21 May 2013 Dearborn
County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing, Liz
Morris, Randy Lyness, Charlie Keyes, Maynard Barrett, and Bill Ullrich.
Also present: Teresa Randall, County Administrator and
Commissioner Kevin Lynch
ABSENT: Gayle Pennington, Auditor – covered by Connie
Fromhold
Jail discussion details are under Terri Randall- below.
Judge Sally Blankenship- JCAP program and statistics as requested by
Council. The masters level counselors (Siobhan and Tim) were there also.
The JCAP program was set up in response to the growing drug program in 2007.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is used. Cost is mainly the two counselor’s
salaries. No tax dollars. Grants and also funded by the users- court drug and
alcohol program. They are also trying to develop a tool to evaluate the program with IU. Since
2009 JCAP participants have helped provide programs to the high schools and IVY
tech. Successful ones have been mentoring thru AA and NA. Anecdotes like –
parents saying-“ You gave me back my son or daughter.” They have a plan to get statistics without spending tax dollars. She
gave the statistics on the numbers of participants and if they have full time
jobs now, etc. 213 people have gone thru the program. 142 days average for
males. 90-370 days for females. Average age is 26 for males. Females -we don’t have data yet. 75% rate
from 2007 participants have had no new criminal offense. 2008- 59% have had no
new offense. 2009- was 66% with no new offense so far. Thinking they will get a lot better statistics and tools with their IU
program. ACC program- Accountability
Change and Community- the revamp of the old drug court handled by Judge
Cleary. Ron Michelson is also helping with this now also though he now works at
Veterans Adm.
Maynard Barrott said that they will be helping them with the
new jail space. He doesn’t see how
anyone can question their success. Blankenship said this is about helping
people in the community to get their lives back. She gave another story of one
of the successful 2009 participants who works and attends UC now. She thanked
the sheriff and the jail commander. [NOTE:
The jail has a lot of space allocated to this JCAP program. Contrary to Barrott’s
opinion, there has been no scientific unbiased evaluation of this program.
Scientific measurement of success has not occurred. First you have to DEFINE
what success is. Is it saving one person? Is it saving half the participants? Then
you have to decide how you define it. Having a job is success? Being drug free
for 1 year, 2 years 5 years? This report was supposed to SUPPORT keeping this
large allotment of program space in the new jail. Has any other program been
tried or evaluated? Do other counties use his program? How do they evaluate it?
Obviously this needs follow-up. Even if Council chooses to accept the soft
anecdotal data and proceed with the jail space allotment based on it.]
County Treasurer-
Phil Weaver- Computer Software and Hardware – the old one is 2005 model.
This is the last one to be updated to a new one for $1200. Approved out of Riverboat Revenue.
Phil Weaver brought
up the new investment policy that Commissioners just approved at the
previous meeting. He explained about the increased flexibility allowed for
investments. It allows us to invest in state approved depositories and for
longer periods than previously approved. Jeff Messer with Umbaugh and
Associates – explained further. There are 180 banks in the state. Morris
brought up the local banks- and wanting them to understand what these stringent
rules allowed. Council approved the three
ordinances that the Commissioners just approved at their earlier meeting
tonight.
Planning and Zoning-
Mark McCormack: presented by Karen Abbott from Planning Office
Computer- 4.5 year old laptop that assistant planner is
using and it cannot handle the GIS well. They hope to replace it with a
desktop. $1,000 and they will provide $500 to match. Approved for $500.
Gas- $1,000 requested as they missed this in the annual budget.
This is for enforcement vehicle. It’s about $15-200 a month. Approved.
LifeTime Resources-NOT
ON AGENDA- presented the annual report
and funding proposal for this year. $10,000 was requested again this year to
help provide their services. They do bring in many dollars into the area from
grants and cost sharing. Council will
consider their request in September at Budget Hearings.
Prosecutor- Aaron
Negangard- Jury Trial and Major Felony Case depositions- Tabled as
Negangard was not present. This item was approved at the END of the meeting without
Negangard, Morris stated that they hadn’t
given him his full request at budget and Ullrich seconded. $20,000 was then approved
by Council.
Highway Dept- Todd
Listerman: (50 minutes for highway dept. requests)
Lake Tambo- Bridge 41
- $429,000 in Bridge rehab account. Wants to start the process now. This gets
added to periodically. $450,000 is what is needed.ROW is purchased and design
is done. $429,000 WAS APPROVED from Bridge Rehab account.
Box Beam Bridge
Construction Repair- these are the ones with no deck over them that are
slated for repair. Ester Ridge is one that needed to be completely replaced.
The rest that do not have decks he thinks he can save. He wants $75,000 to
design these decks to work on them as he has accumulated funds. There are 11
bridges he is trying to save. This will also include approaches and guardrails.
It will cost up to $900,000 to fix them all. This should last 40-50 years. It
comes out of cum bridge- funded by property taxes. Designs are good for 4-5
years. APPROVED.
Cum Bridge could be
tripled if we increased the rate as allowed by law.
Box Beam Bridges- by priority: Approved to get the designs done for 2 bridges as that is all the
money they might be able to afford to actually repair the bridges.
Bridge- 108- Old US 52- Harrison Brookville Rd design-
$75,000 for design approved.
Bridge 76 Jamison Road design by Losekamp Rd.- $75,000 for
design approved.
Bridge 48 Bonnell Road design- DENIED for now.
Bridge 221 Davidson Road design- DENIED for now.
Morris asked about
status of Collier Ridge. Collier Ridge Bridge has less than $100,000 for all
the ROW including a rental house.
Line Striping-
$110,000 estimate. Last year it was less. It’s about 72 miles of roads. Approved to bid as this money was already
allocated.
State police are now out of the gas tax budget- so our road
budget may improve. This funds MVHA account.
Tim Grieve, Highway
Supervisor:
Paving- surface
coat on North Dearborn from Dover to top of Harrison hill to Jamison and McCann
for $1 million. Approved. There are
about 30-35 miles of gravel road left in the county.
Equipment-
replacement schedule- 5 pick -up trucks and one dump truck. The cycle is 16
years for the county. The pick-up trucks were bought at once so all 5 went out
at once. There are 10 total in the dept. Big discussion from new members of
Council on the schedule and why it is sometimes not followed as items break
down ahead of time occasionally.
Approved for THREE pick-up trucks and a dump truck for $260,000.
Commissioners-
Terri Randall Administrator- Jail Construction: ( over 90 minutes)
Jeff Messer of Umbaugh and associates briefly reiterated
that the 3 new ordinances allowed them to get better interest rates and
enhanced their ability to match investments to their expected expenses. They
could use their trust account with MainSource Bank or other banks that were
allowed under the new ordinances. Safety and Liquidity were their major
concerns. They will make up a schedule of draws for this . The Hoosier Fund can
be used for longer term securities and get a 0.32% interest rate. Phil Weaver-
noted that you give up interest to get liquidity.
Randall said this mechanism allows us to move all the money
but distribute it in pieces without having to readvertise all the time,
especially with Council’s schedule of meetings.
Kevin Lynch said that the jail project came in over budget
of what was expected and the commissioners decided to peoceed with the project.
The agreed to $356,798 overage on the base jail proce and $712,480 for the 64
bed addition known as the alternate.
Brad Rullman and Jeff Lyness presented a more detailed
version of the project than the Commissioners received publicly earlier this
evening. They gave the deatols on each of the 14 bid packages and the 66
bidders and their bid amounts. The packages were General trades, Site and
paving, precast wall and slabs, masonry, steel, drywall EIFS and acoustical,
roofing, detention equipment, kitchen equipment, sprinkler, plumbing, HVAC,
electrical, security electronics. Each showed the % over the lower bid that the
other bidders were.
Contractor interviews were held to be sure each low bidder
actually understood the scope of the work. They also are looking at Value
Engineering items to find future savings. Lyness
made it VERY CLEAR that the $292,000 for Security Automated Systems done in
2012 that was supposed to be considered part of this total price per Council
was NOT in the bid numbers they gave tonight. If it were the total price would
be $11,795,494. $712,480 includes an increase for the architect and insurance.
Dave Hall jail
commander- commented throughout the presentation on al the remodeling being
done in the current jail. Remodeling includes moving 911, expanding the evidence
room, work station for captain and major and road officers, IT space,
polygraph, storage all in the basement. First floor has a secure corridor to
the booking area which has increased space and special medical cells, a lobby
with video visitation for less movement of jail prisoners. There is alarger meeting room for squad meetings and
tax sales and the sheriff and comptroller are near each other. VIDEO
ARRAIGNMENT and visitation equipment is NOT IN THIS BID. It also does not have the
actual equipment of connection to the Courthouse. [NOTE: This is one of the big efficiencies that was touted in the original
plans and also one that the architect noted that some judges were NOT on board
with using.] Women’s housing is converted to work release in old jailright
off the lobby and they will enter by a separate door. This means they wouldn’t
have to staff it the same way per jail inspector. Work release can handle 60.
They also added one more padded cell. The first floor addition has the bigger
kitchen and laundry and a dorm with 8 beds for inmates who work there.
Currently they have 6 cooks and a matron. The JCAP space has 16 beds on first
floor and space for 2 offices for 2 counselors. 2nd floor has
another 8 beds each for men and women graduates who need more help to keep from
relapsing. They might do a 24 bed unit for protective custody for witnesses and
sex offenders. 32 bed pods will be added to the first and second floor to the alternate
addition. Recreation space on the first floor can be converted to 32 beds if
needed and move rec space elsewhere, ( Where?) Second floor JCAP and has
central control tower in middle of each floor. Restroom and shower in recreation
area for mass arrests and also for inmates use.
THE BASE BID is the shell of the space with minimal
utilities. The alternate bid outfits that space. The visitation room with have 4 contact rooms
total. This is for clergy, lawyers, etc. The video visitation equipment will
have to come under Dave Hall’s budget. They are saying they can use a service
to provide and service the equipment, much like your phone service providers.
Terri Randall went over the length of time this jail will
last and concluded that without the alternate it is not a 20 year plan. She
went on about how it will cost more to do it later. Lyness elaborated on this
also.
Randall said , “We cannot award any bid because we exceeded
the budget.” And now all the bidders know each others numbers, so rebidding
would cost more. She said she does not want to be standing there doing this
again- it’s exhausting! There is no fluff in these bids. They also talked about
the phasing of this and getting the rehab of jail done.
Ullrich appreciates all their hard work. Lansing said Maxwell
has done a fine job and we now have gotten a lot more for our money. They
talked about $350,000 in contingency to cover overruns. (That is a small amount
for a project this big)
Lyness said the biggest risk is the ground- they are using
geo piers which are like concrete caissons except they use limestone instead of
concrete because the load is small. They also worry about the remodel- as in
not knowing what is behind walls or ceiling tiles.
Morris said- a 20 year plan REQUIRES the 64 bed alternate.
Kraus Sr. said if we build to the full 208 beds and they make no changes, they
will fill it.
Randall said that Community Corrections will have a change
in leadership there soon and that Morris took Messmore’s spot on that board.
Randall has been appointed to that board she said because she is passionate about
it and will ask the hard questions. [NOTE:
Terri Randall has too much on her plate. If they keep adding to her workload,
she will burn out.]
Morris asked Lynch why commissioners approved this plan to
do both additional and alternate addition. He said it addresses all the issues
today and hope some beds will be available for other counties to rent. He hpes
we don’t fill it up.
Ullrich is in favor of the jail and said we should do the
right thing for the whole county.
Barrott motioned to
add the $1,069,278 to do the whole base bid plus extras and the alternate
addition too. Ullrich seconded. They
asked for public comment before they voted. I asked them if this number is too
close to the $12 million that would go to public vote. Lansing said that Andy
Baudendistel – county attorney- told him that they don’t have to consider that because
they are doing savings account money and not bonding it. Council approved it
with Lansing voting NAY. No one abstained.[NOTE: Employee of the county sheriff
dept (Ullrich) voted on this as did Randy Lyness. Jeff Lyness is presenting for
Maxwell – the construction management company.]
Terri Randall also
received approval for $13,000 more included in the $40,000 she asked for with the
Votaw Shumway demolition work.
Randall also was
approved for $4,050,000 for current jail project expenditures.
Auditor- Connie
Fromhold- Clerk is creating another account with money already in the budget. Approved.
Minutes approved.
Council has a time
limit to discuss increasing the PROPERTY TAX RATE for Cum Capital Fund. Liz
Morris said she’d rather increase the rate for Cum Bridge Fund. No discussion.
May bring up at June 11 meeting. [NOTE:
Now that we have spent the Riverboat savings money, Council will need another
source of funds to fix bridges and maintain buildings and roads. The TAXPAYERS
are probably going to be that source. Using the savings account for the jail
may have pre-empted going to the voters to get approval, but it just shifted
the tax burden for roads and capital development back to probable property tax
increases. Politically, it’s easier to get property tax increases for things we
all use, than it is for jails.]
Public Comment - none
Late Arrival- none
Meeting adjourned at 10 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
