- Excellent. I'm going to go ahead and call to order this joint meeting of the Board of Directors for the Waste Reduction District of Monroe County and the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Waste Reduction District of Monroe County. Mr. McGlasson, would you please call the roll for the Board of Directors to begin with? Thomas? Here. Piedmont-Smith?
- here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
- here. Brad Lucas. Here. Paul White. Joseph Winnia. I am present. There you go. Excellent. Thank you so very much. And again, thank you to the Citizens Advisory Committee for their hard work throughout the year. And we appreciate you. And we look forward to learning
- uh, you're hearing your questions and you're getting your insights on on this budget. But Mr. McGlasson, you are in the hot seat to present the 2026, but we're all just taking this under advisement at this point for the public certification. We're not voting on this yet. Um, and, and we hope to get, um, some form of a comment or memo from the CAC before we actually vote on this, um, ourselves. Yes.
- the the pro forma what we normally thank you sir. Yeah well- commissioner Thomas referring to in this- historically we we presented a first draft of the budget- to the board at their July meeting. And and have followed that up with a joint meeting with the CAC for both bodies to review- the first draft of the budget together- and then generally- the CAC at their
- prepare their written remarks that they're required to submit to the board. And those will be included in the meeting packet for the August meeting, at which point the board will be asked to vote on approving the budget and submitting it to the county council for adoption. So that is our process in general for how we do this. And then I'm not sure,
- I'm not sure if you're in the joint meeting packet or the board packet, but there's a memo on page two of the joint meeting packet. And I'm sorry to interrupt, but could you share your screen? I am. Yeah, I'm OK. And also the same memo was on page 45 of the Board of Directors meeting packet. And that kind of goes through and summarizes a lot of the
- the majority of the features, the changes from previous year, and that we're going to go through in detail here on the slideshow presentation. I will get that up. Referring to the memos, we would note
- We did get confirmation from the state budget agency that there will be a 4% maximum growth quotient for 2026, which I had already prepared the budget, hoping, estimating, assuming that that would be the case. So that is in there.
- that we're going to have a negative impact- also unfortunately the- the Senate bill one that was passed this year- is going to have. A negative impact. On us- and- included behind the memo in both packets- is a sheet- that I was able to find that did that- it did actually identify each taxing unit- and- assess or
- That was prepared in February early on in the legislative process of that bill. So I'm sure that that dollar amount that's listed is not accurate for the final version of the bill, but it is what I had to use to base a budget off of. So that's what we have. And that is also factored into the property tax revenue line.
- Um, uh, as indicated in the memo, we do have our annual budget workshop with the department of local government finance scheduled for July 22nd. So, um, when it comes time to prevent present the next revision, hopefully final revision of the budget in August, we will have firm numbers for all three tax lines. Um, and, and then obviously depending on how much that's
- So it differs from what I currently have in there. It will result in other changes in the expense lines in an effort to maintain a balanced budget to the extent that we can. Okay. Here we go.
- So there's an overview for both revenues and expenses for your review to look at. I'm not going to really go through that because we're going to go through each one of those categories in more detail as we go through the presentation. But the bottom line of where we sit right now is about an $8,800 reduction in revenue. And we've also cut about $95,000 out of expenses, would note.
- Last year, we did have a deficit budget of $86,000. So again,
- We kind of talked about the tax revenue already, but there it is laid out in the numbers for what we have the budget based on currently. The vehicle license excise and commercial vehicle excise taxes should both go up a little bit. They do every year, but it's not a significant amount. So then the revenue items that we do have more control over, I guess.
- There's not really any significant changes in there on this category. We did increase the electronic waste disposal revenue by 5,000. In the packets, there's a comparison sheet that does show all of these lines for the past three or four years, year over year. Just based on our experience and year-to-date history of that line,
- We thought that we could justify that increase and be close to that number. On the other side, you can see the Green Business Network does go down by $4,250. Unfortunately, that's just strictly a factor of our current membership and the pickup frequency that those members have.
- would note, Mr. Long is still on or back on. I do believe since this has been put together, we do potentially have two or three prospective new GBN clients that we're talking with about signing on. So hopefully revenue will exceed that number. Yeah, we do. Go ahead, Joey.
- Yeah, we've got a few businesses that want to come on. We're offering some other stuff that we wasn't offering before to businesses and we're able to pick more stuff up from them. So we should increase that quite a bit. We don't know how much. On the other hand, we've also been looking on different containers for the businesses so where we can do a better job so we don't have to pick them up as frequent. So that's another reason why it's going down.
- So instead of being picked up twice a week, we're picking up once a week now. And then in the other income category, interest is wholly a function of the rate and the balance that we have in the bank indications are that will stay pretty consistent. So we think that that number will stay the same.
- Orange bag sales tax is strictly a function of that's the orange bags that we sell out of our household hazardous waste department that we do have to pay sales tax on. We don't anticipate a change in the host fee and the rent the admin rental office that's the county
- pays rent for the Purdue Extension Services to be housed in our building. We did enter in a new rental agreement with them earlier this year that should result in a slight increase for that, hopefully help offset some of the utility increases we're seeing.
- Then sale of recyclables, there are some changes here that are based on the new contract with RUMKEY. We've always had a generic sale of recyclables line and that goes back a number of years where we did routinely get a rebate for recyclable materials, but it's probably been eight years since we, eight or nine years since we received any type of rebate.
- We left that in there and I'll explain that when I get to the other the new lines that are there. Glass and a new contract we don't have any expense for but we also don't get a rebate for.
- Uh, sale of metal, a slight increase based on our, you know, experience with that in recent years. Um, we don't expect a change in the batteries. And then you have two new lines, um, sale of OCC recycling, which is cardboard, uh, and sale of paper recycling. So I feel the, the new agreement with Rumpke does provide us, um, a rebate on that material. Um, when, when the market is for, for those is above $50 a ton, our rebate is market rate less $50.
- per ton but based on I think Mr. Long looked at about an 18 I think 17 or 18 months market rate and took an average and applied that to our historical tonnage and those were the figures that we came up with but we did leave that top line the general sale of recyclables line up there
- One of the things that we're beginning to encounter, we have some GBN clients that have the ability to bail shrink wrap and clear plastic films. And Rumpke has agreed to take that. And depending on the market, we may potentially get a rebate on that material as well. So we left that generic sale of recyclables line up there so that we have a revenue line to receipt those funds in if that should happen.
- A miscellaneous income is not generally something that we budget for, but this year we did know we had an agreement in place with the city for them to provide half the funding for the apartment multi-dwelling composting program, so we did budget for that revenue.
- Um, and as, uh, you may have noticed when we approved payroll and claims, we also knew that the debt service fund would be transferring, uh, repaying a loan that was previously made to it, uh, in this year. And that happened earlier at the meeting. So, so, but for next year, we don't have any such, um, I guess known revenue for those lines coming in. Any questions on the revenue?
- Any CAC members have questions? It's a joint meeting, so questions from any and all. Or we can certainly just go through the presentation and let you guys discuss it. Okay, please. Okay. So getting into the expense side, our first category is personnel services.
- So as we try to do every year, there is a cost of living adjustment for all wages. We generally alternate between a percent increase and just a flat increase applied across the board. This year would be a flat increase year for us. So based on the CPI index, we took a 3% cost of living adjustment, applied that to the median
- pay rate of all district positions and you can see that came out to for salaried employees $1,180 annual increase and for hourly employees $0.57 per hour raise. In addition to that we did start looking more closely at some of the positions you can see that our household hazardous waste technicians
- Their current wage is equal to that of our material handler positions. Mr long and I felt that, you know, due to the technical and operational expertise that's required for the household hazardous waste department that that what really wasn't fair to them and we wanted to do something to
- make that distinction on pay rates for the differences and responsibilities of those positions. So what's in this budget brings those household hazardous waste technicians to the same pay rate as the truck driver positions. Health insurance is a huge question mark for us this year.
- past number of years, IU Health has been our health insurance provider. They were earlier this year acquired by Anthem. Anthem has advised that they will treat us as a new applicant. It will not be a renewal policy for us. So really, really not sure what to expect. And you can see in the comparison sheet that's included in the package that our health insurance line historically has been
- well over budget based on what we've actually spent. So even knowing that we're getting into a new situation, there's still a substantial deduction in that line. But we won't have any firm quotes from insurance companies until about 60 days out from the renewal, which is January 1st. So we're looking at the beginning.
- before we would have any firm numbers to work with. But I'm comfortable with the number that we have in there, and we'll get to that when we go through the lines. So there you see the changes for wages. We did drop our overtime line a little bit just based on experience in the recent years.
- And the FICA and the FICA Medicare are strictly a function of the increased wages. Unemployment, it's going to go up a little bit. Wages have increased. We did add a new position this year. So we do think that's going to increase some. There you see the health insurance, you know, $33,000 reduction, still a substantial amount budgeted for that.
- particularly based on, if you look at that comparison sheet, what we've actually spent in previous years. For the record, we currently have 30 employees, 24 of those employees are eligible for insurance, and I think we have 16 employees plus spouses and dependents that are covered under our policy.
- uh retirement did not go up as much as anticipated that would be uh it was a formula error in last year's budget so we're over budget for this year um so uh so that didn't see the big jump uh you would normally see based on the wage increase uh supply lines um do have a couple of uh
- A couple of other errors that were discovered since this was put together that I'll highlight. The health and safety link comes down. We previously outsourced management maintenance of our first aid cabinets. We're bringing that in-house to reduce that expense. General operating.
- Based on our recent experience, we're making a significant cut there. That's one where depending on what happens with the tax revenues, we would like to bump that back up a little bit if we have the revenue to do so. But we'll see what staff is comfortable with the $25,000 in that line and we'll make that work if we have to.
- Those are not not significant changes. The other supply line that is that is one where.
- We bumped that up significantly based on our current experience. And that's my error because a big chunk of that is the reusable bags that we bought with our new name and logo and stuff on them that we were distributing at the fair. And obviously we still have some of those left to distribute at other events. That's a one-time expense. So we'll be able to drop that down significantly when that comes back in August.
- The laboratory line, that drops as I mentioned earlier with the groundwater sampling. This year we had a long list. Next year we will not have a long list. Well, it will be in the November and not need to be paid. It will be paid in early 27. The consultant line is a significant drop and that's where we were paying for the apartment multi-dwelling composting.
- that appropriation came out this year that's strictly a budget balancing measure and obviously we have reserves in the bank and if the board wishes us to appropriate funds in that line for 2027 for that program we can certainly do that and absorb that deficit in the budget the next line is community grant this had some board members
- asked about establishing a grant program to do. If you recall, Garden Quest earlier came with a funding request for some materials related to doing a Bokashi food fermentation. Somebody asked if having a grant in place for those types of requests would be a better situation for us.
- We did establish a line for a community grant, put 20,000 in there. Obviously if that's approved, we'll have to develop that grant program and the criteria for the awards of the grants. But there are a number of districts around the state that have such programs in place and we can certainly get information from them to use to model a program and a process for review and award of grant applications.
- Other professional services comes down significantly. Some anticipation of a reduced need. Also, that's me asking staff to tighten the belt so we can balance the budget. And for media advertising, we did bump that up.
- We did some substantial advertising for our rain barrel and compost bin sales related to Earth Day that we've done the past couple years and we've not done that advertising in the past. We've done the sales and our sales numbers more than doubled this year for both items. So we really thought that that advertising paid off and we'd like to do that again.
- It was asked at the executive committee meeting. We did about $3,500 in advertising specific to that program. We've also been advised from Effect TV who does our television advertising that we'll probably have about a 10% increase from them for 2020 television advertising.
- Hoping to see a little reduction in work comp would note that today we just received our results from our work comp audit, and we're actually going to get $1,600 refund for our premium from this year. Building repair and maintenance comes down, we had some
- Appropriations this year to replace a couple of AC units Vehicle repair maintenance comes down because we purchased two new trucks this year Hopefully those won't need the repairs the old ones did We did but we do have an increase in the other repair maintenance lines we have other other pieces of equipment and
- that we use that are going to need some work next year. You guys can stop me if I skip over anything that you have a specific question on. But, you know, leachate disposal, that's kind of a guess.
- I think Lee making an effort to try to help with the cost reductions that we needed to make, you know, obviously when you have years like this where you have 12 inches of rain in less than a month, that significantly impacts the amount of leachate that needs to be hauled. HHW disposals going up, that's a function of both volume and cost increases.
- contract. If you if you recall the new agreement with with Rumpke actually does have a slight in per hall increase in it but I think we've mentioned before that we're we're making some changes or trying to implement some changes with the recycling center employees on how halls are being scheduled and the Rumpke contract also did
- state that they could do same day hauling or next business day hauling which reduces the need for those employees to anticipate how much might come in the next two to three days which was we we had to do a two to three day lead time with the previous vendor on getting hauled so we we really think that's going to substantially reduce the number of hauls and would hope that in barring substantial increases in volume in future years we'll be able to reduce that even more.
- glass hauling just comes out because that's included in the new hauling contract. Recycling fees have a significant drop. That's based on the new contract. Recall we get a rebate for the fiber material, cardboard and paper, but we do also have to pay $90 a ton on the mixed plastics.
- But overall, the services and charges category, that's the bulk of our reduction in expenses of $78,000. The capital outlays, the other improvements is we always have that in there that is specific to the landfill as a just in case.
- If we have to replace pumps significant equipment of any significance we do we want to have funds available to do that. No computer equipment purchases plan next year. We purchased the two new green business vehicles this year do have 50,000 budgeted would like to replace.
- We're not replaced but get a vehicle for administration and outreach. I know that Ms. Pocrall currently uses what we call the butterfly mobile which has a very fancy paint job on it and it's plugging away and there's no reason to get rid of it but with Ms. Strand expanding
- what she's doing and having more opportunity to go out and work with GBN clients and other businesses to do waste audits and help them find ways to reduce their waste generation. We thought it would be appropriate to get a second vehicle so they didn't have to schedule around each other. And also have money in there to purchase a dump trailer that could be used for both the recycling centers,
- bring in gravel for our lot when we need to do lot repairs and the compliance department could also use that for larger dump cleanups or heavy items from when they're doing illegal dump remediation. That is the operating budget. We got two more to do, but that summarizes the operating budget.
- This is probably the bigger, the biggest of the budgets, obviously. So it looks like council member Wilts has a question. Regarding the leachate disposal and the fact that we did have a very wet spring, early summer. Are we anticipating staying within the 2025 budget for this year given
- the rain situation? We hope. I mean, it's a function of our treatment capacity, which a number of factors, temperature predominantly that can affect that, and how wet of a fall that we have. So we certainly hope that we can.
- And if we can't, we would hope that we could find money in other lines to move around and not have to seek an additional appropriation. But I can't guarantees or promises on that. That's a tough one to predict, right? Because it's how fast the rain falls and how much it, yeah. And the colder it is, the less we can treat. We have to slow our treatment process down when the water gets colder. I see that Mr. Paulson is
- on. I wonder if he wanted to respond to that question as well. Oh no, I think Tom answered that pretty well. As of the end of June for our 2025 budget, we are right about 50% of that budget line for leachate disposal. If you, from the board meeting, you will see what my previous report was that
- Our leachate total so far through six months is as much as we had all last year and as much as we had for 2023. So this year, I'm squeezing as much as I can out of that treatment plant. And it's still, when we get four or five inches of rain in two to three days, that's just too much for us to handle with that treatment system.
- And thankfully, Kevin Hunter and Bynum Faneuil is Johnny on the spot with that stuff. So whenever I call him, even on the weekends, Kevin takes care of what we need to take care of to make sure that we're in compliance with the state. And I'm hoping that we can kind of continue what we're doing. And I'm hoping that, you know, we kind of get to a dry part of the year so that we can slow down a little bit and try to, you know,
- take care of what we got to take care of, but not as hard as we've been running. So I hope that helps. Yep. Yes. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Let me see if my other colleagues here on the board have any questions. This is a media part of the budget, obviously. Yes. Anything else? Did you have another? Good. Council Member Williams. Under other supplies, slide six, I think it was.
- you had you might have missed you might have said this and I missed it but obviously there's a big change there and you said something about it'll probably drop can you remind me what that when I put this together I had I had forgotten that we we purchased new reusable bags with our new name and logo to distribute at fair and other events and I forgot that that expense was in there and I was just looking at our year-to-date number and
- we're going to have to increase that. But no, that was a one-time expense. And we won't have to account for that next year. So that number will come down in the final. Yeah. Right. OK. And then along with that, just you anticipate the same level of orange bag purchases. You expect that to be flat. Yes.
- It's the next item down. Yeah. And you can look on the revenue side, which is where we sell it to the retailers and what we sell at HHW. That's what we have to supply for. Yeah. And that's been flat. Yeah. Thank you. Others? The one caveat on that is that our current agreement with the vendor does have an automatic escalator clause in it that takes effect
- I think May 1st, so we have to get our order in before then. But they're real good with this on getting the order placed and when we take delivery. And you can revise the design if you need to at that time. Yes. We can change graphics when we place the order. It'd be a setup fee, but we can do that. Yeah, please, Councilor Welts, please. I'm new. General operating went down quite a bit.
- What does that cover? A number of things. A lot of it is related to, I guess, supply materials that are used for the recycling centers and the household hazardous waste department to HHW predominantly to prepare items for transportation. Some of the things, some of the vendors that we use when we
- buy the containers that they want things in. Those are very expensive, but those include the recycling or the disposal of material. And those would actually come out of the disposal line and the services category. But other packaging materials that we have to get are not provided by the vendor or do not include the recycling or disposal of that material. And that would come out of the general operating line.
- There's either Mr. Paulson or Mr. Long and can probably give you more detail than I can about the types of items that their various departments just that aren't office supplies or health and safety supplies that they have to purchase on a recurring basis to keep things moving. One of the major ones would be like the sharps containers that we pass out to the residents.
- You know, we buy quite a few of those and we do it on an exchange basis. So a customer can come in, get one for free, bring it back full. That's something that would come out of general operating. That's one of the major ones for the HHW. Okay. I didn't know that. That's great. Thank you. Anyone else from the board? And then Mr. Winnie, if you want to see if there are questions on the CAC. Are there any CAC members that have questions so far?
- You have one, if I may. I say no. Do the CAC requested funds come out of this operating budget or this portion of the budget? Yes. Yeah. What we're looking at includes the budget request from the CAC in full. Yes. OK. In full. Got it. All right. Thank you. And I'll just note for the record
- Mr. White from the CAC has joined the meeting as well, for the record. All right. If I can real fast follow up on Mr. Winnie's question. In the joint meeting packet, beginning on page 20, is the budget separated out by department? The CAC is identified as a department.
- That was pretty easy. No, I'm not. But I just did. But go ahead. Next item. Any other questions on the operating budget? No? The next two are pretty easy. Obviously, we still have the debt service bond. We just approved a payment, the second payment of this year.
- Earlier at this meeting that means there are three payments left February of 27 will be the final payment on that two payments a year so But there's a budget proposal for 26 Compared to this year but it's you know, that is based solely on the
- the expense side of that, which is done out of the amortization table for the bond. And the Department of Local Government Finance will assign a tax levy appropriate to cover those payments. Any questions from the board? Okay. Okay. And then the last one is the Achievement of Capital Fund.
- It's a fund that was reestablished prior to my becoming director that I don't know that we have ever spent any money out of, but the Department of Local Government Finance has advised that since we have the fund established,
- that it would always be in our best interest to go ahead and request a zero-sum budget be adopted. That way, the state has the budget on file, and if we ever need to appropriate money out of that, it will eliminate some steps to request that additional appropriation if we already have the budget on file. The current beginning balance for 2026 will change with what you get presented next month because we'll get
- few more hundred dollars of interest and it'll be a different balance. Any questions from the board from the right? Okay. Oh, Councilor Woods. Is this meant to be the reserves that you've mentioned prior or is this? No, no, this this is a completely separate fund from the operating fund. It's a different at the bank. It's a different bank account and it is
- substantially less than the unappropriated reserve funds that we have. Why, I mean, I can understand why it might exist. I'm just wondering if there's, is there any, has there been any action in that fund since that you know of? In my time as director, I cannot,
- I'm not gonna say a hundred percent sure, but I cannot recall a time that we have spent money out of that fund in the past eight years that I've been director. Okay. Thanks. Okay. That's it. That's the three budgets that we have every year. Well, let's do one more round and see if there's any general questions for my colleagues on the board.
- Any general? OK. And we've we talked through the procedure, so we would anticipate receiving from the CAC a memo about this proposed budget. And Mr. Winnie, if you want to check in with your CAC members. Yeah, we have our next meeting scheduled next Thursday, and that's generally the. Oh, yeah, so yeah, so that's when we would discuss, I guess, our
- and discuss and compose our response memo to the board. Were there any other thoughts, comments, or questions now while we're together during the joint session for the board or director? Yeah, Matthew Austin, I'm excited to see the potential for the grant funding. That's very exciting. So I'm very happy to see that. Thanks, Matt. Anyone else?
- I think that's good for us. That's great. And again, thank you to the CAC for your work throughout the year. And we look forward to seeing your memo. And we look forward to receiving from Mr. McClassen whatever revisions need to be made based on workshopping with local government finance and looking at some of the numbers that you already talked about. So we look forward to seeing that. And then we will
- be reviewing this in August for a vote before it goes to the County Council. Anything else for the good of the order today? Great. Thank you all so very much. Be well. We're adjourned.