PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2006
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

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

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

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of August 7, 2006, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of August 1, 2006, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MALDEN LABOR DAY PARADE
Greg Leach

Com. Harper, “We have a request for a temporary use of county highways for the Malden Labor Day Parade. Is there someone here on that?”

Mr. Leach, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “Do you want to come up for that? Do you mind to state your name.”

Mr. Leach, “My name is Greg Leach, I am president of the Morgan Township Volunteer Fire Department. This is a document that the Indiana Department of Transportation provides us every year. I believe, without going into a lot of legalese, it is a hold harmless to the state of Indiana should there be damage to their property in the course of the Malden Labor Day Parade. The county roads that are involved are, the parade lines up on County Road 325 South, proceeds south on State Road 49 to 400 South and then over to 150 East. I have a map here on an entry form if you care to see it. The bulk of the parade is on State Road 49.”

Com. Evans, “It’s right by Vicki’s house.”

Mr. Leach, “And the duration of the parade is usually about 40 minutes.”

Com. Knoblock, “Isn’t this about your eighth year?”

Mr. Leach, “Yes, eighth year. The Porter County Sheriff’s Department provides the traffic control on 49, our fire department does on the county roads.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the request for the Malden Labor Day Parade, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

AMENDMENT TO WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT ADVISORY BOARD ORDINANCE #06-06, 2ND READING

Com. Evans, “I just have one little amendment to it in our book and it is under municipal code section that reads as follows: 2.40.020 Composition, number one should read at least one member of the Paul C. Zona family instead of one member. And I will make a motion to approve it on second reading with that caveat.”

Com. Evans moved to approve Ordinance No. 06-06 on 2nd reading with the change of “at least one member of the Paul C. Zona family” added in Section 2.40.020 of the ordinance, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

ORDINANCE NO. 06-___
AMENDING ORDINANCE 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
WHEREAS, the Porter County Board of Commissioners has deemed it necessary to amend the ordinance creating a Porter County Wildlife Advisory Board;
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 six (6) members, who will be appointed annually by the Board of Commissioners as follows:

1. At least one member of the Paul C. Zona family;
2. One licensed veterinarian established in practicing veterinary medicine in Porter County, Indiana;
3. Four (4) residents 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
s/Carole M. Knoblock
attest:s/Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor

OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

Al Hoagland, Highway Superintendent
Award bids for salt

Com. Harper, “The next thing we have is Al Hoagland from the Highway to award the salt bids.”

Mr. Hoagland, “At this time I recommend that we accept the bid from North American Salt at $39.42 a ton. They were low bid and we’ve done business with these folks in the past. They had pretty good delivery service, no real problems. They increased their prices $2.19 over last year’s.”

Com. Evans moved to accept the bid of North American Salt at $39.42 a ton,

Com. Evans, “Do you want the other bidders included as well, in case…?”

Mr. Hoagland, “They normally will only take one. We are pretty much at their mercy.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “The next thing we have is Ken Perkins on the agreement for Marshall and Jasper Counties. Do you know why he is not here?”

Ms. Hartig, “I think he might just be running late.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, lets go into Commissioners’ reports.”

REPORT FROM COMMISSIONERS

All Districts: read by Com. Evans

1. We just received the 2005 Annual County Certified Miles from INDOT’s Roadway Inventory & Systems Supervisor. The 2005 inventory has 792.04 miles, up from the 2004 mileage of 788.12.

2. The Bridge Inspection contract has $3,550.00 for the fracture critical inspection for Bridge 1010, Joliet Road over RailAmerica. Rail Road flagging was required since this is an active railroad. The inspection cost is increased $1,800.00 for the flagging for a new total of $5,350.00 for that item and increases the total contract from $112,133.53 to $113,933.53. Supplemental Agreement Number 1 increases the project so that 80% of the cost will be covered with Federal Funds. Instead of the County having to pay $1,800.00 for flagging, our cost will be $360.00. This agreement has been reviewed by INDOT and recommend approval of Supplemental Agreement #1 to the Beam, Longest, & Neff and Porter County Bridge Inspection Agreement. This agreement needs to be signed by Beam, Longest & Neff. Fred Larmore will likely be at the meeting and can pick up the document if all signatures are obtained from the County.

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

Center District: Com. Harper

1. Davis Subdivision Road Agreement, located on the west side of CR 325 West between Division Road and CR 100 North. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $750.00. Owners and subdividers are Stephen L and Diana L. Davis. Recommend approval.

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

2. Brook’s Industrial Park, Performance Letter of Credit #31544835-10003, from Porter Bank, in the amount of $10,000.00. New expiration date is February 15, 2007. Recommend approval.

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

South District: Com. Knoblock

1. Hunter Trail Subdivision, Phase A, Performance Letter of Credit #2003-1366, from Marquette Bank in the amount of $15,000.00. New expiration date is July 25, 2007. Recommend approval.

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

CORRESPONDENCE

Weights and Measures monthly report for July 2006 is on file.
Court Security Activity report for July 2006 is on file.
Treasurer’s monthly report for July 2006 is on file.

Request for approval by Martha Seroczynski to protest war in Iraq

Com.Harper, “We’ve got a re-submission of a request to protest the war in Iraq. Is Martha here? Martha, pronounce your last name for me. I have trouble with it.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Seroczynski.”

Com. Harper, “She is here asking to demonstrate Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 to 12:00.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Mr. Commissioner? I probably should tell you that most of the time we are able to do this on Wednesdays.”

Com. Harper, “So you want it limited to Wednesdays?”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Well, it seems to be the only day.”

Com. Evans, “I don’t have a problem with it and certainly that’s her right to do that but we require anyone else to have insurance liability to use those grounds. We have never had that here.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “I’m walking on the public sidewalks.”

Com. Evans, “Well, no you’re not. If you were doing that, you can do that on your own and just do it anytime. You are asking for permission to demonstrate against the war. And by the way, how do you spell Iraq?”

Ms. Seroczynski, “I-r-a-q.”

Com. Evans, “In your letter, you spelled it with a “k”. I didn’t know if that was a typo or what.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Oh, it must have been, I am very sorry.”

Com. Evans, “I just think that if we impose that requirement on everyone else, then certainly it should be a requirement here. Maybe your stance is not going to be the same as somebody going by on the street, and if a confrontation is going to ensue, who is going to be the responsible, liable party if that occurs? If we give her permission, we would assume the liability?”

Com. Harper, “I don’t think so. I think it is a freedom of speech issue.”

Com. Evans, “I believe she should have the right to do that, I am not arguing with that.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It is a freedom of speech issue . . . “
Com. Evans, “We have always required the insurance for anyone that uses our property.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “They get insurance and list us as an additional insured on their policy for anybody that uses the courthouse square. It’s been that way for years. Usually there is not an additional cost for people who do it, it just takes a little time to get it done.”

Com. Harper, “Why is it an additional cost?”

Com. Evans, “It’s usually not.”

Com. Harper, “Well, how do you do it?”

Com. Evans, “You have your insurance company name the county as an additional insured under your homeowner’s policy and they forward a copy of that to the county.”

Com. Knoblock, “Would it be any different than if somebody was walking along the street and had trouble with somebody else driving by and they got into to? Would they have insurance for that?”

Com. Evans, “No, it would be similar to somebody frequenting the Farmer’s Market, tripping and falling, this is kind of the same thing. We granted the permission, we have given them the ability to use our property.”

Com. Harper, “Let’s continue this until next week. Why don’t you check with your homeowner’s and see.”

Com. Evans, “If your homeowner’s insurance will give us a, what is it called? Name the county as an additional named insured, for your use of the county’s courthouse. . . “

Com. Harper, “I want our attorney to look over the laws.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I have. And that is why, two years ago, we created the policy because we had a threat of litigation about it. We don’t have a permit like many counties have, but we did say that if anybody wanted to use our property, the policy was, and I can get the minutes for you, and if you guys want to change the policy, go ahead. But what the policy that we had was that they needed to write a letter, tell us what they want to use it for, how many people they thought were coming, granted, usually the request is more than hers, but we treat them all the same whether it is one person or twenty people or fifty people, who are going to protest. And what we ended up requiring is a letter, somebody appearing in person so we can ask them questions, like how many people, do we need security, because the last time it came up, it was an issue where we were going to need Porter County Sheriff’s Police officers there because the freedom of speech was going to be one that required security and then we said you have to have insurance and name us as an additional insured.”

Com. Harper, “Let me ask you this. Does she need this at all? Just walking up and down the sidewalk?”

Com. Evans, “I don’t think she does if she hasn’t specifically asked for permission to use the courthouse square.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Where? I mean if she is on the sidewalk.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “I am on the sidewalk.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I am not even so sure that sidewalk is ours, I think it is the city’s.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Well, and the city’s not your leader, I need to tell you that, they told me I need to come to the county.”

Com. Harper, “Well, I don’t think you need that for the sidewalk. I don’t see why you would need that if you are going to be on the sidewalk. And she always has been, she is not on the property.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, somebody owns the sidewalk, now its either the city or us. And if it is us, then she needs one, and if it’s the city, then…”

Com. Harper, “See, Gwenn, I have a question about that. If it’s on the city sidewalk, then someone doesn’t have that freedom of expression.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, they can but it’s… but Bob, freedom of speech is not unconditional as you know. The right of free speech is subject to reasonable time, manner and place restrictions. That’s what the Constitution says. People have the right to speak and they can speak out here, they can speak wherever they want, but government has the right to place reasonable time, manner and place restrictions on it on public property.”

Com. Harper, “But she’s on the sidewalk, not on the. . . .”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, the sidewalk is public property.”

Com. Evans, “I am certainly not saying that she does not have the right to do that. I believe whether anybody agrees or disagrees, you have the right to do that. I am saying that if we give her the right to do that, then we are assuming the liability that could be on her.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “If somebody trips on our sidewalk, or trips out on our steps, they sue us because we own the steps.”

Com. Harper, “Say we have a labor dispute here, and the picketers want to be out on the sidewalk in front of the building. Are you telling me they would have to have a permit to do that?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s possible.”

Com. Harper, “I don’t think so.”

Com. Evans, “Well, I don’t think they would ask, she’s asking.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Oh, so I made the mistake of trying to follow the rules and now I am going to be …..”

Com. Evans, “Well, no, if we are following the rules, the rule says that you must provide us with a Certificate naming us as another named insured on your insurance that shows us . . .”

Ms. Seroczynski, “May I ask you if the coalition on Saturday has to have proof of insurance?”

Com. Evans, “Yes.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Everybody does.”

Com. Evans, “Yes, yes.”

Ms. Serocyznski, “Okay. Every single person.”

Com. Evans, “Which Saturday?”

Com. Harper, “I don’t know, what’s the coalition on Saturday?”

Ms. Seroczynski, “I understand that there is an organization called the Coalition Against Iraq that demonstrates on the Courthouse lawn, I think it’s the lawn, I am not sure, on Saturdays.”

Com. Evans, “Well, if they’ve come before this body and asked permission, then yes.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Aha, so once again you get back to the point of not asking permission, which I am doing trying to be a good citizen.”

Com. Evans, “Well, technically, if they are using our property without permission, then I guess that we should take that up with them, but I think they did come before us and that they did…..”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s not our property, it’s on the title…”

Com. Knoblock, “The sidewalks belong to the city.”

Com. Evans, “She said on the lawn. The lawn is not the city’s.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “I’m not sure, I’ve never been there, so, you know…”

Com. Evans, “I haven’t either, I haven’t seen it but I am assuming if they are on the lawn, then they asked permission.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, there are all sorts of different issues here. If somebody is using our property without our permission, it’s trespassing. If something happens to somebody who is on our property without permission, we are not liable for it.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “You keep saying, our property, our property; I am a taxpayer, it’s my property, too.”

Com. Evans, “Yes, but we are your keepers. That’s why you are here asking us permission to us it.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Evidently it’s my mistake that I’m doing it.”

Com. Evans, “Well, I don’t think you will have a problem with your homeowner’s insurance if you just tell them what you are doing, they can just name the county as ….”

Ms. Seroczynski, “If somebody could write down exactly what I need to ask them, please, so when I call them tomorrow, I will know exactly what I am supposed to ask them.”

Ms. Hartig, “And most insurance companies are very familiar with them, anytime that you rent like a hall or anything like that, they…”

Com. Evans, “Additional named insured is what you need to ask.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Well, I am 60 years old so I forget easily.”

Com. Harper, “All right. Let’s put this back on the schedule for next meeting. Why don’t you wait around for a bit.”

Com. Evans, “In the meantime, you can walk in front of Valpo City Hall.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Are you denying me permission to demonstrate on Wednesdays?”

Com. Evans, “We gave you permission before without, yes, when did the time limit expire?”

Ms. Seroczynski, “I believe it was July 20th. “

Com. Evans, “Well, then, yeah, unless we re-issue permission. If you provide us the Certificate of Insurance and we’re the additional named insured, I am voting that way, it hasn’t come to a vote, but…”

Ms. Seroczynski, “So you’re telling me I can’t demonstrate tomorrow?”

Com. Evans, “No, what I’m telling you is that I have always gone by the policy that anyone that asks for permission to use that property has to provide a proof of insurance to this body. And I will hold to that, that is what I am saying. And if the issue comes to a vote right now and you don’t have that, then I have to vote no.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “So, do I have to wait another month, then?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “No.”

Com. Evans, “Commissioner Harper is postponing you for two weeks is what he is saying unless you can provide us…”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We can grant it.”

Com. Evans, “We can grant it conditional upon your providing that insurance coverage.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “All you have to do is… I can tell you what to ask. If you call them up and ask them, they will probably have it by tomorrow.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “That’s what I am asking. If I can get it tomorrow morning, can I demonstrate tomorrow?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I don’t know why not.”

Com. Evans, “Well, now we changed it to Wednesday, and tomorrow is Wednesday, yes, I guess it is.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the request based on providing that the policy of naming the county as an additional insured on the homeowners policy will show proof of insurance,

Ms. Seroczynski, “And who do I notify of that?”

Com. Evans, “You can provide the Certificate to Melissa in the Commissioners’ office.”

Ms. Seroczynski, “Thank you.”

Com. Knoblock seconded,

Com. Knoblock, “I don’t believe she needs it.”

Motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Nor do I.”

Com. Evans, “How can you change the policy?”

Com. Harper, “Well, I think what Carole is saying is she is on the sidewalk. She doesn’t think she needs it.”

Com. Evans, “Oh, okay.”

Com. Harper, “I certainly agree with her, but we can look into that later, but right
now, we have the motion and it was seconded so it was passed. I think Carole and I are both saying that we are not asking, we’re not saying to change the policy. We have this inner revolutionary feeling that a citizen should have the right to do that on the sidewalk without our permission. I think that is what we are saying.”

Com. Evans, “If it’s not our property, I don’t care. If it’s our charge then we need to take charge.”

Request by the Valparaiso Kennel Club to proclaim September 2006 as Responsible Dog Ownership month
Sandra Johnson

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone here on this?”

Ms. Johnson, “I am, sir.”

Com. Harper, “Do you want to say your name?”

Ms. Johnson, “Yes, sir. My name is Sandy Johnson, I am the Community Awareness Chairman for the Valparaiso Kennel Club.”

Com. Harper, “And what is your request?”

Ms. Johnson, “My request is that you, as Commissioners of this county, declare September as Responsible Dog Ownership Month which means that we will make an effort to make people aware, both through opinion letters to the local newspapers and a booth that we will have on the 16th of September at Pets Supplies Plus to encourage all dog owners to evaluate whether or not they are responsible dog owners.”

Com. Harper, “Like having your dog’s vaccines, those types of things.”

Ms. Johnson, “Certainly. There are a lot of issues involved in that. We work closely with the Animal Rescue Shelter on Indiana 2. And we know that there is a lot of county money that goes into that so, it’s our opinion that being a responsible dog owner eliminates a lot of problems that neighbors, or people that live around people with dogs, experience. And by doing that it will hopefully alleviate some of the workload to those folks that work in the shelter.”

Com. Harper, “Good. Do I hear a motion?”

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

Ms. Johnson, “Thank you very much.”

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, the American Kennel Club was established in 1884 to foster interest in purebred dogs and to promote the welfare of purebred dogs and is the largest registry of purebred dogs,
WHEREAS, the American Kennel Club promotes responsible dog ownership through programs such as the Canine Good Citizen program and permanent animal identification such as tattooing and micro chipping;
WHEREAS, the American Kennel Club established the AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day on September 17th, the day of its founding, to promote all aspects of responsible dog ownership, including proper veterinary care, safety around children, obedience training and licensing, which are essential to a happy and healthy bond between a dog and his owner,
WHEREAS, hundreds of AKC member and licensed clubs, as well as other animal organizations across the county recognize AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day and have committed to educating the public about responsible dog ownership through local events and demonstrations,
WHEREAS, the Valparaiso Kennel Club with permission from AKC and in conjunction and AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day, promotes responsible dog ownership and the enhancement of the companionship of owner and dog by serving the surrounding area with information, training opportunities, and a yearly all breed dog show open to the public,
WHEREAS, every dog deserves a responsible, educated and respectful owner, now, therefore, we, the County Commissioners of Porter County, Indiana, do hereby proclaim the month of September, 2006 as
PORTER COUNTY RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERSHIP MONTH
s/Robert P. Harper
s/John A. Evans
s/Carole M. Knoblock


REVERSE 911 DISCUSSION
David Sheibels,, 911 Director

Mr. Sheibels, “Just for a quick start up brief, as I reported earlier in the year, the Indiana General Assembly passed an amendment to the Indiana Surcharge Law allowing the reverse notification systems or typically known as Reverse 911 Systems, to be purchased using surcharge funds. The governor did sign that bill and it became law July 1st. In that respect, Commissioner Harper asked me to investigate further systems that are available to do reverse notification in the event of several scenarios, including weather type scenarios, public safety scenarios, missing children, missing senior citizens, everything from fire hydrant flushing to boil orders to community bulletins, the list goes on and on for several examples of how these systems are used. Last year also, Phil Griffith, our EMA Director, also started an investigation on his own, of a few vendors. He had some vendor meetings. I just simply repeated those vendor meetings. I wanted to start from scratch again and make my own investigation to those same vendors. I came up with a report which I submitted to Commissioner Harper last month and he said last week when we met that he had disseminated that report information out. The three companies are merely companies involved in this country that are in business to either host a reverse notification system host meeting that the system does not reside here in Porter County. It resides at their company’s head quarters. I have reviewed two such companies of a host system, Code Red, out of Florida, and 21st Century out of Ohio. The second option is what is called a wall phone system, where you actually buy the computer hardware/software, you have to install your own phone lines, you have to coordinate and manage at a local level in order to make that system work and be productive. With that in mind, three companies came to my focus. Sigma Corporation, who has the trademark for the software called Reverse 911, 21st Century Communications, who is just called 21st Century. An emergency communication network, otherwise trademarked as Code Red. The second corporation reverse 911 is the local system, the other two are the off-site ____ systems. It’s a very complicated scenario to try and put these key systems together because they work off of different charge bases, different phone services, configurations, charges, so I’ve done my best on my report, my analysis and in two spreadsheets that I put in three columns for you to kind of just show the differences between all three vendors. We could probable spend a great couple of hours going detail to detail on all the features and functions. But just as I reported in my report, I just highlighted a few of the basic differences for you. Starting with the Sigma Communications Reverse 911 System, it would be a purchase system. To purchase this system with the options that they have is a one time price of $55,000.00. That system will have to be hooked up with the ESL, emergency system listing database which is an optional cost to our local exchange carrier which is Verizon in Porter County. On top of that we have to put in the phone lines and there are many phone line options so those phone line ranges could be anywhere from $1,500.00 a month on up to $3,000.00 or $4,000.00 depending if we go super, super high speed, general business, PRI, some combination thereof, T-1; I know a lot of these technical phrases I am throwing out you maybe don’t understand, but a lot of options here these days with phone circuits. The total cost to get going with a local system, just the system hardware and software, without the management and administration which I will talk about in a little bit, is going to be upwards of $60,000.00 to maybe $100,000.00 to get started. On the other hand, one of the host systems, 21st Century that I looked at, offered three basic options. You pay a one time start up fee, which based on the option that we would select from 26,500 all the way up to 36,500 just for the first year. After that there is annual maintenance which today, 2006, is $9,000.00 a year, but the 21st Century system is basically a pay as you go type phone call system. They have various rates per minute, called per minute usage, as they call it. It can be anywhere from 29 cents a minute for call usage all the way up to a little over 30 cents. So, you subscribe to the system, you are not buying any local hardware software, you don’t own anything, you don’t put any phone lines in, we coordinate with that company to provide a data base information. And in this particular case, this is the only company between Code Red, there is another hosted system that accepts the customer, our dispatch mapping system which is a major plus for that company. Code Red on the other hand takes a very simplified approach. It’s a flat rate, $50,000.00 a year and I should say these are renewable annually so if we don’t like one system we can unsubscribe and switch systems if we prefer or if another system comes down the road we would like better, something like that, we can switch. They are all annual automatic renewal contracts. Back to Code Red, $50,000.00 a year, they have a fee for some additional users so if we open this up to countywide, cities, towns, utilities, those type of agencies, is a $1,500.00 per agency user fee to get them on board. Then it is simply twenty-five cents a call, if we exceed 200,000 minutes. 200,000 minutes to give you a rough idea, we have somewhere between 80,000 and 85,000 wire line phone customers in Porter County. That would give us 6 or 7 countywide outbound phone calls to announce whatever we are announcing annually. Past that, it would be a simple twenty-five cent a minute type of rate. They also have a …”

Com. Evans, “How many phone lines did you say we have?”

Mr. Sheibels, “80 to 85,000 is where we are fluctuating today and this does not include cell phones or what is commonly called internet phones or voice over IP phones. Those phones, we don’t know how many cellular phone customers there are in Porter County in any given month. Our internet phones are growing rapidly since I reported to Mr. Harper last week. Vonage just told me a couple weeks ago they are close to 1,000. Internet phones and Comcast is coming up to speed rapidly, there are about 350 or so as of a couple weeks ago in Porter County. This also does not include people that have call blocking that have anti-telemarketing devices on their telephones, we can’t get to those phones. In any case, that is the basic run down, the differences. Century 21, if we were to buy into the system like this, using surcharge money is my personal recommendation at this moment in time. They have the greater flexibility because they have allowed us to take our long time manage and to update it to 911 dispatch map and use that map instead of a commercial map that these other companies have. Now reverse 911, the local system does have some advantages. Number one, it has the most features out of all three of these systems. They have things like Hazmat Planning. They have things like Guardian Calling, which is a program set up through the software being going into the registration process of some nature and identify senior citizens all around Porter County. This system would call those senior citizen phone numbers and they have to talk into the phone and if there is not a response then that immediately goes to dispatch and some type of public safety response or nursing care response or medical response or whatever may be the policy, goes out to check on their well being of the particular individual. Community information line is another feature that Code Red has, pardon me, Reverse 911 has, where you can set up a variety of information to you call an 800 number as an example that we would have to pay for, call in and get, I don’t know, maybe Sons of Park scheduled for the next thirty days or whatever you want to put in there as an example. The other two systems are not that localized in its operation, but of course being localized in that type of operation also means a lot of overhead and management and administration. Somebody has to continually update all that data and reach out to those senior citizens that I made mention on the Call Guardian option that Reverse 911 has, so there is a lot of interaction with the local system which has me concerned because obviously my office, my small staff and myself, Scott, and Edie, are being looked at to manage this system and we are not sure we have enough hours in the day at this point to interact at a local level that much with the local system. The other hosted systems are managed by those companies, they are off site at their company headquarters and all we do is supply them data base information and/or mapping information. Users of the system that we could bring up to speed would be maybe some kind of government agreement with cities and towns, utilities, user system. If they are a user they access it strictly through internet; they don’t have to call my office and say program into the local system. These messages to report out to these areas at these specific times, there is none of that interaction, its all done through the internet, to the hosted system site, such as 21st Century and Code Red and they are on their own as a user. Of course, when those phone calls are launched, somebody has to pay the call per minute rate which we probably would have to come up with some agreement there. In my opinion and what I see across the country is when these systems are opened up to non public safety agencies for other use and those uses are all good if they are opened up for non public safety, and public safety is paying for these systems, then there should probably be some give and take, some cost reimbursement if we open this up to say Chesterton Water Department and they want to put a call out about flushing hydrants or a water main break and don’t go down this street for the next 24 hour type of thing. Is that really public safety? I don’t know. We can argue both ways probably. There’s many, many scenarios like that we can talk about. The other thing about these systems, they are not the end-all for public notification. There’s lots of fallacies and holes in these systems so to speak. I named a few; no cell phones, we would have to open up a website link, probably on a 2-main Porter County website, with the Sheriff’s Department and the county website that would link to the system, they have to register for their cell phones and the internet phones to be called. This has been very problematic in the last few years on other sites that have these systems already, getting the people that don’t have wire line phones any more to go ahead on and register in the system. They forget about it, they don’t update their information, all those types of issues. So we launch a call and maybe only get a certain percentage of notifications out there because we don’t have all those people with cell phones and internet phones and those types of things. So, this, today with our mobile and internet technology, this has caused kind of a problem with these types of systems. And of course the system is only as good as its data base and we would have to subscribe to ESL’s subscription program and those updates come at us from Verizon from the Tampa data base headquarters. Under that subscription, quarterly so for about a three month period, as people were adding, changing, deleting their phone numbers, that data base isn’t updated that fast. So, there’s a potential risk of launching a call for something that really is a public safety emergency and we’re not reaching out to those people because we’ve had a thousand phone numbers change in Porter County in a three month period which has happened. We are big enough. So, that is kind of the highlights. As I mentioned, there’s lots of other things to talk about. There’s inbound, outbound, calling rates, Century 21 is promoting the fastest out of these three. Outbound, you know, get that message out, that 30 second message out, whatever the message may be. However, in talking with all of the Verizon telephone people that I’ve known for years in Porter County, it’s a little bit of a fallacy there because when you talk about the call rate of 21st Century is promoting 360,000 calls per hour, well, our central office in Portage can’t handle 360,000 calls per hour so those calls are going to come out of Ohio into the central office, trunk system and we are not going to get 360,000 calls per hour by no stretch of the imagination. Nobody really knows exactly in a real bad crisis emergency, how many calls per hour we would get out of any of these systems. Not to mention the fact that if its that big of an emergency, the phone lines are going to be busy anyway with people just calling during that emergency and those calls are going into the same place as these calls which is the one central office in Portage. So, it definitely will be a bottleneck and who knows how long it would take to do this. It is kind of interesting that I talked to the 911 Director today from Koskiosko County and he told me the story when I told him I was telling him I was coming here for a presentation on this topic, he said one of his Commissioners happened to be in Florida last year during one of the hurricane events in a county that had this system and by the time where he was was called was 4 hours after the call was initiated by this system. Because everybody is on the phone, cellular and wireless. So, I also had my doubts and this is if you go on the internet you can read I don’t know how many, probably hundreds of stories, phone pods, to these systems all across the country. There are success stories and there are non-success stories for various reasons. I kind of look at it as maybe just a tool of all the other things that we do. We do siren things, siren program. We put in our National Weather Service EAS System last year as you know, down in Hebron. We add this to those two systems already existing, we may get some benefit out of it but its not going to be placed 100% location or by no stretch of the imagination should anybody think that this is the greatest thing to have and it is going to notify everybody of certain events. Now they do have, all systems have problems and telephone companies have their issues and we have to work hand in hand. So, 21st Century, as I mentioned, is my company of recommended choice at this point if you wanted to do something anytime in the near future because they have the GIS capabilities. They are the most complicated user system. If you look at it on the internet what it takes to port a call, lodge a call, pick an area, pick a zone, pick a city, pick a township, whether the user is selecting. It is a little bit cumbersome. Code Red is by far a real simple, simple system to use for the end user. It is also internet based so if we were to choose Code Red we wouldn’t have the mapping options that we would have included in the 21st Century solution, but it is by far the end user whoever that may be, the Sheriff’s Department, police departments, public safety, police, fire, EMS, will be a lot easier system for them to use, no doubt in my mind. So, I have said a lot, sorry, but like I said, it is complicated.”

Com. Harper, “I know we are not going to make a decision tonight, but I just wanted to get it started. Does everybody agree with me?”

Com. Evans, “Yes. Do you foresee other companies coming on line in the near future, with other proposals?”

Mr. Sheibels, “No, because I think it has gone the other way in the last 20 years. There was a lot of these companies 20 years ago and now they are down to only a handful and these three are the industry leader. There really isn’t another local system vendor, other than Signa Corporation which has the trademark Reverse 911. They’re standing alone as a local system today. There are a few more hosted systems out there, I did not invite them in. I talked to them on the phone, looked at their internet sites and they seem to be a lot smaller, the financial picture doesn’t look as rosy as these two companies. Emergency Communications and 21st Century both are almost twenty years in the business and they seem to be quite financially secure in that respect. So, I don’t think there is going to be… unless somebody just starts up a company…”

Com. Evans, “Of the 92 counties in Indiana, how many are currently using Reverse 911?”

Mr. Sheibels, “On a county level, maybe one, maybe two. There are some small municipal systems out there. Valpo Water Department has a very small signal corporation reverse 911 system which I’ve tried to contact them and get a handle on what they use it for. I’m being told that these are for hydrant flushing. But I live in the city of Valparaiso, always have, and have never gotten a call with the fire hydrant right across the street from my house, when it gets flushed, I don’t get a call, so I am not too sure what they’re doing. Valpo Police bought a people mover system eight years ago, the company is now defunked. They couldn’t get it off the ground, I think they didn’t know how to manage it, and in the end, built a data base to put it into use. So they spent $35,000 and its in the trash can today. The other advantage that I did not mention, I mentioned Valpo Water Department does have a signa system. Part of this pricing would tie in to that small signa server over there and if we went that route, we could utilize their six business lines. There’s a system here called Reverse 911 net for an extra thousand dollars that can tie into Valpo’s system, so how ever many phone lines we put in, the recommendation from Sigma is that we put in 24 and use the software to tie into the Valpo Water Department system, we get another six lines, we’d have 30 outbound lines. That would give us, and then if the phone company could handle it, about 60 calls per minute on 30 lines with both systems. And we could have the phone bills and those kinds of things, but with the other systems we pay no phone bills.”

Com. Harper, “Thank you. I am thinking about a couple things. Number one, it seems like a good price, it’s $50,000.00 for 200,000 minutes, except as we discussed the other day, you have things like a tornado that’s not touched down and if you call on every little thing, pretty soon you are going to use all your time. That’s one thing we have to think about. And apparently what you are telling me is it really probably isn’t fast enough for these five minute things, this is more something that could work in a couple hours of notification. I don’t know, I am just asking. I am trying to think, obviously, you know, for a missing child, maybe some of the things we would face in the future that we haven’t faced yet with some of our planning. Maybe with Emergency Management might have some issues that are out there.”

Mr. Sheibels, “You are exactly right.”

Com. Harper, “Those types of things are things people are thinking about. I’d like to continue this and maybe have you do another presentation on what you think this would be good for and what it wouldn’t be good for so we could make a decision. Would it be good for a lost child? Would it be good? If we had some drug issues we had to warn people about or possible food that was poisoned. Things like that. Things that we may face in the future. And what are the dangers of overusing it because obviously we’ve only got so much money to deal with. We’ve got the surcharge, there’s a limit on how high that surcharge can go. And the surcharge basis going down, we want to do it with the cell phones and so forth if the legislature doesn’t change that. So I would like to have you take a look at that. This Code Red, sounds like to me, one of the best, but I would like to think a little more about what we would use it for and what we wouldn’t use it for. And like I say, if we used it every time we had a funnel cloud that didn’t touch down, we could use up our seven calls in a couple months in the summer, maybe, I don’t know.”

Mr. Sheibels, “You are exactly right. And really, in today’s world, it is not a system for rapid notification. We just can’t get the calls out fast enough.”

Com. Harper, “Depending on what your definition of what is. It’s a couple hours with this system, isn’t it? Three hours most of the time to get the job done?”

Mr. Sheibels, “It could be if we launch a count-wide notification. I was thinking more on the lines of a tornado scenario, where trying to launch a small area, it still wouldn’t be fast enough. All these systems take an operator or a user, and it could be anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes to set up the call, record the call, set it up, pick the geographical location, hit the send button, and that takes time to prep because every single notification is different.”

Com. Harper, “So, Carole and John, why don’t we get one more presentation on that, is that all right with you?”

Com. Evans, “Yes, I think it is a good idea to study it a little bit better but I’ve got to agree, cost wise it’s pretty prohibitive. And I think before we would entertain anything as far as a contract goes we would have to have agreements with the municipalities that give, I mean, obviously, if we have a system in place, we are going to allow them to use it, but there is going to have to be rumination on their part because just a rough math, if we go with Code Red, so to speak and use up our 200,000 minutes with whatever types of notification, then every notification after that is going to cost us about $21,250.00. So if you’ve got a notification that goes out, put out by one of the municipalities, I think they are going to have to pick up the price tag on that. We have a hard time getting the municipalities to pay for their contracts with the animal control people. So, its going to be a very difficult thing to get in place, practically working. I get scared whenever you talk about a software provider that’s kind of a monopoly, so to speak. Tiburon comes to mind. Those kind of agencies all of a sudden go belly up and their principals found a new company and now we are paying a million dollars for somebody else’s software that we had before but isn’t supported any longer.”

Mr. Sheibels, “It happens all the time these days.”

Com. Evans, “So, I agree we need to study it a little longer.”

Mr. Sheibels, “It’s my impression, too, that the county, since the law got changed, I don’t see evidence that the counties are rushing into this. I went to the Northern Indiana 911 Director’s meeting in Warsaw on Thursday, and this is on our agenda to take a look and see what the counties are reacting to this but so far, it doesn’t seem to be much of a reaction.”

Com. Harper, “Let’s plan on about six weeks and revisit this.”

Mr. Sheibels, “Okay, let me know.”

INSAFE AIR QUALITY REPORT DISCUSSION

Com. Harper, “The last thing on the agenda is the air quality reports.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The only reason it is on the agenda is because there was a complaint made to OSHA about our air quality in this building and we contacted the Indiana Department of Labor and they came in and did air testing in the Health Department, Voter’s Registration, Auditor’s office, Recorders’ office, Treasurer’s office, Assessor’s office, State Board of Accounts, and Surveyor’s office and found just nothing wrong or poor with our air quality. So, I thought, since we had an OSHA complaint, we should discuss it in a public meeting, acknowledge we got a report, post it so all the employees in the building know it and that’s why it is on the agenda.”

Com. Harper, “Thank you very much. Anything else? Carole?”

Com. Knoblock, “Well, we still have black specks all over.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “They swabbed, they came in here, they saw those black specks and they took them and they tested them. They tried to figure out what it was, and apparently whatever it is it is not dangerous. Just dirty. I think InSafe, their quality report is recommended by OSHA, I don’t think we could get much better than them.”

Com. Harper, “If there is nothing else for the Commissioners, we will go into Plan Commission.”

PLAN COMMISSION
Rezone I1 to R1, Vaughn and Sharlyn Staab, owners, 2nd reading

Com. Evans moved to approve on 2nd reading the petition of Vaughn and Sharlyn Staab rezone from I1 to R1,

Atty. Rinkenberger, “They added the language to the written commitments that we asked them to.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Anything else?”

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