22 April 2022 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Kevin Turner, Tim Doll, Alan Goodman, and Glenn Wright.
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor and Leah Bailey, Comptroller and Sue Hayden Adm.
Title VI Statement read as legally required
Commissioner Thatcher presented to Jim RedElk- a plaque for 12 years of service to the Dearborn County Parks. He complimented him on his detailed emails and obvious service to moving the parks forward in the county.
Opened Public Hearing:
COMMISSIONERS-
DLZ conceptual design to reconfigure basement ARPA funds-$10,500. (8950) - presented by Sue Hayden. This is to reconfigure the basement in this building only. Mens and women public bathroom, hospital records, voting machines. This money is for the design only. The plumbing is down there already. The drops are correct so they do not need a lift station. Walls being added to secure parts of the records etc. Covid shots were given down there. Council approved.
AUDITOR-
Financial & Legal expenses for ARPA funds- $20,000 (8950)- This is to go for multiple years and Fromhold needs this advice to do this properly. Using an expert in the field helps keep costs down ultimately. Council approved.
Closed Public Hearing:
ADDITIONALS:
SHERIFF
Leah Bailey presented for Sheriff.
Transfer funds from Deputy to Detective/Sergeant retro back to 01/01/2022- Deputy is shifting title but the money is the same and he’s taking it with him to the new position. Approved.
Gasoline-$150,000 (1170)- due to increase in gas costs and should get them to the end of the year. Approved.
JAIL
$14,250 mistake made on budget (1233) Jail LIT- Leah Bailey said it was her mistake at budget and this corrects that. Approved.
PLANNING AND ZONING
Leah Bailey presented- $3,783 Aurora City Planning & Enforcement (4935)left over money from them and needs it to do office work. This is just a transfer.
$3,353 Dillsboro Planning (4939)- appropriated for a contract position over the summer to do some planning work. Approved.
SUPERIOR PROBATION/SERCC
Leah Bailey- presented. New position funded out of Community Corrections Grant (1122/4922) new full-time officer.The person who was to take this position has pulled their name out. They will need it eventually. $28,218 from a grant. Council approved this for when the position is filled.
SUPERIOR PROBATION
Leah Bailey presented. Perf for full-time employee-$6,279 (1001) This is a housekeeping item for PERF. Approved.
BUILDING DEPARTMENT
Bill Shelton- Part-time $10,765(1001) Inspector is retiring in fall. This is to train a part timer to step into Brian Gaines position. Brian takes the inspector spot then. This is basically training for this transition. Approved.
Unsafe Building Fund-$100,000 (1001)Bill Shelton , Building Commissioner presented several sites in a slide show showing the issues of unsafe buildings in the county. Asked for $30,000 a few years ago. This reverted to County General. Asking for $100,000 hoping it is a long term fix for the problem. This will be a dedicated non-reverting fund. If they clean up a property they put a lien on the property to get it back when sold. If foreclosed, the lien gets wiped clean. The purpose is to get it on the tax rolls again. Many are bought by out of state investment companies. They keep up the property taxes, but not the property itself. They will do an open bid process for the ones that need demolition. $15,000 on average with a basement to demo a residence. The will be doing a rating scale on the most dangerous ones first and so on. Shelton also showed some success stories from the blight elimination program. That was great funded and had a loan forgiveness clause if they maintained it for 3 years with it forgiving 1/3 each year. Nicole Daily thinks it will be same a Blight Elimination Program and being sure to keep good documentation and records in case there is a court case. Kevin Turner noted that these buildings are unsafe for fire dept. as well. There have been drugs in some. Approved the $100,000. Discussion about keeping track of tax sale receipts to note how much money lands back in County General fund from those at tax sale. If they did 6 homes and had to demo them it would be $90,000 approx. Discussion about safeguards to keep from using taxpayer money to clean up a property and have someone get it for cheap then and the county doesn’t get paid back. Daily noted there is a process to get paid back thru a sheriff’s sale and be the first lien if there is no mortgage on the property. Approved with Denny Kraus being NAY.
JUVENILE CENTER-
Tracy Acra presented. They are losing employees and having trouble hiring. Overtime is being paid to full timers who are covering. Another retiree in 4-6 weeks and another one coming after that. They are advertising on many sites. Average population at juvenile is 8. They have had to turn down many calls as they don’t have enough help. $120/day is what outside counties pay for us to house their juveniles. Juvenile center costs $1 million a year to run per Liz Morris. She thinks $200/day is what they should be charging. Food is provided by the jail I’m their budget for juvenile. Tarting salary is $36,000/year. $27,655.00 will work if they use the $8,000 left from having a position unfilled per Kevin Turner. Overtime- $35,655 (1001) Per Leah’s calculation Council approved $26,147 and to use the $8,000plus left over from an unfilled position. Approved.
RECORDER-
Joyce Oles presented. Electronic records had to be implemented. Going to have to accept transferable documents also soon. There is a burden on staff. Increased the documents by about 2500 documents a year. This increases money receive to the county. She presented all the figures for the past 3 years. She wants to Gove them a 10% increase. She wants to keep these amazing employees. Note how difficult it is to replace employees. Next year at budget she will ask for the 10%. $6,579. Raises for current employees-$11,698 (1001) was the request. Approved. Not sure what amount they settled on.
PROSECUTOR
Leah Bailey presented- this is to make it cleaner for the books. Transfer of funds from salary to services for full time is moving to contract worker. Approved.
AUDITOR-
Supplemental pay for GIS Technician-$4,000 (1001)- Fromhold presented- This is for Dave Jeffries who is like a part time position in his office. PAC approved this request. Approved.
PARK BOARD- $54,000
Terry Stephens presented and Cindy Rottinghouse was also with him. Accompanied by Jim RedElk. It became known that the Park Board is down to 3 members now with RedElk retiring and they are stretched pretty thin. It is hard to get grants etc as they have little time.
$5,000 Labor & Disc Golf Mowing (4925) Approved.
$11,000 Labor & Mowing (1179) and cutting NEW trails (1.9 miles) out at Ruhlman Park- one time expense. Glenn Wright offered to help get grants for this and also NRA grants for the Shooting range. Approved
$5,000 Playground Mulch (1179) for Guilford due to flooding. Approved
$38,000 Archery Range Shelters/Picnic Tables/Shooting Platform/ LED Lighting (1179) Approved. These ranges are not for the general public. There are groups that use it and they have to be approved. There is a safety issue there.
MAINTENANCE-
Eric Hartman presented. PAC approved this request. Additional Employee-$54,995 (1001)- one part time employee is gone and a full time employee comes in. Approved.
Parking lot repairs-
$23,600 concerning drainage SW parking lot by EMA building. This has had an issue since after the construction of the jail. It isn’t clogged it was never hooked up. (1001/1136) - Approved
$12,300 seal & coat 3 jail parking lots and Hoosier Square stripes. (1001/1136) -Approved out of Cum Courthouse
$11,500 remove concrete walk between jail and EMA building- this shortens the way to get to jail. (1001/1136) -Approved.
AUDITOR-
Minutes- approved
Salary Ordinance- Approved all had to stay to sign it.
TIF management report review- they acknowledged they had received and looked at it.
Interlocal Agreement with Ohio County- $100,000 grant to run the COVID clinic. This shows how we run it for both counties. Approved.
LATE ARRIVAL - none
PUBLIC COMMENT- none
Meeting adjourned at7 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
