VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

MINUTES

APRIL 2, 2008

The Vanderburgh County Council met in session this 2nd day of April in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex. The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m. by Council President Marsha Abell.

President Abell: I’d like to call to order the April 2^nd, 2008 meeting of the Vanderburgh County Council. Auditor Fluty, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

(Pledge of Allegiance was given)

President Abell: Attendance roll call please.

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President Abell: I’d like to make note that our attorney, Mr. Ahlers, has an illness in his family and he’s not here this morning. And I’d like to thank Rebecca for coming.

Mr. Raben, would you like to take over the appropriation ordinance? I’m sorry, I missed the approval of the minutes.

President Abell: Could I have a motion to approve the minutes of the last, --

Councilmember Winnecke: So moved.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: It’s February the 6^th and the March 5^th minutes. Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

President Abell: And now Mr. Raben.

TREASURER

Councilmember Raben: Okay, thank you. Good morning. First on the agenda under Treasurer, 1030-3410 Printing in the amount of $7,000. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

TREASURER                                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

COMMISSIONERS

Councilmember Raben: County Commissioners, 1300-3140 Telephone in the amount of $1,080. That calculates to $40/ month beginning April 1, so that’s nine months.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: No.

COMMISSIONERS                                                REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion carried 6-1/President Abell opposed)

PUBLIC DEFENDER

Councilmember Raben: Okay next, Public Defender 1303-3948 Death Penalty case in the amount of $153,329, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Councilmember Raben: Can we have discussion on that?

President Abell: Yes, you can.

Councilmember Raben: Madam President, just an idea, possibly, moving forward, we might want to set some guidelines on what we do as far as what’s reimbursable and what’s not. We talked a little bit about this last week maybe, just establishing the per diem that we utilize in every other office throughout the county which is, I think, $26 a day. And that would be for like expert witnesses, Public Defender, Prosecutor, I know the courts utilize that per diem rate. Just an idea – I wanted to see what anybody else’s thoughts were.

President Abell: I have been attempting to schedule a meeting with a member of the state public defender’s commission and actually have been talking to several people about doing that, to see what limitations we can put in and stay within the state statute.

Councilmember Leader: Mrs. Abell, may I comment? When I was Mead Johnson/Bristol-Myers Squibb, we had, obviously, travel throughout the world. And one of the things we established, we had a very strict travel policy and per diem policy. But one of the things we took into account was the market in which we were working. And so I just wanted to present that if we move a trial to a major market, it might not be possible to have breakfast, lunch and dinner for $26. And I’m sure the state takes that into account as well, but I just wanted to make that comment because sometimes it turned out it wasn’t possible, so we had kind of an A, B and C per diem requirement.

President Abell: Any other comments? Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: No.

PUBLIC DEFENDER                                             REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion carried 6-1/President Abell opposed)

COUNTY COUNCIL

Councilmember Raben: Okay next, under County Council, Court Technology in the amount of 5,000, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

COUNTY COUNCIL                                               REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Councilmember Raben: Okay, County Highway, 2010-1029 Truck Driver in the amount of $6,529; 2010-1850 Union Overtime in the amount of $35,000, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Mr. Sutton, are you voting or did you have a question?

Councilmember Sutton: Yeah, the – on this request here, I didn’t have – I wasn’t involved in the conversation last week, but this is – on that Union Overtime, that is just Union Employees only, in that line?

Councilmember Raben: To my knowledge it is.

Councilmember Leader: As I recall, the others were Comp Time. Is that right, Mr. Fluty?

Bill Fluty: That is correct.

Councilmember Sutton: Okay, so we don’t have any comp requests for any of the salaried employees in any of these lines here?

Bill Fluty: We will only be paying Union employees.

Councilmember Sutton: Okay.

President Abell: Mr. Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: The comp time, I think, that Mike presented was just to let us know how many hours they worked and I don’t know if there was any other angle involved, but he was not requesting any additional comp time nor any additional monies for the salaried.

Councilmember Leader: Well, those were actual hours that are available for them to take. He did say to us, because I asked him that question, that only 20 hours, I believe or 30 hours, Mr. Fluty, carried over. Do you know which it was? At the end of the year, but those were actual comp hours they can take because I asked him how they would ever have time to take all those hours.

Bill Fluty: They do have a limit on what they can carry over, that is correct.

Councilmember Leader: So those are actual hours they can take.

Councilmember Sutton: I mean, I asked, the question I asked, I mean, in particular, I mean, we can recall, I guess when we had the tornado back a year or so, year and a half ago, that there was a request that came before Council for salaried employees to get overtime and I took great issue with that in that salaried employees know exactly what their salary is and overtime is not a part of that. So I just wanted to make sure we’re very clear in this request here.

Bill Fluty: Then again, this is in Union Overtime and I think when we did the salaried, we actually put it into a civilian line item by your authority, and then paid in that particular instance.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

COUNTY HIGHWAY                                              REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

Councilmember Raben: Madam President, we might want to circle the wagons back on this at some time between now and budget time to, there again, establish maybe some guidelines to follow on comp time.

LOCAL ROADS & STREETS

Councilmember Raben: Okay next, under Local Roads & Streets, 2160-2530 in the amount of $40,000 and 2160-2580 in the amount of 35,000, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: I have a question, Mr. Raben. By leaving the Bituminous Materials at $40,000, that gives us the money for asphalt for patching potholes?

Councilmember Raben: Yeah, that takes care of that. The thought on the 35,000 for the Calcium Chloride line instead of the 70 is, you know, we are in April. I mean, I understand what Mike’s point was, loading the barns up with salt so we’ve got it going into next year. But salt will be available next fall or early winter. You know, I don’t know that you gamble on, will you have another winter like you had this year or not, but we can address that, you know, late this year or early next year.

Councilmember Sutton: Pricing will probably be more favorable later than it is now anyway, I would assume.

President Abell: Petroleum might be cheaper.

Councilmember Sutton: We hope. We all hope.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: I just want to clarify, it’s 40 and 35? Thank you. Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

LOCAL ROADS & STREETS                                REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

REASSESSMENT/PIGEON TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR

CUMULATIVE BRIDGE (TWO REQUESTS)

Councilmember Raben: Okay transfers, Madam President, I’m going to move that all transfers be approved as listed.

Councilmember Leader: I’ll second.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

PIGEON TWP. ASSESSOR                                  REQUESTED       APPROVED

CUMULATIVE BRIDGE                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

CUMULATIVE BRIDGE                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

Councilmember Raben: And last is the amendments to the Salary Ordinance. First, I’ll move that we amend salary line 2010-1850 Union Overtime as previously adopted. Salary line 2010-1029 Truck Driver as previously approved. The employee’s salary that will be transferred in this line will have an annual salary of $36,236 to be prorated at $17.2877 per hour for the remainder of 2008. The original hire date for this employee was January the 2^nd of 2004. Cum Bridge: amend salary line 2030-1850 Union Overtime as previously approved. Community Corrections/Sheriff: set salary line 1051-340 Confinement Officer in at $35,152 and salary line 1051-312 Confinement Officer in at $35,209. Superintendent of County Buildings, set salary line 1310-1120 Carpenter in at $37,110. And that concludes the amendments and I make that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Sutton: Second.

President Abell: If there’s no discussion, roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Shetler?

Councilmember Shetler: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

President Abell: Thank you, Mr. Raben.

President Abell: Old Business, we have a board appointment for the PTA board and I’ve been working with Mr. Weaver on this. We have found someone we want to appoint, his name is Charles Butler. He’s been a realtor for many years and his specialty is low income housing and rental properties. Not that that’s his specialty, but that’s what he deals a lot with. And that was sort of a weakness on that board. We don’t know if he qualifies because he has to have a certain certification. Mr. Weaver is working with him and we talked this week, we’re going to go ahead and appoint him to that board. If he has to have the certification and he will not take it, then we’ll have to reappoint. But he has indicated that he would take that certification unless it requires him to go to Indianapolis for an extended period of time. So we’ll put it in there today because they really need someone on that board to make sure they have a quorum every time and it’s a pretty important board.

Under New Business, you’ll notice there’s a change of date from August 27^th, the Personnel and Finance Meeting, to August the 26^th. We’re going to have it in conjunction with our regular meeting so we don’t have to come back a second day. We were going to have a guest speaker this morning.

Councilmember Leader: May I comment?

President Abell: I was going to ask you if you would. Yes.

Councilmember Leader: Thank you. I have been appointed as the Regional Vice President for the Indiana, or the Association of Indiana Counties, and went last Friday with the President of the Association, Tony Wolfe, who is the President of the Gibson County Council, to Indianapolis. And one of the things the Association is working hard to do is to clarify for us the impact of the legislation on County Councils. And as many of you probably know, we have additional responsibilities as a result of the recent legislation. Mr. Wolfe had hoped to be with us this morning to talk to us briefly about the plans to educate all of us in those areas, however, he is a farmer in Gibson County and since this is the first day of sunshine in I don’t know how long, in addition to his Farm Bureau responsibilities, he needed to work this morning. We will ask him to join us at our meeting on the last Wednesday in April as Mrs. Abell and I discussed. And he will bring us up to date on what we can do to educate ourselves more fully in our new responsibilities. So most of you know him and he’s a walking encyclopedia, so it will be a very interesting presentation.

President Abell: Thank you, and congratulations on your appointment.

Councilmember Leader: Thank you.

President Abell: Any other business to come before Council? We stand adjourned.

(There being no further business to come before the board, the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 a.m.)

VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

        President Marsha Abell               Vice President Lloyd Winnecke

       Councilmember Jim Raben           Councilmember Mike Goebel

        Councilmember Tom Shetler         Councilmember Royce Sutton

        Councilmember Donna Leader

Recorded and transcribed by Teri Lukeman.