PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present were: Commissioners Robert Harper and John Evans, County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger, Administrative Assistant Melissa Hartig and Recording Secretary Vi Wagner.

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

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of April 18, 2006, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of May 1, 2006, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF CLAIMS

Com. Evans moved to approve the claims of May 3, 2006, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A PORTER COUNTY WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY BOARD, 1ST AND 2ND READING

Com. Harper, “Next we have an ordinance prepared by the county attorney establishing a Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board, this is first reading.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the ordinance on first reading,

Com. Evans, “This is the same as the last one except the composition of the board will be composed of three members. One member will be a member of the Paul C. Zona family, the family that donated the property; one will be a licensed veterinarian, established and practicing veterinary medicine in Porter County; and one will be resident at large of Porter County. Three members and three members alone.”

Com. Evans added as part of the motion to make the veterinarian Dr. Larry McAfee, the resident member as Dottie Kostka, a member of that body since its inception, and a member of the Zona family should be named by the Zona family and reported back to us, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Can we suspend the rules and pass this on 2nd reading”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “I was going to ask you, John, to talk about the grand opening.”

Com. Evans moved to suspend the rules to pass the ordinance on 2nd reading, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to approve Ordinance No. 06-06 on 2nd reading, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.


ORDINANCE NO. 06-06
PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A PORTER COUNTY WILDLIFE
MANAGEMENT ADVISORY BOARD

WHEREAS, the Porter County Board of Commissioners adopted the Porter County Municipal Code on Tuesday, December 2, 1997 pursuant to Ordinance No. 97-38; and
WHEREAS, the Porter County Board of Commissioners has deemed it necessary to pass a new ordinance for inclusion in the Porter County Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, I.C. 36-1-3-2 grants the board of County Commissioners all the powers that they need for the effective operation of government as to local affairs; and
WHEREAS, I.C. 36-1-3-6 states that if there is no constitutional or statutory provision requiring a specific manner for exercising a power, the Board of County Commissioners may adopt an ordinance prescribing a specific manner for exercising a power; and
WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners deemed it necessary for the effective operation of government as to local affairs to create a Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board pursuant to ordinance; and

BE IT AND IT IS HEREBY ORDAINED THAT:

1. Title 2, Administration and Personnel in the Porter County Municipal Code is hereby amended through the addition of Chapter 2.40 entitled Wildlife Management Advisory Board;
2. That Section 2.40.010 Established--Purpose is added to the Porter County Municipal Code to read as follows:
2.40.010 Established--Purpose
A Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board is hereby established to serve the Board of Commissioners of Porter County in an advisory capacity.

The Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board will be an advisory board created for the sole purpose of providing the Porter County Board of Commissioners with an advisory opinion on matters that have been specifically referred to them by the Porter County Board of Commissioners regarding wildlife management in Porter County, Indiana.

The Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board will be an advisory board to provide the Porter County Board of Commissioners with advisory opinions on matters that relate to the Paul C. Zona, Sr. Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary is titled to the Porter County Board of Commissioners and located in Porter County, Indiana.

3. That Section 2.40.020 Composition is added to the Porter County Municipal Code to read as follows:
2.40.020 Composition
The Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board will consist of three (3) members, who will be appointed annually by the Board of Commissioners as follows:

1. One member of the Paul C. Zona family;
2. One licensed veterinarian established in practicing veterinary medicine in Porter County, Indiana;
3. One resident of Porter County at large.

4. That Section 2.40.030 Duties is added to the Porter County Municipal Code to read as follows:
2.40.030 Duties
The Porter County Wildlife Advisory Management Board shall be officially established for the sole function and purpose of advising the Porter County Board of Commissioners on those matters specifically referred to the Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board by the Porter County Board of Commissioners, and which may include but not be limited to:

A. To advise on the management of the Paul C. Zona, Sr. Wildlife Sanctuary located in Porter County, Indiana;
B. To perform volunteer work and fundraising to raise money for the care and benefit of the Paul C. Zona, Sr. Wildlife Sanctuary
C. To secure any federal or state grants or funds available in the area of wildlife management;
D. To use available funds to organize and implement training and education for local law enforcement officers;
E. To use available funds to purchase any necessary equipment to safely handle wildlife;
F. To use available funds to organize and implement training and education of law enforcement officers for the proper handling of trapped, dislocated, injured and diseased wildlife;
G. To use available funds to transport wildlife to a facility where medical treatment can be rendered;
H. To use available funds to organize and implement training to educate local law enforcement officers to relocate wildlife to a safe and natural environment; and
I. To perform volunteer work and fundraising to raise money for the care and benefit of the Paul C. Zona, Sr. Wildlife Sanctuary;
J. Any other matters which are referred to the advisory board by the Porter County Board of Commissioners regarding the effective operation of wildlife management in Porter County, Indiana.

The Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board shall attend a Commissioner meeting once every four months to advise the Commissioners of pending business and to give an update as to the care and management of the Paul C. Zona, Sr. Wildlife Sanctuary.

5. That Section 2.40.040 is added to the Porter County Municipal Code to read as follows:

2.40.040 To serve at the pleasure of the Board of Commissioners

The Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board will serve at the pleasure of the Porter County Board of Commissioners for the sole purpose of making recommendations to the Porter County Board of Commissioners as to the functions and duties enumerated in this chapter, and the advisory board may be dissolved at any time by the Porter County Board of Commissioners.

This ordinance hereby passed and adopted this ____ day of _______________, 2006.

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA
s/Robert P. Harper
s/John A. Evans

Attest: s/Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor

PAUL C. ZONA SR. WILDLIFE SANCTUARY OPEN HOUSE

Com. Evans, “On the 7th of this month at the Zona Sanctuary will be the open house for that property. Highway has generously worked on the roads, a lot of people have been out there putting in benches and making the trails passable, a lot of work has gone into the property and we would like to see a large attendance out there for the opening. A lot of people have put a lot of time into this board and I don’t want anyone to think that just by now eliminating it to three people that we don’t want volunteers, that is exactly what we want is volunteers to help this body. They are an advisory group and that’s exactly what we would like them to do is to advise us what they need to do. They’ve got CEDIT funding for $25,000.00 a year for the last two years, so that is $50,000.00 and they are hopefully going to acquire more property and continue to make this a pretty nice piece of property for Porter County.”

Com. Harper, “Thank you, John. We are not going to handle the Anton Insurance tonight so we will continue that at a later date.”

OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

Award Truck bids
Al Hoagland, Highway Superintendent

Mr. Hoagland, “At this time I would like to make the same recommendation that we made on our previous purchase that we put to bid and allow us to get two Mack Trucks and four Peterbilt Trucks. Funding is in place.”

Com. Evans, “Is that spreaders as well?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Yes, these are complete, and snow plows.”

Com. Evans, “How many are going up north?”

Mr. Hoagland, “One of them will be….”

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

Com. Harper, “Mike, do you have a presentation tonight? And Al, do you have anything else?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Do you want to take action on the memo?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “There’s two things I want to say. One, is when they say funding is in place, I don’t want to be a stickler, but that’s vague. I’ve learned from the past that it’s a good idea for the minutes to understand what that means.”

Com. Evans, “The money is coming from cable funds.”

Mr. Hoagland, “Two trucks will be purchased from cable funds the other will be through highway funds. They are a lease purchase. Also, the lease has dropped this year, the rate on the interest is down from last years’.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Are all of them going to be lease purchase or just four?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Four.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “So those agreements will then be coming back before us for approval for the terms of the lease purchase agreement?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Yes.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “All right. Then the money for the trucks that are being purchased by lease purchase is coming out of highway funds?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Correct.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Okay. The other thing is, I sent a memo out, I’m sorry, Al sent a memo out May 1st regarding job descriptions for mechanics in the county. We had a discrepancy amongst our job descriptions for mechanics and I just really don’t know how that occurred, but the mechanics in Valpo and Chesterton had one job description and hourly rate and then the mechanic in Hebron had a different job description and higher hourly rate. It was titled as a foreman position. So, Al has taken those mechanic job duty descriptions and changed them so they are all equal and are adjusting the pay rate so they all get paid the same and I think there was a vehicle involved that won’t be there anymore. There is one mechanic that does supervise all the mechanics and he is in the Center District and his job indicates that he is a supervisor. So, we just need a motion for you to approve the amendment of the job descriptions for the highway mechanics so they are all the same.”

Com. Evans, “Did we lower somebody’s pay or did we raise two others?”

Mr. Hoagland, “It was lowered.”

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

INDIVIDUALIZED CARE MANAGEMENT FEE INCREASES
Mike Anton, Anton Insurance Agency

Mr. Anton, “I need you to consider the large case managers contract for the current policy term. Large case managers are those that review claims of significance on behalf of the county for the betterment of the employee and the county. The cost has gone up ten cents per month per employee and that is largely due to the Disease Management Program they instituted a year ago. The Disease Management Program is something I was going to comment on tonight and pass out your copies, we don’t have to deliver that, it is just that this is a program that helps educate a county employee under those conditions that have been targeted by ICM as a condition that needs to be managed, Individual Care Management. They are the large case managers. I think the most significant issue with the Disease Management Program that has been instituted by ICM is that there were 209 people identified with targeted conditions that were invited to participate in an educational program related to their particular condition and we had 46% of those people who are participating. So we are losing 54% of those targeted employees or dependants. I think we need to try and reach all of them. So, we’ll work at it with that in mind. I ask that you approve that contract for $2.45 per employee per month.”

Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation for Individualized Care Management at $2.45 per employee per month, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “On the other issue, why don’t you give us a little time to think about that. I think we should do something to encourage everybody to participate. We are trying to lower our insurance costs.”

Com. Evans, “To me, this is like the Wellness Program. It’s there and if you don’t utilize it, it is kind of silly.”

Mr. Anton, “Absolutely. We can come up with a plan to encourage them. The other thing I just gave to Commissioner Harper is on the COBRA rates for 2006. You guys have already approved this but I errored and I need you just to initial this. I am going to give you the same report that ICM gave us and it says the ICM program costs the county $14,636.00 and the return savings based on the 2005 policy period is $95,000.00 so it’s a six time return for the county of money invested in ICM. That’s it.”

Com. Harper, “Thank you very much, Mike. Do you need anything back from us? Okay, the next thing we have is Ken Perkins on contract approval.”

Integrator.com contract approval
Ken Perkins, Director of Juvenile Detention Center

Mr. Perkins, “I am just asking to have a service agreement renewed with Integrator.com; they service our security automation system which is essentially exactly the same as last years’. I actually should have brought this over earlier in the year but it wasn’t right in front of me and they normally call and tell me. They didn’t call because (inaudible)……”

Com. Evans, “Are these the door people?”

Mr. Perkins, “This is our control panel and intercoms. It does control the locks, but it is separate from the doors.”

Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Interference issues
Sharon Lippens, IT Director

Ms. Lippens, “I am not sure exactly how much history you wanted me to go into, so I’ve got kind of brief overview and some associated costs that we have done over the years.”

Com. Harper, “Sharon, why don’t you tell us a little bit about the problems that are going on now.”

Ms. Lippens, “The problems we are having now are between the courthouse which is kind of our main hub which ____ the Administration Center and the Highway and Juvenile Center. They share a limb and they are getting, they’re connected with an unlicensed frequency wireless and we are getting interference from an antennae that is on the water tower at the old Anderson building. We had been getting interference from that same antenna some years ago on a north county line which is what prompted us in 2002 to upgrade to a licensed frequency at that time. Of course, then being a licensed frequency interference stopped and then that is when the interference switched to this other one. It was more than an annoyance more than anything that was becoming increasingly worse and I think as the Highway Department depends more and more on email and internet access to interact with the state as well as the Juvenile Center coming on line with a juvenile case management system, that they need to have access to our system with it is more critical for them to have that connectivity to do their daily tasks.”

Com. Harper, “I think that probably it is becoming more of a nuisance because these people are becoming more and more dependant on getting into that system, because anymore the Prosecutor’s, the Probation people, all these people have all their cases online and to do their work they have to be online. If they are not online, the work’s not getting done. It is just the way they work anymore.”

Com. Evans, “Since the first of March of this year, there have been 194 drops?”

Ms. Lippens, “For the month of March, just for the month of March alone, there have been 194. And some of them are almost instantaneous and some of them can last several minutes or hours. Some of those drops are during off hours like on the weekends and etcetera but some are at other times. But the number of drops are the actual instances and then the amount of time is the sum total of the amount of time that has been lost with those sudden drops.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, so the fix is?”

Ms. Lippens, “To install a licensed frequency as we did with North County Complex and the new Jail.”

Com. Harper, “Now does that get into bidding?”

Ms. Lippens, “The vendor that has put in our current system looked at the project and felt that it would come in under $75,000.00. So we would still have to go out for request for proposal but not for formal bid.”

Com. Harper, “What kind of time frame?”
Ms. Lippens, “If we go out for request for proposal, you’ve got a minimum of thirty days and then probably a two week turn around to get the contract approved so we are talking bare minimum, six weeks. Another option would be, correct me if I am wrong, if you go out to bid on a project and it is installed through the competitive bid process and you are upgrading that, do you still have to put it out to bid?”

Com. Harper, “Why wouldn’t we go out to bid?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Sometimes when you have an upgrade and there is only one vendor that can actually do the upgrade, you don’t have to bid. I don’t think that is this circumstance.”

Ms. Lippens, “Other vendors can.”

Com. Harper, “I think it should go out for bid.”

Com. Evans, “I do, too. It’s really a separate project. There’s no possibility that we can negotiate a different frequency that wouldn’t be…. It just seems that every time we move to a frequency, that that frequency is attacked. There is no way to make sure that we stay safe on any frequency other than being registered (inaudible)…..”

Ms. Lippens, “Right. We would have to upgrade to a licensed frequency and once this project would be completed, we would not have any unlicensed frequencies in use any longer.”

Com. Evans, “This is the last one?”

Ms. Lippens, “Yes, we are in the process of working with John Thorstad to try and find the solution for his building which may involve some type of wireless, but we haven’t gotten very far in the discussion.”

Com. Evans, “The need is critical.”

Com. Evans moved to go out for proposals and put a handle on the dollar amount and in the interim we need to find out where we are going to get the funds, either from CCD or someplace else,

Com. Harper, “I think we have it in CCD.”

Com. Harper seconded,

Atty. Rinkenberger, “As long as we have the money somewhere.”

Com. Evans, “Before we let the bid out, we will know where it’s coming from. Jim Burge is here, he said he could take it out of his petty change.”

Motion carried.

Ms. Lippens, “Just to get it on record, you may have read in the paper that (inaudible)… have entered into an agreement with the city of Valpo to provide wireless access. Greenfield has done that for the county in the past.”

Com. Evans, “Yeah, so they can be on our tower.”

Ms. Lippens, “That’s correct, but the county has always felt that putting the number of buildings that we have, and the critical nature of some of the services, that we did not feel we wanted to put our communication in the hands of a private vendor as well as get back under the ability to utilize the towers which could affect (inaudible)…. I am sure that is an option.”

Com. Evans, “I don’t think it is a very prudent option.”

Ms. Lippens, “Do you want me to prepare the request for proposal?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “You can just prepare it and bring it to me an we’ll just do it.”

Approve contract with Porter County Storage, LLC for EMA storage
Phil Griffith, EMA Director

Mr. Griffith, “We had to move everything from the Porter County Expo to a storage facility due to the fact they were getting ready to renovate the storage facility we had at the Expo Center when we moved out over there.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “You are renting these for $176.00 a month, and is it coming out of your budget?”

Mr. Griffith, “Since I don’t have a budget for that, no.”

Com. Evans, “Where will it be taken from?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “How long is it going to be in storage for?”

Mr. Griffith, “Probably until August when our building is built and we can move everything in.”

Com. Evans, “Highway didn’t have any space for you?”

Mr. Griffith, “No, sir.”

Com. Harper, “Because the basement is full of records at Highway, right?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Yes. We are just running out of room.”

Com. Harper, “I understand that.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t you destroy those records?”

Com. Harper, “We are trying to work on those records and Council approved $125,000.00 to start and we are trying to work on those records right now. It is my understanding that at the Clerk’s office they have a constant project going on destroying the ones they can destroy. Some of them they can’t destroy. They’ve had somebody working up north I know for the last few months destroying records that they can destroy. They keep building up but it is just an ongoing matter.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Can’t they burn them?”

Com. Evans, “What are you storing?”

Mr. Griffith, “Everything from our gas masks to our cots for disasters to all the office equipment and supplies that we had at the county home when we moved out to various training supplies, and computers, stuff like that. We had it all stored in the restroom down by the grandstand and we filled up both sides of that. We have two ten by thirty sheds that are full.”

Com. Evans, “I guess we just have to figure out where we are with this.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the contract contingent on finding funding, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Phil, we want to make sure that the upstairs of that building is kept for election equipment. That was the understanding. So, we all understand that, okay? That was the understanding why the Council approved that second floor and so forth because we have some real space concerns here. They are asking to take our last conference room that we have, we don’t have enough room for meetings for everybody. So, we are on the same page with that?”

Mr. Griffith, “Yeah. A lot of stuff, like the computers and stuff are all going to be using. The desk for the radios will be for the operations center and they are all stored in there.”

Com. Harper, “What I am talking about is the voting equipment. Upstairs.”

Mr. Griffith, “The upstairs is going to be 60 by 60, storage.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “And that is going to be completely for voting machines.”

Com. Harper, “Just so everybody understands, I don’t want it to change. Have someone come along here and say that space is for them.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I guess the question is, is the upstairs is going to be completely for voting machines, where are you going to put the other stuff?”

Mr. Griffith, “I was unaware the upstairs was going to be completely for voting machines.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “That’s what the question was.”

Com. Harper, “I think it’s real plain that the Council has discussed and we have been in front of the Council. I think it is extremely plain and I think that is a Commissioner decision now and I don’t want anybody else deciding that. I will talk to Russ about that tomorrow.”

Com. Evans, “And I think yesterday’s election results kind of verified that. It’s a good system and it seems to work and everybody can function with it but it is going to require a lot more storage than the old system did. We’ve got a system in place where Highway delivers the equipment now, they’re right next door, everything is in the same neighborhood, same ball park and we would really like to be able to continue to keep it kind of stored out there. Highway can do the delivery and just kind of pack them away there. It’s going to take up a lot more space than it has been.”

Mr. Griffith, “(Inaudible)….work it into the budget.”

Com. Harper, “Phil, if we go back over our Council minutes……”

Com. Evans, “The second floor was approved ….”

Com. Harper, “You were at that meeting, too, you should have been aware of that.”

Mr. Griffith, “I was aware we were going to have Sheriff storage but I wasn’t aware it was going to be ….”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The issue becomes then that we have perpetual storage fee in the Commissioner’s budget, or what?”

Com. Harper, “We’ll get to that later, I just want to make sure that nobody makes plans for this right now.”

Com. Evans, “If we’re talking storage, needed storage for cots and those kind of things, maybe we should have some thought about a lean-to onto to the building we are building or something like that. Because that upstairs storage has to be a certain temperature, and it has to be dry and it has to be fairly humidity controlled and those kinds of things. I don’t think the cots are going to be that critical.”

Mr. Griffith, “They can be stored anywhere.”
Atty. Rinkenberger, “Can they go back out to the Expo after their done with the remodeling?”

Com. Evans, “No, they need that space, they were just kind of lending it to us. They are trying to upgrade the bathrooms.”

Mr. Griffith, “The only reason we used that facility this time is to have help with the computers and stuff and the TV’s and the training equipment. We eliminated one of those storage bins, there are two storage bins.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “This contract is for two? Two at $76.00 a piece?”

Mr. Griffith, “Yes.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “For $150.00 a month?”

Mr. Griffith, “Yes.”

Com. Evans, “My only other thought was maybe a semi trailer.”

Mr. Griffith, “I wouldn’t have any problem with that. That would work for me.”

Com. Harper, “Outside storage (inaudible)…, all right, thanks.”

COMMISSIONERS’ REPORTS

Center District:

1. Sagamore Subdivision Road Agreement located on the north side of CR 100 North at CR 325 West and the east side of CR 350 West. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $150,000.00. Owner and subdivider are 100 North Properties, William J. Carlson. Recommend approval.

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

PROPOSALS TO REPLACE AUTOMATIC DOORS AT NORTH COUNTY

Com. Evans, “Do we have those here?”

Ms. Hartig, “There is only two.”

Com. Evans, “And we have money for this?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Was Charlotte giving a recommendation on this?”

Com. Harper, “We’ve gone over and over this.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, one is for $14,923.00 and one is $14,240.00. So that is close enough in money so if there is one we have a working relationship with.”

Com. Evans, “One is a vendor from Hillside, Illinois, the other is a vendor from Chesterton, Indiana.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the proposal by Trout Glass and Mirror for $14,240.00, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, “I would like for Charlotte to, she’s not here, is she? We need to do a survey for this building. There has to be 200 or more keys out. Security tells me that they are often called on weekends and at night to come back here and lock the building, someone has come in and the doors are left standing open when they leave. I think we need to explore the possibility of a key pad type entry system that would record the person entering the building and would determine when that person leaves the building, and whether or not they secured the facility.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t we just change the locks and don’t give out any more keys. Just give a key people a number of them.”

Com. Evans, “That’s what happened when they opened the building. Let’s look at a key pad type entry system that would be opened during the day for business hours and those people that enter the building when the building is not opened, would have to be typed in and we would know who they are, when they got here, when they leave.”

Ms. Hartig, “Do you want her to check for the key pad and like for the fob type things?”

Com. Evans, “Ask her to get with Sharon. Sharon, if you would maybe give her some ideas for a computer entry, for a pad type system.”

Ms. Lippens, “Is it possible to put a breaker door on like they have on the side entrance?”

Com. Evans, “No. We have to be cognizant of the fire issue always but the entrance and exit into the building by, and there are people that are authorized to do that, but they are not authorized to leave and leave the door open. That is what is happening. So, we need some kind of way to secure the building and we will know when someone leaves and doesn’t lock the door.”

Com. Harper, “Anything else before we start the pandemic discussion? Oh, we have correspondence.”

CORRESPONDENCE

Clerk’s monthly report for March 2006 is on file.

Approve official bond for Richard Claussen, Weights and Measures Inspector

Com. Evans moved to approve the official bond for Richard Claussen, Weights and Measures Inspector in the amount of $8,500.00, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Request by American Cancer Society to hold annual walk on courthouse square

Com. Evans moved to approve the request by American Cancer Society to hold 8th annual “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” walk on the courthouse square on October 15, 2006 contingent on proof of insurance, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Request by National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse to proclaim September 25, 2006 as Family Day, A Day to Eat Dinner with your Children

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

Request by Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War to hold annual Memorial
Day Program at courthouse on May 29, 2006 at 10:30 a.m.

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

Request by 3rd Rocks for the Son youth group to assemble at CR 500 West and Division and 500 W and 100 S to collect donations for a mission trip

Com. Harper, “This trip is a week long camp where the group will be restoring homes in the area of impoverished and elderly residents. Is there anyone here on this?”

Ms. Hartig, “I contacted the lady on this and she wasn’t sure if she could make it tonight or not.”

Com. Evans, “Do we know anything about the 3rd Rocks for the Son group? It’s a Christian group, I assume.”

Ms. Hartig, “It’s a youth group.”

Com. Evans, “They want to assemble there? There’s no times here, either, is it all day?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s too vague, then, it could be a liability. It’s on our county roads. Who is going to be out there?”

Com. Evans, “It’s a pretty busy intersection.”

Com. Harper, “I think we should talk to the Sheriff’s Department.”

Ms. Hartig, “It says in the letter that they are looking at May 7 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the request contingent upon proof of insurance and working with and approval of the Sheriff’s Department to make sure its not a detriment to the impediment of the traffic, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Approve payment of transportation expense for dependant of Porter County Government to AeroCare LLC

Com. Evans, “We’ve got one insurance matter. We’ve got a Porter County Government that necessitated emergency transportation incurring an expense that is outside of our plan benefit guidelines. This handling comes under the extreme circumstances portion of our policy. I recommend the Board to instruct our third party administrator to adjudicate the payment of the claim consistent with the benefit plan.”

Com. Evans moved to instruct the third party administrator to adjudicate the payment of the claim for emergency transportation, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

PANDEMIC PLAN PRESENTATION
Christa Mazur, Health Dept.
Phil Griffith, EMA
Keith Letta, Health Dept.

Com. Harper, “I would like to ask Keith Letta to come forward. We have on our schedule tonight, we’ve asked Keith to handle the presentation tonight. He is going to have other people come forward to take care of this but I have asked him to sort of run it. The Health Department has been doing much, much work behind the scenes and I think a lot of people are aware of this, in the event of a major disaster of some kind, including the Bird Flu, or any type of disaster or health crisis. They have worked with Emergency Management, but they also worked with the Sheriff’s Department, various fire departments and so forth. Not long ago, Keith got me a plan, a working draft of a plan that they were working on and I reviewed it and Commissioner Evans reviewed it and I think we thought it would be important for the general public to be aware of what these departments are doing. Then I think after this you are going to be holding public meetings, is that correct? I am going to turn this over to Keith for the presentation.”

Mr. Letta, “Thank you. Present tonight is Dr. Babcoke, our Health Officer, several of our board members and Christa Mazur is going to do the presentation. She is our Public Health Coordinator. As you may recall, she is the grant position funded by the state. She initially began as our Bio-terrorism Coordinator but as things continue to change, she is now a Public Health Coordinator and she is working all aspects as Commissioner Harper mentioned, the Avian Flu disaster, bio-situation, it is all kind of involved. So she will do the presentation tonight.”

Christa Mazur, “I just have a short slide presentation, but this is where I am really focusing on here is the whole threat of the pandemic which was my understanding what Phil and I were here to talk about and is what we have kind of been moving into and what’s kind of big on the plate right now. So, that is all I am talking about at this point forward. Just as a background of what pandemic flu is, this is a flu that is caused by a completely new virus which causes very severe disease. It’s different from the seasonal flu, which we see every single year and that is why we get flu shots every year. This pandemic flu, by definition, affects the entire world and it really does it in a relatively short period of time. We are talking about a matter of months. The entire world goes through the entire cycle of seeing up to 30% illness in the entire population. There were three pandemics in the 20th century and through lots of research they determined there were probably three flu pandemics for several centuries, just being able understand it pre-dated what we can do now. We can learn those things and they couldn’t back then. So if we look at this, this is the 1918 flu, and that shows you how quickly, in less than a months time, that’s how quickly the pandemic flu in 1918 spread across the entire United States. If you consider that’s before air travel, you can see just how rapid fire this happens. So you can imagine how quickly it may happen to us now considering what our lifestyle is compared to that time. So there were three pandemics in the 20th century; the 1918 Spanish Flu, which is the most famous, but also too, in 1957 and 1968, were not quite as bad nearly, really, as the Spanish Flu was. So, the Spanish Flu, the pandemic flu of 1918, caused around 500,000 U.S. deaths. It’s hard to judge what the exact population and public health systems were nearly in place around the world at that time so world wide deaths, you are looking at something like 20 to 40 million, that’s a pretty wide range but it is hard to know exactly how many people died from it. In contrast, you look at World War 1, which was going on at the same time as the pandemic, lasted longer than the pandemic, and 8.5 million people total died in the World War at the same time. This is from the Indiana State Department of Health’s Pandemic Flu Plan and this is looking at what is most likely, minimum and maximum to happen, just in during a pandemic. At the top we have the hospital admissions and the bottom is total deaths. The 15% column you might imagine that is more like one of the moderate pandemic flues, as happened in 1957 and 1968. Whereas, on the right is the 35% column, would probably be more like a severe pandemic like that which happened in 1918. So, at the very maximum scenario, we are looking at 39,000 hospital admissions in just the state of Indiana, considering that health care runs at somewhere between 95 and 99% capacity these days, where we are going to find 39,000 hospital beds is anybody’s guess at this point. The total deaths, looking at Indiana, in the maximum scenario, 9,675 deaths in a relatively short period of time just in the state of Indiana. You compare that to the seasonal flu, which on average in this country, we see 200,000 hospitalizations per year, and 36,000 from influenza or as complications. So, that would be a much higher number than what we see right now just in the every year scenario. So, when we look at the planning defined by the federal planning right now, the responsibilities of the states and localities, we need to be prepared to take measures to limit the spread, establish and exercise plans which is where we are now, integrate non health and stations of planning, establish stockpiles and distribution systems. Stockpiles are really more of a state responsibility with the distribution systems is what is in this bright green folder, which you’ve seen, for how we may be able to as Porter County, distribute medications to as much as 100% of our population, identify and educate spokespersons, which we do have a crisis and emergency risk communication plan for the Health Department so we have identified a spokesperson there. And provide public education, that’s something we are doing that is ongoing, I have a presentation that I’ve done a few times now. In fact, I just gave one today and Channel 56 was there and taped the entire thing, so, we might be able to (inaudible)… Private sector and critical infrastructure responsibilities. Now these critical infrastructure, we are going to be looking at local government as all these responsibilities of every single department in Porter County. Establish an ethic of infection control in the workplace reinforced during annual flu season. Options are working off site while ill, systems to reduce infection transmission, and worker education. Too often, in this country now, people come to work when they are sick and they do with kind of a hero factor, they’ll even say, well, I was so sick but I came to work anyway. They don’t think about the fact that you are actually causing more problems by passing your illness around, they think they are so vital, they have to be there even if they are sick. So this is a problem that we need to discourage because especially during a pandemic, what that may do to the workforce, and also establish contingency systems to maintain the delivery of essential goods. Establish mechanisms to allow work at home and public health advises against non essential travel. Establish partnerships to provide mutual support. Individual and family responsibilities, this is something absolutely everybody needs to think about for the pandemic flu, but everybody needs to be thinking about any emergency preparedness disaster planning, but for illness, we need to take precautions to prevent spread. We talk about that a lot in presentations I give. We hang up signage for cover your cough; wash your hands, that kind of thing. We need to prepare people to follow public health guidelines by either limitation of travel or suspension of mass gatherings. We can expect that in a bad pandemic and maybe the worst case scenario maybe even in the minimum scenario, we will do things like tell schools they will not be operating, churches will not be operating, everything. Something that puts a lot of people in close contact with each other needs to stop while we are trying to contain the disease and lessen the impact. Stock up on supplies and stay at home. Some of the guidance is telling people to think of this as a snow day. So, pandemic response from the health department’s perspective is going to consist of monitoring, we are going to do our surveillance for disease; also, if we are distributing vaccines or anti-virals we are going to have to think of ways to look at that kind of coverage. We may have to distribute medications but that is a real ‘iffy’ thing because medications are unlikely to be available in sufficient amounts to distribute to the public at large in order to prevent the illness. We need to work on containment measures. Containment can include quarantine, isolation, suspension of mass gatherings and there is some new legislation that was just completed at the state level about a month ago that gives more teeth to that law. Educate and inform, and then pandemics tend to happen in about two waves. A wave of disease comes through, kind of goes down, some time passes and then the second wave comes around and you see the second wave of disease. So we need to be able to sit back, assess our response to the first wave, and quickly re-gather and see what kind of modifications we would have to make for the second wave. We have been coordinating with Porter Hospital. We’ve got a really good partnership going on there. Through the hospital we have a pandemic planning committee that has been formed. The Porter County Health Department and the Emergency Management representatives are sitting on this committee and sub-committees. The departments at the hospital have performed what they call swat analyses I can’t tell you what the O stands for at this point, but strength, weaknesses, something and threats, and somebody else in here probably knows the O, opportunity, thank you. So they have all completed that and now we have our next committee meeting tomorrow night and we are going to be discussing time lines for a plan to be completed within this year, a hospital plan, and I also have some other things that we are working closely with Infection Control, the Infection Control nurse is the lead on the committee. I have some other things from an assessment that we’re completing for the CDC in order to share with them the kinds of things that they are expecting the hospitals to have in their plan. So we have some upcoming events and I think Phil is going to talk further about a table top exercise that we are going to have May 18 at the Expo Center. We’ve also been asked by the State Department of Health to do town hall meetings or summits so I’ve just combined that for a town hall summit on pandemic flu for the public. The state did their state’s summit because every state was to have a summit. They’ve done their summit, Phil and I were both in attendance at that summit. Now they want us to do them all at a county level so we will have that June 18 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the Expo Center.”

Com. Harper, “June 18?”

Ms. Mazur, “June 8th, sorry, June 8th. And then the website everybody is asked to go to for current relevant information and accurate information is pandemicflu.gov, the CDC, the World Health Organization, those are good and accurate resources. That’s the end of my part.”

Mr. Griffith, “May 18 from 9:00 to noon out at the Expo Center we are going to have all five candidates from District 1 are going to be represented. The hospital, Emergency Management , police, fire, EMS, and we are going to run a scenario saying the pandemic has, in fact, started and we are going to take various points in the scenario to be questions that each group is going to have to answer. And we are going to force communications between all of the various agencies. Porter County is very fortunate right now that our Health Department, our Emergency Management Agency, our fire, our police, are all working hand in hand with the hospital. In some areas that is not the way it is going. In the pandemic, we are going to be on our own. We are not going to have the resources from Lake County, LaPorte County, or anything, so we need to make sure they are doing their part so that we can make sure we are doing our part. So during this scenario, as we run through it, at this point, what should the Health Departments be doing; at this point what should the fire departments be doing, what should police departments be doing, how should they be reacting to this circumstance. And what kind of communications should they be presenting back and forth to each other. So we don’t hear, that’s not my department so I don’t have to worry about it, its not my problem, it’s the Health Department’s problem. But, yes it is also my problem so I need to be aware of what they are doing. They need to be aware of what I am doing in case I am doing something I shouldn’t be doing then the doctor can come back and say I wouldn’t do it that way I would do it this way. Then we can actually come up with a situation where we are all working on the same page.”

Ms. Mazur, “I have something else semi-related. You may have been told about this; we are also involved in something called the City’s Readiness Initiative. It’s based on a scenario where the release of anthrax can cause severe illness in many people in a very short period of time. So, they chose some cities to do some planning surrounding being able to distribute antibiotics to prevent illness to 100% of the population within 48 hours which is the minimum incubation time for anthrax. We’ve been added to Chicago, as being part of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area, we’ve been added to Chicago’s City’s Readiness, easier to call it CRI planning and based on that we have had to do some assessment and now they have a grant for us that was supposed to be a year long grant but because of all the Katrina problems, they are just now getting it to us. Now it is a four month grant to do some planning and buying some particular things, so Porter County has been chosen as belief agency for the Indiana jurisdictions of the Chicago MSA so I have this grant here that asks for Commissioner Harper’s signature. It’s not just for Porter County, either, what they are going to have us do is buy the goods that will be shared among the jurisdictions. Then we have to do cooperative planning to determine as those goods are distributed.”

Com. Harper, “I want to thank you, I don’t know that everyone knows the amount of work that everyone’s put into this. What time are those meetings?”

Mr. Griffith, “June 8 will be at 7:00 in the evening, it will be about a two hour presentation for the public so the public can get correct information and then the May 18 will be 9:00 am to noon, at the Expo Center.”

Com. Harper, “I hope that the press reports on those meetings and encourages people, especially the June 8 meeting that is open. May 18 is the exercise…. We don’t think about these things enough. We sit here in Porter County, and we have the Port of Indiana and all types of sensitive things going on in our county and around us and we see the problems that New Orleans had and realize that you, local people, have to be ready to act. You can’t just wait for the federal government. You’ve taken 15 or 20 minutes to go over the plan that’s very complex and I applaud you for doing that. I further would say this, and Commissioner Evans may have some things to add but also there have been a lot of grants the departments have put in. They haven’t got everything they needed and they were trying to supplement that. Recently the state of Indiana passed that 911 funds can be used for the first 911 system and we’ve talked to our 911 director and asked if he would present us with a plan so we can get that set up and running as quickly as possible. The state of Indiana is also providing leadership training for Commissioners in this area and what they need to do and we will be represented at those training sessions also to try and keep up with our responsibility and we applaud you for what you have done.”

Com. Evans, “I think Phil hit the nail on the head when he said the cooperation effort. I know for a fact that everybody is working with everybody else in a manner to just bolster the outcome if it ever happens and to make sure everybody knows what’s to happen and how it will happen. I wish it were easier to predict and you mentioned that we are able to now to get better statistics and have a better handle on it. Hindsight is always 20/20 and we can look back at that 1918 and the past problems but there is no way for us to know that 15% or 35%, and even the virility of whatever strain that we get. So it is really something that is a big, big question mark and we can’t express enough our appreciation.”

Com. Harper, “Maybe you could step outside at the conclusion of this and I am sure the press will have some questions for you. Thank you very much.”


PORTER COUNTY JAIL BUILDING CORP LITIGATION DISCUSSION

Com. Harper, “I have one more thing. The ongoing litigation with the jail has been going on and there has been negotiations going on. The jail committee has the ultimate responsibility of approving that but the Commissioners remain and I would like to ask for a motion that the county attorney be authorized on our behalf to settle any claims they have along with working with the jail committee to do it. “

Com. Evans moved to approve the county attorney to be authorized on the Commissioners behalf to settle any claims, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Anything else?”

THANKS TO ELECTION WORKERS

Com. Evans, “I would like to give my thanks to the people who put on the election yesterday, it was the first time around with the new systems and new processes. Sometimes there’s glitches and I don’t think there were any. I think that it was a pretty good investment; we were forced to make it, but nonetheless a good thing.”

Com. Harper, “I was thinking about it, and the only thing you could do wrong with that was mark outside the line.”

Com. Evans, “You could put the ballot into the reader sideways.”

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


BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

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



Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor