VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

MINUTES

NOVEMBER 7, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Council met in session this 7th day of November, 2007 in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex. The meeting was called to order at 8:32 a.m. by Vanderburgh County Council President, Marsha Abell.

President Abell: I’d like to call to order the November 7, 2007 meeting of the Vanderburgh County Council. Could I have the attendance roll call please?

(Councilmembers Sutton & Goebel arrived after roll call taken)

President Abell: Would you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

(Pledge of Allegiance was given)

President Abell: We do anticipate that we will have a couple more Councilmen here in a few minutes, but we’re going to go ahead and get started.

President Abell: I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the October 3, 2007 meeting.

Councilmember Leader: So moved.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 4-0)

President Abell: The Appropriation Ordinance, I will turn the meeting over to the Finance Chairman, Mr. Raben.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, thank you. Good morning.

TREASURER

Councilmember Raben: First on the agenda, under Treasurer, 1030-3610 Legal Services in the amount of $1,000, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

TREASURER                                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 4-0)

SUPERINTENDENT OF COUNTY BUILDINGS

Councilmember Raben: Superintendent of County Buildings, 1310-3200 Utilities in the amount of 30,000, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

SUPERINTENDENT OF COUNTY BUILDINGS   REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 4-0)

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Councilmember Raben: Next, Health Department, 2130-4230 Motor Vehicles in the amount of 28,000, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes. And I’d like to say that just, for the record, that we discussed this last week. Mr. Sutton was concerned about depleting the General Fund, and this does come out of the Health Department’s funds alone. So its not a part of the General Fund.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT                                       REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 4-0)

REASSESSMENT/PERRY TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR

Councilmember Raben: Okay next, under Perry Township Assessor, Office Supplies in the amount of $500, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

PERRY TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR                          REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 4-0)

REASSESSMENT/PIGEON TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR

Councilmember Raben: Pigeon Township Assessor, Office Supplies, in the amount of 800, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

PIGEON TOWNSHIP ASSESSOR                        REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 4-0)

SHERIFF

Councilmember Raben: Sheriff, 1050-3370 Computer in the amount of 18,318, I’ll move approval.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: That’s a repeal.

Councilmember Raben: Oh, excuse me, repeal, I’m sorry.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

SHERIFF                                                                REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

REASSESSMENT/TREASURER

Councilmember Raben: We have another repeal under Reassessment/County Treasurer, Printing in the amount of 25,000, I’ll move approval.

President Abell: That has been – excuse me, go ahead.

Bill Fluty: That also has a transfer back farther, so maybe you want to talk about those at the same time. She’d like to withdraw that.

President Abell: The Treasurer is here, I think she is going to explain it.

Councilmember Raben: Well okay, I’ll withdraw that motion.

Z Tuley: I’m Z Tuley with the Vanderburgh County Treasurer’s Office. The original thought was to withdraw that but it would be best served if it was put under Contractual Services so that we can do some additional programming to take care of all the appeals that are still pending. And without this programming, we would not be able to complete that task in any kind of timely fashion because we would have to wait until March when we go to do the roll.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, so we’ll handle the transfer and withdraw the repeal. Okay, Madam President, under County Treasurer Repeal, I move that we set in 2490-1030-3410 in at zero.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote. Wait a minute.

Bill Fluty: I think we want to withdraw it and then do the transfer is what we want to do.

Councilmember Winnecke: Instead of zero?

Bill Fluty: Instead of setting it in at zero.

Councilmember Raben: In the past we’ve zeroed out items that have been withdrawn for the official record, but I will amend my motion to County Treasurer, Printing, in the amount of $25,000 to be withdrawn.

Councilmember Winnecke: I’ll amend the second.

President Abell: Does everyone understand what we’ve done? We’ve withdrawn it. Okay, roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

TREASURER                                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

CORONER 

VETERANS SERVICES

PUBLIC DEFENDER 

COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS

FAMILY & CHILDREN SERVICES

AIRPORT AUTHORITY

REASSESSMENT/ARMSTRONG

REASSESSMENT/TREASURER (LATE)

Councilmember Raben: Okay, Madam President, next under Coroner, we have transfers from Training in the amount of 1,000, Maintenance Contract in the amount of 2,000 into Gas & Oil and Solid Waste. Veterans Services, Equipment Repair in the amount of 300 into Office Supplies in the amount of 300. Public Defenders office, Training in the amount of 1,000, Telephone in the amount of 2,500, Travel/Mileage in the amount of 1,000 into Investigative/Contractual Services in the amount of 4,500. Community Corrections, we have Confinement Officer in the amount of 7,000 transferred into Union Overtime. Family & Children Services, Out of Home Placement-Institutions in the amount of 274,250 into Preservation Services in the amount of 274,250. The Airport, we have several items, Bond & Insurance and Judgement & Refunds into Telephone, Training, Contractual Services and Other Supplies. Armstrong/Reassessment, we have Other Supplies in the amount of $85 into Maintenance Contract for $85. And Reassessment, under Treasurer, Printing in the amount of 25,000 into Contractual Services. I make that in the form of a motion, that all be set as submitted.

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

CORONER                                                             REQUESTED       APPROVED

VETERANS SERVICES                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

PUBLIC DEFENDER                                             REQUESTED       APPROVED

COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS                              REQUESTED       APPROVED

FAMILY & CHILDREN SERVICES                        REQUESTED       APPROVED

AIRPORT AUTHORITY                                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

REASSESSMENT/ARMSTRONG                         REQUESTED       APPROVED

REASSESSMENT/TREASURER                          REQUESTED       APPROVED

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

Councilmember Raben: And last, Madam President, the Salary Ordinance, we have Community Corrections, I move that we amend salary line 1361-1850 Union Overtime as previously approved. Under Sheriff’s department, salary line 1050-0028, and basically, we’re changing classification from Sergeant to Deputy. The former employee was paid accrued payments out of this line as a Sergeant. This salary line cannot be filled until the funds are available in January of 2008. I make that in the form of a motion.

Councilmember Leader: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

President Abell: Is there any Old Business to come before the Council?

President Abell: Under New Business, we are taking up the ordinance requiring the Vanderburgh County Sheriff to charge an annual sex and violent offender registration fee, sex or violent offender address change fees and establishing a sex and violent offender administration fund. I think all of you have seen a copy of this. I trust that you have. I can tell you that I have discussed this with the Commissioners’ attorney and I believe maybe Mr. Ahlers and I have had a couple of emails about it. I was a little concerned that charging a fee might cause someone to not register and we certainly want them to register, but I’ve talked this over with Sheriff Williams. He’s going to monitor the situation, but he doesn’t feel that that’s going to be a detriment to it, so that was my only question. If any of the rest of you have a question, and I notice that Sheriff Williams is here, if you’d like to address any questions.

Councilmember Leader: Could we just ask the Sheriff how that will actually work?

President Abell: Sheriff Williams?

Eric Williams: Good morning, Sheriff Williams. And your question, again?

Councilmember Leader: How will you actually, once somebody is found guilty, I mean, do you find them – how does that work? How is that going to work?

Eric Williams: Once we find out that somebody is required to register, we notify them by letter or in person, somehow that they need to report to us for a registration. At that point in time, we will charge them the initial fee. We’ll recharge that fee annually when we re-register them. We’ll also charge them a $5 fee anytime they change addresses because that’s a significant amount of paperwork for us. You know, there is still a significant number of people out there that should be on the registry that are not, that we look for, but, you know, its just a matter of time, the community helping. This is a, from my perspective, this is a classic user fee. It’s a very limited pool of people that are required to use this registry and yet, its taking up one and a half full-time people within my staff to maintain and monitor it. And when the legislature passed this law allowing us to do this, you know, its my belief that this is a good example of charging those that specifically use this service to pay the way. And it won’t pay the whole way by any means, but it will make a dent.

Councilmember Leader: How many people would you initially need to charge the fee to? Do you have an idea?

Eric Williams: Well, it’s the sex and violent offenders, and currently, we have a little over 400 on our registry and we estimate that that’s probably about 60% of those that truly are required to register that we know about.

President Abell: Any other questions? Sheriff Williams, is this to take effect in January?

Eric Williams: I’m not exactly sure how the County Attorney altered it, but I think it was immediately when I submitted my proposal to them, but it may be January 1st. I haven’t read the final draft of it, so –

President Abell: If we make our final vote on it, first vote today and our final vote next month, that won’t cause you any problem?

Eric Williams: No.

President Abell: Okay. Any other questions for the Sheriff?

Councilmember Raben: Madam President, I’ll move approval.

President Abell: Okay, do we have a second?

Councilmember Winnecke: Second.

President Abell: Roll call vote.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Leader?

Councilmember Leader: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Winnecke?

Councilmember Winnecke: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Abell?

President Abell: Yes.

(Motion unanimously approved 6-0)

President Abell: This is the first reading and we’ll have the second reading next month.

Eric Williams: And to answer your question, we’ve talked with other counties in Indiana that have enacted this and they haven’t seen a significant problem with people not registering as a result of this. So if it should look like that is becoming a problem then we will definitely re-address it because, ultimately, we want the people to know where these people are and that they register properly.

President Abell: I appreciate that. That was my only concern and I think you and I addressed that earlier.

Eric Williams: It was our concern, too, when this was presented to us as an option.

President Abell: Is there any other business to come before this Council?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes, one other thing.

President Abell: Okay, Mr. Sutton.

Councilmember Sutton: Madam President, in looking at our sheet that we get from the Auditor’s office that breaks down all of the different funds and accounts and their appropriations and the balances that we have across the board from the General Fund all the way across to COIT Windfall, we’ve got that one area where we’ve got roughly 3.2 million in the Jail Project Fund budget and trying to get an idea if we are anticipating any costs say over the next twelve to fifteen months. I know we’ve talked about the sally port and all those things, and I know we’re wanting to leave some in there, but if we have any projections on what that those costs might be that would potentially hit this Jail Project budget. Councilman Raben, would you have any insight on that?

Councilmember Raben:,I can speak to one that is coming before us in the near future and, in fact, I might ask Sheriff Williams to come back before the Council. But there’s some improvements, some new fencing, some soundproofing, and some extra security cameras that he’s in need of at the jail, and I’ll let him take over.

Eric Williams: We’ve been working with the Building Authority for the last six to eight months just, you know, when we moved into the building, we really wanted to settle in first before we just went and said, well, we need to do this, and do this differently. Now the true operation of the facility is sometimes different than it appeared on paper. We have a couple of issues that are just mechanical in nature through the Building Authority, but I’ll be presenting a request next month from this fund for 347,000. That includes some security issues, some new fencing, some outdoor lighting for security reasons, soundproofing within the housing units. We did one as a test in one of the housing units and it made a significant difference in your ability to operate and manage the facility. There’s some camera needs, we’ve found some blind spots in the facility that we’d like to be able to cover and monitor. There’s some issues with the negative air system within the medical unit which is where we’d house prisoners that have airborne contagious diseases, so that’s a safety issue. But I’ll have all those detailed, and we’re going to present that next month for you.

Councilmember Sutton: Well, I guess where I’m kind of going with this, trying to get a sense and feel of how much we’re intending to tap into this particular area, so if you’ve got some things that you know of –

Eric Williams: That was $347,000.

Councilmember Sutton: -- and if there’s some, I know we’ve had some other discussions on some other projects, and looking at that project with that pretty healthy balance, if we don’t anticipate that we’re going to need this total amount, I’d like to see a certain amount set aside for jail issues. But then the remaining amount, if we don’t anticipate anything, maybe putting that in a rainy day fund of some type. We had one once upon a time and then we used it for some other things. So, I’d like to maybe first see what we are, on this list of things, say over the next twelve to eighteen months, that we’re anticipating before we maybe take that step of moving things around.

Eric Williams: I can’t speak for the Building Authority and the mechanical nature of the building, you know, that is something that would come from Building Authority. But operationally, you know, we purposely sat back and waited and really analyzed our needs to make sure that we didn’t come to you all on a frequent basis saying we need this, we need that. We wanted to make one request and say this should suffice for a significant period of time and we think this will address the major part of our security concerns out there. I don’t foresee any operational requests from the office other than this one for sometime to come.

Councilmember Raben: And Royce, basically, I mean, this is somewhat of a rainy day fund with a different name. We can, at any given point, change the name of this fund to whatever we want to. But initially, that’s where it was placed and it will serve any purpose. I would like to remind Council, there are two very large projects on the board within the County: Green River Road widening and University Parkway phases two and three, and eventually, all the way to I-64. But, you know, those are what, you know, if I had my choice what we would hold onto the balance of these funds for, for our matches and acquisition of right-of-ways and what-have-you, so we really don’t know. And I know the Commissioners are working hard to get federal funding, but along with that, is always a local match, so this will be a valuable source to tap at some point in time to see those two projects through.

Councilmember Sutton: Well, that’s kind of what I was, had in mind in terms of some of those larger projects we’ve got coming up down the road. And since we’ve got it labeled as Jail Project, I didn’t want us to not be able to utilize those funds in some way or another, so if we can get a sense of what we’ve got coming up, that will be a great start for us.

Councilmember Winnecke: Two other thoughts: first, there is a third large ticket project that’s kind of looming out there and that’s the renovation of the old jail space within this building. You know, at some point, I would anticipate in the new year that, you know, there might be some specific requests on that. But secondly, Auditor Fluty does remind me that we do have one rainy day fund that’s not reflected on our financial statement with a balance of about 600,000, so not nearly this amount, but I think it is good that we kind of keep these large ticket items sort of forefront, so we know where we might potentially spend this money.

Councilmember Raben: Right.

President Abell: Any other comments? And I think we always have to be mindful when we build a building, it always is going to have something that’s going to have to be done from time to time. And unfortunately, I’ve noticed a lot of our municipal buildings are built with the thought in mind that they will never have to have a new roof or a new parking lot or anything else, and we know that that’s not true. Is there any other business to come before this Council?

Councilmember Winnecke: (Inaudible – microphone not turned on)

President Abell: Today?

Councilmember Winnecke: Or do you want to do it next time?

President Abell: We’ll make it next time. Mr. Winnecke was asking me about the Pigeon Creek Greenway appointment. We’ll make that next month. We’ve got a couple of names we’re looking at. Any other business to come before the Council? We stand adjourned.

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

VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

        President Marsha Abell               Vice President Lloyd Winnecke

       Councilmember Jim Raben           Councilmember Mike Goebel

        Councilmember Tom Shetler         Councilmember Royce Sutton

        Councilmember Donna Leader

Recorded and transcribed by Teri Lukeman.