REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2004
10:00 A.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 in the Commissioners( Chamber of the Administration Center.

Those present were: Commissioners David Burrus, John Evans and Robert Harper and County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger.

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


APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of July 26, 2004, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of June 15, 2004, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF CLAIMS – AUGUST 3, 2004

Com. Evans moved to approve the claims for August 3, 2004, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


AMENDMENTS TO ORDINANCES #02-15 AND #02-20 – HOUSING FEDERAL AND INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION PRISONERS – 2ND READING

Com. Evans moved to approve the Amendments to Ordinances #02-15 and #02-20 – Housing Federal and Indiana Department of Correction Prisoners – 2nd Reading, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


RECYCLING ORDINANCE – 1ST READING
Therese Davis, Solid Waste Director

Com. Burrus, “Next item of business, recycling ordinance – 1st reading. Therese is here. She can come up. I thought I saw you come in but I didn’t see where you were sitting.”

Ms. Davis, “Good Morning. You should have before you a proposed ordinance which has already passed before the Porter County Solid Waste District Board regarding recycling for the unincorporated homes throughout Porter County. Basically, it is requiring waste haulers to provide curbside recycling as part of their basic service. The Board of the Solid Waste District has already passed it on two hearings and now it is before the Commissioners for their consideration for adoption.”

Com. Burrus, “I would like to say from the perspective of this office, we have had a number of requests for this kind of service. It is a responsibility regarding these requests, as well as the concern for the environment that we move forward at least to this point. Any comments or questions?”

Com. Evans, “I just want to add that this is the type of ordinance that already exists in many municipalities throughout the County. Some areas it is tacked onto the water bill, in other areas it is billed separately. This is something that the people have said that they wanted and it is something that will ultimately lower the intake at the land fills.”

Ms. Davis, “Right. We estimated, with minimal purchase ______ of 57% of those 21,000 homes are in unincorporated areas, we are talking upwards of 3.7 million pounds of material, per year, year after year. Well on the way to achieve goals that the district has had from the state as well as, I think, direction the Commissioners want to see Porter County go as well.”

Com. Evans, “And the other thing, I think the mayor has mentioned is that this is an ordinance we are doing in conjunction with the Solid Waste Board so as to take any potential problems out of the picture.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the Solid Waste Ordinance on first reading, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


CONTRACT EXTENSION – MEDIACOM

Com. Burrus, “Our next item is a bit of housekeeping. We have a contract with a firm known as Mediacom who provides cable TV service to a small portion of a rural area mostly in the south part of the County in the Malden area. This contract is soon to expire and their representative is not able to be here today. She will be here at our next meeting so in view of that situation, we are proposing to extend the current contract for thirty days. Then during the time we will have a presentation from this representative and decide about needing a contract renewal or not. Is there any question or discussion on that?”

Com. Evans moved to approve the contract for thirty days with Mediacom, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF AWARD AGREEMENT – COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT
Carolyn Shook – Housing Opportunities

Com. Burrus, “Our next item is a bit of good news, I think, it is the approval of an award agreement for a community block grant. Ladies if you would care to come forward and give us a little more information on this. I know that we were involved in the application process. We will then have to be involved in the acceptance of the grant. Just for the record if you would tell us again what the objective is for the grant.

Ms. Shook, “The objective for the grant is to do a countywide housing needs assessment along with several agencies in the state. We were actually going to do the conductive study it takes approximately one year from the time they get the award until the time they are able to finish the grant. It will, once the study is done, and comes back in front of the Commissioners for review and approval. It is not used in a negative way. It is used only positively by agencies who do housing in Porter County to show that there is a need for what kind of housing there is a need. What populations are currently not being served. If we did receive the grant and we would need the Commissioner approval to go forward it will be subject to the attorney’s review of the grant agreement.”

Com. Burrus, “Carolyn, just for the record, you are Carolyn Shook. Is that correct?”

Ms. Shook, “Correct.”

Com. Burrus, “What group do you represent?”

Ms. Shook, “For the Countywide Study, I am actually here for the Coalition for Affordable Housing which is a Porter County Coalition group. I do work for Housing Opportunities.”

Com. Burrus, “Okay. I just want to read that into the record.”

Ms. Shook, “Not a problem.”

Com. Burrus, “Gentleman, any questions or comments for Carolyn?”

Com. Evans moved to approve based on the attorney’s review, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Burrus, “I see that you have the document here so I will pass that down.”

Ms. Shook, “I would just like to say on behalf of the Coalition, the Commissioners and their willingness to work with us on getting this money; it is going to be great for Porter County. Thank you.”

Com. Burrus, “Thank you.”


OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

Grant Agreement
Keith Letta, Health Department
Connie Rudd, R.N., Health Department

Mr. Letta, “Good Morning, folks.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Good Morning.”

Ms. Rudd, “Actually, you should have a contract before you for a Public Health Coordinator that is actually a grantee position. It is totally paid for by the state and can help us with our bio-terrorism and emergency planning, emergency preparedness planning. Hopefully, that will help take some of the heat off of me at this point. Because one of my full time jobs in _____ to help us further, our planning, and to enhance it.”

Mr. Letta, “This is part of the Home Land Security Act, federal money is channeled to the local Counties through the State Department of Health. We can pass it through, this is totally, freely funded by sources other than Porter County.

Com. Burrus, “This includes salaries and benefits.”

Mr. Letta, “Yes. This is a contract position. The County Council when we went before them, spring, late winter, they asked, the state would have preferred the position to be an actual County employee. The Council preferred it to be a contract position so that we didn’t have to put anybody else on the insurance and to add the benefits. So that is the way it was done.”

Com. Burrus, “In the event the funding ever terminated then that position would terminate?”

Mr. Letta, “Correct. Our attorney, Dave Hollenbeck, has looked, in fact, tonight at our Board meeting, our Board will be approving the contract. So that we will have our contract ____. As you may or may not know, we are in District 1 which is five Counties; Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper and Newton. There is a district coordinator that is actually employed by the district that is over all five of the Counties. Any of the individual Counties have a local coordinator to handle this position.”

Com. Burrus, “What we are dealing with today is the Grant Agreement that in turn you would deal with the contract with the employee.”

Mr. Letta, “Correct.”

Com. Burrus, “Any questions, Bob?”

Com. Harper, “Yes. I have a couple of questions. Is this employee going to have a vehicle?”

Ms. Rudd, “No.”

Com. Harper, “Is this employee going to have any secretarial help?”

Ms. Rudd, “No. She will be relying on our secretaries already in place in our office.”

Com. Harper, “How about space? That is another question.”

Ms. Rudd, “That is an issue that we are working with right now.”

Com. Harper, “Working it out, how?”

Ms. Rudd, “Well, she will have a space in our office area, or we are talking to that PCADOS Office. It is in transition right now and possibly securing an office in there, in that area.”

Com. Burrus, “All her communications, phones, pagers, cell phones, that is also paid for by the grant. Clerical support?”

Com. Harper, “She wouldn’t need the whole PCADOS.”

Connie, “No, just one office.”

Com. Harper, “One cubical or whatever.”

Com. Burrus, “I think they haven’t vacated it completely yet either.”

Ms. Rudd, “No.”

Com. Harper, “They are still in there finishing up, that is what I am told.”

Com. Burrus, “Connie left a phone message to that extent and was wanting to know if I would be available. We haven’t talked yet but we will have that space open for some purposes. We can discuss it among ourselves here and decide whether we want to use it for her request or not. But it’s on the table at this point.”

Ms. Rudd, “There is also money in the grant that we can use actually to pay rental on that cubical, that office space, in PCADOS, if we choose.”

Com. Burrus, “Similar to what we are doing for the ..”

Ms. Rudd, “Invitation Coordinator.”

Com. Burrus, “The Portage office, that contract.”

Ms. Rudd, “Those offices, I have already checked, they have Internet connections and the phones and everything needed for that person.”

Com. Evans, “So in summary, we have the grant, the only thing we have to provide is the space. Everything else has been taken care of from the money from the grant.”

Ms. Rudd, “Yes.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the grant for the Health Department, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Sharon Lippens – ITS – Lease on copier and envelope printer

Com. Burrus, “Next item, Sharon Lippens. Is Sharon here? Not yet. We will skip this and come back. We will go to the Report from the Commissioners until she shows up.”

COMMISSIONERS REPORT

Com. Burrus, “Bob, I think you are the only district that has any items on the list today.”

Center District: Com. Harper

1. Hawthorne Subdivision Road Agreement, located on the north side of CR 500 North between Silhavey and Calumet Avenue. Offer to contribute $680.00/lot for a total of $74,480.00. Owners and sub-dividers are Hawthorne Community, LLC. Recommend approval.

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

2. Eagle View Subdivision Road Agreement, located on the west side of CR 250 West just south of CR 100 North. Offer to contribute $690.00/lot for a total of $15,870.00. Duneland Development Group, LLC is owner & sub-divider. Recommend approval.

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

Com. Burrus, “I would like to make one announcement for the record, County Engineer, Dave Schelling, had advertised for proposals from engineering consultants to submit their resumes to him for consideration to select an engineering firm to do some work over at the Baums Bridge Crossing at the Kankakee River. He had indicated that the due date for that submittal of proposals would be August 23rd. He did so with the understanding that we would have a Commissioners’ meeting the following day. Well he erroneously made that assumption. We do not have a Commissioners’ meeting on the 24th. So he simply wants permission to send out a revised advertisement for this proposal to have it due on the 3rd of September. So we are making that administrative change but I did want to make that announcement for the record so that we do have official authorization for him to make that change.”

ITS LEASE ON COPIER AND ENVELOPE PRINTER
Sharon Lippens, ITS Director
Ms. Lippens, “I am here this morning to get a contract signed for replacing the current envelope printer that we have in the ITS Department. Right now, we haven’t been able to find one like we purchased, it is that old. We had a maintenance contract on it for years, we have been able to baby it along. The company that does the maintenance for it has told us that it is beyond repair. There is nothing more they can do for it and it needs to be replaced. What we did was, before we did that, we looked into outsourcing them to see if it would be cost effective doing them in house. We were very cost effective doing them in house so we then went to look for the cost of how much it would cost to buy a new printer to print those envelopes. We found one, we print approximately twenty-five thousand envelopes per month. That is average because we print all the envelopes for the tax stuff so it goes up and down but on the average about twenty-five thousand per month. So we chose a printer that would handle that volume as well as cover the maintenance contract which keeps it running, provides our toner, and our drums, things like that so it is all included. The price is actually $71.50 per month and it is billed quarterly and that is for the maintenance contract and the lease for the actual equipment is $288.00 per month so that brings up to about $4,500.00 a year. It would be a five year agreement.”

Com. Burrus, “Any questions from the Board?”

Com. Evans, “What would be the cost to buy it outright? And just keep the maintenance agreement.”

Ms. Lippens, “The cost to buy it outright would be about $14,000.00.”

Com. Evans, “Are we going to own it at the end of the lease period prior to..?”

Ms. Lippens, “No. We are doing what is called a fair market lease. At the end of the lease we will have the option to purchase it at the fair market value at that time or we can just turn it back in.”

Com. Harper, “How much would the maintenance cost a year? If we bought it and then just had the maintenance agreement?”

Ms. Lippens, “The maintenance would be the same. Whether we are leasing it or whether we purchase it.”

Com. Harper, “How much would it be a month, a year rather?”

Ms. Lippens, “The maintenance ..”

Com. Evans, “$71.50.”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes, $71.50 per month, billed quarterly. So I guess $214.50.”

Com. Harper, “Alright. So how much is this lease for now? A year?”

Ms. Lippens, “The lease itself is $288.00 a month.”

Com. Harper, “Oh. What is the $4,500.00?”

Ms. Lippens, “That is a yearly fee that covers the lease and the maintenance agreement.”

Com. Harper, “I am looking at the figures, it looks like I am supposed to divide it. Or am I looking at the figures wrong?”

Com. Burrus, “What kind of resources do you have right now?”

Ms. Lippens, “It depends on how much money we have available.”
Com. Burrus, “There is a possibility if you fellows think that would be the best way to go then we could use CCD funds to make the purchase.”

Com. Harper, “So how many years on the lease?”

Ms. Lippens, “Five.”

Com. Evans, “$4,314.00 lease and maintenance equipment for one year. Five years.”

Com. Burrus, “___ purchase the lease part, Bob, is the $280.00. Is that correct?”

Ms. Lippens, “It would be $288.00 times sixty. Which would be the actual lease.”

Com. Burrus, “Right.”

Com. Evans, “$21,500.00.”

Ms. Lippens, “Because the other fee, the $71.50 per month, we would pay whether we lease it or buy it because that is the maintenance agreement. That comes to $17,280.00. if we buy it would be $14,096.00.”

Com. Evans, “You would save $3,000.00 over five years to buy it.”

Ms. Lippens, “So it just depends on if we want to put out the money now. The equipment, the large equipment in the print shop has always been supported from the Commissioners Department when the data processing and print shop combined, we took that in with the equipment as it stood and we have not made any changes as far as taking it out of the Commissioners budget and adding it to the other budgets. It stayed the same.”

Com. Harper, “Would there be a big problem if we want two weeks on this?”

Com. Evans, “Well, we would realize that it stands about $3,280.00 just on the purchase price.”

Com. Burrus, “We would still have the machine.”

Com. Evans, “Yes. There is every expectation to believe it is going to last longer than five years.”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes.”

Com. Evans, “I think we should take the money from CCD.”

Com. Harper, “Buy it. I am sold.

Com. Harper moved to approve ITS to buy the printer/copier, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Burrus, “Now, do we also need to approve your maintenance contract?”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes. Is the purchase going to have to be an additional appropriation then?”

Com. Evans, “No, we are going to purchase it from CCD.”

Ms. Lippens, “But there is no money budgeted, well unless you tell them not out of 4510. 4510 money is already spent.”

Com. Evans, “We will have to look into it.”

Ms. Lippens, “So if it is out of another..”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “No, we don’t have to do an additional appropriation.”

Com. Burrus, “Let’s go that way. We should have a balance in there, unallocated.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Or, we can do like we did last time. It was transferred out of any ____ an additional appropriation __ and we got the money..”

Com. Burrus, “That would be simpler. Let’s approach it that way.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “___ the maintenance is paid out of that. The Commissioners pay the maintenance now on the current machine.”

Ms. Lippens, “ I didn’t know how much money was allocated in that account.”

Com. Burrus, “I think Gwenn’s point is valid. Probably the best thing we can do is to transfer in here the line item.”

Com. Evans, “Do you know, off the top of your head, what are the maintenances that you have for the machines that you have currently?”

Ms. Lippens, “No.”

Com. Burrus, “Does the Board feel comfortable by going ahead and approving the maintenance agreement portion?”

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

Com. Burrus, “Stay on top of that with us to make sure you get that transfer made.”

Com. Evans, “Before you run away, can you give up an up-date on the computers? How we are progressing.”

Ms. Lippens, “On Friday night we received a delivery of approximately ninety-six computers at ten minutes to five. We had a very large semi truck pull up to the dock and he was here until almost nine o’clock at night delivering those. Because with ninety-six computers you have ninety-six monitors and ninety-six machines, so you double that. He could only fit about three on a dolly so they are here. Right now, we are looking at options of getting them out the quickest way possible so they don’t sit boxed up too long.”

Com. Burrus, “Great.”

Com. Harper, “What do you think the setting time will be?”

Ms. Lippens, “We are hoping they all will be deployed by the end of October.”

Com. Burrus, “What operating system will you have?”

Ms. Lippens, “We have been discussing that this morning. It looks like we are going to go with SP.”

Com. Burrus, “Okay.”

Com. Evans, “Professional.”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes. Thank you.”

CORRESPONDENCE

Weights and Measures monthly report for July 2004 is on file.


Valparaiso University Habitat for Humanity Request to hold “Shack City”

Com. Burrus, “Next we have a request to approve the utilization of the Courthouse lawn by the Valparaiso University Habitat for Humanity Chapter to hold their annual event they that refer to as “Shack City” on October the 1st and 2nd of this year. Once again this event is an effort to raise awareness about and money for Habitat for Humanity. As I said, we have done this at least twice in the past. I think the authorization has always had the requirement of insurance. Liability insurance being provided and also the requirement that they leave the premises in a condition equal to or better than they found it. Any discussion on this year’s request?”

Com. Evans moved to approve the request for Habitat for Humanity, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Request for Transfer of Funds-HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

Fund 02.91 $1,287.90 from acct 1110 Salaries
Into acct 4410 Office Equipment over $100

$ 30.00 from acct 1110 Salaries
into acct 4510 Data Processing Equipment

$20,255.00 from acct 1110 Salaries
into acct 3420 Bldg/Liab/Group Coverage

To cover state cuts in current budget—money was spent before State Budget approval.

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

Request for Transfer of Funds-COMMISSIONERS OFFICE

Fund 01.30 $ 3,479.00 from acct 1110 Salaries
Into acct 3976 Co-Prop Assessed Benefits

To pay taxes on ditch assessments.

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

Recess

AFTERNOON SESSION—PLAN COMMISSION
Robert Thompson, County Planner
Open space ordinance update
Mr. Thompson, “The update for the open space is yesterday was the first day that the Open Space Committee did meet. I sent down a questionnaire with a number of questions on it that I wanted to discuss. I did not get through that entire questionnaire. One of the things I wanted to establish was there was some special interest groups and some citizens on that was whether they felt open space was a worthwhile endeavor for the county to proceed. All the people there agreed that it was. I think one of the things it proved again and I went through this with numerous meetings with the land use plan is that with special interest groups, they are all on the same page. It is now a matter of writing that page to make sure it is good. With that, we went through a number of issues and I think from that, it wasn’t so much looking at open space or active recreation, there may be a possibility if somebody provided a grassy field out there for the kids to throw a frisbee, that’s great. This is coming out of everybody to preserve our natural resources and how diverse it is going from the Dunes up north on through Valparaiso and the Morraine to the farm fields in Morgan and Pleasant Townships and on down to the Kankakee River and to South Bend. They felt every parcel was unique and that we need to look at the uniqueness of every parcel and what needs to be done. They pointed out such things as natural resources that everyone really thought was well worth saving, agricultural land, wetlands, flood plains, prairies, hardwood strands of trees that are very worthwhile in saving. So we went through them and we did a lot discussion along that line. Next meeting we did set was going to be Wednesday of next week at 7:30 here. We are going to be going directly into the ordinance and what we actually want with this ordinance. Or if not, what are the recommendations so we are going to be looking at the ordinance from now on into September 7th. I did send down a summary I did from the hour and a half meeting we had. I am not going to say I hit everything up, I tried to think of everything that was discussed. I did give it to Eric Biddinger at the Purdue Extension office and Ed Melendez here from the Parks. It was very worthwhile meeting, twelve of the thirteen did show up and we had some great discussions. Everybody did give a number of comments; people did say it was a very good discussion and next is the ordinance. I would say we will be running by September 7th. There will be a very good presentation with recommendations coming”

Com. Burrus, “Okay the next item is your fund budget for 2005?”

Mr. Thompson, “Yes. This was discussed at the Plan Commission. Commissioner Harper brought it up and discussed some of the issues. I guess one of the things that was presented last meeting was the unsafe building ordinance. We are talking about how to go about doing this and how the Commissioners did not want to lose the Administrative Assistant position, well they understood. One of the things I did have to come out and discuss myself with this if this is really the direction we wanted to go. I appreciate keeping this position in but how are we going to proceed in the future. That is what I wanted to look at so we started talking about a Code Enforcement Officer. If this position could be written into another type of job, possibly, as a Code Enforcement Officer. This did receive a lot of favorable opinions of it. I thought keep the administrative position in and we will work towards that point. They were also asking could the Code Enforcement Officer be used with the building zoning and planning issues. I thought, it should. Why not? I mean it is something we can approach this in. I think that is definitely something we need. We need an Enforcement Officer. Right now, Fred, I know, is totally swamped on zoning. We needed him for inspections of subdivisions. Erosion is going to be in shortly. With ___ IPA and with our Code Enforcements, revisions to Code, it is probably a position that we will be looking at a meeting. They also suggested a way to help implement our building planning and zoning fund. We do have a Violations Bureau. Right now with the Violations Bureau this money, anything we write would go into the general fund. So they did ask me to probably get Brian on seeing if there is anyway we can possibly look where the fees for the fines coming out from the Violations Bureau could be directed toward our building, planning and zoning fund.

Atty. Rinkenberger, “That can occur, but you can take the ____ out of the Violations Bureau and then have it go into a special fund. The Violations Bureau the fee is $50.00. That is not much of a fee anyway for it to work and to go the general fund but for certain fractions or violations simply remove them from the Violations Bureau so the fine is limited to $50.00 and then state that goes into a special fund. That would be a way to do that.

Com. Evans, “How would you determine the dollar amount of the fine.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It would have to be ordinance. It is automatically by, if it is in the Violations Bureau by ordinance it is limited $50.00. By taking it out then the ordinance would __ the fine and that would be good. Like our overweight trucks we have specific fines and fees for it now, an ordinance for that. We put in the Violations Bureau, pursuant to law, it has to be $50.00. So we usually do that for minor violations such as, animals running at large. It is very helpful for Animal Control but for some of these developmental violations it may not be a strict enough fine to detour anybody. Unless we fine them daily, $50.00 a day, day after day, day after day, day after day. In my opinion some of these planning and building issues probably should be in the Violations Bureau. Because the theory that the infraction doesn’t play with the fine.”

Com. Burrus, “So what do you create a menu then of violations and dollar amounts attached to them?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes. Take it out of the Violations Bureau.”

Com. Burrus, “Okay.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Then put that it goes into the Plan Commission Fee and Fund Ordinance.”

Com. Harper, “Who would pass that? Would we pass it or would..”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We would. Well, it should probably come in an adversary. It should come to us like all the ordinances should. The Plan Commission should take a look at it and decide what violations they don’t want in the Violations Bureau and make a recommendation of you know, fines and penalties and then.”

Com. Burrus, “Bob, I know you are going to have a comment or so in a moment on this topic. I wanted to ask Bob Thompson, do I understand you correctly in your thought on this would be, and I am talking about the safe building issue that you do have an unfilled position in your budget right now and that would be addressed as a Code Fraction a Code Violation Office?”

Mr. Thompson, “It was the consideration the Plan Commission was giving, seeing how we can work that Administrative Assistant position and making it in to something to that effect.”

Com. Burrus, “I agree with your comment. I think that overall there needs to be more field inspection or, I guess, follow-up on some of the things that come through both the Plan Commission and this office. If it were appropriate and , it seems to me that it would be, for somebody who is going to be looking at Code Violations to take on the additional responsibility of unsafe buildings. That would be a natural combination of things to be responsible for. Is that what you were thinking, Bob?”
Com. Harper, “Yes. We talked about this at the Plan Commission. We have a lot of situations that, in addition, to the unsafe buildings, that they really don’t have enough time, I get calls, I think, once a week, about some situation. For example, junk cars that you can’t see from the road, but they are a problem. Just different types of problems. We had one last week, in a subdivision. I don’t think they have the proper control and there are all these problems. It is getting to a point that we need help with it and I talked to Gwenn about it. The Unsafe Building Ordinance is an Ordinance that is going to be based on state statute. It has to be. The state statute does not give us any grounds to act upon unless we enact the ordinance. The ordinance requires that even if you set up a department or assign it a department, what I am proposing is that we assign it to the Plan Commission and that way we don’t have to create a department. The Plan Commission, as you know right now, are self-sufficient based upon the funds they are taking in. One of the things we talked about, additional duties, is some way to get the money back from these ordinance violations which we just talked about now. But the one thing that the unsafe ordinance if you pass it, which I think will have ready to propose in a couple of meetings, you have to have to have a fund created for that. The money in the fund is for attorney’s fees to file these lawsuits on these buildings that money is can be recouped in the end with levies on the property and on the tax bills. There are several ways it can be recouped but you have to have a starting fund. So I brought some pictures. We passed them out at the Plan Commission just some of the buildings in the County that are abandoned and it is not all in one area, we talked about the Lake Eliza area. There is even some up north by some of the lakes and so forth and so I think that, if anything, to address this problem would be a valid item for an economic development. Because all of the planners tell us that you are going to attract the good tech companies and so forth if you have real stringent rules and you keep your community in good housekeeping order. So what I propose is that we have some appropriated money under our CEDIT plan that we go before the Council and ask that we start that fund with fifty thousand dollars, of that unappropriated money in the CEDIT fund. Now, it is probably going to be awhile before we need that. I know we haven’t gotten our CEDIT money in yet, if the Council would approve us doing that then, as soon as they do, we will have the ordinance prepared to pass and once we get that done, we can start sending letters. The attorney will have to start working, so it will probably be several months before we have to draw on that fund and we will have enough time to let that fund built back up to where it should be. If the Council approves us doing that, and I plan to appear in front of the Council and bring some of these pictures. I will ask them to do that and if they do that, then shortly thereafter we can pass the ordinance. The ordinance does require a fund. You can’t put the cart before the horse. The ordinance says we create a fund to do this, if we follow state law.”

Com. Burrus, “Can we write it in the ordinance that any reimbursement would go back in there as opposed to the county general fund?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right. We would dictate that any of the recoup expenses go back into the fund.”

Com. Harper, “Hopefully after we start it, it will be self sustaining. In a lot of areas they condemn the property and put a lien on the property and then when the real estate is sold is added to the tax rolls.”

Com. Burrus, “The challenge here is if it comes back in the form of a payment on tax bill, to put back into our fund.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We will.”

Com. Harper, “The state statute is the one that dictates. There are some really fine language in there.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Once you start moving forward with a legal document, you start incorporating language in the legal document requiring that it go back in. Then we can put in contract language that the money goes into a specific fund when its recovered. That is the best way to handle it. I was also thinking on this job description that maybe Bob should rewrite the job description for this position and present it to the Commissioners and to the Council that changes the scope of the duties.”

Com. Burrus, “What is the position currently called?”

Mr. Thompson, “Right now we have a position open called Administrative Assistant. The budget that we approved in January of this year, we did throw in Code Enforcement Officer and also full time Building Inspector, realizing we would have to go back through this. Those jobs have not been established. The only one open at this time is Administrative Assistant.”

Com. Burrus, “At one point you indicated there wasn’t a specific need for an assistant right now.”

Mr. Thompson, “In my opinion, right now we have part time secretary and she is doing just a fantastic job for us.”

Com. Burrus, “Would it be appropriate from your perspective to rename this position, Code Enforcement, for example for that primary responsibility and still have the job description indicate the person would be available as executive assistant?”

Com. Evans, “Secure the funds.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Rewrite it. Then you should submit the job description to the Plan Commission, to the Commissioners and to the Council.”

Mr. Thompson, “That is what Councilman Poparad suggested.”

Com. Evans, “If you just put it in your budget under a different title and you can work on the job description.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right, if you want to put it under Administrative Assistant/Code Enforcement Officer for starters.”

Com. Harper, “Lets do that. Is that going to be a problem?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “All you have to do is change the line item.”

Com. Evans, “Send it to the Auditor for budget . . . “

Mr. Thompson, “I will have to rewrite it and reclassify it. So I will get stuck at the low salary range if I use the Administrative Assistant position.”

Com. Evans, “Would that dollar amount be sufficient to fund that particular job? Is it fair?”

Mr. Thompson, “The existing salary right now is more that what the Building Commissioner is currently making right now.”

Com. Evans, “We need the cooperation of the Council. We cooperated with them creating the funding that you are now working under in taking that other salary out of the general fund. You even have your own budget, you work your own budget. I think they can give us the same license to work with you as they expected us to do when they created it.”

Com. Harper, “I think it could be Code/and Enforcement officer. Leave where it is at right now. Just so we get our budget in front of the council. I plan to be there at budget hearings. We had a long discussion at the last Plan Commission about a lot of different enforcement areas that aren’t being covered right now and in we had a lot of examples and photos for things.”

Com. Burrus, “Drains around subdivision lots for septic purposes.”

Com. Harper, “So you can take them in front in the Council and make the best case.”

Com. Burrus, “The consensus here is we want to proceed with this effort?”

Com. Harper, “Present it to the Council. Unappropriated CEDIT to start the account of the unsafe building fund.”

Com. Burrus, “It comes out of CEDIT money to be reimbursed as an expense.”

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

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Did we take any formal action on approving the funding on second reading, was there a motion for that?”

Com. Evans, “Lets approve it based on the changes you suggested for the Code Enforcement Officer.”

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

Com. Harper, “We didn’t approve it on first reading. If you want to get back to that. (inaudible)”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think we only do budgets on one reading.”

(Two people talking at the same time.)

Com. Burrus, “As far as the Commissioners’ departments, we don’t approve their budget.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I am thinking with the way we wrote this ordinance, in order to . . . . .”

Com. Burrus, “It is a separate funding issue, that is why.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think in our ordinance we put the requirement on ourselves.”

Com. Evans, “It would be similar to the 9-1-1.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right, but we are handling it different, we are handling it more like our 9-1-1 and our CCD budget that other budgets.”

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

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


BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

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


Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor