VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

BUDGET HEARINGS

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

The Vanderburgh County Council met in session this 2nd day of September in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex. The meeting was called to order at 9:29 a.m. by County Council President Tom Shetler, Jr.

President Shetler: Once again, good morning, and at this time I’d like to convene the second stage of the budget cuts or budget session here. I guess that was a slip there, wasn’t it? I would, first of all, like to start by saying, just to thank all of the elected officeholders and department heads. Everyone just really did an outstanding job this year of paying close attention to what I think the taxpayers are interested in and what we, the Council, is hearing also from the taxpayers in that we needed to keep the budgets down to a minimum and you all did that, and I greatly appreciate the efforts. And I know it was not easy to come up with zero lining your budgets, as you did. Today we’re going to be restricting the comments from the podium until the conclusion of the meeting. There may be some dialogue that happens between the Councilmembers, and I encourage that, during Mr. Raben’s presentation on some of the cuts that he’s going to be recommending. We’ll hold the other comments until the end, though, and with that, I’d like to take roll call and then we’ll turn the mic over to Councilman Raben.

President Shetler: There being seven members present and none absent, we have a quorum and at this time -- yes, Councilman Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Sorry to interrupt, but the cuts pamphlet that we have here today, is that the very same as the one that we worked on prior?

Sandie Deig: (inaudible – microphone not turned on)

Councilmember Goebel: Is this, the one on our desks today, is this the same as the other one? There’s no changes from the other?

President Shetler: There may be some from the floor today, but –

Councilmember Goebel: Is the printing on this the same as the printing in this, is what I’m asking? Because I’ve got all my notes in this one.

Councilmember Raben: With just a couple of –

Councilmember Goebel: Okay.

President Shetler: Alright, yes, Councilman Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Mr. President, I guess, right out of the gate, all salary lines including FICA, PERF and insurance will be set at our September the 9^th meeting, so with that, that’s standard throughout today. You know, as we bring closure to a budget or stop for a vote or something like that, I want that to be, you know, part of my standard motion throughout the day if I neglect to state that. And everyone has a copy of the 2010 proposed budget cuts. I’d like to work from those, it’s a lot easier than working from the cumbersome book. And I’d like to begin a motion, I can stop at any point, if anybody has a question or doesn’t agree with a cut, please stop me, we’ll take everything up until that point and then we’ll begin a new motion if that’s agreeable to everybody. Is that...

President Shetler: One further point that I’d like to make and I’d neglected to address it earlier, I would, to help move things along a little bit, is to do a voice vote on it rather than doing roll call on each. And if there’s a point where someone would like to have it recorded as a roll call vote, then we could certainly address that. But otherwise, if there’s no objection from any of the members, then we will go on with the voice vote if there aren’t any questions.

CLERK

Councilmember Raben: And before we start, I guess, to answer Councilman Goebel’s first question, there will be a few amendments today as we go through that and I’ll point those out, okay? And first, under County Clerk, which is account 1010, the first item is 1990, the request was $26,010, I move that that be set in at zero; 2600 to be set in at $60,000; 4210, zero; and what you don’t have on your sheet, account 3603, which is Record Storage, the request was for $100,000, I move that that be set in at $90,000. Is everyone clear on that addition?

Councilmember Kiefer: What was the addition?

Councilmember Raben: 3603, set in at $90,000.

AUDITOR

Councilmember Raben: Under County Auditor, 2610 $5,000; 3141 $500; 3520 $600; 3700 $1,500.

SHERIFF

Councilmember Raben: The next items for cuts are under the Sheriff’s Department: 1750 in the amount of $133,750; 2210 $225,000; 2220 $12,000; 2230 $80,000; 3310 $15,000; 3600 is an addition $103,203; 4230 zero; and 4290 zero.

JAIL

Councilmember Raben: Under Jail: 2260, this will appear different than what you have on your sheet, $600,000; 3310 $5,000.

SURVEYOR

Councilmember Raben: 3700 $150.

CORONER

Councilmember Raben: 1120 at $52,574; 1210 $61,067; 2210 $4,000; 2230 $1,500; 2600 at $3,000; 2720 $7,000; 2730 $1,500; 2740 $1,000; 3130 $500; 3160 zero; 3200 $13,500; 3310 $2,500; 3520 $1,500; and 4122 zero. Continue on? Is everybody...

Councilmember Lloyd: What was 3650? 3640, I’m sorry. No, 3650. Autopsy?

Councilmember Raben: As is. These are only the changes being made. Autopsies will be approved as submitted.

COUNTY ASSESSOR

Councilmember Raben: Okay, County Assessor: 1180 $33,217; 1200 $27,648; 1540 $31,503; and 1630 zero.

Councilmember Raben: Election Office: 1120 –

Councilmember Bassemier: Jim, on 1120, that $60,000, that’s for the library voting? What’s that...

Councilmember Raben: Okay, we can discuss, let’s take a motion up until –

Councilmember Bassemier: I’m not going to change my mind, I just kind of wanted to make a little statement.

Councilmember Raben: We can go ahead and bring closure to the other lines.

President Shetler: Okay, we’ll stop it at this point and then again –

Councilmember Raben: I’ll clarify what the motion was. Again, the motion –

President Shetler: Let’s just say that we’ll have a motion to approve the recommendations from Clerk up to the County Assessor’s Office, and I’ll – have we gotten a second on that?

Councilmember Raben: Yeah. All other accounts will be as listed in the book.

Councilmember Lloyd: Second.

President Shetler: Alright, we have a motion and a second. And that’s up to this point before we get to the Election Office.

Councilman Sutton: Did we miss a budget? The Recorder?

Councilmember Bassemier: It was zero, set in at zero.

Councilmember Raben: If we didn’t address it, there wasn’t a cut. All other accounts, all other budgets will be as submitted.

Councilman Sutton: Well, there is a cut there.

President Shetler: Well, salary –

Councilman Sutton: It’s a salary line, so I didn’t know if you were excluding it –

Councilmember Raben: We’ll address, we’ll pick up, we’ll do the final salary ordinance amendments on the 9^th. These are the ones that we picked up on to this point.

Councilman Sutton: Thank you.

President Shetler: Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Any questions about the motion? Any questions? Comments? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

(All Councilmembers voted in the affirmative)

President Shetler: Those opposed?

(No opposing votes were cast)

President Shetler: So ordered. That was a unanimous 7-0 vote.

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

ELECTION OFFICE

Councilmember Raben: I guess to address the Election Office, these numbers really represent taking everything back to where we were in ‘06. I do understand that they’re looking at possibly adding a machine in a couple more libraries, which is fine. When we need that amount of money, we’ll make that additional appropriation, but, you know, I’m of the belief, you know, outside of those two extra voting opportunities, this budget should remain pretty close to where it was in 2006.

Councilmember Bassemier: Okay, I did talk to Mrs. Kirk yesterday and I think she had a good idea about voting in the libraries. For budget purposes, I’m okay with this for right now, but I said, you know, maybe later on down the road when we get closer, she can come back and request what she’s asking for. But, like I said, I think she’s got a very good idea about voting in the libraries and especially, it gets the people into the libraries. Not only can they vote, but they take out library cards, so I really do think it’s a good idea. But I’m okay with the $30,000 for now.

Councilmember Raben: And one thing to remember, too, you probably won’t need as many voting machines at the same libraries you had in ‘06, because that was –

Councilmember Bassemier: And I understand that.

Councilmember Raben: That was an unprecedented amount of voters and I – you know, it would be great to see that in 2010, but I don’t think we’re going to see it again, as high as it was this past year.

President Shetler: Yes, Councilman Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: I think that Susan can come back as well, and I think it’s a good idea to set the budget in today, but I think everyone here is pretty much in favor of the satellite voting places. We can see by the overwhelming response, that voters, how they utilized the early voting. I think it’s going to forever change the way we vote in this country and also probably change the way candidates run for office because you can’t go to the last minute any longer. It’s going to extend the process somewhat, but I think anything that makes it more convenient for our people to vote, we have to consider, and we’ve definitely moved in that direction with the library, so it’s a win-win.

President Shetler: Yes, Councilman Kiefer, did you have a point or question?

Councilmember Kiefer: I was just going to add to what Councilman Raben already said, that, you know, there’s no way this election is going to have the same turnout that we had last year or the year before, so I’m okay with doing this, these cuts.

President Shetler: I think, basically, what we have in the back of our minds a little bit, is that maybe we can, certainly, if the general election, we’d need to hold with what we’ve done in the past and make sure that we have an ample supply of places to vote prior to the election, in the libraries, but, primary, maybe we can pare that back whether it be by the hours, by the days, by the places, I don’t know, I’m not – I think we need to get together with our Clerk and try to work that out, and the Commissioners, and they formed a committee a few years ago that worked out very well as far as deciding on places and stuff and that might be something we could talk about. Primary election day, for those who have worked them, know that it’s not near the demand that you have otherwise, in a general election. So I think, at least from my perspective, that’s what I’m looking at, that we might be able to pare it down just a tad bit. I might say that I had entertained the idea of perhaps borrowing a few full-time employees from one department or another. I discussed that with a couple of the different department heads and I know that the Treasurer’s Office is overwhelmed at that point in time because of collecting taxes and stuff, and I want them to collect taxes first, and not to be trying to save us a few nickels and dimes here on some part-time help. And I think it’s unworkable for the Registration Office to get involved in it because they’re extremely busy, so moving full-time people around within offices may be unworkable during election times and part-time may be our only resolve to it.

Councilmember Kiefer: I think the important thing is that we want to be prepared to handle demand, and if the demand is there, we’ll be prepared to accommodate them. But if the demand is not there, there’s no reason to spend taxpayer dollars for personnel and equipment if the demand is not there.

President Shetler: Yes, I agree, well said. Yes, Councilman Sutton?

Councilman Sutton: I think, you know, what we’re attempting to do is forecast how many voters will show up at the polls next year and that’s always difficult to do, to come up with an accurate number, but it is, based upon what’s already been said, it is pretty much a given that the primary is not going to have near the numbers that your general is going to have, but I would think it would be appropriate for the Clerk to put together some type of proposal that she could present to us that would show, based upon the numbers what we are talking about here for supporting the early voting and how she would allocate those resources between the primary and the general. I guess I had a little bit of mixed emotions when this was first proposed primarily because we are all aware that, you know, years ago, they reduced the number of polling places that we have county wide, and in no way should we want to get to the point where we want to eliminate the opportunities or the possibility of people being able to exercise their right to vote. So, with that said, reducing the number of polling places, we’ve already experienced some savings from that, but we’ve also seen here over the last couple of elections, that people clearly are in favor of, they enjoy the early voting and it is kind of a new wave of how people want to vote. So perhaps if we look at the Clerk and put something together that shows how we can make sure we can fully provide those early voting opportunities in that general election and maybe not as much emphasis on the primary, that will help us a great deal. And the $30,000 that’s being requested here, I don’t know how many people, how much time that allocates out there, but she can put something together for us that works around that figure, that will give us a good start and understand –

Susan Kirk: (Inaudible – comments not made from the microphone)

Councilman Sutton: Good, good. Okay.

President Shetler: Alright, thank you. Any other questions or comments? Councilman Raben? I guess we’re ready to roll on here.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, real good. Moving on, I guess moving into Voters Registration, --

Councilmember Lloyd: We haven’t done the Election Office yet. You only did one line.

Councilmember Raben: Okay, so do I need to go back through the cuts for the Election Office?

President Shetler: I think we stopped at 1120, so...

Councilmember Raben: Election Office, set in 1120 at $30,000; 1130 at $6,000; 1210 at $2,500; 2600 at $1,000; 2700 at $5,000; 3120 at $1,000; 3130 at $1,000; 3410 at $5,000; 3420 at $1,000; 3530 set in at $10,000; 3570 $2,500; 3600 $7,500; and 3630 $1,000. Moving on to changes within –

Councilmember Lloyd: Just real quick on that. The total for that department then, is $217,853, and that is about a $1,500 increase over ‘06, so it’s a slight increase over ‘06, for whatever that’s worth.

VOTER REGISTRATION

President Shetler: Voters Registration, unchanged.

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

Councilmember Raben: We move into Co-op Extension Service. Account 2600 $4,500; 3200 $5,000; 3530 $72,934.

AREA PLAN

Councilmember Raben: Moving to Area Plan, account 4250 set in at zero.

DRAINAGE BOARD

Councilmember Raben: Drainage Board, unchanged.

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

Councilmember Raben: Veterans Administration, account 3600, set in at $1,000.

Councilmember Kiefer: I think that’s account 2600.

Councilmember Raben: 2600 at $1,000, excuse me.

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

Councilmember Raben: Moving on to County Commissioners, and there was a loose document on everyone’s desk for County Commissioners, an amendment to the document that you have in place. The only change in this is the first item, 3000, so I will list the changes within the County Commissioners, account 3000 set in at $928,305; 3020 $850,059; 3040 $18,962; 3080 $214,316; 3100 $184,022; 3130 zero; 3190 $2,500; 3210 $161,259; 3490 $20,000; 3500 $43,970; 3600 $4,756,206; 3750 $69,568; and 3760 $25,000.

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

Councilmember Raben: No changes within Weights & Measures.

PUBLIC DEFENDER

Councilmember Raben: Public Defender, line 1620 $113,083; 3000 account $2,672; 3310 $2,500; 3600 $56,876; 3943 $12,000.

SUPERINTENDENT OF COUNTY BUILDINGS

Councilmember Raben: Superintendent of County Buildings, there’s one item, 2300 set in at $500.

CIRCUIT COURT

Councilmember Raben: Circuit Court, line 3723 set in at $1,000; line 3730 $1,500.

COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS

Councilmember Raben: Community Corrections, line 1850 set in at $48,000.

SUPERIOR COURT

Councilmember Raben: Superior Court, line 3250 $26,000; 3520 $3,000; 4210 zero and 4220 zero.

DRUG & ALCOHOL DEFERRAL

Councilmember Raben: Here is one that you do not have on your list: Drug & Alcohol Deferral, line 3770 $3,500.

THE CENTRE

Councilmember Raben: Moving into The Centre, account 3537 set in at $196,742.

BURDETTE PARK

Councilmember Raben: Then we move into Burdette Park, line 2220 $2,500; 3190 $7,000; 3990 $2,000.

LEGAL AID

Councilmember Raben: Next is Legal Aid, line 3140 $1,125; 3450 $1,500; 3680 $4,500.

COUNTY COUNCIL

Councilmember Raben: County Council, 3130 $20,500, that’s an addition. If you remember, we zeroed it out in the Commissioners. Per their request, we moved that into our budget. 3130 is $20,500; 3315, zero. And that concludes the General fund. All other salary lines including FICA, PERF & Insurance will be set in at our September the 9^th budget. All other lines as submitted, and I would like to make that in – I’ve already got a motion, but simply confirming what the original motion was.

President Shetler: I guess that would take us from the Election Office through the County Council. So I’d need a motion and a second – I’ve got the motion.

Councilmember Kiefer: Second.

President Shetler: Alright, any questions or comments?

Councilmember Lloyd: This is strictly General Fund, that’s where we stopped, the end of the General Fund?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Councilmember Lloyd: Okay, thank you.

President Shetler: All in favor, signify by saying aye.

(All Councilmembers voted in the affirmative)

President Shetler: Anybody opposed?

(No opposing votes were cast)

President Shetler: There being seven for and none against, the motion carries.

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

Councilman Sutton: Do we have a total on those General Fund only adjustments?

Councilmember Raben: General Fund total?

Councilman Sutton: Yes, just the General Fund.

Councilmember Raben: Yes. Royce, I had a few last moment cuts there that were proposed by or asked to be set in, but the amount at this point should put us at 1.9 – let’s say $1,920,000 at this point. That’s going to be give or take a thousand dollars, probably.

Councilman Sutton: Okay.

President Shetler: Okay, other questions? Okay, move on to County Highway.

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Councilmember Raben: Okay, County Highway, 3010, this is an addition, be set in at $352,000.

RIVERBOAT

Councilmember Raben: County Commissioners/CCD. Let’s go back a moment. No changes within the Riverboat.

CUMULATIVE BRIDGE

Councilmember Raben: No changes within Cum Bridge.

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS/CCD

Councilmember Raben: The County Commissioners/CCD account line 4230, set in at $275,000.

Councilmember Lloyd: So that’s an addition?

Councilmember Raben: That’s an addition. Basically, that’s $250,000 for the Sheriff’s Department for cars plus $25,000 for equipment. The Airport...let’s see, no changes within the –

Councilmember Bassemier: Jim, before you, I just want the record to reflect that I’m going to abstain from voting on just that one, the Airport, since I work out there. So when you make a motion, exclude the Airport for me, because I need to abstain.

Councilmember Lloyd: Make a motion for everything up to now.

Councilmember Raben: Well, okay, we’re not actually to the Airport yet.

Councilmember Bassemier: Why don’t we do the Airport last – well, I kind of hate to do that since they’re here.

Councilmember Raben: We’re not actually there yet.

Councilmember Bassemier: Okay.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Councilmember Raben: The Health Department is unchanged. We’ll skip over the Airport and we’ll come back to the Airport.

LOCAL ROADS & STREETS

Councilmember Raben: Local Roads & Streets, unchanged.

SURVEYOR MAPS

Councilmember Raben: Surveyor Maps, unchanged.

AUDITOR/REASSESSMENT

Councilmember Raben: Auditor/Reassessment, unchanged.

COUNTY ASSESSOR/REASSESSMENT

Councilmember Raben: County Assessor/Reassessment, a few minor changes. 3130 $500; and 4220 $2,000.

Councilmember Lloyd: Question, Mr. Raben, did we, so we’re not going to do anything with 1990?

Councilmember Raben: No, I think you’ll see that 1990 – you’d have to go back and look at Knight, Perry, Pigeon, you have to look at them individually and see that that’s probably an appropriate amount of money.

Councilmember Lloyd: Okay, so we just want to leave that unchanged?

Councilmember Raben: Unchanged. Okay, and I stated 4220 at $2,000.

PTABOA/REASSESSMENT

Councilmember Raben: PTABOA, account 2600 $3,000; 3130 $500,000 –

Councilmember Lloyd: No.

Councilmember Raben: No – $500. 3130 $500.

Councilman Sutton: Whew, that blows the budget.

Councilmember Raben: Man, I was really throwing around money there, wasn’t I? Okay, $500. All the other Reassessment accounts as listed.

CIRCUIT COURT SUPPLEMENTAL ADULT PROBATION

Councilmember Raben: Circuit Court Supplemental Adult Probation as listed.

PROSECUTOR PRE-TRIAL DIVERSION

Councilmember Raben: Prosecutor Pre-Trial Diversion as listed.

SURVEYOR CORNER PERPETUATION

Councilmember Raben: Surveyor Corner Perpetuation account, line 3700 set in at $4,100 –

Councilman Sutton: And that’s a new line?

Councilmember Raben: That’s a new line that –

Councilmember Bassemier: You said $4,100, is it –

Councilmember Raben: $4,150. That’s a new line that was requested, and that line will read, Dues & Subscriptions.

SHERIFF MISDEMEANOR HOUSING/OFFENDER

Councilmember Raben: Sheriff Misdemeanor unchanged.

LOCAL EMERGENCY PLAN COMMISSION

Councilmember Raben: Local Emergency Planning, unchanged.

LOCAL DRUG FREE COMMUNITY

Councilmember Raben: Drug Free Community, no changes.

911 EMERGENCY SERVICE

Councilmember Raben: 911 Emergency Services, line 3893 zero.

SALES DISCLOSURE FEES

Councilmember Raben: Disclosure Fees, no changes.

CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

Councilmember Raben: Convention & Visitors Bureau, line 3200 – oh, I’m sorry. Convention & Visitors Bureau is unchanged.

TOURISM CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT

Councilmember Raben: Tourism Capital is unchanged.

CONVENTION CENTER OPERATING

Councilmember Raben: Convention Center Operating Fund, account 3200, that’s on page 179, $450,000.

JAIL BOND

Councilmember Raben: Jail Bond, unchanged.

LEGAL AID/UNITED WAY

Councilmember Raben: Legal Aid/United Way, line item 2600 zero; 3250 zero; 3280 $2,043; 3410 zero; 3611 zero; 3700 zero; and 3730 zero.

BOND ISSUE

Councilmember Raben: And last is the Bond Issue, 4204, I’m happy to say, zero. All other line items including FICA, PERF & Insurance will be set in at our September 9^th meeting. All other line items as proposed, and I make that in the form of a motion.

Councilman Sutton: Second.

President Shetler: It’s been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? Yes, Councilman Lloyd?

Councilmember Lloyd: Just note that the USI Bond Issue, $480,000 was budgeted. That bond issue is scheduled to be paid off January 2010, and we don’t have to budget because there is money in the fund to cover the rest of the interest, so that’s good news for the taxpayers and that was certainly a worthy project.

President Shetler: Alright, thank you. Any other comments or questions? We have a –

Councilmember Raben: I’m sorry, we need to go back to the Airport.

President Shetler: Well, no, we’re going to do this without the Airport. We’re going to do this motion without the Airport. Okay, so any questions about the motion on the floor? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

(All Councilmembers voted in the affirmative)

President Shetler: Anyone opposed?

(No opposing votes were cast)

President Shetler: There being seven for and no against, the motion carries.

(Motion unanimously approved 7-0)

AIRPORT

President Shetler: Now, you want to go back to the Airport then?

Councilmember Raben: Okay, the Airport was 134 and it’s account number 1100. The correct amount is $2,493,030. All other accounts as listed.

President Shetler: Okay, comments, questions? Moved and...

Councilmember Lloyd: Second.

President Shetler: Seconded. Any questions or comments?

Councilmember Lloyd: I guess for Mr. Bassemier’s purposes, we ought to do a roll call on this. I would request that.

President Shetler: Alright, thank you. Roll call please.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Sutton?

Councilmember Sutton: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Bassemier?

Councilmember Bassemier: Abstain.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Lloyd?

Councilmember Lloyd: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Goebel?

Councilmember Goebel: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Raben?

Councilmember Raben: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: Councilmember Kiefer?

Councilmember Kiefer: Yes.

Teri Lukeman: President Shetler?

President Shetler: Yes. There being six ayes, no nays, and one abstention, the motion carries.

(Motion carried 6-0/Councilmember Bassemier abstained from vote)

President Shetler: Do you have anything further?

Councilmember Raben: I don’t have a lot more to add. We’ll see everybody back here on September the 9^th to hear our last and final budget cuts and set this budget in for next year. If there’s any, hopefully minor, changes that need to be made, we can make them at that point. Hopefully there will be very few, if any, and we’ll set in the salary ordinance for next year and make all the final salary corrections.

President Shetler: Okay, thank you. Yes, Councilman Kiefer?

Councilmember Kiefer: Just for the sake of the public to understand, I think we’re projected to be, our cost of county government is projected to be less in 2010 than it was in 2009, which, I think, is good for all the departments that did a great job with their budgets and for this Council. And I think that’s important to note.

President Shetler: Alright, thank you. I had one other point that I wanted to bring up and I don’t know if this is the appropriate time or if it comes later, the Reassessment fund seems like it continues to grow somewhat and, you know, that is on the local tax rate and it’s separate. I didn’t know if there was something we might want to look at to not apply so much of a tax rate to that or how we might want to proceed to slow the growth of that down a little bit. I know there’s some restrictions on that money and it’s, giving Homestead credits and all that kind of stuff is good, but if you can keep it from going out the door to begin with, you don’t need to send it out and bring it back. So I’m wondering if we can’t hold the line there and what the appropriate time to bring that up is.

Councilmember Raben: You know, maybe at some point, yourself, I, maybe the County Auditor, the County Assessor, we could sit down and revisit that, you know, as a whole and see if there is any adjustments that could be made within.

Bill Fluty: Often, a letter from the Auditor and the Assessor to the DLGF, and we would ask them to adjust that rate. And you would do that for two reasons: you’re budgeting under $400,000 and that’s bringing in about that much, and there is a balance of about $1.4 million. So it would be actually lowering that rate and spending that balance down is, I guess, what you’re asking to do for a couple of years in light of these rolling reassessments, you probably don’t need that big a balance in there. So that’s something for you to discuss and direct us to send that letter, if that’s what you’d like.

Councilmember Kiefer: Tom, that’s a good point to bring up because I think, in effect, what you’re doing is reducing, again, a tax to the county taxpayers because we have enough money in that fund. So I think that’s a good point. I’m glad you brought it up.

President Shetler: Yes, Councilman Lloyd?

Councilmember Lloyd: Just for the record, checking with Mrs. Deig, the total cuts today, $1,823,248. I don’t know if that jives with what you had or not.

Councilmember Raben: Is that General fund?

Councilmember Lloyd: From all the funds: $1,823,248.

Councilmember Raben: No that’s, but we’ll have an opportunity to –

Councilmember Lloyd: Right, we’ll have a better chance to check it. We’re sitting here on a –

Councilmember Raben: We’ll spend some time checking our numbers again.

Councilmember Lloyd: Right, but anyway, we should be in that ballpark, so that, from the requests, that’s what was cut today.

President Shetler: Okay, any other – yes, Councilman Sutton?

Councilman Sutton: One other very important part of our business that we now have as a responsibility thanks to HB1001, the budgets for the other taxing units here in Vanderburgh County also need to have their budgets to cycle through the County Council. Just trying to find out if the others are prepared and have the material necessary for us to review those budgets and when that will occur.

President Shetler: I think that’s going to be done at our last meeting in September, is that the 30^th? And they have been – I think they have been sent, if not, you know, we’ve talked about – they’ve been sending in their things, so they’re aware of the deadline on that and they need to be gotten to us by that point in time.

Councilman Sutton: Obviously, we’re not necessarily going through and working their budgets like we’re doing these others, but we may want to make that known, I guess, in some way or another because I didn’t see it on our agenda necessarily, so that they are aware – are we going to have them make a presentation or are we just going to have their material? Are we just going to have their material and then approval. What’s the thought process there?

President Shetler: My thought process is that they submit it, and that they’re at least here for any questions that we might have, particularly if there are some that we may notice are not adhering to some of our county policies that we’ve established like flatlining the salaries. If some of the townships have gone beyond that, I think the public needs to know. So I think there may be some questions like that, that we would address to the different officeholder or department head that’s out there, that needs to submit their budget to us.

Councilman Sutton: Well, and the good thing for those who are interested and the taxpayers as they look on their property tax bill, they see all the different areas where their tax dollars are portioned off here locally, but there’s never ever really been any meeting convened where people can ask questions about the different other budgets unless they went to those individual meetings. So it will be a good process for us to get a chance to review all those.

President Shetler: Right, absolutely. I think we’ve sent the notice out informing them that it needs to be in to us and that the date of the meeting and the time of the meeting, and then we will also follow up with them, know that we want them here, present. Councilman Lloyd?

Councilmember Lloyd: As liaison to Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library, I know the library is in the process of finishing their budget, it has to go to their board, but I’m sure that they will be here September 30^th for any questions that we have.

President Shetler: Anything else? Yes, Ms. Kirk?

Councilmember Raben: While she’s on her way up, I think, you know, as we look at those budgets, I know our budget, when it’s all said and done, should come in below last year’s budget, and I hope we see that same thing within those other budgets. I mean, I hope the Library, the rest of them, I hope we see a smaller budget this year than what they, for next year, than what they’re operating with this year.

Councilmember Lloyd: Their budget increase was approximately 1.4% the last that I talked to them about it, and that was trying to hold everything flat, including wages. So that’s a pretty small increase.

Susan Kirk: I think for the general public, we need to clarify something as far as elections go and it’s something that we all know, but we haven’t particularly brought up. Mr. Raben and all of you want to compare our elections now with 2006. But if you will remember, back in 2006, you granted a 50 cent per hour raise for each election office employee, which took effect in 2007. That’s what makes that go up. It’s not that, you know, I’m just sticking money in the budget. You gave them a raise, which was very nice and that’s what’s in there, and I think the public needs to know also that early voting, if we’re open for fifteen days prior to the election, it would be right at $9,000. If we’re open for ten days prior to the election, it’s right at $6,000. So I think the public has a perception that early voting is costing $30,000, and it’s not. The reason things are going up from 2006 is a 50 cent per hour increase in wages, plus the early voting. And that’s all I wanted to say.

President Shetler: Okay, I think, of course, now the minimum wage is what, $8.25?

Susan Kirk: I’m not too sure. Councilman Lloyd and I discussed that and said there wasn’t much you could do about that raise, but that’s something that we’re never mentioning as to why it’s going up. You can’t say well, let’s do it just like we did in 2006 because they got a raise since then. So obviously, that does make a difference. So I just think the general public really needs to know why that is, and what does early voting cost. And it doesn’t make any difference whether we have one machine or ten machines, that’s not our cost at the libraries. That has nothing to do with it.

Councilmember Lloyd: In July, it went up to $7.25, minimum wage.

President Shetler: Giving everybody another raise.

Susan Kirk: So anyway, and I just think the general public needs to know why that is rather than this concept of, yeah, why can’t we go back to 2006? Because they got a raise and now we have early voting.

President Shetler: And I think, too, at least in my mind, as you know, you’ve been around for, you know, not very long, but you’ve been around long enough –

Susan Kirk: Now, you caught yourself pretty good.

President Shetler: Boy, what a fumble recovery. But, and you understand that in some cases, we don’t have maybe, in some areas of the city and the county, we may not have primary opponents at all, a contest, and so it may be unnecessary, for example, to have a voting location set up on the east side when there’s no contest, and so we could kind of wing that as it goes along and we actually do see what kind of contest –

Susan Kirk: Are you referring to early voting or –

President Shetler: Early voting in the May primary. Those are situations where I think that we can kind of adjust and look at and may be able to find savings by paring the whole process back a little bit in the primary, from what we normally do in the general. And that’s all I’m thinking at this point in time. Now it may not happen. We may have full contests up and down the line and thousands of people ready to vote, and if that’s the case, then we’ll have to appropriate more money to make sure it’s taken care of.

Susan Kirk: Yeah, it’s just one of those things Councilman Lloyd and I discussed about maybe when the candidates file for office, some of you will be filing, instead of going to the Election Office, and we have that manned, you’ll come to the Clerk’s office. The only difference is you’ll have to call and make an appointment with me because we can’t have news media and speeches taking up – we don’t have any room over there at the front counter. So every candidate will just have to kind of give me a call and say, you know, be over there about 10:00 and file for office and then you’ll have to do your other stuff somewhere else besides there. But that would save, I don’t know, a couple thousand dollars, I guess.

President Shetler: Alright, Councilman Goebel? Any questions?

Councilmember Goebel: I was just wondering, Susan, do you think there will be shorter times during the day when people can early vote and the shorter length in calendar than we had last time in 2008, I mean?

Susan Kirk: Yeah, I gave a spreadsheet, and I don’t know whether you all got it or not, but anyway, yeah, I think if, you know, fifteen days is what we normally did. We could cut it down to ten, we could cut it down to five days. We usually do the seven hours, daylight, and we have to be out of there like at 6 or so because the libraries close, and you want to try to let people vote after work and maybe people who don’t want to drive at night, a little time during the day, so we can cut down as much as Council deems necessary as far as the early voting goes.

Councilmember Goebel: And do you plan to have the same number of sites at libraries or is there any intention to expand?

Susan Kirk: Well, no. we can’t expand. There is, originally, I only wanted three libraries, but it caught on so quickly, we ended up with five. And we can’t expand any more because we only have five libraries that are handicapped accessible, so five is it. We’re not going any higher than that. And that worked out so well, we don’t need to. So anyway, thank you very much for your time.

President Shetler: Alright, thank you. Yes, Councilman Lloyd?

Councilmember Lloyd: Sorry, one more update. That was all General fund and the total revised is $1,832,248. There was an additional 9,000 we missed, but that is all General fund cuts. $1,832,248, which was done today.

President Shetler: And that did not include all the personnel?

Councilmember Lloyd: The ones that were zeroed out, it did include.

President Shetler: Yeah, okay. Okay, any other questions or comments? Okay, we’ll recess until next week at this time, at 9:00 in the morning, on the 9^th. Thank you very much.

(The meeting was recessed at 10:24 a.m.)

VANDERBURGH COUNTY COUNCIL

                                                                                                                                             
President Tom Shetler, Jr.              Vice President Joe Kiefer

                                                                                                                                        
Councilmember Russell Lloyd, Jr.   Councilmember Ed Bassemier

Councilmember Royce Sutton

Recorded and transcribed by Teri Lukeman.