18 January 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

18 January 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Jeff Hughes, President, Tom Orschell, and Shane McHenry
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Bill Ewbank, County Coordinator, and, Andrew Baudendistel, Attorney

OLD BUSINESS:

Maximus Consulting services- continued tabled.

Vacating a portion of Happy Hollow Road- Baudendistel indicated that it has to go through Planning and Zoning first because it originated with the property owner (Lykins) and not the county. John Kellerman, attorney for neighbor, the Engels, was pleased with that determination.

Vacating a portion of Willoughby Road- Todd Listerman, County Engineer, and Dennis Kraus, Jr, County Surveyor, presented. ROW in 1999 was dedicated to the county. Donaldson the owner has been in court over that dedication that he claims he did not agree to. They went to mediation. This new plan allows all people on Willoughby to have road access. This inventory length increases by 0.2 miles. All neighbors were renotified by regular first class letters again. A neighbor said he’d talked to all residents and they were satisfied with the new plan. No other public spoke. All vacated north of the proposed cul-de-sac (0.535 miles). The ROW on the proposed cul-de-sac was also accepted. Commissioners approved.

HiTech Contract Renewal- Pennington still gathering information and going month-to-month with Hi Tech now.

Prosecutor’s Office- Aaron Negangard- Bad check program— implement a system that is cheaper for someone to resolve bad checks. Probably LOSE revenue for the prosecutor’s diversion program per Negangard. Under this program the bad check writer will pay $27.50 in fees rather than $300 they do now. They will market this better to make more merchants aware of this program. Josh Hartlage of Ad Lit is the company that processes this and administers the program. Only one bank is used in this program. If they don’t pay in 17 days- they get sent to prosecutor for prosecution. They try to use a regional or national bank to get payment in the tri-state area. Hartlage said 3rd party collections takes 30-50% of the collection. This way the merchant gets the full face value of the check. [NOTE: This collector has the strong arm of the prosecutorial threat behind him. There’s the threat of prosecution. Who gets the money? Does the prosecutor have a statutorial use for his share of this?] Commissioners accepted the ordinance as presented by Negangard and Hartlage.

NEW BUSINESS:

Hughes brought up this decision from executive meeting forth: Put Andrew Sutor doing the mapping under the Surveyor and Margaret Minzner GIS under the auditor’s authority. This dissolves the GIS office. Commissioners agreed to do this. This was discussed in executive session prior to the meeting.

Lifetime Housing CDBG ( Community Block Development Grant) Award signatures- no one available. Pennington presented this. $150,975 was granted for training sessions and the repairs that the housing authority makes. They aren’t sure how this will be spent. Commissioners will have them come in and explain how the funds will be spent.

CASA- Donna Thacker- Grant recommendations- she outlined the projects that CASA now does. 15 students from CASA are now area ambassadors too. (5 from each area school) They wanted to ban the sale of K2spice and were disappointed that the feds beat them to it. In the 2nd year they are to plan to sustain the group without the grant eventually. Lawrenceburg has decided to continue to help funding the group. The next youth summit will be geared toward middle school kids. The true change will come from prevention in the first place. Budget is the same as the last couple years. Commissioners approved the grant application and commended Thacker and the youth in this group.

Lawrenceburg Library District Appointments- Commissioners approved Dan Toon to the board.

RQAW- Jail updates- Brett Dodd and Mark ??- presented a preliminary design to the 9 member advisory group and the commissioners then too. Committee agreed that the diagrams are appropriate per their input. 224 beds with 64 beds work release. Probably 4 person dorm groups. This includes renovation to the existing building and does not include a basement, which would have been expensive. Majority of questions related to staffing issues. Dodd said the initial construction pales in comparison to staffing costs. They thought there was a way to make staff almost the same- by using technology and reducing staff in one are to use in another. Work release has minimum staff needs- just AM and PM. These extra beds can be leased to neighbors and get revenue that way to offset staff costs. Housing pods help manage the population. Went thru ACA standards and the 4th edition is less prescriptive and more performance based. They are more concerned with how the jail operates and functions. They will put up appropriate firewall to separate new jail form old jail. Instead of moving detainees thru the courthouse, move the judge to the jail and/or do video arraignment. This helps with security issues and staffing. Orschell said he had attended the meetings and agreed with the idea of keeping staff needs similar to currently. He thinks going slow and working out the problems is beneficial. The predesign phase when completed goes to a timeline. Bill Ewbank has been working with Umbaugh on tax impacts. The schematic phase will go to a layering detail to understand the building and uses of floor plans. Then you go to design development. Then go to actual plans and bidding and construction phase. RQAW wants to get to design in early spring- bidding in fall and footers set before weather gets bad. Copper prices and steel are going thru the roof. So we have to build those inflationary issues into the costs. [NOTE: This will push the price to referendum.]
Hughes asked why he thought the felonies are increasing and misdemeanors are decreasing. Hughes wondered if they were increasing felony arrests because they go to the state. [NOTE: OR- it could be that if you charge with a felony- keep them in jail with high bonds. Then you can plea them down to a misdemeanor with credit for “jail time already served.” ]

Jail can handle maximum security. New building will be for minimum security. If the c and d felons get sent back to the locals to house- our maximum security current jail space could probably handle that. RQAW also indicate that offense is not always the determinant of security level. Non-violent felons sometimes need no max security and a gang member in on a misdemeanor might need max security. Felons here would increase jail time too. Another 224 housing bed could be added to the west should the future require that. They are also putting the kitchen closer to the new pod so it is more centralized should additions be needed in the future. McHenry said some of the drug cases may drop to c and d felonies. Dodd said they just can’t answer to the future needs as they just aren’t getting that information released to them.

Liberty National Life Insurance Company- Guy Reinert- and Steve Hargus- opportunity to enhance employees benefits package. 100 plus year old company. No adm costs- but it is a payroll deduction- pre-tax. This gives employee and county a tax break. In a county this size it could be several thousand dollars. They do this for the city of Lawrenceburg. They do s group term life insurance policy. Usually benefits offer a $10-25,000 policy. Liberty National offers something different- it is a benefit that goes with the employee when they leave- if they want it. It locks them into the price till age 100. These are portable group term policies and their spouse and kids can get this. They are probably the only company that offers this and doesn’t ask the tobacco use question. They give a 1 year $3,000 pay out policy for the family for the entire year on an Accidental death benefit for free. After that they can continue that for $10. County can consider this. Gayle would have to look into this with HR. She can also ask Jackie Stutz how Lawrenceburg handles this. No decision.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT- Todd Listerman, County Engineer, gave a 10-minute report:

LPA Consulting Contract with United Consulting on Bridge Inspections. Chris Pope from United talked about changes in requirements that increased the costs of this service. United does 15-16 counties for this. It’s an 80/20 cost split with eth federal government funds. The data is now put in software that the feds mandated. Fracture critical inspections also cost more. Truss bridges are like this. These require a multiple man crew. They have to clean off the structural members and inspect each at arm’s length. Because Collier Bridge is closed it won’t cost the $10000 or more for that inspection. Other type bridges cost about $600. Triple Whipple only has to be done every 4 years as it is a pedestrian bridge. New bridges get inspected and repaired ones also when they are open to traffic. $199,000 is the total cost and county cost is just under $40,000 for this contract. Commissioners signed the contract with United Consulting.

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- claims and minutes were signed, even though the commissioners hadn’t completely reviewed the entire set. Commissioners will review them after the meeting and allow Hughes to sign off on them after that.

ATTORNEY- Andy Baudendistel- met with Gay last week and completed file transfer. Gay will monitor Hoosier Square and Votaw Building. [NOTE: That will avoid conflict of interest for the current county attorney who works with Votaw’s group.]

Also spoke with county planning to get the resolution for the new zoning map format. Baudendistel will write that up soon.

Hughes asked about- back burner item- purchasing agreement ordinance that was drafted by Witte and Gay has reviewed it. Baudendistel will check on it.

COUNTY COORDINATOR- Bill Ewbank- wants people to have applicants come in to advise commissioners on what they are asking to have signed- at the meeting.

Agreement with Samantha Woods MD and Ron Phillips, Nurse for juvenile facility. The term and amount asked for is within discretionary amounts. He’s recommending this personal services agreement be signed. Commissioners agreed. He thinks they can do this in the future without meeting-a s it falls in the budget.

HJ Umbaugh and Associates for the Financial advisory services for the jail project. They were involved in the current jail, courthouse renovation etc for the bonds. This is an hourly agreement- not a fixed amount. Initial phase estimate is financial feasibility and analysis- $15-20,000. Funds available in Commissioners budget- but recommends asking Council for supplemental funds to do this. They will also tell us how we can pay for it. Contract can be terminated with 30 days notice. Commissioners decided to do this. Hughes said- we used London Witte in the past and this will give us fresh eyes. Commissioners put a cap on it of $20,000. We have an obligation to put forth accurate information on this to the public- regarding costs. Commissioners signed the agreement with the $20,000 cap.

District 9 Advisory Board for Emergency Management has an open position- Bill Black presented this info for a new appointee. Three reps from each county. Ralph Thompson was on it before. Jeff Hughes said he was not going to be presumptuous to say he could take Ralph’s place- but he’d be willing to do it. Hughes was approved to fill the spot.

COMMISSIONERS:
Jeff Hughes- OKI has a water quality commission and Thompson had that spot. Orschell will take that over now. Commissioners approved Orschell. He will go to Thursday’s meeting, Travis Miller is in charge of that meeting.

Tom Orschell- none

Shane McHenry-asked Ewbank about the Spice ordinance. Ewbank has an ordinance drafted and prepared. Baudendistel will review that. McHenry does not want to let this slip through the cracks if fed drops the ball.
McHenry has had only positive comments about how highway has handled snow removal this winter.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT-none

Meeting adjourned at 11 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township