VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

MARCH 17, 2009

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 17^th day of March, 2009 at 5:02 p.m. in the Civic Center Complex with President Troy Tornatta presiding.

President Tornatta: Good evening. Welcome to the March 17^th, St. Patrick’s Day version of our Board of County Commissioners, in room 301. It’s a couple of minutes after 5:00. Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: If I could have Lauren Wright please come up. Lauren, first off, we would like you to honor us in leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Tornatta: Come on up to the podium, Lauren. Lauren is a senior at North High School. Go Huskies! Lauren is also the top youth volunteer in Indiana in 2009 and the 14^th annual Prudential Spirit of Community Award winner. Welcome, Lauren. You also did a whale of a job in the ARC’s Really Big Show.

Lauren Wright: Oh, thank you.

President Tornatta: Tell us about the award you received.

Lauren Wright: It was the Prudential Spirit of Community Award. My volunteer service, I have gone to Deaconess Hospital once a month for the past ten years and shared my violin music with the patients in the progressive care unit. They usually come to the little activities lounge, or, if not, I go to the individual rooms if they’re not able to get out of the room. I’ve played the violin since I was three. So, I decided to use my music and my talents and what I love to help the community. I know I’m not saving the world, but if I can touch one person, and, you know, get their minds off of their pain in the hospital and just maybe have a song remember, or go back to like their childhood, or a family time. It’s, if I can touch one person with my music, it’s, that’s what I’m here for.

President Tornatta: As far as your volunteering, what would it take somebody to kind of catch that spirit to be a volunteer?

Lauren Wright: To–

President Tornatta: I’m just saying, what do you think you would advise somebody if they were to think about going out and volunteering? What are tidbits that you would give them?

Lauren Wright: I would definitely say use something that you love to do. Like, I love music, so I was like how can I use my music to reach out to the community? So, if you have a passion for, you know, animals or something, go to, you know, the animal shelter or something. But, you know, it makes it come from more of the heart if you do something that you love to do to help the community.

President Tornatta: Do you know where you’re going to college next year?

Lauren Wright: I’m planning on going to Belmont University, in musical theater and it’s in Nashville, Tennessee.

President Tornatta: And that’s the school that’s playing U of E?

Lauren Wright: Yes, on Wednesday.

President Tornatta: Okay. Well, Lauren, thank you for coming today. Any questions of the Board?

Commissioner Winnecke: No, other than just when we first received the notification of your award, I dropped you a note, and when I read the letter about your award I was really moved by your dedication. It’s pretty rare to find someone that young committed to volunteerism. So, hats off and best of luck at Belmont.

Lauren Wright: Well, thank you very much.

President Tornatta: Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren Wright: Thank you.

(Applause)

President Tornatta: Alright, action items, resolution to approve the 2009 Comprehensive Development Strategy update. Debbie Bennett-Stearsman.

Debbie Bennett-Stearsman: Good afternoon. Debbie Bennett-Stearsman with the Economic Development Coalition. You should have before you a copy of the 2009 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. It looks like this. It was e-mailed about a week ago to you. It also has, was e-mailed to your attorney. This document was created in efforts to comply with the Economic Development Administration’s request to update the 2005 CEDS that was created by QCDC in order to allow all the units of local government in Gibson, Posey, Warrick and Vanderburgh county to apply for federal funding. I just need to get it approved by each of the four County Commissioners so I can send it in to EDA by March the 20^th , so that it can be on file so the counties can be eligible to apply for federal funding.

President Tornatta: In talking to Debbie, one of the things we will do with this is we will be able to receive grants from the EDA. So, that is a very important arm of how we can get some money back into Vanderburgh County using the quad counties approach.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. Chairman, at this time I would move that we approve the resolution that’s been presented to us updating the Economic Development Coalition 2009 CEDS update.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second that motion.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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, Debbie. Any updates that you have on you at this time?

Debbie Bennett-Stearsman: I’ve got tons, but you don’t have enough time. I do want to invite everyone, and any department heads to attend our workshop at Ivy Tech tomorrow from 1:30 to 3:30. We have a firm coming to talk about the stimulus funds, both the allocations to the State of Indiana and through the federal agencies. It is free and we are hosting it on behalf of Baker and Daniels. So, anyone that wants to come, you’re welcome to come. One last follow-up, all of the projects that were submitted to the Ball State University form issue a couple of weeks ago, those have been, they are at Ball State. I’m going up Monday and Tuesday to go through the portals for the region, and we should have a listing of those for Vanderburgh County. After that we will need to get together to look at the different pots of funding that the county will be eligible for through the disaster recovery and through the stimulus funding. So, I’ll bring you up to date on that whenever I get back from that.

President Tornatta: And, just as a side note for those who might not know, Debbie works with GAGE and is also really involved with the stimulus dollars, as well as the Recovery Act dollars, and has been helping promote Vanderburgh County and the other counties in our....how many counties?

Debbie Bennett-Stearsman: Four county area.

President Tornatta: Four counties, to try and get the maximum amount of dollars back. So, we really appreciate how Debbie has stayed on top of the focus of what we need, and she has been an outstanding champion for our county in this time where we have so many dollars at hand. Thank you.

Debbie Bennett-Stearsman: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Debbie.

President Tornatta: Building Authority, Dave?

Dave Rector: Good afternoon, gentlemen. Dave Rector, Building Authority. We have the 2009 Centre CIP proposals and projects for your consideration tonight. I also have representatives from SMG, if you have any questions of them. I’m here to answer any questions regarding it.

President Tornatta: Tell us what CIP means?

Dave Rector: Capital Improvement Plan.

President Tornatta: Okay. As in the past–

Dave Rector: We’ve done this for the past five years. It is using Food and Beverage money to make improvements to the Centre that normally we just can’t do within the budget of it. Last year we did a number of projects. This one is a pretty healthy amount again. It’s a little bit less than last year, but it’s still a lot of projects to get done.

President Tornatta: Any questions from this Board? I know you have received the CIP, and would entertain a motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: I have a couple of questions.

President Tornatta: Oh, sure, absolutely.

Commissioner Winnecke: Dave, what, if you would, prioritize the top three or four on this list. It’s a lengthy list, but give us the top three or four that just absolutely have to be done.

Dave Rector: The air locks at the doors. We’ve tried to do that over the last couple of years. It’s helping on the utilities. As you know, that was one of the items that was cut when the project was first done. If you recall, you open up the doors and cold air or hot air floods in, putting the air locks in helps with the utility costs over there. Another one, Scott Moore tells me, and he can answer questions, is a big hit, $250,000, is replacing the cooling tower already. A little bit disappointing, after ten years we already need to do that, but it’s rusted and a lot of repair spots. Scott tells me it’s something that we’re looking to very soon. So, we put that on there for this year.

Commissioner Winnecke: Excuse me, are there any warranty issues with that?

Dave Rector: Not after ten years, unfortunately. It’s unusual for a cooling tower to go out this quickly. Normally you would see a good 20 years or more out of them, but it is rusting and it has holes in the cooling tower. Those are the two big items. The other, a lot of the smaller things, I don’t want to say cosmetic, but, Darren, if you want to address those, but it helps SMG to attract customers and maintain the different groups that they have in.

Commissioner Winnecke: I did have a question of Darren.

President Tornatta: Sure. Darren?

Darren Stearns: Darren Stearns, Assistant General Manager with SMG.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Darren. Hey, you have several requests on sort of electronic type of items. How does the facility stand in terms of having the necessary in house electronic equipment for people who want to come in and rent the facility?

Darren Stearns: Well, as far as the, it depends on which part of the electronics you’re talking about. If we’re doing like for LCD projectors and stuff, that’s some of the things we’ve got. A lot of the electric stuff that is in here is actually for the auditorium. Some of the things that we have to do for some of the Broadway shows and things that need to be upgraded for that kind of items.

Commissioner Winnecke: Specifically I was talking about the projectors.

Darren Stearns: Yeah, the LCD projectors. We’ve been getting a few of those each year on this capital improvement list so that we have them to where we can have enough to cover all of our meeting rooms, or the majority of our meeting rooms, plus the exhibit hall. We also use them in the auditorium.

Commissioner Winnecke: Are there times when you have to, when either you or the tenant has to rent–

Darren Stearns: Yes.

Commissioner Winnecke: –outside equipment?

Darren Stearns: Depending–

Commissioner Winnecke: How–

Darren Stearns: Depending on how extravagant the event is. I mean, we have the basic LCD projectors. Some of them want some rear projection with a different kind of illumination and lighting. We don’t have a lot of the lighting that we can hang in the exhibit hall. We have all of the lighting in the auditorium. So, a lot of times they’ll go out, that’s probably four or five times a year.

Commissioner Winnecke: And, is there, do you have the proper technical staff on hand that can maintain this equipment properly?

Darren Stearns: We do have a gentleman that maintains most of the lighting and stuff with our auditorium. Then, of course, we have the local Stage Hands Union that does all the set up and tear down and operates the equipment.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay. That’s all I have.

President Tornatta: Alright. Steve?

Commissioner Melcher: I don’t have any questions?

Dave Rector: The other big hit item on there is the landscaping, to finish out that project that we started last year.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: I don’t have any questions.

President Tornatta: I can’t give a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: I’m getting ready to.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll go ahead and approve it.

President Tornatta: I’ll second it. Any discussion? A motion and a second. 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)

Madelyn Grayson: Dave, do you have an extra copy of that list for the record? I didn’t get a copy.

Dave Rector: I’ll give you mine, Madelyn.

Madelyn Grayson: Oh, okay.

Dave Rector: Real quickly, we went through the departments, and we were able to get rid of some of the surplus furniture through last Friday. I don’t know, probably half a dozen departments came down. The next step will be to notify the non-profits and try to continue to move some of that furniture.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Dave Rector: Thanks.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright, EMA, emergency sirens. I saw Sherman pop in here.

Doing your homework?

Sherman Greer: Is there any–

Brenda Jeffers: I can do that.

President Tornatta: Okay, she was hiding behind you.

Brenda Jeffers: Is it a Power Point?

Sherman Greer: It’s just one slide. Sorry, I’m late, FEMA was in the office. Okay, these are the placement of the six new sirens that, on behalf of Congressman Ellsworth who got us the funding for this. We’re in the process right now of looking at these sites, with your approval. We have Daylight, out at Daylight at Scott Township Fire Department there, with a population base of 1,494 and 579 households. That’s one place that we would like to put it, put one of the sirens. The other one is at Boonville-New Harmony Road and Petersburg Road, with a population base of 3,283, with 1,227 homes. Maxx Road at Fire Station Number Two, we have a population base of 1,586 plus, and then on households we have 643 households there. Also, we have the Career and Technical Center out there, which has an enrollment of 117, we have the Oak Hill Library, three hotels in that area at U.S. 41 and Lynch. The other one is at Fickas and Green River Road. We have a population base of 4,506, households of 2,018. We also have Caze Elementary School within that area, which has an enrollment of 421. We also would like to put one out at Burdette Park, the population base there is about 952, households of 362, and, there again, that’s seasonal with, you know, people out there doing things at different times. The last one that we would like to put up would be at St. Wendel and St. Joseph Road, with a population base of 3,433, households 1,184. It has St. Joseph Elementary School out there with an enrollment of 208 students. So, we feel like that going through Area Planning I got these figures, so that you could have an idea of what we’re trying to cover within the area. All the ones that are in yellow are the new sirens.

President Tornatta: Sherman, one of yours in blue is right off of Baseline Road, just clearing Peck. Have we checked with the EVSC to make sure that their new proposed school will be covered by that particular siren? Or, do we need to make that siren bigger?

Sherman Greer: I’ve got a siren already ordered for that.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: Once it’s, once they start to building and everything out there.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: We can go ahead. So, yeah, we’ve already thought about that.

President Tornatta: I figured you did.

Sherman Greer: We’re ready for that when it happens.

President Tornatta: Okay, and the purchase and the installation are all covered by–

Sherman Greer: The installation is all covered. We put out our RFP’s for that, and we put out five of them, we got two back. Mounts is going to be installing the sirens.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: The next thing I have to do is get with Vectren, go around with them to make sure that we’ve got phase three electricity that’s going to those, because these operate off of phase three electricity. Then, also, I have to get with Mr. Stoll to make sure that we’re in the right-of-way, wherever we put them.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: The sirens are in right now. We’re ready, you know, once we get through Vectren and get with John, we’re ready to start putting them up.

President Tornatta: Questions of the Board?

Commissioner Winnecke: Sherman, what’s your time table?

Sherman Greer: Well–

Commissioner Winnecke: Your estimated time table?

Sherman Greer: –right now, the time table right now, since this is Severe Weather Awareness Week, I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to the Board so that you could see what we’re doing. We’re probably looking at two months, having them all six installed.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, good.

Sherman Greer: Probably less than that, to tell you the truth.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

Sherman Greer: Once Mounts gets ready to go and everything it doesn’t take them long to (Inaudible).

President Tornatta: Do you need action from us today?

Sherman Greer: Pardon me?

President Tornatta: Do you need action for approval of these spots today?

Sherman Greer: I always ask for approval–

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: –from the County Commissioners to put those, put them in these places here. I also look at what, we’ve got $122,500?

President Tornatta: Uh-huh.

Sherman Greer: After I get with Vectren and find out what they’re going to charge, if we have some charges there, I’m going to look at that and see if I’ve got enough left over, if I’ve got enough left over I’ll try to get another siren, poled and everything, and put another one out.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay, I’ll make the motion to approve.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

Sherman Greer: You’re welcome.

President Tornatta: Alright, Annie Groves from the, the Coroner, and from the Coroner’s office.

Annie Groves: Good evening.

President Tornatta: Good evening. Okay, Annie, before us we have competitive bids that you have taken on vehicles?

Annie Groves: Vehicles and a security system.

President Tornatta: Okay. You’re lowest competitive bid was? I’m sorry, on the vehicle?

Annie Groves: Expressway Dodge.

President Tornatta: Okay. And that amount?

Commissioner Melcher: $21,642.

Annie Groves: Is, $21,642.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Annie Groves: Each.

President Tornatta: I just wanted it read into the record. Okay. Then, your competitive bid on the security, your lowest competitive bid?

Annie Groves: The lowest is $4,110, however, I would like to go with ABK at $4,575. The reason being, as ABK is offering us 24 hours taping, where the other one just tapes for motions, motion-wise. So, I won’t have continuous taping in there.

President Tornatta: Okay. Alright, so, Bill, if you can answer a question for me. If we’re going to go through CCD on these particular items, we would need to file something with the County Council?

Bill Fluty: The Commissioners would file an appropriation request on the behalf of the Coroner, basically, that you’ve decided....you control that fund, to some extent–

President Tornatta: Right.

Bill Fluty: –and ask them to go ahead and appropriate this money for these particular items. It could be heard for the, it’s too late for the April meeting, but they would be heard for the June meeting.

President Tornatta: Okay. And, that time frame, although you would like to have it sooner, will work for you?

Annie Groves: We’ll make it do.

President Tornatta: Okay, and as I’ve talked to Coroner Groves, she elected to go with a minivan, because that fit their needs at the time. We’ve had several conversations about that, especially with the County Council, and that fits her needs at this time. The thought had been at some point about having a bigger van for other situations, and she assured me right now that what she had could be handled with that particular piece. So, if we do something different, we might have a different outcome next time, but she thinks she’s got it covered now. So, I appreciate that. Any other questions of the Board?

Commissioner Winnecke: I do. Annie, last time we talked about some other big ticket items, roof, cooling or refrigeration, however you want to term it. I guess, not that I don’t think you don’t need these, that’s not my question, but, I kind of thought a roof, at the time I thought you said it was leaking, I thought that might be a higher priority.

Annie Groves: I agree with you. I agree with you, however, we kind of got, I kind of got put into a limbo stage, because there had been some discussion about are we going to turn our building over to the Building Authority. So, I was, put everything on hold, because I personally didn’t know where to travel. Because, if we turned it over to the Building Authority they would be in charge of that. So, there was kind of some discussion on that. I am here now to ask where do I travel now? Where is the building at? You know, how do I continue from here?

Commissioner Winnecke: My personal feeling is that you should go ahead and prioritize all the needs of the facility and get the quotes that you think are best for each of those items–

Annie Groves: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: –and then no matter who is the owner of the building, they can determine how they are going to proceed both in terms of prioritizing from their perspective and finding the funds for them.

Annie Groves: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: So, if we retain ownership, then we know how we can proceed, and likewise with the Building Authority.

Annie Groves: Okay.

President Tornatta: Well, and in talking to Annie, we have a couple of different issues. One is, the original quote that she got was not for a commercial structure, which drove the price up double, potentially. Then, the other side of that was, in talking to her, she said it probably could stand another patch in between figuring out if we were going to do something else with the building, not withstanding if we were going to have to add on to that building, why put a new roof on it when you have to tear it back off to add on to it at a, maybe an earlier date than what you expected. So, that’s probably the first place where we would need to look. She has some issues with storage–

Annie Groves: Yes.

President Tornatta: –and storage weight.

Annie Groves: Right.

President Tornatta: And her storage weight would affect her roof. So, although it’s the cart before the horse, I believe we need to decide if we are going to add on to that, she needs to get some type of renderings of what it would look like to add on to it, and then the roof would all go on at the same time, to have a contiguous piece. So, that’s probably the biggest hold up. The Building Authority was a thought. I think that they would have to provide the assets for the building, and that would have to, I’m sure, go through some type of bonding issue, and don’t know if they are in any way wanting to do that right now.

Annie Groves: So, how do I proceed from here? What would you like?

President Tornatta: I think what we need to do is decide how much weight and what the storage aspects of the building is at this time. Past that, then we can decide if you–

Annie Groves: But, the storage is, we have no more storage upstairs.

President Tornatta: Right. So, we either have to put that somewhere else, and if that’s going to create blocks in other areas, then we might have to look at expanding your building. You do have the land there to expand the building.

Annie Groves: Yes, we do.

President Tornatta: You just don’t have the facility–

Annie Groves: Or the money.

President Tornatta: Right.

Commissioner Winnecke: I mean, maybe I’m being repetitive, but, and maybe....I just think you need to come to us and say here’s what we need.

Annie Groves: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Whether it’s, to your point, adding on, just so we know, or so someone knows, but, I think, you need to come to us and say here’s what I definitively need for the best use of this facility, and then we can decide how to proceed from there.

Annie Groves: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: I just wanted to, so what we’re asking for today is two vans and a security system?

President Tornatta: No, one van.

Commissioner Melcher: One van?

Commissioner Winnecke: Oh, just one? I thought it was two.

Annie Groves: I asked for two.

Commissioner Winnecke: I thought it was two.

Commissioner Melcher: So, are we saying one van?

President Tornatta: I’d only talked about one van. I told you, if we were going two vans, I wanted a bigger van and then a minivan. I’m not, I’m not in any place to want to do two minivans.

Commissioner Melcher: Can you get by with one van now?

Annie Groves: Yeah.

President Tornatta: They’ve got one Venture van. They’ve got a truck that needs to be retired. They’ve got a four by four pick up truck, and then this would be another minivan.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, at this time I would move that this body request an additional appropriation of the Vanderburgh County Council in the amount of $21,642 for the purchase of one vehicle, and $4,575 for the purchase of a security system, to come from the CCD Fund, and I would make that in the form of a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second that.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other discussion?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes. So, I guess, after you get this, then maybe we could look at, and you could keep us involved about maybe looking at another van down the road. I was going to ask too, on these vans and that, I know the Highway Garage does and that, do you have decals on yours, saying Vanderburgh County?

Annie Groves: No, we do not.

Commissioner Melcher: Is there a reason?

Annie Groves: There was just never funding for it.

Commissioner Melcher: Well, I think it would, I don’t know what that would cost, but I would think that would be pretty reasonable to just have our symbol or something on the side, so that people know–

Annie Groves: No problem.

Commissioner Melcher: –you’re there, you know.

Annie Groves: I will ask the Council for funding for that.

Commissioner Melcher: Yeah, just, I think that would be okay. I’m glad that we’re able to help you with this one. I’m hoping we can handle you with the other one not too long from now.

President Tornatta: Would you be willing to amend your motion to include the insignia on all of her vehicles?

Commissioner Melcher: Well, the one she’s getting new, I think, for now.

President Tornatta: I want to see it on all the vehicles.

Annie Groves: Do you want us to put it on the ones we’re surplusing? I mean, the one doesn’t run.

President Tornatta: We’re going to put it on all functional vehicles in your office.

Annie Groves: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Well, we don’t have a specific amount. I don’t mind it, but we don’t have an amount to...the motion–

President Tornatta: Do we have to do an amount, or, a clear amount, or are we just talking about the vehicle with the lowest bid?

Bill Fluty: Well, I think, I don’t know what the cost would be to that, but, I think that if you’re in agreement that it’s going to be the $21,000 plus whatever it takes to put a decal or to put this on here, if you say that, when Marissa, and they find out the exact price, they could file that appropriation.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Bill Fluty: I think that’s what your intent is.

President Tornatta: Correct, and at that time it would be for three vehicles.

Commissioner Winnecke: So, I would amend my motion to that extent.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll amend the second.

President Tornatta: Okay, a motion and a second. Any other 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: Okay, thank you.

Annie Groves: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Annie.

Commissioner Melcher: Annie, if you could e-mail us on that priority list. You don’t have to wait for a meeting. That way we can start looking at it. I’m going to come by there whenever I get some time so that I can go through your building with you.

Annie Groves: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright, County Assessor.

Jonathan Weaver: Good evening, Jonathan Weaver, Vanderburgh County Assessor. CIO, Matt Arvay, is passing out some pictures for you guys to look at, comparing Google Earth to Pictometry. If you have any further questions, I’ll answer them, or Matt.

Madelyn Grayson: Jonathan, are these pictures that I can keep for the record, or not?

Matt Arvay: I can get you copies.

Madelyn Grayson: Okay.

President Tornatta: Jonathan, excuse me, do you have any idea, in the State legislature, if they are planning on moving back the reassessment?

Jonathan Weaver: I haven’t heard any official word. We get weekly updates from the Assessor’s Association. At this point in time I’m not positive of any change in plan with that.

President Tornatta: Well, it seems like right now we’re kind of caught in the middle of an issue on being able to serve the full, entire length of the contract, and to have the assurance that either they could serve the full length of the contract, or if we had the assurance that the legislature was going to postpone it, it would give us, obviously, a bit of time to seek the legal advice of not only their people, but the city’s people and the county’s people to get everybody on the same page. Because, at this time, I know that you’ve done your due diligence to go out and find funding for a portion of the fees that we would have to pay. However, we’ve had some pull back because of legal issues with lawsuits, with a couple different parties. Not only the one that you had recommended to our body, but to the second one that was right behind it. I particularly believe that it’s your right as an officeholder to come to us with your best interests and the tool that you think is the most equitable for our county. So, I wouldn’t hold you back. The only thing I worry about is the Council, or the Council, but the Commission’s how we are best served by the contract. That’s all I care about is the contract.

Jonathan Weaver: We tried to contact these other counties, there’s 14 others in the State of Indiana that have Pictometry, to see if they’re affected by this lawsuit. If it’s hampering the quality of the pictures, or the quality of work that they’re putting out. And, at this point in time we didn’t hear back from all of them, but we feel it’s not an issue at this point in time.

President Tornatta: Kathryn, if you could, just give us a brief synopsis of where we are in the legal process.

Kathryn Schymik: Sure, and, I think, Jonathan, the issue that came to our attention was not with the quality of work that they’re providing as of this date. We’ve looked into this, and there is currently a lawsuit pending against Pictometry. It deals with a patent infringement claim. No, right now, that litigation has not been settled. It’s still pending, and it’s not even set for trial until tentatively May 2010. We don’t anticipate that if we went forward with this contract we would have any issues in the immediate future, but depending on the outcome of that litigation there could be some potential negative impact to the county’s contract. So, what Matt and I were working on today with the representatives from Pictometry was trying to build in some safeguards for the county to protect us from a financial standpoint if the outcome of that litigation is not in Pictometry’s favor. That we make sure that the county isn’t in a worse position as a result of that. So, I think that their representatives are being cooperative and they are willing, at this point it sounds like, to accommodate the requests that we are making. We just need to make sure that a feasible solution is even possible. So, that’s kind of, I think, where we are, and what we are presently trying to work through.

President Tornatta: Questions?

Commissioner Winnecke: Just a couple of observations, I guess, and maybe a question. As I mentioned to you on the phone this morning, Jonathan, I’m fine with the issue of the scope of using this kind of technology and upgrading. What I’m very uncomfortable with is the timing of it. It’s brought to us at literally the eleventh hour, and we have this pending litigation against the vendor that you’ve chosen, and, I guess, I’m not comfortable today considering a contract from that company. The other counties that are using this would not have any challenges with the product now. They wouldn’t until the case is disposed of in some fashion. Potentially they wouldn’t have any. I would like to see the County Attorney’s office continue to work through an amicable resolution to protect the county from potential financial loss if the case goes against the selected vendor. So, that’s my kind of spiel, but, I guess, I would like sort of the Reader’s Digest version of the difference between the two vendors. I assume these are the two largest that do this, or they are the only two that provide this, but I think it would be helpful to kind of get that out on the record.

Matt Arvay: Matt Arvay, CIO. What I was asked, I got called to the County Council meeting last week, and I was asked to look further into various companies that may use, or do this technology. In my research I found, basically, four; Pictometry, GEOSPAN, a group called MultiVision USA that no longer exists, and Woolpert out of Ohio. I subsequently contacted GEOSPAN and Woolpert and had calls with them. Woolpert could not fit us into the spring schedule, so they declined to even consider this project. GEOSPAN, when I started doing some comparisons, they have roughly 14 aerial clients throughout the country, whereas Pictometry has approximately 600 clients, and actually 16 in the State of Indiana. Some of those clients in Indiana are Marion County, Hendricks, Elkhart, you know, there’s a whole list I could provide for the record. When we started also looking at the software that was provided and how it would incorporate into some of our Legacy applications, like the 911 system, the OSSI product, the Manatron product, Pictometry has already worked with those companies. Whereas GEOSPAN has an application programs interface where they would give us a hundred hours of their time to kind of incorporate into those products, but we don’t know what it would cost from the Manatron or OSSI sunguard sites. So, there may be some costs there. The other major difference was, back in 2004 Pictometry flew the county in hopes of getting the contract back then, but monies through Homeland Security were not appropriated, it didn’t happen. So, what they’ve offered is to provide that flight, free of charge, the 2004, which at that time had a value of $112,000, provide that with the 2009 that they would fly this year and spread those costs out over two years. What that does is that allows Jonathan to use a tool called Change Finder that allows, it looks automatically at the differences between the photos of the years and helps him identify where changes may have occurred and he can make some decisions on assessment of values of property. The cost of the flight alone was $80,020 for Pictometry. It was $75,000 for GEOSPAN. Now, both of those costs would be spread out over two years, but when you go look at the software maintenance costs, after year two, Pictometry was $2,600 a year for unlimited licensing across the board, not including the Change Finder software. That was a departmental cost for his special needs. Whereas GEOSPAN was $3,600 after year one and subsequent years. So, you could see that would already make up that little bit of difference between the costs of the obliques, but, again, I go back to them throwing in the 2004 project at no cost. They both would do disaster flyovers on federally declared emergencies. So, that is nice. The time frame, they both feel that if we could have gotten something done this week that they could work us in and get the flights done before leaves on occur. They both have planes in the area and they feel that they could accommodate that. Those were the major differences. In addition, the Council asked me to see if I could find other groups that would be interested, due to the public safety aspect and support of police and fire and Central Dispatch on the city side. The city said that they would fund half the cost of the flight. So, they would, out of the $40,000 in year one of the flight, it was a little over $40,000, but they would split that. So, they would contribute 50 percent. So, that’s where we’re at. Then the situation is I would go to Council tomorrow, present them this information, but we tried to engage legal for the contract because of the timing of the leaf on situation, the pending lawsuit and some of the... we did get a non-appropriation clause added, an indemnify clause added, but there’s still a little bit more work to be done. I think we’re real close. So, maybe there’s a chance, if County Council potentially approves it tomorrow, maybe we could have a special meeting or something? I don’t know.

President Tornatta: Questions?

Commissioner Melcher: No, not yet.

President Tornatta: Okay. Just my look at the situation, without knowing that we potentially have another year to get this done, knowing reassessment is in July, I believe, it starts July?

Jonathan Weaver: It starts July.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Jonathan Weaver: This is part of the issue. You know, they miraculously take a spring flight here in the next couple of weeks before the leaves, we’re not going to get that information until the end of July. I’m afraid by putting it off until a fall flight, early next year, you know, that puts, I’m standing up here a year from now finally getting the images. With 81,000 parcels, you know, we have a workload to do for the reassessment. So, I feel that just puts us way behind schedule. I didn’t want to contract out any part of the reassessment, and I wanted to, you have to get DLGF approval not to contract out, and I feel this is putting us a step behind. If they don’t approve us, for whatever reason, not to have a contractor, you know, we’re going to spend upwards of maybe a quarter of a million dollars more without this Pictometry, without this aerial photograph of some sort.

President Tornatta: Right, and I, like Commissioner Winnecke, am not as excited about the eleventh hour dealings, but I know that there are times when some of these things happen. From this seat, I can tell you that I want to be compliant with making sure that our work gets done in the Assessor’s office, our tax bills go out on time, we are not behind the eight ball and we are not borrowing money to do that type of work, which should be done already. I would recommend to this Board that we would approve the President of the Commissioners to sign this, if there were legal, if the legal was right and we got a legal approval, and if the County Council would come in and approve it tomorrow.

Commissioner Melcher: I guess, my question would be on top of that, can we actually do that? In other words, can we vote on something on the “if come”?

Kathryn Schymik: I think that if we agree on what that, what those contingencies are going to be, and if all of them come to fruition, I don’t see that as necessarily a legal problem. I know that’s not our preference in the way that we handle these things, but given the time constraints that we are dealing with, kind of the time frame we’ve been under so far, only having, you know, pretty much 24 hours to try to address these issues, I think that that’s reasonable to try to get this done since it appears to be in the best interest of the county, but we need to make sure the county is protected from a contractual and from a financial standpoint. If we can’t accomplish that, we either need to come back to the Commissioners and evaluate some additional options, or not move forward.

President Tornatta: It sounds to me like they’re going to have a little bit of issue getting through the Council tomorrow without having this contract spelled out, financially.

Matt Arvay: I don’t know. I know, Kathryn, we talked almost until about 4:00, and I know you were going to make some calls afterwards, and I haven’t gotten with Kathryn to get an update at this point. So, I don’t know.

Commissioner Melcher: So, if the County Council doesn’t pass it tomorrow, it’s moot what we do tonight?

President Tornatta: Right, there’s no funding.

Jonathan Weaver: What I’ve been asking them is, it sounds like the city, and correct me if I’m wrong, is going to chip in $20,000 next year. You know, it’s $85,000, I think, is the first payment.

Matt Arvay: It will be twenty this year and twenty next year.

Jonathan Weaver: Twenty? Okay, so–

Matt Arvay: I believe it was twenty.

Jonathan Weaver: Okay. Great.

President Tornatta: And, I think that that’s contingent on this legal remedy. What legally has to happen is they have to be assured that there’s an assurance. It’s like insurance that they will fulfill their contract no matter what. What we’re looking to do is to find out if this company will be solvent if this judgement is rendered in a negative fashion toward them. I think that that is what we’re trying to find out. If we find out that they’re solvent, if they can provide some type of assurance that the contract will continue, no matter what, and if the County Council approves, then and only then would we be able to sign it without having a meeting.

Matt Arvay: City legal has been involved with this whole process.

President Tornatta: Right.

Jonathan Weaver: Is that going to–

President Tornatta: And let me say, if the city is not involved, that’s probably the other caveat on the situation.

Commissioner Melcher: I know that the city has been involved in the past. I mean, they’ve always paid half, if I remember right. Because I’ve been involved in a lot of these flyovers.

Jonathan Weaver: And I want all of you to know that this is, you know, my end, the Assessor end is coming out of the Reassessment Fund, which is $1.1 million in there.

President Tornatta: And there is money in there as we speak?

Jonathan Weaver: Yes, so, $1.1 million.

Commissioner Winnecke: I guess, I would just like to take some issue with the whole urgency. The assessment will happen, and has happened in prior years without this technology. I don’t know where you, what you’re referencing when you think, when you say we may have to spend upwards of a quarter million dollars? Maybe I didn’t understand you correctly. I don’t know what that means. In the past, this county, if I recall correctly, and Mr. Fluty could correct me if I’m wrong, I’m sure, but in the past I believe the county has only contracted out for commercial and industrial reassessment work and not residential work. So, I’m not sure where you’re going with this in terms of that sort of, if we don’t do this we may have to pay this? But, frankly, this body and the County Attorney’s office has been involved in this less than a week, and from what I read in the media, you’ve had a longer relationship with this. So, I’m not happy that we’re put under the gun like this.

Jonathan Weaver: Well, let me tell you what happened. July 1^st we had the Assessor transition, the statutory transition. So, we were busy with that transition. August budget meetings is when I approached the Council to ask for half the money for Pictometry. We had the Assessor referendum this past fall. I did not hear whether or not our budgets were approved until, when does that happen, around Thanksgiving? I had statutory deadlines to interview everybody and hire everyone from the incoming Assessor offices. In January I had to fight for my staff to be retained, full time and part time. So, it wasn’t like I, I only have a certain amount of brain power to contribute to projects. It was finally about the time in February where we were able to make the appropriation for this.

Commissioner Winnecke: I can appreciate anyone’s workload, but I hope you appreciate our position. That is, you know, you’ve come to us at the eleventh hour, and it’s our problem because we’re at the eleventh hour, and, frankly, I don’t see it that way. Again, I’m fine with the use of the technology.

Jonathan Weaver: It’s not just going to be–

Commissioner Winnecke: If you had come to us–

Jonathan Weaver: –it going to be great for economic development.

Commissioner Winnecke: –in January, I’m sure, the tenor of this conversation would be a lot different.

Jonathan Weaver: What I’m trying to also emphasize is counties in 2002 spent anywhere from, I’ve seen contracts of $450,000 to $10 million on the reassessment. I’m trying to get this done for one eighth of what’s in that Reassessment Fund right now, by updating our technology. So, this is why I’m asking for this to be done.

Commissioner Winnecke: Again, I get it. The timing is horrible though.

Commissioner Melcher: I don’t think any of us like the timing. Bill, would you have anything to say on this issue?

Bill Fluty: Well, I’m confused too about...in past practice in the three reassessments that we’ve been involved with, we haven’t contracted out to do reassessment. Some of those we had an aerial view, and some of them we didn’t. It was actually the Assessor’s that were removed last year, and some of those same staff did do all those reassessments. They did them timely, and we did bill. So, I’m just not, to say that if we don’t have this picture that we can’t do reassessment, I’m not sure. I don’t know those two are linked, because we’ve done it in the past.

President Tornatta: I would ask a question on overtime, however, how much did we pay in overtime in the last reassessment? Because I remember that that was a big issue to try and hold people over and pay them overtime to do jobs, and now we’ve shrunk our staff.

Bill Fluty: The overtime, we would normally pay comp time. But, that’s not something... a lot of the employees have a lot of vacation, have been here a lot of years, so, in the last reassessment in 2004, and the only time it’s been done, we felt to have, rather than have part time help, have the staff that knew the work to work over. There was time for them to actually work and receive overtime, where they hadn’t in the past. I think that was probably one, that was one of the main factors that it did get done timely and was billed timely. But, I don’t have an exact amount. It wasn’t astronomical or anything like that, but, I could find that out for you.

Jonathan Weaver: So, we’re a hundred percent sure that the county didn’t contract back in 2002? You’re a hundred percent sure?

Bill Fluty: Yes, well, I guess, I can’t always say that I’m a hundred percent sure of everything. But, I have no knowledge of that. I could have forgotten that. But, to an outside vendor to do residential?

Jonathan Weaver: We’re going to do, the goal is to do, we’re going to do the residential in house. The question is the commercial/industrial reassessment at this point.

Commissioner Winnecke: And there’s history of that?

Jonathan Weaver: I’m sorry, what?

Commissioner Winnecke: There’s history of that?

Jonathan Weaver: Oh, there is history, yeah.

Commissioner Winnecke: Right.

President Tornatta: Of the commercial?

Jonathan Weaver: Uh-huh.

Commissioner Winnecke: Commercial/industrial, but not residential?

Jonathan Weaver: Not residential, and I’m not planning residential.

Commissioner Winnecke: But, the implication was that it was for all reassessment.

Jonathan Weaver: No. I’m sorry if it came across that way.

Commissioner Winnecke: I appreciate the clarification. One last question and I’ll be quiet, what is the total amount of the appropriation that you’re making before the Council tomorrow?

Jonathan Weaver: It’s the first year payment. So, it’s near $85,000.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, thank you.

President Tornatta: And, that’s sixty and your twenty? Sixty five and twenty?

Jonathan Weaver: That’s how I understand it. I guess, the city’s–

President Tornatta: I mean, if the city would chime in.

Matt Arvay: Yeah, what the break down is, would be, $40,010 for the flight. Okay, that would be split 50-50.

President Tornatta: Well, but we would have to, we would have to pay that amount, and then they would reimburse us. So, I mean–

Matt Arvay: Okay, then totally then it would be $85,297.85, $40,010 of that is the flight for year one. That would be reimbursed by $20,005 by the city; $360 of that is media charges, delivery, and then the $44,927.85 is this Change Finder software that is Assessor departmental specific.

Jonathan Weaver: Right.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Bill’s got a question.

President Tornatta: Sorry.

Bill Fluty: Just one comment on the funding. The cleanest way to do it, because I don’t think the city has put all of their money in place, and you really want to sign a contract for $120,000, would be for the Council to put the whole amount in.

President Tornatta: Right.

Bill Fluty: And, I’m sure the city will be billed back at a later date.

President Tornatta: Right.

Bill Fluty: So, I think, the most prudent thing to do would be to ask for the whole amount, with the city reimbursing you back. Because you’re asking to sign a contract, and when you do that, you have to have all the funding in place.

President Tornatta: Right.

Bill Fluty: And that’s not quite done with all the other steps.

President Tornatta: Exactly. Is that amount in tomorrow’s meeting?

Jonathan Weaver: That’s what we originally appropriated for the first meeting.

Matt Arvay: That would be $125,307.85.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Matt Arvay: The two year cost.

Commissioner Winnecke: One twenty five, three?

Bill Fluty: I won’t be at the Council meeting tomorrow because I have a Southwest District meeting, but I’ll relay that to someone.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Bill Fluty: That would be the way they, if they do approve, that would be a way to go.

Commissioner Melcher: Bill, since you’re the Auditor here and you have to work with, all of this works together, can you give us your feeling about this type of photography? About this project?

Bill Fluty: This project?

Commissioner Melcher: Working with you too?

Bill Fluty: Working with me?

Commissioner Melcher: Yeah, don’t you have part of the deal with billing and all that? I mean, I’m trying to piece this together.

Bill Fluty: Yes, obviously, the assessments start with Jonathan–

Commissioner Melcher: Right.

Bill Fluty: – and then they move to me. So, then again, I’m not, I see this as a tool where they could expedite that, and I think it’s going to help them in doing that timely. So, yes, I think it’s probably something that... but there seems to be a lot of other issues that I’m not involved in. But, as far as the picture, and as far as what it will do, and as far as how it will help move things on, yes.

Commissioner Melcher: And, I don’t like the eleventh hour neither, but I’m used to working with eleventh hour stuff. But, I just want to make it clear, however we do it legally, that we’re doing it right. I don’t want to come back later and say you did something wrong. So, if there’s anything that has to be said on the legal side, I want to make sure it’s done right. Because we’re going to sit here and do all this tonight, and the County Council votes it down tomorrow, it’s just a moot point.

President Tornatta: Yep. I think that that is, in this instance, the best way to set it up for approval. To have the issues at hand addressed in a motion, so if any of those come into play, then the motion is–

Commissioner Melcher: So, I guess, what I’m asking is you need to explain what the motion needs to be.

Kathryn Schymik: I think that the motion needs to incorporate the contingencies that the signing of this contract is based upon. From what I’m understanding there are going to be several components. First is, obviously, the legal issues that have arisen and the way that we are proposing to address those. They have agreed to build in an indemnification provision into the agreement that would indemnify the county from any loss that we might incur if the outcome of that litigation were negative and caused a loss to us under the contract. In addition to that, would agree to, let me see if I have the language in front of me, but, they would basically agree to either provide an alternative program that would provide the same services to us, or they would find a way to continue the service without violating whatever judgement might have been entered against them. Or, alternatively, they would reimburse the county for any funds that we had expended if we lose the right to continue to utilize this program. So, those are the steps that they are willing to take to protect the county’s investment. The second component of that is that we want to build in some sort of insurance, or some sort of collateral that we have to collect against if they went bankrupt or this lawsuit caused them to become insolvent. So, whether that be in the form of a performance bond or some other type of bond, or just some other type of collateral that they would offer to be connected with that indemnification, I think that’s kind of the path that we’re heading towards to address some of those legal issues. Second, would be it contingent upon Council appropriating the funds in the manner that’s being requested. Third would be the city, obviously, also agreeing to the terms of the contract and reimbursing for one half of the flight costs.

Commissioner Melcher: I think that last one would be, number four would be allowing the President to sign it.

Kathryn Schymik: Absolutely, authorizing the signature, assuming all of those conditions are met. If one of them is not met, the signature would not be authorized.

Commissioner Winnecke: That would be a lot of “ifs”. I personally would not approve that tonight. I would be supportive of the County Attorney’s office proceeding down this path, and if everything were resolved satisfactorily, I would be happy to meet anytime to execute the contract so that we could move forward with the process, assuming the Council makes a positive action tomorrow. That’s what I’m comfortable with.

President Tornatta: The problem is, potentially not knowing when the flight would be, there would be a 48 hour period that we would have to legally put this in the paper to come back and have a meeting.

Commissioner Winnecke: I just think there’s enough at stake that’s okay.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay, I’ll just make the motion, with those four, and those ones the attorney said.

President Tornatta: I’m going to second it. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: No.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-1. Commissioner Winnecke opposed.)

Jonathan Weaver: Hey, thanks.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright, the next action item the Health Department, donation of copy of 1919-1947 death records index to Willard Library. Gary?

Gary Heck: Gary Heck. I would be happy to answer any questions about it. This is a duplicate copy of the microfilm that the Vanderburgh County Health Department has already furnished Willard Library several years ago. Their copy has been used so often it’s worn out and they needed a replacement. We, fortunately, did have one copy available, if the Commissioners so wish to allow them to have it.

President Tornatta: Is this something that we need to have another copy?

Gary Heck: We have additional copies, plus all the originals.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Gary Heck: So, it wouldn’t put us in a position where we wouldn’t have back up available to us.

President Tornatta: I feel very fortunate that the Health Department is very progressive in wanting people to find their genealogy, family trees, and I appreciate you coming to us and being interested in giving them a copy. Any other questions of this Board? Could we get a motion?

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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: Don’t go anywhere.

Gary Heck: Thank you. I won’t.

President Tornatta: We have first reading of CO.03-09-008, an ordinance regulating tattoo parlors and body piercing facilities. Will you please address that?

Gary Heck: I would also like to have Denise Cory, our Communicable Disease Director, she can answer specific questions about the medical side of this. There’s an ordinance already in place in the City of Evansville, and what this ordinance would do would just make sure that the city and the county had the exact same ordinance in place for this particular purpose.

Commissioner Melcher: My understanding, the county does not have an ordinance right now.

Gary Heck: That is correct.

Commissioner Melcher: So, all we’re doing is adopting the same thing that the city passed two years ago.

Gary Heck: Well, it could be more years than that.

Commissioner Melcher: Or, three years ago.

Gary Heck: Whatever it has been, and I think the only difference between the two is that if there’s a fine or a license, the ones in the county gets paid to a different source than going to the city.

Commissioner Melcher: Well, naturally. I’m sorry.

Gary Heck: This is Denise Cory. You get to state your name and title for the record.

Denise Cory: Denise Cory, the Vanderburgh County Health Department Director of Communicable Disease.

Gary Heck: Didn’t know if you had any questions, but, if you do, she’s here to address them.

President Tornatta: I have no tattoos.

Denise Cory: Good.

President Tornatta: That being said.

Commissioner Melcher: I don’t have any questions. I sat through this already.

Commissioner Winnecke: Wow!

President Tornatta: That being said, or piercings, we might as well get all those out there.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Troy.

President Tornatta: Yeah, a little bit too much information. Okay. Any questions of the Board?

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I would move, based on the recommendation of the Vanderburgh County Health Department, that we approve, on first reading, CO.03-09-008.

Commissioner Melcher: And, I’ll second that.

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

Gary Heck: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Second and final reading, CO.03-09-007, an ordinance to repeal chapter 2.24 regarding the City-County joint Purchasing Department. We went over this last week. This is essentially amending our four different versions of the City-County Purchasing Department, and also with the EVSC.

Commissioner Winnecke: I’ll make a motion that we approve, on second and final reading, CO.03-09-007.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second it.

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

President Tornatta: Second and final reading of CO.03-09-006, an ordinance concerning the Vanderburgh County Board of Health. An ordinance that will amend the county ordinance regarding the Health Department’s fees, as requested by Gary Heck of the Health Department. I believe that’s in the Health Department in the Well Child Clinic, as those services are no longer provided in the Health Department, and the Dental Clinic. Gary?

Gary Heck: I would be happy to answer any questions. This is, I was here at your last meeting. I don’t believe there were any questions there. We usually try to come annually to review this ordinance and make any changes in the fees, and that’s what we’re doing once again.

President Tornatta: If everyone is okay, I would accept a motion.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll make the motion for the second and final reading of CO.03-09-006.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

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

Gary Heck: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

President Tornatta: John Stoll, please, if you’ll come up. I wanted a little discussion of the surplus real estate on University Parkway. Can you address that?

John Stoll: Yes. There was a, I believe it’s about four tenths of an acre, a little rectangular piece of property that is adjacent to property that Gene Pfeiffer wants to rezone at this time. It is surplus property outside the limits of the limited access right-of-way line that was established as part of the University Parkway. So, really the county has no need to continue to own the property. Then I got an e-mail, which I believe you all were copied on last week, from Ted Ziemer, indicating how the county would have to dispose of that property, if you chose to pursue that. But, it’s not needed as part of the right-of-way for the road. It’s about, roughly half way between Lloyd Expressway and Hogue Road on the west side of the road.

President Tornatta: What would be your recommendation?

John Stoll: That you proceed with the process of selling the property.

President Tornatta: Okay. Kathryn?

Kathryn Schymik: There are two options for selling the real estate. I think that we can proceed to kind of evaluate which is going to be the better option. But, so, I think your motion, if you all want to proceed with this, needs to be for us to evaluate the two options for selling real estate, both of which, or one of which is open to the general public to submit bids. Another of which would limit the sale of the property just to adjacent property owners. But, if you would just allow us to evaluate both procedures and then proceed as, you know, as makes sense, I guess.

President Tornatta: Have we purchased this property?

John Stoll: Yes, it’s part of an overall larger tract of land that was purchased back for the first two miles of University Parkway. This four tenths was not needed as part of the right-of-way for the road, but it was part of a lot where a house was located. So, we bought the whole property, demolished the house, but this is surplus outside the road right-of-way.

President Tornatta: Is it legal, just asking a question, to go back to the owner for which we paid that amount and ask for the exact amount back?

Kathryn Schymik: No, the only way you can just give property back is if it was given to us free of charge to begin with.

President Tornatta: Right.

Kathryn Schymik: So, the only two options are to have two appraisers commissioned and have the property appraised and offer it for sale to the general public.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Kathryn Schymik: Or, alternatively, if it’s determined that the value of this particular parcel is less than $15,000, then we can proceed just with negotiating with adjacent property owners in the area to sell to an interested party there. Obviously, the determination for which method we proceed under is the value of the property, and that’s something that we need to be able to determine to figure out which method and which statutes are going to be controlling.

President Tornatta: Okay, well, the reason I say that is because we just, when did we sell this property, or when did we buy this property?

John Stoll: I’m going to say 2002-2004 time frame.

President Tornatta: Alright.

John Stoll: I believe the construction of the last two miles, the first two miles started in ‘04.

President Tornatta: Okay.

John Stoll: So, something like that.

President Tornatta: Well, I know I’ve been in on about what seems like every one of these cases, but, okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, at this time I would make a motion that we direct the County Attorney’s office to determine the best method of selling this property.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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: Alrighty, and just for clarification, is this, are there any other property owners around that? Or, is this not surrounded by the same property owner.

John Stoll: I believe it’s entirely surrounded by the one owner.

President Tornatta: And then, how far do we go out?

Kathryn Schymik: Well, we’ll look across right-of-ways, and we’ll look, if any other property is owned by the county, we’ll skip over that, and look to, so, basically, across right-of-ways and across county owned property to get to the next adjacent property owners, I think is who we would notify if we elected to go under that method of sale.

President Tornatta: Okay.

President Tornatta: Alright, let’s see, contracts, agreements and leases. Superior Drug Court, contract with Shannon Henry for home verification services. That’s with the day drug reporting court with a compensation of $29.14 per hour. It will remain the same from 3/1/09 to 12/3/09.

Commissioner Winnecke: Move approval.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any questions? 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: Next, Commissioners, service agreement with Governmentjobs.com, Inc. for software for on-line job applications. A service agreement under the....is Matt Arvay here? Okay. Under which the county will acquire software to allow the city and county personnel departments and elected officials to post and accept on-line job applications, and which contains tools to meet EEO requirements and reduces internal paperwork. The agreement is between the city and the county, and the first year cost of the agreement is $22,328. That would be split equally between the city and the county. Matt Arvay states that he has appropriated funds to cover the costs. The agreement is satisfactory in all respects from a legal perspective and may be placed on the agenda today.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I did, I would, I learned this afternoon that Mr. Arvay does not have this money in his budget. It is in the County Council budget. So, before I would be comfortable agreeing to this contract, I would like to see the Council approve the funding. I think Mr. Arvay, or whomever, should approach the Council for the appropriation.

President Tornatta: Okay. Any other questions? I’m sorry.

Commissioner Winnecke: The other observation I made, the county brought on approximately 20 new employees last year. So, it just seems like a lot of money for, I just don’t know if we get much bang for our buck on this.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: The one thing that I kind of understand, a lot of businesses and a lot of people are going to this, or even doing interviews over the telephone and getting employees. We’ve got a lot of them, a lot of people out there that is at home on their computers, and they are able to have some of that, but they are also having some trouble getting to different places. I think that people that have families have trouble. I think this is a good service. I don’t know about the price, but I think it’s something that we need, but, I’m agreeable, if we haven’t got the funds, we’ll just wait.

President Tornatta: I’m okay with deferring. I think this was brought up last year at some time and there was some discussion about it. I think it does do what we’ve tried to do in this administration is keep things as transparent as possible. It does also work on EEO requirements and keep us covered to make sure we have all of our opportunities are for all people. I think that’s a good place to be. I, as well, think that we need to check the price and make sure that this fits what our needs are. Then, potentially, work with the city on another partnership. So, if I could have a motion to defer, I would entertain that motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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. EMA, 2008 Homeland Security grant program sub-grant agreement, generators and radio equipment. The purpose of the grant is to provide generators and radio equipment. The grant amount is $850,000.53, and it runs until August 31, 2011. The grant as a sub-grantee, the county as a sub-grantee is required to meet all requirements of the sub-grant for proper design and implementation of the project, all reporting requirements and otherwise comply with the terms of the grant.

Commissioner Melcher: I move for approval.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: We have a motion and a second. Sherman, anything to add?

Sherman Greer: I just want you to understand that that grant is for District 10. It will be dispersed among 12 counties. I just didn’t want you to think that it was all coming to Vanderburgh County, which I would like for it all to come to Vanderburgh County, but it’s not. I just wanted you to understand that.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Sherman Greer: Also–

President Tornatta: Go ahead.

Sherman Greer: –make sure that we sign that in blue ink.

Madelyn Grayson: I have the blue pen attached.

Sherman Greer: For the simple reason that we’ve gotten them rejected back. I think you had to sign one before and everything. So, I would appreciate it in blue ink. Thank you.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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: Next, Health Department amendment number seven to the Childhood Lead Poisoning prevention grant agreement. Number seven increases the amount of the grant by $49,869, to a new total of $176,533. Under this amendment payments shall not exceed $28,839 for the period of 7/1/06 through 6/30/07; $36,825 for the period of 7/1/07 through 6/30/08; and $60,000 for the period of 7/1/08 through 6/30/09; and $49,869 for the period of 7/1/09 through 6/30/2010. Gary?

Gary Heck: Gary Heck, Health Department. I would be happy to answer any questions. This primarily is money that will go into effect starting this July, and this amendment is just to add that last dollar amount and carry us through June 30, 2010.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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 with F.C. Tucker Commercial. A revised form of the listing contract to be ordered between F.C. Tucker Realtors and the county relative to the leasing of suites in the Old Courthouse. If you want to come up while I’m going through this. All of the changes suggested or required have been addressed to the satisfaction of our legal counsel. Note the addendum to the contract which lists the suites, square footage and eight dollars price per square foot. The contract is for six months, and will thereafter run from month to month unless cancelled at anytime by either party by giving notice to one another. Hello.

Lisa Daugherty: Good evening, Lisa Daugherty with F.C. Tucker Commercial. Do you have any questions of the contract?

President Tornatta: Lisa, do you guys have a plan of attack by which you’re going to go after leasing?

Lisa Daugherty: We market on the Internet, locally, regionally with Turley-Martin-Tucker out of Indianapolis to bring in, hopefully, some larger, better, you know, we’ve got a good tenant base. They’ve done a good job of leasing the building. It’s over halfway full now. There’s about 16,000 square foot still available. So, we’re going to work with our marketing department out of Indianapolis and market the property–

President Tornatta: Okay.

Lisa Daugherty: –on a larger scale.

President Tornatta: Then, what is the state of the eight dollar per square foot for a facility like this at this time?

Lisa Daugherty: That’s an optimistic square footage rate. Right now they’re getting an average of about five dollars a square foot. We would like to bump it up a little, generate some more revenue for the county. I’m not sure that we can do that, but that’s our goal.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Lisa Daugherty: That’s a gross lease. So, the county pays utilities, everything. If it’s a for-profit organization, they’re going to have to pay taxes, because the county does not currently pay taxes on the property. So, they’ll be assessed taxes on the square footage they occupy, and they’ll have to be billed for that.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Lisa Daugherty: I did have some questions of the Commissioners. In talking to the maintenance, Otis, the maintenance man at the Old Courthouse, he’s not sure where the funding is going to come from to improve the space as we lease it. That’s something that we need to address at some point.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Bill Fluty: I would suggest, you have Infrastructure, which is Riverboat money, and you do have a balance in that. So, if you had an immediate renter or tenant, that would be a mechanism that you could accommodate that fairly quickly. You might want to appropriate some CCD money into a capital fund that is just connected to the Old Courthouse for any tenants that come up and say we sure would like to rent this space, but we need some, whatever they would need–

Lisa Daugherty: Improvements.

Bill Fluty:-- improvements. So, but, we do have Infrastructure money that is available to these kinds of things.

Lisa Daugherty: Okay.

Bill Fluty: If somebody would come up tomorrow, I think you would be okay, but you might want to look out in the future if that’s (Inaudible).

Lisa Daugherty: And, how will we proceed to tap those funds? What’s the appropriate course of action?

President Tornatta: Contact Marissa Nichoalds.

Lisa Daugherty: Okay, okay. My plan is to, hopefully, get the tenants to pay for their own improvements, but if they don’t have the budget, maybe we can amortize it over the lease term.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Lisa Daugherty: So, the county would pay for it and then we would recoup it.

Bill Fluty: Then, I think those improvements do have to fit in with this (Inaudible).

Lisa Daugherty: Right, and I do have those guidelines from Marissa.

President Tornatta: Okay, anything else?

Commissioner Winnecke: Just a comment. This was actually a recommendation from the Old Courthouse Foundation Board, and they considered multiple–

Lisa Daugherty: Companies.

Commissioner Winnecke: –companies last year, and for whatever reason it did not get executed. But, I think the recommendation is a sound one, and that’s why we’re here today.

President Tornatta: Okay, that being said.

Lisa Daugherty: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Any other questions?

Commissioner Melcher: I’ll make a motion to approve it.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion to approve and a second. Any other 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. The next item, Auditor, KRONOS timing software service renewal quote for 2009. This has been renewed under the provisions of the agreement of 5/25/05 for annual renewal terms. Our current terms run till 5/24/09, and this new quote covers the period from 5/24/09 through 5/23/2010. The quote for the period would be $12,123.59, a four percent increase over the prior year’s quote of $11,657.27.

Commissioner Winnecke: I move approval.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other questions? 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: The next action item, Commissioners, agreement with American Structurepoint for Burdette Park consulting and engineering. A not to exceed cost of the agreement described in appendix D has a total of $89,500. I know they’ve dealt with Steve Craig on this particular tract of 30 acres that was just purchased for Burdette Park. Any questions of the contract, or with Steve at this time?

Commissioner Melcher: I move for approval.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other questions? 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: Next up, the Commissioners, Long and Mathies engagement letter for state legislative lobbying. It provides that the lobbying service for Vanderburgh County before the General Assembly for a period of 1/1/09 through 12/31/09, for a fee of $12,000, one thousand per month. The fee is all inclusive, and includes any expenses of the firm in providing these services.

Commissioner Melcher: The last time this was brought up I didn’t make a motion on it, because I quite didn’t understand how we were doing different ones and different times. After speaking to Phillips, the one that we approved, and Mathies, I kind of understand what’s happening. If we didn’t do this, it looks likes Phillips would come back with the other. I kind of wish we had done this a little different, maybe went with one firm to cover both. But, I also understand from Ted when he was here, that they actually started all of this work already in January. I realize that was on their own, but they’ve been working for us all along, the same way with Baker and Daniels. So, basically, that’s, I wish I had known a little bit more about it, but, for some reason I didn’t, but I do now. So, with this I’ll make the motion to accept this.

President Tornatta: And a second. Any other discussion? I will make one comment. We’re saving roughly a third, well, about 40 percent over what we’ve done in the past few years on lobbying. I feel like at a time when the dollars are out there, we need to be putting our best feet forward to try and make sure that we have the forces out there to bring as many of those dollars back to us as possible. More than ever do we need the people out there in the lobbying troupes that are qualified and have the contacts to be able to give us a heads up for those types of dollars. So, I appreciate the motion, second. Any other discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: No.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-1. Commissioner Winnecke opposed.)

President Tornatta: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Department head reports. Are there any department heads that have anything? Gary?

Gary Heck: Very briefly, in your packets I think you’ll have a report from the Health Department on our activities at the Homeless Connect event that was held on March the 12^th. I know Health Officer, Ray Nicholson, and Mr. Elder both visited and were very impressed. I believe they’ve already sent you a letter to that effect. We had several staff members there, and we had other staff members that were supporting them back in our vital records to issue the birth certificates. We did issue 86 birth certificates that day. We also were able to print out 30 additional applications from jurisdictions outside of Vanderburgh County for folks who weren’t born in Vanderburgh County, to help those folks. Our immunizations staff was there, and 35 individuals received 74 vaccines during that day as well. We learned quite a bit. It’s the first time the Health Department has ever issued birth certificates outside of our physical building using wireless technology, or air card technology. So, it helps us prepare for emergencies, should we ever have to do that. We just wanted to thank you for the opportunity. It was a very good event for everybody that day.

President Tornatta: Well, thank you, Gary. We do appreciate the Vanderburgh County Health Department coming through in the end with the vaccinations and the, just all the different measures that you took. We know that you guys offered those birth certificates, and that was a big help. I know, coming into this process, no one expected 350 plus individuals, and we think we approached more like closer to 400. No one expected that, but the art of cooperation was never better than it was there that day in such a benevolent situation. So, we appreciate making sure that not only for our homeless, but for at risk of being homeless, we felt like Evansville-Vanderburgh County Coalition on Homelessness was very positive, and we’re only halfway through the ten year plan. But, with the helps of the Health Department and all those that helped, we’re very excited about the potential.

Gary Heck: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you. I would also like to thank our office staff. Kristin was, Kristin Comer was very much a part of the Homeless Connect, and she really added a lot of punch to getting things done. So, I would like to thank Kristin and Marissa for being assistants to the Homeless Connect. A very successful event, and thanks to this Commission for getting behind it. Alright, any other department heads?

President Tornatta: John Stoll?

John Stoll: The first two items I have are change orders on the Oak Hill and Bergdolt project. The first one is for an increase of $21,376. That change order is required because the contract omitted concrete pavement. Nobody, I shouldn’t say that nobody knew it was down there, the soils report did indicate that it was there. So, that pay item was omitted from the contract, and by INDOT specifications, concrete pavement removal is paid for separately. So, it covers the concrete pavement removal, and then there were two loop detector amplifiers for the traffic signal that were also omitted from the contract. Of the $21,376, Vanderburgh County will be responsible for twenty percent. I would recommend approval of the change order.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any other 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)

John Stoll: The second item is also a change order on Oak Hill and Bergdolt. This is for an increase of $1,585. This covers additional survey work done to relocate some inlets that were in conflict with numerous underground utilities on Bergdolt Road. They had to go out and restake. Where the inlets were originally going to be, it had to be restaked to where a location to where it turned out, it could be worked to miss the underground utilities. Here again, the county will be responsible for twenty percent of that cost.

Commissioner Melcher: So moved.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. Any 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)

John Stoll: Next, I have an administrative settlement letter for parcel 14 on the University Parkway project. This is owned by Russell and Carol Reising. The settlement amount is $257,500. The reason that I’m bringing this, in addition to the settlement agreement that I believe is on your agenda elsewhere, this is being paid for with federal funds. So, we have to use this INDOT form as part of the submittal process on clearing the right-of-way. I would recommend signing the administrative settlement.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

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)

John Stoll: Then, the last item that I have is a street plan approval request for section A of Hamilton Creek Subdivision. This subdivision is retrofitting a condo development as public roads. It was originally designed and constructed to be private streets, but, now the developer has decided he wants the county to accept the roads when it’s all said and done. This will entail dedicating right-of-ways and construction inspection, done by my staff. Right now, we’ve reviewed the plans, we would recommend approval. The plans call for asphalt streets, it would be three inches of asphalt, and right now the final surface isn’t down. We’re going to ask that the pavement be cored to confirm that there is already two inches down. If not, they will have to make appropriate changes to provide the thicknesses shown on the plans. Also, there’s a number of encroachments in the right-of-way that will have to be dealt with through encroachment agreements before we can ultimately accept the roads. But, with that being said, I would recommend approval of the street plans.

Commissioner Melcher: I’ve got one question. It came up a lot of times during the road hearings, because of something that I guess I didn’t know. Do we know what the base of that is? Because I understand that we used to accept roads and there wasn’t a base.

John Stoll: This, that’s why we’ll core it. It should be six inches of rock and two inches of asphalt down right now.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay.

John Stoll: With another inch to follow. We’ll have to confirm that through the developer will provide cores of the pavement. If it’s not, then they’ll have to bring it up to provide the six inches and three inches like the plans call for.

Commissioner Melcher: That’s all I wanted to make sure is that they’re dealing with the code. Because I thought I heard you say you were just going to core the blacktop only, but, I.....Okay, I’m alright.

President Tornatta: Do they have a time period by which they have to complete the final top?

John Stoll: With it being a subdivision, the subdivision ordinance would apply. As long as there’s a letter of credit there is no ultimate deadline date.

President Tornatta: Any other questions?

Commissioner Melcher: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Winnecke: 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)

John Stoll: That’s all I have.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

John Stoll: Thanks.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, John.

President Tornatta: Alright, any other department heads? Seeing none.

President Tornatta: New business, payment to the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. I believe we had, we received a bill from the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana for $15,500. The shortfall for next year, however, not this year?

Commissioner Winnecke: You’re asking? Or telling?

President Tornatta: No, it is not.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay.

President Tornatta: I think, we were talking, and, of course, this came in late, obviously, we’re, I’m a fan of the arts and want to make sure that our children, which art seems to be the first thing cut, have an opportunity to experience that as well. We were in talks with the Arts Council about helping with some funding issues. My question to this Board is, do we postpone this one month to make sure of their needs for this year and next year?

Commissioner Melcher: I wouldn’t mind postponing it for one reason. I’ve dealt with this for many years. I want to know how much the other counties are giving. You know, it seems like it’s our county leading the charge, and, there’s what, 17 other counties? I think there’s 18 or something like that. I would just like for one time to know what other counties, other cities are giving. Because I know the city of Evansville gives them, I think, $10,000.

President Tornatta: $15,500.

Commissioner Melcher: $15,500? Okay. So, we need to make sure....I just would like us to know what everybody is donating. I’m okay with the arts, I just want to know what’s happening.

Commissioner Winnecke: I could go either...I could vote in the affirmative tonight, or delay a month, at your pleasure. I think this is, to me this is not only about helping the arts, but it’s, frankly, from our perspective, it’s an economic development tool. I think companies that look to retain or attract talent in this area, they look for cultural amenities that will help them attract that kind of talent or retain it. So, I have no problem with it, I think it’s a good move, and certainly it’s an organization that I think is well regarded in the community.

Commissioner Melcher: I agree with all of that. I’m just trying to get some information–

Commissioner Winnecke: Right.

Commissioner Melcher: –and it’s taken me years, and I still haven’t gotten it. So, I’d seen it on the agenda, and I said I get to try one more time.

President Tornatta: Well, I would, I put it on the agenda because I fully anticipated that we’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure that that organization stays alive and kicking downtown in their new digs. But, I can also defer it a month, I don’t think–

Commissioner Melcher: I can go ahead and vote for it, just as long as somebody knows, tells me that I’m going to get some information.

President Tornatta: Okay, I need a motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second for $15,500 to the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. Discussion?

Commissioner Winnecke: Just for clarification, this is out of Riverboat money?

Commissioner Melcher: Uh-huh.

President Tornatta: Out of Riverboat money in the–

Commissioner Winnecke: Economic Development.

President Tornatta: –Economic Development side.

Commissioner Melcher: And, I would just like a breakdown of what everybody, where they get the money.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: County, city or whatever that they serve.

President Tornatta: We’ll incorporate that in the form of the motion. 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, next in new business, AIC statewide salt bid request. The AIC, along with INDOT is looking to do a salt bid request for all the cities and municipalities and counties in the state. Hopefully, we will not have the fiasco we have had in the past month or so, or months or so. This past year we had some issue, you know, we might as well use you while we’ve got you, Warren. Can you come up and discuss any of the salt issues through legislation?

Warren Mathies: Sure. Thank you for approving the contract. I’m Warren Mathies, by the way, and I do work in Indianapolis on behalf of various clients. Last month we were able to put on the table some legislation that required the state to include local governments in a bid process for quantity purchase of salt. I think what’s happening is they’re seeing that threat of that being codified in law, and now they want to come to the table and include you all in. What’s happened in the past with respect to salt is the Association of Indiana Counties, or the Association of Cities and Towns has kind of in a hodge podge fashion called their members and said how many tons of salt do you need, and they put together a list. The last one attempt at that was a year and a half ago, Cities and Towns came with that proposal and they had an amount of 200,000 tons of salt through various cities and towns. They went to the providers of salt and they got laughed out of the office, and the project fell apart. But, with the State of Indiana’s quantity of salt, they’re dealing in a quantity that’s large enough now that, I think, that you guys will be successful next year, and you won’t have to look for beet juice and salt and other things as you’ve had to do. But, we’re hopeful that that will work. We put some language, we were just standing in the room in the right place at the right time, and mentioned it, and it’s in a House Bill that’s in the Senate now. We hope that that will help. That’s just one of the things that you guys will get to do when you put together a long term plan of what you want to do with the State of Indiana. We’re optimistic that you’ll get well more than you’ve secured us for in return. We want to provide a value for dollar of what you guys hire us for, and I think that’s one example of what we’ll do, and we’ll continue to work. I’m happy to answer any questions about salt, or local government that, questions that you have.

President Tornatta: Any questions of the Board? We have distributed that list to our Highway Garage, and they’re compiling a list right now for max and mins on–

Commissioner Winnecke: What was the deadline?

President Tornatta: –this first....do you know the deadline? I don’t have it.

Warren Mathies: I don’t know the deadline.

Commissioner Winnecke: (Inaudible), I just don’t remember.

President Tornatta: Right. They know what the deadline is...I think it’s the 31^st of this month, in fact. So, we’re trying to get those salt bids in. I think we’ve got it and he’s submitting the paperwork right now. We anticipate that, it was once thought that we were going to get it all at once. We anticipate that it’s going to come in sections when we need it.

Warren Mathies: Right.

President Tornatta: Therefore, we don’t have to worry about any other storage facilities at this time. Unless, it comes about that we need, that we wanted to go that direction.

Warren Mathies: Yeah.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, it says, just since I asked, in early April we’ll receive a communication from the Association of Indiana Counties, and we’ll expect a response form within five to seven days. So, more to come.

Warren Mathies: That’s great.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Warren Mathies: I didn’t realize that was in there. Thank you again. If there’s anything you guys need, just feel free to call.

Commissioner Winnecke: Would you leave your cards?

Warren Mathies: Yeah, certainly. I’ll do that and get with you guys here in the near future.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Warren Mathies: Thanks.

President Tornatta: Thank you, Warren. Any old business?

Commissioner Melcher: Were you going to bring up something in new business?

President Tornatta: Well, it can go new or old business.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay.

President Tornatta: Let me mention one thing in old business, we have started our Walking to Freedom. It’s the challenge we had....how many teams?

Marissa Nichoalds: Thirty.

President Tornatta: We had 30 teams sign up, teams of five, so you do the math, but we feel that we’re making Vanderburgh County a healthier place, at least in this building. We’re already started. Our staff is clipping the tails of at least two of our Commissioners, but it is a marathon, not a sprint. Okay. Let’s see, we’ll creep back up to new business, and that’s fine. Over the past month and a half or so we have deliberated on and interviewed individuals for the County Highway position. Of those interviews, although very fruitful, I think I have identified a person that has exemplified what I want to see in that office to carry it out, but, before I do that, I open up the floor to either one of the Commissioners.

Commissioner Winnecke: No, the candidates that came, that presented themselves, I think there was one that was, to me, head and shoulders above the other, and I’m very comfortable with the appointment of one particular person.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Melcher: And, I too interviewed the ones we had, and I agree, one had a lot more experience. The other one had a lot of experience too, in sales and some other things, but the one we needed is the one I’m making the motion for, and that’s Chris Walsh to start on the 28^th of March.

Commissioner Winnecke: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second for Chris Walsh to be the new Highway Garage Superintendent. Any other discussion? And that’s on the 28^th?

Commissioner Melcher: Uh-huh.

President Tornatta: 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: Chris, I see you out in the audience. Do you mind coming up here and presenting your face? We’ll be seeing a lot of you.

Chris Walsh: Good evening.

Commissioner Melcher: Good evening. Name please.

Chris Walsh: Chris Walsh, applicant for the County Highway Garage. I would just like to thank the Commissioners for your vote of confidence, and allowing me to be able to get back to the County Garage. It’s been a few years since I’ve been out there, and I’m looking forward to it. I would like to follow that up and say that I’ve talked to Mike Duckworth, and he’s going to help with the transition. I feel real confident that it will be a nice, smooth transition.

President Tornatta: You’ve got your green on, that’s good, for the occasion. Now, tell us about beet juice.

Chris Walsh: Well, it sounds like I can scratch off my wish list of an additional salt barn. I wasn’t aware of the–

President Tornatta: Alright, well, Chris, it will be a pleasure working with you. I’m sure we’ll be talking quite a bit from here till your start. I’m excited about getting you in the position.

Chris Walsh: Thank you very much.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Chris Walsh: Thank you.

Commissioner Melcher: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Any other old business?

President Tornatta: Public comment? Go ahead.

Commissioner Winnecke: From Youth Resources we have, one of our shadows, Preston Edge from Memorial High School. Preston, welcome.

President Tornatta: Oh, there’s some in the audience.

Commissioner Winnecke: We have some in the audience too.

President Tornatta: Well, now you’ve got to come up here and say your name. Come on. You don’t get credit. We don’t sign papers unless you do this.

Commissioner Winnecke: Yeah, Preston’s been on t.v. all night.

Commissioner Melcher: You’ll get your chance now.

Andrew Ritter: Is it on?

President Tornatta: It’s on.

Andrew Ritter: Andrew Ritter, Mater Dei High School.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Shelby Edge: Shelby Edge, Central High School.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Sammi Burnworth: Sammi Burnworth, Central High School.

Lucas Keck: Lucas Keck, Memorial.

President Tornatta: Welcome.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks for being here.

President Tornatta: Joe DeVoy?

Joe DeVoy: And guests.

President Tornatta: And guests, and the whole DeVoy crew. Joe, we know you’ve been working on the clock.

Joe DeVoy: Yes, sir.

President Tornatta: That’s the County Courthouse clock.

Joe DeVoy: Yes, that’s right.

President Tornatta: Well, give us an update of that old clock.

Joe DeVoy: The clock’s in fine shape, sir.

President Tornatta: Great, that’s what we like to hear.

Joe DeVoy: I would like to thank the Commissioners for having us here today. These are my brothers, two of my brothers. This is Mike DeVoy, future Mayor of Evansville, Indiana.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Joe DeVoy: And this is Dave DeVoy, unofficial Mayor of Mt. Olympus, Indiana, that’s in (Inaudible) County.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Joe DeVoy: An update on the clock, it went down about four or five months ago. It is a hundred and almost twenty years old now. Some things are worn, but most things are in very good condition. Over the years I’ve had these guys up there with me several times helping out. I’m getting up in the years now, you know, so, it’s time to look for someone else to replace me when the time comes.

President Tornatta: Is this going to be a contest?

Joe DeVoy: Well, it may take them a while to catch on is what I’m saying. So, I thought it would be better to start now and pull them in and teach them the ropes. I have some pictures here for you. There’s one for each person up here.

President Tornatta: Okay, super. Thank you.

Joe DeVoy: I will be brief. The first part is an old picture of the front of the clock. You’ll see that under the clock face is an old gear and a wheel looking mechanism with several slots. That’s what makes the bell ring. When you hear the bell ring that’s what’s going on there. The second piece is the gear that broke. Several teeth got broken off. The third picture and fourth picture are of the new gear and the refurbished front wheel. The last photo is the root cause of it. What happened was that there was a pin that wore and it allowed one piece to go a little too far and binded up. The gear is brass, and it chewed it up. So, we took it apart. I said, we, these guys helped me. We took it apart, and took the gear to Shirley’s Machine Shop, Bill Shirley’s–

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Joe DeVoy: –Machine Shop, right there by the County Garage. They fabricated a new gear. The cost was $1,500. I think it’s right that the county operates on a 90 day pay cycle. I have a request, I don’t know what the pay cycle is, but I would just ask that you pay as soon as possible. They are a small operation and that’s a lot of money to them. They were great in helping us.

Bill Fluty: Has that bill been submitted?

Joe DeVoy: Yes, sir. I just gave it to Troy.

President Tornatta: Hold on a second. Oh, oh, sorry. Got it. I thought that was a bill for the pictures.

Bill Fluty: If you can get that down as quick as possible. We have to advertise, and that’s why the delay.

Joe DeVoy: Okay.

Bill Fluty: But, it’s not 90 days, it’s, probably the worst case would be 45 days.

Joe DeVoy: Okay.

Bill Fluty: Your timing is not too bad right now. We’ll work it in as fast as we can.

Joe DeVoy: Much appreciated, because they did a great job for us. They really did go over and above. They fabricated the gear and fixed the piece that’s clean in the last picture. And, if you will indulge me, I would like to swear in the new apprentices. You know, legal like.

President Tornatta: That sounds great.

Joe DeVoy: So, if you guys will repeat after me. I, and then your name.

Mike DeVoy: I, Mike DeVoy.

Dave DeVoy: I, Dave DeVoy.

Joe DeVoy: They got that part right. I was really worried about that. Swear to be on time.

Mike DeVoy: Swear to be on time.

Dave DeVoy: Swear to be on time.

Joe DeVoy: Michael, I don’t know. Not smart off to the head clock keeper.

Mike DeVoy: Not smart off to the head clock keeper.

Dave DeVoy: Not smart off to the head clock keeper.

Joe DeVoy: For the duration of my apprenticeship.

Mike DeVoy: For the duration of my apprenticeship.

Dave DeVoy: For the duration of my apprenticeship.

Joe DeVoy: Which may have no end date.

Mike DeVoy: Which may have no end date.

Dave DeVoy: Which may have no end date.

Joe DeVoy: At this time, I would like to congratulate you both, and as well as inform you that the work is mostly on Sundays and is all volunteer.

Mike DeVoy: Thank you very much. Appreciate that, more volunteer work.

Joe DeVoy: That’s all we have.

President Tornatta: That’s a swear in handshake guys.

Joe DeVoy: Congratulations, Mr. DeVoy.

President Tornatta: Hey, don’t forget us. Don’t forget us.

Mike DeVoy: Thank you.

Dave DeVoy: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Oh, boy.

Commissioner Winnecke: On a serious note, thank you for what you do.

President Tornatta: Yes.

Commissioner Winnecke: Your volunteer work–

Joe DeVoy: My pleasure.

Commissioner Winnecke: –it is very much appreciated. Thank you.

President Tornatta: I bet that’s going to be a fun ride home.

Commissioner Winnecke: I bet they’re not going home.

President Tornatta: Probably not. Alright, any other public comment?

President Tornatta: Alright, we’re going to have consent agendas read into the minutes please.

Madelyn Grayson: Okay, the consent items for the March 17^th meeting are as follows; approval of the March 3, 2009 Commission meeting minutes, employment changes from the various offices, 12 travel requests from the Health Department, one from Weights and Measures, two from the County Engineer, the March 2009 A/P vouchers from the County Auditor, the County Engineer has pay request number 74 for the Green River TIF projects in the amount of $190,893.33, Burdette Park’s yearly comparison from February 2008 to February 2009, the Treasurer’s January 2009 year-to-date report, AMR fourth quarter payment, and three eminent domain settlement agreements: Reising: University Parkway, J.J. Brodi LLC: Green River Road, Carey: Green River Road, and department head reports from Burdette Park, County Engineer, County Highway and the Ozone Officer.

President Tornatta: Motion?

Commissioner Melcher: I make a motion to approve the consent items.

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: Motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Approval of the March 3, 2009 Commission Meeting Minutes.

AMR :Fourth Quarter 2008 Payment.

Eminent Domain Settlements: Reising: Univ. Pkwy.; JJ Brodi & Carey: Green River

Employment Changes:

County Highway (1)                  County Clerk (1)                       Prosecutor (1)

VCCC (2)                                  Burdette Park (4)

Travel Requests:

Weights & Measures (1)           County Engineer (2)                 Health Dept. (12)

Auditor: March 2009 A/P Vouchers.

County Engineer: Pay Request No. 74: Green River-Burkhardt TIF Projects.

Burdette Park: Yearly Comparison: February 2008 through February 2009.

Treasurer: January 2009 Year-to-Date Report.

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer

Those in Attendance:

Troy Tornatta                            Stephen Melcher                      Lloyd Winnecke

Bill Fluty                                    Kathryn Schymik                      Madelyn Grayson

Debbie Bennett-Stearsman      Dave Rector                             Darren Stearns

Sherman Greer                         Annie Groves                            Jonathan Weaver

Matt Arvay                                Gary Heck                                Denise Cory

Lisa Daugherty                         John Stoll                                  Warren Mathies

Chris Walsh                              Joe DeVoy                                Mike DeVoy

Dave DeVoy                             Preston Edge                            Andrew Ritter

Shelby Edge                             Sammi Burnworth                     Lucas Keck

Brenda Jeffers                          Marissa Nichoalds                    Others Unidentified

Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Troy Tornatta, Member

Stephen Melcher

Lloyd Winnecke, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)