PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2002

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 in the Commissioners' Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present: Commissioners David Burrus, Larry Sheets, John Evans and Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger.

President David Burrus called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com Sheets moved to approve the payroll of April 8, 2002, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

PROPOSED INCREASE IN HEALTH DEPARTMENT VITAL RECORD FEES-
David Hollenbeck, Attorney
Keith Letta, Director of Health Department

Mr. Letta, "Good morning. What you have in front of you is an amendment to an existing ordinance for our fees that we would like to raise our birth and death vital records fees as indicated on our proposal. The only change being the death certificates we are revising down to six from seven. The main reason we are involved in this is the state Department of Health, which is the agency we report to and answer to, are requiring some new things here recently. Most notable is a different type of safety paper that all of our documents have to go out on. It cannot be altered or changed in any way. It is more expensive. In the past ten years or more, the county print shop has been able to do this but that is no longer the case. We will be getting this paper through the state. It is a little more complicated now. There are some other things also required for our vital records clerks to handle. That is why we are proposing this."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "As I think he has told you, we are proposing some increases in the vital record health department fees. The Board of Health has approximately a $1 million a year budget, $140,000.00 of that has been downsized due to the constraints with the county financing. This is an effort to try and retrieve what we are calculating to be in the vicinity of $15,000.00 to $20,000.00 of revenue that will enable us to have the vital records section so it will come close to paying its own way in terms of what it cost. We have costed that out and at current fee levels, it doesn't come close to paying for itself. These fees will get us closer to that much like we did a number of years ago with the restaurant inspection program that saw significant increases in the fees. Now that program is close to being self sufficient. The Health Department does have sources of funding other than the general fund although the current situation with the state shows how tenuous that can be. Settlement monies are distributed among the county health departments but is part of the effort to balance the state budget. The governor announced last Tuesday that $60 million of the tobacco money will be taken away from health programing that will be used for general funding for the state. We are very reluctant to rely on that money. We can't put salaries into that because we have no idea what is going to happen at this point. I will try and answer any questions you have."

Com. Sheets, "I understand the cuts and I understand the step backward and the programs provided in the County and you are not able to do that as you were doing it, especially in North County. I know you are getting the calls I am getting from senior citizens and people in the Portage area, so that if you can do something to increase the money available, and give back by providing service up there, I would appreciate it. That is the only reason we built that building up there 15 years ago to provide those services closer to the population."

Com. Evans, "None of these services are performed at the Portage facility, nor were they."

Com. Evans moved to approve the increase for standard birth certificate to $6.00, the wallet birth certificate to $10.00, combination standard birth certificate to $15.00, the death certificate to $6.00, and these last two items never had a charge, which are the paternity affidavit to $25.00, and the affidavit amendment to $25.00, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.
Atty. Hollenbeck, "We will be back at the next meeting for second reading."


HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENT-
Carol Nordstrom
Patrick Taylor, Indiana Coalition for Housing and Homelessness

Ms. Nordstrom, "As part of the coalition for low income housing in Porter County, we have become aware of the opportunity to have a housing needs assessment done for the county. The application to have it done has to go through a local unit of government. Our feeling as a coalition is that rather than asking each city in our county to do a separate one, let's do a countywide assessment. I have given you copies of a sample from White County of what was done which I found to be extremely helpful with recommendations based on current housing ageing of the population issues but not only for apartments and rentals at low income levels. As I look through it, you can see what is projected for Christmas in April in White County for the future and what is projected in a lot of different areas. Our coalition feels that to have that same opportunity to have a housing needs assessment done for all of Porter County could help not only our coalition and the agencies we work with, but would be a benefit to the Christmas in April, to the Habitat for Humanity and to the greater Valparaiso COC as well as the Homebuilder's and other associations to be able to say this is what is being done. Now what needs to be done for the grant is a grant needs to be written to the Indiana Housing Finance Authority who then would pay, if our grant proposal is accepted, they would pay to have the assessment done. I have asked Patrick Taylor from the Indiana Coalition for Housing and Homelessness issues to come today because he is the person who prepared the copy you have from White County. He can answer questions of time frames, and how the whole process works."

Patrick Taylor, "I am with the Indiana Coalition for Housing and Homelessness issues. The housing needs assessment is really a general picture of all types of housing in a community or a county depending on who the applicant is. We will look at owner-occupied housing, rental housing, census and demographic information and we literally drive up and do a windshield survey of an exterior of a foundation, exterior appearance, landscaping, and try and get a picture of the housing stock. We do include some other attachments in the package you have such as wage data and affordability data. We can give you some publications on the type of wage someone needs to earn to be able to afford a two bedroom apartment if they are a family of three for example. It is really useful information for planning and economic development in addition to housing. The funds are available from the Indiana Housing Finance Authority. It's community development lot grant funds, and so there is a 10% match. The match should be covered by Kenneth Consulting. They work with us on other needs assessments and what they have agreed to do is, they will cover our match requirement and they will do the compliance and what they hope in return is, if someone wants to do a big tax credit project, that we would recommend them up here and they might be able to see some business down the road. They provide the match and we expect they would do it on this one also. In terms of time frame, the Housing Finance Authority, has four funding rounds per year. The last one was about six weeks ago. I don't believe they set their fiscal funding rounds, but they should have one early in the month of June. We would have to have a public meeting to discuss and officially approve the application. Then we would help you write the application and you would have to sign off on it and have a board resolution. They would make a funding decision about six weeks later so about the end of July. Then you would go through a normal procurement process. Hopefully, we would get the bid but you would go through the normal procurement process and the work could probably be delivered in six to nine months. It kind of depends on the weather, because we will be getting into winter at the end, and I am going to be first time dad in August, so I am not exactly sure what kind of time constraints that is going to take for me. As far as other things, we will do all the compliance. You won't have any responsibility for writing checks for drawdowns except if we got the bid we would invoice you probably three times; at the beginning, middle and end. There is not going to be a series of claims, and you won't have to do a lot of paperwork. It is just an invoice procedure."

Com. Burrus, "Who receives the funds?"

Mr. Taylor, "You would be receiving the funds because you are the applicant and then you would bid it out as a sub recipient agreement."

Com. Sheets, "Once the approval of the grant is made, what is the time frame to complete the process?"

Mr. Taylor, "We should be able to turn around in six to nine months. It depends on when we can get the windshield survey done. If we are looking at starting say August 15th, and do the survey early in the winter of next year, sometimes that can be a problem up here."

Com. Burrus, "Is that on-site survey a sampling?"

Mr. Taylor, "No, we will drive by them all if we can, at least all of the towns in the county. It took us about a week to do it in Cass County. We drove by and tried to look at every single house so we could to get a picture of the housing stock. Then we put that on a map."

Com. Evans, "It sounds too good to be true. It doesn't cost us anything and you do all the work?"

Mr. Taylor, "Yes. We thought this should be part of our mission to start doing these. It really helps us to get to the grass roots level and we believe we can deliver something that is really going to be useful and if we can find somebody who is willing to do the match, then it is not going to cost you anything, except for processing three invoices."

Com. Burrus, "How sure are we that there will be somebody that will provide that match?"

Mr. Taylor, "I can deliver that information before the public meeting. We are just getting one underway for the town of Edinburgh so Kenneth Facility sent us a letter saying they would provide any services needed for that."

Com. Burrus, "So what you are asking for today is simply our endorsement to proceed with it?"

Ms. Nordstrom, "It proceeds with a public meeting that has to be in the paper for. . . "

Mr. Taylor, "I know you put this on the agenda, but I am not sure if today counts for a public meeting. So you can proceed with the application and at your next meeting, if we need to, we can get something in the paper again if we have to."

Com. Sheets, "I think you should follow this through."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I would have to know exactly what statute they are referring to in regard to having a public meeting because some issues require public hearings as opposed to public meetings. I don't know if they are talking about a public meeting or public hearing."

Mr. Taylor, "What we have done in the past, is put a notice in the newspaper for the appropriate number of days ahead, that we can have a public hearing and it is a part of the regular Commissioners' meeting. The Housing Authority does not have a problem with that. If you want, I can ask them."

Com. Burrus, "So what we are asked to do today would be to vote on our willingness to go forward with this grant application subject to the public hearing/meeting issues, but at this point, I think we can at least initiate the process."

Com. Evans, "Unless you want to wait until we take a look at their statute."

Ms. Nordstrom, "We need to put one legal notice in the newspaper at least ten days prior to a scheduled hearing."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I would prefer you take it under advisement until I can look at this a little closer from a legal standpoint for a lot of reasons."

Com. Sheets, "What I am hearing from them is they are asking if we are interested and if we would like for them to proceed. If we are interested, then they can proceed. I think we can take that position today and they can provide you with the law that they are working from. There is three weeks before our next meeting and I think that ought to be enough time to give us an opinion and to advertise it. If that is agreeable, then I would make the motion we are in favor of this project and we would ask them to move forward with it."

Com. Evans, "I think I would rather err on the side of knowledge first and know what the publication is all about."

Com. Sheets, "I will withdraw my motion."

Com. Burrus, "Then short of any other motion at this point, it would be appropriate to indicate to these people we are interested, however, it would also be appropriate to provide the information requested and then re-appear at our next meeting and we can take action at that time. Is that okay?"

Mr. Taylor, "That would be fine. Thank you for your time."

SCHOOLEY MITCHELL TELECOM CONSULTANT
Joel Carney

Mr. Carney, "The first thing that I passed out to you is a contract with Simco Communications. This is your long distance. I have looked at several alternatives to your situation. The existing contract you have now is with Verizon Communications. The permit rate you are presently paying is around $.09 a minute under that contract which that contract has a minimum commitment every year that you are required to spend which I believe is $10,000.00. This is the last year in this renewal of that contract which expires in July. The only penalty for early cancellation is if you haven't fulfilled your minimum annual spend, which you have done back in January. I propose going to Simco, their rates are much more competitive. For example, their inbound long distance rate is $.04 ½ cents per minute and their outbound rate is $.05 a minute. As you can see, there is quite a bit of savings to be realized there. The Simco contract is for a period of two years. My feeling on that is that it guarantees you this rate for that period of time without any adjustments. Gwenn and I have talked quite a bit about this contract, we have gone back and forth with the supplier to try and get some of the terminology changed. At this point in time, after having spoken with them late yesterday afternoon, this is the best that can be negotiated with this supplier."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "The problems I have with the contract are that we agreed to the laws being construed under the state of Illinois instead of Indiana, which we never do. It has an agreement that we will pay late charges, costs and expenses of collection including interest and attorney fees, which we never do. It says that they will invoice us and we will pay them immediately upon receipt which we can't do because we are a municipal corporation and we take 30 to 45 days. There is a liquidated damages clause in here which I normally don't recommend. All I can tell you is, I don't like the terms, but if theses are the terms you have to have to get the contract, that is a decision for the Board."

Mr. Carney, "I did speak to them about payment upon receipt and I can get an addendum where their expected payment isn't late for 30 days. The liquidated damages clause is something that I understand, it is in your present contract. It is in all the telecommunications contracts that I have seen, not to say it is in all of them, but all the ones I have seen."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I just wanted you to know the concerns I had and if the Board prefers that contract knowing my concerns, that is fine, but those are my concerns."

Com. Burrus, "Joel, do you know about how much past the $10,000.00 minimum we go every year?"

Mr. Carney, "Right now I am going to guess, I haven't seen this month's figures, but I am going to guess that you are probably around $5,000.00 over that. I am guessing you are around $15,000.00 over your minimum."

Com. Burrus, "So what we are looking at saving is approximately $7,500.00?"

Mr. Carney, "Actually, yes. That is pretty close."

Com. Burrus, "Now with respect to the terms Gwenn is concerned about, are there any of those that would require us to pay penalties, fines or fees?"

Com. Evans, "The liquidation one, is that an early payment?"

Mr. Carney, "If you discontinue the contract early, there is a 25% fee of your average monthly bill times the number of months left in the contract. That is your early penalty."

Com. Burrus, "What other types of extra payments might we be liable for?"

Mr. Carney, "None that I am aware of."

Com. Burrus, "Can we address the late payment issue?"

Mr. Carney, "Yes, I spoke with them yesterday. The other issue about the governing laws from the state of Illinois, they went back to their attorney and his advice to them was because they are an Illinois corporation, that clause had to be in there. I am just kind of reporting to you the discussions and negotiations we have come up with. Certainly, no one anticipates defaulting on a contract. Obviously, penalties are written into contracts and that is what makes a contract. I don't like them any better than anyone else, but I felt at this point we have gotten to a place where this is about as good as it was going to get, so I wanted to bring it to you for your decision."

Com. Burrus, "Our current contract with Verizon was for a three year period?"

Mr. Carney, "It was two years with an automatic renewal. This contact is for 24 months but it does have a one month, by month, automatic renewal. The reason for that is, in case I get run over by a truck or something and nobody is watching the contract, and the contract expires, then you would be without long distance service. So the month to month gives you the opportunity then to say you don't want to go on with the contract, we are going to do something else."

Com. Evans, "That applies after the 24 months?"

Mr. Carney, "Right. Your current contract expires in July, but the only penalty written into that contract is the minimum spend every year. There is no early termination penalty as long as you have met your commitment."

Com. Burrus, "Well, this is April and we still have a bit of time yet to decide on this. I would personally prefer to have more detailed discussions on the concerns and then address it again."

Com. Evans, "Especially if they are not opposed, I mean, just because they have a corporation in Illinois, they are doing business in Indiana, and I think there are concessions that Illinois and Indiana, and Illinois or Indiana, could be added to that terminology."

Mr. Carney, "Yes, that is possible. I have had lengthy conversations about that topic and I don't think they are going to change their mind. We can certainly look for further alternatives, they just have the best reputation and the lowest rates of anyone that I could find."

Com. Burrus, "I think we are interested in the terms and the rates, so I think if we could become more comfortable with the contract, then we would probably be leaning toward doing that. Let us take that under advisement."

Mr. Carney, "Okay. Also, their chief financial officer was going to call Gwenn and discuss the terms. The second item I want to bring up is a pay phone contract with American Business Communications in Chesterton, Indiana. Presently your pay phones are with Verizon. There was a notice given that they were going to start charging $95.00 a month because your usage was not great enough to meet their specifications. In fact, they have already pulled out of the Juvenile Detention Center, and one out of here, too. I looked for a local pay phone vendor for a better deal. It appears as if most vendors will charge some type of minimum to recover their costs for maintenance and collection of the coin. Their charge for collections for under $100.00 per month is $75.00. As you can see there is $20.00 a month savings. These are new pay phones; coin phones."

Com. Burrus, "How many locations are we talking about?"

Mr. Carney, "There are two here and one in the courthouse and one in the Juvenile Center."

Com. Evans, "There are none in North County?"

Mr. Carney, "I think the ones we want to deal with are the ones in questions from Verizon at this point in time. Gwenn and I have had a conversation about expanding on that and looking at what else there is. My assumption would be is if we are talking about these three or four now, we are going to be talking about the rest that exist later."

Com. Evans, "I understand these don't have credit card ability, but what if the caller went through the operator, do they still have the ability to call collect or charge it?"

Mr. Carney, "Yes. They just don't accept credit cards on some of them. They certainly have other phones, but this is kind of the basic to get your costs down."

Com. Burrus, "Has there been any comment from the JDC about that one being gone?"

Linda Walker, "They are very unhappy about it."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "With respect to the liquidated damages clause, it says that if you remove them before the 36 month term then we pay $500.00 per unit and what I wasn't clear about after looking at it is, we are responsible to take reasonable precaution to protect the equipment and I was looking to see who was liable for the damages if they were in our buildings."

Mr. Carney, "Their indication to me was that through reasonable care that since they still own the equipment, it is their responsibility. To give you a chance to see what this company can do, I asked them and got them to lower the terms to 12 months."

Com. Burrus, "I think we need to review both the locations and numbers of phones we have available and then look at this contract from a cost savings point of view. We should be able to come up with a satisfactory solution both for the locations, the quantities and the contracts."

Mr. Carney, "I have a conversation with the owner of this company, and we discussed the possibility of if you had one downstairs and one upstairs, and just having one upstairs and none downstairs, then it might not be as convenient, but it might be more cost effective."

Com. Burrus, "If the Board will agree, let's just take this under advisement as well and review our position with respect to locations."

Com. Sheets moved to take the contract under advisement, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


OFFICE HOLDERS\DEPARTMENT HEADS

Dale Brewer, "I know you are aware of the transmission problems still going on."

Com. Burrus, "Yes. We had a meeting yesterday with Data Processing and they have come up with a proposal that is intended, and expected, to solve that problem that involves a different frequency and assigned frequency that has some protection against interference with the FCC. They are telling me it will involve some equipment change, but the exact amount and the exact cost is still to be determined. They are going to follow up on that to the extent it will come out of Data Processing's budget, and we are going to look at that. The rest of the Board members were not in on that discussion so at this point it is just an update for everybody."

Ms. Brewer, "So we really don't have a time frame?"

Com. Burrus, "If they get the go-ahead to do this, they said the implementation of it would be about 60 to 80 days. It is on the front burner so I know we are going to push it."

Ms. Brewer, "I am not trying to complain. I was over there last week and I timed how long it took me to sign on . . . fifteen minutes, (. . . inaudible).

Com. Burrus, "We know it is not good and we have talked to the judges and they are concerned as well. We are on top of it the best we can be right now."

MIKE ANTON, ANTON INSURANCE-WELLNESS ASSESSMENT

Com. Burrus, "Good morning, Mike. We have asked you to prepare alternatives to the health insurance plan and one of those included a wellness issue and prior to the presentation to the employees, it was agreed among the Board members that the idea of a mandatory wellness program was not going to be the way we wanted to go but we wanted to make it voluntary. We need to take action today to change that from mandatory to voluntary. The first thing we want to do is make that motion to correct that."

Com. Sheets, "I have talked to you about offering some incentives."

Mr. Anton, "Some of your thoughts and ideas we submitted to Stewart Miller to give us some verbiage back so we could have it for your review. One of the thoughts refers to the rewards issue as an incentive to have people participate in the particular program that we presented. One of the thoughts is that to maintain a voluntary program and to maintain our existing wellness program as it is today but maybe create a tier to that as was previously approved by the three of you, to have an employee tier that participation in that tier would eliminate the co-pay feature of the current wellness program. Currently we have a wellness program that says you can have a physical and certain tests available with a maximum payment of $150.00 with an 80/20 co-pay. The deductible does not apply to the wellness feature. What this would do is simply to create another tier for the employee only and eliminate the co-pay feature of that tier, maintain the $150.00, and there would be an additional kind of bonus to that approach in that the panel of tests that would be eligible within that tier with our arrangement with Porter Memorial Health Services through the Occupational Health Department, with that preferred pricing mechanism that they gave us, expanded the number of tests that would be available if somebody voluntarily chose those tests within the $150.00 maximum. The only stipulation to that tier would be that they would participate with the assessment. If they choose not to, you still have the existing wellness program that is there."

Com. Burrus, "Well, I think the structure of that program as well as the one that we make mention of the fact that we need to get a plan for implementation of it, if we could work on those details and have it ready to talk about at our next meeting, . . . ."

Mr. Anton, "Yes. I had hoped we would have had it today, but it is in Lafayette to get the verbiage down correct."

Com. Burrus, "Okay, the thing we do need to do is approve the change to voluntary."

Com. Sheets moved to approve to make the wellness program voluntary, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


REQUEST TO SOLICIT QUOTES FOR EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE
Mike Anton-ANTON INSURANCE

Com. Burrus, "Regarding the comments that have come forward with respect to certain individual's views that the self insurance that we are currently involved in may not be as economical as private provided coverage. There has been some discussion about that and we want to confirm how our program costs would fall. Mike, if you are prepared to talk about that and confirm that."

Mr. Anton, "Well, we are prepared with your instruction to go out to the market place. In fact, we took it upon ourselves to presume that you might be heading this way and have already asked Stewart Miller to supply the necessary underwriting information that would be necessary to solicit proposals from traditional markets for your review. We have also asked ICM, which is your large case manager, to provide us some generic information as to activity in the marketplace because those kinds of underwriting questions are critical to the solicitation of a proposal. You can go out and ask for a proposal based on your population and demographics, but that proposal doesn't really mean anything unless you give them bona fide data as to the group. That is what we are assimilating right now. If your next meeting is in three weeks, that may be somewhat of a push, but I think we might be able to meet that deadline so we could come back here at that time and give you a report as to what their findings were."

Com. Sheets, "My comments would be that we compare apples to apples, we don't want the employees to get anything less than what they are getting now. The other point I would make is, that you, as our agent, to see that this request for bids is made clear to those people who service Porter County, and in particular, people who do business here. I don't know how many agents or companies there are here, and I know the newspapers are going to advertise this, but a week after this happens someone knocks on our door saying we didn't know anything about it."

Mr. Anton, "One of the things I have to ask is for the past 10 or 11 years the County has had its insurance on a net basis, so are you telling me I should solicit proposals based on that the same as we are doing now?"

Com. Sheets, "Let me put it point blank. I want everyone to have an opportunity to bid on this. I don't want anybody to be excluded."

Mr. Anton, "Whatever way they want to bid it?"

Com. Sheets, "Yes. But the bidding must be so we don't have anything else. What the employees don't know is if they go by our door and see someone in there, chances are good they are from an insurance company trying to get our business and they can't compete with what we have. I want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to see our census, see all of our information and have the opportunity to bid on it."

Mr. Anton, "And you want it to be like the same plan designed as we currently have?"

Com. Sheets, "Yes, definitely. I don't want the people getting anything less."

Com. Burrus, "I want to make sure that when they provide a quote to us, it has every single feature we have now and it is not going to be a low ball figure first and then the price is going to skyrocket in subsequent years. We need to make sure they understand clearly what we are looking for. I can see the opportunity for somebody to try to get their foot in the door on a large group like this."

Mr. Anton, "Okay. Three weeks may be pushing it a bit, but I will certainly report back to you as to where we are at."

Com. Burrus, "Okay. The conversation I just had with Gwenn was that in receiving prices for services with your solicitation of quotes, you can make recommendations and we can review and interview anything we want to so the formal advertisement by this Board for this would not be necessary; this would be something that could be carried out by being very well advertised and then collected and brought in."

Mr. Anton, "Okay. If we get any questions, I will certainly consult with the Commissioners."

Com. Evans, "Is this going to be based on the numbers that you provide given our class or the number of people we insure and that a wellness program that everybody participated in would probably increase those statistics so that the numbers could be a lot more accurate."

Com. Evans moved to authorize Porter County's agent Mike Anton to solicit quotes for employee health insurance benefits, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.


COMMISSIONERS' REPORT

North District: John Evans

1. Extension of Performance Letter of Credit from Centier Bank for St. Andre' Subdivision, in the amount of $59,000.00. New expiration date is April 10, 2003. Owner and subdivider is CEMCON, Ltd.

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Center District: Larry Sheets

1. Performance Letter of Credit from Centier Bank for Union Glen Subdivision, in the
amount of $28,000.00. Expiration date is March 28, 2003. Owner and subdivider is Verne Nelson & Sons.

Com. Sheets moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


CORRESPONDENCE

Clerk's monthly report for January and February, 2002 is on file.
Treasure's monthly report for March, 2002 is on file.
Court Security Activity Report for February and March, 2002 is on file.
Building Department monthly report for March is on file.

Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce-Rooftop Rendevous

Com. Burrus, "We have a request from the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce to use the Administration Center parking garage for a function on August 2, 2002, from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. Larry, have you talked to those people?"

Com. Sheets, "Yes, I have. I have talked with Amy over at the Chamber and Gwenn has been involved with it and our biggest concern was insurance. They have all the insurance and have covered all the bases as far as insurance. The Chamber does this as sort of an after-hours business session to all the new businesses or improved or rehabilitated business. They would like this because it is outside and convenient and unique. Legally, Gwenn has approved it. I don't have a problem with it."

Com. Evans, "Sounds like a good idea, dancing in the garage on the rooftop."

Com. Sheets moved to approve the Rooftop Rendevous for the Chamber on August 2, 2002, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Request for additional 7 days bereavement days, Ruthann Keilman

Com. Evans moved to approve 7 additional bereavement days for Ruthann Keilman due to the death of her father, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Maintenance agreement for mail machine and scales in Courthouse and Administration Building for $1,170.00

Linda Walker, "These are two we should keep, we can't afford to let the scales go down."

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Com. Sheets, "There are some maintenance agreements that we have evaluated when we made our 10% cuts and there are some department heads that are concerned about it but it is a gamble. Where they are high dollar maintenance, we have to take a chance and we are not renewing all agreements, we are taking a chance that we can get by with less without the maintenance agreements. If there are any questions, that is what we are doing and why we are doing it."

Com. Burrus, "That is a good point. We are taking a critical look at these things, and there have been a few we have already declined, so it is a case by case basis. Hopefully, we are making some right choices."

Agreement between Porter County and Jasper County for Juvenile Detention Services

Com. Burrus, "According to this agreement, Jasper County shall pay Porter County the sum of $25,000.00 annually for 250 bed days at the Juvenile Detention Center."

Com. Evans, "Is this the same number that it has been in the past and the same dollar amount?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Yes."

Com. Sheets moved to approve the contract with Jasper County, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Porter Starke Services, Inc., Employee Assistance Program, David Lomaka

Com. Burrus, "This is for approval of an Employee Assistance Program by Porter Starke Services for an additional year for a total cost of $1.00. This is something they have been providing in the past and Dave Lomaka is here to explain."

David Lomaka, "For two years we have been doing this as a service to the community and basically it is $1.00 per employee per month. Knowing the County's current finances, the contract was ended this year. We have stress management services, and counseling services that the employees can use. We are proposing it stay the same for another year."

Com. Burrus, "We appreciate that very much. Could you tell me the percentage of utilization was?"

Mr. Lomaka, "Between 5 and 6%. Every employee is entitled to this program, and . . . they are offered 3 or 4 sessions of individual therapy before their insurance plan kicks in. Obviously, if you are self insured, as Porter Starke is, it is to your advantage not to have the insurance plan."
(Mr. Lomaka was seated in the back row and could not be heard clearly by the recording secretary.)

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Memorial Day Ceremony

Com. Burrus, "This is for approval for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War to hold their annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Porter County Courthouse Square on Monday, May 27, 2002. I understand this has been a traditional event for a number of years and I don't think we want to change it at this point."

Com. Sheets moved to approve the ceremony, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Request for Transfer of Funds-Commissioners

Fund 01.30$1,385.00from acct 3320Legal notices
into acct 3976Assessed benefits

To pay ditch and drainage fee assessments

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Reqeust from Judge Webber to enforce smoke free building policy at Courthouse

Com. Burrus, "We have another item here. This is a request from Judge Webber representing all the judges. He is requesting that the County policy on smoke free buildings be re-iterated and enforced, particularly in the Courthouse where he is. Apparently there is a room used, without permission, for smoking purposes and the ventilation and the location is such is that the smoke is drifting up into his courtroom and this has not been received well. Since our policy, that has existed for some time, that these buildings are smoke free inside, then we need to reinforce that policy at the Courthouse. At the same time, the room that the judge is referring to has no real purpose and they have a new program that they have implemented that has to do with family court issues, domestic issues and they need a space for interviewing process. He is requesting permission to use this room for a small office for one desk to conduct these interviews."

Com. Sheets, "We will probably support this and the security people need to be more diligent in enforcing this over there. Every now and then we have to re-enforce these things. Even at the County Highway there is no smoking in the garage."

Com. Evans, "It sounds like he has a good use for the space, so he could probably monitor it himself."

Com. Sheets moved to approve to enforce the no smoking policy at the Courhouse, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Sale of the existing Porter County Jail

Com. Burrus, "The next item has to do with the sale of the existing jail. As we all know, this
Board has made it a point to set a goal that this building not be County property any time past the summer months. We do not want to own it as we go into the heating season. We have serious concerns about the operational costs of the new facility. We have made a budget request for these additional costs but they are projections, we do not know exactly what they are going to be. As a result, we are not going to be able to operate two buildings in the winter. We have made contact with a national real estate auction firm and had that presentation last meeting. We have expressed a desire to go forward with that pending a review of their proposal and pending the contractual agreements. In the meantime, we have heard from the newspapers that there is a group in the community who is involved in mental health work, that might be interested in this facility. I think that any interest on their part would be welcomed. However, we just want to re-iterate the fact that this is something that will have to be dealt with quickly and we would hope if they have any need, interest or desire, to talk about the purchase, that they would come forward quickly so we can discuss it and make the necessary plans. Time is of the essence and we would be willing to talk to these people but we need to know who they are and make some contacts."

Historical property committee

Com. Burrus, "The last item I have, is the comment I made back in February regarding the Historical properties. I made a comment at the meeting that it would be desirable to form a committee to look at our historical properties, which include the Opera House, the Jail Museum, and the County Home, and review their usage and maintenance status. We will take a look at ownership and make any recommendations they might feel is appropriate with respect to how these buildings are being administered. I would like to name the individuals who are on this committee: Attorney Jim Jorgensen, from Valparaiso; Spiro Valavanis, an architect from Valparaiso; Bill Wellman, from Valparaiso, is an entrepreneur, currently involved with Whiteco Industries and the promotion and operation of the Holiday Star Theater; Bill Vaughn, who works with one of our local banks and is a resident of Portage; and finally, Bruce Behner of Valparaiso. So those five would be the ones who are involved in this operation. I left a door open if they have any other expertise that they feel might be appropriate. They can increase that number if they want, but we hope they can do their work and report back to us in a timely fashion."

Com. Sheets, "I agree. We have talked a little bit about the County Home and I have given my position on it, but I think these five people are very credible. I think my position on the Opera House will be represented by that group. We need a Board with an open mind to come back and give us advice. We have had committees in the past where we asked them to give us ideas and input and they say whatever they report is what we are going to do, and that just isn't the case. I appreciate the work they do and it doesn't mean we are going to do everything they ask us to do."

Com. Burrus, "I emphasize that as well. I think we are looking for input and they have the direction of soliciting not only from their own expertise but for the whole community and I would hope that whatever they come back with we would consider. There is actually no guarantee we are going to implement all or part of their recommendation."

Com. Evans, "I agree with all of that. The open minded part is integral to those decisions and it is quite an distinguished group. I am very anxiously awaiting their input."

David Lomaka, Porter Starke Services

Mr. Lomaka, "I think we said about closing the Porter County Home, (. . .inaudible. The rest of Mr. Lomaka's statements were not picked up by the recording equipment due to his sitting in the last row of the chambers.)

Com. Burrus, "We have received a letter from your organization also."

Com. Evans, "I think Gwenn is also notifying the state."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "What I am waiting for is the necessary information that I need to put into a letter to notify the state. I just sent a letter to Betty Vania yesterday saying that she needs to provide me with specific information so I can send a certified letter to the state."

Com. Sheets, "Can I ask a favor? Could we get a letter saying where these clients have gone to?"

Mr. Lomaka, "You mean a ball park number or specifically?"

Com. Sheets, "We know that some of them went to LaPorte."

Mr. Lomaka, "Some went to the LaPorte County Home, some went to our facility in South Bend."

Com. Sheets, "Thank you. I think we had that information. The reason I ask that is there is a perception of the public that these people were put out on the street and then when I explained it to them, and I said in some cases they are better off, some cases maybe not."

(Mr. Lomaka's entire answer was inaudible.)

Com. Sheets, "There is a benefit in what we have done. The benefit is that all the county homes have not been closed yet by the state but they are headed in that direction. That is why the freeze was put on and we were able to find places for these people."

Mr. Lomaka, "Not only is there a freeze, but the state announced a 17% cut in what they will be paying per day."

Com. Burrus, "With each milestone in this process, all the residents have been relocated but we still have the legal requirement to sever this facility with the state."

John Whitcomb,"Can you tell me the appraiser of the old jail?"

Com. Sheets, "I don't know if we had one."

Mr. Whitcomb, "A couple weeks ago you said you were going to contact one. When you had that gentleman in here that was an auctioneer."

Com. Burrus, "We have not done anything further with that. We have received a proposal from that firm and we are reviewing that right now. Frankly, we are waiting to see what comes out of this mental health interest."

Com. Evans, "He was also going to pursue the City of Valparaiso to see if they had any interest again or see if they had any restrictions on the zoning that would be applied to whoever would buy it."

Mr. Whitcomb, "I think you should keep it. It's too bad you spent over a million dollars on this 911 deal. You could have left the 911 office here where it's at. I don't think you are going to get a million dollars out of that building, I hope you do."

Com. Evans, "We still would have spent the million dollars. We would have had to buy the software, that was the glitch that the software was being upgraded and what we had was no good and it had to be replaced. We still would have had to purchase the software. The company doesn't exist anymore; they are going to another company."

Mr. Whitcomb, "Have they closed their office down?"

Com. Evans, "No. They have an effective date that the software will no longer be supported. It is like the last day of June, I am not sure, but after that date the software will no longer be supported. That necessitated them finding another provider. Regardless of where they are sitting to use the equipment or dispatch from, they were going to have to spend the money to buy the software to make it work."

Mr. Whitcomb, "I understand it now. It seems like you have a lot of problems with software."

Com. Evans, "Yes. There are only two people that make that software and now there is only one."

Com. Burrus moved to recess, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was recessed.

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

David L. Burrus
Larry D. Sheets
John A. Evans

Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor