VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

AUGUST 4, 2003

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 4^th day of August, 2003 at 5:34 p.m. in Room 307 of the Civic Center Complex with President David Mosby presiding.

President Mosby: I would like to call to order Board of Commissioners meeting of Vanderburgh County for August 4, 2003. Introductions are as follows; Tammy McKinney, Superintendent of Buildings; Rob Faulkner, County Attorney, sitting in for Kevin Winternheimer; Commissioner Fanello; myself; Commissioner Crouch; Auditor, Bill Fluty; and Recording Secretary, Madelyn Grayson. Please stand and say the Pledge.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Mosby: Do I have a motion to approve the July 28, 2003 minutes?

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: I have a motion and a second. So ordered.

Commissioner Mosby: Bid advertisements and openings. Phil Lawrence, permission to award APA013-2003, tires and tubes.

Phil Lawrence: Good evening, Commissioners. How are you?

President Mosby: Fine. How are you?

Phil Lawrence: Oh, not bad for an old dude. Did you all–

President Mosby: I didn’t say that.

Phil Lawrence: I did. I can feel it. Do you all have your tabulations? Did you get them?

President Mosby: Yes, I did.

Phil Lawrence: Oh, you did? Okay.

President Mosby: Are there any questions by any member of Council on the tires and tubes? Anybody in the audience that would like to speak? Seeing none. Chair would entertain a motion.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Phil Lawrence: Thank you, sir.

President Mosby: Made that easy on you.

Phil Lawrence: Yeah, boy, I like it.

President Mosby: Thank you, Phil.

Phil Lawrence: Thank you.

President Mosby: John Stoll, permission to open quotes for VC03-07-02, concrete repair of Briar Court. Do we have any bids in the audience? Any quotes or bids? Seeing none. Chair would entertain a motion to open bids.

Commissioner Fanello: Move to open bids.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered. Counselor.

Rob Faulkner: Bid from Concrete Pavers, Inc. for a total bid amount of $27,759.60. Deig Brothers in the amount of $24,467.50. J.H. Rudolph Company in the amount of $27,790.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to take under advisement.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: I have a motion and a second to take bids under advisement for VC03-07-02, concrete repair of Briar Court. So ordered.

President Mosby: Next we have discussion items. We have election equipment. I guess, Marsha, did you want to speak on this at all?

Marsha Abell: Not necessarily. I’ll just answer questions if you have any.

President Mosby: Okay. I think one of the reasons we put this on the agenda, I should say, is because I read in the newspaper the other day where the Council was debating on approval for funding for election equipment, and I had sent Ms. Abell a letter, and it’s not my thought at this time to be looking at this, since we are so close to an election here in November, and more importantly a lot of the stuff that I read, partially in the newspaper, and stuff that Patty White has pulled off the Internet for me, is, I guess, per se the bugs aren’t worked out of all the equipment yet, and there’s still a lot of irregularities. So, rather than Evansville be a test area for what’s going to happen around the country, it’s my thought at this point just to kind of lay back and let others be the test area this time, and we will go with what seems to work here in the next year or so. I don’t know if anybody else has anything to say or not.

Commissioner Crouch: My only, I guess, concern, would be the funding that, the reimbursement that we may get, and what the timing of that is. I know that so many mandates that come from the state and federal government are unfunded, and this particular mandate does have some funding with it. So, I am curious as to whether there is a limited amount of money, you know, is there reason for us to, you know, act sooner rather than later upon this? I don’t know what the answers to that are, but if there is, then we may want to look at it a little more seriously so that we don’t miss out on monies that may dry up if we don’t get on board.

Commissioner Fanello: I think that’s a good question, and I think probably from my viewpoint, I mean, I said last year that this needed to be a priority, but I would like to see us do it in a responsible manner, and, you know, still be eligible for our funding. So, I would like to see us, you know, move forward and maybe look at implementing this in a primary election, preferably the primary next year. Maybe Marsha might have something to add about the funding. If you know anything about if there is a reason we should move in the next three months, or if implementing this in the primary would be acceptable.

Marsha Abell: Marsha Abell, County Clerk. The only reason I think that it would be financially advantageous to go now, is because we will be able to draw $521,000 in 2003, another $521,000 in 2004. If we wait until the primary we only get the 2004 payment. We won’t get the 2003. Then we get a 2005, but 2005 is not going to have as much money in it, and Indianapolis has already done theirs and they’ve taken $8,800,000 out of the $15 million that’s available. So, the money is dwindling pretty quick with Indianapolis getting in there first. They’ve already purchased their equipment and used it this last election, in fact.

Commissioner Fanello: Is that for a lease payment?

Marsha Abell: That’s a lease payment. $521,000 is a lease payment.

Commissioner Fanello: Would there be, and I think you were talking about what, a five year lease?

Marsha Abell: A five year lease at $521,000.

Commissioner Fanello: What would be our options at the end of the five years? If we didn’t want to continue leasing, or if we wanted to purchase, I mean, is there any reimbursements available after that?

Marsha Abell: Yeah, it’s a reduced price that they would sell it to us for. If we wanted to buy it, which I would suspect that knowing that computers only have a lasting year of approximately three to five years, I don’t think that that would be a smart thing to do, at this point. It could be better at that point. Or we could renegotiate the lease and continue it. Or we could look out to the market to something else, some other company, if there is something else available, providing the state allows that.

Commissioner Crouch: So, there’s $15 million you said that is available, and it’s a first come first served?

Marsha Abell: Yes.

Commissioner Crouch: And they will, when is the soonest, what is the soonest election, or the earliest election that you can make application for that monies?

Marsha Abell: Actually, you can make application for that money for the election of 2002, which is what some counties have done, but they only get $4,000 per precinct. If they’d already purchased their equipment, they’re on what they call tier B, and they only get $4,000 per precinct. If you’re going to purchase it now, because of the mandate, then you’re entitled to tier A, which is $8,000 per precinct. That’s what Indianapolis was entitled to, because they’re going from lever machines to the computerized machines, that they did in their last election. So, that’s why they were able to go ahead and put their request in. My understanding is that they’re the number one person to get the monies as soon as the committee meets and distributes the money.

Commissioner Crouch: So, you are proposing that, and you may not be, so correct me if I’m wrong.

Marsha Abell: Okay.

Commissioner Crouch: If I understand correctly, you’re proposing that we implement this, we make application, and we implement it for the fall election? That would then allow us to get monies that we won’t ever be able to get in the future?

Marsha Abell: Well, we made application, I think you will remember that you sent me a letter, and we made application. That was about last year, I think.

Commissioner Fanello: I think that was last year.

Marsha Abell: So, our application is there. What we have to do though is show them that we’ve made the intent. We don’t even have to actually expend the money. All we have to do is send them a copy of the contract, whichever contract we do. The problem that I see with the purchase over the lease is that the lease provides all the service with it. That’s, did I send you all that spreadsheet breakdown today?

Commissioner Fanello: I don’t have one.

Marsha Abell: Let me get it. I’ve got it with me. Hold on for just a minute. If we lease the equipment, the lease price is $2,606,847. That’s paid out over five years at $521,600, something, I’m talking without my figures, but it’s close to that. Then at the end of the lease, you know, the lease is up, just like any other lease. It’s not our equipment, we’ve only leased it. To purchase is $3,255,345, over five years would cost us that much. What we would have to put up front would be $2,326,845. The difference, the big difference is that if you lease it, it comes with the service, which is somebody here to actually run the machines, and they would live here, in Evansville, and be what they call our site manager. They would train the people to work at the polls. They would do all that type work. If we purchase it, we have to pay extra for that, and that runs about $182,000 the first year, and $130,000 each year after that, to have somebody. I would suspect that neither one of the political parties wants to have one of us running the machines. Whether it be me or the opposition party. We’ve always had ES&S’ people, our vendor, run those machines that night. We don’t run the machines. I think that takes all of the skepticism out of what might have happened at the machine level. So, we would want to expend this extra money. This also includes production of ballots, which we would have to have, which would look like this. This is actually Marion County’s. It goes to the scanner, it’s an optical scan. The purpose for this is our absentee ballots, because we can’t send a machine out. So, this how we would do absentees. We would have one machine like this that would actually read these ballots in the Election Office, probably election night like we normally do, and then bring in the others from outside. There was a gentleman in my office today who expressed some concern about no paper trail, and I did notice that on ES&S’ proposal, they have a 150 Compaq, which is a modem and a thermal printer. It would print out something similar to a receipt from a restaurant. He actually indicated he thought that everybody should be able to get one of those back, look at it, and see if that’s how they voted and take it with them. I think that would be nice that we would print it out, and I think we can, although I will certainly call the vendor and find out. I don’t think you want people walking out of the polls with a piece of paper that shows how they voted. I think that opens it up for somebody to stand outside and to say, you bring me a piece of paper and let me see how you voted and I’ll give you two dollars. I think that’s something that happened in Chicago 50 years ago, and I don’t think you want that to happen in Evansville. I think proving your vote is not something we want people walking away with. So, I wouldn’t recommend that we give somebody something they can leave there with that shows how they voted. I do think that if you wanted them to have a printout, we could have a ballot box there, and they could drop that in there just like they did their regular ballot, and we would have a paper trail. We could compare the paper one’s to the electronic, if that’s a concern. I don’t know if that’s a concern or not, but if it is, we certainly could do that. You know, we can debate whether or not we want to keep our punch cards, quite frankly I haven’t had any problems with them, but it doesn’t make any difference. They are going to be, they are decertified, our company that sells them to us now says they will not be producing anything for them in the year 2006, or possibly 2004, if Indiana doesn’t get the waiver, we’re looking at, we’re definitely looking at 2004 if we don’t get the waiver. Which means we’d have to do something for May. I guess, my main reason for wanting to get it in November, from my standpoint, work wise, it’s a smaller election, it would be easier to do. All the machines would have the same ballot on them, whereas in the spring, in the primary, you are going to have different districts, have different names on them. The other thing is that I think it puts us $521,000 ahead of the game.

Commissioner Crouch: Help walk me through this process. What actually locks in the money? Is it the appropriation from County Council? Or is it the Commissioners signing a contract? What is it that actually commits that money to us?

Marsha Abell: The Commissioners signing the contract. They will take that, they will take that as a, the state will accept that as your proposal that you’re paying for the–

Commissioner Crouch: Can the Commissioners sign a contract committing that money and not implement it this fall? Would we still get, you know, I guess I’m a little–

Marsha Abell: Sign one for 2004? You wouldn’t be able to get the money till 2004. But if we sign one for 2004, we would get the money in 2004. We wouldn’t get any in 2003. The way that ES&S presented it to the Council, and, you know, I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, the Council hasn’t appropriated a dime. So, this is kind of a mute point really, because they may not appropriate any money, at which time the whole discussion is futile. If they were to agree to this, and say that they would appropriate the $521,000, ES&S has said that they will not expect payment until the state releases that money. So, we would go ahead and use the equipment, and be under contract with them, and we would not be required to make a payment until the state, they know the state is going to release the money or they wouldn’t have made that statement. So, they are pretty, you know, they are confident. I think they may have made that same offer to another county.

Commissioner Crouch: And they would be willing to put that in their contract?

Marsha Abell: Yes, they said they would. They said so at the microphone last Wednesday. Their representative was here and agreed to that.

Commissioner Crouch: So, the sooner we act, the better chance we’re going to have at locking in that money?

Marsha Abell: Well, the more money you are going to get. Because right now there is $15 million. In 2005 there’s supposed to be the other dump of another $15 million. Supposedly, and if you didn’t get this memo, I kind of hate that, because I thought I sent it over to you. There was also a page out of Todd Rokita’s letter to me where he indicated the federal government will end up paying 95%, and the state will end up paying 5%. We’ll pay nothing. If, at worst case scenario, we’ll pay the 5%, is what they are telling us. If the state doesn’t have any money, they may not appropriate any, but the federal government, evidently, cannot pay 100% of any local funding. There has to be some match from the local entity, which is the state. So, it’s just a matter of, you know, it’s something we’ve got to do at some time, whether when you want to do it is probably the whole issue.

President Mosby: So, you’re saying if we act today, we’re getting what, $8,000 per precinct? If we act next year we get $4,000 per precinct?

Marsha Abell: No, if you act next year, well, no, if you act next year you still get $8,000 per precinct, because we haven’t, because we didn’t purchase something before the legislation went in. See, there were counties that, there were some counties that have been on electronic voting for two or three years. Gibson County for instance has been. So, the state is only going to give them $4,000 per precinct.

President Mosby: So, how are we going to get less money if we act next year as opposed to this year?

Marsha Abell: Well, this year we’ll only have six months of use, but we can get the whole $521,000. Whereas next year, we’re only going to get $521,000, but that puts us six months behind.

Commissioner Crouch: So, what you’re saying is, $521,000 a year is what we could get.

Marsha Abell: That’s what you get, yes.

Commissioner Crouch: So, if we take action this year we can get $521,000. If we don’t take action until next year we’ve lost this year’s $521,000.

Marsha Abell: Yeah, you won’t get this year’s, you’ll get next year’s.

President Mosby: Okay, but the $521,000 is just going to the lease, right?

Commissioner Fanello: Right.

President Mosby: I mean, it’s not money that we’re going to get in hand and put in our General Fund and spend on something.

Marsha Abell: No.

President Mosby: Okay. Well, that’s, I was going to say.

Marsha Abell: It goes to the lease. No, it goes right to the lease.

President Mosby: Right, it just goes to the lease, and we’re just paying somebody to use their equipment, which I would almost, I still think I would rather look at purchasing.

Marsha Abell: That’s your decision. You know, I just–

President Mosby: Because at some point this money is going to run out.

Marsha Abell: Yeah, that’s why I wanted to go ahead and get ours now, because I think it is going to run out.

President Mosby: Exactly. I mean, the only person making money here is the guy selling the machines.

Marsha Abell: Oh, sure.

President Mosby: We’re, you know, I mean, it’s not like there’s any big benefit to us.

Commissioner Fanello: Because at the end of five years you’re in the same position. I mean, we don’t own any equipment–

President Mosby: Exactly.

Commissioner Fanello: –and there’s no place for us to get any money for the equipment. So, why wouldn’t we go ahead and purchase, and take advantage of the full reimbursement for equipment that we own, instead of five years down the road we have no money to lease or purchase any equipment.

Marsha Abell: That’s true, except that you’re still going to have to come up with $182,000 the first year, and $130,000 the next years for service, because they won’t include service in a purchase.

Commissioner Fanello: Yeah, but at the end of the five years I own the equipment.

Marsha Abell: That’s true.

Commissioner Fanello: I won’t have to go look for another $3 million , because there is going to be no federal funding to get any more reimbursement.

Marsha Abell: That’s right.

President Mosby: Don’t we pay the company out of Chicago right now to come down here and run the election?

Marsha Abell: Yes, we do.

President Mosby: How much is that?

Marsha Abell: I think we spend, all toll, about $200,000 an election, but that’s not all for them. That’s printing and everything.

President Mosby: But, I mean, couldn’t we put that towards the $180,000?

Marsha Abell: Oh, sure.

President Mosby: That’s why I say it shouldn’t be that big of an offset. But, I would still rather look at purchasing, because I’m thinking exactly what the Commissioner just said. I mean, we’re going to give this company $521,000, which we’re going to get reimbursed by the state, which cost the taxpayer nothing, but at the end of five years the taxpayer is still going to have to pay for machines if we haven’t purchased any.

Marsha Abell: That’s exactly right. You know, it’s a crap shoot. You’re gambling that in five years those machines are going to be great, and everybody is going to use them, and, you know, the state could come in and decertify those. You don’t know. It’s just a chance that you’re going to take. That’s the call that you all have to make. You have to figure out what you think....I will tell you that ES&S, I mean, that Tim looked at the equipment when the vendors were here about, he looked for the security issues on them, and, in fact, that was probably over a year ago, and he pointed out the security problem with the one vendor, even before it was ever in the newspaper. He said this is a security problem with this one company. So, we sort of put them aside.

President Mosby: I guess, the other thing, and I would like, I mean, you are saying these paper back ups. I guess, I would go back to the primary of this year, what would we have done? You know, if we had no paper back up, we had two recounts, each race within less than four or five votes.

Marsha Abell: It had, actually it has a paper back up, it’s whether or not you print it out at the precinct level is the issue. It’s got the paper back up. It’s just whether or not you want to print it out–

President Mosby: I didn’t think some of them...this one that you’re looking at does?

Marsha Abell: This one has a paper back up, yeah. But it whether or not you want to print...that’s why they’re charging us for modems and printers.

President Mosby: Because there are some of them that don’t.

Marsha Abell: Yeah, there are some of them that don’t.

President Mosby: Some of the companies that I talked to that were in this room said, there’s nothing.

Marsha Abell: Yeah, they have no printer back up. Yeah, this one has a paper back up, it’s just whether or not, you know, we just have to come up with some pretty detailed instructions about how we want to handle it. Do you want to print it out? Do you want the people to have access to it? Do you want them to have it in their hand? Do you want them to have to put it in a ballot box? Do you want to let them walk out the door with it? You know, those are issues that are serious issues that we’re going to have to think about if we print it out at the precinct level.

President Mosby: Well, I think a lot of your candidates or your party, either party is going to say what are you going to do in the case of a recount. If this comes up two votes different. I think they are going to ask us that question.

Marsha Abell: Oh, yeah.

President Mosby: And that’s something we’re going to have to decide. I mean, as far as–

Marsha Abell: That’s why I say it’s got the print out, but you’re just going to have to decide what you want to do with it. You know, how extensive you want to print it out. One vote by one vote. Or, I mean, person by person, not a vote, a one vote, one person thing.

President Mosby: This company you’re talking with, how many people are using their machines right now?

Marsha Abell: In Indiana, or everywhere?

President Mosby: In Indiana really.

Marsha Abell: They have 42 of the counties so far.

President Mosby: That are on-line now? I mean, did they go through last election?

Marsha Abell: No. Not all of them have gone through last election. I think they’re about 22, 23 right now that are on.

President Mosby: I was just wondering how many counties have like used them in the primary, and are going to use them this fall.

Marsha Abell: About 20, there’s about 20 to 22 that have already used them.

President Mosby: Because, I mean, in my opinion, I would like to wait until after this election and see how these 22 counties perform, or what their, I guess, rating is of their performance. I mean, even though it’s not our money, $541,000, I mean, it’s state money, it’s somebody’s money, and I still don’t want to jump the gun. That’s my opinion. I’m just one person.

Commissioner Fanello: I would like to, I mean, I would like for us to look at purchasing. A purchase versus a lease, but probably more purchasing since we are getting the full reimbursement, we might as well take the money and purchase the equipment. So, I would probably like to see, if you have three vendors for comparison, and then I would like, you know, for us to evaluate, maybe look at the results of other counties in the fall election. But, I would like for us to move forward and look at these being implemented in the primary of 2004. Just so we have enough time. I feel like we’re almost at a disservice to the voters by throwing them on them in three months, because the poll workers have to be trained, and we don’t want to shock the public. I mean, this is going to be something totally new for them. I think they’ll like it once they see it, once they, you know, get used to it, and get a chance to use, but we definitely want to be fair to the public too.

Commissioner Crouch: And we can continue to, you know, look at vendors and even sign a contract–

Commissioner Fanello: Right.

Commissioner Crouch: –which would lock in our money.

Marsha Abell: Sure we can.

Commissioner Fanello: I think we need to move forward on it, and look at doing that this year, but look at implementing it for the primary of 2004.

Commissioner Crouch: Then Council will be taking some kind of action Wednesday?

Marsha Abell: They will be. I mean, I assume they will be. They said they were going to, so, I assume they will be. If they don’t, it’s a mute point for November anyway, because I have to order my ballots by the end of next week. So, if they decide that they don’t want to go with that, I’m going to have to go ahead and order my ballots, because we’re at that point with punch card, because they have to be produced, whereas it’s not that, they don’t have to be produced in the touch screen. It’s all, you know, on the screen.

Commissioner Fanello: Can you give us some cost comparisons? I know there is going to be another voter demonstration this week. Are there going to be different touch screens there? Or what’s going to be involved?

Marsha Abell: No, we were just having one brought in for–

Commissioner Fanello: You’re just having one.

Marsha Abell: –people to see what they look like. Actually they have several on-line. I think that they are all the same, because the state negotiated the deal. That everybody, all of the costs would be the same. It’s a QPA, but I will certainly call the Election Division and double check that with them.

Commissioner Crouch: I would be curious to see what other counties, the 22 that have currently, or the 40 some odd that have currently signed contracts with this vendor, particular vendor you are referring to, how many did lease and how many did purchase, because I know this issue came up back with computers for the Court View, and we ended up leasing them.

Commissioner Fanello: Right, but we weren’t getting federal free dollars either.

Commissioner Crouch: Right.

Marsha Abell: Well, I could call Indianapolis, because they used them...find out what they did, because they’ve already used theirs through one election. They used it through the primary. I’ll be happy to send you a written report. I really, you know, I don’t see any particular reason to have this discussion and take up time on Monday night until we’re ready to do something.

Commissioner Fanello: Well, I don’t necessarily think that’s true. I think it’s important for us to have the discussion, so we kind of know what direction we’re going to go. Because if we’re going to plan this for primary 2004, I think we need to be looking at it right now.

Marsha Abell: Well, yeah, but I meant I could send you written things. If the Council doesn’t appropriate the money, there’s no sense in me standing up here wasting your time on Monday night, because I would like to have a Mercedes, I don’t have the money. That pretty well takes care of that problem, so. I think that, you know, there’s other issues that you’ve got going on, and I can certainly send you memorandums and notes on things. When we get to the point where it looks like we’re going to do something, then I think we should definitely spend our time on this issue. I just don’t think, I just don’t know where the Council stands on what they want to do at this point.

President Mosby: Any other questions or comments?

Madelyn Grayson: Marsha, can I make a copy of the–

President Mosby: Anybody in the audience?

Madelyn Grayson: –memo for the record?

Marsha Abell: Yes, you may.

President Mosby: Thanks a lot. Thank you, Marsha.

President Mosby: Next we have contracts, Centre agreement. Everybody should have a copy in your packet. If there’s no questions or comments.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

President Mosby: Is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak? Okay.

President Mosby: Any old business?

Commissioner Fanello: Just a couple of things. On the energy savings contract, I think maybe the Auditor, Bill Fluty, can help. Will they actually vote on approving the fund next week? Will they vote on that in August, approving the Old Courthouse Fund?

President Mosby: In the budget.

Bill Fluty: I think you’ve set in $550,000.

Commissioner Fanello: Right.

Bill Fluty: So, they will vote on that.

Commissioner Fanello: Is that next week? Is that next week that they’re voting?

Bill Fluty: That’s next week. This week will just be for preliminaries.

Commissioner Fanello: Okay.

Bill Fluty: Discussion items.

Commissioner Fanello: I would just say that, you know, we wait until we hear the Council’s, or the Council’s decision on whether they are going to approve that fund or not, and then we move forward on issuing the energy savings RFP. If that’s okay with everybody.

President Mosby: Any questions? Did you have something else?

Commissioner Fanello: Yeah, the space allocation plan, Dave Rector dropped off some cost estimates, and I think everybody probably got those in their box today. I would like to see us set a space allocation meeting, and prioritize some of these, and get moving on reallocating some court space since the Health Department is going to be moving out. If that pleases the board.

President Mosby: Okay. When did you want to do this?

Commissioner Fanello: If we can just do it before one of our regular meetings.

President Mosby: The 18^th? Hold it, that’s the third, when is that?

Commissioner Fanello: We have Solid Waste next week.

President Mosby: Do we have anything on the 18^th?

Commissioner Fanello: Not before.

President Mosby: The 18^th we could do 5:00, I guess?

Commissioner Fanello: Right. Because I think we need to, I mean, we are going to have to turn in an appropriation of some sort to the Council, you know, to pay for some of these renovation costs. So, we need to prioritize them. I move that we set the space allocation meeting on August 18^th at 5:00.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Madelyn Grayson: May I make a copy of the memo from Dave Rector for the record?

President Mosby: Any other old business?

President Mosby: Any new business? Department heads.

President Mosby: County Engineer, John Stoll.

John Stoll: The first item I’ve got is in regard to the Mt. Pleasant Road project. We have an issue where a property owner has a driveway culvert, I mean a driveway that’s actually not located on their own property. The area that’s highlighted in blue, I mean, the red line shows where the driveway currently exists. You can see this orange property is the neighbors property. The parcel we are talking about is owned by Susan Smith, the abutting parcel is owned by Brad Sterchi. Basically, the existing driveway is split on the Sterchi-Smith property line. So, when Morley and Associates drew the plans, they kept the driveway in the same location. Now, that we’re trying to settle the acquisition with Smith, one of the things she has brought up is whether or not she could acquire this property. Morley and Associates has discussed this with Brad Sterchi, and he’s willing to just give that to Smith, but he wants no costs, he doesn’t want to incur any costs on that. So, Morley and Associates said they could prepare the documentation for $500, and then Sterchi could just donate that to Smith, and then the driveway would be all on Smith’s property. So, what I would like to request is that you authorize payment of up to $500 for Morley to put together the paperwork needed for the legal description to transfer this from Sterchi to Smith in the event that’s the final thing we need to do to settle that parcel.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

John Stoll: The buyer had discussed that with Mrs. Smith, and she had tentatively agreed to that, but I spoke to the buyer again today and he hasn’t got anything official. So, this deal still may fall through, and we still may have to end up in condemnation, but right now this is a possibility that might get that settled. The next item I’ve got is a change order on the Roth Road culvert installation. This is for a net increase of $3,384.12. The primary reasons for our increases were we needed some additional asphalt patching and paving out there. Basically, the existing pavement that was out there prior to the project was in very poor condition and it fell apart, so we had to do more than we had anticipated. It’s requested this be approved.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next I have two agreements with INDOT that need to be signed. This is for the railroad grant reimbursement that you had approved a few weeks ago. This is for pavement markings that will be done by the traffic department. INDOT will provide us with a reimbursement of $6,432.50. It’s requested both of these, both copies of this agreement be signed.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next I’ve got a clarification on the Harlan Avenue project. Back when I requested the award be made to Blankenberger Brothers I had requested that it be awarded on the basis of the base bid plus the alternate bid for a total of $1,353,804.74. The problem was that the Form 96 contract only showed the base bid amount of $1,319,354.74. So, in order to properly reflect that in the contract balance, what I’ll have to do is end up bringing a change order in here in the future, so that way it will be a change order that is, in effect, for work you’ve already approved, but the balance, given the fact that the Form 96 only had the base bid on it, the balance isn’t correct. So, I just wanted to make you aware of that, and when we get to that point I’ll just bring a change order in and let you know that’s included in the change order. The last item I’ve got is that I would like to request that the concrete repair on Briar Court be awarded to Deig Brothers for the amount of $24,467.50. I went through all three bids, and there were no errors, and Deig was the low bidder, and everything was in order with their bid.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

John Stoll: That’s all I have unless you have any questions on anything else. Thanks.

President Mosby: See you at budget hearings.

President Mosby: Usually they wait for you to call. Are you ready? Next, County Highway, Dennis.

Dennis Hudnall: Good evening, Dennis Hudnall, County Highway. The only thing I have tonight is to update you on the paving. We updated the pie chart. We’re at 59%, and the budget is holding up. We’re probably about 10% savings so far. So, we might have enough to do some more roads if you have a couple more roads that you want paved at the end of the season. We don’t know exactly right now because it’s kind of a variable type thing when you’re estimating. So, but keep in mind if we have $50,000 or $60,000 left, if you want to add another road we’ve got a long season, so, and we’re ahead of schedule on it.

President Mosby: Any questions? Thank you, Dennis.

Dennis Hudnall: Thank you. Have a good night.

President Mosby: County Attorney.

Rob Faulkner: Nothing to report.

President Mosby: No report.

President Mosby: Superintendent of County Buildings.

Tammy McKinney: I don’t’ have a report.

President Mosby: Burdette Park.

Gary Hohman: I’ll make it simple as well, we have no report other than our work report that’s been presented to you.

President Mosby: Okay. Any questions or comments? Thank you, Gary.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to accept Soil and Water and Ozone Officer’s report.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: I have a motion and a second. So ordered.

.

President Mosby: Consent items.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to approve consent items.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: I have a motion and a second. So ordered. And right before I take a motion to adjourn I’ll remind all county department heads that budget hearings start at 9:00 in the morning.

Commissioner Fanello: Wait, I just noticed something that wasn’t in the consent items. Or it’s not in my packet anyway. Form 144's. They’re in the signature file.

Commissioner Crouch: I guess, my question would be, do any of them exceed 3% I wonder.

Commissioner Fanello: Right, and we haven’t had an opportunity to review them. We might want to pull those out. We’ve got until August 20^th to approve those, I think.

Bill Fluty: If any office did put them in at 3% they are going to be reviewed at the budget hearings, and may or may not be lowered. I can’t say that, but they were requested to put all salaries in at 3% for a starting point.

Commissioner Fanello: Maybe we could just pull those out and just look at them. We can always approve them next week in the consent items.

Commissioner Crouch: Did the Auditor’s office prepare a budget summary book?

Bill Fluty: They’re working on that.

Commissioner Crouch: Okay. We can get a copy?

President Mosby: Okay.

Commissioner Fanello: What is the pleasure of the board, I guess?

President Mosby: I’ll need you to withdraw your second.

Commissioner Crouch: It doesn’t matter to me. I mean, it’s up to you.

President Mosby: I mean, you have to withdraw it.

Commissioner Crouch: You want to go ahead and pull them?

Commissioner Fanello: Yeah, I mean, we can add them back in next Monday. We’re not in a hurry.

Commissioner Crouch: Alright, I withdraw my second.

Commissioner Fanello: Okay.

President Mosby: If you withdraw your motion to accept the consent items.

Commissioner Fanello: Withdrawn. Motion to accept consent items excluding submission of Form 144's.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered. I was going to have you make a motion to withdraw them and then come back, but that’s okay. Motion was to accept consent items excluding submission of Form 144's. So ordered. Motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:13 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

         Travel Requests:

         County Assessor            County Engineer

         Employment Changes:

         County Highway             Circuit Court                   PTABOA

         Prosecutor

         Requests for Service: County Clerk/ Election Office.

         Superior Court: Agreement for Professional Services: Frank Lutz.

         Those in Attendance:

         David W. Mosby             Catherine Fanello           Suzanne M. Crouch

         Bill Fluty                          Rob Faulkner                  Tammy McKinney

         Madelyn Grayson           Marsha Abell                  Phil Lawrence

         John Stoll                        Dennis Hudnall               Gary Hohman

         Others Unidentified         Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

David W. Mosby, President

Catherine Fanello, Vice President

Suzanne M. Crouch, Member

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.