WEBVTT 00:00:00.354 --> 00:00:07.123 - Thank you so much for your patience and welcome to the County Council August 25th, 2026 meeting. I am 00:00:07.123 --> 00:00:13.892 - calling this to order at 5 05 p.m. and present here in the Nattie Hill room. We have a quorum and all 00:00:13.892 --> 00:00:20.660 - council members are present. So we got a full agenda and we will go ahead and get into it. But before 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:27.230 - we do all those that are able to stand, please stand for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:32.066 --> 00:00:42.673 - of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, 00:00:42.673 --> 00:00:53.279 - with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much for that. I understand there might be some amendments 00:00:53.279 --> 00:00:57.502 - to tonight's agenda, so Councilor Iverson? 00:00:57.826 --> 00:01:05.765 - Madam President, I have two items to amend tonight's agenda. The first is council. I would like to table 00:01:05.765 --> 00:01:13.325 - item eight H resolution twenty twenty six. Twenty nine. The twenty twenty seven target fund balance 00:01:13.325 --> 00:01:20.886 - resolution to the September eighth council meeting. Second, OK, we. Any discussion on the table and 00:01:20.886 --> 00:01:23.230 - of that resolution? All right. 00:01:24.002 --> 00:01:31.849 - Seeing none, all those in favor of tabling item H until our September 8th, 2026 council meeting signify 00:01:31.849 --> 00:01:39.921 - by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. All right, motion carries. Next up. Furthermore, council 00:01:39.921 --> 00:01:47.617 - in section nine, presentations and discussions, I would like to move item nine C, COLA discussion and 00:01:47.617 --> 00:01:53.502 - nine E, council office 2027 budget to immediately follow item nine A. Second. 00:01:54.114 --> 00:02:02.699 - motion and a second to move up some items on tonight's agenda any questions from Council on those items 00:02:02.699 --> 00:02:11.120 - seeing none so all those in favor of amending the agenda to move those items up signify by saying aye 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:14.174 - aye all those opposed same sign okay 00:02:14.242 --> 00:02:19.952 - motion carries. All right. Next up, we will move on to public comment. And so this is for public comment 00:02:19.952 --> 00:02:25.500 - on items that are not on tonight's agenda. So if you are here present in the Nightingale Room wanting 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:31.047 - to make a comment, you will sign in here at the lecture. You will state your name for the record, and 00:02:31.047 --> 00:02:36.920 - the TVs will display that you'll have up to three minutes. And then those that are participating virtually, 00:02:36.920 --> 00:02:42.413 - you can raise your hand. Looks like we already have a hand raised. Again, you'll state your name for 00:02:42.413 --> 00:02:44.208 - the record, and you'll also have 00:02:44.208 --> 00:02:50.336 - up to three minutes. So I will go to our first person here in the NETU Hill Room. Please state your 00:02:50.336 --> 00:02:56.649 - name for the record. You have up to three minutes. Good evening, Madam President, County Council. It's 00:02:56.649 --> 00:03:02.777 - Christopher Img from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. The county has some difficult and 00:03:02.777 --> 00:03:08.966 - very expensive decisions ahead. As we have public assets that need attention, employees that deserve 00:03:08.966 --> 00:03:12.766 - safe places to work, obligations to people in county custody, 00:03:13.090 --> 00:03:19.348 - and essential services that residents depend on. Meeting those responsibilities is going to require 00:03:19.348 --> 00:03:25.981 - some investment. And when resources are limited, prioritization matters. We need public officials willing 00:03:25.981 --> 00:03:32.301 - to ask hard questions, not just on new proposals, but on the things we've been doing for years. What 00:03:32.301 --> 00:03:38.559 - problems are we solving? What resources does it actually require? What results are we getting? What 00:03:38.559 --> 00:03:39.998 - is the long-term cost? 00:03:40.578 --> 00:03:46.690 - And what opportunities are we giving up by spending the dollars here instead of elsewhere? And metrics 00:03:46.690 --> 00:03:52.801 - are our friend. They give policymakers the ability to make those choices based on outcomes rather than 00:03:52.801 --> 00:03:58.795 - anecdotes, assumptions, or simply by what we've always done. This isn't time to play it safe. County 00:03:58.795 --> 00:04:04.788 - government faces significant decisions, and some longstanding assumptions may need to be challenged. 00:04:04.788 --> 00:04:09.950 - Good stewardship doesn't always mean just spending less. Sometimes it means saying no. 00:04:10.082 --> 00:04:15.425 - redirecting resources, and sometimes it means making a substantial investment now instead of failing 00:04:15.425 --> 00:04:20.822 - to act that will cause taxpayers considerably more later. And from the Chamber's perspective, we also 00:04:20.822 --> 00:04:26.165 - have to keep our eye on growth. We can make better choices about how we divide the pie, but over the 00:04:26.165 --> 00:04:31.456 - long term, we need that pie to grow larger, through more jobs, more investment, more housing, and a 00:04:31.456 --> 00:04:36.746 - stronger tax base. What matters is that those decisions are deliberate, measurable, and tied to the 00:04:36.746 --> 00:04:39.550 - county's most important responsibilities. Thank you. 00:04:39.874 --> 00:04:48.467 - Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I will go to team's land. So the person with the screen name of 00:04:48.467 --> 00:04:57.570 - Jamie Ford, you should be able to unmute state your name for the record. You all have up to three minutes. 00:04:57.570 --> 00:05:06.248 - Hi, my name is Jamie Ford and I'm a Monroe County resident. I just want to ask a rhetorical questions 00:05:06.248 --> 00:05:09.566 - related to the substance use disorder. 00:05:11.458 --> 00:05:16.536 - I'm sorry. You can go ahead. Nobody said anything. Oh, sorry. I thought I heard something. Sorry. So 00:05:16.536 --> 00:05:21.865 - I just wanted to ask some rhetorical questions related to the Substance Use Disorder Awareness Commission 00:05:21.865 --> 00:05:26.943 - and the upcoming Recovery Summit. And while these questions are rhetorical for the sake of the rules 00:05:26.943 --> 00:05:31.166 - of the public comment, I do hope they will be answered at some point in the future. 00:05:31.298 --> 00:05:38.321 - I'm curious to know about why there are no reports or memoranda for the past two years on the website 00:05:38.321 --> 00:05:45.620 - for SUDAC. I did contact the legal department about inspecting and copying the memoranda that is required 00:05:45.620 --> 00:05:50.302 - to be kept. The basis for that is found in Indiana Code 5-14-1.5-4. 00:05:50.562 --> 00:05:56.713 - My question is, if it's not there, then who has it? And when will I be able to see them? I know Council 00:05:56.713 --> 00:06:02.627 - Iverson, you're a member of SUDAC, so I'll ask you, I'd like to see the minutes of memoranda. And I 00:06:02.627 --> 00:06:08.659 - can send you an email about that. Because if they're not available, I do believe this is an open-door 00:06:08.659 --> 00:06:09.310 - violation. 00:06:09.474 --> 00:06:15.137 - I'm also curious where the recordings are for the previous meetings. Indiana code 5-14-1.5-2.9C says 00:06:15.137 --> 00:06:21.024 - that meetings must have live transmission and archived copies with links to meeting documents available. 00:06:21.024 --> 00:06:26.742 - And I can't find any of the recordings anywhere, so I believe this is also an open door violation. If 00:06:26.742 --> 00:06:32.461 - I'm wrong and all of this is available, I do apologize. However, I've really looked and I cannot find 00:06:32.461 --> 00:06:33.246 - any of these. 00:06:33.378 --> 00:06:38.141 - And if SUDAC, via the summit that I'm assuming our tax dollars are paying for, really wants concerned 00:06:38.141 --> 00:06:42.811 - citizens involved, then why is it that the Monroe County Health Department is not releasing records 00:06:42.811 --> 00:06:47.620 - related to its own program directly related to substance use here in Monroe County? Speaking about the 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:48.414 - syringe program, 00:06:48.546 --> 00:06:54.559 - I should note that I requested almost identical records from IDOH, and I've received records related 00:06:54.559 --> 00:07:00.752 - to the syringe program. So why is it that the county health department seems to be violating the Access 00:07:00.752 --> 00:07:06.884 - to Public Records Act, especially when it's related to what SUDAC and the summit are for? So given the 00:07:06.884 --> 00:07:13.374 - multiple potential violations of Indiana code, you know, the Open Door Law and Access to Public Records Act, 00:07:13.666 --> 00:07:19.833 - The lack of overall transparency, I believe funding for the summit should be pulled and this commission 00:07:19.833 --> 00:07:25.823 - should be ended. I understand y'all aren't the ones that put the commission into place, but y'all do 00:07:25.823 --> 00:07:31.931 - control the funding. So I believe that should be pulled. And I just appreciate your consideration. And 00:07:31.931 --> 00:07:37.861 - I look forward to more transparency from the government in the future. Thank you. All right. Sounds 00:07:37.861 --> 00:07:43.198 - like Council Iverson Jamie will be sending you an email. I look forward to it. All right. 00:07:43.394 --> 00:07:51.929 - Thank you very much. Last call for public comment. Again, you can come forward to the lectern here in 00:07:51.929 --> 00:08:00.798 - the room or you can raise your hand via Teams. We will move on. So we'll thank you all for those that may 00:08:01.058 --> 00:08:07.748 - public comment this evening. Next up is our department updates. These are also for items not on tonight's 00:08:07.748 --> 00:08:14.059 - agenda. Each department that would like to make an update is limited to 10 minutes for your update. 00:08:14.059 --> 00:08:20.370 - But it looks like first up we have the planning department. So Jackie Jellin was able to come on up 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:24.094 - to the table here and it looks like you joined by a guest. 00:08:35.266 --> 00:08:42.294 - for having us. So good evening, Council. I'm joined here with the President of the Plan Commission and 00:08:42.294 --> 00:08:49.321 - Executive Committee, Scott Ferris, and today we're hoping to share with you a memo that is part of the 00:08:49.321 --> 00:08:50.686 - packet on page six. 00:08:50.786 --> 00:08:57.915 - So we'd like to go through that a little bit with you and ask at the end just for some guidance on next 00:08:57.915 --> 00:09:04.907 - steps and process So tonight, I'm also joined by all members of my staff plus one prior member of our 00:09:04.907 --> 00:09:12.105 - staff So I appreciate their time as well for being here This is a really important topic for us as we've 00:09:12.105 --> 00:09:16.766 - lost three people out of our eight-person department in nine months 00:09:16.866 --> 00:09:24.431 - The number one reason for losing those key people have been for salary and two of those people left 00:09:24.431 --> 00:09:28.894 - to the city of Bloomington to take a lateral position that 00:09:28.994 --> 00:09:36.954 - paid $18,000 more. So on the screen here, we do have a four year review, a proposal where we have our 00:09:36.954 --> 00:09:44.991 - existing salaries, our proposal for the council to consider that fits into the current grid and salary 00:09:44.991 --> 00:09:52.795 - ordinance. And then on the far right hand side, also we have the city of Bloomington salaries for a 00:09:52.795 --> 00:09:55.838 - direct lateral comparison, as you see. 00:09:55.970 --> 00:10:02.777 - We do have some asterisks to this table. I just want to point those out. This does have a source link 00:10:02.777 --> 00:10:09.450 - to the city of Bloomington salaries. These are all based on a three year midpoint. And of the staff 00:10:09.450 --> 00:10:16.257 - in our office currently, only one person is not at the three year level. We also have somebody at the 00:10:16.257 --> 00:10:20.862 - 14 year level, which is also an asterisk for our assistant director. 00:10:21.666 --> 00:10:30.844 - So I'd like to hand it over to Scott as well to just add a little bit to this memo and as he was integral 00:10:30.844 --> 00:10:39.849 - and signing it and also putting it together. Esteemed colleagues, Scott Ferris here. I am the president 00:10:39.849 --> 00:10:48.595 - of the Monroe County Planning Commission. Been doing it for since January. I'm going to give more of 00:10:48.595 --> 00:10:50.846 - a top level discussion on 00:10:51.650 --> 00:10:59.970 - how we got to this particular memo. Bank Commission, as always, will take a look at the budget that's 00:10:59.970 --> 00:11:08.208 - submitted. We read in detail the instructions that you provided, and we did consult with our council 00:11:08.208 --> 00:11:16.936 - liaison person on that flatline budget with no COLA and no increases. And we understand that. I understand 00:11:16.936 --> 00:11:18.078 - that process. 00:11:18.274 --> 00:11:24.908 - We went to an executive committee meeting because we wanted to talk about something that we found that 00:11:24.908 --> 00:11:31.542 - was pretty disturbing, which Jackie just talked about. And that, in fact, is that we lost three folks. 00:11:31.542 --> 00:11:38.434 - And the reason why we lost those three folks was because of salary disparities. And the salary disparities 00:11:38.434 --> 00:11:45.068 - are, which Jackie will talk about in more detail, if given time to do so, those disparities are pretty 00:11:45.068 --> 00:11:47.902 - gross. I mean, 20%, 30% for like positions. 00:11:49.090 --> 00:11:57.854 - That impacts, like most of you already know, the morale, the quality of life and retention, as well 00:11:57.854 --> 00:12:06.705 - as keeping the doors of the business open for a planning department that is currently overworked and 00:12:06.705 --> 00:12:15.731 - understaffed. That's reality. My experience and my background, for whatever it's worth, I've done this 00:12:15.731 --> 00:12:16.958 - for 40 years. 00:12:18.050 --> 00:12:24.718 - at various levels. I've run two plan divisions, two analysis divisions, two resource divisions. I've 00:12:24.718 --> 00:12:31.386 - been inside government, outside government. I've been doing budgets. I've done pay raises. I've done 00:12:31.386 --> 00:12:38.121 - step increases. I've done raise pools. I've done whatever. And I'm just telling you that the comments 00:12:38.121 --> 00:12:41.950 - I'm providing are based upon that 40 years of experience. 00:12:42.626 --> 00:12:49.055 - Jackie is going to bring up something here at the end, and I apologize for being repetitively redundant 00:12:49.055 --> 00:12:55.732 - in our comments. I am available. I will sit down and talk to anybody about these labor categories, position 00:12:55.732 --> 00:13:01.975 - descriptions, and provide what I believe is a compelling argument for increasing their salaries, and 00:13:01.975 --> 00:13:08.219 - in some cases, bumping them up a notch, and in some cases, making Jackie here a director and getting 00:13:08.219 --> 00:13:09.950 - paid at the director level. 00:13:11.010 --> 00:13:17.879 - There's some other comments she'll go into. So at the executive committee meeting, what we did is we 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:24.748 - had Jackie come present to us this analysis of the disparity, the difference in the salaries between 00:13:24.748 --> 00:13:31.617 - the city and the county. There is a spreadsheet out there that I believe some of you probably have a 00:13:31.617 --> 00:13:38.418 - copy of that not only talks about the planning department, but it talks about across the board. For 00:13:38.418 --> 00:13:40.254 - the old Bloomington crowd, 00:13:40.642 --> 00:13:46.885 - People have been around Bloomington for decades. You'll know that the county salaries have been south 00:13:46.885 --> 00:13:53.066 - of the Bloomington salaries for quite some time. And you're going to take and retain quality people. 00:13:53.066 --> 00:13:59.248 - You're going to, in my opinion, you're going to have to pay for them. So we sat down and we actually 00:13:59.248 --> 00:14:05.429 - discussed the folks that we lost and why we lost them. Outtake, outbriefs, et cetera, and what their 00:14:05.429 --> 00:14:08.734 - primary concern was and primary concern was salaries. 00:14:11.170 --> 00:14:18.313 - been very generous in fulfilling Jackie's requirements for filling funded vacant positions, and I think 00:14:18.313 --> 00:14:25.524 - that those have all been satisfied now, correct? We're making the last decision this week, so yes. Yeah, 00:14:25.524 --> 00:14:32.392 - I see. And that's great, and we thank you very much for that. The analysis that goes into coming up 00:14:32.392 --> 00:14:39.467 - with a budget and salaries has got to be based on something. I did a little bit of analysis and looked 00:14:39.467 --> 00:14:40.222 - at the WIS 00:14:40.738 --> 00:14:48.496 - documentation and the sourcing that you've been using to determine the position descriptions, the salaries, 00:14:48.496 --> 00:14:55.896 - et cetera. That data is five years old. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think it was 20, 21, something like 00:14:55.896 --> 00:15:03.295 - that. That's a long time ago. My experience is the data is out of date, if it's that old. In my world, 00:15:03.295 --> 00:15:10.622 - what we always did is we went to the HR department, and you can pretty easily do a search on position 00:15:10.978 --> 00:15:20.055 - descriptions and labor categories and salary ranges, et cetera, across the spectrum, depending on whatever 00:15:20.055 --> 00:15:28.539 - function you're talking about. I think it cost almost, I want, $100,000 to take and contract out or 00:15:28.539 --> 00:15:37.192 - outsource that analysis. So I will leave it at that for right now. What I'd like for Jackie to do is, 00:15:37.192 --> 00:15:40.670 - because we want to get it on the record, 00:15:40.898 --> 00:15:47.636 - to reference page one here, go back to page one, that is the crux of what we're suggesting and we're 00:15:47.636 --> 00:15:54.707 - requesting. And the discussion hopefully will take place with the personnel advisory committee. Hopefully 00:15:54.707 --> 00:16:01.378 - that will take place. And like I said before, I'm available and Jackie's also available to sit down 00:16:01.378 --> 00:16:08.382 - and go over the planning department's request as it relates to that committee and also the council here. 00:16:10.562 --> 00:16:16.766 - Yes. So the reason we're here tonight is that PAC has not held a meeting since 00:16:17.058 --> 00:16:23.394 - Well, this year, and I don't believe most of last year, I noted later on in the agenda, you're going 00:16:23.394 --> 00:16:30.170 - to be considering a new position under item eight E. And if you're interested or if you're able to consider 00:16:30.170 --> 00:16:36.506 - that new position for the twenty twenty seven budget, we are asking for one new position, which is a 00:16:36.506 --> 00:16:42.654 - senior zoning inspector. The reason is because state code has now mandated that we review permits 00:16:42.722 --> 00:16:49.306 - essentially within three days. And if we don't get to it within three days and we don't answer them 00:16:49.306 --> 00:16:56.482 - within three business days, they can force us to issue a permit site unseen. So we are needing an additional 00:16:56.482 --> 00:17:03.395 - person because our current zoning inspector deals with all enforcement and all permitting of residential 00:17:03.395 --> 00:17:10.242 - in the county. And that position has become increasingly busy since January 1st. So I will I would like 00:17:10.242 --> 00:17:11.230 - to request PAC 00:17:11.458 --> 00:17:19.359 - open and consider this as well as if there's any other avenues for us to come back and do this any sooner. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:26.965 - I know my staff is asking what's the soonest date in which I could see a potential increase. It's very 00:17:26.965 --> 00:17:34.645 - expensive to live here. Our planners try to prioritize walkable communities. We practice what we preach 00:17:34.645 --> 00:17:41.438 - and that is it's very expensive on the salaries that we're currently making. And some of us 00:17:41.666 --> 00:17:42.078 - you know. 00:17:42.274 --> 00:17:47.955 - living paycheck to paycheck, still have debt from our master's degrees. Six out of eight of us in the 00:17:47.955 --> 00:17:53.748 - department have master's degrees. So we're just hoping for your consideration. As Scott mentioned, we'd 00:17:53.748 --> 00:17:59.429 - like to continue to keep the doors open of communication. We're not sure on the process right now. So 00:17:59.429 --> 00:18:05.055 - if you could help guide us, whether that's a PAC meeting that starts January 1st, or if you can talk 00:18:05.055 --> 00:18:11.015 - to us a little bit about next steps, I think that would give our office some guidance. And they're looking 00:18:11.015 --> 00:18:12.240 - for that for the next 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:19.033 - coming year. So happy to take any questions. I also have some information additional if you have questions 00:18:19.033 --> 00:18:26.017 - about revenue we've taken in for to date, the cost of losing a plan or two, things like that. I've researched 00:18:26.017 --> 00:18:32.873 - some of that in case you had questions. So we've actually looked at the budget and she realized in probably 00:18:32.873 --> 00:18:39.603 - most cases here, just kind of like the city, correct me if I'm wrong, we're probably looking at a deficit 00:18:39.603 --> 00:18:42.142 - budget for the county. Is that correct? 00:18:43.874 --> 00:18:50.211 - going to be in the red at all in the county in this budget all said and done? We haven't had budget 00:18:50.211 --> 00:18:56.547 - yet to talk about that so that's something that we can look at now but please go ahead. My point is 00:18:56.547 --> 00:19:02.884 - there's a potential for a deficit budget being in the red meaning that you've taken you've taken in 00:19:02.884 --> 00:19:09.410 - revenue but you have more expenses in the revenue. When Jackie put together the budget there were some 00:19:09.410 --> 00:19:13.022 - some givebacks in that budget a certain amount of money. 00:19:13.314 --> 00:19:18.631 - The Planning Department also has a revenue string. They bring, because of permits and other things, 00:19:18.631 --> 00:19:24.001 - they do bring money into the county. We have those numbers. I don't think it's important to bring it 00:19:24.001 --> 00:19:29.477 - up here now, but in a separate discussion, we can do that. We've also added up what we think the delta 00:19:29.477 --> 00:19:34.953 - would be for the new hires and the salary increases and to do some sort of a balance sheet. We've done 00:19:34.953 --> 00:19:40.695 - that analysis as well. We believe we've done our homework is what I'm telling you. All right. The takeaway, 00:19:40.695 --> 00:19:41.918 - if you go to page two, 00:19:47.202 --> 00:19:53.331 - It is, just as I've stated there, and I'll read it for the record, reclassify the assistant director 00:19:53.331 --> 00:19:59.520 - in the three planner positions to a higher pay grade and create a new special occupation position for 00:19:59.520 --> 00:20:05.770 - the director. My own personal opinion on that is that directors are equal, and they should be somewhat 00:20:05.770 --> 00:20:11.959 - equal in pay. I realize that time and grade and all of that stuff will increase the salary over time, 00:20:11.959 --> 00:20:16.510 - but as a general's planning position, I would argue that that would be the 00:20:16.834 --> 00:20:23.232 - That would be the perspective. The second item is to create the new senior zoning inspector positions. 00:20:23.232 --> 00:20:29.568 - That's what Jackie was talking about because of HB 1005. And they're reclassifying the current zoning 00:20:29.568 --> 00:20:35.780 - inspector position because of the permitting that's required and the quick turnaround time. This is 00:20:35.780 --> 00:20:42.488 - a new and wonderful requirement for the planning department. And not doing it is going to take and overload 00:20:42.488 --> 00:20:45.470 - the current staff, which is already overloaded. 00:20:46.818 --> 00:20:53.828 - Those are the two major, those two bullets there are the major takeaways and what we'd like for you 00:20:53.828 --> 00:21:01.189 - to consider. And to get off the stage, like Jackie said, we are available in whatever body, for whatever 00:21:01.189 --> 00:21:08.410 - time, to talk about these positions and provide you with what we believe are the compelling arguments. 00:21:08.410 --> 00:21:15.070 - I realize that there are budget constraints in every environment that we're in, but we believe 00:21:15.650 --> 00:21:23.783 - We need to do these sort of things to take care of our people. You have a very strong planning department. 00:21:23.783 --> 00:21:31.384 - And I'm sure you're all aware of that. Jackie has done an excellent job of managing that particular 00:21:31.384 --> 00:21:39.137 - director. She's got individuals who are well-trained, well-certified. Most have master's degrees. And 00:21:39.137 --> 00:21:44.990 - from my particular perspective, we're not paying for those master's degrees. 00:21:45.122 --> 00:21:52.769 - have to do a new hire because you've lost someone, that is six months, and that's probably a low estimate. 00:21:52.769 --> 00:21:59.987 - My observation is that if I lost somebody for, if I brought a new person in because I lost somebody, 00:21:59.987 --> 00:22:07.705 - it'd take me almost six months to a year to get them to the point where they could actually, were competent 00:22:07.705 --> 00:22:10.206 - in the position. These folks, yes. 00:22:10.690 --> 00:22:16.801 - Because of the the Plant Commission meetings when they bring a petition forward they've got to know 00:22:16.801 --> 00:22:22.912 - that doggone ordinance which is very comprehensive and very complex backwards and forwards and they 00:22:22.912 --> 00:22:29.145 - got to speak on behalf of the petitioner and They do and they do a very fine job They get a person up 00:22:29.145 --> 00:22:35.806 - to that point up to speed where they can do that. It's not something you do in short order. It takes a while 00:22:37.282 --> 00:22:44.855 - If you've got to take that new person and put them through six months of training, and this is reality, 00:22:44.855 --> 00:22:52.137 - somebody else has got to double up to pick up that extra workload during that time frame. This does 00:22:52.137 --> 00:22:59.419 - not make for an efficient organization, and competent, and qualified, and certified. That concludes 00:22:59.419 --> 00:23:06.846 - our comments. Unless you have questions. I'll look to colleagues to see if they do. Anybody have any? 00:23:07.458 --> 00:23:15.339 - That's a lot to take in right now, for sure. And as we are, again, in the process, much as what our 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:23.220 - surveyor did last about two weeks ago now, that we do have budgets. We do have a lot of things that 00:23:23.220 --> 00:23:31.259 - are coming up right now. And I don't want to commit to anything right now. But I definitely hear you, 00:23:31.259 --> 00:23:37.406 - and I see the work that you do. And yeah, competitive, that's a thing, right? 00:23:37.698 --> 00:23:44.951 - I think that's something that we would have to discuss and have those things related to budget and because 00:23:44.951 --> 00:23:51.934 - we did ask for a flat rate or, you know, flat across the board and so that we can get a better picture 00:23:51.934 --> 00:23:53.086 - of what we have. 00:23:53.442 --> 00:24:00.965 - we need to do that. So that we can figure out and have those discussions, whether it's a cola, um, longevity, 00:24:00.965 --> 00:24:07.940 - all of those different things during the time that we are needed to have that, which is during budget 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:15.326 - season. So I definitely hear you and I'm not dismissing or, you know, doing anything of that and appreciate 00:24:15.326 --> 00:24:22.302 - the. Um. The presentation that you all have given us. We just definitely need to take it all in as we 00:24:22.818 --> 00:24:28.909 - Thank you, Madam President, and thank you for coming in and making presentation. As I said last week, 00:24:28.909 --> 00:24:35.001 - and I'll reiterate today that I'm in support of this effort by the planned commission and the planned 00:24:35.001 --> 00:24:41.152 - department to bring this to us. And not only in that council liaison role I serve in, but I am on that 00:24:41.152 --> 00:24:47.363 - same executive committee of the four that had looked at this and Mr. Colonel Farris's work putting this 00:24:47.363 --> 00:24:49.214 - together. I wanted to say that 00:24:49.602 --> 00:24:55.973 - And this is a new comment that I wanted to bring this forward and echo it that I appreciate your comment 00:24:55.973 --> 00:25:02.101 - about classification and compensation books. And when a book like that is put together that looks at 00:25:02.101 --> 00:25:08.533 - a lag midpoint in the lead for a given position, that those do go stale. And if we're talking five years, 00:25:08.533 --> 00:25:14.782 - that means pandemic times that we're talking about the last time we looked at a pay band, but a market 00:25:15.042 --> 00:25:21.618 - you know, position would be for an assistant director of zoning, et cetera, right? So, and that may 00:25:21.618 --> 00:25:28.260 - be, I think, also a part of our intention here to freeze hiring and visit this case by case and also 00:25:28.260 --> 00:25:35.296 - not having PAC meet that it's like, not that I go to gyms because I don't, but I understand people atrophy 00:25:35.296 --> 00:25:42.004 - when they don't go to the gym. But if we were atrophying our muscles on talking about these positions 00:25:42.004 --> 00:25:44.766 - over the county, things like this happen. 00:25:44.962 --> 00:25:51.470 - And what we're talking about here is a surgical approach to an instance in a department. I don't think 00:25:51.470 --> 00:25:57.789 - the blanket approach of comparing to other departments makes sense. And you've made a good business 00:25:57.789 --> 00:26:04.171 - case that I would support moving forward. I do think it's a good compromise between what the City of 00:26:04.171 --> 00:26:10.174 - Bloomington, which apparently is our competitor in this space, is pooling versus what a market 00:26:10.306 --> 00:26:16.074 - great to demand you've reached a compromise number that I hope WIS or PAC, if that is the process we 00:26:16.074 --> 00:26:21.785 - continue to use, will justify all to say that all that predates me here. And now that I think about 00:26:21.785 --> 00:26:27.040 - it, PAC has, I've been here two years, a year of PAC meeting and a year of not PAC meeting. 00:26:27.040 --> 00:26:32.751 - So I've seen, you know, two different flavors of what this looks like, but the hiring freeze should 00:26:32.751 --> 00:26:38.462 - have forced more of a prioritization of how we go about our work instead of maybe atrophying along. 00:26:39.426 --> 00:26:50.136 - some causing some of these challenges, but I hope we'll consider. Yes, Councilor Wells. I just want 00:26:50.136 --> 00:27:00.846 - to maybe. Offer a step forward and at the risk of. During strategy completely out the window, we do 00:27:00.846 --> 00:27:07.486 - have a process in place for you to make a request to do this. 00:27:08.450 --> 00:27:15.747 - I would encourage you to go ahead and proceed with that request to our office to make these changes. 00:27:15.747 --> 00:27:23.115 - There are certain forms that you fill out to allow us to kind of compare apples to apples on in terms 00:27:23.115 --> 00:27:30.412 - of fiscal impact. It's a horrible time for us to be doing that while we're jumping in just next week 00:27:30.412 --> 00:27:38.142 - into budgets, but it's a great time for us to be really aware of the need. So I appreciate you being here. 00:27:38.530 --> 00:27:47.870 - and nothing is likely to happen if you don't submit the requests formally. So that's my advice. I mean, 00:27:47.870 --> 00:27:57.030 - PAC is not meeting. That's not the process we're using right now. But if you could contact our office 00:27:57.030 --> 00:28:06.369 - and work with them, unless there's great objection by council leadership, that's what I would encourage 00:28:06.369 --> 00:28:07.806 - you to do. Yes. 00:28:08.226 --> 00:28:16.235 - I just want to add first, thanks for coming tonight and thanks for all the folks that showed up with 00:28:16.235 --> 00:28:24.560 - you. That's not lost on me for this. I am sometimes a little different on my notions on PAC chair versus 00:28:24.560 --> 00:28:32.648 - salary. And I think I come at this from time as PAC chair and just time listening to department heads 00:28:32.648 --> 00:28:35.582 - and county employees over the years. 00:28:35.714 --> 00:28:42.378 - and that really, yes, things are about a classification, but really classification for employees is 00:28:42.378 --> 00:28:49.242 - about money. It's about financial compensation. And so I think the PAC process, there is a PAC process 00:28:49.242 --> 00:28:55.906 - there naturally. I don't disagree with anything that Councilor Williams said, but for the financial 00:28:55.906 --> 00:29:03.170 - end of it, which is really why when people go home, a job description doesn't pay mortgage. And particularly 00:29:03.170 --> 00:29:05.502 - with home costs in this community, 00:29:05.666 --> 00:29:14.237 - It really wouldn't pay mortgage. It's salary that does and salary falls to the mud ball that is our 00:29:14.237 --> 00:29:22.979 - budget. And that ultimately is the process that we're in. I can look in that audience right there and 00:29:22.979 --> 00:29:31.635 - see about five competing requests that throw into the mud ball. And what the good news is on that in 00:29:31.635 --> 00:29:34.206 - the next month to two months, 00:29:34.946 --> 00:29:42.082 - the council will take that mud ball and start figuring out how that hits what we need to do for our 00:29:42.082 --> 00:29:49.503 - values. And my hope always on that is that all of our folks, including the folks who are really serving 00:29:49.503 --> 00:29:56.710 - the public, that this gets as fair to them as is legally possible and financially sustainable. And I 00:29:56.710 --> 00:30:03.774 - know that that is not reassuring to anyone to hear it, but we have been figuring out that mud ball 00:30:03.906 --> 00:30:10.722 - for a long time through a pandemic where that classification study came and then also with some ad hoc 00:30:10.722 --> 00:30:17.538 - things over the years that I'm sure didn't keep up with the private sector, but as a child of a county 00:30:17.538 --> 00:30:24.221 - employee or a whole lot better than the grievances they heard back in the day. And so our goal is to 00:30:24.221 --> 00:30:31.103 - do that better and better in that mud ball and hopefully get it close. This is an extraordinarily weird 00:30:31.103 --> 00:30:33.022 - and difficult time given the 00:30:33.570 --> 00:30:40.229 - laws that are handed down. As I look at your description, yet again, we've got legislation going after 00:30:40.229 --> 00:30:46.694 - a cause, and I, you know, I always appreciate when it goes after a good cause, but also you have an 00:30:46.694 --> 00:30:53.417 - unfunded mandate. And the unfunded mandates I see on our departments from the state, they stack so high 00:30:53.417 --> 00:30:58.718 - that they could knock this courthouse over. We need the state to send some money. 00:30:58.882 --> 00:31:05.949 - I mean, it's like literally we cannot get through this process, but ultimately there's a point in there. 00:31:05.949 --> 00:31:13.150 - We have got to make this a community that is accessible to people, not just our employees, but all people. 00:31:13.150 --> 00:31:20.082 - And I think there's a larger discussion there, but I appreciate everybody coming in here and sort this 00:31:20.082 --> 00:31:25.534 - inarticulate mud ball out. Other questions or comments from council on the site? 00:31:28.898 --> 00:31:37.339 - I would say you'll work with staff and go from there. Would you prefer the request to come in after 00:31:37.339 --> 00:31:45.865 - all the budget hearings at this point? It's like sometime in October or now. I mean, let's just work 00:31:45.865 --> 00:31:46.878 - with staff. 00:31:47.202 --> 00:31:54.779 - work with staff and then we'll kind of go from there. But I won't say that I think that's the time to 00:31:54.779 --> 00:32:02.207 - maybe talk about those things as we gear up for the 2017 budget. So I think ideally is just working 00:32:02.207 --> 00:32:10.006 - with our staff and I'll guide you through the next steps. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We appreciate 00:32:10.006 --> 00:32:16.766 - it. Thank you. All right. Is there another department update? I think I got a 4-H is here. 00:32:17.410 --> 00:32:46.430 - Yes, hello. Good evening. I'm Kip Harmon. I'm one of the 4-H educators at Monroe County Purdue Extension. 00:32:46.562 --> 00:32:52.530 - And we just wanted to kind of come give you a little update on a few things. I'm going to introduce 00:32:52.530 --> 00:32:58.737 - these two young ladies to you in just a moment. I just wanted to touch base here with you a little bit. 00:32:58.737 --> 00:33:04.765 - You may be aware that the 4-H community is grieving after the tragic loss of a volunteer. Last week, 00:33:04.765 --> 00:33:10.793 - our thoughts and prayers, of course, were with that family and the greater 4-H family as we navigate 00:33:10.793 --> 00:33:15.806 - this painful time. In the wake of that, our volunteers and youth are still pledging 00:33:15.970 --> 00:33:21.959 - their heads to clearer thinking, their hearts to greater loyalty, their hands to larger service, and 00:33:21.959 --> 00:33:28.007 - their health to better living. The 4-H Junior Leaders Club is already busy planning their first large 00:33:28.007 --> 00:33:34.174 - service learning project during the Children's Farm Festival that's coming up at the end of next month. 00:33:34.174 --> 00:33:38.206 - That's the largest field trip experience in this region of Indiana. 00:33:38.306 --> 00:33:44.602 - Educators and volunteers already have some exciting plans for assisting schools and project based learning 00:33:44.602 --> 00:33:50.722 - programs. We plan to spend to send more youth to out of state for each civic engagement and state trips 00:33:50.722 --> 00:33:56.606 - than the other 91 counties combined this year. In fact, we have a great opportunity. We're planning 00:33:56.606 --> 00:34:02.550 - on sending 13 youth just from Monroe County to Washington, D.C. through a grant that we've received. 00:34:02.550 --> 00:34:05.374 - So we're really excited about that opportunity. 00:34:05.474 --> 00:34:12.169 - But right now, I don't want to take any more time. I want to let them tell about some of their experiences. 00:34:12.169 --> 00:34:18.616 - I'm going to turn things over now to Correll Patnode and Autumn Olmet, who would like to share a little 00:34:18.616 --> 00:34:24.877 - bit with you about how the support of the county has impacted their 4-H experience. And just want to 00:34:24.877 --> 00:34:31.138 - thank you for the county's continued support of 4-H. Hello. My name is Autumn Olmet. I'm a junior in 00:34:31.138 --> 00:34:34.238 - high school, and I've been in 4-H for nine years. 00:34:34.594 --> 00:34:40.794 - I think most people assume that 4-H is showing livestock at the county fair, but it is so much more 00:34:40.794 --> 00:34:46.995 - than that. Some things I've been able to accomplish through 4-H is installing a little free library 00:34:46.995 --> 00:34:53.319 - at Cars Farm Park here in Monroe County, being a page for Senator Yoder at the State House, and being 00:34:53.319 --> 00:34:59.706 - awarded a leadership scholarship from the 4-H Foundation just a scratch of the surface. I attended the 00:34:59.706 --> 00:35:03.550 - Ignite by 4-H Conference in Washington, D.C. this past March. 00:35:03.746 --> 00:35:10.413 - and I'm going to share with you my experience. My brother and I were the only students from New York 00:35:10.413 --> 00:35:17.475 - County to go, and we were able to attend thanks to a grant supporting our role as AI teen teachers through 00:35:17.475 --> 00:35:24.142 - 4-H. There were 15 delegates in total from all over Indiana, and I was able to get to know the other 00:35:24.142 --> 00:35:29.950 - people from Indiana, especially when we went on a night tour of the National Monuments. 00:35:30.978 --> 00:35:37.177 - My brother and I were the only people not checking the score. Go Hoosiers. While I was there, I was 00:35:37.177 --> 00:35:43.499 - able to meet kids from all over the US and territories, and that was really fun because I was able to 00:35:43.499 --> 00:35:49.884 - ask them about how 4-H worked, where they were from. I met a lot of people and made a lot of memories. 00:35:49.884 --> 00:35:56.455 - I had lots of new experiences, but one of the things I was looking forward to was flying in the airplane, 00:35:56.455 --> 00:35:59.678 - because I had never done that before. I had been to 00:35:59.778 --> 00:36:06.088 - DC before with my family. But this was my first time going to a big multi-day conference. When I say 00:36:06.088 --> 00:36:12.522 - big, I mean it. There were 1,800 students attending. There are multiple tracks of the conference, from 00:36:12.522 --> 00:36:18.832 - community engagement to agriculture. And within those tracks, there are all kinds of workshops, from 00:36:18.832 --> 00:36:25.204 - learning how to be a dementia friend to cheese tasting. One of the things I learned about conferences 00:36:25.204 --> 00:36:27.390 - is to sign up for workshops early. 00:36:27.874 --> 00:36:34.501 - because if I had known there were cheese-tasting, I would have been there. There were so many opportunities 00:36:34.501 --> 00:36:40.821 - for workshops, and most of them were led by other 4-H'ers like me. My favorite workshop I attended was 00:36:40.821 --> 00:36:47.263 - one about wind energy, which I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I did. I attended so many workshops 00:36:47.263 --> 00:36:53.460 - that I enjoyed in the STEM track at McKnight. An honorable mention is a workshop I did about compost 00:36:53.460 --> 00:36:57.694 - in a jar, where I actually took compost home with me in my suitcase. 00:37:00.322 --> 00:37:06.424 - Many of the workshops were things I could take home and do with my club, which is inspiring to me as 00:37:06.424 --> 00:37:12.586 - my club's president. I learned so many new things, and that experience is so valuable to me as I move 00:37:12.586 --> 00:37:18.688 - on and explore career opportunities. Overall, my favorite memories from Inc. Night were the dance on 00:37:18.688 --> 00:37:24.850 - the last night, the keynote speaker for the STEM track, and making new connections and friends. These 00:37:24.850 --> 00:37:28.958 - were with me as one of my favorite 4-H experiences. I'm so grateful 00:37:29.602 --> 00:37:35.610 - I was able to attend. I hope this coming year that people who go to the conference will have as much 00:37:35.610 --> 00:37:41.559 - fun as I did. And I know these things will not be possible without the 4-H staff and volunteers who 00:37:41.559 --> 00:37:47.568 - use their head, heart, hands, and health to help kids in Monroe County and across the United States. 00:37:47.568 --> 00:37:48.222 - Thank you. 00:37:50.946 --> 00:38:00.121 - I am Carole Patnode. I am a 10-year 4-H member in the Horse and Pony Club, as well as I was an active 00:38:00.121 --> 00:38:09.386 - member and junior leaders in the Dog Club. I just want to thank everyone that has been involved in 4-H 00:38:09.386 --> 00:38:16.222 - and has made all the amazing opportunities possible for 4-Hers like myself. 00:38:17.442 --> 00:38:27.157 - I was on the agriculture track when I was in DC. We learned how to harvest crops and take care of livestock 00:38:27.157 --> 00:38:36.331 - and animals. There was public speaking classes, and we got to trade pins for every state. So that was 00:38:36.331 --> 00:38:46.046 - really fun to collect pins. And then, of course, the dance. That was so much fun. I met so many amazing new 00:38:46.850 --> 00:38:54.784 - I met so many amazing new people from across the country, from Alaska to Florida and from California 00:38:54.784 --> 00:39:03.269 - to Maine, and even different countries. Some of my best friends that I made were from New York and Indiana. 00:39:03.269 --> 00:39:11.517 - We recently all got together at my graduation party in June. Since last year, we are now doing an annual 00:39:11.517 --> 00:39:15.838 - get together in the summers to catch up with everyone. 00:39:16.322 --> 00:39:27.971 - These are going to be my lifelong friends and I learned so much, so much not only in 4-H, but different, 00:39:27.971 --> 00:39:39.176 - but about different cultures and states. This was the best experience ever and I hope every kid that 00:39:39.176 --> 00:39:45.278 - goes and is able to go has a good experience as I did. 00:39:45.890 --> 00:39:55.872 - 4-H is not just a great organization. It is my life and my family. I don't know what I would do without 00:39:55.872 --> 00:40:05.758 - it. And it was such an honor to represent not only Indiana, but our great county. Thank you. Nice job. 00:40:05.758 --> 00:40:07.198 - That was good. 00:40:07.874 --> 00:40:14.791 - That was really good and congratulations on graduating and all the work that y'all have done and your 00:40:14.791 --> 00:40:21.912 - public speaking classes paid off because you spoke to us, which can be intimidating, but I promise we're 00:40:21.912 --> 00:40:28.829 - not that scary like we think we are. So it's okay. But thank you very much for that. Any questions on 00:40:28.829 --> 00:40:35.882 - or comments from council related to this? Council Hawk. Can't let people leave. It's part of the forage 00:40:35.882 --> 00:40:37.374 - plan without sharing. 00:40:37.666 --> 00:40:45.076 - that it was a part of my growing up. It made those of us young people who lived in Ellesill a community 00:40:45.076 --> 00:40:52.628 - together. And so many people think 4-H is you have to be out on a farm or you raise chickens or whatever. 00:40:52.628 --> 00:40:59.823 - And we didn't. We lived right, you know, I'm a city girl, lived in town Ellesill. But we learned how 00:40:59.823 --> 00:41:07.518 - to sew. We learned how to do, you know, make cookies, whatever. But what we really learned was how to share 00:41:07.618 --> 00:41:17.932 - with other members of the club and be a part of the community. And it really is a life altering and 00:41:17.932 --> 00:41:28.452 - event for all of us to help us to be better human beings. So thank you for sharing. I love everything 00:41:28.452 --> 00:41:34.846 - you said and I like hearing you end it with our great county. 00:41:34.946 --> 00:41:41.222 - Because we don't always get good news up here. Our jobs kind of don't always make us smile. But you 00:41:41.222 --> 00:41:47.624 - not only made us smile, but all the folks watching out there got a good message they need to hear. So 00:41:47.624 --> 00:41:54.465 - when we're in our hard stuff, we know that. As a father of a little four-age person going in that direction, 00:41:54.465 --> 00:42:00.930 - your direction in wanting to do that, I appreciate the modeling that you're doing for that. My curious 00:42:00.930 --> 00:42:02.750 - question for both of you is, 00:42:03.842 --> 00:42:10.492 - And you don't have to answer if you don't want. What do you want to do in life? What do you want to 00:42:10.492 --> 00:42:17.341 - do in life? I'm trying to figure that right now. I'm taking a gap year, I think. That's what I'm going 00:42:17.341 --> 00:42:24.058 - to do, just trying to figure out. But I definitely want to come back as an adult leader to encourage 00:42:24.058 --> 00:42:30.708 - our youth to get more involved in 4-H. Upon graduation in 2028, I helped to go to college for plant 00:42:30.708 --> 00:42:31.838 - science and then 00:42:32.226 --> 00:42:44.464 - eventually have a career in maybe public education or in the lab doing experience. But the reason I 00:42:44.464 --> 00:42:56.702 - want to go into plant science is because of 4-H and the floriculture project that I did growing up. 00:43:02.530 --> 00:43:12.695 - Are there any other departments that would like to make any department updates? Or you got to top that 00:43:12.695 --> 00:43:22.564 - one? All right. Seeing none, we appreciate all of the department updates that gave us an update. So 00:43:22.564 --> 00:43:29.374 - thank you very much. All right, next up is our consent agenda items. 00:43:29.538 --> 00:43:37.370 - Council, I move to approve the following consent agenda items for Tuesday, August the 25th. The summary 00:43:37.370 --> 00:43:45.352 - council minutes are presented for the May 12th and May 26th council meetings, the June 11th joint council 00:43:45.352 --> 00:43:53.259 - and commissioners special work session, as well as the summary council minutes for June 23rd, June 30th, 00:43:53.259 --> 00:43:58.078 - July 14th, and July 28th. Second. We got a motion and a second. 00:43:58.402 --> 00:44:05.964 - Are there any questions or comments from Council related to the consent agenda items? Seeing none, we 00:44:05.964 --> 00:44:13.527 - will move to approval. So all those in favor of approving the minutes as presented, signify by saying 00:44:13.527 --> 00:44:21.015 - aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. Next up is item number seven, which is 00:44:21.015 --> 00:44:27.614 - the higher end freeze reviews. Council, I move to open for discussion possible approval. 00:44:28.002 --> 00:44:37.141 - Probation Department's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 9142-0000 00:44:37.141 --> 00:44:45.776 - Community Corrections Grant 51% and fund 1122-0000 Community Corrections Fees 49%, one full-time legal 00:44:45.776 --> 00:44:49.214 - secretary receptionist position. Second. 00:44:49.314 --> 00:44:55.897 - All right, we got a motion and a second. We are joined by Becca. Hi, good evening. I'm not Linda Brady. 00:44:55.897 --> 00:45:02.542 - I'm filling in for her. Becca Streit, Community Corrections Director and Deputy Chief Probation Officer. 00:45:02.542 --> 00:45:09.062 - Linda came before you in February asking to refill this position. You granted it. It's taken us a long 00:45:09.062 --> 00:45:15.581 - time to fill it. We hired somebody, she started, and then six days later decided it wasn't a good fit. 00:45:15.581 --> 00:45:18.366 - And so we are asking if we can refill this. 00:45:18.722 --> 00:45:25.554 - Receptionist at Community Corrections is only one of two full-time support staff. They are the first 00:45:25.554 --> 00:45:32.318 - face when clients come into our office. Currently, or during this time, we've had probation officer 00:45:32.318 --> 00:45:39.150 - assistants, field officers, office staff, even myself filling at the front desk answering phones and 00:45:39.150 --> 00:45:45.982 - doing data entry. But again, this is the lone position in that building that does this kind of work. 00:45:48.546 --> 00:45:56.436 - Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments from council on this item? Sorry to hear that 00:45:56.436 --> 00:46:04.790 - that didn't work out. Hopefully. It's been tough. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So seeing no questions or comments 00:46:04.790 --> 00:46:13.066 - from council, I'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment, you can move or make your comment 00:46:13.066 --> 00:46:17.630 - at the election or raise your hand via Teams. Seeing none. 00:46:18.818 --> 00:46:34.090 - May we please have a roll call vote? Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feinstein? Yes. Councillor 00:46:34.090 --> 00:46:48.446 - Hogg? Yes. Pardon? Yes. Councillor Will? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Packard? Yes. 00:46:48.546 --> 00:46:55.285 - Yes, motion passes unanimous. OK, thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Next up is from the coroner's 00:46:55.285 --> 00:47:01.898 - office. Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval. The coroner's request to be exempt 00:47:01.898 --> 00:47:08.259 - from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund one thousand dash zero zero zero seven county 00:47:08.259 --> 00:47:14.935 - general coroner one part time deputy coroner position. Thank you. All right. We got a motion in a second. 00:47:14.935 --> 00:47:18.462 - We are joined by. Oh, welcome. Good afternoon, counsel. 00:47:19.458 --> 00:47:28.267 - afternoon. So I am requesting an ability to hire one additional part-time member for my staff, a paid 00:47:28.267 --> 00:47:29.822 - part-time member. 00:47:29.890 --> 00:47:35.978 - Currently I just have one that was approved back in a meeting from March. A line item was already created 00:47:35.978 --> 00:47:42.238 - as well as additional fundings to support that hiring. All I'm asking for is just to hire a second part-time 00:47:42.238 --> 00:47:48.039 - paid person that would still be paid out of that same account line so no additional funding would be 00:47:48.039 --> 00:47:53.897 - needed. I was recently told that one of my current salary deputies is looking at going back to school 00:47:53.897 --> 00:47:59.870 - and is interested in staying with the department but on a part-time basis as opposed to a salary basis. 00:47:59.874 --> 00:48:07.085 - So this would allow that employee to step down and still be with the department. And it also gives me 00:48:07.085 --> 00:48:14.649 - the opportunity to possibly look and hire someone to fill that salaried position while during her absence. 00:48:14.649 --> 00:48:22.142 - Thank you very much for that. Any questions or comments from council on this item? Yes, Councilor Decker. 00:48:22.306 --> 00:48:28.914 - I just had a quick question, not necessarily related to this, but just generally with your office, which 00:48:28.914 --> 00:48:35.710 - everybody's always fascinated by your office, and for probably all the wrong reasons. But someone is always 00:48:35.810 --> 00:48:43.055 - on duty in that office, right? If not you, somebody, right? That's correct. Yes, we staff 24, 7, 365 00:48:43.055 --> 00:48:50.514 - days a year. There is someone always on call. We typically do 12 hour, 24 hour shifts, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 00:48:50.514 --> 00:48:58.046 - or 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. But there is always someone representing the coroner's office every day of the year. 00:48:58.046 --> 00:49:02.206 - There are further questions or comments from the coroner. 00:49:03.650 --> 00:49:12.923 - Thank you. Seeing none will move to public comment. You can come forward to the lectern here in the 00:49:12.923 --> 00:49:22.195 - room or raise your hand via teams. Being none. Maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor final. 00:49:22.195 --> 00:49:32.766 - Yes. Councilor Hawk. Councilor Wilts. Yes. Councilor Henry. Yes. Councilor Deckard. Yes. Councilor Crossley. Yes. 00:49:33.122 --> 00:49:39.572 - Next up is item C for the Board of Commissioners. Council, I move to open for discussion and possible 00:49:39.572 --> 00:49:46.149 - approval the Commissioner's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 00:49:46.149 --> 00:49:52.663 - 1000-0161 County General County Buildings, one full-time maintenance position and simultaneously amend 00:49:52.663 --> 00:49:58.987 - the 2026 salary ordinance to add a new account line 16003 maintenance, 40 hours LTCA non-exempt and 00:49:58.987 --> 00:50:02.718 - remove account line 16003 maintenance assistant supervisor 00:50:02.786 --> 00:50:09.789 - 40 hours LTCC position. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. We are joined by Mr. Kreider 00:50:09.789 --> 00:50:16.791 - and Angie Purdy. Hello. Good evening, Council. Richard Kreider, Monroe County Building and Fleet here 00:50:16.791 --> 00:50:23.863 - with Angie Purdy, Commissioner's Executive, our maintenance assistant supervisor, retired in February. 00:50:23.863 --> 00:50:30.110 - We're here tonight to ask to reclassify that position to remove the supervisor portion and 00:50:30.242 --> 00:50:36.413 - to ask to fill that position. This is with the county maintenance crew that provides maintenance services 00:50:36.413 --> 00:50:42.467 - to the civil buildings, which include the historic courthouse, health building, showers building, youth 00:50:42.467 --> 00:50:48.347 - services bureau, highway garage, emergency operations center, reserve operations building, and we're 00:50:48.347 --> 00:50:53.470 - expanding out to additional maintenance services on commissioner owned parcels of land. 00:50:54.370 --> 00:51:02.100 - We're currently operating with a maintenance supervisor, one day shift maintenance position and one 00:51:02.100 --> 00:51:09.907 - evening shift maintenance position, and we could really use the help. All right. Thank you very much 00:51:09.907 --> 00:51:17.714 - for that. I will look to council to see if anybody has any questions or comments. I'll go Councilman 00:51:17.714 --> 00:51:20.574 - Hawk and then Councilman Henry next. 00:51:20.994 --> 00:51:30.038 - Okay, my question is a budgetary question. Are you splitting up percentages of the salary? I noticed 00:51:30.038 --> 00:51:39.172 - you said the Youth Services Bureau, so. We have not traditionally done that. We don't have one person 00:51:39.172 --> 00:51:48.306 - particularly assigned to that facility. I guess it's something we could look at in the future, but it 00:51:48.306 --> 00:51:49.470 - hasn't been. 00:51:50.370 --> 00:51:57.685 - something we've done. Councilor Henry. Thank you. Thank you for the brief there. Walk me through the 00:51:57.685 --> 00:52:04.928 - last civil structure that's maintained by this position, the parcels of land piece. Can you walk me 00:52:04.928 --> 00:52:12.460 - through what the maintenance is on the commissioner? Most recent? Yeah, just to give an example of what 00:52:12.460 --> 00:52:19.486 - that is. I understand cleaning the health building or whatever, maintaining the health building, 00:52:19.778 --> 00:52:31.876 - What's that last one mean? Give us some examples of that labor. Mending fences, repairing broken signage, 00:52:31.876 --> 00:52:42.718 - adding signage, painting trees. That's the most recent. I appreciate it. For the land parcels. 00:52:45.890 --> 00:52:52.839 - Is there any intention for that staff to maintain like, I don't know, we went through an encampment. 00:52:52.839 --> 00:52:59.994 - Is that staff engaged with that or would be long term or is that else other staff or other contracting? 00:52:59.994 --> 00:53:07.424 - Oh, I think I think it will have to be long term from the county maintenance folks. That's a huge property. 00:53:07.424 --> 00:53:14.441 - There's a lot to take care of. Parks Department was out lending a hand today with their brush cutting 00:53:14.441 --> 00:53:15.198 - equipment. 00:53:15.330 --> 00:53:27.113 - they were able to clear some areas to make that work possible, actually. But yeah, it's gonna have to 00:53:27.113 --> 00:53:39.242 - be an ongoing process. Thank you, I appreciate it. I know you've got a relatively small department here. 00:53:39.242 --> 00:53:44.094 - But often I like to see a little bit of a 00:53:45.410 --> 00:53:53.031 - organizational chart. If you could just tell me, like, is there you said you're taking away the supervisory 00:53:53.031 --> 00:54:00.652 - component of the position that retired. So is there a supervisor? There is there's a maintenance supervisor 00:54:00.652 --> 00:54:07.920 - that that position was assistant supervisor when that position was created. The maintenance department 00:54:07.920 --> 00:54:13.918 - looked a little different. We had a lot of road crew staff that that was supervised. 00:54:14.082 --> 00:54:24.401 - that were assigned daily and things were just a little different then. So there is an existing supervisor 00:54:24.401 --> 00:54:34.622 - and then three assuming this position is correct. They are kind of the same. Got it. So it's boop, boop. 00:54:34.622 --> 00:54:41.534 - Thank you. Visual person here. Gotta picture it. Thank you. All right. 00:54:41.858 --> 00:54:51.351 - Any other questions or comments from Council on this item? Seeing none, we will move on to public comment. 00:54:51.351 --> 00:55:00.579 - Raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the room. And maybe please have a roll 00:55:00.579 --> 00:55:09.451 - call. Councilor Hawk. Councilor Wilts. Yes. Councilor Henry. Yes. Councilor Deckard. Yes. Councilor 00:55:09.451 --> 00:55:10.782 - Crossley. Yes. 00:55:11.138 --> 00:55:19.425 - Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, 00:55:19.425 --> 00:55:27.873 - we will get into the County Council business. And this is the update to the fiscal body's annual review 00:55:27.873 --> 00:55:35.510 - of the estimated property tax levy limits. So I am going to look to the auditor, Ms. Gregory, 00:55:35.510 --> 00:55:40.222 - for that update. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. 00:55:42.626 --> 00:55:50.444 - Okay, so Council last meeting reviewed, as required by statute, the estimated property tax levy limits 00:55:50.444 --> 00:55:55.454 - and property tax caps. The Department of Local Government Finance 00:55:55.970 --> 00:56:04.132 - publishes that information usually sometime in July. They publish before the end of July, at which time 00:56:04.132 --> 00:56:12.059 - we downloaded and prepared that information to present to you. We were not notified of a correction, 00:56:12.059 --> 00:56:20.221 - and so the county's information for our specific unit was correct, but unfortunately a lot of the other 00:56:20.221 --> 00:56:25.950 - units were incorrect when you reviewed them. So we have since pulled the 00:56:26.082 --> 00:56:28.185 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:28.185 --> 00:56:30.287 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:30.287 --> 00:56:32.390 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:32.390 --> 00:56:34.492 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:34.492 --> 00:56:36.595 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:36.595 --> 00:56:38.697 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:38.697 --> 00:56:40.800 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:42.902 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:42.902 --> 00:56:45.005 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:45.005 --> 00:56:47.107 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:47.107 --> 00:56:49.210 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:49.210 --> 00:56:51.312 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:51.312 --> 00:56:52.606 - updated updated updated updated updated updated updated updated 00:56:52.738 --> 00:56:59.930 - gave us that information and the other units as well. So I appreciate that. The questions are comments 00:56:59.930 --> 00:57:07.122 - from Council on this item. Yes, Councilor Hawke. Right. I think this really calls our attention to the 00:57:07.122 --> 00:57:14.244 - fact that when something is downloaded, we need to question it. We need to see, does this make sense? 00:57:14.244 --> 00:57:18.782 - Is there something on here that just doesn't seem right? Because 00:57:19.298 --> 00:57:26.524 - There could be mistakes made in any place, but the big mistake is just doing a copy and paste and nobody 00:57:26.524 --> 00:57:33.405 - really looking at the bottom line. So while I know we don't like to believe that everything that is 00:57:33.405 --> 00:57:40.631 - posted at the state level is perfect, they're just human beings like the rest of us. So we cannot assume 00:57:40.631 --> 00:57:47.719 - everything is without questioning. That's what you have to do. You have to have a curious mind and you 00:57:47.719 --> 00:57:48.958 - have to question. 00:57:54.402 --> 00:58:04.455 - I always appreciate that nobody's perfect because I certainly am not. But I am a little worried in the 00:58:04.455 --> 00:58:14.215 - sense that if the shoe were the other foot and we were wrong and DLGF caught that, there'd be no do 00:58:14.215 --> 00:58:23.390 - over. In fact, we'd be down that road in some form. I don't want to talk about it, but right. 00:58:23.682 --> 00:58:30.428 - You're 100% correct. So thankfully, we can correct this. It's easy. It's just a simple re-review. The 00:58:30.428 --> 00:58:37.307 - units have already been notified, but they will be notified again that you've reviewed the information, 00:58:37.307 --> 00:58:44.185 - the corrected version of the information. And so you will all see another email come out from my office 00:58:44.185 --> 00:58:48.286 - tomorrow. If I can continue, what alarms me is we have a very 00:58:49.026 --> 00:58:55.867 - strong auditor that persistent persistent going after information. I think about counties that don't 00:58:55.867 --> 00:59:02.775 - have that or a rookie auditor or even whatever like that's that's a little alarming to me about that. 00:59:02.775 --> 00:59:10.090 - And again, there's not a lot of recourse. I've been talking tonight in last meeting about unfunded mandates 00:59:10.090 --> 00:59:11.038 - and all this. 00:59:11.810 --> 00:59:18.327 - You know, this could turn into even more. Now we've got 65 eyes on it and we still can't get it. And 00:59:18.327 --> 00:59:24.973 - unlike Councillor Hawke, not all of us can look at something and say, I think the state's wrong there, 00:59:24.973 --> 00:59:31.620 - nor have time to cross-check every single algorithm in their Excel sheet. I think that the state's got 00:59:31.620 --> 00:59:34.846 - to have some caution about that. These are lives. 00:59:35.138 --> 00:59:43.533 - I think we need to ease up the law a little bit so that we have a little bit more local control here, 00:59:43.533 --> 00:59:51.763 - and they could share some of that with us, but I'll stop there. Council votes. Could you. Summarize 00:59:51.763 --> 00:59:58.430 - the difference between generally speaking between the previous and this current. 00:59:59.522 --> 01:00:07.152 - Part of the original forms were correct, but it's like the bottom line of the levy was hugely inflated 01:00:07.152 --> 01:00:14.560 - for some units, which I'm sure they loved. However, it's inaccurate and the taxpayers wouldn't love 01:00:14.560 --> 01:00:18.782 - being taxed those amounts. Yeah. Can that up? It didn't. 01:00:18.882 --> 01:00:24.407 - like I said, most of it was correct, but then there's like a bottom line totaling which was inaccurate. 01:00:24.407 --> 01:00:29.931 - So you look and most things are right, but then there must have been just a formula error on the bottom 01:00:29.931 --> 01:00:33.278 - line. So to give the DLGF a little grace, they're dealing with 01:00:33.442 --> 01:00:40.557 - as many changes as we all are in the state right now. And I know they're severely understaffed. They're 01:00:40.557 --> 01:00:47.534 - also feeling the budget cuts and constraints. And so I think everybody's just kind of, it's all hands 01:00:47.534 --> 01:00:54.649 - on deck and they did correct it quickly. I think that just the notification part was missed. And I have 01:00:54.649 --> 01:01:02.174 - it on the screen. This part right there that's kind of highlighted was correct. It was this line right there. 01:01:02.690 --> 01:01:13.458 - where it was significantly different. So when we pointed it out, I believe I got a phone call from Councilor 01:01:13.458 --> 01:01:23.534 - Hogg, where a township had notified them like something was off. That's what I wanted to say is kudos 01:01:23.534 --> 01:01:29.758 - to the townships who immediately saw what is this and oh yeah, 01:01:30.306 --> 01:01:39.258 - Wouldn't the taxpayers love it if they really raised the levy that high? Of course, they knew it had 01:01:39.258 --> 01:01:48.388 - to be an error. The other thing is that Ryan Burke of the DLGF had requested that we, so that he could 01:01:48.388 --> 01:01:56.542 - work through to see where the problem might be, if we would just let him know where it was. 01:01:56.866 --> 01:02:05.474 - It may seem like, well, we don't have time to tell him that, but he's awfully good to help us out. And 01:02:05.474 --> 01:02:13.998 - I think when he asks for us to help him figure out where the problem was in his department, we should 01:02:13.998 --> 01:02:20.350 - respond. So that's my ask. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from? 01:02:24.962 --> 01:02:32.889 - And seeing none, if there are no further objections, I would like to authorize the auditor to go ahead 01:02:32.889 --> 01:02:40.431 - and notify the taxing units again of the correct amount. Thank you very much, counsel. Thank you. 01:02:40.431 --> 01:02:48.666 - All right. So ordered. Yes, you need to say that. Next up is item B from the prosecutor's office. Counsel, 01:02:48.666 --> 01:02:53.438 - I move to approve the prosecutor's request and fund 9159-9626 01:02:53.570 --> 01:03:01.075 - high-tech crimes unit for an additional appropriation of $1,300.98 in the services category. All right. 01:03:01.075 --> 01:03:09.086 - We got a motion and a second. We are joined here by Ms. Beth Hamlin. Welcome. Good evening, counsel. This is a 01:03:10.274 --> 01:03:18.327 - small amount of additional grant funding that's coming from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. 01:03:18.327 --> 01:03:26.145 - It's unspent funds from the previous grant year that they're rolling and sharing with all 10 of the 01:03:26.145 --> 01:03:34.433 - high-tech crime units across the state in the amount of $1,300.98. Okay. Rolling in the dough. All right. 01:03:34.433 --> 01:03:40.062 - All right. Any questions or comments from counsel related to this item? 01:03:42.690 --> 01:03:51.673 - want to make sure we get that 98 cents. Every penny. All right. I'm seeing no other questions or comments 01:03:51.673 --> 01:04:00.572 - from Council. We'll move to public comment. If there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams 01:04:00.572 --> 01:04:09.470 - or come forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call, though. 01:04:11.362 --> 01:04:20.071 - Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor Wilks? Yes. Motion passes 01:04:20.071 --> 01:04:26.750 - unanimous. Thank you. All right. Next up is item C from the health department. 01:04:26.882 --> 01:04:36.097 - Council, I move to approve the Health Department's request in Fund 8104-9627, public health emergency 01:04:36.097 --> 01:04:45.582 - preparedness for additional appropriations, the amount of $17,333.19 in the supplies category, $6,249.81 01:04:45.582 --> 01:04:54.526 - in the services category, and $1,417 in the capital category for a total appropriation of $25,000. 01:04:54.754 --> 01:05:02.312 - All right, we got a motion and a second, and it looks like Ms. Lori Kelly is joined with us via Teams. 01:05:02.312 --> 01:05:09.944 - Welcome. Good evening, Council. This is ongoing grant funding that the Health Department receives. This 01:05:09.944 --> 01:05:17.429 - helps to support our preparedness division. So we have two full-time employees. This funding is going 01:05:17.429 --> 01:05:21.758 - to help support supplies, education, travel, and services. 01:05:25.794 --> 01:05:34.526 - Thank you. Any other, well, first, any questions or comments from council on this item? Seeing none, 01:05:34.526 --> 01:05:43.690 - we'll move to public comment and raise your hand via Teams or to the lectern here in the room. And seeing 01:05:43.690 --> 01:05:52.422 - none, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor 01:05:52.422 --> 01:05:55.102 - Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? 01:05:55.330 --> 01:06:02.527 - Councillor Hawke? Yes. Councillor Wilts? Yes. Councillor Henry? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right, 01:06:02.527 --> 01:06:09.655 - next up are a couple of items from the Public Defender's Office. Council, I move to open for discussion 01:06:09.655 --> 01:06:16.646 - and possible approval the Public Defender's Office request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be 01:06:16.646 --> 01:06:23.774 - allowed to hire and fund 1200-0000 Public Defender Supplemental 1 full-time paralegal position. Second. 01:06:25.858 --> 01:06:34.527 - are joined by Mr. Michael Hunt and Heather Stufel. Welcome. Welcome. Good evening. Michael Hunt and 01:06:34.527 --> 01:06:43.975 - Heather Stufel from the Public Defender's Office. If you want to talk about the first issue, it's requesting 01:06:43.975 --> 01:06:53.077 - to hire someone, regardless of the hiring freeze. We have three investigators and three paralegal people 01:06:53.077 --> 01:06:55.678 - as part of our support staff. 01:06:56.578 --> 01:07:04.170 - Their jobs kind of intertwine. They both talk to people and do research in the law. The paralegal is 01:07:04.170 --> 01:07:11.837 - obviously on the legal side. And then investigators go out and talk to people or investigate facts or 01:07:11.837 --> 01:07:20.030 - look at crime scenes. And one of the things that affects us, you just talked about the high tech crime unit. 01:07:20.450 --> 01:07:28.841 - That provides the prosecutors with more information and more expertise, and we need somebody to not 01:07:28.841 --> 01:07:37.316 - only look at that, but to maybe hire experts on the other side or look at the legal ramifications of 01:07:37.316 --> 01:07:43.358 - what this high-tech people have come up with. One of our paralegals has 01:07:43.842 --> 01:07:52.461 - Um, been there with us, I think about 11 years and she recently had her third child and decided she 01:07:52.461 --> 01:08:01.338 - would rather stay home and play with the baby than work in our office. And so we'd like to replace her 01:08:01.338 --> 01:08:10.215 - and that's what we're asking for. Congratulations to her as well. All right. Any questions or comments 01:08:10.215 --> 01:08:12.542 - from council on this item? 01:08:12.674 --> 01:08:20.351 - Sometimes people talk to us about the training timeline to get into a role. Do you have any idea how 01:08:20.351 --> 01:08:28.104 - long it takes to become certified as a paralegal? Well, that's part of the problem. In Indiana, there 01:08:28.104 --> 01:08:36.465 - really is not an official designation as a paralegal. Now, you can go to maybe Ivy Tech and get a certificate 01:08:36.465 --> 01:08:42.622 - that says you're a paralegal. So that's some indication. Other people we've had, 01:08:42.722 --> 01:08:51.970 - to law school for a while and then decided they didn't want to do that. Others were investigators for 01:08:51.970 --> 01:09:01.219 - some agency and then came to us and we trained them. It depends. They actually write a lot of our say 01:09:01.219 --> 01:09:10.286 - appeals or that type of thing and then the attorney works with them and refines that. So that takes 01:09:10.286 --> 01:09:12.190 - a while. I would say 01:09:12.770 --> 01:09:21.543 - as the lady before mentioned, it probably takes a year to get very good at being a paralegal. And it 01:09:21.543 --> 01:09:30.924 - kind of depends on what you're having them do. The other thing is we have right now, I think, 15 attorneys. 01:09:30.924 --> 01:09:36.222 - And so although we don't actually assign paralegals to them, 01:09:36.322 --> 01:09:46.481 - Each paralegal basically is working for five lawyers, and that's a lot for a paralegal to take questions 01:09:46.481 --> 01:09:56.349 - or research from five different people and come up with answers or proposals and things. To help with 01:09:56.349 --> 01:10:00.606 - that, we do have law students occasionally. 01:10:01.570 --> 01:10:10.146 - either by semester, sometimes they work in the summer, sometimes over the semesters, but they require 01:10:10.146 --> 01:10:18.639 - some hands on supervision too. And they maybe can listen to tapes or audio things and give reason to 01:10:18.639 --> 01:10:27.131 - the attorneys. But it takes the paralegal, if you're going to write a brief or an appeal, it takes a 01:10:27.131 --> 01:10:30.494 - paralegal with the attorney to do that. 01:10:35.778 --> 01:10:44.687 - Yes, Councillor Hawke. Yes, this is a comment. I heard you say, and it sounds sweet to say, she would 01:10:44.687 --> 01:10:53.772 - like to be home with her baby. She's going to stay home, enjoy being with her baby. And while I applaud 01:10:53.772 --> 01:11:02.506 - her for being able to do that, I think we should recognize that many young mothers decide that it's 01:11:02.506 --> 01:11:05.214 - so costly to pay for childcare 01:11:05.314 --> 01:11:12.709 - that if they don't have a parent or a family member that's going to provide that childcare, then that 01:11:12.709 --> 01:11:20.105 - eats into so much money that they could make if they're out working. So I think we need to understand 01:11:20.105 --> 01:11:27.862 - that these families are facing that kind of decision. And it shouldn't have to be up to the county council 01:11:27.862 --> 01:11:34.750 - or you folks or whatever, but that's a family decision. And I know, because we had to make it. 01:11:34.978 --> 01:11:42.470 - I was lucky. I had a mother that would take care of my babies. But not everybody has that. And so I 01:11:42.470 --> 01:11:50.113 - just wanted to call that attention. If the lady is listening, I'm just saying, I hope you're enjoying 01:11:50.113 --> 01:11:57.605 - that baby, because it's a perfect time and it can't be replaced. Oh, I would agree. I was trying to 01:11:57.605 --> 01:12:01.726 - inject a little levity into it. No, this is her third. 01:12:01.922 --> 01:12:10.302 - And I think her husband is in a position now where he gets insurance benefits and stuff. So that helps 01:12:10.302 --> 01:12:18.683 - her. She was getting those from us. And so I have all the respect in the world for her for doing that. 01:12:18.683 --> 01:12:27.063 - She came on and started actually as a receptionist. And then we moved her up as she went on and became 01:12:27.063 --> 01:12:31.294 - an invaluable member on different appellate issues. 01:12:35.810 --> 01:12:42.771 - Council Hawk? Yes, that is a very good point. And childcare here in Monroe County is very hard. I know 01:12:42.771 --> 01:12:49.664 - the people that are pregnant that literally have to be on a waiting list for a whole year before they 01:12:49.664 --> 01:12:56.422 - can figure out whether or not they can get childcare. So completely, yes, understand that. So thank 01:12:56.422 --> 01:13:02.910 - you for calling that out. All right. Any other questions or comments from council on this item? 01:13:03.778 --> 01:13:11.178 - Seeing none, we'll move to public comment. If there's public comment and you can raise your hand via 01:13:11.178 --> 01:13:18.652 - Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call 01:13:18.652 --> 01:13:26.566 - vote. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor 01:13:26.566 --> 01:13:32.574 - Henry? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 01:13:33.218 --> 01:13:40.470 - Thank you. And next up is item E from the Public Defender's Office. Council, I request to open for discussion 01:13:40.470 --> 01:13:47.129 - and possible approval of the Public Defender Office request and fund 1000-0271 County General Public 01:13:47.129 --> 01:13:53.854 - Defender to add an additional public defender attorney position, 40 hours exempt from the 2027 budget 01:13:53.854 --> 01:13:59.326 - year. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second. What would you like to add? 01:13:59.490 --> 01:14:09.121 - I'm just presenting this to kind of make you aware of the position we're in, and we're not actually 01:14:09.121 --> 01:14:19.041 - asking for another position at this time. As most of you know, we are in the program run by the state, 01:14:19.041 --> 01:14:28.190 - which reimburses the county 40% of expenses or most of the expenses for defending our clients. 01:14:28.546 --> 01:14:37.267 - that program requires us to have what they call a case load. In other words, when they wrote the statute, 01:14:37.267 --> 01:14:45.577 - they didn't want to give the county X amount of money and then have a public defender do 50 cases or 01:14:45.577 --> 01:14:53.887 - 100 cases or whatever. So they came up with a grid, which admittedly is kind of old now, but it says 01:14:53.887 --> 01:14:58.494 - that each attorney can only have so many cases and they 01:14:58.754 --> 01:15:08.167 - they weight the cases. So if you have a murder case, maybe you can have three burglaries and they will 01:15:08.167 --> 01:15:17.945 - be equal. Um, and they make us report that, uh, quarterly. So as long as we are under the required number, 01:15:17.945 --> 01:15:26.718 - let's say, let's just say it's an arbitrary number of 50. If, as long as I'm at 49, we're okay. 01:15:26.978 --> 01:15:40.032 - If I go to 50 or 51, then the people in Indianapolis on the commission flag that and tell us you need 01:15:40.032 --> 01:15:52.958 - to do something about this. So we've had some, I would say, abnormalities. We had a person we hired, 01:15:52.958 --> 01:15:54.622 - an attorney, 01:15:55.138 --> 01:16:04.131 - and they were here about a month and then they left. They just didn't, as somebody said, it wasn't a 01:16:04.131 --> 01:16:13.035 - good fit for them. That messes up our statistics. We have someone who assigns these cases and tries 01:16:13.035 --> 01:16:22.206 - to equal out the proportion that each person gets. We had another person retire. We had another person 01:16:22.658 --> 01:16:33.125 - for medical reasons that took FMLA. And that is just, to me, I don't want to say it's bad, but it creates 01:16:33.125 --> 01:16:43.196 - problems just like someone, the paralegal, taking maternity leave because they get about three months 01:16:43.196 --> 01:16:52.478 - off. And that, trying to coordinate all those statistics makes it very difficult. So when the 01:16:53.026 --> 01:17:00.631 - The person that retired found out that the person we hired left in about a month. He agreed to come 01:17:00.631 --> 01:17:08.463 - back, but he's just there kind of temporarily on his own volition. We're glad to have him, but I can't 01:17:08.463 --> 01:17:12.798 - guarantee that he's going to be there for a year or two. 01:17:13.570 --> 01:17:20.995 - Doing the statistics, we've noted that three or four maybe of our attorneys are approaching this line, 01:17:20.995 --> 01:17:28.492 - which we've always been very close to, of having too many cases per quarter. If you're in that position 01:17:28.492 --> 01:17:35.773 - for one quarter, that's one thing. If you're in there for two or three, then the commission notifies 01:17:35.773 --> 01:17:43.198 - us and says, you need to do something about that, whether it means hire another attorney or something. 01:17:43.682 --> 01:17:52.474 - And that's why we're telling you, in our charts, we're getting there. We have two or three that are 01:17:52.474 --> 01:18:01.617 - now over. Now, since it's a rolling quarter, as you end the next quarter, the oldest quarter falls off. 01:18:01.617 --> 01:18:10.937 - So that changes your criteria. The chart we handed out is a very simple thing. And I would say it doesn't 01:18:10.937 --> 01:18:13.662 - show you all these statistics, 01:18:14.210 --> 01:18:23.416 - We are basically a reactive agency, and that is to say, if the prosecutor, well, if the police arrest 01:18:23.416 --> 01:18:32.532 - so many people, the prosecutor charges the judges, find probable cause and give us five cases, we're 01:18:32.532 --> 01:18:38.398 - going to do those five cases. If they do all that with 30 cases, 01:18:38.530 --> 01:18:46.344 - We're going to do those 30 cases. So we don't really control how many cases we get. They just come in. 01:18:46.344 --> 01:18:54.157 - And as you can see from this chart, it's every category that we have. The felony, the misdemeanor, and 01:18:54.157 --> 01:19:01.743 - the chins have gone up just for the last two years and part of this year. And that's what's causing 01:19:01.743 --> 01:19:06.750 - part of our people to go over. Now, we're trying to correct that. 01:19:10.146 --> 01:19:16.938 - moving some things around and stuff but I just want to make and I'm not asking for another attorney 01:19:16.938 --> 01:19:23.934 - for this budget session but I just want to make you aware that I may come back I may have to come back 01:19:23.934 --> 01:19:31.134 - and say January and say hey I need another attorney because we're over. What happens is if the commission 01:19:31.586 --> 01:19:38.414 - decides we're over and not doing anything, I haven't asked for another attorney, I haven't done anything 01:19:38.414 --> 01:19:45.048 - to correct it, then they send us a 90-day letter and say, if you don't get this fixed within 90 days, 01:19:45.048 --> 01:19:51.811 - we're gonna cut off your funding. And right now, we're pulling in roughly a million dollars a year that 01:19:51.811 --> 01:19:57.534 - goes to the county. So if you have any questions about that, I will try to answer them. 01:20:00.354 --> 01:20:08.457 - Councilor Woods so when you say pulling in a million dollars you're talking about reimbursable it's 01:20:08.457 --> 01:20:16.804 - not really like revenue that's over and above our expenses right we submit a number and they reimburse 01:20:16.804 --> 01:20:25.312 - us not for every case yeah 40% and so the the 40% that we're getting back is averaging roughly a million 01:20:25.312 --> 01:20:30.174 - dollars for the past couple years and I think we're on that 01:20:30.274 --> 01:20:38.246 - level this year too. Has the commission that you referred to notified you of being over or a problem 01:20:38.246 --> 01:20:46.140 - with the caseload distribution? No, as I understand it, we haven't gotten a letter. As I understand 01:20:46.140 --> 01:20:54.191 - it, when we do the statistics, it shows if you're over a little bit, it shows up pink instead of gray 01:20:54.191 --> 01:21:00.190 - or something. And if you're over more, it shows up red. Just to let us know 01:21:00.418 --> 01:21:07.761 - the yes, you're over the limit of cases or this attorney is over the limit of cases you should have. 01:21:07.761 --> 01:21:15.321 - If it's just one attorney, like I say, that's not a big deal you can, but right now we're three or four 01:21:15.321 --> 01:21:22.664 - are over a little bit for the various reasons I mentioned. And then you mentioned the 90 day period. 01:21:22.664 --> 01:21:25.790 - Does that, that gets kicked off though by, 01:21:26.562 --> 01:21:33.820 - an action from the state to you, not just entering data? No, no, no. Yes, they have to send us like 01:21:33.820 --> 01:21:41.368 - a demand letter or something saying, we've noticed you're not complying with the thing and do something 01:21:41.368 --> 01:21:48.771 - about it. And do they notify you prior to that notice? Do they communicate to you about your caseload 01:21:48.771 --> 01:21:54.142 - prior? Yes. Without the colors and just the data entry, I mean, formally. 01:21:54.306 --> 01:22:03.059 - They will see those numbers every time I submit my reimbursement request. They check our caseloads, 01:22:03.059 --> 01:22:11.900 - the statistics, the percentage of what each attorney is supposed to have. It coats red every time an 01:22:11.900 --> 01:22:20.828 - attorney goes over for that quarter. If it's consistent, I will get a phone call or an email from the 01:22:20.828 --> 01:22:23.454 - state asking what's going on. 01:22:24.354 --> 01:22:35.198 - I mean, you know, we've. Consistently seen, um, three quarters. I've read, but they haven't reached 01:22:35.198 --> 01:22:45.609 - out to you yet. You're just saying we're trying to be proactive. It's a million dollars a year. 01:22:45.609 --> 01:22:52.766 - Yeah Yeah. Okay Um. Abvious way that you're suggesting to address 01:22:53.218 --> 01:23:02.466 - You said you were also trying to address it by moving things around. Well, what else can you be doing? 01:23:02.466 --> 01:23:11.804 - OK. We can. Well, right. That is returned from retirement. We're giving him just he's very experienced, 01:23:11.804 --> 01:23:19.166 - so we're just giving him some big what are called big cases so he might not have. 01:23:20.098 --> 01:23:29.084 - the full amount of cases, but we're using his experience. And I hesitate to dump a full load on him 01:23:29.084 --> 01:23:38.251 - because he can say, I'm out the door tomorrow. I mean, he's really doing us a service by saying, I've 01:23:38.251 --> 01:23:47.596 - retired once, but I'll come back and help you. And the other thing is, Chins has become a real problem. 01:23:47.596 --> 01:23:49.214 - The state-funded, 01:23:49.826 --> 01:23:59.947 - DCS, and gave them more people. And they're doing more hearings then. Termination cases, which have 01:23:59.947 --> 01:24:10.067 - unbelievable amounts of information, and you're trying to take someone's child. So they become like 01:24:10.067 --> 01:24:18.366 - a murder case without a jury. And it takes a lot of energy and effort to do that. 01:24:18.690 --> 01:24:26.586 - I will say that. So we can try to do that. And like I say, they don't complain if somebody takes FMLA, 01:24:26.586 --> 01:24:34.406 - somebody has some medical problem. Therefore, our statistics are skewed over. But they don't complain 01:24:34.406 --> 01:24:42.072 - about that. They understand that someone has a medical problem. But then those cases keep going. So 01:24:42.072 --> 01:24:45.982 - we have to kind of parse them out to other people. 01:24:46.562 --> 01:24:53.094 - when that person comes back, then we try to, if they haven't progressed that far, we try to take those 01:24:53.094 --> 01:24:59.754 - cases and put them back. If they progress to a certain state, we just let them go, which means the other 01:24:59.754 --> 01:25:06.350 - people may start to be over. And so it's a constant battle of trying to, it's, the reason it's a battle 01:25:06.350 --> 01:25:13.009 - is because we're so close to that line all the time. If I had five more attorneys, I wouldn't be talking 01:25:13.009 --> 01:25:15.102 - here. I mean, we'd be okay. But, 01:25:15.586 --> 01:25:27.097 - We always run real close to the line you're not to go over. Have all of these positions currently filled? 01:25:27.097 --> 01:25:38.066 - Yes. Yes. Yeah. And is FMLA still a problem? No, that person is back right now. So what I see is one 01:25:38.066 --> 01:25:45.342 - possible issue is that you've got a position that is underutilized 01:25:46.690 --> 01:25:55.114 - because you're allowing that person to provide expertise you don't want to lose? Well, that's not totally 01:25:55.114 --> 01:26:03.060 - true. When that person left, all those cases went to other people. So it hasn't been back that long 01:26:03.060 --> 01:26:10.769 - that he's acquired a full caseload. So if you look at his statistics, he may be down, let's say, 01:26:10.769 --> 01:26:15.934 - I don't know, 70%. And what you don't want to do is go over one. 01:26:16.066 --> 01:26:27.090 - basically. So the cases, we're trying to filter more cases to him so that he goes up and that will hopefully 01:26:27.090 --> 01:26:37.608 - let the other people go down some in total numbers. For example, it may look like he only has 18 cases, 01:26:37.608 --> 01:26:45.598 - but instead of having 18 misdemeanors, he has 18 bigger juvenile felony cases. 01:26:46.658 --> 01:26:54.064 - if that makes sense. Those are weighted heavier than the misdemeanors. You're not putting this into 01:26:54.064 --> 01:27:01.691 - your 2027 budget? No. Okay, thank you. Yeah, we're just showing you that the cases are increasing that 01:27:01.691 --> 01:27:09.097 - we have coming in. We haven't had, we haven't asked for a new attorney in probably eight years. And 01:27:09.097 --> 01:27:15.614 - I think we're just, we're starting to feel that. Our numbers are starting to show that. 01:27:16.258 --> 01:27:24.133 - The other thing I want to be able to show the commission is if they call us or say they're going to 01:27:24.133 --> 01:27:32.323 - write a letter, I'm going to say, I'm already in the process of alerting the council, and we're working 01:27:32.323 --> 01:27:40.514 - on it. I think they'll work with us. With the caseload keeping increasing, we can't do much about that. 01:27:40.514 --> 01:27:45.790 - I have a quick question, and I know Councilor Huck has a question. 01:27:46.146 --> 01:27:53.036 - I know you're being proactive and getting this out here now for the state to say, look, hey, even though 01:27:53.036 --> 01:27:59.927 - we're getting close to the line, we're being very, excuse me, we're being very much proactive and having 01:27:59.927 --> 01:28:06.752 - the conversation with the fiscal body and things like that. My question would be, because of that tight 01:28:06.752 --> 01:28:13.380 - deadline and the 90 day, you know, I'm thinking of all the potential, how long does it normally take 01:28:13.380 --> 01:28:15.742 - on average once a position has been 01:28:16.002 --> 01:28:25.032 - okay by us to go higher, how long does that take you to fill it? Well, we used to have, if I'd advertise 01:28:25.032 --> 01:28:33.632 - a position, we might have five applicants. We have a law school over here, and some of those people 01:28:33.632 --> 01:28:42.490 - are interested. In the last, I would say, a couple of years, if I had a position, I had no applicants. 01:28:42.490 --> 01:28:44.382 - And that's statewide. 01:28:44.610 --> 01:28:53.753 - for whatever reason, and I think they've done some studies on it, and they've come up with some solutions. 01:28:53.753 --> 01:29:02.297 - They're going to provide money. If you want to work and start as a lawyer and work in a small town, 01:29:02.297 --> 01:29:11.098 - Ellisville or Spencer, they will provide certain funds to get you started as a sole practitioner. It's 01:29:11.098 --> 01:29:13.918 - like a scholarship type of deal. 01:29:14.242 --> 01:29:21.877 - They have some other programs. I don't think they've come up with it. One of the problems that they 01:29:21.877 --> 01:29:30.199 - say, and I don't know that this is factual, but a lot of the people that go to IU or Notre Dame or something 01:29:30.199 --> 01:29:37.834 - go out of state to practice. Valparaiso used to have a law school, and a lot of those people stayed 01:29:37.834 --> 01:29:38.750 - in Indiana. 01:29:39.330 --> 01:29:47.507 - So you would get people who wanted, grew up in Bloomington and wanted to practice in Bloomington. But 01:29:47.507 --> 01:29:55.764 - it's been tough lately trying to find every agency I know, whether it's the prosecutor's office or the 01:29:55.764 --> 01:30:04.101 - public defender's offices around the state, are looking for lawyers. They're all short of few. And look 01:30:04.101 --> 01:30:08.670 - at the probation department. They're having trouble too. 01:30:08.898 --> 01:30:16.474 - whatever reason, don't want to work in the criminal justice milieu, let's say. So there are always a 01:30:16.474 --> 01:30:24.200 - few people around that might be interested, and I would hope that I could hire one if I got a position 01:30:24.200 --> 01:30:31.701 - within a month, but that's not guaranteed. But if I could tell the commission, hey, we're over, and 01:30:31.701 --> 01:30:36.126 - they say you need to hire someone, and I say, I'm looking. 01:30:36.642 --> 01:30:44.418 - Give me some suggestion. They're not going to shut us down. I mean, they know we're working on it. Okay. 01:30:44.418 --> 01:30:52.046 - Because that was my concern is, uh-oh, I hear like mayday, mayday, you know, with the 90 days. No, no, 01:30:52.046 --> 01:30:59.525 - no. I don't think that's true. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. Councilor Haug? 01:30:59.525 --> 01:31:03.006 - Yes. Thank you for coming and sharing with us. 01:31:03.330 --> 01:31:10.350 - and reminding us how the situation works in your office and how you have to meet certain guidelines. 01:31:10.350 --> 01:31:17.578 - But indeed, the state will not come down and say, OK, if you don't do it right now, we're going to take 01:31:17.578 --> 01:31:24.598 - all this money away. You have to have a process, and you have to have what you're doing right now is 01:31:24.598 --> 01:31:29.950 - to say, if this should happen, then you've already explained how this works. 01:31:30.306 --> 01:31:39.390 - And so we'd like to also remember that if they got up against it, you can contract out to reduce some 01:31:39.390 --> 01:31:48.474 - of that caseload, not what you want to do, but if you had to do something just for a stopgap measure. 01:31:48.474 --> 01:31:57.559 - So I thank you for coming forward and thank you for not asking for it right now. It helped us be able 01:31:57.559 --> 01:31:59.518 - to try to get to that 01:31:59.650 --> 01:32:07.633 - place where we can give everyone a little bit of a raise. We just don't know yet. I understand that. 01:32:07.633 --> 01:32:15.221 - My people want raises too, so I understand that. Although, you know, the governor decided that, 01:32:15.221 --> 01:32:23.521 - for example, myself, the prosecutor and the chief deputies didn't get a raise last year, we're not going 01:32:23.521 --> 01:32:26.366 - to get a raise this year. So that's 01:32:28.194 --> 01:32:38.874 - He's not going to give any raises this year. But not to higher level executives. There's a statute that 01:32:38.874 --> 01:32:49.657 - says they look at. What? What the level is between. And I don't know who all qualifies, but higher level 01:32:49.657 --> 01:32:58.078 - state executives compared to, say, judges. And if the judges are within a certain 01:32:58.178 --> 01:33:05.864 - range of that, then the governor decides we're not going to give judges any raises, which is true for 01:33:05.864 --> 01:33:13.399 - the last two years. The way it works then, the prosecutors don't get any raise and we don't get any 01:33:13.399 --> 01:33:21.085 - raise because we're connected to what the judges make. So he did decide this year, and I have no idea 01:33:21.085 --> 01:33:27.038 - why, maybe somebody, maybe some of the judges talked to him to give the judges 01:33:27.458 --> 01:33:38.070 - And the chief prosecutors and chief public defenders then, I think $2,500 grant or something. He didn't 01:33:38.070 --> 01:33:48.784 - give him a raise. It's not a raise, but it's a one-time payment, I think. That's in the works. Questions 01:33:48.784 --> 01:33:50.110 - or comments? 01:33:50.210 --> 01:33:58.051 - Yes, Councilor. I was just going to say I appreciate the explanation on this so that truly now we are 01:33:58.051 --> 01:34:05.892 - working on it as we monitor and react and you're not doing it all on your own as we're thinking about 01:34:05.892 --> 01:34:13.887 - it. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I'm glad that we could talk about that. This definitely gives 01:34:13.887 --> 01:34:20.190 - us a lot to chew on as we earlier with the other department like a lot of things. 01:34:20.418 --> 01:34:29.262 - a lot of things to think about for 2027, knowing that you are up against something. Appreciate having 01:34:29.262 --> 01:34:38.107 - that conversation. And last call for any other questions or comments? No? All right. Thank you. Thank 01:34:38.107 --> 01:34:44.350 - you for letting us hire the paralegal. Thank you. All right. Is item F. 01:34:44.706 --> 01:34:51.465 - Council, I move to approve the request of the Council Office to amend the reporting structure of the 01:34:51.465 --> 01:34:58.291 - Health Administrator and the job description. Second. All right. Great. We got a motion and a second, 01:34:58.291 --> 01:35:05.451 - and I'm looking at Ms. Schill to update us on this. Yes, and just as an FYI, in the packet, I accidentally 01:35:05.451 --> 01:35:12.411 - typed that the Health Administrator reports to the Health Administrator. It's supposed to be the Health 01:35:12.411 --> 01:35:14.686 - Officer, so I apologize for that. 01:35:15.042 --> 01:35:22.443 - But as we were going through and we're working on org charts and just making sure that we've got job 01:35:22.443 --> 01:35:29.770 - descriptions correct, we found that error. So it doesn't have to go back to WIS. It's following our 01:35:29.770 --> 01:35:37.757 - org charts. So we just need to, I just need permission to amend the job description to the correct reporting 01:35:37.757 --> 01:35:43.326 - structure, which is the health administrator reports to the health officer. 01:35:44.802 --> 01:35:52.582 - All right, thank you. Any questions? Yes, Councillor Hawke. Right. I read that twice and I thought, 01:35:52.582 --> 01:36:00.750 - I don't understand this. And now I know why I didn't understand it. OK, thanks. All right. Any questions 01:36:00.750 --> 01:36:08.685 - or any other ones? Seeing none. You just eased a lot of people things, I guess, making sure like they 01:36:08.685 --> 01:36:11.486 - read the packet correctly. Yay. OK. 01:36:11.714 --> 01:36:19.258 - If we don't have any other further questions or comments, we'll go to public comment. You can raise 01:36:19.258 --> 01:36:26.877 - your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the room. Seeing none, may we please have 01:36:26.877 --> 01:36:34.420 - a roll call vote? Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? 01:36:34.420 --> 01:36:38.494 - Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. 01:36:38.722 --> 01:36:47.521 - Councillor Iverson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Next up is item G. Council, I move to approve the 01:36:47.521 --> 01:36:56.583 - Council Office request and fund 8953-0000 Local LATCF Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund for 01:36:56.583 --> 01:37:06.878 - an additional appropriation of $162,378.82 in the services category pending Board of Commissioners approval. Second. 01:37:07.970 --> 01:37:16.678 - We got a motion and a second. Yes. Um, so I believe it was at the, um, it was the last meeting of July. 01:37:16.678 --> 01:37:25.219 - There was a discussion with regards to this, uh, fund and we were not able to get it on to the August 01:37:25.219 --> 01:37:33.760 - 8th meeting. So this was, um, the amount of money that's been set aside for this. Um, and I can never 01:37:33.760 --> 01:37:35.518 - remember. It's like, 01:37:37.730 --> 01:37:48.569 - Yeah, local assistance, yeah, tribal, I think. So that's what this is for. I believe that Mary Morgan 01:37:48.569 --> 01:38:00.258 - has reached out to the commissioners, I believe. So this is an appropriation that is pending the commissioner 01:38:00.258 --> 01:38:06.846 - approval. So until they get a contract or something in place. 01:38:08.194 --> 01:38:15.760 - And do we know? I don't know if Miss Morgan wants or knows or if anybody else. Do we know when this 01:38:15.760 --> 01:38:23.478 - will hit their agenda or the commissioners agenda? So pending the contract, which we're still working 01:38:23.478 --> 01:38:31.272 - on, could be as early as Thursday. Oh, this upcoming Thursday. Oh, OK. All right. Well, since you just 01:38:31.272 --> 01:38:37.022 - had the microphone there, did you want to add anything else to any of this? 01:38:38.594 --> 01:38:45.034 - I guess I wanted to talk a little bit about how we're going to look at success for this initiative, 01:38:45.034 --> 01:38:51.732 - which I don't think I touched on the last time I was here. I think most obviously our goal is to reduce 01:38:51.732 --> 01:38:58.236 - the number of unsheltered residents living in our community. So we estimate in Monroe County there's 01:38:58.236 --> 01:39:03.710 - about 150 people who are living outside, whether that's in encampments on the street 01:39:03.938 --> 01:39:11.970 - that you see walking downtown in their cars or other places unfit for human habitation. So we're looking 01:39:11.970 --> 01:39:19.849 - to really try to get that as close to zero as we can in the next couple of years. In addition to that, 01:39:19.849 --> 01:39:28.111 - to improve the quality of life for these individuals through intensive support services and case management 01:39:28.111 --> 01:39:32.318 - as we work with them to really have a plan for a month 01:39:32.642 --> 01:39:40.300 - 13 after the subsidies end for their rental. We also feel like a measure of success is going to be the 01:39:40.300 --> 01:39:48.181 - impact, the local economic impact for costs, especially on the healthcare system and the criminal justice 01:39:48.181 --> 01:39:55.988 - system, which is significant for people who are experiencing homelessness, and we think that's a broader 01:39:55.988 --> 01:40:01.118 - community impact that's going to be positive and that we're going to 01:40:01.794 --> 01:40:09.671 - try to figure out how to measure that, so it's a little trickier. We want to improve perception of our 01:40:09.671 --> 01:40:17.624 - community's public spaces. As you know, there is a perception and, in many ways, a reality that we just 01:40:17.624 --> 01:40:25.348 - are not doing a good job at keeping our public places safe for both people who are in-house but also 01:40:25.348 --> 01:40:26.878 - the general public. 01:40:28.002 --> 01:40:35.879 - And I also think that one benefit that I hope I'll see spill over into other areas is an improved 01:40:35.879 --> 01:40:44.077 - cross-sector collaboration. This initiative brings together multiple entities that are really working 01:40:44.077 --> 01:40:47.614 - not only in funding but in problem solving. 01:40:47.714 --> 01:40:55.667 - to address this community problem. So it's not just on the backs of the county or the city or the service 01:40:55.667 --> 01:41:03.244 - providers, but it's really all of us working together. And I would love to see that model applied to 01:41:03.244 --> 01:41:10.972 - other tough issues as well. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Yes, Councilor Iverson. I mean, the 01:41:10.972 --> 01:41:13.598 - timing of you being here is really 01:41:13.890 --> 01:41:21.187 - Unfortunate or fortunate given the fact that this morning at 6 a.m. The county deployed forces to clear 01:41:21.187 --> 01:41:28.484 - an encampment at one of our properties Reporting by the b-square says about 40 to 50 people were living 01:41:28.484 --> 01:41:35.781 - there. Do we know where those people are this evening? I'm gonna try not to get emotional Yeah, clearly 01:41:35.781 --> 01:41:41.534 - I'm emotional about this too. I it's been a really it's been a very rough day and 01:41:41.922 --> 01:41:49.815 - It's been a rough day for, I know the people who had to leave that area. It's been a rough day for everyone 01:41:49.815 --> 01:41:57.124 - at the county who had to make decisions related to that. It's been a really rough day for our staff 01:41:57.124 --> 01:42:04.798 - and staff at other agencies who've been trying to address some of the trauma that the folks living there 01:42:04.798 --> 01:42:10.206 - are experiencing. It was a situation that had to be addressed, but it is, 01:42:10.690 --> 01:42:23.177 - There are no places for people to go that they will, let me say it this way. Our sheltering system is 01:42:23.177 --> 01:42:35.908 - not sufficient for the needs of our community. There are extreme barriers to housing that people cannot 01:42:35.908 --> 01:42:38.846 - overcome by themselves. 01:42:39.010 --> 01:42:47.656 - And all of that really was evident in a very visible way at the Powerline Thompson encampment. And I 01:42:47.656 --> 01:42:56.217 - don't have a good answer for you. We did have staff out there working to try to encourage people to 01:42:56.217 --> 01:43:04.863 - go into shelter, to try to connect them with other services. But if people were not willing to go to 01:43:04.863 --> 01:43:07.774 - shelter for a variety of reasons, 01:43:08.002 --> 01:43:17.749 - Some had animals that they didn't want to leave. Some were couples that there's no sheltering available 01:43:17.749 --> 01:43:27.122 - for couples without children. And it's just a really challenging situation that this new initiative 01:43:27.122 --> 01:43:31.902 - is trying to prevent from happening in the future. 01:43:32.226 --> 01:43:38.354 - Again, whether you see you being here today as a good thing or a bad thing, given the fact that what 01:43:38.354 --> 01:43:44.482 - happened 6 a.m. this morning happened, I mean, we clearly need more resources. I'm in favor of this. 01:43:44.482 --> 01:43:50.610 - I have my doubts, like you do, about what's going to happen in month 13, but we'll get there when we 01:43:50.610 --> 01:43:55.646 - get there. But for the current commissioners and those who are about to join them, 01:43:55.810 --> 01:44:02.660 - it is really clear that we need to have a much more robust plan. We cannot steal people's stuff, put 01:44:02.660 --> 01:44:09.646 - it at the highway garage, and not have a way for them to get out there to get it. That it's unethical, 01:44:09.646 --> 01:44:16.699 - it's un-moral. We cannot. There's just so many problems. Are we changing the date without giving people 01:44:16.699 --> 01:44:23.752 - a time when we're gonna be there? These are residents in our community. This is wild that this happened 01:44:23.752 --> 01:44:24.702 - this morning. 01:44:24.898 --> 01:44:34.388 - So I thank you for being here and trying to answer the questions the best you can. I'm at loss of words. 01:44:34.388 --> 01:44:43.697 - We need to do better. I understand that it was a really rough decision to make. And I don't think that 01:44:43.697 --> 01:44:52.826 - there were, I don't see answers just as there aren't to any of these situations. So yeah, I do think 01:44:52.826 --> 01:44:54.814 - we need to do better. 01:44:57.666 --> 01:45:05.768 - Well, I think that one thing is abundantly clear. What we have done, we can't continue to keep doing 01:45:05.768 --> 01:45:14.029 - it and expect different results. And I think today is just a reflection of kind of where the community 01:45:14.029 --> 01:45:22.612 - is in trying to figure this out and the frustration of there is absolutely no easy answer between neighbor 01:45:22.612 --> 01:45:26.302 - and between encampment, et cetera. That said, 01:45:26.754 --> 01:45:36.119 - I am choosing to focus on this here that we have before us as a pilot effort to figure out, can we do 01:45:36.119 --> 01:45:45.483 - something different than we've done? Can it follow this clutch method to give us an example? And then 01:45:45.483 --> 01:45:55.582 - I guess the question to you, Mary Morgan, and thank you for being here after your day, is if this works well, 01:45:56.002 --> 01:46:02.649 - theoretically, we'd have county partnered here, city partner here, private sector individuals that want 01:46:02.649 --> 01:46:09.104 - to come here, other not for profits partner here, kind of following the model and it would expand up 01:46:09.104 --> 01:46:15.560 - well beyond the appropriation we have. Am I saying this right? That's right. This appropriation will 01:46:15.560 --> 01:46:22.207 - be significant in that it will unlock some matching funds we have from an organization called Community 01:46:22.207 --> 01:46:22.910 - Solutions. 01:46:23.074 --> 01:46:31.961 - but we are looking at a multi-year, multi-million dollar effort because we also are looking at the entire 01:46:31.961 --> 01:46:40.428 - region. We're gonna be focused initially on Monroe County because it has the largest population, but 01:46:40.428 --> 01:46:48.812 - we are also a regional organization and the region's homelessness impacts our services, so we'll be 01:46:48.812 --> 01:46:51.998 - trying to roll this out more broadly. 01:46:53.314 --> 01:47:02.179 - And is it? When would we know, like? First sex first. First zone, first area one. Is going decently 01:47:02.179 --> 01:47:11.222 - enough, I guess. When when would if someone were saying when will we know should we be replicating on 01:47:11.222 --> 01:47:19.998 - a much larger scale and begging people to get in on it with us? When what's your estimate on that? 01:47:20.962 --> 01:47:30.840 - So we're two weeks into implementation, our pilot first phase. We estimate mid September will be finished 01:47:30.840 --> 01:47:40.812 - with housing people there. And so we are intending to continue rolling out section by section as resources 01:47:40.812 --> 01:47:49.758 - allow. So by mid September, we'll have a good handle on this first phase. Yes, Councilor Henry. 01:47:50.018 --> 01:47:56.005 - Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Mary Morgan, for being here. I'm glad that we're back 01:47:56.005 --> 01:48:01.762 - to this. I want to take a step back from the subject for a minute, which doesn't really involve you 01:48:01.762 --> 01:48:07.691 - as much as I think it does how we go about our business up here and just reiterate some things. I want 01:48:07.691 --> 01:48:13.506 - to also say first, I'm sorry that we haven't had a chance to talk, but also not necessarily sorry in 01:48:13.506 --> 01:48:19.838 - that I think we have to do it in this space when we have a presentation or we're going to commit a six figure 01:48:19.970 --> 01:48:26.766 - appropriation to something that it should be in this room where we have a formal presentation on it. 01:48:26.766 --> 01:48:33.494 - I just maybe want to ask in case I missed it, have we ever had a formal presentation on the program 01:48:33.494 --> 01:48:40.560 - to county council or in this room or at all? I know you've all shared your experiences on the committee, 01:48:40.560 --> 01:48:47.288 - but I can't recall when we've talked about it. I may have missed it. I had some stuff happen when I 01:48:47.288 --> 01:48:49.374 - was here two, three weeks ago. 01:48:49.890 --> 01:48:57.396 - something like that. I didn't have a slide deck, but I did talk about and describe the initiative. Yeah. 01:48:57.396 --> 01:49:04.903 - I want to just say a few things. So I'm going to reiterate my view from a few weeks back. I am concerned 01:49:04.903 --> 01:49:12.123 - about sustainment of this activity. So we can seed it or pilot it if it takes off, which we all hope 01:49:12.123 --> 01:49:17.342 - it will. There is a longer term commitment of this body or the county to 01:49:17.730 --> 01:49:23.627 - funding that, I think, year in and year out, right? I mean, would the idea be that we would, I would 01:49:23.627 --> 01:49:29.875 - presume you would ask for that about same appropriation every year as like a partner delivering government 01:49:29.875 --> 01:49:35.772 - service? I think that's unclear. I think that we would come back to the county at some point, but we 01:49:35.772 --> 01:49:42.078 - would be looking for other resources too, including the community foundation, including the private sector. 01:49:43.138 --> 01:49:49.814 - Okay, but the pass through is to the community foundation, am I right? I just want to make sure I understand 01:49:49.814 --> 01:49:56.061 - where the actual dollars go. Is that the intention that it goes to community foundation and comes to? 01:49:56.061 --> 01:50:02.246 - So this will go to heading home. Community foundation does our back office, so their controller does 01:50:02.246 --> 01:50:08.616 - our books. All right. So I think first step is thinking long term, if that's our investment. I've tried 01:50:08.616 --> 01:50:11.678 - to think about this as sort of the way the county 01:50:11.810 --> 01:50:17.844 - has contracted with Centerstone or Health Net to deliver a larger amount of money to address a community 01:50:17.844 --> 01:50:23.590 - need and deliver that on behalf of government. I think that's where my brain is with it now after a 01:50:23.590 --> 01:50:29.797 - few weeks of thinking about it. I will say, though, we've had, you know, when we went through our community 01:50:29.797 --> 01:50:32.670 - service grant program, the Sophia Travis program, 01:50:32.770 --> 01:50:39.778 - We had NGOs applying and filling out a multi-page presentation, a formal presentation for about 1% of 01:50:39.778 --> 01:50:46.855 - what we're voting on tonight, right? They did a lot of work for $1,200 or $1,600 for this. And so it's 01:50:46.855 --> 01:50:53.863 - with that in mind about if I were another NGO in the community even engaged in this space, I might be 01:50:53.863 --> 01:51:01.214 - asking, well, you know, how to can I find my way to the 160-something thousand as a delivery, having that, 01:51:01.410 --> 01:51:07.690 - that a little more transparent. So again, it's not about the value or the proposition, the mission, 01:51:07.690 --> 01:51:13.783 - the importance of it. It's kind of the process question, which I know I tend to ask around here. 01:51:13.783 --> 01:51:20.126 - But for me, anyway, I'm not going to stand in the way of something like this. Clearly, I think today 01:51:20.126 --> 01:51:26.846 - shows that we are in a very gray, opaque space of trying to figure our way to a solution in the community. 01:51:27.010 --> 01:51:32.992 - I've long maintained that these encampment clearing should not be a law enforcement centric activity, 01:51:32.992 --> 01:51:39.150 - but should be housed in social services and emergency management and people that can manage that better, 01:51:39.150 --> 01:51:45.249 - including your work. When we center it around law enforcement with those objectives, it changes things. 01:51:45.249 --> 01:51:51.231 - I'm concerned about those unhoused today. They're going to have to find a way to the county garage to 01:51:51.231 --> 01:51:55.806 - find their belongings, which is out my way, and the buses don't run that way. 01:51:56.002 --> 01:52:03.048 - But again, I'm not gonna stand in the way of this, but I do want us as a council to think about is we're 01:52:03.048 --> 01:52:09.826 - looking toward budget and if we're going to put a marker down on this being a program that we may be 01:52:09.826 --> 01:52:16.739 - committing ourselves to a 10 year or 12 year multimillion dollar activity to get those 120 to 50, 150. 01:52:16.739 --> 01:52:23.919 - The number of the current population. Yeah, 150. 10 times what we're looking at tonight. This gets piloted 01:52:23.919 --> 01:52:24.926 - out, so I feel 01:52:25.474 --> 01:52:33.258 - that should at least be voiced this evening. Thank you, Madam President. Could I just give a quick response? 01:52:33.258 --> 01:52:40.542 - I think one of the differences between this initiative and something like the Sophia Travis grants is 01:52:40.542 --> 01:52:41.470 - that we have 01:52:41.602 --> 01:52:48.967 - participation and decision making by the entities that we're asking for funding from. So in our leadership 01:52:48.967 --> 01:52:55.850 - team, we have two representatives from the county, a representative from the city, a representative 01:52:55.850 --> 01:53:03.422 - from the chamber, the community foundation, IU Health, IU, the South Central Housing Network, the Bloomington 01:53:03.422 --> 01:53:10.718 - Township Trustee, and a couple of other service providers. So I think that's really what I would say as a 01:53:11.010 --> 01:53:20.285 - difference between the other funding opportunities there are is that this is a leadership driven 01:53:20.285 --> 01:53:29.847 - collaborative initiative with decision making that lies collectively. The question for you, because 01:53:29.847 --> 01:53:36.158 - I know we got an email from somebody from the business community. 01:53:36.354 --> 01:53:44.649 - And I guess because I know the business community is deeply affected with our house and whatnot. Sometimes 01:53:44.649 --> 01:53:52.557 - we talk a lot about the problems but are never coming to the table with solutions. And so my question 01:53:52.557 --> 01:54:00.387 - to you would be, are there any business leaders and whatnot in the community that is willing to step 01:54:00.387 --> 01:54:06.046 - in and fund and help and do what is needed to help with this initiative? 01:54:06.882 --> 01:54:14.281 - So we have Eric Spoonmore, the Chamber CEO on our leadership team. He's convening a group of businesses 01:54:14.281 --> 01:54:21.680 - next month that we'll be speaking to about this initiative. Tina Peterson from the Community Foundation 01:54:21.680 --> 01:54:29.079 - is working with a couple of other, I guess I don't feel like I'm at liberty to talk about specifically, 01:54:29.079 --> 01:54:35.838 - but a couple of other businesses that are looking to significantly invest in this, and I think 01:54:35.970 --> 01:54:44.434 - from what we've learned from Clutch is that communities will step up with participation by the business 01:54:44.434 --> 01:54:52.654 - community after the government shows that leadership. And that has to be multiple sources, that it's 01:54:52.654 --> 01:55:00.873 - not going to work if it's just the county or just the city or just the business sector or nonprofits 01:55:00.873 --> 01:55:03.966 - seeking grant funding. So I do, I am, 01:55:04.098 --> 01:55:11.539 - optimistic about funding from the business community. I think there is skepticism. There's legitimate 01:55:11.539 --> 01:55:18.834 - skepticism from many sectors, including the services sector. But that's the plan. I'm glad to hear, 01:55:18.834 --> 01:55:26.274 - because I think other government entities are looking at who's going to do what first. And it's like, 01:55:26.274 --> 01:55:29.630 - it doesn't matter. Somebody just needs to do. 01:55:29.858 --> 01:55:36.219 - But also, at the same time, we need to make sure that we have that funding mechanism put in place. And 01:55:36.219 --> 01:55:42.517 - I'm glad we have something like this pending. You know, this goes through with the commissioners, and 01:55:42.517 --> 01:55:49.001 - I would really urge them. However, we do this tonight. I'm very much supportive of it, and we'll support 01:55:49.001 --> 01:55:55.362 - it, but would urge our commissioners to do the same. So thank you. Did I say, oh, Councilor Hock, your 01:55:55.362 --> 01:55:56.350 - hand was right. 01:55:56.578 --> 01:56:03.437 - some things I have grave concern about. And one was when I heard, well, it's going to be a regional 01:56:03.437 --> 01:56:10.434 - effort. Well, we all know what happens when the regions get together. They go, oh, let's send them to 01:56:10.434 --> 01:56:17.293 - Monroe County. They've got all the services. And whatever we do, we add to the services. We do more 01:56:17.293 --> 01:56:24.427 - and more and more. And we get more and more and more to serve. That, I think, is a real concern because 01:56:24.427 --> 01:56:26.142 - there is a limit to what 01:56:26.242 --> 01:56:34.041 - the local people can really come up with. There really is a limit. I know everybody thinks there's a 01:56:34.041 --> 01:56:41.840 - money machine back there in the back, but if we set ourselves up for this, we have to recognize that 01:56:41.840 --> 01:56:48.094 - people might expect the county to continue on next year and the year thereafter. 01:56:48.514 --> 01:56:55.310 - And to do that, that means we're going to look at our employees who said they're not making enough money 01:56:55.310 --> 01:57:02.042 - to survive and we're going to say, we're going to take it from you because we'll give it to the others. 01:57:02.042 --> 01:57:08.515 - Or, yeah, I know, nobody has to agree with the word I say, but at least I live in the United States 01:57:08.515 --> 01:57:13.758 - of America and I get to say it. I just think that we have to be cautious because 01:57:13.890 --> 01:57:22.613 - There is a limit to how much money that can come up with that. The other thing I've asked for, or at 01:57:22.613 --> 01:57:31.423 - least implied more than once, is a full accounting for all the millions that have gone into this. And 01:57:31.423 --> 01:57:40.319 - what are we getting for the millions? We still have unhoused people. It seems like we could have built 01:57:40.319 --> 01:57:43.774 - hotels by this time. So I have concern. 01:57:44.066 --> 01:57:50.310 - Okay. Miss Morgan, I know you want to say something, but I'll step in and say that. And I'm glad we 01:57:50.310 --> 01:57:56.304 - have all the freedom in this 250th year of this country that we can say the things that we say. 01:57:56.304 --> 01:58:02.611 - But I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think I heard you say this, or this is also something that I 01:58:02.611 --> 01:58:04.734 - heard with the clearing up today. 01:58:04.898 --> 01:58:11.985 - The whole issue of our own house, there's so many different layers. And you just can't just say, hey, 01:58:11.985 --> 01:58:19.212 - we have this room here for you. Let's go. And I think I just heard you say for multiple reasons. People 01:58:19.212 --> 01:58:26.299 - had pets. People have couples that aren't allowed to go into shelters. There's also the mental health 01:58:26.299 --> 01:58:33.456 - and substance use component to all of these things. There's many, many, many reasons why people decide 01:58:33.456 --> 01:58:34.846 - not to choose that. 01:58:34.978 --> 01:58:42.909 - But the thing is, we have to have those options there for people who want to be able to go and do that 01:58:42.909 --> 01:58:51.226 - to say, yes, let's go ahead and do that. Emma? The vast majority of people, when there are housing options, 01:58:51.226 --> 01:58:59.157 - they want housing. And a lot of the people that we're seeing that are chronically homeless or that are 01:58:59.157 --> 01:59:00.158 - unsheltered, 01:59:00.482 --> 01:59:07.524 - or have so many barriers that it's really impossible, especially in this housing market, to get housing. 01:59:07.524 --> 01:59:14.231 - So I think that's the fact. Okay. Yeah. And I also think that we can walk, council, we can walk and 01:59:14.231 --> 01:59:21.138 - chew gum at the same time. Absolutely. We have a system right here that our auditor had taught or told 01:59:21.138 --> 01:59:27.912 - us well where when we were having conversations related to trying to see if we can fund this through 01:59:27.912 --> 01:59:29.790 - art book because, you know, 01:59:30.530 --> 01:59:37.126 - Almost at the end of the month, we've got to figure out ARPA, just a plug. But we have this funding 01:59:37.126 --> 01:59:43.920 - mechanism right here, right now, that is available to us that we are able to use. Can't use it for any 01:59:43.920 --> 01:59:50.583 - other thing else, but this is something like in terms of employee raises and things like that, since 01:59:50.583 --> 01:59:51.902 - that was mentioned. 01:59:52.098 --> 01:59:58.660 - this is something that we can do right now. And then of course, it would be up to us to figure out whether 01:59:58.660 --> 02:00:05.038 - or not later on down the road for us to do that. So if this is something that we can look back and say, 02:00:05.038 --> 02:00:11.354 - we had this funda mechanism, we were able to do this right now because there is the problem right now. 02:00:11.354 --> 02:00:17.487 - We just heard that there are a lot of things that happened today that make people feel all in their 02:00:17.487 --> 02:00:21.534 - feelings. And if there is a way for us to do this right now, man, 02:00:21.666 --> 02:00:28.335 - I would hope that in the next year or two that we can look back and say that it was our initiatives 02:00:28.335 --> 02:00:35.271 - and the funding that we gave for this that helped try to get those numbers down. That is it. So I don't 02:00:35.271 --> 02:00:39.006 - want people to look at, oh, you know, hey, we have this 02:00:39.202 --> 02:00:44.706 - funding mechanism here and we just heard other departments come in and state their case about whether 02:00:44.706 --> 02:00:50.211 - or not, you know, they want to have, they're losing people with XYZ and, oh, you gave this money over 02:00:50.211 --> 02:00:55.715 - here, but you didn't give it over here. Again, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. That's what 02:00:55.715 --> 02:01:01.220 - budget season is all about and we can look at all of these different things because the folks elected 02:01:01.220 --> 02:01:04.350 - us to do that. So that's all I'm going to say about that. 02:01:05.346 --> 02:01:12.606 - Councilor Decker. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. That's OK. I just wanted to respond to Council Member 02:01:12.606 --> 02:01:20.079 - Hawks comment about the regional issue. And I apologize that I wasn't clear about that. We're not asking 02:01:20.079 --> 02:01:27.267 - for money from Monroe County to fund this initiative in other other counties. We intend to go to the 02:01:27.267 --> 02:01:33.886 - leadership of other counties. And once we have proof of concept here, talk to them about the 02:01:34.082 --> 02:01:43.129 - the needs of their communities and how they can help support this initiative, because I think that that 02:01:43.129 --> 02:01:52.525 - is an important thing to remember, that other counties do have similar challenges and not as many services. 02:01:52.525 --> 02:02:01.572 - And so hoping that we can get people to step up through the leadership that Monroe County shows. I will 02:02:01.572 --> 02:02:03.486 - say this. I know that 02:02:03.842 --> 02:02:10.078 - First of all, I wholeheartedly support this because, A, I've joined in on the leadership team to assist 02:02:10.078 --> 02:02:16.375 - this. I believe collaborative approaches is the only way we're going to get through most of the problems 02:02:16.375 --> 02:02:17.214 - that we have. 02:02:17.442 --> 02:02:24.222 - I also believe that we're often all pitted against each other in multiple different ways. And this is 02:02:24.222 --> 02:02:31.136 - an area where we need to pick one of two options, gripe about it, or do something about it. And I think 02:02:31.136 --> 02:02:37.850 - this is doing something about it and trying to be better informed on how we do it. I think sometimes 02:02:37.850 --> 02:02:44.630 - it looks like there's an option for a better solution than this out there. But I just don't see who's 02:02:44.630 --> 02:02:45.694 - coming to help. 02:02:46.530 --> 02:02:55.637 - this to me makes sense as a project to try something different in a collaborative way to get folks moving 02:02:55.637 --> 02:03:04.315 - into a different solution. Because I think what we saw happen today, if you go six days forward, six 02:03:04.315 --> 02:03:12.907 - days back, we're probably just talking about days of difference and the same action taken. When you 02:03:12.907 --> 02:03:15.742 - talk to the neighbors out there, 02:03:15.842 --> 02:03:22.527 - which I have. I've driven through there three to four times a day for two and a half, three weeks or 02:03:22.527 --> 02:03:29.544 - so. That situation, not sustainable. When you talk to folks in the camp, the situation's not sustainable. 02:03:29.544 --> 02:03:36.362 - How it was handled today, there are literally no good options for this. Literally no good options. And 02:03:36.362 --> 02:03:43.246 - there's no cavalry coming. Now at the Chamber's event earlier, what was it, two weeks ago, the governor 02:03:43.246 --> 02:03:44.702 - talked about regional 02:03:45.794 --> 02:03:52.899 - behavioral health ideas. And so that's the first time I've heard that come from someone not named Matt 02:03:52.899 --> 02:03:59.865 - Pierce. And I appreciate that it's someone with authority because that would be a, for some of this, 02:03:59.865 --> 02:04:06.142 - that would be a Calvary assistance towards doing something different than what we've done. 02:04:06.274 --> 02:04:11.798 - Right now, I feel like what happens is everybody just kind of looks and says, well, look at them. They've 02:04:11.798 --> 02:04:17.113 - got all these problems. Nobody. I don't know how they do it, but I love the restaurants. What a great 02:04:17.113 --> 02:04:21.438 - town, good sports team. The reality is our only solution is going to come from us. 02:04:21.602 --> 02:04:28.686 - doing, trying things, holding feet to the fire on how could we have done it better, not just saying, 02:04:28.686 --> 02:04:35.840 - oh, let's see if Mary Morgan can hit this three-pointer, but actually saying, Mary Morgan, how can we 02:04:35.840 --> 02:04:43.064 - help you and that person and this partner to do it until we get better options that come? We also have 02:04:43.064 --> 02:04:48.254 - to recognize that the housing buy-in here is at country club proportions. 02:04:48.994 --> 02:04:55.491 - You can there's no level of income that is safely able to buy into what they want to buy into. And this 02:04:55.491 --> 02:05:01.987 - is it's not getting not getting any better. I mean, our own planning department basically told us today 02:05:01.987 --> 02:05:08.484 - that, you know, they administer a housing process for a county in which they struggle to afford to live 02:05:08.484 --> 02:05:15.230 - in. That should be on the face for everybody that took an oath of office and everybody that cares about it. 02:05:15.906 --> 02:05:23.297 - And so rather than do what we always do here, which is gripe, create Facebook groups and take pictures 02:05:23.297 --> 02:05:30.615 - of people, let's do something and try to get some metric from it so that we can say a little bit more 02:05:30.615 --> 02:05:37.934 - doing here might help us move forward in some way that's positive, because what we're doing now sucks 02:05:37.934 --> 02:05:44.894 - and nobody likes it. And we can't stay here because there's literally no good options with that. 02:05:51.202 --> 02:06:05.247 - Okay, Councillor Wilks. Thank you. Things in my head. Thank you for being here today. I did want to 02:06:05.247 --> 02:06:18.590 - point out that another group of people in our business community who have made a lot of impact 02:06:19.010 --> 02:06:28.934 - have been some of the landlords that you all have engaged with. And without them, this particular initiative 02:06:28.934 --> 02:06:38.221 - would not work. So I just wanted to include them in that business community. Absolutely. Yeah. And in 02:06:38.221 --> 02:06:47.326 - terms of looking at some of the outcomes, I would encourage anybody interested in getting more data 02:06:47.842 --> 02:06:57.699 - as well as stories about what's going on with Heading Home and your initiatives to go to the website 02:06:57.699 --> 02:07:08.434 - headinghomeindiana.org. They have a dashboard, a data dashboard there that does provide a lot of information. 02:07:08.434 --> 02:07:15.070 - So I just threw that out there as well. There's been a lot of work. 02:07:18.050 --> 02:07:26.518 - you house, another person comes into the community sometimes. So it can feel like we're not gaining 02:07:26.518 --> 02:07:35.071 - as much traction. But in reality, with certain target populations, the veterans in particular, we've 02:07:35.071 --> 02:07:43.540 - made a lot of progress. And I won't sit here and cite everything, because the issue at hand is this 02:07:43.540 --> 02:07:47.774 - appropriation, which I think I very much support. 02:07:47.938 --> 02:07:58.245 - Um, however, as a member of your board, I'm going to have to recuse myself from voting on the appropriation. 02:07:58.245 --> 02:08:08.552 - So, um, I just want to say thank you to my colleagues are willing to support this. I think it is a fantastic 02:08:08.552 --> 02:08:17.630 - investment in a hopeful initiative, and it puts us in front of some other community leaders who 02:08:17.730 --> 02:08:27.278 - I hope will join us as we move forward with this program. I just want to say that I really appreciate 02:08:27.278 --> 02:08:36.639 - what you're doing and what's been of the streets to home initiative. About a day and a half of that 02:08:36.639 --> 02:08:45.438 - workshop you did and lightning and so inspiring to think that we could make effective change. 02:08:53.890 --> 02:08:59.857 - eat the microphone. We'll take care of that. OK. So I really also want to say that I like the idea. 02:08:59.857 --> 02:09:05.824 - I've thought for a very long time. I've been involved in social issues in this community for a very 02:09:05.824 --> 02:09:11.851 - long time. And I've thought for a very long time that this should be a regional approach. And I like 02:09:11.851 --> 02:09:18.057 - the idea. You're already talking about going to area counties or whatever regions you're talking about. 02:09:18.057 --> 02:09:22.174 - But I've also thought about, and I echo Councilor Deckard's comment, 02:09:22.306 --> 02:09:28.376 - It should be, I've thought for years that it should be a state funded issue. I mean, as some of you 02:09:28.376 --> 02:09:34.689 - may or may not remember, we used to have county homes, right? We don't have those anymore. I have asked 02:09:34.689 --> 02:09:41.062 - for oodles of years where all that money went, right? It went for something else. It didn't go for this. 02:09:41.062 --> 02:09:47.678 - So now we have this issue and I'm heartened to see that we're making progress on it and I like the fact that 02:09:47.938 --> 02:09:56.171 - We've saw numbers from Indianapolis, what they've done there with theirs. I mean, that's encouraging. 02:09:56.171 --> 02:10:04.726 - 200, as I remember, right? That's nothing to sneeze at. So I'm hopeful that we can have numbers to report 02:10:04.726 --> 02:10:13.120 - on some level at some time in the future, and I look forward to that. All right. I think we've all said 02:10:13.120 --> 02:10:16.510 - something on there, so I appreciate that. 02:10:17.410 --> 02:10:26.756 - without seeing any other further questions from Council on this item. We'll move on to public comment. 02:10:26.756 --> 02:10:35.830 - If there's public comment, you can raise your hand via Teams, or you can come to the podium here in 02:10:35.830 --> 02:10:45.086 - the room. And seeing none, can we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor Wilts? 02:10:48.034 --> 02:11:02.775 - I have to abstain. What did you say? I have to abstain from the vote? Abstain. Councillor Henry? Abstain. 02:11:02.775 --> 02:11:16.542 - Councillor Deckard? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. 02:11:18.530 --> 02:11:48.030 - motion passes majority. Four. To Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. 02:11:48.162 --> 02:11:57.696 - And so now we are on the amended portion where we are moving items up. So we are on items 9A, which 02:11:57.696 --> 02:12:07.610 - we will look to the auditor for her presentation on Gateway, which we all love, insert sarcasm so much. 02:12:07.610 --> 02:12:16.286 - Before we do, yes. Do you suppose we might be able to have a health break? Oh, sure. Well. 02:12:16.578 --> 02:12:28.935 - Before we get into that, why don't we reconvene back at seven, let's come back at 725, and then we'll 02:12:28.935 --> 02:12:41.170 - go into that. Yep. So, 725. All right, so let's go ahead and jump back in. Thank you, thank you. And 02:12:41.170 --> 02:12:44.926 - we are starting back up again. 02:12:45.122 --> 02:12:52.370 - And I'll note for the record that counselors Hawk and Decker have left the building. So that being said, 02:12:52.370 --> 02:12:59.342 - we're going to go back to the auditor for her budget 2.0 gateway presentation. Thank you. Thank you, 02:12:59.342 --> 02:13:06.590 - counsel. I'm not going to take too much time this evening, but I want to give you a brief budget update. 02:13:06.722 --> 02:13:13.834 - And then just quickly take you, refresh you on budget 1.0, and then that will kind of help with showing 02:13:13.834 --> 02:13:19.646 - you budget 2.0 with what I can anyway, with what's been populated. So just to begin. 02:13:21.314 --> 02:13:28.712 - We have completed in my office the CNAF process. That deadline was August 1. We made the deadline with 02:13:28.712 --> 02:13:35.965 - everything going on. There were some glitches and some issues. Some counties didn't make that, so we 02:13:35.965 --> 02:13:43.579 - pushed through. We got there. We're in a good place. It has not yet been approved by the DLGF. Apparently 02:13:43.579 --> 02:13:48.606 - there's one employee reproving approving these for the entire. State. 02:13:48.706 --> 02:13:54.367 - is my understanding. So they're very busy. They're overwhelmed. There's a lot of changes everybody's 02:13:54.367 --> 02:13:59.971 - working through. I have no doubt that it will be passed with flying colors. Usually we just have to 02:13:59.971 --> 02:14:05.744 - answer some questions when they're kind of doing their audit and their formal review. So we're waiting 02:14:05.744 --> 02:14:11.573 - for that to occur. But just an update on that step. Moving on from that, I've been working closely with 02:14:11.573 --> 02:14:13.086 - your office and your team. 02:14:13.186 --> 02:14:22.085 - And all the budgets have been entered in budget projection software, allow software. I know that council 02:14:22.085 --> 02:14:26.238 - team has also entered our advertisement amounts. 02:14:26.434 --> 02:14:33.761 - After conferring with leadership team, we determined we would give you max flexibility. So we went with 02:14:33.761 --> 02:14:40.806 - a 40% increase in each category for each fund, just in case you move things around like we did last 02:14:40.806 --> 02:14:47.993 - year. The only exception to that was for the edit fund, where we did $10 million per category, again, 02:14:47.993 --> 02:14:55.038 - to give you maximum flexibility. So then I am going to go back to the certified net assessed value. 02:14:55.490 --> 02:15:04.245 - As anticipated, we did have a decrease from 2026 to 2027. It was a reduction of about 21.8 million. 02:15:04.245 --> 02:15:13.000 - Now, we know that with the SB1 changes, that's to be expected. And that's going to kind of continue 02:15:13.000 --> 02:15:21.055 - through 2031 as the deductions continue to be phased in. So we can expect that to continue. 02:15:21.055 --> 02:15:24.382 - Not as significant. It will decrease. 02:15:24.802 --> 02:15:32.298 - still going to have some changes there. Okay. So then actually getting to where we are with the gateway 02:15:32.298 --> 02:15:39.577 - budget process, my team and I have been working through populating the information in the new budget 02:15:39.577 --> 02:15:47.001 - 2.0. It's beautiful compared to what we're used to working with with 1.0. However, there's never going 02:15:47.001 --> 02:15:51.614 - to be a new process without glitches. For example, when we were 02:15:51.810 --> 02:16:01.279 - Auditing additional appropriations in the new software, we found that some of the information that we 02:16:01.279 --> 02:16:11.306 - added to Gateway and that was approved by the DLGF did not populate. In fact, it had disappeared completely 02:16:11.306 --> 02:16:13.534 - from the State Gateway. 02:16:13.666 --> 02:16:22.760 - They, it's a known issue, they're aware of it. So we just had to kind of have a work around. So we've 02:16:22.760 --> 02:16:29.982 - since done that. So now I'm going to take you through here, if you bear with me. 02:16:49.826 --> 02:16:53.022 - giving me what I want to share, Michelle. Can you help by chance? 02:17:16.418 --> 02:17:23.441 - So this is the budget 1.0. So this is what we use for the 2026 budget. This should look familiar to 02:17:23.441 --> 02:17:30.605 - you. So we can move around in here, enter the information as we see fit. That's the old version. Then 02:17:30.605 --> 02:17:37.979 - going back to budget 2.0, the new version here. I have to log in multiple times. So completely different 02:17:37.979 --> 02:17:44.862 - format. You have to go in order, which is actually helpful. It kind of helps you not miss a step. 02:17:45.186 --> 02:17:53.024 - But there's a unit set up where we're adding like board and council members. There's unit questions 02:17:53.024 --> 02:18:01.096 - that we answer annually just so they can kind of get a feel for what the county is thinking as far as, 02:18:01.096 --> 02:18:09.091 - you know, anticipated additionals. If we're going to potentially have a new bond, that sort of thing. 02:18:09.091 --> 02:18:13.950 - There's an option to like upload files. We can add new funds. 02:18:14.146 --> 02:18:28.095 - auto-defaults to how they want us to use the net AV, their recommended percentages. And then we get 02:18:28.095 --> 02:18:40.510 - into the actual budget form. So the current year financial worksheet is the most changed 02:18:40.930 --> 02:18:47.168 - form that we've been working with. So what's nice is, like I mentioned, it auto-populates these additional 02:18:47.168 --> 02:18:53.580 - appropriations. And once all the glitches are worked out, it's going to be a really nice tool that everything 02:18:53.580 --> 02:18:59.527 - kind of flows through naturally from what we're already doing throughout the year when we enter these 02:18:59.527 --> 02:19:05.823 - into the gateway system. So that is really nice. And again, if you need me to slow down or pause somewhere, 02:19:05.823 --> 02:19:08.446 - if you have a question, please just stop me. 02:19:16.034 --> 02:19:24.127 - This is where we're adding in the June 30th balances, for example. So just another piece of that. Again, 02:19:24.127 --> 02:19:29.214 - you're going in order here and we're populating this information. 02:19:29.442 --> 02:19:35.077 - We're at the point where we are, and that would be down here a little bit further. There's the debt 02:19:35.077 --> 02:19:40.937 - worksheet, which is familiar to you. But we're at the point where we're ready to roll budgets. However, 02:19:40.937 --> 02:19:46.685 - we were waiting. We should have that done later this week, but we were waiting for your conversation, 02:19:46.685 --> 02:19:52.658 - which is next on the agenda, just to see if that would assist us so we don't have to enter as many things 02:19:52.658 --> 02:19:58.462 - by hand manually, which is beneficial because it's kind of a control if we can just export and import. 02:19:58.786 --> 02:20:05.344 - Yeah, I just wanted to kind of make you aware and familiar with this new system. You should all have 02:20:05.344 --> 02:20:11.706 - access. I think I've given you all access so you can view it. If you don't, feel free to call me, 02:20:11.706 --> 02:20:18.459 - pop in. I can help you. My team can help you. But we want you to be familiar and to be able to utilize. 02:20:18.459 --> 02:20:25.341 - Thank you. Yeah, I have one more thing to show you. But I see, do you want me to answer a question first? 02:20:25.341 --> 02:20:27.678 - It's up to the president. Go ahead. 02:20:28.386 --> 02:20:56.382 - I'm going to stop sharing and then reshare one more thing. 02:20:57.410 --> 02:21:05.170 - This is just a template. It's not been audited. It's not completely filled out yet. But this is the 02:21:05.170 --> 02:21:13.086 - template that we are going to use to update you on where we are as far as the budget. So we have that 02:21:13.086 --> 02:21:21.001 - simple calculation that we used a little bit last year. But then we want you to really concentrate on 02:21:21.001 --> 02:21:22.398 - these levy funds. 02:21:22.690 --> 02:21:30.220 - Okay, so this will give you some, it will give you the minimum fund balance, the internal minimum fund 02:21:30.220 --> 02:21:38.116 - balance information that we want to utilize. And it will also give you the historical and current certified 02:21:38.116 --> 02:21:45.572 - net assessed value and just kind of help you see the flow and where we anticipate ending up as far as 02:21:45.572 --> 02:21:49.374 - positive, negative per fund. Where is this? Pardon? 02:21:51.650 --> 02:21:59.343 - It's in my email right now. I haven't shared this because it's not yet fully vetted or populated or 02:21:59.343 --> 02:22:07.420 - audited. But I just wanted to show you the format. So when you see it, you'll know what it is. So that's 02:22:07.420 --> 02:22:15.728 - all I have for tonight, but a lot more to come next week. Okay. Thank you very much for that. And Councilor 02:22:15.728 --> 02:22:20.190 - Iverson. Could you navigate back to Gateway for a second? 02:22:21.282 --> 02:22:31.702 - please. Absolutely. One moment. I have to log in again. I think I'm already there, so we're okay. Okay. 02:22:31.702 --> 02:22:41.722 - So once you get everything rolled up, where can council find the four B's for each of the funds? So 02:22:41.722 --> 02:22:50.238 - that's very important, yes. Because the budget information hasn't been rolled yet, I 02:22:50.370 --> 02:22:59.288 - I think it populated anyway last year's information, so let me take you down here. It's not letting 02:22:59.288 --> 02:23:08.206 - me there yet because we haven't rolled the actual budget, and I'm sorry, it goes in order. But yes, 02:23:08.206 --> 02:23:18.462 - it is at the, I'm gonna go back to the menu. So it is going to be down below under the budget advertisement steps. 02:23:19.138 --> 02:23:26.386 - Okay. Okay. So we can have another mini session if council president and leadership is agreeable. So 02:23:26.386 --> 02:23:33.849 - I can actually show you more once we have that information imported. Maybe we could do that. That first 02:23:33.849 --> 02:23:41.025 - night about that sounds great. Thank you. The menu options. There's a lot and it's all new and it's 02:23:41.025 --> 02:23:48.990 - kind of difficult to know like which one should I drill down into because four B's appear in a lot of them and 02:23:49.122 --> 02:23:57.398 - Like you said, it's not a real deal. Yeah, I completely understand. And you all know how to get a hold 02:23:57.398 --> 02:24:05.754 - of me. I'm happy to work on this one-on-one with you, or you can call me any time, and I'll just answer 02:24:05.754 --> 02:24:14.110 - questions. So whatever works, just let me know. Any other questions or comments for the auditor on this 02:24:14.110 --> 02:24:17.886 - item? I'm sure we look forward to seeing that. 02:24:18.530 --> 02:24:26.705 - your spreadsheet as we update everything in real time as we go through nights, multiple nights of budget. 02:24:26.705 --> 02:24:34.957 - Yay. All right, it's getting close. Okay, next up is item B, which is the discussion and possible approval 02:24:34.957 --> 02:24:42.593 - of COLA. Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of a 2027 COLA rate. Second. 02:24:42.593 --> 02:24:46.526 - All right, we got a motion and a second, Michelle. 02:24:47.298 --> 02:25:00.132 - We've talked about this before. Back in May, I brought to you what the CPI recommends that we have done 02:25:00.132 --> 02:25:10.622 - historically has been the CPI from December of 2025. And so that percentage was 2.7. 02:25:10.914 --> 02:25:20.843 - We did get a letter from FSG, who has reviewed our budget reports and all of our information. And with 02:25:20.843 --> 02:25:30.580 - that large report that he gave us, said that we could handle a 2% COLA. So we're coming tonight, the 02:25:30.580 --> 02:25:40.702 - auditor and myself, we would like to have a decision with regards to where are we going to move forward. 02:25:41.442 --> 02:25:50.456 - Because if we move forward with no cola right at this moment, if you decide later on to give the cola, 02:25:50.456 --> 02:25:59.819 - that is a lot of hand changes that we have to do. Because once it gets into Gateway after the advertising, 02:25:59.819 --> 02:26:08.746 - we have to manually go in and do a lot of changes. So I just need some feedback on how you want us to 02:26:08.746 --> 02:26:10.846 - proceed with regards to 02:26:11.266 --> 02:26:18.864 - budgets and with regards to cola. If I may, um, financial solutions group provided a letter with their 02:26:18.864 --> 02:26:26.610 - recommendation and it's in your packet. Did you, I'm sorry if you mentioned that. Thank you. I can flash 02:26:26.610 --> 02:26:34.356 - that on the screen if you want to see it. And in the meantime, it looks like counselor. So you mentioned 02:26:34.356 --> 02:26:38.782 - there would need to be a lot of changes if we didn't do it. 02:26:39.842 --> 02:26:50.023 - what if we make changes who want to change that? Is that the same? We work for you and we will gladly 02:26:50.023 --> 02:27:00.103 - entertain any changes that you make. It is labor intensive because it's line by line and then it has 02:27:00.103 --> 02:27:09.086 - to be audited and reviewed, but that's why we're here and we will do that. Best practice, 02:27:09.186 --> 02:27:16.154 - Ideally, if we're able to make a decision, that would be best overall for for everyone just to help 02:27:16.154 --> 02:27:23.121 - with mistakes, et cetera. Regardless, the changes are the issue, no matter whether we set something 02:27:23.121 --> 02:27:30.089 - now and change it or if we don't do anything and change it, right? Yeah, it's just the mass changes 02:27:30.089 --> 02:27:36.638 - that are difficult, you know, when we're going line by line for 600 employees. Council Henry. 02:27:37.634 --> 02:27:44.447 - President and thank you, Brie, as we're getting into this, too, and Kim. So I know we have a really 02:27:44.447 --> 02:27:51.532 - rough draft of all funds in at this point for the budget for 27. And I don't want to give away too much 02:27:51.532 --> 02:27:58.821 - here, but I'm just trying to look at where we are that before COLA, there's about a $15 million difference 02:27:58.821 --> 02:28:05.566 - between what was adopted and what's been proposed. Is that the way I'm seeing this sum total? Yes. 02:28:06.402 --> 02:28:18.275 - But some of it is with regards to their step increases in there. And even though the counselor letters 02:28:18.275 --> 02:28:30.147 - asked for flat budgets, there were still some increases across all departments that made the increases 02:28:30.147 --> 02:28:32.222 - to their budgets. 02:28:35.714 --> 02:28:42.078 - That's what I was trying to show you on that spreadsheet that I sent last night. So, because I'm trying 02:28:42.078 --> 02:28:48.259 - to try, trying to wrap my head around that increase plus COLA right now, right? That's kind of where 02:28:48.259 --> 02:28:54.440 - I'm at. And that's maybe, and maybe we've said this before and I may have missed it, but do we have, 02:28:54.440 --> 02:29:00.865 - if we understand those are the all budget numbers that are coming in, do we have a sense of what revenue 02:29:00.865 --> 02:29:02.334 - is yet? And where that, 02:29:02.594 --> 02:29:08.395 - If we do, I can actually forward that. I intended to do it before the meeting. But revenue has been 02:29:08.395 --> 02:29:14.254 - entered into Gateway, has been audited, and it's good to go. All right. I guess I would just flag my 02:29:14.254 --> 02:29:20.171 - ... I think with FSD's recommendations, I'm going to start there because they've spent more time with 02:29:20.171 --> 02:29:26.262 - that at this point than we have or I have. But I am looking at that 15 million differential there across 02:29:26.262 --> 02:29:29.278 - all things and thinking if that's the gap right now 02:29:29.762 --> 02:29:39.535 - And then COLA, that's on my mind about how we're going to get there at this moment. And some of that 02:29:39.535 --> 02:29:49.307 - gap is also the geo bond is in there. And we put it at the very. So, you know, that is a huge amount 02:29:49.307 --> 02:29:57.822 - in there as well. And so we also have. Like I said, we put everything back into regular 02:29:58.018 --> 02:30:07.207 - funds and so that's where some of the increases come instead of it looks like there's been additions 02:30:07.207 --> 02:30:16.669 - but it's not when you offset it from edit you know so you would have to go in line by line and actually 02:30:16.669 --> 02:30:24.766 - look at it you know but that is a good rough estimate of the differences with regards to 02:30:25.058 --> 02:30:36.850 - what we're seeing that was adopted for 2026 and what is being requested. Thank you. Oh, um, and I did 02:30:36.850 --> 02:30:48.989 - also send you, um, there were a few things that, um, I highlighted that has also that are in the budget, 02:30:48.989 --> 02:30:54.654 - but the, but is also being, uh, in the geo bond. 02:30:54.978 --> 02:31:02.985 - But that was, I think, maybe two or three items at most. Yeah, I know when we met with, like to go over 02:31:02.985 --> 02:31:10.760 - another budget, there was something that was double budgeted that was in theirs, but potentially can 02:31:10.760 --> 02:31:18.459 - move over to the GO bond. Right. I'm pretty certain that there's other departments that have double 02:31:18.459 --> 02:31:24.926 - budgeted for things, too. So a little, but I mean, a little goes a long way. Right. 02:31:25.218 --> 02:31:31.238 - Councilor Iverson. Just, you know, let's see. First of all, we heard a lot about competitiveness. The 02:31:31.238 --> 02:31:37.199 - planning department is in here saying like folks are going over because city of Bloomington salaries 02:31:37.199 --> 02:31:43.219 - are higher. Tying it to inflation is at two point seven. City of Bloomington did the same thing. City 02:31:43.219 --> 02:31:49.120 - of Bloomington's proposed budget. They're having budget hearings continuing this week is is also at 02:31:49.120 --> 02:31:54.078 - two point seven. FSG is a two and IU Bloomington came in at one point five percent. 02:31:54.626 --> 02:32:03.733 - So it's all over the map. And I think for my dollar's worth, which I think is probably important because 02:32:03.733 --> 02:32:12.666 - we're on the fiscal body, sticking with what FSG recommends, and particularly their language, was that 02:32:12.666 --> 02:32:16.222 - they're pretty sure that we can do that. 02:32:16.642 --> 02:32:24.069 - I don't know why I just paused. Sorry. I think that's probably a good starting point for us. But I do 02:32:24.069 --> 02:32:31.715 - want to double back on some of the data entry stuff that you just mentioned. Is it a challenge to change 02:32:31.715 --> 02:32:39.070 - it from 2.7 to 2.0? Is that laborious? Yes. It is. I just asked that. It really is. I mean, changes. 02:32:39.070 --> 02:32:46.206 - All right. All right. Question asked, question answered. So. Yeah. Well, I was just going to. OK. 02:32:46.370 --> 02:32:59.438 - This is the spreadsheet that I sent you guys. And so just looking at this one line here, this is what 02:32:59.438 --> 02:33:12.635 - is currently in LAO. So criminal case manager is being budgeted at $45,318. If we roll that in without 02:33:12.635 --> 02:33:15.838 - a COLA, we have annually 02:33:16.194 --> 02:33:25.861 - change that number for each individual. So every salary. And then we have to go in and we have to figure 02:33:25.861 --> 02:33:35.619 - the perf and the FICA that also goes along with that. And so once we have shifted everything into Gateway 02:33:35.619 --> 02:33:45.470 - to be published, it's locked in in Gateway. So we have to manually go in and do that. We can't roll again. 02:33:45.730 --> 02:33:59.396 - I'm going to do it one time. Am I correct? Bree on that? We have a meeting with our, um, Tina marketer 02:33:59.396 --> 02:34:12.929 - Department of Local Government Finance DLGF representative on Thursday, and I want to clarify that in 02:34:12.929 --> 02:34:14.654 - the new 2.0. 02:34:15.266 --> 02:34:25.470 - So we asked FSG if our budget could sustain 2.0. So they aren't recommending it. They are saying, yes, 02:34:25.470 --> 02:34:35.675 - we've looked and you can. Just to be really nitpicky about. That's a good clarification. Yeah, because 02:34:35.675 --> 02:34:43.006 - the letter says we believe the county can support a 2% COLA. In addition, 02:34:43.394 --> 02:34:55.050 - We budgeted into the ED lit, right? And is that and that's what he's talking about with the edit fund. 02:34:55.050 --> 02:35:06.819 - Is that right? OK, so we put things in ED lit just to be able to afford them last year. I guess we need 02:35:06.819 --> 02:35:11.006 - to look at those items to determine. 02:35:11.650 --> 02:35:22.567 - appropriate to keep them there for another year. And that's a conversation with the commissioners because 02:35:22.567 --> 02:35:32.969 - there's a plan attached to it. Right. I feel like it's a little hard to commit to a COLA of any sort 02:35:32.969 --> 02:35:39.870 - without the opportunity to have that discussion. Well, and I'll be 02:35:39.970 --> 02:35:47.213 - I know that I sent an email to the commissioners to talk to them about that because in addition to us 02:35:47.213 --> 02:35:54.810 - potentially using edit again for various things, I know I think the highway department also is potentially 02:35:54.810 --> 02:36:01.982 - wanting to do the same thing we did last year with by two minutes and community crossings and things 02:36:01.982 --> 02:36:08.798 - like that again. And so there's other things that we could do too. And I know commissioners are 02:36:08.898 --> 02:36:16.371 - obviously in support of giving the employees a cola, which is definitely something that I think we all 02:36:16.371 --> 02:36:23.698 - wanna do. We just need to make sure that we can afford that. And so if there is a way that we can do 02:36:23.698 --> 02:36:31.098 - that, such as what we did last year by moving those things over into edit and looking at what we need 02:36:31.098 --> 02:36:36.830 - to do to try to retain our employees as much as possible by way of using edit. 02:36:37.378 --> 02:36:47.842 - I think that would be helpful. So stay tuned. And I'm hopeful about our conversation. Yes. I just wanted 02:36:47.842 --> 02:36:58.007 - to refresh you on one final thought. Originally, F S G had in our long term sustainability plan. They 02:36:58.007 --> 02:37:01.694 - have that 2% cola built in. However, 02:37:01.794 --> 02:37:09.370 - when there was conversation about not utilizing edit, that's where they removed that and they indicated 02:37:09.370 --> 02:37:16.728 - it wouldn't be sustainable to have that in levy funds. Just with the given climate, the changes with 02:37:16.728 --> 02:37:24.450 - SB1 and all the things, if we weren't gonna be able to utilizing all the funding available to the county. 02:37:24.450 --> 02:37:27.582 - So I just wanna make sure you recall that. 02:37:31.810 --> 02:37:40.788 - Moving forward, if possible, rather than do what we did last year with, if we can utilize edit, I would 02:37:40.788 --> 02:37:49.594 - like to do a one lump sum kind of thing, and I have some ideas with regards to that, rather than each 02:37:49.594 --> 02:37:58.400 - individual little item of supplies and this kind of thing. That's been a holy nightmare in regards to 02:37:58.400 --> 02:38:00.990 - trying to keep track of that. 02:38:01.442 --> 02:38:08.885 - and so that you guys can like look from one year to another, you know, kind of thing. So I know it was 02:38:08.885 --> 02:38:16.111 - awesome at the time, you know, and this time, but when we finally got down to budgeting that in and 02:38:16.111 --> 02:38:23.338 - moving all of that, it was a nightmare. So the things we learned year after year. So I think I have 02:38:23.338 --> 02:38:31.070 - a better plan if that's, if we can use edit on how we can utilize it more effectively, I think. All right. 02:38:32.130 --> 02:38:42.814 - Well, technically the motion was to open up discussion and have a possible or approval for that as well. 02:38:42.814 --> 02:38:53.295 - So I'm looking to colleagues to see like to make a motion. I think it sounds like a lot of this hinges 02:38:53.295 --> 02:39:00.926 - on what comes out of that edit plan. So I think this is a good discussion. 02:39:02.594 --> 02:39:12.365 - We put it on next time. Tim, you visit or. Is that too late? Don't don't. We need to roll budgets by 02:39:12.365 --> 02:39:21.168 - the end of the week. So regard, we're going to have the data entry, but we welcome raises. 02:39:21.168 --> 02:39:31.422 - So thank you. We will do whatever is necessary. You got it. Here's the thing. Like we could say if FSD is 02:39:31.842 --> 02:39:39.042 - you know, saying that we can do the 2.0 with use of edit, then we would hope to, you know, have that 02:39:39.042 --> 02:39:46.670 - conversation where we would be able to get approved. I know, like, we're the fiscal body, but I understand 02:39:46.670 --> 02:39:53.799 - the role of the commissioners as well, and I hope this could be the one thing that we all can agree 02:39:53.799 --> 02:39:57.150 - upon and would help with our county government 02:39:57.282 --> 02:40:05.264 - financing that this is something that we could do. And I know last year, you know, it was said like, 02:40:05.264 --> 02:40:13.483 - which it almost felt like it was a little bit in jeopardy. But I want to say that I will remain hopeful 02:40:13.483 --> 02:40:21.385 - about having the conversation because we will happen. So yeah, I mean, they got to get it in by the 02:40:21.385 --> 02:40:26.206 - end of the week. And so if it doesn't happen, it's not like, 02:40:26.626 --> 02:40:35.286 - we didn't try. Sorry, I keep moving this. I wasn't being flimsy when we welcome raises, but we will 02:40:35.286 --> 02:40:44.379 - do whatever it takes to meet your needs. Of course. Yeah, it's a team effort. We've done it before where 02:40:44.379 --> 02:40:53.125 - we waited until the last session to do a COLA. It does cause a mad rush to get everything in because 02:40:53.125 --> 02:40:54.078 - we have to 02:40:54.498 --> 02:41:03.227 - at the end of the sessions, we only have a certain amount of days to get all that information uploaded 02:41:03.227 --> 02:41:11.872 - so that we can be timely in our public hearing. But we did it, we've done it, and we will continue to 02:41:11.872 --> 02:41:19.838 - do it. So it's whatever you guys decide and how you wanna move forward. Yes, Councilor Henry. 02:41:20.002 --> 02:41:30.048 - I would like to make a motion that we include the 2% COLA as part of the entry into Gateway with the 02:41:30.048 --> 02:41:40.393 - understanding that the approval of that will be subject to the budget process and the inclusion of edit 02:41:40.393 --> 02:41:44.670 - in our budget for this year. Second. Okay. 02:41:44.834 --> 02:41:51.604 - We got a motion and a second. Is there any other further questions or comments from council on this 02:41:51.604 --> 02:41:58.578 - item? No. Okay. I will move to the public on this item. If there's anybody watching via Teams, you can 02:41:58.578 --> 02:42:05.822 - raise your hand or you can come forward to the lectern here in the room to make your comment on this item. 02:42:12.546 --> 02:42:21.438 - Okay, because they always do. So, all right, maybe they're out enjoying the nice weather. Okay, so seeing 02:42:21.438 --> 02:42:30.582 - no other further questions or comments on this item, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Crossley? 02:42:30.582 --> 02:42:39.138 - Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Motion 02:42:39.138 --> 02:42:42.494 - passes unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. 02:42:43.330 --> 02:42:53.600 - Are we doing them? Item C. We're doing item C right now. Okay, so next up is item C. Council, I move 02:42:53.600 --> 02:43:03.971 - to open for discussion the 2027 County Council general fund and rainy day budgets. Second. All right, 02:43:03.971 --> 02:43:11.902 - we got a motion and a second and I'm looking to Michelle. I'm blinded, sorry. 02:43:19.042 --> 02:43:30.585 - So we're supposed to meet as a group and you review my budget. This is what I have submitted and I'm 02:43:30.585 --> 02:43:42.014 - open for any whatever you have in mind. The budget is flat with regards to personnel except for the 02:43:42.014 --> 02:43:48.414 - assistant council administrator who will meet her third 02:43:48.578 --> 02:43:58.059 - year step come this October so she will be at that three years so that's why why you see that increase 02:43:58.059 --> 02:44:07.264 - there. I left the kind of with regards the blue over here is what we put in the edit and I did that 02:44:07.264 --> 02:44:16.745 - so that you would know that that's what was in the edit fund. So what I did was I just moved a hundred 02:44:16.745 --> 02:44:17.758 - dollars up 02:44:18.050 --> 02:44:27.575 - and into the office supplies. I had a lot of printing and copy supplies. I purchased a lot of paper. 02:44:27.575 --> 02:44:37.193 - So I'm still really good with that. So I would rather just have that with the office supplies because 02:44:37.193 --> 02:44:46.718 - we've spent a lot of the office supplies this year. Sometimes it ebbs and flows with that. The dues. 02:44:46.946 --> 02:44:59.187 - I've paid a portion of those. There's another set that's coming up this fall. Contractual, this is for 02:44:59.187 --> 02:45:11.427 - the FSG contract. And with regards to that, I would like to leave that at 30,000. And just so that you 02:45:11.427 --> 02:45:16.062 - know, we have used WIS once this year. 02:45:16.642 --> 02:45:24.592 - So we will be using some of that 30,000 that we had set aside for just FSG. So I'm going to have to 02:45:24.592 --> 02:45:33.019 - do some shuffling and move some stuff around because if we get more invoices from FSG, which I'm assuming 02:45:33.019 --> 02:45:40.333 - we will, I may be really close to that threshold of that 30,000. It is a budget year in the 02:45:40.333 --> 02:45:45.182 - state legislature. I'm sure we're going to use it next year. 02:45:46.978 --> 02:45:56.358 - That's what I'm assuming. And then depending on with regards to, you know, we just talked about planning 02:45:56.358 --> 02:46:05.558 - and maybe what they're going to do. I know that when we sent, it was earlier this year, I want to say, 02:46:05.558 --> 02:46:15.742 - it was maybe job descriptions to WIS with regards to the health department. Those three positions, that was over, 02:46:16.066 --> 02:46:26.404 - $1,300 just to do those three. So depending on how many positions and how intense it could be, we may 02:46:26.404 --> 02:46:36.946 - need to have a little bit more with regards to WIS, that kind of thing. The training and travel. I said 02:46:36.946 --> 02:46:44.446 - it for the same amount that we've done. Lehu and I have not done a lot of 02:46:44.834 --> 02:46:55.277 - I've been trying to utilize a lot more with regards to attending webinars and this kind of thing. I'm 02:46:55.277 --> 02:47:05.823 - more than happy to cut that in half. Office expenses, that's where we pay for our color copies. That's 02:47:05.823 --> 02:47:14.526 - a service that we get the black and white, but we also pay for the use of the color. 02:47:14.658 --> 02:47:26.479 - That is significantly dropped because we've also changed our copier people. So we've changed, I think, 02:47:26.479 --> 02:47:38.301 - from Mariko to Toshiba. And so that amount has changed. But it's fine. Sophia Travis, I left that flat 02:47:38.301 --> 02:47:39.678 - at the 190. 02:47:40.290 --> 02:47:50.903 - The other thing that we have is the BEDC. We've paid the dues for this year, which was 5,925. We budgeted 02:47:50.903 --> 02:48:01.316 - the 15,000 last year, and that's what I budgeted for this year. The only other thing that I would like, 02:48:01.316 --> 02:48:08.926 - which I have not budgeted in here, which it doesn't show up, but we did add 02:48:09.090 --> 02:48:20.962 - professional services, and that is for the litigation. And so I have moved all of that. You don't see 02:48:20.962 --> 02:48:33.067 - it on here, but I have done in-house transfers. So there is 30,000 that's currently in the 2026 budget. 02:48:33.067 --> 02:48:38.654 - I just need to know how much you want for 2027. 02:48:43.554 --> 02:49:00.187 - Thank you. This is lovely and a very clear presentation. Um, my first question is the little changes 02:49:00.187 --> 02:49:11.550 - that you've made. Or other. Is that consistent with the flat budget? 02:49:15.074 --> 02:49:21.841 - It's getting late. Sorry. I just took your word for what you said. No, no, no. No, this is good. So 02:49:21.841 --> 02:49:28.608 - we're not doing something like by making little changes that we told them not to do. That's all I'm 02:49:28.608 --> 02:49:35.375 - asking. We're good there? Yes. OK. All right. I didn't increase. I just shifted. Right. That's all. 02:49:35.375 --> 02:49:40.382 - OK. I just wanted to make sure. OK, I'm going to say it. Yeah, go for it. 02:49:44.866 --> 02:49:55.757 - past year, because I feel like we keep doing this year after year, that we always budget for BEDC. And 02:49:55.757 --> 02:50:06.436 - then we haven't had that chance to get that. Our commissioners have not approved BEDC for this year. 02:50:06.436 --> 02:50:14.366 - And correct me if I'm wrong, last year didn't get. So we, OK. Finish that. 02:50:14.786 --> 02:50:25.433 - for everybody to hear. The story, just the past few years, what's? Do I like to hear it? Here it goes. 02:50:25.433 --> 02:50:36.184 - Okay, so we have it budgeted and it's weird because we have it budgeted and then the commissioners have 02:50:36.184 --> 02:50:44.350 - to give this approval. But for the past several years, it's not been approved. 02:50:44.802 --> 02:50:53.275 - And I think this past year, if I'm not mistaken this year, I think I heard, by the way, from 02:50:53.275 --> 02:51:02.476 - the commissioner's office that they were waiting for BEDC to give them some type of presentation. Do 02:51:02.476 --> 02:51:11.587 - we know if that has happened? Not that I'm aware of, but hell. Councilor Feidl, are you the liaison 02:51:11.587 --> 02:51:12.862 - for the BEDC? 02:51:13.154 --> 02:51:20.596 - Have you checked with Clark to see whether... The interim director? Yes. No, I have not. To see whether 02:51:20.596 --> 02:51:27.681 - or not... Okay. I can find him. I'm curious just to figure out what is the holdup again this year? 02:51:27.681 --> 02:51:35.410 - Is it... Because I know they had some changing, and so it's more of, so if the commissioners have requested 02:51:35.410 --> 02:51:41.278 - for this plan or this presentation, has he not given it to them, and if so, when? 02:51:41.538 --> 02:51:49.758 - Because my other thought process is this is like a donation that we are also given to the BEDC, but 02:51:49.758 --> 02:51:58.224 - we're paying our dues. So I think I kind of alluded to this last year and I think maybe some of us had 02:51:58.224 --> 02:52:06.444 - a little bit of heartburn as well. I guess I'm just saying, like we keep hearing people come in and 02:52:06.444 --> 02:52:11.294 - say, you know, people are trying to fight for their lives. 02:52:11.426 --> 02:52:22.967 - To justify things and I say that if we are given if we are paying our dues with BEDC Is that shouldn't 02:52:22.967 --> 02:52:34.508 - that be enough and let's figure out some other Way like Should or just be DC and and that's it I guess 02:52:34.508 --> 02:52:39.550 - that's my bottom line of what I'm saying and 02:52:41.634 --> 02:52:49.425 - Yes, Councilor Henry. Madam President, thank you for being diplomatic. I'll just be more direct and 02:52:49.425 --> 02:52:57.528 - ask directly. So when did the board of commissioners or when do they usually consider that contribution 02:52:57.528 --> 02:53:05.396 - from their side? Is that in January or is that? The auditor. It's whenever the contract comes before 02:53:05.396 --> 02:53:11.006 - them is my understanding. Is that right? When does that usually happen? 02:53:12.290 --> 02:53:18.573 - It's early in the year. I thought it was in the fall. There's a big difference between November and 02:53:18.573 --> 02:53:24.918 - January. There is. My recollection is like the first quarter of the year, but I could be mistaken. I 02:53:24.918 --> 02:53:31.515 - would just offer, Madam President, that that timing really matters a lot on whether or not that changes. 02:53:31.515 --> 02:53:37.986 - About where to put that resource, we may have at Boone, or we may be still doing it. I'm not sure yet. 02:53:37.986 --> 02:53:41.630 - But I knew when that was considered, the contract was up. 02:53:41.730 --> 02:53:56.123 - We would know that answer, right? Yeah. Councillor Wilks. Looking at this spreadsheet, I guess we don't 02:53:56.123 --> 02:54:10.654 - have what was expended thus far in 2026. Yes, we do. It is this amount right here, which is highlighted. 02:54:11.618 --> 02:54:21.300 - We've paid the dues. Highlighted. Show me. I'm sorry. I was looking at my screen and you didn't highlight 02:54:21.300 --> 02:54:30.617 - my screen. So I'm so it's right. It's yeah. Five thousand nine hundred twenty five. Yeah. Next to the 02:54:30.617 --> 02:54:39.934 - green. That is the expended column as of June. OK. OK. I don't see any expended column that says. Or. 02:54:40.354 --> 02:54:50.464 - We expended. The dues was the 5750 for that year and then we gave a $30,000 donation. OK, so it looks 02:54:50.464 --> 02:55:00.574 - like we did that in 23 and 24 and then in 25 and so far in 26 we have not. Remember in 2024 we had to 02:55:00.574 --> 02:55:08.702 - do that because we presented it the same way that we've done it every year and we 02:55:08.802 --> 02:55:17.787 - didn't get it approved. So the way that we said, because it was like, how can this be done if this is 02:55:17.787 --> 02:55:27.212 - in our budget and we can't, like, it's not approved, you know, that was an issue. But council then decided 02:55:27.212 --> 02:55:36.021 - that we would give it as a donation, as a way for us to get around being denied again. North always 02:55:36.021 --> 02:55:36.990 - remembers. 02:55:40.098 --> 02:55:45.523 - Councillor Henry. Thank you. I have just maybe two comments. This is really great. I appreciate seeing 02:55:45.523 --> 02:55:50.842 - this in advance. I'm trying to remember from last year where we are in the current scheme of things. 02:55:50.842 --> 02:55:56.214 - So if we will have an opportunity to make adjustments to these lines during presentations. OK. And of 02:55:56.214 --> 02:56:01.481 - course I'm going to always push for more in the Sophia Travis like I did last year. And I said I'll 02:56:01.481 --> 02:56:04.062 - continue to do so long as people put up with me. 02:56:05.058 --> 02:56:11.953 - You honestly have a chance to do that now, and then that way it's already in there. Given that we're 02:56:11.953 --> 02:56:18.848 - missing some members, I think last year we also did that, and then we revisited it and revisited it. 02:56:18.848 --> 02:56:25.880 - So I think I'll save it for that week. But then if we wanted to add an account line, is that something 02:56:25.880 --> 02:56:32.638 - we should do now, or should we wait until the presentations? You can add an account line any time. 02:56:32.738 --> 02:56:40.487 - If you add an account line in 2026, I would need to budget it in here with a dollar to hold it open. 02:56:40.487 --> 02:56:48.236 - Do we have to do that tonight or can we do that during presentation? Do it any time. Well, I'm going 02:56:48.236 --> 02:56:55.678 - to tee up something tonight for consideration in relationship to the professional services line. 02:56:55.938 --> 02:57:05.442 - I was looking at Gateway, because it was fun to get back in there. Thank you, auditor, this evening 02:57:05.442 --> 02:57:15.136 - as we were talking. And I would offer up to council, this may be an opportunity for us to reintroduce 02:57:15.136 --> 02:57:24.830 - what was once, I wrote it down, the account line 100-011, which was the county council attorney line. 02:57:24.930 --> 02:57:30.380 - And the logic behind that would be that if we find ourselves in the future where we would want to bring 02:57:30.380 --> 02:57:35.621 - back that position, at least we've got it slotted with a dollar waiting for us for future use. Now, 02:57:35.621 --> 02:57:41.123 - who knows what the attrition and retirements role will be in a year or two or what faces us with current 02:57:41.123 --> 02:57:46.416 - litigation. But to maybe precede that line again and have it waiting for an opportunity if we should 02:57:46.416 --> 02:57:51.709 - choose to execute to bring counsel back in full or part time I think would be prudent at this point. 02:57:51.709 --> 02:57:52.862 - But I'm not going to. 02:57:53.890 --> 02:58:02.766 - I'm kind of curious people's thoughts on that, to bring that line back. Oops. If we were to do something 02:58:02.766 --> 02:58:11.219 - like that, what about the job description? What about all of the other process? I mean, I feel like 02:58:11.219 --> 02:58:19.841 - the line creation is the easiest part of the process. That is the easiest part. So what else would go 02:58:19.841 --> 02:58:21.278 - into doing that? 02:58:22.402 --> 02:58:32.224 - that position was not updated when we went through that whole update back in 2021. I believe you would 02:58:32.224 --> 02:58:42.047 - need to revisit the job description as well and you know, which means then yes. So start. I don't have 02:58:42.047 --> 02:58:51.774 - all the answers tonight. I'm just looking at the budget. So I get that. But I feel like there's a lot 02:58:51.874 --> 02:58:59.823 - that would go into it. So I just want to bring that out. Then I would also say, you know, we would, 02:58:59.823 --> 02:59:08.328 - you know, you would need to, is this going to be a part-time position? Would this be a full-time position? 02:59:08.328 --> 02:59:16.595 - What would they be actually, you know, which means what for the council? So are they going to be taking 02:59:16.595 --> 02:59:19.774 - over everything with regards, you know, 02:59:21.890 --> 02:59:29.706 - Not there yet, just getting the email. So I think that would be a... Thank you for that. I would just 02:59:29.706 --> 02:59:37.522 - offer maybe one more thought. I was discussing with Councilor Iverson here that do we have a sense of 02:59:37.522 --> 02:59:45.721 - when or how, by department, which departments are frequent flyers when we have the PAC process and tapping 02:59:45.721 --> 02:59:51.774 - WIS as a resource? I can go back and look. Yeah, right off the top of my head. 02:59:52.194 --> 03:00:03.314 - We've had lots of, from the health department, they've been one of them that has always been a frequent 03:00:03.314 --> 03:00:14.327 - flyer with regards to updating their job descriptions. Let's see, we've had, I don't know if you would 03:00:14.327 --> 03:00:17.214 - say it's a frequent flyer, 03:00:17.346 --> 03:00:25.975 - But I mean, we've had the clerk's office had asked several times to want to come and update job descriptions. 03:00:25.975 --> 03:00:33.977 - I don't think we should do anything with that until you get the new clerk in place. And that might be 03:00:33.977 --> 03:00:41.822 - a reasonable offer with regards to there's going to be a change of an elected official. And she may 03:00:41.822 --> 03:00:46.686 - want or him or her may want to revamp their entire operation. 03:00:47.394 --> 03:00:54.729 - Let's see. We've had the highway has come several times, but they were just tweaking certain things. 03:00:54.729 --> 03:01:02.573 - We've had... It doesn't have to really be all answered tonight. Yeah, I was going to say maybe the attorney 03:01:02.573 --> 03:01:09.981 - ones. I only raise it to say, and I don't know, this is a thinking outside the box question about how 03:01:09.981 --> 03:01:13.758 - what we're providing as a service to other offices. 03:01:13.890 --> 03:01:20.498 - It's a cost center for us because we have to budget for it. It's sort of like a cookie jar that goes 03:01:20.498 --> 03:01:27.105 - back and back and back but but the question is Since is that since there's costs there if it out how 03:01:27.105 --> 03:01:33.909 - to manage that better and I don't have answers for that and other governments you'd have like a Service 03:01:33.909 --> 03:01:38.750 - fee like a cost center fee. We're like like if you're gonna do this, it's 03:01:39.490 --> 03:01:45.657 - every time you come back to us with it. But at the same time, I know you've delegated that role to a 03:01:45.657 --> 03:01:51.884 - vendor to make those decisions for us. So it's tricky. I just am curious if we're seeing cost run-ups 03:01:51.884 --> 03:01:58.112 - because there's going on there. And by no means do we have to answer this tonight because everybody's 03:01:58.112 --> 03:02:04.401 - tired. So thank you for entertaining the question. Just quickly, I mean, it's obvious that in the year 03:02:04.401 --> 03:02:06.782 - plus that we have not been having PAC, 03:02:07.554 --> 03:02:16.851 - and therefore not been using lists. We've had a lot fewer expenses. Go figure. Kind of crazy. So, 03:02:16.851 --> 03:02:26.338 - you know, cost savings there. Look at us go. But yeah, I mean, that's... It's a lot to think about. 03:02:26.338 --> 03:02:36.014 - I think that the fact that departments come to us for additional appropriations when they need it and 03:02:36.014 --> 03:02:37.342 - we tend to... 03:02:39.170 --> 03:02:48.056 - trust a lot of the department heads to manage their money and request what they need it almost would 03:02:48.056 --> 03:02:57.207 - start to just be circular money though if that makes sense if I may say counselor Hawk has always asked 03:02:57.207 --> 03:03:00.990 - you know is the department paying for this 03:03:01.218 --> 03:03:07.305 - You know, if they have their own fund, you know, for example, and I'm just using the health department 03:03:07.305 --> 03:03:13.332 - because they have been one of them that we have done several times, but we've never charged them. But 03:03:13.332 --> 03:03:19.360 - it's in county general. So, I mean, let's just say the department comes and they don't have any other 03:03:19.360 --> 03:03:25.506 - fund than county general. I mean, yes, it's coming out of their fund, you know, out of their department 03:03:25.506 --> 03:03:30.174 - fund, but it's not really coming out of a separate fund. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. 03:03:30.946 --> 03:03:40.514 - So different line. Yeah. But if, but, you know, with regards to the health department, yes, they do 03:03:40.514 --> 03:03:50.751 - have their own fund, you know, that kind of thing. So, but I think that would need to be a further council 03:03:50.751 --> 03:04:00.606 - decision. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that kind of thing. Yeah. We just, you're just looking at it in. Yeah. 03:04:00.962 --> 03:04:10.849 - You know, this is what I've got proposed. We can make changes, you know, when it comes time. The other 03:04:10.849 --> 03:04:20.831 - the other budget that you guys are responsible for is rainy day. And I have scheduled a million dollars 03:04:20.831 --> 03:04:30.430 - in each category of supplies, services and capital. So. And Sophia Travis is always through the MLG 03:04:32.034 --> 03:04:41.794 - Yes. So for this year, it's the maximum levy growth quotient. And this year it's 6%. But I kept it flat. 03:04:41.794 --> 03:04:50.811 - But if that's what you're looking at, I can get that number out to everyone. I like my acronyms. 03:04:50.811 --> 03:04:56.574 - That's all. OK. Well, this has given us something to chew on. 03:04:56.770 --> 03:05:05.015 - what Councilor Henry was saying that gives us some food for thought to take a look at some items. So 03:05:05.015 --> 03:05:13.178 - stay tuned, because the most wonderful time of the year is almost here. All right, and sorry, I had 03:05:13.178 --> 03:05:21.995 - a squirrel moment, because apparently we have Peter Parker that was, AKA Spider-Man, jumping from different 03:05:21.995 --> 03:05:25.342 - rooftops behind us over here, which was, 03:05:25.602 --> 03:05:34.731 - So, yeah, all right, sorry. That's my ADHD. Okay. That being said, we will move on to item D. Council, 03:05:34.731 --> 03:05:44.038 - I'd like to open for discussion and identification of the special purpose local income tax rate. Second. 03:05:44.038 --> 03:05:52.990 - All right, we got a motion and a second. And I think Ms. Turner-King is joining us virtually. She is 03:05:52.990 --> 03:05:54.142 - doing a lot. 03:05:54.338 --> 03:06:03.013 - And so Ms. Turner-King. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Take it away. Okay. So at the last council 03:06:03.013 --> 03:06:11.945 - meeting, we discussed the need to adjust the special purpose rate and we decided or the council decided 03:06:11.945 --> 03:06:20.534 - that at this meeting, we would look at the draft ordinance, which I've prepared. It's in the packet 03:06:20.534 --> 03:06:23.454 - and asked Ms. Scheltz to display. 03:06:23.778 --> 03:06:32.396 - And that then we could identify the rate tonight so that the ordinance can be published by or submitted 03:06:32.396 --> 03:06:40.765 - to the HT for publication by this Friday so that we could stay on the timeline of adopting a rate in 03:06:40.765 --> 03:06:49.134 - September. So I have the ordinance. Last time you guys had me read the ordinance in its entirety. Do 03:06:49.134 --> 03:06:51.454 - you want me to do that now? 03:06:53.346 --> 03:07:05.556 - I can't. I'll just, I'll just summarize it. Yeah. So, um, the first where the first couple where as 03:07:05.556 --> 03:07:17.278 - his clauses just give you the history of what the special purpose tax rate is and has been. So, 03:07:18.178 --> 03:07:30.595 - Most recently in August of 2023 it was reduced to 0.085 percent. The third whereas clause just acknowledges 03:07:30.595 --> 03:07:42.782 - that we have a longstanding practice of providing exemplary exemplary juvenile care through view shelter. 03:07:49.602 --> 03:08:02.059 - The fourth whereas clause is not a complete whereas clause. We'll have to fix that. Sorry. I think you 03:08:02.059 --> 03:08:14.154 - can just take it out or. Wait hold on sorry. I'm gonna skip over that for now and we'll go back and 03:08:14.154 --> 03:08:18.750 - fix it. I think you just take it out. 03:08:21.058 --> 03:08:28.279 - And then the next whereas clause would say after the reduction, we realized that the continued rate 03:08:28.279 --> 03:08:35.643 - would is not something that is, will be sustainable. Um, and then the last whereas clause is going to 03:08:35.643 --> 03:08:43.297 - identify the rate. And right now in yellow, it is highlighted to, um, identify the rate at 0.095%. That's 03:08:43.297 --> 03:08:50.590 - what it was, um, prior to 2023. And so I didn't know if that's what the council wanted it to be. Um, 03:08:50.914 --> 03:08:58.314 - So I've highlighted it so that you could make changes if necessary. But then the now there before it 03:08:58.314 --> 03:09:05.934 - ordained clauses just indicate that based on the current rate we can't sustain operating as we normally 03:09:05.934 --> 03:09:13.481 - do. The second rate or the second clause says to accommodate this we're going to increase the juvenile 03:09:13.481 --> 03:09:17.950 - service rate. And again it says 0.095 percent because that's 03:09:18.978 --> 03:09:27.279 - where I just started to put it back where it was originally before 2023. It indicates if you change 03:09:27.279 --> 03:09:35.580 - the tax rate to 0.095, what the new tax rate overall would be, which is also further broken down in 03:09:35.580 --> 03:09:44.047 - a chart on page two. And the chart shows our current rates and then what the proposed increases would 03:09:44.047 --> 03:09:48.862 - be. And the only one that changes is the special purpose. 03:09:55.650 --> 03:10:02.322 - So that is the ordinance. And if council has any changes, I'm happy to make them. And then we can get 03:10:02.322 --> 03:10:08.994 - the ordinance to the auditor's office so that they can submit it to the HT portal by noon tomorrow so 03:10:08.994 --> 03:10:15.535 - that it will be published on Friday. And then you can have your first reading and public hearing on 03:10:15.535 --> 03:10:22.142 - September 8th. Any questions? Yes, Council Iverson. Thank you, Madam President. At our last meeting, 03:10:22.530 --> 03:10:31.010 - there is multiple representatives from Board of Judges here who of course have a vested interest in 03:10:31.010 --> 03:10:39.830 - this and there was talk about having like kind of conversations that's all happened we can move forward 03:10:39.830 --> 03:10:48.310 - with this with the Board of Judges I mean there is no changes to what we talked about last time. So 03:10:48.310 --> 03:10:52.126 - Councillor Feidl and I met to review kind of 03:10:52.738 --> 03:11:04.129 - make sure we understood what FSG had given us, as well as the requested budgets of all of the departments 03:11:04.129 --> 03:11:14.876 - who have lines in the special purpose. We looked at both of those things and compared FSGs with the 03:11:14.876 --> 03:11:22.398 - request to kind of verify that it's all still the same sort of thing. 03:11:22.850 --> 03:11:31.245 - Liz communicated with each of those departments. Well, actually, I shouldn't say that because it was 03:11:31.245 --> 03:11:39.557 - courts, probation, and Youth Services Bureau specifically, the primary users. She communicated with 03:11:39.557 --> 03:11:48.201 - them via email, letting them know that according to what we see, the 0.095 rate would be an appropriate 03:11:48.201 --> 03:11:52.606 - amount and sufficient to fund their budget requests. 03:11:52.962 --> 03:12:07.823 - looking forward next year and the following year. So our recommendation would be to stay with the 0.095 03:12:07.823 --> 03:12:22.398 - that we discussed. So satisfied. All right. Anybody else have any questions on this item? Yes. I just 03:12:22.658 --> 03:12:31.437 - I would like to clarify when I can expect to receive this just so I can advertise first thing tomorrow 03:12:31.437 --> 03:12:40.045 - in order to make sure it's done by noon. Because whatever we propose and vote on right now is. Like. 03:12:40.045 --> 03:12:48.568 - Don't give it OK. If I can just clarify with Molly, I mean, I have the word version in front of me. 03:12:48.568 --> 03:12:52.318 - I can do you want me to go ahead and remove 03:12:52.450 --> 03:13:03.356 - Whereas, completely? Correct. OK. And then I'm not changing anything that's highlighted. It's staying 03:13:03.356 --> 03:13:14.048 - as it is. OK. Yes. And then of that, and then I can move this. I will have it printed, and you guys 03:13:14.048 --> 03:13:22.174 - can sign it tonight. OK. And that way she can have it before you leave. OK. 03:13:22.306 --> 03:13:30.682 - Well, it's not a signed copy of the ordinance. It's a draft. And so you don't want to sign it because 03:13:30.682 --> 03:13:38.894 - then you're passing it. Correct. So this is the draft that you need to. Yes. OK. Right. That's what 03:13:38.894 --> 03:13:47.517 - I meant. OK. Yeah. So we just want to. OK. You're voting. Yes. But technically, we need a motion because 03:13:47.517 --> 03:13:49.406 - originally it was just 03:13:49.986 --> 03:13:59.178 - a discussion and a possible approval. So I'm looking to, yes, Councilor Iverson. Council, I move to 03:13:59.178 --> 03:14:08.921 - adopt. What resolution number is this? Are they adopting or just approving Molly? I believe my suggestion 03:14:08.921 --> 03:14:17.470 - or recommendation would be a motion to move forward with advertising proposed ordinance 2026 03:14:17.666 --> 03:14:28.647 - 26 so that a public hearing on adopting a new special purpose rate can be held at a later date. On September 03:14:28.647 --> 03:14:39.528 - the 8th. So moved. Second. All right. We got a motion and a second. And so to clarify, that is the proposed 03:14:39.528 --> 03:14:46.782 - rate of 0.095%. Okay. Any further discussion from council on that item? 03:14:48.034 --> 03:14:55.257 - Okay, we'll move to public comment. If there's public comment on this, raise your hand via Teams, or 03:14:55.257 --> 03:15:02.622 - you can come to the podium. Weird to say, because there's nobody in here, but we do have a hand raised 03:15:02.622 --> 03:15:10.059 - via Teams. So you should be able to unmute, state your name for the record, and you'll have up to three 03:15:10.059 --> 03:15:17.854 - minutes. Hello, my name is B. Grunehaefer. I'm a Monroe County resident. I just want to remind everyone that 03:15:18.658 --> 03:15:29.246 - This fund was moved into the correctional lit originally so that you wouldn't have to raise taxes, this, 03:15:29.246 --> 03:15:39.934 - you know, local income taxes. And it seems that utilizing some of the ED lit, that 0.69, you can't really 03:15:39.934 --> 03:15:48.606 - move that ED lit, but you could move some of the correctional lit back into this fund 03:15:48.962 --> 03:16:00.907 - and move some of the money that was allocated to the correctional lit from the ED lit into the correctional 03:16:00.907 --> 03:16:12.188 - lit so that taxpayers wouldn't see an increase. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments or comments from 03:16:12.188 --> 03:16:15.838 - the public related to this item? 03:16:23.522 --> 03:16:35.237 - Please have a roll call vote. Councillor Iverson? Yes. Councillor Feidl? Yes. Councillor Wilz? Yes. 03:16:35.237 --> 03:16:47.303 - Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Crossley? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. And we are winding down, but 03:16:47.303 --> 03:16:53.278 - it's the most watched conversation that I've seen. 03:16:53.858 --> 03:17:04.249 - I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um. More so, um, we are talking about must again talking about must. Um so I will 03:17:04.249 --> 03:17:13.542 - ask for a legal update. And so Miss Turner King if you can provide us a brief update. On the 03:17:13.542 --> 03:17:23.134 - must conversation because I know. Um a conversation that we were supposed to have got moved up. 03:17:24.386 --> 03:17:33.791 - So there was a meeting with FSG and I think they answered a lot of questions that council had regarding 03:17:33.791 --> 03:17:42.834 - must. I did send them questions from Councilor Hawk, but I have not received any response for those 03:17:42.834 --> 03:17:50.430 - questions. I can try to pull up my meeting notes from that meeting, but in essence, 03:17:51.842 --> 03:18:01.011 - In essence, the FSG is promoting the formation of WIS, I mean, MUST. And they have made a proposal for 03:18:01.011 --> 03:18:09.913 - MUST services. They said that was negotiable. So I need to talk to Greg about that. But in essence, 03:18:09.913 --> 03:18:15.966 - I think they described it as the opportunity to have a conversation 03:18:16.098 --> 03:18:24.158 - with taxing units and they think that we should have that conversation, especially with the transition 03:18:24.158 --> 03:18:32.140 - from property to a rate based system. And then they provided some other counties like Elkhart who has 03:18:32.140 --> 03:18:40.278 - done, who's already formed MUST. And so they gave us information so we can do a comparison. But tonight 03:18:40.278 --> 03:18:43.486 - I think I did prepare a draft resolution 03:18:44.802 --> 03:18:53.135 - that would convene the must task force um the statute says that the the county council hereby convenes 03:18:53.135 --> 03:19:01.710 - and i know that in the past we've thought it was the council president but out of abundance of precaution 03:19:01.710 --> 03:19:10.285 - i prepared a resolution um because the the statute says formed by the county council and the draft notice 03:19:10.285 --> 03:19:14.654 - that the aic prepared also says the county council so 03:19:14.946 --> 03:19:22.562 - I prepared a resolution out of precaution. Okay, thank you. And since our conversation, I know we were 03:19:22.562 --> 03:19:30.326 - looking to see if the folks from Ellisville are interested. And I did have a conversation with our clerk 03:19:30.326 --> 03:19:38.016 - treasurer. And I think the general consensus that everybody is having is that because it is non-binding 03:19:38.016 --> 03:19:43.710 - that people are interested in having the conversation because again, we have 03:19:43.970 --> 03:19:51.284 - budget, everybody has budget seasons and adoptions and all that other stuff that we're all going through 03:19:51.284 --> 03:19:58.529 - currently or about to go through. And October 1st, where we have to convene the meeting is right around 03:19:58.529 --> 03:20:05.216 - the corner because September is literally next week. So before that gets away from us, I think, 03:20:05.216 --> 03:20:12.670 - you know, considering that it is non binding, there is interest in the different taxing units to be a part 03:20:13.026 --> 03:20:24.883 - of this conversation. So I just wanted to say that. All right. Councilor Iverson. Ms. Muller-Turner-King, 03:20:24.883 --> 03:20:36.404 - can you scroll down to the now therefore be it resolved clauses? Actually, Michelle is controlling the 03:20:36.404 --> 03:20:41.438 - screen, but she's scrolling down. Oh, sorry. 03:20:41.858 --> 03:20:49.568 - This just says that we will do it, but no date has been set. Correct, because my idea or my thought 03:20:49.568 --> 03:20:57.818 - process was that we would reach out to the taxing units to try to schedule a meeting when we knew everyone 03:20:57.818 --> 03:21:05.682 - was available. So I modified the aim notice to say that to explain what must is and what the point of 03:21:05.682 --> 03:21:10.462 - must is, and then to say that council office would reach out. 03:21:10.562 --> 03:21:17.806 - Two, the taxing units for scheduling purposes, kind of like we do other meetings with like Fabtech to 03:21:17.806 --> 03:21:24.908 - see what time works best for everyone. But I could also change it if you'd like to identify a time. 03:21:24.908 --> 03:21:32.862 - I also didn't pick a time because I wasn't aware if council intended to make their appointment to MUST tonight. 03:21:48.930 --> 03:21:56.398 - Yes, Councillor Iverson. The definition of the taxing units, particularly let's look at clause three, 03:21:56.398 --> 03:22:03.060 - where the council directs the Monroe County auditor to provide notice to the taxing units. 03:22:03.060 --> 03:22:10.527 - It is my desire, and I'm speaking just for myself, that this includes all Monroe County taxing units. 03:22:10.527 --> 03:22:13.822 - I want everyone to be invited to this party. 03:22:18.978 --> 03:22:26.696 - public meeting, too, right? I mean, yeah, yeah. All right. So the public's invited. I think that's great. 03:22:26.696 --> 03:22:34.123 - Put that in there. Yeah. And maybe that's assumed. Well, if I may, I think the notice would go to the 03:22:34.123 --> 03:22:41.404 - fiscal officers of each city and town, because that is what is statutorily required to be a part of 03:22:41.404 --> 03:22:48.030 - a meeting. If you want it to go to additional people, I think you should I would recommend 03:22:48.130 --> 03:22:57.675 - identifying who? That is that is what I want. In particular, the EMS fire, those folks are going to 03:22:57.675 --> 03:23:07.793 - be hit pretty hard, hit hard. Our township trustee partners. I mean, I'm going to I'm going to I'm tired. 03:23:07.793 --> 03:23:16.766 - I'm going to blank on on some and I don't mean in disrespect the schools, the library system. 03:23:19.842 --> 03:23:26.584 - I mean, if there's other taxing units that I'm not remembering, then please include them. Yes, Councillor 03:23:26.584 --> 03:23:32.944 - Hannon. So, I mean, with the word like all taxing units, but then qualifying that there's ones that 03:23:32.944 --> 03:23:39.432 - must be on the committee, right, and there are ones that we should have in the room. I think we tried 03:23:39.432 --> 03:23:46.174 - to I think last meeting I recall we were trying to maybe expand our circle to do it in Monroe County way. 03:23:46.690 --> 03:23:54.430 - I don't want to give the impression that all taxing units get to be at the table because of the nature 03:23:54.430 --> 03:24:02.171 - of the thing that we're at, the code, right, or the word. Statute. Statute, thank you. But I want them 03:24:02.171 --> 03:24:09.836 - all there, too. So I pray, I mean, gosh, we're going to really do. Could we just say all taxing units 03:24:09.836 --> 03:24:15.998 - that convene, just all. Is that the word all? Is it one representative from each? 03:24:17.058 --> 03:24:24.673 - We're fine, yeah, but I just want to make sure that somewhere else in this document we're clear that, 03:24:24.673 --> 03:24:32.362 - look, the committee are these four entities, but all taxing units are welcome to be in the room. I see 03:24:32.362 --> 03:24:39.903 - the cursor is leaving 2A alone and editing clause three, and I think that gets to the point. Molly's 03:24:39.903 --> 03:24:43.934 - got her hand up. Molly's going to tell us what to do. 03:24:44.226 --> 03:24:49.649 - I think it's important to note that the statute says specifically the committee may not include 03:24:49.649 --> 03:24:55.298 - representatives from the fire protection emergency medical services as defined and it link as cites 03:24:55.298 --> 03:25:01.229 - the site I see code and it may not include non municipal civil taxing units as defined. And then there's 03:25:01.229 --> 03:25:02.302 - a site. So I think 03:25:02.466 --> 03:25:12.266 - it's fine to provide a courtesy notice of those tax to the taxing units to say the must has been formed 03:25:12.266 --> 03:25:22.254 - and you're invited to the public meeting. But I do think you need to clarify if you do that, that they're 03:25:22.254 --> 03:25:29.886 - not on they're not on the committee. Yeah, counselor. Are we planning to utilize 03:25:30.242 --> 03:25:37.904 - FSG to assist with the facility. I think it was determined that that was what we wanted to do because 03:25:37.904 --> 03:25:45.791 - I do believe the auditor had expressed since we are already using FSG and we're already they're familiar 03:25:45.791 --> 03:25:53.754 - with us and they've talked to us before about this that it would be ideal to just go ahead. Now it sounds 03:25:53.754 --> 03:25:59.838 - like also with those different taxing units like I know the city has really like 03:26:00.226 --> 03:26:09.931 - you know, once this happens, should it all go through, that should we pass the resolution tonight, I 03:26:09.931 --> 03:26:20.117 - should say, that people will bring their own financial services groups with them, but it would be because 03:26:20.117 --> 03:26:29.342 - it's a county-companied thing that FSG would be doing. So, I recall Mr. Garretas saying that he 03:26:32.258 --> 03:26:43.187 - already several times and had resources in the form of wording and things like that that he could share 03:26:43.187 --> 03:26:54.537 - with us to use. And I might be stretching what he said to say that I think it would involve this invitation 03:26:54.537 --> 03:26:58.846 - type, but that was the impression I got. 03:26:59.490 --> 03:27:12.975 - So I'm wondering if we can agree this is going to happen and direct our council to work with Mr. Garitas 03:27:12.975 --> 03:27:25.945 - to include our intentions. And if we need to pass the, is it a resolution? Resolution, then we do it 03:27:25.945 --> 03:27:27.358 - next time? 03:27:27.522 --> 03:27:35.946 - Or are you trying to get this meet? Well, that we can't meet between now and next. We have to meet by 03:27:35.946 --> 03:27:44.453 - October 1st, October 1st. And I mean, there's no way we would be meeting. We have a meeting scheduled, 03:27:44.453 --> 03:27:52.877 - a regular council meeting scheduled for September 8th. So. If this up at that meeting in terms of yay 03:27:52.877 --> 03:27:57.502 - or nay, but kind of. Progress forward based on what Mr. 03:27:58.754 --> 03:28:05.782 - us work out, I mean, to the extent that we can progress between now and then. Ms. Turner-King? The statute 03:28:05.782 --> 03:28:12.547 - says you have to convene it by October 1st, not that you have to have a meeting by October 1st. So you 03:28:12.547 --> 03:28:19.575 - could table this to the next council meeting and then pass it then, and then we could clarify the language 03:28:19.575 --> 03:28:26.209 - a little bit more if you'd like to try to set up a meeting with the fiscal officers of each city and 03:28:26.209 --> 03:28:27.326 - town thereafter. 03:28:29.442 --> 03:28:42.682 - wait let me make sure from council what would prevent us from passing the resolution tonight work smithing 03:28:42.682 --> 03:28:55.550 - that's all okay okay I just feel like there might be some language that I just feel like maybe we could 03:28:55.550 --> 03:28:59.262 - get some language from FSG on 03:28:59.394 --> 03:29:09.571 - how to be inclusive, but also stay within the code, the statute that's like, hey, only these folks. 03:29:09.571 --> 03:29:19.748 - Anybody have any other comments to that? So essentially, like this is the draft and then we can see 03:29:19.748 --> 03:29:25.854 - this work with Mr. Gerritas and then the eighth go forward. 03:29:27.234 --> 03:29:36.196 - Yes, counselor fire. So I'm wondering what the disadvantage would be of waiting. That would be my. Well, 03:29:36.196 --> 03:29:44.987 - I think the disadvantage of waiting is that that's two weeks that have gone by in which we. Don't have 03:29:44.987 --> 03:29:54.120 - a meeting, don't have a meeting schedule or for us to kind of get like to kind of pull schedules together, 03:29:54.120 --> 03:29:56.510 - if you will, because again, 03:29:57.186 --> 03:30:04.851 - I think the other thing that I was thinking about is other taxing units. We have our budgets. We got 03:30:04.851 --> 03:30:12.440 - three weeks of budgets plus regular sessions in between that. Then we have public hearings and then 03:30:12.440 --> 03:30:20.408 - final adoptions. One person from this group is going to be taxed with, in addition to doing that, that's 03:30:20.408 --> 03:30:24.734 - going to be an addition thing that they are going to do. 03:30:24.898 --> 03:30:32.074 - And schedules I know are already tight for some folks but that would be my reason for or I would say 03:30:32.074 --> 03:30:39.393 - the disadvantage for doing that. But as long as you know like again if we're saying that we don't have 03:30:39.393 --> 03:30:46.782 - to have the meeting because I was under the impression that you had to have the meeting by October 1st. 03:31:06.690 --> 03:31:17.627 - Ms. Turner-King, or Ms. Gregory, is it for certain that we, the language isn't strong to, are we not 03:31:17.627 --> 03:31:28.781 - needing to have it done by October 1st? I think from hearing the presentations, that's what I've taken 03:31:28.781 --> 03:31:30.622 - away every time. 03:31:30.754 --> 03:31:36.377 - That's my recollection as well. I'll pull up my email and see if I can find anything. I mean, obviously 03:31:36.377 --> 03:31:42.270 - I'm going to defer to legal because they're looking at the statute, but let me see what I can find from AIC. 03:31:42.530 --> 03:31:49.625 - In reading the statute, it says each county may, prior to October 1st of 2026, convene a municipal unit 03:31:49.625 --> 03:31:56.447 - strategic task force, with one representative from the county council in each city and town, fiscal 03:31:56.447 --> 03:32:03.884 - officer in the county to negotiate and establish, through unanimous support, a local income tax distribution 03:32:03.884 --> 03:32:08.318 - agreement. And then, skipping ahead in the statute, it says that 03:32:10.338 --> 03:32:16.286 - the municipal strategic task force establishes a local income tax distribution agreement under subdivision 03:32:16.286 --> 03:32:22.066 - one. The county should send the local income tax distribution agreement to the Department of Government 03:32:22.066 --> 03:32:28.181 - Finance. The Department of Government Finance shall compile a report for of all local income tax distribution 03:32:28.181 --> 03:32:33.739 - agreements and submit the report to the legislative by December 1st. So I think you have to convene 03:32:33.739 --> 03:32:39.742 - it by October 1st and then you can discuss if you have an agreement so that you could submit it to December 03:32:39.874 --> 03:32:50.766 - to DLGF so that they can submit it to the legislation by December 1st. Well, I guess to council colleagues, 03:32:50.766 --> 03:33:00.951 - if the wording was that we need to make sure that we are trying to include people that really should 03:33:00.951 --> 03:33:08.414 - be on there, I guess, couldn't we set down just the taxing units and then 03:33:08.770 --> 03:33:17.649 - If we find out by way of FSG, like other people such as library, school corporations, those things could 03:33:17.649 --> 03:33:26.189 - be there, we could always add that and amend the resolution at the eighth. And therefore, if we pass 03:33:26.189 --> 03:33:35.998 - it tonight, that gives us at least a two week head start on getting our gears grinded. I just am a little concerned 03:33:37.026 --> 03:33:44.702 - The more time that we aren't doing something, the more like schedules get real tight and crunchy. And 03:33:44.702 --> 03:33:52.378 - so I'm just thinking like we could do this now. And then should we find something else out later that 03:33:52.378 --> 03:33:59.979 - we can add? We can always amend it later. Ms. Greger, I think you had your hand up. Yes. Back to the 03:33:59.979 --> 03:34:03.742 - October 1. I just found my email from October 11. 03:34:04.034 --> 03:34:12.848 - I'm sorry, August 11th. Working in the future. From August 11th from Jamie Bolster with the AIC. This 03:34:12.848 --> 03:34:21.748 - is just an excerpt from that email. It says, please also remember that convening a must is permissive, 03:34:21.748 --> 03:34:26.846 - not mandatory. If a county elects to convene them, the tax 03:34:26.946 --> 03:34:35.217 - the task force, the initial meeting must be convened prior to October 1, 2026. The statute does not 03:34:35.217 --> 03:34:43.571 - prohibit the task force from holding subsequent meetings after October 1 to continue its discussions 03:34:43.571 --> 03:34:51.842 - or work towards a unanimous agreement. DLGF has requested that counties must submit their completed 03:34:51.842 --> 03:34:54.654 - must reports by November 2, 2026. 03:34:56.866 --> 03:35:05.593 - to the legislators. This leads me to believe that we need to have that first meeting by October 1. 03:35:05.593 --> 03:35:14.407 - I agree. And I just pulled that email up and I'm looking at it too. So I would agree. So I think if 03:35:14.407 --> 03:35:23.134 - what we have displayed on the screen right now where we can say, you know, the tax in units, which 03:35:23.842 --> 03:35:30.826 - The council directs the Murrell County auditor to provide notice to the taxing units, communicating 03:35:30.826 --> 03:35:37.879 - action. So that clarifies who needs to be, but we can also send this out as a courtesy to those that 03:35:37.879 --> 03:35:44.863 - want to hear the conversation, but we need to take care of what is required for us. Yep. Yep. Okay. 03:35:44.863 --> 03:35:51.358 - So it is a public meeting, right? Yeah. So, I mean, they could come for sure. Exactly. Okay. 03:35:51.490 --> 03:35:57.548 - Is there anything prohibiting public comment? Well, I think you can as much like all the other things 03:35:57.548 --> 03:36:03.547 - that we've done, we could probably facilitate that. And then, of course, with the FSG, I'm sure they 03:36:03.547 --> 03:36:09.486 - will, you know, work with us and how to do this. I know Hancock County had a meeting, I think, last 03:36:09.486 --> 03:36:15.782 - Wednesday or Thursday. And it's actually I haven't had a chance to look at it because I've been ingrained 03:36:15.782 --> 03:36:20.830 - in other things. But I kind of want to look at it and see what they do or have done. 03:36:24.194 --> 03:36:31.849 - So I move to adopt resolution twenty twenty six dash thirty one. All right. We got a motion in a second. 03:36:31.849 --> 03:36:35.422 - Any other further questions or comments on most? 03:36:39.138 --> 03:36:46.584 - Seeing none, we'll move to public comment. If there's public comment, I guess I'll say here in the room, 03:36:46.584 --> 03:36:53.959 - if somebody wants to run into the room off the street, if you're watching, you can come to the lectern, 03:36:53.959 --> 03:37:01.476 - or you can use your Spidey web and come on over, or you can raise your hand via Teams. Seeing that nobody 03:37:01.476 --> 03:37:08.638 - wants to do any of that, may we please have a roll call vote? Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Wilts? 03:37:09.698 --> 03:37:18.458 - Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. 03:37:18.458 --> 03:37:27.766 - All right, so it is official. And stay tuned. Okay. And at the next meeting, that's something that we 03:37:27.766 --> 03:37:37.438 - could do. At the next meeting on the 8th, we can designate the one individual to do that. So there we go. 03:37:37.922 --> 03:37:49.904 - you. If you must. So do you want me then to go ahead and start reaching out to the fiscal people to 03:37:49.904 --> 03:38:02.005 - find a common date? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Um so we will move on to the final part of our agenda, which is 03:38:02.005 --> 03:38:06.558 - Council liaison comments and updates. 03:38:07.202 --> 03:38:15.538 - Councilor Feidl, you're up first. I just want to report on a few things. One of the highlights I think 03:38:15.538 --> 03:38:23.794 - of the last couple of weeks I arranged for and offered others to come to the new VA building tour. We 03:38:23.794 --> 03:38:31.968 - got to see that. Councilor Deckard and I ended up being available to do that, so we did that. It was 03:38:31.968 --> 03:38:33.182 - a lovely tour. 03:38:33.826 --> 03:38:41.008 - Lots of services right on site there, very well organized, really nice facility, easy to get to and 03:38:41.008 --> 03:38:48.262 - out of, plenty of parking. Loved all the flowers and the little non-asphalt areas of parking lot. We 03:38:48.262 --> 03:38:55.515 - got to see all kinds of butterflies. It was just lovely. So it was just a lovely building tour. So I 03:38:55.515 --> 03:39:00.830 - was just happy to see the veteran services there in fine shape, it seems. 03:39:04.898 --> 03:39:15.613 - I think there are other things that I've done, but it's just my routine, whether it's downtown Bloomington 03:39:15.613 --> 03:39:26.129 - stuff. We had an applied research center speaker when I went to that recently. Those are just the things 03:39:26.129 --> 03:39:32.638 - I think of my council a couple of weeks ago. Councilor O'Rourke. 03:39:40.034 --> 03:39:51.594 - I've done a lot of things and I'm tired tonight. So I'm gonna spare you from updating. I did go to the 03:39:51.594 --> 03:40:03.379 - PSLIT committee meeting where it was decided that the recommendation would be to raise it. So be looking 03:40:03.379 --> 03:40:08.542 - for yet another increase in local income tax. 03:40:09.378 --> 03:40:19.347 - community near you. Oh, okay. Um, I'll keep it really brief. Uh, private fest was awesome last week. 03:40:19.347 --> 03:40:29.513 - Um, and the front door, which was funded by so few Travis grant committee has had their, um, openings. 03:40:29.513 --> 03:40:36.126 - And so it was just really good to see the community coming out and 03:40:36.226 --> 03:40:46.200 - and showing up and showing love. Students are back, so welcome back. And budget season is upon us. I 03:40:46.200 --> 03:40:56.174 - had a really good budget session meeting over the past weekend, and we got some more that are coming 03:40:56.174 --> 03:41:04.766 - up. And so I'm really curious to see everybody else's budgets and what we do for 2027. 03:41:05.218 --> 03:41:08.766 - And so with that being said, we are adjourned. Thank you.