PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2004
10:00 a.m.


The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 5, 2004 in the Commissioners' Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present were Commissioners John Evans and Bob Harper and County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger.

Vice-President John Evans called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance at 10:00 a.m.


APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Harper moved to approve the payroll of May 3, 2004, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF CLAIMS

Com. Harper moved to approve the claims of May 5, 2004, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Harper moved to approve the minutes of March 2, 2004, Com. Evans seconded,

Com. Evans, "I just want to make a note here that we are trying as best we can to accomplish the compilation of the minutes, they sometimes get very lengthy and we are working very diligently on trying to get that done."

Motion carried.

Com. Harper moved to approve the minutes of March 16, 2004, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

COMBINING VALPO DISPATCH WITH COUNTY DISPATCH-E-911
Michael Brickner, Valparaiso Police Dept. Chief of Police

Mr. Brickner, "I am the Chief of Police of the Valparaiso Police Department. I just wanted to be able to state to you that we are very committed, this administration, to be working very closely with other police agencies, and in this case, it would be the Porter County Sheriff's Department, to bring efficient and effective policing into our county and to the citizens of Valparaiso. I would like to state to the County Commissioners my support for the consolidation of the 911 dispatch center. I believe this consolidation is something that is a trend for police work to be efficient. I think in the long run it will be economical for our county and our city. I believe we are duplicating services. I have had conversations with Sheriff Reynolds and Dave Sheibels in reference to this transition. Our administration as the Valpo City Police and also city administration, I believe at this time is committed to cooperate and work with the County in any transition that would take place to make this happen. So with that, we are very supportive of this, I think it is a big benefit for us, and I think we are duplicating this service and the Sheriff's Department has the facility and whenever that transition will take place, I would be committed for anything in the future to make this happen."

Com. Evans, "I think that is wonderful; this is something that we have been driving for a long time. The City of New York and Chicago, and you have heard this all before and many people have, that they operate on one central dispatch. I think that Porter County could have and should have been the same position when it occurred and hadn't been made a political football, it probably would have been done that way. It is good to know we can go back and work together and accomplish this. I think that we can do a little bit more research and find out the best to transition into this situation. Dave Sheibels can't be here this morning because he is at a seminar. I think if you and he could work together; if we can charge you guys to get together. We need to look at some statistics to figure out how the best method to transfer both stations and get everybody in position. Bearing in mind, we don't want to displace anybody if we don't have to. But we are looking at the economy as a scale in doing this so that it is going to be a savings for everybody involved and make a much better departmentization."

Com. Harper, "I want to say a couple things, that it is an excellent move on the administration of Valparaiso to be willing to explore this because the problem in so many governmental units has been everyone protecting their turf so to speak. That is what happened years ago, it could all have been done under one center, a lot of people wanted to do it that way, but there were others that were concerned about having the employees under them. I think this is in a time when real estate taxes and everything that has been going on, this is a really good move and one of the few times I've seen in reading the paper, all the towns in Northwest Indiana are willing to do this. However, I think that number one, we must all realize that the decision on this will be made by the Porter County Council it if goes forward because the Porter County Council is the one that controls the budget so that will be their decision, but the 911 department is under our jurisdiction so we have to make a decision. If we want to go to the Council and talk to them, we can. This is not going to benefit the taxpayers if we take the entire work staff from Valparaiso and put it in the county, we haven't saved anybody anything. So I believe, in my reading, it has been indicated to me that the way the 911 departments are audited are based on dispatch. Would you agree with that or not? In other words, the work load is based upon, if you want to make a study on work loads, you make a study of calls dispatched."

Mr. Brickner, "That would be correct, yes, the total amount of calls."

Com. Harper, "Well, it would be the dispatch of the ambulance to find out, but dispatch is the way you measure, okay? Because if you have some way to measure it, you measure it on the call that comes in that requires a dispatch. Am I correct about that?"

Mr. Brickner, "Yes, you are."

Com. Harper, "So I think the first step we are going to need to start with is, we are going to have to find out for the last year or so, for both county and city, what the dispatch rate has been. I assume you probably keep those statistics so that wouldn't be too hard to get. So I think we need to get that and then we may even want to bring in an outside consultant to look at it but at lease we can start with those figures. You can bring back to the Commissioners and then we can start thinking about what might be feasible. I think it is great we are doing this, but if we are going to do it, we have to do it in such a way that it helps the taxpayers of this county."

Com. Evans, "By the very nature of the 911 system the software is that kind of an element of a statistical gathering unit that will aid us greatly. If we go back and do some research and maybe you can try to plug it in for the next month or two and do the research on what transpires on an occurring basis. I spoke with Dave Sheibels, he is more than willing to do the time and the effort, and I know you are, too, Mike, and I really do believe it is a step forward. I think the whole county will benefit and the city of Valparaiso also. I really applaud you coming here today and doing that. There is only one correction; the County Council sets the rate for 911; we control that budget so we will make that decision."

Com. Harper, "Let's put this on the schedule for about 4 weeks."

Com. Evans, "Do you think a month is enough time?"

Mr. Brickner, "With your support, yes, this is something we would really like to take the initiative on and begin working on it. I think that information Mr. Harper requested we can have that in that amount of time. We will put it on the top of our priority list. Thank you."

Com. Evans, "Thank you very much and we will put it on for one month from now and go from there."

Com. Harper, "I was wondering about the 911; however, the Council decides the rate and if they are displeased with our action they can take action so we are going to have to at least cooperate with them and communicate with them."


REQUEST FOR QUOTES FOR HEALTH DEPT. RENOVATIONS
Vic Ritter, Design Organization
Connie Rudd, R.N., Porter County Health Dept.

Com. Evans, "This is for work that is to be done in a what exists as a waiting area that is being converted into a conference room type. The first bid I have here is from Larson-Daniels Construction Company. The total bid from them is $23,575.00. Next is a bid from Berglund Construction Company for a total bid is $19,432.00. The third and final bid from Tonn & Blank, and there is a little caveat with theirs, but the total bid is $17,460.00 excluding an alternate which they submitted. I am not sure which item they changed. I will give these to the people that need to review them and come back to us with their recommendation. We have a Plan Commission session scheduled for 11:00 this morning, so if you can come back then, we can award the bid and get this going."

TAX ANTICIPATION WARRANT
David Hollenbeck, Attorney

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Back in January of this year, Porter County Council authorized the county to issue tax anticipation warrants on an as needed basis for cash flow purposes through a concerted effort at constraining expenditures, we have been able to delay this until May. We can delay it no longer. The cash flow statements and the Auditor's office reports that especially now that it looks like we will have some delays with the property tax bills, we are in a position now where we have to implement our ability to generate some money to resolve our cash flow issues. The County Council has already approved it and has executed all the necessary forms. But under the law the Commissioners actually sign the warrants themselves and before we can receipt any of the money, and I will indicate to you that as in past years, three local banks have stepped up and been willing to help us in our time of crisis. They have indicated a willingness to do that again so they will share in equal thirds the loaning the money. They are willing to do it on an as needed basis which will keep our interest expense down as much as possible. It will effectively function as a line of credit that the Auditor can call on as an as needed basis. Again, remind us that whatever we end up having to borrow with the County Council's authority went up to an amount not to exceed $10 million. It will have to be paid back by December 31. So I have the warrants for you to sign today along with one other form we have to sign so we can access that funding as expeditiously as possible. Al Steele from the County Council is with me this morning and will answer any questions you may have."

Com. Evans, "Those banks are First National, Centier, and Mercantile. And the interest rate is?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "I was on the phone trying to get Eric Gerard to confirm it, I can't remember what he told me, but it is under 2%, like 1.78 or something like that."

Com. Evans, "Better than we would do at the bond bank?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Yes."

Com. Harper, "Dave, you submitted a letter to us and you had general fund disbursements on that page with all the budgets on it. Do you know what page I am talking about? Now that is actual budget amounts, is that what that is?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "This information was actually commissioner compiled by Steve Carter at Umbaugh through the Auditor's office so I have to defer to Sheila, but the answer is yes, right?"

Sheila Riley, "Yes."

Com. Harper, "Has this same type of document been prepared the last couple of years?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Certainly every year that we needed to do tax anticipation warrants. As a condition to that we have to do a cash flow statement, which means we have to hire Umbaugh to do that and Umbaugh would have required this type of document."

Com. Harper, "Is there any way I can get copies of the ones done for the last three years?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Sure. To the extent that they exist, I will be happy to give them to you."

Com. Harper, "The only reason I asked that question is it seems to be they wanted the best overall use of the county budget that I have seen on one page at one time. If it is correct, it is one of the most thorough and I would like to get it from the last three years."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "I will get that for you."

Com. Evans, "Just a little bit of history, David, the money we borrowed from the state of Indiana, we never received a third installment from the bail out so we will never be able to attach that money, is that correct?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "That is correct. The decision was made that if we didn't need it, we shouldn't borrow it so were we able to make it through last year without that third component which obviously combining that with the decision on the local option income tax, in terms of stopping the interest, that and only borrowing only 2/3's of what we were authorized to, shrinks significantly what we have to pay back."

Com. Evans, "So that dollar amount is what I am trying to get at; the total dollar amount of our encumbrance from those loans."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "1.8 times 2 at $3.6 million. Two million of which, not to get information overload here, two million of what we got out of our settlement with Bethlehem Steel bankruptcy, will be going back to the state on the front end of the no interest amortization program. So, I think I calculated the first payment that Porter County will have to make back on the $3.6 million, is 2006."

Com. Harper, "The two million will bring that down? So it will be 1.6?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Yes. So the amortization schedule is for the net amount and the $2 million gets applied to the front end of the reduced amortization schedule which means the first payment is not until 2006, which gives us some breathing room"

Com. Evans, "Other than bond issues for buildings, that represents pretty much the total indebtedness of Porter County? Is that an accurate statement?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Off the top of my head, yes."

Com. Evans, "There were a lot of numbers floating around during the recent primary election, and what I would like to is pinpoint that a little bit."
Mr. Steele, "John, I would like to address that because I went to the Auditors office and did some research and I think there is a total of like $36 million in outstanding balance. You have to remember that does not include the interest. Last year, we paid $1.5 million back on principal but I believe our interest on that was $3.2 million which we paid back 70% more in interest than we did in principal. So the interest in addition to the principal. And it is substantial."

Com. Harper, "Are you saying that $46 million does not include the interest we pay on the loans?"

Atty. Hollenbeck, "That is the outstanding principal balance of the debt which includes the jail, this building, the refunding of the work on the courthouse."

Com. Harper, "Which is certainly misleading because when I pay my house mortgage, I don't count the principal, I count principal and interest on what I owe."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "But if you call the bank and say what is the pay off figure they can give you what you owe. That doesn't include interest."

Mr. Steele, "If you don't pay the bank back on your house, you don't get any interest. That's the part of the payment . . . "

Com. Harper, "How much do we owe in interest, did you figure that out?"

Mr. Steele, "I didn't figure that out because as you know, the amortization schedule would be . . . (inaudible) twenty years or thirty years. When I did do the calculation of the interest compared to the principal, we paid back a . . (inaudible)."

Com. Evans, "There is not a lot we can do about that, what we are doing here is trying to arrive at a dollar amount. Those bond issues were voted on and passed and buildings have been built and structures are being worked in that we have to pay back. There is no doubt about that. I just want to make sure it is not 100 million dollars. And I don't know any other way to figure it other than if you call the bank and ask how much do I owe, and if you are fortunate to have the money to pay them off today, then you could pay it off at what you owe today and interest is going to continue to occur no matter what. I agree we need to pay them down and get them retired but that is not going to happen immediately either. I guess we need to vote on the tax anticipation warrants."

Com. Harper moved to sign the tax anticipation warrants, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

O'REILLY/LASOWSKI SEPTIC SYSTEM ISSUE

Com. Evans, "We have copies of everything but I am just wondering before we begin if this is even the forum this should be conducted in. Obviously this is a neighbor versus neighbor type of situation."

Mr. O'Reilly, "Absolutely not. This is neighbor versus the county. The neighbor is contaminating Coffee Creek. The sewer water is going in Coffee Creek. It is not just me it is everybody up there."

Com. Evans, "The agent for this county that would deal with that is the Health Department and the Health Department is present. First I would like to hear from the Health Department. Keith, could you give us your take on this matter?"

Keith Letta, "I think I brought you the copy of our file and what we have been doing over the last couple of years."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "And I wrote the Commissioners and gave you my information that I had. I believe also the most recent copy of the letter I received from Lasowski's lawyer which I think I shared with O'Reilly's."

Com. Evans, "I am not trying to trivialize this, but this is not the forum for this to be dealt with. We have no jurisdiction for this matter that I can see, am I wrong?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "We have no jurisdiction over Health Department matters. So there is no action this board can take at this time or any time. I said that last meeting, too, on this matter."

Mrs. O'Reilly, "Well, we think we need to bring it to a public forum somewhere because nothing is being done for two years and basically Mr. Hollenbeck is appointed by the Commissioners, so where do we go?"

Com. Evans, "He is employed by the Health Department."

Mr. O'Reilly, "No, Mr. Letta is."

Com. Evans, "Yes, and Mr. Letta works for the state."

Mr. O'Reilly, "Well, then who works for the Health Department here?"

Com. Evans, "He works for us as does the Health Officer after a fashion but part of his salary comes from the state so they have the . . . "

Mr. O'Reilly, "Well, maybe you are right and we don't need to address this here, but can you as a commissioner, a public official, tell me exactly what forum, who employees these people?"

Com. Evans, "The Board of Health."

Mr. O'Reilly, "We asked for them two weeks ago."

Com. Evans, "They conduct regular meetings."

Mr. O'Reilly, "I went to their meetings, they didn't do anything in public."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "I object to that statement. You have the record in front of you, you see the letters, to say nothing is happening is inaccurate."

Mr. O'Reilly, "As of today, there is not one grain of sand has been turned to rectify this problem. This is my attorney, Jon Smoltz."

Atty. Schmaltz, "Commissioner Evans, I am Jon Schmaltz from Burke, Costanza and Cuppy. Mr. and Mrs. O'Reilly, from my understanding aren't here today necessarily to have this commission engage in a back biting mission or litigating particular legal issues; this is just an attempt to express the facts that they believe to be true by virtue of their residency near this location that they believe affects the larger county and the constituents of this commission. It is not an attempt to resolve a situation just for their own benefit, although they do want for it generally to be resolved. And just really want to make the commission aware of what they know is happening. Really, that is the only purpose."

Mrs. O'Reilly, "It will only take ten minutes of your time and we have waited two years and have followed what the Board of Health is to do from day one step by step by step. I feel we are entitled to ten minutes of your time to know where we are at and to direct to where we go from here."

Com. Harper, "Let me say this; number one, I had no idea these folks were coming to this meeting. I believe that John made a motion, or I did after John suggested it, to let them speak. But, I feel this way: if someone feels they want ten minutes of our time and they understand we don't have jurisdiction over this, I think we should let them have their say, especially, and what perked my interest, and I would just like to know if there is something we can do."

Com. Evans, "I have no objection to that and I can certainly give you ten minutes, the only thing that I think we should do in a manner to be fair is the person you are accusing should also have ten minutes of our time."

Com. Harper, "I think that is fair, too."

Mr. O'Reilly, "When we came here, they told us we could be on the docket this time and we would be listened to. We thought this was the board we needed to be with. We are not public officials and by gosh, I don't know anything about this part of it. I am looking for people to steer me in the right direction."

Com. Evans, "The fact that you hired an attorney, he should steer you in the right direction. We are going to give you ten minutes."

Mr. O'Reilly, "The whole thing is over the past two years and what has happened and where it is going."

Com. Evans, "Okay, we can give you ten minutes. Keith and Dave, I would like you to remain and any of those things that are raised in this ten minute period that are something you need to speak to, we would like to hear you at the end."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Absolutely. But how are we going to get Mr. Lasowski, he is not going to have an opportunity."

Com. Harper, "Well, if he comes next meeting, he will. We are going to let this fellow speak."

Mrs. O'Reilly, "Let me clarify one thing, Mr. Evans. We are not accusing anybody, we are simply here stating the facts from the Board of Health paperwork in house. On 4/17 we informed the Board of Health of the initial complaint. Since then, 27 unresolved inspections or complaints of sewage from Mr. Lasowski's septic have been reported. It is time Mr. Lasowski hired two surveyors, four contractors, to fix the problem. Each time nothing is accomplished. It appears as though it is to appease the Health Department. There has been a minimum of six final notices issued and as many threatened legal actions to be taken. When is a final notice final? How many years is legal action threatened before there is enforcement? On 4/30/03 the Board of Health documented Mr. Lasowski was attempting to cover up the failing septic system, the inspector knocked on the door, someone was home but did not respond. On 5/6/03, the O'Reilly's contacted the Board of Health asking for a site visit as Mr. Lasowski was pumping his septic field out, pumping the septic up to his pond, which drains across the ravine, on the O'Reilly property, which then drops into Coffee Creek into Sand Creek. We are a tributary of the Sand Creek water system, per the Army Corp of Engineers as of 2003. The Board of Health visits sited that this site visit to Mr. Lasowski's home, showed the septic field saturated, the holes were filled with sewage, the Board of Health discussed the issue of pumping sewage out of the holes to the pond, which subsequently drains (inaudible). Mr. Lasowski said he did have the pump up to use, along with 200 foot of hose, but decided not to use the pump on his septic field. You may draw your own conclusions. The Board of Health site visit septic field failing sewer seepage over the northeast corner on 6/12/03. On 6/17/03 the Board of Health visited again, noted fresh fill over the septic malfunction, trying to cover up malfunction. Again, this is all the wording from the Board of Health, their own inspectors. From June to November of 2003, Mr. Lasowsky explained time after time that John Dille is going to do the required work in the very near future. November 19, 2003, legal action was threatened if the septic system in brought into working condition. In the interim, Mr. Lasowski was put under a public halt order. 11/23/03, the O'Reilly's requested a meeting with Mr. Keith Letta, Mary Cavanaugh, Attorney Dave Hollenbeck and Attorney Jon Schmaltz. In this meeting we were assured that a pump and haul would be enforced. Mr. Hollenbeck informed us this was a small matter in the overall scheme of things. We understand that. Our home and acreage may not be important to Mr. Hollenbeck as some of these larger issues he deals with, but we feel the need to remind Mr. Hollenbeck that it is the sum of all the small home and land owners in Porter County who put Porter County on the map and to keep it there. We were told the Board of Health is understaffed, that they would monitor the situation. The question was raised that Mr. Lasowski failed to pump and haul, what then? Mr. Hollenbeck's reply was no one would dare not comply. As of yesterday, we finally got a pump and haul, a copy of the original pump and haul. Attorney Schmaltz requested a copy of the pump and haul agreement and any future correspondence in regard to this issue. Mr. Hollenbeck agreed to this. 11/25/03, the Board of Health was contacted by Attorney Babcock informing them that Dille and Sons was requiring them to submit the scope of work to the Board of Health by 11/26/03. On 12/29/03, calls were placed to the Lasowski residence as well as his place of employment requesting information on the progress of the septic system and the pump and haul agreement, again, no response from Mr. Lasowski. 1/5/04, so now we are into our second year of this. Complete Lasowski file sent to Atty. Hollenbeck for legal assistance. Told by the Board of Health there was no more they could do. Spoke to Ms. Cavanaugh about a pump and haul agreement, she responded no agreement for Mr. Lasowski and perimeter drain not yet installed. She would contact Mr. Hollenbeck to inform him. We were again told there was nothing more that the Board of Health could do. Mr. Letta, on 2/23/04, in regard to a black pipe running out of Mr. Lasowski's basement window with seepage. At this time, Mr. Lasowski's entire septic field and surrounding area was 3 to 4 inches under standing water. Mr. Letta was concerned about the continuing septic problem and run off onto our property. He felt he and his staff had exhausted all options available to them for 21 months to make Mr. Lasowski to comply with the ordinance with no success. On 2/26/04 Attorney Hollenbeck informed Mr. Lasowski that the matter had labored far to long and required his immediate attention and to report to the Board of Health. His failure to do so could site a court remedy. 3/23/04 Attorney Jon Schmaltz wrote a letter to Attorney Hollenbeck again requesting a copy of the pump and haul agreement with the septic system with no response. Yesterday, the day before this meeting, we finally received communications from Attorneys Hollenbeck and Babcock. As the letter stated, the Commissioners received the same correspondence. The response to Attorney Babcock's April 21 letter the day after our appearance before the Commissioners, the soil borings that are referred to in a letter by Mr. Babcock were done on 7/1/03, almost a year ago when the plans at that time said possibly install a new system as opposed to fixing the existing drain, septic system and (inaudible). The repair permit referred to in that letter has been issued since October 2003, eight months ago. Both of these items have been done last year and are again being reiterated to appease Mr. Hollenbeck and the Board of Health. The same applies to and I quote, "the new plan now is to replace the entire system." Why is there no scope of work or contract for an estimate date of implementation of this system with Dille. In the past, there is always a plan but nothing every gets completed. In response to the pump and haul in Mr. Babcock's letter, we and the Board of Health have asked Mr. Lasowski and his attorney for a copy of that pump and haul agreement steadily since 11/23/03l. The day before today's meeting, we finally got copies of that agreement dated 12/1/03. In addition to that, we got a copy of the contract, which is not really technically a contract, it just says if you call, we will come and pump it for you. It is not a mandatory to pump at certain time or level. It is just a general, pick someone out of the phone book. Why is Mr. Lasowski allowed to not comply with county issued orders for two years? Why is not enforced until it is brought before the public forum within the last ten days, suddenly there is a flurry of paperwork coming my way. This is just FYI, this is a real bum to me. In the meeting with Mr. Hollenbeck on 11/23/03, we inquired who monitors the pump and haul in Porter County that is being forced when it is needed. We were informed that Mr. Lasowski decides when and if he needs to pump his septic, it seems to me that is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Which would explain why Mr. Lasowski has not at this time, shown any documentation to support any additional pumping since that original 12/1/03 pump. Since that original pump, the Board of Health, has on record three complaints of his system bubbling out of the ground during the winter thaw and spring rains. No pump and haul was enforced the last four months. Two weeks ago, Mr. Lasowski brought in four loads of dirt and filled over the entire top of his septic system as past practice and covered his septic system. In response to Mr. Hollenbeck's letter dated 4/29/04, you stated you were precluded from contacting us directly because of Mr. Schmaltz' representation. We understand this, what we don't understand is why you have not responded to our legal representations requesting information. Your letter stated we were complaining to the Board of Commissioners, this was not true. We came to this table and asked for guidance and direction for where we go. We were not complaining. Where that came from I don't know. It was your lack of communication to our legal counsel that forced us to seek additional input in resolving this long over due matter. In the quest of trying to stop an ongoing contamination of my property to those downstream I have spent several thousand dollars in attorney fees, surveys, research documents and so on. We have missed employment on days to meet Mr. Lasowski's surveyors, times two, contractors times four, all of which have quit; initial phone conversations from his attorney until we hired counsel. I have countless hours invested with the Board of Health, in their archives, researching the septic permits and so forth. Yet Mr. Lasowski has been openly allowed to disregard the orders and ordinances of Porter County Government, he has never been fined, brought to court or made to spend dollars on his system to fix this issue. Where is the incentive for this man to fix his system if we don't back up our punch. In conclusion, can anyone in this room tell me why for two years, Mr. Lasowski has been allowed to have documented failed septic system bubbling out of the ground, contaminating my property with raw sewage as it passes through the rain to the unsuspecting land owners down stream of Coffee Creek. Where the septic water runs through my yard is a natural contributory to the Sand Creek waterway per the Army Corp of Engineers, Mr. Jim ___ is in charge of that, he will verify that and give you much more information if you need it. For over two years, we have played by the rules, we have done everything we have been instructed to do by the Board of Health according to the rules, regulations and ordinances. I have followed the legal advice of our attorney yet as we sit here before you today, not one shovel of dirt has been turned to rectify this situation. Sirs, I ask you, is this acceptable conduct from Porter County Government? I would like to give you these things. I really feel this is not normal circumstances and I feel it needs to be brought up in public forum. We talked with IDEM and are working on another issue. The Army Corp of Engineers and Board of Health said there was a dam put up originally to stop Mr. Lasowski's water from coming across our property. It was deemed that we are not able to do that so we were forced to remove the dam by the Army Corp of Engineers, which we complied. The Army Corp made the Board of Health be aware that the standing water that had been dammed was contaminated septic water and they needed to fix their problem. There was nothing the Army Corp of Engineers could do about the contaminated water, their job is only to keep the water flowing. It was up to the Board of Health to stop the contamination which was not done. So Marty Maupin was indirectly involved in that initially but he felt it should be handled by the Board of Health locally. We are not running to the big boys for help but after two years and $7,000.00 I am tired of playing. This is absolutely ridiculous. I have children playing back there and horses back there. This is just wrong. We are supposed to be an active Porter County Government, what is this? Will somebody please give me an answer and I will go home and make my cookies."

Com. Harper, "Thank you, we will let the other side speak."

Mr. O'Reilly, "Let's go."

Mrs. O'Reilly, "Don't you want to hear their statement?"

Mr. O'Reilly, "Yes, I do. They have to rebuttal and I certainly hope they have a rebuttal."

Mrs. O'Reilly, "Everything I said can be looked up in the public records with the Board of Health, everything is backed up."

Mr. O'Reilly, "It is coming off their records."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "The first thing I want to say is you gentlemen have the right to do whatever you want but this isn't getting the problem solved and I don't think this is the forum with which this all should be happening. These people have come to the Board of Health, we've tried to deal with them. You've got my documentation, we can go into great detail to try to counter each of these points, I don't know what that accomplishes. They've had their chance to vent on you, they've had their chance to express their frustrations for the processes as they see them. If you want to hear ten more minutes of us trying to rebut that, we would be happy to do that."

Com. Evans, "There are two sides to every story, I understand that. Kind of what I would like to hear is a proposal for some type of remediation or how it is going to be dealt with, what kind of conclusions we can anticipate."

Mrs. O'Reilly, "A time frame."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "As has been alluded to, the Health Department has been dealing with this problem for an appreciable period of time. As I understand it right now, we are convinced there is no present violation of a malfunctioning septic situation out there right now. They did secure a permit from us last fall, in the interim they were told they had to pump their system, which they were late in getting me that documentation but in fact they did get me that documentation. I am somewhat constrained because both parties have attorneys. I can't call the parties involved and try to get things moving along, I have to call their lawyer or right letters to their lawyer to try to move it along. They do have a permit, it is my understanding that the original plan would have required an easement of some kind across the O'Reilly's property and you can see from the level of acrimony, the O'Reilly's were not about to grant to their neighbor . . "

Mrs. O'Reilly, "That is not true."

Com. Harper, "Let's let him finish, that is why we almost didn't hear this. You've had your ten minutes, now let them have their chance."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "And that didn't work so we had to revisit it as to what the solution was. It was determined that a mound system, that is why ______ is involved, would be the answer to the problem, so a new repair permit had to be issued. That can't be done in the winter, you can't build a mound system in the middle of winter and now it is spring, you've got the letter I got from their lawyer that the process is underway to repair a new type of system being a mound system. In the interim they have been told to pump their system. I don't know how else you do that. No, we don't have the staff to go out there everyday and see whether or not the system needs to be pumped. They have sent us receipts for the pumping they had done. At this point, Keith is telling me from the status perspective, there is no current violation out there so we are trying to work with the parties and their lawyers to get the system fixed in a permanent fashion."

Keith Letta, "The idea of the pump and haul is to keep the pressure off the system until either they can secure contractor or weather allows. We will not even allow a septic to be done, particularly in clay ground during wet times in the spring so it is just really right now we are starting to look at septic system installation for this year. So this is now the time to do it. February, March, first part of April, we don't want them in there because they are going to make a worse mess. So this is the time they need to be getting involved. I believe they have hired a contractor. The pump and haul, if we have the agreement, they are apparently doing that because of the last notation that I saw from the inspectors there is not an active violation currently. We did look at the drain from the basement and that was clear water, so I don't feel there is an active violation currently because they are pumping. If they were not pumping and hauling, I believe there certainly would be because ultimately they have a failed system which they need to repair. As to the repair, we originally called for an in ground system that would require a perimeter drain. I have personally not been at the site but I believe it was to go through the neighbors' property. We were told that would not occur so we then shifted to a _____ and a permit with a mound that would be an above ground system and does not require a perimeter drain to lower the water table. That is where we stand. They should be, about the process of doing that in there, the weather is better, the ground is dry enough now. They are able by state code to pump and haul until such time as they can secure a contractor or the weather allows or that can be used in new construction if somebody gets their house finished in February and want to get moved in but they can't put the septic system in, they can pump and haul for a month or two until the weather allows the system to be installed. That is part of the state code that is allowable."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Candidly, I think we have done a significant disservice to them. Now I will accused of being an apologist for the neighbors to go through with this and not even have then neighbor here, I don't think is a fair situation either. I am sure there are facts we are not aware of that the neighbor could defend themselves on. I think you ought to at least give them an opportunity to do that in two weeks, when next you meet. Commissioner Evans said, there are two sides, in this care there are probably three sides to this story and you have heard two. And you don't have any jurisdiction to do anything anyway."

Com. Harper, "Let me address that. One of the first meetings I came to here was a Plan Commission meeting several years ago. There were a bunch of neighbors that came to the meeting and they weren't allowed to speak because the rules were, they had the open hearing at the meeting before. So these people, including myself, had to sit through this meeting of the Plan Commission when the builders were allowed to again represent their plans and these people couldn't speak. I think that we should never, and I understand because of time constraints we have to keep some control over what we do here, but I think there comes a time when people need a forum to speak at. Whether we are the judges of it or not. When government gets so big that we can't let people speak, I think it is getting dangerous. I understand what you are saying and let me address that. Mr. Hollenbeck, you knew this was coming up, it was on the agenda so if you wanted to notify the other attorney, it's okay."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "It is not my role to do that."

Com. Harper, "These people are frustrated and they are citizens. They are the people that pay our wages and the people that pay for this building. I think that part of our duty is to let them speak, not shut them off. I don't know if they are right or wrong, but when people can't even come before government and make a statement, I think that is a little scary. I understand we have time constraints."

Atty. Hollenbeck, "Mr. Harper, the Board of Health meets every month, and these people have been there at open meetings and we have talked with them."

Com. Harper, "And they are frustrated because this is obviously a frustrating situation. That is just my thought that people should be able to speak."

Com. Evans, "Well, I agree with everybody. Obviously, you have a right to speak and obviously this board will never stop anybody from that right to speak and I think we have a right to hear the other people speak, too and I know we have heard the Health Department's side of the story, so the ultimate outcome is we have no authority to do a thing. So, we would be glad to hear the other side of the story, we admonish everybody to do what they said they were going to do, live up to their promises, take care of a situation and lets get it resolved. If the weather is a problem, that is understandable, it is hard to do those kinds of things. But, you are right, we don't want to have our creeks polluted either so lets get it done and lets make everybody do what they said they were going to do and then certainly if the neighbor wants to come here and give us his side, we will definitely listen to him. So, I think more importantly, our job is not to pass judgment, but to point people in the right place to get the answers and we hope we can do that. Hopefully, we can come to a better resolution in this matter. Thank you all for your time."

Mr. O'Reilly, "Could you tell me exactly what board I need to go to?"

Com. Evans, "You're before them, the Board of Health is where you need to be. That is exactly where you need to be."

Com. Harper, "To answer your question, the members are appointed to the Board of Health and once they are appointed for that period of time, they are in charge."

Com. Evans, "And Dr. Babcoke and the board meet diligently. Besides these types of things that happen, they have many other venues that they take care of. I know a lot of people are familiar with them, and they really have a full plate all of the time. The board inspectors would help them I am sure and be able to have a smaller area to work in would be a good thing but that doesn't happen. So they have to do the best they can with what they have. So everyone can do their part and try to get this resolved with the best interests of everyone in mind."
Atty. Hollenbeck, "And we thank you for the opportunity to let us tell you our side of the this. The other thing I will tell you is the Board of Health and the staff and I will remain steadfast regardless of what is said about us to solve this problem and try to implement a solution that is consistent with the law."

DISCUSSION ON SOUTH HAVEN FIRE HYDRANTS

Com. Evans, "This brings us to the South Haven issue, it is kind of the same type of issue. Jack Jent was before us at our last meeting with a situation that is occurring in South Haven in regard to accessibility to fire hydrants, to the residents it is a safety concern out there. I met with Jack at the site, he can't be here this morning so I will go ahead and tell you what the county has done to this point. I met out there with the county engineer, representatives from the North Indiana Water Company and the fire department from South Haven. The three roads in question were built up to a utility easement that is not used by anyone other than the utility companies supposedly, but in fact has a good deal of foot traffic. In the summertime it is four wheelers and the Sheriff's Department gets out there routinely to try to catch snowmobilers and anyone who want to use that area. The question of concern for the water, that the fire department can get the water, has been resolved. The fire department has agreed to the solution that was suggested by our highway engineer and the water company to move those hydrants. There was some question as to whether or not they were looped which means were they connected with each other, could create enough pressure for the fire department to be able to use them in a structure fire. They are looped, the hydrants are probably 75 to 100 feet away from any roadway, in fact in many cases they appear to be out in the middle of a field that no one can reach. The water company is going to move those hydrants to the ends of those roadways and the fire department will be able to access them and that all should be done in the next month. In regard to the trustee's concern that the path that is adjacent to that be improved, I don't know that I can go along with that. I think we need to get Mr. Jent back here to discuss that a little further. To improve that path, according to the homeowners that I spoke to along it, would probably increase the activity that goes on there and none of which seems to be too palatable to them. So I think that is something we need to discuss further with the trustee, but right now I am not in favor of putting wood chips or in any way increasing the accessibility of that utility easement for anyone. Melissa, would you write a letter to the trustee in that regard as to the resolution of his fire hydrant problem. We will be open to any further discussion on that about the easements."

HEALTH DEPARTMENT AWARD BIDS FOR RENOVATION
Vic Ritter, Design Organization

Com. Evans, "Why don't we have DO come up for the Health Department. You have had a chance to review the bids?"

Mr. Ritter, "Yes."

Com. Evans, "Do you have a recommendation?"

Mr. Ritter, "I have the adjusted results. Tonn and Blank's bid excluded the alternate after adding their alternate, their bid came in at $21,255.00. Larsen Daniels' bid was $23,575.00, that made the low bidder Berglund Construction at $19,432.00."

Com. Harper, "What are the architect fees on this job?"

Mr. Ritter, "I don't have that answer for you now since it is a small job, we are working on an hourly basis so I don't have the fee amounts."

Com. Harper, "I saw a bill that was $6,000.00, does that sound right? Could it be that high so far? The reason I am asking is because I am wondering if there is enough money to do this job. The grant was for how much?"

Com. Evans, "$21,000.00"

Com. Harper, "There obviously isn't enough money to do the job. So if the architect fees are $6,000.00 there isn't enough money to do the job."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Then the job is going to proceed, we've had conversations about it. We are going to have to supplement it out of county funds since this is an improvement to a county building."

Com. Harper, "I think what we should is request a reasonable, so we know by next meeting how much, at least an estimate, of what the architect fees are going to be and then we will know what we are going to have to add."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "There are some requirements under this grant money that they have to take action at this meeting or they are going to lose the total amount of grant money. That is why it was on the agenda to come into today and be recommended out today. So whatever we do, as long as it doesn't jeopardize the whole issuance of the grant money."

Com. Harper, "I would like to take a break and have the architect give us an idea of what the fee is going to be for this job before I make the decision. Give him a chance to call his office to see what they think. Estimate how many more hours he thinks it is going to take to give us an idea of what it is going to take. Then we will know how much more we are going to kick into this if we have to."

Com. Evans, "We can do that but they should recall at the beginning of the discussion of this project there was that anticipation that they would be a few thousand dollars short."

Com. Harper, "I would just like to have an idea of how much it is, I am not against it but I do think that we should find out and get an idea."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Do we want to listen to his recommendation so we can approve it and have him come back with the report on the architect fees?"

Com. Harper, "So we can approve the project? Right now we are just approving the bid and then we can make a final decision on the project when he gives us an idea."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Okay."

Mr. Ritter, "I would recommend that Berglund Construction at $19,432.00."

Com. Harper moved to proceed with the project and accept the bid from Berglund Construction for $19,432.00, including the alternate, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, "When we finish this agenda, we are going to take about a ten minute break and then we will come back so if you think you could get those numbers for us. Say about 40 to 45 minutes, would that be enough time?"

Mr. Ritter, "Yes."

COMPREHENSIVE HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENT-
Caroline Shook

Com. Evans, "This portion of the meeting will have to take a public hearing stance so this will be a public hearing for housing opportunities to do the comprehensive housing needs assessment. If you will go ahead and give us your explanation we will go from there."

Ms. Shook, "Okay. Back in September 2003 the Commissioners did approve to go ahead with the countywide housing needs assessment and using Indiana Coalition for Homelessness and Housing issues, ICHHI, to do that study. At that time we informed the Commissioners that we would need to come back in front of you to get the grant paperwork completed to submit for the funding for the study. So those items were sent to Commissioner Burrus to have for review and to be signed by the Commissioners. We have a sign in sheet for everyone who is here to sign to say they were here at this meeting. We need at least ten signatures."

Com. Harper, "Tell me what this is about."

Ms. Shook, "This is a housing needs assessment that will be done on a county wide basis."

Com. Harper, "I was asking about the sign in sheet."

Unidentified Male, "The signatures are needed to award extra points if you have at least ten people at the public meeting where the housing needs assessment is proposed."

Ms. Shook, "Do you have those documents that need to be signed?"

Com. Evans, "Yes. To carry on in the format of a public hearing. First I need to open the public hearing portion and ask if there is anyone to speak in favor of this assessment."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Are all the people here who are going to sign the application here to speak in favor of this?"

Ms. Shook, "I would make that assumption, yes."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Then close the public hearing."

Com. Evans, "Anyone to speak against this project?"

John Whitcomb, "What is this about?"

Com. Evans, "It's a needs assessment for the need for public housing."

Ms. Shook, "Not public. For what is the housing stock currently in Porter County and what needs are not being met."

Mr. Whitcomb, "What happens after its signed?"

Com. Evans, "Then they are going to do a study."

Mr. Whitcomb, "Oh boy."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "They get federal grant money to do a study."

Com. Evans, "What will these be used for and when will the results be available?"

Unidentified Male, "If the application is successful, they can take anywhere from four to five months to pull it all together. It involves doing a community profile in terms of population coming trends looking at the housing stock existing. We go into a housing survey where we try to identify housing that may need some minor repair or major repair. We do a public survey and the forum of it can be a postal survey, it can be distributed as part of a newspaper supplement, where we ask folks what are the major concerns that you have in terms of housing in the community. Housing is one of the major parts of any community's economic engine. One of the things that has happened in many communities is we have a disproportion amount of housing that has been constructed is not affordable for many of the residents. So looking at what are solutions for that might mean that you do an application for funds to do single home owner construction, or many communities will have an old, aging, housing stock that is perhaps dilapidated and could use some owner occupied rehab to fix it up so the folks staying in there can stay in their houses. They want to stay in their house in the place where they grew up and raised their kids and things like that. So, lots of different solutions to different communities housing needs."

Com. Evans, "Is the potential result of this the federal government coming back to Porter County saying your zoning requirements are not adequate, this is not something that can be done since you have allowed this survey to continue?"

Male, "No, this will only benefit Porter County. This is not something that is reported back to the federal government, that says you can't have this zoning law, or you can have this one, or we think you ought to change that. It is really to give you a sense of what the housing stock is like in Porter County and make recommendations of where we think you might want to think about some projects that will help the citizens living in the community. Different solutions will be different for each communities. Some times it is single family home construction, sometimes it may be something entirely different."

Com. Harper, "I saw in there that you need a local match on the grant money."

Male, "A local match of any amount will help, in fact I know Mike Joie from Valparaiso was willing to put up an amount of $200.00 to give to Porter County. That can then be used as the local match and $200.00 would be sufficient in terms of getting a little extra points for the application."

Com. Harper, "Does this require us to put up any local money?"

Ms. Shook, "No."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I have a question on once the study is completed is there any affirmative obligation on the part of the county to bind this act on anything or is this advisory in nature only?"

Male, "Advisory nature only. One of the things it does do is it pulls together people that may have an interest in housing in the community; it may be citizens, it may be organizations like Housing Opportunities and get some conversation going that will say here are some things you might want to look at and now lets take the next step. So it is really sort of an additional laying the foundation for addressing Porter County's housing."

Com. Evans, "Valparaiso's population is of course inflated a lot of times with university students. Does this survey take into consideration with what will happen with them and how they fluctuate and the fluctuations change in the market or the city itself?"

Male, "We do a comprehensive analysis of the population of Porter County and also by communities. We are also going to be looking at student population, the increased number of renters. I know sometimes in university and college towns you will have a disproportionate number of people renting as opposed to other communities where you don't have that population, you may have 75% home owners and in college towns you may have as little 50% ownership. Then you aren't going to have an equal amount to rental units and looking at the city or maybe the university or colleges, that kind of thing. We think we could use a couple more places for the seniors to stay so that will ease some of the pressure on our low income families that they can find a two to three bedroom place they can rent, to take care of their family and their kids."

Com. Harper moved to approve the Housing Needs Assessment study, Com. Evans seconded,

Com. Evans, "I will second it with a caveat that they understand it is difficult as an individual that comes to you and says, this study is here for your benefit and it is going to nothing but help you, we just have to make sure that is true."

Male, "Sometimes it is hard to believe that the government can be helpful."

Ms. Shook, "But as a not for profit agency in Porter County, it will be very helpful because as a not for profit we may feel that there is a housing need, but we are just doing it based on what people say and this will actually tell us, is our assumption correct or incorrect and do we need to be focusing on another area."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I think for purposes of our record of this public hearing, once you get the names of the ten people, you are going to want to give them to our gal to put in to the minutes."

Ms. Shook, "No problem."

(The following signatures were received by the recording secretary for the purpose of being put in the record of today's public hearing: Latasha Knight; Debbie Kardo; Cindy Standiford; Mark Fisher; Thomas Isaksan; Brenda Sheetz; Lawanna Gee; Carol Nordstrom; Jim Stinson; Bob Phillips; David Lain.)

Motion carried.

OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

David Reynolds, Sheriff

Com. Evans, "Thanks for being here today."

Com. Harper, "I would like to say we invited Bob Poparad and Al Steele because they are the Council liaisons. Al, do you want to come up, too?"

Sheriff Reynolds, "We have talked with the Council on some other issues, but now we have every year, we have always had money allocated from the CCD monies for our cars and up until two years ago when the County was in a financial crisis, they have not only took the money from our line item, they also took the money from the CCD. So, right now what we are doing is we would like to have you entertain the thought of transferring $225,000.00 from CCD and then we will contribute $150,000.00 from 198 for cars that we need. Ten marked cars and two unmarked cars and related equipment for those cars."

Com. Evans, "So twelve cars total? Ten marked and two unmarked?"

Sheriff Reynolds, "Two Taurus'."

Com. Harper, "198 is the federal signing money, and how much from that fund?"

Sheriff Reynolds, "$150,000.00"

Com. Harper, "And then from the CCD, what was the figure?"

Sheriff Reynolds, "$225,000.00."

Com. Harper, "I would like to give Mr. Steele a chance to ask questions."

Mr. Steele, "I understand the second fund that you have . . ?"

Com. Evans, "No, CCD."

Mr. Steele, "I thought it was going to be through the CCD, the last time I talked with the Sheriff, . . (Inaudible) . . cannot be transferred to that because it is the result of the . .(inaudible). I really don't object to the . . . transfers, I would like to count on the $1.3 million as the bonus, . . (inaudible) it is now down to $5,070.00. The Sheriff has received a grant to replenish that, but there is . .(inaudible) to be used for that, so I think us transferring to go through the Council."

Com. Evans, "It is true as you pointed out, Dave, that the CCD fund used to be the sole source of purchase money for automobiles and when the county got into financial straits, that was kind of withdrawn. I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about replacing twelve cars without deleting twelve cars. That is something that we have tried to make that the fleet does not continue to grow. Given today's gas prices and the cost of insurance, we want to be as frugal as possible when we spend the County's money for these kinds of things. I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the frequency of accidents and those kind of things that need to be looked at as possible venues for the County to save money. I know the enthusiasm that your department has and the zest to do their job. Sometimes I think maybe that goes a little bit too far and we need to reign it in sometimes to make sure everything is done in a safe and proper manner. That is my soap box."

Com. Harper, "You understand, Mr. Steele, that the 150 is coming from the 198 which is the signing bonus, not the 217, so none of this is coming from 217."

Mr. Steele, "I understand."

Com. Harper moved to transfer the 150 out of the 198 and the 225 out of the CCD Fund for cars with the understanding that the old 12 cars will be sold at auction, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Melissa is going to have to do a request for an additional appropriation out of the CCD Fund for $225,000.00 to be approved by us."

Com. Evans, "When we redid the ordinance we didn't include that car purchase money in there so we have to do it as an additional, is that right?"

Sheila Riley, "She will have to do an additional for $225,000.00 and the state will have the final approval. If the state denies you then there is nothing you can do."

Com. Evans, "How long will that take?"

Ms. Riley, "To get it on the agenda by the May 25th agenda, we will get it sent down right away and we should have notification within ten days."

Com. Evans, "I think the reason you are asking is that the time element is important to be able to make the purchase at the given price."

Ms. Riley, "Unfortunately, you have to do it in front of the Council."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "The appropriation out of CCD?"

Ms. Riley, "You cannot transfer from one fund to another like that."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "But the way our ordinance is written, I think we better take a break and take a look at it before we agree on this because the way we drafted our resolution, we set forth "x" number of dollars for police cars at the minimum figure, not at the maximum."

Ms. Riley, "But you took it away and when you took it away out of that line item, it still has to be approved downstate. Because you are going to put money into police vehicles . . ."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "But in our resolution and our ordinance we do that governs this fund for three years addresses these vehicles."

Ms. Riley, "Is there an actual line item that says vehicles on there now?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Yes there is. We just lowered the figure and it is a minimum figure, so the way our resolution is drafted it says a minimum of $20,000.00 for vehicles, but that gives us the opportunity to make it more if we want to."

Com. Harper, "Lets take this up right after our break so we can get that."

Ms. Riley, "I just want to be sure."

Com. Evans, "Okay, we will finish up our agenda here and then take a short recess."

Sheriff Reynolds, "I wanted you to entertain the thought of approving a contract with Malinowski Consulting. This is regarding the federal contract with the Marshall's service that we did a couple years ago. We did that understanding that we would have to do a review and the Marshall's had contacted us and its up sometime at the end of this year. So we need to be proactive and do it now. We originally had the contract done by MG Maximus, but the individual that actually did it was Chuck Malinowski, he has now started his own firm. We have contacted him. He would do the assessed review of our operating expenses. This will determine and discern how much money that the federal government will pay us for our federal prisoners. Right now it is $40.00 a day, so based on our expenses it could either go up or down. So, it is real important that we do this thoroughly and he is charging us is $3,680.00."

Com. Harper, "Now this is required by the federal contract, right? Now what fund is this money going to come from?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Well, we have different options, but if there is a financial bind, I believe this would be a qualified expenditure from the Building Corp. bond money because it is tied to the jail and the federal prisoners. So we can either take it out of county general fund or I can request that the Porter County Jail Building Corp approve this payment out of the Building Corp money."

Com. Evans, "I would rather see it come out of the Building Corporation."

Com. Harper moved to approve the contract with Malinowski Consulting and the payment to come out of the Building Corp money,

Com. Evans, "Has our attorney reviewed the contract?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "It is in your binder from the individuals that initially prepared the study when we got the sign on bonus, so I have copies of the proposal."

Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Sheriff Reynolds, "I have one other request. I have Capt. Henderson here, and we have had a couple accidents, well one accident involving two squad cars about two weeks ago. Both of them were 2000 or 2001 and were both listed as, from the insurance perspective, totaled. Capt. Henderson believes we could take the two cars and make them one car but in order for us to do that, when the money comes back from the insurance company, would go back to you, and what we are asking is for us to somehow channel that money back to Capt. Henderson so we can put one car together. Does that make any sense?"

Com. Evans, "Yes. You want to buy the two cars back from the insurance company and then buy parts to make one car, or take parts from the existing damaged vehicle so we are not talking about price, then we will purchase additional parts."

Capt. Henderson, "I want to use one to fix the other but we have to get your approval since you are entitled to all the money. I can come up with the figures, I have them here and I propose that to you and you tell me yes or no."

Com. Evans, "How many miles are on the car that you want to . . on the one that will be salvaged?"

Capt. Henderson, "111,000.00."

Com. Evans, "And how many miles on the ones going to auction?"

Capt. Henderson, "There will be about 120, 130 or 140."

Sheriff Reynolds, "It is just a matter taking the monies we are getting back and making it right."

Com. Evans, "How long before the insurance company releases the funds?"

Capt. Henderson, "They are totaled as far as their loss. I am simply presenting this to you as an option, they are waiting for my answer."

Com. Evans, "I can's see where it will hurt to have one more car, if they can make it out of two and if they are only talking about labor and negotiation to put it together, it can probably work."

Capt. Henderson, "Let me get the final cost and then I can present that all to you and then you can tell me yes or no. There is not that big of a rush on it."

Com. Evans, "Okay, thank you very much. And we will have an answer for you on the other part of our ordinance if you can hang around for a few minutes."

Report on Tornado sirens and severe weather
Phil Griffith, Emergency Management Agency

Com. Evans, "Thank you for being here, Phil. I received several calls that said the sirens weren't working when we had severe weather."

Mr. Griffith, "That's not true. The county itself is not under . . . sirens. Each municipality blows their sirens, the only thing the county does is activate the sirens. There are 28 sirens located within Porter County. Every one of them works, now we had two that did not work at the last test in April, and that was up at Brummitt Road and Chesterton Fire Station, and one at the Dunes that was down for repair. But they are all back up and running and they were functioning yesterday."

Com. Evans, "There was a period when we had severe weather. . . "

Mr. Griffith, "Yes, the severe weather was, I'm assuming, was a human error for the fact that the sirens never went out. By the time we realized they had not gone out, we have a system set up where when we activate the notice of severe weather in the area, I physically go to the station so we can monitor whether and we have sky spotters out, we have communications with the National Weather Service. By the time we realize the threat was over with because we only have about 15 minutes, we don't exactly what happened other than it was training related I believe and we have already addressed that problem in a procedure. We have two activation points for every siren and that is at the operations center currently located at the County Home and at the Sheriff's Department. Those are the two activation points."

Com. Evans, "Can any be turned on manually at the point of their location?"

Mr. Griffith, "Yes, if Chesterton had done something to one manually, . .(inaudible). We found that out during a test. The first Tuesday at 11:00 we do a test, even on election day we did a test. I had 20 spotters out and they pick up 20 different sirens at a time, plus I had Chesterton Fire and Porter Fire, Kouts Fire and Hebron Fire all report in if their siren does or does not activate. We do no have a siren that is not activated. I made a copy of our activation for the UC of all our sirens that we have. Then we do the test and had the two that did not work, up in Chesterton, we immediately got Skip Highwood and he contacted Cartronix and the very next day Cartronix was working on it. We spent about 6 hours and they found out the antennae was actually dropping off and there was not contact so they replaced that. We did a test on every siren in the county individually as well as the main test."

Com. Evans, "That is all I needed to know that the public is going to be guaranteed that they will be warned."

Mr. Griffith, "The error that happened the other night was simply, and we addressed that with __________________, who is the seller of these, to do a training session to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Com. Evans, "Okay, thank you. The Mapping Department, Jackie Green, has brought to our attention that there is $105,027.00 allocated in Porter County for information for GIS and you have to be the one to put the grant in operation for us. Are you aware of that?"

Mr. Griffith, "I have that and I am currently working on the Homeland Security Grants and the Law Enforcement one."

Com. Evans, "Please check with her to see if there is a deadline."

Mr. Griffith, "I took this information up to her because I wanted her to find out if that is what she really . . (inaudible)."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "We are going to have to call Sidwell in and get a plan in effect that will incorporate this grant money into our overall mapping/GIS. We should be doing this all together."

Com. Evans, "If you can complete that and bring it back to us, we will make a meeting with Joyce West from Sidwell and get that in to her."

Discussion of Building Department Ordinance
Ray Weltz, Building Inspector

Mr. Weltz, "I am here before you today because I want to totally amend the Building Department ordinance. It was drafted in 1988 and approved and is somewhat generic. There are a lot of issues in here, mainly definitions, which do describe somewhat the authority, statutes are stated as far as reference. The codes that we go by today are not the same ones that are listed in the existing present ordinance right now. They have been standardized which automatically amends our ordinance to show such. There are also additional things in this ordinance that are not in the existing ordinance and they do need to be in there and that is: Reasons for Revocation of Permits, the Procedures to be followed under state statute for the revocation of permits; withholding issuance of permits is another big issue and a lot of that is stemmed on insufficient funds from checks and such where we do not have to issue another permit to that individual unless they comply with the EDT's for the present permits. Also describes in this ordinance in a better fashion, the procedures that a person would have to follow if they want to appeal a decision of the Building Inspector. The previous ordinance only directs it to the Board of Commissioners, which now again under new rules that were put in effect, they also have the authority to appeal to the state and to go on to an arbitration which we did not have before. And what actions that can be taken. Basically it is a whole new ordinance is what it amounts to. It specifies there are 11 different code books that we have to be concerned with and they are standardized at the state and national level both which we are dealing with code books from 1988 and 1989 that do not exist any more. So hopefully, I believe this has to be advertised prior to."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "We can hear this on first reading this time and then make any changes that we want and put it for second reading on the next meeting and then we will advertise it and you can send it downstate."

Mr. Weltz, "Yes, once it is approved here on a local level, then the Department of Building Services in Indianapolis also has to approve this ordinance. This ordinance is basically an original draft that the state sets up. They set them up for cities and towns and I drafted it directly off of their draft of the ordinance in order to get the right concept."

Com. Evans, "We appreciate your doing that because I know it is an ongoing process that sometimes can be easily pushed to the side because of the necessity of the other aspects of your job. So, I really appreciate it. Are you sure you don't want to stick around for a couple more years?"

Mr. Weltz, "I better not."

Com. Harper, "In Section 19, Appeals, is that what you were referring to? It says that you can appeal to two bodies but I am not sure if the Commissioners fall under that definition."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I think it is paragraph 2 that looks like it, I mean, to me it looks like they have the right to appeal to the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission. Then it says we, by ordinance, was established, an administrative body, if we don't, they can't."

Mr. Weltz, "In the old ordinance, Bob, it stated that they would appeal to the County Commissioners."

Com. Harper, "Well, do we want to stop that right away? I know we don't have to decide that today. I think we are taking that right away when we pass that ordinance without taking further action."

Com. Evans, "Should we give it to someone else?"

Com. Harper, "No, we don't have anyone else."

Mr. Weltz, "Lets say someone come in and disagreed with the decision I made on the interpretation of a building code. Under today's rules with the state, those individuals have the right to appeal verbally or in a letter to the state to get verification from the state that my interpretation of that section in the code was legitimate. If they would appeal to you, the only thing the county commissioners could do would come back to me for my interpretation. The state automatically has the say so on whether I interpreted the code in the proper manner or not. So I don't know how far you want to go with that."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I think it would be smarter and cleaner to let them appeal to the state and let the state give the interpretation than have the Board of Commissioners start second guessing his interpretation and then they have to go to the state anyway."

Com. Harper, "Just think about it the next time, because the way I read this, it doesn't even have anything there about an appeal to the state if you read it. It says appeal to the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission, is that the state you are talking about?"

Mr. Weltz, "Yes, that is the state."

Com. Harper, "And appeal to the local administrative body. So what we are really doing is taking it right to ask the commissioners about it."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Right."

Mr. Weltz, "And that administrative body does direct that right to you."

Com. Harper, "We don't have that, that is what I am telling you, Ray, is we don't have an administrative body; there is none. Okay? So what this in effect does, is says to them, the only person you can appeal to is the state, and maybe that is right, but I just want to make sure we hold them to it."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I don't think we are taking anything away because I don't think in the nine years I have been here we've ever had an appeal filed by the Board of Commissioners or the Building Inspector, so I think if we just started doing anything we would be adding something we never had. Is that right?"

Mr. Weltz, "Correct."

Com. Harper, "Is there something in the present ______ that they could appeal to the commissioners or not?"

Mr. Weltz, "There used to be."

Com. Harper, "Yes there is. It says all persons have the right to appeal the Building Commissioners decision for ______________, and then through the executive building committee of the Administrative Building Council of Indiana and then it cites a couple cites."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Okay, so we need to decide if we want Section 7 in this ordinance."

Com. Evans moved to approve the Building Department Ordinance on first reading, based on some changes to be made before the second reading, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Request to fill full time position in Building Department

Mr. Weltz, "I have a full time position that was vacated quite a while back. As you know, we are a self supporting entity, myself and the Plan Commission have pulled together under the self funded ordinance. The salary slot is in there and is available, for Bob Thompson, the Planner since we were both pulling from that ordinance and he agrees that yes the money is there and available to do this. I guess my reason behind it is part time is not the answer. The part time people I have went through, it kind of bothers me and I hate to see the guy taking my place be caught in this predicament. We are running right now with myself as the Building Commissioner and two part time inspectors and one part time secretary. If you look at any other counties or municipalities the size of ours and the amount of development that is taking place, we are problem number one (inaudible). These people are running with three and four full time people plus a building commissioner. The Building Commissioner needs to spend more time in the office because of when a contract question comes up, the do-it yourselfer and the person building a house, a lot of commercial issues come up that the part time secretary cannot answer and it becomes an exceptional work load not only for that department head, but also for the part time people. Part time people have to learn basically the basics out of 11 different code books and about the time you get those basics in to them 3 to 6 months down the road, then they come and tell you I only want to work 2 days a week, and I don't want to work in the summer, I only want to work in winter, and I have to say well, I can't use you if you can't work peak times. Well, peak times in the last three years have been 12 months, the whole year. We have had a slow down. Last year we issued 1,680 permits for 2003, we are still working on 2002 an 2001. So things aren't slowing down. We need someone in there, and when I was off for medical leave for seven weeks, I had a full time person, I could rely on that person, I probably only got 2 phone calls in that seven weeks. This past year I had not taken about a week and half of vacation time because I had to work around my part time people because they didn't want to work. I guess I am to the point where I am tired of having to train people where if we had a full time person on staff besides the full time building commissioner, things would run a lot more efficient and you would get a lot more use out of everybody. The new guy coming on is going to want to pull his hair out for the first six to seven months."

Com. Harper, "As you know it is a Council decision."

Mr. Weltz, "Yes, I do."

Com. Harper, "And in the second place when you go before the Council and you talk about money, there are not going to want to talk about just the salary, they are going to want to talk about the $10,000.00 that comes out of the Commissioners' budget for every full time person we hire, so I am just giving you the heads up, you should be prepared for that."

Mr. Weltz, "I don't know if you are familiar with the one statement in there, but IC 36 says that the administrative body, of inspectors, and or deputies for a building fund, the council is liable to provide all funds and equipment necessary for that office."

Com. Harper, "I think you will have a problem then."

Mr. Weltz, "We also have money in the budget, too."

Com. Harper, "I think you are going to have a problem with that, I really do, but here's a question I want to ask you. Will this person also be in code enforcement, too?

Mr. Weltz, "That person would be doing exactly what I would be doing."

Com. Harper, "Commissioner Evans and I and I am sure Commissioner Burrus does too, get calls day and night about junk cars and this and that. So that would be under that person?"

Mr. Weltz, "Strictly construction."

Bob Thompson, "That $10,000.00 you were referring to, coming out of the Commissioners', it doesn't."

Com. Harper, "That's right and that's great. You better be prepared to look at your budgetary monies and explain it, that is all I am saying."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I think what Ray is referring to, is the language in the statute because I think years back the Commissioners and the Council got into a debate over the language and there is language in the statute that is mandatory that says shall fund. Now I know we don't want to go there, but the language is there."

Mr. Weltz, "We don't have to go there because we are self supporting. There is nothing coming out of . . ."

Com. Harper, "Right, I understand that which is fine, I am telling you we don't want to open that up for debate."

Mr. Weltz, "When we did come down after we did get everything together and combined our ordinances into one, our budget rather, that salary spot was put in there, the Council was aware that slot was in there and they approved it."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "So it is approved as a position in your budget?"

Mr. Weltz, "Yes."

Com. Evans, "But, Bob is right you have to go back to the Council. I will go with you, I think you definitely need someone in that position to do that job because with 1,680 permits."

Mr. Weltz, "These guys are traveling on the average about 100 miles a day. Our phone calls, we have been averaging anywhere from 50 to 90 calls a day and there are times I come back in the office 2:00 in the afternoon, and all I do is take phone calls, I come in the morning to do paperwork."

Com. Evans, "We had this discussion when your budget was created in the new form that it is. That statement about that ordinance or that law, we don't know, say something happens to the economy in Porter County and it really goes down the tubes, and instead of 1,680 permits, you get 16, you guys aren't going to be able to be self sufficient."

Mr. Weltz, "The part time people could be laid off and you still have competent people to cover the balance because even when the new construction starts to slow down, then here comes the remodels, the additional existing and stuff like that. I have been here since 1989 and there has not been a slow down. It is just gradually been increasing over the years."

Com. Evans, "Okay, if we go to bat for you, are you going to stay two more years?"
Mr. Weltz, "I didn't hear a thing you said, sir."

Com. Harper, "We think it is important these laws be enforced, and we will appear with you before the Council."

Com. Evans, "It is my opinion the hiring freeze got misaligned the last time and I think the intent is . . I don't think we need to hire anybody outside at the get go. If the budgeted item is there, the office holder or department head should have the ability to fill the slot."

Mr. Weltz., "I also see that, especially what is happening in my office in a way that things have been happening, this part time could possibly be costing the county more money because I have had a few people that after they left, was eligible for unemployment and the one he left to go to a internship program and went from $8.50 an hour to $15.00 an hour and was able to draw unemployment off of us through Illinois, which to me, the more part time people we continue to hire and then they leave on their own or we have to terminate them because they cannot work the hours that is necessary, it will eventually cost us more money."

Com. Evans, "And when the time like that occurs between when somebody leaves and the time you are able to get to Council, get their okay, and the time you able to get somebody trained and up doing the job, can be very extensive."

Com. Harper, "The Council is concerned about what is going to be approved downstate for our budgets and that what they are trying to protect right now. They made that decision, we are going to have to honor that decision."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Are you going to write a letter to the Council and asked to be placed on their agenda?"

Mr. Weltz, "I am on the agenda for the next meeting."

Com. Evans, "Okay, thank you Ray."

ITS Department-Presentation of Five Year Plan
Sharon Lippens, Director

Ms. Lippens, "This will take a couple minutes to go over the cover letter I presented to you, which is what precipitated this plan to be drawn up. The first use of computer personal computers and PC's in Porter County Government began around 1990 to 1991 with possibly about 5 to 6 computers at that time. Since that time, there has not been a strategic plan in place for implementing and enhancing or maintaining those PC's. The reason for this was and has been mostly due to financial constraints. Before the CCD Fund was established in 1997, departments were responsible for securing their own funding for computerization. Automation in Porter County was done as a reactive rather than a proactive response. In the past fourteen years, the ITS formulated processing department has seen numerous changes. As additional work responsibility, limited staffing, and state requirements continue to ________ automation, county computerization has grown extensively. A sample of these changes include county wide networking, law library access, video conferencing, email, internet, as well as numerous other custom design systems. To accommodate this growth, the ITS Department staff has changed as well. Automation infrastructure has been implemented and upgraded to maintain and enhance the abilities of the county employees to perform their duties. In an effort to transform Porter County's situation from reactive to proactive, I have developed a five year plan. It is the hope that through this plan, county departments will begin to have consistency throughout their office. By this I mean that departments will have consistency in their offices as far as the type of system they have as well as the operating system and for processing packages so that we do not have offices that cannot even communicate with each other. I determined the rating system to evaluate all the departments in the county and that rating system then allowed us to see which departments had what I classed as the highest computing power and which ones had the lowest computing power. That was used then to determine who would receive new computers first. The office with the lowest were obviously slated to receive computers first until the amount of money that was budgeted was run out. If any of those departments had newer computers, they would be revamped and reallocated to other departments that were on the list that missed out due to funding constraints. Once the new computers were put in and reallocations were completed, a new rating list was derived to use for the next year's plan. There are some variations in who gets new computers in order to bring, as I mentioned, an office into the same operating system and same version of software. This will aid in keeping the offices consistent and able to communicate more efficiently with each other and it also assists in the future replacement of systems when an office can be upgraded at once rather than one computer coming in, the top person in the office receiving that computer and then every other computer being re-allocated down the line. It is assumed that the approximated cost of a computer and it is assumed that it will remain in approximately that price realizing that as computerization changes the cost will change but over the last five years, the cost has not changed that significantly. So I feel that is a good estimate. I submit the proposal I have given you with a preliminary five year plan for purchases and request that upon approval that this list be distributed to offices so they all know where to find the plan. The plan calls for basically five year life span of the computer from when it is purchased, and in five years it will upgraded unless there are extenuating circumstances that require it to be upgraded sooner than that. This plan only takes into account user desk top computers, it does not take in account servers or any other infrastructure that is in place in Porter County which will have to be taken on an as needed basis."

Com. Evans, "Thank you, you have done a very good job with this and it is a difficult task because everybody thinks they are at the low end of the totem pole and in fact, Pentium Zero is not even an issue for a lot of places, they are back to the 286 machines. We've got to keep this going and as you define it is the best method to do that. The dollar amount is going to change each year a little bit according to the needs but I think just so the general public knows, the courts are first on the list. They have been crying the longest of anybody and the Highway Department and the Treasurer will be receiving the first year's benefits of this plan. After that, the Auditor, Adult Probation in the second year and Plan Commission is in the second year. Then it goes down to the other offices and in the third year the Prosecutor is the biggest beneficiary along with the Assessor. The Clerk in the fourth year and the Health Department in the fifth year. I think it is very doable and very workable. You have indicated you can be flexible with this, especially with the courts in the types of computers they are able to obtain. Everybody is unique in that regard and what their needs are. We want to make sure that we try to provide for all those people."

Com. Harper, "I would like to add something; that if we had a plan for everything like this, we would be better off because I can see a lot of thought went into this thing and it is the kind of thing we should be doing. Do we need to put the figure in from the CCD fund which I understand our computers come from the first year?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "It doesn't hurt."

Com. Harper, "I understand we have set aside each year each year the sum of $125,000.00. Is that your understanding?"

Ms. Lippens, "One of the things in the plan was to request an increase from that $125,000.00 figure to $150,000.00 after this first year to accommodate the volume of computers that we have in order to fit them into a five year plan."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "There is no $1250,000.00 figure. We lowered it as we did all our figures in our CCD and there is a $90,000.00 figure; however, again just like everything else we put that figure set forth above as a minimum amount so that means we can appropriate more. So in a line item amount which is stated minimum amount for ITS is $90,000.00."

Com. Harper moved to approve the Five Year Plan, with the sum of $125,000.00 for the CCD fund be put towards computers, Com. Evans seconded,

Com. Evans, "Sheila, before we take a vote, this is the same question that we are addressing with the Sheriff's Department."

Ms. Riley, "I talked to DLG, I talked to Linda Masarus, your budget was approved with a line item of $20,000.00 for motor vehicles and a line item of $90,000.00 as far as that goes for Data Processing. So it will entail an additional to be put into those line items. So you have to go before the Council and it has to be approved by the state."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Even when our own ordinance says the minimum amount?"

Ms. Riley, "It doesn't matter because of the fact that the budget, you put an amount in the line item, I called just to be sure."

Com. Harper moved for $90,000.00 to be used for the Five Year Plan program and that the Commissioners will have to appear before the Council to request the additional appropriation of $35,000.00 and subject to the County Attorney checking it out, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, "Thank you, Sharon. I do want to mention that in the spirit of cooperation we have been receiving from the city of Valpo, you have also got an offer from Valpo for participation in a project to wire the courthouse. Do you want to talk about that?"

Ms. Lippens, "I have not spoken to them."

Com. Evans, "Well, as I understand it, they are willing to assist us in the event to make that area more user friendly to anyone with a wireless type of instrument that could do that. It is something that could benefit not only the people that work there but anybody that is coming or is in the general neighborhood. I would like to encourage you to pursue that."

Ms. Lippens, "One other thing just to comment. Obviously this is a plan, not set in stone so each year it will obviously be reviewed for any changes that are required and any adjustments can be made accordingly and I will make you aware of those."

Com. Evans, "Thank you very much. The Health Department is now back."

Com. Harper, "The low bid is $17,000.00?"

Com. Evans, "That is without the additional."

Com. Harper, "What is the whole bid with the additional?"

Mr. Ritter, "$19,432.00."

Com. Harper, "And the grant was what?"

Com. Evans, "$21,000.00."

Com. Harper, "And our portion is estimated on what the architect fees are?"

Mr. Ritter, "To date as of last week, the fees are $7,420.00 and we estimated, barring any unforeseen things during construction or request for additional services, fees to be approximately another $1,000.00 to wrap up the project during construction."

Com. Evans, "$27,852.00 would be an approximate, if the figures are right."

Com. Harper, "Can we take a break and sign this after the break?"

Com. Evans, "Yes, we probably could. We should at least get through at least to the Plan Commission portion. Lets move to Commissioners' Reports."

COMMISSIONERS' REPORT

All Districts:

1. Request for federal funds will be made for the following projects by means of FA-3 submittal to INDOT by May 14, 2004.

A. Bridge 1010, Joliet Road over CSX, request $240,000.00 additional federal funds
B. Bridge 1014, Calumet Road over CSX, request $400,000.00 federal funds
C. CR 100 South, Lake County to CR 600 West, Phase II request
$1,929,000.00 federal
funds.

North District: Com. Evans

1. St. Andre=s Subdivision, Performance Letter of Credit #SLC301662 from Northern Trust Company in the amount of $59,000.00. New expiration date is April 10, 2005. Recommend approval.

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

2. Indiana American Water Company will retire the unusable fire hydrants and relocate the hydrants to the south end of Arcadia, Baltimore, Capital and Devonshire in South Haven. Engineer's note that the Indiana American Water Company was very cooperative and we will schedule that work to proceed.

Center District: Com. Harper

1. Center Minor Subdivision 1336-A-1 Road Agreement, located southwest of the
intersection of CR 150 North and CR 150 West. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $1,500.00. Owners and subdividers Thomas J. & Karen A. Churchard.

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

Com. Harper, "John, Dave Schelling has that in Center District (about the bridge 1010) and he's not here to discuss the selection of the consultant."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Why isn't he?"

Com. Evans, "He was absent earlier. He said at the Highway meeting he had a list of the 18 submitted proposals."

Com. Harper, "I think they were recommending them in the way they were on the list and I'll move that we accept the top four for further consideration."

Com. Harper moved to accept the first four proposals for consultants for the Bridge 1010, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

DISCUSSION ON SHERIFF ORDERING NEW CARS

Com. Evans, "Should we talk to the Sheriff with what we have just discovered?"

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I have the answer and she is right. So I am going to suggest this so he can move on his cars. We had a County Council liaison here, the liaison to the Sheriff's Department on the vehicle, that is why we had him here. So I don't know why we can't approve this and let him order his cars and then go to the Council for the appropriation out of the CCD."

Com. Harper, "What is the latest time you can order those cars?"

Sheriff Reynolds, "May 24, the day before the Council meeting."

Com. Harper, "Here is what I suggest we do. Let's come back in two weeks, it gives him a chance to sit down with both, because they are not here today, give him a chance to sell it to his liaison members, see if he can get tentative approval of this thing."

Ms. Riley, "You have to get the additional in by Friday."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "We have to take a board action to approve the additional appropriation now."

Com. Harper, "That's fine. It has to go before the Council then, right? That is fine, we can do that. That is not giving him the go ahead. He technically is not going to have the go ahead until the Council approves it."

Com. Evans, "I was going to request the Council to hold a special session."

Ms. Riley, "I have to have ten days to publish. So if they hold a special session the same thing is going to apply. I will still have to have ten days. Now your second issue is the state does really truly have the final say. If the state says you can't have that additional and you give him the go ahead, then we will have a problem. Do you see what I am saying? I mean it is our CCD Fund, yes, but if we do an additional, the state has the final say. We do have an operating balance in the CCD Fund; usually when there is an operating balance there is not a problem with getting an additional."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "We have a balance of $836,000.00, so we have plenty."

Ms. Riley, "Correct. So I always, always caution that the state has the final say."

Com. Harper, "I suggest to Sheriff Reynolds, if we approve this today, immediately get ahold of his liaisons to move this as fast as they can. We can't do anymore than what we can do."

Com. Evans, "We can move to approve it, and second it and pass it, but I think we should also pass a request to the Council to call an emergency meeting and deal with this immediately rather than to wait until the next scheduled meeting."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "What Sheila is saying is after we do a motion to approve the additional, then she is going to need ten days."

Com. Harper, "That would be fine. That would still give him plenty of time."

Com. Evans, "The Council needs three days to publish their meeting, right?"

Ms. Riley, "Actually we approve the additional would probably be a publication at their meeting at the same time. So, you will have to get your additional to me by today, get them to do a special meeting since today is May 5, then 10 days, they couldn't meet anytime before May 15, and then you are still looking at a ten day approval from the state. So you are still at May 25."

Com. Evans, "And you are talking the 24th is the cut off."

Com. Harper, "Lets do what we can do today and then we can think about it. What more can we do?"

Ms. Riley, "I do have an alternate suggestion. What about a transfer from another line item in your CCD Fund into the automobile line item, then do an additional into that line item."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "So, we've got $600,000.00 in Highway, we could transfer what we . . "

Com. Evans, "Did the Highway just get some funds? Is that balance correct?"

Ms. Riley, "I haven't given Highway any money out of CCD that I know of. The same thing is going to apply, but if you ask the Council to hold a special meeting, I do not have to have a ten day approval, I don't have to publish it because it is not an additional. Okay? All you have to do is get the Council to hold an emergency meeting which they would need then their three days to publish for their meeting, and then they can do it and the transfer would go in the very next day."

Com. Harper moved that in the CCD Fund, the sum of $225,000.00 be transferred from the line item Highway to the line item Cars, Com. Evans seconded with the caveat that the Council hold an immediate session as quickly as can be published, motion carried.

Com. Evans, "We will continue with our correspondence after a ten minute recess."

CORRESPONDENCE

(The meeting was reconvened at 12:20 p.m. after a ten minute recess.)

Heath Department grant
Keith Letta, Director

Com. Evans, "The grant was for $21,000.00, the bid that was approved was for $19,432.00. To date, you have $7,420.00 in architect fees with the possibility of another $1,000.00."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I think that is wrong. Wasn't the high, wasn't it to date $6,420.00 and it was going to be another $1,000.00?

Com. Evans, "$7,420.00 to date plus another $1,000.00. $8,420.00 is the figure I have and that brought the project to a total of $27,852.00 which means $6,852.00 will be required as the Commissioners' commitment from the CCD Fund. When we got into this and we said if we needed to help we would and obviously we are not going to back out on this. But we have to say someplace in here that $8,420.00 of a $27,8520.00 project represents 43% of the project in architect fees. We understand it is not anything you guys had anything to do with and we are talking about a pretty small space, but in the future, it behooves us all to make better judgments rather than just letting, cutting and running with one company. We maybe need to get three estimates for that type of service also."

Mr. Letta, "When we first starting to start the process, that was who we were told to go to."

Com. Evans, "And that thought process behind that is that they were, the Design Organization, the group that built this building and we needed to keep structurally the same type of environment thinking that probably would be pulling a plan off a shelf and be able to adjust it and make those things possible."

Mr. Letta, "I agree with you 100%. I am shocked and appalled that the architectural fees are that high. But what can we do now."




Com. Harper, "This is not going to happen again. We now are into this place on this project and to scrap it we still have the bill for $7,000.00 so there is no sense scrapping the project, plus you have the grant. This is not going to happen again. Right? I think you agree with that. It is not going to happen again."

Com. Evans, "We want to protect you, we want you to uses that grant money for this. I guess we have to assume the monies that go over that are going to come out of our CCD Fund. I think as part of our motion we make, we need to inform the architect that his fees are now capped at $8,420.00, they will not go beyond that. We won't pay any more than that."

Ms. Rudd, "Will you notify them of that?"

Com. Evans, "Melissa, will you get them a letter that we have reviewed it and approved the architecture fees for up to $8,420.00. There will be no approval for any fees beyond that. Is that agreeable?"

Com. Harper, "I agree."

Com. Harper moved to approve to pay $6,852.00 from CCD Fund to pay the balance of architectural fees for the Health Department renovation, and that the architectural fees will be capped at $8,420.00, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, "Although, is that custom with building today, Bob? If somebody wants to build a house, how much percentage for architecture should some one count on?"

Mr. Thompson, "It is not required to have an architect for house plans."

Com. Evans, "Say you wanted to build a custom home and you hired an architect, how much . . . "

Atty. Rinkenberger, "It wouldn't be 43%."

Mr. Thompson, "I always thought they ran on a percentage."

Com. Evans, "I think they charge by the hour, that is why we are in the situation we are in."


CORRESPONDENCE

Weights and Measures monthly report for March and April 2004 is on file.
Clerk's monthly report for March 2004 is on file.

Approve Public Official Bond for Assistant Highway Supervisor

Com. Harper moved to approve the Public Official Bond for David James, Assistant Highway Superintendent, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Approve appointment to Workforce Investment Board

Com. Harper moved to approve the recommendation from Workforce Innovations to reappoint Dianne O'Brien to the Workforce Investment Board for a term of 3 years from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2007, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper moved to approve the recommendation from Workforce Innovations of John Greaves to the Workforce Investment Board for a term of three years from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2007, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.



Request to use parking garage for "Rooftop Rendezvous"

Com. Evans, "This will be the third year we have done this. They will obtain their own insurance and make accommodations. From what I understand this is a pretty good event."
Com. Harper moved to approve the request by the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce to use the parking garage for their annual "Rooftop Rendezvous" on August 6, 2004 from 7:00-11:00 p.m., Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Request for transfer of funds-ITS Department

Fund 01.50$40.37from acct 2110Office supplies
Into acct 2120office fixtures under $100.00

To cover additional costs for office fixtures and shelving components for equipment.

Com. Harper moved to approve the transfer, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


AFTERNOON SESSION-PLAN COMMISSION
Robert Thompson, Executive Director

Amend Chapter 17.84 - Floodplain Zoning of the Porter County Codes, 2nd reading

Mr. Thompson, "This is the second reading for the Flood Hazard Area Ordinance. This was Plan Commission Resolution 04-06, recommend approval. The Commissioners, at first reading, did ask for a couple items to be changed. One of them was the addition of more stricter standards, that was put in. Under the improvement location section, however, Porter County Plan Commission made it post terms and conditions on any permit that issues in a flood hazard area which are more restrictive than those imposed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. That was on page 8. Officially 17.08.050(b)(1). The other item was a brand new addition which was J-17.84.100-Permitted Uses by Rights which gives the following uses by right in a flood hazard area. Agricultural resource such as production of crops, pastures, or planters in general farming, forestry, wildlife areas and nature preserves, parks and recreational uses. That came out of the 1982 ordinance. Also, the other change was where the adoption of this ordinance by the Porter County Board of Commissioners shall repeal ordinances 82-8, 90-49; 93-38, which is Chapter 15.24 in their entirety. It also talks about it at the end."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "You have to change that language at the end because that language at the end says this ordinance amends and it should say this ordinance is repeals. So just change that one word amend to repeal."

Com. Harper moved to approve Ordinance 04-13 on 2nd reading as amended as just discussed, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Thompson, "I do have one other thing. Phillips is here. We have been discussing with them, concerning their fees structures. The Phillips' are involved with mini warehouse business and under our current ordinance, commercial building is $.25 per square foot. I am requesting the Commissioners to consider this and at the last meeting, Ray Weltz and I said let's sit down and actually look at this and try to figure it out. With a regular commercial building, we would have inspections for mechanical equipment and a number of other inspections. In this situation, mini warehouses do not have mechanical equipment such as air conditioning or heating ventilation, electrical, gas or whatever within it, so we sat down and tried to evaluate what is exactly needed in inspections. We came up with another fee for this and an amendment to the ordinance. If so accepted, and with mini warehouses then it would have to be under our specific ordinance under the Plan Commission where it talks about units that cannot be any larger than 12 by 20. I think that is what it is. Ray and I said we can charge a minimum of $500.00 per building, $.08 per square foot is what we feel we can do this. But no less than $500.00 per building."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Why the need to reconsider this?"

Mr. Thompson, "In this situation, if Mr. Phillips was to go ahead and do his mini warehouse project that he just recently had proposed at TAC, he would have had permit fees of $17,000.00."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "Did that seem reasonable to you?"

Mr. Thompson, "We cannot justify $17,000.00 worth of monies and time spent by the Plan Commission Building Department."

Com. Harper, "What do we need to do?"

Mr. Thompson, "We are going to have to amend the ordinance, to look at it…."

Com. Evans, "From $.25 to $.08? Or a minimum of $500.00 per building?"

Mr. Thompson, "We would set up a specific line item for mini warehouses and mini warehouses only and define it that also this is cold storage and cold storage only. I explained to Mr. Phillips that in this situation that if they ever did an environmentally controlled situation like the warehouses that now offer heating and air conditioning, that we would have no choice but to use $.25 per square foot because there are a number of inspections. In this situation where there is cold storage and the definition is mini warehouses, and there is nothing about this certain size and set out within our definition, then $.08 per square foot, minimum of $500.00 is what Ray and I figured. That is going to be the cost to the Plan Commission and Building Department."

Atty. Rinkenberger, "What we need is a motion from this board authorizing the Plan Commission to charge those fees for the current building permits and any that come in until the Plan Commission can amend the ordinance and get it back down here for signatures."

Com. Harper moved to approve the amendment of $.08 per square foot and/or $500.00 minimum permit fees for mini warehouses, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, "Tell the Plan Commission we will enact on their adjustment to the ordinance as soon as possible, in the meantime, charge the fees as you have now described."

Mr. Thompson, "Okay, and thank you."

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



MEETING RECONVENED

Com. Evans, "The meeting is hereby reconvened for the purpose of hearing the CCD Fund transfers."

Com. Harper moved to transfer $35,000.00 from Highway CCD Fund to ITS, and $205,000.00 from Highway to Vehicles, and that an additional $240,000.00 be put into Highway in the CCD Fund, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.



With no further business to discuss the meeting was recessed.


BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

David L. Burrus
John A. Evans
Robert P. Harper


Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor