*Councilmember Sutton arrived just after roll call.

President Winnecke: Would you please stand and join in the Pledge of Allegiance?

(Pledge of Allegiance was given)

President Winnecke: I’d like to acknowledge Rebecca Rhymer, who is here in place of Mr. Ahlers this morning. Welcome. We’ll begin, Mr. Raben, our finance chair is out of town, so we’ll begin with appropriation requests and, Councilwoman Abell, if you will do the honors.

SUPERINTENDENT OF COUNTY BUILDINGS

Councilmember Abell: Thank you, Mr. President. The first one that we had was the Superintendent of County Buildings and that has been withdrawn from our request.

SUPERINTENDENT OF COUNTY BUILDINGS   REQUESTED       APPROVED

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Councilmember Abell: Next is the County Highway Fund, Drainage and Assessment in the amount of $656, I recommend approval in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Tornatta: Second.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Mr. Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yeah, I’d like to ask Mr. Duckworth, any particular ditches that’s going to be cleaned or widened or taken care of? Do you know any area?

Mike Duckworth: After I received your call – good morning, Mike Duckworth, Superintendent of County Highway. After I received your call this morning, I rechecked on this. The 2006 budget, we were allocated $5,500 in this account. Our May 10th cost on this was $3,148.28. We received our fall appropriation and it came to $3,007.80, which leaves us a negative amount needed in the amount of $656. What you had said to me this morning on the phone, Mr. Wortman, is right. There are several of these that we received that were $5 or zero, but that was for the first installment and that’s all those particular ditches are allocated or charged. But these others, there were several that were quite high, in the 200's, and one is actually $1,843 for the fall amount. So that’s what drove that price up and we had no way to anticipate that that was what it was going to be –

Councilmember Wortman: I just noticed on my assessment, like I’ve got eight of them and four of them was $5, you know, and the rest of them was zero, and that’s the reason I wondered about that.

Mike Duckworth: That was the problem, so I appreciate you bringing that to my notice this morning.

President Winnecke: Any other questions or discussion on this item? Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Abell?

Councilmember Abell: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Winnecke?

President Winnecke: Yes.

COUNTY HIGHWAY                                               REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0) 

President Winnecke: For the record, Mr. Sutton has arrived.

Councilmember Sutton: Thank you.

CIRCUIT COURT SUPPLEMENTAL ADULT PROBATION

Councilmember Abell: The next one is under Circuit Court, Buildings in the amount of $33,000. I’ll make that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Tornatta: Second.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. I believe we have some questions and discussion here. Judge, would you mind coming forward?

Carl Heldt: Carl Heldt, Circuit Court.

President Winnecke: Good morning, Judge. How are you?

Carl Heldt: Good morning. Fine.

President Winnecke: Would you mind giving everyone sort of an overview of this request?

Carl Heldt: First, these funds are coming from probation user fees and what we’ve done is, we’re paying this to the Building Authority to help build out the Probation Department, which is down in the old Health Department, that frees up more funds for the Building Authority to do some work for over in Superior Court. But this is a payment for, a partial payment for the work done down in the Health Department for a new Probation Department and/or furniture.

President Winnecke: This is a reimbursement, is that correct? The work is complete?

Carl Heldt: Yes. The work is complete.

President Winnecke: Questions or discussion?

Councilmember Abell: Doesn’t the Building Authority just pay for all of this anyway?

Carl Heldt: They only have so much money. And they only have so much money to do the work. And had we not helped them do this, then there’s some stuff that’s been done over in Superior Court that wouldn’t have gotten done, like the new courtrooms. I don’t know about all of them, but they had so much of a budget, and then it stopped, and so we said, okay, we’ll pay for part of the probation out of user fees if you’ll finish out over there.

Councilmember Abell: Okay. Any other questions?

President Winnecke: Mr. Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Judge, what type of balance do you have now in your user fee fund? Any idea?

Carl Heldt: Several hundred thousand dollars.

Councilmember Tornatta: Okay.

Carl Heldt: I don’t know the exact number. I could get it for you.

Councilmember Tornatta: Alright, thanks.

President Winnecke: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Abell?

Councilmember Abell: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Winnecke?

President Winnecke: Yes.

CIRCUIT COURT SUPPLEMENTAL

ADULT PROBATION                                              REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

President Winnecke: Thank you, Judge. Have a good day.

Carl Heldt: I think I had –

President Winnecke: Oh, you had more. I forgot to turn the page.

CIRCUIT COURT SUPPLEMENTAL ADULT PROBATION

President Winnecke: That’s the transfer request. Do you want to..

Councilmember Abell: Do you want me to go ahead and read it and then you can discuss it?

President Winnecke: Sure.

Councilmember Abell: The next request under transfers is Contractual Service for Circuit Court Supplemental Adult Probation from Contractual Services to Travel/Mileage in the amount of $4,000 and I’ll put that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Tornatta: Second.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Questions or discussion?

Councilmember Sutton: And what was – Judge, what was the amount that you had in that Travel/Mileage budget at the beginning of the year?

Carl Heldt: Boy, I wish Karen was here. It looks like, was it $7,000?

Councilmember Sutton: Yeah, that’s what I think I’ve got here. I didn’t know if I was –

Carl Heldt: The notes I have and, of course, this comes from Karen, is the Probation Officers conference in August, the membership dues for the Probation Officers conference for all Probation Officers. Also we’re paying mileage for our Pre-Sentence Investigators to go out to the new jail for interviews. Hopefully, that will stop when we get the teleconferencing system working, which should be going soon. But right now they’re traveling back and forth to the jail.

Councilmember Sutton: I would just like to try to keep an eye on those kind of areas there. That would be interesting to see how much of an impact just the rise in fuel cost they’ve had maybe upon you guys and the trips back and forth.

Carl Heldt: Well, they are charging whatever the county mileage rate is. And I would also say that they travel in groups. They don’t travel each in their own car, I know that for a fact, so they don’t all charge for the mileage. These are, actually they’re required conferences, required memberships for all Probation Officers.

Councilmember Sutton: Okay.

Carl Heldt: Training for that.

President Winnecke: Any questions? Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Abell?

Councilmember Abell: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Winnecke?

President Winnecke: Yes.

CIRCUIT COURT SUPPLEMENTAL

ADULT PROBATION                                              REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0) 

President Winnecke: Thank you, Judge. Have a good day.

Carl Heldt: Thank you.

President Winnecke: Amendments to the Salary Ordinance.

Councilmember Abell: I think you’ve all received a copy of the Amendment to the Salary Ordinance. Move for approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Abell?

Councilmember Abell: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Winnecke?

President Winnecke: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

President Winnecke: I neglected to ask for approval of the minutes from our previous meeting at the start. So I would at this time entertain a motion to approve.

Councilmember Tornatta: So moved.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Winnecke: There is a motion and a second. Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Abell?

Councilmember Abell: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Winnecke?

President Winnecke: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

President Winnecke: We made our appointments at last week’s meeting. Just a reminder on the budget hearings, you have those dates in front of you: August 8th, 9th and 10th for the first week. We’ll convene at 9:00 a.m. and go to approximately noon, although we don’t always go that long. And then reconvene the week or on August 22nd for the final meeting at which time we’ll make all of our final cuts or budget placements.

President Winnecke: Also a reminder that July 13th is the filing deadline for our August 2nd meeting and we’ll, if there’s no other -- Mr. Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes. The County Council members did receive something from the Veteran’s Services, I believe, that they would be looking to transfer in the budget for next year, but it also had a letter from the Board of Commissioners and essentially it was -- it was getting to the point to where the Commissioners seemed to kind of take this as a political football and move money that we’ve given to Veterans, deceased veterans and their families. And I sent a letter to the Board of Commissioners, all of you have it in front of you. If you will read that and review it, and I think this is a better letter to send to the veterans. I think it should be from the Veteran’s Services and then it does have the Veteran’s Services number there so any of those families that they have a problem with reimbursement from the funeral home, they can get in touch. But please go over that and let’s try and keep this as neutral as possible. These families are distraught when they lose a loved one and we need to show A) that this hundred dollars or maybe two hundred dollars is coming from the citizens of Vanderburgh County and not just from a particular political board for gain. So, if we can please go over that and look at it and try and get this pushed through as a letter we want to send out, that would be great.

President Winnecke: Other questions before we move on? In that case, I will entertain a motion – oh, I’m sorry.

Councilmember Abell: I just have a couple – I just wanted to tell you that I will not be here the next meeting, I will be on vacation. So –

President Winnecke: Send a postcard.

Councilmember Abell: I just want to, as we’re getting ready to go into budget hearings, since I was an officeholder before and know how we prepared our budgets, there are some things that, now that I’ve been through a couple of them I’d just like for us to keep in mind. When officeholders tell us that somebody is required to be at a meeting, I think Mr. Fluty can correct me, but the state reimburses us for required meetings, is that correct, to a certain amount?

Bill Fluty: No, they don’t reimburse us that I know of.

Councilmember Abell: I thought when we filled out those forms they –

Bill Fluty: For state required meetings?

Councilmember Abell: State required meetings.

Bill Fluty: No, it comes off the unappropriated, not out of a budgeted line item.

Councilmember Abell: Well, I’d kind of like to watch, you know, that definitely people are traveling that need to be traveling and need to be going to the conferences that they’re going to. I also am a little concerned about budgets that get depleted to transfer over into something else and the next year they’re asking us for money that they really could have used that money for. So I just, for all of us as we start looking at the budgets, I just think those are some items we need to look at.

President Winnecke: Good points. Anything else? I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Councilmember Tornatta: Motion.

President Winnecke: So moved. Have a great day.

(There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:43 a.m.)