- Welcome, everyone. This is the Long Term Finance Committee meeting. Today is March the 31st, a Tuesday
- at 1.30 p.m. here in the NatU Hill Room. And I want to acknowledge for the record that Councilmember
- Crossley has stepped down from the Long Term Finance Planning Committee. And as the president pro tem
- for the Monroe County Council, I will be filling that vacancy.
- Given that, I would like to call today's meeting of the Long-Term Finance Planning Committee to order
- this Tuesday, March 31st. I want to note for the record that we have Councilmember Liz Feidl in the
- room and Councilmember Marty Hawk is yet to join us. So we'll keep an eye out for her virtually or here
- in the NatU Hill Room. Does anybody wish to amend today's agenda? No.
- All right. In that case, since there's no changes to today's agenda, all those in favor of adopting
- today's agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. The motion carries unanimous.
- Next, we'll move on to the election of the chair. And since this is the first meeting of the long-term
- finance for 2026, we need to elect a chair and a vice chair. Councilmember Feidl, do we have any nominations
- for chair?
- you. I accept that nomination and, uh. Let's see. I think we need to now have a motion to well, let's
- do in turn here. A motion to accept this chair and so moved. All right. We've got a
- Any other comments? Looking here to make sure that Council Member Hawke is not present. All right, and
- we need to do a roll call on this. You're all present, I believe. All right, all those in favor of Peter
- Iverson as Chair of the Long-Term Finance Committee, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? The ayes
- have it unanimously. Next, I would like to nominate Council Member Liz Feidl as Vice Chair of the Long-Term
- Finance Committee.
- do you accept the nomination? Yes. Excellent. In that case, I move to accept Liz Fiddle as vice chair
- of the Long-Term Finance Committee. Is there a second? Second. All right. Hearing a motion and a second,
- are there any other comments? Again, making sure that we don't have another council member on the line.
- All right, we don't. So all those in favor of Council Member Liz Fiddle as vice chair for the Long-Term
- Finance Committee, please say aye.
- Aye. All those opposed? The ayes have it unanimously. All right. Last thing before we get to our esteemed
- guests is the approval of the summary minutes. I move to approve the June 6th and August 1st, 2025 long-term
- finance summary meetings minutes as presented. Second. Are there any questions from the committee on
- these minutes?
- All right, all those in favor of approving the summary minutes as presented signify by saying aye. Aye.
- All those opposed, same sign. The motion carries unanimously. All right, now we're going to move into
- the meat of our conversation. The first item on our agenda is a presentation from the Monroe County
- Trustees Association. We have President, is that right?
- chair. I think so. All right. Of the Bloomington Township Trustee Efrat Rosser, we have Leon Gordon
- from the Perry Township Trustees Office and Rita Barrow from the Van Buren Trustees Office.
- So thank you, Township Trustees, for your presence here. The floor is yours. Tell us what we need to
- know. Thank you so much, Chair, Chairman, and to all the committee members and council members for your
- time and for being really proactive on these conversations.
- We know this will all sneak up on us and we want the public to be well informed and engaged and.
- you're leading the way. So I also want to acknowledge we have some colleagues joining us via Teams.
- I believe Michelle Bright, the Benton Township Trustee, Joan Hall from Salt Creek Township, and Scott
- Smith from Polk Township. And I apologize if I missed anyone. And while we're not here necessarily speaking
- as an official organization today, we're here as a majority of the members who've had a chance to come together
- around some of the information that we shared out with you in a packet. And if you don't mind, we'll
- just take you through it because I think we're just concerned about our future as it relates to some
- of the changes that the state mandated via SB1 and other legislation in the next couple of years and
- looking for your partnership to work through these issues.
- Countships, a real quick overview. We are the most localized grassroots layer of government in Indiana,
- where each independent
- government units that respond to our unique community needs and challenges. But the overarching themes
- are that we are sort of that safety net, and in a lot of communities, the only one. Here we have a more
- robust one, but we're often that final barrier between a resident in crisis and homelessness. So we
- like to say that we prevent evictions and homelessness every day, every week. We keep people
- safely housed with utilities and heat on. We provide food, we can provide assistance with certain medical
- needs, and we help pay for the burials of folks who may not have had the means to do so themselves.
- On the third slide, if you're following along, we did just want to put a chart together and I think
- I want to thank Rita for pulling this together. With the scope of all of our. Combined assistance to
- households and individuals in Monroe County so if you take the eleven townships and look at those totals
- at the bottom combined just last year
- is almost 2400 households and the value of that assistance is over 1.3 million and this doesn't capture
- all the case work.
- calls where people are inquiring about services, so information referral, as well as some other duties
- that we statutorily have. So that's the quick overview. And then I'd love to turn it over to my colleague,
- Leon Gordon, who put a lot of great work into digging into the financial picture and where we might
- go from there. So Mr. Gordon?
- Yes, thank you, and thank you all for having us today. As I mentioned, I wanted to take some time to
- try to paint a picture of where our financial landscape lies, where our money comes from. And so I'll
- start there and then kind of get into the scope of that landscape under the changes coming through legislation.
- And so township funding comes from three core buckets. That's property taxes, you know, the levies.
- Of course, the lit shares under the current system and smaller tax supplemental taxes like excise and
- vehicle commercial taxes. And so, yes, our goal today is to hone in on what lit shares have been for us and
- what we hope for them to continue to be. Moving on to the next slide, if you're following along, I chose
- to hone in on Perry's Township's numbers, specifically zooming in to give a clear picture of our financials
- with regard to how much we rely on it. As you could see, our property tax levy for 2025 is roughly 800,000,
- and our current
- Uh, lit baseline accounts for roughly, uh, 28, 28% of our, uh, operation, uh, operational revenue. Uh,
- so roughly about a third.
- of our operations relies on LIT to do the work that we do and the numbers that you see that are shared.
- And so if we follow along to the next slide, zooming out to, we paint the same picture for our counterparts
- and the landscape for contributions for property tax levy and then LIT
- as well as the other smaller taxes as well. What I thought was critical here is, again, that picture
- that that percentage of reliance holds true for pretty much all townships here. And so LIT has been
- pretty critical to our baselines of operations. And if you could see that aggregate number there for
- the total from this current distribution, it's 1.64 million.
- And so we honing in on that number as a baseline as we think about the future, as that's where we currently
- are. Moving on to the changes. And so what we understand, and the research that we've been digging into,
- we're placed in the bucket, of course, with the non-municipal civil taxing units and that restriction of
- of the total expenditure rate, which within our bucket townships have to share a maximum of 0.05% of
- that lit expenditure rate. And so doing the math, what we projected, and again, I'm a little disclaimer
- on the complete accuracy
- of these numbers. That amount translates to a maximum available pool of roughly 2.14 million available
- funds under the statute that is required by statute, the limit by statute.
- And so put up against what our current numbers are, we provided you with a figure for what our needs
- would be adjusted for inflation in 2028, which is roughly 1.77 million. All right. Follow that. Just
- kind of to bring it home.
- we're asking that take strong consideration to enact that total 0.05% percentage available to townships.
- This is in the context of all the other constraints and other recent legislative changes, of course,
- with the changes to how valuations happen and the property taxes that we're gonna be able to
- recoup and also the distribution
- that we have a strong base line to seek to do the most good with with with each other. In terms of making
- sure that every. Resident moral county has access to hardship relief. And I'm
- speak just a little bit more on the landscape of change with regard to additional changes that we're
- expecting as a reason to again advocate for that full funding. We understand that the implementation
- of SB or Senate Enroll Act 270, the township merger is coming to fruition and by December 31st we'll
- know ideally if there's going to be any force or mandated
- merging and so in that within that scope. There's additional changes on the horizon for the merger with
- Richland Township.
- and Alexville that will significantly impact distribution formula and the math involved with that.
- And again, as I mentioned, the per capita distributions. And so as we navigate that change, we're hoping
- that we can anchor down on having your support to the maximum amount as possible with the idea of that changing.
- it's evolving, and we hope to remain present to do the work that we do. And I will move now to turn
- it over to Rita, who's our veteran here among us, to just again speak to the importance of townships
- and why we would hope for your continued support.
- I'm Rita Barrow, Van Buren Township Trustee. And what I'm about to say to you does not really have any
- impact on one, anything they've said other than what we do. As trustees, we don't look at it as an elected
- official. We look at it as a job for our constituents. Therefore, we go through as
- I want you to understand. Everyone has said what we do each day. What I want you to understand is. We
- have an office. We have an office with an open door. Individuals come in and some of their situations
- in the positions and.
- and talk with them one-on-one and we get them to understand that with us we can help certain things
- and there are other things that we can help them with or direct them to. But things like individuals
- that come in with a disease that they are looking for disability and still haven't received it
- sometimes years later. So we are looking at them, we try to keep them as close as we can without overspending
- on just one individual. We have families to come in with no income because they've lost their jobs,
- they've been evicted. And so now they have no place to go, no food to eat,
- their clothing, heaven knows where it comes from and what it looks like. Another thing, tornadoes. And
- as you guys know, we have had these issues. So we, again, are out there. For individuals, we help with
- Red Cross and us to try to get them into some place until they can get the insurance
- and get started or find a place that they can rent for just a short time. We use our budgets to be able
- to continue our jobs and to our residents. Like I said, we'd like to help with other departments, hoping
- that those individuals will help us as well.
- The LID funds we received allows us to place more of our budget into township assistance instead of
- township general or any other fund, in turn, keeping our team members, our employees in a job, a facility
- to work in, have a place for them, for individuals to come in that's needing help, in addition to keeping
- our lights and utilities
- whatever else we have to do, insurance. In closing, I just want you to realize that we as trustees place
- our residents first before anything else, and I would be very grateful for the County Council to consider
- and continue providing LIT to use for my and your constituents. Thank you for allowing us to speak and
- your consideration
- 1.05 in advance to continue to help townships. Thank you. Any questions? Well, before I go to my colleagues,
- were there other township trustees online that had further comments? I believe we worked this out together,
- but I certainly, if you want to pause and offer opportunity, I may have missed someone in my introductions.
- Yeah, if you want to raise your hand on teams, if you are a township trustee and you'd like to add further
- context to the data that was shared, that would be a good time to do so. All right, seeing none, let's
- go to my council colleagues for questions and comments. I think I'm okay for now, but I'll continue
- to listen and see if something comes up.
- Mike down please. As you might know I do have questions and I apologize for not being here on time but
- then you know my name is Marty and I'm like wherever I go I do too much one day can't do it. I'm seeing
- that 0.05 and I'm trying to figure that out because I know that Liz and I are going to get further updates next week
- when we go to the AIC meeting. It had been written before, so maybe things have definitely changed,
- but it was supposed to be that the townships would be in the .02. So maybe this has all changed, something
- new to me, but I've questioned it and so far I haven't seen the change. It's 1.2 for county operations,
- it's .4 for fire
- and EMS and 0.24 townships. Now, we can't do 100% of all that because we can't do any more than a certain
- amount. We can't do any more than 1.7. So in order to hear you and
- We also need to hear from the fire departments to see how that's going to work out and also to hear
- from the library. But the big sticky point here is going to be from that Bloomington transportation
- because they've already said they need all of the point two. And part of the legislation says that if
- we should pass something that is higher than it is supposed to be, that they will take first from
- the option one which is the 1.2 to operate county government. So this is for anybody to promise anything
- right now would be a real mistake because we really don't have the numbers. Now I see our county legal
- department getting up, I thought maybe he was, well I saw Jeff going that way, thought maybe he was
- gonna correct me on that. And I'm willing to hear corrections because I don't know what is the point of,
- What is the .05? Had you already explained that and I missed it? I'm sorry. I think as a simplistic
- way of saying it, there are different pies within that 1.9 that you all have to figure out with different
- caps, right? And we understand that we may be falling under one that includes the special districts,
- but our current understanding is that within that townships alone would have 0.05. If that has changed
- or you see something different, I think that's why we're here is to just talk this out. We also are
- aware that you may be working with Reedy, right? Financial, is that fair to say that the county might be
- that we could all go in together. Engaging a consultant. No. Okay Well, I guess there was discussion
- amongst the group of if there is still analysis to be done that maybe we could all go in together. On
- you know, work through a consultant to really. Put a stamp on all of this, but we were where there's a
- in a part of whatever the point two is. But I hate to keep saying this, but we may not be able to do
- the point two because the fire departments say we really have to have the point four and we're trying
- to do ambulance service in there as well. Then the only place we could take it from would be county
- operations, which is where we have to pay for the jail debt.
- bond and I questioned that yesterday just to make sure we were still on track and yes, whatever we commit
- to for the bond and repay whatever the assets set within that 1.2. I know that may not be what you want
- to hear, but I think we all need to operate from this is where we sit right now.
- And now there may be those who say, well, look, let's go ahead and pass the thing that the city wants
- us to do, which is tax all the people who don't live in the city and send the majority of that money
- to the city. You might know that I represent people who are in more rural areas, and they're not gonna
- support that, nor will I.
- But that doesn't mean it might not pass. There's a small amount of that money that might be coming back
- to county government. So maybe they could figure out some way to move those dollars around.
- I don't know, but I would not want to count on that happening because there's gonna be a major pushback.
- That was what Senate Bill 1 was to begin with, was to quit taxing the people who live outside of
- where they can vote, you know, if they can't vote for how it's going to be spent. So I wanted to share
- that with you because I think we all need to be coming from the table of reality and then see where
- we go. I think we fully understand the dilemma you're placed in in terms of there's more
- the amount available to you to disperse, and you have some hard choices to make. So we can only be here
- as township saying you should. This is this is what we need. And in fact, more because we're barely
- keeping up some days with the demand out there.
- understand this the rest is sort of up to up to you to get pen and paper out and do that hard work and
- you'll have some difficult choices to make and there's a lot in motion like you said with the city and
- their choices then you have the Richland-Ellisville merger that might take Richland out of the pie that
- gets shared by township so I you know there's all these different things in play. And if I could
- Just reiterate, today is not the day to make decisions. We are going to take the data that you've so
- carefully put together and share it with our council colleagues, and this is gonna be built into the
- decision-making calculus that we'll make closer to budget time. But when, you know, I just wanna remind
- everybody that the timeline here is that you all had come to a county council meeting and said, we need
- to have this conversation
- Because this is happening whether you want it to or not. This is happening And so today is that day
- where we can put a finer point on this and and here we've got something to react to we've got that zero
- point five We've got that number one point seven seven million dollars. We've got lit reliance per township
- We've got service households number of households using your services. There's a wealth of information
- here, but I think
- Probably to there's two other aspects here that creates more uncertainty for me is number one is this
- issue of the climate. Are we going to be seeing more derechoes or we're going to be seeing more tornadoes.
- We saw a tornado in February for Pete's sake. You know so that's that's something and in.
- If population here continues to grow, which it is slowly, you're going to see more and more need. And
- so particularly then if there's going to be a merger happening after December, as you so finally put
- it, that's, you know, we just don't know. So. I think let me kick it over to Councilmember Fiddle. Do
- you have any further questions at this point? I'm not. I think.
- I think we have some tough decisions to make and I personally and I know my colleagues appreciate the
- information to work with to pass along your concerns and your desires to serve the people and that's
- really what I'm interested in is serving the people.
- Also, I know that you were hit by another part of that legislation that said, well, you know, now you
- know what I'm going to be talking about. If you've got any money setting aside in your capital improvement
- plan, I think it's what they call it, that my go-to
- filling potholes and so forth. And I understand the people, I'm not finding fault with people of the
- state. They're handed a lot of problems, so they're trying to work through each one how to fix it. But
- it's been many, many years. I think townships used to do more in the way of road maintenance. They don't
- now, but if they expect,
- So I know that you're working around trying to make sure your capital improvement plan's not leaving
- money on the table. I get it, that's what we do with finance. We have to figure out a way around everything.
- But I want you to know that we know that we're listening and we understand and you're the one that has
- to look at that person who needs help with their rent or their utilities or get the trees off of their
- roof that they can't afford to do.
- So I think I'll go on vacation and forget the rest of it. So I think in terms of next steps, obviously,
- Once we have more clarity on some of these things, you're always welcome to come back to the county
- council. We are going to be having these long-term finance meetings quarterly. So as we know more and
- more about some of the actions that the legislature took, we'll be deciphering more and more of that.
- And so you'll, of course, be welcomed back to bring updates as they occur.
- you're always welcome to please send any additional information you have that you think will be helpful
- for us as we're formulating our next steps. All right, thank you very much. Thank you so much. I would
- like to make a suggestion. Have you sat down and worked with the other units that might be pulling from
- this, like the fire departments, like the library, like the Bloomington Transportation? I'm just saying
- maybe you would. Yeah, not yet. I mean, I think we want to dig
- understanding between the 11 townships first and that that can you as you can imagine is is challenging
- to hold that many busy people together everybody's fighting over the same piece of cherry pie i'll say
- that was definitely our additional our initial approach and thinking about this but and then we learned
- about the additional caps for each individual entity within and
- those limitations, so we thought we had to definitely kind of get to the table with each other and understand
- our livelihoods were to sustain. We're here as partners, so let's continue to talk. Let's continue to
- work together. Thank you. Please let us know if you need any other information at any point. All right.
- We are going to move to next, the item on our agenda
- is we are going to invite let's see.
- our auditors to the table here. And you can come over here. You can stay where you're at, whatever works
- for you all. You've got your name plates over there. Why don't you stay over there? So we wanted to
- look at a couple of different data points. So Breanne Gregory is our auditor. Do you want to go ahead
- and walk us through what you've prepared? And then we can start asking questions. Sure. I'd love to.
- Good afternoon. Thanks for having us here today. So I just wanted to start off with review
- We have a little bit of a different template this year. We've consolidated so you can see data from
- the 23 to 24 period, 24 to 25, and then of course the most recent, 25 to 26 reversions. So the way this
- is organized, it's organized by fund, the department, because again,
- There are a lot of funds that have more than one departmental budget located there, as well as category,
- then organizational tools as well. So this just goes through budget by budget, so department by department
- and by fund, and just details what was unexpended at the end of the year. So as of 12-31-25, what the
- department did not use, what was left remaining in the fund that we budgeted.
- So we did consider encumbrances as well. However, for the most part, the county just budgets, so we
- don't encumber a lot. We only encumber bonds, for example. So in going through this, we are doing better
- than we have in previous years as far as budgeting more accurately.
- We do still have some work to do, but I think some of that, for example, personnel that was the category
- that had the greatest reversions overall. Particularly in the general fund, but I think some of the.
- policy choices that we've made collectively, for example, the hiring freeze, have allowed for the slow
- roll and, if you will, the savings of, you know, certain periods of time will save money then if we're
- not paying out during those periods. So I think that's part of the reason, even though we're budgeting
- a little bit more closely to need, we're seeing a greater reversion there.
- So before you go any further, is it possible to share the spreadsheets and entitled twenty twenty three
- twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five reversing report. Thank you. Like a chair, she has issues
- upgraded because I'm on as well. Either way. You ready to share?
- I don't think she has the permission if you wanna go. Oh, okay, yes, I can do it. TSD, please provide
- Carly Woodruff with permission to share her screen for the future. Oh, looks like she was just giving
- it, okay. Okay. Excellent.
- You should see the, yes, the revergent report has populated on the screen there. Okay, so again, this
- just goes through for selection funds, for example, all the levy funds are noted there, a handful of
- other funds that might be interesting to review. We did include some of those unappropriated expenses
- where like, you know, fund to fund transfers, for example, or there's certain instances where
- we don't require an appropriation for a state called meeting, for example, could be technically expended
- out of here, out of general fund, unappropriated. So anyhow, as I was saying, personnel is where we
- saw the most consistent higher reversions. Although we are doing better as a whole, there are still
- couple to few departments where we might be able to get that even closer if that is the will of the
- council to budget as accurately as possible. But we're providing this as a tool and you're welcome to
- ask questions or if we need to dig in deeper, if you have those more specific questions, we can provide
- a report with the detail as well. Council members, do you have any questions specifically about this
- reversion report?
- or personnel lines within it. Member Hall. I have to have time to study. Of course, of course. Please.
- Yeah, OK. So yes, and as you develop further questions or even members of the public, they can reach
- out to my office for more specifics, OK? So we appreciate that. And then I believe we would be moving
- on then to
- before we move on, can we go back? Can we look at the bottom line on the reversion report? Actually,
- I mean, you can see that, but this is only for a selection of funds. It's not like all of counties.
- So I don't think that's a great tool right there. I would like you to look at a fund by fund basis.
- Got it. Okay. So yeah, just to reiterate, this isn't all of county funds. This is a selection of funds
- that would be most beneficial for review.
- Is it okay to move on to the next? Okay, the next piece of information, I'd like to draw your attention
- to the Minner County fiscal overview.
- or I'm sorry, financial overview. This is a new report created by Ms. Woodruff over here, the financial
- director in my office. This is just kind of a top-level overview of where we are as of quarter one.
- It's actually as of 3-26, so we're not, we didn't quite get to the end of the quarter. I'm sorry, oh,
- it was updated 3-30, excuse me. So this shows you historical information, so 24, 25, and then as we
- are then in quarter one as well.
- So you can comparatively see the beginning cash balances, revenue totals as of the different periods,
- expenditure totals, ending cash balance in the ledger at those periods as well, and then just the changes
- there as far as the cash analysis. So right now we're pretty close to where we expect to be overall.
- Nothing glaring there in that top
- and then we have the levy fund box. We. Anticipated revenue versus actual revenue for levy
- funds specifically. And, um. Again, um. Pretty much what we anticipate there. There's no giant swings.
- Nothing glaring.
- And so that's why you see that. Obviously for twenty twenty six as we are only in quarter one. I mean,
- that's the anticipated versus actual is. Only you know, looking at quarter one, so that's why you see
- that number there that percent. As far as the expenditure analysis for levy funds. All that data is
- there as well. We've actually because of.
- we've been in the last couple of years, which. Um is great and kudos overall to all the departments
- for being very conservative. It's gone down a little bit each year. I see you, right? Mm hmm.
- And I mean, part of that comparative quarters. I mean, comparatively, yes. And obviously, you know, um,
- different things factor in, different times of year, we expend more for various reasons. I mean, you
- have to think about ARPA in the last couple of years as well and so forth. So, well, these are the levy
- funds, so that wouldn't come into play, but just things like that that occur, where we're expending
- more for a specific reason. I know that's a lot to digest, but does that kind of give you the overall
- big picture you were looking for, Councillor Iverson? I think this is really helpful.
- I think this breaks it down in a really easy to understand way where we've got that overview, revenue,
- and expenditures. As we know, we all love color on our reports, so thank you for including color. You're
- welcome. Just hearing what Councilmember Pytel just said, it's really quick to be able to look at this
- and say, oh, we're doing better. Every year we're doing better.
- we are under anticipating revenue and surprised and wonderful to see more. And then we are under budgeting
- for expenses. And that's been really helpful because then we're able to keep those expenses under control.
- Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I think just as we update this quarter to quarter, this will help us. It's
- just another tool to help identify any glaring issues or giant waves that we want to identify reasoning for.
- Council Member Hawke. Yes. This could be very helpful. What I'm looking for, maybe it's in here someplace
- and I just don't see it. But as we know, we have the levy funds that are inside that max levy. And that's
- really where I want to concentrate how much is spent down on each of those things. And that would not be under
- that are all within that frozen levy portion. So do you have that? Is that someplace here? And I'm not
- saying I don't think it is. That's not on this overview, but we can separate that out, perhaps for the
- next report. You get that in other ways, too.
- other reports that we do. However, we're happy to take your constructive criticism and adjust as you'd
- like to see it. The reason why is because we know during budget session, we were moving some of the
- levy over into general to help out general. And we also knew when we were doing that, we were going
- to have to replace it. So that's what we have to keep a close eye on is as we're
- working toward long-term, even long-term for next year's budget, is how much of that general fund levy
- will we need to actually move over into these other levy funds? So that's something we have to keep
- a close eye on. Absolutely, I agree. So as you were developing this report, did either one of you have any
- items that you thought of as potential recommendations to make to council as we're considering the next
- year's budget? Yes, that was actually going to be my next point as well. So we would invite the council
- to maybe collectively discuss a budgeting philosophy that we could work toward, meaning
- do we are we going to strive for a balanced budget every year or as we are working through these statutory
- changes are we you know going to have a deficit budget if we're going to have a deficit budget how far
- do you want to dig into reserves what is the capacity for that we need to identify the health of the
- funds and we can assist with that obviously to determine where we could potentially dig in what is available
- we also need to look at
- other revenue streams. For example, we know that we need to review the rate for lit special purpose.
- And we've identified that we'll need to have that rate. We need to raise the rate so it's effective
- beginning January of twenty twenty seven, just to ensure that we can support the budgets of our court
- partners that rely on that for juvenile services.
- And then you know what related to that you would also need to determine You know the health of the other
- lit rates, you know in the interim and so forth Excellent and clearly we are a subset of the broader
- council. So I think these questions are going to be really helpful to discern with the entire council,
- but clearly I mean, I don't know my colleagues have any questions or initial thoughts on a
- or something as grandiose as that. I definitely would like to hear everyone's input on that before I
- proceed with that, I think, philosophy. Yeah. I was reading what you were saying over here.
- It helps me. I really like this. Emily, it helps me too. Well, I think as we move forward,
- more truthful with ourselves, because we really want to see a rosy picture, and that's what we want
- to look for. And then we find out, like the state did, sort of at the last minute, they had to go, oh,
- well, I guess we're not in such good shape. And they start changing what the legislation says,
- and everybody's having to deal with it last minute. I hope that we don't have to do that sort of thing.
- I know that we,
- passed the budget much in deficit and the only way we did it was we moved a lot of expenses over into
- the economic development as well as that jail tax and we can't just take that back out because that's
- it's ongoing expenses so it isn't like as if we can't we have to project actually having revenue there long term
- to pay for that. One of it was over a million dollars. What was a million and a half or something for
- the medical contract with the jail? And that was are you saying yes? It's like there was that one and
- then the by two minutes I think was the other. So that that still has to be covered. If it wasn't covered
- in that jail tax correctional tax, it would have had to been in County General. So we had to put it
- someplace. So you count that million and a half plus the
- million something or the other was over that in that economic development tax and that's how much we
- were actually we budgeted to spend more than what we budgeted revenue. I mean not that we weren't that
- there was revenue coming in in economic development in jail but we
- took expenses that would normally be covered out of general and moved it over to these others. So we
- have to we have to recognize we did that and they're not that's not going to go away. Right. Please.
- I may. I don't know if it's
- of interest now, but we are prepared to pull up that lit sandbox, just showing where we are currently
- and just some options for moving forward. If you would rather do that down the road or as a complete
- council, that's absolutely fine as well. Yeah, could we could we put a pause on that? I also love these
- analogies. You're talking about a lit sandbox. The trustees talked about a walled garden. This is a
- really lovely long term finance committee meeting. And I think
- So in terms of a philosophy, I think it's going to be difficult. We're going to need to have a lot of
- time to think about this and process it, because the economic landscape has changed so dramatically,
- so quickly, that back in the ARPA days, we were talking about making big investments. And now we're
- talking about how do we balance the budget? And so I think that's going to be the challenge there is
- is, you know, where are the council members at now? And so I'm really happy that we're starting this
- conversation now, because I think it's going to take a while to get to the point where, where folks
- can kind of land on something. So we're not going to hear from them about, I mean, I think that's real
- important for us to hear what the theory is right now, where we're sitting with these lids.
- You're saying we've agreed not to do that? I was looking at the agenda and seeing that we've got a couple
- more reports to go here. Okay, well hopefully we'll do that at the end. Or we could do it at a full
- council meeting. I think it's important that the council hear this not just once, just twice. If people
- are like, I have to read it, I have to hear it, I have to read it again.
- for it to really digest the whole thing. And so I think it is asking too much to make a presentation
- to the entire council just once without them hearing the background, because I know that they will listen
- to this meeting, even if they're not sitting here, they have every opportunity to look at your presentation.
- So I'm hoping that we do find time, and if people have to move on,
- I did schedule three hours today, just in case. If I may, Councillor Hock, on that note, I mean, these
- reports are already now, so they're available to the entire council in the public. I'm happy to discuss
- during department updates, you know, even every meeting for a little while, and just to remind, at least
- at a minimum, remind everyone that they're available and, you know, to please bring forward any questions
- that you might have.
- Do you have anything to add on that? Anything? No? Okay. I would welcome that. I think the full council
- members are going to really enjoy having the opportunity to have their questions. And as Councilmember
- Hawke said, I think this is going to need to be an ongoing repeated conversation. I agree. That's a
- great insight. All right. Auditor, do you have any other reports that you'd like to share with us today?
- Yes, I was able to connect with the treasurer.
- I know she's noted on here for revenue. Revenue is actually an auditor function. However, she holds
- the investments, including interest and so forth. So her reports are available on the county website.
- I believe the council gets those as well. If not, we can make sure they do get into your hands. Just
- in the brief conversation I had with her, I don't want to speak for her, but her goal she shared is
- to have a 4% return on
- all the cash we're holding in the funds. So that is her goal. That's what she's working toward.
- You know, she hopes that it comes in above that, but that's that's her benchmark. Okay. Excellent. Excellent.
- And I think on the screen now, what are we seeing? Who's sharing their screen?
- Okay, this is a public document. This is actually from the Finance Board meeting. I think this was the
- introductory meeting they had in January this year, but this is part of that report that the treasurer
- provided. And I think it's dated as of 129, 2026. So again, these reports are available publicly on
- the county website. I believe council office also receives them. So this is just the type of information
- available. And of course, you can also reach out to the treasurer for this information.
- So I can't see it very well from here. Does that show the return that you're talking about, or what
- are we seeing? It shows the different accounts that the treasurer is holding investments in, and the
- percent of the available funding in each. And it looks like total cash deposits on hand. So any specifics
- about the treasurer's reports, I'd really like to come, you know,
- specific questions from the treasurer just because I'm not, I don't wanna speak for another officer.
- And that's where again? I know it's here on screen, but where is it at again? Where can people see it?
- You can find it on the county website under, I think, the Board of Finance Committee. Thank you. Probably
- also on the treasurer's webpage, I would imagine. I know that a large part of our,
- revenue that can fluctuate so much is the amount of interest that we receive. And so I want to make
- sure that we are regularly updated on this is what we anticipated and this is what we've received so
- far to see if we're about to hit what we thought it was going to be. Because that was a lot.
- million. No. What was that? How much was that interest that was added in there? Sort of like we didn't
- have that number until later. You mean when we were budgeting for 2026? Was it six or seven million?
- Is that what you're referencing, Counselor Hawk? I don't know why I was thinking four million.
- What was that number? I'm still called 4B, whatever. The miscellaneous revenue, which shows the interest
- for county general. Ms. Woodruff is pulling that up now. I have six and seven million in my head. I
- think it was somewhere there. And Michelle's nodding here, so I think that's accurate. But give us one
- moment to pull this up. It was huge.
- yes it's a significant amount and like I said the um treasurer smith is confident um about the four
- percent mark so which is still good um I don't think that's quite where we were last year but it's still
- a good amount and the reason why I think it's important for us to watch that closely is because uh of
- course the treasurer was
- able to pull in a lot more interest money because we had a lot more cash setting there that we are not
- going to have in future. So we can't count on that kind of revenue dollar amount in future as that cash
- gets spent down. I mean, because we were pulling it from the ARPA money and all of the money. So she was very
- She was adamant that 4% on what the cash balance of the funds so the funds on the ledger is what she
- envisions and what she anticipates being able to produce for the county.
- So we do provide those monthly revenue reports so that can show you any big swings and demonstrate that
- we are meeting our benchmarks. Additionally, we're gonna continue to update this quarterly report that
- you just saw a few moments ago on your screen. And anything else necessary, your team, my team,
- we can assist. So just let us know, please. Not ignoring you, I'm just reading. Oh no, you're good.
- Emily, do you have anything to add? Did you confirm that number? She's still looking for that number.
- Apologies, we might have to get back to you on that. Going back to the quarterly reports that you had
- shared earlier, in the green section, which is the anticipated revenue versus actual revenue,
- we do see about, what is that, a 3.18% decrease in revenue from quarter one of last year to quarter
- one of this year.
- from 7.155 down to 6.928. It's going down. So can you give some more insight as to why that might be?
- We looked into that a little bit earlier and Carly can assist with that. So this
- fluctuation of roughly $276,000. While that seems like a large number for the county, it's really pretty
- small. Whenever I looked into that a little bit deeper, it looks like, I'm sorry, it's 227,000. Between
- two account lines that are grant-related, we see a decrease in those two lines of roughly 276,000.
- Some of that is timing. Other is just we only get reimbursed based on a percentage or per diem. So it
- just fluctuates with those expenses for those grant dollars. So if you look at the year total for the
- same figures, there is a decrease, a sizable amount I would call it, right? Five million-ish.
- What are you looking at now? If you look at the year total of the actual revenue, the green section,
- so the year total for 2024 was 70 million plus. The year total for 2025 was 65 million plus. To me,
- that's a decrease overall year to year, right? So it isn't just a quarter from what I see here. We were
- most closely looking at this quarter to the previous
- year's quarter. Well, I see the bigger picture, which is year over year, right? So it isn't just the
- quarters for me for sure. Remember Hawk? Yes. And as a reminder, for quite some time, the revenue coming
- in for the per dams at the youth shelter used to go into a separate fund where we were hoping to pay
- something. I'm sorry. I don't remember why we were saving it, but we were.
- for something and we spent it on that something. Was it to redo the used shelter, something for it.
- But then after that, it is now going into county general. So I don't know whether they have as much
- emphasis on keeping track of, but they would because this is a contract with the state for how much
- the state is going to pay
- for each night that someone is placed there by the state, but also any individual amounts that people
- might donate to them. So is that what you were referring to as that number has gone down drastically,
- that 200-some thousand you were talking about a while ago?
- a lot of those dollars, there's fluctuation in when we receive it. So when you look at quarter by quarter,
- you may see what looks like a decrease, but it's not actually a true decrease. Also, you have to remember,
- a lot of these grant reimbursements are reimbursements. So if our expenses decrease, our reimbursements
- are also gonna decrease. And we're actually seeing that on this chart, right, in the orange section.
- our expenditures, Q1 to Q1, are down 8.45 percent, which vastly outpaces the decrease in revenue, which
- is a negative 3.18 percent. So our expenditures are falling faster than our revenue is falling. Or again,
- if you look at the year total for each year for the category, the actual expenditures, it's not decreased.
- Am I saying that correctly? Yeah, say more about that.
- Yes, I'm seeing the same thing. If you look at the year total for 2024 revenue and year total for 2025
- revenue, we saw a decrease of about $5 million. Whereas our expenditures for year and 2020, 40 year
- and 2025 actually saw an increase of about $500, $600,000. So that's upside down. We're spending more
- than we're bringing in. But did that even include the
- recent spending that we put in other funds because that's that yes no. If you're looking at just the
- green and the orange those are just the levy fine just loving okay. Okay that's not the total big picture
- right right you have to look in the notes column as well right I see. But it is not a complete snapshot
- it is a useful snapshot to at least because we
- we went over this again and again during budget cycle is, where's the general fund? How healthy is the
- general fund? These levy funds are so important. And just to bring it back, we were asked to provide
- an overview and to concentrate on those bigger funds. So if you would like something else, we just need
- a direction. I get it. I'm just noticing what I notice.
- Also, I do want to know that whenever you start looking at funds beyond the levy funds, you get into
- nuanced situations. You get into where distributions are going into and out of distribution funds. We
- flow money through different funds within the county regularly. So whenever you start analyzing those
- receipts and expenditures that are not true receipts and expenditures, it starts manipulating that data
- and then it looks a little funky. And so we try to focus on these levy funds where there's less of that
- So if you notice, whenever you look at these notes, we specifically took out accounts that have money
- flowing into and out of these specific funds. There's just so many different ways that the financials
- work that we wanted to give the most accurate representation of what we think is most important.
- I hear you. Right. I would just suggest that when we're looking at the levy funds, and then you have
- column over here that needs to be
- here's our income tax funds because we're relying more and more on that income tax. Now it's all going
- to be under one great big umbrella before we get turned around, but we've got to figure out how we're
- going to live between now and the times actually the revenues coming in from that different source and
- then put back into with our property tax.
- Sure, we did provide in the email for this group, the lit sandbox, so you can take a look at that when
- you have ability to kind of digest more information. Yeah, you did. Thank you. All right. We need,
- I think, to push on to a conversation about longevity, but I do want to give you the final word.
- just thank you, I think, you know, the pregame, if you will, to prepare for this meeting was really
- beneficial. We could determine what you wanted to see and hear from us and we'll take the notes and
- go from there for next meeting. Appreciate it, thank you. And as a reminder to my colleagues, this report
- will be shared every single quarter that we have these meetings. So if you do have tweaks, you have
- additional funds you want to analyze, you have additional data that you want to analyze,
- please get with the auditor's office and we can see those tweaks. All right. Next, we are going to look
- to Kim shell to give us an update on the longevity and the fiscal impact of longevity. The floor is
- yours. Okay. Yes. So longevity we've we've and I say we the council has been speaking about removing
- longevity out of the budget and
- This all basically, and I just to give a little bit of background, we did a WIS financial analysis when
- we did our job descriptions and just did a big overhaul back in November of 2021. And it was during
- that timeline that they recommended that we either do away with the step increases or we do away with
- longevity because they were
- we were dual paying employees. So in an effort to kind of remove longevity, council passed back November
- 1st of 2023 and anyone hired after that date would no longer be eligible for longevity. So any hires
- after November 1st of 2023. So
- Right now, we sit at, and do you want me to put that up on the screen? That would be really helpful.
- I think when we start talking about numbers, it's really easy to get lost, especially when comparing
- numbers over years and over different time periods. And you know, for IT or whoever does this, it would
- be really helpful if there was a screen over there, of course. Oh, just right in front of you?
- I mean, I can see this just fine. I feel bad for you guys. Oh, don't feel bad for us. OK, I won't cry.
- But I really appreciate it. Good, good, good.
- Okay so I went through each screen by chance. Is there a way to make it the whole screen or that's as
- big as it gets? If you want it big I can only do it like this. Okay if you want to see the whole thing
- it's going to be very small. All right there's no medium. Not really. All right so I went through
- year by year on how many employees we have per the amount that they're going to get long for longevity.
- So I'm not going to go through each one. It is in the packet if anybody wants to see it. So I'll just
- kind of scroll a little bit here. But as you can see, we still have quite a few people at the lower level.
- I would say, you know, like we have 50 people that are currently at the four-year level, and that's
- a $400 per year longevity amount that they get. So as we continue on, you'll see that the numbers begin
- to decrease, and you know, that's due to people leaving, people retiring, that kind of thing.
- So when we get down to the higher numbers, so like 25 years and more, you see even a bigger, you know,
- bite out of those numbers.
- we have one year where we don't even have anybody at the 32 year, which I thought was very interesting.
- So we keep going and we have, as you see, we have one person at the 38 year, we have one person at 39,
- one at 41, and then we have one who has been here for 53 years. So we have a total of 433 employees
- full-time employees that are still receiving longevity. And so you can see that that amount equals $394,200.
- The FICA amount associated with that is $30,157. So this is just for 2026. We currently have 146 employees
- full-time employees that are no longer eligible due to that November 1st, 2023 cutoff date. And that
- we also have 32 of those full-time, 32 of our positions are vacant. So we are not paying longevity.
- Those have become vacant. And if they are filled, they would not be eligible. So that's where we stand
- right now.
- with regards to longevity and how we're working through that right now. So I know that council is trying
- to see if there's ways to maybe move this along faster, but this is where we're at right at the moment.
- All right. So I may not have it memorized about how they figure the amount per person.
- So is there a chart somewhere about that? Yes, there is a chart that's in our personal policy handbook
- on how much they get. So we also have that copied as a reference in our salary ordinance as well. OK,
- thank you. So do you have something similar to that to show us about the step increases? And remind
- us when we started the step increases because, you know,
- time flies, but doesn't seem like that long ago. We haven't had step increases. We started step increases
- back in 2017 when we added the eight year and the 14 year. And no, I didn't have a chance to do that,
- but I can have that ready for the next quarter. Okay. I'm sorry. The reason why I was going to suggest
- that or just have a discussion with it.
- there are some areas, and I know in some of the school boards and so forth, they have put a freeze on,
- you know, where we're not gonna catch you back, but wherever you are right now, you're not moving forward
- or now, just as a pause until they can see where it is. I'm not saying that's what we should do, but
- because of course we can't even see what the step increases are, because we don't have
- report on that, but in other words, if you are accustomed to getting 2006 and whatever it is for longevity,
- it isn't like you would lose that, but you would not gain more. Or if you are already at a certain step
- increase, you weren't going to gain anymore, but you weren't gonna lose it. You were going to stay right
- there. So I'm thinking that's,
- If we got up against it, I don't know. I'm not a seer, so I don't know what kind of position we're going
- to be in. And so I know that when we talked about reducing longevity, I mean, the employees really thought
- we had gotten in their pocket because they count on that as part of their salary.
- And I understand that. So I'm just throwing that out there as something that other units have had to
- do and said, we're not going to get rid of it, but we're going to pause it, not grow it anymore. And
- that would also mean that any new person coming on board, they wouldn't have a step increase, and they
- wouldn't have longevity. So they wouldn't have any of those things.
- but pause on it to see where we're going now. The other thing that the council did, which was rather
- unusual, is that they, because the state is in control, oh my goodness, look where that kid's sitting.
- Can't look. Am I? That happens a lot. All right. Does that look dangerous to you or no? No, there's
- another shelf, he's okay.
- Let's get back to step increases and longevity here. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, I've lost train of thought.
- Do you want me to take it over and see? I'll ask my question so you can. All right, so right now in
- the salary ordinance, our highest step is 25 years. That is correct. So anybody on this chart who is
- at 26 years or higher
- means that they don't get a step increase in the current system. Because it maxes out. Correct. As you've
- been thinking a lot about this, what recommendations would you offer to council as to where you would
- even begin to think about putting those additional step increases? Well, I mean, we've had some departments ask for
- an increase, like another step level above 25, so they're asking like for a 30. We've also had departments
- go, it's such a long section between the three year and the eight year, maybe do a five year and maybe,
- you know, like shuffle some things around, you know,
- do a five and a ten rather than an eight and a fourteen you know kind of thing so. And I know we haven't
- done the math yet but I think that's where the decision lies is where is the fiscal impact greater in
- providing those additional steps or leaving it as it is.
- Well, and you have to think as well, when you do step increases, step increases also, you have FICA,
- but you also have PERF within that. So you're also paying for any retirement on top of that. With longevity,
- it's just straight FICA. It does not get PERF on top of that. Great, thank you. Would you mind closing
- the blinds? That would be interesting.
- It's really distracting. Are you gonna close the blind so I can't see you, John? I'm glad I had my dream.
- Right, so, okay. So Kim, Kim Schell, you were saying that that's the analysis that we need to do to
- move forward. Right, because like I said, this only shows, you know,
- You've got 433 people that you're going to pay this amount out for this year plus the FICA. When I have
- to go back through and do the analysis with regards to the step increases, that's also going to include
- FICA as well as PERF. I will have that ready by the second quarter.
- there's going to be 35-hour positions versus 40-hour positions, and then we have SO positions. So, yeah.
- So there's a lot of work to do here to build in all of the contingencies? Correct. The chief deputies,
- for whatever reason, instead of having them at 75% of the elected officials' salaries, which is
- what it is in most every other counties. We put it in one year, like, I mean, we went literally.
- We're at 90%. 90% when other counties are, and we had always been at that 75%. So that is quite a jump,
- but that's just for the chief deputies, but I'm just saying,
- We had never done that before. So that was one of the things when people thought, oh, we got money.
- Let's go spread the wealth. And in addition to which, they were allowed, I believe they were allowed
- longevity. Yes, chief deputies do get longevity. OK, so what I've been hearing from some of the elected
- officials is, look, by the time they get longevity, if this staff person that's been
- dedicated and actually in many cases, as we all know, that chief deputy is actually the one to run the
- office. True. Some of the offices. But what I'm hearing is that the time you count longevity on top
- of the 90%, they're getting close to making the same thing as the elected official who is the one who
- is absolutely responsible
- they've got to know what's going on. And if they don't, their name's on the dotted line. They're the
- ones that have to answer to the public. They're the ones that have to go to the public and say,
- trust me. And so that was also sort of a sticky wicket. You know, I'm not arguing either point. I'm
- just telling you what happened. And in addition to which, at about that same time, even though
- The state is the one who tells us what we have to pay our probation officers. We don't get to choose.
- The state says this is what they're to pay. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't pay them more. We just
- can't pay them any less. And there's all kinds of different step-ups with probation officers, depending
- on how many they
- you know, have under them or if they hit a certain amount of education or, you know, because they've
- gone to the state and said, this is what we wanted to say. And the state came back and told the counties
- is what you have to do. But they had a step plan, you know, a step plan, which we did not have. The
- county didn't have at the time. We just had longevity. Well, a couple of years ago, they, you know,
- People thought we had money. We just said, OK, now we're going to start on top of paying them what the
- state has to pay. We're going to also give them our increase in salaries. Like if we get a 3% increase,
- the state says, no, we just add 3% on top of there. And at the same time, we added on longevity, which
- they'd never received before. So they get a stat increase, and they get longevity.
- and they get our increase. And if we don't have the money for an increase, but the state gets an increase,
- they will get the increase. So, you know, do I love our probation department? Yes, I do. But what we're
- talking about, the rest of the county employees, if we're talking about, if they have to have hardship,
- we have to make sure everybody shares the pain, I guess is what I'd like to say. On that cherry note,
- I am hearing that you're gonna come back for the Q2 version of this with some additional information
- about additional steps, that fiscal impact, and compare that to the fiscal impact you showed today so
- that we have a better understanding of what any one of these step increases would look like.
- If it's a five, if it's a 35 or whatever. Correct. Okay. And then, Madam Auditor, did you have an additional
- comment or question?
- just a quick comment I would just caution the council from just identifying such a small subset of employees
- they are employees are appointed but they're not elected their employees of the county and chief deputies
- there's a really minimal fiscal impact you know even between that seventy five and ninety percent of
- the overall big picture and
- reducing salaries would be terrible for morale for these people. In addition to that, I don't think
- we would be able to maintain the employment of these individuals. So I just wanted to put that note
- out there. I hope you recognize I did not say we should reduce their salaries. I've never said that
- about any position. I'm just saying it might be something we'd want to look at in future.
- for newly elected officials, new chief deputies. I mean, if we're looking at let's cut longevity, I'm
- just saying let's be fair. It always seems like it's fair until it hits your pocket, I guess is what I said.
- The underlying factor here is these are very difficult decisions. And that's why we wanted to encourage
- Michelle to give this presentation today, because when we make difficult decisions the last second,
- we make mistakes. But if we have months and months and months and months to consider this and to take
- the time to look at it with our partners throughout the county, then we tend to make better decisions.
- And so that's exactly what we want to do is we want to slow walk this
- and get as much information out there before a decision is made. And again, I'll say the same thing
- here that I mentioned to the trustees. No decisions are being made at LTF. The council, the full council
- needs to make all the decisions. And I think that's probably a good place to leave this. And we look
- forward to your report next. Also, if you're preparing a report, if you could show us what it would
- be if we did say we're freezing everybody where they are, we're not reducing it, we're just freezing.
- Now I'm not saying freeze the salaries. I'm just saying freeze wherever you are in the step plan. Freeze
- wherever you are in the longevity plan. OK. So like if every OK, so like for me, for instance, I'm at
- the eight year I would just. I'm getting ready to go to the 14. I would just stay at the eight year
- until. We figure out what we're doing so.
- Okay. You see how much you won't like that if it hits you. Exactly. I mean, I get it. Yeah. On the other
- hand, People don't want their longevity cut, but you know, maybe, maybe the money trees gonna show up
- in the backyard. I've got to so
- I think we're gonna be right. All right, we have one final first quarter update that is from Mr. Jeff
- Cockrell. This is not on the agenda, but we received information very recently. And so, Mr. Cockrell,
- what do we need to know? I guess, just fair warning, I got a call coming in at 3 p.m. and it's 2.55.
- I guess before that, I would
- I was listening to the last conversation. I was wondering if Kim could email me that 2021 report from
- WIS that had all the guidance on it. I think that would be interesting to look at. Yes. I guess Molly
- Turner King and I met with the Bond Council of Barnes and Thornburg on Friday. The primary goal of that
- was to determine if we, as we're looking at the jail project, what would be a reasonable
- bond timeline in order to accomplish what was in the report that Mr. Gadget House put together and presented
- to the council. The bond council indicated that there is a path to move forward where that could be
- issued this year. He noted that if we waited until next year, that path may be changed by the state
- legislature, either positive, negative, don't know, but it would be subject to that.
- I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that the state legislature is going to be looking at kind
- of what happened with SCA one a couple years ago and continuing to make tweaks. So I don't think it
- would be unrealistic that something in that wouldn't be looked at and addressed. So that was kind of
- the update in the report that we received on Friday. Great. Council members, do you have a less than
- a four minute question? Well, it should be clear.
- I did inquire from the person who was discussing this, if it was still, whatever the bond amount was,
- was it still to be repaid in out of the 1.2, which is the county operating dollars. And he confirmed
- that that is the case. So I hope that we won't just jump right into, yes, we agree to this rather large
- bond that's gonna take out
- you know, maybe 40% of our revenue. Unless that's what everybody wants to do. At least I think we should
- know what we're doing before we do it. Right. And I appreciate this update. It's not so much about the
- dollar amounts at this point, but rather about the timing has changed.
- And I think particularly we were looking at that report that Financial Solutions Group had put together.
- They had some maximums and things like that, that I'm not here to recommend. I would not go with their
- maximum. I would recommend not looking at the full amount, but looking at something below that, because
- spending every dollar you have extra, even in that context, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
- But I do think that
- That report also indicated that the point four probably isn't realistic, at least, and that would raise
- the 225, right? I think everybody kind of understands that that 225 is off the table unless we wait
- till 29, and then it could be on the table, could not be, right? But I think for the short-term solutions
- that we need with our jail project, that 225 is just not realistic.
- Sure. A question on timing, real quick, before you have to leave, is knowing that bond counsel needs
- a certain runway to move forward, hearing that we could be moving forward with this calendar year, what
- are we looking at in terms of needing to make a decision by the full counsel? I think, and I've heard
- two different dates from him.
- he said yesterday that a decision on the property need to be made by July and when we talked to him
- on Friday he indicated that we need to start the process sometime in June. I think the additional process
- and I think that's really kicking off the we're going to have to use the building corporation for the
- constitutional debt limit and so we have to have some kind of lease the lease purchase kind of kind of
- motive using a building corporation and that takes signatures and an extra amount of time to authorize
- the lease and move forward it's just additional steps that we typically don't see when we do our our
- general obligation bonds all right well thank you so much okay i heard you said that i don't think there's
- anything new about timing it isn't like a change of legislature in the last
- week or so but it's just an update to say if we're going to have it done within takes so much time to
- do each of these states. It's a process and we and the council is kind of accustomed to our general
- obligation bond process and this is a longer process than that. Right. All right Mr. Cockrell we look
- forward to future updates from you enjoy your phone call. Thank you.
- All right, that concludes our first quarter updates. Again, council members, if you have additional
- reports that you think are going to be interesting or helpful to the public to showcase that we are
- being good stewards with tax dollars, please request those and we'll meet again. And since we are talking
- about meeting again, I would like to keep our LTF meetings moving forward. And it has been recommended
- by council staff to go ahead and schedule our second quarter meeting
- for Tuesday, June the 30th at 1.30 p.m. and the third quarter meeting for September 29th at 1.30 p.m.
- They would take place here in the NatU Hill Room and be available online for all of you as well. Council
- members, do you have any questions regarding these dates? No, I don't. I think the June 30th might be
- problematic for me, but if it works for you guys, that's fine. All right.
- staff any questions or comments about the dates Otter's office this works for you as you're going to
- be providing updates and I know you've got a lot of I mean having it on the 30th doesn't allow for a
- full month data you know but that is what it is we'll make do like we did this time I think given the
- overview that we're doing I'm not sure that we need that drilled down last
- And I'll just say the reason we chose those particular dates is because it was the fifth Tuesday or
- yes of those months so there's no conflict with anybody in the rooms or anything like that so that's
- why we kind of did it that way all right so I think we're gonna move forward with adoption and if we
- need to change things we can always do so
- So all those in favor of adopting the second and third quarter LTF meetings as presented signify by
- saying aye aye aye all those opposed same sign the motion carries unanimously finally as always on the
- agenda is public comment for items that are
- haven't been on this agenda. If you have questions or comments about the fiscal affairs of this county,
- about our long-term financial standings, please, you have three minutes to tell us what's on your mind.
- We ask that you come forward to the podium here or raise your hand on Teams. State your name for the
- record. And the floor is yours. I don't see folks here on the NatU hill. And I'm gonna give one more
- second for hands raised on Teams.
- I'm not seeing anybody. So that means that we are going to see everyone again on Tuesday, June the 30th
- at 1 30 p.m. We are adjourned.