that we're hearing in this storm right now that are trying to figure out life. 01:40:56.290 --> 01:41:02.602 - We're going to create something that may be gone. And as someone pointed out to me this week several 01:41:02.602 --> 01:41:08.976 - times, be careful. Don't spend too much because this may not be something that is existing in a year. 01:41:08.976 --> 01:41:15.538 - And the state has done this numerous times. We're going to try this because we wrote this bill at 3 a.m. 01:41:15.538 --> 01:41:16.350 - on Sine die. 01:41:16.930 --> 01:41:23.392 - and the speaker gaveled us closed, and then we discovered that we let three horses out, and now we've 01:41:23.392 --> 01:41:29.853 - renamed somehow Vandenberg County, Posey County. I mean, look, they make mistakes. There's not always 01:41:29.853 --> 01:41:36.315 - expertise in the late hours. So I'm concerned about Monroe County, which is my jurisdiction, spending 01:41:36.315 --> 01:41:42.713 - a bunch of money for consultants to assist us with a hypothetical case study that the boys and girls 01:41:42.713 --> 01:41:45.310 - of the General Assembly may not have yet 01:41:45.506 --> 01:41:51.286 - decided they want to figure out from the last time they had a party. Okay? And I would say that with 01:41:51.286 --> 01:41:57.181 - respect, but here's where government actually happens. You know, the courts are a really good example. 01:41:57.181 --> 01:42:02.904 - We heard, well, you're losing a court. I don't know if they consulted anyone on that. You're losing 01:42:02.904 --> 01:42:06.910 - a court, so that means you'll save money. The state always says that. 01:42:07.106 --> 01:42:13.974 - as they give you more unfunded mandates. But we know the action we took tonight is to help the court 01:42:13.974 --> 01:42:20.910 - try to manage what it has to do, which are the people that live and work here and want to be safe. So 01:42:20.910 --> 01:42:27.710 - I say all this because this is exceedingly impossible to keep doing. And yet again here, what do we 01:42:27.710 --> 01:42:34.782 - have? We've got city, anxious about county. We need that about like a hole in the head. We've got town, 01:42:34.946 --> 01:42:41.632 - anxious and they're of course off doing their own thing about reorganization why because yet again we're 01:42:41.632 --> 01:42:48.191 - competing and we have folks like libraries and townships and other folks that are very anxious on what 01:42:48.191 --> 01:42:54.558 - is now PAWS what may end up being more PAWS or a complete change or a musk task force or some other 01:42:54.558 --> 01:43:00.862 - complete name we've not thought about and friends we can't govern like this we can't you cannot go 01:43:00.994 --> 01:43:07.564 - day to day. And unlike our federal friends, we can't operate on a continuing resolution that we only 01:43:07.564 --> 01:43:14.068 - pay attention to when our name's on a ballot once every six years. And unlike our state friends, we 01:43:14.068 --> 01:43:20.703 - can't change the rules all the time. So this would be a good time to either give us certainty or just 01:43:20.703 --> 01:43:27.533 - be straight with people that services costs. I have heard from many taxpayers overwhelming concern about 01:43:27.533 --> 01:43:30.590 - their property taxes. Overwhelming. That said, 01:43:30.946 --> 01:43:38.329 - friends, and I pay them too. I pay them on two different properties. As someone who's noted in the public, 01:43:38.329 --> 01:43:45.367 - you can look it all up. Look Deckard and Trent, you'll find it. But when I look at our records on how 01:43:45.367 --> 01:43:52.405 - values of homes have gone up in this area, I can see some of the problems that we've had dramatically 01:43:52.405 --> 01:43:53.854 - between 2010 and now 01:43:53.986 --> 01:44:01.574 - It's like steroids on the value of a home. Well, naturally, when you have a property tax system, that's 01:44:01.574 --> 01:44:09.163 - going to chase that. For my state friends, the frustration that you hear out there are people that need 01:44:09.163 --> 01:44:10.622 - relief all in life. 01:44:11.298 --> 01:44:17.474 - we don't need more unfunded mandates where we're chasing, choking, studying and trying to figure it 01:44:17.474 --> 01:44:24.020 - out. So I just, I hope somebody out there that is running for state legislature or thinking about running 01:44:24.020 --> 01:44:30.257 - or whatever, I hope that they hear this because we can't live like this. And now we are yet again in 01:44:30.257 --> 01:44:36.680 - a situation where we're going to have to write some checkout to an outside consultant to make sure that 01:44:36.680 --> 01:44:38.718 - we keep the straight and narrow. 01:44:38.978 --> 01:44:45.951 - So we can fulfill the bureaucracy of the moment and the need. That's where things could be cut, if you're 01:44:45.951 --> 01:44:52.595 - asking my druthers. I'm sorry to go on so long. That's fine. I appreciate that. Thank you. Councilor 01:44:52.595 --> 01:44:59.436 - Iverson, and then I'll go Henry. I'm going to pull two things out of the AIC email that we all received 01:44:59.436 --> 01:45:06.014 - today. Number one, I agree with Councilor Deckard. I want to give some assurances to the community. 01:45:06.014 --> 01:45:08.382 - We do have, if we agree to do this, 01:45:08.770 --> 01:45:19.866 - There is a deadline by which we must have a must meeting. And can you talk about that? And under what 01:45:19.866 --> 01:45:30.744 - circumstances are we beholden to that deadline? I believe the deadline is October 1st to form Musk. 01:45:30.744 --> 01:45:35.966 - And then I'm trying to scroll through the stack 01:45:36.482 --> 01:45:44.703 - shoot and slides that I have. So each county may prior to October 1st, convene a must with one representative 01:45:44.703 --> 01:45:52.476 - from the council, the city and town fiscal officers. The committee may not include representatives from 01:45:52.476 --> 01:46:00.175 - fire and emergency protection. And then I believe there's a deadline in December for submission of the 01:46:00.175 --> 01:46:04.958 - report to DLGF. Oh, yeah. All right. So if we're moving forward 01:46:05.442 --> 01:46:11.547 - It's going to be sometime by October 1st. Correct. And in the slides from Baker and Tilley provided 01:46:11.547 --> 01:46:17.712 - by AIC, they list out several steps before convening the task force, which include understanding the 01:46:17.712 --> 01:46:24.305 - legislative framework, identifying goals of each local unit, reviewing current lit distributions, gathering 01:46:24.305 --> 01:46:30.715 - revenue projections, evaluating taxpayer impacts and opportunities for tax relief, identifying long-term 01:46:30.715 --> 01:46:34.622 - service infrastructure and fiscal priorities across the county. 01:46:34.850 --> 01:46:43.146 - assessing whether taxpayer liability aligns with the beneficiaries of local services and understanding 01:46:43.146 --> 01:46:51.281 - local service delivery responsibility. So I mean, I think my recommendation to counsel at this point 01:46:51.281 --> 01:47:00.222 - is what information or what do you want to see to and when to even have the do we form this conversation? Yes. 01:47:00.642 --> 01:47:08.796 - I think it was last week, all the days are running together. But we had a very preliminary discussion 01:47:08.796 --> 01:47:17.030 - with FSG, Michelle, and a few others. During that meeting, we talked with FSG about if they were going 01:47:17.030 --> 01:47:25.264 - to assist us with this process, if you choose to tap them, then what do they need from us further? And 01:47:25.264 --> 01:47:27.742 - so we also went through a very 01:47:28.162 --> 01:47:36.290 - just very preliminary ideas just to kind of talk about what is needed and what we need to think about 01:47:36.290 --> 01:47:44.498 - moving forward. So it was kind of a pre-meeting, if you will. But we're getting there. The process has 01:47:44.498 --> 01:47:52.706 - begun, just to reassure you. The second point that I want to make is that participation in this is the 01:47:52.706 --> 01:47:57.886 - phrase they used, is permissive, not mandatory. That being said, 01:47:58.210 --> 01:48:04.415 - I want to make sure that if we decide to go down this road, we are sending invitations to all taxing 01:48:04.415 --> 01:48:10.926 - units. I think it is absolutely important that the public hears what's happening to the school districts. 01:48:10.926 --> 01:48:17.192 - It's absolutely important to hear what's happening to the library system. Absolutely important what's 01:48:17.192 --> 01:48:23.397 - hearing to the township trustees. We cannot focus on city and county. I mean, it's important, right? 01:48:23.397 --> 01:48:25.854 - We could really do serious damage here. 01:48:26.306 --> 01:48:33.289 - But we also need to hear from all these other taxing units about what's happening. It's so important 01:48:33.289 --> 01:48:40.203 - that if we convene this, that it's a community gathering, and it's not just one or two entities, in 01:48:40.203 --> 01:48:47.116 - my humble opinion. Council Henry. Thank you, Madam President. And I appreciate everyone's comments. 01:48:47.116 --> 01:48:54.307 - This is tricky to work through. I know it's also been a bit of a slow moving train, because we've known 01:48:54.307 --> 01:48:55.966 - about this for a while. 01:48:56.418 --> 01:49:02.995 - I reflect on two things about our approach to this, and it picks up on some of the threads here. It's 01:49:02.995 --> 01:49:09.443 - no secret that I think before I was elected here, and I think several of us were elected here, that 01:49:09.443 --> 01:49:16.020 - the frictions among the taxing units are not small in our community, and the older structure by which 01:49:16.020 --> 01:49:21.630 - we divvied up our tax revenue through the certified shares program really created some 01:49:21.762 --> 01:49:28.519 - tensions about who got what slice of the pie, and especially frictions between non-city county residents 01:49:28.519 --> 01:49:35.084 - and city county residents. I think that's important to start to phrase. I think it's been phrased too 01:49:35.084 --> 01:49:41.584 - long that it's county or city, and we do forget about, as you'd mentioned, those city residents that 01:49:41.584 --> 01:49:48.213 - also are county residents. In some ways, this committee could be an opportunity to reset that dialogue 01:49:48.213 --> 01:49:49.886 - among the taxing units as 01:49:50.210 --> 01:49:56.386 - we are on shifting sands. And I'm hopeful we have enough new players in county government and city government 01:49:56.386 --> 01:50:02.113 - and other governments that we can stop thinking of this as sort of a zero sum fight over tax revenue. 01:50:02.113 --> 01:50:07.897 - And it is something that we have to contemplate even though we have our own budgets to balance and the 01:50:07.897 --> 01:50:13.680 - like. So I don't fear the must in that respect. The non-binding part's important to me too. I do agree 01:50:13.680 --> 01:50:19.070 - with Councilor Iverson that maybe our version of this extends dialogue to partners that are not 01:50:19.234 --> 01:50:25.313 - Named is the quartet that should be in the room. So there's that piece. There's also two maybe policy 01:50:25.313 --> 01:50:31.451 - pieces that caused me some heartburn about the recommendations that we've received from AIC and others 01:50:31.451 --> 01:50:37.470 - about how we approach this. The first is an emphasis that says that all things being equal, fire and 01:50:37.470 --> 01:50:39.198 - EMS tax should be considered 01:50:39.330 --> 01:50:44.513 - Urgently or at the front end of this discussion and yet There's no call in the legislation to put the 01:50:44.513 --> 01:50:49.595 - the the fire protection district at the table with us to talk about that, right? So Yeah, right. So 01:50:49.595 --> 01:50:54.778 - that's interesting, right? Like that's the most important part, but but they're not welcome to sit in 01:50:54.778 --> 01:51:00.012 - the quartet, right? That's kind of interesting And so I flagged that it goes as long as side libraries 01:51:00.012 --> 01:51:03.518 - alongside schools about about you know how we have that dialogue and 01:51:03.778 --> 01:51:09.401 - And then maybe I'll wrap up with a question, because I think we've touched on it in different ways. 01:51:09.401 --> 01:51:15.025 - But I don't know this. But have we had formal communication from our other taxing units to us about 01:51:15.025 --> 01:51:20.761 - must? I don't know if we've said that in the public meeting, that has the city of Bloomington reached 01:51:20.761 --> 01:51:26.609 - out, has Steinsville reached out, has Eltsville reached out formally, or even to our knowledge, to even 01:51:26.609 --> 01:51:31.614 - show that they would join the four. Without them, there isn't really a committee, right? 01:51:32.162 --> 01:51:38.498 - But do we have anything formal from Steinsville or Ellesville? No, from Steinsville. I mean, I know 01:51:38.498 --> 01:51:45.278 - we've had email communication from Steinsville showing an interest from their council, but not necessarily 01:51:45.278 --> 01:51:51.614 - their taxing or their fiscal authority that would sit there, right? I mean, I'd open it up. Have we 01:51:51.614 --> 01:51:58.203 - had correspondence or anything? Could that be the clerk? We had it from Richie Carter, but I don't know 01:51:58.203 --> 01:52:01.118 - if the clerk treasurer has said anything. OK. 01:52:02.050 --> 01:52:09.908 - I've not received any formal communication to my office. I just want, I mean, and I think that's an 01:52:09.908 --> 01:52:18.080 - important question to ask and interesting, but there was no expectation of any communication from them. 01:52:18.080 --> 01:52:25.387 - It's up to us to, so I just don't want it to sound like, well, nobody's called me, you know, 01:52:25.387 --> 01:52:28.766 - that's all. That's not my, that wasn't my, 01:52:29.730 --> 01:52:39.598 - attention there. If there's an urgency felt in the other taxing units, they really must get to the table 01:52:39.598 --> 01:52:49.278 - and make their case. I was curious if we'd heard that. The puns you could do with the must task force. 01:52:49.278 --> 01:52:59.710 - If we must, we shall, and we try. Informally, I know the mayor has reached out to have a conversation with me. 01:53:00.674 --> 01:53:10.058 - Hopefully, I would assume it would be in support of trying to form this task force. Again, I know Councilor 01:53:10.058 --> 01:53:19.181 - Iverson and myself had conversations with Council Member Stosberg about this. And they also talked about 01:53:19.181 --> 01:53:28.043 - it at their meeting last week. So that was, and again, their July Fiscal Committee meeting, they talk 01:53:28.043 --> 01:53:29.694 - about this because 01:53:29.858 --> 01:53:35.924 - their financial, like I said before, their financial services group is trying to, had mentioned, 01:53:35.924 --> 01:53:42.428 - you know, why this is a must for all. So, I did it. That reminds me of another point. Yep. And one that 01:53:42.428 --> 01:53:48.744 - I think maybe Councilor Hawk would make if she were here, and I'm just gonna try to channel that for 01:53:48.744 --> 01:53:55.185 - a minute, that to be mindful that while we're trying this, or having this discussion in good faith and 01:53:55.185 --> 01:53:58.750 - maybe possibly pulling everyone together that, you know, 01:53:58.882 --> 01:54:04.776 - there are taxing units that are proceeding with their budgets and looking at their own current tax rates 01:54:04.776 --> 01:54:10.501 - as they can start to consume part of our two point, correct me, it's 2.9, right? What's the total for 01:54:10.501 --> 01:54:16.283 - the county? That sounds, I don't have it in front of me, so I'll grab it. Right, so if you have taxing 01:54:16.283 --> 01:54:22.008 - units starting to take little bites out of it here and there, by the time we get to the committee, we 01:54:22.008 --> 01:54:27.902 - may find that some of that rate has already been obligated. Similarly to our predicament with financing, 01:54:28.034 --> 01:54:34.336 - capital projects or large bonds, right? If we're committing the county to a third of all income tax, 01:54:34.336 --> 01:54:40.638 - for example, for the potential justice center thing. It's something to point out. I mean, the bodies 01:54:40.638 --> 01:54:46.878 - are still doing their work while we're thinking about the future as well. Right. Yeah. So the other 01:54:46.878 --> 01:54:52.557 - thing that I hear is maybe there is an interest. However, it sounds like there needs to be 01:54:52.557 --> 01:54:56.862 - another conversation with FSG to come back to the table because they 01:54:57.378 --> 01:55:06.369 - must have a proposal for us to talk about this task force. And I would maybe echo Councilor Deckard's 01:55:06.369 --> 01:55:15.447 - comment. I mean, we might, I can't work must into it. We may not need that level of expertise. We have 01:55:15.447 --> 01:55:24.350 - a lot of sharp people in our county. I appreciate that there may be other counties that must rely on 01:55:24.482 --> 01:55:31.055 - such a thing, but if ours takes a different format, it may not require that level of effort, but of 01:55:31.055 --> 01:55:37.825 - course it's good to hear what they have to offer. Yeah, I would agree. I think, again, in what we have 01:55:37.825 --> 01:55:44.464 - been talking about and what we will have come forth against us, or to us, I should say, for a budget 01:55:44.464 --> 01:55:49.854 - season, it just would seem, I don't know, I got a little heartburn with trying to 01:55:50.210 --> 01:55:58.446 - together something because it's like if this is a cost to us and this is something that we shall do 01:55:58.446 --> 01:56:06.765 - then this is a cost that we would bear and not other taxing units like that's that's a I mean that's 01:56:06.765 --> 01:56:15.166 - that's a legit concern it's like yeah I'm curious about that and I will note that we do have a pretty 01:56:15.266 --> 01:56:21.961 - meeting scheduled with FSG already on August 26th at 2 p.m. And so I think we could talk to them more. 01:56:21.961 --> 01:56:28.526 - They did send forth a proposal where it lists six items that they would be able to assist the county 01:56:28.526 --> 01:56:35.351 - with. So I'm happy to distribute their proposal. And then if any council members have specific questions 01:56:35.351 --> 01:56:42.046 - or concerns about what's contained in this proposal, we can easily discuss it with FSG on August 26th. 01:56:43.746 --> 01:56:51.433 - just in the spirit of us not delaying and some thought about it. Is it possible for you to tell us those 01:56:51.433 --> 01:56:54.142 - six things in a rough dollar amount? 01:56:54.306 --> 01:57:00.511 - So we get that in our head. It's facilitate, facilitate and moderate must task force meetings to support 01:57:00.511 --> 01:57:06.421 - productive collaboration and timely negotiations, provide guidance and analysis on local income tax 01:57:06.421 --> 01:57:12.508 - distribution strategies, including modeling potential fiscal impacts, assist in drafting and reviewing 01:57:12.508 --> 01:57:19.422 - local income tax distribution agreements, support Monroe County with documentation and submission processes to DLGF. 01:57:19.714 --> 01:57:25.757 - offer ongoing advisory services to help the county monitor, update, and implement income tax agreements 01:57:25.757 --> 01:57:31.626 - and assist with the development of the report to the state legislative. And then their fees would be 01:57:31.626 --> 01:57:36.798 - based on an hourly rate. So for the CPA, MA, or MA principal, it's three to four hundred 01:57:37.282 --> 01:57:45.046 - $300 to $400. For the financial analyst, it's $150 to $175. And for administration operations, 01:57:45.046 --> 01:57:53.627 - $100 to $150. And then they have costs built in for mileage, copying, and mailing. Typically, with these 01:57:53.627 --> 01:58:02.045 - agreements, we put a do not exceed amount. There is not a do not exceed amount currently included. But 01:58:02.045 --> 01:58:06.622 - for example, with the county financial solutions group, 01:58:06.754 --> 01:58:14.838 - that the county entered. Oh, it expires. When did we enter? The 20th of February of 2025. It has a do 01:58:14.838 --> 01:58:23.001 - not exceed mount of I think it's 28,000. So we could cap what we're willing to spend on this, but that 01:58:23.001 --> 01:58:31.243 - was just their preliminary proposal, and I will say the preliminary proposal for the financial advising 01:58:31.243 --> 01:58:35.998 - agreement also did not have a cap amount, but we added one. 01:58:36.770 --> 01:58:46.700 - those. I think there's some things in this proposal that between legal and the auditor's office I don't 01:58:46.700 --> 01:58:56.248 - know that we would need much support from financial or from FSG particularly things like submission 01:58:56.248 --> 01:59:00.926 - of documents to DLGF. DLGF has outlined a pretty 01:59:01.058 --> 01:59:07.843 - specific process to do so. And I think between our two offices, we can figure that out and not have 01:59:07.843 --> 01:59:14.627 - to pay $400 an hour to do it, unless you want to pay me $400 an hour. Nice try. My question to that 01:59:14.627 --> 01:59:21.684 - would be, we already have them helping us with the LTF. LTF, just Alex's answer. And this is why I said 01:59:21.684 --> 01:59:24.126 - I think this is a conversation with 01:59:25.346 --> 01:59:33.060 - with FSG because there is some overlap in this proposal specific to must and our current contract. And 01:59:33.060 --> 01:59:40.625 - so for example, like we already have them advising us on lit models. And so I'm not sure why that is 01:59:40.625 --> 01:59:48.339 - not already covered in our current services. And so I think there is a conversation to be had with FSG 01:59:48.339 --> 01:59:55.230 - saying, look, our current contract is still in effect. It says this, why is this different? 01:59:55.746 --> 02:00:02.979 - That was my whole point is we can just we must turn this into you know, we could easily amend our current 02:00:02.979 --> 02:00:09.802 - contract to cover additional must services. Okay. Well, excuse me, while recognizing what we're not 02:00:09.802 --> 02:00:16.625 - having them do at the same time. Correct. I do think the model is that everyone each unit who if we 02:00:16.625 --> 02:00:24.062 - form must each unit would have their own fiscal advisor there. So I do think they would attend the meetings. 02:00:25.346 --> 02:00:33.192 - But like the city folks would have like- Baker and Tilley, for example. We would have FSG. Each person 02:00:33.192 --> 02:00:40.886 - would have a financial advisor in the room. Gosh, it almost seems like it'd be easier to not do must 02:00:40.886 --> 02:00:49.037 - and just have a may. We'll make up a different. We'll have a may instead of a must. We may have a meeting. 02:00:49.037 --> 02:00:53.150 - I mean, to be honest, they've given us so many tools. 02:00:53.666 --> 02:01:01.687 - There are definite things we'll need advice on. But saying that they will help prepare agreements on 02:01:01.687 --> 02:01:09.629 - local income tax, we don't need to make agreements because it's non-binding. I don't even know. You 02:01:09.629 --> 02:01:17.888 - either pass it or you don't. Right. And I'll point out, too, that I think it was shared this afternoon. 02:01:17.888 --> 02:01:22.494 - There is templates for these things, in essence. Exactly. 02:01:22.882 --> 02:01:31.742 - So it's not like you'd be creating an agreement from scratch. But I also, I mean, we've benefited a 02:01:31.742 --> 02:01:41.046 - lot from FSG. I definitely am not trying to say that they have not been valuable. I've appreciated their 02:01:41.046 --> 02:01:49.995 - advice and the work that they've done. I'm just not entirely convinced that we need to, not just we, 02:01:49.995 --> 02:01:52.830 - you know, if council is paying, 02:01:53.250 --> 02:02:02.522 - and the city's paying, and then, I mean. Ellensville, Steinsville. Does Steinsville, I mean, my goodness, 02:02:02.522 --> 02:02:11.882 - when does it stop? It's like a convention of advisors. I don't know. That seems silly. Yes. So I'm looking 02:02:11.882 --> 02:02:16.606 - at this from a little bit of a different perspective. 02:02:16.706 --> 02:02:22.725 - really like that FSG is bringing their expertise, including they are well informed of what other units 02:02:22.725 --> 02:02:28.686 - are doing. They work with other units around the state, and that is very helpful. So they might bring 02:02:28.686 --> 02:02:34.238 - some ideas from outside the box that we may not have thought of in our community, for example. 02:02:34.562 --> 02:02:41.263 - So I like that. Additionally, it's almost like an added control to kind of ensure that we are in compliance 02:02:41.263 --> 02:02:47.717 - with the statute as it's forever changing. I mean, we have our legal team who is excellent, but I think 02:02:47.717 --> 02:02:53.984 - kind of like we're so locked in and looking at it so closely that allows us to maybe overlook things 02:02:53.984 --> 02:03:00.251 - from time to time. Not that we do that often, but just to make sure we have the most recent version. 02:03:00.251 --> 02:03:04.222 - We're following best practice with everything, and it is really 02:03:04.354 --> 02:03:13.494 - that's going to be big and new, and there's going to be a lot of changes year to year. I just want to 02:03:13.494 --> 02:03:22.545 - make one additional I I appreciate all of that and getting us to it. I just believe that the reality 02:03:22.545 --> 02:03:29.982 - that the state envisions for financial budgets doesn't match what we currently do. 02:03:30.594 --> 02:03:37.265 - You know, there was a period about two to three weeks ago that I heard. So I'll say it. I think I think 02:03:37.265 --> 02:03:44.129 - it's been in news stories. So someone can sue me if I'm wrong here. But the DLGF did not have any in-house 02:03:44.129 --> 02:03:50.736 - attorneys whatsoever. And they went through a two to three week period or more where due to something, 02:03:50.736 --> 02:03:56.766 - they didn't have an attorney. And I thought about that for a second. We are one county of 92. 02:03:57.250 --> 02:04:03.546 - we have attorneys. When we need additional attorneys, we have discussions about it. We have to go out 02:04:03.546 --> 02:04:10.027 - and get additional attorneys. But a state agency of that magnitude operating like that, I think probably 02:04:10.027 --> 02:04:16.261 - they need to take a page from a little bit of what we do, but also vice versa. If we're heading into 02:04:16.261 --> 02:04:17.310 - a world where we 02:04:17.762 --> 02:04:24.382 - the cost and despair, which are truly out there. I hear it from people. If things are so bad, it may 02:04:24.382 --> 02:04:31.003 - mean that we can't have things the way we have that we cannot keep lights on to the level that we do 02:04:31.003 --> 02:04:37.558 - in this building. We cannot have subcommittees for committees, and you certainly can't staff it. It 02:04:37.558 --> 02:04:44.244 - may mean things like that, and I throw that to the friends at the state too, because that you know it 02:04:44.244 --> 02:04:47.390 - may mean that you can't have unfunded mandates. 02:04:47.714 --> 02:04:53.701 - where you're trying to figure out something that is apparently going to switch in a year. And when we 02:04:53.701 --> 02:04:59.805 - talk to our state associations, they say things like, now you want to hold off on that. And my heavens, 02:04:59.805 --> 02:05:05.791 - be careful spending too much on any outside help. There's a lot of, I don't know. And when the rubber 02:05:05.791 --> 02:05:11.661 - meets the road, we still have a justice building that's got all the things that it's got and a jail 02:05:11.661 --> 02:05:14.302 - that has definitely all the things it's got. 02:05:14.402 --> 02:05:22.921 - And I feel like we lose our focus on this because we're chasing every single priority of Indiana's economic 02:05:22.921 --> 02:05:31.045 - policy that switches every two years on how we do it. I'll be quiet. I'm not helping. And I know we've 02:05:31.045 --> 02:05:39.248 - got other things that we need to get to. So in terms of the next steps of basically putting the Avenger 02:05:39.248 --> 02:05:40.510 - Group together, 02:05:41.890 --> 02:05:51.647 - Thank you, Spider-Man. So when we are putting this task force together, what would be our next steps? 02:05:51.647 --> 02:06:01.595 - Because I think council president gets to, that's a lot of power that I don't want. But what's the next 02:06:01.595 --> 02:06:09.822 - steps? I think the next step that I would recommend is to have, I think everyone has, 02:06:10.146 --> 02:06:17.408 - still questions that might be unanswered about must. And so we have this opportunity to sit down with 02:06:17.408 --> 02:06:24.670 - FSG on the 26th of this month. I can forward you FSG's proposal. And then I think the next step would 02:06:24.670 --> 02:06:31.861 - be, if you have questions, send them back to me. We can talk to FSG. And then we'll have a secondary 02:06:31.861 --> 02:06:39.550 - conversation. And it would probably be if our meeting isn't until the 26th, the first meeting of September. 02:06:40.610 --> 02:06:48.599 - have another must conversation. And if we're thinking that we want to convene must, I would recommend 02:06:48.599 --> 02:06:56.430 - a resolution or some letter from council president that would go to other taxing units. OK, because 02:06:56.430 --> 02:07:04.419 - it looks like I'm trying to check our our unfortunate and I almost want to reach out to F.S.G. to see 02:07:04.419 --> 02:07:09.118 - if we can move up this August 26th meeting slightly because 02:07:09.250 --> 02:07:15.531 - the council's next meeting is the 25th. So I would, I mean, if we can move it to like the 20th or the 02:07:15.531 --> 02:07:21.874 - 21st, that would be great so that we could have it at this next council meeting in August. Yeah. Cause 02:07:21.874 --> 02:07:28.402 - then we are running into budget season. Exactly. And therefore, so city is also doing their budget season 02:07:28.402 --> 02:07:34.561 - too. And the timeframe, I mean, October would be here before you know it. I'm happy to email FSG to 02:07:34.561 --> 02:07:37.886 - see if we can move it up just a few days. Okay. Okay. 02:07:38.082 --> 02:07:47.105 - Maybe the next time we come back for, well, hopefully they can because then with our meeting being August 02:07:47.105 --> 02:07:55.787 - 25th, we could talk about it, have a plan and go from there. Okay. Any other questions or comments on 02:07:55.787 --> 02:08:04.299 - must? Well, thank you all very much for that conversation. I know it's, you know, everybody has all 02:08:04.299 --> 02:08:05.406 - the thoughts 02:08:05.698 --> 02:08:14.045 - about all the things there. So we were able to get it all out and go forth what you will or what you 02:08:14.045 --> 02:08:22.309 - must. Oh, there it is. I know. Sorry, I had to do it. Staying in my lane. All right. So next up, we 02:08:22.309 --> 02:08:30.738 - are at item B, which is discussing on our lit special purpose. And so there's been conversation about 02:08:30.738 --> 02:08:34.622 - that. So I'm still looking to Ms. Turner King. 02:08:35.042 --> 02:08:43.705 - to help with this conversation. It's something we've been talking about since last year in budget season, 02:08:43.705 --> 02:08:52.122 - and as I keep reminding ourselves, it's almost that time. So I'm happy to go through the procedure and 02:08:52.122 --> 02:09:00.540 - potential timelines if you want first, and then I think the auditor has a more number revenue specific 02:09:00.540 --> 02:09:02.174 - presentation. Okay. 02:09:06.146 --> 02:09:12.801 - I'm going to share my screen, maybe. And I know Judge Harvey is here in the audience as well. So I want 02:09:12.801 --> 02:09:19.263 - to acknowledge Judge Harvey as well. So I don't know if you feel compelled to, if you don't have to, 02:09:19.263 --> 02:09:25.534 - not putting you on the spot, but if you need to, feel free to come join the conversation as well. 02:09:37.026 --> 02:09:44.525 - Okay so maybe just stay there and then you know we'll invite you up to one of the tables. All right. 02:09:44.525 --> 02:09:52.321 - Thank you. So I put together this tax implementation procedure PowerPoint and so I'm going to go through 02:09:52.321 --> 02:09:56.702 - it really quick. The tax adoption timeline if we adopt the 02:09:57.282 --> 02:10:04.226 - an ordinance that amends the tax before August 31st, then the tax will go into effect October 1st. I 02:10:04.226 --> 02:10:11.170 - think the timeline that we were aiming for is the September 1st adopting an ordinance sometime after 02:10:11.170 --> 02:10:18.045 - September 1st, but before October 31st, which would make the effective date January 1st of 2027. So 02:10:18.045 --> 02:10:25.470 - procedurally, what has to happen before the council can approve an ordinance adjusting the tax rate is that 02:10:25.954 --> 02:10:32.363 - The council has to publish a proposed ordinance with a specific rate at least 10 days prior to the public 02:10:32.363 --> 02:10:38.410 - hearing. This publication has to occur in the newspaper. There is some statutes like the additional 02:10:38.410 --> 02:10:44.578 - appropriations statute or the budget statutes that allows for online publication, but lit publication 02:10:44.578 --> 02:10:50.685 - here for public hearings is not one that can be published just online. Historically, we have a first 02:10:50.685 --> 02:10:53.406 - reading and a public hearing the same night. 02:10:53.826 --> 02:10:59.008 - And what we've done, for example, with the correctional taxes, we've had the first reading, we opened 02:10:59.008 --> 02:11:04.394 - and closed the public hearing, and then we did not take a vote that night. We took the vote on the second 02:11:04.394 --> 02:11:09.525 - reading. Nothing says you can't take a vote the first reading. It's just I would like to acknowledge 02:11:09.525 --> 02:11:14.657 - that if you take a vote at the first reading, it has to pass unanimously or there has to be a second 02:11:14.657 --> 02:11:19.788 - reading. Once the ordinance is passed, the council would direct the auditor to provide notice to the 02:11:19.788 --> 02:11:23.294 - local taxing units within 15 days. What we did in the past was email 02:11:23.458 --> 02:11:30.203 - ourselves because we are the underlying taxing unit. And then the auditor submits documentation to the 02:11:30.203 --> 02:11:36.882 - Department of Revenue and DLGF, and that usually includes a copy of the public notice, the ordinance, 02:11:36.882 --> 02:11:43.038 - and then the fact that we notified ourselves that we did it. So some important things that we 02:11:43.490 --> 02:11:49.790 - important things to keep in mind, we must give 10 days notice. The proposed ordinance must state the 02:11:49.790 --> 02:11:56.089 - specific rate. So we did this with correctional tax. If you remember when we passed the correctional 02:11:56.089 --> 02:12:02.951 - tax the first time, we implemented a rate of .175 and the statute required it to be to the nearest hundredth. 02:12:02.951 --> 02:12:09.313 - So then we had to re-advertise it for .17, but because we amended it, that started the entire process 02:12:09.313 --> 02:12:11.870 - all over. So any change to the ordinance 02:12:12.706 --> 02:12:18.730 - puts us back to square one. So considerations for timelines. And these are the same considerations we 02:12:18.730 --> 02:12:24.754 - thought of when we did the correctional tax was, do you want the public hearing to be in the evening? 02:12:24.754 --> 02:12:31.132 - Should the adoption hearing occur during the evening? Do you want the public hearing to occur on a separate 02:12:31.132 --> 02:12:37.275 - night from budget meetings and or regular council meetings? And do you want to hear the court's special 02:12:37.275 --> 02:12:42.590 - purpose budget prior to the consideration of the rate? As a reminder, just because it was 02:12:42.786 --> 02:12:51.099 - we did not hear the tax rate on a budget meeting night. We reserved hearing the tax issue on a regular 02:12:51.099 --> 02:12:59.250 - meeting night. And then we also held the public hearing during our regular meetings so that would be 02:12:59.250 --> 02:13:07.644 - in the evening and maybe more accessible. So based on these questions in past precedent, I put together 02:13:07.644 --> 02:13:11.518 - two potential timelines. And they're all crazy. 02:13:12.226 --> 02:13:19.037 - The first timeline has the council identifying a potential rate and the August 25th meeting. That's 02:13:19.037 --> 02:13:26.189 - just so we can prepare an ordinance and get it submitted to the H.T. So if you identify a rate at August 02:13:26.189 --> 02:13:33.477 - 25th hearing, we could potentially submit it the very next day to the H.T. Now caveat that that submission 02:13:33.477 --> 02:13:39.198 - timeline requires us to get everything to the H.T. by noon on Wednesday, which is a 02:13:39.330 --> 02:13:47.514 - very tight schedule for the auditor's office to submit that. It's a pretty cumbersome portal. So I don't 02:13:47.514 --> 02:13:55.777 - know if you want more time, but option one is we submit by noon on Wednesday, which would put publication 02:13:55.777 --> 02:14:03.727 - on August 28th. Therefore we could have the first reading public hearing at the September 8th regular 02:14:03.727 --> 02:14:05.598 - session of the council. 02:14:05.858 --> 02:14:13.032 - with the second reading being at the 22nd September meeting. And then if you use this model or this 02:14:13.032 --> 02:14:20.350 - option, if there's an amendment, it would still give us time so that even with an amendment, we could 02:14:20.350 --> 02:14:27.883 - have a potential adoption hearing on October 6th. Now, I will caveat that October 6th is a budget night, 02:14:27.883 --> 02:14:33.694 - but it's not a budget session. It's the budget public meeting or public hearing. 02:14:34.978 --> 02:14:42.542 - So the first option has everything done potentially by October 6th. The second option basically starts 02:14:42.542 --> 02:14:50.546 - out the same way. You identify a rate at the next meeting. It gives us a little bit extra time to advertise, 02:14:50.546 --> 02:14:58.110 - but even by pushing the advertisement from Wednesday to Thursday, that pushes publication to a Monday. 02:14:59.138 --> 02:15:05.886 - By publishing on August 31st, we wouldn't be able to have the first public reading at the September 02:15:05.886 --> 02:15:12.769 - 8th meeting. We'd be hitting because it's not 10 days. So we would be having our first public reading 02:15:12.769 --> 02:15:19.517 - on the 22nd and then our second possible adoption meeting or hearing on October 6th. Even with this 02:15:19.517 --> 02:15:26.534 - model, if there's an amendment, then by October 13th, you would have a possible adoption of a rate even 02:15:26.534 --> 02:15:27.614 - with amendment. 02:15:29.122 --> 02:15:36.427 - I did not put a calendar option here but this is like in my head and it's option three. In my head this 02:15:36.427 --> 02:15:43.872 - is really not the option that I would recommend because it puts us right up on the October 31st deadline. 02:15:43.872 --> 02:15:50.334 - So if you wait completely after budget sessions and your goal is to have the public hearing 02:15:50.466 --> 02:15:56.876 - on the tax rate is the same day as the public hearing for the budget hearing, you would identify a rate 02:15:56.876 --> 02:16:03.163 - on September 22nd. It would be advertised on the 23rd, published on the 25th. Our first reading would 02:16:03.163 --> 02:16:09.327 - be October 6th. Our second reading would be October 13th. If there is an amendment, and this is why 02:16:09.327 --> 02:16:15.614 - I do not like this option, if there is an amendment, that means you would potentially be adopting the 02:16:15.614 --> 02:16:18.942 - rate on October 27th, which is, in my opinion, really 02:16:19.106 --> 02:16:29.919 - too close to that October 31st deadline. So that is the options and kind of timeline. So I was going 02:16:29.919 --> 02:16:41.695 - to ask the auditor your I guess your opinion for like the date if we go into option one and we did everything 02:16:41.695 --> 02:16:47.262 - on the you know we talked about a rate on the 25th. 02:16:48.098 --> 02:16:57.097 - Do you think that would give your office enough time to turn around and get it advertised to the HT? 02:16:57.097 --> 02:17:06.184 - If we have everything ready to go and we confirm with the HT that as long as they receive by noon, it 02:17:06.184 --> 02:17:12.510 - will be published timely, I'm fine with that. We can make that happen. 02:17:12.770 --> 02:17:18.527 - Um, it's just making sure we're prepared in advance and all we're doing is simply, you know, submitting 02:17:18.527 --> 02:17:24.118 - first thing in the morning. Is there anything our office can do to work in tandem with you to ensure 02:17:24.118 --> 02:17:29.654 - that that deadline gets met? Absolutely. I mean, Michelle and I have been working and Mr. King have 02:17:29.654 --> 02:17:35.189 - been working closely on this already just because we are getting closer and closer to the timeline. 02:17:35.189 --> 02:17:37.182 - So we've all been in communication. 02:17:38.850 --> 02:17:46.479 - I my preference is the earliest timeline possible just to give as much buffer as humanly possible. Yeah, 02:17:46.479 --> 02:17:54.107 - I would agree because October 30th or the option three is close because we have no idea what will happen 02:17:54.107 --> 02:18:01.736 - with budget. And so like if we need more extra room for any other things and then you all have to upload 02:18:01.736 --> 02:18:05.950 - those items into gateway. So that would be a concern with 02:18:06.050 --> 02:18:12.755 - doing something late because then that puts more pressure on you all. The only caveat that I would mention 02:18:12.755 --> 02:18:19.272 - with identifying a rate on August 25th is if you identify a rate at the next hearing, you haven't heard 02:18:19.272 --> 02:18:25.789 - the YSB budget, which this primarily affects. You haven't heard a commissioner budget because they also 02:18:25.789 --> 02:18:32.181 - have a line in that special purpose tax. So I think if you're going to my recommendation is if you're 02:18:32.181 --> 02:18:34.750 - going to proceed with identifying a rate 02:18:34.914 --> 02:18:42.799 - by August 25th that it might be ideal or beneficial to have a conversation or a meeting with judges 02:18:42.799 --> 02:18:50.841 - and YSB to make sure we know what's in their budget and that we're adopting a rate that would suffice 02:18:50.841 --> 02:18:58.725 - and meet their budgetary needs. I think that's doable and I know Councilor Wilts is the liaison for 02:18:58.725 --> 02:19:01.406 - courts and whatnot and so I think 02:19:01.922 --> 02:19:09.273 - Oh yeah, and Councilor Feidl as well. I know the judges have made it clear that they want to be a part 02:19:09.273 --> 02:19:16.696 - of that conversation since that ultimately deals with what it is that you do. I don't want to discredit 02:19:16.696 --> 02:19:23.262 - that. I think that could be the option, but I'll look to other colleagues to see what their 02:19:23.778 --> 02:19:30.459 - option would be, it sounds like option one would be good, and then maybe in the meantime, folks could, 02:19:30.459 --> 02:19:37.140 - because we should already be having those conversations regarding budget anyway. Some of you all have, 02:19:37.140 --> 02:19:43.821 - and I know some people are scheduling those, so that seems like the better plan, but look into council 02:19:43.821 --> 02:19:50.437 - to see what thoughts are, and I think I saw Councilor Wilk's hand up. No, I was gonna say that I know 02:19:50.437 --> 02:19:52.318 - that the courts have already 02:19:52.546 --> 02:20:01.116 - really worked through what they're planning to submit or have submitted I guess at this point. So I 02:20:01.116 --> 02:20:10.286 - think we can reach out to the affected departments and just pull together something so we make an informed 02:20:10.286 --> 02:20:18.942 - decision. I was just going to add I think it's important to say at this point that that was the deal 02:20:18.942 --> 02:20:21.342 - we made when this was done. 02:20:21.794 --> 02:20:29.350 - And we all went, trust us on this. And they were very kind and cautious and trusting, I think. And they 02:20:29.350 --> 02:20:37.051 - nodded along. And now we're two years later from this. The timeline kind of has jogged back some memories 02:20:37.051 --> 02:20:44.316 - from all that, some good and not all good. But I think it's incredibly important to both honor with 02:20:44.316 --> 02:20:48.094 - the action and honor with the, do we have it right? 02:20:48.354 --> 02:20:56.319 - kind of question, because that really assisted us at a time that we dramatically needed assistance. 02:20:56.319 --> 02:21:04.522 - I just want to say that all the budgets are in and that we are proofing them and everything. So if you 02:21:04.522 --> 02:21:12.805 - would like, we can print off what has been submitted at this point and share it with everyone. And then 02:21:12.805 --> 02:21:17.982 - that way, everybody knows what's being asked for at this moment. 02:21:18.690 --> 02:21:25.314 - That would be helpful. And I see that Judge Hervey has joined us. So if you would like to make some 02:21:25.314 --> 02:21:32.202 - comments, and then I'll circle back to the auditor. I don't mean to interrupt or hijack. I just do want 02:21:32.202 --> 02:21:38.958 - to just comment on that last one. A, you have my commitment to meet whenever you need to meet to make 02:21:38.958 --> 02:21:45.714 - sure that this schedule stays on target. Correct that we've already looked at budgets. I've looked at 02:21:45.714 --> 02:21:47.966 - YSB in the part that's the court. 02:21:48.706 --> 02:21:56.660 - So that should be no problem. And I primarily just want to say thank you. I've just kind of been watching 02:21:56.660 --> 02:22:04.313 - from a distance, kind of hoping and being able to tell YSB because they're very concerned. And I know 02:22:04.313 --> 02:22:11.742 - that Vicki came to budgets last year saying, I'm really concerned about this lit and just to think 02:22:11.874 --> 02:22:18.387 - you for your work on this thus far and putting it on the agenda tonight really to make sure that the 02:22:18.387 --> 02:22:24.964 - timelines are hit. And that's really all I want to make sure that was on the record that I appreciate 02:22:24.964 --> 02:22:31.477 - that and that you have my commitment to do, you know, make whatever information you need. We're here 02:22:31.477 --> 02:22:38.119 - to meet with you. So that's all I thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Gregory, if this is a good time, 02:22:38.119 --> 02:22:41.150 - I can take you through. I actually have like a 02:22:41.282 --> 02:22:52.964 - the normal lit sandbox analysis prepared, as well as just a kind of running total as where we are currently 02:22:52.964 --> 02:23:03.781 - with the lit special purpose fund, if that would be helpful. I'm going to go ahead and try to share 02:23:03.781 --> 02:23:09.406 - my screen here. Let me adjust this just one second. 02:23:15.906 --> 02:23:23.665 - I don't know if you can see that while I'm trying to make this larger and I don't see a way to do that. 02:23:23.665 --> 02:23:31.499 - But this shows the cash balance as of yesterday. So that's under money in. Can you see that? Okay. Okay. 02:23:31.499 --> 02:23:35.230 - So 2.9 million. Okay. That's our current balance. 02:23:36.066 --> 02:23:42.738 - We have remaining on expended appropriations of about one point eight. So you can go over there and 02:23:42.738 --> 02:23:49.410 - then see the running balance as we're just assuming we're going to expand that fully at this point. 02:23:49.410 --> 02:23:56.082 - We still have an anticipated monthly lit revenue coming in, and that's September through the end of 02:23:56.082 --> 02:24:01.886 - the year. They're identified. So that's added to the running balance as well. And then 02:24:02.978 --> 02:24:11.444 - We're looking at, we just projected about a 5% increase in local income tax without adjusting the rate. 02:24:11.444 --> 02:24:19.584 - I looked at the state budget agency has released the total lit amount. We still don't have like the 02:24:19.584 --> 02:24:27.805 - per unit that the DLGF provides, but we can just looking at 26 to 27, it's about a 5.4% increase. So 02:24:27.805 --> 02:24:30.654 - we're pretty much on target there. 02:24:30.914 --> 02:24:38.650 - is fairly accurate. So, you know, assuming that amount, we will have about $3 million if the complete 02:24:38.650 --> 02:24:46.462 - budget is expended. And then our assumption was a 5% budgetary increase, so about $4.7 million for the 02:24:46.462 --> 02:24:54.198 - fund as a whole. However, looking at what is currently proposed, what has been entered in the current 02:24:54.198 --> 02:24:58.142 - budget, the amount is almost $5.2 million. So we've 02:24:58.370 --> 02:25:06.680 - gone above what we projected, that the ask is above. So I just want to make that clear. OK, now I'm 02:25:06.680 --> 02:25:12.414 - going to get into, I need to share my screen differently one second. 02:25:28.642 --> 02:25:38.993 - This is the recommendation received from FSG. They gave a little history on Let's Best for Purpose, 02:25:38.993 --> 02:25:49.757 - just that it was reduced to have a zero impact on taxpayers. And we did that twice. Originally, I think 02:25:49.757 --> 02:25:54.622 - it was 2023, then again in 2024. And so again, 02:25:54.850 --> 02:26:01.165 - Councilor Deckard pointed out this was a promise. We were going to spend down the cash balance, which 02:26:01.165 --> 02:26:07.356 - was extraordinarily high, to a more reasonable level. And we're there. We're definitely going to be 02:26:07.356 --> 02:26:12.990 - in the red if we don't take some sort of action, either budget reduction or rate increase. 02:26:13.218 --> 02:26:22.593 - So FSG's recommendation is to put this back at the original rate that we reduced from the first time. 02:26:22.593 --> 02:26:32.152 - So they are recommending .0950 rate. And then I can take you to our lit sandbox here. Incorporated that 02:26:32.152 --> 02:26:41.527 - rate into the proposed change. You see it highlighted in yellow there, which shows them the estimated 02:26:41.527 --> 02:26:42.814 - total amount. 02:26:43.074 --> 02:26:50.422 - And then the estimated taxpayer impact. So I just, you got this in email, too, this afternoon, which 02:26:50.422 --> 02:26:57.989 - I know you haven't had time to digest, but it is in your email, so you can look at it later and forward 02:26:57.989 --> 02:27:03.518 - any questions you may have. I'm happy to field those. So any questions now? 02:27:12.642 --> 02:27:18.899 - So I don't think the FSG information is going to be surprising to a lot of people. We've talked about 02:27:18.899 --> 02:27:25.280 - this in long-term finance at least three times. The analysis that you showed is a month old. We've been 02:27:25.280 --> 02:27:29.758 - over this. We understand that the rate needs to go back to where it has. 02:27:29.922 --> 02:27:37.387 - The updated lit sandbox is really helpful. So thank you for providing that. And particularly the columns 02:27:37.387 --> 02:27:44.780 - on the right-hand side showing the impact to taxpayers, I think that's going to be on a lot of people's 02:27:44.780 --> 02:27:52.458 - minds. So that'll be wonderful to look at. So. Yeah, the financial director in my office put this together. 02:27:52.458 --> 02:27:57.790 - She's wonderful. And getting back to the options that were proposed to us, 02:27:58.242 --> 02:28:06.987 - It seems like maybe option one is where we talk about that on the 25th and then auditors or auditor 02:28:06.987 --> 02:28:16.606 - and her staff will get that going the next day. As long as it's not an undue burden. Yeah. I will collaborate 02:28:16.606 --> 02:28:25.438 - with our bench team here and we'll have everything prepared and be ready to go if you approve. Okay. 02:28:25.538 --> 02:28:33.607 - There is no objections. I'd like to say that we'd stick with option one and go from there. Okay, 02:28:33.607 --> 02:28:41.926 - so order. All right, thank you all very much for that discussion and Judge Harvey for joining us as 02:28:41.926 --> 02:28:50.328 - well. Next up, we are at the end of our agenda. So we have council liaison updates and comments. And 02:28:50.328 --> 02:28:55.486 - this time I will start to my right with council member Henry. 02:28:56.546 --> 02:29:05.200 - I was trying to count off how many times we said must, but not even Chance GPT could figure it out. 02:29:05.200 --> 02:29:13.855 - It was probably dialects. I don't know. Just lost the transcript. I want to start on a heavier note 02:29:13.855 --> 02:29:19.134 - and then hopefully a more joyful note. I would like to maybe 02:29:19.298 --> 02:29:25.488 - address or raise to the public's awareness, but of course it's not a surprise to anybody working in 02:29:25.488 --> 02:29:31.739 - the justice building that conditions continue to be poor there, long after the headlines leave about 02:29:31.739 --> 02:29:38.114 - the pipe burst and some of the challenges that we've had there. I've heard from a number of staff that 02:29:38.114 --> 02:29:44.551 - conditions are still not cleanly, and it is my understanding that IOSHA today paid an unscheduled visit 02:29:44.551 --> 02:29:47.646 - to the court house or the justice center today to 02:29:47.874 --> 02:29:54.140 - follow up on complaints and I just want the staff in that building to hear that we hear you on this 02:29:54.140 --> 02:30:00.532 - council and in some ways our hands are tied officially in the sense that we cannot throw money at the 02:30:00.532 --> 02:30:06.046 - problem unless people bring us appropriations to fix the things wrong in that building. 02:30:06.242 --> 02:30:12.528 - However, we have the soft power and, of course, our voice is to raise on this to say that if you have 02:30:12.528 --> 02:30:18.937 - a direct responsibility over that facility and it is not still cleaned up as of nearly two weeks later, 02:30:18.937 --> 02:30:25.162 - I hope you bring your body armor to budget season, because I have a lot of questions asked as to why 02:30:25.162 --> 02:30:32.126 - people in that building are still working in conditions that are unsanitary, if it is true that that's the case. 02:30:32.514 --> 02:30:40.163 - This has to get addressed. I do feel a little hand tied here, but I hope to get over to the building 02:30:40.163 --> 02:30:48.115 - this week. I certainly hope that things are cleaner than what I've been hearing about today, as reported 02:30:48.115 --> 02:30:55.006 - to me by staff today. This is not a great situation. We have to do better, and I'm sure if 02:30:55.394 --> 02:31:01.463 - If I'm getting frustrated, there's a reason for it. I know I'm not alone in that frustration. So I just 02:31:01.463 --> 02:31:07.531 - want folks to hear me in that building today that have had challenges that someone in county government 02:31:07.531 --> 02:31:12.958 - urges today. Now the joyous note. I am excited to hear that the front door, which is our new 02:31:13.154 --> 02:31:18.513 - our community's new LGBTQIA plus welcome center, if you will, just down the street from us, is to have 02:31:18.513 --> 02:31:23.715 - their grand opening just around the time of Pride Fest in the coming weeks here. Of course, they'll 02:31:23.715 --> 02:31:29.125 - have done that before the next time we meet. Many of you, of course, remember, and I'm sure the council 02:31:29.125 --> 02:31:34.588 - members that we were supporters of the front door through the 2025 Sophia Travis Community Service Grant 02:31:34.588 --> 02:31:39.790 - to help raise revenue to get that space open. Melanie Davis and others have been at this for a very 02:31:39.790 --> 02:31:43.120 - long time to have that space. And I will say too, I think it's, 02:31:43.120 --> 02:31:49.140 - It's also joyful that it's in such close proximity to our ever developing convention center. So when 02:31:49.140 --> 02:31:55.160 - people visit Monroe County and Bloomington, they know that our LGBTQIA plus members of the community 02:31:55.160 --> 02:32:01.299 - are one of the tent stakes or one of the table stakes of our community. We're proud of being proud and 02:32:01.299 --> 02:32:07.260 - as allies and in our community. So what a great weekend that's coming up in a few for our community 02:32:07.260 --> 02:32:11.134 - as we welcome students back as well. Thank you, Madam President. 02:32:14.754 --> 02:32:21.610 - Thank you very much I've been busy very busy and it seems that every day there are new things that are 02:32:21.610 --> 02:32:28.400 - coming to the county and certainly challenges so I'll just tell you some of my activities first I did 02:32:28.400 --> 02:32:35.123 - attend the IU economic development summit and it was awesome to be with various economic development 02:32:35.123 --> 02:32:41.780 - officials talking about things going on in the community and around the state it was a privilege to 02:32:41.780 --> 02:32:43.710 - go visit with our fair board 02:32:44.322 --> 02:32:51.445 - alongside Councilor Feidl. I'll let her have all that, but I got to peep over her shoulder and kind 02:32:51.445 --> 02:32:58.639 - of watch their work and appreciated that. It was also an honor to go out and support the Lake Monroe 02:32:58.639 --> 02:33:05.406 - Water Conservation Fund, also with Councilor Feidl. We're in the same places. And then ongoing 02:33:05.538 --> 02:33:13.863 - work assisting on the leadership team of the streets to stability program. I wanted to remind folks 02:33:13.863 --> 02:33:22.187 - that due to the legal posting requirement, we had discussed an appropriation that could potentially 02:33:22.187 --> 02:33:30.512 - be at this meeting due to the legal requirement for an appropriation. We'll have that on our agenda 02:33:30.512 --> 02:33:33.342 - next meeting, but that program is 02:33:33.506 --> 02:33:42.127 - I think it's important that we're all working in the community, and I'll leave that to Mary Morgan and 02:33:42.127 --> 02:33:50.496 - her fine folks to discuss more. But again on the county's part, uh, being supportive and responding 02:33:50.496 --> 02:33:59.200 - to that. I also want to mention something of, uh, of a different nature. But I think vitally important. 02:33:59.200 --> 02:34:03.134 - We've all as members of Council. Alongside our 02:34:03.490 --> 02:34:10.576 - neighborhood. And I've been through there several times myself. Obviously, there's been much discussion 02:34:10.576 --> 02:34:17.799 - among different county officeholders about the encampment that is near that neighborhood and the concerns 02:34:17.799 --> 02:34:25.022 - that the residents have. I've driven through the neighborhood on average about at least three times a day 02:34:25.154 --> 02:34:32.712 - commissioners. Uh, since, uh, I began to hear about some of the issues that we're having. I wanted to 02:34:32.712 --> 02:34:40.492 - talk about a little bit more towards action or recommendation that I passed along to their commissioners 02:34:40.492 --> 02:34:47.901 - to our commissioners, and I was happy that, um. That I've received some some positive response, and 02:34:47.901 --> 02:34:53.310 - I'll leave it to them to talk further about it. But I recommended to the 02:34:53.538 --> 02:35:00.880 - services towards a security group to assist with the edge of that property with our property that we 02:35:00.880 --> 02:35:08.149 - have and doing that in you know coordination and collaboration with the city which is going through 02:35:08.149 --> 02:35:15.782 - the neighborhood this to me is a very common sense response to a property that we have a property that's 02:35:15.782 --> 02:35:20.798 - been cleared but a property that I don't believe has been maintained 02:35:21.250 --> 02:35:28.161 - after that clearing. And so as we keep working in all these different hats and functions and areas to 02:35:28.161 --> 02:35:35.073 - treat people with dignity in our community, I think it's also important that we're responding to what 02:35:35.073 --> 02:35:42.052 - we hear from folks in the community and that also they feel like they're heard. And also that we don't 02:35:42.052 --> 02:35:47.134 - let any view that we're just getting into jurisdictional disputes persist. 02:35:47.458 --> 02:35:53.459 - The other thing I'll say is earlier tonight, we were talking about an issue with our must task force 02:35:53.459 --> 02:35:59.639 - and all that between the city and the county. I think an overwhelming thing that folks need to see here 02:35:59.639 --> 02:36:05.700 - is that on a day to day basis, people all up and down the county and all up and down the city and all 02:36:05.700 --> 02:36:11.939 - up and down the town and the townships do actually work quite well together. We do have friction moments 02:36:11.939 --> 02:36:15.326 - for sure, but we can't let friction moments drowned out. 02:36:15.682 --> 02:36:24.474 - the good that we can't do and the good that we sometimes get done. And so I think this is an area where 02:36:24.474 --> 02:36:33.097 - as we knuckle through on things that we're dealing with in the community, we have to just stay at it. 02:36:33.097 --> 02:36:41.635 - So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I'll just, I just have a one thing related to talk about. I, 02:36:41.635 --> 02:36:43.326 - um, was in our, uh, 02:36:43.778 --> 02:36:54.783 - community corrections advisory board justice reinvestment advisory committee combo meeting last night. 02:36:54.783 --> 02:37:05.467 - And it's a very interesting group of folks from all sorts of backgrounds and service areas. And one 02:37:05.467 --> 02:37:13.374 - of the things that was brought to our attention was the Medicaid changes. 02:37:13.666 --> 02:37:22.667 - when Councilor Iverson brought this up earlier, I was reminded that I wanted to just let folks know, 02:37:22.667 --> 02:37:31.669 - if they don't already, about the changes happening in Medicaid more broadly, especially with respect 02:37:31.669 --> 02:37:41.918 - to the work requirements that are being put in place, and that this is going to be devastating, I think, for a lot 02:37:42.082 --> 02:37:53.269 - of people who will have a very hard time getting a job of any sort. And one of the things that we were 02:37:53.269 --> 02:38:04.347 - talking about and that Linda Grove Paul encouraged us to do is to think about in all of our networks, 02:38:04.347 --> 02:38:09.886 - the possible volunteer opportunities that could be 02:38:11.586 --> 02:38:22.315 - grown maybe more so than are already there even to put those out there and let Centerstone know about 02:38:22.315 --> 02:38:32.833 - them because they are actively looking for a repository of opportunities for folks who might not be 02:38:32.833 --> 02:38:37.566 - able to volunteer or work every other place. 02:38:37.794 --> 02:38:46.848 - there are some opportunities I think available for them to do work that could count toward keeping them 02:38:46.848 --> 02:38:55.729 - in their benefits and able to receive the care that they need. So I just wanted to put that out there 02:38:55.729 --> 02:39:04.783 - as you're going through your daily day kind of things. What organizations maybe have some opportunities 02:39:04.783 --> 02:39:07.134 - for creatively helping out 02:39:07.938 --> 02:39:14.762 - in this way. And that's it. Thank you. Councillor Feidl. Thank you. Yes, I was at the Bearer Association 02:39:14.762 --> 02:39:21.456 - meeting with Councillor Deckard, and it was lovely to have another councillor there. I didn't tell him 02:39:21.456 --> 02:39:28.085 - he was coming, so they were pleased to see him. And they have, you know, they probably have 30 people 02:39:28.085 --> 02:39:34.649 - that are on their board out there. I'm always amazed how many there are and they have a good turnout 02:39:34.649 --> 02:39:37.054 - every time. And they'll be doing the 02:39:37.314 --> 02:39:44.113 - third year of the Christmas light display this year again, they'll be doing they had a robust fair, 02:39:44.113 --> 02:39:51.048 - um, which seemed to go okay, I think, but there's always evaluation and continuous improvement on any 02:39:51.048 --> 02:39:57.847 - of that. So I do appreciate I've been out there now for about a year and a half and I do appreciate 02:39:57.847 --> 02:40:02.878 - their meetings. I'm telling you, they started seven and they ended eight. 02:40:03.554 --> 02:40:10.706 - They are in and out. And so they run a tight ship there. And people seem to have a really good experience 02:40:10.706 --> 02:40:17.588 - in saying what they need or want to say at those meetings, which is really good. I did also meet with 02:40:17.588 --> 02:40:24.606 - a couple of my liaison, other assignments, human resources, as well as the BEDC executive meeting. I've 02:40:24.606 --> 02:40:30.206 - been at a multitude of community events, including the Lake Monroe Water Fund with 02:40:30.370 --> 02:40:36.770 - Councilor Deckard as well as he missed talking about the taste of Bloomington. We were a taste 02:40:36.770 --> 02:40:43.574 - of Bloomington. He's the only other one I saw there for that. But I've been out and about and I keep 02:40:43.574 --> 02:40:50.445 - hearing numerous comments and almost all of those events or meetings about the subcommittee work that 02:40:50.445 --> 02:40:57.317 - we did for the jail location. And I haven't run across anyone yet. And I talked to everybody that I'm 02:40:57.317 --> 02:40:58.462 - around who says, 02:40:58.914 --> 02:41:05.441 - that they're unhappy with what we did. And so for me, that says something about how we went through 02:41:05.441 --> 02:41:12.165 - the process with the committee and were able to come up with something that made sense for the factors 02:41:12.165 --> 02:41:18.953 - that we had to deal with. And so I'm very pleased that we came to that recommendation and happy to talk 02:41:18.953 --> 02:41:25.480 - about it to others in the community. I did receive, and I shared this with my fellow counselors who 02:41:25.480 --> 02:41:26.590 - are still around 02:41:27.330 --> 02:41:33.648 - the Sophia Travis Grant Committee. I was at a personal lunch yesterday with a friend. I just want to 02:41:33.648 --> 02:41:40.030 - talk about this because it just warmed my heart. And that is that we awarded money. And I don't think 02:41:40.030 --> 02:41:46.661 - I need to say which one it was. It doesn't matter. We awarded money to an organization. And at the lunch, 02:41:46.661 --> 02:41:53.042 - a staff member that works there came to me and said, oh, I recognize you. You're on the Sophia Travis 02:41:53.042 --> 02:41:55.294 - Grant Committee. And he says, well, 02:41:55.842 --> 02:42:04.451 - you gave us money to do this project work and now we've got Lowe's involved and they're gonna be helping 02:42:04.451 --> 02:42:12.651 - expand it. So it just felt really good that they were so appreciative and thankful that we did what 02:42:12.651 --> 02:42:21.342 - we could do with the application that they sent in. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was very helpful. 02:42:21.602 --> 02:42:29.350 - when you have mentioned that too, is all I could think about for some reason, because she's also been 02:42:29.350 --> 02:42:37.251 - on my mind, like my mom. But Saturday was Cheryl's birthday. And so I've thought about her so much over 02:42:37.251 --> 02:42:44.847 - the past several days. I don't know why, but I've just thought about it. And I think of things like 02:42:44.847 --> 02:42:46.974 - that. And maybe that's why. 02:42:47.330 --> 02:42:53.314 - You know, I've been thinking of her and your story just kind of came up with that. So that's, you know, 02:42:53.314 --> 02:42:59.068 - sometimes we always hear what we're doing wrong or what's going wrong. And sometimes it's just nice 02:42:59.068 --> 02:43:05.110 - to come back full circle to hear, you know, something that's going right because we can get very cynical 02:43:05.110 --> 02:43:11.037 - and stuck in our ways. But sometimes it's it's Sophia Travis grant committing projects and things like 02:43:11.037 --> 02:43:16.158 - that, such as would, you know, Councillor Henry was saying earlier about the front door. 02:43:16.258 --> 02:43:24.094 - that we literally are doing some really good work, despite sometimes we are running into some headbutton 02:43:24.094 --> 02:43:31.631 - issues and whatnot. But I am very grateful and thankful for my colleagues here. Yeah, the only other 02:43:31.631 --> 02:43:39.318 - thing that I would say is I do want to keep, because this is brought up a couple of times with members 02:43:39.318 --> 02:43:43.422 - out in the public, I do want to keep that conversation 02:43:44.866 --> 02:43:52.332 - I don't want it to be remissed of what the committee did in terms of the work of the subcommittee. So 02:43:52.332 --> 02:43:59.432 - I'm trying to think of ways for us to bring that back to the forefront because we came together, 02:43:59.432 --> 02:44:06.898 - we did it, and then we haven't. And so I'll take that. That's been on me for not scheduling that, but 02:44:06.898 --> 02:44:11.070 - I do want to make sure that we are bringing that back to 02:44:11.330 --> 02:44:18.682 - the forefront of so our community knows that we just didn't do all that work in vain. So thank you for 02:44:18.682 --> 02:44:26.034 - that. And then also just shout out to all the people that helped with the taste of Bloomington. It was 02:44:26.034 --> 02:44:33.815 - rainy and then it stopped and it was fine. And it was just really nice to see people dancing and Bloomington 02:44:33.815 --> 02:44:39.454 - being weird as it normally is. And that's not a problem with that. I liked it. 02:44:40.066 --> 02:44:48.307 - Students are coming back and there's still construction all around this lovely town. So please be careful 02:44:48.307 --> 02:44:56.237 - and be mindful of all the things that are happening. I just told my daughter to watch cats. So I told 02:44:56.237 --> 02:45:02.846 - her I would do this and because it seems like crossly kids birthdays are sacrificed. 02:45:03.138 --> 02:45:10.283 - with County Council meeting. So happy 12th birthday to my little lady bug, Kendall. So without that 02:45:10.283 --> 02:45:18.142 - being said, we are so close to budget hearing. So do with that with you must and we are adjourned. Thank you.