VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

JUNE 13, 2006

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 13^th day of June, 2006 at 3:31 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Cheryl Musgrave presiding.

President Musgrave: I would like to call to order the June 13, 2006 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County. We’ll start with introductions to my right.

Marissa Nichoalds: Marissa Nichoalds, Superintendent of County Buildings.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Ted Ziemer, County Attorney.

Commissioner Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

President Musgrave: Cheryl Musgrave, County Commissioner.

Commissioner Shetler: Tom Shetler, County Commissioner.

Teri Lukeman: Teri Lukeman, filling in for Madelyn Grayson.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, Vanderburgh County Auditor.

President Musgrave: If you will please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the June 6th meeting?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: We will take items a little out of order. Permission to open bids for VC-06-06-02 Concrete Repair of Various Roads, is there a motion?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: And we now welcome to Michael Crawley of Sigecom and you have a suggestion of how to further broadcast the County Commission meetings.

Michael Crawley: Yes Ma’am. My name is Michael Crawley, I’m a public access coordinator for Sigecom. And I’m here before the Commissioners today to ask if we might be able to have a copy of the meeting so that we can run them on our public access channel, for the benefit of the public.

President Musgrave: Do you require a digital format?

Michael Crawley: DVD copy was what we would prefer and normally that’s the simplest way to do it.

President Musgrave: We capture the digital feed because as many viewers know and perhaps some don’t, we simulcast these meetings both on analog WNIN and over the Internet at vanderburghgov.org and we retain a digital copy on our website of the feed to the Internet. WNIN takes a regular copy, I guess, on tapes of the feed that they do and they have a copy charge, as I believe, in their contract. They are allowed to require you to pay for a copy.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Well, actually, they own the copy, the tape, they own that tape. The content belongs to the Commissioners, but they do own that.

President Musgrave: So you could either use our digital copy that’s on the net –

Michael Crawley: I’d be happy to work with the Commission and find a way to capture those so that we could transfer – get a viable feed-in that we would be able to use.

President Musgrave: And so these would be on Sigecom channel, what channel?

Michael Crawley: It’s cable channel 9, public access.

President Musgrave: Cable channel 9.

Michael Crawley: Not to be confused with broadcast channel 9, from Sigecom. Cable channel 9.

President Musgrave: Would you be airing them once a week, multiple times a week?

Michael Crawley: Probably two or three times a week. I expect a couple of afternoons and then put them in a weekend rotation. Our weekend rotation is subject to change due to submissions from the local universities and school corporations as well as, typically, high school athletic events. But put them in a rotation on weekends and probably a couple of nights a week: 10 or maybe 11 o’clock. Stagger them so that people will be able to see them. Or prime time, you know how lively these meetings get.

Commissioner Shetler: Were you requested by a group to do this or is this something that you –

Michael Crawley: I just did this on my own initiative. I thought that it would better serve the public and as the public access coordinator, we’re always looking for better content to put on. And you can’t get any more exciting than a County Commissioners meeting.

President Musgrave: Well, I would like to point out that there are a couple of other government meetings that are on T.V. and you might want to check with the County Council.

Michael Crawley: I understand.

President Musgrave: And don’t forget the Solid Waste Board, which you can not get more exciting than the Solid Waste Board.

Michael Crawley: I’m sure its riveting, but —

Commissioner Nix: Good stuff.

Michael Crawley: I knew Mr. Nix and I thought this would be a good start to sort of get our toe in the water, so to speak, and then work from there.

President Musgrave: Unfortunately, you cannot ask City Council for theirs, for they have not yet decided that television offers the public more access to government business, at least on the city’s side.

Michael Crawley: Well, they may change their mind once they see the celebrity it affords our Commissioners.

President Musgrave: Or they may not.

Michael Crawley: Or they may not.

President Musgrave: Um, I don’t think we need a motion for this, given that it’s a public record and we’ll work with you in any way that you need, especially with regard to the digital copy. So just let us know when you begin to air.

Commissioner Shetler: I do have one question and it is really a question of Ted. Mr. Ziemer, would we need a contract done with them and, I don’t know, perhaps the contract we have in place with Channel 9 already would work as far as them being able to –

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Channel 9's contract is to actually do the televising and to produce the show. All we’re giving them the right to do is to get on our website, which is public, and download the digital feed and rebroadcast it. There’s no fee due us and there’s nothing due them.

Commissioner Shetler: I was thinking there was a clause in the Channel 9 thing where no one could actually use it for any other purposes and stuff like that, and –

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: It’s up to us.

Commissioner Shetler: Right, I understand, and so I didn’t know if once they did it, that after it went through that second generation, if that first contract would hold true. In other words, if somebody just grabbed it off of theirs and could use it for rebroadcasting for a different purpose other than what was intended.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’ll look at that. I’m not sure I understand your question. When they broadcast it, you know, people have taping equipment in their home. If they tape this meeting that they broadcast, they’ve got it, like they pirate any other tape. I’m not sure a contract with them would stop that. I’ll be glad to take a look at it. And why don’t you, since we’re going to do everything digitally, why don’t you send me an email just to remind me about this and I’ll pull that contract out and look at it, and its at tziemer@zsws.com.

Michael Crawley: Okay, that would be fine.

President Musgrave: Thank you so much for your kind offer.

President Musgrave: We move now to the County Engineer, permission to award. We have three different items here. Is the County Engineer here to tell us who our new contractors will be?

John Stoll: On the first one, I request that contract VC-06-06-01 Drainage Improvements and Repair of Pinehurst Drive be awarded to J. H. Rudolph & Company for the amount of $32,900. They were the low bidder on the project.

President Musgrave: Do you want to go ahead and read all three and we’ll do them all as one motion?

John Stoll: Sure. The next one is VC-06-06-03 Smith-Diamond Road Bridge. That is requested to be awarded to CCC of Evansville for $18,877.22. And then the final one VC-06-06-04 Schmuck Road Culvert #659 Replacement to CCC of Evansville and that would for $49,211.52. The one thing I’d like to point out on that one is, that’s a slightly different amount than what was read into the record last week. There was an error in the extended price on that, and the way the contract language reads, the unit price governs, so we refigured the new amount and that’s what lead to the $49,211. It was a few hundred dollars higher than what was read into the record last week.

Commissioner Nix: And the paperwork is all in line as far as the drug testing and that?

John Stoll: Yes.

Commissioner Nix: Okay. I know we’ve had a problem with that in the past. It sounds like that’s been remedied.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to accept the County Engineer’s recommendations as read into the record?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Cross Pointe Boulevard Engineering Design Contract. I understand that this contract is not yet mature and we cannot move on it until next week.

John Stoll: Correct. I contacted the consultants and we were working on some changes on the fees and we couldn’t get them resolved yet today, so I’ll have that next week.

President Musgrave: Okay, thank you very much.

President Musgrave: Contracts, agreements and leases, we have two with the Health Department, Aramark contract for Impervious Lab Coats and the Aramark contract for the dental clinic. Both of these have been reviewed. The first one had a price being lowered and then the second one, they are the sole vendor. Is there a motion to approve?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

President Musgrave: The Old Courthouse Foundation, the architect contract for the Old Courthouse renovation. Commissioner Nix, are you on that?

Commissioner Nix: Yes, I sure am. We would like to enter into a contract with Veazey, Parrott, Durkin & Shoulders. The contract amount is $25,000. Thirty percent of this paid after completion of schematic design phase, remaining seventy percent is paid after design development phase is complete. We interviewed, I believe, four or five different design firms and arrived at this company. We felt like they could do this the best for the money that we were spending over there. And this money will be coming out of the Old Courthouse Foundation fund. It won’t be coming out of county coffers, if you will. So I’d like to move that we approve this.

President Musgrave: Is there a second?

Commissioner Shetler: I’ll second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Move now to the resolution supporting the transferring of welfare funding to the state. That is CO.R-06-06-018. Commissioner Nix, you have one.

Commissioner Nix: Now bear with me, there are quite a few Whereas’s here. This is a resolution urging the Indiana General Assembly to fully fund the Family & Children’s Fund resolution number CO.R-06-06-018.

         “Whereas, neither the fiscal body, legislative body nor executive body of the county governments have oversight of expenditures from the Family & Children Fund

         Whereas, Indiana Code 12-19-7 requires county fiscal bodies to establish the property tax rate to fund the Family and Children Fund appropriations

         Whereas, the expenditures from the county Family & Children Fund are approved by a state employee, the county welfare director

         Whereas, we support reducing reliance on property taxes for state administered programs

         Whereas, the possible benefits of implementing state funding to ease the current burdens of property taxes and provide for more uniform funding for children in need of services throughout the state; Therefore, be it resolved by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners this 13th day of June, 2006

         Section 1. That the Indiana General Assembly devise a plan to fully fund the Family and Children Fund

         Section 2. That the 2007-09 biennial budget, at a minimum, pay for increased expenditures for the Family & Children Fund for expenditure above the 2007 County Council approved budgets

         Section 3. That the County Auditor mail a copy of this resolution to the Governor of the State of Indiana, the legislative delegation representing Vanderburgh County and the Juvenile Court Judge(s) in our county.”

And its signed by all three Commissioners, or will be signed by all three Commissioners if we do pass this.

President Musgrave: And we also have a letter that we will all send to Governor Mitch Daniels, copies to our legislative delegation, the juvenile court judge and the Association of Indiana Counties. The Association of Indiana Counties suggested the language for the letter and the resolution as further urging the Governor and the legislature to take the action of removing this burden from local property taxes and transferring that burden to the state for this state administered program. If there is a motion to adopt the resolution and sign the letter, I’m willing to entertain it.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

President Musgrave: We move now to department heads. John Stoll, County Engineer. Do you have anything further? He indicates he does. And would you like to report on the bid opening or after Mr. Stoll makes his report?

John Stoll: First, I have a request for street plan approval for Centerra Ridge Subdivision, this is the subdivision that you reviewed the drainage plans and approved those last week at the Drainage Board. Its located on Telephone Road out near the county line. I’ve reviewed the plans and the engineer has made the changes I requested, so I would request approval of those plans.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

John Stoll: And the developer has also requested a sidewalk waiver for that subdivision and I would recommend that that also be approved.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

John Stoll: And then next I’ve got a notice to bidders for the Aabel Park Sanitary Sewer Project. I’m assuming that forty percent of the people did not remonstrate against the project.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’m unaware that anybody has.

John Stoll: Okay, on that basis, I would request then that you go ahead and approve the notice to bidders and we will get that project out for bid. The bids would be opened on July 11th.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

John Stoll: Then next I have a supplemental agreement with American Consulting for some additional construction inspection services on the Mt. Pleasant Road Project. This is for an amount not to exceed $8,500. And this will cover the additional inspection needed to address some driveway work that needs to be done out there.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

John Stoll: And the last item I have is a change order for Lynch Road. This is for an increase of $4,128.96, and the reason for the change order is to cover the installation of a perforated pipe that was needed. There was some, we thought it was septic effluent but there was water seeping out around the curb and across the person’s driveway once we installed curbs on the Old Boonville Highway approach. So to address that, we installed some perforated pipe to try and drain the water away and then we also had to add some additional rip rap, so I request approval for the change order.

Commissioner Nix: Is that just our portion?

John Stoll: That is the total.

Commissioner Nix: That’s the total, so it will get split up?

John Stoll: – twenty percent of it will be ours.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

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

President Musgrave: Just to congratulate you one more time for the Lynch Road opening. It’s a lovely project.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Musgrave: Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes. The bids for concrete repair of various county roads, three bidders: J H Rudolph and Company $489,914.60, Deig Brothers $682,830.30, and JBI Construction $499,157.45.

Commissioner Shetler: Move to take it under advisement.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

President Musgrave: I’d like to do the board appointments before we move to the smoking ordinance. We have three boards. The Economic Development Coalition which will be the four county coalition of Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Gibson: Commissioner Tom Shetler, Jr. and Marco DeLucio. The Commission to End Homelessness: Terry Render for a one year term. The Evansville MPO: Greg Meyer. Is there a motion?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: At this time we will take up the ordinance CO-05-06-009 Establishing Non-Smoking Areas, a second and final reading. Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: Mr. Ziemer, do you have the new or did we all get this? I’ll give you highlights of basically what we’re talking – what the new ordinance will effectively do. First of all, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize the efforts of two City Councilmen, particularly, and there have been others that have been involved in it, but Steve Bagbey and Angela Koehler-Walden, their efforts have been tireless over the last many years on working on this project, not to mention, just the last couple of weeks have been a very difficult time and they’ve put a lot of time and effort into it. I also appreciate my fellow Commissioners for giving me the responsibility of heading forward on this and thank you much very. But it has been a challenge and its been something that, a joy, and I think that we’ve come up with a good workable solution for Vanderburgh County and I’m looking forward to voting for this. First, what we’re hoping to accomplish by the ordinance is to eliminate smoking in all restaurants and family rooms by January 2nd of `07. What we’re doing is phasing in the hotels and motels. And the way we’re doing it is, in ‘07, forty percent of the rooms would be non-smoking and in `08, thirty percent would be non-smoking. And by the year `09, twenty percent would be non-smoking. There would be, by the year –

President Musgrave: You mean smoking.

Commissioner Shetler: Would be smoking. I’m sorry, that’s correct. I’m so used to this non-smoking. Twenty and thirty and forty percent would apply to the smoking rooms that would be available to smokers. By January the 2nd of `09, there will be no smoking permitted in bars or nightclubs. We are exempting in garages where there are overhead doors and exhaust removal systems that are already in place, that is one exemption that’s been added to the present ordinance. We, basically, are treating all entertainment places alike, including fraternal organizations and private clubs will be treated in this ordinance the same way as the other bars and family rooms. It would be, it is pointed out that if you have a wall that separates the bar area from the eating part of it, that the bar area may have smoke in it as long as there is a solid wall that basically separates from floor to ceiling with no more than a sixty inch doorway that separates it. Again, that’s in effect from `07 to `09. In `09, there will be no smoking permitted in any of the facilities. I think that pretty well capsulizes pretty much of what the new ordinance says. I don’t know, Mr. Ziemer, if –

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, I you’ve summarized it very well.

President Musgrave: I understand that there are some folks here who may have comment on this, so I’ll call for public comment at this time. If you would like to address the Commission, please come forward and state your name and address. Miss Engel.

Catherine Engel: Hi, my name is Catherine Engel and I’m a resident of the city. And I just want to publicly thank all of the Commissioners, County Commissioners for standing up to this challenge and helping the public reduce its risk from exposure to secondhand smoke. Thank you very much. It’s a very important stand to take and I think you’ve done an admirable job. And I appreciate all of your consideration of all various aspects of the issue and your respect for every one of us who have spoken publicly at the public hearings. You’ve been very patient, attentive and very respectful for all of us. Thank you so much.

Commissioner Shetler: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Is there any further comment? I see none. Is there a motion to adopt the ordinance?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: I might correct that. I guess, as amended.

Commissioner Nix: As amended.

President Musgrave: Thank you. And you second, is that for the amended ordinance.

Commissioner Nix: Yes, it does.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Roll call vote please.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: Yes.

President Musgrave: And I vote yes. The smoking ordinance has been adopted.

President Musgrave: We move now to new business. Is there any new business?

President Musgrave: Any old business?

President Musgrave: Any public comment on a matter under the Commissioners’ authority? I see none.

President Musgrave: We have consent items, is there a motion to adopt the consent items?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion carries. Is there a motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: We are adjourned.

(The meeting was adjourned at 3:51 p.m.)