The Vanderburgh County Council met in session this 13th day of September, 2006 in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex. The meeting was called to order at 9:05 a.m. by County Council President Lloyd Winnecke.

President Winnecke: Good morning and welcome to the continuation of our 2007 Vanderburgh County budget hearings. We’ll begin with attendance roll call please.

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, this is our final budget hearing of 2006 for the year 2007, and the purpose today is to complete the adoption of our budget and establish salaries and all employee benefits, and also recommend to the state what would be a proposed tax rate. Today the Chair will only recognize Councilmembers until after the Finance Chair has completed his duties. And before I turn it over to Mr. Raben, I would offer, each of the Councilmembers has a letter from Commissioner Bill Nix regarding a withdrawal of a transfer request for our meeting at 10:30, but an addition to a line item that we’ll consider later and that will be in Exhibit B of the things we will consider in a few minutes. So having said that, I would now turn it over – and I would enter this into the record – and I would now turn it over to Mr. Raben to begin our festivities.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, thank you, Mr. President. First I’ll move that all full-time county employees receive a three percent raise for year 2007 as listed in the 2007 Salary Ordinance. All salaries are in accordance with the county Salary Ordinance. All Airport employees and Convention & Visitors employees will also receive a three percent raise for year 2007. All salary rates as listed in the 2007 Salary Ordinance. I’d like to move that we make the Salary Ordinance part of the record. All FICA and PERF will be adjusted accordingly. I make that in the form of a motion.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote please.

Councilmember Raben: Okay I move that Exhibits A through H be approved as listed in the 2007 Salary Ordinance.

President Winnecke: There’s a motion and a second. Questions or discussions on Exhibits A through H?

Councilmember Raben: Okay, now I ask all Councilmembers to go to List A, and this is a listing of salary and position title changes from the budget book and I move that we approve List A and make it part of the record as well.

President Winnecke: There’s a motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote please.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, Mr. President, next, all Councilmembers have been given a list of additional and/or cuts or additions to the budget, that is List B. I can take this in one motion or if anyone would like to single out a line, I would be happy to entertain that.

Councilmember Abell: Mr. Raben, I would like to single out line item 1480-3870 Computer Facility Management at $850,000.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, Mr. President, if we can, let’s exclude that line from the motion. All other, as listed. And that is my motion.

President Winnecke: Okay. So the motion on the floor is to accept List B with the exception of line 1480-3870. We have a motion and a second. Questions or discussion?

Councilmember Tornatta: Yes, since we have brought up that we’re having List B, Exhibit B, which is the Commissioners letter, I’d appreciate if that was read into the record.

Please accept this letter as notice to withdraw our transfer request of $20,000 in line item 2160-2230. (That’s on the agenda for our 10:30 meeting).

I’m formally requesting an appropriation of $90,000 to line item 4122, Repairs to Grounds, from the Cum Bridge Fund. This will consolidate costs for the equipment storage and training/lunch facility. This project will be bid out and will follow State guidelines in regards to the bid process.

It is my understanding that there has previously been discussion regarding moving Weights and Measures from their current location to a location at or near the County Highway Department. This Commission will not move Weights and Measures from their current location.

President Winnecke: Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote please.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, Mr. President, I’ll move that line item, under County Council, line item 1480-3870 to be set in at $850,000.

Councilmember Abell: I have read the contract that, the portion of it in the MRC contract that refers to the courts. It is very vague in the support that they intend to give to the courts, that MRC will give to the courts. And, in fact, it appears to me that it does more to protect MRC than it does to help the county. And I’m not happy with giving MRC $850,000 when they have, under service level exceptions, all but said that they will give no support to the Vanderburgh County courts. They’ve indicated that its, if, and, on occasion. I wouldn’t be comfortable with this unless we got some change in writing. And I would be comfortable with it if this contract were definitely subject to our funding. But it doesn’t say in here that it’s subject to the County Council funding in this document. And without it being subject to our funding, and I think that we set it in at 850, they can sign a contract and we’re stuck with it. And I’m not happy with that.

Councilmember Raben: Mr. President, I’m going to make a recommendation here. You know, today is our last opportunity to set in an amount for a future contract. I think we need to, its been noted on record, I do feel that we need the caveat at the end of the contract which states, subject to County Council’s final approval. And along with that, I think we need to take the opportunity, and I’ll be glad to work with Councilwoman Abell and try to get those changes in the contract before the Commissioners sign off on it. Along with, again, the caveat that its subject to County Council’s final approval. But again, this is our last opportunity here today to do this. So I’m going to recommend that we do that and in hopes that we’ll make those changes. And again, it is in our budget. Even without it, in the contract, we do have final say. So, and I am certainly in agreement with everything you are saying. I mean, I agree 100%, that we need more security for the courts than what I believe that contract calls for.

Councilmember Tornatta: Is Matt Arvay, do we have anybody here from computer services or from that office?

President Winnecke: He’s going to be here for the 10:30 meeting to talk about the Premis contract.

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, he was invited to this meeting, and was told that it was of utmost importance that he be here to answer questions.

Councilmember Raben: One thing about it, though, he does not sign this contract. So –

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, Mark, he was instructed to tell Mr. Rolley to be here as well, because he is the one that’s on the contract. There are certainly questions that we want to address. And it was a phone call yesterday that solidified it for me that we were not going to receive certain services in the courts, and to me, that’s not acceptable. They make up at least 50% of all the work that’s done in the county. And to say that we’re not going to service the courts for one reason or another, I think we all have ideas of what the reasons are. That’s not going to be acceptable, and at that case, it they’re only doing 50% of the work, we should only allocate them 50% of the funds.

Councilmember Raben: I think we’re all saying the same thing. And again, today is our last day to set anything in. This is in our budget, we do have a say on what’s spent out of this line item. So I think we’re a little more comfortable than we are in most situations where contracts are signed or awarded, you know, that are paid out of line items outside of our budget. We do have, one way or the other, we do have the final say here on this matter.

Councilmember Tornatta: Okay, and that will be established in the contract? I mean, as long as that language gets in, obviously, I understand that they’re going to have to come back with blue claims and tap into the County Council’s fund because we did put it in our account. That is our safeguard. But at the same time, we have to have assurance that that’s understood from the Commissioners who are not here today and from those who are going to administer that contract and sign that contract. So I think that’s quite a delicate issue and I don’t want the back and forth that I think we’re about ready to see.

Councilmember Goebel: Will this public statement serve as our guarantee that we’ll have control and we could cut back on certain funding later when they do request it, if they don’t serve the courts in the way we deem necessary?

Councilmember Raben: I may need to turn this over to our legal counsel, but its my understanding, I guess, technically, we can meet with them and offer our concerns. Technically, they can go ahead and sign the contract they want to sign. But, I guess, at that point, that’s where the fight begins. So is that an accurate statement?

Jeff Ahlers: Yeah, I don’t know that we can go so far as to say, because we say it, it guarantees it. Obviously, it notifies of our intent that this is what the funding is for and that this Council is not agreeing to the terms of the proposed contract as written. And that, you know, this is a public meeting, so the contracting party and the Commissioners are placed on notice of this Council’s position, that its not assenting to release those funds until those issues are worked out. So, I mean, I think that puts you on some footing to work out those details. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say anything is guaranteed. Ultimately, that may be for the court system if it ends up there or someplace to decide that issue.

Councilmember Tornatta: Is there an opportunity to make a resolution or write a letter from the Council saying what our position is?

Councilmember Abell: Mr. Raben, I think we should take this 850,000 that’s in 3870 Computer Facility Management and move it over to 3860, which is Contractual Computer, which is the County Council’s sole account. And then if they want to sign a contract, they’ll have to come ask us to transfer it back into their Facilities Management.

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, they can’t sign a contract without money in place.

Councilmember Abell: Well, you know, just because they’ve been negligent in getting their work done, doesn’t mean its an emergency on our part.

Councilmember Wortman: I think the Commissioners should consider us prior to signing the contract. And I think if we go on record with that, I will not go along with them until they consult all the Councilmembers before they sign this contract. Period. Thank you.

President Winnecke: I think maybe the idea of drafting a letter in writing and pointing out specifically what the concerns are that have been outlined here can be done and delivered to the Commissioners by mid-day today, I’m sure could be done.

Councilmember Tornatta: If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to somebody, have somebody from the courts, just to ask a few questions on services. If that’s Judge Knight, if you’re the spokesperson?

Councilmember Tornatta: What concerns would you have with the contract that’s written today?

Doug Knight: Well, I’m the judge that represents the court system in technology matters. I learned only Friday noon from the Chief Information Officer, Mr. Arvay, that Rolley and Associates will not support the court concerning its sum, I think he said 300 and some odd desk tops, there are closer to 500, but none of our printers, none of our email, none of the servers and other matters, the help desk. We could not function as a court system if that comes to pass, if they do not provide that service. We will not be able to properly function as a court system. It had always been my understanding that there would be no reduction in service levels to the court as a result of any action that had been taken earlier by this body or any other body. And to just learn this Friday afternoon is disturbing to me. If I may, I’d like to follow up on Councilmember Abell’s statement. I think that would very well protect the court if that was in the form of a motion passed by this body. I didn’t mean to deviate, but I am very much concerned. And we do account for approximately 50% of the work being done in information technology in terms of desk tops and printers and so on. And to think that a county based technology service would omit one of the largest clients to the county is near – well, its unthinkable.

Councilmember Tornatta: Okay, in looking at the contract, we had a million dollars that was proposed to Rolley and Associates for the contract. We took two employees out with their benefits, which roughly totalled $150,000, and put those in the Superior Court budget, which was just approved. In doing that, we dropped that contract back $150,000 because the county is picking up that portion. So the county has still got a million dollars in the process. Yet, now services are cut when we just took payroll away. Is that how you understand the process?

Doug Knight: I do. That’s what I think happened, exactly. I don’t think it should. The numbers don’t even add up. It seems to me that what resulted from your action was about a ten or fifteen percent reduction in MRC’s contract, and their response to you is that they’re reducing services approximately 50%. That math is bad.

Councilmember Raben: Mr. President, could I – I mean, I’m very comfortable with setting the account number that I’ve read in, in at zero. We can do as suggested, put it in the other account. I think, you know, again, I think they pretty much serve as one in the same. But if it makes Councilman Abell more comfortable and some of the rest of us, let’s do that. And we’ll work it from the other angles that we’ve discussed earlier.

Councilmember Abell: It would make me more comfortable. I would like to point out to all the Councilmen here that Mr. Fluty and Mrs. Deig and I sat in the meeting with Mark Rolley and Matt Arvay and Ted Ziemer, and this is not at all what came out of that meeting. What came out of that meeting was that Rolley and Associates or MRC, would not be fined, would not get any financial sanctions if levels weren’t met at the court. But never, ever was there a comment made that there would be no service given to the courts. It was just that we would not financially penalize them for not making certain service levels, which we can do with other departments. This has been changed since that meeting and that agreement was made verbally. And Mr. Ziemer is in Italy and, obviously, Mr. Arvay and Mr. Rolley don’t want to be here. And so you’re just looking at the three of us who sat there. But I can guarantee you, this verbiage that’s in this contract is not at all what was agreed to at that meeting.

Councilmember Raben: I’d like to amend my motion. We got the point of discussion, so there was a second, –

Councilmember Raben: Okay, I’d like to amend my motion to set in 1480-3870 at zero.

Councilmember Raben: We have (Inaudible) on that motion first, and then I’ll make another motion.

President Winnecke: I understand. Any other discussion? I just wanted to make sure you were done. Okay, roll call vote.

Councilmember Raben: Mr. President, because we weren’t prepared to make this additional motion today, I want to double-check the figure that I had for 3860, where we’re going to place this 850, so we set in the proper total, okay? Let me get some verification on that and we’ll come right back to it. Okay, Mr. President, I’m going to set a new motion, under the County Council’s budget, under account 3860 Contractual Computer, the new amount will be $1,572,316.

President Winnecke: Okay, there’s a motion and a second to make line 3860 $1,572,316. Questions or discussion? Mrs. Abell?

Councilmember Abell: I have a question of Mr. Arvay. Mr. Arvay, when we were in the meeting in the room next door last week, with Mr. Fluty and Mrs. Deig and yourself, Mr. Rolley, and Mr. Ziemer, the agreement that we came to was that MRC would continue to do their work to support the courts, but we would not give them any financial sanctions if they didn’t meet service levels.

Matt Arvay: Right, and nothing has changed on the contract that Ted sent out. I think there’s been a misunderstanding. It’s a best effort basis, MRC would help the courts on a best effort basis. No service level expectations, and it’s the same language that Ted sent out last Friday. Nothing has changed.

Councilmember Abell: Well, the language that was sent out last Friday is not what we agreed on, though. We agreed that there would be no financial sanctions against them. We never agreed that they would not support the court and we certainly didn’t agree that there would be no email service or be no help desk support. We are not, this Councilman is not in any position to cut the umbilical cord between this Council and that court system. And that’s certainly what this contract seems to do.

Matt Arvay: My understanding was that everybody saw this language and was okay with it –

(Inaudible – Portions of the remaining transcript are inaudible due to audio system failure).

Matt Arvay: So if something’s changed since Ted left last Friday, I’m not aware.

Councilmember Tornatta: Yeah, Matt, I think that we’ve been discussing, and I think its been clear, and I think you have a great idea what the court’s concerns are, and what their needs are. Now as the CIO, I hope you’re in a position where you accept what those needs and concerns are, and that we can facilitate progress to getting those needs met.

Councilmember Tornatta: And I guess what my problem is, is I’m hearing a lot of backing up about how we’re not going to be able to meet some of those needs because of a financial transfer from this Rolley budget to the Superior Court budget. And, I guess, that’s just not acceptable at this time in the signing of this contract. If these needs can be met and we can assure the courts that they’re going to have all the same things that everybody else has, then that’s one thing. I don’t know if, because taking payroll out of Mark Rolley’s line item, that that’s necessarily going to be an end-all, do-all of this contract.

Matt Arvay: So the language that has been sent out last Friday is not acceptable at this point? That’s –

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, of course, I didn’t get the language at all. But that’s sometimes how this game is played. But at the same time, I’m just saying, its been established that there are needs that need to be met. And as the CIO, that’s your job.

Councilmember Tornatta: I mean, you have to do that, then we have to convey that to other people.

Matt Arvay: When there’s duplicate systems out there and you add up the amount of computers and servers and it comes down to a per unit cost that a service provider is responsible to apply those services on, there comes a breaking point when money continues to be pulled back from that service provider, but the expectations are still there. So we thought we had a middle ground here with this language saying that we would still support them, they would request on things that they can’t do, that they would request of the CIO and we would potentially suspend service levels for the rest of the enterprise that he is contractually obligated to perform, to assist the courts. But this would go in front of ITAC unless its an emergency. In an emergency, we’d put resources on it right away.

Councilmember Tornatta: The two gentlemen that are crossing over from what was the enterprise to what will be a Superior Court line item, they’re very familiar with how to run the enterprise system, correct?

Councilmember Tornatta: The court system. But they have worked on the enterprise as well?

Councilmember Tornatta: Okay, so this would not be a great departure from what they’ve done already, so it should be a pretty even flow from MRC to these two gentlemen that would be running the courts and making, at least at this point in time, the courts feel more comfortable with the situation of the change, because this is a pretty substantial change that we’re trying to make. But at the same time, with those guys knowing what’s going on and with them being so familiar with the system, that should be just the even blend. There shouldn’t be a whole lot of money spent in between either training these guys or trying to get them to learn a new service. They already know what’s going on. So then why would the service from MRC not be complete on over to the county courts?

Matt Arvay: I can’t speak for the service provider. Maybe we need to -- and he is in the house, maybe we could bring him up here. When the money was reduced, there was an agreement on this language for a best effort basis to help the courts. Not saying that they will not help the court, but there has to be a process in place so they don’t go directly to the vendor, when the vendor is liable financially for other aspects of the enterprise. That’s all we’re trying to establish here.

President Winnecke: Excuse me, Matt. I would stop you right there because that’s not what the agreement says and I’ll just read it to you. It says,

“As it pertains to the Vanderburgh County Courts, MRC is not funded to support and will not have any support role or responsibility including its hardware and software systems.”

Matt Arvay: Well, but it goes back here on it that there will be times when we have to work together to accomplish a common goal or project.

President Winnecke: I understand that but it says, it will not support or have any support role or responsibility. That scares the courts and, frankly, it scares this Council. I think what we thought was the spirit of the agreement, I think people were generally comfortable with. But what you’re saying and what is in writing are two different things.

Matt Arvay: Well again, this is language that Ted approved, the city approved. If something needs to be changed, there is a suggestion, you’re saying to remove that, any support role but still have -- will not have responsibility including its hardware and software systems...

Councilmember Raben: Can I ask a few questions? As an example, when the courts call the help desk, will they have the same opportunities that every other county office has?

Councilmember Raben: Okay, Steve is covered up. Will the courts have the same opportunities that other county offices have?

Matt Arvay: I mean, they said that with the CIO approval, they would help them. And what we’ve tried to do there is just not have the courts go directly to the vendor.

Matt Arvay: They’d have to go to the city/county office and then we could run this through ITAC, but if its an emergency situation, then, of course, (Inaudible).

Councilmember Raben: What about email? Will the courts be privy to the same upgrades and same services in regards to email that other county offices have?

Matt Arvay: Well, the difference right now is there is duplicate systems out there, two email systems. We have an enterprise email system that MRC is responsible for. If we’re going to make them responsible for the duplicate system (Inaudible). The Sheriff currently has their own email system and they support that solely (Inaudible). Now we get into that gray area – are we going to move forward with a separate system or are we going to work toward an enterprise system?

Councilmember Tornatta: And do we have a comment or a question from the courts? Because I would like, while we’re here, let’s all just open up from the same hymnal.

Wayne Trockman: Wayne Trockman, Vanderburgh Superior Court Judge. Mr. President, the court shares the same concern that I think most of the, well, all of the Council has already reiterated today. And it seems that, Matt, you’re (Inaudible). You’re willing, you’re able, and want to work with us and you do have a good relationship (Inaudible) but the language is wrong, as you said, Mr. President. And if we could just simply (Inaudible) that language, so there isn’t a misunderstanding six months, a year down the road, then (Inaudible) we go back to the spirit of the meeting (Inaudible) and get that spirit in writing, and that’s what I would like to suggest (Inaudible) so there is no misunderstanding (Inaudible). I don’t hear Matt saying, we’re not going to make our best efforts to attempt to help the court, but that language could cause someone else to (Inaudible). And obviously, that’s the concern.

Councilmember Raben: Matt is simply going to administer the contract that’s signed. So I think everybody is saying here, they want the right contract signed.

Councilmember Tornatta: I understand, but was there not, Matt, did you kind of facilitate the writing of the contract?

Matt Arvay: Yeah, but that last piece was put in after that money was removed (Inaudible).

Councilmember Tornatta: Right, but I guess, we bring you here because you’re a big wheeler in this process and you’re the top dog in the process. And being that guy, and the guy that kind of constructed the contract, and works very closely, and has a good relationship with the contractor, it is very important that you’re on the same page with these guys. Even though you’re not doing it, you do administer a lot of that contract.

Matt Arvay: I agree, and I’ll just make the comment that, again, I worked really close with Ted Ziemer, who had sent this language out before he went on (Inaudible). We had heard nothing negative until (Inaudible). So again, the spirit is there on both sides. If the language does not read appropriately, (Inaudible) propose something differently, (Inaudible).

President Winnecke: Let me, we could beat this horse for a long time here, but I think its pretty much dead. I have a couple of suggestions. One, to Mr. Raben’s earlier point, we do need to put a number in place today, otherwise, we do run the risk of really critically hurting the entire enterprise and I don’t think that’s anyone’s intent today. I would suggest that we do pass Mr. Raben’s motion, but I would also suggest we pass a resolution that we not fund this contract until its worded the way (Inaudible) proper language that this body accepts. And I think we could probably get the right parties together in the coming hours to get that done so the Commissioners can approve a contract tomorrow.

Matt Arvay: Can you pass it approving, (Inaudible) contingency of approve (Inaudible) proper language (Inaudible). If this does not pass on Thursday, (Inaudible) we’re really in jeopardy of not being able to get a contract signed.

President Winnecke: I think I said the same thing. We need to pass a number today, but for this Council’s protection and at least our ability to sleep better now, I think we need to pass a resolution, I think, –

Councilmember Tornatta: I think we just voted that, did we not, that 1.5 million dollars?

President Winnecke: What I’m saying is, we approve that and then we pass a secondary resolution that we wouldn’t fund the contract until there’s proper language that we are comfortable with. If that (Inaudible). And then after this meeting today, we need to get together and fix the language so that the courts are comfortable with it, the Council is comfortable with it, you’re comfortable with it, and the Commissioners are comfortable with it.

Councilmember Abell: But I’d like to take a moment because Mr. Arvay wasn’t here, you do not have this money available in Facility Management. You need to understand that. We took it out of there. We zeroed that out. We are moving it over into our Computer Contractual account. So if you’re asked tomorrow if the money is in place, I think your answer may have to be no, unless you hear otherwise, because its not in Facility Management.

President Winnecke: Okay, I’m going to have Judge Knight say something and then we’re going to move on. I think we’ve –

Doug Knight: Thank you. I’ll be very brief. I just had a question. I assume we’re dealing with 2007 issues and that we’re not going to lose (Inaudible) help desk or any other support next week or October or November or December, that’s my assumption.

Councilmember Raben: Mr. President, I don’t think time will allow for a formal written document because we’re not all going to be back together between now and tomorrow. I think, and I’ll be happy to make it or Marsha or yourself, someone else can make it, but I think we’re going to need to pass a resolution on the floor today but not a formal document.

President Winnecke: The current motion on the floor is to pass an appropriation of $1,572,316 in the County Council’s budget, line item 3860. There is a motion and a second, and we’ve had discussion. Roll call vote.

Councilmember Raben: Mr. President, this is a time when I wish our legal counsel could make this motion for me. I’d like to make a resolution on the floor stating that it is this Council’s desire to make amendments to the pending contract that is more palatable, offers more securities for the courts which are the major players in county, in regards to their IT needs and security issues. I make that in the form of a motion.

President Winnecke: There’s a motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Mr. Ahlers, would you like to comment?

Jeff Ahlers: Yeah, do you want to include in that motion that it’s the intention of Council not to fund any contract with the language, at least specifically on page 48, that is not modified to the Council’s satisfaction, that there would be no funding or funding in place for the contract?

Councilmember Raben: I would like to amend my motion to also include that at the end of the contract, that it state that subject to County Council’s final approval.

Councilmember Tornatta: Maybe if we could do this: we recess at the end of this meeting. We recess, sit down, write something out that’s going to be exactly what we want so we’re not trying to do this on the fly. Come back right before our Council meeting, finalize this meeting, start our Council meeting.

Councilmember Raben: I think we probably said everything we need to say right there.

Councilmember Tornatta: Is that talking about transferring funds over into that – we’ll have to transfer the funds over to the other account so that we can –

Councilmember Tornatta: No, we’ll have to transfer the 1.5 million dollars back into Facility Management because that’s where the budget side is. They have to have money in place in order to write this contract. And right now, they don’t. We zeroed it out. So we’re going to have to transfer funds over in there before tomorrow to do this. So the resolution has to also include the transfer of funds over into that account.

Councilmember Raben: I don’t know that within that contract, that they identify any single line item. I think the fact that we’re budgeting the funds in place as a matter of record, I think we’re okay there.

President Winnecke: We’re talking 2007. We can make that transfer January 1, so we don’t have to do that today or tomorrow.

Councilmember Raben: As many contracts in the past, and still do read, subject to County Council’s final approval.

Councilmember Sutton: Okay, now wouldn’t that be obvious? I mean, they can’t enter into an agreement, any contract, without proper funds?

Councilmember Raben: Right, and when we make the transfer, if next month or November or December or whenever we make the transfer for whatever amount the contract is signed for, that, in essence, is your final approval. Now without making that transfer, we’ve not given final approval.

Councilmember Sutton: I guess I’m just wanting us to be careful with our language, not to, the language construed as if we are the ones actually signing off on the contract or approving the contract per se, because that’s not our role.

Councilmember Raben: A lot of contracts, I don’t have any with me, but they used to read and I assume they still do, but even as far as like contract negotiations, as an example, the teamsters, those contracts in the past have always read, subject to County Council’s approval. So, I mean, that verbiage is out there with a lot of contracts within the county.

President Winnecke: We have a motion to pass a resolution on the floor, we have a second. Any other discussion on that? Roll call vote.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next, Councilmembers have been given a copy of the final insurance data. I move that the County Council approve the 2007 insurance budget as listed. These figures represent the County’s share of three current health plans, with the total employee contribution of eight percent. The figures are for full-time county employees and does not include insurance for Superior Court Magistrates. I’d like to make this part of the record and that is my motion.

President Winnecke: Motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next, Mr. President, I’ll move that all other 2, 3, and 4000 accounts for the 2007 budget be adopted as previously approved for the following: 911 Emergency Services, Airport Authority, Area Plan Commission, Armstrong Assessor, Armstrong Assessor/Reassessment, Auditor, Auditor/Reassessment, Bond Issue, Burdette Park, Center Assessor, Center Assessor/Reassessment, Children’s Psychiatric Residential Treatment Services, Circuit Court, Circuit Court Supplemental Adult Probation, Convention & Visitors Bureau, Convention Center Operating Fund, Coroner, County Treasurer, County Treasurer/Reassessment, County Assessor, County Assessor/Reassessment, County Recorder, County Clerk, County Clerk IV-D, County Commissioners, County Commissioners/CCD, County Council, County Highway, County Co-Op Extension, County Surveyor, Cum Bridge, Department of Child Services, Drainage Board, Drug and Alcohol Deferral, Election Office, German Assessor, German Assessor/Reassessment, Health Department, Jail, Jail Bond, Knight Assessor, Knight Assessor/Reassessment, Legal Aid, Legal Aid/United Way, Local Drug Free Community, Local Emergency Planning Commission, Local Roads & Streets, Perry Assessor, Perry Reassessment, Pigeon Assessor, Pigeon Reassessment, Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals, Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals/ Reassessment, Prosecutor, Prosecutor IV-D, Prosecutor Adult Protective Services, Prosecutor Fees/Check Recovery, Prosecutor Drug Law Enforcement Program, Prosecutor Pre-Trial Diversion, Prosecutor Stop Domestic Violence, Prosecutor Victims Witness Assistance Program, Public Defender Commission, Riverboat, Sales Disclosure, Scott Assessor, Scott Reassessment, Sheriff, Sheriff/Community Corrections, Sheriff/Misdemeanor Housing, Vanderburgh County Community Corrections Misdemeanor Offender, Superintendent of County Buildings, Superior Court, Superior Drug Court, Superior Court Supplemental Adult Probation, Surveyor Maps, Surveyor Corner Perpetuation Fund, The Centre, Tourism Capital Improvement, Union Assessor, Union Assessor/Reassessment, Veterans Administration, Voters Registration, Weights & Measures, and I can read that backwards if needed. I make that in the form of a motion.

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

Councilmember Tornatta: Well, I just wanted to make one comment before I vote and that is, first off, I appreciate all the officeholders who have for the last few years kind of, in layman’s terms, sucked it up. Have administered their monies about as well as anybody could administer monies. I mean, we have seen a cutback on the use of some services that the county provides to our officeholders with a higher output of services to the Vanderburgh County citizens. And, I mean, we sit up here and sometimes don’t know how its done, but we have a goal that we have to meet and that is to make sure that we give as little amount of raise into the tax rate as possible. So I commend all the employees of Vanderburgh County. I think that its really been outstanding to see the work that’s been done with the amount of funding that we’ve been able to give you. So, we appreciate what you do and how you do it, and then as far as the budget, I think we’ve made our concerns from the minority side on some of the concerns and there is no reason to hold up the budget, so I vote yes.

Councilmember Sutton: We did receive one additional item, too, that we didn’t make note of that I did ask for during our budget hearings and John Stoll did provide for us a list of prioritized bridge and culvert projects for ‘07. Just in light of the discussion that we had, that was very important so that we can kind of see what that direction is because there is a lot of dollars that come out of that particular budget. I echo Councilman Tornatta’s accolades for all of those folk who have been involved with the budget process. It has gone extremely well. I vote yes.

Councilmember Goebel: I’d also like to thank everyone for being so open and working together, I think, in a bipartisan way for the benefit of the county. And, James, I do have some pain reliever for you after this meeting is over, so I vote yes.

Councilmember Raben: Thank you. I vote yes. In fact, we still have two more items we need to address, but yes.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next I move that the County Council set the tax rate as deemed appropriate by the Indiana State Tax Commissioners following a review of our budget. I make that in the form of a motion.

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

Councilmember Raben: Okay, next, Mr. President, I move that we set the Cum Bridge tax rate at three cents per hundred assessed valuation. I make that in the form of a motion.

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

Councilmember Raben: And last, I move that we set one million dollars in COIT into Local Roads & Streets.

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

Councilmember Raben: And, Mr. President, before I turn the floor back over to you, I would like to say thanks, once again, to everyone here at this very large round table right now. Again, this is, you guys make the budget process very easy when you’re serving as the Finance Chairman because everybody takes an extremely active role in this budget process and has been great to work with. I think we’ve made as many compromises as we can make to throw together the strong healthy budget that should fully fund most, if not all, departments within the county. And again, thanks to everyone including Sarah Nunn, our secretary, Sandie, our Executive Assistant, Auditor Fluty and his assistant, Teri, they’ve really been helpful with this whole process. One last housekeeping matter, today, after today, our cuts are 10,444,452. So we’re at about ten and a half million dollars. So that puts us at a little over – it puts it at about 58.6 for the overall county budget. So that’s a lot of cuts. And again, great job to everybody, and thank you.

Councilmember Tornatta: Mr. Fluty, do you know what percentage that is, raised from last year?

Councilmember Tornatta: And we have a three percent pay raise in there, so, I mean, just for those of you who pay attention to how much raise you have in your taxes, that’s about as low as you can get and still keep things rolling along here. So somewhere around four percent. So when you see your tax bills go out, your County Council is working for you.

President Winnecke: Anyone else? I’d like to wrap up, again, thanking everyone. This has been a true team effort. I appreciate everyone’s hard work, patience and tenacity. Again, thank you to Sandie and Sarah, Bill and your staff, Teri, everyone has contributed a lot of hours and I do appreciate it. And with that, our 2007 Vanderburgh County Council budget hearings stand adjourned.

(There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:57 a.m.)