20 May 2014 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing, Liz Morris, Randy
Lyness, Charlie Keyes, and Bill Ullrich.
ABSENT: Maynard Barrett
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Teresa Randall,
County Administrator
Prosecutor-
Aaron Negangard- Office and travel expense- This deals with Adult
Protective services. They are on a fiscal year and not on a calendar year like
we are. This $8,000 is money that would be reimbursed at 100%. Morris motioned and Ullrich 2nd
Approved.
Depositions-Negangard said- It is difficult to control. They
are requested by defense attorneys. We have to pay for our copy of transcripts.
He requested $30K and got $20K at budget. He is down to $7,000 now and it won’t
last thru the year. Ullrich motioned and
Lyness 2nd – approved for $10,000.
Assessor-Gary
Hensley-replace PTABOA member- code changes requires this change, He
has a resignation letter. As of July 1st the code changes this. Reappointed Bill Hartwell to that position
to replace Mary Booker, who did a great job for us. Approved.
Salary change- office manager retired who was also first
deputy. $13.08 to $13.93/hr as budgeted. Approved
to promote from another person in the office. She also gets retroactive pay
as she started on April 14. Approved
retroactive pay also. (first time they have done retroactive this year per
Kraus, Sr.) There are currently two first deputies making $13.93/hr per Hensley
now.
Staff vacancy and level 3 requirements- he is short handed
and he thinks it affects their work load and assessments are running late. He
is two people short. It will fall into the situation that happened 7 years ago.
He asked them to reconsider rehiring for a staff member who had retired. He
thinks we will get non-compliant. They have to get them hired and get them thru
the certification process. Lyness asked if this was budgeted. He does not want
to get threatened by the state. He was denied by the hiring committee. That was
a long time ago. There is a June 17 meeting with commissioners and council. He
has 5 level 2s and needs another level 3. The family leave person’s time was up
yesterday ( TOOK 12 WEEKS) and he cannot discuss that in open meeting. Keyes
said he voted for it and he made a motion one time and it got turned down- so
he didn’t want to do that to Hensley now. There was previously
an ordinance that was unsigned
for a 3 member set of council members to
preview filling open positions. Kraus said that was legally questionable.
Hensley could meet with the 6 member hiring committee. He will ask again at
June 17 meeting for council. There was discussion about how difficult it is to
get certified to level 3. None of his staff has passed. Questions concerning why send them to
classes,and he admitted that some staff just weren’t interested in the certification
process. He thinks they may need to up the pay and get someone from outside to
hire. TABLED.
Health
Dept- Mary Calhoun- Nurse’s grant- Pennington ( handled as no one
from health Dept was available) said they need Council signature on the grant.
Commissioners already approved. They will spend this on a trailer for mobile
immunization clinics. New statutes say that commissioners and council have to
agree on grants now. These are smaller trailers and is a mobile office. County
has to insure and license tags. They have started charging for some of their
shots. Council approved signing grant
application.
Building
Dept- Bill Shelton- PCs and software- covered by Terri Randall in
Shelton’s absence. He did send an email in advance. $2783 requested for 2
computers and related software and installation. They are replacing 7 year old
ones on Windows XP. It takes a long time to boot up too. This will be from MDI (
Midwest Data)which is a little higher than the HiTech quote from a while back.
Just about $20 difference. Approved.
Communications-
Charlie Ashley- Transfer funds- maintenance contract with
Centurylink is no longer needed for $2500. Wants to transfer that to general
supplies. His office supplies budget is running low and this is May. Liz Morris
didn’t want to use it. They had office supplies budget of $500. One printer
toner is expensive. He has $770 for chair pads this year. Council approved giving him $1200. The rest stays in the maintenance
contract fund for now.
Community
Corrections- Steve Kelly - Staff education and training- wants this
as a new line item. $6500 for IN dept of corrections for MOVING ON- a drug
treatment training program for females. They have partnered with Daviess County
for this. It costs $770 per person to train. This was approved.
New van- add a line item for $30,000 to purchase the van for
transport and community service work for low level offenders. They are setting up new partnerships for
people to work hours for them. This
eliminates all the offenders cars being parked all over the road for example.
It replaces the 17yr old one. The 3 old vehicles they have will go to auction. Approved.
He will be back in a couple months for approving a grant of
$200,000 for a pilot program for a new ankle monitoring system. He is excited
about that. This is all state money. (Which is still tax money)
Emergency Management- Bill Black-
He told Council that
sometimes the grant requests come in at a time that he cannot get to
Commissioners or Council to get approval before application due. He said the
$17,000 request could be pulled back if they do not approve. This is for a
repeater. It will be compatible with the pending changes. Ratified Dennis Kraus’s signature on this.
$41,451 got
back from the state for half of their salaries also.
State is
changing their system for 800 MGHz and Motorola pays for some of this but not
the installation. There will be some request in the future for money for this
installation cost. ($50/radio) there are 400 radios throughout the county. (Fire
and EMS all have them too) That would add to $20,000 installation costs)
Expenses for
the Mobile Command Vehicle- grant runs out on this in June. $3100 needed to
cover the satellite system, etc. on the command truck. In the original
agreement we agreed to maintain this. This serves 12 counties. Morris asked if
the other counties pay for any of this. He thought it ran thru the year- but it
was a fiscal year. He is going to look to get some of this changed to cut back
on some of this to get things turned on just during disasters. Satellite data
is $100/day vs $200 plus a month. Approved.
Siren Maintenance- $5,000- had money left over from last
year and that is gone. Has about $500 left in the budget. He has 2 sirens that
aren’t rotating and 19 batteries were used up at one time in the past. We have
$5000 deductible on insurance. They have 30 sirens and 2 are not rotating.
Needs a bucket truck to fix those. They are trying to replace batteries on a
schedule. Morris asked if rapid notify might replace this sometime. Tis would
render the entire system obsolete. Black told her some people call to get off
the rapid notify as they don’t like getting the messages for lost people for
example. Approved. Lansing Nay.
Park Board-
Jim Red-Elk: Guilford Park improvements- $48,300 and Kraus supports
this. This would complete final design and complete the earth berms. Lansing
wants to use their existing funds. RedElk was hoping it would be from another
source. Lansing praised the parks- they look great. Advertised to come out of
Riverboat. Listerman said that this is IDEM mitigation project for the North
Dearborn Rd project and his dept funds the plantings. About 500 cu yards of
dirt- 3-4 ft high. Approved the $48,300
from Riverboat Revenue. Lansing Nay. He wanted it out of their regular
funds.
Bright Meadows Park repairs- several items due to vandalism.
Aluminum seating disappeared. They replaced with treated lumber. Steel doors of
restrooms damaged. Locks broken on women’s restroom. Engineered mulch for
safety. Downspots damaged. $4360 requested. This will nearly zero out the
repair account. These were unplanned expenses. Long range plan for Bright
Meadows is security like lighting. [NOTE:
There appears to be a lot of vandalism at Bright. Perhaps the sheriff needs to
patrol that area.] Approved out of
Riverboat.
Picnic Tables- $4900 for EC FFA Club build some new ones. Approved out of Capital Fund. They have
to secure these on site Red Elk noted.
Highway-
Todd Listerman:
Bridges
Small structure inspection transferred from bridge
inspection- applied for OKI safety funds- 90/10 federal funds. $35,000 transfer
out of existing bridge to go to small structure inspection. No new money. Approved.
Stateline Road Realignment at Georgetown Rd- Only part of the county is in the MPO census
area with OKI. These federal dollars can only be spent in that area. It was
determined that the accident data for that S curve is significant. About 7 a
year in that area. He had to throw out alcohol related and texting related
ones. He sticks to the ones curves related. Awarded $880,000. Match is $220,000
from an existing account. Total cost is $1million about for 2000 ft of road. He
tries to get as much federal dollars for the county. Approved
$220,000 out of the Transportation Infrastructure fund. Lyness has mixed feelings as he thinks there
may be other needs for the money- but if we can only spend it in one place. HE
has never missed that curve…
Box Beam Bridges- new decks/guardrail approaches- He wants
to save $775,000 out of the account for 8 bridgeworks. Discussion of what to
use and from which accounts to appropriate.
3 of them came off the repair list as they needed to be replaced now.
Fixing 8 bridges for what it cost to do 2 bridges. They are putting a concrete
deck and sealing over the repairs so they last longer. 45-60 ft is the average
length of a box beam bridge here. These will all go out to bid and each will be
itemized and have its own design. He will have to do wage hearing on some of
these. These are already engineered. Good return for the money. Approved $775,000.
Bridge#138 Bonnell Road- has tried for a while to get the RR
(Gennessee and Wyoming- the rail that goes to Honda) to accommodate removing
the bridge, to no avail. The crossing stays. The bridge is in terrible shape
now. He needs another $375,000 out of dedicated infrastructure account to get
that structure replaced. Collier Ridge Bridge is just up the road from this
one. Total cost is $925,000. The rest of this was already funded. Approved.
Bridge #61 Kaiser Road- wants to hold that to budget time.
They are in the design part right now. He thinks the fund will be needed for
other items this year. They can’t save what is there. Morris asked where it is-
Listerman said it is the one by Gehring’s place as you start to go up the hill
from the Pribble Rd end. There is $1.3 million in the infrastructure account.
Replace Bridge 5 Laughery Creek and Bridge 7 on Woliung- INDOT is likely to approve these. These have
design work. $225,000 for Laughery Creek and $300,000 for Woliung matches.
Highway/Road
Crew leaders, Operators, Highway maintenance workers,Garage
foreman, Head mechanic, PERF, Social security- Tim Grieve has had one “helluva”
a winter.( Kraus thanked Tim for getting his daughter out of a bad spot this
winter.) $126,250 short of funds on all the wages on this winter. They are
using $60,000 out of the equipment insurance account that commissioners have
covered already. They want o apply this toward the shortfall. Terri Randall
wanted to be sure the insurance was OK and she wouldn’t be shorted. It was OK
per Leah according t o Listerman and Pennington concurred.
Fuel oil and lube- $75,000 for extra fuel this winter. (It
has $145,000 in it currently)– use the other $66,000 from here for the winter
wages shortfall. This is MvHA substitute and it does not have to be advertised.
This also makes it easier for auditor’s system.
Using $70,000 left of this.
The remaining items are coming out of their $2.1 million
MvHa fund already appropriated.
Snow and Ice Control- $300,000- to replenish for next year.
This is bid thru the state to get a low rate.
Equipment repair $75,000
Aggregate- $50,000
Tandem trucks- the one they used in Bright was in pretty bad
shape from 1999. $200,000 for one tandem truck. That is not a misprint!
Roadway paving- Cole Lane- Wilson Creek- piece of Dutch
Hollow with over 3500 -4200 cars per day. They will fix Wilson Creek slip
before they pave.
Slip repairs- Wilson Creek and Salt Fork. Got hit with a big
problem on Laughery Creek- with the creek 38 ft below and the 6 inches from
road edge. Working with NRCS on this. They worked with them for match funds on
Johnson Fork., Laughery Creek doesn’t qualify.
Approved: $1.170
million for everything (except paving) out of MvHA substitute and $1.2million
for paving out of Growth and Development.
They will be back at budget time.
Alcoholic and
Beverage Commission replacement- Ralph
Schaefer to Glenn Huesmann who will cover him until he may be able to
resume his duties. They get $24/month. Approved.
Auditor-
Gayle Pennington- Minutes
from March meeting tabled until they can review.
Beginning in June- the meetings will be streamlined as they
have added cameras. (Some comments about turning away from cameras, etc.)
June 17th
meeting at 6:30 PM will be advertised as
a joint meeting with commissioners. Commissioners meet regularly that day at 5
PM. They will present the courthouse annex proposal with design and budget. They can decide to
fund in July perhaps per Randall.
[NOTE: Nothing was
stated at this meeting regarding the change n voting to simple majority from a
5 vote precedent for salary ordinances. I asked the Commissioners about this at
their May 7 meeting. The County
attorney indicated that this was Council’s purview. The county and council attorneys
were to meet regarding this. There has been no public acceptance of these
attorneys decision at Council. Nor has any written legal opinion been received.
Action on paying the increased salary and back pay to the county administrator
for her economic development duties has occurred though as if this was
accepted. There are two KNOWN cases of salaries and benefits failing due to
lack of a 5th vote in the 12 years that Council was using
supermajority after the state law change to allow simple majority on 2002.
There may be more- but these two came up in an internet search of blog notes.
One involves a former county administrator and one with animal control. The County could be liable for those items and any others that exist in that
time period, unless they formally change the practice effective in March 2014
to cover their recent change of heart. (At least the majority of the Council’s
change of heart.) ]
Meeting adjourned at 9:35 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
