I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It is Thursday,
July 23rd, and we will begin with our commissioner's statement read by Commissioner Maduro. We, the
Monroe County Board of Commissioners, renew our commitment to welcome and protect the rights of all
people, regardless of age, race, color, creed, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity,
marital status, economic status, and national origin.
and we affirm the right of every person to live peacefully and without fear. And we will fight and resist
at every step, discrimination and harmful policies, whatever their source. We believe in diversity,
equity, inclusion, and belonging. And we also stand in support of our county public school systems,
both RBD and MCCSC. Great, thank you so much. I have a couple of agenda items to add.
item L will be the flock termination letter and item M will be the agreement with Midwest Salt LLC for
treated salt. That is on our work sessions. If you want to see it on the packet, it's there, but we
can move it into our regular session. So that is item M.
I get a second. Yes, I will second those items. Thank you. All right. All those in favor of amending
the agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. I'll note for the record, I'm sorry,
I forgot to do this, that there's two of us present here in the NETU Hill Room, Commissioner Madeira
and myself, Commissioner Thomas. We will now move on to our department updates.
Good morning, commissioners. We are continuing to track cyclosporiasis cases. This is caused by a parasite,
and it can be treated with antibiotics. The Indiana Department of Health is providing total case counts
across the state on their website, which is available for the public. The Health Department still has
free COVID and flu tests available. You can walk in Monday through Friday from 8 to 4 for free tests.
and we are still scheduling for vaccines. You can call 812-803-6364 for an appointment. Thank you so
much. Do you have any questions or comments? No. And do we have any idea about what it's traced to other
than this lettuce? Right now, they're just advising to avoid bagged lettuces. OK. All right. Thank you.
Well, let us avoid them then. Ah, let us avoid them. All right. Thank you.
any other department updates? I'm sorry. Sure, yeah, I just kind of wanted to update you guys. We've
gotten I've gotten calls from Sheriff's Department. I believe you guys have discussed with the Sheriff's
Department about increase of activity with the at the Thompson site and it's becoming
I think they would say it's becoming more dangerous and more of a cause of a public safety concern.
We had some meetings and I think it would be important for you guys to know and if you agree to go ahead
and bless this is that we think we're going to have to do something with that property and we're working
with, you know, the sheriff and all the providers that we can.
We don't have a plan yet, we don't have a plan in place, but I think given the fact that you're not
having a meeting the next two weeks, we may need to act and begin the process formally prior to your
next meeting. So I make sure you're aware of that and that you're all right with us proceeding along
those, if necessary. Yes, I do believe we've been kept abreast of increased calls and been in touch
with residents and I, yes, especially in light of the new law.
Thank you so much. Any other department updates? Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. Public
comment is time reserved for items that are not on our agenda. We ask each speaker to limit their time
to three minutes per person and to give your name and county of residence when you begin speaking. If
you're on Teams, you may raise your hand to be recognized and unmuted.
In the NatU Hill Room, please proceed to the podium. All right, seeing none, we will move on to item
five, please. I would like to move to approve the minutes for June 4th, 2026 and for July 16th, 2026.
I will second that. Any comments, corrections, edits?
All those in favor of approving the minutes for June 4th and July 16th, 2026 signify by saying aye.
Motion carries to zero. Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move to approve the claim socket for accounts
payable for July 23rd, 2026 and payroll for July 24th, 2026. I will second that we have this guy or
those in us. Good morning. Good morning.
The accounts payable claims docket for July 23, 2026 totals $10,151,930.52. This includes all emergency
claims and adjustments. The payroll docket for July 24, 2026 includes $1,673,702.01 in direct costs
and the remaining
$878,341.98 were for indirect costs for a grand total of $2,552,073.99. Thank you so much. Comments
or questions, Commissioner Madeira? I have none. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's see if there's
any public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the claim stock at accounts payable, July 23rd, and payroll,
July 24th, 2026, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you. All right, we don't
have any reports, so we will move on to new business, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the
contract with Amergis to staff public health nurse positions, fund name, health fund, fund number 1159,
in an amount to be determined.
I will second that. Good morning, Ms. Kelly. So back in December of 2025, the Health Department discussed
with the Board of Health of using a contractual agency for contract nurses. So we are continuing to
receive applications for nurses in the medical assistant position. We are still doing interviews, but
one of the problems that we're running into is that while
the candidates will have years of experience, we can only offer that entry level rate right now. So
we want to look into using this agency to be able to find contract nurses that we can get in, hopefully
get them trained, have them working, and eventually be able to move them into a permanent county position.
Comments or questions? No, thank you for trying to fill these positions and taking whatever means necessary to do so.
So would the rate be lower or the same with this? So what we pay for an LPN, it's $55 per hour. And
then the RN would be 65. So they're actually employed through this staffing agency, stay on all of their
benefits. We just pay that rate. We're only paying for hours that they work. So when we're closed for
a holiday, for example, they simply just won't get paid that time.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Got it. Did you work with our our newer HR director to find the best agency to
use? Is that I have met with her and spoken with her a few times. This agency I actually came across
because Hamilton County Health Department uses this agency and they have been using them for five years.
To help support their
as Mel has experience with this. Trying to think of what we should do here because I feel like we should
have at least an HR review of this. But the problem is if that HR review
doesn't go as planned, we're not meeting the next two weeks. So I don't want to do approval. What kind
of review? Well, we do a contingent on HR review, but maybe we just need to be clear with HR that if
they have a suggestion for a different agency that we can then implement that later. So we can start
with one and then move to another. Yeah. OK.
So I'm going to make a motion to amend this to approval contingent on HR review with those copies. That
shouldn't slow you down at all. Even if we're not reading, you should be fine. And that's my motion.
Yes. So would you like to take a vote on the amendment first? Yeah, but I need a second. Second to that.
All right, so any comments on the amendment? No, no. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to know what we were.
Yeah, so we're gonna put the second one. Yes. Yep, that's just on the amendment. Any public comment
just on the amendment? Raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor
of amending the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. All right, motion carries two zero. So now this is
gonna be an amended motion.
any comments or questions on the amended motion now? Okay, I don't either. Let's see if there's any
public comment on the amended motion. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. All right,
seeing none, all those in favor of approving the amended agreement slash contract with emergis
to staff public health nurse position signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries two zero. And if you
could get those instructions Angie to be helpful. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Next item,
please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the memorandum of understanding between the Monroe County
Clerk's Office and Rainbow Printing Fund Name Clerk election fund number 1215 in the amount of $18,550.
I will second that. Mr. Branham. Hi, there. Thank you so much. Good morning, commissioners. We are requesting
approval for this contract to cover services provided during the May 2026 primary. Rainbow Printing
provided postcards that were sent to registered voters informing them of their voter registration status.
OK. Do you have any questions or comments?
none um I think that this is uh self-explanatory so um so I had um a lot of questions about this because
this is a really unusual way for us to do things first of all after the fact um which is really um not
necessary it should have been done beforehand um so um unlike what we approved last week which was also
this is just for the primary is my understanding. Um, yes. So this is essentially kind of a part two
of what we did last week. We wanted to bring these together, but this one just didn't quite make it
so. Rainbow only provided these postcards during the primary. I expect all of our future mailings will
be able to be covered by Midwest, which is what we requested last
the general, the primary, excuse me. Yeah. So this is typically done as a contract in advance, not an
MOU after the fact. We have an invoice. I have an invoice. So this is a really unusual way, and I know
that you're kind of newer to county government, so I'm not
But I'm just stating it for the public's edification that this is not how we typically conduct business.
So just to kind of explain that. So typically the this kind of mailing would be covered under a different
line item. So we were
to cover it out of our supply line because they provided these postcards. And we didn't have enough
funds in our supply line, so originally we had just requested with the council to increase our supply
line to cover this bill just because we had a shortfall. And then we were informed that our supply line
was under the edit fund, and Molly Turner King suggested that this would be the preferable route to
go to cover this, doing it contractually rather than just doing it as a paying it out of one of our
normal lines.
I guess my one question would be, and what I meant self-explanatory, I meant following from what was
explained last week about the contractual arrangement. Because that's in the executive summary, I agree
it's highly unorthodox. And we want to pay people, ideally, beforehand. I just would hope that there
is some way to make this more efficient and to deal with this awkwardness moving forward.
as we discussed last week. And I think we all agree on that point. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yeah. It is
a transparency issue for the public because any comment that's made now is after the fact. Like we already
owe this money, right? So that's the issue. And it's better for the vendors too. Well, yeah, to know
they're going to get paid would be nice. And I get that it was a fairly unusual circumstance,
But hopefully, yes, this will be addressed with Midwest and then this will be dealt with in the future.
So that would be good. Thank you so much. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item.
Can't help it. We've already got filled, but you're welcome to comment. Raise your hand and teams come
to the podium.
Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the Memorandum of Understanding between Monroe County Clerk's
Office and Rainbow Printing, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you. Thank you
very much. Thank you. All right, next. Yes, I'd like to approve the Memorandum of Understanding between
the Monroe County Circuit Court and Indiana University, fund name JDAI Programming, fund number 9175
and the amount of $1,500. I will second that.
Let's see, who do we have here to talk through this? Is this with the item C? Yes. Ms. McAfee should
be on, she sent me an email saying that she was having some difficulty. Should be on the... Is not.
Just send me a text, hang on, let me see.
All right. I'm having technical difficulties. Let me see what this is about. Well, I do have a question
about it. So I'm going to I'm going to move to table item C to the end of our agenda. Regular agenda.
It was like that. All right. Motion and a second to make a note so I don't forget. And we will now move on.
to I'm sorry all those in favor of tabling the items signify by saying aye aye motion carries now we'll
move on to item b please yes i'd like to move approval for uh letter no yes r i are just three year
enterprise license agreement renewal fund name key load of capital fund number 1138 in the amount of
three hundred sixty thousand nine hundred dollars i'm sorry if i uh mispronounced any of that
It is alphabet soup. I will second that. Now we're all hungry for alphabet soup. We have too many acronyms,
I think. TSD, if I could share my screen, that would be great. I'll be quick. Boom. That's showing up. OK. OK.
Okay. Hello, commissioners. Thanks for having us. Today I'm here for the enterprise license agreement
for our Esri, basically GIS software across the county. I prepared just a brief PowerPoint to show kind
of the public what we've been doing with GIS in Monroe County for the past few years. So beginning in
2023 is when we first got our enterprise license agreement. What this does is allows us as the GIS division
to really kind of expand
not just what we can do providing with services, but also with licenses and different software and things
like that. So in 2023, before we had the enterprise license agreement with Esri, we had 16 total GIS
licenses across the county. Many of these were shared between
departmental employees and departments. We constantly had to change from somebody having a very basic
ESRI license to somebody having an advanced or a pro one. So it was a lot of kind of extra administrative
work. We also had kind of a limited user base across the county and we didn't really have a public facing
website. We had a couple of public facing applications, but they were limited and kind of hard to find
with the exception of the survey utility, which is still going on today.
Where we are currently, since we've gotten the enterprise license agreement, we've expanded our GIS
users kind of extremely across the county. We've also included new personnel within the county as well.
So we were able to establish a new GIS technician position, which really has foundationally assisted
myself as a coordinator, as well as just GIS users in general.
We have somewhat unlimited licensing, and this is one of those things that not saying that's a great
thing if you, you know, if you have unlimited licensing, are you ever going to use it so but we do have
we're meeting all of our licensing right now. We also have a public facing website that's had over 63,000
hits over the past two years right so we're getting lots of traffic and people are enjoying this across
the county, as well as at a state level.
We're also continuing to grow and provide more public facing and transparent applications. And we're
seeing a growing departmental usage as well across the county. So lots of departments that weren't online
with GIS are now utilizing it and contacting us for support. Our website as well, when you see it, we
have numerous different public facing web applications. On the top left there, you see our safe place
viewer and locator that's with you services. We have a national land cover data set, American community
survey, parcel data,
community resources, including the survey utility fairly popular one that we established recently is
our storm dashboard social vulnerability index and different. roads at the highway departments maintaining
we also one of the departments that has come on board and done a tremendous job as the health department,
and this is from us, providing some assistance with.
them learning GIS and things like that but a lot of their own initiative with food locations ticks and
radon testing as well so we're getting great feedback from that and then finally our work with the clerk's
office in the voter registration office as well we've been able to do live election reporting across
Monroe County. We've won back to back to back state level awards for excellence in GIS as well as a
special achievement in GIS in 2024 2025 and 2026. So
This enterprise license agreement is going to allow us to kind of continue to expand and develop GIS
across the county. It's going to allow us to sustain our current initiatives and goals and also reduce
dependencies on outside contracts, which is going to be a fiscally responsible thing for us to try to
continue to do for the county. So that's what I have here for you guys in terms of what we're hoping
will happen with this approval. So thanks. Great. Thank you so much. Comments or questions?
No, what I always feel very grateful for is the level of information and transparency. And I'm just
grateful for your office, too, because in terms of technology, I think you are one of the offices within
county government that brings the most to residents. I don't know how many times I get inquiries and
can refer them. Yeah. So thank you so much for everything you bring. Thanks. And I'll say that this
is our office, but it's
it's very much dependent on the support we've gotten from TSD as well as the surveyors. Absolutely.
Yeah. It's a great, great teamwork. Yeah. Thank you. And just to verify, TSD has reviewed this and is
fine with this because we- That is correct. I've been through the process with the surveyor and Mr.
Dr. Baten here. We've worked closely with this company. They're a good company to work with. This has
all been vetted.
I know people are starting to notice, but I'd really like to put out, I've really seen this GIS program
develop here over the last several years, thanks to the hard work of Dr. Baten and Mr. Tron in, right?
We are leaps and bounds ahead of where we are. I appreciate their tenacity in trying to figure out what
we can do with these things to better advance us and the more tools we can have, the more they're gonna
be able to do us. So I appreciate the support from them. Thanks. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Crum.
of the sixty three thousand hits I probably had five thousand of them but. But you know I. Since you're
here I do want to thank you again for your help with putting together our G. I. S. survey of all the
properties we look at for the justice center you pulled that together.
very quickly for us we had a discussion like yep we want to add floodways and I had a draft email and
then I got your email it's like oh it's already done so I mean yes yes yes yes you're amazing yes so
thank you um thank you you really just it really means a lot and I know that as we've had discussions
about our potential stormwater long range plan one of the things we've talked about is the importance
of creating a great dashboard
related to stormwater, and I know we're going to lean on you happily for that. So thank you. Appreciate
you. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams or
come to the podium. Get into that. Pick GIS and start counting ticks. That's the kind of ticks you want
to count. Yes, those ticks are, yeah.
All right. Seeing no public comment, all those in favor of approving the Esri ArcGIS three-year enterprise
license agreement renewal signified by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Great. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. You have no idea of the amount of people who have actually reached out and said they
love that map, too. It's so helpful. Yeah. Yes. I wish I'd thought of it sooner. Yes, absolutely.
Great tool. Thank you. All right.
Let's see. So we have Mr. Cockrell, can we take the four ARPA items together? Yes, they're all related.
Yes. Could you make a motion that combines the four ARPA items? I will. I can't promise I can do them
all in one breath, but I can do them. OK. So I would like to move approval for item E.
I'd like to move approval for item F, ARPA item number 12, fund name American Rescue Plan Act Fund,
fund number 8950, in an amount re-obligating within the $28,830,982 award. I'd like to move approval
for item F, ARPA item number two, Monroe Fire Protection District Contract, addendum number one, fund
name American Rescue Plan Act Fund, fund number 8950,
Yes, $1,417,970, which is an increase of $200,000. I'd like to move approval for item G, or item number
three, septic replacement contract addendum two, fund name American Rescue Plan Act Fund, fund number
8950, in an amount total of $947,426, which is a decrease of $252,000.
$712.91, and I'd like to move approval for ARPA item number four, ARPA Airport Contract Addendum Number
One, Fund Name American Rescue Plan Act Fund, Fund Number 8950, an amount total of $5,092,308.28, which
is an increase of $15,225.41. I will second that. Thank you for reading all of those into the record.
I appreciate it. Ms. Woodruff.
Good morning. We have these four items.
And this shouldn't be anything new. So this just aligns the county's paperwork with the decisions that
were made by the council and the commissioners to kind of rearrange those ARPA dollars within our current
obligation. The ARPA plan is a requirement that we are expected to have for the federal government.
You can see that the only thing updated with that is just the table reorganizing the amounts within
the plan. And then we have three contractual adjustments that need to be made as well.
Great, thank you so much. We've already gone through this information before, but these are all the
adjustments to the ARPA plan that then gets submitted into the Fed registry, whatever it's called, database.
And a reminder that the septic program
was not going to be able to install. It's not that we don't have a need, because we do. It was not going
to be able to install enough septics to meet the deadline. And we had other items that were where there
was a need. And we are going to address those needs.
i don't um we also we also voted to allocate money um or first farm so that's gonna be due uh ledger
correction so the contract has already been approved okay so that's just that doesn't have to be voted on again
Yes. And you'll notice the jail contract also isn't in here. And that's because it came in under. So
we don't have to go back to that contractor and request them to amend that. Perfect. Thank you so much.
I just want to make sure I'm spinning all the plates appropriately and not dropping it. OK. Good. No.
Nope. OK. Any public comment on these items? You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
All those in favor of approving ARPA items one, two, three, and four. See how easy that was. Signified
by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. I get the easy job. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you. All right. Next item, please. Yes, I would like to approve ordinance 2026-25 to amend various
traffic ordinances.
I will second that. Yeah, you get the you get the short one after all that. All right, Mr. Cockroach
is managing this today because Miss Bridge is not here. Yes, and I will do my best. This is an ordinance
and this has gone through the Traffic Commission and everything had passed the Traffic Commission unanimously
on July 15th. This is reading deleting the no parking locations on Deerlick Rd from Pine Grove Rd to
We are going to add the following no parking locations, which is all of that road. Dear Lick Road. And,
um, Mammy Eads Road. And then we're deleting the 40 mile per hour locations on Kirksville Road. From
Harmony Road to 300 feet west of bridge number 68.
And we're also deleting the 35 mile per hour location on Kirkwood Loads from 300 feet west of bridge
68 to Heinz Road. And we're going to delete the following 30 mile per hour locations. Dearlich Road,
Jeremy Drive Road, Nicole Drive Road, Ron Bailey Road, Ron Bailey Drive, excuse me, and Viola Drive.
Those are, we're deleting them for the 30 mile an hour because we're putting
them as a 25 mile per hour roads. And now that Kirksville Road we deleted is because we're making the
entire Kirksville Road 35 miles per hour. There you go. See, I always thought, yeah, there's a lot here.
There's a lot here. Any comments or questions? Make it a tough question for Jeff because this is his.
Why is it called Deerlick Road?
I'm happy to do this I know that sometimes parking around some areas of yes of woods can be. Tricky
for residents when there are.
walking through properties, et cetera. So I'm happy to do this. And I know this went to the Traffic
Commission for approval. Do you have any questions? No, no, no, no, none. This makes perfect sense.
Yeah. Okay. So any public comment on this item? You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
All those in favor of approving ordinance 2026-25 to amend various traffic ordinances, signify by saying
aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. All right. Next we have, I'd like to move approval for Ordinance 2026-23,
Tabor Owens Rezone on SR, on State Route 45. And again, another short one. Yeah, I will second that. We have,
Ray Devaya, who is one of our newer planners, presenting this. Hello, good evening. Hello. Sorry. It's
hard to share on the screen here.
Can you all see it? We can. Thank you so much. All right. Good evening. I'll be discussing ordinance
2026-23, which is a rezone petition to change the zoning of the subject property from limited business
to general
to allow the petitioner to pursue a use that is not permitted in the limited business zoning district
that uses restaurant fast casual. If approved for the rezone by the board of commissioners, the petitioner
intends to apply for their drive-through as an accessory use component for the development, which is
permitted as a conditional use in the general business zoning district. The petitioner will then have
to apply for a site plan certified by a licensed surveyor and or engineer, and if necessary, apply for
any applicable variances, grading permits, et cetera.
The petition site at 3695 West State Road 45 contains road footage on West State Road 45, which serves
as the primary access point to the lot that was formerly utilized as a business called mobile home hardware,
which is, I still believe, in the process of being relocated. The adjacent properties to the north,
east, and south are all zoned general business, and the adjacent property
the west is in the city of Bloomington's purview and his own mixed use medium scale. The petition site
contains two access points via existing driveway addresses along State Road 45 which are maintained
by the Indiana Department of Transportation. We have comments from the Highway Department stating that
you know as NDOT maintains those
that road that they really don't have any comment on as far as no maintenance, but the petitioner did
indicate that NDOT would not review the driveway permits unless the rezoned petition was approved. The
adjacent site to the petition to the subject property is a Walmart Supercenter. Stormwater program has
indicated that they will have to meet more stringent
release rates and as well as meeting the requirements set forth in chapter 761. Things to note are that
the property is serviced by public utilities including water, sewer, gas and electric and that there
are two bus stops in the vicinity located to the northeast and southwest of the lot. Another important
thing to note is that the rezone will increase the permitted uses from 60
to 85, so 60 permitted uses in the limited business zoning district and 85 in the general business zoning
district. So here are the definitions of both limited business and general business per the Monroe County
development ordinance, as well as the definition of restaurant fast catering. And here's the definition
of drive through as an accessory.
So this is a snippet from the use table in the Monroe County Development Ordinance. As you can see on
the top table that the restaurant fast calories is not permitted in the limited business zoning district,
but it is permitted in the general business zoning district. And in the bottom table, you can see that
both zoning districts permit drive-through as an accessory use as a conditional use.
Big thing to note here on these tables, I mean, on these maps are on the right map, you see the red
around the subject property, that's the general business zoning district, and the pink is the limited
business zoning district. So as you can see, most of the surrounding properties are also zoned at general
business. There's a site conditions map outlining the site conditions
There's not a lot of course features, but as you can see in the next picture that many improvements
have been made to that site from 2005 to 2025. More likely due to that Walmart Supercenter being located
to the east. Other site conditions map. And here is a photo from Eagle View that shows the property
from the north and from the west. You can see the parking area there. And here's a couple of photos
of the bus stops in the vicinity to the southwest and to the northeast. The one to the right is the
one on the northeast. The one to the left is the one on the southwest, as indicated in these photos.
As you can see, there are some minor changes that the rezone will have on the effect of the dimensional
standards that are outlined below. The significant ones are really the change in the maximum impervious
cover and the critical watershed, which this property is located in, as well as the max height of the
primary structure and accessory structure. Here are the comments from the other departments.
and here's the staff recommendation. I will now take any questions. Thank you so much. Do you have any
questions? Oh, thank you so much for the comprehensive explanation. One of the things that came up,
I just want to mention this, one of the things that came up during our Plan Commission discussion related to
the in dot in the driveway because because that driveway will go on to a state road. But they have to
see that this petition was approved first before they consider that. But that's why there was one abstention
because they thought something should be in here. And this do we know yet the sidewalk
they will have to have a sidewalk, but we don't know yet whether it's in dot or the city that has to
permit that. Um, I believe that, um, it might be, I'm not entirely sure. Okay. Okay. Oh,
planning director is online and has raised her hand. So I'm going to go to her. Sorry to ask you a tough
question. It was not expected. Ms. Nestor Jelen back from leave. Welcome back. Hello. Hi. Thank you.
So the road frontage is in dot maintained and the site plan would require the sidewalk. So if in that doesn't
permit us to require them a sidewalk, they'll be getting a variance. Got it. Perfect. Thank you. I just
wanted that clarified. I know it was kind of a little technical question that we had. Thank you so much
for jumping on. Appreciate it. Awesome. All right. Let's see if there's anyone here or online that wishes
to speak in favor of this petition. You may raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to this petition? You may raise your hand on teams
or come to the podium. Seeing none, any general public comments? We are happy to see another business
going in there. It's really good to not have a vacant business, especially in that location. Yeah,
it's busy, so very smart.
All right. We don't see any public comment. Do you have anything else? Any other commentary before we
move on? Okay. Seeing no comments. All those in favor of approving ordinance 2026-23 signified by saying
aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Mr. DeVio for your presentation. Appreciate
it. All right.
So next on our agenda is the review on the Form 144s. Nope, I said we're putting it at the end of the
agenda. Oh, sorry. So yeah. The 2027 Form 144s are the salaries for each
And this is a standard- letter that we get and we're asked to respond- and we. Have come up with a response-
that includes the following and I will just read into the record but we will make this into a
We appreciate the council's commitment to ensure that all Monroe County employees are paid equitably
and adequately, reflecting the current local employment market and local cost of living. We also understand
the fiscal pressures facing county government, boy do we ever. The state, that's my, sorry. The state
budget agency issued a growth quotient six year increase in non-farm income of 6%.
While not all county employee wages are derived from property tax revenue, the growth quotient represents
an increase in tax revenue for the county. We recommend a salary increase of 6% for Monroe County employees.
As a note as well, the consumer price index increased 5% in the Midwest between May of 2025 and May
of 2026, which demonstrates the impact of inflation on our employees' paychecks.
So, in sum, we recommend that the council provide an increase for all employees, except those who have
statutorily mandated salaries of six percent. We ask the council to ensure relevant salaries for employees
who hold similar positions at the City of Bloomington and Monroe County are made equitable. Eight, we
recommend that the council continue to work
toward pay equity and to ensure all full-time county employees earn a living wage. Are you fine with
that language? Do you have anything you want to add? Any comments? Nope. I think that pretty much sums
it up. Pay equity is a wonderful thing. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to make a motion to approve this
letter for council, which we will then get
run up and sign hopefully today and we'll present it to council or at least send it to them. I'm not
sure if we have to present it formally. So that's my motion. I second that. All right. Any public comment
on this item?
Good morning, officially. I've been here through the meeting. I just wanted to express my gratitude
of referring to the equitable pay with the city. There's various jobs that it impacts. We've been seeing
that in planning, which I serve on the Plan Commission and also collaborate extensively with other projects.
There's other areas or sectors, if you will, of government that, you know,
kind of have that overlap. GIS is one of them as well. And I think whatever we can do to make sure that
we're not competing with the city for qualified employees is great. I know it's a very challenging time.
And unless you kind of mentioned that in your motion today, I wasn't gonna come and speak, but since
you did, I just wanted to come and express my support and just talk about how we've already seen it happen.
I've seen it happen internally too, but we have our procedures to go through to kind of rebalance that.
And I've had to do that once before because people were competing for internal roles that come with
the same skill sets and expertise. So again, I'm really happy that you brought this up and it's going
to be a very challenging thing to address moving forward. Yeah.
It absolutely is. And yes, planning has been impacted by this. And I would say policing has been impacted
by this. And so we have to make sure that we have established ourselves in a way that puts
us in a competitive position because we lose talent and experience and that's not a good thing.
So thank you. Any other public comment on this item?
So hopefully county employees will watch the county council's budget sessions and find the time. I know
time is short, but find the time to come in and offer comment or send emails to the council if they
support this idea. All right. All those in favor of approving the
44 letter content signified by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Just to duck in there real quick
and say, you know, we know that there's sometimes other outside processes that affect salaries as well.
Sure. But, um, but I think too, especially there's so many outside externalities that are taking, uh,
boy that's redundant. Um, you know, driving everything
up that I think it's especially important for counties to stand up for their employees and uh and cities
too right but uh but yes and while we know that there was a WIS review it it doesn't necessarily balance
us locally it's just a statewide review of job descriptions but it doesn't provide that local balance
that we really need because this is the real world so yeah right it was what three years ago
Yeah. All right. Yeah. We don't want the county to become like sort of the ugly stepchild. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. So now we will move on to one of the and I'm going to have to add another item to our agenda
at the end. So sorry. This is just this is what happens when. Yes. Like it's crazy. Okay. So to say
that's that's always the case, by the way. Yeah. No, it never is that way. Any other day. No, just today.
Just today.
I want that ugly stepchild category. We don't want it to fall farther. We don't want that distance to
open up. I just wanted to be sure where my comment was in reference to. But crazy days, too. I mean,
we don't ever have those. I'm going to make a motion to submit a letter to the Flock Group, which is
the license plate reader
company to approve a letter of termination dated today. Yes, you can get a second on that. Mr. Cockrell.
Yes, I think you had received a request from the public to look at this contract. I can tell you the
contract was approved in September of 2021 for two years with an automatic renewal of an additional
two years.
every so often, or every two years. So it will go into perpetuation, which would have this contract
terminate in September of 2027. If you would want to wait till September of 2027 to terminate this contract,
you could. If you do it immediately, then there are some costs associated with that. Namely, we would
reimburse the company up to $500 per camera.
for the removal for their cost of removing the camera. So it's my understanding there are six. So it
would be a potential cost of $3,000. Thank you. Several. So I think it is $3,000 well spent. I appreciate
the advocacy of the citizens who
spoke before the city on this issue. And I think that it would be worth paying that $3,000 as a county.
And I'm concerned about the implications for this contract as a county. And so I would support terminating
this contract. And this is the sheriff's contract, FYI. And it is something that we approved many, many
years ago.
And it has helped reduce crime. It has helped them find people who are missing. It has helped them track
people coming into the county to do nefarious things that they were aware of, and they could find them
before they did that thing. So, you know, it has a role, but the way the data has been abused, and we've seen
national stories about this is terrible. Now, I think if there's money set aside for this contract,
so hopefully if we're terminating in that we'll have enough money to cover the camera removal. I don't
know that, but we might have to go to council or we might have to find a way to do that.
Yeah, two things, because I just got an email from the office and there's actually another contract
that was signed by the sheriff outside of a commissioner meeting in 2023. I afforded it to all of you
via email just now. The other issue is the contract. I don't believe we're paying anything on this contract
on a daily basis or on a monthly. So we don't have a line for this contract. So what we have to use is
I believe the sheriff's paying for it. Okay. Okay. There is no expense to it. I assume Q cap because
of the technology. Yeah. Okay. So it's out of the sheriff's eye. I am not aware of any payments. Okay.
So in order for you guys to pay for this, I believe, and I had a quick conversation with Mr. Crocknell
yesterday, we could use our professional services line.
And so, and this falls into again, kind of the council's process of you bend your line and then for
new needs that come up, you expand the line and then if you're unable to meet the expected expenses
in that budget line, then you go back and ask for additional. So that will be happening.
Well, I do want to say that I had a discussion with the sheriff about this, and he said, I'm fine with
terminating it. So we're not undermining him. We got his OK on it. I will say I'm really grateful that
Mr. Cockrell raised the issue of removal of cameras because other agencies could still use the information. Right.
If they're not removed and so I do hope and I encourage the city of Bloomington to proceed with that
portion of Their contract termination with flock because there are still cameras out there and you can
find them online So are those cameras on and operating? Well, I don't know but they but flock could
certainly I imagine that
could certainly still collect data from them, even if there's no contract. Even if they think it is
not accessing right data, right? Because they actually they can use it themselves. They can sell it.
They could whatever. I don't know. I don't know that. But but that's the worst case scenario. And so
I I would hope that we could encourage our city colleagues to take the next step and have those removed.
It'd be nice if there were a way to do this locally so that we can get the
Well, I mean the technology that we could be able to use it for its purposes and help protect residents
better. Finding silver alerts, amber alerts, it really makes a big difference and it's hard to say,
well, we don't want that protection. We don't want that ability because of the things this company has
done. So it is unfortunate, but I do appreciate Mr. Copper looking into that and I look forward to this
contract being finalized and ended and terminated. And I assume if there's any issue between the sheriff's
version of the contract and the one that we approved in 2021, I think. Yeah, that's when we started.
But I thought he had told me several months ago in a conversation I had with him about it, he was like,
oh, yeah, we just renewed it. And I was like, really? How did that happen?
I don't remember that. So it's the new lawn contract. His ability to do that. Yes. So anyway, I just
want to make sure that all of that gets settled before we send out this letter, but with that. Hopefully,
if he's got money in the line, then he will pay for the removal. Yeah. How soon can we get them removed,
do you think? I don't know, but we'll have to see what's in that contract. We can only get the invoice.
We'll know that they're done.
Yeah, I think that we'll know it when we get the invoice, but I had a contract that the 2021 contract
indicated they have to remove it in a reasonable amount of time. So they want a specific, but it. So
they remove, but they define reasonable, so we're going to have to keep an eye on that. Can we hood
them in the meantime or? Highway Department has to do some spray painting projects on traffic lights. No, no.
I don't think we can. Because it's not our equipment. Gotcha. They might say it overheats or something
like that. Any public comment on this? We've had a lot of internal comment, but let's see if there's
any public comment on this. You can reach your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the flock termination letter and camera removal signified
by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Now we have the item from the work session. So if you could
go ahead and make that motion, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the agreement with Midwest
Salt LLC and Monroe County for treated salt. Fund name, local road and street, fund number 1169.
in the amount of two hundred eighty six dollars and one hundred two hundred eighty six yeah two hundred
eighty six thousand dollars and one hundred. I'm sorry it was a long night last night. Two hundred eighty
six thousand one hundred and fifty dollars I will second that. Welcome thank you. Good morning good
afternoon. What you have for you is a contract for treated salt with the company called Midwest Salt
LLC. We did annual bids
maybe a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago at this time, but we got no bid on our treated salt. We
did have a supplier for untreated salt. I just want to get another avenue for salt supply. We did have
an issue getting salt 25, 26 winter. I hear that with the bids they were,
it's my understanding that might be the case again, so I just want to make sure we have some options.
This requires us to make a commitment to the tonnage that is here. Minimum 80% of those tonnage maximum
100% of that time, so maximum contract would be 286 150. If we have a mild winter, we do not have to
take all that tonnage. But at least 80%.
And based on your knowledge of even a mild winter, which seems to be the ones where we get a lot of
ice storms, super El Nino, whatnot, you're thinking that we're going to be able to use 80% of this.
I do. Our mild winters, you get that one to two inch snow. And for us, that uses the most material.
we get the bigger snows of five, six, seven, eight inch snows. We do a lot of plowing, same amount of
material. So the littler snows, the littler skiffs actually eat up more material than the bigger ones.
I think this is good. I know you have salt in the barn, as they say, treated salt in the barn,
ready to go, but God, I can't imagine winter right now. I'm so just, yeah.
So, but it looks like $7 a ton difference for early versus later. That's kind of interesting. But yeah,
it looks like you're just kind of filling the barn. We're going to go ahead and top it off with that
350 tons. We think we can get that crammed in there and we know it won't be an issue getting it right now.
But when those storms start coming days or weeks after weeks and everybody's trying to get more salt
because they can only store so much towns, municipalities, cities and dot. Yeah, it's you start running
out of trucks and and being able to get it so it gets a little tougher. In season. Yeah, I hear that
and it's smart to go to go ahead and pre order. So thank you for bringing this. Do you have any comments?
So I just think it's an excellent smart idea to have ready to go. So yes. All right. Let's see if there's
any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium. And just to
be clear, we also did an approval earlier on the untreated salt, and that's the brine system. And if
we needed it. Absolutely. Yeah, that helped us a ton last year when we could not get treated salt. Yeah.
we've been able to. The brine system's been amazing. Brine was good and we're still able to use untreated
salt mixed with sand, and we have something to put down. Yep, got it. All right. I don't see any public
comments, so all those in favor of approving the agreement with Midwest Salt LLC in Monroe County for
treated salt, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Thank you, sir, for coming in. Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Now let's go back to item C, and then I'm going to add something to our agenda. I'd like to move approval
from memorandum of understanding between the Monroe County Circuit Court and Indiana University.
Fund name, JDAI programming, fund number 9175, in the amount of 1,500. All right, I will second that.
Ms. McAfee, we made you come here. That's all right. But it's always good to see you. Thank you. I'm
sorry you are. It's a beautiful day to walk.
It is a great day to be out walking, yeah. One thing I can quickly jump on and then that didn't work.
Be sure to meander back. Thank you for letting me show up a little bit tardy. My apologies. Thank you.
I was here a few weeks ago. You might remember we did a whole bunch of JDAI memorandums of understanding.
This is one of that bucket that we're doing. It was delayed a little bit because Indiana University
needs to have their people look through things and sometimes that just takes time.
We currently have a process within the department for juveniles that we do surveys or offer surveys
to young people who come to our office for an intake, for a court hearing, for a traditional appointment.
They can use a QR code or they get a text message with the URL, I think is the right word to say. Clearly
today, technology is not my jam. So if I mess that up, my apologies. But Indiana University gets that
data for us. I think their system is qualified.
that data, they identify all of it for us and then they give us quarterly reports on things like I was
felt like I was treated respectfully. The process was understandable. Parking was manageable times and
dates, so this contract just takes us through June of 2027. OK, great. Thank you so much. Questions?
No, I think this again, you know, shows just how evidence based and data driven.
we are, and that's why I think I'm so proud to say that our programs work. And if it doesn't, we can
change it and see what's not working, which is a lot better than paying for things that don't work.
So thank you. That is amazing. I do have a question for you, and it is related to, so are there,
There's a lot of confidentiality information in the contract, obviously. Yes, is there identifiable
information on the survey? Do they provide their identity when they complete the survey? Is that OK?
What could be potentially identified is if I walk out of the office on Thursday at 2 o'clock then and
do my survey. We could technically do a little bit of background and figure out who that was. The other
thing is because it does
include kind of broad demographics. If we have a 12-year-old that meets a certain profile, we don't
have a lot of 12-year-olds. So we might be able, if we dug a little bit, to figure out who that was.
So there are no names, there are no dates of birth, those kinds of things. But thankfully, our probation
population is small enough that sometimes it wouldn't take a lot of energy to figure out who those folks
are. But they're keeping that information confidential.
And so, do you know if they have to do the IU protocol research test subject approvals? My understanding
is that they have to go through that board, but because it's not direct service to people, that arm
of it is not applicable. But yes, it does have to go through because they are collecting information
on humans. Got it.
Yeah human subject research board that's what it is okay for that yes subject research actually give
us a whole lot of acronyms when we're trying to do this it was a little bit easier because we've done
this for the last two or three years but yeah that first time we wanted to do it there were lots of
questions and lots of concerns just about what are we collecting and how.
How will we be using it then? And how is that information brought back to you in what form and how do
you use it? And it would be research involving children and research involving subjects. But also, it
would not be for publication purposes either. But there's always, I believe, numbers that people can
call and backstops in case anybody feels that they have questions and stuff.
That's all included. Thank you so much for your answer. That was a weird question. No, that's great.
I'm proud of both of us. Yeah, you just had the answer right off the top of your head. Let's see if
there's any public comment on this item. Can you raise your hand on teams or come to the podium?
Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court and Indiana
University signify by saying aye.
I motion carries two zero. Thank you again. Thank you again so much. Good seeing you. Bye. All right.
Now I do want to add yet another item to our agenda. I forgot to add earlier. Apologies. This would
be, can I use the term ratification for this MOU, Jeff? Because it's something the stormwater board
voted on yesterday.
I think it's an approval for you, or you could ratify the actions of the stormwater. We'll just do the
approval. It's easier. All right, thank you. I move to approve the memorandum of understanding MOU between
the city of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department and the Monroe County Highway Department for
the removal of log jams along Clear Creek. I second that. So this was voted on at yesterday's stormwater
meeting. And if you want to see some impressive fish
pictures of log jams in an urban environment. That's the place to go look. It's in the packet. Those
images are in the packet. Yeah, I won't be able to bring it up on screen quick enough. So this is in
response to a grant. We're so grateful for our stormwater director, Ms. Erica Penna, who
really worked to make sure that this grant happened. And the city of Bloomington working together, great
thing again. And this is going to be a shared cost, but that cost is covered by that grant. So kudos,
kudos, kudos to our stormwater program.
the county expenses something like seven thousand dollars yeah that's coming out and that's coming out
of the grant absolutely yes yes and uh you know i think um just you know to even backdate this further
it comes out of the tornado from may of 2025 and if you've been walking along the clear creek trail
you've seen just all of the
And that could be that it poses a danger to landowners along there. It poses a danger to wildlife. And
so and if there's another storm or a flash flood.
it's going to get worse. But it would be enormously expensive for us to clear it out. And so thanks
to our wonderful county employees and city employees, that is now not going to be a problem anymore.
And so it's wonderful, wonderful. So take a walk by the Clear Creek Trail, and you can see it. It's
even better than the photographs yesterday. And I don't really have a problem with adding it to the
agenda here, because it got a full airing yesterday at 3.30. And tune in. It was a good meeting, and
even the budget discussion.
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, and you're absolutely right. It adds to erosion. It adds to flooding concerns
and property damage. And all of those things are terrible. So I know what I didn't make a motion to
add this to the agenda.
We need to do that. I think it's pretty clear from the from the motion that that's the intent. So I
think you're fine. Thank you. Oh, my God. Oh, I think it's the cooler weather at night. That's I don't
know. Well, I could say two hundred and six thousand. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Not enough caffeine.
All right. So let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on teams
or come to the podium.
Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Bloomington
Parks and Recreation Department and the River County Highway Department for the removal of log jams
along Clear Creek, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. I know Aubrey DeLotter-Myers that
this needs to get to Erika ASAP. So just a note to get that signed on DocuSign as soon as possible before
anything else.
because she needs to take it to the parks department tonight. All right, so back onto where we are.
We don't have any appointments. A couple of announcements. I do want to note that we were at the city
council meeting last night where we presented a June, 2026 design
that's on the property. We kind of tossed that to the City Council with the caveat because we do know
that our priorities right now are time and space. In terms of space, it's not
but it works and there is some room to expand the facility if needed. Good. So that's that's excellent
and and but we really can't go through a nine to 12 month. Plan commissioned.
city council approval process. This is how long it takes. I mean, ours takes time too, because you have
to put on notice. You have to, you know, have to have hearings. It's part of democracy. It takes time.
Um, but, uh, so we, we gave them that caveat that we need to find a, if they're willing to do this,
we need to find a quicker way to act. Um, so, um, I received one mail email of interest last night,
sent some followup documentation.
Um, and we'll see what happens, but hopefully we'll hear from our colleagues at the city council. Did
you mention where and where this property is? I did say hope well, but at the very beginning. So this
is the former Bloomington hospital site. Yeah. Um, otherwise known as hopeful. Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, and it is a city project site. So that's why we went to them. Yeah. Thank you.
that. It is the west. There's like a south one that there is to build on and yeah yeah yeah so I'd say
we're north off of second it goes second it spans second to first um and we're we're going to um go
ahead and um find a way to attach that and maybe maybe dr baton's listening again but we could find
a way to attach that design to the GIS uh we're gonna have to add
the secondary piece of information to that GIS that he so magically created for us and looks beautiful.
So we'll add this other information because there are, you know, there are some benefits, but there
are some and we'll put all that in the in the chart. So there'll be a second Hopewell site and then
hopefully we'll add in this design and into that as well. So we'll see if you can do that.
he could do anything all right um i do want to note that we are not having a regular meeting um july
30th and august 6 uh so but we will have claims only yes we will have claims only uh commissioner madera
will be here um i will be remote and um so we will get that done but we we do have
virtual office hours each month and go to the calendar at in.gov slash county slash Monroe for dates
and times. We are accepting applications for all boards and commissions because we're almost at that
point where we're going to need to get some spaces filled in 2027 and
So you can go to our website and look for information and fill out an application as well, or contact
one of us, drop by office hours, whatever, and we can talk through that. We have office hours tonight
at six o'clock. Oh. Seven o'clock to nine o'clock as well. Oh, yes. We're out all night tonight. So, yep. Yep.
We need to get that up there then because I think the only ones on there tonight are the six o'clock.
You know what? I think it's mine and it goes six to nine. That's mine. That's just me. It's six to nine.
It's just me. So everybody knows now. Thursday, it's me. Yeah, it is six to nine because you said six
o'clock and I thought maybe mine's at seven. Okay. Yeah. Mine was usually six to seven and then yours
was bigger than seven. Okay. I'm six to nine.
Oh, three hours. You were doing three hours. I do three hours each. Okay, yep, yep, yep. Gotcha. And
so there's another blood drive date coming up Wednesday, July 29th, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. And this is blood
drive we hold in conjunction with IB Tech. Thank you, IB Tech and the Red Cross. Wednesday, July 29th, 9 a.m.
to 2 p.m. IB Tech, room C130A and B.
to make an appointment, not necessary, but better, go to redcross.org. We do want to remind folks to
sign up for our resident alert system so you can be informed of any weather, health, or roadway emergency,
any kind of community emergency will show up in its text call and or email. Belts, two belts and a suspender.
All right.
Do you have anything else for our announcements? No, just I believe that MCCSE is starting up August
5th. And so the next time we meet, we'll be in session. Yeah. So yeah, drive carefully. Yes. Yeah. It's
a good reminder for folks to be aware of school buses and the morning commute will be a little bit longer.
And then when IU comes back into session, it doubles my morning commute. Yeah, I know.
All right. Anything else for the good of your daughter? I'm just in denial that summer is going down
at some point. Yeah, I know. So we will not have a work session today because we've dealt with that
one item. And until our next regular meeting of August 12th, and again, we will handle claims on August
5th and July 30th only, we are adjourned.
Yes, until the next August month.