- All right. Well, good evening, everybody. We will go ahead and get started. Thank you very much. I will
- call this Monroe County Council meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, April 14th, the day before tax day,
- 2026. The time is 5.02.
- and we have a quorum here in the NETU Hill Room. We currently have counselors Henry, Iverson, Deckard,
- Wilts, and Feidl. And I'm sure Councilor Huck will be joining us in the room here soon. So next up,
- we will go ahead and recite our pledge. So all those that are able to stand, please stand. I pledge
- allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
- and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
- for all. And emphasis on all. All right. Next up is the adoption of tonight's agenda. Does anybody have
- any changes or wishes to amend tonight's agenda? Yes, Councillor Iverson. Council, the Health Department
- has requested
- Uh requested that their request for additional appropriations Which is item eight i to be tabled to
- the april 28th meeting So that's item eight i tabled to our april 28th meeting Also, I would move to
- table indefinitely the aviation department's request for an additional appropriation In tonight's packet.
- That's item eight l Okay So are there any other changes? Yes councillor wills
- I would I've been asked by the Sheriff's Department if their series of items PQ are I assume that's
- a P you eight no eight P eight Q okay eight Oh eight P and eight Q if those could be moved to earlier
- in the agenda
- I could move those to after the highway department and right before the clerk's office. Thank you.
- All right. Any other? And where did you say you were moving those two? So those are going to go right
- before the clerks.
- conversation. So right after the last highway department. Thank you. Okay, so seeing if there are no
- more changes to tonight's agenda, we will go ahead and adopt that. So all those in favor of adopting
- tonight's agenda as amended signify by saying aye. All those opposed, same sign.
- Okay. Motion carries. Thank you very much. All right. Next up is public comment. And so I can't imagine
- what public comment won't want to be on for tonight. But we appreciate everybody that would like to
- make public comment. So the rules for public comment are the same as they've always been. So you will
- sign in at the
- Lectern here in the NatU Hill room. The monitors around the room, you'll have up to three minutes to
- make your comment. You'll state your name for the record. After you sign in, you'll have up to three
- minutes. And then after you're done, you can kindly go back to your seat. But those that are in virtual
- land via Teams, you can also raise your hand. I already see somebody has their hand raised. Again, you
- should have a timer. TSD will have that.
- on the screen for you via Teams. Again, you'll state your name for the record. You'll have up to three
- minutes. And then again, this is for items that are not on tonight's agenda. So I will go to the NatU
- Hill Room first. So I will go via Teams. And it looks like our friend Christopher MG has his hand raised.
- I will go to Team's land first. So if you want to state your name for the record, you have up to three
- minutes. And good evening, Madam President, council members, distinguished staff. This is Chris Terengi
- from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, your friend. We're a 900 member organization with
- 80% of those entities being small businesses. I want to take a moment to highlight an upcoming opportunity
- for civic engagement that's especially relevant given who's in tonight's room.
- This reminds me of why I appreciate being part of this wonderful 110-year-old institution that is the
- Chamber. On Tuesday, April 21st, that is a week from today, the Bloomington Chamber, in partnership
- with Amplified Bloomington, Indiana Uplands Realtors, VASC, the builders, will host a light connect
- at Constellation Stage and Screens Waldron Arts Center. That's from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. So a future candidates
- in the Monroe County Commissioner's race, Democratic One, two individuals here tonight, Trent Deckard
- and David Henry. In a community like ours, it's fair to say that this primary play a significant role
- in determining the county's next commissioner. And ElectConnect is designed to be approachable
- and informative, not a traditional debate format, but an opportunity to hear directly from candidates
- engaging in conversation around issues that matter most to our community. From the Chamber's perspective,
- this is kitchen table issues, housing supply affordability,
- economic growth, and business climate, effective delivery of the county's core functions, courts, jails,
- infrastructure, public health. The event is open to the public, so this is not a chamber membership
- requirement at all. We'd like you to register at chamberbloomington.org. Certainly not required. We
- welcome anyone who wants to be part of this informed, engaged community. This is a great venue. It's
- a relaxed setting. There's going to be hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar, so make it an easy stop for next
- Tuesday to connect.
- It's four to 445 is the networking period program begins. After that, we encourage everyone, residents,
- business leaders, stakeholders, council members, attend and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity
- to shape Monroe County's future. Thank you. Appreciate the time tonight. Good luck with the meeting.
- Thank you. We'll need it. Thank you so much. All right. Next up, we'll go to the lectern here in the
- net. You know, we on here. Okay. Thanks, Christopher. That was a very nice
- We're there about the elect connect hope to see lots of you there. Good evening council my name is Eric
- spoon more I'm here as a resident. In taxpayer I want to take a few moments to talk about our jail and
- the plan ahead as I understand it. We're down to two very different options I urge you to ground this
- decision and considerations that go beyond land acquisition and site plans.
- how you decide will reflect our shared values as a county and how we treat people at one of the most
- vulnerable moments in their lives. Everyday individuals leave our jail system carrying enormous challenges,
- mental health struggles, addiction, poverty, and often no reliable transportation or any semblance of
- a support network. What happens in those first few hours matters. It can determine whether someone gets
- a second chance
- or falls right back into the cycle. That's why the existing Thompson property presents such a powerful
- opportunity. It's not just land we already own, it's a location that connects people to hope and the
- help they need. Located on the South Rogers corridor, it's served by reliable public transit with multiple
- bus stops within walking distance. From there, people can access critical services like food pantries,
- center stone health services, harm reduction programs, shelter facilities,
- and the central transit hub is just minutes away. The site also sits next to one of the great gems of
- our community, the community kitchen of Monroe County, where someone leaving the jail can get a warm
- meal and peace if needed, perhaps their first sense of stability in days or weeks. Now let's compare
- that to the proposed North Park site. Outside city limits without sidewalks or walkable infrastructure
- and along a busy four lane highway.
- For someone leaving jail custody without a car, it's not just inconvenient. It's unsafe. It gives a
- perception that once you leave the custody of Monroe County, you're out there on your own. But that's
- not who we are as a community. We believe in second chances here. We believe in lifting people up, not
- leaving them behind. Our public investments should reflect those values. Choosing the Thompson property
- is not just the more practical decision, it's the more compassionate one.
- It recognizes that a jail is not just a place for confinement, but a critical point transition back
- into our community. Those who continue deliberations, I urge you to give serious weight to the human
- consequences of this decision. Financial considerations and attorney imposed timelines are important.
- They matter, but they can't be the sole measure of success here. We have to account for the human cost
- and the value of compassion in our decisions. And to me,
- compassion is worth fighting for. It's worth sustaining in our community. So please help set that example
- and pursue it with all the power vested in you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, again, if you are wanting
- to say something or make a public comment on Teams, please raise your hand. But if we have people that
- are here in the room that'd like to speak again, you can start lining up and sign in your name
- and state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Hi, can you guys hear me okay?
- All right. My name is Wes Martin. I'm a firefighter with the City of Bloomington. I'm also the chair
- of the Local 586 Political Action Committee, the Local Firefighters Union PAC.
- And I appreciate Mr. Spoonmore speaking about how compassion should be at the forefront of our consideration
- of a new jail site. I disagree with his characterization of the Thompson property as the most compassionate
- of those. One of the things that the fire department does, primarily we are an emergency medical services
- provider. 80% of our runs are medical in nature. In the city of Bloomington,
- those runs are typically life threatening. I personally have run on the current jail site, probably
- a dozen times in different capacities on engine one on the squad. While the current site presents significant
- challenges due to the nature of its stairwells, it's Sallyport, the alleyway. Those issues of access
- tend to have
- negative correlations to patient outcomes. What does that mean? That means that the sooner we can get
- to a patient and the sooner we can get that patient loaded and in route to an emergency department,
- the more likely that patient is to have a better health outcome. Putting the site on South Rogers Street
- presents significant challenges for us responders
- getting to that site in a way that the North Thompson property would not. The IU Health Ambulance Depot
- is across the street from the proposed site, and both Monroe and IU Health Hospitals are five minutes
- away. When we are considering a new jail site, we need to consider the emergency uses of that site,
- not just the accessibility and general use of that site. So I would, again, say please consider emergent use
- when you are considering a new jail site. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I don't see any hands
- raised via Teams. But again, you can. And so I'll look at the room here to see if there's anybody else
- that would like to make public comment on items not on tonight's agenda. We got to take it here.
- Hello. My name is Heather bland, and I am here with new leaf new life. We work with people who are currently
- impacted by the legal system, both while they are in, and after they are least. And I think moving.
- the jail outside of the city limits would be a detriment again to the availability of resources. Right
- now the recidivism rate in the state of Indiana is around 38%. The people that come to us, we can get
- to 13% and those that we get housed are under 6%. The reality of them making it to us when they're that
- far out without access to transportation
- without access to services is gonna greatly increase that rate of recidivism. The people that we see
- want a chance and I believe that they deserve a second chance. I don't just stand here representing
- New Leaf New Life as the director, I also was a participant in that program. And without accessibility
- to the services, I don't know if I would be standing in front of you today. And so I really put the
- weight on accessibility
- and compassion for the people that we're trying to serve right now. There is a solution, and we can
- come to that if we work together, but it's not going to happen from farther away. We need to bring people
- in closer together. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, I will go to team's screen name, Kathleen. You should
- be able to raise or unmute yourself and you'll have up to three minutes.
- Can you all hear me? Yes. Hi, my name is Kathleen Paquette. I'm a long time Monroe County resident.
- Many of you know me by now with my work with Careknot Cages. I suppose I just wanted to give you all
- a little bit of a pep talk today. I was really surprised to see the motion filed by our board
- of commissioners yesterday. And I think some of you were surprised to see that as well.
- It's really frustrating to see. I have I have kept up with many of these meetings and watched you all
- on council attempt to listen to all kinds of folks in the community and collaborate and it's really
- frustrating for me to see this lack of collaboration on the part of our commissioners.
- You all have heard all of the many reasons why North Park is a bad idea. I know that many of you agree
- with and believe a lot of the reasons why it's a bad idea. So I'm not here to rehash all of those things.
- I think I just want to encourage you all to not back down in the face of this behavior from your colleagues.
- And I just really appreciate the work you all have done and I look forward to continuing to work on
- a future with true justice for our county. Thank you. Thank you.
- afternoon my name is Seth Mutchler I am a resident of Monroe County I am here today to comment about
- the jail and the proposed North Park site members of Monroe County Council I am so sorry that
- the commissioners and the ACLU have put you in this position to see it to as I see it in essence blackmail
- you into bending to their will is completely inappropriate
- They give us what we want or else. I don't even really know where to begin with that. And just as person
- to people, it is unacceptable and simply unkind of them to blindside you and the public with this new
- court filing. I'm going to implore you to please, even under these pressure tactics, to remain true
- to your convictions and to remain true to the desires of your constituents. The public does not want
- a jail at North Park. Your colleagues at the city
- do not want a jail at North Park. I know two of our city council members put out a press release to
- that very sentiment yesterday. Your business community does not want a jail at North Park. Social service
- providers, the folks in the trenches doing the work, as you just heard, do not want a jail at North
- Park. And you yourselves in October stated in no unclear terms that you do not want a jail in North
- Park. Building a jail at North Park would be a tremendous harm to our community.
- And I hope that when the time comes, and it seems like it's coming, that you will once again vote no
- on a purchase order for that land. Thank you. Thank you. Any other takers via Teams or here in the NatU
- Hill room? Last call. We got a hand raised. The name is Lee.
- So you should be able to unmute yourself, state your name for the record, and you'll have up to three
- minutes. And TSD, can we make sure we get the timer back on, please? Thank you. Hello. Hello. Hi, my
- name is Lise Bruenpfeffer. I'm a resident of Monroe County. When I look at what we're trying to do,
- to help people who get into trouble in Monroe County, one of the things that we've always said is that
- we shouldn't put all the money into the jail. And, you know, somewhere along the line, that's gotten
- lost. And I just want to bring that up. If, as you know, Senate Bill 1 hadn't happened, we would have
- been doing just that. Senate Bill 1 reduced our financial capability
- And for some reason, I feel like the commissioners aren't living in the world of post-Senate Bill 1.
- And it makes more sense to use the Thompson property, maybe not for a jail, but for something less than
- a jail, like a rehab facility, and then actually provide services like longer-term
- or something like that to the community at that site. That would be reimbursed operationally by some
- sort of Medicaid or health insurance. You know, we are moving into new territory in our budgets and
- I think that doing things that are more effective are of the utmost importance at this time. Thank you.
- Thank you. Anybody else?
- In the room here or via teams. Last call. All right. Well, we appreciate everybody making public comment.
- Often, I always like to tell people when public comment is being made. I think my colleagues and I,
- if you see us kind of looking up and down and writing things, it's not like we're trying to not pay
- attention.
- like to write down everything, because I like to have a reflection of everything that the public is
- saying, whether I agree with it or not, or whether we agree with it or not is up to us. But I just want
- to say that we appreciate all public comment. So thank you very much in the room here and to those folks
- that are on via Teams. All right.
- Next up we will go to item number five which is department updates and so these are for also items not
- on the agenda but we have some folks walking up here and department updates are up to 10 minutes and
- we have Jordan Miller that has given us the annual or not annual the quarterly commissary report.
- Good afternoon, Council. Jordan Miller, Financial Coordinator, Sheriff's Office and the Correctional
- Center. Here to give you the 2026 first quarter summary of the Monroe County Commissary Fund. The balance
- as of January 1st, 2026, $119,796.54. There's a total of $57,029.49 worth of commissary receipts.
- $203.44 worth of interest from January through March. A total of $86,720.99 in expenditures, leaving
- a remaining balance as of March 31st of $90,308.48, provided the three months worth of ledger receipts,
- disbursements, and balances. And just to kind of touch on those, the top
- Item was item number five of the approved commissary expenses, which is equipment, approximately 51.33%
- or $44,512.42, followed by approximately 29.46% for items used for commissary resale, and finally,
- approximately 7.59% for activities to maintain order and discipline within our
- facility for inmates. If you have questions, I'm glad to answer those. Yes, Councillor Williams.
- Could you, for everybody's edifications, provide some examples of that nine percent, the last category
- that those are? This one is seven point five nine. Seven point five nine percent. So these are events
- that I put together that
- ensure that the the correctional staff works with the members of the facility. For instance,
- on New Year's, we let everybody stay out later. Usually it's locked down at midnight, provided pizza,
- popcorn, drinks, to provide some normalcy in a very abnormal environment. First, I did my best to try
- to take care of those guys and that
- work hard every day in the facility. We brought them out for the Super Bowl. We recently brought them
- out with the national championship basketball where my Michigan Wolverines won the national championship.
- We played basketball on an eight foot rim. I dominated, obviously. And for our cleaning crews that we
- have inside the facility, we break it down in blocks. We make sure to incentivize that a little bit.
- Show like, hey, we appreciate the extra work you're doing outside of what we clean.
- So that's that's. Predominantly that that 7.59% is trying to give back in from the start of Sheriff
- Martez administration. We said we wanted to use the money in the facility and that's what we work to
- do with that part. Thank you. But yes, counselor Hawk. Yes, as many of us know, it's been following
- the news. Not every sheriff.
- the state has behaved as well as I expect out of you. So can you explain to us what we are doing differently
- to follow the money and make sure that there's no misuse of the dollars? Does it have to do with this
- financial review or you want to help us explain to the public how this is not going to happen under
- your watch? I think it's pretty easy.
- you can purchase items from commissary with. We we don't operate in a gray it's not what some
- this administration does and then when we do have something that comes up like this audit that I'll
- touch on here in a moment. We make sure to handle that very transparently and in the public. It's. But
- I was speaking about other people, other sheriffs and other administrations who have been involved with
- misuse. It's not that difficult.
- to stay on the right line and do the right thing, which is why we moved to as a state quarterly reviews
- of the commissary fund as well. So the state's trying to work on improving that. I don't know how it's
- an issue. That's my answer. Add to that work.
- continually finding areas where we can add checks and balances. I mean we go to the sheriff's associations
- and such and we are communicating every time with the state board of accounts to hear me what we can
- do better implementing extra checks and balances where we have other you know I'm the individual who
- writes the checks and things of that sort direct association with these funds. Then we have two other
- staff members in our office who are going through and doing
- audits and reviews of these just continually adding additional checks and balances to ensure you know
- these funds are being spent and used accordingly. Other questions? Councillor Decker. I just I appreciate
- with the way that you all come in and talk about items that I'd say are items of dignity
- And I just want to say also that I think probably of all the public agencies we have in Monroe County
- family. You probably have more eyes on you than than most, and that means a whole variety of things.
- But I appreciate very much the how meticulous you are with it and bring the report and coming in here
- and talking to us about that so the public can see it and follow up with questions if they have it or
- just more importantly understand that it happens.
- Yes, Councillor Iverson. My question is about a mileage line. Our transition team director, Todd Smith,
- in January, spent $2,677.75 on mileage. Where was that to? Is that just coming from... How do you spend
- that much money in one month on mileage? A number of these items that
- where this check was issued on, let me see, the 16th of January stemmed from things from last year that
- we received the mileage receipts and reimbursements from various facility visits and things that I really
- touched on, I believe, at the last meeting that we were at in January, a lot of those visits and facility
- kind of prior to some of the later things taking place. But so that in January, that was reflective
- of, like I said, I believe,
- October, November, December of 2025. And then you'll notice as well, I'm sure you noticed in March,
- actually on the 31st, we had another mileage reimbursement taking place for January, February and March
- to these various events and outings and things specific to that transition team. I can certainly provide
- additional information or specifics if necessary, but I don't have those specific trips and locations
- in front of me. And they are at a reduced rate.
- Sure. Did I hear you just say that the March 31st mileage for the transition team was for trips taken
- in January, February, and March of this year? Yes, sir. I would like to see that breakdown. That would
- be really helpful. Okay. Yes, Councillor Pio. So would these transportation numbers be normal, I mean,
- or average, what you usually
- per month or every three months. I mean this is for the transition the transition director and as I
- mentioned it's at a reduced rate 25 cents per mile as agreed upon for the contract for his position.
- It's just the various outings that are taking place again. What kind of outings are we talking about?
- I don't have the specifics in front of me. They've gone for the steel cell
- to see what kind of. Viewings see what what kind of cells to use what kind of told us to use what kind
- of infrastructure we're looking at what kind of. Equipment will have in this facility all the way down
- to the tables and chairs and seats and stools and that's that's the kind of things they're doing right
- now thank you that gives me a good idea thank you.
- I talked to councilmember Kate and Marty about the audit the external audit that we had completed. For
- the dates of June 1 to February 28 June 1 of 23 to February 28 or 26. And they confirmed the amount
- that we had in the German America bank account and it is prepared to be swept over obviously last time
- we talked, I said we would we would speak first before remove anything.
- So that audit is complete. I provided a copy to both liaisons and then I think you guys should have
- gotten the rest of it today. And you can see that it breaks it down pretty well. The cost of that audit
- was $1,896 and 52 cents. Indiana code does permit us to pay for that out of commissary, so it's not
- a cost to the county incurred. But.
- I wanted to break down a little bit what that sweep will look like moving forward. So every month this
- internal commissary that we run that we started in June of 23 will be swept over at the end of each
- month. So you won't see a large buildup. You'll see that swept over each month and you'll hear that
- in your quarterly reviews for commissary moving forward as pretty normal course of action. As of now,
- Like Jordan said, there's $108,148.60 in that balance. Currently, that total that you see on the audit
- is $587,401.78. In March, we've accrued $21,650 for that sweep total, which will look at a grand total
- of $609,052.14.
- total for the sweep. Once we get that sweep completed, we'll have $717,274 in our commissary. So today
- we reported that we had $108,000. We're moving $609,000 plus and getting that $717,000 plus total that
- you're seeing now.
- And one point of clarification, I provided Lieutenant Colonel Gibbons with the balance as of today,
- standing at $108,148.60, which differs from our amount reflected as of March 31st, just to clarify.
- So we'll move that over after the probably next coming days. And then we'll be able to report that as
- normal moving forward.
- Any other questions? Yes, Councillor Williams. I know that if somebody just is tuning in right now,
- they're like, what is happening? You just like ballooned your commissary fund. And I would encourage
- anybody with questions to go back and look at when you presented on the issue that that you all had
- discovered and then initiated the audit to investigate. But
- the communication that you all have had on this issue and throughout the audit and just kind of keeping
- us all up to date on it. So are you planning a trip to Disney World? No, I'm just kidding, that part.
- That is not covered in the commissary. Okay, all right, no. Thank you. Councilors. Section eight of
- the audit outlines four recommendations for future action.
- Are any of these for they seem pretty standard, but I mean, can you kind of talk us through how are
- these tweaks to procedures that are already occurring? Or are they brand new procedures that you're
- going to be implementing in your department at first? Well, basically changes have been made. We discovered
- and I'm sure it's you.
- I'm sure you've had time to review this, but changes have been, there were some discrepancies with regards
- to the reports taking place. The figures, the balances that we owed to our offsite vendors were accurately
- being reported to us and we were paying those totals out. However, some of the items on the list in
- the kiosks and such in various reports were reflected as onsite items. So there were some minor
- discrepancies, for instance, with post stamp.
- and postage letters and things of that sort that one can buy on commissary. That was kind of slightly
- skewing the total on various reports, which this is reflected, and I believe in section eight, just
- the standardized method, which we've determined the process now of what we're gonna do or how we're
- gonna do it. We're gonna make these sweeps monthly, and we're confident moving forward this, you know,
- no issues will arise. So here's what we did. We realized that there was a discrepancy with
- CPC's communication with us, and that's why the money was never moved from one account to the other.
- And before we moved that account and kind of touched on what Councilmember Wills just said, before we
- moved anything, we wanted to make sure they were the right numbers. But we brought CPC in for three
- training days, trained all staff that touched that system.
- and we developed a procedure that should be seamless moving forward. The good thing about that is, is
- it really made us focus on our in-house sales and how we're gonna move it and when we're gonna move
- it. So we'll get these reconciliations from CPC, the company, and to move to German America and we'll
- just, we will do it on the end of the last day of each month, move the in-house
- And then we'll be able to correctly reflect that. So that is the procedure. A lot of this was already
- in place. That's how we knew the money was there. That's how we knew what it was. We just couldn't move
- it before we verified that that was the right fund. Okay. All right. Well, seeing that there are no
- other further questions or comments, we thank you for your time. Appreciate that. Thank you.
- great next up we have another department update from miss Lisa Ridge which is our highway department
- director giving us the annual tip report. So Jeff Cockrell usually does this but I think publicly for
- Indiana code at a public meeting we are to announce that you have received the annual reports for all
- the tip districts. We have. We are seeing thank you.
- Great. Are there any other department updates that would like to make a department update? Do the place
- is okay? Fine. It's been some time since we came and spoke to council about vacancies, so I thought
- it might be an appropriate time to bring everybody up to speed. Break it down into
- into both the jail and on the merit officer side. So first off on the jail side it's much less complex
- than the merit side. We're holding our own holding serve if you will there at the jail right now we
- have two vacancies. We have one person that has already put in their two week notice that will move
- that up to three and we then we have at least two individuals that have expressed to us that they will
- be departing
- soon so that that's going to take us up to take us up to five but in the interim time so we do know
- those vacancies are approaching so Kyle does a really really good job of maintaining an applicant database
- reaching out to those people beginning investigation so they almost coincide with the time that a person
- is leaving to when they're hired particularly
- For example, this person with two week notice, not gonna happen. It'll be maybe a two or three week
- lapse where that vacancy will sit. But when we have people that come in to say, hey, I'm in this process
- for another law enforcement agency, and they're telling me it's going to be a June 15th higher date,
- we'll go ahead and start that selection process and get it up to a point where now all we have to do
- is to do a background, and then when that person
- does tell us, then we can simply go back around and get that person hired within that two week period
- of time. So Kyle is very efficient at that. So we routinely run between two and five vacancies most
- time on the lower end of that because of Kyle's method of operation there. So I just wanted to bring
- you up to speed that the jail is still doing relatively well. I mean, there's hardly any place I think
- in any employment environment right now that everybody's fully staffed all the time. There's always
- this turnover and you're dealing with a bit. That speaks to his administration well that they're dealing
- with it pretty quickly and efficiently. On the merit side, the selection process is much, much more
- detailed. It's much more lengthy. And I know, as we mentioned earlier, Senate Bill 1 rang everybody's
- bell in many different aspects.
- We spoke to the council back in November of twenty twenty four and kind of. All. Could be happening
- with our merit side and I it's it's starting to come to fruition here so. I just thought it before we
- get into crisis mode here to at least bring you up to speed so. In just in in twenty twenty five we
- ran to merit
- We had 38 applicants. In that first process, we netted zero hires out of that process. We took six people
- to background in polygraphs, and they all failed. Every one of them. Six failed the polygraph examination,
- which as we know is a test of veracity and
- what you've done in your past life that may or may not affect you. So what can we derive from that?
- And unfortunately, that's a quality of applicant issue that we're struggling with right now. So the
- second process we ran, ironically enough, killed 38 applicants, and we were able to take one hire out
- of that for two vacancies. So as we currently sit here,
- As I speak to you today, we have two vacancies. The person that we're going to be bringing on will be
- bringing on, I think, next week, drop us down to one vacancy. That's the good news. For that person,
- it's going to be about a year before they're ready to go. The time to go to the academy, because this
- person is not a lateral, this person is just
- some individuals with no police experience that will send to the academy has got to go through an FTO
- training program and all that process. It's usually about a year before it before that person is eligible
- to hit the road with our confidence that they can manage what comes their way. So we're starting a process.
- We started at Sunday for for this year to refill our remaining vacancy. Here's here's the issue that
- that I wanted to bring to your attention, that we just received notification that one of our most senior
- officers, not eligible for retirement, but a senior officer, is going to be leaving our ranks, though
- that drops us right back down to two vacancies. We have two other officers that have formed us. They
- are in application process for other law enforcement agencies.
- We have one that's in the process for another governmental agency and in the latter stages of that.
- So, you know, I don't know how that's going to pan out, but I'd say the one I spoke of that's in the
- latter process, I'd say there's a good chance that we're going to lose that individual. We're up to
- three vacancies. If the other two happens, then that's five vacancies.
- put a little icing on the cake, we have three officers out on FML. So, you know, if you if you look
- at it in whole about the real picture, while we certain why I stand here today, we have one vacancy,
- we can say, well, wow, we've made some progress here. But it's one step forward, two steps back here.
- So and the last thing I want to throw out to you is in those processes that I mentioned,
- We have lost applicants. We lost a really, really good applicant just last week that we were planning
- on filling our last vacancy with to the state police. We have lost applicants to BPD, and we have lost
- applicants to IUPD. So it's all concentrated in the area in which we compete where we're losing these
- applicants. So it's something for us to consider.
- I'm not asking for answers. I'm not looking for answers. I'm just giving you information that the Sheriff's
- Office is going to be entering into a struggle here. We will do the best we can with what we have, but
- that's the reality of where we sit right now. Questions? Anybody got any questions? I do. Oh, sorry.
- Yes, Councilor Welch. So I did notice on social media that y'all posted the big. Yes. Advertisement,
- which is cool. Yeah, I mean, get far and wide with that. But I didn't notice anything then for like
- the jail position. So is is there like enough of a law, a backlog of applicants that you don't need
- to do that? Yeah, ironically enough.
- Uh, the jail position applications seem to scream in pretty regularly and, uh, you know, a part of that
- is, is that a lot of those, the people that apply for those positions, they're looking to, they have
- no experience. So they see that as a way to, I don't like this term, but get your foot in the door or,
- you know, uh, get some experience. So they utilize that.
- as that stepping stone and we have lost people from the jail to law enforcement agencies which when
- that happens I feel pretty good about that we've hired a quality applicant that worked in our facility
- to give him enough experience that he could go on to become a you know in a police officer. So yes we're
- we're not in a in a situation here where we've got to go out and just you know beat the bushes to get
- applicants for the jail facility and a lot of the because there are so many
- jail officers, a lot of those applicants, we get our word of mouth of, hey, you know,
- this jail's, comparatively, our jail payroll pays well for surrounding counties. And I think they tell
- them that the work environment there is pretty good. And so we get a lot of applications simply because
- of other jail officers recruiting their co-workers. Thank you. Yes, Councillor Hock.
- I think you might expect some vacancies as some of the younger people that come to work at the jail,
- and they're really not long term for the jail. Many of them, I think you've, someone from the jails
- told me, perhaps students or someone that is graduating and moving on and not staying in the area.
- So I think it's it's good if you're able to continue to keep that staff far and and it doesn't seem
- like that long ago that we just couldn't keep people working in that jail. So obviously conditions are
- better there because people don't want to stay where they're that unhappy. I think it's I think it's
- twofold. I think it is the pay and benefit structure for a
- correctional facility, which is pretty solid here. I think that the changes that Kyle has made in that
- jail in terms of the environment itself, and I think the changes that he's made in terms of leadership
- and accessibility to leadership, the ability to quickly interdict employment issues that, you know,
- someone has a family issue, someone has something outside, he mitigates those pretty well. And then,
- you know, there's increased training so that
- those individuals that are in that facility, that work in that facility, feel more comfortable with
- how they go about their jobs. The use force issues that once plagued that facility have been reduced
- greatly, which, as you can imagine, greatly reduces the stress upon a corrections officer if they know
- they're not going to face. There's always that. There's always that possibility. And that will never
- go away. And that's not what I'm saying. But anything you can do to reduce that
- and there are things that you can do and Kyle's proven that though all of those it's just it's all of
- those things can kind of combine together to make that a little more operationally efficient than I
- think it than it you know has been. Yes Councilor Frye. So I would be interested to know if you know
- or have heard feedback from the people lost applicants that went to the state police or elsewhere if
- they're giving you
- of why they decided to come here? Well, I hesitate to say this, but almost every one of them, unilaterally,
- it's pay. It's pay and benefits, but mainly pay, as I was when I started out. I knew the state police
- had a pension plan. I didn't care. I thought I was going to be a state police officer forever.
- and my career would last forever, but I woke up in 25 years and that patient was pretty important. So
- young guys walking in the door, they're looking at training and pay and vehicle and all that stuff,
- but the pay is the unilateral issue. That's what got our applicant that we just found out earlier this
- week that he was going to the ISP. Anybody else?
- Thank you for your time. I really appreciate your time. Thanks. All right. Anybody else that would like
- to make a department updates for items not on tonight's agenda? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on.
- Thank you. We normally would move to consent agenda items, but we don't have any this evening. So we'll
- dive right into the meat and potatoes of our agenda. And so we will start off with the higher and freeze
- review item number seven.
- Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the court's request to be exempt from
- the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0225 County General Court's one full-time court
- bailiff. Second.
- All right, we got a motion in a second. Welcome. Hello. Decoff wanted me to apologize for her. She was
- planning on attending, but she is at a judicial conference in Indy where they asked her to be a speaker.
- So she wasn't able to make it back in time. So she's speaking up there in Indianapolis right now. She
- was coming. I am here asking to fill our court bailiff position. It's been vacant now for a couple of
- weeks. I currently have seven total bailiffs.
- One bailiff has always stayed at the front door of the Justice Building for security and one has to
- be next door in the Curry Building because Commissioner Rayper has a courtroom there. So taking those
- two out, I have five bailiffs left then to cover nine courts in the Justice Building. So needless to
- say, they're frantically scrounging around. Last week I had one out on a planned vacation and two called
- in sick. So I was three more short down.
- my poor bailiff side where they were running frantic throughout. So security, obviously, this time of
- year, or any time of year, actually time of day, I should say, is very, very important. They
- cover everything. I listed on here all the stuff that they do. This is a small thing. They do a lot
- more than what is in there. But I'm just asking to see if we can get that filled as soon as possible
- for security of the judges and the public. OK. All right. Looking at counsel here. And I already saw
- a hand fly up. Counselor Hawk. Yes.
- Would you say that in most counties, or in some counties, that the bailiff is under the sheriff and
- trained by the sheriff? Some of them are. Some counties, actually, the bailiff is actually the court
- reporter. A court reporter is a bailiff, because security, like you said, is with the sheriff's department.
- But I know that that has been discussed in the past, but it's always remained underneath our judges.
- It just seems to me that
- that security person there in that courtroom is try to train this person in security. It would seem
- to me it'd be far more appropriate for people who are accustomed to working through security. I can
- tell you most of my bailiffs I have are retired from either Bloomington Police Department or the Sheriff's
- Department. They retire because they can draw their pension through that and then get our bailiffs,
- which obviously is a lower pay.
- But that's what the majority of mine are, because of the fact that they have that experience, which
- I love having that knowledge as my bailiffs. I'm just suggesting we might give that some thought, because
- that would really be up to us, I think, as to where we would put that position. But I would really like
- to make sure that you're not stuck with trying to train somebody, because you won't always be able to
- get somebody who's retired and has already had the training.
- And boy, we see lots of strange things happen. And we want to make sure people are safe in those courtrooms.
- And we've had some that have worked in the jail in other counties. So they're familiar with that, too,
- that we've had apply. So I'm lucky in that regard. Anybody else have any questions or comments?
- All right, seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. If you have public comment on this item, you
- can come forward to the lectern here in the Nattie Hill room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing
- none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor
- Feidl? Yes. Councilor Haas? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes.
- Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Great. Thank you. I want to announce
- one more thing before I leave since I haven't said anything. I am officially retiring. I've been here
- for 34 years. I have decided it's time to move to Florida to warmer days. So my last day as a county
- employee will be June 30th, the last day of June. So it's coming up here very quickly. So I will be
- filling out paperwork to start filling my spot.
- I love my three, four years. I've been in just about every spot in the justice building, not at Bailiff,
- but not anything with an attorney. But for the courts, I started out as a court reporter. I became the
- jury coordinator. I became the deputy court administrator, the court administrator. So congratulations.
- Part of it's sad. Congratulations. I'm going to throw on get you paperwork with not telling you first
- why. Well, we appreciate that. And we thank you for your service. And it will be a sad.
- time. It will be sexy. We won't see you during budget. No, that's why. That's why I joined me last year
- because I said hopefully maybe she'll be able to take over my spot. I've trained her well. So yes, Martin.
- It just seems like yesterday the Bonnie was leaving. No, I started I was here years ago. Is that then?
- 2018 is when I started. So
- If you hang around here long enough, you get to retire. Actually, Vicki Tavenall hired me. She was the
- court administrator 34 years ago. So she hires me. It should be a little easier. You'll have one less
- court to be worried about. That's our secret, figuring out now. Please don't say, did you intend to
- spend the same kind of money? Because we're going to tell you you can't. Well, before you hit retirement,
- we are going to give you some evening time back.
- because it's still light out. So we appreciate that. Thank you very much. And I think my husband's been
- texting me how much longer because I think he's waiting for supper. Well, thank you. Congratulations
- on your upcoming retirement. All right. Next up, we have item B from employee services.
- Council, I move to open for discussion and possible approval of the Employee Service Department's request
- to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire and fund 1000-0309 County General Employee
- Services, a full-time HR director. Becca. All right, we got a motion and a second and I got something
- in mind. But we have Ms. Purdy here, welcome. Thank you. And I want to say that
- Vicki Tabana hired me also as a probation officer so Vicki's hired a lot of us county employees I think.
- So yes I'm here to request the the ability to fill the recently vacated position of our HR director.
- If you've got any questions I'm happy to answer them. I just kind of want to give a highlight of some
- of the things that actually goes on in that office. They help with the
- The office as a whole, and we've got right now basically one and a half people in there, posting vacancies,
- managing outreach, screening applicants. They process all the new hire paperwork. So as Ms. Abraham
- is leaving and the new is coming in, there'll be paperwork that'll be associated with this particular
- office. And ideally, the director is going to have direct input on.
- They process new hire paperwork, conduct mandatory trainings, ensure the adherence to merit principles.
- They are an important player to ensure that the county remains compliant with federal, state, and local
- laws, helping to reduce our exposure as much as possible.
- The director is especially important in addressing employee relations, such as workplace concerns, conflicts,
- grievances, questions related to policy interpretation. They also help in the development of our personnel
- policy, which is actually ultimately underneath the board of commissioners and approved by the board
- of judges and the prosecutor.
- are involved in performance management, helping to guide supervisors as they are dealing with performance
- situations. And they are robust in our benefits administration. So I ask for your consideration on this
- and questions. Great, thank you. We'll go to Councilor Haas first. Yes, I didn't hear you mention
- the payroll. Okay. Yes, payroll is in the employee services department, but that's not a true HR function.
- So that's why I didn't bring it up. I get that. I understand it's not an HR function. And that's why
- I have a concern with it. And that's not a secret. I've tried to share that with as many people who
- I could get to listen.
- I've said from the beginning, payroll is supposed to be under the auditors, and should not be under
- the commissioners. And actually, the way it's set up, it's literally under the commissioners, and the
- commissioners are the one who will vote up or down the payroll and claims given to them, and an employee
- under them is the one that is working on this. Now, you can tell me all kinds of boohoo you want,
- But I think that's an internal control problem. And I think we should address it. And that's my secret.
- I've been saying that for how long ever since this happened. And I'm not saying this is your fault and
- say that you made this happen. But I think if you talk to other counties, or you're not going to see
- payroll being done under the auspices of the commissioners.
- And this would be an opportune time before we hire a new HR position to remove the responsibilities
- of those positions that's covering payroll. And I know it's a lot more for the auditor, but it's under
- the auditor's responsibilities. So if we don't do that, we have no one but ourselves at fault for this.
- And I've tried. Councilor Henry? Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Hock, for bringing
- that question. So I guess just to get my own education up, I'd open it to anybody that knows. When did
- we move that position, the payroll, into our HR practice? How many years has that been going on? It
- was before I was in the auditor's office.
- So I'm actually uncertain. Do you recall, Ms. Purdy? It's been a while. It was during... I guess I'm
- asking you to see if you get the answer. So I wanted to know maybe if the auditor knows if other auditors
- in other counties do payroll to get that answer. Yes, most do. It's a statutory duty of the auditor's office.
- However, I am aware that some counties that have HR, it has fallen under that office. They do a good
- job. I don't have an issue with the way things are run. I have spoken with Jeff Cockrell, the attorney
- for the auditor's office financial team.
- Comfortable with the situation. I just brought up a concern having it be a statutory duty and Just any
- liability I have for work. I have no control over essentially, but they do a phenomenal job We haven't
- had any issues So I'm not saying it's broken It's just kind of an awkward setup if you will and I'm
- gonna go back to council Henry because I don't think he was done Thank you. So I guess I guess while
- the questions in the ears or someone that can
- to get an answer to when we the ordinance to do that. Is that something that's easily figure out a bowl
- at the desk? I would suspect you could look at the salary ordinance. I don't know. There wasn't any
- kind of other change that was made other than. Well, I mean, that would have been the salary ordinance.
- Do you have a recollection as the county administrator when that changed? No, that's what I said earlier.
- How long has the incumbent been, or the previous incumbent been in the, how long was he in the role?
- Are we talking about payroll or are we talking about the HR director, which is why I'm here?
- Not HR director, E, yeah. Yeah, not E, yeah. She, I don't know how long she was actually in the actual
- position of HR director, but she was with the county for 10 years. And if I recall, the HR director
- got switched a couple of years ago.
- We had prior HR directors. I can't remember exactly when. But it was like a term change that we did.
- I want to say it was back in 24. Thank you. I couldn't hear you. A what change? In 24. A what change?
- The HR director name change type. Oh, yes. There was something that happened with that. I believe it
- was upgraded at that time. OK.
- Before I go back to you, Councillor Hawke, I'm going to see if anybody else has any. Yes, Councillor
- Wilts, and then I'll come back. So Councillor Hawke brought up the possibility that this is an internal
- controls concern. And so my question is, does the auditor or you as the commissioner's administrator,
- do you know what the internal control measures are for payroll?
- in whether it's in I guess it's not in your office so much is but is anyone here like able to talk on
- that like. But again I just want to keep pointing out that I'm here for the HR director position so
- I was not prepared to talk about something that is not on the agenda but the payroll person and the
- way it is set up in the the employee services office is there's one person who
- who does primarily does payroll, there's another person who does kind of a split between payroll and
- the other HR duties. That way that person is trained to do payroll so our payroll person can in fact
- have a vacation or be sick or something of that nature. And those two
- as an internal control over each other. The ones in putting the information in, the other one is then
- reviewing that data. So it's just like any other office, you're going to have one person who's doing
- one thing, auditor has it all the time, another who's then reviewing that input.
- I know that they do have an audit process in place as well between the two of them. So there are controls
- in place and my team also when we're fully staffed, we conduct payroll audits as well. Is that the way
- you would do it, the internal control aspect, if it were under you,
- Sounds like you're a fan of the current process. It's just not under you. I'm kind of indifferent because
- it's working. However, it's a duty under control of the auditor typically, and I would not turn it away.
- Of course. Some background information I have that
- I understand that the county was considering outsourcing it, and I think some sort of compromise. Does
- this sound familiar at all to you? No, I think that we did look at a time in attendance kind of thing.
- That became a nightmare. That was like in 2014, I think. I do believe that the transition occurred when
- Auditor Smith was in office.
- Beyond that, I don't know. I see Ms. Turner-King has her hand up. So I looked through past salary ordinances
- and the first time that the payroll administrator appears under human resources is in the 2021 salary
- ordinance. Thank you. All right, I'm gonna go back to Councilor Huck. Yes, I'd like to make it clear
- We have an employee who's actually doing the payroll and should be under the auditor. It isn't like
- the auditor's going to have to train this person. This person could be seamlessly then placed under
- the auditor. If there's ever a time that, you know, the auditor wants to make sure they have backup
- training or whatever, that would be up to the auditor. And we know that she's been short a person. If
- she had one and a half people there,
- They were not actively working on payroll. They could be of assistance and help us out with that shortfall
- there in the auditor's office. And believe me, this is not a secret to the auditor. I've talked with
- you about this for some time and saying, look, this is your responsibility. Something goes wrong. It's
- on your shoulders.
- And she doesn't want more on top of her shoulders. But nevertheless, when it's her statutory duty and
- she could use the assistance in her office, it would be remiss of us not to see if we could do some
- kind of adjustment. It would help out the auditor. It's not going to shortfall her. It's going to give
- her that extra person.
- And the auditor wants to say I'm wrong. I will rebut that I am not responsible for work of another office,
- regardless of whether or not this falls under statutory duties. I've had robust conversations with the
- legal team about this, and I am covered because I have no control over the process. I can offer guidance
- and advice, but I don't have that because I haven't
- been involved in payroll in the past as auditor or as part of the financial team. I apologize because
- I misspoke. I certainly didn't mean if they made a mistake, it's your fault. But if they're under you
- and they make a mistake, people look to you to say, auditor, you need to be watching your payroll. And
- that's just the way it's supposed to work. And you talk to any other county and that is the way it works.
- By the way, we're doing it differently.
- But we shouldn't. And we need to, when we're talking about replacing an HR director, we should be looking,
- as we are required to do, is look if there needs to be any office changes, any changes in how it's run.
- That's what part of what we're supposed to be doing with job descriptions and so forth. So I have no
- objection.
- of course to making sure we get an HR director but I just don't think they should have the responsibility
- of payroll under them. I'm going to get back to the item on the agenda. Do we have any candidates ready
- or that might be interested in this position that you know of at this point? I am aware of some people
- within the county who have the correct
- the necessary criteria for the position. I think it's really important. And that was going to be the
- focus is to look for an internal candidate because understanding county government is an animal unto
- itself. And so there is that. I just mentioned that because there's hundreds of county employees who
- depend on this position for all sorts of benefits. And the shorter that we keep this open, the better.
- Thank you.
- Any other final questions or comments on this item? Yes, Councilor Decker. One thing I remember, and
- I can't remember if this is when I was council president or not, but I remember, well, I knew this as
- chair of long-term finance. We had a morning where payroll didn't go out. And let me tell you why. When
- that didn't happen, everybody's responsible and nobody gives a rat's you know what abouts, what statute
- says or constitution state, federal or otherwise.
- And the first thing we did in that long term finance committee meeting was say I believe it at the time
- was this employee services does the auditor does the treasurer does anybody want to make comments about
- what's going on we were I think what two hours fifteen minutes late on a check going out to direct deposit.
- And then it went out.
- But I want to clarify, that was not an employee service issue. That was a different departmental issue,
- not the auditors and not employee services. Just want to make sure that's understood. Absolutely. And
- my point is this on that, when those things, because that's what people want to know, right? Absolutely.
- Is the county responsibly paying its bills? Are things happening or not? But when that happened, I remember
- somebody at the time said something like, well, what's a couple hours? Well, if you've got a lot.
- You got bills and payments, and you burn that money. It's a lot. And it was employee services that was
- very helpful with me in the after action of trying to figure out what should we have asked or not asked
- because we weren't thinking about it until that hits. I think it's the only time that happened. I do
- remember another time where payroll came out two days early. Yes.
- also offended people, amazingly, because that wasn't the regular thing. And I think that we just, we
- have to be cognizant as all this moves forward that what folks are accustomed to from that end of benefit,
- end of information, end of access to all those systems, they don't want to go backwards. They want to
- make sure that we're moving forward, whatever format that takes.
- Anybody else with any other questions or comments? I was just going to note that we did collaborate
- really well together to ensure everyone was paid on payday.
- It was late, but it had to do with change and elected officials and permissions and bank issues. And
- so the problem was resolved. The treasurer worked really hard to ensure that occurred beginning at 6 a.m.
- when calls started to come in that people noticed that their bank accounts weren't at the balance they
- anticipated. So it did work out and the collaboration was good.
- great. We will move on to public comment on this. I don't Oh, sorry. Did you have some counsel? I would
- just like to add make sure that we put it on our agenda to address this and and and not have it under
- the HR and the job description because that that very important and I think it is something that we
- need to do. So I hope that we don't just talk about it and then we just won't do anything about it.
- And if we're going to say no, then I want everybody's no on record. When you say on the agenda, because
- it's on there now, are you talking about for budget or? When you're talking about replacing a position,
- then you look at the job description. And right now, that job description says that they're over payroll.
- And then that literally means HR is under.
- under commissioners administrator. Hard for me not to say under Angie, but anyway, which then means
- it's right under commissioners. And so then you had somebody doing the payroll and it is going to the
- commissioners to vote on the payroll. And that is where I think that needs to go back to the auditor
- and it's up to us to do that.
- So I would like to at no later than our next meeting have that on our agenda because all it takes is
- to move it from HR in the salary ordinance, put it under auditor in the salary ordinance. It will not
- change what the job description is of the auditor because it's already in her job description. Now it
- might be that
- the square foot of where they go. Maybe that's what happened at the time. I do not know why Auditor
- Smith, it was under Kathy Smith that she wanted it done this way or thought it would work better. But
- we can't just say, well, this works better, so let's just do it that way. There's rules. If I may. I
- do know one of the issues was how well payroll and benefits fit together.
- I think a significant component to the idea of moving a payroll position into the HR department. And
- that was not ever initiated by myself or the board of commissioners. This was something that I believe
- Auditor Smith at that time thought was going to be the best way to address payroll and benefits. So
- I do believe that was why that was thrown in there.
- And I was just going to add, I quickly looked at the job descriptions. If you're going to make that
- change, you're talking about amending three job descriptions. They would have to go back to us. Two
- of them would only need a reporting structure change, but the HR director would have to go back.
- Did you cover the HR, does the health, is it over the health services? Yes. Did you cover that? I do.
- I don't think I mentioned any of that, but that is part of the benefit prep package, so when we reference
- benefits, the clinic is considered part of that.
- So before I move on to public comment, is there anything else anybody would like to add? Okay, so public
- comment. So if there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern here in the
- night, you hill room or raise your hand via teams. Seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote.
- Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk?
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- I move to approve the prosecutor's request be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to transfer
- internally a misdemeanor deputy prosecutor from account line one three zero one three to account line
- one three zero zero eight and then hire and fund one thousand dash zero zero zero nine county general
- prosecutor be full-time misdemeanor deputy prosecutor and account line one three zero one three Second
- all right. We got a motion in a second. We are joined by the prosecutor welcome Emma Samley
- Good evening. Thank you, counsel. Yeah, so by way of context, we have four criminal courts here in Monroe
- County, and therefore we have four misdemeanor deputy prosecutor positions, one for each criminal court.
- Each of those four caseloads is fairly large.
- We would first like to move the person who is currently in the Circuit 2 misdemeanor prosecutor position
- to Circuit Court 9 at his request. And then we would like to post and fill the misdemeanor position
- that would then be left vacant in Circuit Court 2. So we have had a vacant misdemeanor position since
- late November. It was actually the week of Thanksgiving was the last week for the person who left.
- Yeah, so the position that's been open has largely been supervised by our circuit court to felony prosecutor
- and myself and several of my deputies have been covering that vacancy on a rotating basis. Just,
- you know, all hands on deck, making sure that those court hearings are covered.
- We have had we employed part time a law clerk about a year ago and he has also been helping to prepare
- those cases.
- He just took the February bar exam, and he has passed that exam. And so we expect him to be a licensed
- attorney here in mid-May. Yes, we're very excited. He's very smart and talented, and he's already been
- lending a great hand with legal research and writing in some of our more serious felony cases, but also
- pitching in to help with this vacant caseload.
- I would like to offer him the open position, but obviously we will properly post the position to the
- public and ensure that he does go through with his swearing in on May 12. I will say having multiple
- people fill in for a vacant caseload does not do it justice. There's not continuity of knowing the case
- very well. There's risk of things being missed in the cases.
- and often they move a bit slower than we might like. So really these caseloads too are too high for
- you know, people who already have full-time caseloads to be trying to mind them. So I did provide in
- our request, or Ms. Hamlin did, the volume of the work that our deputy prosecutors have. So the circuit
- court to felony prosecutor who's been largely supervising the vacant position, she handles roughly 249
- felony cases at any given time, and she has tried
- the majority of the homicide cases that have been tried in the last few years. There's 392 misdemeanor
- cases in the vacant position. In the circuit court, two misdemeanor position, 477 pending cases. So
- I'm not going to go through every single caseload, just that is pretty representative of the caseloads
- that we're looking at.
- You know, IPAC and WIS have assessed the need for deputy prosecutor staffing across the state. And their
- determination, based on the volume of cases that's presented to my office by law enforcement for prosecution,
- is that we need two additional deputy prosecutor positions on top of what we have. I'm not asking for
- that, but I'd just like to remind you that even when I'm fully staffed, I'm still short staffed.
- I can't afford to have long-term vacancies. We have tried our best to cover this for several months,
- but we simply can't lose this position. So the prosecutor's office is responsible for the protection
- of the constitutional and statutory rights of both defendants and victims, which includes certain deadlines,
- procedures, and the highest burden of proof under Indiana law.
- simply can't live up to our expectations and high standards without having a full team. I will remind
- you the content of our work is difficult and it does come with secondary trauma. I'll spare you that
- secondary trauma, but this is to the tune of between 250 and 400 some cases each.
- Please allow me to shift caseloads for my person in Circuit Court 2 to Circuit Court 9 and then post
- and fill the Circuit Court 2 misdemeanor position effective immediately. Thank you. All right.
- Thank you. Do we have any questions? On the left here. Yes, Councillor Williams. Yes, thank you. I did
- notice the numbers.
- that you provided about the caseloads. And my question is how, how much is there on that? So like,
- you know, I imagine those numbers are pretty stable, but there's the people involved probably move through
- and off as new come on. And I'm just curious as to like how long one case stays on the
- The docket, yeah. Is it a docket? Yeah, it varies depending on the level of offense, the type of offense,
- whether we're waiting on laboratory testing or not. There's a lot of different factors that impact how
- long it takes to prosecute a case. But I can say when you have continuity of prosecutor, it certainly
- moves a little bit faster because decisions can be made more quickly and on the fly as opposed to having
- to say, well, we'll have to go take a closer look at that.
- I have been relatively fortunate recently that we haven't had a high amount of turnover recently. I
- think that is largely due to the council's help in giving us better salaries a few years ago. People
- do stay recently, but nevertheless, you do sometimes have some turnover.
- My hope is we will get this person who I'm hoping we can fill the position with is very excited to be
- here. And I think he will be a really good fit for the office. Yes, Councilor Iverson. In the paperwork
- that your office submitted for this request, you submitted a estimated fiscal impact that was flat.
- Does the updated job description change those calculations?
- know they're both misdemeanor positions so they're both the same SO attorney a I believe it is at 40
- hours the economic impact of this the fiscal impact of this is zero spot great thanks yes counsel yes
- when you just because I simply don't know so I used to think you don't ask a question if you don't know
- the answer but I'm glad I asked question if each let's say you have one defendant
- who's been charged for four or five different things. Is each thing they're charged for a different
- case, or is it one person, one caseload? I believe for our caseload stats, we counted individual cases.
- So it may be that one defendant has multiple cases, and each of those cases would count as a case. Because
- I think if you just say the number for caseload that's not really giving us
- the true picture. If it's one defendant who's being charged with you know if you're if you're looking
- at jail stats and whatever you see all the different things are charged with and then does that are
- you counting that six different things as six different caseloads when it's really one person. I think
- that that when you talk to us about caseloads it might be
- For those of us who really don't know any different, it might be misleading. Well, I might just clarify
- that just because you have one person that is charged with six different cases doesn't make that one
- case. Each of those different pending cases has a burden of proof of beyond a reasonable doubt.
- each of those six pending cases would have a different investigation with different evidence that would
- have to be reviewed, potentially different lab requests and other evidentiary concerns. So just because
- it is one person doesn't mean it isn't six cases. One more question. And I believe I heard you say earlier,
- they work with circuit court number nine. Did I hear you say that?
- person that wants to move wants to move from circuit court to to circuit court nine and so I'm asking
- to fill circuit court to okay the reason I'm asking which which court number is the one that's going
- to no longer be after the end of this year won't work you know the state removed and
- believe me, when they looked at whether or not to remove one, it was because we didn't have as high
- caseloads here as they do in other counties because, you know, the state's responsible for paying for
- some of these for the judges. So which judge, which circuit court number is the judges leaving?
- Yes, that is circuit court two. However, it is my understanding that the board of judges will likely
- have another judge in a criminal docket. So we will still have four criminal courts. Yes. Yes, Councilor
- Williams. So that I understand what you just it's your understanding that will move someone from a different
- court into that
- I want to be clear that the Board of Judges are still deliberating and have not officially announced
- anything, but it's my understanding that we will still have four courts handling criminal cases. Okay,
- thank you. Any other questions or comments on this item? Yes, Councilor. I'm sorry. This was something
- I was thinking about when I was looking at budgets. Are there any cities that
- have city court for misdemeanors. I thought I thought at one time we took the misdemeanors and and so
- the city didn't have that responsibility that that was a long time ago.
- Yeah, so several counties have town courts and city courts in addition to their county courts. It is
- still the county prosecutor's office that is responsible for prosecuting those cases. So for example,
- in Lake County, they have prosecutors that are assigned in Hobart, Crown Point, as well as their county.
- I mean, all the different towns and cities that they have as well as there. So they have a huge sprawling
- prosecutor's office. At one time,
- We thought it benefited the county to have the misdemeanors. But it seems to me that there's a lot of
- charges that are under the misdemeanors. And I don't know what we would have to do to get the city to
- take it back, but I'd like to give them a present. It would really, because that's a lot of in and out.
- And then the city will have responsibility
- for that. And I would think it's just the misdemeanors and the city. It's not like if it was, but I
- don't know the answer that's been so long since I studied it. Yeah, I can say that I have only practiced
- in Monroe County and so I have not lived that life of town courts and city courts. So I can't advise
- on that. This may sound like a lot of unusual questions, but we are right in the middle of we've got
- to start making adjustments. Look at new things with new eyes and new thoughts about how we
- you know, how we can operate budgets. I appreciate it. I think you're a problem solver, Marty.
- I get it. All right. Any other questions or comments on this item? A good comment, Council Hawk. Okay.
- All right. Moving on, we'll go to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come
- forward to the lectern here in the Nightingale room or raise your hand via Teams.
- and seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor
- Will? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Crosby? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes.
- Motion passes, majority six to one. Next up, item B.
- Council I move to approve the prosecutor's request and fund ninety one fifty nine dash zero zero zero
- zero high tech crime unit fund for category transfer of one thousand two hundred five dollars from the
- capital category to the services category second all right well would you like to good evening um this
- is uh sort of a housekeeping item it's all involving our high tech crime unit grant fund back in twenty
- twenty four under fund nine one five nine
- We were, we appropriated $52,000 to purchase a vehicle for the high tech crime unit director to serve
- the 11 counties. It was funding that came from the IPAC. Um, the vehicle that we purchased was a little
- bit under that $1,205 under that. What I'm trying to do is free that money up out of the forties, move
- it over to the thirties so we can spend it on general office expenses rather than leaving it in a line
- that we can't use.
- questions or comments on this item. Councillor Hawke. Yes, I heard you just say general office expenses,
- but this says that you're going to use it to help pay the salary for the high tax crime unit from the
- town of Vellisville. Is that still your plan? My executive summary says remaining funds to be spent
- on basic office expenses. I mean, they could end up being spent for that, but
- those are all in the thirties as he's paid on a contract line. This is part of our agenda. I don't have
- your agenda in front of me. I just have what I submitted. Yeah, it does say on here that this will allow
- the remainder funds to be spent on monthly HTCU salary invoices. It says going from vehicle purchase
- to contracts. Three zero zero five six. Okay.
- to fund him, which will free up $1,205 in that line to spend in other lines within the 30s. Yeah. I
- want to double check your request real quick. I probably asked to move it. Oh, no. I have it going to
- 30030, office expenses. That's not what it says.
- We need to read you the motion or something. I think Michelle is looking first and then if we need to
- read. Well, yeah, we need to. Actually, my motion just mentioned categories. Yes, on your request, it
- does have 30056 contracts. OK, well, I'm fine to transfer it over or appropriate it.
- into there and I can make adjustments within the 30s. I don't think that's a problem. That's acceptable.
- Okay. Okay. So we can do that. Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments on this item?
- Being none, we'll move on to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward
- to the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via Teams.
- and seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Hawk? Yes. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor
- Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Piddle?
- Yes. Motion passed. Animos? Thank you. All right, thank you.
- All right, next up is item C from the Highway Department. Council, I move to open for discussion and
- possible approval of the Highway Department's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed
- to hire and fund 1176-0000 Motor Vehicle Highway at 75% and 1173-0000 Motor Vehicle Highway restricted
- at 25%, a full-time traffic control technician slash laborer. Second.
- All right, Ms. Bridge, welcome. What would you like to tell us on this? So a while back, you had approved
- us filling a truck driver position. But the new change is with the CDL policy. We signed ourselves up.
- We are a certified training facility at this point. We have a certified trainer on staff. So we hire
- a traffic control technician. Doesn't have to have a CDL. But if they have interest and they want to
- work towards
- what we would see as a promotion, they can go through our CDL training. And then we cover the cost of
- the first test. And if they pass, then we promote them to truck driver, which is an increase in pay
- and everything and other benefits, overtime options. So we had a successful candidate move into a truck
- driver role. So it opened up the traffic control technician position.
- is basically a lot of times our flaggers. So we don't have to hire outside sources. Thank you. All right,
- any questions or comments on this item from Mr. H. Yes, counselor. Well, do you do you train? Do you
- train people outside county government? Yeah, it's just specifically this conduit. Yeah, we keep it within.
- our department, I think like in dot has a program and such. I believe city of Bloomington sends them
- to the schooling and pays for the schooling. This was just a little bit more economical for us because
- they're actually working for us also doing the flagging and then when we have the time, we're doing
- the training. So they're getting paid to do the training, but they're also helping us and other areas
- of the department. So it's kind of been, I think we've had three or four successful candidates and they've
- all stayed.
- So it's been a good program for us. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions or comments on this item?
- Seeing none. Before we have a roll call vote, we'll go to public comment. If there's public comment,
- you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern in the room. And seeing none, maybe
- please have a roll call vote. Councillor Wilts.
- Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Crosley. Yes. Councillor Iverson. Yes.
- Councillor Fai. Yes. Councillor Hawke. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Next up item D.
- Council I move to approve the Highway Department's request and fund 9106-0000 CCMG or Community Crossings
- Matching Grant for additional appropriation of one million dollars in the services category. Second.
- So this is the portion that NDOT sends us and we've received that receipt for the deposit so now we
- need to appropriate it into the line so we can do the paving projects.
- even time. Any other questions or comments for Ms. Ridge on this item? And none. We'll move to public
- comment. You can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the room. And seeing
- none, may we please have a roll call vote. Councillor Henry? Yes. Councillor Decker? Yes.
- Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feidl? Yes. Councilor Hogg? Yes. Councilor
- Wilts? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Next up item E. Council I'll be combining. I will be combining
- items E and F into one motion. I move to approve the Highway Department's request and fund 1135-0000
- Camilla Bridge
- to create a count line 15815 Highway Engineer, approve additional appropriations of $18,187 in the personnel
- category, and simultaneously approve an amendment to the 2026 salary ordinance to add a count line 15815
- Highway Engineer split 40 hours, SO exempt. Second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Ms. Ridge?
- So this is just finishing the process. I came a few weeks ago asking for the position to be looked at
- to increase, to draw candidates that can fit for a professional engineer. So this is actually the steps
- to finish that process. Any questions or comments from council on this item? Seeing none, okay.
- We'll move to public comment. There's public comment on this item. You can come forward to the lectern
- here in the room or raise your hand being teams. And seeing none, maybe please have a roll call. Councillor
- Crosley. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Hawk. Yes. Councillor Wilkes. Yes.
- Councillor Henry. Yes.
- Motion passes, unanimous. Thank you. Could you please send to us where the million dollars is going
- to be spent on the community crossing? Actually, yeah. I don't have the 25 roads exactly memorized in
- my head at this point, but they have all been awarded. Milestone was the low contractor for this. We
- just had our pre-construction meeting for it. We plan on giving them the notice to proceed May 3rd.
- after our freeze and thaw period ends. We have various locations around the county. I believe there's
- a couple subdivisions in there. I wish I had that list. It's actually posted on our website also for
- the paving projects for just this community crossing. We plan on putting bids out for some other roads
- that we want to have done in 2026 also.
- and I know you've discussed that certainly with me and I appreciate that but I think since we just voted
- on that million dollars boom didn't discuss it or anything I thought maybe we might want to talk about
- just a little bit okay thank you thanks thank you yes do you want to read the list from the website it says
- The following road subdivisions will be part of the paving season in 2026. Bennett Lane, Crum Road,
- Graves Road, Mount Taper Roads, Old State Road 37 North, Popcorn Road, Prather Road, Rush Bailey Edition,
- and Orchard Estates. The projects will be put out to bid in the next 30 to 60 days for the 2026 season.
- All right, that's it. Thank you.
- Next up, since we amended the agenda, this is where we go to the sheriff's department. Council, this
- is item O. Council, I move to open for discussion the sheriff's request to move appropriations into
- the overtime line. Second. All right. Hello. Hello. This is just to move money for CHIRP because we're
- always overexpending. We don't really know how much we're going to spend each quarter. This is just
- to kind of help from going to the negative.
- Any questions or comments on this item? Pretty self-explanatory. All right. Seeing none, we'll move
- to public comment. If there's public. Excuse me, this was a motion for a discussion only. There's not
- a motion to allow that in-house transfer. Where are we? Okay. Somebody just needs to make a motion
- to approve, to allow the department to do an in-house transfer per the resolution? Council, I move to
- allow the Sheriff's Office to move these dollars as allowed in the resolution. Second. Okay, now we
- got a motion and a second. Does that satisfy what we need to do? Okay, all right.
- Any other final discussion on this? I have two motions in two seconds, right? No, it's only one. Technically,
- we only had, it was a motion for discussion and then we have to move to approve it. And so that's what
- Councillor, I was interested in. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. All right. Any other further questions
- or comments? We'll move to public comment on this item. Raise your hand via Teams or come forward to
- the lectern here in the room.
- and seeing none, maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Fein. Councilor Haas. Councilor Haas.
- Yes. Councilor Wilts. Yes. Councilor Henry. Yes. Councilor Decker. Yes. Councilor Crossley. Yes. Councilor
- Iverson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous.
- All right, next up, item P. And before I read this motion, is the amount of $12,468.75 correct? No.
- I thought so. Read the motion, and then there'll be a discussion to amend it. All right. Council, I
- move to approve the sheriff's request and fund 1000-0005 County General Sheriff to deappropriate the
- amount of $12,468.75 in the personnel category. Second.
- All right, we got a motion and a second. We need to amend this to $4,668.75. Say that again, please.
- $4,668.75. Excellent. Council, I amend my emotion to be in the amount of $4,668.75. Second. All right.
- Any further questions or comments on this item?
- I'm not sure it's obvious to me why we're changing the number. Can somebody explain why the number got
- changed? So the $12,000 is for the first quarter. Part of that is 2025 funds. Part of that is 2026.
- The $4,668.75 is for 2026. Okay. No other further questions or comments on this item?
- public comment time, you can raise your hand via Teams or come forward to the lectern here in the room.
- Seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote? Okay. So first, do we need to vote on the amendment?
- We need to do a voice vote on the amendment to change from 12 to four. And then we can do a vote on
- the entire. Okay.
- So all those in favor of the amendment of the $4,668.75 signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed,
- same sign. All right, motion carries. So now can we have a roll call vote? Councillor Hawke. Yes. Councillor
- Wilts. Yes. Councillor Henry. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes.
- Councillor Cross. Councillor Iverson. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Okay.
- All right. Next up is item Q. Council, I move to approve the sheriff's request to fund 8103-0000.
- Operation pullover grant to create a count line one seven one zero one overtime and simultaneously
- appropriate twelve thousand four hundred sixty eight dollars and seventy five cents in the personnel
- category second What would you like to add to this item? I don't I mean it's self-explanatory just to have the
- the line item. Miss Gregory has her hand raised. Yes, if we could please amend this motion to reflect
- the same amount of the previous amended motion, that would be great. The $4,668.75. All right. Council,
- I move to amend the original agenda to change the appropriation to $4,668.75.
- second all right we got a motion and a second any further discussion on the amendment yes council office
- agrees with this correct all right thank you all right any other further questions or comments from
- council all those in favor of making this amended amendment signify by saying aye aye all those opposed
- same sign all right motion carries now coming back to the overall is there any other final discussion
- public comment you can move to our come to the- lectern here in the room or you can raise your hand
- via teams. And seeing none maybe please have a roll call vote. Well. Yes sir Henry. Yes sir
- Yes. For Hall. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. All right. Next,
- we go right back to our original programming, which is item G from the clerk's office. Council, I move
- to open for discussion the clerk's request for overtime and fund 1000-0001 County General Clerk. Second.
- All right. We got a motion and a second, and we're joined by the new chief deputy.
- Hello. Would you like to introduce yourself? Hi, I'm Tanner Branham. I'm the new Chief Deputy of the
- Monroe County Clerk's Office. Nicole is out of town this week, so I am filling in for her tonight. Welcome.
- Thank you. So our request tonight is simply to fill or to reopen our overtime fund and transfer $7,000
- into that line. This is to fund
- we have a lot of overtime pay for elections work so we have several employees in the clerk's office
- who assist with elections during election season- that includes- a lot of it is training training you
- know we have a lot of. A lot of poll workers election day poll workers who work full time jobs and they
- can't make our normal training days and so we have individuals who assist with training- after hours
- and on weekends- and that's
- Any questions or comments for from council? Yes, counselor. Yes. And the paperwork, it looked like as
- if you're asking for this over time in the general fund. And of course, we wouldn't do that. Is that
- an error on your part?
- When you say general fund, do you mean the clerks fund? It is an overtime fund in the clerks line, not
- in the elections line, because this is for individuals who work in the clerk's office, but assist with
- elections. Madam, still election fund expense needs to be under the election fund. Does that have to
- be re-advertised? There's no overtime line in there. Do we just say no and let them figure it out?
- Well, I think this request is slightly more complex because it would require an amendment to the overtime
- resolution. The overtime resolution only allows overtime in the elections fund. So currently there's
- not an overtime line in the general fund. So if you're going to do this, if you're going to approve
- this request, we need to amend the overtime resolution to allow an overtime line in the general fund.
- And then you would have to approve the in-house transfer
- is correct that this is a request in the general fund. And so I have to advise that if you created the
- overtime line in the general fund, it does not limit it to just election expenses. The clerk's office
- could use that overtime amount for anyone paid out of the general line for any purposes. I know they're
- saying it's for election purposes, but once the line is created, it isn't limited to election purposes.
- And I also want to state that if they have employees in the general fund that are doing election work,
- that just needs to be noted to the AOD payroll and that amount can be taken out of the election fund.
- So that way it can be calculated and come from the fund where it's actually being worked.
- Okay, because that was going to be my question is can we just if an employee is trying to do that, can
- we just. There's about somewhere that this is where this they would get paid out of the election fund.
- Yes, I mean we do it for other departments like in the highway. They may be out of Cume Bridge, but
- they get their snow out of a different fund. You know, so just because their main fund is general fund
- does not mean that they're overtime.
- has to be paid out of the general fund. If they are doing election work, like they're saying they're
- doing training and this kind of thing, that needs to be documented and calculated and then paid out
- of election fund so that we are getting an accurate amount of how much it's costing the election fund.
- I did provide a clerk overtime report from the 2024 election and there's a couple of individuals that
- this exact mechanism that Michelle is describing was used for for example the election training specialist
- was paid overtime out of the election fund but I do believe she's typically or that employee is typically
- in the general fund so there is a past practice of using the election fund to pay
- I'm gonna call it main office employees who are in the general fund. Councilor Henry. And the clerk
- can't do the training. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for being here tonight. I apologize. I
- think I've inhaled all the pollen in town. So understand some operational things going on. I understand
- there's an election going on. I understand you're busy. I couldn't possibly understand why. But in any case,
- Before going into the election, what was the staffing? How many FTEs were operating in the elections
- office before we went in? What was the plan? How many FTEs did you go in with thinking you'd have for
- the month? Just the week prior, we had dropped down to one full-time and one part-time, and then we
- had came for the one full part-time position to be filled. For the part-time?
- That's a separate discussion. We have an additional request to fill a full-time role, but yes. It's
- related because of how many FTEs we have and asking for overtime for coverage. That's why I'm asking.
- Currently, there are two full-time employees in the office and one full-time employee? One full-time,
- not including myself, and one part-time. Oh, not including yourself. Sorry, I was including you. You're
- down two people? Two human? Where are those two people? Did they leave government service?
- One is in the clerk's office. So the clerk pulled a election or voter-reg side worker in the election
- month to court side during election month. Chief Deputy, do you have an explanation as to why we would
- move staff around that way? I'm just kind of curious. Well, this move happened before I started in my
- current position. Yes. All right.
- Is there a possibility for whoever's left to take comp time or use other means to flex during this month?
- I currently have one that is using comp time and then I will say I am currently sitting at 140 hours
- in comp. You yourself are at 140 hours comp and then we're ratcheting up comp on somebody else and we're
- down one and a half people. Correct. One was someone who left government service, the other the clerk moved to
- Okay, got it. I think we already got into the difference between election and general fund. So I'll
- leave that question for someone else. Thank you. Anybody else have any other questions? Yes, Michelle.
- Okay, you keep raising your hand.
- I would add there, as a reminder, council did allow an overtime line in the election fund in the amount
- of $5,000. And I believe that none of that has been expended yet. So there's $5,000 in the election
- fund. That was done late March. February 24th. Okay. We just felt this. Yeah. Yes. We just wrote this
- down. They have the ability to.
- pay these people in the proper fund. Yes. As a reminder to the public, and the motion here
- was for discussion, and I certainly as one of the liaisons was happy to send over, make sure you have
- a copy of the overtime resolution and the six points that are outlined in that resolution for when this is
- could be brought back that need to satisfy that resolution. So I'm happy to continue to work with you
- all as your liaison. Yes, Councillor Decker. I want to hear a little more on what that does in that
- office, because I'm very aware that we are in an election right now, that people are coming out in large
- amounts from what I can tell. And I want to make sure that
- all of us are thinking through this properly so that we're not doing something that in two weeks you
- can't fix or or do so if we do not do this amount what does that do on your end and chief deputy I'll
- look to you or the election director who is in the weeds of it. So I think the biggest impact as I said
- earlier would be on training so that's primarily what this funding is being used for so primarily election
- day workers and those ones who cannot come to a
- training during office hours. So it would potentially impact that I came I was under the impression
- initially that we would not be able to pay these employees under the election line and that it would
- have to come out of the clerk's line but if that is not the case and we can pay these out of the elections
- line we may want to. I was also under the same impression so we
- I think in the past, it's always been the individuals who've been paid out of the election is only from
- from election day over time. And then everything else was from the clerks over timeline. So all of the
- training that happens prior to election day was being paid out of the clerks over timeline. And then
- on election day, the trainer was being paid their overtime for that day from the election budget.
- I want to say now that might have been the past practice before you went to AOD but with utilizing AOD
- that is you know it's not necessary any longer and it can be earmarked appropriately. I will say with
- this it will be that we're going to have to re-advertise and probably come back to ask for more in that
- because we were only originally anticipating to pay three people over time out of this line so
- I want to make sure that our trainer is getting overtime for her extra hours that she's working because
- comp time is not it's beneficial for some and for some it's not as beneficial. So I want to ensure that
- we're going to have training for all of our workers. So I'll continue taking comp until we can re-advertise
- until further notice.
- And just so you know, the deadline for the 28th is already passed. You would have to apply, it would
- be for the May 12th meeting. Yes, Councilor Williams. Or you can come back and ask for an in-house transfer
- like this or a category transfer. Right. Councilor Williams. Okay.
- I have a question about the trainer position. Is that person, is training a kind of a second duty that
- only comes about during election time and they do something else the rest of the year, is that? Yes,
- that is accurate. Okay, and what do they do? They work in a criminal. Oh, they're not even,
- in the voter side? No, they are housed in the general fund. Yeah, they're in the clerk's office and
- then assist with training in the elections office. But they're not in the voter part of the clerks.
- Yes, they are in the other in the clerks. And is that the only person who's training or are you also
- lots of people training?
- So it generally is just her who is training. There have been instances in the past where I've had to
- step in for a class if she's unable to do something or if she's gonna be late, so on and so forth. And
- then right now we're kind of trying to figure out the way that it will work for the general just because
- of some staffing that we're kind of questioning at this time. Can I continue?
- this person's job over on the other side when they're training. So we have two other employees in the
- criminal area. And what's the job title? Election Training Specialist. Election Training Specialist,
- but they do other things. Yes, correct.
- I don't even know what to ask because I'm so confused. Okay. All right. If you like, I can send you
- a copy of that job description just for your review. That would be great. I clearly have more questions
- than maybe we need to take time right now figuring out. There's a lot of things that's on this
- job description that, you know, they're
- that pertains to elections. So it's not just training. One of them is, it says, monitors the legislative
- election topics and adapts existing election procedures to ensure Monroe County is in compliance.
- So there's, I mean, it's just not one training. I mean, there's several things on here that they're
- supposed to be doing as the training specialist. And it's just one training specialist? Yes, there's one.
- other people are what's their job you said there were two other people yes yes in within the criminal
- I forget their exact title but they're criminal case clerks within the clerk's office they're processing
- those cases the trainer also goes to election board meetings does all the minutes for those and then
- also in their description it says that if they are needed to they would go to council and Commissioner
- meetings as well
- in those budgets. Do they do that? Have they done that ever? They have, I believe, in early 24, late
- 23 when we came for the increases for poll workers. That was a fun time. We screwed up something. It
- was controversial. It was. They came to train us. They came to train us. Just so you know, it says they
- assist court
- case managers during non-election times. So there's positions within their office with regards to court
- case managers that they work with. Make more sense, though, that they would be in the election fund
- slash side of things? I think this is my opinion, but I think it could be like a split pay because
- You would have this person working so much in the election stuff and so much in general fun, but there
- is a year, I think, where there's no elections. So, you know, I'm not 2025 there were no elections.
- Yeah. So I don't know how you would handle that kind of stuff.
- I will say in 2025, the election training specialists did help with trying to amend training materials
- during that time period. Those are time periods where we really try to catch up on things, or if we're
- gonna just do a complete overhaul of something, that's when we do it. Yeah, that makes sense. Yes, Councilor.
- And I will also reassure everyone that liaisons are very aware of this. And so as budget time gets closer
- and closer, maybe we will revisit some of these conversations. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, of course.
- All right. Well, that was a discussion. OK. And y'all are doing good despite your clerk not being here.
- So we appreciate that. All right. Next up is next item. There was a motion for a discussion only. So
- since they have over time in their election fund, just going to move forward with what we got on that.
- Council, this is item H, although for those of you following along in the packet, the numbering got
- a little off. So this is, I move to open for discussion and possible approval for the clerk's request
- to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to hire in fund 1215-0010 election fund
- voter registration, a full-time voter registration clerk. Second. Okay, and what would y'all like to
- add to this?
- So this is going to be a individual in the office who was moved to the clerk's office. So we need to
- fill this position. We do already have an idea of who we will be moving into that. It will be an in-house
- transfer. And then we'll have to come back to request a part-time position to be filled at a later time.
- All right, yes, Councilor Henry. Thank you. Do you have a part-time person in mind as well that's given?
- Yes, correct.
- So the likelihood that they start before May 5th is probably what? Not likely, just because of timeline
- of coming back. We'll definitely get it ready for the general. Sorry, is the clerk on personal leave
- or at a conference? At a conference. Am I asking which conference this one is? I am not sure. Okay.
- Thank you.
- Yes, Councillor Iverson. On the fiscal note attached to this request, it shows a savings of $7,739,
- mostly due to the person who left had a hire. It was here for a longer time. Correct. Any other questions
- or comments on this item? Well, because the motion was for a discussion and possible approval.
- Council, I move to approve the clerk's request to be exempt from the hiring freeze and be allowed to
- hire and fund 1215-0010, election fund voter registration, a full-time voter registration clerk. Second.
- Okay, we got a motion and a second. Is there any other final questions or comments on this item? Seeing none.
- We'll move to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to the lectern
- here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none, may we please have a roll call vote.
- Councillor Feidl. Yes.
- she just said she didn't need this yet. I thought we weren't going to vote on this. I thought we we
- did and Councilor Iverson moved and it was seconded to like go ahead and move. All right I'll just vote
- no since I don't know. Okay. Councillor Will. Yes.
- Councilor Henry? Yes. Thank you. Councilor Decker? Yes. Councilor Crosley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes.
- Motion passes majority six to one. Okay.
- wanted to give you guys a little bit of an update today we did have a new high for total for one day
- early voting which brought us up to 197 and then we are at a grand total of 986 voters so far during
- early voting this is higher than what we anticipated but this is also right now looking at higher than
- any other municipal I mean midterm election in Monroe County
- Thank you. And before you leave, I do want to ask a question about that. So is the the the signage and
- everything. I know that was a big oopsie daisy moment from last week, but
- that everything seems to be moving along smoothly yeah so all signage issues have been taken care of
- we have new spacings and new lines drawn out for where they are allowed to not allowed to place candidate
- signs and then I also sent out an email to both party chairs for them to send out to candidates to show
- those designated spaces and then parking has also got a
- for our poll workers. Originally they were parking at the Morton Street garage and it has been moved
- to the trades district garage, which is directly behind the showers building. OK, and out front there
- is like some no parking signs. Is that for you all as well? Yeah, so those are also additional overflow
- parking for anybody who's coming in to vote. OK, I just want to follow up that. So my understanding
- was that some poll workers had to pay for parking anyway due to some.
- We didn't have free parking for poll workers. Yeah, I think it was the first day or two. There was some
- miscommunication which we were also dealing with the sign issue with the city. So the parking passes
- were set up for the wrong garage and we were told one garage but it was supposed to be the trades district
- garage. So we originally told the Morton Street garage that our cards were for that but they were actually for the
- trace district. So we had people trying to park but then their cars didn't work and they paid for parking.
- Yeah. Chancellor, did that reimburse for our good poll workers? Something to ask the city, I suppose.
- Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure. I know that a lot of them, they would just push the button and say that they
- were a poll worker and they were just letting them out. But there were some individuals who just paid
- for it. Yes, Councillor
- Okay, a question. Is it possible or even allowable to, okay, let's say if you have 100 people show up
- for early voting in whatever day, then can you go back and look at what areas they're voting in, what
- precincts, so that you know with an IGPI at a higher turnout, say, you know, we know there's a lot of
- discussion in Richland Township. I thought there might be a big turnout there. We generally have a larger
- turnout during early voting from Richland precincts, which has always been interesting to not just us,
- but a majority of the community. I can actually pull a report and come to the next meeting to give you
- guys an update of where we're seeing the largest versus the smallest and do it during the department
- update. Because generally,
- uh richland a lot of those areas they they like voting on election day and so their early turnout is
- not would not normally be higher than usual i mean only for this reason but i also was very curious
- about clear creek because you know there's that discussion in clear creek about who the
- trustees can be and so forth. So I mean, just as a matter, you know, I'm kind of a nerd. I like looking
- at numbers and see where it takes me. So yeah. And the other question I had, first of all, I wanted
- to commend the person who did go in there and work on the CFA for so that it was fillable. I did send
- you that message that having trouble getting it to fill in the second column. So and I and I just
- But I was grateful it did because that really saves a lot of time to be able to fill it at home and
- then be able to email it. So but I assume now I'm going to go in there in person and fill out that other
- column. That and also making sure that there is a physical signature on the CFA for it can't be a digital
- signature. So that'll be another it will have to be filled out for that portion.
- Oh, and soon I called the state and they didn't. That's something different from what they were saying.
- They said that was really pretty much up to local office. So I thought, well, you know, since we'd always
- done it with a signature, since you could do that, that you would say, right, well, I'll see you tomorrow.
- Sounds good. Is there parking for people have to go in that if we're not voting? So anybody who's visiting
- the office has been using the voter parking for that.
- and there is the additional on the street that you can use as well. Just go come out and get me. Yes,
- Councilor Vidal. So I'm just curious how many spots are available at any one point in time for voters?
- In the parking lot, right now it's mainly open just this first
- two weeks, it's not, there's been quite a few, but in our parking lot, it's coming in as like small
- groups, so that it's only about three or four cars that are parking at a time, so there's still plenty
- of space. I just wanna know the availability of parking, how many are available? I don't know the exact
- number, I can get that and then send it to you in an email. Thank you. Yeah. All right, well,
- that's about it. Again, thank you for being on the hot seat.
- I'm just like your clerk not being here. So we appreciate it. So thank you very much. Thank you.
- All right. Thank you. And Council, I would like to ask because we I know we got members of the public
- that are here for another item if we can before we get to that bigger item, we still have the aviation
- department. So we need to continue to move along. So next up is item J. Council, I move to approve and
- fund 1186-0000 raining day.
- creation of a count line four zero zero one six storm damage repair All right, we got a motion in a
- second and we're we'll wait for mr. Labrador Oh, yeah, hello the other one yeah, okay
- So yeah, I am here. We had a significant tornado event at the airport. We're looking, initially we were
- thinking $2 million worth of capital damage out there and it's fluctuated between two and four. Right
- now we're looking at approximately $3 million in damage. And of course the airport does not have that
- kind of cash on hand to start
- that we've been able to do. Uh mobilizing all of the contractors that we need to make the essential
- in in urgently needed repairs. Particularly to our wildlife and perimeter fence. We had over two miles
- of fence line destroyed by the tornado. That's over a million dollars in itself. And before we're able
- to get to work on a lot of that fence,
- So we instantly mobilize those folks. But as it stands right now, we still have large sections of perimeter
- fence that is non-existent. And so we look towards the county for help in making those rainy day funds
- accessible for us to start mobilizing contractors and affecting those repairs as immediately as possible.
- And it's been a little bit
- It's been a little bit of a process getting access to the rainy day funds. There's a lot of stuff I
- don't really understand. Everyone at the county has been helping as much as possible, but there's some
- legal wrangling that has to take place, and Kim and Brianne can tell you about that. What I will say
- also is our insurance company, I can't remember their name right now. They've been very responsive.
- They've been out on site two times, and they did forward us
- $1.5 million. They did write a check after coming out on their first visit. And so we'll get to that
- later. But so the insurance company is working with us. They're still working. We've given them an inventory
- list of all of the damage, and we're still working with them to get a final determination. But right
- now it looks like it's approximately $3 million that we're going to be eventually claiming.
- Thank you. I'll go to Councillor Iverson and then I think I saw the auditor had her hand raised. I want
- to start with two issues I have with this request. Number one, when we established the rainy day fund,
- this was the fund of last resort. Every other general fund, special funds, all had to be exhausted before
- we even touched this. So my first question to you is, do you feel you've met that standard?
- What that is, sorry about that. As far as the airport goes, we have in reserves, we have approximately
- one million. And a lot of that has already been allocated for other projects.
- We don't have it. And so we turned to we turned to the county and after speaking with the legal department
- and folks in the auditors department, we were advised that this was the avenue for us to pursue. OK.
- I'm not sure that answers my question. I think I think yeah, can I go to my? Yeah, let me and then I'll
- put a second question out into the ether and then we can
- battle them both. Creating a line for storm damage repair, I think, is really a good idea in terms of
- the fact that the effects of the climate crisis keep showing its gnarly self in our community. The derecho,
- the tornadoes, right? My problem with this, though, is what standards do we use to ensure equitable access
- to these dollars across the many departments in Monroe County government who feel that they are affected
- by storm damage. It's a very good point. What I'm going to say is in this particular instance, we're
- creating this line only so that the dollars that we're spending on this insurance claim are
- are more easily tracked and they don't commingle with our regular budget. It's kind of a special item.
- The reimbursements, well, if we do get access to the rainy day fund, it goes into this line, payments
- go out of that fund, and reimbursements from the insurance company go into that in this to keep it clean.
- So then are we gonna be seeing the emergency services department coming in and doing the same thing?
- The health department coming in and doing the same thing? You see, to me, this is a Pandora's box.
- Yeah, I can see how that could be an issue for the few in the future and I think there probably needs
- to be a countywide policy on how we're going to handle these significant storm events in the future
- because they are becoming a more regular event and there have been some conversations about that while
- we were discussing this particular problem with the airport because this is this is becoming the new
- normal and I think when it when it comes to the rainy day fund and
- Like you said, you want that to be something of last resort, but how the county helps these different
- departments as they're affected, there's gonna have to be something more permanently established. And
- I think we're kind of figuring out that, unfortunately, we got hit with a really significant event and
- we're kind of the guinea pig here all of a sudden. But I think what you're saying is dead on as we look
- towards the future and climate change is a real thing.
- How are we going to handle this? Because it's coming again. We just had the straight line issue, the
- straight line wind issue last year, which caused us a lot of problems. We made an insurance claim then.
- And here we are again. And so it seems like the Monroe County airport is like the new tornado alley.
- And so we're also concerned about the future. And let me just conclude by saying, I in no way want to
- undermine the financial strain that you're under here. We want to help you out.
- but I just want to make sure that we're also thinking about the future when we're taking actions like
- this. Yeah, I totally understand where you're coming from. Thanks. I'm going to pop back to the auditor
- because I know she had her hand up.
- Thank you, President Crossley. So just a couple of things I'd like to add is my understanding that we
- appropriated, you appropriated in the rainy day fund for emergency purposes, unforeseen expenses,
- et cetera. The reason that we came, we're coming to you with this recommendation to utilize rainy day
- is because we can track this project in one fund this way, and it's just a bridge of funding gap.
- the only funding that will not be replaced, and I would like it to be replaced, is $150,000 deductible.
- So everything else will be replaced. We can track it all in one fund under one specific account line
- specific to this event and this department. They will only have access to the one fund, as you know,
- is proper budgeting procedure.
- I'm hopeful that...
- of the year we can make a recommendation for you to consider to replace that hundred fifty thousand
- dollars- a transfer from general or- just where there might be access funding available that's not-
- obligated. So what comes to mind immediately is- for example a supplemental lit if we happen to get
- one something like that- kind of unexpected. Or- maybe- we'll have interest above what we budgeted- what we
- we're not going to be able to do that again. So we'll look at all that and make a recommendation for
- you. We know that funding is scarce, and we need to be really mindful. But clearly, this is something
- that they need to be able to pursue and not wait for those insurance reimbursements to come through.
- Now they did have a $500,000 advance. However, um.
- And I think that Mr Cockrell was going to request and propose some updates to the rainy day code just
- to ensure that the ex that the reimbursements follow the expenses so that
- a line with what we anticipate we'd like to see for a procedure, which gets me to the procedure. The
- auditor's office and the council office plans to work together to put together like a formal
- you to approve with regard to how we will proceed in these circumstances, which are becoming more and
- more frequent. And so, for example, you know, you have the three, like, kind of placeholder lines appropriate
- and supply services and capital. We would like to continue that, but for each event and for each department
- that's, you know, involved in the event, we'd like to have a separate account line so we can track those
- expenditures. And then the overall event as well, because this is kind of odd. We have, you know, just
- one department affected.
- with this one, but there could be an event where, you know, highways involved to or wherever it may
- be. So did I clarify and answer the questions? So I'm excited to see the document that you're going
- to produce for the procedure. I would encourage you to build in definitions as well. Absolutely. And
- maybe even some bright lines. So what level of damage are we allowing to come to the emergency fund?
- Right. So I don't know. So I think
- there needs to be some some standards built in and so that we don't when there is a really big disaster
- and impacting multiple departments, you know, how do we not zero out the rainy day fund? And that's
- a valid point. So
- We have some ideas that we're working through and we're gonna put pen to paper and present those to
- you. But just what comes to mind is, you know, maybe it will be a declared emergency. And maybe it's
- just to where like insurance is involved and there's a deductible, but you know, everything else is
- going to be reimbursed. Those are things we've discussed and will come to you. I think that sounds wonderful.
- Yeah. I think she just might need assistance.
- Thank you. And thank you, Director, for being the guinea pig, as you said. I wanted to put a little
- more meat on the bone here, and I really appreciate the work being done between County Legal and the
- auditors in our office. One of the things we discovered with this particular hit from the tornado was
- the way in which the county starts to track its insurance claims. So in a well-functioning
- emergency management community where we have a disaster and we go into the recovery phase. The emergency
- management office would be aware of all these claims hitting in the county and that doesn't quite happen
- right now. So each department kind of manages its claims and the board of commissioners as the holder
- of the insurance policy are having those conversations with different departments. That's going on separately
- from emergency management that's out there doing that door to door auditing of how much damage was in
- the community. What we discovered
- Amazingly, was that pre before the airport's report, we were under the cap for getting state assistance
- from the disaster but after the airport numbers came in, we cleared the threshold to actually qualify
- for state disaster but we didn't know that for about two and a half. Right, I think. So, so we discovered.
- In all this you know a gap where if we can tighten that up and get to get a flow better we'd really
- know what the damages to county buildings that would qualify for FEMA assistance or or state assistance
- and so. that's that's the really long way of saying they're working on it and and you're the you're
- the test bed for it.
- It does operationalize the early rainy day fund a little better. And I think what's really great about
- this is we know we're getting our cash back. This is the in and out to obligate and de-obligate that
- we'll get back into that fund. To Councilor Iverson's point, yeah, there may be a disaster down the
- road where we are not getting a reimbursement. We will be using that fund for its intended purpose.
- I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon, but this is a really big first step. And I would keep encouraging
- departments like this to keep talking to emergency management
- and the board of commissioners to really try to get our insurance process under one understanding. It's
- probably gonna come through the auditor's office, it sounds like. You're gonna be the first to know
- how bad is bad in terms of the numbers, and then we'll know where to go, but I appreciate the effort,
- and that's just some background we discovered, and I was very pleased to be in those meetings when we
- had these initial discussions. Thank you for that. Yes, Councilor Vido. I have a general question about
- insurance that the county has and what the insurance rate
- may or may not go up as a result of all these claims? I can talk with the commission's administrator
- and legal team and see what kind of information we have on that. I am not aware of any discussion or
- thought of increase at this time. However, there's been a multitude of claims recently, right? And not
- small ones, right?
- to see something. I just haven't been made aware of anything. As a question to you, Auditor Gregory,
- the $150,000 that you had mentioned earlier that wouldn't be covered, which is the deductible, because
- we have the balance that we need, the minimum cash balance that we would need for our rainy day fund.
- Would that need to be replaced by the end of this year or? I don't believe so. We are north of
- I will pull the balance up here. We are above our minimum cash balance right now.
- However, regardless, I think we will have ample documentation to demonstrate that the money is coming
- in and being reimbursed. Now, it was specifically that $150,000 toward the end of the year will present
- a plan to you, and you can choose yay or nay. And at that point, we could also amend the minimum cash
- balance ordinance if we have that recommendation from legal and there's concern. Okay, sorry.
- I just pulled the wrong fund up, I'm so sorry, one moment. Okay, so we would be just under our minimum
- balance. We currently are sitting at $10,117,549. Okay, thank you for that.
- I'll be quick because I don't want this to belabor the night. I'm so sorry, go right ahead. I was just
- going to say that while things are also fresh in our mind not to take away from the airport, but I do
- think something helpful might be long-term finance or some entity that council leadership thinks through
- with us maybe to start to map out how all these various things start to get funded in the
- emergency management family of items for example what two three months ago we had neighborhoods that
- highway cannot plow they cannot plow right and instead of everybody staring at lisa ridge and throwing
- soup cans saying what's going on lisa ridge well we know darn well she can't do it that this is a good
- example we're thinking outside the box putting rolling up our sleeves and saying in that case if the
- count if the commissioners wish
- to make a plan for that to move forward, how that might happen, but emergency management might contract
- with the plow. We somehow made contracting with the plow seem more like we were talking about, how's
- Monroe County gonna take Artemis around the moon? And the reality is, we could have found about 900
- people just on that corner alone to plow that. I think we need to think through those things because
- we are in a different era. The airport's clearly in Tornado Alley. It's clearly coming through that area.
- But also so is every other strange weather coming through this county and I think that those are things
- that are not going to go away Even when the weather gets nicer and we don't think about snow Any other
- further question don't sorry miss Gregory sure I apologize But I missed mentioning that we would like
- to have a uniform naming mechanism for these events as well So I'd like to adjust the account name to be
- to 1926 aviation storm repair, just so it's specific to the event number one and to the department.
- So then moving forward as we have more events, it will be the event date and then the specific department
- utilizing the line. Obviously we can't commingle that or we won't be able to track the appropriation
- well. Good point, okay.
- Is that a naming convention that you feel comfortable with us adopting this evening? Or is yeah. Yes,
- I mean, we're we've kind of talked that through. I think Michelle, you're comfortable as well. Yes.
- Right. You need to repeat that account name. I don't think we got it. It's the two 1926 aviation storm
- repair. Yes, you got it.
- All right, Council, I move to update my motion to rename the account line to 21926 aviation storm repair.
- Second. All right, we got a motion and a second to rename that. Yes, Council. I love this. This clearly
- addresses my second question. Thank you. Any other further questions or comments on this item?
- motion carries. All those in favor of approving this as amended signify by saying aye. All those opposed,
- same sign. Okay Motion carries now. Thank you, Michelle.
- have a hand that was raised via Teams. And if you want to make a comment here, you can come to the podium
- in the room. But since we already have one on Teams, screen name Lee, you can unmute yourself, state
- your name for the record, and you'll have up to three minutes. Hello, my name is Lee. I'm a Monroe County
- president. I think this brings up a good issue that you as council need to
- rethink perhaps, you know, resolution 2025-27, which was the 2026 minimum cash balance resolution. In
- rating day fund, there's 10 million, as was talked about. But in general fund, there was a minimum cash
- balance of 15 million. And all of these is money that could be spent
- today on useful things as I think that this, the direction that this was going from long-term finances
- was to make sure that our bonding rate was low. And it's just a good thing to think about that these
- minimum tax balances are something created by you and that can be lowered. Okay. Thank you very much.
- All right, is there any other further questions or comments from the public on this item? Seeing none,
- maybe please have a roll call vote. Councilor Wilts? Yes. Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes.
- Councilor Crossley? Yes. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feigl? Yes.
- Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Next up is item K. Council, I move to approve the aviation
- department's request for a fund to fund transfer of cash of $500,000 from fund 4801-000 aviation construction
- to fund 21926 aviation storm repair. Second. Oh, you know what? Sorry, I was being cute.
- Let me restate that. Council, I move to approve the aviation department's quest for a fund to fund transfer
- of cash of $500,000 from fund 4801-0000 aviation construction to fund 1186-0000 rainy day. Second. Okay,
- thank you. And I'm looking to the auditor for this item.
- Sure. Okay, so I prefer to handle this with a receipt correction. The $500,000 advance, which is specific
- to help bridge a funding gap and also for this project, which makes me feel like it's obligated for
- a specific purpose. Transfers to rainy day are supposed to be unobligated expenses. However,
- Regardless, we can get the same outcome with just doing a receipt correction because it was in this
- calendar year. We can simply adjust the receipt to go into the rainy day fund. It's kind of like a correction of error.
- we can take care of that on our end. It's just internally an adjustment. We'll just get a request if
- they're agreeable from the aviation team. However, we were going to hold on that until the code update
- is reviewed and approved by the county commissioners, which will specify that any advance payments related
- to an emergency, any reimbursements that are handled out of this fund will go into
- the rainy day fund. So it'll kind of be part of the procedure just written in code. Appreciate that.
- Thank you. All right. Anybody have any questions or comments on that for the auditor on this item? Seeing
- none. We will move to public comment. If there's public comment on this item, you can come forward to
- the lectern here in the room or raise your hand via Teams. And seeing none. Okay.
- Just to be clear, we don't have to do this fund to fund based on what the auditor has just stated. That's
- what I was trying to understand. I was like, but you're okay. Okay. Sorry for the lack of clarity. Yes,
- no fund to fund receipt correction. Same outcome. So we're done. Oh, you can just withdraw the motion.
- The counter argument is this is half a million dollars
- for storm related damage and it would be maybe beneficial to the public to understand what's happening.
- Okay, how can I explain further? So we're gonna move it essentially have the same outcome. It's gonna
- go from one fund to another fund only by means that the procedure is more appropriate this way.
- It's the same end result. It's just using a different procedure. I understand. I understand. Okay. So
- it sounds like you might need to withdraw. Council. I withdraw my motion. Okay. Appreciate that. Okay.
- Now, moving on, we will go to item M, which was tabled at our last meeting. Council, as a reminder,
- the amount of $30,000 was tabled
- from the March 24th council meeting. I move to approve the aviation department's request and fund 4801-.
- Excuse me? Am I reading the wrong one? Yeah. No, that item was tabled indefinitely at the beginning.
- Oh, I am reading the wrong one. I was supposed to be reading N not M. Thank you. Oh my goodness. Thank
- you all for keeping me honest.
- I move to approve the aviation department's request and fund 11 oh seven dash zero zero zero zero aviation
- for a deappropriation of $35,000 in the services category second You know you missed him missed him,
- but you were reading L Okay, then that means I screwed up, okay One moment, please
- Yeah, we're going to hit M and hit N, I believe. This is what it's been like. This is this whole rainy
- day thing, and a lot of the stuff we're trying to do with the aviation construction fund. Blazing a
- new path. Just so we can discuss it. I mean, item M is the fund 4801, aviation construction. Correct. Yeah.
- We're creating account lines. Okay. And it was table. Oh, I'm sorry. So let's get back to him. Yeah.
- So I would draw my motion that I read for L. We're going to go to M.
- I move to approve the aviation department's request and fund 4801-0000 aviation construction to create
- two account lines, 20120 laundry and cleaning and 30190 promotion and advertising and simultaneously
- approve additional appropriations of $1,250 in the supplies category and $71,900 in the services category
- for a total appropriation
- of $73,150. Second. Okay. Okay. Hello. Okay. Number one, the Monroe County Board of Aviation Commissioners
- have re-entered into a contract for $30,000 with CTL Engineering to perform some preliminary geotechnical
- survey work on the southwest parcel of airport property for economic development. So that's the $30,000.
- And then two, the board also contracted with Woolpert for $6,900 for coordination and solicitation for
- qualified geotechnical firms to do item number one. And number three, all of this request is being made.
- We're moving these funds into the aviation construction fund and we're gonna start
- creating separate lines in there for airport economic development specific. Ventures that are going
- to be solely funded with airport generated revenue not not dollars which would be coming from the levy.
- like I said, this support the establishment of an airport economic funding structure within the existing
- construction fund, which will support airport growth, development, and related strategic activities.
- This request creates and appropriates a new promotion and advertising account line for $35,000, laundry
- and cleaning, which will be specific to the airport Airbnb, which is another revenue generator for us.
- So we want that expenditure to be tracked separately.
- And then this will provide a clear, like I said, provide clear, more intentional funding structure for
- development related expenditures at the airport. Great. Thank you for that. Any questions or comments
- from council on this item? Hey, you stumped them.
- all right public comment time you know what to do raise your hand be in teams or come to the lectern
- here in the room and seeing none may we please have a roll call vote counselor crossley yes counselor
- iverson yes counselor fiddle yes counselor hawk yes counselor wilts yes
- Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Decker? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Next up is item N. Thank you,
- Madam President. Good Lord. Council, I move to approve the aviation department's request and fund 1107-0000
- aviation for a deappropriation of $35,000 in the services category. Second. All right.
- Yeah, that $35,000 will be de-appropriated from that line and the operational budget and be placed into
- and fund the same line, the same name line in the aviation construction fund. And again, this is just
- to kind of support more of the economic development related activities with airport generated revenue,
- not levy dollars. Okay, questions or comments for
- Mr. Leverty on this side. And seeing none, we'll move to public comment. If there's public comment,
- you can raise your hand via Teams or come to the lectern here in the room. And seeing none, maybe please
- have a roll call. Councilor Iverson? Yes. Councilor Feinstein? Yes. Councilor Hogg? Yes.
- Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Deckard? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Yes. Motion passes unanimous. Okay.
- All right. And that's it. Thank you. Sorry about all the work. No. Okay. I got my papers out of whack
- too. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Next up, since we already moved through the agenda for
- the sheriff's items, the last item is item R from the legal department.
- Council I move to approve ordinance 2026-11 approving and fixing terms for the transfer of property.
- Second. All right we got a motion in a second and we'll look to Ms. Turner.
- So this item is a transfer of the properties located that surrounds the Convention Center. It is the
- properties that was requested by the CIB on February 5th. The properties, as a reminder, were paid for
- by innkeeper's tax. So effectively, this resolution would transfer the properties. The commissioners
- have already heard a resolution, and it passed, I think,
- on the April 2nd meeting. There was one change in the resolution in section two. Hold on, I need to
- look at section two. Under the now there for be it clauses, I do believe. It changes the intent to purchase
- to the intent to transfer.
- It said the council wishes for Monroe County to transfer the property described in exhibit a including
- it Exhibits one and two to the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board The last sentence says as the
- fiscal body from Monroe County this ordinance serves as the expression of the council's intent to and
- it said previously Purchase but it should have been transfer because we're not purchasing the land.
- We're transferring the land and
- So we have two members of the CIB here, Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Whitehart. So welcome. I don't know if you
- would like to add to the conversation.
- please go ahead. Thank you very much and it's great to see all of you again. I haven't seen many of
- you since we signed a steel beam that I discovered today in a construction meeting is about to go up
- into the building. I know a couple of our counselors were not able to be there and I've arranged for
- a bucket truck if you're available and you can be lifted up so you can still add your signatures.
- And I have Mr. Cassidy with me, who is your third appointee to our Capital Improvement Board.
- And if I may, if you'll indulge me for just a moment, I haven't been been here for a while and I want
- to take this opportunity to thank all of you.
- I think back as I thought back this evening I sat here and I think was twenty seventeen when- when this
- body discussed and debated whether to pass a food and beverage tax to make the- construction of the-
- hotel or the convention center project possible- and- you know and following that- several things happened
- in twenty twenty three what we know we know that although passing the food and beverage tax- made it
- possible that didn't make it happen because we hit a
- a snag in 2019, and it was only revisited in 2023. The county commissioners created the capital improvement
- board in 2023. We're now in our third year as a board, seven members, seven community members who are
- volunteers who have been working on this project. But although those things made the project possible,
- what's made it happen is you, the commissioners, the city council, the mayor,
- putting your trust and faith in us and transferring that to us to make this project work and to make
- it happen. We're set to have the project completed, the expansion project, January 8th of 2027. I remind
- the construction people that it's Elvis's birthday. Elvis's birthday doesn't move, so January 8th is
- when it's supposed to be completed. I hung a picture of Elvis in the construction office, so every day
- they're reminded of that fact.
- Then from January to May of next year to June of next year, we'll be involved in the renovation of the
- current convention center. Coming back to the 2023 county ordinance, we were charged to do four things
- in the county ordinance. And the interlocal agreement re-emphasized those four responsibilities that
- we had as a board. Expand the current convention center, which was made possible by the county's donation
- of land to the east. Renovate the current building.
- We're on track to do. We're doing all those things and we'll do them within budget. Select a hotel developer
- and a site for a hotel, and then address parking needs for the convention center and how we were going
- to handle the expansion and what that meant for parking. As we've moved along on the expansion project,
- parallel to us was a discussion about the hotel development.
- and the hotel site and the best site for the hotel has always been recognized to be the north the north
- property which the redevelopment commission purchased in two different purchases one in twenty nineteen
- one in twenty twenty three and so over a fourteen month period those conversations went on until december
- of this past year twenty twenty five both the hotel developer and the city told us that there was no
- There was no path forward for them to complete that negotiation, kicking it back to us to determine
- what we did at that point. We proposed to the developer, because when we had put out an RFP for a hotel,
- we had identified sites to the south, which is the parking lot, to the west, which is another parking
- lot, and asked them, can you build there? They all wanted to go north. So we said to the hotel developer,
- can you still go south? And that was in January.
- And in January, the hotel developer came back to us and said, yes, I can build there. In the meantime,
- we had requested of the city that they transfer the parcels to us, that South parking lot to us, which
- in May of 2024, they'd indicated they were making available to us. And the response we got was, well,
- now it's for price or consideration. If you want the parking lot, it's for price or consideration. The
- Capital Improvement Board doesn't have money.
- We don't have money to buy anything. So at that point, that was when we requested of the county, can
- you help us identify? Elable for us if we have to move forward with a hotel developer on a site that's
- not the North site. And that's that's what brings us to tonight as the county commissioners looked at
- parcels that were available. They looked at the West parcel, the parking lot.
- which have been identified in 2024. And they also look at these south parcels that my geography won't
- do justice here, but Smith Avenue to Second Street. Those additional parcels, which were purchased in
- two purchases in 2010 by the Convention and Visitors Commission out of innkeepers' tax money for the
- purpose of the Convention Center project.
- so the county commissioners have now by resolution agreed to transfer those parcels in the meantime
- the city reconsidered its position about the south parking lots and the redevelopment commission has
- now transferred to us those the south parking lot and i'm going to call it another south parking lot
- it's the one that's actually west behind the courtyard by marriott so there are two different parking
- lots there those have now been transferred to us so
- So what what we're asking you to consider tonight is whether you will also approve the transfer of those
- additional parcels I will tell you that by coincidence the capital improvement board meets tomorrow
- For its regular monthly meeting and we have scheduled an executive session at 1 30 Tomorrow before our
- 3 o'clock meeting for the purpose of discussing real estate because we won't know until tomorrow What
- land we have well?
- Well no tonight, but I mean we will not know until 130 tomorrow in that executive session what land,
- we have available to move forward with the project specifically with the hotel development. I will.
- I don't I don't want to the capital print board has never discussed any of these parcels would not talked
- about these parcels we've never owned these parcels. I know there's been speculation dating a year ago
- when the when the county first indicated it did not intend to extend leases.
- for those properties to the south there was speculation. That that we were going to grab them up for
- parking lots that's that's never been a discussion that we've ever had that's never been a request that
- we've ever made. I publicly stated that was not the case at the time i've been reminded and. Many of
- you will not even know what i'm talking about Joni mitchell's 1970 big yellow taxi song we.
- something and put up a parking lot. That was never our intention. So we never ever had an intention
- of saying we want those South parcels for a parking lot. In fact, one of the reasons why the second
- reason why the hotel developers response to us about the city South parking lot was not adequate was
- that the developer did not include how to address parking in a structured parking above ground structure
- parking within that hotel.
- because we can't put a hotel in a parking lot and then lose parking spaces. So what we've been able
- to preserve by the city's donation is parking spaces. That south lot, what we can preserve with your
- movement forward is the west lot. It would be my intention tomorrow, and this is, I've not talked about
- this with my board. I'll mention it in our discussions tomorrow in executive session. I'll see where
- they want to direct me tomorrow afternoon.
- But it would be my hope that if we were to receive these parcels in transfer, that we would engage the
- city and the redevelopment commission into a discussion about a land exchange. Can we exchange those
- south parcels to Second Street for the former Bunger Robertson lot? Can we achieve two goals? Can the
- CIB then move forward to develop a hotel on that north property, which is the best fit for the CDC
- see some advantage to having the South-South parcels for their own initiatives, for their own priorities,
- for their own development, whatever that may be. I can't predict what will happen if we were to make
- that offer. I can tell you that in private conversations I've had with the mayor, she's not indicated
- support for a land exchange.
- But I believe it's worthy of public discussion. I believe it's worthy of the Redevelopment Commission
- considering it. A colleague told me one time that there is no horse too dead not to beat. So I would
- want to continue to beat the dead horse of the North property to see if it could be used for the development
- of a parking lot. If we're told no, if we get a formal no, we can't make that happen. We're not interested
- in that land exchange.
- Then we as a CIB will be back at the table to determine what we can now do with the parcels that we
- do have for a hotel development. So the the extended parcels the city's I know I'm I know I've thrown
- a lot of South and who owns what but the city's South parking lot. These additional parcels can we put
- that out in an RFP for a hotel developer, you know what might we get in response to that, but those
- are all steps.
- I would like to go quite a bit down the line here I would hope that the that if we make such a request
- to the redevelopment commission. That I would ask them that we have a very quick response on that. That
- hopefully but we've hopefully by may by our next meeting we would know whether the redevelopment commission
- we're going to consider a land exchange. We are from from the date a hotel project is approved as two
- and a half years out to get it open.
- We know we're going to open a convention center and not have a host hotel. Our local hotels are working
- with us extremely well. We're already booking conventions out into 2028 and they're working with us
- on room guarantees to do those things. And that's critically important.
- I need to say rising tide lifts all boats if we get a host hotel with 200 rooms and we can now attract
- 600 people to a convention. Unless they're willing to sleep three to a room they're going to be looking
- for other places to stay and that means other hotels.
- will benefit by this. We're also looking at attracting conventions in the Monday through Thursday period
- of time. The hotels don't need us on football weekends. And Galen doesn't need us at the Uptown on a
- football weekend. But the Monday through Thursday period of time can help our hotels and our restaurants
- kind of flatten their business models. And so that's what we're working on. I know I've thrown a lot
- at you. I'm happy to answer any questions. I know that two of the county commissioners are online.
- if they would like to add anything to do anything that that I've said but. But we will meet tomorrow
- we will then know tomorrow what we have we'll discuss an executive session will move into our meeting
- we'll see if we want to make an approach to the city about a land exchange I can't I can't predict that's
- going to happen tomorrow. And I can't speculate what the city would do with the land if the exchange
- happen but but that's
- That's how I would hope we could move forward. And that's how I would see this land transfer assisting
- in that process. So happy to answer any questions you might have. I appreciate that. Thank you. I'll
- start off with a question, because I appreciate your thorough explanation of that, because trying to
- follow it in the media has been
- I appreciate that. My question would be, considering that this is up for us tonight and considering
- you have a meeting tomorrow and an executive session tomorrow, would it make sense for us to vote on
- this tonight or wait until you all do what you need to do in terms of having the conversations
- The purpose of the executive session would be to determine, we won't determine an executive session,
- but to discuss what has been donated to us.
- If you don't make a decision tonight, whatever decision you make tonight, we will then know in our executive
- tomorrow how we plan to move forward. If you're donating the land to us, then that presents
- us the opportunity in executive session to determine in public session later on, what are we going to
- do now that we know what land we own? If you don't make a decision tonight, frankly, we can't do anything
- tomorrow because we still don't know what we have.
- It's important for us to know yes or no, whether or not you intend to donate the land so that so that
- we'll know how to proceed. OK, I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, I'll open it up to my colleagues
- here and see if anybody has any questions. All right, I'll go down the line here. Councillor Fiddle.
- I wonder if you could tell us or maybe you don't know what the value of the property that we're you're
- being asked to donate is.
- I think I know how much it cost when it was purchased in 2010. It was purchased in two separate purchases,
- and I believe the total purchase price of the two was approximately $3.2 million. And that's the total
- package that you're asking for donation, right? Yes. Okay, thank you. Councilor Watz?
- First of all, thank you. I know that you've been leading a process that has not necessarily been easy,
- and I appreciate the work that you're doing. As I'm looking at this, and we have folks in the back of
- the room who obviously have invested interest in our decision tonight, I'm curious about if
- there is no land swap with the city and you are then looking at a property or putting out an RFP that
- includes these parcels for a hotel. What timeline then are we looking at before really these folks might
- have to vacate?
- So I know that their lease is currently in and they've been told, but realistically, would there be
- more time as RFP went out and a hotelier was looking at the site and putting together some proposal?
- If I may answer it in two parts, if that's all right. You know, a process, first of all,
- If we were to obtain these parcels, if we were to approach the city, if we knew by May, the city's yes
- or no, maybe we would know before May, you know, a process of putting another RFP out is a two month
- process to get responses that would need to be reviewed. Interviews of hotel developers hearing what
- their plans were. So, you know, you put those timelines together and you're talking, you know, two,
- four or five more months down the road. So that's
- That's kind of a speculative timeline. But the other part of the question that I believe in fairness
- and in full candor that I need to respond to is that the CIB is not a property manager. The CIB has
- no budget to manage properties.
- You know, I've learned much more about these properties over the last few weeks because they've never
- been ours to think about. And so I've tried to figure it out. And what you're asking me is whether the
- CIB is willing to do something the county is not willing to do. These leases. So you're asking the county
- is notified both residential and commercial tenants that the leases are going to end with a date specific.
- Read articles from the HT that that that that that's been known since last May. Formal notice wasn't
- given till February, but it's not. It is what it is. We we have no ability to be a property manager.
- You know there's been deferred maintenance on apartment buildings and I respect all the people who are
- here tonight. I respect their opinions. I understand how how strongly they feel about this and I respect that.
- housing. This community has many issues that are important to address. My point is, as hard as it sounds,
- they're not the CIBs to address. We have no ability to make repairs to buildings. There's been much
- deferred maintenance, as I understand it, on these apartments. We don't have the ability to do that.
- My sister's closet makes a passionate argument about extension of time. They've been there free for a year.
- Are we to extend somehow the CIB is now responsible for extending time for a year for a tenant in a
- building I Get enough calls every day on the convention center property I don't I I can't help with
- calls to maintain properties. I can't help if a boiler breaks down I have no money to fix a boiler.
- So it's a two-part question and Is there you know, is there time? Yes, there's time. Do we have the
- ability to?
- to assume those responsibilities, the CIV have the ability to assume those responsibilities and carry
- them forward, and my answer to that is we do not. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so okay, that makes a lot of sense,
- thank you. So if we voted to transfer the property,
- Then what happens like is the county still managing the property until July, even though we've transferred
- it that makes. Well, let me let me let me again speculate OK, because if the transfer were to happen
- and then there's a process involved where deeds are. Deeds are transferred and ownership is transferred.
- You know, is there a period? Is there a period of time of overlap between now and July?
- Some of those leases are up in July. Is there a period of overlap? Yes, there is. We're soon into May.
- So we'd be into May, June, May and June. So there would be a two, yes, there'd be a two month overlap
- period. My concern is the period beyond that. My concern is the period beyond July. It's simply that.
- I guess my question maybe isn't even for you then. I'm concerned, I mean, I have to assume that there's
- been some discussion of how we manage the properties when we've transferred the ownership. And yet,
- I mean, yes, these folks have been given till July, but my understanding is at least one other property
- has been given longer. Yeah, there's a commercial property that has a lease that expires in February.
- Well, to be honest, I'm sorry and not to interrupt Councilor Wilts, but we do have county commissioners
- who are on the call. If they would like to chime in, not to put you on the spot, but since we're on
- the spot, you can. So if any commissioner that is online would like to answer the question to Councilor
- Wilts' point, as we go through that, it would be greatly appreciated.
- from I'm thinking also who would be liable for things between this interim period right. I don't know
- the liability came up but I'm really interested in liability right yeah and who who made who so it's
- a property and then what if something happens on the property who's liable for that I mean there's just
- all kinds of unexplained things as far as I can see. Well we got a hand raised and it looks like Commissioner
- Thomas has her hand raised. Yeah I can try to answer your question but I think
- I'm not sure I understood the entire question. Let me give it a shot and if I've not addressed it, let
- me know. Right now, the management team from the Convention Center, Talisha Copic, is working with a
- property manager who is managing the properties. That's what's going on now.
- If that arrangement continues for a few months, that's really up to the CIB and the Convention and Visitors
- Commission to utilize, to continue that process. Wouldn't that be... What was that? There's nothing.
- Okay, go ahead.
- So, I mean, so there's nothing that's been laid out with respect to what happens in May, let's just
- say, or June as far as property management. I mean, presumably the company that's managing the property
- is paid. Maybe they've been paid ahead. I don't know. And maybe everybody's like, cool, this all works,
- but I'm concerned.
- Yeah. If I may take another stab at this. I think what I understand is that that to Lisha Coppock and
- through the management of the Convention Center is working with the with the property management company.
- The Convention and Visitors Commission has been involved in, you know, whatever maintenance activities,
- you know, have been undertaken. So I would I would imagine that would simply continue till the expiration
- of those leases.
- I've not had conversations with them, but that would seem to be the most, make the most sense to me.
- Yes, Councilor Henry. Thank you. And this question isn't really for either of you, though. I'm glad
- you're here to help shepherd some of this conversation. But if Commissioner Thomas is still on, my question
- here is, if the Board of Commissioners had empowered a property manager and then the property manager
- hired a firm to collect
- collect the rents and then deal with maintenance. Has the county ever enjoyed a revenue stream from
- the ownership of these or is it just paid the property management firm over the past, well,
- I guess 16 years? I can answer that in that this has been going through the Convention and Visitors
- Commission as part of their work.
- and it's not something that we've seen a revenue stream on, specifically to the county itself. Since
- these properties were purchased for the convention center and with innkeepers tax dollars, we certainly
- would not endeavor to create some sort of a profit stream that's long lasting,
- because these are not really our properties, they're in our name. That's what we're trying to resolve
- now is to place it into the name of the Capital Inclusion Board. We did put a piece in there asking
- that if possible, that the city may acquire those properties because they have a housing authority,
- become landowners, landlords. That was encouraged. We encouraged that in our resolution. But other than
- that, we're silent on it because really the properties don't belong to the county. They belong to the
- convention center itself and the convention visitors commission. So no, that helps. And I'll just ask
- the second question anyway, though. I think you may have answered it, which is if there was going to
- be a rate increase
- on the properties over the 16 year period, if I'm hearing you right, that rate increase would have occurred
- at the CBC level and not the board of commissioners to try to raise the rent, if you will, on either
- units? Correct. We were asked, for example, I can give you an example of something. We were asked to
- reduce the rent of my sister's closet as they were trying to transition to a new space.
- and they need capital to build into that space. We really like that organization so much. They're so
- valuable. We did agree to that. We're asked those kinds of questions along the way. But other than that,
- no, we've not been involved in the day-to-day at all. Thank you. I just want to clarify that there's
- the convention
- and visitors commission, but then there's also the building corporation, the convention and visitor.
- Because that's different. It's the convention center building corporation. And that's who's managing
- the property management. So right. No, no, no, no.
- And in a transfer of properties, there is a City of Bloomington Building Corporation that now has possession
- of the Convention Center because they use it, in my simple terms, as collateral for the bond. So the
- Monroe County Building Corporation doesn't exist any longer. It's the City of Bloomington Building
- Corporation. And the City of Bloomington's Building Corporation responsibility is to simply make
- payment on the on the bond on the on the debt to approve payment on the debt so there's no there's no
- other party involved in management management of the of the of the convention center or these properties.
- But counselor Iverson. So I. Your offer is tantalizing. And also unpredictable. So thank you for that.
- Public policy, right? That's right. It is lovely to think that there is a way to beat this not dead
- horse by going north and at the same time preserve some semblance of what there is in the south. My
- thinking though is not trying to predict the future or predicting what is
- It is that the current landlords, the current people whose name is on this, clearly do not want this
- anymore. Even if we were to vote this down, even if we were to unanimously say no, I'm not sure the
- outcome would change all that much in the thinking of what happens on Thursday mornings.
- And so that's my current thinking is that, and I see other hands are being raised to challenge my thoughts,
- but I mean, that is my thinking at this point is how much change can we effectuate realistically from
- this day as tonight?
- Yes, Mr. My hand is not to challenge Mr. I for instance thought my hand is to go back to a question that.
- Councilor Wilts asked. I did inquire with Jeff Cockrell who has been working more closely with the CIB
- regarding the transfer of these properties about who would manage the properties until July if they're
- transferred and who would be liable to Councilor Feidl's point. And Mr. Cockrell's response is the CIB
- would be liable once transferred. The CIB would manage if transferred prior to the lease ending. They
- would manage the properties.
- I'm sorry. I'm yelling at you. Sorry. Well, again, if I can take another stab. The Convention and Visitors
- Commission, one of its responsibilities is to the convention center. And they currently address issues
- with the current convention center. They've been paying for whatever up keeps involved in these properties
- that we're talking about now.
- I suspect they're continuing to do that until these leases ended, if they were to end in July, would
- not be a particularly onerous burden for them. I think they would be relieved to know when the burden
- would end for them. But that's the CVC, not the CIB. Yeah, there's a bunch of alphabet soup floating
- around. Can I just hear, though? She said CIB.
- that the CIB would own the properties and be responsible for them. So you would be liable if anything
- happened? And then we would then we would need to be dealing with issues of insurance. We'd be nearly
- need to deal with issues of our relationship with the CVC. And these are all things if you agree to
- transfer the property that we have to act on very quickly. So are you comfortable with that? Yes.
- I'm comfortable with the prospect that we can make things happen we've been trying to make happen for
- a lot of years. And I know not everybody agrees with that. I know not everybody agrees with what we're
- trying to do, and I respect that. But you've given us a charge, and I'm comfortable we can complete
- it. And we're better capable of completing it with this transfer.
- Go to your counselor Decker here in a second. But I had a quick question because Commissioner Thomas
- brought up my sister's closet because I know at a previous meeting that they were at they were asking
- for an extension. And to my understanding that there's another business in that area that got extended
- to I believe February.
- And my mistake Jeff Jeff's warehouse is a commercial property and their their lease specifically stated
- that they had one year from the time they received formal notice of termination so that formal notice
- happened in February so they have until February of twenty twenty seven that lease is different from
- there a couple of other commercial properties and then there's obviously the residential apartments
- and those are different leases with different timelines okay and so
- What I'm about to say is not geared towards you all by any way, because I wrote on here, like, you are
- not responsible for any of this stuff. You got a task. We created all this stuff, and now we've kind
- of made a monster out of all of this. But I guess my question, and I don't know who to direct this to,
- because I hear the county's name is on these things, but we're not responsible for it, which that's
- interesting to me, because
- My name is on something up north that I've been trying to deal with for a while. And whether I like
- it or not, even though I'm here and that's there, my name is still attached to that said thing. I guess
- my question is, considering the timeline of everything and all the other different possibilities, and
- considering the fact that folks that live there are living there, that's their homes, that's
- their livelihoods right now,
- It, I guess, who do we ask if there was to be some type of extension for them, because it is my understanding
- from public comment that we had a while back that folks got a letter in February explaining that.
- their lease is up as of July of this year. And I know that people say that this is a conversation that
- has been had for a while, but the regular Joe Schmoes aren't really technically paying attention. They're
- probably doing day-to-day, daily operational things where they're not really paying attention to all
- the things. And just like a lot of other things, we talk a lot, but we're still here some years later.
- But I digress. But that being said,
- that it would be a shock to me if I lived there to know that I'm getting something in February and in
- July I have to be out and there's no type of extension. I'm looking forward to put myself on the spot.
- Like I'm looking for a house right now and everything that I'm trying to look for is just not like,
- you know, my situation would be up as of the end of June. And so that's a lot to
- put on folks like that. So I guess to say all that, I'm trying to have some empathy while understanding
- the task that the CRB has. But I'm concerned that we say, well, it's been talked about. It's been known
- that we are, especially when we don't really know how long this project is going to take, who would
- we need to speak with to ask for
- an extension, so to speak, for my sister's closet or for them to figure out where they would have to
- go. Because I believe in the convention center expansion, my heartburn is, as a bridgehead myself, is
- displacing people for something that we don't even know when that timeline will happen. And so I am
- really trying to grasp with this. And again,
- No shade, no disrespect to you all as well because you're put on the hotspot. But I think that's a million
- dollar question is trying to figure out like who's responsible. I sound like an owl. Who? Who? Who's
- responsible for us asking if we can get some type of extension?
- Molly can correct me, but it seems that the transfer takes place and these properties, these parcels
- are transferred to the CIB, then it's going to be the CIB's responsibility to determine what, if anything,
- it does about extensions of any leases, be they residential or be they commercial. And as I said, we
- don't know to this minute whether we're going to have these parcels.
- And and and if we have them, then that has to be part of the discussion we have in our executive session
- tomorrow and has to be a discussion for the board. And that's why that's why I would hope that if if
- we can move forward with a further discussion with the city and the RDC, we can have answers very quickly
- to some of these questions. I know that Alicia Coppock was here and spoke to you, I think, at your last meeting.
- I know that there are still ongoing efforts to assist with relocation that may or may not satisfy the
- current residents of the apartment building. But I know there's been effort made. Talisha told me yesterday
- that there have been four open houses at apartment buildings here recently that five of the tenants
- took applications. Three tenants have already notified that they intend to move early. So it's not as
- if we lack empathy. And it's not as if we're not trying.
- to do this, but the question becomes, if these parcels are transferred, then this problem that you are
- all wrestling with is punted to the CIB, and it's the CIB then that has to determine what we do about
- these leases and whether extensions are possible or not. And I'm gonna, Ms. Turner-King, I see Councilor
- Henry, but I know Decker was first, so I'll go Turner-King, Decker, and then I'll roll back to Henry
- next. And I tend to agree
- Upon transfer the cib is liable for the properties and management thereof I imagine that the lease would
- follow and thus extensions of the lease to Last part again about the leaf I imagine that cib would be
- responsible for the leases at that point and any extension thereof And I and i'm assuming that that
- would mean that we
- that we inherit the current leases with the current expiration date, as well as the one lease that has
- a February expiration date. And then we have to wrestle with how we deal with that. Thank you very much.
- And I appreciate my council colleagues asking tremendous questions. I enjoy very much listening to that,
- hearing the responses. And I appreciate very much the chair, not only informing us on this, but running
- through that timeline.
- I don't know if you've heard it yet. I mean, I've read about 300 articles on all this, but I think,
- Chancellor, I think you had the clearest. I've heard it yet. I'm retired. I have plenty of time. Well,
- I appreciate all that time that you're doing to this last appreciate everything that the CIA has done
- on the project. I can remember a time when we would sit in here and kind of stare at each other a lot.
- Maybe a little bit like tonight. I guess my questions
- At one point when we were dealing with the Napa building for elections, there was a time where we were
- renting that from one of these entities that governs that. Ms. Turner King, do I have that right? I
- remember that was to keep the funds straight, not to say, well, that's just county's free building.
- That was us literally renting that, is that right? I remember at the time, I think Councilor McKim
- fired up about that amount and goes, oh, I guess it makes sense. It's a bookkeeping or something like
- that. And it's probably for Mr. King again. In 2010, when this, it's two parcels, when these two parcels
- were purchased, that was done with innkeepers tax dollars, is that right? 2010 was before.
- my existence in county legal, but it is my understanding that, yes, it was done with innkeeper's dollars.
- My understanding is, and I don't know if this is a thing that's been discussed or if I have it wrong,
- but technically, us maintaining rental property with innkeeper's tax dollars was not the intent of that
- tax. Is that right? Have I heard that?
- to look at that statute. Okay. Mr. Turner King, Mr. Cockrell does have his hand raised. Maybe he could
- take a step at that one. Sorry to throw them all to you. Are you okay with Mr. Cockrell speaking? Oh,
- 100%. Mr. Cockrell, the floor is yours if you'd like it. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yeah, I apologize
- for not being there tonight. I heard the last few questions and
- Absolutely, when we purchased the property, I don't think we intended it to be a innkeeper's tax to
- be utilized for continuing the rental of that property indefinitely into the future. It was always intended
- to keep the property maintained until it was time to utilize it for the convention and center purposes.
- So I think that's question one. Can you repeat question two?
- I think you answered question two, if I heard it right. I think you covered that one. I think, I guess
- let me go to this just overall question and I'll go back to you Chancellor on this one. If in an ideal
- setting, right, if the discussion with the city goes well, this property becomes a property that swaps
- And what embers on that the development that is something the city would consider down the road, but
- ultimately the hotel could be in the place that was originally intended for my saying this right. If
- the land exchange happened. Then it would be
- And again, I'm, I'm speaking as one member of a board. So I've got a, you know, so, so if a land exchange
- were to happen, it would clearly be for our intent to want to build a hotel on the North on the North
- parcel. Yeah. What the city would, if the city elected to do the land exchange, what its goals were
- for the South parcel would be completely up to the city.
- Thank you, and I'm not gonna put you on the hook for any more questions, because you certainly answered
- enough. One of the comments that I just kinda, I was listening to Councilor Iverson's thoughts,
- and as always, he kinda says things a little bit clearer and more succinctly than I do with my long
- stories and sometimes ridiculous asides. But in some respects, when I look at this, and of course, there's
- always the dignity around
- where people are living, where they're going, what's happening, and the care for all of that,
- which is hard. That is a hard thing to manage, particularly when we've not always done at all a strong
- job with housing options in this community. But when I look at this and where we're at present day with
- the existing kind of entities saying, we're not doing this anymore the way that we have done it as far
- as offering
- properties for rent. We're not doing it for commercial and that sunsetting residential is changing into
- something else. When I kind of look at it that way from the existing entity to me, for folks that are
- concerned about those properties either maintaining residential as it exists now or future or commercial
- as it exists now or future, the best hope they almost have
- is us to send this out here with an exchange. I know that sounds probably ridiculous, but when Councilor
- Iverson said it that way, it actually was something I don't hear here locally, elected officials being
- realistic about a situation, working together with other entities and having a little bit of optimism
- about the continuation of a discussion. So I offer that because to me,
- I look at the location to other things that are happening in the that side of town in Bloomington, which
- is not always something the County Council even talks about. And I think about kind of this project
- and where a hotel would likely not be. And to me, I don't know, it starts making somewhat of some sense.
- I can see, although there's so many balls in the air that I totally get that. But I also one thing I
- appreciate more than anything is the strong effort to try to have
- answers for folks on where they're going. Ms. Coppock did a strong, tremendous job in talking about
- that. And I know that other resources, Heading Home and others have been engaged in some of
- those discussions. And that's, that always is powerful to me. So I'll stop there. Thank you. And just
- for the record, Councilor Hogg has left the building. You see what I did there?
- All right, so next up, sorry, Councillor Henry. I'm gonna pass, I think. Go back. Okay. Here's what
- I'm gonna do. I've been kind of going at it for a little bit.
- I don't know if I could break the stretch. But I think what we can do right now is take a little bit
- of a recess right now as we kind of wrap our heads around a lot of the stuff and kind of give people
- a chance to kind of refresh and do what they need to do. So we can come back and finish out and,
- of course, give members of the public a chance and opportunity for public comment as well.
- Let's take a 10 minute recess. So we come back at 8.56. So we're all cool with that. So we can kind
- of stretch and kind of take a break and a breather here. I'm going to ask if we take a 10 minute recess
- and we'll be back at promptly 8.56. All right. So let's take a recess for right now.
- So we are back in session. And so I know that I looked at Council Henry and he said he would pass, but
- want to kick it back to other council members to see if they have any additional questions for members
- of the CIB or other people that are in virtual land. It looks like Mr. Cockrell has joined as well too.
- just a point of clarification because I pulled up a lovely interactive map of the convention center
- properties in question provided by the B square and I heard you talking through all the properties but
- to be honest I'm very visual and I should have brought it up beforehand and I've looked at it before
- but my question is we have we the county
- has offered the properties to the west of the current convention center that we own in the in the in
- the current resolution from the county commissioners that the property to the west that parking lot
- is offered for transfer but there are some conditions with it so i think there's some parking places
- that need to be reserved there's some there's several mays in it about when that may happen but it has been
- it was it was um it was listed as available to us when we asked the question in 2024 right i believe
- it's in the uh resolution the county commissioners passed so that that property to the west as well
- as the properties to the south so the property the property to the west is part of this yes okay okay
- yes that's what i mean like there were no no detail on the paper that we got and so i'm just and i didn't
- yeah there's a
- there's a parking lot to the west that has the two giant duke energy poles and it's in madison street
- is the western okay i'm directionally challenged madison street's the western boundary western edge
- yeah yeah yeah it goes north south yeah yeah okay okay so we so this i'm glad i asked because honestly
- i'm like i should at least what properties we're talking about yeah you've got you've got the west parking
- lot and then and in addition
- My border, Smith Avenue, just so it helps me decide, Smith Avenue down to 2nd Street is the other. And
- there may be a couple of parcels involved. There's a private building there as well that's owned by
- State Farm Insurance. There's a State Farm Insurance building that's privately owned. So there's kind
- of a carve out for that particular building. OK. OK. I think I'm assuming.
- I'm just color coded. Does anyone here know what the green if the green is the dark green is us too?
- I think Green State Farm is it? No state firms down here. I know dumb questions, sorry. Yeah,
- it's it is. It's just it's the South of Smith Ave to 2nd St with the car about for State Farm and the
- West parking lot. Yeah, to make it simpler. This.
- Any other additional questions or comments right now? Okay, so I think we've exhausted questions and
- comments for you all. And so now we will move on to public comment. And so if there is public comment,
- again, the rules are for this particular item,
- you can sign in at the lectern here, since it's a lot of people that are still here in the NetU Hill
- room, which is awesome, because normally at this time of the night, we're talking to an echo chamber.
- Go ahead and start lining up so that we can get through this process. So if you want to know, if you
- know that you already want to make public comment, just go ahead and line up, sign your name. Again,
- you'll have up to three minutes. TSD will make sure that the timer is there once the timer is up.
- your time is up. And then via Teams, I'll kind of alternate back and forth. And so if somebody wants
- to speak via Teams, you can go ahead and raise your hand. Again, you can state your name for the record
- in Teams land, and you'll have up to three minutes as well. So I see somebody who's already here. Go
- ahead and sign in. Go ahead.
- Hey, my name is Barry. So the county has kept half the affordable apartments at Seminary Point deliberately
- vacant for like 10 years and has now decided to force out everyone who still lives there. We've been
- over this. The whole city knows about it at this point. The county commissioners are excited to finally
- shirk responsibility because they found an old statute and they claim it says the way these apartments
- were purchased during Obama's first term means they have to give them to the capital improvement board.
- The sweet relief of deference to procedure. We Democrats, we love that.
- But the story's missing a piece. The county does not have to kick people out of their homes to do any
- of that. Even if we make the ill-advised decision to take the commissioner's word that law surrounding
- the innkeeper's tax makes it illegal for them not to transfer ownership to the CIB, it says nothing
- about telling everyone they've got a few months to get out while they do. I finally just read the damn
- thing, the Monroe County innkeeper's tax. Most of it is moot, but there is a brief passage about how
- the money is to be used. So a reading from.
- 2025, Indiana Code, Title VI, Taxation Article IX, Innkeepers Taxes, Other Local Taxes, Chapter IV,
- Monroe County Innkeepers Tax, 6943, Powers and Duties of Commission, Section 3A, the commission may
- transfer money from any funds available under Section VII of this chapter for the purpose of promotion
- and encouragement in the county of convention, trade shows, visitors, or special events. So visitors
- and special events have been left out of that in every conversation that we've had, including with members
- of the council.
- Ending these leases does not have and has never had any place in this conversation. Transfer the CIB
- does not need to occur. There are already special events happening at that property all the time, places
- like Friendly Beast. What does need to happen is, first, the renewal of these leases. We know you can
- do it because one of the commercial tenants, as you've all mentioned, was smart enough to stipulate
- an extension in their lease originally. I don't know why they get special treatment for knowing the
- law better than random residents, but whatever. And second,
- an assurance that Seminary Point will remain permanently, genuinely affordable housing, acknowledging
- the CIB's hope to swap this land with the city for a property the CIB actually wants. It makes no sense
- to ruin people's lives in the interim, but it makes perfect sense to transfer this property to the city
- with assurance from the city that they intend to transfer it to a land trust and actually use their
- affordable housing fund to keep Seminary Point permanently affordable. I spoke to an elderly woman who
- lives at Seminary Point one week ago. I asked her if she wants to leave. She said,
- No. Thank you. All right. I will alternate back and forth in the room. So since we already had a hand
- raise via Teams, I'll go ahead. It looks like Christopher M.G., you're up next. Unmute yourself, state
- your name for the record, and you'll have up to three minutes. Good evening again, Madam President.
- Seems like it's only been five hours. It's Christopher M.G. from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.
- I wanna speak to the point where this is a land use problem and the county doesn't need to be in the
- landlord business of owning property and leasing it. I'm gonna miss the businesses there, the blue tip,
- the friendly beast, but this is not where the county belongs is to be a landlord. The tenants, I feel
- for all of them there, but this is the right move to make. The CIB is the right tenant to be using
- this land and we need to look at the CDO and some zoning issues with the county to make more housing,
- more affordable housing, not look at this as the end all and being a landlord. That's just the county
- needs to get out of that business and it's taken this long to do it. And I feel for everybody involved,
- but this is the right transfer of property. Thank you for your time tonight. Thank you.
- All right, we'll flip back here to the NETU Hill Room. And again, if you're on Teams, please start raising
- your hands. Okay, I'm Bryce. I am an organizer with the DSA in favor of affordable housing. Obviously,
- big shout out to the Chamber of Commerce for being in favor of evicting people. But I'm mostly here
- to talk about affordable housing as a policy problem that
- you know, there's no silver bullet, but there are steps in front of us right now that we can all take.
- Like this property, I mean, the fact that, you know, the CIB is willing to transfer it means that there
- is a solution. The city owning the North property, transferring it. Now, regardless of whether or not
- you guys transfer the property, it seems that you guys are in favor of there being more affordable housing
- in Bloomington and Monroe County writ large.
- And so I think one of the things that you guys can do is go and talk to the city and talk to the city
- and insist that one of the ways in which we can expand and keep affordable housing in Bloomington is
- by not destroying and selling off affordable housing. We've been through many different creative ways
- about how to do this, be it the land transfer. Even if the county is a landlord, I understand that there
- are numerous reasons why that is
- a difficulty. But the city has the ability to do it. And you guys, as elected officials, have the ability
- to talk to the city on the behalf of the people who live in this county. And so that's really what I'm
- urging. I think that given that no one has thought through who's going to handle the liability and insurance
- in between the overlap of the transfer and the lease, I think that might be indicative that maybe this
- should slow down a bit. And if you're serious about wanting this to be affordable housing, holding onto
- it for a few months while we figure out something with the city wouldn't affect anything. If the CIB
- is going to transfer to the city eventually, well, there's no reason to rush the transfer and cause
- confusion. I mean, what if something happens and the CIB isn't equipped to handle it on a liability
- front? I mean, those issues
- You know, obviously they should have been worked out, but since they haven't been, there's good reason
- to slow this down. And if we're serious about affordable housing, well, then there's a very clear path
- forward as to how this could be resolved. Throwing away 30 units of affordable housing, I mean, that
- should be a major scandal. And it is a major scandal. You see the people here. There are things that
- each of you can do within your power to ensure that that housing stays.
- Like, you know, Mr. Chamber of Commerce said, it's a land use problem. Are we gonna use this land for,
- I don't know, like a hotel that we have to subsidize, or are we gonna use it to house human beings that
- make this county what it is? The choice is yours. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up here in the
- Na'ihua room. My name is Audrey Smith.
- I know the counselors are already aware that our county has had a severe shortage of meaningfully affordable
- housing for many years. I've spoken with or heard from several of you that you have a lot of sympathy
- for the tenants who would lose their homes if these apartments are torn down. And I've also spoken with
- tenants who don't know where they'll go if they lose their homes. In our community, July is a particularly
- difficult time to find a place to move.
- And even with the help of heading home, only three available units have been found that are actually
- of a comparable price. That's not mentioning location. As a community, we can't afford to lose these
- apartments. I came into this meeting thinking you may feel that this decision has already been made
- for you because the land was earmarked for the Convention Center expansion. I'm really happy to hear
- the questions and options that you've been exploring during this meeting. Have the power tonight.
- you can make sure that people don't lose their homes. Please wait until there's a clear plan for continuing
- to manage these properties before transferring them out of your hands. Ask the CIB to commit to extending
- residential leases for current tenants and to swapping the apartments for the College Square property
- before you transfer this property. Or if you can, extend the leases now. Thank you.
- All right, again, if you're on Teams, you can raise your hand, but I'll keep going here in the NetU
- Hill room. Thank you. Hello, my name is C. Forth. I wish to express support for extending the leases
- and for not transferring the property over until there is a clear plan that preserves affordable units.
- I think one of the things that came up with, to steal a phrase from Bryce, but the Chamber of Commerce guy,
- is the idea in which it is a land use problem. And there are long-term solutions that we need to approach
- for our affordable housing. And these units, they represent a small fraction of it. But for the people
- involved who are directly impacted by it, they are going to be feeling that for months, if not years,
- being displaced. I have coworkers at my current job and at the building that I worked before it.
- who moved out of Bloomington because there were not affordable units. And for many of these folks, when
- they were pushed out of these units by a failure to account for their needs, to provide those options
- for them, that go beyond just this particular issue, but towards the county and the city dealing with
- affordable housing. That's a decades long process that we are all coming to realize is essential and
- must be addressed.
- it failing to come up with a plan that takes care of these people is just not acceptable, I think. I
- thank you for your time. I'm glad that there seems to be a lot of consideration on y'all's part, but
- I think that approving the transfer without guaranteeing that there will be the land swap
- just guarantees that we lose affordable units in our community, in a location that is essential, rather
- than providing an opportunity for it to be handed off to the city, if there can be a conversation with
- the mayor about that, and providing a win for all the parties involved. If the county successfully bridges
- this and allows this to happen, then they come out looking wonderful.
- And for the mayor, she's been receiving a lot of flack lately, rightfully so, I would say. But when
- it comes to Hopewell, for example, if she can tie that to maintaining and maybe even expanding Seminary
- Point as a land trust, then she gets to have the feather in her cap of saving affordable housing that
- existed, expanding it, and then providing multiple different options. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
- up in the room here it'll reset I promise. Good evening I'm Gwen Zimmer somewhat new resident here in
- Bloomington. I would like to ask the the council to support a potential land swap between the CIB and
- the city for the north former Bunger and Robertson property but
- Before that, I would like to ask the council to table this vote to potentially discuss the matter in
- a more thorough way, seriously discuss it with the mayor and with members of the RDC directly. There
- has been interest expressed by the CIB, obviously, to swap that property for the north property that
- makes much more sense for the location of the host hotel.
- And I think that's obvious to everyone who's been here and listening to the questions and the responses
- from the CIB tonight. There have also been concerns raised about the conditions of the existing residential
- buildings. And I would say that even though there has been deferred maintenance on those buildings,
- two out of the three, just based on preliminary discussions on site that people have had with local
- contractors, that
- Two out of the three are structurally sound and need improvements to HVAC and things like that. But
- two out of three are structurally sound. And I think that's important to note. Modernization, general
- improvements, there is money in the city to help pay for those things in the Affordable Housing Fund.
- And I would like to see that money get used for affordable housing. It's been sitting for a while since
- the door fell through.
- So that's my main point. I would love to see this take a little bit more time, slow down, talk to the
- mayor and see if we can work this out. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up. Hi, I'm T. Randall.
- I'm here to request that the county councilors condition their vote on a guarantee from the relevant
- bodies like the CIB. The tenants at Seminary Point
- Be given lease extensions. We know that there's no plan to build a hotel on that block that at the most.
- This is a plan C location. The CIA repeatedly stated its intention to use this block as a bargaining
- piece in negotiations for swap with the RDC the city of structures.
- to hold affordable housing and is no stranger to supporting local community land trusts and co-ops.
- The future of tenants on this block should not hang in the balance of how quickly a timeline can move
- forward, especially when the foreseeable outcome is the continued inhabitation of the block. The property
- has been owned by the county for 15 years without a clear articulation of its use for promoting and
- encouraging conventions, trade shows, visitors, and special events. What's a little bit longer to ensure
- the outcome that everyone that we've spoken to says they desire? Thank you.
- Rebecca Stoops, I've lived in Bloomington my whole life. I live pretty close to the Seminary Point,
- and I really think it's worth preserving. It costs so much more to build new housing now. You're never
- gonna get something that affordable again. It's really worth keeping. I don't think it's fair to keep
- the tenants in limbo. I recommend, since the county currently owns the property,
- the county could explore extending their lease a little longer so they have some stability. Meanwhile,
- discuss with the city and make sure the city is ready to receive the property. Sounds like a land trust
- could be a good option and the city has their affordable housing fund that could be used to fix up the
- properties. Sounds like a win-win. I also want to mention
- If we're talking about efficient land use, sounds like there's a lot of talk of parking lots and making
- sure the hotel has a big enough parking lot. No one talked about hotel with a parking garage underneath,
- which is a great efficient land use. The graduate hotel has a parking lot underneath. So you could have
- affordable housing, hotel with parking lot, and it's just a win-win.
- consider discussing with the city how you can safely hand over the seminary point housing. Thank you
- very much. Thank you. I see a hand raised. So I will go back to teams land. So screen name Noah, you
- can unmute and you'll have up to three minutes. Hi, can you hear me? Yes.
- I apologize. I'm not used to that team. Thank you so much. Hi, my name is Noah Render. I am a Bloomington
- resident. I've been so for many years now. I just wanted to point out, I think a lot of my fellow residents
- have made many good points about the different options here and sort of the people involved. I just
- want to point out a pattern I'm noticing that there's a lot of deflecting. Every alphabet soup
- gobbledygook group represented in this room keeps making all these very vague statements that kind of
- put responsibility for this to somebody else, right? Like, oh, rising tides raise all boats, or we feel
- sorry for tenants. But like, all this is being said to make this somebody else's problem, right? It's
- not our problem, it's this different group's problem. I just want to be clear, this is your problem.
- Everyone in this room who's made a comment like this is responsible for people's actual livelihoods
- and a place to live. And if we're going to keep having conversations about affordable housing, we need
- to acknowledge the problems that have actually created an affordable housing crisis in this town in
- the first place. And it's this, this continual putting off of actual people's lives, these big development
- projects that we don't know will actually benefit our town. Finally, I apologize, this is quite fast.
- I want to repeat something one of my colleagues said earlier, one of my fellow residents that, right,
- that this is a scandal. It will be a scandal. I want to be clear.
- people lose their homes, this is a scandal. This will follow you. It will remain your fault. I urge
- you to actually do something for people who live here and aren't just a big business trying to bring
- whatever commerce to this town that doesn't help anyone. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up in
- the room. Hi, my name is Mitchell Medley. I'm asking for you guys to at least table this vote currently.
- It seems very clear that this is not a fully cooked
- all the way through even though there's something that's been going on for years and years at this point
- and if we do happen to vote yes for this transfer further to be some guarantee of an extension and a
- guarantee to keep this affordable housing we should not be evicting tenants right as prices are going
- to be rising more and more the that barrel of oil is definitely going to get more expensive and that
- means heating is going to become more expensive electricity is going to become more expensive
- everything will be more expensive. So I don't think adding making these people try and find houses in
- the middle of that housing in the middle of that, which will not be affordable at all will be $300 to
- $400 of an increase. It's what they're probably looking at. I don't think that's really something this
- council would be interested in doing the main body else. So probably shouldn't do it. Thank you.
- Thank you. And I just received word that Councilor hawk is now virtual. So
- She is participating with us virtually. All right. Next up in the net, you know Thank you. My name is
- Hugh Farrell I wanted to push back on the idea that Other kinds of affordable housing could possibly
- be built to replace this This is some of the last affordable housing in downtown and not only that but
- it's super affordable
- So for folks who aren't familiar with this classification system, you know, we know there's workforce
- housing that's coming in at twelve or thirteen hundred dollars a month. Affordable housing here unfortunately
- is now generally considered nine hundred to a thousand and super affordable starts around five to six
- hundred dollars a month. And so specifically, I just want to point out that there have been about four
- hundred units of affordable housing built in the past five years in Monroe County and that there's only
- been about fifty
- units of super affordable housing. This is really an important sector. This is a sector that prevents
- people from becoming homeless. This is a sector that's counted on for elderly folks who are on fixed
- incomes. And so it's really, really important that even these 50 units have been built. I will say I've
- worked on the teams that have built 90% of that super affordable housing. So we've built about 40 units
- of super affordable housing over the past five years. So the loss of these buildings by itself, 29 units,
- about 40 bedrooms will wipe out almost all those gains and all the work I've done to build super affordable
- housing in this county in the past five years. And so I will just say that there are really simple,
- rational solutions that will allow the hotel to move forward, that will allow tenants and businesses
- to feel assured that they're not losing this housing, and that will set up, as other speakers have addressed,
- have set up
- the context in which it will be possible to have rational conversations with the city about preserving
- this housing. And again, as other speakers have already addressed, this might mean the structurally
- unsound building being demolished, building larger affordable housing. I know that folks on the city
- side have been talking about that. But two of the buildings are sound. There's tenants and businesses
- that have not received adequate notice. And in fact, one of the businesses was told a couple of months
- ago that they would have until the end of the season
- I know that that was just said informally by the CVC, but the fact then that they have had that moved
- up to July is extremely destructive. It's the kind of thing that destroys a small business. So just
- really that kind of poor communication is something that either can destroy a successful, and I'll also
- say tourist attracting small business like Friendly Beasts, or it's something that can be easily solved
- with assurances from the county and the CIB that the goal will be extension
- of the leases and just work and a little bit of money invested, given that these are properties that
- currently bring in funding, that these are technical questions, that there are organizations that exist
- to help solve questions around liability, around property management, around engaging tenants, and not
- enough of that work has been done to really save these particular buildings, which are themselves precious.
- A very long time Bloomington lawyer just said to me last week, they represent part of old Bloomington.
- There's a lot of history to these buildings and really simple steps can be taken tonight to preserve
- them. Thank you. Thank you. Next up in the room.
- Well, first of all, thank you. My name's Eli Beaton. I've been a Bloomington resident for about half
- a decade. I had a bunch of remarks prepared that I had to throw out after listening to some of these
- because there was a lot of interesting things that I didn't expect to come up. But the first thing I
- want to say is with tenants here and with Bloomington Homes for All to try to support tenants and save
- these buildings, as Hugh just mentioned, super affordable housing.
- And one of the things over the last few months, we've been trying to schedule meetings and talk with
- as many people as possible, really pursue this through the bureaucracy that I think we're all sort of
- trying to wrestle with, right? Like how do we make sure that the convention center works and that the
- economy of Bloomington is sound? And one of the things I've been genuinely very surprised about throughout
- all these conversations, including this evening, is that most people I talk to are on the same page.
- right like the bunker and Robinson property to the north is the desirable property for hotel development
- and no one wants to. Like have these apartments at seminary point destroyed right like this is sort
- of the general consensus that seems to have emerged but the question is like how do we move forward.
- While making sure these two things don't come into tension with each other right and I think one of
- the things that has been surprising to me in this meeting is that. The potential for a land swap
- is one of the avenues that sets that opportunity up extremely well. But also, that land swap should
- not come at the cost or the precarity of tenants in the two weeks before the swap is even possible.
- And I think a swap is possible. I think that that's very important to keep in mind.
- So the ask I have of this council tonight is to be a little concrete about this is I would urge to table
- right not to derail the convention dinner hotel or to derail the the potential swap but to Ensure that
- that swap does actually support the tenants and the hotel together, right? I know that requires
- a little bit of delay, but I think that delay is worth it to make sure that we preserve this housing
- in the south lot while making sure that north lot is available to support the Convention Center project.
- Yeah, that's it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hello. My name is Matthew Joseph. I've been in
- Bloomington for about six years.
- I've seen you around the B school here and there. But it's cool to see you in local politics. This is
- my first county council meeting ever. And it's cool. I mean, I hear y'all's hearts for your community.
- It is really refreshing to see that people care. And I appreciate the time and effort that everyone's
- kind of, for people that are involved in this. I will say like, this is a bit surprising for me.
- It feels like we're thinking more about future tourists in Bloomington than we are the current individuals
- and families that are living on this land. The fact that we haven't thought through about the liability
- and who will be there when life happens for these tenants is a bit jarring and scary, especially for
- the tenants and the people that care for them like us. I mean, we're talking about affordable housing
- here. That means something. It's different than kind of when we think about it in our heads about
- how it is in our situation. These are different lives we're talking about with difficult situations.
- I mean, right now I live in housing that's considered affordable housing. I couldn't imagine not having
- security in my housing and for the concerns that are inevitably coming up and not having anyone to care
- for the legitimate concerns like that. I wouldn't trust them to be able to actually manage my housing,
- right? So we need time.
- Affordable housing is hard and we have it. So let's not lose it because we're rushing ourselves here.
- So let's slow down. It's okay, we can take a breath and recollect. And let's do what we all want, which
- is to make the swap happen. I mean, this is like a really, it feels like this is a cool moment to be
- a part of county council. It's like, oh, we're all on the same team. It feels like, it feels like, right?
- And so like, let's try it. I mean, yeah, the mayor is already thinking about
- affordable housing a lot. And I mean, maybe not as much as she should, but especially with the July
- 1st thing that's coming out about the criminalization of homelessness. This is a big concern for her.
- There's a legitimate thing here that is pressing for her. And so we need to put pressure. And again,
- because we're all on the same team here, I think the CIB can put pressure, right? The county can put
- pressure. We can put pressure.
- And we can save affordable housing in Bloomington and still move forward with the projects that are
- at thing. But most of all, we need that time. And so let's take the time we need to make this happen.
- Thank you all for letting me be a part of this. And let's save affordable housing in Bloomington.
- Thank you. All right, before we alternate back here, before we go back to the room, so it looks like
- screen name Erin, if you can unmute.
- state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Okay.
- Hi, my name is Aaron Comforti. I am a Bloomington resident. Thank you for having me. I just want to
- encourage the County Council to do whatever it can to ensure that residents of Seminary Point and businesses
- in that location are able to remain there, that they're not evicted. As many of the speakers have said
- so well, it is a super affordable place to live in Bloomington, one of the few that is close to town.
- And I just encourage the council to do whatever it can to ensure that it remains so. Thank you.
- Thank you. Back to the room.
- I'm Jason McCulloch, PhD candidate of the rhetoric program at IU and Bloomington resident since 2018.
- I want to talk a bit about the precedents you're setting with this decision. Some of you are familiar
- with me and some of the work that I've been and continue to be engaged in. For the purpose of my comment
- this evening, I want to lift up my lived experience as a transient renter, a long-term volunteer at
- Beacon Inc., a former city commissioner in the Community Advisory of Public Safety,
- and co-chair of the Homelessness Task Force at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington. I named
- these engagements to demonstrate that I'm not speaking out of opposition, but because of deep and consistent
- care for communities, namely Bloomingtonians. In all the work I do, I aim to reduce harm and center
- people first. Now, imagine I'm not the only one in this room who understands what this shirt means.
- Housing First is an evidence-based approach to ending homelessness that prioritizes providing permanent,
- stable housing immediately, without preconditions, followed by voluntary supportive services, before
- requiring that other concomitant needs are met. The part that is often left out when considering Housing
- First is the subordinating clause, but not housing only.
- The next iteration of the continuum is community first, wherein we can consider things like affordable
- and accessible basics of living, community services, and even entertainment and community programming.
- But without putting housing first and protecting it, there's no foundation for residents to move out
- from or to return to. Currently, the situation seems to be a constructed dilemma of housing versus things like
- new convention center, luxury hotels and diversions, and those latter items are not in the natural opposition
- of housing, we can have both affordable living and the amenities that Mr. M.G. wants to protect. But
- what comes first? In 1943, Winston Churchill posited that, we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.
- I leave you with the charge of helping Bloomington determine what kinds of buildings are going to shape
- its residents and what kind of buildings are not. I say table this so you can discuss this further to
- make a swap effective. Thank you. Looking in the room, just about everybody has spoken, but if I don't
- recognize everybody, my fault. But if there's anybody here who hasn't had a chance to speak,
- Um, again, you can come forward to the lectern here in the room. Um, but if you are virtual and you
- would like to make a public comment again, this is last call. Um, please go ahead and raise your hand.
- Okay. So thank you very much for, um, public comment. Thanks.
- that I've heard from about 15 folks who have virtually made public comment and also came here in the
- room. A couple of things that have kept coming up are a couple of things is to able to have further
- discussion and make if we don't table to make this vote condition
- on the potential land swap or an extension, so to speak. I want to make sure I got everybody's thoughts
- together or what they're saying. What would happen if we did decide to table the discussion to continue
- to have the conversation before we made a vote? Oh, no, no, no, sorry.
- This is for the folks here in the room that have a responsibility in this so I don't know if it's Again,
- I don't know if it's y'all at the CIB. I don't know if it's mr. King again I thought I saw mr. Cockrell
- online like I'm just curious because that that's come up and I think it's deserving of an answer and
- To answer from my perspective, if the transfer doesn't take place, then that limits the CIB's ability
- to move forward. We have no negotiating position with the city for land transfer, for land exchange.
- We would then be
- We then have to decide whether we move forward with a RFP for a hotel, given what land we did have,
- knowing that's not the best option. But without the transfer of the land, we have no ability to enter
- into negotiations with the Redevelopment Commission for a land exchange. And I want to emphasize, we
- have no guarantee that they would agree to that, and frankly,
- If you made it a condition to transfer it to us, we still have no guarantee that they would agree to
- it. So I don't see how making it a condition of a transfer to us helps that. But without the transfer
- of the land, then we are not in any negotiating position on the land exchange. We have no land to exchange.
- So that's the position it puts us in. I think we need to be aware, too, or you need to be aware,
- that the Redevelopment Commission has been talking for quite some time about a public offering for that
- North property. And if they were to proceed now with a public offering for that North property, then
- whatever could be developed on the North property would be the result of whatever that public offering
- would be. But I'm repeating myself, we would have nothing to offer.
- Yes, Councilor Henry. Thank you. I have maybe a series of short questions to help me frame up the fact
- pattern, because there's been a lot of words. I just want to make sure I have it clear in my head. So
- the first question, and I'm happy to have it go to the table or the other table, is, and I think you
- just painted a picture about there are no guarantees right now, right? So let's play out some scenarios.
- Let's say we move to transfer.
- You are now, you now have tenants until the end of their respective leases. And you stated that you
- have no funding to property manage those individuals. So if anything happens between the moment of transfer
- and the end of leases, regardless of extension, let me ask you, what happens? Are you coming back to
- the county to ask for resources to manage? No, my approach would be to the Convention and Visitors Commission.
- because it's been the Convention and Visitors Commission that's been funding whatever maintenance has
- been required of these properties. And again, they're continuing to do it on a short term. I think what's
- important is what is the timeline? When does that end? And if it's July, if it's August, I think it's the,
- I think it's the odd infinitum aspects of this that are troublesome. I mean, we as a CIV can't say,
- well, we'll just do this forever. That's not a reasonable position to expect us to take. Yeah, I'm just
- trying to gauge steps here because very practically things happen, right? So that's one scenario that
- you are now a landlord and you don't have the
- the means to be one, right? So that's the point, right? And if I may, back to issues of liability, we
- have insured liability for all of our properties now. This is an extension of liability for other properties.
- It's as simple as that. So the next question is that, and I think, and I may have lost it because it
- got muddy. So we don't have guarantees, but again, just because I don't want to set up false expectations
- or hope for people.
- City Bloomington has said a lot of things about if they were to acquire these whether or not you're
- from everything from they don't want the properties to they do so is the current sentiment that. That
- that there are the Seminary Point properties would go into the city like the land swap is viable and
- that's my first that's a very blunt question just make sure we reiterate one more time, this is a possibility.
- I'm sorry, is it? If we get the transfer, the city of Bloomington is open to or is open to actually
- trading on these homes. I don't know that they are. The mayor had said in a previous interview,
- you know, at one point, no. And then now it sounds like maybe I'm just trying to gauge. No, no, no.
- She's she's been the mayor. The mayor has told me informally because we've made no formal proposal.
- We've had nothing to offer that she's not interested in a land exchange of any kind.
- But, but my my point would be, and you know I'm talking about a land exchange and I don't even have
- the authority my own board to talk about a land exchange we haven't even talked about it as a board
- I'm talking about what's john white card think might be a path forward on this. And it seems to me back
- to my no horses to dead, not to keep beating that we have not formally asked the question yet about
- a land exchange and that formal question goes to the redevelopment Commission.
- And so the door has been open to us to make that negotiated request of them if we have something to
- offer That's as good as we have right now. The third thought here is There's a possibility
- another possibility that we transfer property The city may be interested in and retaining it as a affordable
- housing option bring in into BHA or some some scenario but those leases still run out and
- So you could end up having a property that gets pulled in a city inventory a year from now, but they
- would put it on the market at any other possible rate. There's no guarantee that the rates that are
- current would become part of the city of Bloomington's rate offering on those properties as a VHA unit.
- I mean, you don't have to answer that, but I think this is highly speculative at this point to say,
- just because the city owns it, they would somehow honor the county's rate.
- Yes, I cannot speculate what would become of the properties if they agreed to a land exchange. That
- helps me out. I don't know if it helps others in the room out, but this is reality. This is affecting
- humans and property. I'm just trying to understand it. I just want to make a comment. I'll pass it back.
- I had an opportunity to speak with a tenant and some of the advocates in the room.
- between the past over the past month. I know some other counselors have as well. And my observations
- of how we got here, I mean, you know, if wishes were horses, we can go back and do hindsight stuff.
- But it's worth saying. The innkeeper's tax was used to purchase these properties. In Indiana code, I
- cannot find a reading that says that renting them out for 15 years is somehow equivalent to the intended
- purpose of purchasing
- I mean, they were bought for the purpose of Convention Visitor Center. We turned them into rentals through
- a, from what Commissioner Thomas told us, a property manager to a firm, to the tenants. And you can
- make an argument that we probably should not have ever been in the place of renting these out as a sort
- of ad hoc housing authority under the county's auspice. From the moment of purchase, they probably should
- have been leveled, and that would have maybe not put us in this pickle.
- and understanding how we got here is what I asked Commissioner Thomas about, which is we haven't kept
- up with the market rate on these rentals. And whether we, and this is kind of the road to hell being
- paved with good intentions, that you offer something as a subsidy to the community. It is subsidized
- by the county government, but without keeping up with the market of it, we accidentally subsidize these
- apartments. That's the best way I can think of it. And I've shared that with people in the audience.
- This is, again, trying to figure out
- You know on on a What I believe is good faith effort by the county to offer something in these units
- over a decade and a half Was not well thought out because we're not at we don't have a housing authority
- What we have is a county attorney and a county administrator and a partner in the cbc trying to do something
- good But but has created a larger challenge for us to wrestle I think those are all things important
- to put out there is hindsight or
- you know, that's this hindsight analysis doesn't do anything at the moment here other than to say, I'm
- not convinced that if you know if we had, you know, there's a lot of ifs before us too, and we would
- need to understand if the city has intentions one way or another to preserve the property attorney to
- rental but what we do know is this, you know, we have the parcels and I think to Councillor Iverson's
- point hours ago, board commissioners are the ones that sign leases and contracts.
- Yeah, we also run a scenario where we could not release the building, but there will be no tenants because
- the board of commissioners will not extend leases. So now we have empty buildings that serve the CIB,
- doesn't serve the county, doesn't serve the tenants because we have to rely on our other partners to
- actually issue new leases or extensions there. I think that you made that point hours ago. I think that's
- really where it all comes back to us that we, you know, we're,
- You know, this is a Thursday morning conversation when it comes to who's in these buildings, you know,
- beyond their lease. That does not provide a viewpoint one way or another, but I think these are things
- that need to be said in the room about how we got here. I'll just let that hang, I mean, at this point,
- but thank you, Madam President. Yes, Councilor Anderson. All right, so I think it was really clear.
- I'm going to say this in way of my conclusion, inclusionary remarks here.
- The optimal outcome is, I think, really clear. And I think some of the people said it best in the podium,
- where it does feel like all of us are on the same page. If we can get a host hotel and preserve super
- affordable housing, that is the optimal outcome. And I think it's within our reach. The question then
- is, once we have shared goals, who can best get us there? Not what can we do to get there,
- I think the question at this point is who. When we were thinking about building a convention center
- years ago, this body was engaged in conversations about what color the carpet should be, whether the
- railing should be tall or not, and it was a quagmire. We really screwed it up. Had the CIB involved,
- and you guys made a ton of progress really quickly because it got the politicians out of the room.
- The reason why I will be voting affirmatively tonight on this ordinance is because I think the best
- way that we can get to that optimal outcome is by having someone who is not a county commissioner or
- a county council member working with the city and the county and being able to do that work tomorrow.
- I think if you keep having politicians like us involved in this, we're gonna continue to make a mess
- of it. So that's my thinking on this matter. I want the optimal outcome. I think we can get it. I think
- the answer is to go through the CIB the way that we have done so in the past. And I think tonight is
- the night for action. I'll be voting yes. Okay. Councillor Wilks.
- May I ask a question? I want to know if there are any other thoughts on tabling versus not tabling.
- My thought is that tabling doesn't get as much
- you know, some of us are having conversations with the city and, you know, so it might, yeah, we could
- continue, we could press harder and that's always, always possible. But I'm just curious, is there a
- reason that it might, is there something that says, hey, delaying it another three, two weeks, whatever,
- or is good or bad? And I'm looking, I heard all you all and I appreciate it. So obviously I'm asking
- my colleagues and any of the commissioners or council that might be online, you all at the table there,
- you know, is there something that anyone would wanna share on up or down strategy wise, thought wise on this?
- I'm just going to say I share your sentiments because that was my question that I was asking earlier,
- because there is still a lot of unknowns right now and uncertainties. And again, I hear what Mr. Whitehart
- is saying. I guess I would just tend to believe that we have
- like table in this for right now gives us a little bit more time. Oh, that's me. But I hear what you're
- saying. And I agree, because again, whether it's five homes, 30 homes, or one home, like one is too
- many for people right now. And I guess that's the human aspect of my little brain.
- is thinking right now. I understand that we've given this and we've let the politicians get out. Maybe
- if we did some of this the same way, maybe some of the projects wouldn't take as long as they have,
- but I digress. But again, my thought process is to try to get a little bit more time. That's just me.
- I want to throw out just one other thing because
- I have had a conversation with some folks on city council and that's not the mayor. Just flat out. But
- the indication was that they were a little bit surprised about the possibility of a switch because they
- were under the impression that the mayor has plans for
- the Bunker Robertson property. This is speculation on my part. I mean, like, court of law, hearsay kind
- of stuff, right? So I don't want to get all, like, rumory, but the fact of the matter is there's been
- some back and forth in the media on that property. There's what I heard. And then there's obviously
- the differing opinions on use of that site.
- I wholeheartedly think the highest and best use of Bunga Robertson would be a hotel. I think that would
- be perfect. And I think the concept that you put forward is a dream. That would be lovely. And then
- we can continue to work with our city colleagues on making affordable housing more of a reality for
- folks. I am concerned that if we table
- There is a moment that might be missed. And I don't know. So it looks like hands are raised. Councilor
- Hawke had her hand raised, and then it looks like Commissioner Jody Madeira has her hand raised. So
- I'll go to Councilor Hawke first, and then after she's done, I'll go to Commissioner Madeira next. Okay,
- so if you tabled it,
- What are you gaining with that? Instead of that expiring in July, it would expire in August, right?
- So can I go? I'll just answer that, Councilor Hawke, because I don't know if you were here when it came
- up maybe, but the idea would be that it would give
- for us to communicate with the city to work on putting forth, you know, our support for the land swap
- option as it's come to be tonight. I did hear that. I did hear that discussion. I just was thinking,
- I'm trying to think about, like, if I was the person sitting there in one of those apartments and wondering
- how much time I had,
- Right now, it looks like they've got until sometime in whatever, 1st of July, is that right, or mid-July,
- whenever. But if we table it for a month, then they've still got 1st of July. I don't think we've extended
- their time there by a month, even if we table it for a month.
- And less that month will buy, like you said, time to negotiate and get a better outcome. So I'm just
- trying to follow what's best all the way around. But I agree with you, Kate, that that property, that
- bunker property, that's where the hotel needs to be. And I don't want to cause anything that would delay
- that opportunity.
- Commissioner Madeira. Thank you. I think that the County Council also should not table a vote for the
- reasons mentioned. Basically, further delay risks undermining a project. This project has already required
- substantial planning from several governmental bodies, including the CIB.
- It's required substantial negotiation and substantial investment. Moving the property out of the county
- now would provide certainty to project partners. It would protect the county's credibility and it would
- help avoid added costs that often accompany postponement, including the chance that we would miss an
- opportunity. I think if we vote tonight, if you guys vote tonight, it also demonstrates responsible
- stewardship.
- by allowing the community to move forward with a long discussed economic development project that does
- promise broader public benefits, including increased tourism, new business activity, and expanded tax
- revenue for the county and Bloomington that will bring investment that allows us to afford services
- for everybody. And this does not mean that we're not empathic to the fact that residents are facing
- very real hardship and that are being displaced.
- We do know that there are five apartment complexes that are holding open houses. Some of these apartment
- complexes do have rents in the neighborhood of $500, $600. They are suspending credit checks. They are
- delaying or forgiving deposits. And I would really like to hear from some residents. I'm hearing a lot
- from advocates, and I do appreciate that.
- You know, I think that it also increases certainty for residents if we stick to a plan. And if we just
- keep on kicking the can down the road, it also makes things less certain for them. And if housing is
- hard to find in July, it's harder to find in August because of the college cycle. So I'm not sure what
- we would gain by delaying there either, because if apartments are hard to find there, they're equally
- hard to find later on.
- and we know we have a definite date now and we can work with the apartment association and with Heading
- Home with that goal. So I think for those reasons, I will rest my remarks. I also was curious and I
- also would like to ask Jeff Cockerill his thoughts on what happens if the council does either refuse
- the transfer,
- or does table it because I heard a lot of remarks tonight about asking the council to extend the leases
- and create you know this or that legal entity and I just wanted clarity on what the council's powers
- are. Well before we do that one thing I will say Commissioner Madeira is I do believe a couple of things one
- we do have residents that are in here that live there that is speaking directly with or with this year.
- One particular person I spoke to does live there and is present tonight. Secondly, just because their
- residents aren't here, sometimes government isn't as accessible as 10 a.m. or 5 p.m. for meetings and
- so therefore I appreciate the fact that those that
- are wanting to advocate for those who cannot help themselves or cannot be here due to other constrictions
- such as working or trying to keep afloat with everything else that they have going on. So those are
- just two couple of things that I just wanted to rebuttal and say. So I don't want to put on public here.
- We got a lot of advocacy that goes around here with a lot of different things.
- It's okay to advocate, but it's also should be noted for the record and talking with some of the folks
- that are in here. These residents, there are residents that live currently at seminary. So I just wanted
- to say that. Councilor Huck, did you have your hand raised again before we go to Mr. Cockrell? No,
- I think, oh, did I? Oh, sorry. Now I sit down, okay.
- I'm sorry, I thought you had your hand raised. Okay. Since Commissioner Madera had spoken your name,
- Mr. Cockrell, I don't know if you want to come off and mute and explain, I guess, your idea of consequences
- of what would happen if things don't go the way as planned. Well, and I think a lot of that has to do
- with the CIB. Can you hear me?
- Okay, great, sorry. I think her first question was council and their authority on extending the leases.
- I think it's been said already, but I think I just reiterate that the county council doesn't have that
- authority that lies with the county executive to extend the leases. I guess my other thought is you've
- heard from
- a member of the CIV. I would just remind the county council and the commissioners and everybody listening
- that the CIV is composed of both members from that are appointed by county officials, county executive,
- county council, and they're also members who are appointed by the city council and the mayor. So that
- may be a good avenue, at least have them have those conversations with the city because the city has
- membership appointed to that board. And I don't know if you have any other questions or if that covers
- what you were asking. So from your understanding or do you're saying that
- if this were to be, like if council were to approve this, this gives us an opportunity to try to negotiate
- with the city? I think it gives us the CIB the opportunity. Ah, okay, okay. Because the CIB, their mission,
- and Mr. Weichart can correct me where I'm wrong, is to do the prevention center and
- other tourism related, and that's always included since we started talking about the convention center
- expansion project, a convention center hotel. So that's kind of in their bailiwick of handling the convention
- center hotel and where it goes and all that. And this gives them the opportunity to maybe have those
- discussions. Sometimes it does work when we talk to our city colleagues. Yeah. Okay.
- Anybody else? Yes, Commissioner Madeira. Thank you. I just like to recognize the fact that we have been
- working with tenants and with residents actively. Jeff has been having these conversations. And that's
- sort of what I meant with my comment about residents in the room. Sort of these activities are not being captured.
- and it's often hard in these meetings to represent the full scale of where we are. Also, if the matter
- is tabled, again, there's nothing we can gain. If the conversation continues and the properties are
- transferred, the conversations with the city can also continue. Once again, it looks good when we can
- talk to city
- colleagues. Thank you. Yes, Councilor Williams. Okay. Point that I'm going to pretend that that just
- came from the ether.
- It actually, to me, it seems as though that's not actually the highest likelihood of people retaining
- their leases. I frankly have, I'll just be honest, I'm heartbroken about it, but I don't have a lot
- of optimism that people who have the power to extend the lease or, you know,
- break the lease, whatever, they've spoken. So in my mind, the best opportunity is to get the property
- out of our hands with the possibility that someone else's power could influence your lease. That's the
- logic that I'm thinking through right now.
- I just wanna be clear on where I am. Any other questions or comments from council here at the dais or
- council member Hawke? They need to come to, if you're gonna allow them to do that. Okay, all right.
- yes and then after that we'll we'll wrap it up here with your radio voice yes if the county is able
- to retain the property then that extends the amount of time that the county is able to work with the
- city to try and a ensure that the people stay in their homes but be a far more larger plan to ensure
- that this remains affordable housing absent that you're hoping that
- you're washing your hands of all this and hoping that the CIB does what we're asking you to do, which
- is ensure to the best of your ability that the city accepts this property on a transfer. That's it.
- Thank you. Yes, Councillor Feier. I think the only thing that I haven't heard is what the city may have
- in store, right? Where is the city at on this? You haven't talked to them.
- But what if they already have something in place? Okay, just let me finish. Can I finish? You need to
- let me finish. Believe me, grandma is gonna have a fit here. This is not good participation in the public.
- So I've been on your side before as well. So I get it, okay? I don't want to dismiss that.
- but you need to be respectful and we'll go on from here. So, I am concerned about what the city may
- or may not have up their sleeve to proceed on their own, not knowing what we're gonna do or not gonna
- do now, right? I don't know what they're thinking, right? That's the piece we're missing here right
- now. So, a result of many ways letting the CIB do what they need to do.
- That's where I'm at. Other questions? Okay. All right. May we... I'm gonna actually...
- move on because we've been here for a while and so I just want to be able to just kind of continue.
- Unless you can make it really quick and you can make it like one minute or less and then we got to wrap
- up. Absolutely. I just want to point out that we're really collapsing the city. The RDC owns the other
- property that we're discussing and the RDC has members that are appointed by the mayor and that are
- appointed by the City Council and the most recent resolution
- that the RDC made regarding this property indicates that they would be willing to swap. It was before
- the mayor's statement that she has other plans for the property, but that is what the RDC has said most
- recently. Thank you. What, I'm sorry, what was your name again? Audrey Smith. Audrey Smith, okay,
- thank you. So, RDC is interested
- Well, nevermind. All right. Nevermind. Okay. This has been long. Um, the only thing that I will just
- say that I've said before, like to just kind of wrap up before we go to comment is there's a lot of
- unknowns. And I guess for me, like counselor Friddle and counselor Wilts were saying, we give this over
- and then what happens? We think, you know, we give this over to the CIB and then,
- good faith we think we have faith in you because you are the appointed folks from you know council and
- commissioners and whatnot but um we do this and then it fails and then we're back to square one where
- they have they're stuck with trying to find housing because they're done as of july 7th that's the thing that
- That's a big old gamble that we are taking right now. And I understand that we're all working with people
- and things like that. I completely understand that. I just, I hate the fact that we're here. I hate
- the fact that we're dealing with this. And so I just, it's too much of an uncertainty for me that I,
- like somebody said with public comment, like if we fail in our efforts to do this, then we fail.
- with trying to make sure that folks have affordable housing. And I don't know if I want that
- on my conscience. So that's just me. So without that being said, maybe please have a roll call vote.
- Can we revisit what the roll call vote is about? Can we just summarize it? Just summarize it. A roll
- call would be to approve the
- to approve the resolution ordinance to transfer the properties to the CIV. Councillor Iverson. Yes.
- Councillor Wilts. Yes. Councillor Feidl. Yes. Councillor Deckard. Yes. Councillor Hawke. Yes.
- Councilor Henry? Yes. Councilor Crossley? Pass. Pass. Motion passes 6-0-1. Pass. Okay. All right. Well,
- that concludes. Thank you all very much.
- That concludes all of the business that we have county council tonight. But we will move on to council
- liaison updates and comments and I asked for us to try to keep it brief as possible. So if we want to
- start down, Councillor Henry. So a few things, maybe I'll just briefly state my surprise and blindsidedness
- by the board of commissioners and their
- approach to moving forward on the jail with a purchase agreement proposal at the end of April. All of
- us have been operating in good faith over the past two months to try to identify properties. And then
- at some point, I guess one too many executive sessions followed us into a bit of a binary in what we
- saw filed in federal court with the ACLU. I am hopeful that we can get this back on track as these apparent
- votes are coming through.
- But it's my view, I don't know if my fellow counselors have looked at that consent agreement, that the
- new articles 11 and 12 really bind our hands as a council. And the challenge we have is that if we proceed
- with that agreement, I'm concerned that we will tie our hands in making future fiscal
- votes on the Justice Center project. And to that point, I will ask council at our next meeting to consider
- appropriations for us to retain our own council to advise us moving forward on how we're going to address
- the consent agreement and our path forward. And I hope you all keep an open mind on that. I think we've
- just reached a point where we need to retain our own little council to explore this question. On a positive
- I want to steal it first before it gets down the desk. While we've been sitting here, the federal court
- has ruled in favor of local students who have petitioned for their right to use student IDs to vote
- in local elections, which would allow our college Democrats and others in town to vote in the primary
- here, which has been custom in this state for some time.
- Because when you have a student ID, you've got to prove a lot of identification to your university to
- prove that you're here. And so the fact that we've restored that justice for students and we have some
- very intrepid IU students that sought that and fought it out in court, future real leaders of this community,
- they really did a good job on that. I'm proud to read it.
- opinion this evening and hopefully that stays through the primary and if not the general and onwards
- so good on them. Sometimes things work out and we'll add burnish to our robust election turnout that
- we've already had. Thank you madam. Very briefly I hope folks have been able to watch the long-term
- finance committee meeting that met on March the 31st. First quarter numbers are in and we saw a decrease
- in revenue of three percent.
- That's a year over a year That is something that we need to keep in mind as we're moving forward. We
- also saw a decrease in expenditures of 12% So this council has been doing a lot of work watch the meeting.
- There's a lot more detail there We also just received new reversion numbers in your in your email I'm
- told that's gonna be available on the auditors website and you'll see three years worth of data and
- the number of versions keeps dropping and
- So council is doing a better and better job year over year of keeping our budgets more to what is reality
- than depending on reversions. The second thing is the township trustees came and made a proposal to
- the county council. If you have not watched that, please do, particularly council. People are lining
- up for what we're going to be seeing in terms of lit revenue in 2029 already.
- The next thing that I'll mention from the LTF meeting is that we looked at longevity numbers. We'll
- see some longevity projections in the next LTF meeting. So we want to be able to recognize our employees
- who have dedicated a lot of years to this county at the same time, understand the budgetary restrictions.
- And then lastly, we talked a little about jail bonding, which I think we're going to hear more about
- at our next council meeting. So stay tuned.
- color coded thing, but I'll say a couple things. So at the Monroe County Fair Board meeting, they gave
- an update on the horse and pony club. They're going to be doing some repairs on a stairway there. So
- that will help their safety in that space, which I think is really good. Thing is, the main announcement
- there that night in my mind was the fact of when the fireworks is, and it's going to be June 26th.
- So also attended the AIC Association of Indiana County District meeting recently and brought back a
- bunch of materials. And I think most of those, if not all of them, have been shared with the council.
- So everybody should have that information. Went to a lovely and informative regional housing summit
- today at the Convention Center.
- And so I think there'll be things coming forward out of that whole update. I like that. Thank you. Yes,
- Councillor Hock. Did you have some remarks that you'd like to say? You can unmute.
- A big thank you to Liz for bringing back that hard copy for me to review. I think many of you will also
- have that online and we really need to study that. I've looked at it and boy, I'm pretty familiar with
- what you're speaking of and I'm gonna have to review it several times to really grasp all of it because
- it's full of solid information
- that we all need to know. And that whole thing is gonna be offered online. So you can sign up to hear
- that whole presentation online. And I encourage you everyone to do it because we need that information
- before we start making any movements regarding a bond or regarding meeting with the city to see if they
- were part of the money. We have to know what we're doing first.
- So, but thank you, Liz, for going and I'm sorry that I was not able to join you. Okay, so that was fine.
- And the other thing is Sophia Travis applications are still going on right now just as an FYI. And I
- appreciate
- the comments in the live candor towards the end of this conversation. One thing that is on my mind is
- the fact that I was during our last conversation that we kept saying that, oh, we can talk to city and
- we can make things work. It's interesting that this could happen with this project. However, we're stifled
- with another project.
- And so I just really want us to walk it like we talk it and also say if we're going to have conversations
- with city and respect with that, then I'd like to have conversations with things related to our justice
- center. That's what I'll say to that.
- The other thing is it's not cute nor is it cool to play uncle with county council. We are respected
- elected officials and I wish three folks that sit up at the dais behind us on Thursdays could understand
- that why we might not agree on just about anything right now that we we have a right to say
- and have a right to do what we need to do with this project as well. So it behooves me, and I've gotten
- lots of phone calls and emails from constituents regarding, and the public commenter mentioned it earlier,
- the fact that we're literally being forced, an upper hand in something that has fundamentally
- no infrastructure that is already put in. And so to use the words of someone who mentioned cornfield,
- that's a cornfield out there, that folks would get released. And to the point of new leaf, new life,
- I think about how close our Thompson site is in comparison to where they are and how we would be moving.
- What we are doing
- will affect people for decades to come. And Jennifer Rose Crossley has no part in doing something that
- will literally F up what we do in this county. So with that being said, I really am tired of this crap.
- And I really wish that we can move forward and really stop playing uncle with counsel and stop twisting
- our hands behind our back.
- and I'll be watching your meeting on Thursday to see if you all have anything else to say but I highly
- encourage the public if you have something to say about anything that's going on they have a meeting
- if you can attend because it is at 10 a.m. on a Thursday please go ahead in person or you can go attend
- virtually as well if your schedule allows with that being said I think my colleagues were robust conversation
- and we are adjourned thank you