COUNCILMEMBER	PRESENT	ABSENT
Councilmember Tornatta	X
Councilmember Sutton		X*
Councilmember Abell	X
Councilmember Goebel	X
Councilmember Raben	X
Councilmember Wortman	X
President Winnecke	X

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

President Winnecke: Okay, at this time I would consider a motion to approve the minutes from our May 3rd meeting.

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

President Winnecke: Okay, at this time we’ll begin with our appropriation requests and for those of you who are watching at home or who are in the audience and not here last week, these are requests that we heard last week and we had some discussion on, so I’ll begin by turning the floor over to the Finance Chair, Mr. Raben.

Councilmember Raben: Thank you, Mr. President. First on the agenda today under Sheriff 1050-2210 Gas & Oil, I’ll move that it be set in at $100,000.

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

Councilmember Raben: Okay next, under Jail, 1051-2240 Medical for $400,000, 1051-2260 Food in the amount of $250,000, for a total of $650,000. I’ll move approval.

President Winnecke: Chief Deputy Eric Williams is in the audience. He could probably help us with that.

Eric Williams: Good morning. Eric Williams, Sheriff’s Office. I didn’t quite hear your question.

Councilmember Goebel: These amounts, how long will they carry us through as far as the county budget goes?

Eric Williams: Basically, the amounts that we submitted on the appropriation request were our best guess estimates based on past practice and things that are happening, to get us through the end of the year. We hope that the amounts that are being set in today will probably carry us through the billing cycles for this year, get us towards the end of the year. As always, we’ll end up paying the last few months of this year’s bills out of next year’s money.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next under Armstrong Assessor, for a total of $124, I’ll move approval.

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

Councilmember Raben: Okay, now under Cum Bridge, 2030-4417, the Baseline Road Bridge in the amount of $25,000, I move approval.

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

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next under Legal Aid/United Way, this request has been withdrawn at this time, so I’ll move that it be set in at zero.

President Winnecke: Motion and second, and just for clarification, I know Mr. Goebel had a lot of discussion with the Legal Aid office, and they felt it best to withdraw the motion at this time and bring it back at budget time, as I believe several people suggested. So that is sort of the genesis of this move.

Councilmember Tornatta: Just a real quick question, do we want to address anything on the computer side or we also talked about how we’d take care of that at budget time or do they need those items now?

President Winnecke: My understanding was, the entire request was withdrawn for now.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, that’s it with the exception of transfers, Mr. President, and I’ll move that all transfers be approved as listed.

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

Councilmember Raben: Okay, we have no repeals. As far as amendments to the Salary Ordinance, we have amendments for Armstrong Assessor, County Clerk, the Prosecutor’s Office, Superintendent of County Buildings and Health Department, I’m going to simply move that everyone, there is a copy being circulated to everyone as I speak, that be entered in and made part of the minutes.

Councilmember Tornatta: Excuse me one second. I was just unclear on the Superintendent of County Buildings, they talked about a part-time employee being paid $12 an hour, is that standard protocol? I thought we put that in at a much lower rate.

Sandie Deig: That’s what the Commissioners asked for to pay her until August. She’d have to work in that position until August 21st and that’s comparable to an entry level job at a COMOT VI.

President Winnecke: From a budgetary standpoint, there will be no greater expense than what is budgeted in the line item.

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, I don’t know if I understand that. We’re going to be filling three positions because we’ll be paying out one and then picking up a $12 an hour employee and paying for a secretary in that office. So, I mean, I thought we were going to exhaust the Superintendent of County Building’s salary –

President Winnecke: Sure, but they do have a line item for Extra Help, from which this will be paid.

Councilmember Raben: The Superintendent of County Buildings line item, I guess, technically, correct me if I’m wrong, but there will not be an employee reinserted in that line item until the comp time and vacation times are paid out. So actually, we’ve got one employee, I guess, or the line remains vacant although funds are being spent from it to pay back the accumulated time, then you’ve got the assistant over there. So, I mean, we’re actually, what are they doing, they’re actually, they’re moving, there’s only going to be two people being paid as the end result, right?

Sandie Deig: The former AA is now, for lack of a better term, the acting superintendent, but she’s getting paid at her regular rate of pay as an AA, and then the part-time person will make the $12 an hour, who will do the secretarial and the AA work.

Sandie Deig: The former superintendent is being bought out and we can’t fill that line item until August 21st, and the Commissioners feel like they can’t function with one person in the office.

Councilmember Tornatta: Okay, do we have a standard rate for what our part-timers are being paid?

Sandie Deig: We have, $16 has been the maximum for the Prosecutor’s Office, but we have done $12 an hour for a number of key offices.

Councilmember Sutton: Just so I’m clear here, so this person in this part-time position, when August 21st rolls around, then they will convert into a full-time person?

Sandie Deig: Yes, she will go into the AA line and then the person who is being paid out of that AA line will go into the Superintendent of County Buildings line. That’s my understanding.

Councilmember Sutton: So this person isn’t like an intern or anything like that?

Sandie Deig: No, she’s strictly a temporary worker until she can be put on full-time with full benefits August 21st.

Councilmember Sutton: So, this person will work, this person that we’re talking about here will work under the Commissioners –

Councilmember Sutton: – Administrative Assistant, but no one will fill the, in the Superintendent of County Buildings role?

Sandie Deig: Well, the person employed that is the Administrative Assistant at this time will be performing the Superintendent’s duties at her old pay.

Councilmember Sutton: Uh-huh. So the net effect on this is...I mean, are...since we’re pulling out of the temp line, and you can’t pull out of the regular – what is the net effect on this between now and, I guess, August?

Sandie Deig: You’re not paying benefits to two people out of the same line item and you’re not paying the higher rate of pay.

Councilmember Raben: And I guess we’ve also, as a Council, what, a year or two years ago we stopped buyouts, so this prevents a buyout, but Commissioner Musgrave is in the audience if anybody has any questions.

Councilmember Sutton: And how much did they have left in their part-time budget? How much were they allocated, does anybody know by chance?

Sandie Deig: Yeah, I think there’s about $4,000, however, that will have to be replenished because you have a part-time person working at the Old Courthouse that get’s paid out of that every other week.

Councilmember Sutton: So when are we probably anticipating that this is going to be exhausted?

Councilmember Sutton: Sounds like, well, we’re ending up paying out more than what we anticipated, I guess.

President Winnecke: But if you look at the net effect in terms of efficiency, if there’s no one in that role, there are going to be countless hours where there is no one to answer a phone in the Commissioner’s Office.

Councilmember Raben: I’m fine with that. Mr. President, let me amend the motion on the amendments to the Salary Ordinance. My motion is to include Armstrong Assessor, County Clerk, Prosecutor, and Health Department.

President Winnecke: Okay. The renewed motion excludes the Salary Ordinance amendment for the Superintendent of County Buildings. Roll call vote please.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, and next, Mr. President, I am going to make a motion to amend, under Superintendent of County Buildings, to allow one temporary part-time employee to be paid at a rate of $12 per hour effective June 8 until 8/21/06.

President Winnecke: Okay, next under Old Business, we have the confirming resolution for the declaration of an economic revitalization area for the property located at the northeast corner of Cross Pointe Boulevard and Columbia Street. This is the Outback Holdings LLC. If you’ll recall, last month we passed a preliminary resolution on a ten-year tax phase-in. This is for the new corporate headquarters of Shoe Carnival.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Further questions or discussion on this? Roll call vote please.

President Winnecke: Under New Business, in your packet of information is a resolution rescinding the tax phase-in that we granted previously for the Shoe Carnival Corporate Headquarters. You’ll recall, they had to change locations, which is why we just passed this other resolution. So I would entertain a motion at this time for the rescindment resolution that’s before you.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Other questions or discussion? Roll call vote please.

President Winnecke: Before we get to the regional economic development task force coalition presentation, I would like to just make three brief comments: first, it’s nice to see County Recorder Betty Knight-Smith back in these chambers. Thank you, I hope you’re feeling better. We’ve missed you.

President Winnecke: A couple of other things, in your packet also, tomorrow morning is the ribbon cutting and opening for the Lynch Road extension into Warrick County. If you’re so inclined to be there, that might be a nice thing. And finally before we get to this presentation, I’d like to remind everyone the latest on the dental clinic. Councilman Sutton and Councilwoman Abell and I serve on the dental clinic advisory board, and in our meeting on Friday we confirmed the ribbon cutting and grand opening which is June 23rd, that’s a Friday at 10 a.m. You are all welcome to attend. Its in the 600 block, 612 S. E. Fourth Street, 10 a.m. on June 23rd and it will be open for business – knock on wood – the following Monday. And I can tell you that its going to be a great facility and kudos to the Health Department and Gary Heck and Sam Elder for all their hard work in recent months to get this to the point where we’re near opening.

President Winnecke: Okay, now to the Regional Economic Development Task Force. I believe Marco DeLucio is here from the coalition for a brief presentation. Marco?

Marco DeLucio: Thank you, Mr. Winnecke. Brief, it will be. My name is Marco DeLucio. I’m with the Regional Economic Development Task Force, that’s going to be better known as the Economic Development Coalition of Southwestern Indiana shortly, we hope. I’m here this morning to give you a little bit of an update as to what the task force has been doing over the past year or so, where we hope to be in the next six months or so, and to ask for this Council’s support and for a couple of appointments to the new coalition board. Let me just take a step back in time and say that we’ve been working as a task force for a little over a year now. The task force was charged with the responsibility of trying to develop a regional economic view of southwest Indiana and to bring together four counties, Gibson County, Warrick County, Vanderburgh County and Posey County to form one coalition, to speak with one voice for the region to promote economic development and to enhance those businesses that are already here, to expand or to encourage them to stay and expand their existing operations. We are doing this because the world is getting bigger and we’re staying the same size here in Vanderburgh County. It made sense to us that what is good for the region is good for Vanderburgh County and good for Posey County and good for Gibson County and good for Warrick County. So it makes sense for us to do that. We also have seen other regional economic development in this form around the country and in particular, here in the state of Indiana. There’s a regional entity being formed over in the, called the Louisville area over in New Albany and Jeffersonville, Marion County, the Indy partnership has something going up in that area. Ft. Wayne has, I think it’s a nine county region that they’re working with. And Lafayette and those counties surrounding Lafayette have joined together in starting their own economic development regional entities. So we’re on par, if not ahead of some of these other locations. The task force was formed, its about 24 folks representing all four counties, both from the private sector and the public sector. I’ve had folks that have participated in this process and we’re to the point now, we’ve selected a name, we’ve selected some marketing materials, we put together a proposed set of by-laws and we’re in the process of forming the board. We hope to have all of that accomplished by the end of the month with a public announcement, either I saw June 26th or June 27th, that will be forthcoming. There’s a process, there’s a nationwide search going on right now to find a president of the organization, a professional to come in and run it, we anticipate that after its up and running it will be staffed with six or seven highly trained and competent folks that are experienced in economic development. We would hope that as trust forms among the four counties, that we can move a lot of the economic development positions or entities that exist out there, fold them in to this organization or, at the very least, to coordinate activities so that we don’t have, you know, 27 or 50 different organizations running around doing 50 different things. Its hoped that we can coordinate that with one regional entity to speak with one voice to somebody that’s coming in, to speak with one voice to the state of Indiana or to federal authorities when we have a prospect that’s looking to locate here in the region or to expand their operations. And as I indicated to you, the board that’s being put together, it’s a rather large board of 61, but given the regional nature of this, we thought it was good to be inclusive as opposed to exclusive. And what we’re looking for, and that’s made up of approximately 24 folks appointed from the public sector, made up by various governmental entities in the four counties, with the balance coming from the private or non-profit sector appointed by a nominating committee first or by the existing board, so that its well represented, we’re going to represent each of the counties almost equally, and move forward. You may ask, you know, what’s the budget going to look like for this new entity and where are the sources of funding going to come from. At this point we are projecting, I’ve not been too involved in the budgeting process, but I’ll throw out the million dollar figure on an annual basis. A lot of that funding is going to come from local governmental entities. We anticipate less than half of that. And we would hope that a lot of that funding would come from, you’re funding a lot of different economic development organizations now. We would hope to roll that in so its no increased burden on each of the counties. From the private side, we’re going to have private sector participation in this probably to a large extent as much as 60 percent, we would hope. That would include grants that we seek from federal economic development agencies as well as state agencies and we’ve been working with the state and they’re encouraging this type of regional economic developments, so its our hope not only to draw funds from this region, but also from the state and federal authorities as well. As I indicated when I started and I’ll open it up to questions, Ron Keeping is out there and he’s with me this morning. And Ron’s been very instrumental in this and he’s here to help me answer questions that I can’t answer. I would report to you that we have appeared in front of the Gibson County Commissioners, who have indicated and passed a resolution in support of this organization, and also the Posey County Commissioners, so you’re our third body that we’ve appeared in front of and we’re going to make appearances in front of each of the County Councils and County Commissioners in each of the four counties as well as talk to the Mayors of each of the capital cities of those entities. With that, I’ll conclude and answer any questions that I haven’t addressed already. And hopefully, if I can’t answer them, Mr. Keeping can help me out. Thank you.

Councilmember Tornatta: Yeah, I would just like to say that it’s a long time coming. I think this is a great opportunity to bring a lot of different entities together, as you’ve said. Regional development is going to be the key to us moving forward in this region. I think, as we read in the paper today, from 250,000 to 500,000, Evansville is a pretty great place to live and to expound on that, we need to make sure that it’s a great place to do business. So in bringing all these corporate entities together, all these not-for-profits together, hopefully we’ll have that cohesive unit. I’d even like to see us maybe get two or three more counties involved with what we’ve got and I know that’s kind of in the cards. So thanks for working at this and I know the Mayor has pushed this quite a bit. So it’s very positive to see that the city is backing this as well.

Marco DeLucio: And I would add to that, I didn’t mention this but the chairpersons of this will come from different counties and probably different political persuasions, but we do have the co-chairmen for the first year and a half are going to be Sally Lambert Rideout from Alcoa in Warrick County and Mayor Weinzapfel from Vanderburgh County.

President Winnecke: When would you like this body’s appointments to the coalition?

Marco DeLucio: This morning would be great. As soon as possible. We’re trying to get the board put together so we can make an announcement towards the end of the month and if you have somebody in mind now, we’re willing to take any names if you’ve got them this morning, or if you don’t have them, as soon as you possibly can. That would be fantastic.

Councilmember Raben: Good morning, Marco. Marco and I had an opportunity to, I guess earlier in the week, to discuss this and you and I had some dialogue on it, President Winnecke, probably Monday. I guess I’m questioning, you know, there’s already a large regional effort that’s funded by the state that works out of office space out at USI. And I guess I’m just concerned as to why we’re not trying to rejuvenate or fix the problems that are there, that normally when we talked about not being effective and what have you. I just, I don’t know why we’re trying to separate and go out on our own when we’ve got a state funded effort there.

Marco DeLucio: I’m not, and I think, Mr. Raben, you’re referring maybe to the QCDC organization that’s housed out at USI. I think Nancy Burns is here this morning as well. That’s what you’re referring to. We don’t, we’re not suggesting that that is broke, we’re just trying to expand that. As I understand, the QCDC, that’s more of a governmental type of organization and it doesn’t involve as much as the other private sector. And we viewed this as bringing in somebody that this organization, forming something together supported by the public and private sector financially as well as with people on the board, to bring these people together from the region to focus truly on economic development, on attracting new investment, on helping businesses expand, and we think that that’s probably broader than what maybe QCDC does. We’re not seeking to get rid of them. They are going to be part of this organization and that issue is being worked on right now, will be part of this organization and continue doing what it does but under maybe the direction and coordinated with the activities of the new regional economic development entity.

Councilmember Raben: And I’m not sure on the acronym QCDC, the one I’m referring to is, I guess, SWIRCA? Southwest Regional Economic Development Council or –

Councilmember Raben: This one, in fact, Mayor Weinzapfel chaired this committee up until a few years ago. Councilman Abell, are you the liaison to that today?

Ron Keeping: I’m Ron Keeping, I’m a part of the task force. Councilman, the confusion is understandable because we have had a couple – the organization that Marco referred to has undergone a name change and a few years ago when this organization was formed it was referred to as the Southwestern Indiana Regional Development Commission, SWIRDC, and it went by that name for several years. It has in the past year changed its name for Quad Counties Development Commission, so we all are talking about, effectively the same organization and the SWIRDC was formed with the involvement of then State Representative Weinzapfel and Nancy Burns and Ron Keeping and George Rehnquist and other folks. If that’s the organization –

Councilmember Raben: That is, and again, my point is, you know, that’s a state funded group.

Ron Keeping: Actually, technically speaking, it receives very little funding from the state anymore, does it, Nancy?

Ron Keeping: USEDA, it had some start-up funding from that. Since that time its essentially received funds from the grant writing activities and from the counties involved. No private money whatsoever.

Councilmember Raben: And I understand your commitment and where we’re going with this. I’m looking at it from more of a financial side as to why we’re not looking for relief with local tax dollars and trying to possibly recreate what we have in QCDC.

Marco DeLucio: I think that’s exactly what we’re doing because in addition to QCDC, there was a bubble chart that we all got at the beginning of this that showed all kinds of entities that are involved in one way shape or form in economic development. It would be the goal of this organization to try to minimize those number of balls or coordinate those balls so that they’re all operating together, doing the same thing, which should create some efficiencies and should create some tax savings.

Councilmember Raben: Outside of the fact it is local dollars, though, that’s where I was going with that. And I also, real quick, I find it interesting that, I mean, in your opinion, 60, you said 61 or is it 62 members?

Marco DeLucio: Well, there was kind of a compromise among the task force on that. Sixty-one is a large number and in my opinion, probably isn’t workable to move forward on an expedited basis when you need to do that from an economic development standpoint. For that reason, there will be an executive committee consisting of thirteen, essentially four folks from each county, serving on an executive committee, plus the president, being a couple of ex officio members, which are just the chairmen of the organization, so that will be probably the entity that’s going to be the fast responder where we’re getting input from the broader board to move forward on things that don’t have to be moved forward on an expedited basis.

Councilmember Raben: The reason I asked that question, there is, and excuse me, I’m going to get off the subject just a moment, but there is another effort within this building on that, establishing a new IT ordinance where at some point it was up to 24 people, that it was said by many that it was too large to deal with. And my point is, you know, if we can make 61 or 62 people member committees work, we can certainly make a 24 member committee work. Thank you.

President Winnecke: Any other questions for Mr. DeLucio or Mr. Keeping? Mrs. Abell?

Councilmember Abell: Mr. DeLucio, what would happen to QCDC and what would happen to Vision-e?

Marco DeLucio: I’m not on either of those boards but here’s what I understand, Nancy can correct me if I’m wrong on the QCDC, that board, I believe, is going to be, that organization is going to continue to exist, this is the current plan, and kind of be like a subsidiary or a satellite of the new entity. Its going to continue what it does. I don’t think that the board will be disbanded. It may become a committee, but it has a separate, I think it’s a 501(c)(3) status that we want to keep from that standpoint, so that organization will probably remain and just be a part of or a subsidiary of the new organization. With respect to Vision-e, I would report that the Vision-e board is rolling some of its funds into the new organization. The new organization at least temporarily is going to occupy the space where Vision-e is, and eventually Vision-e will, I think, I don’t know if I would say cease to exist, but the thinking is that its no longer necessary and its functions will be handled by the new entity. That’s a goal, I think, of the regional -- regional organization is to have, you know, you’re going to still have to have some local, from county or city, economic development entities to carry up purely local issues but that its hoped that those organizations will be minimized and the focus will be on the new regional entity. So Vanderburgh County is essentially not going to have Vision-e any more.

Marco DeLucio: I believe – Ron Keeping says yes. I wasn’t at that board meeting. Its my understanding that it –

Councilmember Abell: So if this happens, we’re not going to have Vision-e coming in here for big monies in our budget for 2007?

President Winnecke: That’s not entirely correct. Vision-e would not, as I understand it through meeting with other members of this committee, that roughly a quarter of a million dollars in Vision-e money that they have in the bank now, will be utilized to fund this coalition effort through the balance of 2006. At our budget time, I think the request will be to fund, provide the same level of funding, maybe at a slightly smaller level for the coalition to develop, to operate in 2007. Now its $150,000 now to Vision-e, I don’t know what the request will be for the coalition in 2007, but it could be that it might be $100,000 in ‘07 for the coalition and a 25 or 50,000 request to operate a Vanderburgh County economic develop arm as Mr. DeLucio referred to, and am I framing all this pretty accurately?

Councilmember Abell: So we might be funding this new coalition, Vision-e and QCDC in 2007?

President Winnecke: Vision-e is going to provide, they’re rolling their money, they’re providing the funding for this coalition to exist when it starts for the balance of 2006. And then they will, the coalition will solicit funding from us and other communities in the coalition for its operating budget for year 2007.

Councilmember Abell: Well, that’s what I said first and I was corrected that that wasn’t correct. That’s why I said it again.

President Winnecke: Well, it won’t be Vision-e coming to us asking for money, the coalition –

President Winnecke: And then theoretically, it could be an arm of the Commissioners, it could be a joint city/county office, I don’t know if that’s been determined, that will actually operate a Vanderburgh County oriented economic development arm just for very local economic development issues. Is that correct? So that could be part of the Commissioners budget, it could be part of the Council budget. I don’t know.

Councilmember Abell: I guess my concern is that we’re growing government and, you know, I wasn’t elected to set up a commission and that’s your job and not mine. My job is to watch the budget, and that’s where I’m concerned is, that we’re financially growing government here. We’re finding more things to spend money on instead of less things to spend money on. Are we going to still fund QCDC because we do pay county money for that. Are we, and how much of your budget is Vanderburgh County going to take when you’ve got Gibson, Posey and Warrick that are all going to share and this is going to be divided up four ways equally or because we’re larger, we’re going to bear the brunt of it even though Gibson County has the big Toyota plant that they get money from and we don’t?

Ron Keeping: Budgeting hasn’t certainly been finalized, its been thought about. I hope that the Council can put a representative on our board and get involved in this process and help us make some of these decisions.

Councilmember Abell: Well, I guess my concern then is, that you’re asking us to support something that we really don’t know how much its going to cost the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County.

Marco DeLucio: I think that’s correct right now. I think that what we’re telling you is that we don’t believe its going to cost the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County any more money. It’s our hope that its going to cost them less. We’re asking you to support the concept this morning and if we come before you and ask for money that you think is inappropriate, I’m sure that we’ll hear about it at that point in time. So we’re asking for your support for the concept, and we’re not asking for a specific dollar amount this morning at all because that issue will be determined by the new board that will be made up of representatives of each of the local governments to make those calls whether its going to be equally funded by each county or we’re going to do it based upon population or by tax base.

President Winnecke: We’re going to change the tape and then we’ll continue the discussion.

Councilmember Abell: I just think you’re premature. That’s just my comment because we don’t allow any elected officeholder to come up before us with any plan without a budget attached to it, and you’re asking us to support a plan without a budget attached to it and I just think that’s premature. I’m only one vote on here but I don’t think I could support something that didn’t tell me what I have to tell my constituents when they ask me did I support something and have no idea whether its going to cost the taxpayers one million dollars or sixteen million dollars and I don’t think that’s fair to Vanderburgh County. My goodness, the Sheriff went through years to get a jail and I think we owe the Vanderburgh County taxpayers the same amount of consideration on anything we fund.

Councilmember Tornatta: Yeah and, Marsha, it is kind of premature in one respect and that is when we went to Lexington, we found that we were way ahead of where Lexington was. We were way ahead of some of these other economic development areas because we already had this undertow, so we are ahead and you call it premature, I call it ahead of the scale. I think that we found that it is really what groups are doing, regions are doing to try and get out and make sure that they have economic development ahead of the scale. Now, the one thing we found out over the, I’ve been working, not with this group, but kind of when I had my conversation with Mayor Weinzapfel, I said, you know, lets make sure that we’re not both trying to do the same thing and that was trying to bring groups together and to fold responsible people that have an affinity for doing this type of work into one group. And so instead of growing government, we’re kind of consolidating, for lack of a better word, what we’re doing with this specific phase of this plan. And we’re bringing groups together and hopefully bringing minds together so they can feed off of one another. What I know now is we have a Vision-e and we have QCDC, and we have all these other entities, we talked over budget times about how we’re going to fund a Disaster Resistence, well that brings money in from different organizations. Can we bring all these organizations in to funnel that money into one unit? And I think that’s what we’re seeing and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish right now. If you have four different groups and they’re all vying for the dollars around those four areas, then people are spread thin. If we can move those into one unit and try and get all those monies in that one area, then I think that we’ll see that that will be way more efficient than we are right now. And as far as people banging around with economic development, when they have to go here and go there and they say oh, Vision-e is here or its this area here, we’d like to try and entertain them in one group and try and make sure that they know that it’s a one stop shop and they don’t have to go several different places. So that’s kind of what I see this group going. I’d like to ask Nancy a couple of questions if she would be available.

Nancy Burns: Good morning. I’m Nancy Burns. I’m the director of the Quad County Development Commission.

Councilmember Tornatta: Nancy, what are your thoughts about this new setup that’s been proposed and fitting with what you have going, and do you feel like its something that would work with QCDC or are you kind of put off by the whole notion of getting both groups working together?

Nancy Burns: I truly, truly believe in the regional concept because that’s the way to go, okay? And the functions that we offer would compliment a new organization. Whether we stay, remain in our current location or whether we, you know, merge with them, that’s totally up to my board. I have really no say in that. Its just whatever they decide.

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, I was at the first initial meeting when Jonathan called that out at USI and one of the things I noticed we had a lot of push for, a lot of people attended, and it was a very nice organization, I think that right now, I think that we have a different resurgence and maybe not in the organization, but I think that there’s so many good things that came out of that meeting and what’s transpired so far, that I’m glad that -- you wouldn’t be opposed to being a fold with this group and you would be okay if you could be an extension of the group?

Nancy Burns: Well, that’s, like I said, that’s what my board would have to determine. I know we have a very good board, good working relationship with the four counties. I think that we have fostered that over the past number of years so it may set the stage for a larger organization.

Councilmember Sutton: Don’t take what I’m saying as being overly cynical. And I’m very supportive of any activities if we can marshal together to be very efficient in our quest to create economic development. I think what this group is attempting to do, ultimately, is to create employment opportunities, create jobs in this regional area. I think that seems to be the goal of this organization, but I just want to be able to understand – I know there’s several entities, several organizations out there that are doing that, and our region is going through a series of transitions when you look at what we are highly dependent upon, which is manufacturing, here in this corner of the state. And as we know, all throughout this country, you know, our whole manufacturing base has taken on a different change in how we communicate, how we produce goods, how we bring things from other places to here, have changed vastly. How will this group be able to create something that’s better, efficient, different? Tell me, what are you guys going to do that’s different than whether we’ve got ten groups or we break it down to one group or three groups? How will it be any different in terms of how we approach bringing jobs to Southwest Indiana?

Marco DeLucio: One way is that this organization will now speak instead of, you know, Vision-e may be speaking for Vanderburgh County and the entity in Posey County speaking for Posey County, you’re going to have a four county region and we hope to grow that. But a four county region to start with where we can speak with one voice to a business that’s coming in, we can speak with one voice to the governor’s office or the economic development agencies in Indianapolis that this is what Southwestern Indiana wants. We’ll be a single point of contact for somebody that’s looking to locate in this area and hopefully be able to provide them with site location, facts and figures from the region so that we’re a one stop. They can come here if they’re looking, you know, they may be looking at, they just need 400 acres, well there may be 400 acres in Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick and this entity can bring them in together and try to show them, here are your options. And when it gets time to providing, taking a look at incentives or what its going to maybe take to induce someone to locate here or someone to expand their operations here, we’ll have a single point of contact that they can go to and make that call. Somebody that probably was going to have more expertise and organizations could have more expertise than any of the local agencies that might exist. So I think that, in and of itself, is the goal. The other is just to coordinate efforts, even from an infrastructure standpoint among the four counties. I mean, Mr. Tornatta has indicated that, you know, maybe this is one of the things that starts and QCDC has done it, to start to form coalitions among the four counties which I’ve lived here for 22 years and there’s always seem to be a break off at the county line. And there’s no reason for that any more. And so, its hoped that through this, and I’ve seen it take place in the past year when we first set down doing this, there’s a lot of mistrust among the counties, people that work there and governmental officials that govern there, about what each of the counties were up to. And I think as you sit down to the table and as you start to work on these issues together, you start to view yourself not as a Gibson County person, but as a member of the region down here in Southwest Indiana. So I think that that certainly is one –

Councilmember Sutton: So what are we attempting? What does this group want to attract? I mean, when we say jobs, it’s a very nebulous, very broad general term. I mean, what are we – I guess its more, I’m looking for an identity that you guys – I’m assuming that you’re wanting to establish, and what is that identity?

Marco DeLucio: Well, the identity is that Southwestern Indiana is open for business and ready to do business. And we’re going to be officially operating, we’re cooperating with one another on a regional basis, that we want, we do want better, high paying jobs. Not forgetting the existing businesses here, but to help them to do and to attract nation-wide world-wide people to take a look at this region when they’re looking to site a new facility. Whether that’s manufacturing based or whether there’s some technology-driven industry, to respond quickly when somebody is out there that’s looking for a site.

Councilmember Sutton: Well, and I understand that and that’s not unlike what so many other communities are doing . I mean, when we think of competition, our competition isn’t necessarily Gibson County or Pike County or other counties that are here locally. But its places from all over. One of the things that I feel very strongly about is that I don’t know if we’ve done as strong a job as we need to in developing our existing business base, in helping to grow economic development opportunities. Its as if the thoughts are always that the big fish is someplace else and that we need to go someplace else. And so that’s what I’m trying, I’m trying to hear from you in terms of what you guys are wanting to do as well, as far as your approach.

Marco DeLucio: It is to attract but its also to enhance and help expand the local operations. When an entity here in Vanderburgh County, lets call it the Shoe Carnival, for example, because I’ve been working with that, that there is a place that they can go and say we’re looking here in Vanderburgh County, what can you do for us? And even if they were looking in Warrick County, the same thing would apply. That we want to keep a business like that in our region that’s growing and adding jobs. And really, there’s a lot, there’s so many economic development agencies out there, you just don’t know where to go. And we want this agency to be, the new entity to be the single point of contact so that they can go there and that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to get rid of each and every other economic development entity out there because it may serve a purpose, but at least there will be an attempt to coordinate those efforts and get somebody like the Shoe Carnival that has existing operations to the right place that they need to be in order to locate them or give us a better chance to retain that kind of an employer in Vanderburgh County or in this region.

Councilmember Sutton: Well, I mean, I know the group is really just in their formative stage, I think it will be great idea and I know there’s been a number of meetings held and work sessions to try to bring together some of the ideas. Is there some type of working document that speaks to the goals and objectives –

Marco DeLucio: There’s a report, we prepared a consult in there. I’ve got a sheet of talking points in front of me now that I don’t think is going to be helpful in that regard, but there is a report prepared by the consultant for the task force that says, that took a look at all of these things and made recommendations. And we’re more than happy to get each of the Councilmembers a copy of that.

Councilmember Sutton: I mean, I think in terms of what Councilwoman Abell is speaking about, is she wants a budget along with that as well. And I –

Marco DeLucio: We can provide you with that. Right now, it’s a preliminary, the organization, its difficult for some of us as volunteers, some of whom will serve on the new board, some of whom won’t, those decisions, we think, need to be made by the new board as to exactly, here’s a preliminary budget for what we think. That was developed more or less to try to get out into the marketplace to attract somebody to come and head up this organization so they could see what our thoughts and goals were. We think that’s the first thing that this new board will endeavor upon is to set up a budget to come up with mechanisms as to how its going to be funded and what the requests are going to be made for each of the local governments and to others in the private sector as to what is going to be needed to operate that. And that’s partially the reason or that’s really the reason that we’re having, you know, 24 members from each of the counties serve on this board, county government serve on this board so that they can have input into that, make those decisions, is it going to be equal, is it going to be based on population? Those are tough decisions that have to be made and you all need to be a part of that.

Councilmember Goebel: Just a quick comment, Marco. I think that the vision and the concept you have is excellent and anytime we can speak in a unified voice has got to help this community and this region, and that, as Mr. Tornatta said, if we can consolidate the efforts and business can be attracted or expanded through your efforts, I think that can only help lay the groundwork for the future. As the example tomorrow, Lynch Road is going to be extended into Warrick County. We’re not going to stop any longer at county lines, we’re going to work together because the ripple effect of a Toyota in Gibson County has enhanced and bettered the life of all in the region. And we know as I-69 comes through, it becomes a reality, its not going to stop at Evansville, Indiana, its going to continue across the river and those people are going to be working also in a regional force, so I think for what you have, the idea for our future is only going to be, the concept is very good. As Ms. Abell mentioned, this body, although, will have to be very careful as far as the expenditure of Vanderburgh County tax dollars and we don’t want to spend any more, we want to protect the taxpayers here, but I think a unified effort, that might be the way to go. Thank you.

Councilmember Abell: You’ve advertised for someone to, director or president or whatever, can I ask you – I guess I can ask you, how much did you advertise his salary at?

Marco DeLucio: As cheap as possible. Ron, do you know – I don’t know the specific –

Councilmember Abell: Well, everyone knows I was very vocal about what the Vision-e director was being paid, so I’d like to know what this person is supposed to be paid.

Marco DeLucio: And I think what I can tell you is its probably going to be based upon the experience level. I mean, I don’t think its our hope to hire somebody at an entry level position and pay him or her, you know, the lowest common denominator on that, but, you know, the more experienced individual that shows an interest in coming here , I mean, the higher the salary requirement is going to be. I don’t know that we know the specific dollar amount its been advertised for.

Ron Keeping: That’s correct, I don’t know what the specific dollar amount that’s been advertised, but its, I think its reasonable to expect it will be $100,000 or more.

Councilmember Abell: One hundred thousand dollars or more, is that what you said? Thank you.

President Winnecke: Just to put a kind of period onto the sentence and then we’ll move on here, I would just think that I would echo what Mr. Goebel and Mr. Tornatta said. I mean, I think the regional effort, the coalition is certainly the way to go. The communities that are on the move as we saw in Lexington, on the inter-city visit there, it’s the way to go and it’s the way communities are truly growing. I think one of the beauties of this proposal is that it does give us, members of this body, a seat at the table. And for several years now, we’ve appropriated $150,000 a year to go toward Vision-e and every year we asked, I think, tough but fair questions about the expenditures of that money. But we don’t have a seat at that table. The Commissioners do, rightfully so. The Councilmembers have not. What this does is say, okay, Councilmembers, you guys are okaying the funds, you have two seats at the table, as do the other counties. And I think that’s something that people have lobbied for, for years and I applaud the task force for recognizing the importance of that. I would say its probably prudent that we’ll appoint our committee members at our next meeting and I think there’s probably some discussion that needs to go on among folks here, but I think, with that, we’ll –

Marco DeLucio: I just want to clarify, on your appointments, we would hope, and I think the thinking is, and I don’t know that there’s anything that prohibits two members of the Council serving on it, the thinking would be is that you would appoint one of your own to serve on that and then one from the private non-profit sector, that would be our hope.

President Winnecke: Right. Thank you for your time. And thank you for your work. I knows its been a long year of work and study.

Marco DeLucio: Thank you for your time and if any of you have any questions, you can call me and if I can’t answer it, I can find somebody who can, right, Mr. Keeping?

President Winnecke: The last piece of business is to remind everyone that July 13th is the filing deadline –

President Winnecke: June 13th, I knew that. June 13th is the filing deadline for our next meeting. With that, we’ll stand adjourned.

(There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:29 a.m.)

1050-2210	Gas & Oil	144,000.00	100,000.00
Total		144,000.00	100,000.00

1051-2240	Medical	556,000.00	400,000.00
1051-2260	Food	328,000.00	250,000.00
Total		884,000.00	650,000.00

1100-1110-1100	Armstrong Assessor	108.00	108.00
1100-1900	FICA	9.00	9.00
1100-1910	PERF	7.00	7.00
Total		124.00	124.00

2030-4417	Baseline Road Bridge #203	25,000.00	25,000.00
Total		25,000.00	25,000.00

4290-1960	Special Stipend	5,000.00
4290-1900	FICA	383.00
4290-3372	Computer Software	60.00
4290-3371	Computer Hardware	3,713.00
Total		9,156.00

From: 1010-1400-1010	Minute Clerk	10,091.00	10,091.00
To: 1010-1170-1010	Circuit Court Clerk/ Archives	2,600.00	2,600.00
1010-1290-1010	Asst. Chief Deputy/ Small Claims	1,367.00	1,367.00
1010-1320-1010	Deputy Clerk/Small Claims	946.00	946.00
1010-1410-1010	Posting Clerk Misd./ Traffic	2,589.00	2,589.00
1010-1650-1010	Deputy Clerk	2,589.00	2,589.00