to go ahead and call to order this work session of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It is Thursday,
July 9th. I'll look for the record that Commissioner Madeira and myself are here and present in the
NatU Hill room. We do have one agenda item on our published agenda, which is a planning petition. And
I've asked them to the good folks at planning to wait. And that we're going to
here first and foremost- from our sheriff's department- and I wish you all good morning and you may
start whenever you would like. Thank you. Good morning. We should give us some time to talk to this
morning- several years ago- the
about three years and a half ago of the facility. We put in a PowerPoint and came and spoke to commissioners
and the council reference to the aging of that facility and the needs
for us to be able to provide a constitutional facility and the safety of the people there as well and
be able to classify people at a certain level. Three years later, three and a half years later, we're
in a position now that urgency is at the top of the level for us. Back then, my staff and I at times
would sit down and talk about what if we have to
transport people out of this facility. And what brought that about will be special events like,
for example, Little 500 or preparing for some type of emergency that we're not, we can't foresee it.
How do we proceed? So we have talked about it in preparation for just in case we needed to do that.
But I can tell you that this point where we're at right now, we have to do it now.
We're in a position now that the numbers have grown, and that has a ripple effect. And when I mean by
numbers, I mean people being incarcerated. However, that's not the only reason. We have to be able to
provide a constitutional jail. That is my responsibility. And I want to tell you that we have failed.
And we are at a point now that is very challenging for us to do that.
I'm not going to get into the specifics right now. And before I pass on the floor to the chief here,
we really, really took time to prepare the report that we passed on to you. So we came to you first
because you are the executive branch of the county. Our next step will be going to the board of judges
because we have to have their approval as well.
And then once we have that, we plan to go to the County Council because they're the ones that actually
truly have to fund this new operation that we have to do. So with that being said, we took quite some
time to put together what we presented to you. It didn't come easy. We put a lot of thought into it
and we are where we are now.
once we start this and again we have to it's going to be something that's new to us as well so we all
have to really truly just work together to accomplish this because again we definitely obligated to
provide a constitutional facility. With that I'll pass the floor to Chief Parker. Okay I'm a re-emphasize
some of the things that the sheriff just said
as we go through this document, but kind of setting the tone here. Almost since the day we took office,
we have been engaged in numerous conversations about a new facility. Some went places and we've got
some work done and some was wheel spinning.
It ran the gamut, but that's not the focal point of today. So I just want to make sure we set the tone
here for whoever's watching and whoever's listening, that this is about the current facility and the
current facility only. So that's what we're going to focus on today.
what we're really want to focus on here, and you have to excuse me, I'll be wearing my glasses and taking
them on and off because I'm old and I can't see. We're going to cover three broad areas here, essentially.
We're going to talk very much about functional capacity and what that truly means and how it truly relates
to the facility that we are currently in. We're going to spend some time on the physical condition of
that facility, and then we're going to talk about solutions.
If we accomplish those today, I hope that we all come to a better standing of why we are sitting here
in front of you at this very moment. So let's talk a little bit about functional capacity. And I'm going
to get a little more specific as we go. And just so you know, the sheriff talked about this document.
That document is a product of not just the last few days,
That is a product of three and a half years of assessment, reassessment, adjustment, discussions, panic
sometimes, all of those things. And I don't know if maybe I'm just
I'm not super sensitive to the this topic but as I've been watching meetings as of late. The topic of.
Transporting residents off site has been mentioned. Numerous times in numerous forums by.
It's not just on our mind. It seems that that has that has become kind of a natural thought process
for. People that are thinking about this this facility who are concerned about this facility that that
might be something that we have to come to. So I don't I don't think anything we're going to say today
is going to be like a real surprise like you know this came out of left field. It's it's been discussed.
Our current facility has a bed count of 294. And when you say that, and then you say in the same breath
that we've got 260 people in there, OK, you got 34 vacancies. What's the problem? So we're going to
break that down into why that is commonly misunderstood.
in any facility, not just ours, but you're going to have different parts of that facility that are designated
for specific reasons. In our facility, we have our trustee inmate worker housing. Well, when someone
comes in for whatever reason, we can't just say, well, we've got a bed in the inmate housing unit. We're
going to put them there. And we'll talk about more
for people that don't have a great deal of knowledge about how a facility works. But you have segregation
cells. We have one padded cell, unfortunately. They have you holding cells where people come in and
you hold them temporarily. And then in our facility, we have J-Block. And one of the things,
if you recall, that when Kyle first became the jail commander there, he immediately recognized that we had
some of our most severely mentally ill folks spread throughout our population. So he created J Block.
And that's where we house those individuals that need special protections and special care,
special attention. So now you pull those out. And if you look at the combination of those beds that
are available in there,
That takes that 294 down to 233. That available general housing beds. So the functional capacity, let
me explain what that is. That's an accepted correctional planning principle that says you are functionally
full when you reach 80%.
of availability for those beds. So if we follow that logic to get to functional capacity here, I'll
just step in if I say anything that's incorrect, because he's forgot more about this than I know. Our
true functional capacity in that facility is 186. And while we are using that principle to determine that,
I think it's noteworthy to say that the sheriff is the person who's obviously responsible for
the constitutional care in there. So the sheriff is the person who actually is the only person qualified
to make that decision. So we can argue about that, I guess, in different forums and why and how and all that.
When the rubber hits the road, that's the sheriff's job, and that's the sheriff's call. But he doesn't
just do it from some arbitrary number that he decides. So that's kind of the concept of functional capacity.
So let's talk about some of these other parts. If every month under the
private settlement agreement, which is now expired, obviously, and we know the consequences of that
are coming hard and fast. But if you we sent a general population report that gave Mr. Falk the daily
population of that facility every day, and then gave him an average of that. And we sent that report
every month.
Not to get a real specific here, but I think it's noteworthy to say that since January of this year,
our average populations have been 238, 237, 231, 244, 251, and in June of 2026, that is now at 260.
So as you can see, we were relatively stable January through March,
But we've had the uptick. We've reached 272 and 275 on different days in both May and June. So let's
go back to functional capacity for just a minute here. So the average of our population for that six
month period is at 244. So if you just look at our average for the last six months,
we have exceeded our functional capacity numerous, numerous times. And in May and June on those given
days, we were 86 to 89 individuals above our functional capacity. So that's not sustainable. And not
only is it not sustainable,
We have a duty to address that, and that's why we're here. Now, keep in mind, when the jail was built
back in 1984, approximately, the bet count was 128. And we're definitely by far past that. So when people
say, well, just remodel the jail and you can make it work, I don't think they fully understand the scope of this.
the age of that facility. And when it was built, it was built for a certain number of people to be there.
Now think about this, the plumbing, medical care, mental health. We bypassed that tremendously and did
the best that we could at this point. So when the chief talks about functional capacity, we are at a
match right now.
So before we move on to some of the things that the sheriff just actually mentioned, I do want to address
the private settlement agreement in one aspect. And in the private settlement, if you remember, there
was a secure bed count amount, and that was 248. And when we got to 244, we were supposed to notify
the judges, and they were supposed to help us take action to reduce that.
And I will have to say, they stepped up to the plate, and they helped us do that like a champ every
time we asked. But I want to address that number, because what that number is, it is simply our general
population beds minus our specialty beds, the things that we kind of just spoke about. It never was
functional capacity.
So when we get the question of, well, you were 248, and that was your number, and everything was fine,
that private settlement agreement never addressed functional capacity. It only addressed secure beds.
So we'll probably wind up explaining that more here in the near future. I'm surmising, but that's what
that number represents. So as the sheriff
I said, our jail started in 1984 and was designed for 128 inmates. So I haven't substantiated this,
but I believe we are either the oldest jail or one of the oldest jails in this state. And why that's
significant is that
If you look around the state, and let's just say for purpose of this conversation, we're the oldest
facility in the jail. Other counties didn't build a jail just because they wanted a pretty building.
They built a jail because they realized that when a jail gets a certain age, its functional life has
come to an end. They are no longer able to provide constitutional care or if they continue to house
in that facility.
So what we're talking about here is not a novel concept in the fact that our facility is aging and it's
deteriorating. It's very common. There are 92 counties in this state, and I think 91 of them have a
jail. So I want to talk about why now a little bit.
What this is, if you slice it down to its truest reason why this event has landed in front of you today,
is it's not a singular thing. It's a convergence of some things. And right now, that convergence is
an aging facility
that is continued to deteriorate and the increasing trend in our population. And when those two things
converge, which we are at right now, that's when the breaking point occurs. And I know Dave's sitting
back there. And I can tell you this, just from what I see
Kyle and his crew go through every day. And I see Dave a lot more than I like to. The dynamic of that
has changed in just the three and a half years that we've been here. It's constant that, and I'm not
just talking about a water leak or a toilet malfunctioning, I'm talking about major issues that occur
in this jail on a weekly
that we're doing on a daily basis if not daily. Now for the past couple days and last week it was very
very hot. And when I when I. Here the commander and Dave trying to cool the blocks down in the can.
Because when it was built for. It wasn't built for the number of people we have there now you have body
heat. And what happens to us in our
a larger population than usual, things happen. So when we talked about this years ago, and we find ourselves
in this situation, and I know for a fact I have the responsibility to provide safety, and it's something
that I cannot control is very troublesome to me. It's a basic need to keep people warm and or when it's
hot to provide cool environment.
And it's sad to me to sit here in front of you and say, we're struggling with that. Something as simple
as that, that other people in their homes take that for granted. But in that facility, when I tell you
that the jail commander is trying to think outside the box and try to cool people down, for example,
this is the first time that I see putting a bucket of ice in a block so the people there could go ahead
and drink cold water.
Think about that. The urgency that I'm facing right now that we all are facing is very real. It's affecting
people's lives. It truly is. My main concern now that I never thought I would have to bring up is having
a heat stroke in the facility. That's real. So it's very aggravating to me that I have a situation that
I cannot control.
because of the age of the jail. So if you I mean if you've got your report in front of you and you go
to page four and that's when it starts talking about the physical plan and I'm not going to go through
all that but the sheriff hit on this a little bit but I want to expound on a little bit more when we
talk about infrastructure failures and. We could ask Dave to
tell you several things that happened here, but. You know, I think we're all pretty aware. Of of some
of the things that have happened there over the course of the time that we've been there, but I'm going
to go back to this weekend where we had this what they call heat dome or whatever. And the sheriff mentioned
this, but and I think you may have even received a copy of this, but. Mender given sent an email out
to his staff.
and gave them very specific kind of out of the box instructions about, OK, we've got an event here that
we don't have the ability in this facility to now control. And it was instructions on things to do that
we could do with the facility itself, not the cooling system and the way we manage that.
to help cool off or help these people maintain a reasonable body temperature. In one of those emails,
he outlined the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Then, hey, keep a close eye on anybody
to make sure if you see these symptoms present, then
we want to be aware and take immediate action, because as the sheriff said, someone experiencing that
can deteriorate very rapidly. Kyle, you want to talk a little bit about just that event? And this is
not just about this weekend. It's a snapshot in time of what we deal with in that facility pretty regularly,
actually. Yeah, I can speak to that. One of the things that we did almost immediately was open up the
block as much as possible.
When I say the block, I mean the cells inside of it. So there is a time where inmates, we locked down
the facility midnight and we allow inmates to have proper sleep. We can't even lock inmates inside their
cell because it's 85, 90 degrees inside those cells. It's 75 to 84 degrees inside the block, depending
on the day. And, and Dave, and Chief Deputy Ambassador Dave, we have been in constant communication.
We have improved airflow. We have all the things that we can do, we are doing, but we cannot get to
those individuals inside the cell. It's just not possible. So what do we have to do? We have to compromise
the safety of the facility. We have to leave doors open. We have to leave massive fans inside of the
block. These are not safe decisions to make, but they are things that we had to do just in the care
of the individuals that we are tasked to house.
So it's not just putting ice in there. It's not just putting a fan in there. It's constant checking.
It's literally hour by hour checking on every person we have in the facility. And this is not just a...
We could talk about heat or we could talk about the multiple cells that have their block wall literally
crumbling that Dave's gonna have to get steel reinforcement for. When they say the facility's failing,
it's failed.
And we're holding it up. And when I say we're, I mean ASI, Dave and his people, and our staff trying
to make it happen daily. So going back to just a little bit more information on this, as you see there,
we've had REQAW come in there and do a study of that jail.
I think that was like an 186 page document. I know it was great when I couldn't go to sleep,
I read it. All documented in studies that this county has asked to be and they have told us over and
over and over about these issues. And then though I think the worst
There's things worse than being told, hey, your AC system is completely inadequate. That's a bad thing
to be told. The worst thing to be told is your AC system is completely adequate, and there's no way
to fix it. That's the worst thing. And that's what we ran into this weekend. There was nothing more
that could be wrung out of that system to cure this problem. So what do we have? I can tell you what we have.
staff right now and and Kyle can how can attest to this they're being inundated with grievances from
the facility about the facility and rightfully so but there's a thing that we call in our line of work
it's called a clue and what the clue here is
is those grievances are protest the condition of that facility, but they serve another purpose. And
that purpose is to satisfy the administrative remedies of going through the grievance process to get
to litigation. Mr. Madera knows exactly what I'm talking about here.
So the clue here is, for us, is we're not just living on borrowed time. This litigation is coming our
way. And hence, that also weighs into what we're here to talk to you about. We are in an imminent situation.
I believe that. I know the chair believes that. I know Kyle believes that we wouldn't be here. Can I
add to that? And we're all very well of
the mold issues we've been experiencing. But when you have bodies stacked on top of bodies and the heat
is trapped and the moisture is up, one problem begets another. So it's so hot in there, that now it's
becoming moist in there. And it's sitting there and that's gonna require us to move people, just like
we've already experienced, which is an incredibly unsafe endeavor. Okay, getting back to another heart
of the matter here,
When does overcrowding occur? I'm going to go back to this 294. Overcrowding occurs not so much when
your bed count reaches 294. We go back to this functional capacity, right? So when you're overcrowded
on a functional capacity basis,
The first thing that goes by the wayside is your ability to classify. And this is a downward spiral.
So you're over functional capacity. You lose your ability to properly classify. And when you lose your
ability to properly classify, you start marching towards this unconstitutional care problem that
we are eminently facing here. And I can tell you right now, one of the most nightmarish scenarios in
our facility right now is the ability to properly classify. And if anybody. And for that. My door, my
office door is open. It really is. And if they have
an argument that the inability to properly classify does not march towards unconstitutional care, I'd
be happy to hear that too. Because they are linked, they will, if it will ever be linked. And of everything
that we're here to talk to you about, that is the crux of the matter. It truly is the inability to classify
and take out
the facility failures, all of that. They lend to it, don't get me wrong, but that's the heart of the
matter. And we speak a little bit about that on page nine in section D there. So I think we've gotten
to the point where we've kind of expressed
what the problem statement is here and what the urgency of that problem statement is. So going back
to what we're gonna talk about here is we've talked about functional capacity, we've talked about the
physical condition, now we're gonna talk a little bit about the solution. And none of these issues are
easily solved. They take a tremendous amount of effort
They take a tremendous amount of thought, care, compassion, financial resources, but most of all, I
would like to stress that the thing it takes most is all of the people responsible for county government
recognizing
Pulling together and understanding this is not about this officer, that officer, what this office wants
and this office wants. It's about the people who are living and working in that facility. And if we
can't do that, we have got to be the most dysfunctional family on planet Earth. I know I worked out
in that heat a little bit over that weekend.
And then we lost power at my house for eight hours, right in the middle of that. It was beyond miserable.
I mean beyond miserable. So, I lost it for eight hours and we were calling the power company and complained.
The individuals that were working in there and living in there didn't get to call anybody.
I went down to my son's house. They ain't got to go to their son's house. They stayed right there, and
Kyle did everything he possibly could, but it wasn't enough. So that is our responsibility. That is
our charge, and it's not just the sheriff's charge. It's the commissioner's charge. It's everybody's
charge. But right now, it's these two bodies that have to start it. So that's, again, a little soapbox-ish,
So let's talk about transport operations. I have, I think I'm the only one sitting at this table that
has some experience in this, the other facilities that I've worked in. So first of all, let me make
something really, really, really clear. This is not just about court transports. That's part of it,
but it is not even close to being all of it.
So as you'll see there, we and I'm not going to go through all these, but it's it, you know, it's. I,
you know, let's say we've got someone in Green County and it's time for an attorney conference. Guess
what we gotta do. We gotta go get him. We're gonna bring him over here and talk to his attorney. We're
gonna take it back. So. You know, we have lots and lots of medical transports in our facility. We all know
about the issues of our population. And those are real in there every day. And they never stop. They
don't stop because 4 o'clock comes, I can tell you that. So when we're talking about a transport operation,
make sure we understand that it's not just courts Monday through Friday, 8 to 4. We're going to talk
to you about a 24-7 operation that must go on not in one facility,
but possibly up to four different facilities. And I think that has to be noteworthy, because I can hear
the voices now. Well, you're doing medical transports now. You're doing all of these things now. But
we're doing an amount of one facility. And I think there's a real strong possibility that we'll be using
at least two, if not three, if this plan comes to fruition.
as again you know there there are so many different things medical appointments hospital admissions
mental health evaluations all of those things will continue none of that will stop and what the chief
is talking about is the known what i worry about and constantly is the unknown if something happens
in another facility that is not here and it's an individual that we supposed to be housing well guess
what we're still responsible
And we still have to go over there and deal with the situation as well. Or what if that sheriff says,
you know what, I don't want your people anymore. Now what? So things that we are considering and talked
about for quite some time, which could happen once we go this route, which in my opinion, we have no
other choice at this point. So relisting certain things to
make the point that don't think it's just for corporate transportation only, but there's other things
that we might not even be aware of this at the present time that we haven't discussed as of yet. I'm
going to give you a perfect example of what the sheriff just talked about. And I don't know this because
I lived it. I'm not going to get real into, okay, we're asking for this, this, this. I'm going to, I'm
going to tell you what it entails.
And then somebody later down the line is going to have to figure out whether we're going to fund it
or not. And we're going to have to justify these numbers and these personnel requests at some point
in time. And we know that. And we're prepared to do that. And we're happy to do that. But a large scale
transport operation, I can't even begin to tell you how chaotic it gets. And I want you to just walk
you through this.
So I'm going to use courts just for purposes of this conversation. So we receive from the courts, hey,
we need these people in court on this date at this time. So those individuals more than likely are spread
out through the entire facility.
Let's imagine that we have 30 people going to court. And 10 of those are right here in this facility.
What has to happen is there has to be a group of people that go up and rustle them up and get them down
and get them prepared to go to court, get them searched, get them handcuffed, all of those things that
has to happen.
Now, adding to this, we're going to have to have a list of, oh, Bill's in Greene County, Joe's, he's
in Morgan County, and now we've got three other locations. So organizing that and making sure that we
are prepared to go transport those individuals back takes
an immense amount of planning and execution. And it can't be done without individuals that are handling
the planning part, handling the liaison part, because guess what, you just can't show up at Greene County
and say, hey, we're here to get bill. You got to call Greene County and say, we're coming to get bill
and we need we need bill ready.
And we're gonna be there at 730. And those are all things that are gonna have to work out in something
we're talking about here a little bit later. So I don't know if I'm laying the groundwork. But I think
you're kind of getting the drift that the planning of this, there can't be misses. And you have to know
where that bus is going, you're gonna have to know who's driving it, you're gonna have to know who's
gonna be on it going down, you're gonna have to know who's gonna be coming back, because you've got
a plan for if you have some type of emergency, if you have an escape attempt, all of those things have
to be thought of before that person puts that vehicle in drive and heads to wherever they're going.
There's another layer to that, that now we have to think about, and the commander probably are telling
this better than I can,
the concern of safety now. That's a big issue for us. Because now we try transporting the person from
point A to point B, point B to point A, and we have to worry about safety. So when we talked about this,
we were looking at it from lenses that other people don't have because they're not in this profession.
We are, we have to see it from this point of view.
So now there's something else I won't have to worry about. Which I tell you this, I don't take lightly
because I don't want an officer, correction officer, and for the sake of the person who's transporting
getting hurt. I don't want that. So here we are. So when we talk about transportation, it's not an easy
task, not at all.
Getting back to the staffing, I think if any person's probably going to look at, all right, we're going
to need someone to oversee this. And so let's talk about the operations captain. So we have captains
that run shifts in the jail. And how many people do they have under their supervision at any one given
time? 20 to 15, just a pound shift. So here we go. We're looking at a transport division here.
I don't think anybody that is involved in any type of business or police agency or any type of organization,
everybody understands that you've got to have a point man that makes it all happen. So that's kind of
what this person is. So the reason I ask Kyle that question is because not only is this person going
to have about the same amount of people roughly that they supervise,
They're going to be supervising them in a much, much larger, unsecured, unpredictable environment that
has multi-facets of points of failure that they're going to have to predict and plan for and make sure
that the people that they are sending out every day are on point with what they're doing and where they're
going and all of those
all of the things in between that one. Turns into a huge, huge issue. So unless you all have questions
as we get done with our presentation, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that because it kind of
makes sense that you've got to have supervisors and you've got to have officers to do it. I want to
spend a little bit more time on the two additional
jail officers and the jail sergeant. And I'm going to switch from court transports now to functional
capacity transports. So if you're transporting 20 people out on a functional capacity transport, you've
got your staff working in the jail. And I will tell you right now, I go into that jail pretty frequently.
And I see those those corrections officers scurrying about
you know, doing jail checks, responding to the services, making sure meals get passed, all of the things
that I'm not gonna list here. So now we throw in this layer, we got 20 people that have gotta go to
wherever. What cannot happen is we say, okay, you two, I want you to pull off the jail checks you're
doing because you gotta get these people ready for transport. We have to have people specifically
That's their detail for the day, where you're going to go get them ready. You're going to go bring them
down to the blocks. You're going to get those people ready for transports because your transport officers
are going to be down there once they arrive to handle the handoff and to check the list. Because if
you start stretching that, where you've got the same officer trying to manage all that, you're going
to make incredible
incredible expensive or detrimental mistakes so there's some things you can shortcut this is not one
of them the other thing i want to talk about is you'll see that there's clerical support and if you
go to section f i want this to make sense to everybody
Because it's okay. Well, what do you need clerical support? You've you've got people there, you know,
you've got what three people back there handling the clerical part of the facility. But I want you to
look at that laundry list and Section F that these individuals will be handling. And if that's not being
handled. The per diem billing.
If we got people housed in Morgan County, and we're not paying attention to that, they're going to give
us about a 10-day grace period and say, hey, we're not feeding these people or housing these people
free. You need to come get them. And we're going to sour a relationship that we desperately need right
now. I don't want to go through all of it. Medical records, when you send someone out, there's an Indiana
Administrative Code that talks about
when you ship sending someone to another facility. And does it make sense? If you're going to send someone
to another facility, it's kind of important that they know what are the issues with this person if they
have some. What medications are they on? All of those things, the things that you don't think about.
It's not as simple as handcuffing someone, turn up the radio, and taking a leisurely drive to Greene County.
All of these things are incredibly important things that, as we have put together this document, we're
trying to cover all the bases. And I'm fearful that we haven't, because it's an intimidating event to
plan for and know that you've got to do it every day without fail.
Because what are we used to? We're used to going to our facility and everybody's there and we deal with
it. And it's no longer gonna be that way. We're gonna be dealing with several outside facilities. The
thing for us that I'm thankful is that I have Chief Parker here because he experienced this before in
another facility that he worked before. For me, I'm not gonna speak for Kyle, for me this is brand new.
I'm leaning on the chief heavily here. I'll say. I'll say. Heavily here so we can make sure that we
cover all the bases. But as I'm learning, I'm seeing certain things from a different lens that I never
thought about before. And I'm happy that he has experience with this.
because the program that Kyle put together, the system that he put together, works really well in one
facility. I mean, I watched the correctional officers go out to the cell blocks and bring them in. I
watched them take them to the courtroom. I watched them bring them back, and it runs very well. My turnout,
okay, and I'm glad we have Chief Parker here that experienced before, and he could guide us to the rough
spots here, but it's still something brand new.
And the caveat for me is that we deal with people's lives here. That weighs on me. Because now, in the
situation that we find ourselves in, there is no other choice. There is none. So I hope that people
truly understand the gravity of this, that we didn't come to this very lightly.
But here we are. And again, and I'm not saying because he's here, it would have been a whole lot tougher
for us to do this if he wasn't, because he's been through this before. I have not. And let me add to
that, because we're talking a lot about outside housing and what it'll take to make it happen. Our current
transport needs are 24 hours a day as we sit today. We have two vehicles that are gone.
literally all day and through the night. We have dedicated officers that are already to those transport
divisions. We are an agent of the court. We transport people who aren't even inmates in our facility.
This is a nonstop operation and to add 50 or 60 people, depending on where we're at with our population
for transports, if this is gonna be, I look forward to the challenge. That is me being funny because
this is not
that's not going to be sustainable in and of itself. So before we move into the appendix about the cost
estimates, I did want to cover kind of the last part of this a little bit where it says actions necessary
to maintain constitutional operations. And if you think about it, it's all common sense here. So what
have we talked about? Maintaining our population at or below our functional capacity. That's on us.
We can't do it without the other bodies of government coming together. And that's our plea today. Part
of that is, like I said, initiating this housing and funding. And so all of those things, we need to
make sure that while we're going through this, we don't lose sight of we're sitting here telling you
how it's going to affect us. Well, there's another population that this is going to affect, and it's
those individuals
that are being transported. So it's going to be different for them too. So we have to keep that in mind
too. So we've got to make sure that we continue to watch very carefully. And we've even proposed, and
that's a completely different topic here, but to enhance our medical and mental health services. This
is going to be a tough role
for everybody involved that occupies that facility. Employee, resident, visitor, you name it. It's gonna
be a tough role. And it's unfortunate, but I think we're gonna be on this for a longer period of time
than any of us once suspected that we would or to have hoped that we would. And that's just the cold
hard facts.
But we can't ostrich management this. We can't just stick our heads in the sand pretending like it's
not happening. We got to deal with it. So this is the commissioners here that I always ask is that we
continue to stabilize our infrastructure to the extent that we can. Dave is a tremendous help to us.
I know that Dave does things that aren't always in his job description.
helps us when he can. But there's some things that he's got no control over. I talked to Dave on Friday.
I think it was July the third. And I'm sure he had other things planned besides trying to figure out
how to put a Band-Aid on the cooling system of the jail, but he did it. And he's spent a lot of time
doing it, too.
As we conclude this part of it, I want to make sure, I think it's important that we go back through
the process that the sheriff started with here. Because, you know, I've been around government long
enough to know that sometimes your intentions can be misinterpreted. And our intention here today is
nothing other than attempting
to get ourselves to where we have a long-range plan for the next few years to provide constitutional
care. There is nothing subversive about it. There's nothing political about it. And I'll challenge anyone
who says otherwise. So we came here because this is the first stop. This is the commissioner's ball
right now. We stop here. You're the county executive. Indiana code says that you shall establish and
maintain the county jail.
uh, code says the sheriff shall take care of the, the persons therein. So this is a, this is a relationship
that's closely tied. So that's why we're here today. Uh, Kyle has spoken with judge Decoff yesterday.
She is, she is not surprised. We don't want her surprised. She is an invaluable partner to us and we
will now move to dialogue with her and the board of judges
as the second phase of this now must take, it moves to the forefront now. Once the Board of Judges gives
us direction and guidance, we'll approach the council. This document is now a public document. And again,
we're taking this in steps. So I hope no one reads anything other into it
this is the way that we plotted out that we thought was the best way for us to move forward. So I'll
tell you this too. That you'll see right on the front of this cover. Sheriff is a very transparent guy.
He will tell you something whether you like to hear it or not. But this document will also be provided
to the ACLU. It's important to them.
for them to see what we're trying to do here. What are we trying to do secondary to this? We're trying
to show that this county is making an effort to resolve the issues that are of great concern to the
ACLU. So I think it's imperative that we all share this document
and share the same mission. We may have different interpretations of how we get there and we'll be working
through those over the coming weeks. I'm sure from I'm missing anything on this part of it. No, no,
it's it's we laid everything out that we could. Again, like the chief mentioned, we came to you first
because you are the executive body of this county. I intentionally mentioned the year of that facility.
I intentionally mentioned what is when it was built.
the big capacity was. And if you compare to where we're at now, it's not sustainable. It's just not.
And at this point, with new statutes being applied, we know what's coming towards us in a sense of the
numbers are going to go up. So times of urgency at this point,
When I took over, even back then, I was saying, hey, we got to move fast on this. We have to move fast.
And I remember saying that multiple times. And I know for a fact that some people got upset at times
when I kept saying that, but here we are. So we have no other choice but to work as a team here, and
all of us have a certain role to play to make this work. So I'd be more than happy to answer your question,
unless Kyle you have anything else you want to add? Yeah.
a lot of talk about what's going to happen, what property we're going to have, what services we're going
to provide, what the facility is going to look like, whether we're going to bring the courts with it.
At the end of the day, and this is what the sheriff was just saying, since the very beginning, people
have talked about what's going to happen, and a lot of people are talking about what's happening. And
we refuse to look past the needs of the people inside of that facility. We refuse. And we've done everything
we can, and we're here now
you know starting this project saying we've done everything we can now we need help. Entertain your
questions here just real quick on the appendix a the fiscal part of this. The first thing I want to
say is you will see disclaimers and explanation and the word estimate used all over this document because
it was put together by a bunch of dumb dumbs that don't know a whole lot about.
about dollars and cents and adding and stuff. So ciphering, as they say in Greene County. So all we
wanted to do with this document was give a baseline of what we're proposing and what we think will be
the fiscal impact of that. Because I don't think there's anything worse than someone coming in and say,
hey, we want this.
that's kind of up to you. So we put this together. We tried very hard. To look at all of the contingencies
that are in the plan. That required equipment. Personnel fuel maintenance all of those things- but again
their maintenance other their estimates. So I really.
fine-tooth comb, but if you go to the left. We just kind of we wanted to talk about the the cost to
get this thing off the ground because that's that's going to be where the rubber hits the road for us
is how fast we can do this. So if you'll notice there's a range of you know 14 to 17 employees there's
there's a range of different
things in there so you'll see those ranges described in there but on that on the seven year number seven
there and you'll see it in the footnotes but I just I wanted to. I wanted to touch base on it that that
covers you know staffing housing the fleet. The fleet equipment there's things that go in the vehicle
that are different than the things that go on the person that covers fuel and maintenance and personnel
equipment so it we we tried to
We try to think through and think through every contingency. But where you're gonna see those ranges,
you'll see there's a range of number of officers that we're proposing. Obviously where they're housed
is going to affect the fiscal impact of that because different facilities charge a different per diem
rate. And there's nothing we can do about that. That's up to them. And it's gonna depend on the number
of people that are housed. So there are unknowns in there right now.
that we just had to make estimates on. We're all ears. Okay, thank you. Yes, just to confirm, so we're
talking about classification suddenly because the settlement agreement was dismissed, and it wasn't
an issue before because that sort of non-technically gave us a pass. We did not have to constitutionally
classify while the Richardson settlement agreement was in place. Is that a correct understanding? Well,
and Kyle, you may want to address this more than me, but just for me, I will tell you this. Notwithstanding
the settlement agreement,
We're required by Indian administrative code to have a classification system. And since the day we walked
in the door, classifications because of that facility and the numbers of people in it and the way it
was designed originally has been an incredibly difficult issue with us. And Julie, I think you'll remember
we actually came in here and went through an exercise about classifying
and it got pretty chaotic just in this very room. So Kyle can probably speak to that better than me.
Here's how we could look at it. Based on the day, our housing is built on our needs. It's not always,
this is minimum, this is medium, this is maximum, this is administrative, secretary. Imagine in your
house where your living room is, well, tonight it's gonna be your bathroom.
and tomorrow your kitchen's gonna be in your bedroom. You're gonna make that work in your house and
we have to do that every day with 260 people. We're constantly moving people. They can never get set
up. Times change, kiosks times change, visits change. All this stuff is in constant change. And when
you don't have anything that you could work from a foundation, it's complete chaos. And I stood in this
room and said,
last year, you know, what's it going to take for something devastating to happen? And that's what we're
having. Let me let me say one thing to clarify that a little bit. Let's assume the private settlement
agreement was still in effect. We'd still be here. It. And I talked about the convey the congruence
of those those two things. The facility still aged, our population still went up, we'd still be here.
Does that help, Commissioner?
Absolutely. Thank you so much for that clarification. I think the other question I had is sort of like
a hodgepodge question of a variety of things that have been in the public discourse lately. And I just
wanted to establish for the public that when these transfers start, that does not make the
jail constitutional suddenly, that there are other things that go into making the jail constitutional,
that now suddenly the ACLU litigation doesn't go away,
This does not sunset the problems, for example. That the problems are structural, that this suddenly
does not mean that we're making the jail constitutional. So part of this, I guess, question A is, is
there anything like bail practices, for example, that we can do to avoid this suddenly, that we're not
doing now? That would be question A.
part A of this question. And then B would be, what does it mean other than classification to provide
constitutional care? Well, the first part of that question, I would, I'm guessing probably better answered
by the judges. Yes. And I can add to that. It's bail. Who can get bail and when they can get it, which
has led to increased housing.
It's going to become, it has become more strict as of July 1, who can get bail and when they can have
it. So there are things, the judge's hands are tied. I just talked to Judge Decoff about this yesterday.
They are doing everything they can to move people outside of that facility where they can, obviously,
where safety permits. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to get people to that, even to that bond
status where they can even have the chance to leave.
I think that's one of the things and I appreciate the question that the public truly does not understand
and no fault of theirs. We do this profession, we do this job, so no fault of theirs, but like the jail
commander stated, the judges are doing everything they can. And to be honest with you, if they weren't
doing what they were doing, we would be in worse shape here.
ask more of them this is impossible at this point it's just it is what it is and that's one of the reasons
why we're in front of you right now because they have done everything and and like the jail commander
mentioned with some of the law that came out the statute some of their hands are truly tied so they're
doing everything that they can yes to answer the second part of your question yes um i i'm going to
point back to to the letters that ken faulk issued to mineral county government
He outlined those things. Just a few of them are your HVAC systems, our air handling systems, lack of
isolation cells, padded cells. He gave us a laundry list of things that caused him great concern as
to why our facility was
why he was looking at our facility so hard. So I think the best answer comes from the ACLU. I know one
thing we took at the heart when we got it. But again, there's only so much the commissioners can do.
There's only so much the sheriff can do and there's only so much the council can do because that facility
is what it is.
picked up dramatically. And the timing was right after attorney Ken Falk came and paid a visit and talked
to some of the, and he's doing what needs to be done. But also I do know that if you're going to go
further than the grievance, you gotta go to the process of the grievance first, then you will go beyond.
I really do think this is an educational part for a lot of people that are not aware of this. And again,
no fault of theirs. But this is something that we do constantly. And I assure you, this is not going
away. Well, thank you very much for putting on a notice. I have no further questions. I think your report
was exemplary. I think it was very detailed, very thorough. And I thank you for just putting together
something so professional on short notice.
And although you said it's been in the works, you know, thank you so just very much. Can I address something
on that right now, just for the interest of transparency? We've been working on this report for some
time. Yes. But that last night and I believe that we emailed that to the commissioners somewhere in
the arena of seven o'clock. Yes. Right.
Fiscal note attached to this was emailed today around seven AM. So I only wanted to bring that forward
so that everybody knows that. We haven't been sitting on this and just sprung it on the commissioners
to come in here and do an update. We literally finished it last night and we literally sent it last
night, right? So. You know, there are some
There are some things that we hope the commissioners take out of this, and we hope that the commissioners
will give us some feedback to that. But I just I thought it was important to let everybody that's listening
know when this report went into final draft and when we dropped it in your lap and gave you a like,
I don't know, less than 12 hours to figure it all out or just over 12 hours.
I think my feedback would always be, you know, thank you for your transparency. Thank you for coming
forward and always feel free to bring forward whatever you need because it's our job as commissioners
to support you. Thank you. I do have a question and bear with me because I probably ask it wrong because
this is not my area of expertise, but is there a certain funding from your point of view that could
help us accomplish what we're trying to accomplish here? Is there funding out there somewhere?
There is the correctional lit. Obviously up to the council to make a determination about funding for
any of this. And so it's that money was supposed to be set aside for the justice center project. And
I think that's why this is so painful.
because we talked about today, at the end of our meeting, we went through all the sites that we visited
and all the things we learned and what worked and what didn't. And we also noted that there are two
requirements for this Justice Center project, building a new facility, and that is time and space. And
you talk about time in a different way.
Because for you, this is about how long we're going to have to do this. And I think what the community,
and I can see all of the logistics here are crazy. I just kind of imagined as I read through the report
last night,
I just kind of imagine of all the things logistically that could happen. You know, you're halfway back
from Facility A and they're causing trouble and the Facility A says, come back and get them. We don't
want them here. You know, the medical stuff, everything else, it's crazy. So this underlines the time
constraints that we're under for sure.
Um, I think the correctional lid is it that I can see, but that's going to be up to the council to make
that determination and figure out how we're going to pay for this. Um, and I'm certainly not questioning,
um, anything that you have here. I guess, I guess what back to commissioner Madeira's question.
you know, what's different now than when we had the private settlement agreement? And the answer is
nothing, right? That is correct. Okay. In terms of why we're here, nothing. Yeah, you'd be here other
way. I think that's going to be the question people will have. I get it. I get it because I have seen
the poorest
walls in the cells that are like marshmallows. I know what this jail looks like inside. So that brings
me to a question. I know you talked about the heat and all of that. And clearly we were worried last
week to say the least. I mean, I spent part of Friday looking at information on all of this.
and conversations with Ms. Purdy, and then I sent a note to the president of the county council,
and I said, it may be that we're gonna be moving inmates today, and I don't know what the cost is gonna
be, but I wanted to put her on alert. So here's the thing. Without talking about the heat, because the
heat is one thing, it's gonna be cold in six months, and we're gonna wish we were back in the heat.
My question is, what makes this an emergency? And maybe this is a question for Mr. Roddy to address
because we do have a resolution in front of us to consider. And it does use that word emergency. And
I think I just want clarity as to
Is it the functional capacity? Is it the condition of the jail? Is it the overcrowding? Is it all three?
And if it's all three, say that. I just need that clarity as we look at this.
Okay, so that was my second question actually is, does the court also have to recognize the same emergency
exists that we do? Okay. Got it. Right, right. That is why I was very specific when I talked about the
convergence. And to answer your question, quite frankly, it's all, it is the facility
the population, they have converged to the point now over the over the course of time that the that
all of those things have contributed to. We believe if we continue down this road, that we're we're
we're facing not being able to provide constitutional care. I jumped in there real quick.
And it's the age of the facility. It's not delayed maintenance. It's not a wear and tear of additional
bodies on the facilities. It's structural. The thing about this, because I hear some people say sometimes
you've got to keep maintenance up. Right. That facility has been opened. Yes. And what was it in 1983
when it was informed, sorry, people started being housed there. It hasn't closed since then.
constant 24-7. Exactly. Over the years, that place opened up. When you have your own home, you have
to make repairs, right? Or at a school, you have to make repairs. But you know what? It's not 24-7.
The school shuts down for a period of time. We do not. We don't have the luxury of shutting down for
holidays. Right. Or, you know, go on vacation. That building stays open 24-7. The wear and tear in the plumbing
for example. People say, well, replace it. Well, it's not that easy. Or just go ahead and rebuild the
whole place. Well, what do you put all the people in there? And for how long do you do that? So to be
fiscally sound and fiscally responsible, this is where we're at right now. Because if someone got forbid
in that place right now, something negative happens. Well, we're liable. The county will be liable.
Because we all know what needs to be done, and yet it has not happened as of yet. So when we're sitting
in front of you and we've been more than happy to answer any other questions you might have, we didn't
come to this conclusion, again, very lightly. And just because we're moving people doesn't mean it fixed
the problems of that facility. It still remains the same. That doesn't go away.
No one ever points to anything that was delayed. And so I just wanted to get that out there and establish
that is not the problem that is structural. It's the age of the facility. It's the continual use of
the facility. Yes, it is the initial engineering of the facility as well. The commissioners were forced
to build a facility that sounds so familiar deja vu all over again. Commissioners are forced to build
a facility. They weren't given enough money to do it. Yes, they built what they built.
we've been struggling to maintain it ever since. And it's cost a lot of money. That has cost a lot of
money. And ASI has done yeoman's work, Mr. Gardner, keeping things going. But you look at the administrative
side of that building, you've got pinhole leaks in pipes. I mean, it's crazy. That building is just
not, you can't maintain what
where we're at now. And it's not a lack of maintenance all along. It doesn't need a piece of carpet
and a lick of paint, as somebody once said. It needs to be replaced. And that's where we're going. And
that's where we're going. On that facility. It happens all day, every day, throughout the night. And
Dave's taking those calls at 12, 1, 2, 3 a.m. But here's what I'll say. It's not just the facilities
falling down around us. There are individuals inside that facility
specifically trying to destroy that facility. They're tearing up the plumbing. They're tearing up the
walls. They're tearing up the grates. They're plugging things up. The sheriff was talking about maintenance
on your home. Imagine if you had someone running through your house just destroying things. It's impossible
to keep up in a 24-hour operation. I want to talk about a couple of things as well. Is this document,
including the financial
Staffing cost estimates. Are these going out to the public yet? Have they been released to the public
yet? Then I'm going to say a couple numbers because I think the public needs to hear this. The estimated
cost for staffing is $1.68 million. This is an annual operating cost.
65 000 in fuel maintenance uh we haven't talked about the capital costs of acquiring additional vehicles
uh plus plus you also have um housing which ranges depending on whether we're at a low cost facility
and how many inmates at any time i'm going to just give the high and low range here just to ballpark
it so people hear it uh 2.2 uh sorry 2. yeah 2.2 million
for 50 inmates at a low cost facility to 100 inmates at the highest cost facility at 4.4 million. I'm
just throwing those numbers out so people can hear the enormity of the problem because when you do release
that, it's gonna be shocking. I will say that I will support
the resolution, which we're going to talk about in a moment here, because we've been going on too long.
But there are going to be hurdles to moving forward quickly. You do know that, right? You know that
getting a new job description through council, it's a very long time. So I don't know if there's any
way to utilize your existing job descriptions
let's do this as a new hire. Just throwing that out there for you to consider because you're gonna be
adding another month to getting this moving. I am surprised that one county facility, Morgan, has such
a high cost per day and the others don't. And I imagine it's because it's a newer facility.
I'm not sure, but that's something that's
expensive um it's higher than department of corrections indiana department of corrections charges per
day okay um and now i'm gonna throw something else out there because you you all put together numbers
i'm guessing they're you know because i don't know your current budget as well as somebody on the council
will or should um
So let me say this. I think there's going to be some work that needs to be done as we talk to these
local county facilities. I think one of the things we need to ask them is whether they are currently
using CCH as their medical contractor. Because I'm wondering if there is some way, because that's who we use.
if there is some way that we can avoid being double billed for medical, right? I don't know, I couldn't
find our contract. So I'm sure you do. So I don't know if we're being charged per inmate per day or
if we're, and if that's the case, then yes, we'll pay medical from another facility. I was just thinking
through all of those logistics as well. I used to be on the council, I kind of go that way.
There are 242,000 meals last year in the facility. That's from your report. That's a lot of food. So
that number is going to change, right? So I think there's going to be some give and take is my point.
On the medical side, on the food side, this isn't all just because the way this is written out, it looks
like we're adding 50 to 100 inmates
per day, per year, per day for the whole year in different facilities, but not taking into account that
the costs in our facility should be lower because there are fewer inmates. There is, I know there is
much more staff that's needed to do the transport and preparation and everything else, but that food
costs may go down and medical costs may go down and staffing costs may be
may go down I don't know or can a staff member be moved to another task I don't know that's all really
important stuff for you to decide internally not not something that I should be inserting myself into
but I just want to point out that the way this is written is you know pretty frightening six million
six point six million dollars
between staff and that's not the capital just between staffing and. High end staffing and facility stay
days. That should have another side it's not going to be six million that should have another side on
that balance sheet that also shows where your other costs may be lower because there should be some.
some lower costs involved there somewhere. So the court has to agree to the emergency and the functional
capacity lack. They have to agree to release inmates to other facilities, correct? Our job is to say,
we believe that there are functional and structural issues in our current facility that lead us to declare
an emergency and, right?
And we foresee this emergency is not, again, something I said early on, we agree that this emergency
is not because of the heat wave. We agree that this is an emergency that's going to last until we have
a new facility. Yes. Is that accurate? Yes. Okay. All right. I just wanted that clear. Is that because
of mismanagement and it's not because of...
anything that's been done in the past. It is solely because of the conditions of the facility and the
decisions that were made originally. Yes. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Really appreciate it. If you would
stay here for a moment, I'm going to... If you're okay with making a motion on this resolution. Yes.
I was gonna say, I don't have the number. We don't have the resolution number. Okay, that's fine. Right,
right. The title hasn't changed, right? Right, yep. I need to give the number necessarily? We'll just
say the number's gonna be.
like to approve a resolution twenty twenty six dash a blank a resolution of the Monroe County Board
of Commissioners acknowledging the Monroe County jail overcrowding emergency affirming the county's
responsibility to support constitutional jail operations and authorizing emergency measures to provide
for the safe and lawful housing of inmates. I will second that and because this was not published in
advance I do want to read into the record the that now therefore and if you all have any
concerns once I read through that, please let us know, okay? One, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners
formally acknowledges that Monroe County is experiencing a significant jail overcrowding emergency and
that the current jail facility continues to deteriorate, creating operational safety and constitutional
concerns requiring immediate attention. Two, the board acknowledges that while the Monroe County jail
contains approximately 233 general housing beds,
The sheriff's office has established a functional capacity of the facility at approximately 186 beds.
based upon correctional operational requirements. The Monroe County attorney or other designated legal
counsel for the county is asked to immediately assist the Monroe County Sheriff's Office in preparing,
negotiating and finalizing interlocal agreements, housing agreements, and any other contracts necessary
to house Monroe County inmates in surrounding county correctional facilities. Number four, upon completing
such agreements,
And following any required approval by Monroe County courts, the board commits to considering enacting
upon those agreements without unnecessary delay. So in other words, bring those back to us.
for consideration five manure County Board of Commissioners encourages county council to identify. The
county funder funds available to finance this emergency operational plan, including inmate
housing transportation medical and associated operational costs and to identify the current available
balances of such funds as part of the county's implementation strategy six.
The board affirms that these emergency operational measures are intended solely to maintain constitutional
jail operations, protect the health and safety of inmates and staff, reduce legal liability to Monroe
County and preserve public safety until a permanent.
the replacement correctional facility is constructed and placed into service. Number seven, Monroe County
Board of Commissioners commits to working collaboratively with Monroe County Sheriff's Office, Monroe
County Courts, and other affected government agencies to implement these emergency measures as expeditiously
as practical. Number eight, nothing contained in this resolution shall be construed as limiting or replacing
Monroe County's ongoing responsibility to pursue, finance, and construct a long-term replacement correctional facility
meeting the present and future correctional needs of Monroe County. Did I miss anything, gentlemen?
I think so. Okay. With that, let's see if there's any public comment. Well, probably I would like us
to ratify this at our next meeting, so this should go on our agenda. The next meeting is a ratification,
just to have that.
Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the
podium. Okay, seeing none, all those in favor of approving this resolution to be ratified next week,
signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero.
Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Sheriff Marte, Chief Deputy Parker, and Commander Gibbons, thank you
so much. Thank you for all you do and continue to do. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Not an easy job.
No. Reading through that document makes that very clear. And please convey our thank you to your staff
as well. Will do. Thank you. Planning staff, I feel like I owe them a huge apology because I said, ah,
this will only take 20 minutes.
And here we are way later. Planning has a petition for us to hear, and I hope they're still there so
they can share it with us. And this is the ordinance 2026-23 Tabor Owens Rezone on State Road 45. Who
is here to present? Mr. Myers?
commissioners meeting. We don't normally make you wait around this long, but we certainly appreciate
your patience and tenacity. So if you could tell us about, um what we need to know about this ordinance.
Um we would greatly
Can you see I'm sharing my screen? Are you all able to see the presentation? Yes. OK, first and foremost,
I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Raymond Tobiah. I joined the county as a planner to in February.
Today is actually my five month anniversary. I'm happy to be here. So just before getting to the petition,
I just wanted to formally introduce myself to you all.
I do not believe that I have met any of you all before, or maybe just by happenstance, I may have run
into you all, but I just wanted to formally introduce myself first and foremost. Thank you so much and
welcome. I have met you before because I'm on the Planning Commission, but Commissioner Medeira had
not met you yet, so we look forward to working with you. Thank you. So this is just kind of a quick
summary of the
petition here. I'll give a more detailed summary at the formal session for this petition. This meeting
is or will this presentation really just to give kind of a general overview, just some highlights as
well as give you all the opportunity to ask any questions or if you have any you know kind of follow-ups
that you would like to inquire about I'll be
wasn't happy to answer. So the petition is for a rezone. So the property at 3695 West State Road, the
petitioner is requesting the rezoning from LB Limited Business to GB General Business. The purpose of
the rezone is to allow the use of a use, which is the Rosemont Fast Casual, to be permitted on that
lot. That use is not permitted in the limited business
zoning district but it is permitted in the general business zoning district. You'll see in the later
slides where that's outlined in our use table in the Monroe County Development Ordinance. Kind of the
big items to note is that there will need to be at the stage if this is approved, improvements that
will need to be made for what the petitioner is
Proposing that they are proposing a restaurant fast gas reuse ordinance stipulates that a site plan
review would need to be submitted for that. In doing so, they will have to make some improvements on
that lot. So that is something that will be addressed at that stage. Rezoning will increase the number
of uses from 60 to 85. So potential uses on that lot will increase. That's highlighted on page 135 and 137.
and the packet that was disseminated. Currently, there is a, well, it's in the process of being relocated.
There is a retail use, it's a mobile home hardware that is actually being relocated as we speak. And
the planning commission actually forwarded a positive recommendation by a vote of seven in favor, zero
against, and one abstaining.
at the July 16th, oh sorry, June 16th planning commission meeting. Moving forward. So most of the zoning
districts in the vicinity surrounding the subject property are also zoned either limited business or
general business directly to the east, north and south. It's their zoned general business as well. So
it's consistent with the
Zoning in the area, the reason on request that is, there are two buses in the vicinity and West State
Road 45 is in Indiana Department of Transportation maintain a roadway. So they will need to receive
approval for any commercial driveways from the Indiana Department of Transportation. So that'll be the
state. There is the Walmart in the vicinity.
to the east of the subject property. That is a major commercial use there. So that's just something
to keep in mind moving on. So these are the definitions of limited business and general business per
our county development ordinance. And there's also the definition of a restaurant fast casual use. And
this is the definition of the drive-throughs and accessories per our county development ordinance as well.
So this is the use table that I pulled a snippet from our county development orange. As you can see,
restaurant fast cash was not permitted in the limited business zoning district, but it is permitted
in the general business zoning district and the drive-through as an accessory use requires a conditional
use in both those zoning districts. But if they were able to have the properties on general business,
they will not only be permitted for the restaurant fast cash use, but they will be able to
pursue the drive-throughs and assess reuse and the general business zoning district as well. These are
the location map and zoning maps as you can see. On the map to the right, most of the property surrounding
the subject property are the zone general business. This is a site condition map. You can see the access
points, the ingress egress there to the north and to the northwest.
And this is the comparison of the site conditions from 2005 and from last year, 2025 for Eagle View
imagery. As you can see, since the Walmart was constructed adjacent to the property, there have been
some improvements made. Some of the notable ones are that turning lane leading into the Walmart parking
lot, as well as the sidewalk there
the north or sorry the southwest portion of the lot amongst other improvements. So one of the biggest
changes in the rezone will be really increased in the purpose cover. This lot is located in the Sinking
Creek critical watershed so they there are a few changes that will be made as far as their dimensional
standards. Most notable was
what I just mentioned, the increase in the perverse cover as well as the changes in the maximum height
for the primary structure, the accessory structure. And this is just kind of summarizing what I showed
in the first slide. Staff recommends approval for the rezone based on the findings of fact and the rezone's
compatibility with the comprehensive plan
that were included in the commissioner package. I will now field any questions you all may have.
All right, thank you so much. Do you have questions on this petition? I don't, thank you for the detailed
description. Yeah, I don't have any questions. I've heard this several times and I appreciate
the presentation. You did a great job, so kudos to you.
Thank you. Next the next step will be to have this presented at our regular meeting where you won't
be asked to wait so darn long to come on. I feel so badly about this, but I don't know if you've had
contact with the petitioner about when they would like to come in. Have they given you a date? No, first
thing we wanted to really do was bring it before you all and you know.
Yeah, really just first step was just kind of bringing it before you all. They didn't really, I think
they're just kind of fine with, you know, the process as it is, but they didn't really know any specific
dates that they wanted to, you know, have this. Okay. Okay, great. So we will not be meeting July 30th, nor
August 6. So we could either hear this on the 16th or the 23rd. Do you have a preference? Okay, we don't
have a preference. So if you want to reach out to the petitioner, we can do this next week or on the
16th and you just need to get the packet to Aubrey and she will get that into our meeting.
and it'll be at the end of the meeting, but not a work session. It'll be a regular. Does that work for
you? Yeah, I'll reach out to them and see which date works best for them. Perfect. Thank you, sir. Thank
you so much for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Mr. Rowdy, do we have anything
else for our work session which has now
two hours. That's awesome. Okay. All right. We'll talk. All right. Thank you, everyone. And with that,
we are adjourned.