PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2005
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, 2005, in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present were: Commissioners Robert Harper, John Evans and Carole Knoblock, Melissa Hartig, and Vi Wagner.

President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.

COMMENTS ON PORTER HOSPITAL

Com. Harper, “Before we start I would like to say everything is recorded and it has to be typed, if anyone does speak please state your name and your address. Melissa has the mike that she can give to you because we have to talk slowly and state your name and address because this all has to be typed up later. Before we go through the regular agenda, I would like to recognize Commissioner Evans.”

Com. Evans, “Before we begin this evening I know we have been asked by a number of people, mainly the associates at Porter Hospital to be able to address the Board of Commissioners this evening. Due to the lengthy agenda that we have already set, that is not going to be possible. We do want to hear what you have to say and to that end we are going to be holding a special meeting for the purpose of hearing everyone who wants to say anything in regard to this issue. If you are already here and have a prepared statement that you would like to pass out you may go ahead and do so at this time. We will be glad to accept that. I am sorry we are not going to be able to entertain the public comment for this evening just because of the heavy agenda we already have. We tentatively set a meeting for March 24th at 6:00 p.m. in these chambers to hear that issue and again I am sorry and want to thank you for your concern. Before I go any further, I also have a statement of my own. We have all been made aware the possible issues in relation to the financial status of our county hospital and questions have been poised as to the level of information sharing that is expected from a county institution. I would like to re-iterate the Commissioners’ role in relation to the county hospital is to appoint the Board of Trustees; however, we have been asked to participate in sorting out the above mentioned issues. To that end, I would like to make a motion for the Board of Commissioners to direct the Board of Trustees of Porter Hospital to conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations presented during the secret taping of the hospital’s CFO and take appropriate disciplinary action as necessary against whomever they find violated the public’s trust for the hospital’s code of conduct. Do I have a second?”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Com. Evans, “It has been suggested that a blue ribbon committee be formed to address the hospital issues. That is an appropriate response to the situation, but educating all members on the complexity of the issues involved could take several months. I would like to make a motion that the Board of Commissioners as was discussed, set a meeting, jointly, with the hospital Board of Trustees and the Commissioners in these chambers with said meeting to be held on the 24th day of March, in these chambers. Prior to the meeting, specific guidelines will be jointly set, agreed to, and published by the chair of the Board of Trustees, president of the Board of Commissioners, or their designees. Said meeting will allow for information to be distributed by the public to both boards and a follow up meeting with both boards will then address the concerns presented in an attempt to rectify pending issues. The second meeting should be scheduled within three weeks of the first.”

Com. Harper, “John, explain that again, please.”

Com. Evans, “On our meeting on the 24th, we will be here along with the Board of Trustees, we will conduct the meeting and we will not turn it into a free for all. It will be subject to hear what the public has to say, we will take the information under advisement, and meet again within three weeks and try to answer the concerns that will be raised.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, “Lastly, I would like to make a motion that Bob Parks be removed from the Hospital Building Board. Although possible troubling information was disclosed by the secret taping, the mode, manner and means and collection and the distribution of the information was sleazy, and certainly not the way we do things in Porter County. It is unconscionable that a person appointed to a position of trust would tape another person without their knowledge and then present the results to a newspaper even before presenting them to the proper governing board authorities. Mr. Parks’ willingness to perform these acts is indicative of a total lack of respect for due process. He should not be trusted in any public position, now or ever in the future. Do I have a second?”

Motion died for lack of second.

Com. Harper, “I would like to make a statement. Number one, on this meeting on the 24th we’ll stay as long as it takes, within reason. We will stay as long as it takes. We will hear anybody that wants to speak. We will probably set a time limitation because there will be a lot of people who will decide to speak. Do remember as you come on the 24th that you will be asked to give your name and address and use our mikes because all this will have to typed up later. I would like to make my statement and that is no matter how this information came out, no matter how it was gained, apparently for some reason, the hospital is near the break even point. In addition to that, we all know the orthopedic group has left which, I am told within the last fourteen months I have been here, is going to make further financial problems for the hospital. Apparently, there have been, no matter how the information came forward, some discussions about the sale or transfer of this hospital to a different type entity. I feel that type of talk has to put fear in the minds of some of the employees that have placed their whole future in that hospital. They have worked there and they believe they will be able to work there in the future. The doctors have come to this town that have counted on that hospital for their patients and for their practice. The people that have lived in this community; I have had five children born at that hospital, and have had relatives die there, so it has become an important institution to us all. I have always believed these discussions about that hospital, this is a people’s hospital, this is the employee’s hospital, it should be open and everybody should be heard on it. I want everyone to know that my interest is in making sure that this institution survives financially, that it survives as a public hospital, and that it survives as a people hospital. I am going to do everything I can to see that that happens. If you have anything to pass out, please do so. We will see you on March 24th. Thank you. Okay, now since that is taken care of we will go on with our regular business.”

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of March 7, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of February 15, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

REQUEST TO BORROW MONIES FROM BRIDGE FUND
Jim Burge, County Council

Mr. Burge, “Commissioners, I am here on behalf of the County Council as you already know, our problem here in the county is cash flow. This year will be the first time as I am told, the first time in two years we will not have to have tax anticipation warrants. We anticipate being back on schedule mailing the tax bills, they will be mailed by April 25th, with the May 10th deadline for payment. I was talking with the Auditor and she indicates that $2.5 million will get us through the next couple of months and we hope to reimburse the Bridge Fund by July 1st of 2005 instead of December 31, 2005 which is the way it has been done in the past. So, the County Council is asking for your cooperation in borrowing from the Bridge Fund to pay the bills until we get our next tax draw.”

Com. Knoblock, (Inaudible).

Com. Harper, “Dave, do you know how much is in the Bridge Fund?”

Mr. Schelling, (Inaudible).

Com. Evans, “$3,755,610.43 as of the first of March.”

Com. Harper, “How much are you asking for?”
Mr. Burge, “According to the Auditor’s Office, $2.5 million will get us through.”
Com. Evans, “We do have two bridges, 1041 and 1014.”

Mr. Schelling, “I know I need about a quarter million dollars for 1014.”

Mr. James, “And we also have some other bridges on the agenda for the March meeting that total about $150,000.00.”

Mr. Burge, “From what Bob indicated, it would not be all one lump sum, it would be as needed so it may not use the entire amount anyway.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the Council to borrow up to $2.5 million from the Cumulative Bridge Fund No. 25 in aggregate amounts as needed, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPOINTMENT TO PLAN COMMISSION AND WILDLIFE ADVISORY BOARD

Com. Harper, “We have an appointment to the Plan Commission and we had five or six applications. Do I hear a motion on that?”

Com. Knoblock moved to appoint Tim Cole to the Plan Commission, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “We also have an appointment to the Wildlife Management Advisory Board and I did some research on that and the person who is going off, and I would like to put this off until next meeting, the person going off is a veterinarian and I think we have to replace that person with a vet. I think we only have, and that would leave one position open, and I think we should consider making the Commissioner a liaison rather than a member. Perhaps we could put this in a form of a motion. We can make our appointments next time if no one has a problem with that.”

Com. Evans, “I don’t have a problem with that. I think you are correct that the person coming off is a veterinarian but I believe the appointment of the veterinarian was a different veterinarian, I think there were two veterinarians on by choice. I don’t know if the reappointment has be a vet.”

Com. Harper, “I think it does, I have the ordinance, but anyway, we’ll check it out by next time.”

Com. Evans, “But they still have one vet.”

Com. Harper, “And we’ll talk about adding a Commissioner as a liaison. The Wildlife Animal Welfare Board has two members here for different reasons, Gale and Steve, you want to come up?”
Gale Carmona, “I think the statute that we looked at last time does say two vets.”

Com. Evans, “It does say two vets?”

Ms. Carmona, “Yes, that is why when Dr. Larry Reed left, we had to replace him with Dr. Christy.”

Com. Evans, “We might ask the press to publish that for us because none of the applications we have now are from vets.”

Com. Harper, “I think we have two vacancies.”

Ms. Carmona, “And the other vacancy, one of those is according to, and our vice president last week read the statute, needed to be a fireman.”

Com. Harper, “We’ll straighten it all out by next time, but we are also here to talk about your plans for this year, correct?”

PORTER COUNTY PARKS DEPARTMENT DISCUSSION ON TRAILS

Ed Melendez, “What you have in front of you is two projects that the committee has agreed upon and have come before the Park Board for their approval. One is a two page one that we have for markers along the boundary lines as well as for trails that we have inside. What we have is we are marking out on the property, about a year ago, we need to get permanent markers. The markers we are going to use is what you see, unfortunately the one I did have got re-installed over a gas line so I couldn’t bring that one as an example. But it is used like the____ the power company, (inaudible) pretty well vandal proof and we’ll have markers on both sides, one identifying boundary lines as well as entering private property. Then we are marking up two trails that have been established out there for returns and walk with the distance that we have around. As well as additional information for signage of the do’s and don’t’s on the trail, the time of (inaudible). At that point in time, we came up with the cost on the company was $22,5986.00. Then we also have a proposal for park benches to be built and they were roughly at a cost of about four of them, and this is the same design we have taken through the Parks Department that what we had was the same as what the Eagle Scout did. We had the total cost of $233.00.”

Com. Harper, “And everyone is in agreement with that?”

Ms. Carmona, “Yes, we were looking for something . . . .We were definitely looking for something that was not portable and would be vandal proof.”

Com. Knoblock, “This is for the sanctuary?”

Mr. Melendez, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “Now is this all that we are asked to approve at this time?”

Ms. Carmona, “Yes.”

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

Com. Evans, “Is there a maintenance schedule for the trails for summer?”

Mr. Melendez, “What we are hoping to do is once we get these signs established, then we can start setting tie periods during the daylight hours and come back and start doing our weekly revival thing.”

Ms. Carmona, “And you will be advised when we actually do open it and we hope to have you there the first day. I would like to invite you all there.”

Com. Harper, “We are going to take action on your board the next meeting.”

Ms. Carmona, “Would you like us to come back?”

Com. Harper, “Sure.”
Com. Evans, “Also we’d like you to recruit a veterinarian.”

AWARD GROUP MEDICAL AND DENTAL EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN

Com. Evans, “Since 9:00 this morning we have been sitting in these chairs entertaining those plans and it’s been a grueling day to tell the truth. After putting in all that time and energy, I would like to make a motion that we accept the proposal of Stewart C. Miller to be Porter County’s third party administrator for the upcoming year and to continue with Anton Insurance as our service provider.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

PRIORITY LIST FOR COUNTY BUILDING REPAIRS-
Rick Renner, Johnson Controls

Mr. Renner, “Several meetings ago we brought to the board meeting a list of several recommendations that Johnson Controls had for the county buildings. At the last meeting Commissioner Evans asked me to prioritize them. So the first page is a list of the recommendations prioritized and the top one, is a proposal to make that improvement. That is right here at the Admin Building. There’s vortex fans, and what those are, they are like dampers; they are supposed to modulate. When they modulate the fans just blow the air through depending on what the space is calling for, the dampers modulate to bring in the proper amount of air. Right now those vortex fans are locked in place, they are not working at all. They are inoperable, so when the temperature changes, one of our field mechanics comes out and makes adjustments physically, he physically opens and closes those vanes. Sometimes he can’t get out here as soon as he would like and therefore we get a phone call from Char asking us to come out. So its been a nuisance not only to us, but it causes uncomfortable issues in the building itself. We recommend removing those dampers and installing with variable frequency drives to slow down the fan and then increase the fan based on what is needed. The variable frequency drives not only help with the cover, but also provides energy savings to the county.”

Com. Evans, “And you are proposing to do this work for $66,340.00?”

Mr. Renner, “That is correct. Also we are going to be replacing the outside damper and return air dampers. They are worn out.”

Com. Knoblock moved to accept the proposal from Johnson Controls for the work to be done at the Administration Building for $66,340.00, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Renner, “We will not disrupt county hours, it has to be done on the weekend, and after 5:00 on Friday.”

Com. Harper, “One thing we didn’t discuss was what fund we are going to take this from?”

Com. Evans, “Building Maintenance Fund.”

Com. Harper, “Rather than the EDIT? Why don’t we do this, why don’t we do this next time, we approve the project, we have two funds we can take it out of, should we do it next time?”

Com. Evans, “Yes, let’s study the funds closer.”

ORDINANCE FOR VACATION OF FORMER STATE ROADS 49 AND 30, COMEFORD ROAD, 1ST READING

Com. Harper, “Why does this say first reading?”

Com. Evans, “This is second reading, isn’t it?”

Com. Harper, “That’s what I would think. We’ve talked about this before.”

Ms. Hartig, “We had the public meeting last time and the County Attorney said we can do the first and second reading at the same time.”

Mr. Bengel, “So far there haven’t been any changes, you’ll see a plat on your desk that is shaded in yellow which is the area that we proposed to dedicate to the county as right of way.”

Com. Harper, “Who prepared this ordinance? Did Gwenn prepare this?”

Mr. Bengel, “Probably Todd Leeth prepared it and gave it to Gwenn. We added a paragraph in there to be very specific in what we doing rather than saying so many feet one side of the pavement, we surveyed that and have written a good solid description. Actually the road is going to stay where it is, Comeford Road, and then that little cut off corner is going to move north and wind up 90 degrees to Sturdy Road, then the proposal is the constructed building on that parcel B.”

Com. Knoblock, “Did you talk to Mr. Ailes?”

Mr. Bengel, “Yes. We have discussed it and still prefer to go with the regular proposal. I have talked to Dave Schelling and he supports our original plan.”

Mr. Schelling, “The other alternative would cost around $17,000.00 instead of $4,000.00. (inaudible)….. Also, I personally hate to have that intersection closer to the railroad crossing. The farther away from the railroad crossing, the more comfort I have.”

Com.. Evans, “We have agreed to the cost sharing?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “Petitioner shall provide engineering costs for new roadway, petitioner to pay $1,000.00 to Porter County. Now before we have first reading, should we have an ordinance number or should we wait for second?”

Com. Evans, “No, we have to have first reading before we get an ordinance number.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the ordinance on first reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to suspend the rules and hear the ordinance on second reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to pass Ordinance No. 05-04 on second reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A POLICY FOR DISPOSITION OF TECHNOLOGY RELATED PERSONAL PROPERTY-1ST READING
Sharon Lippens, Director of ITS

Ms. Lippens, “In the past years, the disposal of excess and surplus technology equipment has always been done based on decision of a Commissioner. In discussing with Commissioner Harper this year, I had mentioned that I was concerned how these rules were going to be followed this year and under his recommendation to make an ordinance. therefore it is always followed and if Commissioners need to make a change in that ordinance, they can make a change, otherwise I have some rules to go by. I drafted the ordinance using the Indiana Code as a reference for disposing of excess and surplus technology type personal property. It basically goes over that it allows me to determine if the equipment is of any value or not and if it is then we either sell it, donate it, or transfer it to another governmental agency. If it has no value at all or it is in unworking status and is too expensive to fix, then we can classify it as salvage and we can send it to recycling. Then there is also a form that we have set up to track each of the serial numbers of each of the items and what is done with them so there is a tracking mechanism.”

Com. Evans, “Has the attorney reviewed the proposal?”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes, I believe Gwenn made some corrections or adjustments to the original I had submitted but I haven’t seen them. The form was mentioned but is not prepared yet.”

Com. Evans, “Does this require two readings?”

Com. Harper, “Was it your understanding it would require two readings?”

Ms. Lippens, “Gwenn had mentioned it could be approved in one.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t we do it in two, since she is in a mediation in Federal Court right now on behalf of the county but I want to thank you for the time in putting this together and it has taken a long time.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the ordinance on first reading contingent on the approval of the county attorney, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.”

Com. Harper, “Sharon, thank you for your time you put into doing this.”

Ms. Lippens, “I had several other counties express interest in this once it is approved. They have had the same situation as I do, and I asked a lot of them if they had a written policy and they said no, they wished they did and could they have a copy of it when I was done. Did you want to wait on the department head issues until later?”

Com. Harper, “As long as we have you up here.”

Copier/printer lease for ITS Department

Ms. Lippens, “I had discussed this at the last Commissioner meeting; the numerous problems that we have been having with the current equipment that we have on lease. I tried to work with the current vendor that we have to find a suitable agreement, they came up with a proposal. I also sough proposals from another company that we had done business with before and with that I have presented you with agreements for replacement of the current equipment. There are three options, the first option is a fair market value lease. A second option is called a buy out lease and the third option is an outright purchase. There’s a maintenance agreement which is for five years which would be paid how we designate, either quarterly, monthly, yearly, and the price is guaranteed to remain the same for five years. The vendor that these contracts are for is not a current vendor, I feel that with the history that we have had, that I do not feel that they were proposing the best option for Porter County.”

Com. Evans, “What is your recommendation?”

Ms. Lippens, “My recommendation would be to execute a contract for a fair market value with ICON. Reason being because at the end of five years, this equipment is going to be pretty much used up and we’ll probably be looking at new equipment five years. So, in order to purchase it outright or to do a dollar buy out, it is more expensive. And the life of the equipment is going to be used up in five years. I think we should go the least amount as possible. This is a higher dollar amount monthly than our current lease, but the current copiers we have, we have two copiers now, the one is down about 75% of the time, the other one is down about 25% of the time. So we have 50% down time.”

Com. Harper, “So you are suggesting this ICON option 1, 2. or 3?”

Ms. Lippens, “Option 1.”

Com. Harper, “We are really breaking our other lease, is that correct?”

Ms. Lippens, “That is correct. That is what the county attorney recommended.”

Com. Evans, “Is there a maintenance agreement option?”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes, the maintenance agreement is the last of the staff, and the maintenance agreement is the same no matter purchase option we choose.”

Com. Harper, “Where is the money going to come from?”

Ms. Lippens, “The current lease is paid out of the Commissioners’ budget in maintenance agreements and that is where the new contract would come from as well.”

Com. Harper, “How much more a month is this going to be?”

Ms. Lippens, “I have a yearly cost. The yearly difference is $14,671.28.”

Com. Harper, “Are we going to have to go to the Council for an additional for this?”

Ms. Lippens, “I would assume so unless you’ve got excess money in Maintenance Agreements.”

Com. Harper, “So even if we do this tonight, this is not the final step. We have to go to the Council.”

Com. Evans, “Where did the funds for the last lease come from?”

Ms. Lippens, “The Commissioner’s maintenance agreements.”

Ms. Hartig, “It actually comes from CCD.”

Com. Evans, “We don’t need to go to the Council if its CCD.”

Com. Harper, “Well, lets just pass whatever we are going to pass tonight and then we can talk to the county attorney. You are asking for Option 1. If it does come from CCD, no matter if the Council has to approve it or not, is there enough money to take care of this?”

Ms. Hartig, (inaudible.)

Com. Evans, “There should be enough money. I cant find it right now. Fund 132? There is $839,238.09, I am sorry, $790,706.68.”

Com. Evans moved to approve Option 1, ICON, based on finding the funding from the right account,

Ms. Lippens, “The monthly amount is $44.41.”

Man from audience, “I represent the current vendor and I was wondering if the Commissioners would field the questions to me, in particular with regard to costs involved.”

Com. Harper, “I don’t think we’ll field questions, but if you would like to make a comment, we will listen to your comment. Why don’t you come forward since this is recorded and state your name and who you are with.”

Rob Herbeshesky, “I represent McShane’s business products which is the current vendor. As was just mentioned that a proposal was just made by McShane’s, the current vendor that was found unsuitable. We have a question with that because the proposal made by McShane’s was to bring in brand new equipment at the exact same dollar amount that the current contract is under with no additional increase, a rate guaranteed for the next five years. And the equipment being recommended may be the same equipment being recommended by ICON, I don’t know, they represent two different product lines and one of the product lines is the same one that we are recommending. So we are concerned as to why the Commissioners would agree to go with the same equipment possibly for an increase in the dollar amount. Also, as part of this arrangement McShane’s has also agreed to end the current contract, eliminating for the county to have to go and fight to basically cancel out a non cancelable agreement.”

Com. Evans, “One of the reasons we are doing that is because just the reason you are here this evening, because we put a lot of faith and trust in our department heads, she has been trying several months to get somebody to answer her inquiries and requests; they have fallen on deaf ears. She has presented her problems repeatedly, she has been here at least five times with the same problems with no response from your company. That is why we are considering the change.”

Com. Harper, “Again, why don’t you state what you stated at the beginning of what your problems are.”

Ms. Lippens, “The problems are is that the equipment is not reliable. The just continue to be broken down. Basically we have over 50% down time so the monthly contract we are paying, 50% of it we can’t use. We can’t keep up with orders, when we call for service, we never hear back. Two weeks go by, we’re calling them, asking where are you at. We get no response from service when service does come out, they say it just needs to be cleaned. They spend five minutes doing that and then leave, and then it is still doing the same thing as when they came in. We do not feel that we are getting serviced properly nor is the equipment operating properly.”

Mr. Herbershesky, “I do not have the information in front of me saying we didn’t respond for two week periods and I believe we would be able to show that our response time is much faster than that, usually the same day. The primary problem that the Print Shop has been experiencing is that the county runs a tremendous amount of prints on carbonless form paper, which as most of you know is paper that is impregnated with an ink so that when pressure goes through it, then it transfers on to the next pages. Standard copies, because of the heat and pressure fusing system are not conducive to running that type of stock proof system. What ends up happening is that ink, through the heat and pressure, ends of being transferred to different rollers inside the system and it causes a build up and those rollers then need to be cleaned in order for the paper to pass through. The recommendation we have made is a recommendation that has only been announced by one of the, actually the largest manufacturer of copy products in the world today, and that announcement was only made within the last four months, that the now only endorse the use of carbonless paper in the particular model, the model that we recommended, but in addition, they also private labeled stock, we have already agreed to match the existing costs of the carbonless forms that Porter County orders right now. Even though in most cases, that will end up being a loss for our company, but we will make every possible way for the county to use that carbonless stock that is recommended for the system in a system has been thoroughly tested by the manufacturer and is now endorsed to run that stock. The question of the reliability of the current systems, with the exception to the fact that they are copy machines and copy machines do end up needing parts replaced, as far as the majority of the down time, it is because of cleanings and in response to that when the long jobs are being run on carbonless forms, McShane’s has a technician that stays there for generally hours at a time, even knows when the job is going to be run, and schedules to come in and stays there with the system. Then as the cleanings need to be done, the cleanings can be done on site, resume your job so to keep the least amount of down time. Up until this point, there was no system manufactured by any manufacturer that would endorse the use of carbonless forms through their systems, so in response to why this is taking so long, its just been within the last three months that the manufacturer has actually made that notice public. And it was McShane’s intention to obviously do whatever can be done feasibly to quickly get you out of the obligation of the existing program, put in the proper equipment for the job and keep the dollars to be spent exactly the same locking them in for the next 60 months with no increase. Thank you.”

Ms. Lippens, “The representative is also here from ICON.”

Com. Evans, “To be fair, we should hear from him.”

Ms. Lippens, “For the record as well, the equipment I am recommending is not the same as McShane’s proposed.”

Brad Johnson, “ICON Office Solutions. To confirm with Sharon, what we are proposing is a much heavier duty machine that has been on the market for over four years and has been spect to run NCR paper from day one.”

Com. Harper, “What is the amount, John, do you have that?”

Com. Evans, “I have a monthly option one that says (inaudible)……”

Ms. Lippens, “That first page you were looking at was a comparative of the systems that McShane’s offered. I asked ICON, I did not divulge to them any of the figures as far as the payments or things that McShane’s offered but I asked them to give me the comparative quote for pricing purposes to compare apples to apples. I asked them to give me a price comparison on the exact same equipment that McShane’s offered us. That is what the first page is. ICON will not sell us that equipment because they feel that it is under what our needs are going to be and we are going to be in this same situation in a lesser period of time other than the five year lease that McShane’s is proposing than we are now due to the volume we do. So, they do not feel it is a good solution as well as giving you a comparative pricing which is directly off the state’s QPA contract.”

Com. Evans, “Let me get this straight. So, you bid actually the same from two companies and then you chose the third one that was not bid? Is that correct?”

Ms. Lippens, “That is correct. McShane’s came in with an offer, they did not do any research or ask our input if our ___ had changed since the prior equipment was put in place three and half years ago. They just brought in a proposal. I have been working with ICON before because we had purchased a copier from them for envelopes that we have had extremely good luck with and felt that they provided service that we required. So I asked them to give me a quote on the same equipment. My feelings were that the quote from McShane's, while the payments are staying the same, and they are indicating they are relieving us of our current lease, but in fact, what is happening the dollars remaining on our current lease are being rolled into the new lease. That is one of the reasons I asked for an independent comparative quote to compare those numbers. So that is what the second page is, it is just a comparison for you to see if we were to just buy or lease the equipment that was offered from McShane’s with no prior payments due. We are going to start from scratch, these are the prices they quoted and I outlined them. The last page is the recommended solutions for the two different machines.”

Com. Evans, “My concern is we compared apples and we are buying oranges.”

Ms. Lippens, “The problem is the new lease that we have is not the same lease we had three and a half years ago.”

Com. Evans, “I understand that, but have we only let one company bid?”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes, they ____ the state QPA contract.”

Com. Evans, “Did we make the bid specs available to anyone else?”

Ms. Lippens, “No. These are all from the state QPA contract.”

Com. Evans, “We need to do that.”

Com. Evans moved to have ITS rebid the machinery that is wanted and make the bid available to everyone, Com. Knoblock seconded,

Com. Knoblock, “$176,000.00 for a copier machine, does that coincide with other copy machines in the court house?”

Ms. Lippens, “No, this is just the Print Shop. Other copy machines used in the county are departmental, they are used in each department. The Print Shop machines are used for the high volume printing.”

Motion carried.

Additional appropriation for enhanced access

Ms. Lippens, “I have one appropriation for approval.”

Com. Harper, “This is for an additional appropriation of $45,000.00 for enhanced access.”

Ms. Lippens, “Enhances access is an account that was set up by the Commissioners a few years ago and we provide what is titled enhanced access through the Indiana Code to public records to the public or to businesses that wish to have use of it for commercial purposes. When they do that, they pay a subscription fee per month in order to access that information through their computer at their work or home. This fund is supposed to be used for capital type purchases that will enhance or maintain the equipment that is providing the access to the subscribers. Last year it was an oversight that it was not turned in as a separate budget so therefore it has to be turned in this year as an additional appropriation. The amount that is used there is the amount that is the current balance plus the anticipated revenue until the end of this year.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, this is a fund that is generated by outside agencies, that pay for the use of public information, and you are just asking now for permission to use that fund, is that correct?”

Ms. Lippens, “That’s correct. The money has to be appropriated.”

Com. Harper, “This has to go before the Council.”

Com. Knoblock, “What fund is this again?”

Ms. Lippens, “Its Fund 186, Enhanced Access.”

Com. Harper, “All which is generated by outside people paying for the use of your records. Do I hear a motion for this?”

Com. Evans moved to approve the additional appropriation in the amount of $45,000.00 to Fund 186, Enhanced Access, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

PORTER COUNTY GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE SAFETY MANUAL PRESENTATION
Mike Anton, Anton Insurance

Mr. Anton, “Several months ago Commissioner Harper put together a committee to review the county’s safety practices and with the charge of creating a rules, practices and policies. The committee consisted of Commissioner Harper, as the chair; myself; Chief Deputy Dave Lain; Al Hoagland from the Highway Department; Attorney Rinkenberger; and Phil Griffith, from Emergency Management. We met on several occasions and were very diligent in our task and we are here tonight to present to you the finalized draft for your review and to take under advisement. I know you haven’t had an opportunity to really study this and make recommendations to us. What we tried to accomplish here, obviously we have two very different departments within the county, that being the Sheriff’s Department and the Highway Department that are kind of the driving forces in terms of the county’s safety program and work comp issues.”

Chief Lain, “This is good corporate policy. Creating a manual such as this really shows that there is concern for the health and welfare of employees on a universal basis and as Mike said, we met several times. We had a mission to try and make this preventative medicine if you will so that overall we can pay less money to Anton. But all kidding aside, the idea is to reduce our liability exposure. That is the practical aspect but the human aspect is that what we want to prevent our employees, and we want to instill good practices, good policies so we have fewer injuries. So the overall corporate help is enhanced.”

Com. Harper, “This is just a start, but as someone that came and worked in the mills years ago, and if anyone has, they know how much they concentrate on safety and it is a good start and hopefully we will keep it going in the future. I think everyone wants to take a look at the manual before we pass on it. Do you feel that this is pretty much the document we are going to start with?”

Mr. Anton, “I think it is certainly a document that we can begin with. It is probably going to be the document that may evolve with experience and the employing of the document. When we get into the Sheriff’s Department there are certain issues that we are counting on Chief Lain and Sheriff Reynolds to contribute to. As we go forward and we employ the basis of this plan, there maybe tweaking that is going to be required.”

Com. Harper, “It looks like a lot of this came from the Highway Dept.”

Mr. Anton, “It is probably Highway more so than not, yes.”

Com. Harper, “Hopefully in the coming year we can go through every department and get it all put together.”

Mr. Anton, “I think that even for your county office workers there are issues in here that are very pertinent to just general safety.”

Com. Harper, “Very good, and I thank you for putting this together. I know we are going to keep the committee rolling along. Any other questions?”

Com. Evans, “What is your proposed means to distribute these to our employees?”

Mr. Anton, “I think that once it is accepted by the Commissioners, and depending on any changes you want to make that we will incorporate into the plan, I think it should go out to all the employees . . . .”

Com. Evans, “Through the Auditor?””

Mr. Anton, “Well, we could certainly facilitate that and get it out. Frankly, it is a situation that each county employee ought to sign off that they received it. Which is a little bit of an arduous task. I understand that, but what you have here is that when a safety rule has been violated per se, you don’t want to go back to the situation where an employee says, well, I was never told. So you give them the manual, they sign off that they received the manual and there you go from there. Then when ever someone comes into the county’s operations, they would get one of these with their orientation.”

Com. Evans, “That’s exactly why I asked. Why don’t we see that the Department Heads and Office Holders sign for the number they have in their departments when we finish it and they can be responsible for obtaining signatures.”

Mr. Anton, “I suspect that will probably come back to this body.”

Com. Harper, “So there is accountability. Lets give us four weeks to look it over. For the April 19th meeting, come back April 19th.”



OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

Agreements for Marshall and Jasper counties
Ken Perkins, Director of Juvenile Services

Com. Harper, “You have an agreement here that you are asking to be approved from Marshall County and Jasper County for the use of our juvenile detention center, correct?”

Mr. Perkins, “That’s correct. Both counties have contracted with us for a number of years and use this on a per diem basis for a number of years prior to that.”

Com. Harper, “I have talked with our attorney, she has gone over the standard contracts that we have always entered into.”

Com. Evans, “What is the rate?”

Mr. Perkins, “It is $110.00 per day.”

Com. Evans, “Has that been raised from last year?”

Mr. Perkins, “No. Non contracting counties we charge $120.00 per day.”

Com. Harper, “Do we have a lot of room out there available?”

Mr. Perkins, “It varies, it fluctuates. In fact, I am in some discussions with one or two other counties that may be interested.”

Com. Harper, “What do these other counties do when we’re full, do they contract with other counties?”

Mr. Perkins, “Jasper County is guaranteed one bed a day and Marshall County is guaranteed up to three beds a day. Usually, we are able to take them but if we are full they will go ahead and use another county with a detention center. And all of that goes to the general fund.”

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

Ed Melendez, Park Department
Advertise for Park Dept. vehicles

Mr. Melendez, “What I have just given you is a replacement of two vehicles that we have in the Park. Earlier last year we gave a presentation to the Council in showing the fleet that we had. A lot of our personal trucks were being used to move equipment around. We are taking two of our existing vehicles and putting them on police auction, but we are putting these up for bids.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, where is this money coming from?”

Mr. Melendez, “It was adopted under the CCD fund for 2005.”

Com. Harper, “So you are just asking for approval of specifications on these bids, is that it?”

Mr. Melendez, “Yes. What I will do is work with the Auditor’s Office to set up the proper paperwork before we send it out for formal bid.”

Com. Knoblock, “Will they take them home?”

Mr. Melendez, “No. They will stay at Sunset Hill.”

Com. Evans, “Do you realize that specifying the engine that you did, you can only get a GMC?”

Mr. Melendez, “We tried to stay within the horsepower, so yes we did. We stayed within about five horsepower, that will be taken into consideration. We took the low line as much as power.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the specifications as submitted, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

SCHEDULE COUNTY HOME MEETING

Com. Harper, “How are we doing on the County Home?”

Mr. Melendez, “I have a meeting scheduled for 8:00 on Thursday morning out at the park. We are going to review a little bit of the information that I obtained from Sunpro and we’ll catch the members up on what the information was at that point. I have a call into the company to see if they can schedule a time with their rep from Ohio to kind of sit down and revisit the County Home and some other additional information.”

Com. Harper, “Do you think we are at the point after that meeting Thursday we can put out bid specs together?”

Mr. Melendez, “Yes, we should get some good information to work with. I will ask the gentlemen to work up some specs for demolition.”

Com. Harper, “Is everyone able to attend?”

Mr. Melendez, “I have a call into Herb Read so we will have pretty much everybody there that we need. We should be able to work the specs for demolition and should have some good guidelines for the lead and asbestos.”

Com. Evans, “Would there be any advantage of putting some bid specs together for scavenging before that?”

Mr. Melendez, “That is one of the other situations I was looking at between the abatement is to come in with some salvage quotes and what we can salvage and then the final demolition cost for clean up.”

Com. Harper, “Have you had anybody look at it for salvage?”

Mr. Melendez, “I have a call into the other gentleman, I wanted to make sure that within the next couple of weeks he could get in. He is in Chicago for the next two to three weeks. He is out of the Gary area.”

Com. Evans, “The telephone tower, you turned it down?”

Mr. Melendez, “Yes. There was an offer that was made and the foundation gave them a quote that they would allow it at a certain cost and we have not been contacted back.”

ADOPT A COUNTY ROAD PROGRAM
Therese Davis, Recycling and Waste Reduction District

Ms. Davis, “I am here with representation from the Porter County Environmental Department and Highway Department and Sheriff’s Department to talk to the Commissioners about a project we are working on and adopt a county road project. Basically what we would like to do is start a program where we would engage civic groups to get them to volunteer to clean up certain sections of county roads throughout rural portions of our county. The main goal to the program would be to have those organized groups dedicated to cleaning one to two mile stretches of the roads, provide heightened awareness of the negative impact of illegal dumping and provide corrective alternatives to proper disposal of waste and instill some community pride beyond what we are experiencing now and respect for our rural areas throughout Porter County. So what we have done is we talked to the Highway Department, state highway program because they have a program. You are probably all familiar with it, you see those plastic bags on 49 throughout the year. We have done some research and there are several other counties that do have Adopt a County Road Program. We have talked to Bliss McKnight which is our underwriter insurance through Anton about the safety concerns they may have on this program. Basically what we would do is engage volunteer groups, have them sign waivers, and give them training on proper collection and safety issues, provide vests, signage for them to display men working ahead, that type of thing, some gloves, trash bags for collection and eventually recognition road signs to recognize that group for their efforts. What you have before you is a proposed budget if we engage five volunteer groups who get the supplies we think we would need to get the program going, basically some CEDIT funds. Estimated cost of about $1,500.00, very initial cost if we only engage five groups throughout the season. The reason I am here before the Commissioners’ board tonight is to see if this is a project that they would embrace in theory but also to support financially to see if there is any fund that this project would be proper to illicit some CEDIT funds, $3,000-$5,000, something to that effect if you thought it was worthy. Because we are engaging the Environmental Department, the Highway Department, the Sheriff’s Department, all will come together to accomplish this task as well as the Recycle and Waste Reduction District.”

Com. Harper, “There is some of this going on right now, is that correct? Under whose department is this going on? Or is it a state highway program?”

Ms. Davis, “It would be a state highway program. I believe in the past the county Highway Department did have some program but I believe that has died off. So this is a rejuvenation of that.”

Com. Harper, “Somebody else was involved in this, was it the Wildlife Board?”

Ms. Davis, “I believe that the Porter County Conservation Club, but I believe that they offered to provide their services as a volunteer for the state program. In fact, before this becomes a public pronouncement, we actually had a citizen approach Dave James with the Highway Department saying can you give us vests, we are interested in cleaning up a stretch of either 500 North or 550 North out by Salt Creek. I believe once we make this a known program and we get our supplies and coordination together, there will be groups that are willing to do this.”

Com. Harper, “What about insurance, where does that stand?”

Ms. Davis, “Well, through Bliss McKnight, which I believe is the insurer for all these entities noted, we’ve incorporated their comments into a waiver form and the safety gear we would provide to the groups involved, training videos or a training session, whatever is required to inform the people participating of safety measures.”

Com. Harper, “Will we be covered?”

Ms. Davis, “I don’t know if Mike ____, but yes, without any additional cost. We’ve had a committee that Commissioner Knoblock attended, we did have reps from the insurance, yes we will be covered at no additional cost.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is there an age limit?”

Ms. Davis, “Yes, we did put an age limit of 12 would be the minimum participation level and an appropriate number of adults for children in the age range of 12 to 15.”

Com. Harper, “So you feel you need about $3,000 to start is that what you are saying?”

Ms. Davis, “A minimum of $3,000.00.”

Com. Evans, “Who is going to coordinate the program, to what extent, in other words, why don’t you define what groups are going to be out there volunteering their time picking up trash. If you have a limited number of vests and everybody wants to do it on the same Saturday, how are you going to do that?”

Ms. Davis, “Right, there would be a coordinated effort in that regard. Also, we would ask groups to choose a stretch of road that they would like to collect on but we would run that past the Highway Department for safety issues. If there it goes right into a ditch we are not going to want someone on that type of road. We have safety concerns we need to look at. Then we will gauge how many groups are participating on a weekend and we would . . . . so we are not only looking at the stretch of road, but time frames and we would manage that. The Solid Waste District would manage that and the distribution of the material and training. In regard to the collection of the material once it is bagged, the Sheriff’s Department has offered to do most of that collection and the Highway Department would be responsible for going out for large items and animal carcasses.”

Com. Harper, “I think maybe we should it two weeks from tonight and decide what fund. Two weeks will be okay and give us a chance to see where we can fund it, maybe talk a little more about it. We might as well fund it enough to get it off the ground. I drive down the road and see these areas that are being taken care of by volunteers, it makes me feel good that it is being done. So anything we can add to that I think is great. So give us a couple weeks and we’ll put you back on the agenda. I really do think we should have an insurance agent here for that. I think that would be best.”

Ms. Davis, “ Can I ask it go to the second meeting, we have our Citizen Advisory Committee meeting on the 5th.”

Com. Evans, “It would be the 19th.”

Com. Harper, “And we will start looking at some funds and get an idea on that. I think it would be a better idea if you had somebody here from Anton’s so we can talk about that.”

Com. Evans, “Is this a pretty good estimate of the things you are going to need?”

Ms. Davis, “We are still working on the Men Working signage cost, we think that might be bit high but we are looking at that.”

OPEN PROPOSALS FOR BRIDGE 1014
Dave Schelling, Highway Engineer

Com. Harper, “So you are going to take these back and review them after we open them?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes.”

Com. Evans, “When will you be back?”

Mr. Schelling, “Probably the 19th. I would like to aim for that. I hope to get through them all by then. There are fifteen.”

Com. Evans, “For those of you that don’t know what we are doing, we are opening bids for proposals for engineering on Bridge 1014 which is the bridge on Calumet Road that goes over the railroad tracks just south of County Road 900 North.”

Mr. Schelling, “There are no costs in this, this is merely qualifications and interest to do the work for us. RFQ’s. No bond either.”

The following bids were opened:

Troyer Group, Mishawawka IN
DLZ, South Bend and Hammond
Farr Garvey Associates LLC, Indy
HNTB Corp.,Indy
Lawson Fisher, South Bend
Bonar Group, Valparaiso, Ft. Wayne
Collings Engineering, Chesterton
First Group, Indy, Hammond
Ken Herceg, South Bend
CTE Engineering, Chicago and Indianapolis
Butler Fairman Seufert, Indianapolis
Beam Longest and Neff, Indianapolis
USI, Indianapolis
WTH Engineering, Indianapolis

Mr. Schelling, “We have some other items to take care of since there is a request of bids for the sidewalk in South Haven. Did you want to do that?”

Com. Evans, “Do we do that under Commissioner business? Okay.

COMMISSIONERS’ REPORTS

North District: Com. Evans

1. Notice to Bidders for Concrete Sidewalk Construction on Midway Drive east of McCool Road in South Haven. Bid documents will be available starting on March 16, 2005 at the Porter County Highway Department, 1955 South SR 2, Valparaiso, Indiana 46385, for a non-refundable $10.00 deposit. Bids are due at the Porter County Auditor’s office by 4 pm local time on April 19, 2005. The bids will be opened at the Porter County Board of Commissioner’s April 19, 2005 meeting after 6:00 p.m.. Completion date will be August 19, 2005.

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

Com. Evans, “I just want to say that this is the second time we bid this project and the first time we thought we got a raw deal and I hope we get a better deal this time.”

Mr. Schelling, “It was kind of a hard bid for a contractor to do because there was bidding a half year in advance and concrete prices were going up so we will see what we get this time.”

2. Receive and open consultant design and inspection proposals for Bridge 1014 Calumet Road over CSX near 900 North, and take under advisement.

Com. Evans moved to take under advisement, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.


South District: Com. Knoblock

1. Grande Prairie Subdivision Road Agreement, located between CR 150 East and SR 49 just south of CR 112 South. Offer to contribute $575.00/lot for a total of $59,225.00. Owners and subdividers are Bucher Farms, LLC. Recommend approval

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

REASSESSMENT CONTRACT
John Scott, Portage Twp. Assessor

Mr. Scott, “We are requesting a contract with John G. Cleminshaw, we had one before with him and it worked out real good. The problem we had long before, is that they used to give money to the assessors for commercial endeavors and then when the lack of funds happened, they stopped doing that and now we are back again with the idea that the 6 corridor or the 12 corridor is a large complex coming in where Lefty’s Coho Landing was. I think by the sale of the land there is some 4 or 5 million dollars just tied into the land so you can imagine what is going to happen in that particular area. We need professional help with that particular part of it. The trend right now, although we hire someone to do it, we have to do all the legwork to get the trendy started. So we can give him the information so he can go ahead and ___ it. We are not getting any money from reassessment from this particular project so that is another burden laid on our office. Right behind Walmart, Walmart is adding on to their building which is another large complex right behind that and along side of there is another large commissioned group that is coming in to put in apartment buildings and high rises and they have a mix of stuff coming in. I tell you, assessing used to be a lot of fun and I know Carole did assessing before, now everything is legal, if you don’t do it exactly right, especially in the commercial area, we are going to have tremendous problems with US Steel, Midwest Steel and IGS. We do need this desperately just to try and keep up with what is going on. I am doing a lot of legwork out there on commercial stuff but not the final decision and that needs to be actually a professional to say this is what it has to be what you are going to call it and how it would be done. Before it was a lot easier, we didn’t have the complaints and all the legal stuff that is going on now.”

Com. Knoblock, “You have used professional assessors before?”

Mr. Scott, “Yes, we have. And we have used this one during the reassessment. But this is just for day to day type of thing.”

Com. Harper, “This contract is limited to $10,000.00?”

Mr. Scott, “We will probably need more but like I said we are willing to ___ to get started with $10,000.00 and I will do the leg work, I will be doing all the measuring, and the grunt work.”

Com. Harper, “Isn’t it limited by a certain amount or am I wrong?”

Mr. Scott, “Yes.”

Com. Evans, “Who is paying for it?”

Mr. Scott, “I will have to come from the general fund because it can’t come out of reassessment because it is not reassessment activity.”

Com. Harper, “So this has to come before the Council?”

Mr. Scott, “Yes, it would.”

Com. Evans, “And you are going to do the legwork and I see in the contract they are not going to do any computer entry, what are they going to do? Are they just going to go out there and look?”

Mr. Scott, “They are going to take what I give them and they are going to make a decision on what it should be called and how it should be calculated. They will tell what they want done with that particular piece of property.”

Kathy Cochran, ……(inaudible.) We need their professional help to get this done, because we are going to end up with more appeals. We have to do it right the first time.”

Com. Evans, “What if the county had GIS?”

Mr. Scott, “It wouldn’t matter, this is actual physical buildings. GIS would give you locations on land and that kind of stuff but this is actually a building that you have to enter the building and find out how its built and all the details, all the plumbing fixtures, a lot of time.”

Com. Evans, “If we have done this once for reassessment, why don’t we have this information?”

Mr. Scott, “This is all brand new stuff. All new stuff coming at us. The stuff for reassessment is done.”

Com. Evans, “Well, if somebody builds a new property don’t they have a building plan and don’t we have privy to the . . . . ?”

Mr. Scott, “No. We don’t get a building plan. We get a permit and then we go from there. They build it, we look at it, and inspect it to see how big it is and what kind of materials are being used and what kind of wall heights we are dealing with, washrooms, (inaudible)…… insulation, what kind of electrical systems are going into it.”

Com. Evans, “It just seems redundant to me that somebody’s going to have to go and inspect all those same things you just mentioned to give that building an occupancy permit. Why couldn’t there be one piece of paper that goes to the assessor that documents what’s in there?”

(Mr. Scott and Ms. Cochran were both talking at the same time, inaudible). First of all they don’t have the knowledge to do assessing, they do inspections, they say this looks like its up to fire code, this is up to electric code.”

Com. Evans, “Well, they can count toilets.”

Mr. Scott, “That’s not what I do.”

Ms. Cochran, “Its not that simple. All kinds of different things to check for and all the different details and added on the ___ and oddities that might be hidden, the perimeter and all these different things that go into it. It takes a lot of time to actually go out and physically look at it, write the stuff down, then put it on a worksheet, . . “

Com. Evans, “How many of these structures are actually inside the city limits?”

Ms. Cochran, “The majority of the commercial is in the city but we do have a few things in the township.”

Mr. Scott, “There is always something going on someplace. It just happens that the US 6 corridor right now is reopening up.”

Com. Evans, “So the county pays for it and the city puts the money in their coffers.”

Mr. Scott, “No, this township and the rest of the townships all together bring in about 85% of the all the money that comes into this county. We are reassessment, we go out and . . . “

Com. Evans, “I know what you do, I just think there ought to be a way to make it easier for everybody. There ought to be a way.”

Mr. Scott, “Absolutely, I agree with you. It should be what you paid for that, that’s the assessed valuation, forget about what you have been or what you’ve done with it, that’s market value. The Indiana legislature didn’t want to put a fair market value because they were afraid they would get voted out, so what did they do, they say, hey, we’ll do it, (inaudible)…. But its not so we are back to stick value, item by item. You take a store and it looks like its got a beautiful façade on it and its actually concrete block that looks like brick or stone, you have to know what you are looking at.”

Com. Knoblock moved to approve the $10,000.00, Com. Evans seconded and allow the Council to choose what fund to take it out of, motion carried.

Com. Evans, “Has the county attorney reviewed this contract?”
Mr. Scott, “Yes, she has. Thank you very much.”

CORRESPONDENCE

Building Dept. Monthly Report for January and February 2005 is on file.
Veteran’s Service Officer monthly report for January and February 2005 is on file.

Request for approval of Agreements submitted for authorization by the Memorial Opera House for February 2005

 Rental agreement with Montessori School of Valparaiso for a June 2, 2005 graduation ceremony.
 Rental agreement with Carrie Mitchell and Jonathan Paduch for a wedding rehearsal and ceremony on August 19, 20, 2005.
 Rental agreement with Melissa Fitzgerald and Rich Harley for wedding rehearsal and ceremony on September 30, and October 1, 2005

Com. Evans moved to approve,

Com. Evans, “I thought we granted permission for the management to approve
these and the only contracts we needed to worry about were the ones that had royalties.”

Ms. Hartig, “This is for you to go ahead and sign these and then have Holly present them as she gets them. (inaudible).”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, “I think the only things we need to look at when there is a royalty.”

Com. Harper, “Lets ask Gwenn for next meeting.”

Approval of contract for Animal Shelter services with the town of Porter for 2005 in the amount of $4,000.00

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

Approval of South Haven Boy’s and Girl’s Club to proclaim June 5-11, 2005 as National Garden Week

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

Request for transfer of funds-Commissioners

Fund 01.30 $10,000.00 from acct 3710 equipment
Into acct 3978 care of patients and inmates

To cover cost of taking care of adult patients/inmates through the end of 2005.

Com. Harper, “This is for inmates that are out of this area that are in mental institutions, we are responsible by state statute for clothing allowance, so what happened was when the circuit court took over this account we have to pay the state for juveniles, it depleted this entire account.”

Com. Evans, “So who do we owe the $10,000.00?”

Com. Harper, “Well, its several different places.”

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

Request for additional appropriation-Commissioners

Fund 01.30 $30,141.47 Acct 3110 Legal

To cover attorney fees for pending litigation regarding the proposed landfill.

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

Request for additional appropriation-Highway Dept.

Fund 25 $9,482.20 Acct 9306 Center Twp. Bridge repairs
20,942.40 Acct 9358 Center Twp.
12,253.30 Acct 9386 Boone Twp.
15,019.00 Acct 9412 Washington Twp.
9,907.20 Acct 9418 Pleasant Twp.
35,150.26 Acct 9430 Pine Twp.
28,760.67 Acct 9431 Washington Twp.
18,205.22 Acct 9432 Pine Twp
240,000.00 Acct C-500-104.05 Bridge1014,Calumet Road, over CSX Railroad

Com. Evans moved to approve the transfers, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Administration Center Window Shades Discussion

Com. Evans, “Have we compared what it would cost to tint the windows as opposed to putting shades on them. I am just worried if we put shades up, who is going to clean them, what are they going to look like.”

Com. Harper, “I don’t think its those kind of shades, I mean, I don’t think they are that kind of blind. Carole, is it all right to do this at the next meeting? And get Charlotte up here, is that all right? We need to get it done because it is an ongoing problem. Is that all right?”

Com. Knoblock, “Sure.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, so we will do it in two weeks and have Charlotte come here, and ask her who she got prices from.”

PART TIME EMPLOYEES RAISES

Com. Knoblock, “They didn’t get their raises.”

Ms. Hartig, “Most of the part timers are at $8.00 and they will go to $8.50, switchboard would go to $8.75. Then we have a request to increase the building security’s hourly rate from $10.00 to $10.50, that is going before the Council on Tuesday, the 22nd.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, let me go over this. We are going to ask for an hourly rate increase for security from $10.00 to $10.50, we are going to ask for an increase from $8.00 to $8.50 for . . . .”

Ms. Hartig, “Now those you shouldn’t have to go before the Council because our salary ordinance is at $9.00 for our part timers.”

Com. Harper, “So it would be a motion to increase from $8.00 to $8.50, all part time maintenance and to increase from $8.25 to $8.75, the people on the switchboard. And these people, part time on the switchboard, did not get a raise when the other county employees got a raise. And the $10.50 we have to go before the council for the security.”

Com. Evans, “Is that adequate, I mean those girls do a lot and since we closed that switchboard in Portage, they do double duty. Is that adequate?”

Ms. Hartig, “The most they can make is $9.00 unless we go back before the Council and ask for more. The trouble with this year is that the part time money is low.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the raises for part time employees for maintenance from $8.00 to $8.50, and switchboard from $8.25 to $8.75 and go to the Council for building security from $10.00 to $10.50, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

REMOVE COM. EVANS FROM KANKAKEE VALLEY RIVER BASIN BOARD

Com. Evans, “One thing in relation to Kankakee Valley River Basin Board. I am currently the Commissioners’ appointee to that board. I would like to ask to be recused from the appointment and appoint Harold Haberlin to that body.”

Com. Evans moved to be removed from the Kankakee Valley River Basin board and Harold Haberlin appointed, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

CORRECT FORM 144 FOR SECURITY POSITION

Com. Knoblock, “We need a motion to correct Chuck’s Form 144 for security.”

Com. Evans, “We need a separate motion for a 144?”

Com. Evans moved to correct the 144 for security from $10.00 to $10.50,

Com. Harper, “I thought we were going to keep him part time because of the insurance costs.”

Com. Knoblock, “Well, she said he was working too many hours and that he can’t stay part time.”

Ms. Hartig, “I checked with the Auditor’s office to find out if there was some guideline they followed as to what constitutes part time. They said it was set by the Commissioners and . . .”

Com. Evans, “There is a time restriction?”

Ms. Hartig, “According to the handbook, it says that a part time person works 29 hours a week or less.”

Com. Evans, “Is there a consecutive number of weeks they can work at that number of hours, is that restricted?”

Com. Harper, “At least right now, we should keep this as a part time position, I mean we are taxing ourselves. I can see what is happening to our health insurance costs. That’s my thought.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

PLAN COMMISSION SESSION

Rezone I-2 to I-1, Bette Blum Trust, 1st Reading
Robert Thompson, Plan Commission Director

Mr. Thompson, “This is Plan Commission Resolution 05-2, Petitioner Bette Blum Trust requesting amendments to the zoning maps from I-2 General Industry to I-1 Light Industry. This was heard at the Porter County Plan Commission at their February 23 meeting and was forwarded to the County Commissioners with a favorable recommendation by a 6-0 vote.”

Com. Harper, “Is this a public hearing?”

Mr. Thompson, “Yes, it is.

Com. Harper, “Who is here to speak for it?”

Don Bengel, “This is a piece of ground between Sturdy Road and Walmart, the south side. North of this is an animal clinic and next to that is Sears. Everything from Penny Hill south is on I-2 except part of this on ___’s property. I found out later it had already been zoned I-1 but not all of it. So we are asking for this whole strip that is yellow on your sheet to be rezone, it’s a down zoning from I-2 to I-1.”

Com. Harper, “You have residential on the south?”

Mr. Bengel, “That is the only residential use in that area. That’s Mrs. Whitmore’s old house.”

Com. Harper, “And the Plan Commission recommendation was?”
Mr. Thompson, “Recommend approval with a vote 6-0.”

Com. Evans, “There are residents standing in all three of those?”

Mr. Bengel, “Actually, there’s Don Peter’s parcel is in __ now. The parcel to the west is a house that will be removed and there is a house on the east side that will be removed. The proposal here is to construct some offices.”

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone here to speak on behalf of the petition? Is there anyone here to speak against?”

Com. Evans moved to close the public hearing, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to approve the zoning , Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance, 1st reading

Mr. Thompson, “This is Plan Commissoin Resolution No. 05-4, Petitioner is Porter County Plan Commission requesting an amendment to the Porter County Codes for the Erosion and Sediment Control ordinance. This case was heard at the February 23 hearing of the Plan Commissoin and was approved with amendments by a 6-0 vote. Those amendments were simply adding information that this was reviewed by the Department of Natural Resources, Conservation Division, and they had some remarks that they wanted as far as additions and the Plan Commissoin agreed to incorporate additions recommended by the DNR.”

Com. Harper, “We haven’t had a soil or erosion control ordinance. The state has one. The problem is they don’t have enough enforcement and they are stretched thin and so if there is a project going on in the county that is not properly addressing this issue, there is really nothing we can do until it passes.”

Mr. Thompson, “On this, there is a rule 5 that the state does enforce now through IDEM and there is the MS Boiler ____ hearing. It is going to be covering all the unincorporated area. This does not take IDEM or Rule 5 out of the picture at all. All this is allowing us to come in as an enforcement agency and we can have some stricter enforcement or codes we would like to incorporate in certain areas.”

Com. Evans, “Has the county attorney reviewed and or approved of this ordinance?”

Mr. Thompson, “I sent down the reports, I don’t know if Gwenn ended up having a copy of this or not.”

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone here to speak against this ordinance?”

Com. Evans moved to close the public hearing, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to approve on 1st reading contingent upon the county attorney’s review, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Thompson, “I sat on the advisory committee as far as going through the code revisions and just wanted to let you know the advisory committee. I have asked Commissioner Harper to represent the Commissioners on this particular code advisory committee that is being set up and the Plan Commission rep is Kevin Brietzke. From there I went to the special interest groups and asked people to sit on this committee. From that I have the Agricultural, I have John Remster; Environmental, Greg Cartucci; Transportation, Al Hoagland; John Swanson with NIRPC; Bill Ferngren, at attorney represents a number of petitioners in front of the BZA and Plan Commission. A.J. Monroe, who will be wearing two hats representing the Porter County Economic Development Alliance and also the city of Portage and I have also asked Greg Phillips, the city planner for the city of Valparaiso to sit on this. I just wanted to let you know because we are going to go forward and advertising these code enforcement revisions.”

Com. Evans, “That’s good, will it be done in about a month?”

Mr. Thompson, “No. It is going to be quite a project.”

Com. Evans, “Would it be wise to see if someone from the DNR would want to partake?”

Mr. Thompson, “I can always ask.”

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

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

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

Robert P. Harper
John A. Evans
Carole M. Knoblock


Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor