Good evening, everybody. I apologize for the technical difficulties that we had. I'm calling this meeting
to order. Today is Tuesday, August. No August 11th. Happy birthday, Kendall. Um, and the time is five
o'clock. We have present in the Natu Hill rooms. Counselors Henry Iverson, Decker, Wilts and Fiddle.
Um, I'm not seeing, um,
Councilmember Hawk, but I do believe that she's joining us virtually, so everything we do will have
a roll call vote this evening as well. So let us jump into it. Again, our apologies for the delay. All
those able to stand, please stand for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much for that. Next up is the adoption
of agenda and it looks like we have some amendments to make for tonight's agenda.
Madam President and council, I have three items. The first is the council. We have a request from the
commissioner's office to pull item eight. I request for de appropriation and item eight J a request
for a fund to fund transfer. I move to table indefinitely the commissioner's items eight. I and a J
second. OK, we got a motion and a second to table those items for the commissioners indefinitely. Any.
questions or comments from Council on that item? Okay, seeing none, we're gonna do this by voice vote
since we don't have Councilor Hawk yet. So all those in favor of amending the agenda, pulling those
items indefinitely, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries.
Council, I further move to table item K, 8K, a resolution on target fund balances to our August 25th meeting.
We got a motion and a second on that table. Any questions or comments from counsel on that item?
Seeing none, all those in favor of a table in that item to our August 25th meeting, signify by saying
aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. And lastly, counsel, I move item eight
H, a joint item between the commissioners and aviation to
item seven A. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second on that. I think there is some emergency
that Mr. Liberty has to handle. So we want to bump that up and get him taken care of so he can handle
that accordingly. Any comments on this item? Seeing none. All those in favor of moving that item up
on the agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed saying sign. Okay. Motion carries.
Thank you very much for that. Next up is our item number four, which is public comment. So if you are
here in the Net You Hill room, you can come to the lectern here, state your name for the record, and
you'll have up to three minutes. And these are for items that are not on tonight's agenda. So again,
if you are a member of the public and wish to speak to
you can do the same thing except you can just raise your hand via teams. So are there any takers for
public comment tonight?
My name is Gerhard Gomm. I reside in Bloomington on Carey, Maryland. 65,765. That is the number of people,
as I googled it today, that are currently held in ICE detention. 65,765. Various independent agencies
have verified that roughly 70% of those detainees have no criminal record. Every day in this country,
injustices occur hour after hour after hour, state by state by state. The powers that be cause suffering
for tens of thousands of people and their families.
On August 28, at 8.50 p.m., there will be a vigil right outside this building on the southeast corner
of the square. A peaceful, reverent vigil for the detainees in the Miami County, in the Miami Correctional
Facility. I would like to extend an invitation to each one of you, the staff,
the good folks in the audience and the good folks that are watching online. Is it appropriate for me
to approach you? Absolutely.
invited to attend. Perhaps you can take the flyer home to your other important work shared with your
friends, family, and neighbors. So perhaps we can all do a part that this country will be a country
where we are all better human beings, where we do not inflict needless suffering on innocent people.
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I like your shirt. All right.
Um, is there anybody else here and then that you will room that would like to speak to items not on
tonight's agenda. Call and then anybody virtually that would like to speak to items not on tonight's
agenda. Okay, seeing none. We appreciate you, sir, for coming up and making that public comment and
inviting us to
on this event in a few weeks. Thank you. All right. Next up, we will move on to item five, which are
department updates. And these are for items that are also not on tonight's agenda. I know there are
a couple of people and right now it looks like we have Chris Hardesty that is here. So if you'd like
to come up and each department head that would like to give
an update for items not on the agenda you have up to 10 minutes. So take it away. Absolutely.
you guys for having us and thank you for the ongoing support throughout many years. I just wanted to
pop back in again this year and let you know how much we appreciate that. Life Designs DSI has been
a part of this community for a long time and want to continue to do what we've been doing and it's the
support you guys give us and allow us to do that so we just want to be here to say thank you.
that we're going to be able to do that. Um kind of give you some updates. You've got some information
in the packet there. We are looking at starting a day program here in town and having our folks something
for them to do during the day. We've had folks since I got involved here in Bloomington six years ago
that have been on wait lists to attend other programs and still can't get into those services. So it's
finally time that we're going to do something about that, and we're going to start the services there
in our building and have that available for them. And then
I know we're in the community that are on waitlist and have been for four or five years are looking
for those services. And so that's something we're going to be able to start providing to not only the
folks we currently serve, but other folks in the
community that need those services. We're really focusing on reaching young people and being targeted
with technology and how we can utilize that. We have 11 other programs across the state that DSI operates,
which gives us a lot of very talented folks. We have music directors and art directors and folks that
are in our other programs, we'll be able to work with them through technology and bring that here to
our folks. And so looking forward to that, it's very exciting. We're looking at some simulators and
some training simulators and being able to do some things for vocational skills, possibly even partnering
with local universities to work on certificates where our folks would be able to
a certificate for employment somewhere, whether that be as a forklift operator or some sort of a skill
that we can teach in a safe, controlled, virtual environment. So really some new, exciting things that
we're trying to do and move forward with to serve not only the folks we're currently serving, but really
wanting to expand that and serve lots of folks in the community. And again, it's your guys' support
that allows us to do that. And we just want to say thank you. I forgot to introduce Eddie. He's our
guy here in town that helps us run things and helps stay on top of things.
last couple years bringing him along so that somebody else knows what's happening and knows what you
guys do for us and just is here to as well say thank you. Appreciate you guys. I mean, on behalf of
our clients and staff, we really appreciate the help that we get on the yearly basis. Yeah. So on behalf
of our clients and staff, we really do appreciate the help that we get. It means wonders to our clients.
I mean, especially when we instilled these programs and this new day program is going to be wonders
for us. So thank you guys again. Do you guys have any questions for us?
Let's see, does anybody have any questions or comments? Yes, Councilor Woods. I've been recently looking
at vocational training in that sphere around parks and recreation. So I would love to connect with you
all some other time. Absolutely. Just to talk about ideas. That would be great to reach out to me and
we'll get together for sure. So yeah, that'd be fantastic.
We're trying to figure out how that fits, where that fits, exactly what that looks like. So any input
for that would be very much appreciated. That's all I was saying. One of the reasons why I think funding
from these public bodies is so important is we don't necessarily know what's going to happen at the
state level. And so I'm going to ask a big question. And if you want to answer it later or are here,
Feel free to but we've been reading a lot about some of the changes happening in Indiana Medicaid and
you know I don't know is that having pretty profound impacts with your clientele or you know I don't
know if you could talk a little bit about that or again if you want to delve into that later we can
do that too.
Yeah, without going into a lot of detail, yes, it absolutely is having an impact on our folks. There
are major changes happening. We're still figuring out exactly what those all are and how that's going
to affect us. But yeah, it's definitely kind of an uncertain time. So that's where, like you said, this
type of funding that isn't relying on that is huge. Great. OK. And I apologize. That's kind of a non-answer,
but I don't want to go into a lot of details. But yeah, it is definitely affecting things. Thank you.
as always thank you for coming back it's wonderful to see familiar faces but also I want to compliment
you on the certificate approach and that you're exploring that that in my other hat and higher education
and out working with you know organizations that are where folks are choosing not to pursue higher education
certificates are kind of a hot thing right now and I love the parody and notion that the
folks are getting across the community period where they need it, what they need, et cetera. So thank
you so much. Appreciate that. Yeah, we're just starting to delve into it, just starting to figure it
out, but it's definitely a direction we're looking at. So. I wonder if you could, I did, I tried to
fit in your report here, but it may not be obvious. What, what is it that we fund you to the tune of
so that we and the public know that what that is?
We do not know offhand what the percentage is. I can. I have that information in front of me. Actually,
for, um, for DSI for 2027, um, it's actually the same as 26. It's, um, 474,238 dollars. Thank you so
much. And auditor, this is in the commissioner's budget, right? Sorry. They have the mental health and
developmental disabilities.
And again, if anybody is wondering why, like you all come back every year during this time of the year
to give us an update. I know I think it was Councilor Woods that had asked for this a couple of years
back during our budget here. And so we can just know and have an update and just have a better understanding
of where the funding is going and how we can be of service. So right before our budget season kicks
off, this is something that
you know, we look forward to. Is there anything that, well, my question would be, is there anything
that is on the horizon that we should be concerned about with respect, maybe that's what you were also
getting at too, but with respect to funding that you might possibly need where you're not getting?
Things at a state level are definitely not getting any easier. Every day seems to bring a new challenge,
and so having the support as it is is fantastic. And just hoping that it continues and hoping to continue
this relationship and the support from you guys is extremely helpful. We appreciate that. Thank you
so much. Any other further questions or comments for DSI? No? Well, we appreciate you coming.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You guys have a great evening. We'll see you next year. If not before
then. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Are there any other departments that would wish to make a departmental
update? Looks like we have the survey here. There couldn't have been a more perfect storm with the
technical issues and the fact I was planning on presenting where It has a lot of visuals. I could come
back at another date, but I don't really think there is time So I'll try to be as concise as possible.
I was pushing up to my ten minutes maximum already. So Well, here we go and I Think it'll be enjoyable.
I think it'll be taking small sips from water hose and I'm hoping
that it would be okay if I at least turn this one to the council since I'm going to. Oh, we got this
one. Yeah. Okay. We can see it. All right. So this is actually just a slide I used for a presentation,
but it goes into the history of the surveyors office and I'll get to the point kind of at the closing
of this presentation of why I'm presenting today. This is how we used to
manage our data. This is a database incense, which is like a print off with handwriting next to it.
This is when I came to office in 2005. This is how you used to access the data. You come up to the health
department, you pull out these physical copies, and then you would be able to get data that's relevant
to section corner in the public land surveying system. These are
I'm going to go back to the old monument records monument records of the public land surveying system,
which is the framework of property rights. The first one was, I think in 83 no signature, no reference
surveys, no theory of location. Then in 95 no. Surveys reference. No theories of location and then in
2013, no theory of location, but we did
In 2006, I developed this entire web page to put our records online and upload individual records one
at a time, making them accessible to the profession, which I think was really important for decision
making. Now, this is kind of using GIS to streamline day-to-day operations. We stitched together
a topographical map and then overlaid our section corner data information. Fun fact.
The surveyors office provide this to Jason Aiken when he was an assisting plan director when the planning
department was still in the courthouse and they promptly started using this information for planning
purposes. So it's supposed to show that we've always been using technology, but GIS wasn't a household
name back then. Aerials, the state did a flyover.
shows how we streamline day-to-day operations and field work. We're able to use this to get out there
and be more efficient with our time and more precise with finding where these locations exist. Fun photo.
I'm going to skip through it, but that's us working out there with the best equipment available at the
time for our budget. This is creating an access database to help streamline operations. Basically, I
created a model which
ran through an arc map and then over there on your right is what it produced. So we were really streamlining
these tie sheet records. Collaboration between offices, Parks and Recs, VoterEdge, Health Department.
Back then GIS wasn't really like a computer interface. It was what it produced. It was that physical
map that you hung on the wall back then.
Fast forward with over a decade of service to 2016. This is when I took the leadership role, and this
was our current org chart. This is going to forecast some of what my conclusion will be, but the elected
surveyor was set 75% of other elected officials. The professional surveyor was hired as chief deputy,
but that salary was also set 75% of
elected surveyors, which means we got a ridiculous deal for the first six months of their service.
In 2017, the professional surveyor position was created in appropriately earning more than the elected
surveyor. We finally started paying him for what expertise that they provide to the county. To gain
support to help offset the financial impact, the professional surveyor position was split 75 coming
out of county general and 25 out of the section corner fund.
No, this is not just a leadership change. This is a shift in the standards upheld by the Office of the
Monroe County Surveyor. Here's a product we're able to create this in house. This is a boundary perpetuation
surveyor. We're understanding more of the totality of what's going on on the ground to set these monuments,
preserve these monuments, maintain these monuments that again is the foundation of public rights or
property rights across the county.
Here's our tie sheets. I'm still always excited to show off the one on the far right with the three
seals, a licensed surveyor, the elected surveyor, and the surveyor review board, which means once a
month I have the opportunity to get five licensed surveyors to agree on one location. That's fun. Here's
a quarter record index and a map depicting our progress.
wanted to do that. This is like staying on top of new technology and methods. It's not going stagnant.
It's making sure that we're implementing best practices and moving forward. And so we start to improve
what this is called a field database, which allows us to create accessibility to this information or
access issues like topology. I'm going to skip through this, but this is something I'm proud of because
I built it out in house or where
We need to see how the point doesn't align with the lines. All of those databases to your far left and
some offices actually pay services to integrate topology have to move all at once. Here's a fun quick
video. I try to trim it down real quick. So basically,
All of those separate data sets, once expanded to show you all the multiple layers and fields in there,
move simultaneously so we can improve that data, keep that geometry, and make sure that these boundaries
are all overlaid. We create databases and develop workflows to streamline operations. We improved internal
operations and expand accessibility of information.
only if you were there for the eight hours of naming convention discussions to make sure that we had
a fundamental way of naming these documents but expanding them as more information came in and make
them available and accessible. Here's a fun video. I think this is really important. This kind of forecasts
some of why I'm here. I am here all day.
So we're searching by that one location. All of these surveys, almost about 7,000 in the database now,
pinpoint that one location. We create reports where the profession can gain this information online.
collaboration between offices and providing technical assistance and enhancing internal standards. This
is something we deployed with planning. And one thing I'd like to point out is the red thing is no monument
set at corners. Imagine if you guys had a survey done and the surveyor didn't set the monument at your
corners. These were little things falling through the cracks over time. So we deployed this initiative
with planning department and we still work with them today.
more collaboration between offices providing technical assistance and generating cost savings. These
are trail projects. One's kind of making its way to Ellisville and the other is still in the works.
This is another showcase of it. What I like about the one on the left, that's the Limestone Greenway.
The little house with the kind of light blue line going through it, that's the police substation. We
literally showed up on the property, did surveying work,
discussed what needed to be done with the property owners and negotiate this deal with assistance of
legal and parks. The other is a township trustee trying to figure out some issues with the cemetery.
Here's another example. This is legal in a property that went to the tax sale. We were able to go through
this and eliminate that parcel because it didn't actually exist.
Here are all the other professional organizations that we work with that we've collaborated with over
the years, and also council has been generous enough to appropriate funds that allow not just my office,
but a number of different county departments to work with these groups. All right, we're getting pretty
close. 2019, 2020. The elected surveyors, still 75% of other elected officials. In 2019, the GIS coordinator
was restructured
and appropriately earning more than the elected surveyor. In 2020, the survey technician was created
to gain the support and offset the financial impact. That position was split to 50% coming out of county
general and 50% out of the second corner fund. Here is, in the same year the GIS coordinator was relocated,
Monroe County launched its first internal public facing GIS web application featuring the survey utility.
There is a video, basically you can get thousands of documents on here and you can make judgment calls
and determinations in the field as a crews out there looking and trying to locate a monument that might
have been buried that might actually be the corner of your property, but they can now get on here and
find all this information to make that determination on the field instead of setting a new corner.
We received a excellence in GIS because we're now using the technology more to its fullest, which means
we are maximizing the investment that's already been made. 2021, we worked with elections and did the
whole re-precincting and re-review and
Actually, the coordinator at that time, he was the technical staff to the Represinking Committee. And
after finalizing the Represinking Committee, we created maps that depict the changes and provided them
to elections and attached them with the Indiana Election Commission Form 8, which is like the official
process. Current, that's where we're at. So here kind of summarizes everything.
In 2006, there was a WIS study. The WIS study report talks about total cost of phasing all elective
officials to the external midpoint at this dollar amount 20 years ago, all elective officials. Here
is the 2021. The study reported salary information for several Indiana counties. However, it failed
to note whether the position were
full-time, part-time, or had outside employment. These are very important considerations. We reached
out to each county in the report and provided this during the 2021 budget hearing. In addition, the
study had incorrect salary amounts for my position and also Bartholomew's. This is a fun fact. The average
salary between the
if you average them all out in this in that chart between the assessor auditor clerk recorder and treasurer
compared to the average salary with quotations without with no outside employment so again I have these
documentation so I had another column the difference was only 0.15 percent currently it's at 90 percent
so still significantly
not at equal pay. Here we go. I'll go real quick. 21, I came here, asked for equal pay, didn't get support
at that meeting. Ultimately that year, council did adjust the salary at 90%. But then all the other
positions got a significant raise. 2021, I did not come to ask for equal pay because I was having trouble
with getting a licensed surveyor to the county. So I prioritized that.
I did also didn't believe that I could get both requests and thought I was too ambitious. In 2023, I
did come back. I did not get the support. I faded that one in. I have requested equal pay in 2026 and
discussion with Jennifer Crosley in my liaison. We wanted to make sure we brought this to council, not
during the budget hearings because we've been asked not to do that. And quickly, you know, I sit on
multiple boards that are really in intergrate intergrined with the development of the county. I'm not
going to verbatim made it a priority priority to have higher standards. Do the perpetuation work for
per state mandate? Stay on top of technology. Continue to create databases. Also, the GIS division is
within the surveyors office and we have created.
public applications. And we also have been incorporating other data into a GIS, where we have provided
that data to our constituents, colleagues, elected officials, and created valuable tools for policy
decisions in general outreach. Here is current today, 83.1% of all the corners under my tenure
our survey grade. Fun fact, the Indiana Geographic Information Officer has started the conversation
again about getting section corner data for their GIS initiative. That office is in the Office of Technology.
By receiving section corner data from Indiana counties, we can improve county boundary data sets and
other governmental boundary units.
political subdivisions, taxing districts, and also support NextGen 911. If you're not familiar with
that, that is what first responders rely on. Since the restructuring of the GIS in 2019, we received
four excellence awards, one special award, and a certified platinum certificate for our data harvest work.
a fun photo of showing the resources. Again, this is not just a leadership change. It is a shift in
the standards upheld by the Office of the Monroe County Surveyor. And I appreciate you giving me time
and me being able to give you a recap of what the Surveyor's Office has done over the last 20 years.
So thank you, and I will be back later at item F.
Thank you. Does anybody have? Yeah, just Councilor Fido. So I would like to know if the things that
you demonstrated here for us tonight are available online for the public to access through your website.
The first part, sorry. So the things that you demonstrated to us, like maybe some of the charts or some
of the graphics or some of
is most of the information that you shared with us this evening available on the website. Oh yeah, almost
every single thing except that dashboard. I'm working to deploy that where it showed the 83% but you
can kind of get that without the indicator. So I would say majority of it. So the public has access.
Yes, absolutely. And if anything that the public saw or anyone else wants to see, I can send you a copy
and every single thing there has
immense amount of information supporting it, so. Appreciate it, thanks. Yeah. Councilmember Henry. Yeah,
thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Tron, for coming in.
I wanted to say, as you had mentioned, I am your liaison for the council to your office, and I encourage
you to bring this forward to us again to have a public hearing outside of the budget process. I think
it's been a long road to have five years of need to make a salary adjustment for one of our departmental
electeds to make that office whole, and I think it's worth looking into, regardless of our season of
taxation. Tron puts in a full 40, which I think is important to say when we look at elected officials
statewide where we can have, I think, if I remember, Councilor Deckard last week made a reference to
Lake County. I think we were talking about offices where people get elected, maybe don't show up, Tron's
not one of those people. One of the things I've learned about working with the liaison role here is,
and we're going to hear this, I think, with other department heads that come to us, is these are revenue
generating offices in our county. One thing I remember you told me about how you work with other county surveyors
near us to figure out where Monroe County ends and maybe Morgan County begins because those offices
are revenue for our county. When we think about property tax value, where's that parcel? Is it here
or over on the border? Those are some very
that you're out there measuring, but that's revenue that's generated for our county when we think about
who gets to tax that parcel and whether or not it's ours and you find those. But did you want to talk
a little bit about that? I just want to share that's my support of our consideration, but maybe just
briefly talk about how you're literally finding parcels out there. Well, not exactly.
Well, we're finding the boundaries. But one thing I think is really important, and I've actually said
at our last affiliate meeting with other surveyors that aren't prioritizing the perpetuation effort,
is the DLGF brought in the IGO to start looking at how they're going to calculate this potential new
lit. And they're going to start using address points and things of that nature. And so our dealings,
to your point,
making sure we're accounting for annexations with the town or making sure that all these parcels are
within those jurisdictions and all these GIS points are managed and we have confidence behind it so
those dollars start going to it and then to your point there has been certain areas where what we have
defined is not necessarily the actual
legal acreage and so as we start to go down that path our parcel data will improve so like again that
could shift with the way that the assessor uses that data. But it's it's really in my important or it's
really important in my opinion that like where this continues to go it's supported regardless of
you know, whoever the leadership is, but like again, you know, I was showing a few slides and I'm sorry,
I'm derailing in just a little bit where those were previous employees because we've had some turnover,
you know, and they have actually, I'm excited. I'll mention it later that of one of our part times taking
a career path and has gotten a job. And I've had our already a couple of coordinators that have taken
other career opportunities outside of the state. And we have to bring people back in to,
continue to meet these standards. But to your point, this will really help improve all of that data
that is utilized. If there's a parcel, for instance, we were looking at parcel IDs, property classifications,
and we noticed a few weren't accurate, and we worked with multiple departments to correct that.
It's kind of the flip. They were actually supposed to be in the city versus in the county. And we took
the appropriate steps to identify that and took them to the appropriate parties to make sure. But if
that is flipped, that's just important because if there's some properties that have that classification
that's incorrect, then this is the data for us to find those anomalies. I thank you for that. Yeah,
there's real science going on here. I appreciate you walking us through it. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments?
Thank you for bringing this to our attention and definitely making a case. I know you and I talked about
that. So this is definitely something to think about before our most wonderful time of the year. Well,
I'll be really excited to time how long my presentation went and see if I hit that 10 minutes initially
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
little bit.
All right. Is there any other departments that are virtual or in person that would like to
make a departmental update for items not on tonight's agenda? Okay. None. We will move on to item number
six, which is the consent agenda items. Council, I move to approve the following consent agenda items
for August the 11th.
A, the Highway Department's request to fund 1169-0000 Local Road and Street for a category transfer
of $20,000 from the supplies category to the capital category. B, the Aviation Department's request
to fund 1107-0000 Aviation to create a count line for 0120 Tools and Equipment and simultaneously approve
a category transfer of $95,000.
from the services category to the capital category, and C, the council offices request and fund 1000-0061
County General Counsel to create account line 30013 professional services. Second. We got a motion and
a second. Are there any questions or comments on the consent agenda items presented? Seeing none.
and we don't take public comment on consent agenda items. So all those in favor of approving the consent
agenda items as presented, signify by saying aye. All those opposed, same sign. OK, motion carries.
Now we will move to our amended part of the agenda. Council, as a reminder, this was item eight H.
council I move to approve the board of commissioners request and fund eleven eighty six dash zero zero
zero zero rainy day for an appropriation of four hundred forty thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars
and sixty two cents in the capital category. Second okay we got a motion and a second and Mr liberty
are you still with us virtually. Yes TSD could you promote
Carlos Laverty as well as Brent Thompson. Thank you. All right, you can go ahead with your items, Mr.
Laverty. Can't hear you. We can't hear you.
We still can't hear you. So we can see that he's talking. So the system is getting him. It's our problem.
Does that make sense? His mic is unmuted, but we're not getting anything. Well, it's coming through
Teams, because we can see the transcript.
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
of the screen maybe. There's an X next to the speaker.
We can just read. Yeah. Or is Mr. Thompson able to speak on this as well? Nope. Nope. Can't hear you
either. Okay. Technology at its finest. Ms. Gregory, are you able to speak to this because
This seems to be a pretty easy going. Like this is something that we've been working on since the tornado
happened back in February. And judging from reading the packet, it seems as though that this
is a reimbursement from insurance to go back into the rainy day fund. Yes, I'm happy to help. And I
think it is pretty simple if Mr. Loverty doesn't mind my assistance.
Um, anyway, this yes, we've been working very closely with the aviation team. Um, we all work together
on this rainy day policy where when we have emergency events, the rainy day fund can be tapped to bridge
that gap between funding for a limited amount of time. And of course, um, you were very clearly made
aware of just the deductible that would be coming out of rainy day permanently.
So, this is just to appropriate the funds from a third reimbursement check received from insurance,
I believe, related to this disaster, and so they can put it to good use. So, I'm happy to try to field
any questions, but I think that's the gist of it. Thank you. And we are getting thumbs up. That's the
good finger there. Okay.
Any questions or comments from Council on this item? All right. If there is public comment on this item,
you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or you can raise your hand and hopefully we can
hear you via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor
Deckard? Yes.
Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. Motion
passes unanimous. Thank you, gentlemen, for showing your faces on screen. All right. Have a good night.
All right. Next up, we are back into the regular schedule programming of the agenda, and we are going
with several items for the higher-end freeze. Council, this is item 7A.
Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the Probation Department's request to
be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire in Fund 9142-0000 immunity corrections grant
for part-time probation officer assistant positions. Second. Okay, we got a motion and a second. We
are joined. Sorry.
We can sit on some pillows. We are joined by Chief Probation Officer Linda Brady and Judge Decoff. Welcome.
Thank you. Thank you. Two weeks ago, I came before the county council to set up line items in our community
corrections grant to pay for part time probation officer assistance. And the council did create that
line item for us to be able to pay them.
Now I'm asking for permission to hire them. Tonight we would like to hire up to four part time probation
officer assistance and just to remind you where I brought up two weeks ago is that the money that we're
going to use to fund these positions would have otherwise had to be returned to the state to the Department of
also result in savings to county general of $37,000 and into some other user fee funds in public safety
lit public special purpose lit as well by using the grant instead of those other budgets. So we're requesting
to be able to fill up to four part time probation officer assistance up to 56 hours a week to run our
day reporting and drug testing program. And that's the request.
very much. I can see a little better now that I boosted my seat. All right. Any questions or comments
from Council on this item? Exploited well last time. So all right. Now we'll move to public comment.
If there's public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via
Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote.
Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor
Decker? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Thank you very, very much.
We appreciate it. Next up is item B from the planning department. Council, I move to open for discussion
and possible approval of the plan commission's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed
to hire and fund 1,000 dash
zero zero seven nine county general planning one full time office manager position. Okay we got a motion
and a second and we are here joined by Miss Jelen the director from planning welcome. Hi thank you.
So this is my
third time here in the last several months. I promise everyone in our department is generally happy
with our office. We have an eight-person department, and we've conducted three exit interviews in the
past nine months, and every one of them mentions that the reason they're leaving is pay.
So this is a request to fill our office manager position Our prior employee was there for 10 years,
which was great and they're still staying with the county But as we see a vacancy in our office, we
realize how helpful this position is fielding over 3,000 phone calls a year several walk-ins even just
the first week with this being vacant we had five calls between 8 and 8 30 a.m. I
with several meetings scheduled for 9 a.m. So it was quite distracting and we just would appreciate
refilling this position. There has been some changes to this position and I think we
you know, in the WIS study that was mentioned, it was categorized across the board. And I noted,
you know, AI transcription of minutes has been helpful, being able to take online payments. But just
since having taken a maternity leave recently and returning, and I appreciate the support in doing so,
I just noticed how much
extra outside effort there is to keep the office running. And so we would like to keep this position
open at 40 hours. There's also been a state law change that happened starting January 1st. And so we
are very busy taking in payments and processing permits separately from the building department, whereas
that foot traffic used to start at the building department.
And finally, we did increase our fees December 1st, 2025, and I reported earlier when we had a vacancy
last month, but we've seen an increase by $24,169.20, just comparing the two fiscal half years.
So we are requesting that this be refilled and the fiscal impact, as you'll see, does show a savings
of ten thousand three hundred eighty dollars. And that's largely because of the base pay moving back
to base pay. But also the longevity is no longer
a requirement if they are hired after 2023. So with that, I'll answer any questions that you might have.
And also I'll note with the several vacancies that we've had, we've met with our executive committee
of the plan commission and I can come back at another time. Aside from the budget hearings, we do have
a letter, a cover letter and a document for you on some ideas for how we can better retain our
qualified staff, so any ideas on when you'd like me to come back, I'd also appreciate that as well.
Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments for Ms. Dellen on this item? I will go with
Councilor Iverson and then I'll go to Councilmember Henry next. I'm going to pick up on the last point
you made, that this is not the first time we've heard from departments where
There are positions within a department that have analogous positions in other taxing units, and that
creates a lot of competition. And so I think any ideas that you have about ways to help the county stay
competitive is going to be incredibly helpful. We're very aware of this, and hopefully we'll be having
conversations coming up. But it's something that we're wrestling with as well. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you for coming in.
And I'll just reiterate the good comment that you made and what I said earlier about the surveyors offices.
This is a revenue generating office in the county and as we've gone through that fee structure change,
it's a giver to the coffers, I guess, in terms of how I think about this department doing its work.
Also, and I think it's always worth sharing with my peers about
The way that our plan commission meetings operate in that these are hearings, right? It's not like a
person taking notes in the corner and kind of gesting the conversation. These are hearings that are
treated at a very formal level to capture the exact words that are being said. These words can be used
later in litigation in terms of the decisions that we're making as a plan commission or when we have
a petitioner or the decisions of that department.
That level of detail is important. The extra five hours go a long way to help that department function,
and I would be supporting this effort. Thank you. Other questions or comments? I would say to answer
your question of when could you come back, I think the next meeting that we have on the 25th for a department
update, I think that would be an ideal time for you to do such as what the surveyor did. So I'm looking
forward to having that discussion.
All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other further questions or comments on this item,
we will go to public comment. If you have public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern
here in the room or raise your hand via teams. A public comment here. Just real briefly, Tron and right
hand off Monroe County Surveyor, also planned commission member. Not only
All the other administrative duties that were highlighted and you might highlight it. So if so, I'm
going to expand on it is the fact these are hearings and to make sure that we have quorum to have these
meetings is very important. And I know that's what the office manager has done. And this is moving along.
people's business in a timely manner. So it's really important to have somebody that can wrangle everyone
together to make sure that we can hit a quorum and we can move the community's business forward. Any
other public comment on this item? Raise your hand via Teams or you can come forward to the room.
Seeing none, I thought I saw Councilmember Decker's hand. I just had a quick question. Is there an issue?
The meetings are a set time. Is there an issue getting appointed? Appointees to get to the meetings,
the dates they've been for a long time. We so our Plan Commission has nine members and we need to have
five in person. Sometimes people have conflicts and they want to join virtually, so then we're often
trying to figure out if people can join virtually so that we still have the five people in person.
It is a little bit of wrangling without turning in my. I got you. That's put anybody in trouble on the
spot. Are people pretty quick and cooperative with responding on that? Yes, yes. And it gets lost in
the emails. We do have five meetings a month. So I do give people a lot of grace for for receiving a
lot of emails from us. So thank you for not throwing me under the bus, Jackie. And I am in state
So seeing no other further questions or comments on this item, and we have already went to public comment,
may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes.
Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Motion passes unanimous.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Next up is item C from the assessor's office. Council,
I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the assessor's request to be exempt from the
hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0008 County General Assessor, one full-time real
estate reassessment specialist position. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. We are joined
by the assessor, Ms. Judy Sharp. Welcome.
Good evening. Good evening. Um, yes. Um, I had an unexpected, um, loss of the, uh, she's alive. Uh,
that didn't sound good. Uh, one of my deputies who was there for over three years, who had all,
you know, the level one, level two certification, it was really, you know, doing a great job. She had
a personal issue where she had to leave and take care of a relative. So she's, um, she left me.
And we hated to lose her, but I understand you have priorities. There's never a good time to lose people,
but right now in my office with everything that's going on and the appeals that we're inundated with
right now, this position would replace her. And just like all of my positions, I need somebody in there
that can hit the ground running.
learn the job, get the level 1 and level 2, you have to do that. And I wrote all this down,
what we need. But this job is just, you just really can't, everybody in the office is cross trained.
So if I say they are doing this, they could start doing this over here as soon as they learned a little
bit more. That is the only way we can run the office. It is too small of an office not to have everybody
up to speed in doing all of the jobs.
That's what I would do with whoever came in. So I'm just respectfully asking you all if you can, I've
never been here before for a hiring freeze, but maybe let us go ahead and hire because right now we're
the skeleton crew. And the appeals right now is taking myself and my two appeal deputies out of the
loop. We're doing two to three days a week.
on appeals with the board. And tomorrow we go back in tomorrow and tomorrow's Wednesday, right? Wednesday
and Thursday. It's just a lot right now. And so I need some people and I need somebody in there to learn
and get it going fast. So that's all I'm asking. If you would please consider this, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments from council on this item?
at your case. All right. Now, if there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams or you can
come forward to the podium here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor
Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson?
Yes. Councilor Feidl?
Motion passes, unanimous. Thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, next up is
item D from courts. Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the court's request
to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1,000-0225 County General Court's
three part-time law clerk positions.
And we are joined again by Judge DeKoff and Ms. Chandler. Welcome. Hi, thank you. Hello. So the courts
are asking to hire three part-time paid law clerks. We currently have no paid law clerks at this time
and are solely relying on two unpaid law student interns. So we're asking for the three part-time paid
law clerks to be hired for the fall semester to help the courts
improve their capacity, conduct legal research, draft court documents and provide consistent support
for the court's daily operations. And I would add that two of them have been have been here during the
summer. So they have been working on on legal issues and projects that are going to continue into the
fall. So it's it's it's just much more. It's better if we can just continue on with them.
Thank you very much for that. Are there any questions or comments from council on the law clerks? No?
Okay. If there's public comment, raise your hand via Teams or you can come to the microphone here in
the room. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes.
Yes. Councilor Deckard. Yes. Councilor Crossley. Yes. Councilor Iverson. Yes. Councilor Fido. Yes. Motion
passes unanimous. Thank you. All right. Next up is item eight, which is the county council business.
And we will start with item eight, which is the annual review. Because again, it's almost that wonderful
time of the year.
And so this fiscal body, which is all seven of us or six of us right now, must annually review the estimated
property tax limits and estimated property tax caps, or also known as circuit breakers, that impact
Monroe County non-binding entities. Do we have any questions from council related to the items we received?
related to the items we received today. I haven't looked at them. Well, everything was in the packet.
I just kind of solid everything down so that it was easier to read, hopefully. Yes, got it. And seeing
none, I'm going to look to the auditor to give her.
I reviewed everything Michelle has provided and agree everything looks accurate and on point so thank
you. Thank you very much for that and seeing no other further questions or comments from council on
our annual review if there are no other if there are no objections or
I would like to direct the auditor, which is something that we are required to by state statute to notify
the non-binding taxing units that the council has received, or I'm sorry, reviewed the 2027 estimated
tax levy limits in the property tax caps with no changes at this time. All right, so seeing no objections,
so ordered. All right, thank you very much for that, staff. And next up,
We will go back to the courts. Y'all are getting y'all steps in today. Council, as a reminder, due to
the lack of unanimous vote at the July 28th meeting, a second reading is required for this request.
Council, I move to approve the court's request and fund 1000-0225 County General Courts to amend the
2026 salary ordinance to create a count line 14176, floating court reporter 35 hours,
comment D, not exempt, and to remove account line 14167, associate court reporter. Second. All right,
we got a motion and a second. Is there anything that you would like to add to this that we didn't discuss
two weeks ago? No. OK. That's you. You are on it. OK. Any questions since the past couple of weeks that
anybody would have? No. OK.
Now we'll move on to public comment. Please raise your hand via Teams or come to the microphone here
in the room for this item. And we please have a roll call vote. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley?
Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Motion
passes unanimous.
Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Next up is item C from the prosecutor's office. As a reminder,
due to the lack of unanimous vote at the July 28th meeting, a second reading is required for this request.
Council, I move to approve the prosecutor's request and fund 1000-0009 County General Prosecutor at
67% and fund 1000-0009
zero six six zero county general child support at thirty three percent to amend the twenty twenty six
salary ordinance account line one three zero two nine forensic analyst and technology specialist pat
be. Not exempt from thirty five hours to forty hours with an effective date of August the ninth. Okay
we are joined here by our prosecutor and miss
Thank you. We presented this two weeks ago. This is a person who does forensic analysis of pieces of
evidence such as cell phones, laptops, fitness trackers, other kinds of digital items. But he also makes
sure that we have items that we need to present in court in a form that doesn't violate the rules of
evidence. And then he also keeps even our desktops and laptops all working smoothly.
as an assistant tech services department. So if you have any further questions, I'm happy to answer
them. I appreciate the support that was signaled two weeks ago, and I hope that you will go ahead and
approve us again. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for the prosecutor on this item?
No? Okay. We will move to public comment. You can come to the lectern here in the room or raise your
hand via Teams.
Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes.
Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Decker. Yes. Motion
passes unanimous. Thank you. Still staying with the prosecutor's item or office is item D.
As a reminder due to the lack of unanimous vote at our July 28th meeting a second reading is required
for this request. Council I move to approve the prosecutor's request and fund 1000-0009 County General
Prosecutor to amend the 2026 salary ordinance account line 13033 criminal investigator and account line 13034
Criminal Investigator, Civ Poll D, not exempt from 35 hours to 40 hours with an effective date of August
the 9th. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Anything you'd like to add to this item? Yep,
just a reminder, these two folks are folks who help us get our warrant requests from law enforcement
process. They do background checks on offenders. They also help us locate missing witnesses and victims.
assist with transport to and from trial, those kinds of things. So again, I appreciate your support
two weeks ago. If you have questions, happy to answer them, but I'm hopeful that you will go ahead and
let us increase them to 40 hours. Thank you. All right. Any questions or comments from council on this
item? Seeing none here, we'll move to public comment. Raise your hand via Teams or you can come forward
here in the room.
have a roll call vote. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor
Henry? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. And Councilor Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right.
Thank you very much and have a good night. All right. Next up is item E from the health department.
council I move to approve the health department's request and fund eight one one two dash nine six two
six STD strengthening prevention grant for additional appropriations of forty six thousand five hundred
eighteen dollars in the personnel category and one thousand eight hundred dollars in the services category
for a total appropriation of forty eight thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars second all right
we got a motion in a second and we are joined by miss Lori Kelly virtually welcome
We're still, uh-oh. I still think it's that bottom. Speaker's off. Oh, I see. Yeah, down here we see
that Councilor Decker has been saying this. The microphone is muted down here. The speaker is muted
because it looks like
Ms. Kelly was speaking in the caption and is picking it up. We just can't hear it here in the room.
It's the bottom right of the screen.
So, okay, so I'm gonna try to pick this one up since I did my due diligence and read the packet.
And Ms. Kelly or somebody. Ma'am, if you'll give me a second, I'll reboot the microphone system to see
if that'll bring the Zoom back in. Okay. Standby, folks.
Okay, we're back up. Laurie, can you hear us? And she's still talking and it's not picking up. What
if we just... What if we just somehow made it come out of here and into there? She could have called
on my phone and played on the speaker. Okay. It's also just a grant.
Ms. Kelly, if you wanted to call my cell phone number, I apologize, this sounds strange. And maybe we'll
try to put it through my speaker off of my phone. My cell phone number, the entire county goes
to 812-360-2110. Oh, Elphaba's here.
So what would you like to add to this? Thank you. This is just a standard grant amendment. So this funding
supports our disease intervention specialists. This funding will last us about into the fall.
and we are expecting an additional $110,000 to be arriving soon. That was initiated by the Indiana Department
of Health July 1st. So this is just essentially helping to cover an additional gap as we work our way
through the grant period. All right, thank you very much for that. Technology.
Okay, any questions or comments on this item for Miss Kelly? This is really fun. Okay, seeing none,
if there is public comment, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand
via Teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes.
Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. And would
Councilor Feinle like to vote on this? I would. I'm up to date with it. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Motion
passes unanimous. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Councilor Deckard for
helping us with that.
All right, next up is item F. We're back with the surveyors. Council, I move to approve the surveyors
request and fund 1202-0000 surveyors corner perpetuation for category transfer of $4,300 from the services
category to the personnel category. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Mr. Randolph, what
would you like to add to this item? Just a couple things.
I just wanted to backtrack just a little bit. When you're up here sometimes, I don't know, I still get
nervous. So when people said it was cold in here after that, I was like, I'm overheating. But to Council
Member Henry's point, I wouldn't consider our office a revenue generating, but more of a cost savings
where we, it's kind of a flip there, but we don't have permits like when you mentioned that,
to planning where they're actually generating revenue. But we do a lot and that kind of goes into this
request. So I just wanted to kind of make that one bit of a clarification. I do think we have a lot
of return on our investments and we generate a lot of cost savings for the county, other agencies and
just property owners and people that live in this community as a whole.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um with that said, this is pretty simple. Um I need to do a transfer. I decided
to do my first time ever out of category transfer instead of additional appropriation. This is a non
reverting fund, so those dollars are going to go back. This is my. Effort to show you know, due diligence
and my stewardship of taxpayers
go back to the reserves. One reason I'm here is because I mentioned earlier we had a part-time person
and they had graduated. They indicated they wanted to go back to school for one more year to get their
masters, but after this last year they decided to take a career path so that opened up their schedule and
Personally, I thought the best investment for the dollars was to utilize as much as time as I could
get from them because they've been with the office for multiple years and there's no cross-training
and they're actually just really proficient and great at what they did. And they even help cross-train
the other part-time person in there. So this is all gonna go into that fund line. I will do an in-house
transfer to offset
to just the part timeline, but I just figured this would be cleaner and I could do that with the processes
behind the scenes. This will get us through the remainder of the year and that's basically it. Thank
you very much. Any questions or comments from Mr. Randolph? Yes, Councilor Woods. First of all,
this is great. Thank you.
I have no problem at all with the actual agenda item. Since you brought up that clarification, I want
to say first, I appreciate that because that's exactly what I was kind of in my mind. I'm like, I don't
think they actually collect anything. It's just you're getting things straight so that we don't lose
money and perhaps are more accurate about how we're collecting money. Right. Maybe other things help
other departments,
Right to your it wasn't really a request but to your insinuation that we reconsider your salary I wanted
to ask and it might be that I need information from staff but the salary ordinance that that I remember
back when we set those salaries had a provision in it for
the elected official to earn 100 percent of what everybody else all the other what others were doing
if they were the licensed. No that's one and a half that's actually something that's I think more like
hamstrung the office more or less. So if I was elected it'd be one and a half the salary
So this was a discussion that Mr. McKim had in 2023 when I came back to request it. What does one and
a half mean? One and a half. So it would be the full salary plus half if I was licensed, which I am
not. I'm not going to get my license. One caveat to that is, you know, that bullet point that, you know,
this is like, you know,
of increasing the standards and service of the office. If you had a licensed surveyor come in and they
didn't produce what we do currently with a professional surveyor, you know, would you want to pay him
one and a half? I think the council has the discretionary measures to hold those offices accountable.
And if a licensed surveyor came in and they had, you know, in the statute, they can run their private
firm out of the surveyor's office as the elected surveyor.
it was the trend that you saw, I think that would be your ability to adjust that accordingly when it's
reflected of the duties in the service being provided. So that's the way I look at the argument. I understand
the other side of that, that it's like, oh, hey, let's not get too crazy. Then it's going to be one
and a half. Personally, I think the private sector, if you
I think it's more of holding the office accountable and to these standards, and I saw Michelle want
to raise her hand, so I'll defer to her. I just want to say, I believe there is a statute, and I would
have to have Ms. Turner King confirm that. But if Ms. Turner King doesn't have a statute, I would have
to have Ms. Turner King confirm that. But if Ms. Turner King doesn't have a statute,
An elected official, if the surveyor is a licensed surveyor and they're elected into that position,
they get the salary plus a half. Half of the salary? So whatever it is, yeah, so they get, so it's like,
you know, how you get like time and a half, they would get, they get the salary and the half, you know,
so they get more because they are licensed.
as a surveyor. So that was my understanding. So that's why we never went to that full amount because
if you did have a surveyor, then you would go to that full amount. I don't know what the basis of it,
but I thought there was something with regards to a statute as how to pay for a surveyor if they were
a licensed surveyor.
a statute. And I'd be happy to bring that to you during the budget hearing, unless you want to put Molly
Turner King on the search. But Michelle is accurate. There is a statute where if you're a licensed surveyor
and you're the elected surveyor, you get the one and a half. And also within that,
you're permitted to run your private firm out of the surveyor's office, which I think is just bizarre
to me. But there are a lot of unlicensed surveyors that earn more than what I would be requesting as
equal pay. So my whole presentation was to show the development and the heightened standards and making
sure that we are being accountable
by providing those standards moving forward. Any elected office holder could come in and change their
office and their functions and, you know, it's up to the council to, you know, determine does that change
their pay. So I feel like it could work either way. And that's been kind of my hope to kind of get other
peoples to see it from both
sides and both lenses and know that, you know, this would then put the council in a role where they
would be wanting to see these standards upheld, you know, but they would want that with any office,
in my opinion. Yeah, that's true. Thank you. I hope that was clear. It gets kind of convoluted. I'm sorry.
As President Crossey has mentioned, we're heading into the most joyous time of the year, which is budget
season. So thank you for helping us budget accurately by doing a category transfer and not an additional
appropriation. We really appreciate it. Absolutely. I'm really keeping tight graphs on that corner fund.
So thank you. Other questions or comments on this item?
Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, raise your hand
via Teams, or you can come forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please have
a roll call. That's where I'm at. Hold on. There we go.
Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crossley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes.
Councillor Fiddle. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Next up also with the surveyor is item G.
Council, I move to approve the Surveyor's request to amend the job description title of Field Assistant
to Field Technician and simultaneously in Fund 1202-0000, Surveyor's Corner of Perpetuation, amend the
2026 Salary Ordinance Account Line 17062 from Field Assistant to Field Technician. Second. Okay, we
got a motion and a second. What would you like to add to this item?
Just I feel like the technician is more in line with the duties that they perform. I feel like the work
that they're doing is very high level and this just will go to kind of their career path as they move
outside of a part time into hopefully a full time career. Unless sometime I
find myself in the reverse where I'm bringing in like a retiree person as a part-time role, not looking
for a full-time career, but this is a more line. They do GIS work. They also help maintain the database,
but they're also on the field working with the licensed surveyor. Depending on how the day goes, the
surveyor might have them use the JVOD, which is collecting survey grade coordinates. I was going to
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.
And we got a field picture of their last day in the office email sent to us because unfortunately we'll
be losing the person that is going to serve in that role. But it's a butterfly on top of the Javad.
And so it's one of our favorite field photos out there. The best part is if we get this done and amended
before we have to go through that
I hate the word termination process. Before we go through that final procedure paperwork, they can say
they served as the field technician versus the field assistant. They're not just handing them a hammer
or this or that. So I've worked really hard to get away from the assistant naming convention within
my department. Thank you very much for that.
Any questions or comments from Mr. Randolph on this item? All right, seeing none, we will move to public
comment. You can come forward to the microphone here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing
none, maybe police have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes.
Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous.
All right. Thank you so much. I'm going to go risk it in the rain and I hope everyone makes it home
safe. Yes. Thank you. You too. All right. As a reminder for anybody watching publicly, we have already
talked about item H moved that up earlier in the agenda and items I and J.
and K are also tabled and K is also tabled to our August 25th. So we are winding down here and so we'll
move on to item 9 which are discussions for the County Council and it is one that I know some of us
have been talking about and learning about and it is our the
convening of the must task force. So I am looking to Ms. Turner King and of course the auditor could
chime in as the necessary if you choose or you know if you need to but take it away. So the must is
a municipal unit strategy task force that was created by recent house enacted
bill 1210 to evaluate local income tax structures and future funding priorities among local governments.
A representative, if the council chose to form must, there would be a representative from the city,
the county, Steinsville, and Ellitsville. And in essence, if it is formed, they would
negotiate and establish through unanimous support a local income tax distribution agreement as it pertains
to county local income tax. That would be submitted to DLGF. And then there is some question on the
binding effect of that agreement that we're still working through, but that is in essence what must
is overall. It's confusing because it is not
required, although its name is must. It's not a must. It provides communities with an opportunity to
coordinate long-term financing planning across local governments, evaluate how future lit decisions
affect every governmental unit, access taxpayer impacts, and identify opportunities for taxpayer relief
while maintaining essential local services. It balances local autonomy.
It is really being encouraged by Association of Indiana Municipalities. And then each entity who participates
in MUST if it's formed also has the right to have a financial advisor present. And so I do believe like
Financial Solutions Group has reached out to the county offering their services if MUST is formed.
Is there any specific must questions that I might ask? And you know it already. You might answer. I
see a hand raising and flying my way. Councilor Wilts. Thank you. Although I did not have an opportunity
to read all the emails that popped through this afternoon before coming, I did see that Kim forwarded
on your behalf a link to a webinar. So I was listening to this webinar as I was driving here.
And they emphasize, now I didn't get through the end, but they emphasize that it was non-binding. Okay.
I thought maybe they reversed course by the end of the webinar and I haven't heard it, but
it's a non-binding, it's an agreement. They emphasize that the process was actually the benefit in a
lot of cases and that it was an opportunity for us to
in preparation for the meeting become aware of all of the essential services that are supported throughout
our county by all the different municipalities and other organizations that rely on local income tax
because I'll be the first to admit I probably couldn't name all the services that are provided. So I think
Given that and given what FSG has said, and by the way, the question was about that, it being non-binding,
and she answered it by nodding, so I just kept going. But given that Mr. Garrett has said that he highly
recommended it, I think it's something that we should most certainly do in the spirit of communication
and collaboration. So I have a question about that.
And so, you know, it's recommended to go with a financial group to provide services. Is that an extra
cost that we would take on? FSG's proposal is an extra cost. I do think it's worth talking to them about
it to see instead of executing a whole new contract, if we can just amend our current contract and to
see if any of the services are already covered in the
So we have the current contract. I'm curious if any of the must tasks that they've proposed is included
in what we're already paying for. So I do think it's a conversation with Charlie and Greg of FSG about
the contract. OK. And the other question that I had, and I feel like I've asked this before, when Jamie
Bolser had gave her presentation and then I had listened to the first half of the AIM AIC
conversation webinar that we got sent to us. If we had a taxing unit that does not opt in or does not
want to participate, does this mean that anybody must no longer a thing because a taxing unit has decided
not to be in the game with us?
I don't know that I have an exact answer to that question, but there is a similar question in a slide
provided by that Michelle recently shared with you. And the common question is, what if not everyone
participates? What if we can't all agree on what to include in the report?
what if we don't think the structure currently in statute for 2029 works for all our units? And the
response in that email is, or that slideshow is, lack of unanimous support can speak to issues that
the plan structure doesn't address. If consensus is not reached, discuss why and highlight the areas
where agreement has been reached. So I think you would still submit something to DLGF and then you would
just highlight what happened. Ms. Gregory.
In addition to that, we know that there's still going to be a lot of legislative changes related to
the new lit structure. So we have that to be continued as well. Because it sounds like I know Mr. Guirata
said, SB1, the sequel is coming back. And word on the street is the elimination of property taxes altogether
is something that could potentially come around next legislative session.
Yes, they did mention that. And additionally, there's just some funding gaps with regard to townships,
et cetera. And I know there's conversations happening about combinations. But we don't have all the
information yet. And we don't know the changes coming forward. It's just interesting that we are thinking
about doing this. And I understand that it's non-binding. And I'm curious about the whole idea of this
must task force. But it's just interesting that it's
It's not blinding. We also need to convene our first meeting if this is what we want to do by October
1st. My understanding is that I think there's a date in December that a report needs to be filed with
the state from our findings. And there could also be a potential of them changing the lit structure
yet again. So then we could be coming back for a sequel that we all might not be looking forward to.
next year too. Yes, it's pretty much guaranteed that that's going to happen. But on the positive side,
this is getting the conversation going. It's allowing us to understand and look at how the different
taxing rates are going to affect different units, what belongs where. I do think it is a good thing
to get the conversation started and to see what it looks like at this point, given the current law.
Yeah, of course. And I'm not.
I'm definitely, I'm very curious, sorry y'all. But this has been the must thing that's been on my brain
because I know a similar fashion to our long-term finance committee meetings. The city council has their
fiscal committee meetings and about a few weeks ago, their financial services group gave a presentation
and I know a couple of us have had an opportunity to meet with some of the city council members because
their concern is,
that they want to have a fair share because ultimately this gives the county council a lot of power
in their hands and we know that fire EMS definitely the library is affected by all of this. So it's
you know having the conversation is definitely something that I'm not shying away from and I don't want
to shy away from. I'm interested. It's just frustrating that there's this chance
that all of this could be changed, and we're all trying to do this, and then the state could come around
and go, but wait, there's more, and then re-change or re-calibrate everything that we are thinking that
we're doing in good faith, you know? So that's frustrating. I'm not frustrated with anybody in the city,
and I know I've met with Council Member Hopi Saasberg about this,
She had reiterated that in our conversation that even though we're county councils, some of us also
have city residents in this and she definitely made the case, so.
I think I made all of you aware that there is a proprietary AIC Association of Indiana County's model
for this new lit structure that county auditors received. So I have been playing with that. I looked
at it with FSG in a small group of your financial team. And I'm excited to show all of you just to see
can so we can all understand together the way it works and play with it. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I see a council member vital and I think Decker.
had his hand up, so I'll go first. So I'd be curious to know what other counties are doing, right?
Do we know? Is there any way to figure out what other counties are doing in the must or with the must?
Sorry, I keep pulling the microphone back and forth. I have a county auditor email thread group, and
so I can share a little bit of that with you. We're very early into this at this point, so only
When I at last I looked at it a couple weeks ago now only a few counties had already convened their
must group or we're beginning to set meetings. So we all know that we're all moving toward that but
it is just still very early on. I mean initially the guidance was to hold off as long as possible. Let's
wait for all the data so we can make informed decisions.
still don't have that information. So we're all just going to kind of proceed with what we have, I think,
at this time. So it's your sense that most counties, if not all, will participate in a must?
I think so. I think so, yeah. Well, I want to say something, because I think there are city folks that
watch these conversations, particularly around this. And I think a lot of times government agencies
when they're working across jurisdiction, don't send reassuring signals. So I'd like to do that now.
For our city colleagues, we all, I think, majority will work wholeheartedly with you, with the town,
and then all those other units. And I wanna make sure that as we do this, as we're moving forward, at
least from my view, that we're thinking holistically, I hate that word, but we're thinking as big as possible
about anything we might be screwing up or leaving out. I wouldn't want to get into this process and
then say, yeah, don't forget, there's this one particular thing that you don't normally deal with, but
because you're in this one particular situation, you might have overlooked that. So I think we've got
to think pretty comprehensive. Now let me talk to you, having offered reassurance, let me echo some
frustrations and just get this out there.
I don't think anyone knows what's happening. And I think that includes the people that make the laws.
And I'm saying that as respectful as possible. But they're kind of saying it themselves, that something
is changing. And I have to be honest with you. I'm tired of hearing movies and sports metaphors from
Indianapolis over things that are affecting lives. We have police departments that are trying to figure
things out, ambulances that we're hearing in this storm right now that are trying to figure out life.
We're going to create something that may be gone. And as someone pointed out to me this week several
times, be careful. Don't spend too much because this may not be something that is existing in a year.
And the state has done this numerous times. We're going to try this because we wrote this bill at 3 a.m.
on Sine die.
and the speaker gaveled us closed, and then we discovered that we let three horses out, and now we've
renamed somehow Vandenberg County, Posey County. I mean, look, they make mistakes. There's not always
expertise in the late hours. So I'm concerned about Monroe County, which is my jurisdiction, spending
a bunch of money for consultants to assist us with a hypothetical case study that the boys and girls
of the General Assembly may not have yet
decided they want to figure out from the last time they had a party. Okay? And I would say that with
respect, but here's where government actually happens. You know, the courts are a really good example.
We heard, well, you're losing a court. I don't know if they consulted anyone on that. You're losing
a court, so that means you'll save money. The state always says that.
as they give you more unfunded mandates. But we know the action we took tonight is to help the court
try to manage what it has to do, which are the people that live and work here and want to be safe. So
I say all this because this is exceedingly impossible to keep doing. And yet again here, what do we
have? We've got city, anxious about county. We need that about like a hole in the head. We've got town,
anxious and they're of course off doing their own thing about reorganization why because yet again we're
competing and we have folks like libraries and townships and other folks that are very anxious on what
is now PAWS what may end up being more PAWS or a complete change or a musk task force or some other
complete name we've not thought about and friends we can't govern like this we can't you cannot go
day to day. And unlike our federal friends, we can't operate on a continuing resolution that we only
pay attention to when our name's on a ballot once every six years. And unlike our state friends, we
can't change the rules all the time. So this would be a good time to either give us certainty or just
be straight with people that services costs. I have heard from many taxpayers overwhelming concern about
their property taxes. Overwhelming. That said,
friends, and I pay them too. I pay them on two different properties. As someone who's noted in the public,
you can look it all up. Look Deckard and Trent, you'll find it. But when I look at our records on how
values of homes have gone up in this area, I can see some of the problems that we've had dramatically
between 2010 and now
It's like steroids on the value of a home. Well, naturally, when you have a property tax system, that's
going to chase that. For my state friends, the frustration that you hear out there are people that need
relief all in life.
we don't need more unfunded mandates where we're chasing, choking, studying and trying to figure it
out. So I just, I hope somebody out there that is running for state legislature or thinking about running
or whatever, I hope that they hear this because we can't live like this. And now we are yet again in
a situation where we're going to have to write some checkout to an outside consultant to make sure that
we keep the straight and narrow.
So we can fulfill the bureaucracy of the moment and the need. That's where things could be cut, if you're
asking my druthers. I'm sorry to go on so long. That's fine. I appreciate that. Thank you. Councilor
Iverson, and then I'll go Henry. I'm going to pull two things out of the AIC email that we all received
today. Number one, I agree with Councilor Deckard. I want to give some assurances to the community.
We do have, if we agree to do this,
There is a deadline by which we must have a must meeting. And can you talk about that? And under what
circumstances are we beholden to that deadline? I believe the deadline is October 1st to form Musk.
And then I'm trying to scroll through the stack
shoot and slides that I have. So each county may prior to October 1st, convene a must with one representative
from the council, the city and town fiscal officers. The committee may not include representatives from
fire and emergency protection. And then I believe there's a deadline in December for submission of the
report to DLGF. Oh, yeah. All right. So if we're moving forward
It's going to be sometime by October 1st. Correct. And in the slides from Baker and Tilley provided
by AIC, they list out several steps before convening the task force, which include understanding the
legislative framework, identifying goals of each local unit, reviewing current lit distributions, gathering
revenue projections, evaluating taxpayer impacts and opportunities for tax relief, identifying long-term
service infrastructure and fiscal priorities across the county.
assessing whether taxpayer liability aligns with the beneficiaries of local services and understanding
local service delivery responsibility. So I mean, I think my recommendation to counsel at this point
is what information or what do you want to see to and when to even have the do we form this conversation? Yes.
I think it was last week, all the days are running together. But we had a very preliminary discussion
with FSG, Michelle, and a few others. During that meeting, we talked with FSG about if they were going
to assist us with this process, if you choose to tap them, then what do they need from us further? And
so we also went through a very
just very preliminary ideas just to kind of talk about what is needed and what we need to think about
moving forward. So it was kind of a pre-meeting, if you will. But we're getting there. The process has
begun, just to reassure you. The second point that I want to make is that participation in this is the
phrase they used, is permissive, not mandatory. That being said,
I want to make sure that if we decide to go down this road, we are sending invitations to all taxing
units. I think it is absolutely important that the public hears what's happening to the school districts.
It's absolutely important to hear what's happening to the library system. Absolutely important what's
hearing to the township trustees. We cannot focus on city and county. I mean, it's important, right?
We could really do serious damage here.
But we also need to hear from all these other taxing units about what's happening. It's so important
that if we convene this, that it's a community gathering, and it's not just one or two entities, in
my humble opinion. Council Henry. Thank you, Madam President. And I appreciate everyone's comments.
This is tricky to work through. I know it's also been a bit of a slow moving train, because we've known
about this for a while.
I reflect on two things about our approach to this, and it picks up on some of the threads here. It's
no secret that I think before I was elected here, and I think several of us were elected here, that
the frictions among the taxing units are not small in our community, and the older structure by which
we divvied up our tax revenue through the certified shares program really created some
tensions about who got what slice of the pie, and especially frictions between non-city county residents
and city county residents. I think that's important to start to phrase. I think it's been phrased too
long that it's county or city, and we do forget about, as you'd mentioned, those city residents that
also are county residents. In some ways, this committee could be an opportunity to reset that dialogue
among the taxing units as
we are on shifting sands. And I'm hopeful we have enough new players in county government and city government
and other governments that we can stop thinking of this as sort of a zero sum fight over tax revenue.
And it is something that we have to contemplate even though we have our own budgets to balance and the
like. So I don't fear the must in that respect. The non-binding part's important to me too. I do agree
with Councilor Iverson that maybe our version of this extends dialogue to partners that are not
Named is the quartet that should be in the room. So there's that piece. There's also two maybe policy
pieces that caused me some heartburn about the recommendations that we've received from AIC and others
about how we approach this. The first is an emphasis that says that all things being equal, fire and
EMS tax should be considered
Urgently or at the front end of this discussion and yet There's no call in the legislation to put the
the the fire protection district at the table with us to talk about that, right? So Yeah, right. So
that's interesting, right? Like that's the most important part, but but they're not welcome to sit in
the quartet, right? That's kind of interesting And so I flagged that it goes as long as side libraries
alongside schools about about you know how we have that dialogue and
And then maybe I'll wrap up with a question, because I think we've touched on it in different ways.
But I don't know this. But have we had formal communication from our other taxing units to us about
must? I don't know if we've said that in the public meeting, that has the city of Bloomington reached
out, has Steinsville reached out, has Eltsville reached out formally, or even to our knowledge, to even
show that they would join the four. Without them, there isn't really a committee, right?
But do we have anything formal from Steinsville or Ellesville? No, from Steinsville. I mean, I know
we've had email communication from Steinsville showing an interest from their council, but not necessarily
their taxing or their fiscal authority that would sit there, right? I mean, I'd open it up. Have we
had correspondence or anything? Could that be the clerk? We had it from Richie Carter, but I don't know
if the clerk treasurer has said anything. OK.
I've not received any formal communication to my office. I just want, I mean, and I think that's an
important question to ask and interesting, but there was no expectation of any communication from them.
It's up to us to, so I just don't want it to sound like, well, nobody's called me, you know,
that's all. That's not my, that wasn't my,
attention there. If there's an urgency felt in the other taxing units, they really must get to the table
and make their case. I was curious if we'd heard that. The puns you could do with the must task force.
If we must, we shall, and we try. Informally, I know the mayor has reached out to have a conversation with me.
Hopefully, I would assume it would be in support of trying to form this task force. Again, I know Councilor
Iverson and myself had conversations with Council Member Stosberg about this. And they also talked about
it at their meeting last week. So that was, and again, their July Fiscal Committee meeting, they talk
about this because
their financial, like I said before, their financial services group is trying to, had mentioned,
you know, why this is a must for all. So, I did it. That reminds me of another point. Yep. And one that
I think maybe Councilor Hawk would make if she were here, and I'm just gonna try to channel that for
a minute, that to be mindful that while we're trying this, or having this discussion in good faith and
maybe possibly pulling everyone together that, you know,
there are taxing units that are proceeding with their budgets and looking at their own current tax rates
as they can start to consume part of our two point, correct me, it's 2.9, right? What's the total for
the county? That sounds, I don't have it in front of me, so I'll grab it. Right, so if you have taxing
units starting to take little bites out of it here and there, by the time we get to the committee, we
may find that some of that rate has already been obligated. Similarly to our predicament with financing,
capital projects or large bonds, right? If we're committing the county to a third of all income tax,
for example, for the potential justice center thing. It's something to point out. I mean, the bodies
are still doing their work while we're thinking about the future as well. Right. Yeah. So the other
thing that I hear is maybe there is an interest. However, it sounds like there needs to be
another conversation with FSG to come back to the table because they
must have a proposal for us to talk about this task force. And I would maybe echo Councilor Deckard's
comment. I mean, we might, I can't work must into it. We may not need that level of expertise. We have
a lot of sharp people in our county. I appreciate that there may be other counties that must rely on
such a thing, but if ours takes a different format, it may not require that level of effort, but of
course it's good to hear what they have to offer. Yeah, I would agree. I think, again, in what we have
been talking about and what we will have come forth against us, or to us, I should say, for a budget
season, it just would seem, I don't know, I got a little heartburn with trying to
together something because it's like if this is a cost to us and this is something that we shall do
then this is a cost that we would bear and not other taxing units like that's that's a I mean that's
that's a legit concern it's like yeah I'm curious about that and I will note that we do have a pretty
meeting scheduled with FSG already on August 26th at 2 p.m. And so I think we could talk to them more.
They did send forth a proposal where it lists six items that they would be able to assist the county
with. So I'm happy to distribute their proposal. And then if any council members have specific questions
or concerns about what's contained in this proposal, we can easily discuss it with FSG on August 26th.
just in the spirit of us not delaying and some thought about it. Is it possible for you to tell us those
six things in a rough dollar amount?
So we get that in our head. It's facilitate, facilitate and moderate must task force meetings to support
productive collaboration and timely negotiations, provide guidance and analysis on local income tax
distribution strategies, including modeling potential fiscal impacts, assist in drafting and reviewing
local income tax distribution agreements, support Monroe County with documentation and submission processes to DLGF.
offer ongoing advisory services to help the county monitor, update, and implement income tax agreements
and assist with the development of the report to the state legislative. And then their fees would be
based on an hourly rate. So for the CPA, MA, or MA principal, it's three to four hundred
$300 to $400. For the financial analyst, it's $150 to $175. And for administration operations,
$100 to $150. And then they have costs built in for mileage, copying, and mailing. Typically, with these
agreements, we put a do not exceed amount. There is not a do not exceed amount currently included. But
for example, with the county financial solutions group,
that the county entered. Oh, it expires. When did we enter? The 20th of February of 2025. It has a do
not exceed mount of I think it's 28,000. So we could cap what we're willing to spend on this, but that
was just their preliminary proposal, and I will say the preliminary proposal for the financial advising
agreement also did not have a cap amount, but we added one.
those. I think there's some things in this proposal that between legal and the auditor's office I don't
know that we would need much support from financial or from FSG particularly things like submission
of documents to DLGF. DLGF has outlined a pretty
specific process to do so. And I think between our two offices, we can figure that out and not have
to pay $400 an hour to do it, unless you want to pay me $400 an hour. Nice try. My question to that
would be, we already have them helping us with the LTF. LTF, just Alex's answer. And this is why I said
I think this is a conversation with
with FSG because there is some overlap in this proposal specific to must and our current contract. And
so for example, like we already have them advising us on lit models. And so I'm not sure why that is
not already covered in our current services. And so I think there is a conversation to be had with FSG
saying, look, our current contract is still in effect. It says this, why is this different?
That was my whole point is we can just we must turn this into you know, we could easily amend our current
contract to cover additional must services. Okay. Well, excuse me, while recognizing what we're not
having them do at the same time. Correct. I do think the model is that everyone each unit who if we
form must each unit would have their own fiscal advisor there. So I do think they would attend the meetings.
But like the city folks would have like- Baker and Tilley, for example. We would have FSG. Each person
would have a financial advisor in the room. Gosh, it almost seems like it'd be easier to not do must
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.
I mean, to be honest, they've given us so many tools.
There are definite things we'll need advice on. But saying that they will help prepare agreements on
local income tax, we don't need to make agreements because it's non-binding. I don't even know. You
either pass it or you don't. Right. And I'll point out, too, that I think it was shared this afternoon.
There is templates for these things, in essence. Exactly.
So it's not like you'd be creating an agreement from scratch. But I also, I mean, we've benefited a
lot from FSG. I definitely am not trying to say that they have not been valuable. I've appreciated their
advice and the work that they've done. I'm just not entirely convinced that we need to, not just we,
you know, if council is paying,
and the city's paying, and then, I mean. Ellensville, Steinsville. Does Steinsville, I mean, my goodness,
when does it stop? It's like a convention of advisors. I don't know. That seems silly. Yes. So I'm looking
at this from a little bit of a different perspective.
really like that FSG is bringing their expertise, including they are well informed of what other units
are doing. They work with other units around the state, and that is very helpful. So they might bring
some ideas from outside the box that we may not have thought of in our community, for example.
So I like that. Additionally, it's almost like an added control to kind of ensure that we are in compliance
with the statute as it's forever changing. I mean, we have our legal team who is excellent, but I think
kind of like we're so locked in and looking at it so closely that allows us to maybe overlook things
from time to time. Not that we do that often, but just to make sure we have the most recent version.
We're following best practice with everything, and it is really
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
make one additional I I appreciate all of that and getting us to it. I just believe that the reality
that the state envisions for financial budgets doesn't match what we currently do.
You know, there was a period about two to three weeks ago that I heard. So I'll say it. I think I think
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
attorneys whatsoever. And they went through a two to three week period or more where due to something,
they didn't have an attorney. And I thought about that for a second. We are one county of 92.
we have attorneys. When we need additional attorneys, we have discussions about it. We have to go out
and get additional attorneys. But a state agency of that magnitude operating like that, I think probably
they need to take a page from a little bit of what we do, but also vice versa. If we're heading into
a world where we
the cost and despair, which are truly out there. I hear it from people. If things are so bad, it may
mean that we can't have things the way we have that we cannot keep lights on to the level that we do
in this building. We cannot have subcommittees for committees, and you certainly can't staff it. It
may mean things like that, and I throw that to the friends at the state too, because that you know it
may mean that you can't have unfunded mandates.
where you're trying to figure out something that is apparently going to switch in a year. And when we
talk to our state associations, they say things like, now you want to hold off on that. And my heavens,
be careful spending too much on any outside help. There's a lot of, I don't know. And when the rubber
meets the road, we still have a justice building that's got all the things that it's got and a jail
that has definitely all the things it's got.
And I feel like we lose our focus on this because we're chasing every single priority of Indiana's economic
policy that switches every two years on how we do it. I'll be quiet. I'm not helping. And I know we've
got other things that we need to get to. So in terms of the next steps of basically putting the Avenger
Group together,
Thank you, Spider-Man. So when we are putting this task force together, what would be our next steps?
Because I think council president gets to, that's a lot of power that I don't want. But what's the next
steps? I think the next step that I would recommend is to have, I think everyone has,
still questions that might be unanswered about must. And so we have this opportunity to sit down with
FSG on the 26th of this month. I can forward you FSG's proposal. And then I think the next step would
be, if you have questions, send them back to me. We can talk to FSG. And then we'll have a secondary
conversation. And it would probably be if our meeting isn't until the 26th, the first meeting of September.
have another must conversation. And if we're thinking that we want to convene must, I would recommend
a resolution or some letter from council president that would go to other taxing units. OK, because
it looks like I'm trying to check our our unfortunate and I almost want to reach out to F.S.G. to see
if we can move up this August 26th meeting slightly because
the council's next meeting is the 25th. So I would, I mean, if we can move it to like the 20th or the
21st, that would be great so that we could have it at this next council meeting in August. Yeah. Cause
then we are running into budget season. Exactly. And therefore, so city is also doing their budget season
too. And the timeframe, I mean, October would be here before you know it. I'm happy to email FSG to
see if we can move it up just a few days. Okay. Okay.
Maybe the next time we come back for, well, hopefully they can because then with our meeting being August
25th, we could talk about it, have a plan and go from there. Okay. Any other questions or comments on
must? Well, thank you all very much for that conversation. I know it's, you know, everybody has all
the thoughts
about all the things there. So we were able to get it all out and go forth what you will or what you
must. Oh, there it is. I know. Sorry, I had to do it. Staying in my lane. All right. So next up, we
are at item B, which is discussing on our lit special purpose. And so there's been conversation about
that. So I'm still looking to Ms. Turner King.
to help with this conversation. It's something we've been talking about since last year in budget season,
and as I keep reminding ourselves, it's almost that time. So I'm happy to go through the procedure and
potential timelines if you want first, and then I think the auditor has a more number revenue specific
presentation. Okay.
I'm going to share my screen, maybe. And I know Judge Harvey is here in the audience as well. So I want
to acknowledge Judge Harvey as well. So I don't know if you feel compelled to, if you don't have to,
not putting you on the spot, but if you need to, feel free to come join the conversation as well.
Okay so maybe just stay there and then you know we'll invite you up to one of the tables. All right.
Thank you. So I put together this tax implementation procedure PowerPoint and so I'm going to go through
it really quick. The tax adoption timeline if we adopt the
an ordinance that amends the tax before August 31st, then the tax will go into effect October 1st. I
think the timeline that we were aiming for is the September 1st adopting an ordinance sometime after
September 1st, but before October 31st, which would make the effective date January 1st of 2027. So
procedurally, what has to happen before the council can approve an ordinance adjusting the tax rate is that
The council has to publish a proposed ordinance with a specific rate at least 10 days prior to the public
hearing. This publication has to occur in the newspaper. There is some statutes like the additional
appropriations statute or the budget statutes that allows for online publication, but lit publication
here for public hearings is not one that can be published just online. Historically, we have a first
reading and a public hearing the same night.
And what we've done, for example, with the correctional taxes, we've had the first reading, we opened
and closed the public hearing, and then we did not take a vote that night. We took the vote on the second
reading. Nothing says you can't take a vote the first reading. It's just I would like to acknowledge
that if you take a vote at the first reading, it has to pass unanimously or there has to be a second
reading. Once the ordinance is passed, the council would direct the auditor to provide notice to the
local taxing units within 15 days. What we did in the past was email
ourselves because we are the underlying taxing unit. And then the auditor submits documentation to the
Department of Revenue and DLGF, and that usually includes a copy of the public notice, the ordinance,
and then the fact that we notified ourselves that we did it. So some important things that we
important things to keep in mind, we must give 10 days notice. The proposed ordinance must state the
specific rate. So we did this with correctional tax. If you remember when we passed the correctional
tax the first time, we implemented a rate of .175 and the statute required it to be to the nearest hundredth.
So then we had to re-advertise it for .17, but because we amended it, that started the entire process
all over. So any change to the ordinance
puts us back to square one. So considerations for timelines. And these are the same considerations we
thought of when we did the correctional tax was, do you want the public hearing to be in the evening?
Should the adoption hearing occur during the evening? Do you want the public hearing to occur on a separate
night from budget meetings and or regular council meetings? And do you want to hear the court's special
purpose budget prior to the consideration of the rate? As a reminder, just because it was
we did not hear the tax rate on a budget meeting night. We reserved hearing the tax issue on a regular
meeting night. And then we also held the public hearing during our regular meetings so that would be
in the evening and maybe more accessible. So based on these questions in past precedent, I put together
two potential timelines. And they're all crazy.
The first timeline has the council identifying a potential rate and the August 25th meeting. That's
just so we can prepare an ordinance and get it submitted to the H.T. So if you identify a rate at August
25th hearing, we could potentially submit it the very next day to the H.T. Now caveat that that submission
timeline requires us to get everything to the H.T. by noon on Wednesday, which is a
very tight schedule for the auditor's office to submit that. It's a pretty cumbersome portal. So I don't
know if you want more time, but option one is we submit by noon on Wednesday, which would put publication
on August 28th. Therefore we could have the first reading public hearing at the September 8th regular
session of the council.
with the second reading being at the 22nd September meeting. And then if you use this model or this
option, if there's an amendment, it would still give us time so that even with an amendment, we could
have a potential adoption hearing on October 6th. Now, I will caveat that October 6th is a budget night,
but it's not a budget session. It's the budget public meeting or public hearing.
So the first option has everything done potentially by October 6th. The second option basically starts
out the same way. You identify a rate at the next meeting. It gives us a little bit extra time to advertise,
but even by pushing the advertisement from Wednesday to Thursday, that pushes publication to a Monday.
By publishing on August 31st, we wouldn't be able to have the first public reading at the September
8th meeting. We'd be hitting because it's not 10 days. So we would be having our first public reading
on the 22nd and then our second possible adoption meeting or hearing on October 6th. Even with this
model, if there's an amendment, then by October 13th, you would have a possible adoption of a rate even
with amendment.
I did not put a calendar option here but this is like in my head and it's option three. In my head this
is really not the option that I would recommend because it puts us right up on the October 31st deadline.
So if you wait completely after budget sessions and your goal is to have the public hearing
on the tax rate is the same day as the public hearing for the budget hearing, you would identify a rate
on September 22nd. It would be advertised on the 23rd, published on the 25th. Our first reading would
be October 6th. Our second reading would be October 13th. If there is an amendment, and this is why
I do not like this option, if there is an amendment, that means you would potentially be adopting the
rate on October 27th, which is, in my opinion, really
too close to that October 31st deadline. So that is the options and kind of timeline. So I was going
to ask the auditor your I guess your opinion for like the date if we go into option one and we did everything
on the you know we talked about a rate on the 25th.
Do you think that would give your office enough time to turn around and get it advertised to the HT?
If we have everything ready to go and we confirm with the HT that as long as they receive by noon, it
will be published timely, I'm fine with that. We can make that happen.
Um, it's just making sure we're prepared in advance and all we're doing is simply, you know, submitting
first thing in the morning. Is there anything our office can do to work in tandem with you to ensure
that that deadline gets met? Absolutely. I mean, Michelle and I have been working and Mr. King have
been working closely on this already just because we are getting closer and closer to the timeline.
So we've all been in communication.
I my preference is the earliest timeline possible just to give as much buffer as humanly possible. Yeah,
I would agree because October 30th or the option three is close because we have no idea what will happen
with budget. And so like if we need more extra room for any other things and then you all have to upload
those items into gateway. So that would be a concern with
doing something late because then that puts more pressure on you all. The only caveat that I would mention
with identifying a rate on August 25th is if you identify a rate at the next hearing, you haven't heard
the YSB budget, which this primarily affects. You haven't heard a commissioner budget because they also
have a line in that special purpose tax. So I think if you're going to my recommendation is if you're
going to proceed with identifying a rate
by August 25th that it might be ideal or beneficial to have a conversation or a meeting with judges
and YSB to make sure we know what's in their budget and that we're adopting a rate that would suffice
and meet their budgetary needs. I think that's doable and I know Councilor Wilts is the liaison for
courts and whatnot and so I think
Oh yeah, and Councilor Feidl as well. I know the judges have made it clear that they want to be a part
of that conversation since that ultimately deals with what it is that you do. I don't want to discredit
that. I think that could be the option, but I'll look to other colleagues to see what their
option would be, it sounds like option one would be good, and then maybe in the meantime, folks could,
because we should already be having those conversations regarding budget anyway. Some of you all have,
and I know some people are scheduling those, so that seems like the better plan, but look into council
to see what thoughts are, and I think I saw Councilor Wilk's hand up. No, I was gonna say that I know
that the courts have already
really worked through what they're planning to submit or have submitted I guess at this point. So I
think we can reach out to the affected departments and just pull together something so we make an informed
decision. I was just going to add I think it's important to say at this point that that was the deal
we made when this was done.
And we all went, trust us on this. And they were very kind and cautious and trusting, I think. And they
nodded along. And now we're two years later from this. The timeline kind of has jogged back some memories
from all that, some good and not all good. But I think it's incredibly important to both honor with
the action and honor with the, do we have it right?
kind of question, because that really assisted us at a time that we dramatically needed assistance.
I just want to say that all the budgets are in and that we are proofing them and everything. So if you
would like, we can print off what has been submitted at this point and share it with everyone. And then
that way, everybody knows what's being asked for at this moment.
That would be helpful. And I see that Judge Hervey has joined us. So if you would like to make some
comments, and then I'll circle back to the auditor. I don't mean to interrupt or hijack. I just do want
to just comment on that last one. A, you have my commitment to meet whenever you need to meet to make
sure that this schedule stays on target. Correct that we've already looked at budgets. I've looked at
YSB in the part that's the court.
So that should be no problem. And I primarily just want to say thank you. I've just kind of been watching
from a distance, kind of hoping and being able to tell YSB because they're very concerned. And I know
that Vicki came to budgets last year saying, I'm really concerned about this lit and just to think
you for your work on this thus far and putting it on the agenda tonight really to make sure that the
timelines are hit. And that's really all I want to make sure that was on the record that I appreciate
that and that you have my commitment to do, you know, make whatever information you need. We're here
to meet with you. So that's all I thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Gregory, if this is a good time,
I can take you through. I actually have like a
the normal lit sandbox analysis prepared, as well as just a kind of running total as where we are currently
with the lit special purpose fund, if that would be helpful. I'm going to go ahead and try to share
my screen here. Let me adjust this just one second.
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.
But this shows the cash balance as of yesterday. So that's under money in. Can you see that? Okay. Okay.
So 2.9 million. Okay. That's our current balance.
We have remaining on expended appropriations of about one point eight. So you can go over there and
then see the running balance as we're just assuming we're going to expand that fully at this point.
We still have an anticipated monthly lit revenue coming in, and that's September through the end of
the year. They're identified. So that's added to the running balance as well. And then
We're looking at, we just projected about a 5% increase in local income tax without adjusting the rate.
I looked at the state budget agency has released the total lit amount. We still don't have like the
per unit that the DLGF provides, but we can just looking at 26 to 27, it's about a 5.4% increase. So
we're pretty much on target there.
is fairly accurate. So, you know, assuming that amount, we will have about $3 million if the complete
budget is expended. And then our assumption was a 5% budgetary increase, so about $4.7 million for the
fund as a whole. However, looking at what is currently proposed, what has been entered in the current
budget, the amount is almost $5.2 million. So we've
gone above what we projected, that the ask is above. So I just want to make that clear. OK, now I'm
going to get into, I need to share my screen differently one second.
This is the recommendation received from FSG. They gave a little history on Let's Best for Purpose,
just that it was reduced to have a zero impact on taxpayers. And we did that twice. Originally, I think
it was 2023, then again in 2024. And so again,
Councilor Deckard pointed out this was a promise. We were going to spend down the cash balance, which
was extraordinarily high, to a more reasonable level. And we're there. We're definitely going to be
in the red if we don't take some sort of action, either budget reduction or rate increase.
So FSG's recommendation is to put this back at the original rate that we reduced from the first time.
So they are recommending .0950 rate. And then I can take you to our lit sandbox here. Incorporated that
rate into the proposed change. You see it highlighted in yellow there, which shows them the estimated
total amount.
And then the estimated taxpayer impact. So I just, you got this in email, too, this afternoon, which
I know you haven't had time to digest, but it is in your email, so you can look at it later and forward
any questions you may have. I'm happy to field those. So any questions now?
So I don't think the FSG information is going to be surprising to a lot of people. We've talked about
this in long-term finance at least three times. The analysis that you showed is a month old. We've been
over this. We understand that the rate needs to go back to where it has.
The updated lit sandbox is really helpful. So thank you for providing that. And particularly the columns
on the right-hand side showing the impact to taxpayers, I think that's going to be on a lot of people's
minds. So that'll be wonderful to look at. So. Yeah, the financial director in my office put this together.
She's wonderful. And getting back to the options that were proposed to us,
It seems like maybe option one is where we talk about that on the 25th and then auditors or auditor
and her staff will get that going the next day. As long as it's not an undue burden. Yeah. I will collaborate
with our bench team here and we'll have everything prepared and be ready to go if you approve. Okay.
There is no objections. I'd like to say that we'd stick with option one and go from there. Okay,
so order. All right, thank you all very much for that discussion and Judge Harvey for joining us as
well. Next up, we are at the end of our agenda. So we have council liaison updates and comments. And
this time I will start to my right with council member Henry.
I was trying to count off how many times we said must, but not even Chance GPT could figure it out.
It was probably dialects. I don't know. Just lost the transcript. I want to start on a heavier note
and then hopefully a more joyful note. I would like to maybe
address or raise to the public's awareness, but of course it's not a surprise to anybody working in
the justice building that conditions continue to be poor there, long after the headlines leave about
the pipe burst and some of the challenges that we've had there. I've heard from a number of staff that
conditions are still not cleanly, and it is my understanding that IOSHA today paid an unscheduled visit
to the court house or the justice center today to
follow up on complaints and I just want the staff in that building to hear that we hear you on this
council and in some ways our hands are tied officially in the sense that we cannot throw money at the
problem unless people bring us appropriations to fix the things wrong in that building.
However, we have the soft power and, of course, our voice is to raise on this to say that if you have
a direct responsibility over that facility and it is not still cleaned up as of nearly two weeks later,
I hope you bring your body armor to budget season, because I have a lot of questions asked as to why
people in that building are still working in conditions that are unsanitary, if it is true that that's the case.
This has to get addressed. I do feel a little hand tied here, but I hope to get over to the building
this week. I certainly hope that things are cleaner than what I've been hearing about today, as reported
to me by staff today. This is not a great situation. We have to do better, and I'm sure if
If I'm getting frustrated, there's a reason for it. I know I'm not alone in that frustration. So I just
want folks to hear me in that building today that have had challenges that someone in county government
urges today. Now the joyous note. I am excited to hear that the front door, which is our new
our community's new LGBTQIA plus welcome center, if you will, just down the street from us, is to have
their grand opening just around the time of Pride Fest in the coming weeks here. Of course, they'll
have done that before the next time we meet. Many of you, of course, remember, and I'm sure the council
members that we were supporters of the front door through the 2025 Sophia Travis Community Service Grant
to help raise revenue to get that space open. Melanie Davis and others have been at this for a very
long time to have that space. And I will say too, I think it's,
It's also joyful that it's in such close proximity to our ever developing convention center. So when
people visit Monroe County and Bloomington, they know that our LGBTQIA plus members of the community
are one of the tent stakes or one of the table stakes of our community. We're proud of being proud and
as allies and in our community. So what a great weekend that's coming up in a few for our community
as we welcome students back as well. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you very much I've been busy very busy and it seems that every day there are new things that are
coming to the county and certainly challenges so I'll just tell you some of my activities first I did
attend the IU economic development summit and it was awesome to be with various economic development
officials talking about things going on in the community and around the state it was a privilege to
go visit with our fair board
alongside Councilor Feidl. I'll let her have all that, but I got to peep over her shoulder and kind
of watch their work and appreciated that. It was also an honor to go out and support the Lake Monroe
Water Conservation Fund, also with Councilor Feidl. We're in the same places. And then ongoing
work assisting on the leadership team of the streets to stability program. I wanted to remind folks
that due to the legal posting requirement, we had discussed an appropriation that could potentially
be at this meeting due to the legal requirement for an appropriation. We'll have that on our agenda
next meeting, but that program is
I think it's important that we're all working in the community, and I'll leave that to Mary Morgan and
her fine folks to discuss more. But again on the county's part, uh, being supportive and responding
to that. I also want to mention something of, uh, of a different nature. But I think vitally important.
We've all as members of Council. Alongside our
neighborhood. And I've been through there several times myself. Obviously, there's been much discussion
among different county officeholders about the encampment that is near that neighborhood and the concerns
that the residents have. I've driven through the neighborhood on average about at least three times a day
commissioners. Uh, since, uh, I began to hear about some of the issues that we're having. I wanted to
talk about a little bit more towards action or recommendation that I passed along to their commissioners
to our commissioners, and I was happy that, um. That I've received some some positive response, and
I'll leave it to them to talk further about it. But I recommended to the
services towards a security group to assist with the edge of that property with our property that we
have and doing that in you know coordination and collaboration with the city which is going through
the neighborhood this to me is a very common sense response to a property that we have a property that's
been cleared but a property that I don't believe has been maintained
after that clearing. And so as we keep working in all these different hats and functions and areas to
treat people with dignity in our community, I think it's also important that we're responding to what
we hear from folks in the community and that also they feel like they're heard. And also that we don't
let any view that we're just getting into jurisdictional disputes persist.
The other thing I'll say is earlier tonight, we were talking about an issue with our must task force
and all that between the city and the county. I think an overwhelming thing that folks need to see here
is that on a day to day basis, people all up and down the county and all up and down the city and all
up and down the town and the townships do actually work quite well together. We do have friction moments
for sure, but we can't let friction moments drowned out.
the good that we can't do and the good that we sometimes get done. And so I think this is an area where
as we knuckle through on things that we're dealing with in the community, we have to just stay at it.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I'll just, I just have a one thing related to talk about. I,
um, was in our, uh,
community corrections advisory board justice reinvestment advisory committee combo meeting last night.
And it's a very interesting group of folks from all sorts of backgrounds and service areas. And one
of the things that was brought to our attention was the Medicaid changes.
when Councilor Iverson brought this up earlier, I was reminded that I wanted to just let folks know,
if they don't already, about the changes happening in Medicaid more broadly, especially with respect
to the work requirements that are being put in place, and that this is going to be devastating, I think, for a lot
of people who will have a very hard time getting a job of any sort. And one of the things that we were
talking about and that Linda Grove Paul encouraged us to do is to think about in all of our networks,
the possible volunteer opportunities that could be
grown maybe more so than are already there even to put those out there and let Centerstone know about
them because they are actively looking for a repository of opportunities for folks who might not be
able to volunteer or work every other place.
there are some opportunities I think available for them to do work that could count toward keeping them
in their benefits and able to receive the care that they need. So I just wanted to put that out there
as you're going through your daily day kind of things. What organizations maybe have some opportunities
for creatively helping out
in this way. And that's it. Thank you. Councillor Feidl. Thank you. Yes, I was at the Bearer Association
meeting with Councillor Deckard, and it was lovely to have another councillor there. I didn't tell him
he was coming, so they were pleased to see him. And they have, you know, they probably have 30 people
that are on their board out there. I'm always amazed how many there are and they have a good turnout
every time. And they'll be doing the
third year of the Christmas light display this year again, they'll be doing they had a robust fair,
um, which seemed to go okay, I think, but there's always evaluation and continuous improvement on any
of that. So I do appreciate I've been out there now for about a year and a half and I do appreciate
their meetings. I'm telling you, they started seven and they ended eight.
They are in and out. And so they run a tight ship there. And people seem to have a really good experience
in saying what they need or want to say at those meetings, which is really good. I did also meet with
a couple of my liaison, other assignments, human resources, as well as the BEDC executive meeting. I've
been at a multitude of community events, including the Lake Monroe Water Fund with
Councilor Deckard as well as he missed talking about the taste of Bloomington. We were a taste
of Bloomington. He's the only other one I saw there for that. But I've been out and about and I keep
hearing numerous comments and almost all of those events or meetings about the subcommittee work that
we did for the jail location. And I haven't run across anyone yet. And I talked to everybody that I'm
around who says,
that they're unhappy with what we did. And so for me, that says something about how we went through
the process with the committee and were able to come up with something that made sense for the factors
that we had to deal with. And so I'm very pleased that we came to that recommendation and happy to talk
about it to others in the community. I did receive, and I shared this with my fellow counselors who
are still around
the Sophia Travis Grant Committee. I was at a personal lunch yesterday with a friend. I just want to
talk about this because it just warmed my heart. And that is that we awarded money. And I don't think
I need to say which one it was. It doesn't matter. We awarded money to an organization. And at the lunch,
a staff member that works there came to me and said, oh, I recognize you. You're on the Sophia Travis
Grant Committee. And he says, well,
you gave us money to do this project work and now we've got Lowe's involved and they're gonna be helping
expand it. So it just felt really good that they were so appreciative and thankful that we did what
we could do with the application that they sent in. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was very helpful.
when you have mentioned that too, is all I could think about for some reason, because she's also been
on my mind, like my mom. But Saturday was Cheryl's birthday. And so I've thought about her so much over
the past several days. I don't know why, but I've just thought about it. And I think of things like
that. And maybe that's why.
You know, I've been thinking of her and your story just kind of came up with that. So that's, you know,
sometimes we always hear what we're doing wrong or what's going wrong. And sometimes it's just nice
to come back full circle to hear, you know, something that's going right because we can get very cynical
and stuck in our ways. But sometimes it's it's Sophia Travis grant committing projects and things like
that, such as would, you know, Councillor Henry was saying earlier about the front door.
that we literally are doing some really good work, despite sometimes we are running into some headbutton
issues and whatnot. But I am very grateful and thankful for my colleagues here. Yeah, the only other
thing that I would say is I do want to keep, because this is brought up a couple of times with members
out in the public, I do want to keep that conversation
I don't want it to be remissed of what the committee did in terms of the work of the subcommittee. So
I'm trying to think of ways for us to bring that back to the forefront because we came together,
we did it, and then we haven't. And so I'll take that. That's been on me for not scheduling that, but
I do want to make sure that we are bringing that back to
the forefront of so our community knows that we just didn't do all that work in vain. So thank you for
that. And then also just shout out to all the people that helped with the taste of Bloomington. It was
rainy and then it stopped and it was fine. And it was just really nice to see people dancing and Bloomington
being weird as it normally is. And that's not a problem with that. I liked it.
Students are coming back and there's still construction all around this lovely town. So please be careful
and be mindful of all the things that are happening. I just told my daughter to watch cats. So I told
her I would do this and because it seems like crossly kids birthdays are sacrificed.
with County Council meeting. So happy 12th birthday to my little lady bug, Kendall. So without that
being said, we are so close to budget hearing. So do with that with you must and we are adjourned. Thank you.