COMMISSIONERS ADDRESS HOMESTEAD EXEMPTIONS, CURB COUNTY VEHICLE USE, CHANGE BOARD APPOINTMENTS (HON REMOVED AND DAWSON TO FOWLER), AND RIVERBOAT REVENUE AND SEQUESTRATION EFFECTS.
5 March 2013 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.
OLD BUSINESS:
Historic Hoosier Hills-
Change board appointment to Ted Fowler- Commissioners approved replacing
Brad Dawson who is serving in another capacity per Terri Randall.
Ordinance- Retention
of Service Weapon, Badge and ID card for deputies retiring with 20 years of
service- Sheriff Kreinhop said this is a common practice for state police
but not sheriff’s departments. Baudendistel prepared the ordinance modeled
after 5-22-22-6 and the 36-1-3-5a and the state ordinance on state police. He
read the eligibility requirements into the record. This has been done
previously on a case by case basis. Commissioners approved the ordinance with
McHenry abstaining. (he works for sheriff’s dept.)
County Attorney
Agreement- Randall reviewed other counties and other agreements with previous
county attorney’s here. Pay is $20,000 retainer and $150/hour for work beyond
the retainer. Commissioners approved.
McHenry said Andy came on two years ago when McHenry took office and has done an outstanding job and has stepped
up whenever needed.
Confirm remainder of
Commissioner Meeting dates- 1st Tuesday at 9 AM and 3rd
Tuesday at 5:30 PM. This will avoid running into occasional Council
meetings on the 3rd Tuesdays.
NEW BUSINESS:
Certificate for
retiring Aurora postal worker- Bill Blackburn after 30 years retired Feb 28th.
McHenry acknowledged his military service and postal service and presented the
certificate. Audience applauded. Randall took a picture of him with
Commissioners and auditor.
Drew Barth- signatures on title sheet for Bridge #102-
Drew Barth introduced himself to the 2 new commissioners. This is for bridge on
North Dearborn Rd. Commissioners signed.
ADMINISTRATOR:
Teresa Randall- nothing much to report other than that she is recuperating well
from her foot surgery. They (she and Lynch) are scheduling individual meetings
with EMS units to get regional meetings later. They are also looking at the
jail project for the next agenda.
Local elected
officials agreement for region 9 work force board to address unemployment.
Kevin Lynch has been appointed to that board. They want each county to sign a
local elected officials agreement. Mayor Carr is also on this board as the
mayor of the highest populated city in the county. The agreement runs 18 months
thru June 30, 2014.
Kevin Lynch and Art Little discussed this and the meetings
run back to back with his OKI meetings. He asked Little to take over his spot
and have the county administrator with her HR background could also attend with
Little. Little asked if this was just setting on the board or if the executive
meetings in Greensburg were required. Lynch said the meetings move around the
region. Little doesn’t want to use the phone attendance option. Little agreed
to do this if Randall would go also. She said she was there for him. She said she
was impressed with the group attendees. She thinks they should be more involved
with them that we have been in the past. Little has attended some of the
meetings in the past also. Commissioners appointed Art Little as CCEO fro
region 9 Work force development and also signed the agreement.
Kevin Lynch also
addressed the Work force Investment Board changes. This will take place
this summer. Current rep is Marty Hon. In discussions with chief elected
official of this Work Force Act. The criteria set forth may mean that our rep
may not be eligible to hold this spot. They are looking for getting some
business people involved in this board and related economic development. Rick Craig from Craig Distributing has
been considered for this spot. Lynch was going to make the motion to
appoint him when the time comes. McHenry said he would like to meet him first.
Little said he knew Craig well. McHenry asked if they were going to withdraw
Hon from the board as it transitions. Hon is currently president of the board. McHenry
said –from what he has heard it might be
better to withdraw and have a better transition with someone who can continue
on the new board. Commissioners voted
and decided to remove the current member ( Marty Hon) from that board.
AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- HOMESTEAD DEDUCTIONS introduced
Tim Jorczak from Maximus Consulting service- who helps auditor’s get thru their
homestead audit. He also has DLGF background (he worked for them for 3.5
years) This is the program they are going thru. There is a pink form
verification process. The benefit varies on where you live. It can cut your
property tax bill cut in half at times. You can only claim one homestead credit
in the state. His company helps verify the homestead exemptions. They identify
and root out the ineligible deductions. They have done Boone ( 17,500
homesteads and 360 letters and 70 were eligible) and Putnam Counties. They have
$400,000 in back taxes and in Putnam they found $100,000 in back taxes. They
identify possible issues and send out a first letter. Many are OK in that first
letter. They then proceed on to cover the ones who are not for further
investigation. They generally end up mailing to about 1% of homesteads on file. $2 for each Homestead reviewed is their fee.
$35,000 was fee paid in Boone County.
Pennington said there is an appeal process if someone wants to appeal
their homestead decision. She said using this rate is much more cost effective
than using her deputies for the research. They are down to 2,000 people to
investigate now in Dearborn County. Rick said they do an overview of the County
still as part of the process. This helps identify some of the dual homestead
claimers also. You cannot claim a homestead in Florida and one in Indiana also.
This affects a lot of the “snowbirds” in the county. Commissioners will be
presented with an agreement to sign in the next month or two.
Commissioners signed claims. Minutes were not ready.
Pennington has been in INDY a lot over the SB 528 issues with gambling revenue.
ATTORNEY: Andy
Baudendistel- Prepared a letter to send to Gillman but heard from Beam Longest
and Neff that Gillman was accepting the county offer and so no condemnation on
this property for Stateline Road.
COMMISSIONER COMMENTS-
Kevin Lynch- said the Riverboat Revenue issues have made him look at the
county budget more closely. He has concerns about some things such as county
vehicle usage. Fuel cost increases are a concern. He motioned that - Effective immediately- all county vehicles are to be
parked at the county and not taken home. Uses need to be requested and approved
by the commissioners before taking the vehicle out. Snow time is an exception for county highway
and sheriff’s dept is exempted. There will be some case by case exceptions that
can be approved. Commissioners waited for McHenry to return from his phone
call. Randall said that they need to get bidding on maintenance also. She also
said they need to set criteria for the approval process. Baudendistel said that
should be part of personnel policy handbook. McHenry apologized for call (he
has a sick kid at school) Pennington said they will need to keep mileage logs. See motion above from Lynch- Little 2nded the motion. Approved.
Lynch also said
he appreciated all the info on the gambling legislation. He also said that
Mcmillin and Frye need to keep us informed on a regular basis. McMillin said he
would keep us in the loop.
Little said they
have all been working for us as had Nugent. We will lose half our gambling
money if this goes thru.
McHenry said that
he’s confident in our representatives.
Little said he is
honored to represent Dearborn County.
McHenry asked Bill
Black to discuss the snow coming. Black doesn’t think we need a formal
commitment on our advisory levels. Yellow is hazardous, Orange is a watch and
try to stay off roads, and Red is emergency vehicles only. McHenry said he will
be in contact with Black tonight and also the Highway Dept. Baudendistel said
there are fines that can be assessed if in violation of these levels.
Severe Weather
Awareness is next week is in March. Black asked if he can drive his vehicle
because it is an emergency vehicle. Bill will put that in writing to Randall
for Commissioners for their decision.
LATE ARRIVAL
INFORMATION- none
PUBLIC COMMENT-
Randall had met with judges yesterday
and had shared the info from lobbysist on sequestration affects that trickle
down to local level. $262.00 in JAG grants will be affected. $739,000 wildlife
and fish, $1.75 million in substance etc.
Meeting adjourned at 10:30 AM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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