VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

AUGUST 11, 2009

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 11^th day of August, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Troy Tornatta presiding.

President Tornatta: Good evening. We will start the Board of Commissioners meeting, August 11, 2009, room 301 with attendance roll call, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Here.

President Tornatta: Jo Beth Boots? If you would come up and tell us who you are with?

Jo Beth Boots: Good evening. My name is Jo Beth Boots and I’m the program manager for the Teen Advisory Council, which is a program through Youth Resources. I have with me today Jordan Whitledge. He’s actually an alumni of our programs. But, our students actually get the unique opportunity to shadow you. They get to come and shadow the County Commissioners, the City Council, and the EVSC School Board through our program.

President Tornatta: Well, let’s stop there, and let’s let Jordan lead us in the Pledge.

Jo Beth Boots: Okay.

President Tornatta: Then we’ll hear all about the organization.

Jo Beth Boots: Okay.

(Jordan Whitledge lead the Board and the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.)

President Tornatta: Alright. Okay, you’re on.

Jo Beth Boots: Wonderful! The Youth Resources Teen Advisory Council actually started in 1987 with 12 students, and now we have over 80 members. They really do have a chance to get out in the community and serve others, as well as be involved with civic engagement. Through our students we’ve been able to show them what really goes on in our community, and by shadowing at these meetings they really get in touch with what’s going on in our community. It also helps them identify issues that they want to address as they are in our Council and as they become adults. I’ll actually let Jordan just kind of talk about his experiences and what it’s meant to him, especially now that he’s in college.

Jordan Whitledge: It’s really been a great experience. I’ve shadowed the City Council and I’ve shadowed the EVSC School Board. One of my hobbies is kind of politics and history. So, it’s been a great opportunity to meet and connect with some of our city leaders and our county leaders and people who are involved with our school board. It’s just been a great experience all together. What else can I say?

Jo Beth Boots: That’s wonderful. So, we just appreciate you having us here tonight and for helping our youth and really being great mentors to them in our community.

Jordan Whitledge: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright, action items, Warren Mathies, Jeff Phillips here with our State lobbying group, going to give us some updates.

Warren Mathies: Good evening. I have a handout that I didn’t get a chance to bring out earlier, if I may pass that out to you all?

President Tornatta: Sure.

Warren Mathies: What you have before you, what I want to talk about is what happened the last session and the things that benefitted, and then what you have before you is the Legislative Council meeting minutes. If you flip through here, this is what’s going to happen over the summer, through the interim study committees. It’s a forecast of things that the Legislature will be working on for grafting legislation next year. If you’ll flip, you don’t have to, obviously, read it all, there’s issues that don’t apply to us, but if you’ll flip to page two. It’s actually the fourth page in here, you’ll see a headline at the top that says, “Census Data Advisory Committee”. On that page, if you’ll go down to item three to where it says, “Consolidation of probation services in counties having more than one probation department, or Methods of providing financial support to local probation departments”, that’s an issue that will affect all counties, but that discussion will be happening over the summer, and there may be things that can save money, or we may be able to get revenue streams that comes to benefit the county probation departments. If you flip to page three under the Gaming Study Committee, item B (1) is admission taxes for riverboats. They’ve got 17 items to study, but that’s important to us because we get cost share monies that come from the riverboats, and we have to be there to protect it and watch it and make sure they’re not cutting it, and be aware of what’s going on in that discussion. So, that’s, anytime they open the door and talk about gaming taxes and monies, we need to be vigilant to make sure they don’t slice our money that we get here in Vanderburgh County from the shared riverboat gaming money. Page five, item 14 is the Ohio River Bridges Project Commission. This was established mainly out of efforts over the Jeffersonville-New Albany area. They’re going to, they’re proposing an extra bridge and an upgrade of the bridges there, but this will benefit all river counties. That’s something that we can be vigilant on and see if there’s any benefits there to watch out for. Page six is the Commission on State Tax and Financing Policy. There’s a couple of issues involved there that we need to watch, and that’s item A, the allocation of CAGIT money, Local Option Income Tax, CEDIT money and how that is to be administered. Generally those taxing issues are gigantic monsters that move and change throughout the summer and there’s proposals, but for one county to get in and wrestle control and do things, it’s generally not that easy. It’s something that we watch and then we react to, and if there’s something where we’re going to get hurt, we’ve got to jump up and say, no, don’t do that. But, that’s something that we’ll have to watch throughout the summer as well, because that can affect all counties and how they can allocate that money. So, we don’t want to have your hands tied in anyway by the State with respect to these local monies that we collect. Item F, underneath this same taxing commission, tax policies for logistic providers, trucking, rail, waterborne shipping, aviation and warehouse/distribution. They’re going to do a comparative analysis of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. This arose, one of your local aviation regional airport members, Bud Farmer, was concerned and raised some issues amongst the aviation association that Evansville was losing money to Owensboro, and Owensboro’s airport had gained Allegiant, I believe it is called, Airlines, and has a local regional air provider there. What’s happened there, the competitiveness between Evansville Regional Airport and Owensboro’s airport is, Owensboro was able to underbid Evansville because they have a two million dollar subsidy by the Federal government that’s given through all of Kentucky airports. The reason they have that is that the State of Indiana fails to have an Aviation Department to collect those federal monies that would be available. So, what this study is here for is to take advantage of establishing an Aviation Department, pushing to make sure our Indiana Department of Transportation is looking out for that, and make efforts to collect that Federal money so that down the road when Evansville is competing for more carriers and more folks we can say, hey, we’ve got some seed money, incentive money from the Federal government, we can provide this to you cheaper. So, that kind of was born out of some local people raising an issue. We worked with Bart Geisler with the Indiana Airport Association.

Jeff Phillips: That’s correct.

Warren Mathies: There was another legislator that he was working with in northern Indiana, and they wanted to make sure that this was studied over the summer. So, we took advantage to make sure Representative Welch and–

Jeff Phillips: Senator Kenley.

Warren Mathies: –Senator Luke Kenley, when we started talking with those two people about the importance of the Evansville Airport, we just knew about it, we didn’t have any marching orders from you. We saw an opportunity and said, put it on the books, it’s going to benefit the whole state, but it’s going to help us too. So, it wasn’t anything that we felt that we needed to raise, you know, concern about, because we knew it would come through for the whole state. Those are the issues that are going to be hot over the coming months. The charge of these minutes, most of them have to be done by November, let me see, November 30^th, some deadlines are November 1^st. So, between now and November 1^st there will be meetings on these issues. The only two posted right now are gaming and health finance. Within the next week they will post meetings and we’ll know the meeting dates on these committees, and be in attendance and follow what’s going on with them. If we find something that’s there that will benefit us, we’ll certainly bring it to your attention and would hope that once we have kind of a road map and an outline of what’s happening, we should be able to collaborate or get back with you to get some marching orders as to whether we want to play ball in some of these or raise some issues. There may be some tax policy things that you guys have been grappling with that you need to bring to our attention and educate us, so that we can change the direction of things on that. So, that’s where the road is going in the future, so that you can feel safe that there’s something going on that we’re watching and that you’re somewhat protected up there, at least somebody’s watching out for you. Where we’ve been, I can tell you this last session we didn’t get started, as you guys probably remember, we started about halfway through the session with representing you, but we were able to work on a quantity purchase agreement for salt, road salt. We got activated in a bill by Representative Austin from Anderson, Indiana, and you should have, if memory serves me, I spoke to someone the other day, I think you were able to get your salt secured for the next winter at a reasonable price, $60 per ton as opposed to $100. So, I think that that benefit is out there. That was one thing that we were standing in the room at the right time, and I think Troy called and said we’re having problems with salt and it was winter time and we had a snow in February or something, and we just happened to find an opportunity and grab it. So, that came through. The other attachment in here is House Enrolled Act 1514, and that has the arena taxing information for you. As you all know, that was authorized for a taxing district. We expanded the taxing district to include hotels in local areas, but there is a section in here that I would like to point out to you that I don’t know if you’re aware of, and that is page 24, and this may affect, it may affect your bottom line in a good way. If you go down to section 24 there was an allegiance, an alliance set up with one of Mr. Phillips’ clients, a company called Tremco, and Tremco is a multi-state consortium that provides routine maintenance for government buildings and government projects that have existing infrastructure. Tremco was curious and interested in trying to streamline the bidding process, and so section 24 was added in with the help of Phil GiaQuinta from Ft. Wayne and Trent Van Haaften, I think, was an advisor as well. Your local legislator went to bat on this one. Your normal bid, public works bid requirements for publication is $50,000 or greater, you have to put a notice in the paper for those. This section of the bill changed that number to $150,000. So, you’re going to have a savings, with respect to your public works maintenance and bidding projects, you won’t have to put them in the newspaper if they’re projects under $150,000. So, I would imagine that you probably have some that you bid and you pay the publishers handsomely, you know several hundred dollars, to put those notices in the paper. That threshold level has changed. So, that should benefit you all. If you have the ability to update the folks that normally do that, it would be wise to, because this is now in effect for us. You will have a cost savings, I mean, you don’t have to pay the paper as much on those projects. Those are the main issues that came out of the legislative session that benefit Vanderburgh County; the salt, the arena, and the quantity purchase agreement language. We were, you know, we feel pretty good that we were able to get a little bit done, but I think this next session will be better, because we will have, we will be on board working for the, hopefully, for the entire session this time, and we would like to have the opportunity to strategize and meet with you all, in some sort of fashion, to kind of come up with an aggressive proactive agenda for the county, with respect to tax policy and funding monies and policies that you have, and things that you might want to be working on to fix. I plan to come and just kind of sit as a ghost in your meetings a little bit back here, when I’m not on your agenda, to get the big picture view, because sometimes I see things that are hot that we can say, oh, wait, they’re doing this in Indianapolis, we might be able to get part of that paid for. So, it would be nice to brainstorm with you all at some point in the coming months to see what big projects are ahead. There’s a lot of transportation stuff going on down here, and we want to make sure that we’re taking advantage of that. Jeff is very good at working with the administrative part, INDOT, and there’s grant monies out there, and there’s innovative financing. If we kind of have an idea of where you all want to go, we might be able to help facilitate you getting there and saving you money as we do it. So, that would be our goal. I’m happy to answer any questions that you might have. Normally when I deal with clients, I communicate on a monthly basis. Vanderburgh County has been a little bit different, there’s three of you that I would have to communicate with, and I would like to improve that in some way. So, I would like to get an idea of what you all would like to see in our relationship when we’re working in Indianapolis that makes you all comfortable as far as communication, and trying to be on the same page and march forward with a proactive agenda as we go.

President Tornatta: Any questions?

Commissioner Winnecke: I have a question.

President Tornatta: Sure.

Commissioner Winnecke: Hey, Warren, back to the airport issue.

Warren Mathies: Yeah.

Commissioner Winnecke: So, Kentucky is able, specifically Owensboro is able to capitalize on that Federal money as a result of a State agency that it has that Indiana does not?

Warren Mathies: That’s correct.

Commissioner Winnecke: Is that really the only–

Warren Mathies: That’s the main issue. But, the local, the regional airport people here in Evansville saw that and thought, well, how come we’re not able to do that? They researched it a little bit, found out that we have an Aviation Division at INDOT, but it’s not registered Federally as it should, as a separate Aviation Department. It’s not got the credentials that it needs to accept that Federal money. So, part of this study in the summer is to find a way to push the government and push the legislature to enact and force INDOT to step up to the plate in some fashion. Of course, that costs money, and in tight budget times there’s issues of how is that funded? So, when they tried to push that issue, there was a point in time during the session that where they tried to push that and say, let’s authorize this group. Well, in the tight budget session it failed because they didn’t have the money to start it. They were starting behind the eight ball, you know, a little slow late in session. So, the logic was with the aviation, the Airport Association of Indiana, they said, well, look, let’s just get it on the map. Let’s study it, and let’s see what other states are doing. They know, the Airport Association already knows what the neighboring states are doing. So, when they do this study, I can tell you what the outcome likely is going to be, we’re going to find that Indiana is lacking on Federal funds because we’ve not got our infrastructure at the State level put in place to capture that money. So, this study is going to probably come out to our advantage when we compare the neighboring states.

Commissioner Winnecke: I would just, I mean, this is going to be a huge issue as Delta, as we understand–

Warren Mathies: Sure.

Commissioner Winnecke: –the–

Warren Mathies: Merger.

Commissioner Winnecke: –implications of the Delta-Northwest merger.

Warren Mathies: Sure.

Commissioner Winnecke: So, as we try to fill that void. So, I think any information that you can keep us in the loop on, on a regular basis, you know, hearings or what not would be really helpful.

Warren Mathies: As soon as this is posted for hearing we’ll inform you all of that.

Commissioner Winnecke: Great. Thank you. That’s good.

Warren Mathies: There may be somebody that needs to be involved in the process from your airport. I don’t know that, those politics out there, who’s the chairman or any of that stuff. That’s stuff I’ve not educated myself on, but I’ll watch and at least tell you so that you guys can activate them if they need to go up there, or if we need to advocate a position that we need to advocate for you, you can tell us once we get the hearing dates.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

Warren Mathies: Yep.

President Tornatta: Anything else?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes. You said the Kentucky airports, is that all airports regardless of size?

Warren Mathies: No, there are some Federal, in order for that Federal money it has to be a transportation size airport that has a commercial, you know, need. So, a local airport that’s just, that’s not doing commercial traffic, that’s more of an airport facility for business or private planes, it doesn’t apply that way. But a regional type airport, like a Louisville, a Frankfort, a Lexington, or Owensboro, they have the ability to capture money, because the Federal government, there’s a move, there’s a change within the aviation, how aviation works. I know, as a pilot myself, I’ve been a private pilot for 15 years, they, there’s a move to move towards regional piloting and regional management. Feeder systems that come from smaller airports and go to hubs. So, they’re working on upgrading and boosting regional airports. That’s the goal. They’re having a hard time getting there, but that’s why that Federal funding would only apply to commercial type airports that have that (Inaudible).

Commissioner Melcher: Then is there some kind of a formula, like Louisville airport would get more than two million?

Warren Mathies: I’m not positive, off the top of my head, but I would think that there’s probably some matrix that they would have to work through. We will know that answer by the end of this summer study, with respect to Kentucky. We’ll also know Ohio, Illinois and Michigan and Wisconsin. I find it interesting they threw Wisconsin in there, and I think the reason being is Wisconsin has a lot of aviation money, because they have the world’s largest air show, and probably they authorize, they put Wisconsin in that mix because we’ve got Lake Michigan up there. We may have a tip with Wisconsin, but it’s in there because I think Wisconsin gets a lot of Federal money and it’s going to come back and show that Indiana’s way behind. So, I’m anxious to see what Wisconsin’s numbers come back, because I thought that’s peculiar that they’re thrown in this mix, you know. It’s kind of funny. You know, why the Wisconsin? It’s like, out of the blue, it’s in there.

President Tornatta: I think the good part is we’re going to see what our border competitions are.

Warren Mathies: Sure, yeah.

President Tornatta: I think it’s always good to identify where those competitions are. I think we’ve even seen Henderson enter the mix–

Warren Mathies: Yeah, oh, yeah.

President Tornatta: –as far as plane storage, and so we need to talk about that. As far as, a couple of things that we need to discuss and get back to you guys, one is legislative agendas, and that’s something that we need to be thinking about on this Board and get those needed issues identified and then get them to you. The other thing would be to have that form of communication. I think you delivered some cards, everyone has your communication, or–

Warren Mathies: I did the first time, but I need to update you all. It’s the same, but I know I didn’t pass any out tonight.

President Tornatta: Yeah, and we’ll get those and then maybe we can establish, amongst the three of us–

Warren Mathies: Sure.

President Tornatta: –what the best way to communicate is. We’ve got a good relationship in getting some back and forth going on hot topic issues.

Warren Mathies: Sure.

President Tornatta: I’ve been trying to communicate as much as possible, but, you know, sometimes you’re stuck in meetings trying to get some of that information out–

Warren Mathies: Right.

President Tornatta: –and you can be a lot more specific if you make one on one contact. So, that being said, we’ll try and get that information back and forth as soon as possible–

Warren Mathies: Okay.

President Tornatta: –and also get some type of agenda or some type of ability to get, whether it’s here before a meeting, or during a meeting to get some agendas out on the table.

Warren Mathies: Yeah, perfect.

President Tornatta: Any other questions? Thank you guys.

Warren Mathies: I didn’t get a chance to officially introduce Jeff. I just kind of started in. This is Jeff Phillips our other lobbyist. He does a lot of the INDOT stuff, but he had said why don’t you give the summary and I’ll back you up when you need it.

Jeff Phillips: Thank you very much, Commissioners. It’s a pleasure to be here before you. To just touch on what Warren was saying, with the regional transportation initiative this summer, we will be working in collaboration with all border county entities that have the same type of risk, if you will, in terms of keeping their local companies local, and not pursuing other avenues across State borders, within those border counties. Speaking with the Lake County delegation, and their representation actually today, they absolutely had this on their radar screen. We’re working with the Aviation Association, their lobbyist, there’s a gentleman that has headed up a new group called Conexus that Carol D’Amico is very much involved in that deals with all transportation issues across the board, and their lobbyist is David Holt. They have a keen interest in this conversation and seeing where it goes. So, you know, there’s a lot of collaboration on that front to help try to generate the best possible atmosphere to succeed with. You know, the other issue, obviously, that was a hot topic last session that you are very keenly interested in is government reform with Kernan-Shepard stuff and watching to see what kind of legislation may or may not be pursued and filed on behalf of folks that are anxious in changing county government. So, those topics will continue to move and the conversations will take place. So, I’m just thrilled to be here and representing you and look forward to doing the best possible job we can. Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you. Have a safe trip.

President Tornatta: Jim Harris, EVSC and Purchasing Director, how about it?

Jim Harris: Good evening. Tonight, well, first of all, my name is James Harris. I am the Chief Operating Officer for EVSC. Under that role I am also the Purchasing Agent for the city and county. Tonight I bring before you the second of the bids we’ve done under our Cooperative Purchasing Organization. The first was copy paper, this time it is custodial supplies. If you look before you I gave you a hand out. The first recommendation is for, on page two, is can liners, which goes, which I recommend going to HMR Enterprises, which is a local, minority owned/woman owned company here in Evansville. Number two would be multi-purpose cleaner, which I recommend goes to EcoQuip, which is also a WBE, woman owned business enterprise, here in Evansville. Number three, custodial paper, I recommend goes to Pro-Tex-All, another locally owned company. Hand soap on page four, KRS Supply, Kleen-Rite Supply, another locally owned Evansville company. On the last page is a recap. You will see under my recommendations all bids go to locally owned companies, two women owned companies, and there’s a cost savings of 19.5 percent over your current costs. Do you have any questions for me?

Commissioner Winnecke: Jim, just for the record, to reiterate, these are all local and all represent the lowest prices that were submitted?

Jim Harris: You will see on the pages that have them listed it has their address. They are all Evansville based, and they are actually in Evansville, operating in Evansville.

President Tornatta: Then, your follow up question was about the–

Commissioner Winnecke: Competitive pricing, I’m sorry. I guess, I see one where I have a question, but maybe it’s because, on the multi-purpose cleaner, on that page–

Jim Harris: Yes?

Commissioner Winnecke: –it looks like one out of town competitor was significantly lower.

Jim Harris: That out of town, Bowling Green, Kentucky?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Jim Harris: They didn’t follow our bid.

Commissioner Winnecke: I’m sorry?

Jim Harris: They did not follow our bid parameters.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, thank you.

Jim Harris: They were discontinued. What I do is I include everyone who bid, so you can’t say I excluded someone. I’m showing everything that’s possible. The one bidder at the top withdrew their bid, they couldn’t fulfill the requirements, the second one did not follow the procedures for the bid. The winner, EcoQuip, that I’m recommending, offered a two prong approach to dispensing units. A hand held and a wall mounted.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay.

Jim Harris: And when you average those prices, they become the lowest bidder. Also we’ve tested all of these products, so it wasn’t like someone submitted a cheaper quality product. We brought them in, tested them, then we decided from there.

Commissioner Winnecke: Great. Thank you.

Commissioner Melcher: I just, the only question I would have, maybe in the future when they withdraw a bid, like this says withdrew bid, but if there’s some problem maybe you ought to put a star on it and say the same thing like you did the first one so we know.

Jim Harris: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: You know, because when you count them you say, well, there’s a lot, but then after you throw three out, there’s not a lot.

Jim Harris: Well, we have very tough parameters and criteria on our bids in the quality of product that we use. We do, well, we like to have local vendors, because we require them to delivery to the locations. So, if you’re out of town, it’s really not cost effective for them to even bother with us.

Commissioner Winnecke: Well, we like the 19 and a half percent cost savings.

Jim Harris: So far, the average cost savings so far is about 22 percent.

Commissioner Winnecke: Great.

Jim Harris: Overall since we’ve joined together with our cooperative purchasing with the city, county and EVSC. We have a few other things coming up.

President Tornatta: Super.

Commissioner Winnecke: Are you ready for a motion?

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I will move approval of the recommended vendors as presented by Mr. Harris.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Questions or discussions? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Thank you, Mr. Harris.

Jim Harris: Alright, thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Jim.

President Tornatta: Alright.

President Tornatta: Second and final reading of CO.07-09-013, an ordinance amending chapter 17.36 entitled administration and enforcement. The APC has approved the adoption of this and feels that it will better enable its enforcement of zoning codes and to prevent and deter violations.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I will move second and final reading of the aforementioned ordinance.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second it.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Tim Gravenstreeter? Tim is going to talk about the info book and relocation guide and give us a brief presentation.

Tim Gravenstreeter: Good evening, Commissioners. I have, prior to this meeting, sent each of you a packet that I hope you’ve had a chance to at least have a cursory view, but supplemental to that this evening, have brought in a couple of other important pieces because they give you a sense as to what the cover will look like. The earlier version did not have benefit of some local landmarks, and while this isn’t the final one, it at least gives you a sense of how we do temper everyone of the covers of everyone of our books to include the slice of life in recreation, government, landmarks and such. I have an array of other County Commissioner sponsored books that I have done, and, if you would like, I can leave these. But, the key to this is to let you know that this is a work in progress. I’m on my eighth edition for the Hendricks County Board of Commissioners, and so it’s pretty much after eight consecutive editions on auto pilot as far as the layout concepts are. But what I’m here to petition you to consider is providing the sponsorship in the guise of just a letter on your stationery that would allow us when we go to other governmental agencies and quasi-governmental agencies to understand that the production of this commercial publication, which is done with no tax monies whatsoever, is being done under the auspices of your office, which will allow us to have a higher level of cooperation from school systems, township assessor offices and such, than if we just came in as, you know, Tim Gravenstreeter from Countywide Guides. I have had a very successful relationship through a number of these editions, and in the prior material you have letters from various Commissioners about their re-upping for yet another edition and the kudos as to what they thought of the quality. I’ve also given distribution information so that you see that my Commissioner offices is just one of about 40 places to 60 places throughout the county where these would be available to the public. But, the primary reason that any of these Commissioner offices have gotten involved with Countywide Guides is that this piece is generally considered to be the ultimate authority in their respective counties. It is used by the Human Resource departments to recruit people from outside of the area that have no prior knowledge about what life in that said county would be. So, when they are looking for school systems, student-teacher ratios, the population, public safety numbers, parks and their amenities, tax rates, housing costs and apartment rental rates, all of that is found in any of our Countywide Guides. So, it is used by the HR departments. It is also used by the economic development people as a keystone piece as part of their portfolio when trying to entreat outside people to invest because of the wealth of commercial information in here. In fact I have sponsorship by the folks in the economic development department in some of my counties and municipalities. So, the reason that I ask you to give this consideration is that it has been a partnership that has worked well. I have also submitted information about our company and the fact that in our information gathering our books have been lauded by local municipalities, your counterparts at other County Commissioners offices, Chambers of Commerce, and others, and to that end there’s a sheet that has just some of the Chambers of Commerce in our various counties that are not only active distributors of these books for whatever purpose, commercial development and/or relocation, but many of these people are also paid sponsors in these books because they believe the value of this book supplements their own materials. Now I would like to point out that these publications are also then posted online and are available anywhere on the worldwide web in the same format as if you were looking at the book in front of you. You have the ability to go to any URL address in here and click on it and hyperlink to the website of that governmental agency, that not-for-profit, or any of the sponsors that we have. So the economic development corporation for Elkhart County, for instance, you can click on their ad and hyperlink right to their website. So, we offer actually the opportunity to have this book not only in its physical form, but as an e-book online with our other publications that we post as we come out with them. Now should you shop our countywideguides.com website and see more than just Chamber, or more than just the Countywide Guides, that’s because we also publish books and maps and directories for Chambers of Commerce as well, and they are on that site as well. If we were to get your approval to start, once we have just a three line letter, and I have examples of what that looks like in the packet that I sent to you before, we would be able to initiate the information gathering and the advertising sponsorship support for this publication. It is our timetable to have this come out right after the first of the year. So, are there any questions that I might address?

President Tornatta: Questions?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yeah, I’ll start. What’s the need for this?

Tim Gravenstreeter: In any community as large as Evansville, with the population base that you have and the major companies that you have, people moving in and out of here, the ability to have one source for information about what the relocating executive or individual is going to be is one thing, and we glean over 100 websites and make over 200 phone calls to come up with over 1,000 data points that are in this book. There’s no other single clearinghouse that has all this in one nice, neat little package. So, it is something that while you say, you know, what is the need, the need is that where we have filled this perceived need in nine other counties, it has now become a staple, and I get calls from people waiting for the next edition wanting to know when it’s going to be available to them through their local city hall, county government center or U.S. Post Office. Our book is the only book that has every been authorized to be in Post Office lobbies. But in small communities where there is no full time town hall staff, the local Post Office has these books, and in some cases has actually facilitated our getting them to them by sending us pre-paid stickers.

Commissioner Winnecke: Right, so, yeah, I probably didn’t phrase my question correctly. Theoretically, I understand the need for it. I guess, the question is what about competing publications that exist today?

Tim Gravenstreeter: There aren’t....go ahead please.

Commissioner Winnecke: Because it’s my understanding that the Chamber does stuff, it’s my understanding that the individual real estate companies do these things. I mean, multiple people do these already.

Tim Gravenstreeter: That is a very, very good point. The key is that when it is the real estate company then it’s only available through that particular agency usually, and it’s usually their brand stamped on a book that is produced by a third party that is in this industry as well, but it has nowhere near the same kind of data that is available. As to the Chambers, the reason that I included this list of all these Chambers of Commerce, every single one of these chambers produces some sort of localized material to promote their service district. I actually produced them for them as well as a result of them liking the information in the Countywide Guide, they asked me to do them on a local level. I have five projects in Lake County, Indiana alone that came as a result of all of those chambers loving the big picture book. This is not to be considered a competition. It is usually supplemental to the orientation they have. If it’s a membership directory, then it’s a business to business buying guide. While it will be had, I’m sure containing some statistical information, it does not cross over to the depth of information that we put in our Countywide Guides. So, it’s usually the only one that has all of that information in it.

Commissioner Winnecke: But, from a competitive standpoint you would be competing against those organizations in terms of trying to sell advertising.

Tim Gravenstreeter: The marketplace in every county that I have worked in has been able to support both the local Chamber projects, as well as mine. As I say, the Chambers pay for their advertising in my book because they find it to be of such great value. Now I’m not going to be in a position to speak for your local Chamber here, I usually allow them to see what the finished product looks like before they either endorse it for distribution or decide to take on an ad in it them themselves. They will be given that opportunity, but there is no Countywide Guide that is not in every single Chamber in every single one of those counties, including 12 in Lake County alone.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Question? Alright, Tim, probably what I would like to do is mull it over, look at some of this information, and then we can get back with you. If we decide we want to move forward, then we can come at a subsequent meeting and make a motion to do so.

Tim Gravenstreeter: Alright, appreciate that.

President Tornatta: Okay?

Tim Gravenstreeter: If you would like, I’ll leave these other examples of these Commissioner sponsored publications, and you’re certainly free to contact any of the people who’s letters you have just to talk with them to see about that relationship that we’ve had. Again, I work for other organizations, real estate associations, but my preference is to work with county governments who I started with and that’s my core sponsorship in most of my Countywide Guides.

President Tornatta: Well, thank you.

Tim Gravenstreeter: Thank you very much for the opportunity.

President Tornatta: No problem.

President Tornatta: Doc, with the Health Department.

Ray Nicholson: I’m Dr. Ray Nicholson, Health Officer for Vanderburgh County. You have on your agenda prospective cancellation for time off for Health Department employees. We do not know how serious this epidemic is going to be, but from State reports and National reports we have reason to believe that it’s going to get a lot worse. It’s like a weed growing up, it starts out small and gets big. It’s hard to pull out of the ground and that’s the way this virus is. It gets tough. In 1918 this virus spread pretty much through the country, like it has in the spring of this year. Then in the fall it swept through the nation within three weeks and killed over 10,000 people in Indiana and almost 70,000 people in the United States, and 40,000,000 people worldwide. This week it’s been proven that this virus is the same virus that we had in 1918. It’s shown that genetically. So, consequently, we don’t know when the vaccine is going to be available, if it’s going to be available, or when we’ll be giving it. We are faced with the fact that a number of employees have applied for vacation time, and we realize that if we’re in a crisis situation we’re not going to be able to grant those. So, I sent a memo to the Health Department that they could go ahead and make arrangements for their vacations, but that it would be subject to immediate cancellation in the event that we need everyone to give approximately 400,000 immunizations. Their concern is that if they have vacation time coming to them, and we have to cancel it that they may lose that time. So, we’re asking that if you could authorize it to be carried over. I think the attorney prepared a motion for that effect and I hope that you received all of that.

President Tornatta: I guess, I do have a question. If the days are accumulated, I guess, I need to know if that’s going to be under the, that’s the pay of the following year though, is that correct?

Ray Nicholson: Yeah, there’s four different categories under which they have time coming to them. Only two of them would qualify for this. It would be compensatory time where they worked overtime and they have the time coming to them, and it would be vacation time. Personal days and so forth would not count.

President Tornatta: Okay, and at some point would this be, this would be kicked into gear by a State of Emergency situation?

Ray Nicholson: Yes.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Ray Nicholson: Yes, we know that we’ll be receiving vaccine in groups. We’re not going to get it all at once. So, we would have to start immunizing those people that are most susceptible, and we figure it could up to a period of up to two to three months to administer this vaccine.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Dr., I appreciate the forward thinking on this. My only concern, not even concern, I would just ask that this be clearly communicated to all the Health Department staff, assuming that it passes tonight. I think that would be appropriate.

Ray Nicholson: We’ve sent a memo to everyone. It’s been discussed in the locker rooms and so forth, that’s for sure.

President Tornatta: Hopefully, we don’t have to enter into this agreement.

Ray Nicholson: That’s right. Well, you know, the thing about it is that I don’t expect us to have the deaths that we had in 1918, because first of all we do have Tamiflu, which is effective in most cases. So, we do have treatment. Then in 1918 they did not have the vaccine to give.

Commissioner Winnecke: Right.

Ray Nicholson: So, we hope that we can moderate this and think that it is all a sense of hype, you know, eventually.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. Chairman, if you’re ready, I would move that if due to duties required of Health Department employees in connection with the H1N1 virus vaccination program, (1) vacation days and departmental leave days for employees of the Health Department are cancelled by order of the Health Officer during the period from August 11, 2009 through December 31, 2009, and, secondly, the Health Officer and the Executive Director of the Health Department approve that any resulting unused vacation time, and any resulting unused departmental leave days in excess of two and one half days for such employees from 2009 be rolled over and used by the affected employees, when authorized by the Executive Director of the Health Department, in 2010. Then such rollover and use of such days by employees of the Health Department in 2010 is approved by the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second it.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

Ray Nicholson: Mr. Tornatta, I do have two other small things to bring up. Do you want me to do that now?

President Tornatta: Absolutely.

Ray Nicholson: Okay, first of all, if you remember, you asked that I prepare something for the Commissioners in response to what they might do for this possible epidemic, and we’ve done that. I can pass that out to you now.

Commissioner Melcher: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Dr.

Ray Nicholson: In this memo we have recommendations that we think you all should follow. Some recommendations specifically on N-95 masks and other materials that you might need. We think that this information would be very valuable to all of the employees here in the Civic Center also. The second thing I want to–

President Tornatta: Real quick, Doc–

Ray Nicholson: Okay.

President Tornatta: – and I probably talked to Gary about this. This is in e-mail form, or is this piece, so if we wanted to do a mass send we could send that out?

Gary Heck: Gary Heck, Health Department. It is ready to do that whenever you are ready for that.

President Tornatta: Okay. At that time, if we accept these recommendations, then we would get in contact and get that moved over and send that out.

Gary Heck: I think some of them have already been implemented. I’ve noticed that there is hand sanitizers–

President Tornatta: Right.

Gary Heck: –on most of the floors, or every floor near the entrances. A lot of this is common sense, as Dr. Nick likes to say. It’s things that people can do to help protect themselves, their family and their fellow citizens.

President Tornatta: Right, and it’s probably something that would be good to get into the hands of all the employees, if possible. So, we’ll be in contact to get that shipped out.

Ray Nicholson: The second thing that I wanted to bring up is the fact that we are planning a town hall meeting. It’s in the Central Library, the Browning Room. It’s going to be on Wednesday, August 26^th. There will be, the two sessions that are scheduled now at 9:30 to 11:30, that morning, and then 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. It’s been pointed out that we probably will make, we will make arrangements for a night meeting at some other time. At this town hall meeting we hope to have a lot of announcements as in regards to our campaign to immunize the people. We would like to ask that a Commissioner to be at one of these, at each of these sessions, if you could. We will be inviting other employees in the government. Not employees, but the higher ups, and the Police Department, EMA and so forth. So, I just wanted to inform you of that. You will be getting notices about that.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Ray Nicholson: Okay. Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you, Doc.

President Tornatta: County Coroner. Coroner Groves, we’re finally going to get a van purchased, I believe.

Annie Groves: Uh-huh. Yes.

President Tornatta: Okay. Let’s see, I know that we approved a van, the Council approved a van with decals for $24,000, and I believe that it was a little bit more than we thought–

Annie Groves: Correct.

President Tornatta: –but everything is going to fit in the $24,000, is that correct?

Annie Groves: I think so. I haven’t gotten the prices yet on the decals, because I didn’t know the size that we would need.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Annie Groves: So, I have spoken with the Sheriff tonight, and he’s guided me on where to go.

President Tornatta: Okay, and then on the rest of the vehicles, have we done anything–

Annie Groves: No, we have not.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Annie Groves: We were going to try and do a uniform thing, but we didn’t know the size of the doors on this one.

President Tornatta: Are you going to get estimates on the rest of the vehicles at that time?

Annie Groves: For what, decals?

President Tornatta: Uh-huh.

Annie Groves: Yeah.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Annie Groves: But, we only have one other one.

President Tornatta: Okay, the truck.

Annie Groves: Yeah.

President Tornatta: Okay. Super. Do we need to approve, at this time, the additional funds from the county?

David Miller: Yes, I think you authorized an expenditure of $23,000–

Commissioner Melcher: No, $21,643.

David Miller: $21,643, and you need to re-authorize to the extent of $23,302, or to the maximum extent of up to $24,000.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: I think that’s what we probably need to do is to do what the Council did.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: So, I’ll make a move that we move it from the $21,643 to up to $24,000 for the van, including the decals.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

Annie Groves: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you very much.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Annie.

President Tornatta: Contracts, agreements and leases, EMA, consent to Indiana Department of Homeland Security retaining a portion of previous grants Statewide training on interoperable communications. Sherman, anything that we need to know about this before we move on?

Sherman Greer: Sherman Greer, Emergency Management Director for Evansville-Vanderburgh County. This is a pass-through grant. It’s not any funding that’s going to come here. It will stay in Indianapolis. It’s a contract that they will do with a consulting agency to help us write a district-wide communications plan, and then also training and exercise on that district-wide plan.

President Tornatta: And then we did have a District 10 meeting, and the president of the District 10 now is Commissioner–

Sherman Greer: Dan–

President Tornatta: –Dan Reisinger.

Sherman Greer: –Reisinger, yes. Second chair is Commissioner Tornatta.

President Tornatta: Yeah, I’m second chair and Art Noffsinger, I believe is third chair.

Sherman Greer: Art Noffsinger is third chair, yes.

President Tornatta: So, trying to get our ducks in a row in region ten.

Sherman Greer: Yeah, by getting the by-laws passed and everything we’re set and ready to go. I mean, we’ve been doing some fantastic things in District 10 for the past couple of years, but that kind of solidifies it right there with your by-laws and everything.

President Tornatta: Now, does that give us any other opportunities for grants?

Sherman Greer: It, throughout the State they’re still going to, whenever they get their Homeland Security grants in they divide them up by the ten districts. You know, I’m really not for sure whether or not population base or anything like that has anything to do with it. It’s just that the needs of the ten districts within the State of Indiana. Interoperable communication is throughout our strategic plan that we present to, that the State of Indiana presents to FEMA. We have to stay within those guidelines.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: So, we need a motion on this?

President Tornatta: Correct.

David Miller: Yes, you do, and there’s a consent for you to execute.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll move to approve it.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Thank you, Sherman.

Sherman Greer: Thank you, sir.

President Tornatta: Alright. Superior Court contract for home verification services for Dion Wingerter. An agreement to enter into between the Deputy Sheriff Dion Wingerter and the county on behalf of the Day Reporting Drug Court for the provision of home verification services. That’s from July 21, 2009 through December 31, 2009.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. Chairman, I’ll move approval.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Commissioners agreement for management of Hillcrest Washington Youth Home, extension of agreement for the operation and management of the Youth Home. It should be the same as last year, with the provisions that I think you saw of any type of escalator would be done as follows in the contract.

Commissioner Melcher: Move for approval.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Department head reports. David, anything from the law offices.

David Miller: Yes, two things. First of all, we have the two previously approved central purchasing office agreements, which I believe Madelyn has ready for you to sign. Secondly, there arose during the past several weeks some question regarding any risk that the county might be incurring with respect to a potential policy to provide a pass, or an i.d. card for county employees to by-pass security checks in the county buildings. Because of that I commissioned some research to be done by our office in order to determine whether there would be any legal exposure to the county by authorizing such an employee by-pass kind of policy. We have concluded that there is no increased risk of any kind to the county for implementing such a policy. We believe that there are a couple of immunity statutes that protect the county. At its base the fact is that you have no obligation to implement any security check at the doors of any county business. That is a discretionary act on your behalf, and the way you choose to do it is, we believe, protected by the discretionary immunity that you enjoy as County Commissioners and that flows to county (Inaudible). So, we are not, we the law office, are not commenting on the wisdom of or how you choose to implement the policy, but, if you choose to implement a policy that permits an employee by-pass there will be no increased risk to the county.

President Tornatta: And, I think just to kind of move on, since we brought up that topic we did have a meeting this afternoon just addressing some opening issues, or maybe some issues regarding how we will proceed with that, with the security. I think it’s all based on every individual would go through some type of device. The pass through would be for the employees that would have a turn style type of set up, and it would allow them to go through that turn style because of a keyed entryway. So, it would either be a keyfob or an identification piece that would be loaded with information that would allow them to come through. Who gets through and at what points they get through in a day are all issues that we’re working on at this time. But, for those out there who will come through a metal detector or through some type of device that would scan their articles, there will also be some type of device that will be used on the employees. However, it might be a turn style with a key reader or something of that nature. So, for those who got the intent that we were going to have our employees just move throughout the system, or go by-pass the system, we will have a reading device that will go through. There will be a lot more information forthcoming, but just to kind of get that out there, we are, everyone will be scanned and this will be as secure a building as we can make it.

Commissioner Melcher: So, everybody’s going to be going through a scanner?

President Tornatta: Everyone will go through a reader. Those who are not employees for sure will go through a metal detector, much like they do right now in the courts building.

Commissioner Melcher: Yeah, because every time I go into the courts building I still do that.

President Tornatta: Right. Those, at the time the thought is those who are employees will have a card or a keyfob that will allow them to move through a separate area as not to back them up as they are all coming in at the same time to come to work.

Commissioner Winnecke: And will the final, will there be a final recommendation, or a final sort of demonstration or whatever of how the process will work, come before us before it’s implemented?

President Tornatta: Yes, yes.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, and when do we anticipate that being?

President Tornatta: You know, it’s, we’re working right now to see about the...Sheriff Williams? I’m making you get up, big boy. This is an on-going process. We had good dialogue today just about issues that we think we’ll see before us, try and put together a committee that would at least throw some ideas out, and then, I think, we’re going to talk to office holders and department heads to get their view on what we would see. Sheriff?

Eric Williams: To try to answer the question, the timelines that we have in place, probably the most daunting task that we face right now is actually the issuance of credentials or the i.d. cards. We’re going to finalize that process and (tape flip) way of getting that done. They can be programmed at a later time remotely to establish whatever the parameters might be. During our meeting today we discussed a committee, the security committee, much similar that’s in place, very similar to what’s in place in the courts right now, which consists of right now Judge Pigman, Judge Heldt and myself that oversee exceptions to the baseline security. I do expect that we’ll putting some information out to the office holders and department heads about getting their cards and their pictures and all that stuff done for all of their employees. That will follow shortly after with information coming out of this group of where we’re headed and what we’re going to do. We fully anticipate that this will be a long process. We’re going to try and make it as painless as possible, but, as you know, this kind of change is obviously going to cause some grief for some people, and there are going to be a lot of people with questions about exceptions and things like that. We’re going to do it to the best of our ability. I think we’re going into this with the attitude that anything we do at this point forward is going to be better than what we have today. This building was never designed to be a secure facility. So, it will be a far cry from perfect, but it will be substantially better than what we’re doing today.

Commissioner Winnecke: Great. Thank you.

Commissioner Melcher: I have a bunch of questions, but I can hold off if we’re going to go through some committees. I don’t have a problem with going through one myself. I know, maybe tell us real quick how it works in the other building? Because I know when I go through I kind of get upset too when I see people just go through, wave their hand and they’re carrying satchels and everything else. You never know what’s in them, you don’t even know who they are.

Eric Williams: Well, you might not, but the deputies and the screeners that are there do know them. That is an issue that we’re going to have to do some education and training on, through time to try and expedite people through that facility. Our staff have taken a few liberties here and there to let the normal people that come through everyday, representatives of the Prosecutor’s office, Public Defenders office, and some of those personalities to kind of skim through to try and keep the backlog down. So, one of the things that we’re going to do with this is try to make all three checkpoints into these buildings uniform and consistent on how everybody is treated the same way and that they are expected to do the same thing. That’s one of the goals of this committee is to establish what exceptions may exist or will not exist so that they can be uniformly enforced. Our hope is that the backlog that sometimes occurs in the courts building will be load balanced amongst the other two entry points into this building. Theoretically, if all three entry points are the only places into this campus that people can come in and they’re all conducted equally, people might choose differently on which way they are going to enter this building now.

Commissioner Melcher: I’m glad you said that, because that brings up the tunnel. So, if people are parked in the back 40 and they want to come in through the courts building to come through the tunnel if they work on the second floor we don’t have to have that secure anymore.

Eric Williams: Well, part of the idea here, and that’s what I’ve always considered to be one of the big sales point of being able to establish this process, if all three points that enter this campus, including the administration building and the courts building, are conducted equally and uniformly and the policies are the same across the board, there should be no difference of whether a person is going to one of the courts enters the front of this building, or the front of the courts building. We would be able to open up the tunnel, or the bridge between the two during the normal daytime hours when the courts are in session. But, the key to that is going to be that all three points are treated equally and uniformly and everybody is screened to the same level.

Commissioner Melcher: That was one of my questions too.

Eric Williams: Which that will allow us to load balance, because there are people that would enter the courts from the front of this building if they could cut through the bridge.

Commissioner Melcher: Exactly, and vice versa. There’s people in the back that would come that way if they’re going–

Eric Williams: Correct.

Commissioner Melcher: –and, I guess, that’s kind of where I’m headed and I just want to make sure that we’re treating everybody fairly. How do the employees now, because I don’t know this answer, how are the employees getting into the court building? Do they get scanned?

Eric Williams: Most of them go through scanning or by there, but there are a significant number that have access through other doorways, and that is part of the communication that is going to occur amongst the judges and the office holders and myself and this committee is to come up with a uniform rule that’s campus-wide, as opposed to having some exceptions that may occur for the Prosecutor’s office, for example, because they happen to be close to one of those exterior doors that’s going to get locked down. Obviously, they are probably going to want to prefer to use that entrance, but, I think those are going to be some of the tough decisions that we are going to make and say that everybody is going to be treated the same when you come through the same few entrances.

Commissioner Melcher: That’s where I’m going. Everybody needs to be treated the same. That way it’s easier for me to answer somebody in a neighborhood meeting saying we’re all being treated the same. I want to be treated the same as everybody else.

Eric Williams: Well, I think there will, just because of the issues that we face with efficiencies and the funding, that there will be some differences between employees and the general citizens that are entering this building on a one time this year basis. They’re going to go through some screening that maybe the employees aren’t going to go through the same extent. Everybody we want to have pass through the checkpoints though, so that we’re aware of who’s coming in and out of our buildings.

Commissioner Melcher: And I’m agreeing with that.

Eric Williams: But, I would also tell you that at this point in time, there is nothing cast in concrete. The committee has to do its work and develop some plans that we think everybody’s going to live with. We know from experience, you do from living in this building, the dynamics of the different offices, the departments, their job functions, when they come and go, how they do their jobs that we’re going to have a lot of various issues to work out. We want to make this so that people embrace the concept as opposed to oppose it, because if they buy into what we’re doing, that it’s for their protection and the good of this facility, they’re much more likely to be cooperative, as opposed to just shoving something down their throats and saying this is the way it’s going to be because I said so. We don’t want to travel that path, at least I don’t.

Commissioner Melcher: And neither do I, and that’s why I’m kind of glad, after we voted on that a few weeks ago I thought maybe I should have said some more at that time looking back on it, and I wish I would have now, but I just want to make sure that everybody’s treated fairly and I don’t want people coming in a back door that nobody knows about.

Eric Williams: Nor do we.

Commissioner Melcher: I don’t want anybody above anybody.

Eric Williams: Nor do we.

Commissioner Melcher: Because, you know, if you look at a lot of businesses and a lot of the problems, and hopefully we don’t have any of them type of employees, they’re the ones that start it, or the ones that are employees.

Eric Williams: But, I can’t sit here and guarantee to you that there will not be some people that work in this building that are given some level of privilege to come through the back door and by-pass security. For example, the judges, you know, they are probably not going to go through screening to come into their workplace. There’s a variety, and that’s what the work of the committee’s going to be is to determine what the rules are and how those persons are identified, established and what rules go with that. I’ve never claimed that this is going to be an easy process, and I think there’s going to be some people that get upset to some degree at points in time, but I think if we work this properly and we let the committee do its job and communicate what the goals are, I think that the majority of the people will embrace this and say that this is for my protection, and I appreciate it.

Commissioner Melcher: Well, it’s just a shame that we’ve got to get to that point nowadays. I would just like to believe that our community is above that.

Eric Williams: I would like to believe that too, but I would also like to compliment the Commissioners, the Council and the people that have made this happen that we’re at least being proactive and going to try to address a problem that may or may not exist before we have to react to a tragedy. I think that is the important thing here is that we are trying to protect people before something bad happens here.

President Tornatta: I think it comes down to the employees as well. I mean, it’s going to be a minor inconvenience and we’re going to try and make it as minor as possible, at the end of the day, you know, they’re a commodity that we feel is precious enough to do this.

Eric Williams: We hear it all the time that the number one resource of government is its employees, and they’re the most important thing we have to be able to deliver the services that the community expects and deserves from us. We have an obligation to protect those people while they’re in this building and doing the job for everybody. I think that’s what we’re trying to do. With that, will protect everybody that enters this building.

President Tornatta: More information is forthcoming. It’s a work in progress. All the people on both sides of the aisle and the judges are all in agreement that it’s a necessary–

Eric Williams: And, I would offer one final thing is that I think I am the quasi-chairman of this committee somehow.

Commissioner Melcher: That’s exactly what I thought.

Eric Williams: I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but it happened. I welcome your input as we develop–

President Tornatta: Yes.

Eric Williams: –these plans, and we will try to get information out to you as they develop and come along, but if anybody has input or suggestions, now is the time to give it to us before we distill it down to writing and put it out. So, if you’ve got some thoughts on the side, let me know.

Commissioner Melcher: Well, you was talking about maybe exceptions with the judges, but that doesn’t mean their staff, or it doesn’t mean a lot of other people. If they had some kind of a pass key or whatever you are saying, then you know judge so and so logged in at this time.

Eric Williams: Right.

Commissioner Melcher: And judge so and so logged out at this time.

Eric Williams: You are preaching to somebody that agrees totally, however, I’m not going to be the only vote to make that decision. This is going to have to be a consensus of a bunch, of a lot of people. You know, it’s very easy for me to dictate security when it’s in the courts, because that is my constitutional responsibility, but now we’ve expanded that to an area beyond just the courts, which now makes it a little different than my traditional role as providing security for the judges.

Commissioner Melcher: I understand. I just want it to be uniform.

Eric Williams: I want it to be fair and consistent.

President Tornatta: Any other questions? Thank you, Sheriff.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta, is there a motion and vote required for the two CPO agreements that Counselor Miller mentioned at the beginning of his report?

David Miller: I think not. I think those were approved before. We just need signatures on the–

President Tornatta: Okay.

David Miller: –agreements.

President Tornatta: John? County Engineer? I did want to talk about one thing, just for those who are maybe in the community or on the north side, we have a lot of construction going on out there, just could you give us a quick update on what you see going on on Green River Road, and I see a bridge out there. It looks like it’s moving along faster than I thought it would. How do you see the progress?

John Stoll: Right now the progress has actually been somewhat slow because of trying to work around utility conflicts and working, because of the weather, it’s slowed things down. But, in talking to the contractor today, they expected that within the next four to six weeks, if the weather isn’t too terrible, they should be able to get the traffic switched over to the temporary bridge out there on Green River, and then begin work on demolishing the existing bridge and building in the fill for the new bridge. So, it’s moving ahead, it’s, weather-wise has not been too cooperative as far as continuing the dirt work. They’ve been able to work around utility conflicts as much as possible. We’ve been in contact with the utility companies to try and find out what they could do in the interim until we got their full relocations completed. We’ve gotten some success in that, so, things are going pretty good so far. Better weather would certainly help.

President Tornatta: Yeah, and for those who are out there in that area, obviously, we apologize for progress, but it’s a necessity to get that done. We appreciate their patience while we go through the process, and I know that some people are enduring a lot of elements out there, but I think it’s going to make an overall great look, and the project is going to move very quickly and get you to your house quicker at the same time.

John Stoll: We’ll continue to have shifts in the traffic patterns out there as additional areas are opened up through utility relocations, whatever the case may be. When we have major ones, like when the temporary bridge over Pigeon Creek is opened, we’ll notify the media so that way we can let the public know about the major change like that, and hopefully they can continue to use caution going through there and things will continue to go smoothly.

President Tornatta: I think we’ve acquired all of the property on University Parkway now and all the rights.

John Stoll: I saw that. The last one.

President Tornatta: So, that was kind of a monumental task. It was, we were able to do it, and I think that we were able to put ourselves in position to be ready to build a road.

John Stoll: Now if we can just get bid letting scheduled we’re in great shape.

President Tornatta: Sounds good. Alright. Thank you, John.

John Stoll: You’re welcome.

President Tornatta: Chris, do you got anything? Nothing? Everything going alright? Okay.

President Tornatta: Alright, any new business? Seeing none.

President Tornatta: Any old business? Great.

President Tornatta: Public comment? Sheriff?

Eric Williams: Two, or three things, the jail population has been down a little bit. So, we’re thankful, and I’m going to knock on some wood that it stays that way. Two, I wanted to just publicly say thank you to Chris Walsh and the Highway Department. The Sheriff’s Office, out of our budget, bought the materials to do it, but they repaved our driveway, and it turned out far better than we could have ever imagined. They did a great job for us. So, it looks beautiful. Then, finally, I would just like to make sure that you’re all aware that beginning tomorrow with school back in session, we will have saturation patrols around all the schools out in the county tomorrow and through the end of the week at both pick up and drop off times. So, if you’re in the area try to–

President Tornatta: Slow down.

Eric Williams: –yeah, slow down. We had the unfortunate situation of arresting a drunk driver in a school zone last year in the morning, the first day. So, we really ask everybody to give the kids–

President Tornatta: What type of penalties do we see? Are they doubled? Or how does that work in a school zone?

Eric Williams: It generally depends. Most of our tickets will be basically a face value unless it’s marked appropriately, and then you can see double penalties.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Eric Williams: You know, what we really want, and we’re encouraging parents to not drive their kids to school, to let them use the buses. You know, the buses know their ins and outs and ways around the schools. Obviously, it’s a fuel saver for the family and the environment, but it’s much safer for the kids. The fewer cars we have in and out of those parking lots and schools the safer the kids will be.

President Tornatta: Do you want to talk about gas prices since you’re here? At some point we ran into one another and we’ve been under a set price on gas, we feel like we’ve come out way ahead on that.

Eric Williams: Sure, I mean, the, last year we took, we changed our fuel purchasing model, and we bought a year’s worth of gas, basically, for the fleet at a fixed price. Right now we are paying less than you would, we would have paid last year under the old model. I think we’re going to be in under budget on our fuel. We’re not going to go back to Council this year asking for money, at least that’s where we hope to be. But, doing that model also makes it much easier to budget for throughout the year because you know what the costs are going to be. But, I would encourage us to begin looking at that option for next year, because every week, you know, those prices are, the closer to the time period that you buy it, the less latitude you have. So, I would encourage the Commission to maybe talk with Purchasing and push that along a little bit. I’ve asked a few times, and I would like to see us get back on that, because if for no other reason, the budgeting of it makes it a lot easier and a lot more predictable.

President Tornatta: We’ve saved thousands of dollars.

Eric Williams: I’ve never been able to say we’ll come at or under budget in our fuel line item without going back and asking for, and I think we’re going to be there this year.

President Tornatta: That’s great. That’s great. Thank you. Alright, I did want to ask something, John or Chris, did we end up, are we trying to get approval from INDOT on that Highway 57 median?

John Stoll: Pat Seib told me that he had talked to you about that. It’s been several weeks ago, but I was trading some e-mails with INDOT, and it sounds like that median could be removed on, I believe it’s Foundation Drive, at 57, but part of it does lie within the INDOT right-of-way. So, I think we’re going to need, I shouldn’t say I think, we will need an INDOT permit to work within their right-of-way to remove that. Based on the e-mails that I had, there would be no requirement to add a left turn lane out on 57 if we take the median out. So, that saves a substantial cost, but I haven’t had a chance to get all of the details worked out. According to what Pat found out yesterday, it looked like about the eastern most 25 feet or so lies within the INDOT right-of-way. So, that will trigger the need for a permit. Then it will just be a matter of to what extent any kind of plan is required for them to issue the permit, and then whether or not Chris’ crews can go ahead and remove it. It should be a fairly simple plan to put together–

President Tornatta: Okay.

John Stoll: –if it’s needed, because it should be just remove the existing island.

President Tornatta: Well, if we get that done this year, that would be great.

John Stoll: I’ll check on it and I’ll let you know, but I had checked on it whenever I got a call from, I guess it was someone from the Industrial Foundation several months ago, and it does sound like the main issue that I was concerned about was building additional turn lanes on 57. That would have been an astronomical cost, and it looks like we won’t have to do that. So, that was the biggest positive. But, I’ll check into it further and let you know.

President Tornatta: Okay. Thank you.

President Tornatta: In act of time, if we could, approve the consent agenda items, we’ll put them on the internet and submit it to the record, save 15 minutes here if we could.

Commissioner Winnecke: That’s fine. So moved.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay, I’ll second the motion to accept the consent agenda, but I would like to make a statement.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Under the Veterans Council letter regarding security at the Coliseum, the letter is before you, as Commander of the Veterans Council I’ve been trying not to vote on anything financial for the veterans. On this one I will go ahead and vote on it. I didn’t sign the letter, the Senior Vice signed the letter. We just had some little bit of trouble over there with things kind of coming up broken and different times in the evening and different times. So, we appointed one of the board members which knows that building inside and out to head that up. So, you might see his car over there sometime, you might not. Sometimes he’s there, sometimes you don’t know he’s there. He does a lot of repairs that saves us money and saves the county money. So, that’s what that letter is all about. So, I will be voting on it even though it is a veterans issue.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Because there isn’t any financial obligation in that.

President Tornatta: Okay, everything else is as is. We have a motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Alright, starting rezoning. We have the first reading of VC-8-2009, petitioner, Randy Sheffer, address, 11900 Old State Road, request change from Ag to C-4. Anybody to speak to this? Being a first reading with no petitioner, no remonstrator.

Commissioner Winnecke: I’ll move approval on first reading.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second it and send it to Area Plan.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second to send to Area Plan. Roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Tornatta: Motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:21 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Approval of the July 21, 2009 Commission Meeting Minutes.

Approval of the July 31, 2009 Special Commission Meeting Minutes.

County Council Appropriations Request: Unemployment & Travel/Mileage.

AMR: 1^st Quarter Report of Income and Expenses to Vanderburgh County.

Veterans Council Letter Regarding Security at Coliseum.

Evansville ARC June 2009 Report of Activities & Meeting Minutes.

Citizen Letters in Support of Building Additional Chalets at Burdette (4).

Employment Changes:

DADS (1)                                  County Clerk (1)                       VCCC (2)

Sheriff (5)                                  Circuit Court (2)                        Prosecutor (2)

Superior Court (2)                     Recorder (1)

Travel Requests:

County Assessor (3)                 Health Department (8)              Commissioners (1)

County Engineer: Pay Request No. 84: Green River-Burkhardt TIF Projects.

County Clerk: June 2009 Monthly Report.

Surplus Request Letters:

County Assessor: One HP Desk Jet 6122 Printer.

Burdette Park: Batting Cage Equipment to Non-Profit Youth Baseball Clubs.

Auditor: July 2009 A/P Vouchers.

Treasurer: June 2009 Monthly Report.

Department Head Reports:

County Engineer                       County Highway                       Ozone Officer

Those in Attendance:

Troy Tornatta                            Stephen Melcher                      Lloyd Winnecke

Bill Fluty                                    David Miller                               Madelyn Grayson

Jo Beth Boots                           Jordan Whitledge                     Jim Harris

Warren Mathies                        Jeff Phillips                               Tim Gravenstreeter

Annie Groves                            Ray Nicholson                          Gary Heck

Eric Williams                             John Stoll                                  Others Unidentified

Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Troy Tornatta, President

Stephen Melcher, Vice President

Lloyd Winnecke, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)

Stephen Melcher, Vice President

Lloyd Winnecke, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)