26 May 2015 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

 26 May 2015 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

Started late at close to 7:30 PM due to  annex meeting.

Present: Randy Lyness, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Liz Morris, Charlie Keyes, Ryan Brandt, and Bill Ullrich. 

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Teresa Randall, County Administrator

The executive session that preceded this was certified to have only discussed pending litigation by Baudendistel.

AURORA PUBLIC LIBRARY- Board Appointment- Gayle Pennington said it was for Ben Turner for 4 years. Approved. 

MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT- Utilities- $100,000 that was cut from original budget- Approved. 

CIRCUIT COURT - Judge Humphrey out of own for son’s grad from Air Force Academy- Lyness had his letter- Transcript overtime- $10,000- approved.

AURORA LIONS CLUB - Mike Heffelmire- sent letter-  Aurora Farmers Fair- $1200 for the clown payback. Approved for this year- but is is to be less per budget time. Council said that the motion incudes the letter to notify them that this will not continue. 

TREASURER- Phil Weaver- Resolution of Investments- to invest funds outside the county as we have done since 2011. Council approved this Resolution for CD invested outside the county in northern Indiana. It is for 2 years. 

COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS- Steve Kelly- Vehicle purchase- only need two vehicles now and the officers work in pairs so they only need two vehicles now. This will be paid out of Community Corrections user fees. Haag Ford quote under $30,500 for a 2015 used Ford Explorer. Morris said she sits on the board and it was discussed as a prudent way to proceed. The 5 vehicles that are now there will reduce costs of insurance and maintenance. Approved from Juvenile User fees. 

PROSECUTOR- Aaron Negangard- Depositions and witness fees- due to increased number of jury trials. transcriptions run several thousand dollars. $7500 for each of these fees. It came out of Riverboat Revenue- approved. 

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT- Todd Listerman- Replace Bridge #61 - Kaiser Road- no longer a box beam bridge so there is $110,000 left in that box beam fund. Plus balance out of the total $525,000 in Bridge rehab account. Approved. 

Replace Bridge #38 Schwipps Road- Infrastructure account has money for this - $675,000 portion for this with a new line item. Approved.

911 COMMUNICATIONS- Jared Teaney- Radio System for $21,957.06 for moving it from Aurora. We are doing their dispatch now. Approved.  

PLANNING AND ZONING- Mark McCormack- Legal advertising- $400 for blight elimination program.- approved.

Vehicle Maintenance- $500- approved.

Potential interlocal agreement with Aurora- regarding the County Planning Dept doing their planning code enforcement. There are 17 enumerated items in the draft agreement so far. This is structured so as not to cost the county more money. McCormack delineated the way this position could be paid. Kraus told him you can’t call it a bonus- those are illegal. Guinevere Emery ( Aurora’s city manager) said that they have higher needs than Bright or St Leon or West Harrison has for County Planning use. Issues of the benefits. Baudendistel told them that Stratman will handle any of the court cases on this- not him as county attorney. Council approved moving ahead with the agreement but being sure no bonus- just salary. $25,000 is the fee. 

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY- Bill Black, Jr.- $8,755.57 for his sick leave payout (1/4 of his remainder is paid) and hiring someone 2 weeks before he leaves- he retires July 31st. The state will reimburse for half of this.  EMA replacement is being sought. They need to advertise soon. Approved. 

Black did not get the grant money he applied for. This was to replace computers. They can reapply for another grant if Council approves. Pennington said that there is a grant process in place and she said she will check to see if this is allowed. 

SHERIFF DEPARTMENT- Mike Kreinhop- Inmate medical care- he gave them corrected figures on this.He can only get what is advertised for- so this is more than that. $300,000 last year. They are averaging 240 inmates this year - their number is down. Used to be about 300. Liz Morris asked about after 30 days if the inmates are Medicaid eligible. They are checking on this. 

$21,000 per month for Advanced Medical per Kreinhop. Keyes motioned to give him all requested. Ulrich ended and 5 names on that.  $107,374 approved. Keyes Nay

Vehicle maintenance $7800 approved. Keyes Nay

Gasoline- Keyes asked Pennington to get this set so each dept has its own gas fund and it shouldn’t go back to county general- it should go back to gas fund if unused. She is looking into this for budget time. $75,000 approved. Keyes Nay

Reinstatement of Police Fund- requires the Council President’s signature. Fee is paid from fund itself. Approved.

PARK BOARD- Jim RedElk- Bright Meadows Park Repairs

General Park Maintenance and Repairs

Gladys Russell Park Repairs

Rullman Park Fence

Approved for $16,000 out of Parks Capital Improvement Fund for all the above requests.

COMMISSIONERS- Terri Randall- Landscaping for jail- she is here for Eric Hartman who is having trouble maintaining that area. $14,119.64 Caseys Outdoor Solutions. 

$22,774- Goodwin. 

She showed them the plans and said she hopes to return a little bit from the jail budget. Kraus wanted to use only jail funds for this. Morris agreed. Approved for only using leftover jail funds. 

Lawsuits settlements- $35,000 approved - had a $25,000 deductible in 2014. They have 5 lawsuits with this deductible. This is federal court as it is civil rights. The new insurance is less deductible now  ( $5000) now that the jail is built. They are filed pro se without an attorney and are handwritten often from looking things up in the law library. 

Legal services- $25,000 approved. The is for Baudendistel’s extra work. 

ATTORNEY- Andy Baudendistel- County Extension Office Contract- not asking for money at this time. Current lease is with Aurora for 10 years. Up in Nov 2015. $15,000 per year is the total cost plus utilities. We are paid thru Dec of this year. We are one of two that are not in the county seat. Hornbach would like to stay there and Aurora would like to have them stay there. New lease is for 2 years which will be $18,000 per year. 

Hornbach said that they have been there for many years. 89 meetings have been there this year. They are in the new city building. This building is good for having master gardener class and 4 H meetings etc. They can handle up to 60 people. Council wanted it to be for 5 years at least at that price. They will come to budget with the answer. 

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- Lewis Kappes contract had to be rewritten because Aurora wants to be out of it. It cost them $8,000. The price was reduced as they were not being represented. Morris was hot about this- and said that they benefit from this too. Cities get 25% of the Riverboat money. Randall and Baudendistel said that they (Aurora city government officials) don’t feel like they need lobbyists as they have state reps doing that. Commissioners signed off on this per Pennington. Fair amount of grousing about how Aurora might get less favorable treatment for not cooperating with the county on lobbyists. [NOTE: You have to wonder how effective this lobbyist scenario really is. They- like our representatives-  serve more entities than Dearborn County. As the Bible says- No man can serve two masters...]

Budget hearings might have to be changed due to the non-binding agreements that have to be approved separately. Schools, trustees, solid waste, libraries etc. They have to do it after Sept 1 but before November. Council decided to stay with August budget times. 

Minutes approved from the January 13th meeting and the March 17th meeting.

Lyness ( despite his disclosure statement lead the discussion as to how to pay for the annex) said that they sat through the Annex meeting. He talked to Liz and Denny also. They have to decide how to pay for it. They think they need to get a consultant to tell them how to pay for it- leaning toward Umbaugh and Associates. Gayle can talk to Umbaugh and London Witte and some others and see what they can do for us. They can also approach Lawrenceburg to borrow from them. Randall said that now that there is vacant space in the jail maybe get DOC to send inmates to us to help offset some costs. House Bill 1006 will bring some money in as we have to incarcerate more here and others need to send inmates here. 

They will schedule another meeting before budget hearings to decide on financing this. 

Meeting adjourned at 10:20 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township