1 February 2005 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

1 February 2005 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

Present: Vera Benning, President, Jeff Hughes, and Rick Fox. Also present: Bryan Messmore, new county administrator, Cary Pickens, Auditor, and Bob Ewbank, County Attorney.

This meeting was videotaped in addition to the usual audiotape.
An executive session preceded this meeting at 5 PM concerning the highway department director. The plan commission appointments were not discussed at this executive session.


1. Executive session decision: Rick Fox motioned and Jeff Hughes 2nd to give the appointing authority for his dept. back to Mike Davis, Highway Director. All Ayes.

Old Business:
1. Minutes of the executive session and meeting on Jan 18th were approved.

2. BZA appointment: Fox motioned and Hughes 2nd to appoint Patricia Ann Baker to the BZA. All ayes.
[NOTE: There was no “resume” presented or discussion of Baker’s area of expertise or what she brings to the board. Research on 2/2/05 showed that Fox submitted a statement saying she was 41, has worked for Seagrams/Pernod Ricard for 17 years, has a Business degree from Mount St. Joe and an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is a lifelong resident of the county who did not sign in on any attendance sheets on any master plan meetings.]

3. Plan commission appointment (unsuitable appointment). Ewbank stated that he checked with Lisa Lehner and that the Rick Pope appointment was in futura and so it is void in his opinion. [NOTE: Rick Pope was present and had asked commissioners prior to this meeting to be able to speak – he wanted to be reappointed.]
Hughes motioned to take resumes or applications for this. Vera stated, “We’ve never done this before.” There was no 2nd- so the motion died.
Fox motioned and Hughes 2nd to appoint Robert J. Laws to the Plan Commission. All ayes.
[NOTE: There was no information on Laws on Fox’s sheet other than his address and phone number. He lives in the Moores Hill area on SR350. There is no record of him on any attendance sheet for the master plan meetings. There is also no verification that he is not a Republican- as this spot must be filled by another party per state law.]

4. HVL POA Vehicle request was tabled. Fox stated that there were several county departments still in need of vehicles.

5. Benning stated that Dave Enzweiler who served on the advisory committee for the sewer board had expressed an interest to be on the sewer board. He works for the N. KY sewer authority. Fox motioned and Hughes 2nd to appoint Enzweiler as the commissioner designee to the County Sewer Board. All ayes.

6. Valley Rural Utility Co. NPDES permit application was presented by Sammy Gutzwiller HVL POA President and Floyd Ogden, Supt. of VRUC. Gutzwiller stated that they had 3 options: to join Whitewater Township Utility, to join SDRSD, or to build their own plant. She stated that they’d tried to join SDRSD and had been voted out EVERY time by Greendale. They have spent over $200,000 on attorney fees. They selected Marty Wesler (sp?) and Associates to do their final engineering for their utility plant. She quoted several years figures up thru 2003 stating that Greendale paid $292,671.01 to SDRSD and HVL paid Greendale $321,074.40. Over the past 8 years they have paid Greendale over $2 million. They can no longer afford to do that.
Ewbank quizzed them on some details and then recommended that the commissioners approve the letter showing support for HVL VRUC NPDES permit application. Fox motioned and Hughes 2nd to approve. All ayes.
[NOTE: Ewbank and Hughes are both HVL POA members]
Ewbank noted that economics should prevail and recommended that they keep looking at Greendale.

New Business:

1. Executive session- done at beginning of meeting.

2. Superior Court- Judge Witte needed permission to keep the Courthouse unlocked till 6PM so that the probation dept. could collect urine drug samples. He stated that this is more fallout from their increasing caseload since the riverboat. He will check with the sheriff to provide security also. This was OK with the commissioners.
[NOTE: This is part of the ongoing series of “courthouse public relations” campaigns to build a case for expanding the jail and adding another court.]

3. Per Benning Terry Dillard requested 4 people to be appointed to the Community Corrections Board. Her requests for Don Hastings, Frank Cardis, Hassel Broshears (sp?), and John Mallory were passed by Fox motioning and Hughes 2nd. All ayes.
[NOTE: Again there were no statements regarding the suitability of these people for the appointment.]

4. Health Dept. Vehicle change was tabled until a complete list of available vehicles is available.

5. Mike Kramer from Pinnacle Insurance requested the OK to terminate the reinsurance with GE but keep some of their other products. He also asked to add The Preferred Network to their Healthspan coverage which adds deeper discounts to employees seeking care at the Alliance Hospital Network. Additional cost is $.05/employee per month. Hughes motioned and Fox 2nd to approve both. All ayes.

6. Omar Reineier- zoning guidance- NOT PRESENT

7. County Attorney- Bob Ewbank- stated that the offer of mediation was turned down by O’Mara because their feel that the slip was an act of God. This perplexed St. Leon’s attorney, as they need someone to pay the costs of moving the sewer line now. The county’s position is that St. Leon can use county ROW but that the county has no further responsibility- this is between St. Leon and O’Mara per Ewbank.
[NOTE: If this road remains closed by IDEM indefinitely, county residents will have to deal with that inconvenience also.]

8. Claims- Benning had no problem with any of the vouchers Stephanie had presented for consideration. Claims approved to be paid.

Benning called for any new business twice. Then she reiterated the statement that anyone wishing to speak had to call in a week ahead and give Stephanie the subject matter as well. Then they would be placed on the agenda.
[NOTE: This is a clear attempt to pretend to be open to public discussion, without really being open. It also precludes any debate from any of their decisions. No other board in the county is as afraid of public comment as this current Board of Commissioners appears to be.]

Benning introduced Bryan Messmore as the new county administrator.

She stated that the 2004 Hwy Report was on file if anyone wanted they could go get it.

Fox motioned and Hughes 2nd to sign the EMS contract with Dillsboro for 2 ambulances at $12,000 each. All ayes.
Cary Pickens gave the commissioners a heads up on the rewording that will be needed in Lawrenceburg’s contract as they are paid and not volunteer exclusively. [NOTE: They may need to apply that wording to others as well]

Jeff Hughes reported that Bill Black told him the FEMA approval came through so the county will get help from the flood damage on roads. He had no particulars on this.

Meeting adjourned 7:25 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township