30 May 2017 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Charlie Keyes, Ryan Brandt, Alan Goodman, and Bill Ullrich.
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor
ABSENT: Teresa Randall, County Administrator
Morris read the Title VI statement as required by law.
COMMISSIONERS- Terri Randall- Gayle Pennington presented in Randall’s absence -Courthouse Annex Project. $3 million draw requested to get them through September-October. Coming in smaller increments to keep the most in the bank as some are making a little over 1%. They will keep it invested as long as possible before spending. Goodman motioned and Brandt 2nd. All ayes except for Lansing and Kraus, Sr.
AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington:
Minutes from May 2 approved with minor corrections made previous to meeting. Lansing abstained as he wasn't present at that meeting.
3 Grant Proposals for Health Dept- Normally the health dept presents but Mary Calhoun was working on festival season. Pennington presented:
$15,183- for part time staff benefits, meeting expenses, wifi, copier, etc. - Ullrich motioned and Kraus, Sr. 2nd - approved.
$ 49,000 - assist and purchase 2 weather sirens and verbal messages - combined with 911 for this grant. The new system we bought for emergency management and 911- will be getting some equipment and bull horns. Brandt motioned and Lansing 2nd. approved.
$19,376- main health dept staff- general office supplies, travel and meeting expenses etc. She noted the health dept pretty much runs on grants. Kraus, Sr, motioned nd Goodman 2nd. Approved.
SBOA - State Board of Accounts Audit- Morris presented 2014 -2015 was the time period. County has to provide space for them to audit. Only the Home dock can revenue share. That would be Lawrenceburg. The County is not supposed to be revenue sharing. This has been a problem for several years. Morris received an email from SBOA- and all was considered confidential for 45 days ( but ended up being longer) until mid May. The corrections are being advised- and they checked with the county attorney to review the findings. She said she swore to uphold the laws of the state of IN and the attorney found nothing in law to contradict what the SBOA was advising that they do. Either we obey the laws of the state or we get the consequences including financial penalties now. IC 4-33-12- there are no provisions allowing them to revenue share as we have been doing. 1997 agreement- was the first one to revenue share. Attorney said they should repeal the 1997 resolution.
Brandt noted that other counties don’t have the municipalities that Dearborn has. This came up before per Ullrich and Kraus, Sr. and no teeth in the law before this. They basically said no law said they could, but no law said they couldn’t ( home rule?) Ullrich doesn’t want to cut them off at the knees now. June 2002 amendments in that law to sections and also in 2007 per Pennington in answer to Keyes question. Exit interviews are every year for these audits. In 2013 there was a law saying we had to create and follow internal controls. This was to protect the taxpayer’s money.
Lansing said he thought the idea was to share the wealth. Morris said- that Lawrenceburg does to these same municipalities also. Kraus read the statement and that they can fine up to $50,000. It passed in 2017 per Morris.
Comments-
Alan Weiss - Greendale mayor urged them to get another opinion from other counties. He noted what Ohio County does with sharing with Aurora and Ripley County. Morris noted that was dictated by the state when they set up the riverboat. Not imitated by Ohio County. Ullrich said if they repeal the resolution and find out that they can do something to get it back to them they could change it later then. He didn’t want team to act on it tonight.
Emery - Add of Aurora said that she thought that a Memorandum of understanding or something could be taken on to remedy that. Brandt said that they could only change internal controls for NON-GOVERNMENTAL entities. She thought maybe they could do it thru the separate fire and EMS entities. Pennington said that was a totally different tax than the admission tax.
Dillsboro said this would cut 45% of all they receive from Riverboat. They use it for their parks etc. Wanted them to consider holding off this year. There has to be a way to do this. What was the intent?
Morris spent some time stating why she did not want to be out of compliance with SBOA and the law.
Dillsboro - cities and towns are the hubs for all of the county.
We have been good stewards - it’s about sharing. take your time- get a second opinion. We just heard about this about a week or so ago.
Morris- there has been no rush to judgement. We have to able the laws.
Weiss- Greendale- with all the numbers you gave about how much money we all have in our accounts form the riverboat. We always try to make sure we save 25%- and are good stewards of the money. He wants a written copy of Baudendistel’s opinion to let their lawyers look it over too.
Chris Mueller- - I recapped some of the original sharing agreements and then asked if there could be a way that Lawrenceburg could keep some of this money and distribute it instead of sending it to us. Answer from Morris was no- because the state distributes it to us from what casino sends. I noted that the municipal entities were all here to get their first checks years ago- they were all pretty happy. They aren’t going to be so happy now.
Dillsboro- - reiterated that these entities all pay county taxes and are part of the county.
Morris noted that HVL and Bright are part of the county and they don’t get any distribution. And they do a lot in their communities.
Another citizen said what happens to the money? It gets spent in the county.
Lansing said- maybe we should let them do their homework and see what happens. That’s all they are asking.
Tom Walker- Dillsboro- are you in contempt of court if you don’t pass this tonight? Is there no grace period? Morris said we have 10 days. It has been ignored for several years but now they have put teeth in this. Have patience for little time.
Pennington- taking off auditor hat and putting on her taxpayer hat- can we work harder at budget time to find a way to disburse these funds in legal ways.
Emery- not implying that they should do anything illegal - but take the time to get more information.
Morris - not been in a rush- but we have swept this under the rug for a while. We need to rescind the resolution from 1997 to keep us within the law. Ullrich said we can come up with another resolution at budget time. Lansing wants to see what other counties are doing to correct this. Find a county that is a recipient but not a home dock to compare.
Morris said rescinding the 1997 would be effective at the end of 2017.
Keyes said he works for town of West Harrison. He wants to see the original agreement and also the law. Too much at stake - so we should take the fine if that happens.
House Bill 1031 effective July 1
Morris asked to either rescind resolution 7-1997 which set aside 25% of gaming revenue to divide among the municipalities by % of population - or table this. IC 4-33-12 can be viewed online.
Brandt- before we make the motion- we have heard from 3 of the municipalities. The law is the law- but I need more time - to get more information.
Brandt motioned and Lansing 2nd to TABLE until June meeting on the 27th - TABLED .
[NOTE: Is the county in need of more revenue with all the recent spending on capital projects?]
Resolution- Investment of Public Funds- Every two years- they need a resolution to authorize the investment of public funds. Treasurer unable to be here. Same as last one. This allows banks outside the political subdivision to submit quotes for the county funds for CDs. Ullrich motioned and Goodman motioned to authorize as read. Passed. Also allowed the terms of investments to go out for a max of 5 years as they have done for past several years.
Council wants Baudendistel to attend the June meeting. Pennington will do that.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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