VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

MINUTES

MARCH 5, 2003

The Vanderburgh County Council met in session this 5^th day of March, 2003 in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex. The meeting was called to order at 3:40 p.m. by County Council President Jim Raben.

President Raben: I’d like to call to order the Vanderburgh County Council meeting for March 5^th, 2003. Attendance roll call please.

President Raben: Let’s all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

(Pledge of Allegiance was given)

President Raben: The Chair would now entertain a motion for approval of the minutes.

Councilmember Wortman: So moved.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

COUNTY CLERK IV-D

President Raben: First on the appropriation ordinance is the County Clerk. The Chair will now turn over the meeting to the Finance Chairman, Lloyd Winnecke. Mr. Winnecke, the Clerk has requested, because she has a commitment in just a few minutes, that we take the Election Office with her first request.

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, we can do that. Mr. Chairman, I move that line item 1011-4220 Office Machines be set in at $18,505 and line item 1011-2600 Office Supplies in the amount of $27,505, for a total appropriation of $46,010. I make that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Wortman: I second it.

President Raben: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Discussion? No discussion, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

COUNTY CLERK IV-D                                            REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

ELECTION OFFICE

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, we’ll jump down to the Election Office. Line item 1210-3530 Contractual Services in the amount of $1,500. I’ll make that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

ELECTION OFFICE                                                REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

ELECTION OFFICE-SPECIAL ELECTION

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, Election Office-Special Election. Instead of reading each line item, I’ll move that the request that is presented in the total amount of $75,846 be approved.

Councilmember Wortman: I second it.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Discussion?

Councilmember Winnecke: And just as a point of reference, as mentioned at our last meeting, this will be reimbursed to the county upon the completion of the special election.

President Raben: Thank you. No further discussion? Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

ELECTION OFFICE-SPECIAL ELECTION            REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

Marsha Abell: Is that it?

Councilmember Winnecke: That’s it.

Marsha Abell: Thank you.

TREASURER

Councilmember Winnecke: Treasurer, line item 1030-1200-1030 Counter & Posting Clerk in the amount of $1,037, line item 1030-1900 FICA in the amount of $80, line item 1030-1910 PERF in the amount of $55, for a total appropriation of $1,172. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: I make that, second that motion.

President Raben: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? No discussion? Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

TREASURER                                                          REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

SHERIFF

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, for the Sheriff, line item 1050-1920 Insurance in the amount of $16,800. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? No discussion, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

SHERIFF                                                                 REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

SCOTT TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, Scott Township Assessor, line item 1160-1110-1160 Scott Assessor in the amount of $631 and line item 1160-1900 FICA in the amount of $49, for a total appropriation of $680. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

SCOTT TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR                           REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

COMMISSIONERS

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, County Commissioners, line item 1300-3471 Abstracts in the amount of $37,000. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

COMMISSIONERS                                                 REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

BURDETTE PARK

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, Mr. President, Burdette Park, line item 1450-4120 Buildings, I’ll move that this be set in at zero and ask that this be requested again next month to be funded out of the CCD account.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Councilmember Tornatta: I thought that we had talked back some time ago that this was going to come out of the COIT Windfall.

Councilmember Winnecke: I don’t remember that.

Councilmember Tornatta: I believe we were talking February 6, 2002. We were talking about the money that we set aside earmarked for the jail project and then we also talked about certain set asides would be for rainy day funds, one would be Burdette Park for all the furnishings and any extras that were going into Burdette Park.

Councilmember Winnecke: My personal opinion is that at some point this county is going to have to look at the possibility of using that COIT Windfall for election equipment. If the state mandates continue to come down the pike or they stay on track, this county is going to need money up front to fund that money, even though we would be reimbursed. So I think we would be better off to spend the CCD money to finish the Discovery Lodge and basically hold on to the COIT Windfall for perhaps the election equipment.

Councilmember Sutton: Did we have a motion to that effect at our meeting last year? Was it discussion? How did we act on that? Was it just pretty much common consent that that’s the direction we were going to go?

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, the consent was we were going to earmark the COIT money for the jail project and to look at putting extra monies toward Burdette Park from the COIT Windfall as a slush fund or a rainy day fund, and much in the same way we set aside money for the jail project.

Councilmember Hoy: Mr. President?

President Raben: Mr. Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: I certainly want to see this taken care of at Burdette Park. My concern is, looking at these totals, we knew this was going to be a tough year and we’ve got a lot of big ticket items that still have to come out of the general fund and we might have to go into the COIT Windfall even for that. I don’t know. When we start getting Patient/Inmate bills and things like that, we’re keeping prisoners in other jails and so on, and it’s only March. So I would prefer to take it out of CCD, just as long as we commit to doing it.

President Raben: And I would also echo the comments along the same lines, that I see CCD as the appropriate account for this request to come from. And again, we’ve got, just as Councilman Hoy stated, Patient/Inmate, housing of prisoners elsewhere, and I’m sure there’s a large request coming before us in the next month or so for that, so I prefer that we use CCD as well.

Councilmember Sutton: Now, keep in mind, on the CCD fund, we’ve got $814,000 there. Under the COIT Windfall, we’ve got 1.4 million in that fund. Granted, we do have some things that are coming up, but also I guess under the CCD, we had some plans for that. So the bigger piece of the pie is in the COIT funds. So just something maybe we want to give some consideration to as we’re looking at this on a tight budget situation.

President Raben: COIT, at some point later on in the year, can be used for so much more. CCD is just what it is, Cum Capital Development Fund, and it can only be used on capital development projects and things associated with capital development. So you’re somewhat limited on what you can use that line for. This certainly falls under the guidelines for using that line. So again, this is an appropriate request.

Councilmember Tornatta: Under capital development issues, when you’re dealing with capital, obviously you need a bigger amount to fund certain things, so in this instance you would not want to bring that down to anywhere near a half million dollars because if you have a capital project, what can you do with a half million dollars at times when you need it? And the COIT Windfall, you can take that down and, as you said, you can use it for a myriad of things. In this case, with the CCD, you’re limiting yourself now on what you can spend on capital development projects.

Councilmember Hoy: Actually, we can fund capital projects out of COIT Windfall. There’s only two things you can do with CCD, and that is buildings and public safety. I believe that does include public safety, and that’s it. So it’s locked in a little more tightly is all. That’s the only reason I’d like to be careful with the COIT Windfall, and if we do get that mandate, the legislature is meeting, they might hand down some more unfunded mandates. They’re good at it.

President Raben: They’re very good at that. Okay, Madam Secretary, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: No.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: I would say we get a – I’m going to vote yes for this, but I want us to get – at least begin to get a proposal or an outline of how we intend to use both of these funds, the COIT and the CCD, so that we aren’t just taking votes kind of in the wind here. And granted, it is a little difficult to come up with some exact numbers but it would be in our best interest from a long-term planning standpoint.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

BURDETTE PARK                                                  REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion carried 6-1/Councilmember Tornatta opposed)

CUMULATIVE BRIDGE 

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, Cum Bridge fund appropriation request, line item 2030-4730 Roth Road Culvert #1537 in the amount of $150,000. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

CUMULATIVE BRIDGE                                          REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

REASSESSMENT/TREASURER

President Raben: Now we’ll move to Reassessment.

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, the Treasurer, line item 2492-1030-1300 Regular Overtime in the amount of $2,868, line item 2492-1030-1900 FICA in the amount of $220, and line item 2492-1030-1910 PERF in the amount of $151, for a total appropriation of $3,239. I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

TREASURER                                                          REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

REASSESSMENT/COUNTY ASSESSOR

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, County Assessor, line item 2492-1090-1960 Special Stipend $4,000, line item 2492-1900 FICA in the amount of $306, line item 2492-1910 PERF in the amount of $210, for a total appropriation of $4,516. I’ll make that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

Councilmember Winnecke: And I would just, to get discussion going, we’ve discussed this for the last two or three months, the request by the County Assessor for a Special Stipend for her work in coordinating the extraordinary reassessment. Her request was for more and that was to pay her Chief Deputy as well as two PAT level employees. My personal opinion is that we should not be paying a Special Stipend for the PAT levels. We have a number of PAT level employees in our county, Mrs. Deig would be one, who work long hours during special times of the year. We don’t pay those folks for that work, that comes with the job. In terms of the Chief Deputy, we only compensated the township Chief Deputies for those who actually worked hours. Based on the documentation I have, this Chief Deputy did not work extra hours relating to the reassessment and that’s how I came up with the total of $4,516.

Councilmember Sutton: Councilman Winnecke? Given the statement that you just made, are these employees salaried or hourly?

Councilmember Winnecke: Salaried.

Councilmember Sutton: Okay, you know, there are some people who would welcome the opportunity to get additional compensation for the additional time that they put in. The appropriation request here doesn’t seem to match maybe what – you know, if we look at some of our other employees here in the building, we could get a slew of requests and I guess I really would hate to begin to set precedent with salaried employees receiving additional compensation. Granted, I know this has been a difficult process for them and, as it has been for every county in the state of Indiana with the new assessment guidelines, but there’s going to be other guidelines to come down. Things with the Election Office and things like that, so when my turn comes I know I can’t support this. But just given what you said and I know what comments I’m hearing from others, it’s awfully difficult to justify that balance there.

Councilmember Winnecke: Let me clarify, I don’t know if I made myself perfectly clear. This stipend is for the County Assessor, not for the PAT level employees or not for the Chief Deputy, for the very reasons you just said. If the County Assessor wants to spend some of this money to compensate those employees after she gets this $4,000, that is her business. But I concur, we do not want to start down the slippery slope of compensating PAT level employees because they work a lot of extra hours and I’d just like to go on the record as saying our County Assessor, along with the Township Assessors, have worked very closely over the last several months, painstakingly so, to get us to the point of being able to establish a tax rate and get our tax bills out on time, which will be a great benefit to this county in terms of maintaining cash flow over the course of this year. We’re in a much better position than most counties, so I do commend the Assessor and the Township Assessors for their teamwork in this.

Councilmember Sutton: I concur with that but that’s their – when people ran for offices they knew what the duties were with those offices, and those people who hold positions here in the county understand what their job descriptions entail, and sometimes they work a little less, sometimes they work a little bit more.

President Raben: Okay, any further discussion? I might state before we call for the vote that this pertains to a salary line and a salary increase. This vote will take five to pass. So roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: No.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: No.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: No.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

COUNTY ASSESSOR                                            REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion fails 4-3/Councilmembers Tornatta, Sutton & Wortman opposed)

President Raben: Motion failed 4-3. Next would be Emergency 911.

911 EMERGENCY SERVICE

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, Mr. President, line item 3290-3890 Central Dispatch in the amount of $47,200, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Wortman: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Councilmember Hoy: Mr. President, that’s from the 911 funds rather than from...? Yeah, okay, thank you.

President Raben: No discussion? Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Before I vote, I just want everybody out there to know that all this has been discussed last week, so we’re not just passing all this through. It’s already been discussed. So I vote yes on it. We’re going pretty fast.

President Raben: And I’m doing that to allow as much time as we can for the discussion we’re going to get to in just a little bit.

Councilmember Bassemier: Sure, I just didn’t want them to think we’re just going to rubber stamp everything up here.

President Raben: Right. And again, what Councilman Bassemier is saying is, last Wednesday we had discussion with all the officeholders on each and every request here, so we are not rubber stamping.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

911 EMERGENCY SERVICE                                 REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

JAIL PROJECT

Councilmember Winnecke: Okay, Mr. President, Jail Project appropriation, line item 3660-4192 Jail Project in the amount of $698,985. I’ll move approval and then I have a point to make.

Councilmember Tornatta: Second.

President Raben: We have a motion and a second. Discussion?

Councilmember Winnecke: I would just say that this is an additional payment to the architectural and engineering firm contracted by the county to design the new jail. This is for services rendered to date and this money will be reimbursed to the county General fund upon the sale of the bonds.

President Raben: Okay, and I did have the opportunity just prior to this meeting to speak with Commissioner Mosby and he reassured me that this will be the last and final request until the point which the bonds are sold and we can be reimbursed. So –

Councilmember Bassemier: Mr. Raben, could I have Commissioner Mosby up here please?

President Raben: Is he still in the audience? I’m sorry, I’m not...is Commissioner Mosby still in the audience?

Councilmember Bassemier: What about Catherine? Either one, I just want to –

President Raben: Catherine, would you step to the microphone?

Councilmember Bassemier: – get it on record that we’re going to be reimbursed.

Catherine Fanello: Catherine Fanello, County Commissioner.

Councilmember Bassemier: And that is correct, we’re going to be reimbursed this $698,985 after the bond issue is granted?

Catherine Fanello: Yes, Councilman, and we are on target with the bond issue and we do hope that those will be issued by July 1^st of this year.

Councilmember Bassemier: Thank you, ma’am. I just wanted that on record. Thank you.

Councilmember Hoy: Mr. President?

Catherine Fanello: I thought I was getting off easy there.

Councilmember Hoy: Well, this isn’t a tough question, I don’t think. We have been billed for this full amount now?

Catherine Fanello: No, we haven’t. That will be the total amount, they will be finished with the design development phase by the end of March. So we will not pay out full payment for that phase until they have completed the work. We will pay what they have billed us to date, which I think they are 70% completed with the design development but they are 100% completed with schematic design.

Councilmember Hoy: I pay my bills, I just pay them when they are due.

Catherine Fanello: We will, too. Thank you.

President Raben: Okay, is that it for discussion? Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Tornatta?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Hoy?

Councilmember Hoy: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Wortman?

Councilmember Wortman: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Raben?

President Raben: Yes.

JAIL PROJECT                                                       REQUESTED     APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

Councilmember Sutton: Before we get away from the jail there’s something I wanted to inquire about. Over the last two years we have made an appropriation of around the range of $2.7 million toward the jail project and when I look at our balances for this year, and we’ve been making that appropriation either in January or February in the past two years, and I look at our balance sheet for this year, I would like to get an idea of where we might get those funds – what fund we’re going to get this appropriation from because in our, and if you go back and take a look at our projections on the reason why we came up with the $35,000,000 jail project, it was based upon putting aside $2.7 million every year for a period of ten years and when we did that, we had a great deal of discussion on that. And two years ago I had a great deal of caution and was really concerned about committing future Councils or even this body for a ten year period when we had really nothing to base that on and our County Auditor presented the information to us, that that would be the way in which we could fund this $35,000,000 project. Now that we do not have that money, I’d like to hear some discussion on how we’re going to pay for this project when we obviously do not have the funds that we had last year. We had a very healthy balance last year, something like close to $5,000,000, and this year we’re looking at an unappropriated balance in the General fund just a shade over $1.8 million. So that places us in a pretty precarious situation. Now I think it really warrants some discussion here when all of our assumptions and our project is based upon this $2.7 million per year for ten years and we’ve only done it two years.

President Raben: Okay, that’s a good question. I guess at some point we need to look at what’s happened in the last 12 months in the economy. I’m very optimistic that, and I think that’s what some of these people in front of us are going to propose, that we’re not in a decline forever. You know, we’ve discussed that we do have money to set aside, we discussed the COIT Windfall just a little bit ago, that’s roughly 1.4 – 1.5. While we may not have 2.7 this year, I’m very optimistic that we’ll have it again in our coffers. And bear in mind that we started this program early just in the event that we would see a year or two that could be tough times. I mean, we’ve got $5.4 million set aside right now. That’s unprecedented. You never see that amount of money set aside three or four or five years before completion of a project. So if we’re able to set aside a million, a million four this year, we come back with 2.7 next year, you know, we probably won’t even begin debt service on those bonds until late 2004, 2005, really 2005. So at that time we’re going to be so far ahead of the ball game, one year, one slump really isn’t going to have a grave effect on it. In fact, you know, again, we’re setting money and have been setting money aside at an unprecedented rate prior to any projects. So that’s, I guess we can pat ourselves on the back for beginning this process early. I don’t know if anyone else has –

Councilmember Sutton: Well, you’re going to need to come up with $1.8 million – if you’re just using 20 year amortization and using about 7% interest, you’re going to need to come up with a shade over $1.8 million per year and that’s what we have in our unappropriated balance this year. And so we can talk about what future things may come about and what may – I’m just dealing with the reality of what we have right now and we don’t have the dollars and we don’t know what the economy is going to be the rest of this year or next year. What I’m saying is, we need to come up with a definite plan, a game plan of how we’re going to address this because we obviously, is we were making that – if we were obligated to that debt service this year, we wouldn’t have the dollars. And they’re going to be through with the bonding process, as was mentioned earlier, in July. So granted, we won’t need the money until probably 2005, but that has a grave effect upon the bond and what whole process if we don’t have the ability to carry that debt service that’s going to obviously hit us here pretty soon.

President Raben: And a lot of that is going to be based on the new assessed valuation, too, which could or could not have a grave effect on it. I mean, it could potentially help the situation so, again, we’ll examine this. That’s a great question. I might encourage – I tell you, Councilman Winnecke and myself, if I’ve got any volunteers, we can’t meet in groups larger than three, but sometime over the next thirty or sixty days, let’s sit down with the Auditor.

Councilmember Sutton: Well, what we don’t want, and I think we were pretty clear on that about no tax increase, but if we’re looking at it this way, where are we going to get the dollars? So that’s why I’m saying let’s communicate this to the public. We want to make s