Saturday, March 29, 2014

AGENDA- April 1st 8:30 AM Commissioners Meeting


AGENDA

DEARBORN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING

 April 1, 2014

8:30 a.m., Commissioners Room

County Administration Building

215 B West High Street, Lawrenceburg, Indiana

 

 

I.          CALL TO ORDER

 

II.          PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

 

III.         OLD BUSINESS

 

IV.        NEW BUSINESS

1.  Purdue Extension – Mike Hornbach

Cooperative Extension Centennial Resolution

 

2.  911 – Charlie Ashley

            “National Telecommunications Week” Proclamation

 

3.  Building Department – Bill Shelton

            Request to approach Council / Computer Needs

 

4.  Clerk of Courts – Rick Probst

            Election

 

5.  Highway Engineer – Todd Listerman

            Signatures for Stateline Road Slip Project

 

6.  Maxwell Construction - Brad Rullman

            Change Order

 

V.        ADMINISTRATOR

 

VI.        AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington

1.  Claims/Minutes

           

VII.       ATTORNEY

1.  Proposed Animal Control Ordinance

 

VIII.      COMMISSIONER COMMENTS

 

VIIII.     LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION

 

X.        PUBLIC COMMENT

 

XI.        ADJOURN

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

24 March 2014 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes


24 March 2014 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

Present: Mike Hall, Chairman, Dennis Kraus Jr., Russell Beiersdorfer, Mark Lehman,  Art Little, Jake Hoog, and Jim Thatcher.

ABSENT: Dan Lansing and Mike Hornbach and Arnie McGill, Attorney (who is ill)

Also Present: Mark McCormack, Plan Director, Nicole Daily, Assistant Planner.

Officers were elected as this is their first meeting of the year. McGill was reappointed as attorney. Officers apparently remain the same.

NEW BUSINESS:

Mike Hall stepped down and left the room as he is the surveyor for this applicant. Dennis Kraus, Jr. took over the meeting.

Appeal Decision of Tech review Committee by A&B Quality Homes, LLC  for Soap Hill Meadows Subdivision in Manchester Township on 29.142 acres or residential and Agriculturally zoned land. (Section 13 T5 R2)

[NOTE: A & B Quality Homes has a new office in the strip section of offices on US 50 near Stateline Road. Per Neil Baier in the hallway preceding the meeting, they are also changing the name of their business here to Timberline Homes And Development, Inc.  This was in response to McCormack telling him that their meeting notice to the company had come back undelivered when he sent it to the N KY address. A and B Quality Homes is Neil Baier and Scott Alexander. Neil was present at this meeting. David Beard is affiliated as contact for Timberline at www. tlpostframehomes.com  Their office is at 181 E US 50 in Greendale at the strip set of office space near the intersection of Stateline and US 50. Phone is  502.321.6328. david.beard@tlpostframehomes.com  Three sides of these homes are standard precolored metal. Front is a mix of materials. Built on slab generally. Price range on- website is $155- 190,000. They also offer two homes to be built lots at Sugar Ridge Golf Course located across from the clubhouse and above a detention pond. The developer did not speak at all during the meeting.]

Mark McCormack presented for Planning Office: This subdivision is across from the old Elk Run golf course on Soap Hill. This was appealed with a notice on Feb 2nd. McCormack went over the rough details of the subdivision. They will have individual septic systems. None are approved yet. The Staffords who are adjoiners filed an appeal. Issues in their appeal are sewage, stormwater runoff increase, property values, and screening.  Pictures of the development also show 8 lots the last 3 are on panhandles that join the road above them. The 3 lots real access however is a private lane that cuts through the all three lots so that a person driving to the last lot goes through the middle of the other two lots to get home. An unasked question at the meeting was how the owners of these modestly priced homes were going to keep up that long private drive.  And also how the neighbors at the end figure into it’s maintenance. The terrain might be an issue.

Terri Hall wife of Mike Hall, surveyor, presented for applicant. She pointed out the septic sites and said that these will be reviewed by a soil scientist. If the scientist doesn’t approve- then it stops the lot building on that site. Minimum 1500 sq feet of living area in the homes. Covenants will be added to the plat if this gets approved as to additional stipulations for te quality of the homes. Retention ponds and drainage will be designed if this is approved. She said that the majority of the drainage runs onto the development site. Trees are along Stafford’s property so privacy could increase.

Tech review sent out letters showing the minor subdivision was approved- which is how the neighbors found out.

Cynthia Stafford. She has concerns about due process. When they received the letter they began to research the process. It is actually a major subdivision she thinks. Kraus Jr. said it was a minor one as it was 7 lots plus the parent tract lot as remainder. However as it has a public street improvement which -was added after the appeal– that made it a major subdivision. She asked if there has been a new application for a major subdivision. They want an appropriate legal review to be sure all the steps are being followed to approve this.

She also didn’t understand why the zoning wouldn’t be all the same for the entire subdivision. Is the application valid as it stands right now?

With regard to storm water runoff and sewage, Cynthia Stafford showed the lots toward the back and how the water drains in a river from this property onto theirs right now during rain storms. She showed photos to demonstrate the elevation differences in the properties.

Property values- they paid $425,000 for their home eight years ago. She said these homes will do nothing for the property values in the area- if they are in the $160,000 range. She thinks eight lots are too many. Five might be the right number and don’t extend the road with a private lane. They moved to see a lot of dark skies in the country. This will add light and also noise.

Lance Stafford- talked about culverts and rushing water and runoff. He said that is a BIG concern. Easement running through there actually decreases the density and this is more dense than the neighborhood. If this is now a major subdivision can he add more? Kraus said he could not increase the density without another public hearing.

Brad Riddle- lives on Leffler Rd near this.  He asked about the eighth lot etc. He said all this runoff goes to their creek- including sewage issues.

Faye Riddle- worried about the damage of the trucks on Leffler Rd with construction. What will happen to Soap Hill with concrete trucks etc. This many houses- all with dogs they bark all night. Will there be noise control. Concerned with types of homes and also taxes. Low price housing will affect our property values. Kraus told her the road will be a 20 ft wide asphalt road to county specs with 50 ft ROW. The blue line shows a private road and the panhandle 50 ft strips. We have 94 acres on Leffler Road. We have horses. Concerned with too many people and their complaints. She said when they complain we become the bad guy. Lehman told her they will have a statement that tell these people they are moving into an Ag area and what to expect.

Jeannie Denning-said that in the MLS listing it shows this as having city sewer. That is incorrect per Kraus.

Dan Neff- I own everything on the other side of the subdivision. I didn’t appeal as I didn’t get letter in time as I work a lot of hours. Water pressure is already an issue. There is a letter from the fire company saying hydrants won’t be supported. The intersection with SoapHill and SR 148 is a bad angle. Adding more traffic to a road that cannot support it. He owns the hollow and kids play in it- but does not want septic in there. He heard the houses were metal sided etc. Kraus said that the types of houses are not typically required for this. Beiersdorfer said that the water company said that the subdivision requires an extension of a water main to be paid for by the developer. Neff said he was probably the last person to plow that field and that soil is terrible for septic. He called out the panhandles as being unwalkable even. He has a deer stand 320 ft from the panhandle.

Greg Edwards- Leffler Road- the panhandles are a joke. There are 46 acres across the road and 40 acres next to that for sale. If you let this go in- these will be next. This would not be a good example to follow. He said we fought the previous proposal for this for 2- 3 years many years ago, There was a lot of issue with septic and drainage and the Staffords back then.  The road is 17-18 ft at the intersection. There is 1000 available acres for sale in this vicinity. You have to do this right- because you can’t turn the next one down if you allow this. Think about these panhandles.

Terri Hall- these sites were already tested with primary and secondary sites years ago- but the soil scientist will be out to verify the previous testing.

Faye Riddle- If the first one fails- then the secondary can be used to repair. Yes. And it is required by our ordinance now.

Cynthia Stafford- when you look at all the property available in the county- there are a lot of properties in this price range. There are other subdivisions without lots sold in the area across from the country club. She questioned again the need for homes in this price range.

END PUBLIC DISCUSSION

Lehman- when the tech review approved this was there no public road proposed? No it was private at that time.

Board seems to not want to decide this as there are really two issues- an appeal based on approval of a minor subdivision and now the subdivision is a major one and requires a different procedure – due to the addition of the road being a county road and not a  private one,

Tabled until the attorney for the board can be present at the April 28th meeting.  Only new info will be presented at the April meeting- not a rehearing.

Mike Hall returned to the meeting after the vote. He told them that it would return to being a private road if need be to get approved. They will wait until McGill can be present.

ADMINISTRATIVE:

Proposed changes to the zoning ordinance with regard to address and road name assignments. The board was given a detailed proposal on this. It is now called Address and Road name Assignments instead of Uniform Numbering System. This was assigned at the end of the controversy on West County Line Road. McCormack sent this proposed ordinance to all the groups they use to review these roads. This includes 911, Transportation Dept, Planning and Zoning, Assessor, Surveyor, Auditor, GIS, Post Office and Commissioner’s rep.  No one had any comments so far.

There was a problem with limiting the road names to 10 characters which INCLUDES spaces and the abbreviation for RD or PKWY etc. This seems to go contrary to ones already in existence. It also affects the ability to name roads for characteristics of the county lands or history. That was reworded to be subject to review by tech review committee. [NOTE- there are some states that do this short naming- and it results in things like the AA highway or YY Parkway. Cheap signs, but not necessarily any character to the street names. I’m personally not a fan of requiring short names.]

McCormack read the changes in the proposal to the board. Favorable recommendation passed to commissioners with changes.

Report on bonds needing to be renewed was passed out.

Troy Frazier left for his new job in Memphis and has had 95 applicants for this position. The committee is reviewing all applications and will narrow it to 6-7 for interview to start out.

Wednesday April 16th is the next Comp Plan review committee.

McCormack has been attending HVL Master Plan update meetings. He said they were interesting- and has met about 4 times. He will forward the bulk of the document when they get it together more. 20-30 people have been present at each meeting.

April’s PC meeting might include Indian Ridge outside Aurora and Johnny Wright’s issues. Oxbow will be in for a rezone in the next couple months. Animal definition sections are being looked at again so that will come up again. It includes the definition of large and small animals.

McCormack made sure he introduced Jim Thatcher to the rest of the board and also Nicole Daily, assistant planner.

Meeting adjourned at 9:25 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Advisory Board for Master Plan Update Minutes of Feb 27th Meeting

Summary of Advisory Board for Master Plan Update Minutes of Feb 27th Meeting

This is a pdf file and clicking on the link will take you to a site created for posting these files for you to read.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/dearborncountypublicforum

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

INTERNAL POSTINGS FOR TWO COUNTY POSITIONS DUE BY 3/21


INTERNAL POSTINGS FOR TWO COUNTY POSITIONS DUE BY 3/21
On Friday March 14 at 3:58 PM the following posting was emailed to county employees by HR. It was not posted to the county website for the public to apply.

INTERNAL POSTINGS

Executive Assistant, Office of the Commissioners - Overview:  Provide senior level assistance in the execution of the goals, directives, research, and tasks assigned by the Board of Commissioners and/or County Administrator.  Coordinate day to day activities of the Commissioners’ office; routinely handling confidential and/or sensitive information.  Use discretion, independent judgment and make decisions for resolution of problems and various other duties.

Incumbent will have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or strongly related field with five plus years of professional experience.

 

County Administrator/Lead Economic Development Officer – Overview: Assist Commissioners in the administration and enforcement of County Policies, Ordinances and Resolutions.  Supervise activities of County Government for which the Commissioners have responsibility.  Recommend policy changes and support goals for the County.  Prepare and submit regular or special reports to the Commissioners.  Work closely with the Auditor and Treasurer as needed to ensure the Commissioners are advised of the financial condition of the County.  Negotiate contracts, supervise county property, prepare annual Commissioner budgets, work with elected officials, schedule and coordinate special events, manage risk, ensure compliance with OSHA, ADA and other regulations, supervision of Commissioner personnel, serve on boards as well as monitoring activity of boards, act as media spokesperson, etc.

Baccalaureate or Master’s degree in Public Administration, Business Management or closely related field and experience in substantial work and leadership. 

Employees of Dearborn County may apply in Human Resources until 3/21/14.

[NOTE: This posting is required by the personnel policy handbook- see below. It is not clear why they restricted applicants to county employees only. The handbook does not indicate that, although they encourage internal promotion. This job posting is from the county that recently posted a state of the county report stating that they are open and transparent. ]

Personnel Policy Handbook Section 2.1

RECRUITMENT

Whenever vacancies occur or new positions are created, job information SHALL be publicly posted within the County facilities for a minimum of seven (7) calendar days and until the position is filled. Bulletin boards located in each county building will be used for posting job openings. The County encourages internal promotion and transfer whenever possible.

Newspaper, trade journal, and website advertising MAY be used in recruiting employees. Advertisements SHALL describe the position, basic qualifications, and state that the County is “An Equal Opportunity Employer.”

Basic qualifications of formal education, background, and experience SHALL be determined before recruiting begins and SHALL be based upon job requirements as well as dictates of applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Authorization to recruit and hire to fill a vacancy in an existing or newly created position rests solely with the elected official and designated department heads.

ERIC KRANZ- NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DEARBORN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

ERIC KRANZ- NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mark Banschbach, Chairman of the Board
Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce
320 Walnut Street
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
(812) 537-0814 

March 19, 2014 

(Lawrenceburg, IN) – Mark Banschbach, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce, is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Kranz as its new Executive Director.  Serving as the Chamber’s Executive Director, Kranz brings a renewed emphasis to professionally serve the needs of the Chamber’s nearly 350 members through a variety of business development, education and counseling services that specifically target local business retention and growth.  

Mr. Kranz holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a minor in political science from the Marquette University.  He also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Boston University with concentrations in management, leadership and entrepreneurship.  Mr. Kranz has completed a number of professional programs that have certified him as a Global Business Professional, Economic Development Finance Professional and a QuickBooks Pro Advisor.  He is currently in the process of becoming a Certified Economic Developer. 

A resident of Sunman, IN, Mr. Kranz comes to us from the Southeast Indiana Small Business Development Center where he provided consulting services for aspiring entrepreneurs and companies with no more than 500 employees.  In his three years with the ISBDC Mr. Kranz worked to help businesses invest $85 million into the region and create more than 300 new jobs. He also helped Indiana entrepreneurs start over 50 new businesses. 

Eric’s starting date is scheduled for April 1, 2014.  The Dearborn County Chamber Board of Directors is extremely excited to welcome their new Executive Director onboard.  We invite the Chamber’s membership as well as the entire community to welcome Eric at an Open House that will be scheduled in the very near future.  Please watch for details about the Open House and meet Eric.
see Register Publications Thursday edition for picture and more info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

18 March 2014 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes


18 March 2014 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Shane McHenry, President, Art Little, and Kevin Lynch

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Teresa Randall, County Administrator, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

Shane McHenry asked for a moment of silence for Tom Stephens who was Bright assistant fire chief. Prayers are with his family. Can’t say enough good things about him- he will be truly missed.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- went first as he had to leave early. American Structurepointe was retained for Greendale on Ridge Avenue/Bellevue area study. Interlocal agreement was needed with Greendale and CVTB  $28,282 is cost which is shared by Redevelopment Commission of Greendale and CVTB. The county as sponsoring entity.  Commissioners approved the resolution and the interlocal agreement.

Baudendistel istyping up the Animal Control Ordinance now and they will not have a blanket statement about pit bulls specifically. Veterinarian Adam Miller helped with the ordinance.  They do have a procedure to determine if a dog is dangerous or vicious. This is done on a case by case basis. He will have that ready for their review when he returns from vacation.

He also stated he had reviewed the contracts coming up later in the meeting.

OLD BUSINESS: none

NEW BUSINESS:

Port Board- Shane McHenry - Majority of the property is in the city limits of two cities of Lawrenceburg and Aurora- but some is in the county. The board wants the county to participate. There are 3 members from each city and 1 member from county. They will draw up an agreement to put Shane on the Board and participate. McHenry is our rep. He appreciates the commissioners’ support in that.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer

Agreement for Bridge #24 Cold Springs Road- $960,000 of federal highway funds for the construction of this bridge.  Agreement approved and signed.

Amendment to Box Beam Design Contract- They determined that Bridge 61 on Kaiser Road could be widened and supported to allow truck traffic. Also Bridge 88 on Johnson Fork Road would be fixed. Cost was $42,700 and is now $59,100 for the study for both. This is with Strand and Associates. They will still restrict truck traffic with signs- but it will cover times when one inadvertently gets in there. It will also help people who live there with horse trailers etc. Amendment approved. Costs are in budget.

ADMINISTRATOR: Teresa Randall- has an agreement for Land Consultants for a survey to cover area between the two buildings for courthouse expansion. Thrilled to be able to use a local firm for $5900. Termination language in there and Baudendistel  checked over it. ( no bid required as it is under the cost limit.) Commissioners approved. Chris Mueller asked why county surveyor was not used. Randall said that County surveyor is not used because the job required utility locate etc. and upload to a model that requires software that we don’t have. And they can’t deploy that fast to get it done with less staff.

Emergency medical service for Greendale for 2 units- $40,000 – agreement approved. Aurora also approved for 2 units at $40,000. Moores Hill has 2 units at $40,000, which were also approved. All of these are using the new agreement that Baudendistel had updated and included their financials as required.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- Claims approved. Minutes approved from March 4th meeting with one spelling error corrected. Lynch abstained as he was not at that meeting. Feb 18th minutes also needed to be signed as they were already approved but they had signed them in the wrong spot.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Art Little hoped everyone gets over the bug that has been going around- he is recuperated.

Kevin Lynch- Siemers from Whitewater Mills and Farm Bureau had a presentation in Batesville and about 60 farmers attended from 7 different counties. He appreciated the Farm Bureau getting involved in trying to get wheat production. A lot of farmers are pretty excited about it. He also attended new road school for the first time. He presented in front of about 60 other county officials.

Shane McHenry- met with Randall and CVTB and presented a powerpoint. This was to help them understand what the board could and should be doing. Hollywood casino updated on the event center project. Feedback was good and it showed how money comes in and how it can be spent.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT- Chris Mueller- reiterated  issue with Redevelopment Commission and wanted the commissioners to also be aware that they did not making the decision to pay the county administrator $10,000 plus benefits for 2013 in a public meeting. After the Council meeting I had checked my notes and then had requested the official minutes of the Redevelopment Commission to see when the decision had been made. They might need to be instructed that executive session discussions should not include decisions and that the decisions need to be made at a public meeting.  

Bill Black- EMA Director- Thursday there will be a testing of alarms for severe awareness.

State radio system will allow Ohio radios from adjoining townships and county to be able to communicate on our system.

Meeting adjourned at 5:39 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

 

Kathy Hess Pretrial Notes

Pretrial hearing for former Woodland Hills nurse, Kathy Hess, was brief with motions filed to reduce the cost of in home incarceration due to her being unable to work. She is working at home to help her husband recuperate since he came back home Thursday.
Final pretrial hearing in May and June trial dates remain as stated previously.
Discovery has been received by defense attorneys Bob Ewbank and Anthony Smart. No other evidentiary issues at this time. They plan 2-3 expert witnesses.

Agenda- March 18th Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting


AGENDA

DEARBORN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING

 March 18, 2014

5:00 p.m., Commissioners Room

County Administration Building

215 B West High Street, Lawrenceburg, Indiana

 

 

I.          CALL TO ORDER

 

II.          PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

 

III.         OLD BUSINESS

 

IV.        NEW BUSINESS

1.  Port Board

 

2.  Highway Engineer, Todd Listerman

            1.  Agreement for Bridge #24, Cold Springs Road

            2.  Amendment for Box Beam Design Contract

 

V.         ADMINISTRATOR

 

VI.        AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington

1.  Claims/Minutes

           

VII.       ATTORNEY

 

VIII.       COMMISSIONER COMMENTS

 

VIIII.      LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION

           

X.         PUBLIC COMMENT

 

XI.        ADJOURN

Friday, March 14, 2014

Register Publications Solicits Comments on County Report

Register Publications Solicits Comments on County Report

What do you think?

Below is a link to the State of Dearborn County report. Let us know what you think about the state of the county, if you agree or disagree with items in the report. What would you, the county resident and taxpayer, like to see happen or know more about?

Send us your comments on Facebook, via our website, thedcregister.com, or email them to us. You can remain anonymous, but keep your comments clean, polite and germane to Dearborn County. Trolls will not be tolerated.

Email comments to erussell@registerpublications.com or newsroom@registerpublications.com, and put “State of County” in the subject line.

CLICK HERE TO READ A COPY OF THE REPORT


http://www.thedcregister.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14019:what-do-you-think-of-the-state-of-dearborn-county&catid=1:latest-news

Thursday, March 13, 2014

13 March 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes


13 March 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes         

Present: Dave Deddens, Chairman, John Rahe, Jim Deaton, Maynard Barrett, and Dusty Burress (non- voting school board member)

ABSENT: Jim Helms

Also present:Terri Randall, Andrea Ewan, Sue Hayden, and Randy Maxwell

Erika Schmidt Russell (Register Publications) covered this meeting

Approved the  February minutes.

Billboard on Stone property – Deddens said Stone wants $1000/month for 3 lights at night also. Contract with EDI and Stone is void. Deddens told Stone that was too expensive. Randall asked if we felt a need for the billboard and Barrett said to get rid of it. It is not where the leads are coming from. Rahe said it doesn’t sound like it is of value to us. Randall said she’d tried to find people who want to use it for business in the area. She said it is not our job to market it. He is a great guy- just hard-nosed about his prices. Preparing a communication to Stone to say they are giving notice and pay up to the 30 days prior to that to be finished by March 31st. That means we paid for 3 months total in 2014.

Financials- presented by Sue Hayden. It included a running total for all their accounts. Randall said she and Sue are going to sit down with Leah Bailey and Gayle Pennington and see how they are tracking their funds. If money comes in for visioning or the redevelopment position they have to be tracked separately. Barrett said Gayle can do it as she does it for council. Randall wants to be sure their funds don’t get sideways or end up back in county general at the end of the year. $456,901 is in the account. That does not include the TIF funds. Approved the financials.

Claims- $10,288.26- one claim for $6,000 is on there from London Witte for Dec- Feb on Whitewater Mills. They had to do a lot of actuarial calculations on that bond per Randall. Approved.

Randall said when we did the budget we put together a $100,000 budget. Because of the payroll for my position and Sue’s we had to put line items in there and I reduced the professional and consulting services section. She needs this board to adopt your amended budget. That is so they get this for SBOA. Deaton said the mileage was a low amount. They explained other sources for that. Approved.

Annual report- Randall- economic development position was to be full time. More she investigated it she thought it would end up as perceived as county and had our benefits etc. She is still working on it.

She decided to make it a contract position with a 1099 on the $100,000 coordinator position on the visioning. Still moving along and waiting for the interlocal from Lawrenceburg.

Smaller communities completing their  plans and McCormack is completing the county plan. They can get Purdue Univ to get them low or no cost stats for us. She is meeting with them on March 17. What kinds of industry clusters can we attract? They can help with that and market them This can target our recruitment. She has not engaged any consultants yet. She is pretty excited about that.

CVTB meeting on the 18th of March- and Randall and some commissioners and any Redevelopment members to go and form a relationship there. Hollywood’s new head will be there. A good way to get in there. Wants to see if they will consider $50,000 again for this redevelopment organization again.

Indiana Board of realtors- from Neff- showing an economic development link etc. It costs $450-600 a year to join. Leery of doing too much as we don’t have too much inventory yet.

 Deddens went to a Region 9 gathering to see what IEDC and others are doing there. Looking for a helicopter tour to have developers look over the region. $1000 or $2000 a year to join the I-74 corridor group. Chamber hadn’t paid last year and EDI took care of it after that per Maxwell. Agreed with Randall- so they will join the group.

For the website-  Randall went to IEDC and got passwords for zoom prospector. Developers use this tool. She will be the master for Dearborn County and Al Abdon for example can make changes for Greendale. PIMS is another website that gets used. This needs to step up on the priority list so we can even get people to take a look. They can reuse EDI folders that they have a ton of and re-label them to change the name from DCEDI and the website name.

Randy Maxwell wanted to talk about the flood plain study. Contractual obligation we inherited on Stone property form Hirlinger to follow up on. TIF projections for Mill and Hirlinger property: He explained it so they know why we are doing what we are doing. This helps with ROI questions. Goes from 2016-2038 as that is answer for elected officials questioning it. Give them their TIF back for their real property for years 1-15. And 50% of personal property up to max of $600,000. $96,481 for half personal property tax per year on Mills. In year 15 there is a windfall of money paid back to the TIF.  Hirlinger project is also on this spreadsheet. You have to be careful and don’t over-commit. This helps you to plan and you can borrow against this revenue. This will help to grow the area. Their Greendale redevelopment has almost $1million a year now. This was established in 2006 with a 30 year life. They (Redevelopment) carved out a new area to set it for 25 years to help make up for lack of what we got in last 8 years. If the sewer line hadn’t been run we wouldn’t be where we are now. No other municipality has done the personal property tax as part of TIF here. This is only good if you have a large manufacturer. This TIF money can only be used certain things within the TIF. He thinks these projections will probably be true. Randall said this is why London Witte is so important. Hoosier Energy has a cost model to cost out the project ahead of time. Our estimates were low. IEC had led them to the Hoosier Energy cost model.  Maxwell said this was a pleasant surprised and that is why we went after that deal. This is what he does for all their Greendale work also. He has wanted to share this the last couple months with the board. Rahe said it was 15 he thought. Maxwell said it used to be 30 years- now it is a max of 25 years. Deaton asked how difficult it was to establish a TIF. The 25 year carve out was for the mills. The county starts getting taxes after the TIF period ends. Once the nest egg is built up it helps with others in the TIF. But it still takes 25 years before the community gets to see these taxes. Rahe said it is for the whole community- not an empire for us.Randall said she needs this for when Denny Kraus asked about ROI the other night. Ohio does not have a personal property tax and that is our competition. Carlisle was doing it under their port authority. No property taxes that way. We had to give taxes back to them to compete. Hoping the next ones won’t be that much.

Survey for West Harrison corridor. Maxwell has the RFP for that West Harrison corridor. Intuitively he knows that flood plain is different and has not been analyzed in 40 years even after Brookville Dam was built. The next step is to resurvey the river channel. The surveyors will take 5 shots ever 1000 feet for 8 miles. All that data will go to the consultant to see if the river has changed much, deepened etc in last 40 years. Hopefully the data will be able to see if it is worth appealing to Corps of Engineers and FEMA etc to see if the flood plain can be built. $35,000 cost. GPS works well without tree leaves etc. $20,000 is needed approximately to get the surveyors work done. Then more for analysis. Randall said we highly recommend doing it.  (Who is we?) Maxwell said the board needs to authorize them to contract with a surveyor. Randall is authorized to contract with a surveyor for the Dearborn County river channel of the Whitewater River for and amount not to exceed $20,000. Approved. Flood survey can be paid with TIF money.

Maxwell said the labor study is needed and contacted Mark McCormack of Planning and the zoom prospector that the state subscribes to he played with data. He drew a 30 minute drive circle around it. He said they can create their own labor study. We need to ignore state lines when we are looking for labor. Companies are more interested in the right employees. Taxes are not as big an incentive for people looking for engineers or other professionals. They need the labor base. Economic development is really PEOPLE development. That is what Maxwell learned from his Ball State course.

Randall- IEDC leads said 60% are businesses looking for an existing building. 32 ft clear height and 50,000 sq. ft. or 75,000 sq ft. She thinks that is a new trend and maybe we should look at it. Some communities are doing this. Will research more on this and see if we want to build on spec. Maxwell said this could save money and start the company faster. Takes 18-24 months to get the building done. Most of them want to lease those buildings. So the building is not owned. Maxwell said that seems to be the way of the world. Lease back is risky for everyone. TIF district is the tax base business. Provide jobs for your people.

Randall said that March 15- annual report is due to DLGF and she will file that there this week. [NOTEW: That report should be on file with the County Commissioners if anyone wants a copy.]

$38,000 is in West Harrison TIF.

Randall talked aboutTom Dickey who worked for Duke Realty and Econ Dev Director for Fishers, IN. He will be helpful to us- she met with him. She thinks that private business will drive economic development. We will network and all. We are 3-6 months away from presenting a whole master plan for the corridor. Randy Maxwell concurred.

Chris Mueller- brought up being unable to locate the board vote on paying Randall $10,000 for 2013 as mentioned at Council this week. As a point of housekeeping- the board needs to remember that nothing is decided in executive session. Just discussed. Then a decision if there is one – is made in the public meeting. There was no response to this.

Meeting adjourned at 10 AM

After the meeting adjourned, Maynard Barrett made a point of reassuring Terri Randall that Denny Kraus meant nothing personal and there were no grudges. This was in reference to the Council meeting apparently..

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

11 March 2014 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes


 11 March 2014 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
FOUR COUNCIL MEMBERS  (MORRIS, BARRETT, ULLRICH, AND LYNESS) APPEAR READY TO REMOVE THE 5 VOTE RULE FOR SALARY ORDINANCE CHANGES. LANSING AND KRAUS OPPOSED. KEYES ABSENT.
see discussion under the Redevelopment and Administrator duties.

Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing, Liz Morris, Randy Lyness, Maynard Barrett, and Bill Ullrich.

ABSENT: Charlie Keyes- out of town

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Teresa Randall, County Administrator

Mark McCormack-Planning Director-  Troy Frazier, Assistant planner- gave 2 weeks notice- going to Tennessee for better pay.  $16,200 for city’s and town’s work is included in his salary. Advisory Committee gave a favorable recommendation to replace him. Council approved to seek a replacement for this position.

OLD BUSINESS:

Redevelopment Commission , County Administrator increased duties, and new title for Commissioners Ass’t.- tabled from previous meeting, Andy Baudendistel and Shane McHenry presented with Terri Randall speaking at times. Baudendistel said there was an agreement between redevelopment and commissioners to let Randall and Hayden assume some duties for their board. [NOTE: This agreement was done retroactively. Economic Development Title was added to the administrator retroactively also. ]

$30,400 requested- 12,020 for last year and 18,020 for this year for Randall. This is to cover the work she did in 2013 beyond her administrator duties. [NOTE: there was no evidence at the meeting of hours worked or calculated as based on last year’s assumed redevelopment duties.]

4,810 for Hayden for her Redevelopment duties and Executive Ass’t title?

48,750 plus 15,000 for 2014 plus 3,020 for benefits for Randall = $66,770 salary for 2014.

Lansing asked how many hours a week spent on redevelopment. – Varies per Barrett.

County commissioners and redevelopment to work closer together- to make sure they are on same goals.

Morris- said the revolving door of DCEDI and Redevelopment. This is better serving the county by doing this in house. We actually got results when she (Randall) came in. Sewer there got more interest. Now we got someone- and no one at EDI to get to this when Mills project people were there. [NOTE: Maxwell is actually the power behind the scenes here. He has the knowledge and skills to get the project off the ground.]

Shane McHenry- assured them she has gone above and beyond her duty.

Lansing said- you are compensating two positions. Sue (Hayden) is getting more work because of things Terri Randall can’t do.

Barrett said that he sees both side of this. They considered hiring someone and when he came back after missing a Redevelopment Commission meeting they had decided to use Randall and Hayden.

McHenry said we want it over here so we can see how they are spending the money. This is one central location for the contacts. They may have been putting the business other places. [NOTE: The auditor will see how the money is being spent. The Commissioners can request the Redevelopment minutes and financials at any time. There is a commissioner and a council person sitting on the Redevelopment board. Meeting on the county campus saves money- but it does NOT ensure close control over Redevelopment decisions.]

Lansing- no matter where the business is in the county- the county still gets the taxes. All agreed. [NOTE: So why worry about whether the city, town, or unincorporated county gets the business? One reason is that whoever gets the business gets to pick the bidders and contractors in some cases. They get to be the new business’s eyes in the area and help smooth the transition to the county. This all gets paid.]

Baudendistel- goal is to make county more efficient.

Kraus- asked who authorized the $10,000 check that was written- and we wouldn’t have known about it because it was stopped. Barrett- It was decided by the Redevelopment Board to pay it this way. The auditor questioned it. Kraus said there is no line item for salaries in the budget. Barrett said they thought of it as purchasing a piece of equipment. [NOTE: Barrett sits on the redevelopment board as council’s rep. How does a council person who sits through budget hearings every year not know that salary cannot be paid out of any line item that is not designated as salary? Redevelopment has no salary line item in their budget. This was hurried along like many of the Redevelopment requests this past year- and they were not adhering to the laws governing the expenditure of money. The auditor held this up as she knew the SBOA would require this to be repaid.]

Kraus said- Compensatory time is not allowed for exempt employees!!! Randall is salaried- and an exempt employee. So they are not paid for overtime.

Two different departments- should be kept separate in his (Kraus’s) opinion. Should be two different jobs. Talked to Deddins (Chair of Redevelopment) yesterday. Lansing and Kraus said that is not enough work for full time.

Ullrich- no one would say Terri hasn’t gone above and beyond. Now this position has not had as wide a scope as now. Thinks we are getting more for our money now. Need to maintain the forward movement. Reluctance to have two different things from an accountability standpoint. Still thinks we should bring salary up to what it deserves.

Looked at administrator’s pay across the state- many don’t have one- per Lansing and Kraus.

Morris- said Deddins signed off on this- and we brought Redevelopment Commission in house- on this campus.

Lyness- is there enough time for her to even do both jobs? Kraus said- this is at least a job and a half.

Morris said- Sue Hayden was underutilized and now she can use her skill sets. She has a college degree. She’s a hard worker. [Note: So her pay increase doesn’t look like she’s getting a new title and that much work.]

Lansing said- people always say it is no new money.

Baudendistel- Sue and Terri would do the work for over half of what it cost for Rozow etc. before. Sue is $27,851 now.

What is the recommendation from the advisory committee? Kraus read it- and it was not clear that they wanted two jobs here.

The county needs somebody like this- Lyness.

Salary study showed we weren’t paying people what they deserve in this area. Barrett

Morris- a lot of people aren’t putting in the extra time.

Add a line item to Redevelopment budget to go to salary is what the agreement is asking for. Morris said they (redevelopment commission) have the money. [NOTE: TIF money cannot be used to pay salaries. So the money they have is money that the county and Lawrenceburg gave them for land and incentives etc. They talk about being self-sustaining but the money actually “earned” by the Redevelopment Commission is in the TIF. ]

Kraus – letter from Siemers from Whitewater Mill company- $4,728,000 package- how long to get a return on this? No answer. He’s getting a 50% per year abatement on property taxes.  Council just skimmed past this comment.

Randall spoke: $25,000 from the county goes to Redevelopment and $75,000 from CVTB goes to Redevelopment budget in the past. Now we give them $100,000- now have $700,000 now in TIF etc. They do have the payback info on it. And you can get that from us. [NOTE: Why haven’t they brought that in to the public?] The 2nd company will be here in 2 years. Rick Siemers from Whitewater Mills was there and I showed up- he said if she hadn’t showed up he wouldn’t be there today. This agreement with Redevelopment and Commissioners is finite- if I am not doing the job they can let me go. Don’t want 2 jobs. But it has to be done. I am not double dipping. I just stepped up and did it. The more we partner with L-bg the more likely they are to give us another million to do more economic development.

Randall still - When this was priced out by the firm we use- this job I am doing was priced out at what highway engineer is making. And we asked for less. [Note: Not much less. The highway engineer has a PE and years of experience with the state. What is Randall’s experience and educational background?]

Baudendistel said the TIFs were just renewed again in West Harrison and Aurora. Plat maps of TIF will also be in these from now on. Each city has its own Economic Development person. This is giving the county a point person for Economic development. [NOTE: The city and town people are doing one job- not more than one job.]

Gayle Pennington- Auditor-- clarifies-the money has not been moved- the $10,000 claim from Redevelopment was not paid. IRS checklist said this had to be done differently. She has to protect the county and pay this correctly. There was no transparency. SBOA said to bring it to council. The money will come out of redevelopment. NOT county general.

Glen Wright- DC Recorder- had a difficult time with $10,000- it’s a big number compared with other paychecks here. Others do a lot of extra work. Snow plow- maintenance staff- police- volunteer firefighters. Many go above and beyond their job descriptions. They have satisfaction to make the county better. TIF districts invested heavily and it will take years to see the effects. I do not believe a single individual brought this econ dev here. No one pays any attention to the drummers who keep the band in step in a parade. Consider the effect this has on your other employees.

Steve Renihan- (Chairman of sewer board and also paid extra for work for supervising projects)- as a private business owner – don’t make the county penny wise and pound foolish- for $10,000 to keep increasing our tax base. Important to recognize. Cities have a highly compensated person to do this. More than half land mass is unincorporated in county. We need to have people to represent this. Think from a long term perspective. We put a lot of money in W Harrison to get the sewer there in W Harrison. Protect our interests. We did the W Harrison at request of commissioners. Revenue is going down from casino. [NOTE: It is more than $10,000- it is $18,020 annually.]

Chris Mueller- two points- in summary I asked them to consider what happens to the administrator duties- the ones Randall was HIRED to do originally. We keep talking about Redevelopment, but the administrator job is the main job. If this is really a job and a half and if the administrator works long hours and meetings in the evening, there is risk of burnout as well as the job not being done well at times. Adding more money does not miraculously create more hours in the day to get things done. It would be a shame to set talented people up for failure. The second point was that I believe in the checks and balances of government. Council checks commissioners and vice versa. WHO CHECKS THE REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION? And if they are joined so tightly with Commissioners and/or Council then that party of the system is not going to work.

Lyness- Randall has been doing this job since March 2013-knows how much time it takes. He assumes that some of those duties will go to Hayden.

Chris Mueller- perhaps take the time to spell this out in job descriptions and pay scales that match up. It doesn’t look like Hayden’s pay increase will match her new duties and title.

Lyness asked Randall about her job time spent and how it was going.

Randall – I think I have been doing it “and I have been doing it pretty awesome.”

Kraus- -you know where I stand on this

Lyness- $10,000 – choking on that. That should have come up before November. [NOTE: Was that claim presented in November?]

McHenry brought up at budget time and was told not to bring it up for more money. Barrett- and there wasn’t any enthusiasm for it at budget time.

Barrett- has voted for it twice on Redevelopment Commission and Personnel Advisory Board. He motioned to accept Redevelopment recommendation and include the $10,000 in the total of $30,040 [NOTE: Where did $2,020 get added here? See above numbers whne this first proposed at beginning of meeting.] for both years for Randall. $4810 for Hayden. Ulrich 2nd it and want to revisit this at budget hearings to work a better solution. Votes- 2 Nays Kraus and Lansing.  Rest ayes (4) and so fails- It takes 5 for salary ordinance.

Baudendistel is big on the out clauses in the contracts and stated that again.

Mueller- But you don’t want to set up something that pretty much makes you use them- it’s a failure then.

Morris referenced the county attorney’s email on simple majority. Much discussion on precedence- now Baudendistel gets with Kramer who was the attorney Council asked about the 5 vote salary rule. Kramer hadn’t answered yet. [NOTE: Council has been using 5 votes for salary ordinance approvals over 30 years. I know personally they used it all the time I have been attending meetings since mid 1995. In the blog notes the earliest record of it is Nov 2004 and again in Jan 2006. Both of those stand out as the board was not unanimous. There are many counties in the state who use this supermajority rule as a protective measure to keep payroll costs from expanding too much. It also helps to keep the decision from being a partisan vote, as it generally requires more than one party to approve. At least it does in counties that are more politically balanced than ours is. That is how it was explained to me years ago.]

Review and vote to add two salary line items to the budget and amend the Salary Ordinance- approved pending the result of Kramer and Baudendistel talking. Lansing Nay and Kraus Nay- rest Ayes

Review $10,000 gross adjustment to the County Administrator’s salary for work performed in 2013- included in the above agreement.

Accept job description changes to the County Administrator and Administrative Secretary change to an Administrative Assistant- included in above agreement.

[NOTE: This is not an official approval unless Kramer says the 5 votes rule is not allowed for salary ordinance. If he does- the council can then meet and vote by simple majority to change that rule – the same way they changed the one on spending riverboat savings account to simple majority. Expedience seems to be the name of the game now. Rules that get in the way get changed. Titles and job descriptions and pay get done retroactively to cover jobs that just expand without a job description or pay scale or designated supervisory board. I am not sure why the Redevelopment doesn’t hire a person and the administrator stays separate. There are items in the county that are not finished that were started two years ago. There are also signs of work overload, when notices get posted just barely by deadlines and sometimes meetings changes as deadlines were not met. Too many last minute items lead to mistakes. More planning is needed for this to possibly work. And even then, doing it right will probably lead to burnout in my opinion.]

Lawrenceburg Loan- Lawrenceburg will forgive 25,000 of the 256,000 loan. On the table for 30 days. Lansing reported this. Voted to pay off the whole amount to Lawrenceburg after Pennington advertises it. Pennington will advise Jackie Stutz of our intention.

Dearborn County Community Foundation Letter- signature approved at the February meeting- Fred MCarter prepared the letter and sent it over, $84057.35 $75,000 stays with the foundation in our Quality of Life Endowment Fund. The rest comes back to the county. Signed.

Aurora Lion’s Club- Council Benevolent Fund- $1000 for Payback the Clown at the Farmer’s Fair- lost the casket company support- council approved. [NOTE: The Council gets dinged by SBOA for this charity donation type item every year. With the Riverboat Revenue declining, perhaps this needs to be stopped.]

Dearborn County Regional Sewer- Steve Renihan- no addition- just a transfer- Hrezo and Fehrman also present. 70 % done with N Dearborn rd and 25% done on Guilford study. Going nowhere on Guilford so they want to spend money elsewhere and Briarwood and Outer Drive off 148 needs a study. It is densely populated and it will give them more customers. The folks want it and they can afford a sewer bill. They will continue to look at Guilford. Lawrenceburg and Aurora support doing 148. Sewer ends at Springdale area. Not financially self sustaining yet- but Renihan says they are getting there. Interlocal agreements are how the county gets the existing sewer companies to pick up the sewage for treatment. We help set rates so the county residents are represented. Morris motioned to transfer the funds of $8925 for the study of Outer Drive area. 2nded and Approved.

Auditor- Minutes approved. Created a fund for 911 dispatching funds received from Aurora to do their dispatching. Approved.

Council probably changing budget hearings to August 25th week at Barrett’s request.

Hensley requested position to replace and they decided in personnel committee to NOT fill it at this time per Kraus. Hensley is not happy about this he said.

Meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township