PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSREGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2002


The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 2002 in the Commissioners' Chambers of the Administration Center. The meeting was held on Wednesday due to election day being Tuesday, November 5, 2002.

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

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


APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of October 21, 2002 and November 4, 2002, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF CLAIMS

Com. Evans moved to approve the claims for November 6, 2002, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of October 15, 2002, and the minutes from the October 31, 2002 special meeting for opening bids for new roof at North County, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.


4-H GRANT FOR TREE PLANTING PROJECT AT COUNTY HOME
Jan Alt

Ms. Alt, "I live in Union Township and I have been actively involved in the 4-H Program for many years with my kids. Each project has a superintendent and my projects are forestry, wildlife, nature and discovery. This past summer I happened upon a grant that I have been working on with the educator, David O'Hearn, and there was a National Portage Council grant and a tree planting grant that was funded by Deft, Inc. and I have received $1,000.00 that is being held by the Portage Council for this project. What I wrote the grant for was to be able to plant these trees at the area to the south of Peace Village. Then I read in the newspaper that there might be some changes so I need to come to you to ask for your approval to plant these trees. As far as the money I have received from this grant, it is $1,000.00. (Inaudible..........) There is also some funding from the city of Valparaiso of $250.00. We need to know if it is okay to plant these trees. They are going to be 1" to 3" caliber native trees."

Com. Burrus, "I have a couple of comments on this, Jan, and then, John if you have anything you would care to share. First of all, the situation with the County Home is very fluid right now. You have seen in the paper the fact that we have a committee that would recommend that the property be retained and at the same time, they do not see any particular historical significance to the building. In an effort to keep the building occupied and to reduce the threat of vandalism, we have been dealing with the Valparaiso Schools and the Peace Village on an annual basis and that is subject to change on either parties viewpoint on an annual renewal. The thing that kind of surprises me is that it sounds like there has been a lot of effort expended in trying to put this together and at this point in time, it is the first we have heard of it so it is kind of a surprise. I would have requested to be aware of this before this ever moved forward."

Ms. Alt, "The reason, and since I have been working with the educator, David Ohearst, I think he just didn't understand that the County Home was actually county property and then I found out that I had to come here."

Com. Burrus, "Well, the other part of the comment I would like to make is the fact that a portion of the property out there has been designated as wetlands and if that would be an acceptable location, then that would be a suggestion I would offer. Anywhere else on that property that might be used for that purpose would be potentially temporary. We don't know what we are going to do with it and if the decision comes down that it is going to be used for something, then those plantings would be vulnerable at best."

Ms. Alt, "That is why I am asking if you think I should change the location, I can send the money back or I could go ahead with his project."

Com. Evans, "What is the likelihood they would allow you to change the location?"

Ms. Alt, "I don't know, I can check with them. They keep sending me letters to update them and they say the money is approved for this project, so I may have to send the money back."

Com. Evans, "We have a pretty large piece of property in Portage that might be a little better place for this. The wetlands are the most likely place on that piece of property."

Ms. Alt, "In this grant, part of it was to help promote to restore wetlands."

Com. Burrus, "I think Chuck Walker from the conservation service is aware of the area and specifically where it is."

Com. Evans, "How many trees are we talking about?"

Ms. Alt, "As many as $1,000.00 will buy is what we have to spend and they are going to be 1"-3" caliber trees, so those are good size trees. It just depends on far the money will go and we won't know until we put the order in. I didn't want to put any orders in until I am sure that these trees won't be bulldozed down."

Com. Evans, "We are not anticipating taking a bulldozer through the wetlands. If you can limit the planting to that particular area, I think we could give you permission."

Ms. Alt, "My other question is, I have children involved as a 4-H community tree planting project. Will the kids be able to get into this area? Is the area accessible?"

Com. Evans, "The whole piece of property is nine acres, so the farthest you would have to walk is about a quarter mile."

Com. Evans moved to allow the planting in conjunction with Chuck Walker from Soil, Conversation, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.

Ms. Alt, "I am sorry I didn't talk to you earlier on this, but thank you."



RECEIVE BIDS TO REPAIR BOILER AT NORTH COUNTY ANNEX

Com. Burrus, "I would like to comment that the architect, Bob Gerometta is here and he will review these bids. Subject to his review, we will make an award, whether it is today or at a later date, we are not sure. The bids are:

1.D.A. Dodd, Inc.base bid:$51,800.00
2.Delco, Inc.base bid:$43,372.00
3.Arctic Engineeringbase bid:$42,000.00

Bob, do you think you have an opportunity to look at these this morning? Maybe you could take them over to the table in the back of the room here and then we will take care of a few other things here on our agenda and before we adjourn, I will check back with you."

Com. Evans, "We would like to get them in tomorrow if we could, Bob."


E-911 BUDGET, 2ND READING

Com. Evans, "I don't see Dave Sheibels here and he needs to be present. I would say we could pass the E-911 budget on second reading deleting the portion for longevity in compliance with the County Council's request that longevity not be paid."

Com. Burrus, "I would concur with that. I think the budget as we read in the first reading did include a provision for longevity payment and that is not consistent with the rest of the County."

Com. Evans moved to approve the E-911 budget deleting the longevity portion, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.



CORRESPONDENCE

The Weights and Measures monthly report for October, 2002 is on file.

Com. Burrus, "We have a resolution that was presented to Judge Thomas Webber on Friday when he retired from the bench after some 12 years of judicial service. This is Resolution No. 02-08 and has been signed by the three of us."

Com. Evans moved to adopt Resolution No. 02-08, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.

RESOLUTION 02-08
A Resolution Commending THOMAS W. WEBBER, SR.
For his Years of Service to Porter County

WHEREAS, The Board of Commissioners of Porter County, Indiana, through this Resolution, wishes to publicly acknowledge and honor Thomas W. Webber, Sr.; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr., was appointed, followed by election to the Porter Superior Court No. II, in 1989, where he has held the position of Judge for 12 consecutive years; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr., has served as the Chairman of the Northwest Indiana section of the Committee that drafted the Indiana Rules of Evidence; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr., has served as President of the Porter County Bar Association; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr., has served for two years, as the founding President of the Porter County American Inns of Court where Judge Webber was instrumental in organizing and developing the Inns of Court into Porter County. He Chaired the original committee, which led to the chartering of the Porter County Inns of Court as the Third Inn in Indiana, and the 209th Inn in the United States. The Porter County Inns first official meeting was held on September 8, 1993, in Porter Superior Court No. II; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr. served as Chairman of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Judicial Conference of Indiana. As Chairman, Judge Webber guided the 2001 Indiana surveys of civil and domestic relations mediators and the 2001 amendments to the Indiana Trial Rules governing the Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules: and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr., was instrumental in the establishment of Project PRO (Prevent Reoccurring Offenses) in Porter County, and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Webber, Sr., in over 32 years of dedicated public service during his tenure as Judge of the Porter Superior Court No. II and as a police officer in the Portage City Police Department, has shown himself to be committed to the citizens of Porter County and has served Porter County in a most professional and competent manner; and
WHEREAS, it is the desire of the Porter County Board of Commissioners to publicly commend and congratulate Thomas W. Webber, Sr. for his many years of dedicated service to the citizens of Porter County.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that THOMAS W. WEBBER, SR. deserves the grateful appreciation of the citizens of Porter County and the public recognition bestowed by this Resolution.
This Resolution adopted this 1st day of November 2002.
S\David L. Burrus
S\Larry D. Sheets
S\John A. Evans
attest/Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor

Com. Evans moved to suspend the rules and to adopt Resolution No. 02-08 on first reading,
Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.



Request to accept late enrollees into Porter County Health Insurance Benefit Plan

Com. Evans moved to approve Alexander Sweitzer to the Porter County Health Plan as a newborn dependant with coverage to be effective November 1, 2002, , Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to accept Shirley Keikus to the Porter County Health Plan as secondary
coverage, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.



REPORT FROM COMMISSIONERS

North District: John Evans

1. Road Agreement for Country Creek Subdivision, 17 lots, located on the south side of CR 1050 North between CR 250 East and CR 350 East. Offer to contribute $550.00.lot for a total of $9,350.00. Owner and subdivider is Robert Grant.

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

2. INDOT Claim Form #7 for Construction Supervision of Calumet Trail in the amount of $4,640.12.

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


Center District: Larry Sheets

1. Road Agreement for JD Subdivision, located on the south side of CR 600 North
between CR 400 East and CR 450 East. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $2,250.00. Owners and subdividers are Ellen L. Parker and Eric M. Berg.

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

2. Appraisal, Certificate of Review Appraiser and Just Compensation Statement for Project No. DEM-IN46(1), Parcel 6 Porter County Road 300 West from US 30 to SR 149. This is the beginning of the acquisition of property to extend St. Rd 149 from 130 to U.S. 30.

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

3. INDOT Claim Form # 10 for CR 300 West project, Right of Way Engineering Services in the amount of $4,236.00. A companion claim in the amount of $529.50.

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

4. INDOT Claim Form # 2 for CR 300 West project, Right of Way Services in the amount of $2,080.080. A companion claim in the amount of $260.00.

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

5. Road Agreement for Boynton's Acres, located on the east side of CR 150 East between Division and CR 100 North. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $3,000.00.
Owner and subdividers are Wittmer Family Trust/John Schnurlein, Henry C. Boynton, and Beverly L. Boynton.

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

6. The pond excavating at Ray Theaker's (Classic Designs) home and minor subdivision on CR 750 West did distress the existing pavement between CR 200 North and US 30. This was in an area with existing patching. Enclosed is a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Theaker with the November 10th repair deadline per the agreement. This was faxed and mailed with no repair date. Recommend filing a claim against the road bond for road damage that has not been repaired.

Com. Evans moved to authorize David Schelling, Porter County Engineer to file a claim, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.

7. Letter thanking INDOT for improving the west intersection of US 30 and SR 2.


South District: David Burrus

1. Performance Letter of Credit # DC 2734, from Associated Bank for Hunter Trail Subdivision, Phase A, in the amount of $120,000.00. New expiration date is November 1, 2003.

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

2. Road Agreement for Alice Springs Subdivision, located on the west side of Baum's Bridge Road between CR 600 South and SR 49. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $1,500.00. Owners and subdividers are Robert Anderson, Jr. and Mary Anderson.

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

3. Road Agreement for Deer Manor Subdivision, located on the east side of CR 675 West between CR 100 South and CR 250 South. Offer to contribute $1,000.00/lot for a total of $15,000.00. Owners and subdivider are Harvey H. Steuer and Ronald Steuer.

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

Com. Burrus, "I have one more thing but it is just a comment. The engineering firm of Butler
Fairman and Seuffert who were involved in the restoration design of the Dunn's Bridge over the Kankakee River will be submitting that project as their submittal of the Civil Engineers, Indiana District, Engineering Excellence Award Competition. In a recent year, they had submitted the Sedley Bridge and were successful and now they are submitting the Dunn's Bridge. John, do you have anything else for today?"

Com. Evans, "Yes, I would like to make a few comments if the architect is not ready."



AWARD BOILER REPAIR BIDS -
Robert Gerometta

Mr. Gerometta, "I am ready to award the bids. I have reviewed all three of them for completeness in terms of state forms, financial data and the bid itself and also the bid security. They all were complete. The numbers that were read aloud do agree so I think we could go ahead and make the award. I would recommend Arctic Engineering which is the apparent low bidder in the amount of $42,000.00."

Com. Burrus, "Okay, so your recommendation is for the low bidder for $42,000.00."

Com. Evans moved to accept Arctic Engineering for low bidder for boiler replacement at North County, Com. Burrus seconded, motion carried.

Com. Burrus, "Bob, will you notify them officially of their award?"

Mr. Gerometta, "Yes, I will send a copy of the award letter to your attention. What happens is I will send them that award along with a contract that is roughed in. They have to sign it and get the performance bond. After they sign it I will bring a packet back for Gwenn's review and your signature. I am waiting for that to come back to my office on the roof bid."


COMMISSIONER EVANS' COMMENTS ON ELECTION\COUNTY COUNCIL and NEW REVENUE SOURCES

Com. Evans, "First of all, I want to congratulate all the winners of the election last night and thank those people that participated in that democratic process. It proved that it could stand the test of time. I have just a couple observations in regards to the County Council's new make up for next year. From my end, the North District, one of the new members stated on his campaign sign there will be no new taxes. I think that is something that has to be addressed within specific time constraints as provided by the state government, which is between January 1st and March 31st. I think that the new council needs to hit the ground running and if they are not going to impose any new taxes, they need to absolutely find a way to bolster the revenue sources of this county. There has already been 10% budget cuts across the line; we denied the employees raises for the third year in a row; there is a hiring freeze in effect; and we deferred almost every capital expenditure we can. We can't continue to operate in this manner. 85 of 92 counties in this state have additional income revenue sources from local option income taxes. It is not something that is completely out of the blue. I am not advocating any form of taxes. There are three different ones that are available. The County Council needs to do their work and come up with an answer for the citizens by the 31st of March so we can know if we are going to have additional revenue. We can't keep telling people they are not going to get a pay increase, we can't keep putting off the expenditures that have to be made to run government. Porter County ranks in the Indiana Farm Bureau's statistical report as having spent $192.25 per capita on county services from the general fund. LaPorte County, which has both the county option income tax and a source of revenue from casino boats spent $260.80 per capita on general expenditures. We are way below the average. The average from one of our departments, the Health Department, spent $6.73 on each citizen in Porter County. The state average is $8.55. Pretty soon we will be telling kids they can't get shots. We can't continue the way we are going without, and we can do it, but we will have to start cutting services and that will be services like public safety and everybody down the line, so the County Council is welcome and we hope they get here and get to work quickly and get some solutions delivered to us. Everybody wants to say that Bethlehem Steel is the reason we are in such a bind, and they did cause a loss of $5.6 million in revenue to us and obviously, that hurt a lot but the problems started much before that. It has just compounded, but the brakes have to be put on someplace. That is all I have to say."

Com. Burrus, "Since you mentioned it, I have a couple thoughts too. One of the criticisms that have been floating around here quite extensively for about a year and a half is the wastefulness and the excessiveness of county government. I think your statistic with respect to LaPorte County is fairly significant because both counties have a general fund budget of approximately $28 million so there is a good similarity there. The difference in the per capita real estate tax that goes to county government is also significant as we are considerably lower. While you can't necessarily draw a distinct parallel between any two counties, that does suggest to me that the charges and criticisms across the board, on wastefulness and excessiveness are not particularly valid. With the 10% cuts we made, I personally feel those were appropriate and I think they have gone a long way to try to eliminate some of the inefficiencies or wastefulness that might have been there. I think also in the future, any additional cuts are going to have to be selective. I don't think we can go across the board and do anything that is going to be universal like that without doing irrefutable damage. John's comment about a new source of revenue, I think that makes a lot of sense, however, I think the alternative to that is if the people of Porter County are prepared to sacrifice services, then we can hold the line. But somebody is going to have to reach a consensus on what is going to be sacrificed. One person's essential services is somebody else's waste. We get it from both sides. If we want to maintain the status quo, then it is going to require more revenue. At this point in time, that is the challenge we are both suggesting that the new council pick up and run with quickly."

Com. Evans, "The only thing I want to throw in there is, we didn't elect a committee to do it, we elected a council and we expect them to do it by the deadline."

Com. Burrus, "Any other comments from the audience?"

Ed Stefanic, "I don't disagree with anything you say, Dave and John, I would just like to comment on our priorities. I think, for example, at the last Council meeting, the Sheriff's Department was here requesting another $15,000.00 overtime, he just received $15,000.00 the month before for transferring prisoners that could have been done in two hours. (Inaudible................) It is a concern of mine and those dollars add up. One $15,000.00 request should be sufficient for the raises for all the people you got. It is a matter of priority and the way we do things. That is the only (indaudible) I see, is the Sheriff's Department. Thank you."

Com. Burrus, "I would like to make a comment or two on that also. Again, any kind of pretension on this budget situation needs to be specific and I suspect that within each department, there is going to be some improvement to be gained, some more than others but it has to be across the board. The second thing is and this is basically just an explanation and not an excuse. What the Sheriff had been asking for on both those two requests before the Council, was not additional money. He was taking it from one of his line items to the overtime line item so if you accept the fact that once the Sheriff has his budget approved, he has the ability to shift money from one slot to another, that is what he was requesting. Now you still may not agree with the purpose, but that is what he was doing, it was not additional appropriation."

Mr. Stefanic, "Money is money, either in my left pocket or right pocket. The point I was trying to make is that shifting it where ever it was to where ever it is going into the overtime, why was the overtime required. It was not required. He requested $15,000.00 regarding the new prisoners, the new federal prisoners, which there is two of them."

Com. Evans, "Actually, he asked for all that money at one time and the Council decided how to divide it up and when they gave it to him, because the month before, they gave him a portion and in essence, required him to come back. I am not trying to defend the Council or the Sheriff, but there was probably a lot more micro management of his budget in the last months of this Council than anyone else's. They didn't do that to other office holders who had their budget already approved. They were allowed to spend whatever they want and transfer where ever they want to and his was a transfer request as Dave said and wasn't treated in accordance with everybody else. Whether that was a political statement at the time or is now, I don't know."

Mr. Stefanic, "Like the $15,000.00 he transferred for the prisoners, I understand he didn't use it all."

Com. Evans, "He got, I believe, $10,000.00 the first month that he asked for 20, and came back and asked for the other portion and wasn't given all of it either. Whether that is right or wrong, it wasn't a decision that would have affected any other office than his and the money was appropriated in the beginning of the year."


COMMISSIONER SHEETS' HOSPITALIZATION

Com. Burrus, "If there is nothing else, today, we can recess after this one comment I need to make. There has been a lot of speculation and one of the newspapers this morning printed the situation with respect to Larry Sheets. Larry, as we all know, has been in the hospital for about the last three weeks and it has been revealed now after his testing, that he is being treated for leukemia. The information that this office has been a party to has been provided from Larry's family. We understand his situation has been a concern for them and they have been spending a lot of time at the hospital and we, as a board, agreed that we were not going to be proactive in trying to pry into that status because we did feel it was very private. As I said, we had that correspondence from various members of this family on occasion. Each time they indicated to us they were still treating him for pneumonia while they were testing him for other things. For those of you who were wondering did John or I or our office have any prior knowledge to that, the only information we had was provided by the family and it was provided as pneumonia and recovering from pneumonia. We still wish Larry the best and hope his return will be speedy and complete. I understand they are very optimistic at this point."

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

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

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

Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor