10 July 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes
Present: Dave Deddens, Chairman, Jim Helms, John Rahe, Jim
Deaton, Dennis Kraus, Sr.,
ABSENT: Dusty Burress (non- voting school board member)
Also present: Terri Randall, county administrator and economic
development director, Andrea Ewan, attorney, Gayle Pennington, Auditor and DCRC
Treasurer, Randy Maxwell Consultant, and Andy Baudendistel, county attorney
Erika Schmidt Russell (Register Publications) covered this
meeting. Joe Awad on special assignment was present for PAC discussion. Celeste
Calvitto ( Bright Beacon) and Kathy Scott were also present.
Action of Executive session that preceded this meeting: no action was taken and they set another
executive session for next Thurs July 17at 8 AM. It will be followed by a brief
meeting to announce any decisions.
The board welcomed Dennis Kraus, Sr.- as a new member replacing
Maynard Barrett and Gayle Pennington who is now treasurer due to a change in
state law.
Approved May 8 minutes. There was no June meeting.(Kraus abstained as he is a new
member.
Unfinished business-none
New Business:
PAC (Public Access Counselor) Complaint and Advisory Conclusions- Andy Baudendistel- County attorney.
Baudendistel addressed the proper way to handle the items the DCRC was found to
have violated on open door law on executive sessions a concise and pointed
tutorial. He advised them that they needed to certify that nothing else was
discussed other than what was advertised at executive sessions. The president (Deddens)
stated that he certified that and Baudendistel said they need to write that
statement into the record. They also have to use the code to see what items
they are allowed to call executive session for. They will keep this memoranda
of the executive session actions as part of the minutes of the regular meeting that
follows it. He encouraged them to only call executive sessions when absolutely
necessary. He showed the public records access law to them and how to find it.
He told them that minutes when kept have to be made available – even in draft
form. He said he has developed forms for public records requests. He is
proposing the form to be adopted and used the PAC office to see their samples.
He wants to wait till the website is up and they are looking to have all public
records requests to go thru Pennington’s office- Auditor is in charge of all
records. Fax, email or regular mail you have 7 calendar days. If in person you
have 24 hours business hours. This is to get a response- on when they can
expect the records. The reason behind getting a form is to get one process to
be sure the law is being followed. The county can also have a record of what
they produced. It’s a CYA for the county as Judge Humphrey would say per
Baudendistel. This does not apply to Clerk or Recorders office as they have
their own separate statutes and fees. If the commissioners adopt the form then
the DCRC can adopt it per Andrea Ewan, DCRC attorney.
Randall would like to apologize on her own behalf regarding the violations
and said she did not have an “official” role at that time. She said this was a
difficult process for her. She feels responsible for this. She noted that she
was covering a lot of things at the time, but that was not an excuse. She also
apologized to the public and said she is pretty much a stickler for being open
to the public. Executive session memoranda and certification will be in the
regular minutes following the session.
Andrea Ewan asked the DCRC board to start getting a list of
attendants at their meetings now. I asked if it was legal to require that
anyone attending the meeting sign in. Ewan said they wanted to have a list so
that if questions come up later and that person was in attendance, then they can
show that they had the opportunity to question things at the meeting.
[NOTE: This is because the DCRC was held responsible for
violations more than 30 days old when the complaint was filed by Register
Publications reporter Denise Freitag Burdette. It should be noted that even if
the board tried to get off on a 30 day timeframe technicality- it does not
change the fact that there were repeated open door violations and they needed
to be corrected. Fortunately for DCRC Burdette told PAC she was interested in
getting corrections made and not fines levied.]
I asked about when they
discussed the $10K salary for the administrator as the response to the complaint
from the DCRC did not address that third part. No answer was given and when
asked again after some non-answer was given, Rahe said he thinks they did it at
the earlier 2013 meetings that they have no minutes for. (This would be
April-June maybe- but the timeline shows this in November financials of their
board- not the springtime 6 months earlier.) No other board member spoke up on
that. I also asked how the DCRC knew what was being responded to the PAC on
their behalf as it was never brought up in a public meeting. They said that the
president, attorney Ewan and Randall did the response and emailed it to the
board. Ewan said that was privileged info. They could have had input if they disagreed.
They said they want to just move forward- (and essentially did not
answer my question regarding when they actually discussed and decided to pay
the administrator the additional pay of $10,000 for work done in 2013 for the DCRC.
[NOTE: There is no record of hours
worked or dates and times to corroborate that $10,000 is a reasonable pay for the
job done. The only evidence produced in meeting minutes, emails, and texts requested
in researching the open door violations that show this salary request were emails
from the administrator trying to get her pay worked out after the Nov- Dec claim
was stopped by the auditor due to rules regarding salaried employees getting
paid for two county jobs. There were no emails from commissioners, council, or
DCRC board members. Was this ever discussed by the board?]
Financials and Claims- Pennington asked if they liked the way things are reported now
with the spreadsheet. Randall said she wants to have the Lawrenceburg funds
listed separately to make sure they are kept separate. She wants them to be
listed as restricted funds and what they are restricted for to be sure they
don’t touch it for the wrong things. DCRC board agreed. Grants will be assigned
a fund also per Pennington.
Randall said that on the claims Hirlinger is separate. She
wanted to maybe read thru the items on the claims to be more transparent.
Hirlinger Motors has a claim. When they purchased from Tom Stone- it was agreed
that he would pay $35,000 for access to the property. When this board took over
the property this board took over that responsibility. They can pay it out of
the TIF. This was all done thru EDI originally as Andrea Ewan acknowledged.
DCRC board agreed to pay out of the TIF. They did not read the claims out- but
approved them. Dennis Kraus received explanation for some of the claims as he
asked about them. Pennington asked about if they were going to keep the
separate website or be part of the county’s website. They plan to do a link to
the county from their separate website per board. Discussion on late payment to
Register Publications waiting on the payments from Lawrenceburg first. $457.90
is their bill. $16,840.84 was approved minus the Register’s amount. It will be
paid as soon as they get it. [NOTE: I
questioned this after the meeting. The claim for register Publications is for
an ad that was run for the position for the economic development group formed
by the cities, towns and county and their visioning process. It has nothing to
do with Redevelopment Commission money and will be paid out of the Lawrenceburg
grant money to the visioning group when they get that in. It is interesting
that a local business has to wait to be paid from a group trying to attract
more business into the county. Erika Schmidt Russell from Register told them at
the meeting that it was no problem- they understood that this happens
sometimes.]
Resolution #2014-DCRC-001-“Determination of Need to Capture Tax
Increment Revenues.” and Letter regarding the need to capture all
incremental assessed value - annually the DCRC is required to look at their
TIF funds to see if any should be returned to the taxing unit. Since a lot is
not coming in- they will not be returning any to the taxing units. They need to
send a letter to each of the taxing units involved to let them know they are
keeping all the TIF funds. DCRC board approved both items.
Ratify support letter to the city of Aurora- Randall said they were contacted to have a letter that they discussed
with Deddens as president. It was needed quickly to get support to INDOT in
time as they are improving an access to their state road. Ratified.
Ratify consulting Agreement with Economics Center for Labor Shed
Study out of University of Cincinnati. Some time ago the DCRC had discussed this with Randy Maxwell
per Randall. We need to have this as it is a number 1 consideration in many potential
new businesses we are seeking. State info was not complete and not seen as
credible. They want more than just data- they want a report or marketable
piece. A response was due on a large project that was concerned about this
labor pool. DCRC ratified the agreement. The cost amount was questioned by
Kraus. They told him it was just shy of $7,500. Approved by the board.
Mark McCormack- Planning and Zoning- The Blight Elimination
Program. This is specific to
housing- not commercial. Sometimes it will be greenspace or sold to adjoiner or
redevelopment for commercial purposes. They have some in Moores Hill and Aurora
and Wilmington and Kaiser Rd. They are needing a program partner and sponsor
for possibly 2 properties to hold title to these. They would cost some money up
front. It may not even be used, but they need everything by next week to turn
in. They should know by next week if they need DCRC or not. They only need a
10% match. That’s $1500 or $2500. DCRC Board decided to support this program.
Legion and N Dearborn is one property. Rahe wanted to know if any Aurora
properties were in historic district. None were historic register. DCRC agreed
to sponsor the 2 properties in the county if needed.
County Administrator report- Redevelopment Commissions have been lax in the state on
their reporting so the DLGF is requiring a lot of info now. They need to do the
TIFs and she needed to get more history. Ewan has old EDI records. Pennington
said the new state law changes get more seamless reporting for the gateway so
all this is accessible. Rahe said the TIFs have only been around about 4
years. He asked about the Aurora
Industrial Park sign. Randall said she is trying to work on that and also find
out what companies do this. She had Sue Hayden put it the agenda for the next
meeting to remind her to look into it again.
Attorney Report- Andrea Ewan- nothing
more
Other Business- Pennington introduced Craig Zwiren- the new GIS
Coordinator, who moved up from
Georgia. He worked for EPA and a local city government previously. He has worked in Americus GA for a
renaissance project. Also he described part of it as getting bars more focused
on being “for working professionals instead of crazy college kids.” Bicycling
programs also. Mapping the county utilities throughout the county – has
experience in all of that. Pennington said he will be a good resource for many
organizations. Randall said they are hoping to get an interactive map on their
DCRC website.
Meeting adjourned at 11
AM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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