1 December 2008 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

1 December 2008 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Hughes,Chairman, Fox, and Thompson.
Also present: Pickens, Auditor, Ewbank, Attorney, and Messmore, Administrator.

Commissioner-elect Tom Orschell was in attendance.

OLD BUSINESS:
From last meeting- Dedication of cul-de-sac on Bittner Road originally presented by Dennis Kraus Jr. Surveyor. Ewbank said he had reviewed the request and it met the statute requirements. There was no expense to the county. Commissioners approved the dedication of the cul-de-sac.

NEW BUSINESS:
Messmore presented for Bill Black on EMA- The grant application from FEMA under Homeland Security was signed by commissioners for windstorm reimbursement- not to exceed $95,000.

Todd Listerman was not present. Hughes and Thompson gave update on the Triple Whipple Bridge. There are pooling issues on the deck as the road was not crowned per the specs. The contractor has been notified. If they do not fix it, there is a bond.

Pickens- Claims and minutes signed. Fox abstained on the one where he was absent.

Messmore- asked the commissioners to approve selling Fox his 4-year- old laptop as it would be difficult to purge it of all the information on it- including some personnel issues. Thompson asked Ewbank if this was acceptable. Ewbank had no problem with the sale. Commissioners approved selling it to Fox for $1.
[NOTE: Perhaps commissioners should be GIVEN their laptops at the beginning of their tenure and this issue would be eliminated. After 4 years the laptops are not worth much monetarily, anyway.]

Thompson asked about status of the CAC (Children’s Advocacy Center) in Dillsboro. Messmore said the reapplication is in 1st qtr of 2009.

Ewbank- lawsuit on 2 county police responding as back up to Lawrenceburg when the wrong apt. was allegedly entered will probably end up with no cost to county.

Thompson- asked about claim for deductible on mediation in Greg Davis case. Commissioners decided to reject the claim on Ewbank’s advice until they could research it. The claim was for costs to investigate the case. As this is something they’ve never done before as a charge, they thought it best to reject until they could determine validity.

Thompson reported that he took steps to resolve the issue at Animal Control per their instructions at the previous meeting. The director chose not to resign , so she was terminated. He worked with staff and gave them copies of the first week’s report.

Hughes said he thought the COMMISSIONERS would have had to take that action.
Fox said the animal control board was essentially unanimous on the action.
Hughes said Thompson was to report back and then the board (commissioners) would take action.
Thompson said that was not clear - you authorized me to take the necessary steps and report back. That is what I am doing.
Commissioners decided to affirm Thompson’s actions to make it official, as the Animal Control Board is an advisory board. All three approved his actions on the director issue.
[NOTE: The wording they took as action after the last executive session was to give Thompson the approval to take whatever steps were necessary to settle this. What Hughes proposed sounded complicated. Was Thompson supposed to come back and say the director didn’t resign. Then they vote to terminate and he has to go back and tell her that later? Wouldn’t that be an issue of security for the county to leave an employee on the job for a week or two knowing they were being eliminated? In any event, it is kinder to the employee to take action quickly, rather than add extra stress to the situation. The president of the commissioners or the administrator should have performed this task, in my opinion.]

Meeting adjourned at 6:50 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township