 |
PORTER COUNTY COUNCIL March 27, 2007 The Porter County Council met on March 27, 2007 at 5:00 p.m. in the County Administration Center, 155 Indiana-Suite 205, Valparaiso, Indiana. Members present were William Carmichael, Matthew Murphy, Robert Poparad, Rita Stevenson, and President Dan Whitten. Also present was Attorney David Hollenbeck, Lindy Wilson, and Jan Noll. Mr. Whitten call the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Whitten, What is your pleasure with the January 27th, 2007 minutes. Mr. Carmichael moved to approve the minutes of January 27, 2007 as received. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried unanimously. TREASURER’S REPORT Mr. Whitten, Treasurer’s Report. Mr. Murphy. Jim Murphy, Everybody wants to know if we’re going to use provisional bills or if we are going to hang on and do the regular bills, and have an extended deadline. I’ll report that I had a conversation with the Department of Local Government Finance, Bob Harris, specifically late last week. He told us we could do nothing. We can’t begin this process of provisional bills until the settlement for ’05 pay ’06 is complete. The other thing, he answered the question that I posed. Once the auditor has finished the processing of the assessed values, and certifies that number to you, how long do you suspect it will take you to turnaround and give us budget orders and tax rates. He said, five to seven weeks. That may fall through, but since the last time we talked about this topic, we have seven counties who do have their budget orders and tax rates, and 34 others are waiting. Everything is complete except for the DLGF to act, so the volume is picking up, and the speed is picking up. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. J. Murphy, I’m leaning towards not using provisional bills, and the most compelling reason to use them is the cash flow problems with all the taxing units. The only thing I can report is that when the settlement has been approved, and Lindy, I hope we’re days away from that rather than weeks, we’re sneaking up on that rapidly. They’re just refining some of the last requirements that the state has put on the auditor’s office. The staff is helping to get all these things squared away as quickly as we can. As soon as that’s ready, then we will have 39½ million dollars to distribute. That whole amount will be distributed out to all of the taxing units, plus the interest that we’ve earned on that between January 1 and the day that it’s dispersed. We will pay them back any monies that we have earned in our total monies in the bank. Also, we have new monies that we will be able to advance to all of the taxing units. We have collected to date, 6.3 million dollars in automobile excise and we will, next week or the first week of March, we’ll have a 9.1 or 2 million dollar distribution of property tax credits from the state that we’ll be able to advance. Mr. Carmichael, The first week in April. Mr. J. Murphy, Yes, we get one advancement, we get one of those distributions in March, one in April, and one in July, so. If you add up all of those, you know, before we get one tax bill out and the first payment back we will be on, we will have somewhere in the vicinity of $73,000,000 to advance to the taxing units and the County. So I think that might not eliminate their need for borrowing, but it will certainly reduce it as much as we possibly can. It will eliminate this running in circles that we will be doing by trying to put out, make up a provisional bill and starting the collection process with that, and all of those associated problems, and get us started on the track to getting back on schedule. The other thing that Bob Harris said to me at the end of the conversation, he said, Murph, have you talked to anyone who’s used the provisional bills before? I said, yes, sir, I have, and that would be me, and he said, because they can really be trouble, so be careful if you use them. You know, leaving me to, they’re encouraging us not to use them. This is what I got from that conversation. That’s all I have to report. I guess officially we needn’t, he said that’s it required that you guys do a resolution, but I don’t find that in the code, and I see in further reading that it’s option in the parentheses in the handout they gave us. So if something falls through, and the information that’s shipped to Indianapolis falls through, if we don’t, I mean if there’s no chance of us getting a bill out by the end of July, a regular bill, the end of July or the first week of August, deadline date, and then November 10th, then we can always jump back into, within weeks we can get ready. I’ve been working on two different pages, getting ready to do either set. Either provisionals, you know, I’ve got a plan set up to do those, and we’ve got the other plan started. Tomorrow morning at 10, anybody who wants to stop in, we’ll have a regular tax bill meeting which we’ll have every week or two from now on. So that’s where I am. It doesn’t make, I’m unhappy about this, and I, you know, I guess all we can do here in the County is to apologize to the taxing units about this mess that we’ve found ourselves in the first of the year. But, I think that this is the best way out of it based on all the pitfalls that I’ve seen in the past, and everything that I can think of, all the bad things that can happen, you know, and trying to get ahead of everything so that we have everything ready to go as soon as it is possible for us to act on. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. J. Murphy, Questions? Mr. Whitten, Any questions? Mr. Poparad, Where are we at on the settlement, Lindy? Mrs. Wilson, On the settlement, we’re inching along, but we are getting toward the end. It seems like everyday there’s something new the state wants us to add or change. But we are working on it. Yesterday, I felt very confident that we might have it done in a week, maybe ten days. Today, Brenda told me we have a lot more stuff to do yet, but she thinks we can do it. Mr. Poparad, By what? Do you have the approximate date, because the state says after settlement it’s five to seven weeks. Mr. J. Murphy, No. Mr. Poparad, Once we settle? Mr. J. Murphy, Once the assessors are able finally to certify assessed values from their software system into the tax duplicate it will be three weeks until the auditor can certify those assessed values to the state. And that’s with my schedule of mid to late July for the first installment. That’s what that’s based on, so. Mr. Poparad, That’s based on them settling by April 13th at the latest? Is that a fair date? Mrs. Wilson, I would hope so. Mr. J. Murphy, The sooner the better. The sooner they can make that distribution, the better off we’ll be, so. The better off everyone will be. Mr. Poparad, So we still, I was coming into this meeting with the opinion that we were going to have a date or something. We still don’t have a date. Mr. J. Murphy, In terms of? Mr. Poparad, No, we don’t have a date. Mr. J. Murphy, No, you don’t. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten, Well. Mr. Carmichael, I think we ought to set a drop-dead date, either get it done or we send out provisionals, one way or the other. Mr. Poparad, I wanted to do that two months ago, Bill. Mr. J. Murphy, You can’t do either one of those, Bob, until the settlement is done. So that’ll be the first… Mr. Poparad, I was referring to the provisionals. I sat here in January and talked about provisionals. I looked at the calendar, we talked about April, and here it is… Mr. Whitten, Yes, but you’re saying, Murph, we can’t do, we can’t start the process until settlement. Mr. J. Murphy, We can’t even ask the state to allow us to use provisionals until the settlement is done. So that’s one hurdle we have to cross. March 16th was the other one, Dan. That’s the first day that the treasurer can even, you know, get the idea about using provisional bills. Mr. Whitten, Okay. So at this point we’re kind of in a holding pattern anyway because of settlement. Mr. J. Murphy, Right. Mr. Poparad, Do you think April 13th is realistic? Mrs. Wilson, I would think so. Mr. Poparad, That is two weeks from Friday. Mrs. Wilson, I would think so. Mr. Whitten, And we’re still looking at the end of July for the tax bills. Mr. J. Murphy, For the spring deadline. It would be late July, which is just slightly worse than we did last year. July 7th. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? Mr. Poparad, I agree with Bill, I think we ought to establish a date. Mr. Carmichael, Well, rather than waiting until the 24th… Mr. Poparad, That’s what I was going to say. Mr. Carmichael, Let’s meet on the 10th of April. Mr. Whitten, They’re not going to have settlement done. Mr. M. Murphy, Settlement is not going to be done. Mr. Carmichael, What did you say, ten days to two weeks? Mr. J. Murphy, For which part of the works? Mr. Poparad, Settlement. Mr. J. Murphy, For the settlement. Mrs. Stevenson, Bob, didn’t you just say the 14th? Mr. Poparad, Well I’m looking at the 13th, that’s a Friday. I’m just saying… Mr. Whitten, I won’t be here. Mr. Poparad, Well. Mrs. Wilson, I mean that’s not, not having done it before and just working step-by-step with the state’s help, and Janna’s help, and Jan’s help, and everybody that can help me, you know, I can’t give you a definite date, Bob. But I’m certainly working on it every minute that I’m here. Mr. M. Murphy, In a normal year when is settlement usual done, in a normal, quote, unquote, year. Mr. J. Murphy, In December. Mr. M. Murphy, So we’re four months… Mr. J. Murphy, We’re--generally speaking--required to make distributions of everything, to settle with all of the taxing units before the end of the year, so that the units can bank that money in the year that the tax was collected. That hasn’t happened the last couple of years. Mr. Whitten, Well, I mean if you guys are anticipating wanting to have some meeting, April is going to be tough because we’ve got people who are going to be out of town. I want to be at that meeting. I’m going to be gone from the 13th to the 18th. Mr. Carmichael, You’ll be gone the 16th also. Mr. Whitten, Yes, the 13th through the 18th. I’m going to San Francisco, unless you all come to San Francisco, which is fine. Mr. Carmichael, Nah, that’s the last place in the world I want to go. Mr. Whitten, So if you want to set a date. Mr. Poparad, We don’t need to set a date. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. Poparad, We can just pass a resolution if the settlement is done on the, if it’s not done on the 13th, then Mr. Murphy will go ahead with the provisionals. The 13th is the deadline. If she’s not done with settlement on the 13th, he sends out provisionals. Just start the process, and quit talking about it. We’ve been talking about it for three months. Mr. Whitten, Mr. Murphy, at what point in the process can you stop? I mean, I guess I’m not sold on provisionals yet. I’m not there yet. Mr. J. Murphy, Up until the day I mail them. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. Carmichael, Well where I’m coming from it’s going to cost us 30,000 extra to send out a provisional bill or a bill that reconciles in November or whenever you send it out. As compared to the interest costs that the taxing units are going to have to pay to borrow this money on tax anticipation warrants. I saw in the paper today it’s somewhere in the vicinity of $2,000,000. Now that’s… Mr. Whitten, The provisional billing process, if we did provisional billing, wouldn’t that create the kind of additional work, now I don’t know, I don’t speak for anybody, that will create delays in the future? I mean are we just sort of fixing the symptoms but not really getting at the problem? I mean I don’t want to have me sitting here a year from now saying, gosh, if we hadn’t done those provisional bills, we’d be better off now. Mr. J. Murphy, It will cause operational trouble at every level within the auditor’s, the assessor’s, the treasurer’s office. That will cause complications in all those offices, especially the auditor’s office who will have to stop doing transfers because you can’t transfer property once you’ve issued a provisional bill because you must reconcile with the person who owned the property when the provisional bill went out. That process will stop. A whole new set of calculations will have to be done midstream, while we’re booking the provisional money, we’ll be trying to get everything done to get the normal, the reconciling bill out. It’s a lot of trouble. It’s, not to mention the trouble it’s going to cause to the taxpayers who have an escrow account. That is a big, we got more phone calls, more problems, more bitchy people about their escrow, their house payment went up because the bills were all wrong. You know, it’s a matter of the mortgage companies and their service companies not being able to react to the way we are doing the billing. They automatically do an escrow analysis and change the payment amount. Or they send a memo out saying, you don’t have enough in escrow, we need 400-bucks just to get you up to where they are supposed to be. They want an additional payment. So that’s, I mean it’s going to cause problems everywhere. Everywhere. I mean this is just a bad deal. I mean there’s nothing good about the situation we find ourselves in that I can see. I mean everybody is going to have to borrow money to get us through the end of this problem that we really didn’t want, but we find ourselves fighting our way through it. You know, we can go two different routes. We can, you know, put all of our horsepower against getting the regular bills out as quickly as we can or we can do a half-speed job on the regular bills while we put all of our attention toward the provisional bills, and then try to get everything all squared away, all reconciled, all overpayments, all underpayments, all taken care of before the end of the year once we send the reconciling bill out. That’s… Mr. Whitten, I guess my thinking is that, thank you, by the way, if it creates delay and causes us problems in the future, and it doesn’t buy us that much time, what’s the point? Mr. Poparad, Well, one of the issues is that, from what I’m led to believe by you and Mr. Kopp, that this software will greatly speed her settlement issues. Mr. J. Murphy, We would be able, in fact, Bob, to do a settlement at the end of each day. Mr. Poparad, Okay, so that means next year we won’t have… Mr. J. Murphy, No problems, right. Mr. Poparad, Next year, she should be able to settle at the end of every day. Mr. J. Murphy, Right. Mr. Poparad, So next year with the new software this won’t be, this settlement won’t be the huge amount that it is right now. Mr. J. Murphy, Just don’t tell the taxing units that, Bob, they’ll be… Mr. Poparad, They’re here; the Press is here; we all know it. Mr. Whitten, Okay, alright. I think, from our position we’re kind of in a quandary because as the county council, despite what we’ve read in the newspapers, we don’t have control over this. We don’t. There’s a lot of allegations. There’s a lot of insinuations. I opened the paper and they blamed me for the tax bills. We don’t have control over that. We are here to try to give the resources necessary to help the elected officials smooth this out for the benefit of the taxpayers. We’ve had meetings with the elected officials. We’ve brainstormed; we’ve round tabled; we’ve had the assessor; we’ve had the treasurer; we’ve had the auditor. Everybody has come together, we’re trying to fix this problem, but there’s only so much we can do. There’s only so much we can do, so I mean we’re kind of at our wit’s end as well. People are asking us like they’re asking you, what’s going on; when are we going to get this done. So I don’ t want to cause delay so we have more problems in the future to buy a month, I don’t want to do that, but that’s my… Mr. Poparad, I guess where I’m coming from is, I mean I love everybody dearly, but can you guarantee me the tax bills will go out the end of July? No. And it’s not your fault. But I’m just saying we still don’t have a date on when the tax bills are going to go out. I mean the state may throw a, I mean everybody is going to start flooding the state about the same time so your weeks, your x-amount of time for turnaround from the state is going to lengthen, because they’re not going to hire 50 people. So their turnaround time is going to get longer, and longer, and longer, because they’re all going to hit at the same time. So… Mr. Whitten, Jan, when’s our next meeting? Ms. Noll, I’m sorry, next meeting? Mr. Whitten, The 24th? Ms. Noll, Yes. Mr. Whitten, Give them a drop-dead date, and then we can have them come back to our next meeting, and see where we are at. We can always stop the process if he’s too far along, if he’s not too far along. Do you want to do it on the 13th? Mr. Poparad, I just threw out the 13th because that’s when Lindy thought they could be settled. You know, if she doesn’t settle by then… Mr. Whitten, We start the process. We see where we are at on the 24th, we make a decision then. Mr. Poparad, Well the 13th, if she hasn’t settled, he starts the process. Mr. Whitten, But then on the 24th he can stop it. Mr. Poparad, How long does it take? Mr. J. Murphy, I don’t know. I don’t want to spend any money on it until I have to. Mr. Poparad, Right, right, but I mean if you wanted to send out provisional bills, how much time is needed. Mr. J. Murphy, I’ve got to get a bill formatted. I’ve got to get that approved by the state. Mr. Poparad, Right, right. Mr. J. Murphy, Or not, just send it out. I suspect within three, four weeks we could probably have a bill on the street. Mr. Poparad, Okay, so May 15th is usually the… Mr. J. Murphy, May 10th is the deadline. Mr. Poparad, May 10th is the deadline so if we’re somewhere in April, we’re going to be half on schedule with something. Mr. Whitten, Okay, so why don’t we have the drop-dead on the 24th of April. Mr. Poparad, Our meeting is the 24th, if we can’t pin something down tight--real tight--I mean a firm date that we can tell everybody, then proceed as planned, and we’ll send out provisionals, and away we go. Mr. Poparad moved to continue the discussion regarding provisional tax bills to the April 24th council meeting, at which time a decision would be made. Mr. J. Murphy, I can work with that. Mr. Whitten, Okay, thanks, we appreciate that. Mr. Poparad, Thank you, Mr. Murph. Mr. Carmichael, Is that in the form of a motion, Bob? Mr. Poparad, Yep, that’s a motion. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Whitten, A motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Poparad, Would, and I’m going to throw this out for discussion. Mr. Murph, come on. The new software… Mr. J. Murphy, Yes. Mr. Poparad, That you guys and the auditor bought, that will help a lot with this situation? Mr. J. Murphy, Yes, it will. Mr. Poparad, Will the assessing part of that help this process, because there’s hesitation on, you know, the assessor is doing what he wants to do. Mr. J. Murphy, In the best possible set of circumstances, Bob, if the assessor would by the same software that Mr. Kopp and I have decided is the best for our functions… Mr. Poparad, Right, right. Mr. J. Murphy, Then the connectability between the elements with the… Mr. Poparad, Everything just flows together. Mr. J. Murphy, It seems like it would be… Mr. Poparad, Okay, I’ve got somebody nodding their head, yes. Where’s the IT person? Sharon, is this all a go? Is Mr. Scott here? I’m sorry. Sharon Lippens, What’s the question? Mr. Poparad, Is anybody from the assessor’s office here? Mr. J. Murphy, Susie’s here. Mr. Poparad, Yes, you got any thoughts to share with us? I know the software is the point of discussion. Susie Villarruel, I didn’t hear the question. Mr. Poparad, The software. Has anything changed from the other day? Ms. Villarruel, We’re still looking at vendors to come in before we, before John makes a decision. We have three more, we have two more software vendors to come in to get us demonstrations, and he’s going to continue to look at vendors until he makes a decision. Mr. Poparad, Alright, do you have any idea when that will be? Ms. Villarruel, To make a decision? Mr. Poparad, Yes. Ms. Villarruel, Until he looks at more software vendors, until he sees what the availability is out there for different vendors, he will not make a decision. Mr. Poparad, Okay, and John Scott does not want to go along with what the assessors and the auditor… Ms. Villarruel, That’s not what he said. What he said is he wants to look at other vendors. Mr. Poparad, Okay, you know what, maybe I shouldn’t even be addressing this to you. Maybe I’ll address it to John Scott tomorrow in his office. Ms. Villarruel, That’s fine. Mr. Poparad, Thank you. Mr. Whitten, Alright, we have a motion and a second on the floor, all those in favor signify by saying, aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, Motion carries. Thank you, Jim, I appreciate it. First Reading. FIRST READING At this time, Mrs. Wilson read the Notice to Taxpayers. ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION DISCUSSION Mr. Whitten, Thank you very much. Before we get going on this, I mean there’s some issues with these additionals from the general fund. Is that correct, Mr. Hollenbeck? Mr. Hollenbeck, Correct, Mr. Chairman. The current position of the DLGF is that absent an approved tax rate budget and levy for the general fund, they will not approve additional appropriations at the state. We have to have your approval, and the state’s approval before the auditor is authorized to spend that money. So you can take action tonight, and if you are so inclined to approve a general fund additional appropriation, but the department requesting it has to understand that that will not be available for expenditure until the state DLGF people approve it, and that will not occur they have approved our ’07 tax rate, budget and levy. Mr. Whitten, Okay, thank you very much. SUPERIOR COURT 6 - 01.39 Transfer $600 from 3110 Legal to 1330 Psychiatric Services Mr. Whitten, Superior Court 6, transfer of $600 from Legal to Psychiatric Services. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Superior Court 6 - 01.39, the amount of, $600 from 3110 Legal to 1330 Psychiatric Services. Mr. Murphy seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfer is approved. CIRCUIT COURT 01.81 Additional Appropriation $5,538 to 3110 Legal $1,000 to 3170 Interpreters Mr. Whitten, Circuit Court 01.81, additionals, $5,538 to Legal, $1,000 to Interpreters. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Circuit Court 01.81, the amounts of, $5,538 to 3110 Legal and $1,000 to 3170 Interpreters. Mr. Poparad, Oh, I’m sorry. Mr. Whitten, Evening, Judge. Mr. Carmichael, Dan, I’ve got a question on that one. Mr. Poparad, Se habla. Mr. Whitten, Sure, Mr. Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael, Interpreters, Mary, what do you need interpreters for? What languages? Judge Mary Harper, Our most costly ones are deaf services for the deaf, as the ADA requires us to hire a deaf service. We do have some Spanish that I only use for major hearings on major cases. But when you get deaf services out, that’s 200-bucks a pop. Mr. Carmichael, If they can’t speak the language, how can they be citizens of the United States? Judge Harper, Well, often they’re not citizens, but they are charged with awfully serious stuff, Bill, and if I’m going to do a conviction in a serious case, I want it cast in stone. I don’t want any iffy, well, you know, I didn’t understand it, later. Our biggest bill is deaf, the deaf. Mr. Whitten, Okay, what’s your pleasure. Mr. Carmichael seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Judge Harper, Thank you. ELECTION BOARD 01.21 Additional Appropriation $38,750 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements $100,000 to 2252 Ballots Mr. Whitten, Election Board 01.21, we have a couple of additionals, $38,750 to Maintenance Agreements, $100,000 to Ballots. Patrick Lyp, Good evening. My name is Patrick Lyp, and I’m with the Election Board. The two additional appropriations, the first one for $38,750 is a maintenance agreement incurring the Automarks. Those are the machines that are utilized for handicapped voters. That’s the maintenance for 2007. The ballots are the entire cost for 2006. I’m told the reason why that was not budgeted is because we didn’t have an invoice for that amount. I don’t handle the budgeting process for the Election Board, per se, but certainly, that’s obviously a high amount. I’m not sure if that’s the amount for both the primary in May, and for the general election for 2006. Mr. Poparad, We didn’t budget for ballots? Jane Pecor, We budgeted, but we didn’t get the bill so I couldn’t pay it, and I didn’t encumber it. The bill didn’t come until after the encumbrances, it was all over with. So we have to pay it now. Mr. Lyp, It was in last year’s budget. Ms. Pecor, It was in last year’s budget. Mr. Whitten, So it was in last year’s budget and we didn’t spend it. Ms. Pecor, We didn’t spend it. We didn’t encumber it because I didn’t know how much I was going to need. I could’ve encumbered the whole amount, but it seemed rather ridiculous at the time. Mr. Hollenbeck, It just went back into the general fund. Mr. Whitten, Alright. Yeah, that’s kind of a large amount. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Election Board 01.21, the amounts of, $38,750 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements and $100,000 to 2252 Ballots. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got to have an election. Mr. Whitten, Gotta have an election. Mr. Poparad, The cities and towns will be upset. Mr. Whitten, Motion to approve by Mr. Poparad. Can I get a second? Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. PORTAGE TOWNSHIP 01.11 144 Form - Request Withdrawn Chief Deputy from $27,058 to $28,588 2nd Deputy from $23,716 to $25,582 Additional Appropriation - Request Withdrawn $1,530 to 1110 Salaries $1,866 to 1110 Salaries Mr. Whitten, Portage Township 01.11, 144, Chief Deputy from $27,058 to $28,588, 2nd Deputy from $23,716 to $25,582. A couple of additionals, $1,530 to Salaries, $1,866 to Salaries. What is your pleasure with this or do you have any questions? Maureen Wendrickx, I’m just asking for the salary increases, Portage being the biggest township with over 19,000 parcels. My chief deputy who has eight years experience in the county assessor’s office, and my 2nd deputy has been in Portage for 14 years. They don’t make salaries comparable to the next township, which has around 2,500 parcels less than we do, and I just ask that their salaries be equal. Mr. Whitten, Well, I understand that, and I don’t even have a problem with that. The problem that I have is that we deal with this at budget time, and that’s when we entertain all these raises, so we’re very reluctant to, matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve voted for one outside of budget time. Ms. Wendrickx, Well, let me just say, I’m new at this. I’ve only been appointed at the end of January, so if I’m not doing the right steps I apologize. But please don’t hold it against them. Mr. Whitten, Oh no. I think what, and I don’t speak for everybody else, but I think that we like to deal with these at budget time. I don’t think that, because if we start, when we sit down and we figure out all the raises, and we did a really good this last budget session figuring out how much money we had in the pot, how much we had to work with, protecting raises for the employees as we went through all these increases with the different budgets. We like to do that at budget time, because we know what we have to work with, and we prioritize. I think that we are pretty fair to the employees when we do that. We always put that as a priority, compensation. So I for one can’t vote outside of budget time for such a request. That’s doesn’t mean we don’t think they deserve it, and it doesn’t mean that we won’t consider that at budget time. Anyone else? Mr. Murphy, Yes, I would be happy to consider this at budget time, but not at this time. Mr. Poparad, Do you want to withdraw it? Ms. Wendrickx, Pardon? Mr. Poparad, Do you just want to withdraw the request right here on the spot? Ms. Wendrickx, Is that, yes, I would assume so. Okay, I’ll withdraw it until budget time. Mr. Whitten, And I don’t want you to leave here thinking that we don’t agree with you that you don’t deserve the increase. That’s not where we are at. Ms. Wendrickx, Well see, I just, I don’t know if this is the place to say it or not. Like I said, I’m new here, I don’t know really how this works yet, but at budget time last budget time when you were figuring out the salaries how you could have their salary that much lower than a township that doesn’t have that many parcels. Mr. Poparad, I think we just gave flat raises. Mrs. Stevenson, Correct. Mr. Whitten, I think that’s a consideration we’re up to discussing, but at budget time. Ms. Wendrickx, At budget time. Mr. Whitten, Alright, so that’s done. HIGHWAY LRS 26 Transfer $25,000 from 3951 Railroad Crossings to 4420 Motor Vehicles Mr. Whitten, Highway LRS 26, we have a transfer of $25,000 from Railroad Crossing to Motor Vehicles to replace the foreman’s pickup. Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Highway LRS 26, the amount of, $25,000 from 3951 Railroad Crossing to 4420 Motor Vehicles. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, Your transfer is approved. HIGHWAY CUM-BRIDGE 25 Additional Appropriation $150,000 to C-5010 Bridge 96 (Tower Road over Salt Creek) $100,000 to C-5020 Bridge 127 (850 N 670 W) $183,000 to C-499 Bridge 58 (Baums Bridge) Mr. Whitten, Highway Cum-Bridge 25, we have some additionals here. $150,000 to Bridge 96, Tower Road over Salt Creek; $100,000 to Bridge 127, 850 N. 670 W.; $183,000 to Bridge 38, Baums Bridge. Let’s deal with those. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Highway Cum-Bridge 25, the amounts of, $150,000 to C-5010 Bridge 96 (Tower Road over Salt Creek), $100,000 to C-5020 Bridge 127 (850 N 670 W) and $183,000 to C-499 Bridge 58 (Baums Bridge). Mr. Carmichael, I second, with a question. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Whitten, We have a second. Discussion, what’s your question? Mr. Carmichael, Do we have any money borrowed out of this bridge fund? Al Hoagland, I understand we do, but I think I’ve kept within line of what I’ve been told we would have available to us. Mr. Whitten, Are we okay with that, Mr. Commissioner? Does that answer your question? Mr. Carmichael, Okay, as long as we’re not appropriating money we haven’t got. Mr. Hoagland, I understand I have $500,000. Mr. Poparad, The bridge fund has been paid back. Mr. Hollenbeck, As part of the tax anticipation process, you authorized up to $10,000,000. The auditor’s office on Thursday or Friday secured $6,000,000 of that, and I believe the intent was to use a portion of that 6,000,000 to pay the cumulative bridge fund back. Mr. Whitten, Okay, great. Thanks. Roll call, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. HIGHWAY 02 Additional Appropriation $1,500 to 4510 Data Processing Equipment Mr. Whitten, Highway 02, we have an additional, $1,500 to Data Processing Equipment. What’s your pleasure? What’s your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Highway 02, the amount of, $1,500 to 4510 Data Processing Equipment. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Hoagland, Thank you very much. Mr. Whitten, Have a good evening. PLANNING/BUILDING DEPARTMENT 239 Additional Appropriation $40,000 to 3120 Consultants $3,500 to 4510 Data Processing Equipment Mr. Whitten, Planning/Building Department 239, we have a couple additionals. We have $40,000 to Consultants, and $3,500 to Data Processing Equipment. You want to hire a stormwater engineer, is that correct? Bob Thompson, No. Well, we have a consultant that has been hired as far as that. I mean we’re not hiring anybody as far as a person in that office. What it is, it’s a contractor that we have on contract with the Board of Commissioners. What this is, we just recently also passed a fee ordinance since this is coming out of our fee schedule, everything. When somebody applies for primary plat, and they’re going to have an independent engineer review this, at the application of that primary plat we will also take in application money. So I don’t have any money in Consultants right now as it is in the budget, but when the applications come in this money will be put back into the existing fund that we have. Mr. Whitten, Your request says to hire an independent engineer, by the way. Mr. Thompson, Does it really? Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Thompson, I’m sorry. Mr. Whitten, That’s okay, I’m easily confused. Mr. Thompson, Excuse me. I, we, have a consultant that’s on contract. Mr. Whitten, Questions? What’s your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Planning/Building Department 239, the amounts of, $40,000 to 3120 Consultants and $3,500 to 4510 Data Processing Equipment. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Thompson, Thank you. CONVENTION, RECREATION & VISITORS COMMISSION 93 144 Form Executive Director from $56,450 to $57,579 Additional Appropriation $60,000 to 4210 Buildings $2,100 to 1220 Medical/Life Insurance $2,000 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements $3,000 to 3950 Contractual Services Mr. Whitten, Convention Center, 144 Form, Executive Director from $56,450 to $57,579. We’ve got some additionals, $60,000 to Buildings; $2,100 to Medical; $2,000 to Maintenance; and $3,000 to Contractual Services. How are you doing? Lisa Dittrich-Bondor, I’m Lisa Dittrich-Bondor, I’m the Director of Finance Administration for Porter County Tourism. Lorelei apologizes for not being here tonight. She is out of town on vacation. So we are requesting a budget correction. We inadvertently used the 2005 salary number for the executive director line item, as opposed to the 2006 for 2007. So we are asking that we have that correction of $57,579 for the executive director. We are asking for a $60,000 additional appropriation for our buildings line item. This is due to some outside expenditures meaning outside of the building, such as the landscaping and the signage. We are also asking for an additional appropriation of $2,100 for medical benefits. We discovered the medical benefits was going to be raised after we submitted in May our budget. We are also requesting an additional appropriation of $2,000 for Maintenance Agreements. We tried the best we could to estimate what snow removal would be for the brand new visitors center, and we underestimated a bit. So we are requesting an additional $2,000 for that, and an additional appropriation of $3,000 for Contractual Services. We are trying to move to computerized accounting, so we have a programmer that is developing the program, and a CPA who is also assisting us with the process. Mr. Whitten, Thank you. Let’s start with the 144. Mr. Poparad, You know, deep down inside I’d like to say, oh well, for Lori not being here. Mr. Whitten, She put the wrong number… Mr. Poparad, Yeah. Mr. Whitten, In the budget for her own salary. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, you know, the oh well comes up pretty quick here. Mr. Murphy, Isn’t that the most important number too? Mr. Poparad, Well, you would think. You would think. Mr. Whitten, What’s your pleasure? Mr. Hollenbeck, You’re going to avoid that temptation. Mr. Poparad, I don’t know. Mr. Whitten, What’s your pleasure? Mr. Murphy, I’ll make a motion. Mr. Poparad, I’ll second it. Mr. Murphy moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission 93, Executive Director from $56,450 to $57,579. Mr. Poparad seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Whitten, Onto the additionals. What’s your pleasure with the additionals? Mr. Murphy, What was the 60,000 again for? Ms. Dittrich-Bondor, That was for landscaping, and signage, and things of that nature. We moved into the visitors center later than we anticipated, it was in October. So many of the outside things could not get done in that year, 2006, we had to move it to 2007. Mr. Whitten, And that wasn’t anticipated? Ms. Dittrich-Bondor, That wasn’t anticipated. We thought we were going to move in sooner and get a lot of that finished, so. Mr. Hollenbeck, I think this is, although, this is visitor commission money as opposed to general money, this is the same type of thing we heard from the Voter Registration people. These were monies that were in the budget last year that didn’t get expended, so they have to be reappropriated for this year to finish up the building. Mr. Whitten, What’s your pleasure with the additionals? Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission 93, the amounts of, $60,000 to 4210 Buildings, $2,100 to 1220 Medical/Life Insurance, $2,000 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements, and $3,000 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Whitten, Thank you. PARKS OPERATING 127 Additional Appropriation $2,000 to 1120 Hourly $153 to 1210 FICA $1,500 to 2250 Other Supplies $500 to 3130 Training & Education $257 to 3310 Printing other than Office Supplies $2,000 to 3340 Advertising $500 to 3710 Equipment Rental $2,000 to 3980 Event Expenses Mr. Whitten, Parks Operating 127, we have numerous additionals. $2,000 to Hourly, $153 to FICA, $1,500 to Other Supplies, $500 to Training & Education, $257 to Printing other than Office Supplies, $2,000 to Advertising, $500 to Equipment Rental, and $2,000 to Event Expenses. What is your pleasure with these additionals? Mr. Carmichael, Where’s this money coming from? Ed Melendez, This is the tourism money, the innkeepers’ tax. Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Parks Operating 127, the amounts of, $2,000 to 1120 Hourly, $153 to 1210 FICA, $1,500 to 2250 Other Supplies, $500 to 3130 Training & Education, $257 to 3310 Printing other than Office Supplies, $2,000 to 3340 Advertising, $500 to 3710 Equipment Rental and $2,000 to 3980 Event Expenses. Mr. Poparad seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Whitten, Thank you. Mr. Melendez, Thank you. GREG PHILLIPS MEMORIAL 151 Reduction Appropriation $35 from Greg Phillips Memorial 151 - 4210 Buildings & Structures to Hazardous Substance 94 - 2250 Other Supplies - Amended to $6.43 Mr. Whitten, Greg Phillips Memorial 151, reduction appropriation, $35 from Greg Phillips Memorial fund, Buildings & Structures to the Hazardous Substance fund, Other Supplies. What is your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for the reduction appropriation submitted by Greg Phillips Memorial 151 - 4210 Buildings & Structures to Hazardous Substance 94 - 2250 Other Supplies. Mr. Poparad, Will this eliminate that fund? Mrs. Wilson, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mrs. Wilson, I’m not sure the $35 is the exact amount, I think it’s probably less than that. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. Poparad, We’re trying to zero out the fund. Mr. Whitten, I understand. Mr. Murphy seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Whitten, Motion carries. CENTER TOWNSHIP 01.10 Transfer $25 from 3210 Travel to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions Mr. Whitten, Center Township 01.10, a transfer of $25 from Travel to Dues & Subscriptions. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Center Township 01.10, the amount of, $25 from 3210 Travel to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfer is approved. WESTCHESTER TOWNSHIP 01.12 Transfer $9.00 from 3910 Laundry & Cleaning to 3920 Disposal Mr. Whitten, Westchester Township 01.12, a transfer, wow, these big transfers, $9 from Laundry & Cleaning to Disposal. What is your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Westchester Township 01.12, the amount of, $9 from 3910 Laundry & Cleaning to 3920 Disposal. Mr. Murphy seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. CORONER 01.07 Transfer $50 from 3940 County Memberships to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions Mr. Whitten, Coroner 01.07, a transfer of $50 from County Memberships to Dues & Subscriptions. What is your pleasure? Mrs. Stevenson moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Coroner 01.07, the amount of $50 from 3940 County Memberships to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions. Mr. Carmichael seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. JUVENILE PROBATION USER FEES 47 Transfer $200 from 4510 Data Processing Equipment to 4440 Furniture & Fixtures over $100 Mr. Whitten, Juvenile Probation User Fees 47, a transfer of $200 from Data Processing Equipment to Furniture & Fixtures over $100. What is your pleasure? Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Juvenile Probation User Fees 47, the amount of, $200 from 4510 Data Processing Equipment to 4440 Furniture & Fixtures over $100. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. SUPERIOR COURT 3 - 01.38 Transfer $200 from 2110 Office Supplies to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions $200 from 3610 Maintenance Agreements to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions Mr. Whitten, Superior Court 3 - 01.38, two transfers, $200 from Office Supplies to Dues & Subscriptions; and $200 from Maintenance Agreements to Dues & Subscriptions. What’s your pleasure? Mrs. Stevenson moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Superior Court 3 - 01.38, the amounts of, $200 from 2110 Office Supplies to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions and $200 from 3610 Maintenance Agreements to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions. Mr. Murphy seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfers are approved. PORTER-STARKE Behavioral Health Unit Mr. Whitten, The next thing on the agenda, Dave Lomaka to address the Council concerning the operations of the Behavioral Health Unit. Mary Idstein, Obviously, we are not Dave Lomaka. Mr. Hollenbeck, But it does take two of them. Ms. Idstein, Yes, to replace Dave, and Dave does apologize for not being able to be here tonight. My name is Mary Idstein, I’m the chief financial officer for Porter-Starke Services, and this is Dr. Popli our medical director for Porter-Starke. Our purpose in coming tonight is to give you an update on our inpatient psychiatric unit, because we do get so much county funding, we wanted to make sure you knew where we were at and what was happening with the inpatient unit. We have, for the last seven years, run the unit in a partnership with St. Anthony’s Memorial Health Center. As of the beginning of March they have pulled out of that partnership, and we are left with running the unit ourselves, if we want to maintain the unit. It’s a 16-bed psychiatric inpatient unit. Dr. Popli can give you, if you want more details as to the clinical aspect of it, and how the people that we admit there are there for endangerment to themselves or to others. So it’s a highly critical unit that needs to done. We work in conjunction with Porter Hospital, but they do not have the facility for a psychiatric unit, and so we take that, and part of it we use the county money for. Right now we are serving, annually, 650 individuals, with 4,000-bed days of care for those people. Of that, about a third of those days are for indigent where people don’t have insurance to cover it. They don’t have means to pay for it. What we are doing right now is, we are choosing to open the inpatient unit ourselves, and try to run it, because we feel that it is the right thing to do. If we did not open up the inpatient unit, what would happen is, these people would go through the emergency room at Porter Hospital, and when they would need care, they’d have to be transported to another county. So they would either be to St. Joe or they would, and a lot of these transports because these are commitments ordered by the court, they have to be done through the sheriff’s department. So this puts a bigger burden on the sheriff’s department also when you have to transport these psychiatric clients. Mr. Whitten, Why did they pull out of the partnership? Can you tell me that? Ms. Idstein, Because they were losing $400,000 a year, and we anticipate that we will probably lose the same amount of money. We’re, you know, we’re looking at ways we can increase the census in certain ways, and the way we can like maybe combine certain positions to reduce overhead, you know, but there’s, we’re not going to save $400,000 that way. So we do expect that we will run it at a loss. The startup costs alone are going to cost us about $200,000 because we have to have the unit up and running before Medicare and Medicaid approves us as site that can bill. So it’s like we have to be up and running, and we cannot bill for anyone during this time period. And so, right now, actually, today we were surveyed by the State Department of Health, and we passed that survey, so we’re closer than we were before, but we still have to get a life/safety inspection. We do have our doors open right now. We are going to open them right now with limited clientele. We have 16 beds, but we’re going to keep the census, five or under, at this point, so that we can have a smaller staff where we don’t lose as much money because we aren’t able to bill for any of these clients that we see now. Mr. Whitten, What’s the long, I mean what’s the long-term stay for someone in that facility? What’s the longest they would be in there? Mr. Idstein, Well we have, our average length of stay if five to seven days. But we do have people that sometimes stay over a month. Usually they are waiting for state hospitalization, and because of the state hospital bureaucracy to get in there or how full they are, that can sometimes take one month, two months to get in there. It’s difficult to transfer patients to the state hospital, so that’s why we’ll have people for longer than the normal length of stay. And those are very expensive because after a certain length of time, usually ten, 12 days, Medicaid will stop paying. So even if those people have insurance, and usually it’s Medicaid we will no longer funding because they are waiting for state hospitalization. Mr. Whitten, So the majority of these people now that have funding, it’s Medicaid funding? Ms. Idstein, Yes, that’s our largest payer source. Mr. Whitten, Now the fact that the House sent a budget out of the Democrat House downstate that flatlines Medicaid, is that going to have any input on you? Ms. Idstein, Well we’ve not seen an increase in our rates for Medicaid in years, so it does impact us that way. Plus, they are switching more to a managed-care model where, actually it causes us to spend more on administration because we have to have utilization management talking to their person, and it creates some more hoops for us to go to. We have to have more administration to take care of it. You know, if we were, hopefully, we will be able to keep the unit up and running. But realistically, to be able to do that, we’re going to try at this point to cover the annual cost. We would need to request $400,000 annually, so we wanted to let you know that we do have that request out there to be able to keep this unit open, hoping that, you know, we see it as a vital need for the community to have that, and without it, you know, a lot of, the Porter Hospital’s emergency room would be filled, and there would be a lot of places that it would be very difficult if there wasn’t this here. Mr. Poparad, So what, you’re going to lose 400,000. Is that what you are asking for? Ms. Idstein, Yes. Mr. Poparad, But that’s not the budget of this unit? Ms. Idstein, No, the budget is. Mr. Poparad, What’s the budget of the unit? Ms. Idstein, It’s at approximately $3,000,000. Mr. Poparad, And you can’t recoup, obviously, all that in Medicare and filing the insurance. Ms. Idstein, Right, and that’s after we go and able to collect. Dr. Anand Popli, I just want to give some perspective from my viewpoint. I’ve been in this community ten years, and I think of this as a service. My beef is, I’ve been talking to the hospitals, and they are more interested in profit. St. Anthony’s, you know, pulled out because of $400,000. Before that, Porter had the service, but they also pulled out. In talking to the new, Triad, we had a meeting with them, they are more interested in the high-end, cardio/thoracic, you know. I think of this as, that in a community of this size, and the commitment we have, we need to have something, and we are going to try to do what we can to have this, because we did provide a quality service, and we may be able to save some on cost. But there’s also a higher cost to do it, if we do it, versus if a hospital did it. Because the logistics of the hospital, they can do it much more efficiently, the pharmacy cost, lab cost, things like that. A smaller operation like ours, it’s going to cost us, we may save on operations, but we would lose out on pharmacy and labs and things like that. But it is the same way, as I see, the ER or the police department or things like that, it’s not that we could say, okay, we’re not going to admit these people or we’re not going to take care of the mental health needs of these people. I would like to see the general hospitals have some obligation to provide this level of care, but until then we will try to do what we can from our part. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? Mr. Murphy, You said the number was 650 patients last year? Ms. Idstein, Uh, huh. Mr. Murphy, Just curious, how many did we have ten years ago, and have you done any forecasting to see where we might be in the next ten years, I mean… Ms. Idstein, We have seen that over, you know, time, we’ve had a 30% overall in Porter-Starke’s clientele, a 30% increase. And actually, during that same time period, we’ve seen a decrease in county funding because of how we get funding from the County. So we used to get, County funding of closer to 1.8 million, and now we get around 1.5 million. So we’ve really, and we’ve served, 30% more clientele during the same time period. Dr. Popli, The one thing that I can remember is, right now in the last year’s budget for St. Anthony’s, they were 26% indigent patients who had no source of income, which is much higher than what we had when Porter used to run the hospital. And just for comparison, the Methodist Hospital in Gary, which is losing money, had 19% indigent care. So we are serving a higher proportion of indigent patients on this unit than most hospitals. And that, I mean at Hilltop, I volunteer there and work there as well as at the hospital, and there are a lot of people in the community who have these mental health needs, but don’t try to get them met because they don’t’ have the money to get it. So I don’t know unless, there is 45,000,000 who have no insurance in the US, and there are some projections that will increase unless something is done at either the federal or state level to help these people. So I don’t expect the level of indigent care to go down. Medicaid has capped it payment. Many hospitals feel that Medicaid doesn’t pay enough to cover the cost of the hospitalization, so they cap it at $450 a day, which is not enough to cover, you know, the services which are provided. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? Mr. Poparad, Yes, what is the percentage of your patients that are indigent? Ms. Idstein, Our indigent? Mr. Poparad, Yes. Dr. Popli, The inpatient unit last year, there were 26%. Mr. Poparad, Oh, is the 26? Ms. Idstein, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Oh, I thought you were talking about the hospital. You’re talking about… Dr. Popli, No, the hospital… Ms. Idstein, Well what… Dr. Popli, Methodist was 19%. Mr. Poparad, I mean I’m going to be rhetorical, since I’m in one of them moods that, you know, we tripled Medicaid’s budget or the welfare budget in this county, and they have, don’t get enough funding. I don’t know if it wouldn’t be appropriate that we just move some money from the welfare budget to their budget, since most of their clientele is indigent. And I’m going to ask a real stupid question. Mr. Whitten, Probably. Mr. Poparad, Do you have a number on how much of this is drug related? Dr. Popli, The inpatient unit we look at mainly the psychiatric needs. Some of them may have drug-related issues, but… Mr. Poparad, When you said, quote, referrals, that’s what occurred to me. That’s what ran through my mind are these… Ms. Idstein, Those are like 72 hour, how would you explain that? Dr. Popli, The 72 hours, if someone comes into the emergency room, and the emergency room doctor feels that this person is a danger to self or others, or so gravely disabled that he or she cannot take care of themselves. So that, may have some drugs, usually alcohol, but the next day when the alcohol has worn off and they’re still assessed to be a risk, that’s when we would transfer the patient over to our facility. Mr. Poparad, Is that a big number? Is that a big? Ms. Idstein, Most, most of the inpatients… Dr. Popli, The inpatient unit is about 33% or so on commitments, and the remaining are voluntary patients. Mr. Murphy, Your inpatient psychiatric services cost, excuse me, Medicaid will reimburse you $450 per day. Dr. Popli, Per day. Mr. Murphy, And what would you need to break even? Ms. Idstein, $600 at least to 650. Dr. Popli, That’s closer to what Medicare pays. Ms. Idstein, Yes. Dr. Popli, Medicare pays much better than Medicaid, and so it’s the bare mix. If we have too much of Medicaid and self-pay indigent patients, you’re working against yourself. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? Thank you very much. Ms. Idstein, Thank you. Mr. Murphy, Thank you. Ms. Idstein, We appreciate the time. ALICE’S HOUSE Mr. Whitten, Sharon Cawood to address the Council concerning Alice’s House. Sharon Cawood, Good evening, I’m Sharon Cawood, and I’m on the Board of Alice’s, and with me is Nancy Shiplov, the vice president, and behind us is Kathy Flores, she’s our new in-house director. She’s just been our house director for two months. We’re here tonight to see if we can get in your budget to help you help us with Alice’s. Our income every year is about $92,000, excuse me, $96,000, and our expenses are a little over 92, $93,000 which gives us the end of the year around $3,000 to try to make ends meet. And we were all just talking about here before we came. I don’t know if all of you know the women who come to Alice’s are there because they had drugs and alcohol problems. Most of them, 99% of them are not working when they come into our facility. So therefore, we do charge rent. It’s $120 a month, and most of them… Nancy Shiplov, A week. Ms. Cawood, Excuse me, a $120 a week. Thank you. And 99% of them are not working. It usually takes all of us a couple of weeks, maybe a month to go out and find a job, and then it’s another couple weeks before you get a paycheck. But there’s no money coming into us while they are staying there, and that is one of our major problems. We do not have enough money coming in from the women all the time for them to pay their rent. Our board does do a lot of fundraisers. We have been writing this year many more grants than we have done before. It is a big problem for us to try to balance everything with the money that we have coming in because we were talking about in the hall right now, several of the women are behind in their rent, and we’re already behind this month over $1,000. We only have $3,000 at the end of the year that we’re, you know, trying to make it. We needed to get some lights in last month, and we needed to get our fire extinguishers looked at, which was another $500, so I’m always, well there’s $1,000. We’re looking at air conditioning, just window air conditioners. And so we’re just not always making it. We want to have some parenting classes, and this costs money. We don’t feel it’s, they have the money to pay although they need to help themselves by paying some of that, because that’s part of life in learning to take care of yourself. So our request to you, I believe in the letter that I had sent to you, was for $8,000 to get in your budget to be helping us. The thing, what we would love is to pay off our house, which is $73,000. We wouldn’t have to come back to ask you for any more money, but since that is a pie in the sky request, $8,000 would be wonderful if we could ask you for that this evening. Nancy, did you have anything to add? Ms. Shiplov, Are you familiar with where Alice’s House is located? It’s on 606 Brown Street, and it’s a large house. It can hold as many as 14 women, it’s a 16 bedroom home, and it’s an older home. So there’s constant updating and upgrading that needs to be done, you know, windows, just painting is a huge task. So there’s always a lot of upkeep that needs to be, in addition to program development, and providing services for the women. Mr. Whitten, So you’re asking for $8,000 to $10,000 every year? Ms. Cawood, Yes. Mr. Whitten, How long is the average stay of somebody staying there? Ms. Cawood, We ask that they stay six months. Ms. Shiplov, They can stay up to two years. Ms. Cawood, They can stay longer, the longer they stay the better it is. And I know Judge Jent was here last month and the month before getting dollars for her drug court ladies, the guys and the gals, and we’ve had three or four of the drug court girls come in Alice’s, and hence, she was asking for money for their rent. But that’s just three to five, and the rest of our population is about 11 more ladies that we’re asking that you help. Mr. Whitten, How long can they stay if they don’t get a job. Like you said, it takes a couple weeks usually to get somebody out there to get a job. Ms. Cawood, Three weeks, and then they have to leave because we are not a homeless shelter. Mr. Whitten, Any questions? Mr. Carmichael, Are all your residents from Porter County? Ms. Cawood, We have, we’ve had a few from other counties, but most of them, yes, from Porter County. We are open to any place in the state. There are not that many halfway houses, and we also accept children. We have children come and spend the night because some of the ladies are mothers, and we do have children come and spend the night on the weekends to visit their mothers. Mr. Poparad, Do you have a success rate, do you have some sort of figures on how… Ms. Cawood, Well this is just, we’re just into our third year so it’s kind of hard to get the recidivism rate when we’re so very new. I think last year we had four ladies come back into the house. We had 51 in there last year. Mr. Whitten, I guess I don’t have a problem with the request, but I don’t want to act on it tonight. Mr. Poparad, No, we don’t have a full board. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Murphy, So when did you open up? Ms. Cawood, We’re going into our third year. Mr. Murphy, And you’re full right now? Ms. Cawood, Yes. Mr. Murphy, Turning people away type thing? Kathy Flores, A waiting list, yes. Mr. Murphy, How long is the waiting list? Ms. Cawood, Kathy can tell you that. Ms. Flores, The waiting list, how many people are on it or how long would it be to get in? Mr. Poparad, Both. Mr. Murphy, Yes. Ms. Flores, Both, okay. Right now there’s five on a waiting list, and the wait is just if anybody were to leave. Mrs. Stevenson, And how many did you say that it holds, that the house holds? Ms. Shiplov, 14, we do have two extra bedrooms, and, you know, the family rooms. In other words, if there’s a woman who comes in with a child. Ms. Cawood, And the children can sleep over on the weekends. Mr. Poparad, Sharon, you made a comment that if your mortgage disappeared, you’d never come back here. Ms. Cawood, I think… Mr. Poparad, That’s in the minutes. Ms. Cawood, That’s true, because we would have a, our mortgage is over $700 a month, and we would have that money then that we could be spending ourselves on programs and keeping house. Mr. Poparad, Do you coordinate with like Youth & Family Services, anybody else for counseling? I know you mentioned counseling. Ms. Cawood, We’ve been, I called Choices to see if they would come down, yes. Where are the women going right now? The Hilltop? Ms. Flores, Uh, huh. Mr. Murphy, Do you get United Way money? Ms. Cawood, Pardon? Mr. Murphy, Does United Way help? Ms. Cawood, No. I’m glad you said that, I had forgotten to mention that. We get no money from any place. We get no city money, county money, state money. If the women don’t pay, that’s our problem. Then we as the board have to be out raising dollars and writing grants to keep the house open. There is no other money, and we don’t want Alice’s to close, but there is no other money. Mr. Poparad, Do you have 503-C, I take it? Ms. Cawood, Yes. Mr. Carmichael, Jan has something. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Jan Meyers, Can I make a suggestion that, where these women are from on a township basis that maybe they could contact the township trustee. Ms. Cawood, We do that. Ms. Meyers, And maybe make an arrangement if they can’t pay, you know, like a whole month or something, maybe at least a week. Ms. Cawood, They do that, don’t they? They do help, the trustees. Ms. Meyer, Okay. Mr. Poparad, Do you get money, does the women get money from the welfare department? Ms. Cawood, They get food stamps from the welfare department, which helps pay for the food. With 16 people, think of the grocery bill, and so we use the food stamps. Yes, we use their food stamps. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? None? Mr. Murphy, Do we have any other agencies like this in our budget that we support on a yearly basis like this? I’m just curious or would this being something, some new un-chartered territory. I mean I don’t know. I’m asking the veteran members of the Council. Mr. Poparad, I don’t think anything like this. Mr. Murphy, Nothing? Mr. Carmichael, Porter-Starke has a question. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Ms. Idstein, Porter-Starke has a partnership with the Caring Place that we do provide shelter to, it’s a women’s recovery home for recovering women. Mr. Whitten, So in that respect, yes. Mr. Hollenbeck, The Youth Service Bureau. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Whitten, I guess that’s it. Com. Harper, Dan, can I? Mr. Whitten, Yes. Com. Harper, I think you should remember that, at least in my opinion we have these meetings and we talk about the drug problem, and addressing, you know, how we’re going to address that. And when you have Pathways, you’re talking about mostly young adults, you know, that are 18 or younger. These people are filling another area. You know, we have two, we have Moraine House and we have Alice’s House in Porter County, and the people that they are taking there, I can assure you a lot of them would be on the street. I mean it’s not, they don’t have people there that have big family backing and all kinds of bucks and everything like that. They have people that are down and out, and they’re trying to bring them back, and put them back together. If you’d hear their entire budget for what, 14 beds or whatever it is, their entire budget for 14 beds, I mean they, there is a lot of volunteer hours and things go into this to help these. Alice’s House helps the women, and Moraine House helps the men get involved to try to salvage themselves. The amount of money they do have, the little amount of money that they do this on compared to some other places is truly fantastic, but I think you need to remember that when we do talk, we have all these discussions here about the drug problem and what we are going to do about it, they are addressing one area of that. That’s all I wanted to say. Mr. Whitten, Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. You know, some time ago we had a meeting, at my request, where we brought a lot of social services in here at one time for just addressing these sorts of questions. Do we have a duplication of services? What’s the population of each particular agency? That sort of thing. And maybe this is ripe for another one of those. We have some new members on the board, I think that was enlightening to give us some perspective as to what, and we give $600,000 a year to Opportunity Enterprises, and, you know, I would venture to guess we don’t have a real handle on all the stuff they do. So I think that it may be time for that. You’re asking for something that is going to be an ongoing budgetary request, and I think that some of these questions need to be addressed before we say yes or no. And I don’t even think it’s a question, do we not think you’re doing a worthy cause here. I think it’s a question of, we have, now we have two social services that have come to us tonight to address some concerns and some ongoing concerns that we really need to get a handle on. So I would suggest we have one of those meetings. I mean are you guys receptive to that? I think it was very beneficial. Is anyone not receptive to that? Why don’t we do that? Mr. Carmichael, Well I think a one-shot deal might be alright, but I wouldn’t promise anything on an ongoing… Mr. Poparad, Mr. Murphy has something to say about that. Mr. Murphy, I overheard these guys talking. The idea of a challenge grant where if, you know, I don’t know who challenges who, but we would challenge you to raise half of the, what is your mortgage, 77,000 or whatever, and then we would then, if you met that amount then we could meet and pay the other half, and be done. Pay off your mortgage that way. That’s one option that we do. The other option is if we paid the whole thing. Mr. Poparad, And maybe this is an appropriate request for United Way or something like that too. A one-shot deal, and you throw in half the pot and we’ll throw in the other half of the pot, now your pot’s full. Mr. Whitten, I would really suggest that we get all of these agencies in the same room. I really strongly suggest that before we start giving away money. Mr. Poparad, We’re not giving it away. Mr. Whitten, Not that I don’t think we should, but I really think we have some questions that need to be addressed. Ms. Cawood, I don’t look at it as giving away money. You’re helping women get their lives back. You’re helping them become members of society again. Mr. Whitten, I understand that. All the agencies come here with a very valuable cause, and it is taxpayer money. Okay? We are giving it to you. I’m not saying you don’t deserve it. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it. But it is taxpayer money, and that’s what we are elected to protect. So again, I would suggest that we get everybody in the room together, because you all provide a valuable service. You all do. But we provide a service too. Ms. Cawood, Absolutely. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? Thank you very much. ATTORNEY REPORT Major Moves Money Mr. Whitten, Attorney Report. Mr. Hollenbeck, I have nothing specific to report at this meeting. I’ve tried to keep you all informed by way of correspondence and email as to the status of my activities, and hopefully that has kept you abreast. I will continue to function on your behalf and keep you advised of the developments. Mr. Whitten, Thank you very much. Mr. Hollenbeck, Mr. Poparad is reminding me, I haven’t communicated to you on the major, you’re implementing your desires regarding the major moves money. First of all, obviously, this money is invested, and is generating money through the treasurer’s office. I have resolved the arbitrage problem that was raised by bond counsel, and we’re going to have to bifurcate and I’ve got two proposals ready to go out. One for the investment side, and one for the borrowing side, that will probably go out by the end of this week. So we’ll be able to get back to you about the kind of interest rates they are proposing. The other issue was how long we’ll be able to invest this money for. The state is objecting to five years, as I reported to you, but I think we can do it in three. Then we’ll be able to know how much interest income we’re generating that can pay off how much we want to borrow. So that process is going forward, and the two obstacles that were identified by Ice Miller bond counsel, I think we’ve resolved both of those. Mr. Whitten, Thank you very much. LIAISON REPORTS Mr. Whitten, The next thing on the agenda is the liaison reports. We’re just getting started in the year here. I only had a couple of meetings. I don’t know if you have had an opportunity to meet with any of your departments or agencies that you are liaison to. I’ve had a couple of meetings with Opportunity Enterprises, kind of looking at some of the funding changes that they are going to be suffering--and they’re going to be suffering quite a bit with what’s going on with the state. The outlook is not particularly rosy for them, but I think that they are trying to get through it. I also met with sheriff’s department. I would anticipate them coming and asking us at budget time for some additional personnel, as they always do--surprise. They’re going to come up with an idea of their population, and per staff person in the jail, and all of that stuff that I’ve asked of them. I had that meeting with them about a week and a half ago, so we can anticipate that coming up in some reasonable particularity at budget time. That’s what’s I’ve met with. Anybody else? Mr. Carmichael, I’ve had three meetings with NICTD, and I’ve provided you here with a copy today of the ridership report. Also, the fair box recovery report. We did allow bonding at the last regular meeting for approximately 30-some million dollars to buy 14 new bi-level railroad cars. It’ll be about two years before they get here. Mr. Whitten, That comes in by rail. Mr. Carmichael, Those are coming by boat in pieces, and they’re going to Milwaukee to be assembled. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Thank you, Bill, I appreciate it. Mr. Carmichael, 60% of them is American made, but there’s no rail car maker in the United States that will do it or Canada. Mr. Hollenbeck, And Bill, you may want to mention that at least a portion of that capital expense is being funded by the RDA, which is again, tax dollars from Porter County that are finding their way back to Porter County by way of the cars. Mr. Carmichael, That’s correct. Sorry I overlooked that. Mr. Whitten, Thank you, Dave. Anything else? Any others at this time? SECOND READING Mr. Whitten, Second Reading. Mr. Poparad moved to approve second reading. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. ANY OTHER MATTER Mr. Whitten, And under “Any other matter that may come properly before the Council”, Mr. Bucko sent a letter which has been put as part of the record against the provisional tax bill, and we’ve gotten something from the Town of Chesterton. It looks like Duneland School Corporation for provisional tax bills. Mr. Poparad, They both sent letters wanting them. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Poparad, On that same note I would like to make a request to Mr. Scott to be at our next meeting so we can discuss this software issue in public. Mr. Whitten, Jan, would you please send a letter to Mr. Scott asking him to come to our meeting. Mr. Poparad, Find out where we are at on this software that everybody seems to talking about but nobody wants to make a, well, I shouldn’t say that. Mr. Whitten, Certainly. Mr. Poparad, You into sharing this software? You’re both nodding your head yes. Mr. Whitten, Briefly. Ms. Meyers, This is just something I compiled from notes that I took during Manatron and Hamer’s software demonstrations. It’s just a brief play-by-play of what we thought was, well, we talking to some of the other assessors, things that we liked and disliked. Mr. Whitten, Jan, would you please put on the agenda for our next meeting, a presentation by the assessor and the township assessor’s regarding the software issue. Mr. Poparad, And I’d like to have all the assessors here. Mr. Whitten, Let’s send an invitation to all the assessors. Anything else? With that, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. There being no further business, meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m. PORTER COUNTY COUNCIL PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA Michael Bucko Jim Burge William Carmichael Matthew Murphy Robert Poparad Rita Stevenson Dan Whitten Attest: James Kopp, Auditor |
 |
Please enter a search term to begin your search. |
March 27, 2007