VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

JANUARY 27, 2009

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 27^th day of January, 2009 at 5:02 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Troy Tornatta presiding.

President Tornatta: Good snowy afternoon. This is the Board meeting of Commissioners, January 27, 2009, just a hair after five in room 301. 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: We’re going to have Sherman Greer from the Emergency Management Association lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Tornatta: I said administration, how about agency.

Sherman Greer: Okay.

President Tornatta: Okay, well, whatever. Somebody had to mess up. Sherman, why don’t you come up here, and, you know, one of the things that we have to do, on this side, is listen to guys like you who have had a lot of experience in emergency management, or management of how we handle disasters. Maybe haven’t had quite a disaster so far, but there is potential, and we have to monitor those types of things. Sherman, if you could go over, in this event, how you rate the event, and how you handle the event, and then who you get in contact with to kind of maintain and handle events such as what we’re going through right now.

Sherman Greer: Okay, there again, we have the Emergency Management Agency will make a recommendation to the Mayor and the County Commissioners on whether an issue that we may have for a travel advisory. We look at multiple agencies and organizations to get in touch with. First of all, more or less when we are on our way in that morning to work and everything, we kind of judge things by ourselves on which way, you know, when we’re driving in, what the conditions are. Based on those observations and everything, we’ll get in touch with the County Highway Department, the City Garage and the snow plow statuses and the effectiveness that they’re having on clearing the roads and everything at that time. We also will get in touch with and listen to on our radios, in our vehicles we have radios that we listen to and see how busy the Central Dispatch is at that time. And, today, to tell you the truth, there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic about people sliding off, or people being in accidents or anything of that sort, which really surprised us because of the conditions that were out there this morning, and that we woke up to today. We find out how busy the Evansville Police Department is, we also get in contact with the Sheriff’s Department to find out exactly how many runs that they may have and things of that sort. The National Weather Service forecasts, we’ll get in touch with Paducah to find out what’s coming our way, and then a lot of times Paducah itself will call a conference call with all the counties within the tri-state area to let us know exactly what we can expect and when we can expect that. We also listen to our local weather forecasters. We’ve got, we’re very fortunate in this area to have three stations that give us a lot of good information. They can tell you almost exactly what time of day, and within minutes of what time, what the wind speed is going to be and when the rain is going to start falling, or the snow is going to start falling within our area. So, we listen to them and find out from them what’s going on. With other experts, we might try to find out, you know, the amount of snow fall and everything else that we’re going to get. Surrounding area conditions, right now there’s a lot of ice and everything in Central Kentucky. In Central Kentucky right now there’s about 7,000 to 7,500 people without electricity. They’ve been getting more ice and the temperatures been a lot lower in that area than it has within this area here. We’re getting rain and we’re not getting ice pellets like they were getting earlier today. Madisonville, a lot of it is without power. So, we can’t really make a decision on what’s happening south of us, or east of us, or west of us at that time and everything. So, we have to look at our conditions here and measure them. Communications with all of our stakeholders. Our stakeholders are the Sheriff’s Department, the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Fire Chiefs, the American Red Cross. I’ve gotten in touch with the American Red Cross, they’re ready to shelter people that may have power, if we have power outages later on, or early in the morning. That’s a place that they’ll be able to go to, and they’ll have to get in touch with the Red Cross at the, to find out when the shelter is open. We usually coordinate each other, with each other on when we’re going to open the shelters. The Red Cross has also gotten in contact with the armory and gotten in contact with the National Guard, so they’ll be able to be ready to assist us, if we need that. But, there again, as you know, if we do request the National Guard, that has to go through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, and the Governor has to give his okay on that. So, that could be a long process, or a short process depending upon if we’re into a State of Emergency, or something of that sort. We’re not there as of yet. Past experiences from other storms and different things like that that we’ve had, you know, over the last 19 almost 20 years and everything, we’ve been through this before, but still yet it’s one of those things you’ve got to call it as you see it at that time. That’s what we’re looking at. Also, I gave you a chart that has the winter weather advisories, what we can expect to do, what level we’ll want to go to. Right now I feel like that we’re probably just in the level three, the watch to see exactly what’s happening, what’s being forecasted here. As Mr. Duckworth that is here from the Highway Department and Mr. Ziemer, we’ll be in contact with them through the night to find out exactly what they’re doing, and if they’re not being able to make any headway, then we’ll probably be giving one of you gentlemen a call in the middle of the night to say, we might recommend this level to go up to a level two, or whatever.

President Tornatta: When you say, level three, just for those who don’t have this in front of them, that’s a routine travel activities may be restricted in areas because of hazardous situations. Citizens should use caution or avoid these areas. Schools and businesses may begin to implement their emergency action plans.

Sherman Greer: And, the schools have already done that. If you look on the, watch television and everything and see how many schools have closed within the tri-state area. I know Evansville schools are going to be closed tomorrow.

President Tornatta: Which would be the 28^th.

Sherman Greer: Yes.

President Tornatta: For those watching at a later date.

Sherman Greer: Okay, so, there again, that’s where we are right now.

President Tornatta: Level one would be a State of Emergency?

Sherman Greer: Level one would be a State of Emergency.

President Tornatta: Can you go over, I know at times we’ve had the State of Emergency, and people feel like it’s, maybe they don’t know how to react to, do I get out? Can I get out? Will I be ticketed?

Sherman Greer: Well, State of Emergency is that we’re restricting any type of traffic, except for emergency traffic, emergency personnel. A lot of people when we have a State of Emergency, we’ve had the State of Emergency in the past when we had the snow storm a few years back with the 24 inches of snow, a lot of people didn’t go to work. Their reason for not going to work was because we were under a State of Emergency. That would fall more or less under the warning to where, and even in the warning it says that you can go to and from to work.

President Tornatta: And that’s level two?

Sherman Greer: That’s the level two type of situation. So, State of Emergency is something that travel may be restricted to emergency personnel only, further restrictions may be included into that declaration by the County Commissioners and the Mayor. So, they can include some other, if they don’t want, if they want to restrict people from getting out for different things, they could put that in there. But, there again, we don’t want to restrict people from really going to work.

President Tornatta: Right, and essentially level two is just tightening the belt, but you can go to and from work.

Sherman Greer: Sure.

President Tornatta: And only, you know, emergency action plans are normally in place with a lot of different businesses and the school corporations.

Sherman Greer: Exactly, whatever your employer has and the school corporation has as their emergency procedures, that’s what you have to follow. We’re not taking that away from them, we’re not overriding them on those types of situations and everything, in those type of situations. So, whatever their emergency plan is for their facilities, the places that their employers, the places that they work at, that’s what they have to abide by.

President Tornatta: Well, I know, that, Sherman, you’re very conservative on how you watch and protect the people around this area, and I’m sure if it’s something that will be definitely impending and in need of caution for our citizens, you will give me that call, at probably 2:00 in the morning.

Sherman Greer: Well, that means that I’ll be up at 2:00 in the morning too. Yes, we will. We’ll be watching it throughout the night. I’ve got some people, volunteers and everything that will be able to help us man our Emergency Operations Center. In these type of situations the only thing that really happens for us is that we get a lot of calls in where people don’t know who to call, how to get in touch with the Red Cross, how to get in touch with someone that they might, they might need a generator or something like that. We’re very limited on our generators that we have. We have smaller generators, we have some larger generators that we could use. The other element that is going to happen tonight or early tomorrow morning also is if these, we’ve got the freezing rain and the, if you look at all the trees out there now, they’re glistening from the rain that’s freezing on them, there’s a good possibility of downed tree limbs that could knock out electricity, and there’s also the weight of the ice that would be on the power lines also that may cause them to come down also. So, there is that possibility. So, right now, people that are listening out there, right now is the time to prepare. See what you have around your house, if you don’t have any alternate type of electricity, and if you do have a generator, generators are only to be run outside. Don’t put one in your garage and start the thing up and go to sleep at night, because that’s not a good thing. So, if you’ve got to do that, you’ve got to have those generators outside to be able to operate. If not, if you’re burning candles and different things of that sort, you have to be very careful in that area too, because of the possibility of fire. So, prepare yourself and your family. If it’s that bad, if it turns out that bad you may be in all day tomorrow also.

President Tornatta: To reiterate, you and your staff are on the clock, and you’re definitely watching what’s going on. So, for those who might think that the county or city could be asleep at the wheel, we do have people that are out there watching.

Sherman Greer: 24-7.

President Tornatta: Commissioners, any questions of Sherman? Sherman, thanks for giving us the tour of what you do, when you do it in these types of events.

Sherman Greer: You’ll probably be getting some e-mails out tonight also. As the forecast changes and everything, I’ll have Adam to send out the forecasts to you from the National Weather Service.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: Alright?

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Sherman Greer: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Mike, if you could pop up here.

Mike Duckworth: Good evening, Mike Duckworth, Superintendent of the County Highway Department.

President Tornatta: Mike, just tell us how the highways look, how the county looks, the county roads, and kind of what you do when these situations come about.

Mike Duckworth: Well, starting at 11:00 last night when we started getting the freezing rain, we usually react to dispatch, of course, dispatch is in communication with the Sheriff’s Department that’s driving the roads. We also have County Highway supervisors that are driving the roads and checking conditions. So, we got our crews out about 11:00 last night. The problem with this system and this event, different than others, is the fact that I would say about 1:30-2:00 we had the roads pretty well cleared, and here we had another phase of the storm come through. So, we had to go back and kind of redo the priority routes again. So, it’s a constant battle with freezing and re-freezing, coverage and re-coverage of those priority roads. So, we have our, and I provided the Commissioners with a list of our priority routes, our secondary routes, and that’s how we work back from those priority snow routes, because they give access to our emergency vehicles. All of our volunteer fire departments are on those routes, and that enables them to keep, you know, get out of their houses and get to, hopefully, where they’re needed. In the event that it’s back in a subdivision, or on a road that we haven’t been able to get to yet, we have provided escorts before, so that we can get them back to a critical situation. But, on the most part we have 12 trucks that have 12 different districts. We did pre-treat all day Monday, which I believe helps. In conditions like this, many times when you get layer after layer, it doesn’t keep it from stacking up on you, but it does loosen it up to where it’s easier to plow. We found that, I’ve driven both sides of the community later on this afternoon, and we had pretty clear roadways on our priority routes, and our guys were just starting the secondary routes, then here this next wave comes through with the freezing ice and freezing rain, so we have to go back over the priority routes. We’ll be basically fighting that fight most of the evening. We do take breaks for our guys to give them the necessary safety factors, so that they’re not dosing off at the wheel. We do have two man trucks that are driving so that they can switch off. Of course, in this kind of weather we do have some equipment break downs from time to time. Last night at 2:00 in the morning we had a water pump go down. So, we have those kinds of things, we try to keep things in stock so we don’t have to wait till the next day to get things repaired. We do have one extra truck to fill in on routes that are down because of equipment repair. So, on the most part we feel like we’re doing the kind of job, the best that we can do at this point fighting the elements.

President Tornatta: Mike, your priority routes, do you have a list of those routes?

Mike Duckworth: Yes, I’ve sent them by e-mail to each of you.

President Tornatta: Okay, if that’s okay if we get those on the website?

Marissa Nichoalds: They’re on their now on the County Highway’s website.

President Tornatta: Okay, they’re on the County Highway’s website?

Mike Duckworth: Yes, they are.

President Tornatta: Okay, good, good. So, if anyone wants to know about those priority roads, then they would be on the County Highway.

Mike Duckworth: That’s right.

President Tornatta: Then, I had somebody ask me about some of the subdivisions. I know that that’s more of a secondary or tertiary tier to what you do, because you have 600–

Mike Duckworth: 560 miles.

President Tornatta: 560 miles to take care of. How do you rank subdivisions, and how do you handle subdivisions as you’re doing events like this?

Mike Duckworth: Well, we utilize smaller vehicles in our subdivisions, because we have people that park on the street. It’s pretty tough to get a full size tandem truck back into those subdivisions. So, we have smaller units that are assigned strictly to subdivisions. As you know, there’s quite a few subdivisions in the county. So, we try to prioritize those by population. The bigger ones that we feel like we’re servicing more citizens by getting them out there. So, as our 12 routes are being worked, our smaller trucks are either pre-treating or are scraping in those areas. To work back through them takes some time. So, there’s a method to the madness, so to speak, so that we can at least get the main arteries in those subdivisions cleared, and then, hopefully, people can make it to those and then make it to the secondaries and then make it to the priorities.

President Tornatta: I did have a request to look at Cambridge. I think that now they are an accepted road, and I bet you got a phone call or two.

Mike Duckworth: We’ve had several phone calls, and not to be, you know, disrespectful, but that is a, it’s a subdivision and we have to keep our priorities on our priority roads and our secondary roads, because of emergency vehicles. We will get back to Cambridge and these other subdivisions as, you know, if we don’t have to keep going back and doing the priorities because of the incoming next phase of weather.

President Tornatta: Right.

Mike Duckworth: So, we will get to that.

President Tornatta: Okay. Any questions now from the Commissioners? Thank you.

Mike Duckworth: Okay.

President Tornatta: Tell the guys back there and ladies thanks for doing what they do.

Mike Duckworth: Well, they do a good job, and they work hard at it and they take a lot of pride in it. The success that we have out there is because of them. So, thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright, thanks, Mike.

President Tornatta: Permission to open VC-52-2009, trending services for the County Assessor. I need a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: I make the motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: Discussion from the audience? 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)

David Miller: Mr. President, I have the sealed bids here that have been delivered to me, and I’ll open them if you request.

President Tornatta: Yes, absolutely.

President Tornatta: Yeah, we’re going to go on. Action items, Dennis Feldhaus, ONB Insurance property and casualty renewal policy and proposal. Dennis?

Dennis Feldhaus: Good evening, Commissioners. As your insurance agent, I couldn’t be more pleased to listen to Sherman and Mike and their presentation, putting the county in doing what is prudent to hopefully avoid items ending up on my desk. I thank them for all their efforts and all their employees. I don’t want you to panic when looking at what I just handed out to you. Basically, what you’re looking at is the county’s insurance program in a format that basically does an overview of all the policies that ultimately end up in the Auditor’s office. I think it’s important that you have this copy. It’s a very good reference material for you. I’m not going to go through this page by page, but I do want you to know that it is an overview of our service team that is here to assist and respond to any issues. It is an overview of all property locations and limits of insurance that we have on those locations. An overview of crime coverage, liability coverage, our machinery and equipment list that we have insured. It’s a list of all auto coverages and all automobiles owned by the county, currently insured and scheduled, and last but not least, one of the most important items is the work comp policy and the limits of insurance. So, that kind of takes us to the very back page. Inside that cover you will have a document that shows Vanderburgh County’s property casualty insurance program by product line, by expiring premiums for 2008-2009,and a highlighted item column which is the renewal pricing for 2009-2010 for those same coverages. Unless you have specific questions with respect to the variances and pricing for any one line item, I would just run to the bottom under the totals. My proposal this evening in the yellow is $1,131,614.55. That’s compared to last year’s $1,101,226.86. That’s an increased variance of $32,988.90, or a three percent increase on the total property and casualty liability premiums. Having looked at just the numbers, if there’s any specific questions regarding any line item, I would entertain those now, but I would like to just make a few overall remarks of the entire program, and the insurance marketplace in general. The premium increase is driven by the roughly $22,000 in the all lines aggregate portion of the policy. The all lines aggregate is a program that’s been in place for Vanderburgh County since 1986. It has performed remarkably well and very profitable to the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County and continues to do so. The pricing increase within that line item, and ultimately that runs to the bottom is primarily because of reserves and losses in our workers compensation product line. We’ve had, in the past 12 months we’ve had an increase of about $325,000 of paid losses in our workers compensation, and we continue to work at trying to minimize those, but, again, workers comp is state statute and most of the first dollar of expenses for medical payments and loss of indemnity is required by law. So, we pay what we’re basically required to pay. We try to prevent work comp losses, we try to get our employees back to work as quickly as possible, but with the number of employees that we have, 791 full time employees, we will have some losses in that area. As we move below the total column, I would like to present to the Commissioners, and it’s not in that dollar figure, but it would be an additional $23,000. It would be an item that would increase our earthquake limit of protection for Vanderburgh County property. We roughly have $197 million worth of real property that we have insured on this program. We have a sub-limit, for earthquake, of $66 million. So, you can see we have a gap between what we have for earthquake coverage and what our total exposure is on replacement cost value for all county property. You might ask, well why don’t we insure it completely? You can see that is expensive. We are in a very, we’re in the New Madrid zone fault, and it is an expensive coverage for, when you’re looking at buildings that are constructed and of the size and of the dollar values in any one building as Vanderburgh County has. So, my proposal, at least for consideration, for the Commissioners is to increase the $66 million to $76 million, but that is an additional increase of $23,000 of premium, on top of the $1,131,000. Again, a recommendation. We’ve not had that limit before, but if we can afford to purchase that coverage, I think it’s money well worth spent, I should say. If we did purchase that, then you’re down to the total including excess earthquake line item of $1,154,614.55. Any questions on the premiums and the dollars at this point?

President Tornatta: Dennis, we have, obviously, consolidated our Assessor’s offices.

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes.

President Tornatta: And that’s talked about personal property in those offices.

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes, yes.

President Tornatta: And, do we know if that personal property has been consolidated, and now it’s gone? Or, is that an in between?

Dennis Feldhaus: You’re very astute. You’ve looked at my property locations and you see some of those old assessor locations and business contents at those locations that are on that proposal. I’ve spoken with, by e-mail, with Jonathan today, we have rolled in those business contents coverages at those locations that were rolled into the County Assessor’s office, effective immediately today.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: So, that proposal will be corrected.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: There are two of those locations that will remain, because we kept trustee offices at two of those locations.

President Tornatta: Okay, but would those have rolled in today, or at the time when they rolled in to Vanderburgh County?

Dennis Feldhaus: The business contents coverage is on a blanket basis and would have been covered regardless of the location on the policy.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: But, we just want to be correct on the locations.

President Tornatta: Okay. Then, we had looked at ASC and then JWF as far as our third party.

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes.

President Tornatta: I assume, can you go through that?

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes, it would be the fourth line item down, claims administration, TPA. You’ll notice that my recommendation is outside the column. The $65,581.30 figure is the renewal quote from ASC out of Louisville. They are currently the Vanderburgh County third party administrator for claims. They have been Vanderburgh County’s third party administration for claims for a number of years. I’m recommending for the Commissioners to consider moving that contract from ASC to JWF. JWF is out of Indianapolis, Indiana. They have been in the business since 1988, and I hope you got Ted Ziemer’s e-mail today. He has approved the contract, and we have accepted what he has sent us. Or, I should say JWF has accepted the contract changes, and, so, Ted is agreeable to the move, if it’s agreeable with the Commissioners.

President Tornatta: Could you go over the auditing process, and maybe one of the reasons why you would recommend JWF?

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes. Two reasons why I recommend JWF. The current contract with ASC treats each claim differently and there’s a fee by type of claim in a 12 month period, and the contract is laid out based on an estimate, similar to work comp. You give us your payroll as an estimate. At the end of the 12 month period, ASC will come in and look at what they estimated that the county would have as claims, do an audit, and then come in and adjust the premium that they charged you for their service contract based on the audit. So, if we had more claims than what they estimated, they were going to send you an additional billing. That billing in 19, excuse me in 2008, for the 12 month period of 2007 was $10,600 for open claims, and $5,600 for the variance between what they thought they were going to service and what they actually did in claims handling. In layman’s language, they sent us a $16,000 bill after the contract was paid. Contractually they had a right to do that. What JWF’s contract does is it takes away the audit. We have a guaranteed $63,250, there will be no audit after the next 12 months for any open claims.

President Tornatta: Then, what about the, what I read was ASC every year charges a renewal fee on claims that are outstanding.

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes.

President Tornatta: And, could you tell us the difference between that and what JWF’s doing?

Dennis Feldhaus: JWF, again, will not run an audit, and they will not charge you after a 12 month period above the $63,250. That’s a lock on what the Commissioners–

President Tornatta: From cradle to grave?

Dennis Feldhaus: – and the county pays. Yes, for a 12 month period, 2/1/09 to 2/1/2010.

President Tornatta: But, now, let me get this straight, from what I read, if something started in 2008, they still have the contract and it’s 2014, we’re not getting charged any extra premium on that account?

Dennis Feldhaus: We have two choices we can make. We can allow, we have 48 open claims as I stand here in front of you this evening under the ASC contract. If we continue to allow ASC to negotiate settlement of those claims, even after moving to JWF, they have the right, contractually, to continue to charge you for those claims to settle. That amount again was $10,400 for those claims. Each and every year for the past four years. That will vary a little bit, but it hasn’t varied for the past four years. JWF has offered a one time fee of $15,000 in the contract this evening, to resolve all 48 open claims, regardless of how long it takes, or when it gets done. $15,000 to resolve all open claims under the old ASC contract, which in essence, if you do the math, over the past four years you’ve been paying four times $10,400. So, you’ve been paying much more to resolve those open claims. So, two things, the JWF locks in a guaranteed figure going forward without any additional audit, and it provides a means to settle open claims at a less price than what you’ve been paying.

President Tornatta: And what they’ve been talking about is to do it over a three year period–

Dennis Feldhaus: A three year period.

President Tornatta: –so we would be paying $5,000 a year.

Dennis Feldhaus: $5,000 over three years, and that would come with your $63,250, which is a three year contract by the way. That is another item that I failed to mention. It’s a three year contract that locks in the $63,250 for three years. If you look at ASC, last year to this year, they had about a $7,000 increase. Did I answer your question, Mr. President?

President Tornatta: Yes.

Dennis Feldhaus: Good.

President Tornatta: Questions of the Board?

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I had a couple of questions. Dennis, first on, how long has the county been at the level of coverage it has on quake, for earthquake damage? Do you know?

Dennis Feldhaus: I can only speak to when I personally last handled the county in 2005, and, quite honestly, that level was $10,000 less than your current level. So, to answer your question, it has been less than the current level–

President Tornatta: Ten million or ten thousand?

Dennis Feldhaus: Ten million, I’m sorry.

President Tornatta: Okay, alright.

Dennis Feldhaus: Thank you for that correction. Ten million.

Commissioner Winnecke: And, my second question, oh, if my math is correct, the change to JWF will represent a savings to the county of roughly $14,000 or $15,000 a year, is that correct?

Dennis Feldhaus: Right.

President Tornatta: And, I think that’s after we realize the–

Commissioner Winnecke: Right, it’s net.

President Tornatta: –well, I mean, after we get those 48 taken care of. They, to my understanding, from when they start today, or whenever they would get approved, if they would get approved, from that period forward, if they have any dangling claims, they’re cradle to grave paid. So, we would not owe.

Dennis Feldhaus: I need to be clear that if we move to JWF on 2/1, that ASC will come in for the past 12 months and do the audit on the contract that’s expiring. So, there will be that one time adjustment from them as well. The adjustment would not be for the open claims, it will only be for the variance in what they expected to handle in 12 months versus what they did handle. This past year that figure was $5,600. So, I expect ASC to have some type of audit on the variance on the 12 month period, but not the carry over of open claims.

President Tornatta: And, I think that, just real quickly, we would, hopefully see a savings from there on out.

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes, yes.

President Tornatta: Without an increase?

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes.

Commissioner Melcher: They’re going to be doing that anyway, right?

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes.

Commissioner Melcher: So, even if we stayed with them they are going to come in and do it?

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes.

President Tornatta: Right.

Commissioner Melcher: Alright, so I just wanted to make that clear.

Commissioner Winnecke: One other question, if you don’t mind?

Dennis Feldhaus: Sure.

Commissioner Winnecke: Could we circle back to the quake coverage again? So, the gap is roughly $133 million, is that right?

Dennis Feldhaus: Right.

Commissioner Winnecke: Between–

Dennis Feldhaus: We have one, we have 171 in real property, and then the difference between 171 and our total is fleet vehicle, the value of all the vehicles and some mobile equipment that makes that difference. But, to answer your question, the gap between the earthquake limit that we currently carry, which is 66 million, and the 197 million is the gap.

Commissioner Winnecke: In the event of a catastrophic earthquake, we really have a big issue here.

Dennis Feldhaus: You have a big exposure. That’s not an exposure that’s not unlike what the City of Evansville and EVSC have. Your largest valued buildings are all located close and all in the same area. We struggle with those two entities as well, trying to get full limits.

Commissioner Winnecke: What’s the formula, or if it can be described easily, for increasing coverage in that area?

Dennis Feldhaus: The formula is to put it out to bid. We broker through AMS out of Nashville. The ten million that is on the table this evening is actually a ten million excess of 66 million. There are four different companies on the 66 million. That’s how much they don’t want to insure it all. So, we have four different carriers within the mix that each have a piece, if you will, kind of like a syndicate, a percentage of that exposure shared among four carriers. One of those four carriers just came back in for the fifth layer, for the extra ten million.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, thank you.

President Tornatta: Just to kind of circle back to the 15,000, as I’m to understand, most of that cost is just data conversion from one system to another. They’re pulling a lot of information from ASC–

Dennis Feldhaus: Yes, yes.

President Tornatta: –and in the process of doing that, getting the information and then converting it to records, getting abreast of what’s going on, and then taking care of the claim.

Dennis Feldhaus: The good news is, is that one of the reasons JWF could keep that at a minimum of $5,000 a year, for $15,000, is AMS, which is the broker that’s brokering all the business, not the claims, but the policies, they have agreed to accept the excess reporting from ASC and JWF until all those claims are closed.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: So, that helps us. Auditor Fluty, do you have a chime in on the extra ten million?

Bill Fluty: Well, I can’t right now. I know what you have budgeted in your account, which is, I think, $928,000, but we do charge back on other offices to make that thing. I can’t, I really can’t give you an answer if there is dollars available for that extra $23,000, but, then, I guess, if you’re inclined to go that route, you could do it subject to funding, as I think we’ve done in the past. But, it may be available there.

President Tornatta: When does this have to be in place?

Dennis Feldhaus: I have to call–

President Tornatta: February 1^st?

Dennis Feldhaus: –Friday, January the 30^th, because February the 1^st is on a Sunday. The coverage expires at 12/01 a.m. Saturday night.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: This, the decision on the ten million can be deferred, and we can endorse that at any time after you do an analysis of whether or not it can be afforded.

President Tornatta: Okay, that’s the answer I was looking for.

Dennis Feldhaus: Yeah, the 66 million will be there.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: The other ten million can be acted on at a later date.

President Tornatta: Okay, and–

Dennis Feldhaus: And, primarily I put it out there to let you know that it is a huge gap. Obviously, as a taxpayer, I don’t want to pay anymore taxes, but, at the same time, you know, we have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the taxpayer properly. I think there’s an exposure there that we need to address.

President Tornatta: But, as you say, this is not uncommon to the EVSC or Evansville. It’s not uncommon to any municipality, as I have found out just asking those questions.

Dennis Feldhaus: One of those entities, and I will not go on record as saying which one, but one of them went bare for many, many years, with zero earthquake coverage.

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Bill Fluty: Just one comment, historically we’ve not known what the coverage would be in February, and we usually had a cushion in there to accommodate changes in the coverage or just an increase that we didn’t quite foresee.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Bill Fluty: But, I can give you a number early tomorrow morning.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Commissioner Melcher: Well, I kind of agree, we don’t have to pass that part tonight. We can do that at our next meeting, as an add on.

President Tornatta: Right.

Commissioner Melcher: We know what it is now, we know we’ve got the money in place. So, I would feel comfortable with that.

President Tornatta: Okay, do we need to vote on a TPA at this time? Or, should we put the TPA in the motion?

David Miller: I think, if you’re inclined to accept his recommendation on the TPA, you just include them both in the motion.

President Tornatta: Okay.

David Miller: And include the approval of the TPA contract that was circulated earlier today.

President Tornatta: With that motion, if someone would just hit the total.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I would move that we accept the proposal from Old National Insurance to renew the Vanderburgh County property casualty insurance program, as well as its recommendation to include JWF as the TPA in the amount of $1,131,614.55.

Commissioner Melcher: And, I’ll second.

President Tornatta: Anymore questions from the Board, or from the audience? 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)

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President?

President Tornatta: Yes?

Commissioner Winnecke: Before we move on?

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Commissioner Winnecke: It might be a good idea, I mean, given this large a gap, I would be kind of curious to see if they could come back with recommendations or options on how, on the cost of closing that gap. We don’t necessarily have to act on any of it, but we could, based on funding.

President Tornatta: Dennis, can you kind of explain what the issue has been with that gap? On finding participants to satisfy the gap? And, if you can’t, you can get back to us.

Dennis Feldhaus: We’ll probably go to the same markets that are already looking at it that are insuring the county for 66 million. The upside is, as we move up and close that gap, the cost per million gets less, because of the quantity discount. Your biggest portion of your premium is in your first 50 million, which is what you’ve got. So, I would hope that this quote this evening was, I think, $500 a million. So, when you get into that number, hopefully, that can get to $400, or $350 as we get above the $100 million limit, as we drive to that level. It’s a cost-benefit analysis. At some point, as your advisor, you know, I have a concern at the same time we have a self insurance loss fund over there at 428.1 and point two that got hammered pretty good the last couple of years. More came out than what was budgeted to go in. So, I’m kind of keeping my eye on that. So, if I’ve got “x” number of dollars, and you’re asking me where best to put them, earthquake or loss fund, we need to pay our losses first. Those are for sure. That’s a given. Okay?

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dennis Feldhaus: I don’t know if I answered that question.

President Tornatta: Well, that’s okay. Just, if you get a cost analysis, or you guys work some numbers and can answer Commissioner Winnecke’s question, maybe we can address that at the same time.

Dennis Feldhaus: Will do.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

Dennis Feldhaus: I’ll come back.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Dennis Feldhaus: And, I have a bunch of documents that’s going to require a bunch of signatures. I’ll leave those with Mr. Fluty.

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ve got one question.

Dennis Feldhaus: Sure.

Commissioner Melcher: It’s not a biggie. About the Coliseum. I would like to get with you about the Coliseum.

Dennis Feldhaus: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: The coverage and how it’s covered and that. Because I sit on the Veterans Council, and I need to understand that better.

Dennis Feldhaus: Would you like for me to do that with you one on one?

Commissioner Melcher: Probably with me, and maybe somebody from the Council.

Dennis Feldhaus: Okay, if you’ll arrange that, I’ll be there.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay, I will.

Dennis Feldhaus: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright, thanks, Dennis.

Dennis Feldhaus: Thank you.

President Tornatta: The next action item, County Treasurer, Rick Davis, establish Board of Finance for 2009 and review investment report.

Rick Davis: Hello, everyone. My name is Rick Davis. I’m the newly elected Vanderburgh County Treasurer. I’m here today because state law requires the Treasurer to meet with the Vanderburgh County Commissioners in the month of January and establish the Board of Finance. I was sweating the snow storm out, because this is our last opportunity to do that in the month of January. So, I’m glad you had the meeting today. Z. Tuley, the former Treasurer, informed me that historically the county uses this meeting to vote for a President and a Secretary, and historically the Treasurer is the President of the Board of Finance and the Auditor is the Secretary. If you would like to continue with that practice, I would be happy to oblige, but I’ve been told it’s up to you make something of that order in the form of a motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: Repeat the combination one more time. I’m sorry.

Rick Davis: The Treasurer as the President of the Board of Finance, and the Auditor as the Secretary.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move that we nominate the County Treasurer to be the Board President and the County Auditor be the treasurer.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second.

Rick Davis: Secretary.

Commissioner Winnecke: I amend it to be Secretary, I’m sorry.

President Tornatta: Okay. Alright, a motion and a second. Any questions of the Board or the audience, as we’re waiting for Madelyn. Madelyn, 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)

Rick Davis: Okay, thank you. Secondly, this is the good news. I’m also here to inform you how well the Treasurer’s office invested funds on behalf of the Vanderburgh County taxpayers in 2008. The Treasurer earned $3,794,029.53 on behalf of the Vanderburgh County taxpayers. I think that is excellent considering the tough economic times and climate that we’ve been dealing with over the last year. The average interest rate on all of her investments was 2.72891. So, if you see Z. Tuley, you might want to thank her for the three million dollars on behalf of the county. This year is going to be very challenging for our office with investments. As you know, the Fed has cut interest rates, I believe, ten times in the last year and a half, in an effort to encourage Americans to borrow money to help stimulate the economy. While the interest rate is wonderful for anyone wanting to purchase a big ticket item, like a car or a home, it’s discouraging for people, or even government entities like ourselves, who are investing in safe investments such as Certificates of Deposit, which is the bulk of the county’s investments. I assure you that our office will do our best to maximize our investments, to the best of our ability, because I do believe that every dollar that we earn on interest is a dollar you will not have to tax the taxpayer. I do want you to understand, however, that interest rates for guaranteed investments are going to be extremely low this year. We hope for an uptick in the middle of the year, or the second half of the year. I’ve given you the investment sheet. All of the investments that former Treasurer, Z. Tuley, made in 2008, as well as the investments that I’ve already made in the month of January of this year, minus two that were done today. That report was drawn up yesterday.

President Tornatta: Alright, any other questions? Anything else, Rick?

Rick Davis: No, I just wish everyone a safe trip home.

President Tornatta: Alright. Congratulations on you taking over the office, and good luck with your investments.

Rick Davis: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

President Tornatta: Thank you. I’m sure this won’t be the only time we’re going to see you this year.

President Tornatta: County Auditor, permission to advertise 2008 statement of receipts and expenditures. It’s an annual ad required by law, submitted by the County Auditor.

Madelyn Grayson: We just ask for permission to advertise it on February 6^th.

President Tornatta: That’s it? Okay, I need a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: So moved.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second, any questions from the Board or the audience? 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. John Stoll from the Engineer’s office? I think you missed your first meeting last week, did you not?

John Stoll: It was two in a row. That never has happened. That shows the economy is not doing anything.

President Tornatta: Good point.

John Stoll: I just have one item this evening. It’s a notice of intent letter that has to be filed with IDEM for the erosion control plans for University Parkway. It just needs the Commissioners approval, and then Bernardin Lochmueller will forward that with the plans to IDEM.

President Tornatta: I need a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: So moved.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any questions of the Board or the audience? 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)

John Stoll: That’s all I have.

President Tornatta: Happy sledding.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, John.

President Tornatta: Alright. Any other department heads?

President Tornatta: Any new business?

President Tornatta: Old business? I think, just, we’re going to have a presentation, but Joe DeVoy was going to be here to talk about the Old Courthouse clock. He volunteers his time, and he’s been here before, to provide maintenance to the Old Courthouse clock. There’s a mechanism, I guess, that’s not working properly, and he thinks it’s going to be around $1,500, but we’re going to let him be here to kind of address that, hopefully, in one of the up and coming meetings.

President Tornatta: Any public comment? Gary, I hate for you to come here and not talk, you got anything to tell us? Now, we’ve got about seven minutes here.

Gary Heck: I won’t take that long. Gary Heck, Health Department. I know that we’re one of the other folks on the insurance plan that will have money, and we have somewhere between $120,000 and $140,000, I think, in our line item that is potentially available for some of that, Bill, that will cover the difference, if that gives you an idea of where you are. I know the Sheriff’s Department also has some money that they kick in. The Health Department was open for business today, and we had a few walk-ins, not too many folks visited. Just so you would know that people weren’t out doing, conducting government business today, unless they absolutely had to. The prescription drug program is still going strong. The Dental Clinic is still progressing. We have, we’re on the agenda for the County Council to discuss one of the recommendations from the public health consultant who came down from Indianapolis last year to review that project to have the dental hygienist position become part time, where there could be more than one hygienist who could serve in a position, and going to an hourly rate. We anticipate that the County Council will view that favorably, and it will actually help us provide better service to the public. Other than that, we don’t have the mosquito issues right now, which is good. It’s always nice, and we are awaiting delivery of a vehicle that we were allowed to purchase last year. We will be surplussing two 1988 Chevy S-10 pick up trucks, if anybody else in the county needs some. They don’t have air conditioning, but they’re low mileage.

President Tornatta: So, your ‘91 model, what did you get?

Gary Heck: We were able to go under the state quantity purchase agreement and got a 2009 Ranger supercab, six cylinder. We don’t do a lot of off-roading or anything like that. It also gets better gas mileage.

President Tornatta: Now he’s just bragging.

Gary Heck: Yes.

President Tornatta: Thank you, Gary.

Gary Heck: My pleasure.

President Tornatta: Alright.

President Tornatta: We have bids. Mr. Miller?

David Miller: Mr. President, I’ve opened three bids on the commercial/industrial trending contract. One from Tyler Technologies, one from A&S Associates, and one from the Nexus Group. On initial review they appear to be in order for your consideration and the consideration of the Auditor.

President Tornatta: Alright. A motion?

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, at this time I would move that we take those under advisement.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second it.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Questions of the Board or of the audience? 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: If we could, Madelyn, read the consent items, please.

Madelyn Grayson: The consent items for the January 27, 2009 Commission meeting are as follows; the approval of the January 20, 2009 Commission meeting minutes, employment changes for the various offices, travel requests, there’s two for the Health Department, one for the County Engineer, and one for the Commissioners; the Commissioners eminent domain settlements for Barfield and Kerby, Commissioners eminent domain settlement for Purdue, Perry Township 2009 standards, the County Engineer, approve pay request number 70 for the Burkhardt-Green River TIF projects in the amount of $19,953, the County Assessor request to surplus one copier, and department head reports from the County Highway, County Engineer, Burdette Park and the Ozone Officer.

President Tornatta: I need a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll move--

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Discussion? 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: And, I need a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, before we do that–

President Tornatta: Sure.

Commissioner Winnecke: –I would like to introduce our shadow student.

President Tornatta: So mistaken.

Commissioner Winnecke: Chris Casson. Chris, do you want to scoot up here so they can see you at home on the television. This is your chance to be a big star here.

President Tornatta: Where are you from, Chris?

Chris Casson: Central High School.

Commissioner Winnecke: Chris is a sophomore at Central High School, and he serves on the Teen Advisory Council for Youth Resources, and got out here in the inclement weather to watch how local government works.

President Tornatta: Go Bears!

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks for coming out here.

Chris Casson: It’s my pleasure.

President Tornatta: Alright, I need a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: All those in favor say aye.

Commissioner Winnecke: Aye.

Commissioner Melcher: Aye.

President Tornatta: We are adjourned.

(The meeting was adjourned at 5:58 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Approval of the January 20, 2009 Commission Meeting Minutes.

Eminent Domain Settlements: Barfield and Kerby.

Eminent Domain Settlement: Purdue.

Perry Township Trustees: 2009 Poor Relief Standards.

Employment Changes:

County Highway (1)                  County Clerk (1)                       Superior Court (1)

Circuit Court (2)                        County Assessor (1)

Travel Requests:

Health Department (2)              County Engineer (1)                 Commissioners (1)

County Engineer: Pay Request No. 70: Green River-Burkhardt TIF Projects.

County Assessor: Surplus Request: Dialta Copier.

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer

Those in Attendance:

Troy Tornatta                            Stephen Melcher                      Lloyd Winnecke

Bill Fluty                                    David Miller                               Madelyn Grayson

Sherman Greer                         Mike Duckworth                        Dennis Feldhaus

Rick Davis                                Gary Heck                                Chris Casson

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.)