PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSREGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2002


The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 17, 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 September 9, 2002, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of September 3, 2002, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.


ORDINANCE CREATING FUND FOR PORTER COUNTY BAIL OUT LOAN-1ST READING
David Hollenbeck, Attorney

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Good morning, Commissioners. As we continue with our implementation strategy for securing the Porter County Bail Out Loan proceeds and in discussing the matter of actually getting the money and distributing it, it is the recommendation of your auditor's office and the state department of local government finance that we segregate the proceeds from the loan into a separate account and then access on an as needed basis. As you remember, the legislature in its wisdom, divided the potential loan proceeds into three equal components of approximately $1.8 million dollars being triggered each time Bethlehem Steel did not pay its taxes, that has already happened twice, it happened last November and this May, so we have applied for and been approved for 2 of the 3 installments. Out of that money, though, we must repay the Department of Commerce loan that we got in December of last year to keep us flowing. The net effect of that will be after the first two installments are distributed and the loan repaid, there will be approximately 1.5 million dollars. The County Council is still looking at the issue of to what extent it intends to apply for the third of the loan increments, that being the one that would be available after November 10th, when Bethlehem, we are assuming, doesn't pay its taxes. I am led to believe the $1.5 million that has been approved and everything has been sorted out in Indianapolis, will be here any day. So what is being proposed and is before you is the creation of a special fund that we dubbed the Porter County Bail Out Loan Fund into which the auditor would like to place the proceeds of this loan and then access it on an as needed basis between now and the end of the year. As you know, the statutory responsibility for the creation of these funds lies with the Board of Commissioners and that is why the proposed ordinance 02-18 is before you. I can answer any questions you may have otherwise on behalf of both the auditor and the County Council, I encourage you to adopt it."

Com. Sheets, "The fund that is established and is enacted by the Commissioners, if we have $1.5 million dollars in there, in order for that to be spent, you do not have to come to the Commissioners or does the Council have the ability to appropriate out of that fund without coming to the Commissioners?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "We didn't spend a lot of time in the idiosyncrasies of this process. I guess it was my concept, and it isn't clear from the state, but technically we already have appropriations in the general fund that this money is to be used for because we don't have the money from the Bethlehem Steel bankruptcy so in my mind, as opposed to an appropriation, is simply more of a transfer of this money. We need $300,000.00 so we are going to transfer that into appropriations that have already passed the process and been approved. If that is the way the methodology ends up being, candidly, I am sure the Council wouldn't refuse to come to you, but if that is all that is happening, then I don't know if there is a need to do that. If they are going to be creating new appropriations and spending this money in new ways, I don't have any trouble recommending to my client, the County Council, that they come back to the Commissioners and spend the money."

Com. Sheets, "I am not asking that question in a mean spirited way, but first of all I appreciate the Council not using any more money than necessary from what they are borrowing. That is clear. At the same time, I think the Commissioners are very clear in their position that we believe that there are fixed costs and we believe that they ought to fund those fixed costs before they add any additional costs. My personal view is that when these budgets are finalized, that all fixed costs are included if they have to borrow the money to do that. You are here because you represent the Council and they are not here so I can't say it to them, but even if there are fixed costs, and the insurance really got us in a jam over the years, I would hope they would give some thought to funding that completely. I don't know what their thinking is. If they need to use that money to fund it, but we need to fund fixed costs."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "You are right, Larry. That message has been heard loud and clear and I can tell you from my client's perspective, every effort will be made to follow that approach Thursday night when they finalize the budgets, whether that will be accomplishable or not is still a question, but I think every effort will be made to focus on that."

Com. Sheets, "Now we go back to the reason why I asked the first question, and you have been here before me in 1983, and I don't play political games with anybody, but we are in a time where the Commissioners might have leverage to make our requests a little stronger and say look if you want to use any of this money, I feel very strongly that if there are fixed costs in the budget that have to be met and if this is the way they have to do it, then it might be okay."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "And I think what I just said is consistent with that if it is simply a matter of transferring money out of this fund, the fund existing appropriations, I think that can be done by the County Council and the auditor. If they want to spend this money other than for appropriations that are already contained in the general fund budget then they would have to do an additional appropriation and I don't have any trouble telling them if they want to do that, they should come back to the Board of Commissioners and discuss it with you."

Com. Evans, "I understand what you are saying, but I don't think this agreement is going to allow you to do that because it says right here that the Porter County Bail Out Loan Fund shall be subject to appropriations by the Porter County Council. So if you are going to want those restrictions, then you need to put them into this agreement I would think."

Com. Sheets, "Well, the word is out there to their attorney."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "If I can digress for one moment, in the newspaper this morning there was a consequence of that very thinking. Lets not kid ourselves. When you are talking fixed costs and fully funding those, you are talking to the extent that you can't fully fund things funding non fixed costs. Lets not kid ourselves. Non fixed costs are one thing in this building: people. And you saw what the Health Department had to do because they fully funded their fixed costs and they cut their people costs well, people are programing. You can have all the vaccines sitting on the shelf you want but if you don't have the money to have the people to distribute it, what have you got?"

Com. Burrus, "You have a point well taken there, Dave, but at the same time, fixed means something you have absolutely no control over and the funds we are talking about are the ones that if we don't pay, we get turned off. We don't have the option of shutting down buildings and so forth or options of shutting down insurances so I would like to reinforce Larry's comments and that is from this Board's perspective, we have made a number of significant cuts and I don't think we are unique at all. We recognize what the entire County Government has done on behalf of anyone who has legitimate fixed costs per budget we feel strongly that those need to be addressed first before some of the more discretionary costs are addressed. Your point was well taken and I think the message is there."

Com. Evans moved to approve Ordinance No. 02-18 on first reading, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.


OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS
Jim Douglas, Prosecutor

Mr. Douglas, "I am Jim Douglas, Porter County Prosecutor and with me this morning is Lois
Holiday who is the director of the 4-D Support Office of the Prosecutor's office. What we have here is a proposed contract between the state of Indiana, essentially the Division of Indiana Family Social Services Administration, a grant for the lack of a better term, up to $50,000.00 for the Prosecutor's office to perform services in connection with the 4-D program. Lois came here from her sick bed today for this, but I am trying to carry the ball so if you have any specific questions about the program, she will try to answer them. As I said, this is a grant for $50,000.00 paid by the Division of Family Services to provide for a 4-D investigator to go to the welfare DFS office to interview people in connection with whether or not they collect child support. Currently, what happens is they go through the DFS and then had to leave and make a separate appointment to come to our prosecutor's office and there is a substantial delay involved. This will shorten that period up. The grant will allow the prosecutors' office to hire another full time person and hopefully have some part time help. We are doing the same work now so it just gives us a few more bodies to do more work. The grant is a one year grant so it is not continuing. Other counties had similar grants and they have had them renewed on a yearly basis but there isn't any guarantee that it would be renewed. Anybody that we hire because of the grant funds would be told their employment is contingent upon the grant similar to other employees that are hired through grants. We anticipate the new full time person would cost about $30,000.00 including insurance expense which would be paid by the grant. There would be no cost to the county. It would be similar to other grant people that we have hired in other programs such as Victim's Assistance, where the grant pays all of the cost, their salary, FICA, Perf, insurance and the whole business. The purpose of the grant is to cut down the waiting period between the services. Currently, our office along with the 4-D office, is understaffed. We lost a person in 2001 and the position was not replaced. It was cut in 2002 and presumably it will be cut in 2003. This is a procedure to try and get more people in the office with no cost to the County. I know the County Attorney has reviewed the proposed contract and there were a couple questions concerning insurance provisions that are in the contract. We have a verbal commitment from the state that the insurance provisions of Article X will be waived. You can sign it now or wait for the waiver to come. That is up to you and the attorney. The worker right now would put in what Family Services wants and that is someone over there approximately 2 ½ days a week."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "There is also a problem with indemnification clause, it is unilateral on indemnification clause and I know that the state may like a unilateral indemnification clause but we never signed one like that before so the indemnification clause should be struck."

Mr. Douglas, "I agree. It is also kind of a boiler plate contract and I don't know if they are willing to do that, we haven't been able to do that. I am looking at it, and you are the attorney, but I don't see how that would, for liability, come into effect for anything that our employee would just sitting in an office there, that we wouldn't have liability on in any event simply because a county employee did something."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I have a problem when we say we will indemnify them and hold the state harmless but the state refuses to indemnify, defend or hold them harmless because I have no idea what bad situation could arise where that might be applicable so, I would like to see that."

Mr. Douglas, "I agree. I think it is reasonable to ask for it and it is an unreasonable provision. I also know that dealing with the state sometime, obviously it is the Council's decision, I don't think it is worth refusing the contract; refusing to help based upon the cost of insurance, but that is a decision for you folks."

Com. Burrus, "Was there a determined need for this position prior to the availability of the grant money?"

Mr. Douglas, "Yes, I would say so. The Division of Family Services are the ones that came to us and said we would like to have somebody down there more instead of going the route that we were going and they in effect, got the grants; it was their idea."

Com. Burrus, "So initiation came through a determination of need?"

Mr. Douglas, "I would say that is absolutely true, there is a need for it."

Com. Burrus, "Then you mentioned the fact that you were looking at the possibility of a full time position and a part time and later on in your comments, you mentioned two and a half days, is that referred to as the part time or the full time?"

Mr. Douglas, "What the contract provides for is that we will staff, put somebody in the DFS office for two and a half days."

Ms. Holiday, "We are still working out the exact details on what they feel they need versus what we feel we need and it is going to be 2, 2 ½, or 3, but probably 2. And it will be whatever their director works out with our office. It is based on when they do their interviews and when they can funnel those costs."

Com. Burrus, "The significance to us is, whether this position is full time or part time for the 2 ½ days per week"

Mr. Douglas, "Our plan is to take somebody off the street and go in and do this job at the DFS. That is because it is very difficult, you have to have a heck of a lot of knowledge, it isn't just an easy given. We are going to be taking a person that has worked for us for a long time and actually does these things in the office now, take them out and put them for 2 ½ days per week in the DFS office and then we are going to hire as soon as we get the money, a new person and train them as a case worker."

Com. Burrus, "Is that within the perimeters of the grant?"

Mr. Douglas, "Yes. The grant provides that they pay so much money for services rendered, so as long as the services are rendered, they couldn't care less."

Com. Burrus, "Which one of these individuals that you are talking about then would be the one terminated as the result of the end of the funding?"

Mr. Douglas, "The new hires. Absolutely."

Com. Burrus, "Then they would have a definite understanding that their employment is dependant exclusively on the terms of this grant?"

Mr. Douglas, "Yes."

Com. Burrus, "The last concern I have has to do with the concern of the benefit package. The salary is going to be established with whatever you choose to establish it at and the grant money should be adequate for that, however, once they get themselves on county payroll then the benefits in total are paid for out of our budget line items. There are often times, not exclusively, but often a difficulty in getting to these outside sources of revenue back into the proper line items in our budget for funding. In other words, if you take money out of this grant for this person's FICA, Perf, and health insurance, normally that would return to the general fund and we will not see any of that money where we have to pay for it. So, I have a problem with the accounting of it because we are the ones paying the benefit packages. To the extent this goes forward, I would be concerned and almost to the point I would like to require, a vehicle in place where we could see this money come back into the proper accounts. I know that is outside your concern."

Mr. Douglas, "Probably outside my knowledge. I know on our grant people now, it all goes into a special account like this would, actually it is Account 182, I think."

Com. Burrus, "We have a vehicle to do that with respect to health insurance, we have Fund 45 and that could be used as a recipient."

Mr. Douglas, "If there is some way you could pass it and we could do it, we would be happy to do it."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I think it is probably going to require to sit down with Sandy Vuko and the auditor's office and talk to her about the funds that the grant money is going into now and see if she can instruct one of her employees, if you come up with something in writing, to see that the money goes into that line item and be transferred to ours for the benefits."

Mr. Douglas, "It might be a good idea for the other grants, too."

Com. Sheets, "Is it possible to hire this person under a contract, be a contract employee rather than a county employee and then you deal with the $50,000.00 grant at one of our meetings and we do not accept him into our benefit package and you will make compensation through the grant? It is far fetched, but I am just wondering."

Mr. Douglas, "It doesn't seem too far fetched, but I would be reluctant to do it for a couple reasons. First, it would automatically create two classes of employees within an office and I don't think that is a great idea, and two, the people we give the insurance, it is a valuable benefit. I mean it is a major deal."

Com. Burrus, "Well, we have two classes here by definition because of the fact we have a person in this situation who is only going to be there as long as the grant is renewed."

Mr. Douglas, "That is true. I think even if you made it more than that, it makes it a larger gap and I don't think that is particularly a good idea."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "It would be a possible solution. Lonnie Steel falls into that category of employee and I can show you a copy of his employment contract. He is an independent contractor, but he his permitted to pay into for the insurance the same amount as the regular employee does so that is a way to delineate between making the full time employee the independent contractor but have the possibility of participating in the insurance benefits because we have done it that one time."

Com. Burrus, "The health insurance package is not a problem because we have a fund to receive that. The difficulty would be the person who has to be responsible for paying their own Perf and FICA contributions."

Com. Sheets, "I am in favor of you getting the grant. Do you have to put in a request for this grant or have you already done and do you have a response yet?"

Mr. Douglas, "They have approved it; they have sent us a contract which we gave to you. The way I anticipated it working, assuming it was passed. What happens is we start putting our current person into the office doing the work and then we submit monthly vouchers, or applications to get paid down and when that money comes in, and we start filling up the money when it gives us enough to hire somebody, we will hire them. We don't have to hire them until we get the money in the bank."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "If you guys approve this contract, it's a go. The money is there and you have contracted with the state to do the work,...."

Com. Sheets, "You have to have a period of time before today and when you hire the person. What I am trying to get at, and I want that to start, I think we are not going to have a conclusion on what way to go and I think between now and the time we hire a person, that maybe we can reach a conclusion."

Com. Evans, "I think your proposal is probably the one we should look at. He has a person that does this job already that he is going to put into the office to do that job, the one he is going to replace, he is going to wait for the funds for. And I have read several Quickly's about the length of time it takes to get that done when it comes to child support and I think anything he can do to make that process faster, should be approved."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I guess you could approve the contract conditional upon the Auditor and the Prosecutor reaching an agreement on how to get the benefit money back to our line item."

Com. Sheets, "And that is where I am going. I don't want to slow down the process if you want to get going."

Com. Sheets moved to approve the grant contingent upon the agreement between the Auditor and the Prosecutor being able to reimburse the funds from the line item of the Commissioners' benefits, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Revise County Emergency Plan
Phil Griffith, Emergency Management Director

Com. Burrus, "Phil is here this morning and for the last 9 to 12 months, Phil has been in the process of totaling revising our Emergency Management Plan. He had presented one earlier the latter part of last year and subsequent to the 9-11 events in New York, the State of Indiana has put forth some directives that says that all county emergency management plans must have a common format and some other characteristics that are unique to the new requirement. Phil has done that, he has prepared the plan with an annex for terrorism. I am not sure if we are prepared at this point to pass those."

Com. Sheets, "It won't hurt to take a little more time."

Com. Burrus, "The thing I would like to make sure we do today is to acknowledge a requirement that Phil has indicated that has to be amended to the basic plan and that is there has to be succession of authority included for the Commissioners' office such that among the three of us, there has to be a line of authority passed and you are asking for a fourth person in the event that the entire Board was incapacitated. Is that correct?"

Mr. Griffith, "Yes, that is correct."

Com. Burrus, "So, I would like Phil to expand on that if he wants to, but we need to acknowledge the fact that we need to come up with that and give some thought, possibly in our next meeting, where we could identify that line of succession and also address the approval of the plan."

Mr. Griffith, "On the continuity of government, I am going to every single county office and I will work my way down to the municipalities and go from there. In the unlikely event we would have a major disaster that would have say, Mr. Burrus and Mr. Sheets were on vacation and Mr. Evans was in charge but was involved in the incident, at that stage, where would I go for the person to be in charge until one of you return to the County. There has never been a time where one of you has not been available, but in the unlikely event it would happen, where would I go as far as the county authority. I would like to do that with every single county office so in the event of a major disaster, we would have a continuity of government that would keep the government flowing the way it is supposed to work."

Com. Burrus, "Now will that requirement that you are putting on every county office be a requirement of the plan as well, or will that be for your own information?"

Mr. Griffith, "It will be attached to our plan. Our plan would then, if you pulled yours off the shelf, it would have that. It will be a document that if or when people change, we could change the document. The municipalities will develop their own plan and they will have their continuity of government attached to their plan. If you read through the plan, it requires every single office and or government to have this document. Not that we would want to have Valparaiso's or Portage's attached to our plan, because if the emergency happens within their corporate limits, their plan would be instituted and not ours."

Com. Burrus, "Well, the point I want to make is, when we review and approve a final document of this plan, I want it to be inclusive of everything that needs to be in it."

Mr. Griffith, "Right. And I have the letter I want to go out to all the department heads and that should be done within the next three to five days."

Com. Burrus, "If you could have that finished and included in the plan documents we have so we could approve it, "

Mr. Griffith, "I am sending a letter explaining what I need, an example of how I have my agency set up, and then a blank document for them to fill out, and once that is filled out, it will be 3 hole punched and attached right to the document that would sit on your desk, the county attorney's desk and my desk"

Com. Burrus, "I know you have been working on this and it has been a long time but what I want to see is three finished copies of the document, in hand, before we pass it."

Mr. Griffith, "You will have that by the next meeting."

Com. Burrus, "At that point in time, it will become gospel and we are home free."

Mr. Griffith, "In addition, what I will be doing, I am meeting with every agency that is listed as a support agency in the document and they have all been involved in this process so that their standard operating guidelines will in fact coincide with Porter County's plan which will coincide with the state, which coincides with the federal government. We will work with the municipalities so that their plan coincides with the state."

Com. Burrus, "I think that coordination is what the state and federal agencies are trying to insure that we have in place now with the realization that it could happen."

Mr. Griffith, "That is the reason they changed the format and we went from a three year project to a three month project since 9-11-2001. We do have about five agencies in the process of updating their SOP's; most of them like the Fire Department and Police, their SOP's are updated on an annual basis anyway. They were very easy to come into compliance. The Health Department is right up and the Solid Waste is up there. I am meeting with Highway next week, and all the service clubs like Kiwanis, so see what they part they would play in the unlikely event we would have a major emergency or disaster."

Com. Burrus, "Sounds good, so if you will have that ready, we will address that at our next meeting and we will have that done."

Mr. Griffith, "Yes, we will have that done."

DEPARTMENT HEADS/OFFICE HOLDERS
John Scott, Portage Township Assessor

Mr. Scott, "I take it that you know we have been having problems with our copier for several years now and the maintenance agreement we had with Adams-Remco has accelerated to such an extent that it is just not wise for us to do it anymore. We tried to see if we could get it through the Commissioners' budget, and that wasn't forthcoming with all the problems we are having. Being very frugal in our use of our money for the reassessment and also one year when the reassessment was going on and other places were taking their per diem, I decided not to take my per diem because I wasn't doing the work and I felt it was not the time to do the work, so we do have money in the reassessment budget. At this point in time, we would like to transfer some of this money to buy the new copy machine and also a typewriter. The typewriter we did get verbals and some hard copies. While we have been trying to calculate the personal property, the typewriter is driving everybody in the office nuts. Like I said, we have the funds to transfer and we are here to request this body to acknowledge what we have."

Com. Burrus, "I am not sure this body can accept a transfer request."

Mr. Scott, "We do have the bids and we told we had to have verbal bids on anything under $500.00 and then hard bids for over $500.00. The copy machine when we bought it, was $7,000.00 and some odd dollars, and that is just about what we are going to do now. We are not going to try to go to the state of the arts, like they sold us the last time. We are just going to try and do whatever is going to manage our office."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "For the type of funding that I see here, they have done more than enough."

Com. Sheets, "Okay, then if we approve something contingent upon the money being available to transfer."

Com. Burrus, "What is the recommendation on the proposals, John?"

Mr. Scott, "We were taking the lowest one and we have already seen this particular machine in action because the County Assessor has one of these."

Com Sheets, "If you are satisfied with this project and you are satisfied with it, and hopefully you won't come back in a year and say, boy did we make a mistake."

Mr. Scott, "If you will see the service contract, it is $607.00 for that machine, the contract we have now is getting into like $1,200.00 and it is just eating us alive. We have talked to the County Attorney about breaking the contract and then we went and talked to the company itself and we pay from January to January so if we stop in January paying, the worst scenario will be is they will sue us for the money, we still have enough in our budget to carry us to June if that was the date we have to go to. We don't think that is going to happen."

Com. Burrus, "After so many years with them, you have probably pretty much expired the contract with them."

Mr. Scott, "The contract was only on service."

Com. Sheets moved to approve the recommendation of purchasing a 5618 Digital Document Processor and for the service agreement, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Scott, "This will help us go ahead and go to the County Council to get on their agenda."

COMMISSIONERS' REPORT

North District: John Evans

1. INDOT Closing statement for the sale of right of way that the County owns on US 6,
in South Haven, to the State for the sum of $2,800.00. This sale was approved at the June 4, 2002 Commissioner's meeting. Recommend approval.

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

2. LPA Claim Voucher #6 for $11,345.24 for construction engineering for the Reconstruction of Calumet Trail. Recommend approval.

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

3. Utility Agreement from NIPSCO for installation of four poles on Old Chicago Road just east of Lake Shore County Rd. Located near 544 East Old Chicago Rd. Recommend approval.

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

Center District: Larry Sheets

1. Performance Letter of Credit #403 in the amount of $10,000.00 from DeMotte State
Bank for Windsor Park, Phase 3. Expiration date is March 4, 2003.

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

2. Recommend that the speed limit on CR 400 North between SR 130 and Froberg Road be lowered from 40 m.p.h. to 35 m.p.h..

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

3. Agreement between Classic Designs, Inc. and Porter County, that deals with the excavating and hauling of material from 199 North 750 West. Also included is a $50,000.00 bond from G.E. Marshall, Inc.

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


NUTRACUTICAL PRODUCTS FOR INCLUSION IN EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE

Com. Burrus, "Before we go into correspondence, on a couple of occasions in the past the Commissioners have been approached by individuals who are interested in having nutracutical products included under our health insurance plan. These discussions have been rather informal and have not gone anywhere, but I would ask our insurance representative, Anton Insurance, explore this in more detail to maybe meet with our third party administrator to see what might be involved so we have a clear picture of which way we might want to go with this request. Any discussion?"

Com. Sheets, "I think we ought to investigate it."

Com. Evans, "Yes, the more information we have the better we will be."

Com. Evans moved to approve to seek information based on the concept of nutritional products, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.


DEED RIGHT OF WAY ON LAPORTE AVENUE TO THE CITY OF VALPARAISO

Com. Sheets, "The City of Valparaiso has asked us to dedicate to them a few feet of where our ambulance garage is to widen LaPorte Avenue. They are going to widen it and they need to purchase some of the right of way and they area asking us to dedicate it to them. They are asking for ten feet."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "The document asking for approval is a Commissioners' Deed deeding that portion as outlined in Exhibits A and B and then a donation agreement for the dedication."

Com. Sheets, "For the record, this is so small, it is 0.046 acres."

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


CORRESPONDENCE

The Building Dept. monthly report for August 2002 is on file.
Clerk's monthly report for July 2002 is on file.
Court Security monthly report for August 2002 is on file.
Veteran's monthly report for August 2002 is on file.
Treasurer's monthly report for August 2002 is on file.
Health Dept. Vital Records Report & Nursing Division reports for July 2002 is on file.
Heath Dept. Sanitarian's Report for August 2002 is on file.

Late enrollee of Michael Shoback to Porter County Benefit Plan

Com. Sheets moved to approve Jail Officer Michael Shoback as late enrollee to the Porter County Benefit Plan with coverage to be effective September 1, 2002, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Request for relocate polling places in Portage Twp. from Voter's Registration

Ptg. 8 from Ramada Inn on US Highway 20 to Days Inn on US Highway 20 and
Ptg. 11 from Christian Service Center on 792 Juniper Road to Paul Saylor School located at Midway & Devonshire.

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

Transfer funds-Commissioners

01.30$650.00from acct. 3320legal notices
Into acct. 3340Advertising

132.30$1,300.00from acct 3620building maintenance
Into acct 3630equipment other than vehicles

To pay for help wanted ads and to pay for repairs to floor scrubber, sweepers and print shop cutting machine.

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

Request for additional-Commissioners

Com. Burrus, "This is a significant item in the fact that we are going to be requesting another additional appropriation from the Council to supplement our account 3440 for unemployment to pay unemployment benefits for the remainder of 2002. We made a presentation to the Council a couple months ago and received a partial additional appropriation. That money will carry us through the end of August and at the present time our unemployment claims are running about $12,000.00 per month and therefore the request."

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

Request for additional-Highway Dept.

02$5,600.00acct 2362.291bituminous

material needed to complete road construction

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

Request by Porter County Right to Life to use courthouse grounds

Com. Burrus, "This group would like to use the southeast corner of the courthouse grounds to assemble and conduct a public prayer vigil on September 18, 2002 from 6:30 p.m until 8:30 p.m. This is the same time that the Porter Memorial Hospital Board will be having their public input meeting on the abortion issue at the Opera House. I would say if the Board approves this request, that this would not suggest any kind of favoritism one way or the other on this issue and that if there was an opposition group that requested the same permission, that they in turn would be granted a location on the square. Any comments?"

Com. Sheets, "We are just allowing the citizens to use the grounds and we do that quite often."

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

Com. Evans, "I would like to add that the Commissioners support the Board that we have
appointed to the hospital in whatever decision they make in this matter. I think they are taking input on the 18th of September and making their decision on the 25th, but however that comes out, I think that Board should be supported in their decision."

Motion carried.

PRESS RELEASE FOR AUCTION OF OLD PORTER COUNTY JAIL

Com. Burrus, "We have a press release that has to do with the sale of the existing jail facility. As you know, last week we had a short discussion with members of the real estate firm that will be selling this property. Specific things that they needed was input from us to generate a time line for the sequence and dates of events that are going to occur in the sale process. That will be addressed in the press release and I will summarize it very briefly by saying that the type of auction will be an open outcry auction as opposed to any kind of sealed bids. The auction will be absolute without reserve, the date will be November 20 and will be held in this room at 1:00 p.m. There will be significant advertising done at the national level and there will be several visitations and inspection visits of the facility between now and then. Those dates will be October 23, 29 and November 6th. It is up to the Sheriff's Department to maintain his schedule to be out of the jail around the first of October with his last remaining prisoners and to have the jail cleaned, scrubbed and disinfected by October 15. There will be a pre-inspection of the facilities on October 16 and that will be conducted by the auctioneering firm, and any others who will be involved with the sale. It will not be open to the public at that time. I will have copies of the press release for anyone who wants it."

Com. Sheets, "I want to emphasize that if there are any questions from the press or the public, don't come to the Commissioners, go directly to the auctioneers, they have all the information."

Com. Burrus, "That should be re-emphasized for the press that if there are any potential buyers at this point, the firm of Sheldon Good is the delegated authority and the Commissioners no longer have any authority to negotiate or conduct any conversation regarding the building other than informational only. Any other business?"

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT DECLARED SEPT. 17 AT CONSTITUTION DAY
John Whitcomb

Mr. Whitcomb, "I just wanted to let you know the National Government has declared September 17 as Constitutional Day. How long ago this happened, I have no idea. I became aware of this some years ago when I seen it on a calendar sent to me by the veteran's of foreign wars, post 988 in Valparaiso does observe this as a special day of reflection. These observations range from any of the wars involved in the past century actually protect our constitution. Were all those foreign wars necessary? Did any of those strengthen our constitution? Is the constitution still in effect? That is a good one. Is it being followed? Is it being taught in our schools? My personal consensus is no to all those questions. This country's most precious guarantee of freedom is hardly noticed, understood or given a second thought as to its legality. Officials in the highest of positions, cabinet level and congress, are constantly violating their oath of office and adding the news media with their public relation, explain away the truth with their lies and the public swallows it by and large. I want to give you the Commissioners a copy of the Constitution of the United States. I would like to be able to give you a copy of the state of Indiana's constitution, but couldn't find any suitable copies. However, you can obtain one by calling the states attorney's office. I do hope you will read it."

Com. Burrus, "Thank you, John."

Com. Sheets moved to recess the meeting, 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