VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

MAY 12, 2003

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 12^th day of May, 2003 at 5:33 p.m. in Room 307 of the Civic Center Complex with President David Mosby presiding.

President Mosby: I would like to call to order the Board of Commissioners meeting for May 12, 2003. Introductions are as follows: to my far right, Tammy McKinney, Superintendent of Buildings; Kevin Winternheimer, Corporate Counsel; Commissioner Fanello; myself; Commissioner Crouch; Auditor Bill Fluty and Recording Secretary Madelyn Grayson. At this time please stand and say the Pledge.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Mosby: I have somewhat of a cold tonight, so bear with me.

President Mosby: Approval of the April 28, 2003 Commission minutes meeting.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: Motion and a second. So ordered.

President Mosby: At this time we will suspend normal business, just for a second. Or this still is normal business, to make recognition of the Prudential Award winner. I have something I am going to read and then we will present the award. This will be easier.

“It is with great pleasure as President of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners to make a very special and important presentation on behalf of Prudential Financial. Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals sponsor a nationwide awards program to honor young Americans who care about the communities and actively look for ways to make them better places to live. They do that out of a belief that if we are going to meet the challenges that face our nation we all are going to have to get more involved in our communities and our greatest hope lies in young people like tonight’s honoree, Clinton Hasenour.”

Clinton, you can stand up now.

“Prudential believes that identifying and honoring young people who are community service role models is the key part of their mission to stress the importance of community involvement to our youth. More than 24,000 young people across the county were considered for Prudential’s Spirit of the Community Award this year. From all these a select few in each state have been selected for special recognition. Clinton Hasenour, a senior of Central High School and a member of the Vanderburgh County 4-H program, and one of Prudential’s distinguished finalists.”

Clinton, would you please...I done said that...come forward. I stepped ahead.

“Clinton has been singled out from all the high school and middle school level students in Indiana for extraordinary achievement. Not in academics, not in sports or the arts, but in service to his community. Clinton initiated a program through the Junior Mental Health Association that challenged teenage volunteers to make a difference in the lives of the area nursing home residents. He asked his parents and group members to make a commitment to give them what they need most, their time and attention. Clinton, your commitment and achievement represents the highest ideas of the service to our community. As the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County we are extremely proud of what you have accomplished and we salute you as a 2003 Prudential Spirit of the Community distinguished finalist. To signify this honor I would like to present you with this Prudential Spirit of the Community bronze medallion for outstanding community service.”

On behalf of Prudential and on behalf of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners I congratulate you on a well deserved honor.

President Mosby: Under bid advertisements and openings, Phil Lawrence.

Phil Lawrence: Thank you, sir. I would like permission to advertise APA008-2003, that’s the batteries for automotive and other equipment.

Commissioner Fanello: I’ll make a motion to advertise.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: Motion and a second to advertise bids, so ordered.

Phil Lawrence: Second item, permission to award VC026-2003, the towing contract. I think Kevin has copies of those.

Kevin Winternheimer: Yes, if I might pass these out. There should even be one for Madelyn. The first one is the towing of the nuisance, wrecked and other vehicles. The second one I am passing out, again there are four copies, is the towing of the abandoned vehicles and the last one is a contract for the storage of nuisance, wrecked, impounded and county vehicles. I received a call this afternoon or sometime today from Commissioner Fanello wanting some clarifications to the contract and I added additional language under the abandoned one. There is a new subsection 4.3 requiring every three months a list of the current vehicles, proof of insurance and proof of registration. That’s to verify what is required in article two as far as equipment and insurance and so forth. On page four there is a statement that no other fees other than those in the fee schedule may be charged by the contractor. Under the towing of the nuisance and other vehicles you’ll find that same 4.3 and similar language about no other fees may be charged. And then in the storage contract, since there is no towing involved with the storage, it says that...added a statement that no other fees may be charged other than those in the schedule provided. Otherwise I present those contracts for your approval.

Les Shively: Mr. President, before you vote I would like to be heard on this particular matter.

President Mosby: Okay, as soon as...is there any questions by any members of the Board at this time?

Madelyn Grayson: I just had one question. Do these replace the ones that were in the signature file?

Kevin Winternheimer: Yes, yes.

President Mosby: And we can make that motion to adopt these before we vote? Mr. Shively, if you want to come forward.

Les Shively: Okay, thank you. Mr. President and members of the Board of Commissioners, I represent...my name is Les Shively and I represent Mike’s Towing owner Anthony Jackson. Mr. Jackson’s company, Mike’s Towing, previously had the contract and they submitted a bid in this particular case. There are some concerns which we believe need to be addressed before the county awards this contract. Let me take these somewhat in reverse order in terms of following the contracts as they were delineated by Mr. Winternheimer. With regard to the storage contract under Article 1, Scope of Services/Specifications, number H it says:

“Storage facility must have a minimum of four acres in order to adequately store the number of vehicles towed at the request of the Sheriff’s Department.”

The only other bidder on this contract, which I believe is Hamrick’s Service and Repair at 1277 Maxwell Avenue, their location...by the way, their location which was not zoned to legally be a storage facility until this year, in fact, was not probably zoned at the time they made application and was bid, I don’t believe. Nonetheless, these are the records from Plan Commission that show that the land in question is only 2.589 acres.

Madelyn Grayson: Mr. Shively, do you have one for the record?

Les Shively: I did. I gave them my last one. It pretty well indicates that this property falls below the minimum required acreage. The location for Mike’s Towing, most of you are familiar with its location there at the end of...I’m trying to recall...at the end of Boeke.

Unidentified: Weinbach.

Les Shively: Weinbach, excuse me, the end of Weinbach. You can see it there off I-164. I haven’t gone out there with a surveying crew, but I can...by looking at it Mr. Jackson will attest it certainly is in excess of four acres and he has been a bidder before and met those same specifications. With regard to the other contracts there is an equipment requirement. Mr. Jackson, when he submitted his bid for both the county and the city contract which are as you know handled through the same office, central Purchasing, combined Purchasing, provided a copy of his insurance policy along with the exhibit to that policy which identifies all of the vehicles by serial number, etc., to show that not only they are insured, but he has the requisite vehicles to meet the terms of the contract. I think it was 12 wreckers at minimum. Smaller wreckers, the everyday wreckers we see that are required and access to one of the heavy duty rigs. Mike’s Towing has made that information available to Mr. Lawrence’s office. In review of the documents that were filed, at least of record thus far we’re not aware that the other bidder in the case has made that information available to the county. I also would note, and I realize that the contract that you award is separate from the city, but you depend upon the same offices to somewhat scrutinize these bids and to provide information and counsel before you award these bids. Back in February of this year on behalf of Mike’s Towing I brought to the attention of the Board of Public Safety deficiencies with regard to the bid by Mr. Hamrick, not the least of which, and I provided to the Board of Safety, a copy of an invoice from Mr. Hamrick’s operation which incidentally coincides with what Mr. Winternheimer talked about or at least the modification of the contract regarding adding additional charges. As you know, your contract is very clear of what can be charged to the public and this particular invoice indicated that there are other charges that were not allowed under contract, the city contract which is very similar to your requirements, being charged by Mr. Hamrick’s company. What I would ask, and especially in view of the fact that there are going to be some changes to this contract, I would ask that you take some time here, at least one more week, look into these matters to determine whether in fact Mr. Hamrick is in fact a qualified bidder in this particular situation in view of these facts. If he doesn’t have the requisite four acres for example there is no way that he can have the storage contract or even bid on the storage contract. So we would really ask that the Board of Commissioners, its proper departments, Mr. Lawrence’s office or whomever, look into these matters before a decision is made in terms of awarding this contract. Again, I am more than happy to answer any questions you have at this time and my client is here as well.

President Mosby: Are there any questions by any member of the Commission?

Commissioner Fanello: I guess I would defer to our county attorney and ask his opinion on what we should do.

Kevin Winternheimer: You might want to–

President Mosby: I guess my question would be to Mr. Lawrence.

Phil Lawrence: The information that was provided to the...in the bids was the insurance and the vehicle requirements. The acreage have never...that’s something we’ve never checked. I understand Mr. Hamrick has the ability to utilize another yard somewhere else. I’m not certain which yard that is. Okay, it’s in the file in the office, but I know that he has a lease at another facility, Liberty Auto, where he can store additional vehicles.

Commissioner Fanello: And how many acres is that?

Phil Lawrence: I don’t know.

President Mosby: Okay, then I guess my question would be to our counsel now. He is storing off-site, I think the contract says it has to be under his security at all times. Now he is saying he has an off-site spot.

Kevin Winternheimer: That’s a very good question. I wish I had the specs in front of me. I don’t have the answers to your question. I don’t have the specs and I would have to take another look at them. I last looked at them last week when I put together the contract, so I don’t have an answer for you right now.

Commissioner Fanello: Mr. Shively has it for you.

Kevin Winternheimer: It also goes on to give the specifications for storage of nuisance and county vehicles. It must be adequate size to store a minimum of 300 vehicles in an orderly and secure fashion. I don’t know how many vehicles you get to an acre.

Phil Lawrence: Right, yeah.

Kevin Winternheimer: I don’t know–

Phil Lawrence: I think that’s up for interpretation as far as do you have to have four acres or can your facility handle 400 cars. I mean, that is certainly up to the Commissioners whether they would...

President Mosby: That’s a whole different deal, it’s across the street. I’m just reading this. Storage facility must have a minimum of four acres of storage space in order to adequately store the number vehicles.

Commissioner Fanello: But 1.7 says the storage facility shall be located at 1277 Maxwell Avenue.

President Mosby: Exactly.

Phil Lawrence: Okay.

Les Shively: Mr. President, I’ll just call your...I’ll point out to Mr. Winternheimer paragraph M regarding 24 hours. It’s in the same section as specifications is.

President Mosby: Well, I’m looking in the contract he wrote.

Kevin Winternheimer: What he is referring to is it says, I’ll just read it, it says:

“The storage facility shall be manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week and insure that adequate security is available so as to prevent theft and destruction from or to vehicles towed and stored as requested by the Sheriff’s Department.”

President Mosby: That’s what I had read earlier somewhere and that is what I was referring to.

Phil Lawrence: The only question that is up is whether it is four acres. I mean, I don’t see any other–

Commissioner Fanello: No, that is not the question. The question is 1.7 according to Kevin’s contract says the storage facility shall be located at 1277 Maxwell Avenue.

Phil Lawrence: With four acres?

Commissioner Fanello: Yes.

Phil Lawrence: Yeah, that’s what I meant was whether it has four acres at that site. Mr. Hamrick is here.

President Mosby: Well, his document says 2.589.

Commissioner Fanello: Well, could we send our...somebody from our County Engineering Department go out and measure?

Phil Lawrence: Mr. Hamrick contends that’s four acres, so I mean, I think perhaps maybe the engineer can go out. That’s up to you. I (inaudible) survey.

Commissioner Fanello: I mean, we were prepared to pass contracts tonight for Hamrick’s Towing. Those were the three contracts that the county attorney prepared. But in order to make everybody feel more comfortable I’ll make a motion that we defer for one week and have the county engineer go out and measure the property if that is acceptable.

Kevin Winternheimer: Yeah, I can’t verify the facts.

President Mosby: I can’t either. I mean, I’m just giving what I was looking at.

Kevin Winternheimer: And if the contract needs to be changed in some manner, but yes it does say at 1277 Maxwell and so forth and I don’t know whether this second facility is a secured facility or any of that, so that all, I think, needs to be checked out.

Commissioner Crouch: I will second the motion, but I hope every bid that comes before this Commission is looked at with the scrutiny that this one is.

Commissioner Fanello: I would hope so, too, when we are spending taxpayer dollars.

Commissioner Crouch: Yes, and I also would hope that the contract when it is signed, if it is ever signed with Mr. Hamrick, runs for two years from the day it is signed because he has not had, nor anyone other than Mike’s Towing has had the business since the first of the year because we haven’t signed a contract.

Commissioner Fanello: Well, Kevin does have in the contract that it would run for one full year, so the date that we sign it he has in it for one full year–

President Mosby: It will go for a full year.

Commissioner Fanello: –with an option to extend for one year.

President Mosby: So I have a motion and a second, so ordered. This will be back on the agenda next Monday.

Phil Lawrence: Alright, thank you.

President Mosby: Morley & Associates.

Madelyn Grayson: I don’t know that there is a representative here.

President Mosby: Okay, permission to advertise notice of public hearing regarding the vacation of a public right-of-way. We have it in our packet.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: A motion and a second, so ordered.

President Mosby: County Engineer, open quotes for VC03-05-02, concrete repairs in Willow Creek Subdivision. Also open quotes...should we take all three of these at the same time?

Kevin Winternheimer: Let’s do one at a time.

President Mosby: Let’s do one at a time. Concrete repair at Willow Creek.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Kevin Winternheimer: Anybody in the audience have any bids on any of the projects tonight before I start opening? Seeing none.

President Mosby: The three projects are Willow Creek Subdivision, Roth Road culvert and repair and repaving of Duesner and Roth roads.

Kevin Winternheimer: The first set will be the Willow Creek Subdivision, VC03-05-02. The first bid is from Deig Brothers Lumber & Construction Company, Inc. of Evansville and their total quote is $28,239. The next bid is from Concrete Pavers, Inc. of Evansville. Their total is $22,218.70. I have one more. The last one is from J.H. Rudolph & Company, Inc. of Evansville. Their total appears to be $27,390. That’s all the bids I have on that project.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to take under advisement.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to open quotes for Roth Road culvert.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Kevin Winternheimer: The first bid is from CCC of Evansville, Inc. I’ll find the total. Their total is $38,487.08. The next bidder is Koberstein Trucking, Inc. from Princeton. Their total $45,384. The next bid is from Accurate Underground Utilities, Inc. from Evansville. Their total $40,879. The next one is from Deig Brothers Lumber & Construction Company, Inc. of Evansville. Their total $45,624.50.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to take under advisement.

Kevin Winternheimer: Wait, I’ve got one more.

Commissioner Fanello: Sorry.

Kevin Winternheimer: One more. The last one is from J.H. Rudolph & Company, Inc. of Evansville and their total $45,670 and that’s all we have.

Commissioner Fanello: Now a motion to take under advisement.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

President Mosby: Next we’ll open paving for Duesner and Roth Road.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to open bids.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Kevin Winternheimer: The first bid is...oh, okay. I’ll find out. This is divided into sections it looks like. The bid is from J.H. Rudolph & Company, Inc. Their total...let me...I guess this is divided into two. Road number one, Duesner Road, $134,353.20. The second road, Roth Road, $103,847.84. I believe that is a total of $238,201.04. We have one more bid. The last bid is from E & B Paving, Inc. of Evansville. Okay. For Duesner Road, $149,120.85. Roth Road, $109,020.42 for a total $258,141.27. That’s all the bids I have.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to take under advisement.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Madelyn Grayson: May we make a quick tape change?

Tape change

Madelyn Grayson: Thank you.

President Mosby: Next we have Commissioners’ Airport Authority Board appointment.

Commissioner Fanello: Yes, our appointment, June Folz, was appointed, I believe, last year to fulfill the term of Mr. Ossenberg and her appointment is up so I would like to make a motion to reappoint June Folz.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered. While we’re on the discussion of board appointments I was contacted by John Dunn, I believe it was, who is heading the consolidation discussion panel and he has asked that each one of the Commissioners make an appointment to that board, so if we could possibly next week. If you have a name we could take a name to submit to Mr. Dunn.

President Mosby: Next, Computer Services, Kansas Road DS1 contract pricing amendment.

Commissioner Fanello: This was the one that was brought to us a couple of weeks ago and we were trying to get a better price on it and they did lower the price by $75.00, so I’ll make a motion to approve the contract.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: A motion and a second to approve, so ordered.

President Mosby: The next item, recognition of a contract for the bargaining unit for the Clerk’s Office, we will hold that. The officeholder is out of town today and I have not had a chance to contact her, so we will put this off till our next scheduled meeting. I’ll get back with you on a date.

President Mosby: Commission contracts, Baker & Daniels, bond counsel services for Barrett Law.

Kevin Winternheimer: I did not bring that one with me.

Commissioner Fanello: Here.

Kevin Winternheimer: She has a copy here, good. That is on the Barrett Law–

President Mosby: Yes.

Kevin Winternheimer: –Mill Terrace Subdivision and it is a cap of $10,000 fixed fee and plus out of pocket expenses which they say are not expected to exceed $750. As I reported before this was the lowest price of three law firms. Actually, two firms gave prices and a third one said they were not interested in even giving a price. So I would ask for your approval and then we’ll get started on this.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: I have a motion and a second to approve, so ordered. Is there any other items to come before the Commission?

President Mosby: Public comment. Anybody from the public?

Laura Koewler: Hi, my name is Laura Koewler and I live at 5621 New Harmony Road. The problem I am having is the next door neighbor’s culvert is either clogged or caved in and it is causing drainage problems in my home. My basement is flooding and I am asking the county to fix the culvert. It is also causing problems at the second home and it has broke through now, but I’m still getting the water in my basement and it is causing standing water on the neighbor on the other side’s property also. I would just like the county to take a look at it and see if they could repair it.

President Mosby: Okay, what was your last name?

Laura Koewler: Koewler.

President Mosby: Laura Koewler.

Laura Koewler: K-o-e-w-l-e-r.

President Mosby: Okay. We have a garage superintendent with us tonight and he has a brand new flush truck, so he would be more than glad to go out there and practice.

Unidentified: No, he is not going to practice.

President Mosby: We will turn this over to him tonight so that he can come out in the morning and look at the culvert and we’ll try to flush through it and if there happens to be more extensive problems we’ll let you know.

Laura Koewler: Thanks.

President Mosby: Thank you.

John Stoll: One thing that we’ve look at in regard to that problem, and we’ve been trying to determine whether or not that pipe out there in front of the property is in the right-of-way. So far the deeds that we’ve found have just said subject to existing rights-of-way, so we haven’t been able to define a specific width. It appears it is in the right-of-way we just haven’t found any documents to support that as of yet, so that is the only unknown as far as where the pipe lies relative to the county’s obligations.

President Mosby: Okay. Is there anybody else that would like to speak. Anybody from the public? Anybody has anything they want to bring up? Seeing none, old business.

President Mosby: Is there any old business to come before the Commission.

Commissioner Fanello: I believe we probably need to talk about the decision made in the Council last week to not fund the road to the jail and sewage treatment plant.

President Mosby: That’s the one thing I had on my agenda. Well, I mean I can start out by saying, and I’m sure Commissioner Crouch is aware of everything that has happened. Last Wednesday we went for funding on the road project to the Council for the $1.4 million which I was under the interpretation that they had said once before when we was buying the land that they knew we would have to fund the road and they would fund that. It so happens they do not want to fund it out of the Jail Fund which I think is what the Jail Fund was initially set up for in case and they would prefer that we take it out of the Local Roads & Streets. In numerous conversations with the county engineer and going over some of the road projects and looking at what EUTS has on their plate it is very obvious that $1.9 is not going to go very far. I mean, there is, I guess, some $9 million plus identified this year through EUTS, if I remember correctly. There is some $2.5 million identified the following year, two and a half the following and about $12 million unknown through Local Roads & Streets. The fund only brings in approximately $1.7 million a year. Right now the county engineer has hopefully two projects that are going to go by the end of the year which will total close to $800,000. So if you take the $800,000 from $1.9 it’s going to leave you approximately $1.1. It’s going to be hard to get $1.4 out of $1.1. The math don’t add up to me. We were left, I guess, with no other decision. My decision, I will say, was to have a news conference Friday and it is my belief at this time that for the second time that this project has started the Council has once again cut this project. I mean, this project started at some 650 beds, went to 512 beds and will probably now go to some 440 to 450 beds taking off one housing unit at 64 beds. It’s my belief, I talked with the engineers and architects on Thursday, we lose one housing unit and we lose 64 beds and it becomes a bid, an add alternate. So if there is any other conversation I would be glad to hear it.

Commissioner Fanello: Well, I just to reiterate what you just said, I sit on the EUTS Board and we received our draft of our 2004 through 2006 Transportation Improvement Program. And as you said, I mean, those numbers...or we’ve got about $9.4 million of projects in 2004. Now these are all local funding. These are not state funds, these are not federal funds, these are local funds. A lot of those for 2004 are funded, but some of them are not. In 2005 we have $2.1, 2006 almost $2.6 million and for illustrative purpose there are $12.3 million worth of road projects identified that we don’t know where the funding is coming from, so I am not going to take funding from Local Roads & Streets which benefits all resident throughout this entire county to fund one road project for the jail when there sits $3.7 million in a Jail Fund that could be used for that project. You know, if we were paying for the entire $1.4 million I could understand the Council being a little bit hesitant about it, but we are getting reimbursed 50 percent from the Utility Department. I would just remind this Commission, and I went ahead and put this spreadsheet together for everybody, but I would remind this Commission that the Council has denied us $4 million worth of funding over the past two years in the Local Road & Street Fund. Under the prior administration they received $2.5 to $3 million in COIT money for this fund. Since this administration took over that COIT money dropped to $1 million. Our fund last year ended up dipping into the cash balance by $705,000 because the Council failed to fund the entire budget with revenue to cover the entire budget. This year it will probably end up between $700,000 to $1 million dipping into the cash balances. Now this is not proper planning. Long-term planning dictates that you keep appropriate cash reserves and that you plan for future projects three and five years down the road and I would hope that the Council would understand that and start looking at these projects with some seriousness because they benefit all residents.

President Mosby: Is there any other comments. I know you are very familiar with this.

Commissioner Crouch: Well, unfortunately governments have to deal with actions at other levels that effect money. The state legislature constantly is making decisions that impacts the amount of money that we receive. If Council voted not to fund that money out of the jail construction then I don’t think there is any option but to downscale the size of the jail unless there is money available some place else.

Commissioner Fanello: But that’s not planning for the long-term because that size jail will open in 2006 and will be overcrowded the day we open it and that is not long-term planning and it is not responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

Commissioner Crouch: But our available monies are shrinking and I’m sure that’s what Council has on their minds. All of us have to do the best we can with less resources.

Commissioner Fanello: If we didn’t have over $3 million sitting in a Jail Fund right now I would agree with you, but we do have money available to fund this. You know, our share is seven hundred and some thousand dollars. The money is there to fund it without taking it away from all of the residents throughout the county and other road projects that have been on the books for quite a long time.

Commissioner Crouch: I do believe though the jail plan as it is...has been presented allows for future expansion, so that opportunity is always there when resources become a little more available.

President Mosby: And I guess I would say one thing in comment to what you just said. And I heard Councilman Raben and Councilman Winnecke both say that you need to live within your means and I think when we accepted the $35 million we had said we would live within our means and we would get the best that we could get for that $35 million. It’s a very known fact that we tried to go right outside that window and build on property that we already owned and that seemed to have ruffled a lot of feathers throughout the Civic Center, I’ll say. We were asked at that point in time to please look outside of the Civic Center. We looked at a 15.3 acre lot that was going to cost us almost $3 million and the Council said if that’s what we had to do so be it. In turn we found 37 acres for $1 million and the road is only $1.4 million. Now we can get 37 acres for $2.4 million or we could have bought 15.3 for $3 million and I do remember it being said and I’ve talked to other people that said I heard it, you know, they realized we had to pay a million dollars for land and they knew we had to build a road and they said come back when you know the cost of the road. They gave us the $170,000 for the engineering and said bring us a total. Now we get here today and it’s live within your means and they want us to scale back a project that is no way going to be adequate. I mean, just because we build it, I’m not sure we’re doing it justice. I guess it’s like a husband and wife and four kids building a two bedroom home. You know, it wouldn’t make any sense and I guess that is what aggravates me, but once again we can live within our means and we’ll build something that was good for 30 years ago and decide when we open it what we do with it.

Commissioner Crouch: Well, if the husband and wife and four kids only have money to build a two bedroom home that is hopefully what they do.

President Mosby: I doubt they would build it. I really do. They probably wouldn’t be as wasteful as our Council.

Commissioner Fanello: And I’ll just make one more comment. You know, there are problems throughout every state in this nation. I mean, the economy is suffering everywhere. We’re not the only state. That is why it is important to plan for the long-term and that is why I feel this Council administration has not planned for the long-term or else we would not be facing some of the budget constraints that we are facing today. Budgets should be planned out three and five years ahead of time. Not tomorrow and, you know, you don’t plan for just the next month you plan for the next 24, 36 and 60 months. That’s what...I’ll say that’s what the private businesses in the world do. Corporations don’t plan for one year, they plan for three and five years. We could probably take a lesson.

President Mosby: Do we need a motion to this affect? To put this in as an add alternate since we accepted the design?

Kevin Winternheimer: If it is going to require design changes, yeah, you need to.

President Mosby: It’s going to require a design.

Kevin Winternheimer: You need to direct the architects to work accordingly.

Commissioner Fanello: I’ll make a motion that we direct the architects to take the 64 beds and add them on as a bid alternate instead of making it a part of the original bid.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered. Is there any other discussion? Any other old business?

President Mosby: Any new business? Okay.

President Mosby: Department head reports, County Engineer.

John Stoll: First I have a change order on the St. Wendel Road bridge project. This is contract number VC02-12-01. It’s for a net increase of $7,810.79. We have sufficient funds in the account to cover this change order. The need for the change order arises from the fact that we had overruns and under runs on numerous items. The largest increases were we added an extra beam to increase the width of the bridge and we also had some extra rip-rap we placed. On the under runs we...I take that back. We had under runs on rip-rap. We had some overruns on other stone, but on the decrease side we had a decrease in rip-rap and we also used less piling, but the net change, like is said, was the increase of $7,810.79. It’s requested that this be approved.

Commissioner Fanello: So moved.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next I would like to request to go before County Council for two appropriations in the Cum Bridge Fund. The first is for $100,000 for the Darmstadt Road Bridge No. 410. That is the timber bridge that was authorized last year and the design is now complete and we’re trying to get the right-of-way. It’s on Darmstadt just a few hundred feet of Inglefield. The other appropriation is I would like to request $82,000 be appropriated into the Fulton Avenue Bridge account. This would cover what we believe is the remainder of what INDOT will invoice us for this project. Last week we received another invoice from INDOT as they are proceeding with their audits and that invoice was for $37,500. We went back and checked what the total project cost was based on Bernardin’s final cost estimates and compared that to what we’ve paid INDOT and we owed...it appears we owe INDOT another eighty-one thousand some odd dollars so I would like to request that we appropriate $82,000 to hopefully cover the balance of what we owe INDOT.

Commissioner Fanello: Do we still have $50,000 budgeted in CCD?

John Stoll: I don’t believe anything was encumbered. I’ll check that.

Commissioner Fanello: Check that because I know I think we did have something in there last year, but check that.

John Stoll: If it is I will lower that request to $32,000 on the Cum Bridge Fund.

Commissioner Fanello: I’ll make the motion to approve.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

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

President Mosby: Any questions?

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Mosby: Thanks, John.

President Mosby: County Highway, Dennis.

Dennis Hudnall: Good evening, Dennis Hudnall, County Highway. First of all I would like to ask your permission to go out for some bids on some dump truck beds. Every year we try to do preventive maintenance on all these trucks to make them last longer and the trucks are in really, really good shape, but the beds are rusted out from the salt. Last year we replaced three of them and this year we need three more and that should bring the fleet up to pretty good shape and it is cheaper to replace the beds than it is the whole truck. Last year I think the bids were $6,300 a piece. It is in the budget to do that, so I would like to solicit bids to try to get the three trucks up to shape or in shape.

Commissioner Fanello: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered.

Dennis Hudnall: And second, we’re a little bit behind on the grass. We’ve had a lot of requests and if you get a call on the weed projects along the highways we are back on it. Last week the weather kind of hindered us in getting out in some of the scheduled places, but we are doing it as quickly as we can. That’s all I have for tonight unless you have any questions on my report.

President Mosby: I guess you talked to Laura?

Dennis Hudnall: Yes, I’ll go out there in the morning.

President Mosby: And John is going to let you know about right-of-way.

Madelyn Grayson: David, I just had a question on the dump truck bid. Is that something that I’ll be advertising for you or will you go through Purchasing?

Dennis Hudnall: They’re $6,300 a piece. Now if I put them all together that is $18,000 so I can solicit the bids.

Kevin Winternheimer: You can get quotes. If you think you’re going to go over $25,000 then they’ll need to be sealed quotes we open up here, but if you’re going to stay under $25,000 you can get those quotes and report back.

Dennis Hudnall: Yeah.

Kevin Winternheimer: The vendor and the prices that they gave you.

Dennis Hudnall: I tentatively called three places that have them and last year they’re gonna...they’re pretty well holding the same price that they did last year, all three of them.

Kevin Winternheimer: It does not need to be advertised is the answer to your question.

President Mosby: Thank you. Any other questions of Dennis? Thanks, Dennis.

Dennis Hudnall: Have a good night.

President Mosby: County Attorney, Kevin.

Kevin Winternheimer: Yes, I have one matter to bring up and I want to make sure that you all were aware that we had won the Three I property lawsuit. As you’ll recall this is a question that come...an appeal is made from a denial or rezoning and the Superior Court in Warrick County had ruled that in essence among many things that you had failed to adopt findings of fact to substantiate your decision to turn down a rezoning. I can let you know that I have talked to people from around the state who have been watching this because that court’s ruling was contrary to the past 60 or 70 years of zoning law in the state of Indiana. You are not required to make specific findings and had it of been upheld it would have been quite a serious matter. The courts have long said that zoning matters, whether to zone property or not, is a legislative decision and you don’t have to justify it by is there more evidence for or against it, it’s what you thought was best for the community as a whole, your own opinion. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court in Warrick County saying you were right and just as a point of information I’ve got copies of the case you can read, but I wanted to point out that essentially what the Court of Appeals is saying is that in a rezoning decision if there is any rational basis for your decision that decision should be upheld. Any basis, it doesn’t require you to make special findings of fact. It doesn’t require any weighing of the evidence and that’s what the Court of Appeals said the court in Warrick County did is they reweighed the zoning and decided what they thought was best, what the judge thought was best, and that’s not the role of the courts. Zoning decisions are here, not in the courts. So as long as you have a basis your decision will stand according to the Court of Appeals and in that particular case they noted you had many reasons including traffic, safety and so forth. So I just wanted to point that out. I don’t know whether it will be appealed. We’ll know probably in the next 30 days whether or not they are going to appeal it, but I wanted to let you know that your decision was upheld in the Court of Appeals. I wanted to give recognition to Rob Faulkner who handled this. He did an excellent job, and as I said, there were attorneys in communities from all the state because it would have effected not only Board of Commissioners in Vanderburgh County and in other counties, but it effects the counsel decisions as well, so everybody is watching this and everybody is hoping that they would reverse and they did. If anything further happens I’ll let you know. Other than that bit of good news I don’t have anything further.

Madelyn Grayson: Kevin, do you have a copy of that decision for the record?

Kevin Winternheimer: We’ll get you one. I only made three, but we’ll get you one. You can have that. We’ll get you one. That’s all I had.

President Mosby: Are there any questions of Kevin?

President Mosby: Seeing none, Superintendent of County Buildings.

Tammy McKinney: I just have one thing. I need to take a couple of the travel requests off the consent items. Soil & Water and the Commissioners need to be taken off and then that is all I have.

President Mosby: Soil & Water?

Tammy McKinney: Yeah, Soil & Water and then the Commissioners off the travel requests.

Commissioner Fanello: I’ll make a motion to remove those two from the consent items.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: So ordered. Okay.

President Mosby: Burdette Park, Gary.

Gary Hohman: Gary Hohman, Burdette Park. We have our work report before you and that’s all we have unless you have some questions for us.

President Mosby: Any questions? Thanks, Gary.

President Mosby: I don’t see anybody from Soil & Water.

Commissioner Fanello: I’ll make a motion to accept the Soil & Water and Ozone Officer’s report.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: I have a motion to accept Soil & Water and Ozone, so ordered.

President Mosby: Consent items.

Commissioner Crouch: Question. On the employment changes, and I don’t know if this is an issue or not, but on the Sheriff’s salary normally Sandie Deig signs off on every one. There was no signature on that or initials. Is there an issue that we know of or is that just something she overlooked?

Commissioner Fanello: Tammy, do you know?

President Mosby: Pardon?

Commissioner Crouch: Must be an oversight.

President Mosby: I was going to say, according to Tammy she is saying that she brought them over so maybe she just forgot to sign off, I’m not sure.

Commissioner Crouch: The other question is on the Sheriff contract with AJA would there be money in the Commissary Fund to pay for that? The contract with AJA.

Eric Williams: (Inaudible comments made away from mike.)

Commissioner Crouch: Great, thanks.

Eric Williams: (Inaudible comments made away from mike.)

Commissioner Crouch: Good.

Commissioner Fanello: And just for clarification, $6,400, right?

Eric Williams: That is correct.

Commissioner Fanello: Not $63,000 as was previously reported? Just clarifying.

President Mosby: That’s okay. It had me concerned though.

Commissioner Fanello: John, you gave me a heart attack that day.

Bill Fluty: David, on Sheriff Ellsworth’s contract I gave some information to Kevin to research on if we can change an elected official’s base salary after it has been advertised in the salary ordinance when you go through next year and maybe that might be the reason it was not signed off on. That is something we’ve had trouble with in the past. It may be a little different for him because of the contract in his base salary.

Kevin Winternheimer: Right, this was a merger of the two, his...I can’t think of the proper...tax collection contract was merged into one document. If there is any problem with getting State Board of Accounts to understand what we are doing maybe we can add some language, but I think it should be okay the way it is because it was merging two different ones into one document. Actually there was really no change. The salary contract and the tax collection in one document.

Bill Fluty: You actually reduced his salary by $853, so there–

Kevin Winternheimer: Good.

Bill Fluty: –was a change and I think that is where the problem lies.

Kevin Winternheimer: Okay.

Bill Fluty: We’ve had that problem in the past.

Commissioner Crouch: So are you saying that we shouldn’t because we’ll be cited by State Board of Accounts?

Bill Fluty: I think that was...we had this same issue last year on, I think, some elected officials that they were trying to give a stipend for which they couldn’t late in the year. They couldn’t pay them in December because their salaries were already set for last year and they had to actually do that in the next year for 2003 and that’s where that first came up if you remember that.

Commissioner Crouch: Right, but are you advising us not to?

Bill Fluty: I’m just explaining that may be one of the reasons she didn’t sign off on that since her initials are usually on there and they are not now.

Kevin Winternheimer: Well, we can find out.

Bill Fluty: It’s just up for discussion. I gave you that paperwork and was hoping to get some input on that.

Eric Williams: If it matters Sheriff...this is Chief Deputy Eric Williams. Sheriff Ellsworth is aware of the reduction and is okay with that.

Bill Fluty: I believe he is aware and he is okay with it, but I’m not sure we can do it.

Kevin Winternheimer: Well, we’ll check into and see why.

President Mosby: Is there any other–

Commissioner Crouch: Well, I guess my concern is or my question is if we sign this who is going to get cited by State Board of Accounts if in effect we can’t raise their salary? Is it the Auditor’s Office or is it the County Commissioners?

Bill Fluty: Even if you sign it I won’t change it without getting permission further on up, so I’ll have to check with the State Board to see if I can do that ultimately.

Commissioner Crouch: Then are we going to be cited for trying to do something that the law doesn’t or State Board of Accounts (inaudible) by taking action?

Commissioner Fanello: What have you done for the previous...how many years has he been the Sheriff?

Bill Fluty: What we’re doing is you’re trying to change his salary in mid year and that’s the problem.

Commissioner Fanello: But haven’t you all...hasn’t he always had these contracts for the past three years?

Kevin Winternheimer: They were two separate contracts.

Bill Fluty: See you’re reducing his salary which is the problem. You can keep his salary the same. But you can’t...when the salary...once you do the salary ordinance you can’t change an elected official’s salary.

Commissioner Fanello: Right.

Bill Fluty: If you say $50,000 is what you’re going to get for 2003 that’s it. There is no lower or changing.

President Mosby: Can we just get him to write us a check and we won’t have to go through all this? I mean, it sounds like it would be simpler.

Commissioner Fanello: Uh-huh.

Bill Fluty: I think it’s just procedure, but we can check into it.

Eric Williams: There was some reason for those numbers.

Commissioner Crouch: Well, I don’t have a problem with it.

President Mosby: I was going to say if we’re getting money back, I mean I don’t have no problem.

Kevin Winternheimer: If they say there is something wrong we can redo the contract and we won’t be cited because we’ll change it before it gets that far, so if they don’t like the way we structured it we can structure it differently and keep them satisfied, I’m sure. I’ll break it...one document and break it down in salary and payment in lieu of the tax collection money. If that satisfies that’s fine.

Bill Fluty: That was the direction I was asking when I gave you that a couple of weeks ago.

Kevin Winternheimer: I don’t have any problem. I think you can go ahead and approve it and if they have a problem with it I’ll come back with an amended version. It’s not a problem.

Commissioner Crouch: Okay.

President Mosby: I didn’t know it was so hard to get money back.

Commissioner Crouch: Didn’t know it was so hard to get money back. And then do we need to amend to include the Sheriff’s public auction of the seized equipment?

Commissioner Fanello: Oh, that’s right.

Commissioner Crouch: Was there an amended agenda for that?

Commissioner Fanello: I didn’t see that in there. We have a letter from the Sheriff.

Commissioner Crouch: Seized property.

Commissioner Fanello: Yeah. I’ll go ahead and...have you seen this?

President Mosby: No.

Kevin Winternheimer: I haven’t seen it, but I don’t have any problem with this. He is just asking permission to surplus these items right? Then there is going to be an auction.

Commissioner Fanello: Oh, it’s under other reports. Sheriff - Permission for auction.

Commissioner Crouch: Okay.

Commissioner Fanello: I’ll make a motion to approve consent items.

President Mosby: As amended?

Commissioner Fanello: As amended.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Mosby: Second, okay. So ordered. There being no further business we stand adjourned.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:34 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

         Travel requests:

         Veterans Service (1)       Health Dept. (4)    

         Employment changes:

         Sheriff’s Dept                 Burdette Park                 County Clerk

         Prosecutor                      Circuit Court                   

         Request for telephone service

         Pass-thru items

         Sheriff - Jail report 

         Auditor - AP Vouchers 

         Sheriff - Auction

         Election office - surplus  

         Contract approvals from other departments

         Sheriff - AJA contract 

         Sheriff - Maintenance agreement

         Area Plan - Intern agreement

THOSE IN ATTENDANCE:

David W. Mosby                       Catherine Fanello           Suzanne M. Crouch

Kevin Winternheimer                Bill Fluty                          Tammy McKinney

Madelyn Grayson                     Clinton Hasenour            Phil Lawrence

Les Shively                               Laura Koewler                John Stoll

Dennis Hudnall                         Gary Hohman                 Eric Williams

Others unidentified                   Members of media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

David W. Mosby, President

Catherine Fanello, Vice President

Suzanne M. Crouch, Member

Recorded by Madelyn Grayson. Transcribed by Charlene Timmons