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PORTER COUNTY COUNCIL The Porter County Council met on October, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. in the County Administration Center, 155 Indiana-Suite 205, Valparaiso, Indiana. Members present were Mike Bucko, Jim, Burge, William Carmichael, Matthew Murphy, Robert Poparad, Rita Stevenson, and President Dan Whitten. Also present was Attorney David Hollenbeck, Auditor Jim Kopp, Lindy Wilson, and Jan Noll. President Whitten called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Whitten, What is your pleasure with the September 25th, 2007 regular council meeting minutes, and September 24th, 2007 Porter Proceeds Committee minutes? Mr. Bucko moved to the approve the minutes of the September 25, 2007 Council meeting, and the September 24, 2007 Porter Proceeds Committee meeting as received. Mr. Murphy seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, Both minutes are approved. Let’s have First Reading, please. FIRST READING At this time, Mr. Kopp read the Notice to Taxpayers.
COUNCIL 234
Mr. Whitten, If you don’t mind, and there are no objections, I’ve been asked if we could go out of sequence here, because both Councilman Murphy and I believe, our Prosecutor have another engagement--different engagements--so if you don’t mind, I’d like to do Council 234, the additional $250,000 to Undercover Expenses next. Brian Gensel, Yes. Mr. Whitten, And maybe a meeting with these towns. Mr. Gensel, Yes. I think the upshot of the meeting was that we decided that there would a, some sort of a meeting with, perhaps, even the mayors, but certainly with the chiefs and the sheriff, and we would, kind of all brainstorm sort of a memorandum of understanding that would basically hold for both sides. There would be, you know, commitments by the Council--the fiscal body--as well as commitments by the departments--the Chiefs and the Sheriff--as far as what they will commit to as far as manpower, and sort of the details as to how that’s going to work for the foreseeable future. Mr. Whitten, Okay, and for us, I believe several of us, myself included, I had an opportunity to meet with Chief Brickner from Valparaiso. I’ve met with some representatives from the City of Valpo, the City of Portage. I’ve spoken with representatives of the Town of Chesterton. We have a half-man, I believe, committed right now. Mr. Gensel, He would quibble with your characterizing his half-man. He’s a half-time. Mr. Whitten, He’s a big guy. Thank you for that--get me in trouble later. I’ve had some discussions with our Sheriff over the phone about some of the thoughts that they were having. I feel pretty confident that this is a good move in the right direction. We certainly have had a lot of discussions about the war on drugs, and how we’re going to fight it, and I think that even in our recent meeting, Brian, there was some thoughts about what the next step might be with relation to other problems that facing the County, like gang-related activities, things like that. So it’s a good commitment I think, if we can. Mr. Poparad, Can I jump in? Mr. Whitten, Sure. Mr. Poparad, In terms of these commitments in Portage and Valpo, you mentioned earlier about giving them money so they can hire a guy or. What did you end up going for, because I didn’t… Mr. Gensel, Well that’s, that’s the plan. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Gensel, And the details of that haven’t, the commitments are there. That’s the model that we’re operating under. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Gensel, And, you know, we can, we can work out some of the dollars and cents, and those types of things. Mr. Whitten, What I’d suggest, and I think Brian was receptive to it, was that we have a meeting with representatives from the Council or we could just actually have a council meeting, I suppose, and bring some, you know, someone from Valpo and Portage and the Commissioners. Mr. Poparad, What will that, what will the count be including the Sheriff’s guys? Mr. Gensel, Under the, what’s anticipated right now, seven and a half, eight and a half. Mr. Whitten, You have a half-man. Mr. Gensel, Half-time. Mr. Bucko, I haven’t quite figured out the half-man. Mr. Poparad, Top or bottom. Mr. Murphy, And we’re at what now, Brian? Mr. Gensel, We’re right now at four. The coordinator and three agents, and I would like it, and we talked about it, and I’ve presented you guys with some documentation--planning documentations--logistics coordinator, an investigative coordinator, and six agents, is what I would like. The six, and then if we get the half-time person from Chesterton, that would be great as well. Somewhere between eight and ten is what we’re shooting for. Mr. Poparad, Is Porter and Burns Harbor participating in this? Mr. Gensel, What we find from the small departments is that they provide backup if we are doing investigations in their areas they will have uniformed guys that are ready. They’re all, and they’ve all, all the departments have been willing to help to the extent that they can, but those, as you know, in Burns Harbor, a place like that, they struggle to even keep the department going. So I can’t really expect them to donate, to have the money to free up a person, but we do get assistance, and we do respond to calls, obviously, in all the towns and the cities. Mr. Whitten, Now, Sheriff, from the Sheriff’s Department, you guys are in favor of this request. Correct? I mean that’s the upshot of our conversations. Sheriff Dave Lain, The crux of the matter is, we are absolutely committed. I mean right now we are committed with more personnel for, toward the drug unit, than any other department in the county. And we’re certainly interested, and willing, and excited about committing more people, when we can get people to commit. We have to backfill. We cannot stretch ourselves any thinner, but we have to be able to backfill. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. Poparad, Will, one of my fears, the fact that we are using casino money, is one day the Legislators are going to say no more. Do we want to do it next year, let them roll it into the budget, because, the following year let’s say, Indianapolis says, no more revenue sharing, then the casino money is gone. Next year, obviously, we have it for next year, and we have enough to start this program, but we need to look downstream, because we don’t want to get him up and running… Mr. Bucko, Absolutely. Mr. Poparad, And cut his friggin legs off. Mr. Whitten, Well I think that’s certainly something when you look at next budget session. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Whitten, I mean I’m hoping that beginning next year we’ll be looking at the Sheriff’s Department, because we indicated to the Sheriff that we’d be, perhaps, increasing his manpower depending on the funds, you know. So there’s a lot that we’re anticipating on doing here in the next year. Mr. Poparad, Yes, I just didn’t want to get the ball rolling, then the ball stops, that’s all. Mr. Burge, The other part of our discussion on the first time around in the budget cycle was that the casino funds, we know we can pull from there to get it going, have some means of measurable results that we can look at within a year’s time. Absolutely, if it’s working, let’s find a way to get it funded from the general fund. Mr. Whitten, Sure. Mr. Bucko, It makes sense. Mr. Whitten, Yes, I think so too. Mrs. Stevenson, How about, like vehicles and drugs that you confiscate, what happens with that? Mr. Gensel, Well, the way that we’ve always done it is that when we seize monies from defendants, that initially becomes evidence in the case. And the two options that we have, typically, if it’s a large amount, as a matter of fact, I just filed a forfeiture about a week and a half ago, we actually, the State Police were working in Porter County, and seized an actual tractor-trailer, you know, a 50 foot box, and a tractor. Mr. Poparad, What year tractor? Mr. Gensel, A Volvo tractor, 96. A 1996 Volvo. Mr. Poparad, It coming up for auction? Mr. Gensel, It may, it will. It may. But what we do on large seizures is we actually can form a civil forfeiture proceedings for those. For smaller seizures, $1,000, $500, a couple thousand dollars, often times we will roll those into a plea agreement. Basically, the people say, it’s not a quit, it’s not, we’re not going to get his plea guilty against the money, it’s that you’re taking the plea, and you can make us, we’ll forfeit it, but let’s just do it the easy way, and just sign, basically, the money over, the car title over to the narcotics unit, and then, so we absorb that. The vehicles we use, unfortunately, this isn’t Miami and we don’t get Ferraris very often, we get beaters very often. Mrs. Stevenson, You don’t get Hummers either. Mr. Gensel, We don’t get a lot of Hummers, no. No Ferraris or Hummers, but often times what we’re then able to do are use, if they’re decent vehicles, we use them. If they’re not, we’re able to do some kind of mass trades with dealerships, and get better vehicles. One for… Mr. Poparad, Okay, I have to interject this. Based on the article in the paper today, I’m assuming everybody read about the Gary Police Department undercover guy, Yicken, about his license plate being online through the State Police. I’m assuming… Mr. Gensel, I can explain. Actually, I read that with interest, and I can explain that we don’t have that problem, because we, we utilize fictitious, we get away with, if you run my narc plates, it’ll come back to a name that I won’t share with you. Mr. Poparad, Yes. No, this came back, Indiana State Police, so the guy’s undercover with a license plate that you can get online. Mr. Hollenbeck, Which reminds me, I want to you about that. Mr. Whitten, Any other… Mr. Poparad, I felt bad for the guy. Mr. Gensel, But the answer, Rita, is that we, the money that we, the money that the Narcotics Unit takes, we then roll it in top rating expenses for buy-money. Or the vehicles that we currently have are vehicles that were purchased out of money that we got from a seizure in Porter about seven years ago. And we have, we’ve got like $75,000 from the federal government during that forfeiture. We just sold a ’68 GTO for $26,000 that we seized. The feds processed that, we’ll get about $14,000 out of that. So we’re real careful to keep a balance, because when vehicles break we’ll need new vehicles. We use that money to the tune of probably 20, 10, 15, $20,000 a year. Mr. Poparad, Well you’ve got a Ferrari, don’t you. Mr. Gensel, Ah, I don’t have a Ferrari. Mr. Poparad, Oh, I thought I seen you in one. Mr. Gensel, Hahaha. So that’s what we do. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? Mr. Carmichael, I’d have to see something down on paper, just tentative. It doesn’t have to be exact or line itemed what you’re expending the amount of money on. Mr. Gensel, Okay. Mr. Bucko, I think that’s something that we can really work out in this joint kind of a meeting thing. Don’t you think? Mr. Gensel, My suspicion is that a, and I don’t know what a 1st Class Patrolman, but I’m thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 per guy, and if we have $250,000 to deal with, so then that’s going to eat up between 150, 175, then we’re going to need… Mr. Carmichael, That does include equipment, doesn’t it? Mr. Gensel, Well, and then we’re going to have to have some, you know, more guys need more buy-money, need more vehicles. So we’ll make it work, but I think that that is certainly a good start. Mr. Murphy, Health insurance, pension, liability is all covered by the municipality, correct? Mr. Gensel, By their own. That’s the intention. Mr. Poparad, We’re just covering to pick up the pay. Mr. Gensel, Correct. Mr. Whitten, What’s your pleasure? Mr. Bucko and Mr. Poparad moved to tentatively grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Council 234, in the amount of $250,000 to 2251 Undercover Expenses, with Mr. Gensel to provide an outline of the proposed expenditures. Mr. Murphy and Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Whitten, Any further discussion? Mr. Poparad, This will start the first of the year? We’ll have to do an additional the first of the year, won’t we, on this, so he can get the ball rolling on this? Mr. Hollenbeck, Yes. We can notice it up. Mr. Burge, Hey, Dan, procedurally, since this was tabled, do we have to actually take it off, vote to take it off the table or is this a new? Mr. Whitten, I don’t think so. Do we have to vote to take it off the table? Mr. Murphy, I thought it had to be brought up and… Mr. Whitten, No, I don’t think we have to. Mr. Hollenbeck, Any final action you do is going to have to wait until January. At this point, I think what you are doing is indicating there’s a consensus to move forward, and then you can authorize the noticing up of the appropriation in January. Mr. Gensel, That was my understanding any way. Mr. Hollenbeck, Right. Mr. Bucko, Shouldn’t we, just as another point of discussion, should we kind of make it tentatively, that by some time we ought to have some kind of schedule of how we might sit together, and talk about this. At least have the schedule of how we will do it for the December 3 meeting? Should we? Mr. Whitten, Well I mean. Mr. Bucko, Is that doable? Mr. Whitten, I mean we can make it contingent upon us having a meeting over the next month to sit down, I suppose, and iron out the devil in the details. Mr. Bucko, Lay all that out. Can you get it done that quick? Mr. Gensel, Oh, sure. Mr. Whitten, We can do it, maybe by our December meeting. Mr. Bucko, Yes. Mr. Gensel, I likely won’t be here. I’ll be in Indianapolis that Tuesday. We’ll figure out the details of that. Mr. Whitten, Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Kopp, Motion carries, seven to nothing. Mr. Whitten, The ball’s rolling. Mr. Bucko, Thanks. Good. Mr. Gensel, Thanks, guys. Mr. Whitten, Thanks, Brian. Mr. Gensel, We’ll make it work. SOUTH SHORE LINE PRESENTATION - VINCE GALBIATI Mr. Whitten, Do you guys want to go to the presentation that we have? We have brief presentation regarding the South Shore Line. I’ve asked him to keep it from five to ten minutes. Do you want to do that next? Mr. Carmichael, That’s fine. Mr. Bucko, Fine with me. Vince Galbiati, Mr. President, is it okay to do this? Mr. Whitten, Absolutely.
Mr. Galbiati, Okay, Mr. President, Council, thank you for your time tonight. My name is Vince Galbiati, and I’m the President and CEO for the Northwest Indiana Forum. Tonight, we, if I can present to you the Chicago-South Shore Connections Project. This is a project that is, the extension of the South Shore Railroad, and please treat this as conversation. We encourage a lot of questions about this. It’s a, as you’ve seen, some of the newspaper coverage of this, and this is the time that we want to encourage, ask a lot of questions, and participate in the process. Mr. Galbiati, You’ll see from our tag line, the Chicago-South Shore connections, it’s about time, and you’ll immediately pick up the double meaning of it’s about time. We’ve talked about this for quite a while, but the time to act on this is right on top of us at this point. And what we’d like to do is, demonstrate where this is happening, why this is happening, currently. In a, is anybody here old enough to remember the old Monon Trail? Mr. Bucko, Yes, sorry, do you remember.
Mr. Galbiati, Because the first branch of this is coming down the old Monon Trail, which is owned by NICTD currently, and from there, it branches off onto the CN, coming over Valparaiso, and then on the CSX down to Lowell. Now, you’ll take a look at why we are doing this at this point, and you’ll see the catchment area around Lake Michigan, but you’ll also see the number of lines that are in the greater metropolitan area of Chicago. And there’s some 500 miles of these lines out there that connect their communities to the interior of Chicago. And then, of course, we have our single line that’s coming from the interior of Chicago out to South Bend. When we take a look at the catchment area, in other words, the area that is most appropriate for getting commuter service into the interior of Chicago, you’ll see that Valparaiso and Lowell are easily within that area. Mr. Whitten, I’ve heard, I’d like to ask something. I read a lot, and heard a lot about a tax that has been discussed and encouraged, giving, and I’ve heard the NICTD Board, the power to tax. I’ve heard the Legislators carrying the ball downstate to try and get a tax. I’ve heard numbers like $8,000,000 a year would be expected from Porter County residents and taxpayers to fund this. Are these figures true? Mr. Galbiati, I can only speak to my own numbers, because at this point, the state legislators and the federal legislators have got to carry the majority of what’s going to happen with the form of income to support this. All I can tell you with complete confidence is that it is going to take income from the residents. But the form of it, Mr. President, I can’t tell you what that is. The amount of it, I can’t be definitive about it this evening. Mr. Whitten, Well I was contacted by one of our legislators earlier on, and they asked what my thoughts were with respect to the NICTD Board having the authority to pass a tax to raise this money. And before we even get to the discussion about whether or not we think the rail is necessary, which by the way I agree with most of the things you put on there, I believe it’s a necessary thing. But the notion that we would give a non-elected body the power to tax is nothing shy of nauseating to me. So I would hope that wouldn’t be the direction that this is going. Because I like the idea of people that pass a tax as being directly accountable to the taxpayers and the voters. Mr. Galbiati, I appreciate that point of view, absolutely. And this is where I think your voice has got to be heard as community officers. At this point, is that the amount of support that’s needed for these types of projects, the federal competition is fierce. There’s no question about it. The level of playing field in this type of funding is amass. It’s literally across the nation. I benchmarked against every community that I could find in every piece of financing, and this requires everybody’s participation. If you have an opinion that says, I’d like the form of tax and the mechanisms for the tax to be the way it is in your eyes appropriate, voice it. Now is the time to do it. But whatever we do, let’s support this.
Cal Bellamy, Vince, let me, if I might. I’m Cal Bellamy. I happen to be a member of the Northwest Indiana Forum Board, and also on the Chicago Connections Committee. We don’t know what kind of tax we’re going to get, but let’s frame it this way. This is a billion-dollar capital project. We know we’re going to get 500-million dollars from the federal government, and we believe we’re going to get 150-million through the RDA. So we have, for this capital project, to construct this project, a shortfall of 350-million dollars. Mr. Poparad, Is it, is the goal, let’s say the Region, for lack of a better word, do we have to bond, and then pay the bonds off to get the money up front? Or how, what’s the logistics? Mr. Bellamy, Yes, I would imagine. I would imagine it would be a bond issue, because we need to build the whole… Mr. Poparad, I understand the concept. My point is, whose, whose going to back the bonds? You know, is it, I mean it’s going to have to come out of Indianapolis, because we can’t, you know, let’s say we wanted to do this, we can’t back the bonds. Dyer can’t back the bonds, Munster, Valpo. Mr. Bellamy, Well it would be some entity, apparently, but we don’t know. We don’t know how the Legislature, in its wisdom, will construct this mechanism. Mr. Poparad, I’m assuming you need the money… Mr. Bellamy, They may pick another body. It may be the State. It might some body of elected officials. We don’t know, because it’s a multi-county situation. It wouldn’t be Porter County or the Lake County entities. It has to be super body. Mr. Whitten, Well, and I guess my other question is, how many commuters from Porter County do you think regularly commute to and from Chicago? How many people have you, because I know that study was begun at one time, and then it was stopped. I mean there was a lot of discussion about whether the future growth was enough to substantiate this. How many regular commuters from Porter County? Mr. Galbiati, There’s two things, I want to make sure that we’re not confusion things. Mr. Whitten, Sure. Mr. Galbiati, Is that the recasting of numbers that were supported by policy analytics was for the total demographics shifts. Mr. Whitten, Right. Mr. Galbiati, So, Indiana measures mortality and birth, didn’t measure migration. So that was the recasting of numbers that supported the federal side. The true commuter numbers actually is, you can reference ‘Stats Indiana’. The breakdown, Mr. President, I’m going to fumble over the exact breakdown, but the total amount of Porter County and Lake County residents that commute to Illinois for their livelihoods, about 50,000. Mr. Whitten, Yes, but how many of those are from Porter County is what I’d like to know. Mr. Galbiati, Well I’d have to get back to you on that. Mr. Bellamy, We don’t have a precise number, but we can get it for you though. But keep in mind, it’s not just people who are today taking the train. The train that runs along the north end of Porter County is packed--standing room only. Once it hits Lake County, there is, there are no parking spots for people, and when Porter County people come home at night, they’re standing. So there’s a finite number the present South Shore can handle, and, and the tens of thousands of people, apparently, that commute even from Porter County by car, that is the potential, and we can get a number. Mr. Whitten, Mr. Commissioner, you had, Bob, you had your hand up back there. Com. Harper, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’ve got to now. My figures from the NICTD Board, and I think I have the letters here, are there about 5,000 regular people who go to work from Lake and, Porter and Lake, in Illinois on the South Shore. And about 4,000 of those are from Indiana, about 700 of those are from Porter County. Now that’s what my, and I have the letters here today if you want to go into that. The second thing is, I think without a doubt they are asking for $8,000 from Porter County. Mr. Whitten, Eight-million.
Com. Harper, $8,000,000. They, they’ve floated different things to get this. I think they need 30-million a year, and they expect 8,000,000 of that to come from Porter County. The thing I have to say, and I’m going to, you know, really have my piece at NICTD, when they bring this up, but we have shifted the inventory, business inventory tax in Porter County, which shifted $8,000,000 extra on the homeowner. We passed the EDIT, which put $8,000,000 extra on the homeowner, and we put 8,000,000 into the RDA, which a lot of people thought was going to take care of this job, that’s another 8,000,000, although half of it goes back to, for property tax relief. And if this is another 8,000,000 in about four or five years we’ve come up with $32,000,000 worth of taxes, which is what the County, the whole County is run on. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Com. Harper, To say that we don’t know that this is going to cost Porter County citizens $8,000,000 is just not, you know, the whole story, because that’s where this is going. The other thing I would say, if we sat here, you guys and the Commissioners sat here, and pledged $150,000 for a $3,000,000 study, remember that, Bill? We did that four years ago, it was part of a $3,000,000 study that’s not done, and I wonder why we’re getting ahead of that study, because it’s not done. And the reason it’s not done is because it was stopped because the population figures wouldn’t justify it. And I wonder if, when you think that only 700 people are using this right now from Porter County if that, if there isn’t some truth in those figures. So I, I think this needs more study and more time myself before the Council, because if the Council takes this vote, what you are doing is spending $8,000,000 of Porter County money. Mr. Bellamy, The Commissioner makes very many good points. However, we’re not asking you to do anything tonight in the way of funding of this project. We will not get the federal if we can’t justify it by population, so the Commissioner’s argument will, will win the day, if, if the numbers don’t justify it. If it won’t, we won’t do it. The competition for the federal match, intense. We will only get it if we can prove the numbers. And I would just say, is Porter County that much different from western suburbs of Chicago? Somehow the people of Illinois have found a way to finance the expansion of commuter rail, and, and we cannot think that tomorrow will be like today. There may be 700 people taking--and I don’t know if those are correct--the South Shore now, but there are thousands of people who are driving their automobiles, and do you think, Commissioner, or anybody else, when gasoline goes to $7 or $8 a gallon that the people’s habits will change. And if we are not economically set up to handle it, our future growth will be zero. We cannot look at today, and think that things will always be the same on into the future. If we don’t prepare today for a new reality tomorrow, we’ll be a back runner. Mr. Whitten, Okay, I don’t mean to cut you off, but. There’s a whole lot I’d like to say about this, but I don’t think that we are going to talk all night. But I have a lot of concerns, and a lot of questions before I would ever vote to support an $8,000,000 tax on the Porter County residents, particularly when we are on the backend of a discussion about the property taxes that are bridling these people in this county. I think it would be ludicrous for the Council to make a determination or an endorsement of such thing without knowing more about the studies, and where this is going. Now that’s just my opinion, I don’t speak for the group. Mrs. Stevenson, I would like to make a statement. I’m sitting here, and I’m trying to keep my mouth shut, and I can’t, because in 2004 I voted for the RDA, and I was proud that I voted for it. But there’s some misleading things. One of them is that the 3.5 million was supposed to go for this. Well surprise. Three years later, it’s not. It’s not going for that. It’s not going for the South Shore Line. Now we have to come up with 800, 800-million. I don’t know how much we’re going to have to come up with. But if you choose, whatever you do, however the dollar amount is, if you choose, downstate chooses to have somebody else put the, take the vote, it’s only because they might not get their votes from the councils. Mr. Galbiati, Just one quick point is that the RDA was established to do many things, and the RDA is committed to this. So RDA money; did I say RDA? Mr. Whitten, You did. Mr. Galbiati, Sorry. Mr. Whitten, It’s okay. Mr. Galbiati, Will be committed to this. Mrs. Stevenson, But not the full amount. They… Mr. Galbiati, Not the full amount. Mrs. Stevenson, They waited, and waited long enough for all of this, for the study and everything else, and now it’s going to cost them a billion dollars. So… Mr. Galbiati, And I want to be precise of where that came, and really, that’s a good question for NICTD. Certainly, Commissioner Harper is aware of why those changes have been taking place. But I want to be precise in this, is that the RDA is doing exactly what they should be doing in this venture, and that is, doing the due diligence, and you’re expected to contribute to this. Mr. Bucko, What I think might be very interesting, and I don’t want to beleaguer this, but I think it would be extremely interesting to find out, and I’m sure the numbers would be out there, of determining what individuals that are out there that are not taking the RDA, because, I mean the South Shore, because of the congestion issues on the line, and everything else, the parking issues, and the whole nine yards. Then based on some extrapolated growth on that, determine what the increased ridership would be based on the availability of the trains, then based on the growth within the community. And I think that all, however that pans out, and we don’t have that information to decide, but I think it would all be very interesting information, and will tend to either lend support or not. One way or the other. Mr. Whitten, Okay, I don’t mean to cut this short, but we do have a whole meeting here to get to tonight. I thank you guys for coming and giving us the presentation. It did enlighten me a little bit. It gave me some information. I had not seen this presentation before. So I want to thank you guys for your time, and coming to talk to us. Mr. Galbiati, I thank the Council. Mr. Whitten, Alright, thanks. Mr. Burge, I had some thoughts on that, but you want to move on, I’ll address them at another time. I would like to thank them for exploring these options. Mr. Whitten, Absolutely. Mr. Burge, Because around the world, the most efficient way of moving people is rail, and even though there’s a lot of details to be worked out, there’s a lot of unknowns, and some things we have to have some concerns about, certainly. But, whether it’s Europe, Asia, around North America, it’s the most efficient way of moving people. So please continue your efforts to try to find a solution for us. Mr. Bellamy, Thank you. Mr. Whitten, Thanks, guys. We appreciate it. At this time, Mr. Murphy left the meeting.
CIRCUIT COURT 01.81 Mr. Whitten, Okay, Circuit Court 01.81, we have a few transfers: 10,000 from Care of Patients & Inmates to Legal; 4,000 from Care of Patients & Inmates to Interpreters; $75 from Equipment other than Vehicles to Dues & Subscriptions. Good evening, Judge. How are you? Judge Mary Harper, I’m great. How are you? Mr. Whitten, I’m doing okay, thank you for asking. Judge Harper, Take care.
Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Circuit Court 01.81, the amounts of, $10,000 from 3978 Care of Patients & Inmates to 3110 Legal, $4,000 from 3978 Care of Patients & Inmates to 3170 Interpreters and $75 from 3630 Equipment other than Vehicles to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Judge Harper, Thanks very much. Good to see you. Mr. Whitten, Same here.
SUPERIOR COURT 3 - 01.38 Mr. Whitten, Superior Court 3, 01.38, we have a few transfers: 500 from Uniforms & Clothing to Training & Education; 600 from Legal to Training & Education; 200 from Equipment other than Vehicles to Training & Education. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Superior Court 3-01.38, the amounts of, $500 from 2220 Uniforms & Clothing to 3130 Training & Education, $600 from 3110 Legal to 3130 Training & Education and $200 from 3630 Equipment other than Vehicles to 3130 Training & Education. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, Have a good evening, Judge. Judge Julia Jent, Thank you.
COMMISSIONERS 01.30 Mr. Whitten, Commissioners 01.30, transfer $6,000 from Power to Household & Bedding. What is your pleasure with this? What’s this all about, cover monthly expenses to the end of 2007. What does all this mean? Com. Harper, Tell him what it means, Melissa. Melissa Hartig, Just an increase in paper products has put her over her budgeted amount. Charlotte’s very good at keeping an eye on what she’s got to buy, and what she has left to spend, and they’ve just gone through it this year with the fuel increases and the increase in paper products. Mr. Whitten, Questions? Concerns? Can I get a motion of some sort? Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Commissioners 01.30, the amount of $6,000 from 3510 Power to 2330 Household & Bedding. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Whitten, Discussion? Mr. Bucko, Are these for, like every building is the responsibility of the Commissioners? Com. Harper, Yes. Mr. Whitten, All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfer is approved.
CCD FUND 132 Mr. Whitten, CCD Fund 132, we have a few, a couple transfers: $3,952.36 from Other Equipment to Data Processing Equipment; $6,000 from Other Equipment to Data Processing Equipment. What is your pleasure? Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by CCD 132, the amounts of, $3,952.36 from 4540 Other Equipment to 4510 Data Processing Equipment and $6,000 from 4540 Other Equipment to 4510 Data Processing Equipment. Mr. Carmichael seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfers are approved. At this time, Mr. Carmichael left the meeting.
ANIMAL SHELTER 01.45 - REQUEST NOT NEEDED Request was approved at the September 25th meeting.
CORONER 01.07 Mr. Whitten, Coroner 01.07, 100 from Travel to Training & Education; 300 from Medical & Hospital to Office Supplies; 1,000 from Medical & Hospital to Other Supplies. Mr. Poparad moved to deny the request for transfer of funds submitted by Coroner 01.07. Mr. Poparad, I just had to say that, I just had to get it out. Let it die for the lack of a second. Motion died for the lack of a second. Mr. Whitten, Okay, it’s dead. Mr. Poparad, I didn’t see body bags on here. Mr. Whitten, Can I get a motion to approve? Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Coroner 01.07, the amounts of, $100 from 3210 Travel to 3130 Training & Education, $300 from 3140 Medical & Hospital to 2110 Office Supplies and $1,000 from 3140 Medical & Hospital to 2250 Other Supplies. Mr. Poparad seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, Your transfers are approved. Vicki Deppe, Thank you. Mr. Poparad, Gotcha. Ms. Deppe, You did.
ITS 01.50 Mr. Whitten, ITS 01.50, 9,000 from Salaries to Consultants; 10,000 from Hourly to Consultants. Consultants, consultants. Salaries line item has excess money due to a vacancy in a position for part of the year. What are your thoughts on this? Mr. Bucko, You’re using consultants, instead of the hourly, right? Sharon Lippens, Sorry? Mr. Bucko, You’re using the consultants… Mr. Whitten, Instead of the hourly. Mr. Bucko, Rather than a person. Mrs. Lippens, Yes. Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for transfer of fund submitted by ITS 01.50, the amounts of, $9,000 from 1110 Salaries to 3120 Consultants and $10,000 from 1120 Hourly to 3120 Consultants. Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mr. Whitten, Discussion? Mr. Burge, On the, as far as for purposes of budgeting though, it would be about 19,000 out of what you would be paying people. So you don’t, is there a position you haven’t filled or how is it that those monies are available? Mrs. Lippens, We, at the end of last year we decided, and it was after budgets that the money we were using for part-time, we were using for interns. But by having the intern, it actually cost us more because somebody had to baby sit them, and kind of guide them, so really… Mr. Bucko, Fix what they did? Mrs. Lippens, Exactly. So we didn’t find that that was feasible for us. Also, that money was going to be used, an employee had retired, and had expressed an interest in coming back and working part-time. They chose not to do that. So we had that money left over. The money in Salaries was from a position that had been open sometime after the beginning of the year, and then didn’t get filled until May or June. Mr. Burge, Okay. Would that 19,000 have been worked into the 2008 budget request though, as far as… Mrs. Lippens, Yes. If, if this was not available, then I would have been coming in 2008 for the difference, to request the difference. We’re looking at implementing a new email package for the entire County, and it’s a massive project, and with the county of our size, the number of users, we’re dying. Ask anybody. So, you know, we’re looking at a very large project, and we’ve looked at several different packages, several different vendors that provide those different types of packages, and we feel that we have found one that’s going to give us the best for our money, the best use and resources we already have, and give everybody in the County the best option for any functions that they would like to have now, and in the next several years. Mr. Whitten, Any other questions? What’s your pleasure with these? Mr. Bucko again moved to approve the request for transfer of funds submitted by ITS. 01.50. Mr. Poparad seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfers are approved. Mrs. Lippens, Thank you.
CLERK 01.01 - REQUEST WITHDRAWN Mr. Whitten, I think the Clerk’s request has been withdrawn. Ms. Noll, Yes.
HIGHWAY 02 Mr. Whitten, Highway 02, we have a few transfers: $1,800 from Lease Purchase to Communication; 5,000 from Lease Purchase to Garage & Motor; 3,500 from Lease Purchase to Calcium Chloride. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Highway 02, the amounts of, $1,800 from 3730 Lease Purchase to 3220 Communication, $5,000 from 3730 Lease Purchase to 2320 Garage & Motor Supplies and $3,500 from 3730 Lease Purchase to 2470 Calcium Chloride. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfers are approved.
HIGHWAY LRS 26 Mr. Whitten, Highway LRS 26, transfer of 22,000 from Railroad Crossing to Salt. You’re figuring on doing some salting. Mr. Bucko, That’s not a bad omen, is it? David James, I hope not. It’s supposed to be a dry winter. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Highway LRS 26, the amount of $22,000 from 3951 Railroad Crossings to 2261 Salt. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, Your transfer is approved. Mr. Burge, Quick question before you leave. During the, is there, when salt is purchased, is it based on a volume? Is there a volume discount structure, the more salt you buy you get a better price? Mr. James, No, we have to bid that, and we do that in July. Mr. Burge, Okay. Mr. James, And we do that with several different companies, the best price, and it’s an only price. One gets it, nobody else, everybody else walks away from it. And it’s bid on so many tons. Usually it’s, I think this year it was 10,000 tons. Mr. Burge, The bigger the bid, the better price you might get? Mr. James, No, not necessarily so. Mr. Burge, Okay, because that came up during the League of Councils’ meeting. Some of the towns and cities were wondering if we pooled everybody’s salt needs to buy in larger bulk, could it save overall, all the communities. That was one thing that came up that… Mr. James, I doubt that. Mr. Burge, Okay. Mr. James, Because they play, they’re in it to make money too. Mr. Burge, Sure. Mr. James, You know, I mean I don’t want to be the devil’s advocate here, but we get better prices than the City does. We do. It’s just because we have, it seems like for some reason we do… Mr. Burge, You can take them piggyback though, could it, could that, that could benefit the municipalities then. Mr. James, You could probably help the municipalities, maybe. I mean I can’t say no to it. I wouldn’t deny it. Mr. Whitten, Maybe we’ll have someone from Highway come at talk at our next meeting. Mr. Burge, Yes, that’s what I’m thinking. Mr. Bucko, It might be a good idea. Mr. Burge, Because if each town and city can benefit by piggybacking on your order, ultimately it saves taxpayers money. Mr. James, Yes, and it seems like sometimes they bid it at different time too. But they’re also using, you know, if anything, the City of Valpo, I know for a fact, used way more than we did, and they paid more, so I don’t know why. They wouldn’t be getting a benefit. Like I said, these companies are in, you know… Mr. Burge, Sure. Mr. James, For the long haul, and they’re going to make a profit too from wherever is coming. And sometimes they are a way different price. You know, I mean it was amazing this year, not to take up too much of your time, but this year, the person that had the bid last year for us was way out of the ball park this year. Somebody just came in, and just shot, you know, shot them down. So they all see what they did, and the company that came in this year, came in at last years company’s price. Everybody went sky high because of fuel costs and whatnot. Mr. Burge, Perhaps some of the road municipalities in Porter County can purchase their salt from you. To save, save them some money. Mr. Bucko, Would single-point delivery be an issue? Mr. Poparad, Big time. Mr. James, Big time. Mr. Bucko, Yes, I would think so.
Mr. James, Oh yes. Mr. Bucko, If there were a savings, that’s where it might be? Mr. Poparad, Well, whatever savings you have is going to get eaten up by distributing it accordingly. Mr. Bucko, Somebody would have to come, oh, I gotcha. Mr. James, And somebody’s going to have pay trucking. Mr. Bucko, Yes, either by the trucking or come and get it themselves, yaddy, yaddy, yaddy. Mr. James, Right. Mr. Bucko, You’ve got expense where you look at it. Mr. James, Right. Mr. Whitten, Thank you very much. Mr. James, Thsnk you. Mr. Burge, Thank you, appreciate it. Mr. Whitten, Have a good one.
PLANNING/BUILDING DEPARTMENT 239 Mr. Whitten, Planning/Building Department 239, we have a few additionals: 25,000 to Legal; $2,000 to Telephone; $250 to 3320 Legal Notices. Additionals needed to cover legal work for rest of ’07. I think that’s the long and the short of it. Mr. Bucko, How illegal can you get between now and the end of the year. Mr. Whitten, What is that, Bob? Bob Thompson, This is a breakdown from our attorney. Basically, we spent--Mr. Burge, has always asked for this in the past. And it breaks it down, and I guess to explain this, the unsafe, it’s mentioned there, that’s our unsafe building ordinance. Now that is under a separate fund. Okay? But there is 78 hours on there, municipal enforcement, that is like the legal businesses, junk yards, where we have to actually go in. Court actions on properties to bring them in. At this time, Mr. Whitten left the meeting. Mr. Thompson, Miscellaneous expenses at the very bottom is additional hours the attorney would spend, it could be working on codes, amending codes, speaking with me about Plan Commission business going on, a number of miscellaneous items. At this time, Mr. Carmichael returned to the meeting. Mr. Thompson, Number three is the actual litigation. So basically, litigation breaks down to being about a third of our hourly. Mr. Poparad, Your budget will support this? Mr. Thompson, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Well the unsafe building money comes back, doesn’t it? Do we go after liens on the property? Mr. Thompson, They do, and we have brought back money into that fund. And in some situations with the municipal enforcement, we’ve actually brought money back in.
Mr. Poparad, I’ll make the motion, but I guess our leader left. Mrs. Stevenson, He’ll be right back. Mr. Burge, I just, Mike had made a note on the, just the total number of hours it kind of sticks out compared to like our public defenders, the amount of hours and that versus the amount of money, the 25,000 additional for the number of hours, it seems like a lot of money. Mr. Thompson, It’s a $110 per hour rate. Mr. Burge, How does that compare to other attorney’s fees for the departments throughout the county system? Mr. Hollenbeck, I didn’t hear what it was. Mr. Thompson, It’s $110 per hour. Mr. Hollenbeck, That’s, that’s the same amount I bill you. Mr. Poparad, Oh, God, that’s outrageous. Mr. Bucko, Geez, you didn’t have to ruin the evening, did you. It’s not out of line with anybody else’s. I was saying I didn’t think the hours for the year was outrageous. Mr. Hollenbeck, $110, $115 an hour is not out of line. Mrs. Stevenson, And I’m on the Plan Commission, and I’m telling you, we have the attorney at everything. I mean he’s needed for everything to check out and verify everything. So I mean this is not asking for something that is crazy, because he’s worth his weight in gold. Mr. Bucko, How much litigation was caused by our council representation on that Board. Mrs. Stevenson, What? What did you say? Mr. Bucko, Don’t ya think. Mrs. Stevenson, What did you say? Mr. Bucko, How much of this was caused by our council representation on the Board. Mrs. Stevenson, Nothing; I’ll meet you outside. At this time, Mr. Whitten returned to the meeting. Mr. Hollenbeck, Dan, I need your support, they’re bashing lawyers. Mr. Whitten, Bashing lawyers.
Mr. Poparad, It’s easy. Mr. Carmichael, Who’s the attorney? Mrs. Stevenson, Scott McClure, and Ken Elwood. Mr. Carmichael, From Porter County? Mr. Thompson, Yes. Mrs. Stevenson, Definitely from Porter. Mr. Thompson, And Lisa Francis also, with the same firm also has… Mr. Bucko, That’s the BZA and Plan Commission. Mr. Thompson, Worked with the municipal enforcement. Mr. Poparad, I made the motion to approve it, but nobody seconded it. Mrs. Stevenson and Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Whitten, We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Mr. Poparad, You’ve got enough money for this, right? Mr. Thompson, Yes. Mr. Whitten, Roll call. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Carmichael - No Poparad - Yes Mr. Kopp, One, two, three, four. Motion carries four to two. Mr. Whitten, Thank you very much.
CONVENTION, RECREATION & VISITORS COMMISSION 93 Mr. Whitten, Visitors Commission 93, we have a couple additionals: 2,000 to Power; 200 to Tires & Tubes. Tires & Tube, ay. Lisa Dittrich-Bondor, Yes. Mr. Poparad, You’re not Lorelei. Ms. Dittrich-Bondor, No, I’m not. She sends her regrets. She’s on vacation, out of the state. Mr. Poparad, And you are? Ms. Dittrich-Bondor, I’m Lisa Dittrich-Bondor, the Director of Finance Administration. Mr. Whitten, What’s your pleasure with your thoughts on the additionals? Mr. Poparad, I don’t know about this now; we got new people up here. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission 93, the amounts of, $2,000 to 3510 Power and $200 to 2310 Tires & Tubes. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Whitten, That’s it.
MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE 158 Mr. Whitten, Memorial Opera House 158, a couple of additionals: 10,000 to Director/Choreographer; $20,000 to Hourly. Brian Schafer, Good evening. Mr. Whitten, Good evening, how are you? Mr. Schafer, Good. Mr. Whitten, Elimination of salaried employees in ’06, and additional part-time box office employees. Mr. Schafer, Yes, the additional to Hourly is covering the additional part-time employees that have been hired to do cleaning in the actual auditorium, and then the box office work. Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mr. Schafer, The 10,000 to Director/Choreographer is covering my, I’ve got a couple more shows that are coming in this year, and that’s what that is covering. It’s a cost that shouldn’t effect us next year because I’ve restructured my orchestra and things of that nature. So it should just cover us through the end of the year. Mr. Whitten, What’s your pleasure with the additionals? Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Memorial Opera House 158, the amounts of, $10,000 to 3170 Director/Choreographer and $20,000 to 1120 Hourly. Mr. Poparad seconded. Mr. Whitten, Discussion? Mr. Burge, One quick question. Mr. Schafer, Yes. Mr. Burge, On the reasoning here, you have the elimination of salaried employees in 2006. Mr. Schafer, Yes. We’re to the point now where we need to start adding them back, not full-time, but in a part-time nature. Mr. Burge, Somebody, they weren’t there, but it’s not a case of transferring because you eliminated from the ’07 budget. Mr. Schafer, Correct. Yes. Yes, things are structured a little differently. The salaries that were eliminated are positions that are no longer needed, and then this is the creation of just part, general part-time labor work, basically, is what we are looking at right now. Mr. Burge, It’s additional 30,000. What are the revenues right now looking like? Mr. Schafer, Right now, actually, I checked today, Fund 158 has a $19,000 balance, and then I’ve got 15,000 that’s being transferred into the fund tomorrow. Mr. Burge, Not speaking of balances, but how much has the Memorial Opera House brought in? Mr. Schafer, Total right now, I believe we’re looking at around 230,000, approximately. And we’ve still got, the biggest part of our income is, won’t happen until the end of November with our season ticket sales. We can probably expect anywhere from 20 to 40,000 additional into that. Mr. Burge, Okay, so for the coming year your gain is well sustained. Mr. Schafer, Yes, correct. Yes, plus we’ve got a couple, we’ve got our, we have a couple of events left this year that will bring in probably an additional 30,000. Mr. Poparad, They’re feeding themselves.
Mr. Burge, That’s my point. As long as they’re doing that, that’s fine. Mr. Bucko, I had the opportunity just this last week to sit down and talk, and some of the ideas are pretty encouraging, and I mean really kind of terrific stuff. I think people will be pleased with what’s coming. Mr. Schafer, Thanks, Mike. Mr. Whitten, You guys want to handle the additional with the transfer? Mr. Poparad, I’ll make the motion. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations, the amounts of, $10,000 to 3170 Director/Choreographer and $20,000 to 1120 Hourly, and the request for transfer of funds, the amounts of, $3,000 from 3770 Costumes to 2440 Set Design/Construction and $3,000 from 3770 Costumes to 2250 Other Supplies, submitted by Memorial Opera House 158. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Schafer, Thank you.
PARKS OPERATING 127 Mr. Whitten, Parks Operating 127, we have got several additionals: 2,000 to Event Expenses; 970 to Contractual Services; 1,500 to Contractuals. There is alos a transfer of $2,500 from Equipment to Contractual Services. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Poparad, This is all the tourism money. Mr. Whitten, The 11th payment from PCCRV. Mr. Bucko, That’s what it looks like. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations, the amounts of, $2,000 to 3980 Event Expenses, $970 to 3950 Contractual Services, $1,500 to 3950 Contractual Services, and the transfer request of, $2,500 from 3710 Equipment to 3950 Contractual Services, submitted by Parks Operating 127. Mrs. Stevenson and Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Whitten, Discussion? Mr. Poparad, Did we fix this for next year or not? Ms. Noll, No. Mr. Poparad, We didn’t? Ms. Noll, No. Mr. Poparad, Alright. Mr. Whitten, Roll call, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
PARKS 01.85 Mr. Whitten, Parks 01.85, transfers, 1,300 from Gas, Fuel & Lube to Equipment other than Vehicles; 1,000 from Equipment to Vehicle Repair; 700 from Disposal to Compliance Testing. Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Parks 01.85, the amounts of, $1,300 from 2210 Gas, Fuel & Lube to 3630 Equipment other than Vehicles, $1,000 from 3710 Equipment to 3650 Vehicle Repair and $700 from 3920 Disposal to 3950 Compliance Testing. Mr. Carmichael seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, The transfers are approved. Mike Howton, Thank you. Mr. Whitten, We already did Council 234. Mr. Bucko, Did we do the 2,500, did I miss it? Was it in there? Mr. Whitten, We did it. Mr. Bucko, Okay. Mr. Whitten, We did them all.
SHERIFF 01.05 Mr. Whitten, Sheriff 01.05, additional $40,000 to Gas, Fuel & Lube; 1,238 to Overtime. Say what, Bob? Mr. Poparad, We already did the Council? Mr. Whitten, We did, that was the undercover thing, yes. Mr. Poparad, That nasty gasoline, you know it. Mr. Whitten, It’s always the fuel, right, the guys that carry it. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, I’m the fuel guy. Sheriff Lain, We’re trying to get to the point where we, I understand that there are some, that there have been discussions, and we’re close to working out where the, what credit cards are going to be used, what fleet cards are going to be used. But we’ve still bills to pay now. Right now, we’ve got about 27,000 in bills waiting. Mr. Whitten, Wow.
Mr. Poparad moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Sheriff 01.05, the amounts of $40,000 to 2210 Gas, Fuel & Lube and $1,238 to 1130 Overtime. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Existing. Mr. Whitten, Yes, we’ve got to pay the bills on the gas, right. Sheriff Lain, That’s unfortunately the way it is. Mr. Poparad, One tanker load. Mrs. Stevenson, So every time you come back to us and you ask for 20,000 or 40,000 it’s basically to pay what you’ve already used.
Sheriff Lain, Yes, in a lot instances, yes, that’s accurate. We’ve got, I can break it down. I think there’s about 7 or 8,000 that we owe the Portage School System, and the bulk of that, about 20,000 is for gas delivery to the county garage. Sheriff Lain, Yes, I think, yes, because the deliveries are made when they have to be made, and that doesn’t necessarily coincide with. Mr. Whitten, Can I get a roll call, please? Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
JAIL 217 Mr. Whitten, Let’s talk about Jail 217, we have two additionals. Sheriff Lain, Excuse me, we missed for the Overtime. Mr. Whitten, They had that in there. Mr. Poparad, That was in there. Sheriff Lain, Oh, I’m sorry. I was going to explain it, but never mind. Mr. Whitten, You’ve got Jail 217, a couple of additionals: 80,000 to Contractual Services; 55,000 to Medical & Hospital. Jail population increase. Sheriff Lain, And that’s really what we’re talking about. We’re, it’s mouths to feed, nothing more. Our jail population has gone up every year. The last snapshot that we took was 513 back earlier in the year. That has, so you understand, has dropped because of the loss of a number of DOC inmates. Still, even with that, about 22% as we take the snapshot this year, 22% of our population are still federal and DOC inmates. Mr. Whitten, When you say Contractual Services, where does that go? Sheriff Lain, That’s a, that’s goes to, that’s food costs. Mr. Whitten, Food costs, okay. Well, that makes sense. Any questions? Bob, Rita, anybody? Do we have a motion on this? Ms. Noll, No. Mr. Whitten, Can I get a motion? Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Jail 217, the amounts of, $80,000 to 3950 Contractual Services and $55,000 to 3140 Medical & Hospital. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Whitten, Discussion? Mr. Bucko, Tomorrow there’s a presentation at United Way from DOC. Sheriff Lain, Yes, but it’s got nothing to do with anything that we’ve discussed. Mr. Bucko, No, not what we’re talking about here. Sheriff Lain, No. Mr. Bucko, I understand Sheriff Lain, It’s a transition from DOC life to getting back in, you know, when inmates are released, they are released back into the community. The DOC has a program designed to ease that. Mr. Whitten, They drive around and show them the nice houses. Mr. Bucko, Hmm. Mr. Whitten, I shouldn’t say that. Mr. Hollenbeck, Dan. Mr. Whitten, Yeah, the unlocked homes. Okay, well, can I get a roll call, please? Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
COUNTY CORRECTIONS 07 Mr. Whitten, Corrections 07, additional 20,000 to Medical & Dental. Sheriff Lain, The same situation. Mr. Bucko, More mouths, huh. Sheriff Lain, More, well, our Medical & Dental, the average weekly cost on that this year has been about $1,600 a week. So we find ourselves in need of, and this comes from the county corrections money, which traditionally we have sought to pay for these kinds of issues that come up later in the year to fill some of those gaps. Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by County Corrections 07, the amount of, $20,000 to 2410 Medical & Dental. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Sheriff Lain, Thank you. Mr. Whitten, Have a good evening.
EXTENSION OFFICE 01.23 Mr. Bucko, Costs you more to do that in writing. Mr. Whitten, $150 from Training & Education to Dues & Subscriptions; $100 from Training & Education, and $20 from Other Supplies to Dues & Subscriptions. What’s your pleasure? Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Extension 01.23, the amounts of, $10 from 2110 Office Supplies to 3610 Maintenance Agreements, $150 from 3130 Training & Education to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions, $100 from 3130 Training & Education to 3210 Travel, and $20 from 2250 Other Supplies to 3930 Dues & Subscriptions. Mr. Carmichael seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Whitten, That was hardly worth the $10, was it. Mr. Poparad, Well we, I thought we, I thought they had latitude.
Mr. Carmichael, Yeah, there is. Mr. Poparad, We spent $10 in legal printing to get that printed, way more that $10. Mr. Whitten, Yeah, there is. SHERIFF PENSION DISCUSSION Mr. Whitten, Sheriff Pension Discussion is the next thing on the agenda. Do we want to do that tonight? Mr. Bucko, Well. Mr. Whitten, Or do we not want to do that tonight? Are we ready to do that tonight? Mr. Poparad, I’m not. Mr. Whitten, We’re not ready to do that tonight. Can we have that discussion at the next meeting? Mr. Poparad, Fine. Mr. Carmichael, Next month we need to appropriate longevity. Mr. Whitten, Yes we do. Mr. Bucko, Next month? Mrs. Stevenson, Now are we having one in November or December? Mr. Whitten, Well I guess that’s going to be our next, we have that in our next line item here. Mr. Burge, One point on the Sheriff Pension Discussion, that was another thing that came up at the League of Councils. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Burge, Was a lot of the cities and towns are facing the same thing with their own police force. The discussion was what if down the road there was a way to blend those together, them working together. I realize it opens a whole can of worms, but the municipalities are facing the same situation that we are, and they expressed an interest in engaging us in those types of discussion, if it could be helpful. Mr. Whitten, Thanks, Jim. YEAR-END MEETING DATE Mr. Whitten, The next thing on the agenda here, interestingly enough, Rita, is our year-end meeting date. Do we want to have a meeting in November? Or do we want to skip November, and have one in December, early December, like the 4th or the 3rd? Mr. Poparad, Every Monday between now and the end of the year. Mr. Whitten, The Colts game is out of the way, so that’s okay now. I mean I was thinking we’d have one early in December. Mr. Carmichael, You have to have it early. Mr. Whitten, Yes, like the 3rd? Would everybody be okay with the 3rd? I was thinking maybe early morning on the 25th of December. Mr. Bucko, Early morning, the 25th, that’s not bad; any time before the 28th. Mr. Hollenbeck, December 3rd is a Monday. Mr. Whitten, Yes, it’s a Monday. We could do it January 1st at like 1:00 in the morning. You guys want to do that, we can couple it with a party. Mr. Bucko, You’ll still be up, won’t you.
Mr. Whitten, I don’t know, there was a time, but I think that time’s gone, Mike. What do you think? What are your thoughts? We can do it Monday the 3rd, Tuesday the 4th. Mr. Whitten, For Christmas. Ms. Noll, It’s okay. Mr. Whitten, Will we be okay with the 3rd? Ms. Noll, Yes. Mr. Poparad, If Sharon knows longevity is coming, then all she has to do is run it. Mr. Kopp, She’ll have to calculate it. Mr. Poparad, Right. Ms. Noll, She already knows about it. Mrs. Stevenson, Bob, Jan said she’s already talked to her, and she’s aware of it. Mr. Bucko, Monday, the 3rd, that’s a good day. Mr. Hollenbeck, I’m not the one you should adjust to, but Tuesday the 4th is much better for me. Mr. Whitten, I don’t think we can do it Tuesday the 4th. Ms. Noll, The Commissioners meet that day. Mr. James, Tuesday the 4th is the commissioners’ meeting. Mr. Poparad, So. Mr. Hollenbeck, So we can’t do it. Alright. End of discussion, can’t do it. So Monday the 3rd? Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Hollenbeck, Can we do it early, like 5:30? Mr. Whitten, We can do it as early as everybody can get here. Want to do 5:30? Jim? Bill? Mr. Hollenbeck, That’s helps me, 5:30. Mr. Whitten, And that’s what’s important to us, Dave. Mr. Hollenbeck, I know it isn’t. Mr. Poparad, It is for me. Mr. Whitten, Okay, let’s look for 5:30 on the 3rd, okay. ATTORNEY REPORT Mr. Whitten, Attorney Report, do you have anything, Dave? Mr. Hollenbeck, No. LIAISON REPORTS Mr. Whitten, Liaison Reports? I mean I think, it’s not a liaison report, but Jim has addressed the fact that we had our League of Councils thing. I think it was a nice starting block, and we hope to blossom it into something more. We had some pretty good ideas from the different communities. Mr. Burge, Do you want me to go over any of the summary points? Mr. Whitten, Do you just want to hand it out to them or do you want to? Mr. Burge, Yes, let’s do it that way. Jan, if you could run copies of that. It’s a summary sheet from the League of Councils meeting. Ms. Noll, Okay. Mr. Burge, I’ll give it to you, and if you could make copies for everyone, and send them out to the towns and cities, as well. Mr. Whitten, Can I get Second Reading, please. SECOND READING Mr. Poparad move to approve Second Reading. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. There being no further business, meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.
Michael Bucko Attest: James Kopp, Auditor |
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October 23, 2007