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PORTER COUNTY COUNCIL
Members present were Michael Bucko, Jim Burge, William Carmichael, Rita Stevenson, Dan Whitten, and President Bob Poparad, Also present was Auditor James Kopp, Attorney Dave Hollenbeck, Lindy Wilson and Pat Gibson. Mr. Poparad called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Poparad, We have the approval of the February 26th minutes. I need a motion on the minutes. Mrs. Stevenson moved to approve the minutes of February 26, 2008 as received. Mr. Whitten seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, The motion’s approved. First Reading. FIRST READING At this time, Mr. Kopp read the Notice to Taxpayers.
ANIMAL SHELTER 01.45 Mr. Poparad, We’re going to reshuffle things. Some people have prior commitments because we moved our meeting. Animal Shelter, can you come up? Bob, do you want to come up with her? Okay, you guys are looking for 4,500 for Vet Services, and $11,481.60 to Overtime. Com. Bob Harper, Let me say this, Bob. This is Jenniffer Pierce, she’s the new Director at the Animal Shelter. Mr. Whitten, Hello, Jenniffer. Com. Harper, She, we have two people off, and she put that request in for Overtime because she thought she had to have it. She believes she has enough money right now to run through mid-summer, so we’re going to withdraw that request for Overtime. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Com. Harper, And if we have a problem, we have two people on sick leave right now, and I’m discussing that with the County Attorney, also. Mr. Carmichael moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted and amended by Animal Shelter 01.45, the amount of $4,500 to 3160 Vet Services. Mr. Whitten seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you. Com. Harper, It’s not always this easy. Mr. Whitten, Sometimes it’s easier. Mr. Bucko, Zoom, huh. Mr. Poparad, Bob, why don’t you just stay here while you’re up here, because you’re right here next.
Mrs. Stevenson, Nice meeting you. Mr. Poparad, We have a Commissioners’ transfer. Com. Harper, It’s for Postage. Mr. Poparad, For $16,785 from Power to Postage to mail out our tax rebates. Com. Harper, That’s part of it. Mr. Poparad, Awe, that’s special. Any questions? Mr. Carmichael, What tax rebate? Mr. Poparad, The one the State sent us, the $200 you’re going to get back. Mr. Carmichael, Last month it was supposed to be due. Mr. Poparad, Well. What is the timeline on that, Mr. Kopp? Mr. Kopp, We’re going to start running the checks on Monday morning, and it’ll take all week to run them, then they will go into the mailer that mails our tax bills, and he will probably send them the following week. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Hollenbeck, It’s like 40,000 checks. Mr. Carmichael, That’ll be in the mail. Mr. Poparad, 40,000 checks. Mr. Kopp, 45,000. Mr. Poparad, I will consider this a personal request to pull out the lowest check, because I hear there will be checks for 37 cents. Mr. Kopp, I think 17 is the lowest. Mr. Poparad, 17 cents? Mrs. Stevenson, Oh, God. Mr. Poparad, Alright. Mr. Kopp, I asked if we would be able to not mail anything less than a dollar, and they said no. Mr. Poparad, No. Mr. Whitten, Isn’t that something. Mr. Poparad, Hail, hail, hail. Alright, does somebody want to make a motion on this transfer? Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Commissioners 01.30, the amount of $16, 785 from 3510 Power to 3230 Postage. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Let’s do the EDIT plan since you’re sitting here.
CEDIT #22 Mr. Poparad, We’ve been over this before. Come on up, Bob. This is a continuation of last month. You guys all know the request. Mr. Carmichael, I just got it today. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Carmichael, Let’s have one of them read the request here. What’s this say? Bob Thompson, It’s simply explaining what the corridor study is, and what the construction standard is, and what we’re trying to accomplish with this. Mr. Carmichael, Would you read it into the record. Mr. Poparad, Well we’ll put it in the record. He’s not going to sit there, we ain’t got time to read the four pages. Mr. Carmichael, It’s a lot of gobbly-gook as far as I’m concerned. Mr. Poparad, Okay. It’ll be entered into the record, Bill. Mr. Carmichael, How can we vote on it if we just got it today? Mrs. Stevenson, It was explained to you earlier. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Com. Harper, Well the proposal has been here for, you knew the proposals were coming back, Mr. Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael, Yes, but the explanation just came today. I couldn’t even get it on the email. Mr. Poparad, Well, Jan was in the hospital that’s why it didn’t get out to us. Mrs. Stevenson, Bill, it had been explained earlier. He explained this last month. Mr. Bucko, We went through most of it all. Mr. Carmichael, It doesn’t include 12 and 20? Mr. Thompson, It does not include 12 and 20. The request for proposal that was sent out was very specific. The routes that should be considered will be US 6, US 30, US 231, State Road 2, State Road 8, State Road 49, State Road 49-Bypass, State Road 130, State Road 149, and Meridian Road between Valparaiso and Chesterton. It does not include US 20 or US 12. Mr. Carmichael, Are any of these properties within the incorporated limits of a city or a town? Mr. Thompson, We also figured out the mileage that was in there. You had that request the last time about US 30. We actually looked at US 30. US 30 is approximately 15.61 miles across the county. This was taken off the electronic mapping that we have available; 10.44 miles of that is within the unincorporated areas, specifically. Of the 5.17 miles that’s left over, only three miles of it is within total boundaries of the City of Valparaiso. Or I should say, three miles have both Valparaiso and County jurisdiction. A case in point, the cemetery that’s out there across from Valparaiso University, that’s County; across the street, across 30, that’s the City of Valparaiso. Three miles of that is within County jurisdiction, so in that case, we’re looking at almost 13 miles of US 30 that we weren’t looking at in this study, out of 15.
Mr. Bucko, Councilmembers, I’d like to add something. Last year when this came before us, and we were wondering, well, you wanted all, they had given you all of the proposals and the quotes, and figuring out what your actual plan was, I did go to Steve Strain, who is the person at NIRPC, and asked him how this would and might apply to NIRPC, getting any funding. The only way this thing could apply for NIRPC in getting funding would either through some surface transportation, which is leftover dollars or through discretionary dollars of NIRPC. And at that point in time, that was probably early September, something like that or October. And it was too late, and would be too late to file for any kind of an application for this year on that. Those monies are being looked at right now, and they’re about ready to start a dog fight to get those extra dollars from other areas. Those may not even be considered for, let me say it this way, you’re fighting for this money on a regional basis. No guarantees, no nothing, for these discretionary dollars. And the money that’s coming will not, if you got it, you probably couldn’t look at it being available until sometime in September or even later. Com. Harper, Mr. Carmichael, let me… Mr. Whitten, Mr. Chairman, maybe we can get a motion on the floor before we get any further discussion. Mr. Poparad, Well. Mr. Whitten, I echo Councilman Carmichael’s concerns about getting something at the last minute, but luckily I’ve had an opportunity to look it over, so I’m going to move to approve this. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by CEDIT #22, the amount of $350,000 to 0001 Project #22. Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion and a second. Discussion.
Mr. Burge, Yes, Mr. Chairman, just a couple thoughts. On any of the zoning issues that we tackle, be it a unified development code, this corridor study, developing corridors, redevelopment commission, and I’ve said this in the past. The main thing to me is trying to balance good planning with personal property rights. To one person that a business may be an eyesore, to someone else, it’s their livelihood, and I think we have to be cognizant of anything passed that we keep an eye on that in helping to ensure that those rules and standards are only used for benevolent purposes to improve the County, so they’re never used in a negative way to impact somebody’s business on a personal level or any other level like that where it can be used as a tool or a weapon against them Com. Harper, This, let me, can I address that? Mr. Burge, Sure.
Com. Harper, This is not a plan to go in and change all the zoning. In fact, to be real honest with you, recent Indiana court decisions don’t allow that. Okay? If you own a piece of property that’s, let’s say, rural, okay. Well, let’s take a different example. Let’s say you own a piece of property that’s zoned commercial, okay, and the Plan Commission comes in and rezones it, okay, you have the right to override that. You can come in with a plan--a commercial plan--and override that, and that’s case law in Indiana. Mr. Whitten, Thanks, Bob. Com. Harper, And things developed. So businesses changed hands so fast in that, and they got some shrubbery, and they got some trees up, and it looks, they didn’t go in and change it. It wasn’t that they went and changed a bunch of zoning, they just came up with some ideas and plans, and so forth. Okay? So that’s the idea. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Bill, you got anymore questions? Mr. Carmichael, Yes, I have a question. This Council, Bob, has to look at the fiscal status of the entire county government. We now know we’re going to be missing a million dollars with the sheriff’s department. We lost the state prisoners, right? Com. Harper, Yes, including the $400,000 of raises that are out of that money. You’re correct, that’s correct. Mr. Carmichael, Right. When we don’t have any money, we’re going to send all these sheriff deputies home? Com. Harper, Well I didn’t vote the raises. I didn’t, you know, vote the whole thing. I’ve been saying all along that we shouldn’t depend on that money, if you remember, Mr. Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael, Right. Com. Harper, Because it wasn’t, you know, so. Mr. Carmichael, Now the State is looking at a downturn. They advertised, a 25 to a 50 million dollar loss in the fourth quarter in income. You know it’s 50 million; they don’t want to say it. The economy now is going downhill, which means there’s not going to be the sales tax, property relief money, the State comes along and says, we’re going to give you 10%. Well wait a minute. Com. Harper, Well, Mr. Carmichael, I mean you were part of this Council that learned to live with that when the Bethlehem Steel thing happened. I mean I think we’ll all learn to live with it… Mr. Carmichael, We borrowed ten million to bail ourselves out, and we borrowed 600,000 from the sheriff’s department and never paid it back. Com. Harper, You borrowed taxpayer money from the sheriff’s department. We can go into that too if you want to go into that, because, you know, I… Mr. Whitten, Can we stick to the topic. Mr. Carmichael, I’m just saying, we’re heading for some fiscal problems, and we better be tightening our purse strings. I’ll clue you in, I may not be around come December, but some of you are, you’re going to have to face the problem. Com. Harper, I know if you’re here, you’d be backing the Plan Commission. Mr. Poparad, Anybody else? Mr. Whitten, Call the question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Poparad, Call the roll, please.
Carmichael - No Poparad - Yes Com. Harper, Thank you. Mr. Thompson, Thank you very much. Mrs. Stevenson, Thanks, Bob. Mr. Poparad, Bob, you stay. You stay for the meeting.
PROSECUTOR PRETRIAL DIVERSION 38.08 Mr. Poparad, Prosecutor Pretrial. Mr. Bucko, Where we at now? Mr. Poparad, We’re back on page one. Mr. Bucko, I want to hear this story. Mr. Poparad, Well now we got the expert. You brought the expert back, didn’t you. Mr. Bucko, There we go, that’s it. This is the worker. Brian Gensel, Yep, I can just sit back now. Kathy Minick, It’s really an easy explanation, really easy. Mr. Poparad, Go ahead. Ms. Minick, Okay, my understanding is that you are questioning an $880 increase in the salary of Deputy Eggers, Domestic Violence Prosecutor Eggers out of our 38.08. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Ms. Minick, Okay. She is not getting an $880 raise. What has happened, through the letter of explanation that Brian had sent, Katrina, who was in that position has left the office. All I did was move Melanie into Katrina’s position, which her current salary is $49,320; 31,000 of that is paid out of a grant, and the balance is paid out of the Prosecutor’s Pretrial. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Ms. Minick, Okay? The new person that we have just recently hired is being paid out of, I’ll take that back. Disregard that. What had happened was, Melanie was being paid totally out of the pretrial diversion money. Her prior salary was the 48,404. I moved her into Katrina’s position, which is 49,320. So all I did was move her into a different position, because she is now the grant writer, so she has more responsibilities. Mr. Whitten, So she is getting a raise. Ms. Minick, So she is getting a raise, and that is why, because she’s just moved into Katrina’s position. When Katrina left, we hired somebody new, and put her in Melanie’s position, which is the lower paid one. Mr. Bucko, Okay, so it’s flat. It’s flat. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Ms. Minick, That’s all. That’s all it was. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Bucko, She said it so. Ms. Minick, You know why it’s so difficult, it was difficult for Brian to explain because… Mr. Poparad, He didn’t know what was going on. Ms. Minick, Right. Mr. Poparad, You don’t have to lie, just say it, okay. It’s alright. Ms. Minick, Well, he didn’t because he doesn’t do payroll, and it’s real difficult for people that don’t actually do the payroll. Mr. Poparad, Right. Ms. Minick, Because they don’t understand the grants, and the reason, so if it’s ever questioned, the reason there was the additional asked for, the 11,317, is because, unfortunately, our grant got cut from 45,000 down to 31,243. So we now have to, to make up the additional. Mr. Poparad, Okay. I need a motion on the 144. Mr. Carmichael moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Prosecutor Pretrial Diversion 38.08, Domestic Violence Prosecutor Eggers from $48,440 to $49,320 and Domestic Violence Prosecutor Spence-Bonczyk from $4,320 to $14,757. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Bill made the motion, Mike seconded it. Any questions? We all clear as mud. Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we need a… Mr. Gensel, Thank you. Ms. Minick, Thank you. Mr. Poparad, Well no, we’re not done. Mr. Bucko, I think we should say no just for the hell of it. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got to vote on the additional. Ms. Minick, Oh, sorry. Mr. Whitten, I bet he’s just picking and choosing.
Mr. Poparad, I mean you could leave, but it could fail if you turned your back. I need a motion on the additional. Mr. Gensel, Thank you. Mr. Poparad, Thank you. See, if we don’t do the additional there’s no money to pay them. Ms. Minick, That’s true. Thank you.
SHERIFF OFFICERS’ PENSION PLAN AMENDMENT Sheriff Dave Lain, Thanks, thanks for the accommodation. Mr. Poparad, Okay, this was a late thing. Jan, obviously, was in the hospital and didn’t get it on the agenda. Do you have anything? Sheriff Lain, We have actually just a couple of items regarding the sheriff officers’ pension--the merit pension. One item that is left for your consideration is the availability of officers who retired to take the monthly payment for their pension. And the change to the plan would be to allow an officer to get his or her personal contributions back in a lump sum, as it is done in PERF, but currently not in the merit plan. There’s no cost to the merit plan, but we have, there’s one officer currently retired who is waiting for a decision before he signs his paperwork. Mr. Whitten, I mean I guess I don’t… Mr. Poparad, Well, their contribution… Mr. Whitten, I understand that, but I guess my question is, I mean couldn’t it be a cost to the plan? Mr. Poparad, Well according… Mr. Whitten, Depending on if the officer outlives the life expectancy tables or less. Mr. Poparad, No, because their monthly benefit is reduced appropriately. Mr. Whitten, Depending on when they… Mr. Poparad, Well, this… Mr. Whitten, Pass away. Mr. Poparad, Me and Bill had a meeting with all of them, and Elaine Beatty sat there, and her recommendation, it is no cost to the plan, but this is against her recommendation. Mrs. Stevenson, Why? Mr. Poparad, Never been done before. That… Sheriff Lain, Well that’s, not with this plan. Mr. Poparad, Right. Sheriff Lain, It is being done with, my understanding, with other sheriff merit plans. But because of, I think the best way to explain it, because of McCready & Keene’s corporate stance--their corporate conservative stance--they don’t recommend it. Mr. Poparad, And the Merit Board has approved this, and you guys have approved it, and it needs our approval to become final. Sheriff Lain, Correct. Mr. Carmichael, Let me clear up one thing. We talked about PERF. When you take your money, what you’ve contributed into PERF out, you either have to roll it over to an IRA, tax free, or you have to pay taxes, a penalty on it. Okay? So it’s not free, it’s a lump sum, the taxes have to be deducted if they take cash. Sheriff Lain, Sure. Mr. Poparad, If you want to cash it in, yes. Mr. Carmichael, Okay, you understand?
Sheriff Lain, Yes, that’s, he understands that. Sheriff Lain, Well I think the tax law would be identical. I mean I don’t know that for sure, but. Mr. Bucko, For all intensive purposes, I believe this plan is what you call a defined benefit plan, in a sense. I used to have a defined benefit plan when I worked with the, when my company had that. They did away with it, and went to a 401K. You could take money out and do whatever you wanted to do, and stuff like that. But one thing we could never do is take out any money of that defined benefit of the plan whether we paid into it or had paid into it or had not. So I mean I look at it as if the person that is, what do you call the lady? Mr. Poparad, Actuary. Mr. Bucko, Actuary. Mr. Poparad, Bean counter, is what I call her. Mr. Bucko, Bean counter, that’s fine. If the consultant or the CPA type doesn’t recommend it, I don’t know why we should put ourselves at risk. You know, there has to be a reason why. If they have, if it’s unknown, it needs to be studied more for some other reason to find out, that’s a different animal, but I can’t support that. Mr. Poparad, They’re… Sheriff Lain, And I will tell you that McCready & Keene would require a hold harmless agreement. Mr. Poparad, That’s what’s got my antenna up about that. Dave, do you have any thoughts on that? Mr. Hollenbeck, You know, I didn’t participate… Mr. Poparad, No, but I mean the fact that the actuaries are requiring a hold harmless agreement. Mr. Whitten, Do we have to deal with this tonight? It looks like there are a lot of answers that need to be… Mr. Poparad, Well it’s a, I mean… Mr. Hollenbeck, To answer your question, yes, that does give you one cause for concern, that the people who are giving us advice are saying, don’t do it. Mr. Poparad, And if you do do it… Mr. Hollenbeck, And if you do do it, we want you to sign off from any exposure to liability we might have. How real that potential exposure is, I’m not really in a position to address it. But yes, initially it would give people some cause, reasonable cause for concern. I mean we’ve relied extensively on what McCready & Keene did tell us to do through the years. Mrs. Stevenson, Yes, we have. Mr. Carmichael, I would so move we accept the plan. Mr. Poparad, You want to allow this amendment? Mr. Carmichael, Is that what you want? Mr. Poparad, I’m not saying. I was looking for a motion here.
Mr. Whitten, Well I guess, Mr. Chairman, I’ll make a motion then, because I, when I first heard of all this, I was thinking I was for it, because what’s the harm. But now I’m hearing all these things tonight that I didn’t know. I guess I would make a motion to deny this request until I at least have the opportunity to hear why they are wanting a hold harmless, and telling us not to do, this, that and the other. I think it would be in our best interest to get all the information before we vote for such a thing until we some further information. Mr. Poparad, Anymore discussion? Feel free to contact the Sheriff, he can get you in touch with Elaine or Doug, and you guys can, you know. Call the roll, please. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Whitten - Yes Bucko - Yes Mr. Poparad, Okay, you’ve been denied. Sheriff Lain, Okay. The only other issue with, concerning the pension is, and we’ve been having discussions about this historically for the last several years, is how, I think it’s important for us to be able to lock us, collectively, to be able to lock down how the pension payments are made. Whether it is through the, my editorial comment, maybe through the verified claims systems where verified claims are turned in monthly based on the amount of paperwork or taking that actuary recommended minimum, and dividing it by 12, and making that payment. Mr. Poparad, What is our present method now? I thought we did this last year, but what are we doing now? Mr. Kopp, We have 300, $350,000 to pay for the sheriff’s pension, and they’re going to come back in the second half of the year for the balance after we find out what McCready says we need. Mr. Poparad, Well what are we doing in terms of making the payment now? Mr. Kopp, We’re making a monthly payment. Mr. Poparad, Okay, so we’re already doing it. Mr. Kopp, We’re putting in a claim monthly. Mr. Poparad, Okay, but you’re just putting in one-twelfth? Sheriff Lain, That’s, that would be, I think that would be the prudent way to do it. Mr. Poparad, Well you have to have a claim to pay. Mr. Kopp, They are putting in a claim every month for, it’s 51, $52,000. Mr. Poparad, Okay. But it’s one-twelfth of the number, the actuarial number? Mr. Kopp, It’s one-twelfth of the actuary’s. Mr. Whitten, Is that right, because I didn’t understand that to be the case. Chief Deputy Doug Snider, Mr. Poparad, if I may. Mr. Poparad, Yes, come on up here. Chief Deputy Snider, What we are currently paying is, you approved in the Sheriff’s budget, I think $312,000, and we are putting in about $50,000 of that toward, that’s going to get us to about June, then we’ll be about $350,000 that we need to come see you about. And whether we, what, to answer your question about what we did last year was we stopped doing the verified claims… Mr. Poparad, Claims, right. Chief Deputy Snider, From our civil process service, but that was pending approval of the whole board on what you wanted to do for the future. We’re, we are indifferent, we just want direction from the entire Council, because currently you approve about half of what’s needed through the budget, but then that leaves us with the every year, late in the year, coming to you and asking for additional money. We’re looking for, do you want us to not do the monthly. I want to say it this way, we are paying something monthly, but that’s because you approved a certain amount halfway through the Sheriff’s budget. That will run out in about June, and then it’s going to be about 170… Mr. Whitten, So it’s about one-twelfth of one-half. Is that what you are saying, one-half of one-twelfth, basically? Sheriff Lain, More or less. Now that doesn’t mean that the monies are not still coming in through civil process. That… Mr. Poparad, That just flows through to the Auditor. Mr. Whitten, Right. Mr. Poparad, This is a paper nightmare. Sheriff Lain, It flows, yes, it flows in, and I hate to open up this can, but you know, there’s the original $12 for paper service, and then there’s a later law that adds an additional $13. With those, there’s, that is flowing into the general fund to the tune of roughly $600,000. But, it’s not, it is earmarked, but it is going into the general fund from which then the further payments are being made. Chief Deputy Snider, If I could add to this, just so the Council understands that we are not doing what the law says, and that is to, every month to track our papers that we serve, the warrants, the civil process, the like, then send that to the Auditor on how ever many we serve, and then from that money that comes through all the fees that go through the Clerk’s office to the Auditor, then we would be drawing from that, and we’re not doing that. And we are willing to do that or not do that, we really just want direction, because ultimately there is a certain amount that needs to get there for the year, and it’s just been a little willy-nilly over the years, and it ultimately gets there, and we just need to then work it out with a request to you at the end of the year, and we’re looking for something a little bit more… Sheriff Lain, Consistent. Chief Deputy Snider, Sensible. Mr. Bucko, Could I ask, I guess listening to this and trying to get my arms around it, to try, are we sure, either taking the shortcut method or do we know if taking the shortcut method has cost us more or less or having to jump through the hoops to see exactly what the impact is with us with the papers being served and that trail. Is that something that you guys said was in place at one time, and it got changed? Mr. Poparad, Well, me and Bill have been talking about this for five years. The bottom line is, it is a paper, it is a tracking nightmare through the Clerk’s office to the Auditor to the Sheriff. Mr. Bucko, Okay. Mr. Poparad, The bottom line is, if the actuary says they need $600,000, they get $600,000. We may collect five, and it cost the taxpayers 100,000. They may collect seven, and they give us one. They get $600,000, however it works out, I mean however you dress it up. Mr. Bucko, And they could be getting more, and we don’t know that. Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Bucko, And you don’t know it because you haven’t gone through the… Mr. Poparad, Right. Well we were tracking it, and it’s a mess, and they did raise the fee. I think that was part of the intent of raising that fee was to… Mr. Carmichael, Wait a minute. Traditionally, we have always made up the difference. Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Carmichael, At one time is was like $400,000. Mr. Poparad, Right. If they… Mr. Whitten, But we budget more now. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Carmichael, Out of the general fund. Mr. Poparad, Out of the general fund. Whatever the actuary says, they get, however you slice this pie, they still get it whether we say it comes through the Clerk’s office or it doesn’t or they’re short in the Clerk’s, the general fund is over, whatever… Mr. Whitten, We really have to encourage more lawsuits. Mr. Bucko, Say you get $600 and you did a regular paper trail check and it came out 700,000, they would get 700,000. Mr. Poparad, No. Mr. Bucko, Or the other 100 would stay in the general. Mr. Poparad, Right. Sheriff Lain, Well you could if you so desire. Mr. Bucko, But I don’t see how you can, and I know there’s a lot here… Mr. Poparad, It’s a… Mr. Bucko, It’s a nut thing. Mr. Poparad, Well, the Clerk’s office collects seven fees, a percentage has to go the Sheriff; and then he has pulls out little Harry’s head to track it. I think they just want to know what we want them to do. We sort of went to one-twelfth, the bottom line is, the sheriff’s pension plan need $700,000. We don’t give them five, we give them seven, even though they may have collected five, they still get seven out of the general fund. That’s just reality. What ever the actuary says, that’s what they get. Mr. Carmichael, Now, if you don’t do that for a period of three years… Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Carmichael, The program ends. Mr. Poparad, Right, if it’s not fully funded, and that’s another discussion. I just, they want to know what to do. So whatever you guys, you know. Mr. Hollenbeck, If I could, and not to complicate this more. Mr. Poparad, Yeah. Mr. Hollenbeck, I mean there is some benefit to linking, and you’ve heard me talk about we’ve lost the linkage, is how I put it. Putting into that fund what they do collect, and there are some counties in the State, that even though the actuarial people said 600, if there was 700 collected, 700 went it. Back in the 90’s when rates of return were 15 and 20%, and those counties are now getting actuarial bills of two and 300,000, instead of 700. We lost that linkage. We said, really the actuarial amount is the minimum amount to keep the plan solvent. Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Hollenbeck, And that’s fine, and you’ve met your legal obligation. I just want to make the point that if you did link it, the other plan of simply putting in, independent of what the actuarial person says, whatever’s collected, that money can go into lay, it’s building in their fund and properly invested, down the road it will result in the actuarial telling you that you have to put less in the plan. Mr. Poparad, I agree. The problem is, I think historically, you’ve not collected enough to fund the plan. Chief Deputy Snider, It goes up and down… Sheriff Lain, It goes up and down. Chief Deputy Snider, Until they raise the fee a little bit. Mr. Poparad, Well that new rate made it solvent. Chief Deputy Snider, And now it’s back to where… Mr. Bucko, But you don’t know what that may be now, because of the fee change? Chief Deputy Snider, Oh we do, we track it every month and we could give you the numbers. For example, last year, had we followed it, the letter of the law and the like, it would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of, when the 12 became 13, about 550, Sheriff? Sheriff Lain, 5-7. Okay, from the original 12, that would have come to 574,773, plus adding the additional 13 would have been an additional 162. Mr. Poparad, So right about… Chief Deputy Snider, Seven, a low seven. So actually more than the 680 that’s needed. And we’re willing to do it that way. We don’t care either way. We just need direction from the Council on how to get it done so that it’s not changed every three months. Mr. Poparad, The problem is if you fall short, do you fall short? I mean if we go down that road of what you actually collect, when you’re short, you come back to us. Chief Deputy Snider, We would need to come back to you, because we need to minimally fund it. Mr. Poparad, So I mean I guess my question is, or my rhetorical answer to that is, you can’t have it both ways. If you want to go by the claims, then you live by the claims. If you want to go the other way, divide it by 12, we live by that; some months, we win, some months, you win. It’s not fair to the taxpayers that you have it both ways. You have the ability to collect money to feed your plan, and that’s great, and that’s what the law was for. But oh, we’re a little short this month, we need 50-grand; then the next month when you’re 50 over. Don’t we owe it back to the taxpayers, I’m just saying, I mean I’m ambivalent on this. Mr. Bucko, You pay this monthly? Mr. Poparad, They want it, yes. Mr. Bucko, I was just trying to think that if it weren’t paid monthly, and you were doing this sine wave type of things with peaks and valleys, you know, one would cover the other, and you’d never have to, you may never have to… Mr. Poparad, Well the plan needs to be fed every month… Mr. Bucko, Maybe that’s too simple, right. Mr. Poparad, To keep it going. Mrs. Stevenson, Are the officers still contributing? Sheriff Lain, Yes. Chief Deputy Snider, Yes. Sheriff Lain, It came out to about $100,000 last year. Mrs. Stevenson, It was at about 3% still. Mr. Poparad, They want monthly to keep, you know, for the… Sheriff Lain, It was agreed. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Carmichael, One way you can cut the cost of this whole program, raise the retirement age to 55. Mr. Poparad, Well that’s been discussed, Bill. We’ve talked about that. Mr. Carmichael, It’s at 50 right now. Mr. Poparad, That was thrown on the table at our meeting. They’re aware of that. Mr. Carmichael, That would cut the cost of the plan. Sheriff Lain, Well, you know, any change in the plan does effect, and we’ve, you know, we have been, we’re looking internally, and with members of the Council, at options. And just, you know, how much that effects the plan, I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head. But sometimes it’s not a great deal. But we’re willing to look at all of it. Mr. Poparad, Could I make a suggestion? I need a motion here. Direct them to go on the 12 months, one-twelfth, but track it for the rest of the year. At least track it until budgets, and let’s see how it looks, for next year. This year is already done. Let’s not reinvent the wheel for this year. Chief Deputy Snider, I can assure you it’s tracked monthly. We have to do it. It’s something that even if you said, we’ll pay it one lump sum every January, we still have served them papers, and do all the stuff that’s required. We’ll never get rid of the tracking, so you’ll always be able to know what that was. Mr. Poparad, Then we can compare it and make a decision for next year. We’re already into this year. Mr. Bucko, So you want to go on a 12-month plan. Mr. Poparad, Well just one-twelfth of whatever is needed. Mr. Bucko, The one-twelfth. Mr. Poparad, Yes. I mean that’s the way it’s going right now, right? That’s what you are doing now. So we don’t have to do anything, just leave them alone. Mr. Bucko, We’ll track it and take a look at it, and see where the benchmark is. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Sheriff Lain, We’re a little behind, because I think we’re collecting one-twelfth of the line item, which we’re three months into it. Mr. Poparad, And the line item’s only what 300? Chief Deputy Snider, 312. Mr. Kopp, You’re collecting 50,000 a month, that’s what we’re turning in, or 52. And the intent was when we got the report from McCready and whoever, they would come back with what we needed. Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Bucko, Give more. Mr. Poparad, Right, so you’re getting one-sixth then or whatever. Chief Deputy Snider, I wish we could, but that’s, those papers are… Mr. Poparad, Are we all on the same page? Did Dan get mad and leave? Mrs. Stevenson, No. Mr. Poparad, Oh, okay. We all on the same page? Jim, do you want to say something? Mr. Burge, Yes, I would just like to see, I mean we’re talking about as far as raising it to 55, if it’s possible to have somebody run those numbers so we know what kind of impact that would have. Chief Deputy Snider, It will cost some money, but if it’s your pleasure, we will do that. But every time we ask for what would this be, McCready charges the plan, and it does get a little bit… Mr. Burge, I understand what you are saying. There could be some substantial savings. Mr. Poparad, Oh yeah, we talked about the vesting too. Mr. Carmichael, What do they charge us now, 45,000 a year or something like that? Chief Deputy Snider, McCready? Mr. Carmichael, Yes. Chief Deputy Snider, Oh no, it’s less than ten for their services. I’m pretty sure, Mr. Carmichael. I can check, and I will get back to you, but I really… Mr. Carmichael, You better look at that again. Mr. Poparad, Well that might be Dilts. Chief Deputy Snider, I’ve had the Sheriff sign the bills several times, I don’t think it’s that much. I will check, because I don’t want to be inaccurate, but I believe it’s less than 10,000. Mr. Poparad, We all on the same page? We’ll just leave it at one-twelfth. You guys get close, you come back, just give us some time on that for the additional. You okay? You okay, one-twelfth, and we keep going, Sheriff? Sheriff Lain, Well with that, one other item… Mr. Poparad, Come on now. Sheriff Lain, Hey, listen, you knew it coming. This one should be relatively easy. Currently the Sheriff’s Department collects a $3 fee for the public to come in and get a copy of an accident report. State law says that a minimum of $5 shall be charged. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Sheriff Lain, So we’re currently violating state law by bringing in fewer funds. Mr. Poparad, Didn’t we… Mr. Bucko, Awe. Mr. Hollenbeck, I sent you all a resolution that would make that change. Sheriff Lain, We’re just suggesting that, to bring ourselves into compliance that we charge $5, which still is a savings comparatively speaking to virtually every other entity. Mr. Poparad, Do we have that? Is that in our packet? That didn’t make it to our… Sheriff Lain, No? Mr. Poparad, No, Jan’s been off, that didn’t make it to our packet. Mr. Hollenbeck, Well I emailed everybody one. Mr. Carmichael, Will that go to the general fund? Where’s it going to go? Sheriff Lain, That goes into the accident fund. Mr. Carmichael, For your expenditures? Sheriff Lain, For, yes. Mr. Carmichael, It doesn’t go into the general fund. Sheriff Lain, No, there’s a separate fund in the Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Bucko, What things does it, do you know? Sheriff Lain, Well, relating to various items. It can be anything from record expenses to items for, swipe cards, theoretically, Chief Deputy Snider, Mr. Bucko, the statute specifically says that you have to use it for items that can… Mr. Bucko, It’s identified. It’s pretty much… Sheriff Lain, Sure. Chief Deputy Snider, Yes, and we use it, for example, buying fusies for… Mr. Bucko, There used to be list of that stuff laid out. Chief Deputy Snider, We use it exclusively for things that they are either to investigate crashes… Mr. Bucko, That was a pet peeve of one of your friends, Karen Martin. Mr. Poparad, Okay, do we need a motion on that resolution? Mr. Hollenbeck, The Sheriff is right, in a rather strange verbiage, the statute says the fee must be at least, most of our statutes say it cannot be more than. So we’re charging three, we’re not following the statute, which says we must charge $5. Sorry, I can run back and get it. Of all the things I didn’t bring. If you’re inclined to do this then I would ask if you would entertain a motion to that effect, and I will run back and get the resolution so you can sign it. Mr. Whitten moved to adopt Ordinance 08-03-20 to increase the Accident Report Fee from $3 to $5. Mr. Burge seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote.
Mr. Burge, We talked about raising it to 55. Is there some action associated… Mr. Poparad, They’ll get all that stuff for you. Mr. Burge, I just want to make sure they know… Mr. Poparad, Well there’s also discussion on the vesting schedule that we had at our meeting with changing the vesting schedule a little bit. Chief Deputy Snider, And we’ll continue to work with you on that, and we will get the numbers on what it, to move the retirement age to. Mr. Carmichael, Another thing we are going to have to look into is a huge increase in gas prices. What’s it’s going to take to get through the year, who knows. Mr. Poparad, How we running on that? Sheriff Lain, I think probably you ought… Mr. Kopp, We’re running at about $24,000 a month for fuel other than the Highway. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Thanks, Sheriff. Sheriff Lain, Thank you.
Mr. Bucko, Thank you.
HEALTH MAINTENANCE 14
HEALTH 05 Mr. Poparad, Okay, Keith, I’m sorry, you’re back up. Health Tobacco. 2,000 to Equipment; 5,000 to Contractual; and a 144. What’s the 144. Well let’s do the additionals first. Mr. Letta, The 2,000 is for repair of our vaccine freezer. We put quite a bit of money into that in the last couple of years. The repair this winter was about $1,500. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Health Tobacco, the amounts of, $2,000 to 3630 Equipment other than Vehicles and $5,000 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mr. Bucko and Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll cal vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, the 144, we are? Mr. Letta, All of the 144’s that you see, Tobacco, Health Maintenance and our regular 05, these hourly rates were not done at budget time. I don’t know exactly why. I thought they were done at that time, but they apparently were not. So the Public Health Nurses should be at 17.50. The Clerical, Water Sample Person should be at 10.40. Mr. Whitten moved to amend the 144 Forms submitted by Health Tobacco 203, Health Maintenance 14 and Health 05. Mr. Whitten, My motion is for all of them. Mr. Poparad, The one I’m asking about is the 5th Deputy. That got missed in budget? Mr. Letta, Correct, we requested that per Mr. Whitten’s instructions at budget time, and I again, thought that that was done, but it was not. At least that’s the way my budget came to me. Mr. Poparad, Does this reflect that was given to all the employees? Mr. Letta, No. The 5th Deputy has been with us about five years now, she’s doing the same job as the 4th Deputy, and we wanted them to be at an equal rate. Mr. Whitten, Mr. Chairman, I’m going to amend my motion, I wasn’t clear on that. So let’s do the easy ones, I suppose. Mr. Poparad, Alright, we’re going to do the Health Tobacco, the 144, those two items first. Mr. Whitten moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Health Tobacco 203, PHN to $17.50 per hour and Food Service/Clerical to $10.40 per hour. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, Alright, we’ve got a motion on the 144 in the Health Tobacco 203 Fund. Any questions? Mr. Burge, Yes, we were discussing here, and didn’t hear what the motion was. Mr. Poparad, We’re just doing the 144 on Health Tobacco 203. Mr. Burge, Okay. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? Call the roll. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we’ve got the 144 for Health Maintenance 14. Mr. Letta, It’s the same. Mr. Whitten moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Health Maintenance 14, PHN to $17.50 per hour and Food Service/Clerical to $10.40 per hour. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? Call the roll. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we have a 144 in the Health 05. We are taking the 5th Deputy from $22,897 to 24… Mr. Letta, Before you get to that there is the same issue with the nurse and the clerical in 05. Do you want to do that separately? Mr. Poparad, Yes, we should. That should have been listed separately too. Mr. Carmichael moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Health 05, PHN to $17.50 per hour and Food Service/Clerical to $10.40 per hour. Mr. Poparad, To do just the nurse and the clerk. Is that correct? Mr. Carmichael, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we got a motion. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? Call the roll on just them two items first. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Alright, the 5th Deputy. Mr. Letta, Now would these be all retroactive to the first of the year, because they were supposed to have been that way at budget. Mr. Carmichael, I agree to it if the motion agrees. Mr. Whitten, I’ll agree to that. Mr. Poparad, All of them? Mr. Carmichael, I agree. Mr. Poparad, Alright, 5th Deputy, we’re taking from $22, 897 to $24,421. Mr. Letta, Right. Mr. Poparad, And the reason is because she does the work of the 4th Deputy? Mr. Letta, The 4th and 5th deputies have the same position. She’s been with us almost six years now. As I indicated, we asked for this at budget time, and I thought it was taken care of, but apparently it was not, and I don’t exactly how that occurred. When I walked out of there I thought all of these were done. Mr. Whitten, I guess I’m a little concerned, Mr. Chairman, about giving a raise out of budget time like this. Mr. Poparad, Well I mean… Mr. Carmichael, This isn’t general fund. Mr. Poparad, No. Mr. Carmichael, It’s the health fund. Mr. Letta, This is the health fund. Mr. Poparad, I guess it’s a $1,300 raise, so does this include the county raise or not? That’s what I’m saying, where does that fit into this food chain? Mr. Letta, The 22,897 included, yes, that included the what, the 750. Mr. Poparad, Yes, 750. Mr. Letta, That, yes, those were included in all the positions. Mr. Poparad, Okay, did we take the 4th Deputy up? Or are we singling out the 5th Deputy because she’s a good person, and you want… Mr. Whitten, What does the 4th Deputy make? Mr. Poparad, The same. Mr. Letta, 24,221. Mr. Whitten, So we’re raising… Mr. Poparad, The 5th Deputy to be the same as the 4th Deputy. So now are they all 4th deputies then or both? Mr. Letta, Well the 4th Deputy has actually been there…
Mr. Poparad, Well I don’t care about that, but now we’re calling, you know, I always thought that when you had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, that that applied that the 5th one was paid less than the 4th one. So now do we have two 4th deputies? Mr. Poparad, Well, okay. Mr. Bucko, Why would you do that? I mean there has to be some separation there, otherwise, are the separation duties? If there are separation of duties… Mr. Letta, It’s a separation of time, by probably six months. Mr. Bucko, So what you are saying is, is they are all doing the same job. One happens to be there longer. Mr. Letta, Slightly longer, yes. Mr. Bucko, That’s not a payroll function then. You know what I mean. I mean you don’t use payroll, well I wouldn’t use payroll for that. I mean you’d have some kind of longevity issue there, but that would be the only thing, in my mind. Mr. Carmichael moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Health 05, 5th Deputy Gibbs from $22,897 to $24,221. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Discussion. Mr. Whitten, I know it’s not general fund money, Mr. Chairman, but I guess I’m just concerned about the idea that we went through this grueling budget session, and we were denying this and denying that, and we were denying raise requests, and it’s not that I’m saying that this individual doesn’t deserve a raise, because I’m sure she probably does. It just seems like when we start picking and choosing after the fact, we’re liable to become disparate, and I just don’t want to see that happen. Mr. Burge, Especially, if the main argument is the time element versus duties or functions or those type of considerations. Mr. Bucko, I’ve got to say, you know, I look at this, even that you need a 5th. Apparently, at some time you did. Or apparently, there was enough spread difference in responsibilities. Did that go away simply because you didn’t add personnel or you added… Mr. Letta, We added the 5th Deputy a few years ago. Actually, the deputy was added when we opened the Portage office, full-time, again. Actually, we do have a 6th Deputy in Portage, which is a different thing. The only thing that I would add, I know the Council likes to hear this discussion and these requests at budget time, and that is one that I did present. As I said, when I walked out of there I thought that it was approved, but that apparently did not happen, and I checked with Jan, and she’s not exactly sure why it isn’t reflected any where either.
Mr. Bucko, Does the paperwork reflect the request? Mr. Bucko, For budget time. Mr. Letta, This request was in my budget last August when we discussed it. That’s what I’m saying. Mr. Bucko, And this is the same paperwork just copied over. Mr. Letta, This is exactly the same thing, yes. And like I said, I know you don’t like to do this in mid-year, and I understand that, that’s why I did present it at budget. These exact numbers, well, minus the 750, of course. I didn’t know what that was at the time. Mr. Whitten, I guess I’d like to know from the minutes or whatever, why you thought, because maybe we thought it was done. I don’t know, so. Mr. Letta, That was, like I said, when I left, I thought we had agreed on it. Mr. Whitten, So I guess I’d like to go back and see what exactly we did, because if we did intend to give the raise, that’s one thing. But if we intended not to give the raise, we had a lot of raise requests that we didn’t give, and as hard as that was to do, we did it, so. Mr. Letta, And I did not realize Jan was in the hospital, that’s probably why it… Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Whitten, That’s kind of tough. Mr. Poparad, Yes, it’s been kind of hectic. Mr. Bucko, Maybe you should bring it back. Mr. Poparad, Why don’t we withdraw it? Does the motion want to withdraw it, and table it until next month. Mr. Whitten, I didn’t make the motion. Mr. Bucko, Yes, let’s find out how. Mr. Poparad, Bill, do you want to withdraw it, and have them come back? Mr. Carmichael, Review it next month? Mr. Whitten, Yes, I think we should. Mr. Carmichael moved to withdraw his motion approving the 144 Form amendment for 5th Deputy Gibbs. Mr. Whitten seconded. Mr. Poparad, Alright, come back next month. Get with Jan, we’ll pull the minutes and get everybody a copy, and we’ll see where we’re at. Mr. Letta, Alrighty. That’s fine, thank you. Mrs. Stevenson, Bye, Keith.
CORONER 01.07 Mr. Poparad, Coroner. An additional $225 to Dues & Subscriptions. Vicki Deppe, I want to say that I thought you approved all the raises I put in too. Mr. Poparad, You got body bags, right. Ms. Deppe, Yes, and I’m here, as always… Mr. Whitten, One guy gets a raise, one guy gets body bags, that’s the way it goes. Ms. Deppe, I got the body bags. Mr. Bucko, Oh, she got that. Ms. Deppe, As you can see I’m here again asking for a whopping amount of money from the Council, which is $225. We are mandated to belong to and pay membership fees for Indiana State Coroner’s Training Board. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Coroner 01.07, the amount of $225 to 3950 Dues & Subscriptions. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, We have a motion and a second. Mr. Whitten, That’s a very interesting story. Ms. Deppe, You’re afraid I’ll get to the part where the feel came out again. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? Mr. Bucko, None. Mr. Poparad, Call the roll, please. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Stevenson - Yes Whitten - Yes Ms. Deppe, Hey. Mr. Poparad, It passed, who cares. Motion carries. General Courts, please. Ms. Deppe, Thank you. Happy Easter, everybody. Mrs. Stevenson, Thank you Vickie. Mr. Kopp, Are you no or yes, Bob? Mr. Poparad, I’m no, ah, it went through. Ms. Deppe, Bob, you’re stubborn. Mr. Whitten, You’re going to need that Coroner someday. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, I know, we’re all going to need the Coroner someday, that’s the problem. Ms. Deppe, Slow response on you, Bob.
GENERAL COURTS 01.78 Mr. Carmichael, What, here comes the oldest Judge in Porter County. Judge Roger Bradford, Well, at least for now. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we have 20,000 for Law Books, and a transfer of $300 from Office Equipment under $100 to Office Supplies. Mr. Bucko, You can’t get that until November. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations, $20,000 to 2430 Law Book, and the request for transfer of funds, $300 from 2120 Office Fixtures under $100 to 2110 Office Supplies submitted by General Courts 01.78. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? Mr. Bucko, I was just saying, you can’t get that. I wasn’t kidding, you can’t get that until November. Mr. Poparad, What? Mr. Bucko, That additional. Mr. Poparad, Well. Is that accurate, Mr. Kopp? Mr. Kopp, Yes. I have a… Mr. Bucko, I wouldn’t have said it. Judge Bradford, I wasn’t sure if you were referring to Bill’s comment. Mr. Kopp, The DLGF says that they have 11 counties with the AV’s in. They will not start to do anything until at least half the counties are in, and the speculation has been that we will get a budget in October or November. Mr. Whitten, Wow. Mr. Bucko, You want to think about where you want to transfer that from? Mr. Carmichael, Well you’ve got to order them. Judge Bradford, Come November, there’s only one fund in General Courts that has enough to transfer that out of, and that’s what we pays juries out of. Mr. Poparad, Give ‘em IOU’s. Judge Bradford, And we generally use that up for the year, so. Mr. Poparad, Alright, well, we can approve it, but it’s still until it’s finalized. Judge Bradford, Well eventually West Publishing, whose the, that most of this is owed to, is going to have to be paid. And the way things seem to be going downstate, if I wait until November, it’ll be next August, it’ll be in August of ’09 before we pay it. Mr. Carmichael, We’ll put an assessor on it. Mr. Poparad, Yeah. Mr. Whitten, Call the question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion and a second on both of them. Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, When the budgets are finalized, the additionals will go through. When you get tight we’ll do something. Judge Bradford, We’ll watch that. At least it’s there, the publishing company can be told that, because I think we’ve already spent this year’s line item. Mr. Bucko, With the cost of books like that they can afford it. Judge Bradford, And I know, Bob, you’ve had some questions about this budget time, and I want to let you know that we, at a judges’ meeting on Monday determined to get rid of about, well, I can tell you about $10,666.65 worth of our yearly library costs. So it’ll be almost down to what’s in the line item then. Mr. Carmichael, Judge, do you know how you know when you’re getting older, when they no longer give you the sign to steal. Mr. Poparad, Okay, Adult Probation. Thank you, Judge. Judge Bradford, Some how my baseball coach has never gave me that. As a matter of fact, Bill, they it might be carrying that piano that stopped and got played between first and second. Mr. Bucko, Keep the keys loose, huh.
ADULT PROBATION 01.43 Mr. Poparad, Alright, we’ve got an additional for $21,000 to Other Equipment. Neil Hannon, No, I have withdrawn that. Mr. Poparad, Okay, because? Mr. Hannon, Just knowing that we wouldn’t be able to use it if we did get it approved, so I’ll come back with it later in the year, perhaps. Mr. Poparad, Alright.
ANTABUSE 27 Mr. Poparad, Antabuse, 20,000 to Medical & Dental; 10,000 to Lease Purchase. Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Antabuse 27, the amounts of, $20,000 to 2410 Medical & Dental and $10,000 to 3730 Lease Purchase. Mr. Poparad, We have a motion and a second. Any questions? Antabuse is for the alcoholics? Mr. Hannon, Yes, it’s paid for by the clients. Mr. Poparad, Alright, motion and a second. Anybody else? Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you, Neil. Mr. Hannon, Thank you.
CLERK 01.01 Mr. Poparad, Our friend the Clerk. Mr. Whitten, My friend the Clerk. Mr. Carmichael, She’s back again? Mr. Poparad, Well she, it won’t work what we did. Mr. Bucko, Didn’t we have a 20 and a ten or did we just… Mr. Poparad, No. Mr. Bucko, We pulled one out. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Okay, the issue… Mr. Bucko, I think I’ll start to pay attention. Mr. Poparad, Okay, am I going to have to separate you two. Mr. Carmichael, No. Mr. Poparad, The problem with the Clerk, obviously, she cannot get her employees, because the additionals can’t go through, so she wants to transfer. Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Clerk 01.01, the amount of $25,000 from 1110 Salaries to 1130 Overtime. Mr. Whitten seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote.
Mr. Poparad, Motion carries. Mr. Poparad, Don’t move, Voter Registration, technically, they are under you. Pam Fish, This is Sundae Kubacki, she is Chuck Williams appointment to the Porter County Board of Voter Registration. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Same problem, right? Sundae Kubacki, Yes. Ms. Fish, Well, actually, there’s an additional here. They are asking for Overtime. Mr. Poparad, Yes, because of the election. But we’ve got the same thing here. Ms. Fish, Yes. Ms. Kubacki, Yes. Mr. Carmichael, And who is this replacing, Jane? Mr. Poparad, She’s Jane’s replacement. Ms. Fish, Yes. Mr. Carmichael, There’s already a salary for that, isn’t it? Mr. Poparad, Yes, but they used… Mr. Whitten, We paid her off. Mr. Poparad, To pay, we transferred to part-time, didn’t we, to pay overtime? Mrs. Stevenson, Yes. Mr. Carmichael, Oh, you had to pay her off? Mr. Poparad, Yes, that burned up part of it. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the requests submitted by Voter Registration 01.22, the transfer of $20,000 from 1110 Salaries to 1130 Overtime, and the additional appropriation of $20,000 to 1130 Overtime. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion and a second. Any discussion? How many new registrations do we have? I’m just curious. Ms. Kubacki, Oh gosh. Ms. Fish, We’re still floating, I think around 4,000. Ms. Kubacki, We’ve still got huge piles. Mr. Bucko, Do you want to give the full Overtime? Mr. Poparad, Yes, that won’t be enough because of the turnout. Mr. Bucko, I’m just looking at it… Ms. Kubacki, Right now we have over a 107,000 voters registered, eligible to vote, and we’re still counting. Mr. Poparad, Do you realize this additional won’t go through until… Mr. Bucko, November, after the fact. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Bucko, It won’t. Ms. Kubacki, The transfer… Ms. Fish, The transfer is coming from Salaries. Mr. Bucko, The transfer from Salaries is not a problem. Mr. Poparad, It’s the additional to Overtime. Ms. Fish, Right. I understand. Ms. Kubacki, Okay. Mr. Poparad, But I don’t know if the State, this is a Hollenbeck question. Where’s he at? Mrs. Stevenson, He went to get the resolution. Mr. Poparad, Well, we’ll have the answer to that. I mean I don’t know if the State will approve additionals internally. Mr. Carmichael, Well it says you shall. Mr. Poparad, Yes. See, I don’t know if this is written up right. Mr. Carmichael, It’s not if, and, or but, it’s shall. Mr. Poparad, I don’t know if this is a true additional. This is a transfer. Mr. Bucko, The first one is. Ms. Fish, But we don’t have it to begin with, so it is an additional, and then… Mr. Poparad, Yes, but you’re transferring 20,000 from Salaries to Overtime. Ms. Fish, But we’re asking for the Overtime first, as an additional. Mr. Bucko, Then you’re asking for Overtime again. Mr. Poparad, Yes, you’re asking for $40,000. Mr. Bucko, It’s actually $40,000 in Overtime. Mr. Poparad, The way it’s written here. Ms. Fish, No, well. I guess I’m not… Mr. Poparad, Do you see what I’m saying? Ms. Kubacki, I think that was a, we’re asking for the 20,000 in Overtime, we’re not asking for 40. Mr. Poparad, Right. I don’t think this… Ms. Kubacki, Yes, $20,000 to Overtime, and then, if we have to, because the State’s not approving anything right now, that you know the budgets aren’t getting approved until October or November, maybe. Ms. Fish, But it does… Ms. Kubacki, The $20,000 transfer from Salaries to cover that, and then the other 20,000 is to cover our Salaries. Mr. Poparad, You realize the longer you talk, the less chance it has of going through. Ms. Kubacki, Then I would shut up right now. Ms. Fish, Well it does say, transfer, and it does say, additional. It doesn’t say, two additionals, so that’s why, the transfer… Mr. Bucko, How do you see… Mr. Poparad, Well I mean the transfer, we’re taking 20,000 from Salaries to Overtime. Ms. Fish, Right. Period. Mr. Bucko, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Then you’re asking for, right, but you’re also asking for, the way this appears, is you’re asking for an additional 20,000 to Overtime. That’s what I’m saying, I don’t think this is right. Ms. Fish, Well this is how we were instructed to do it. Mr. Poparad, I know, me and Jan have this ongoing fight. This is just a transfer inside their budget. Jim. Mr. Kopp, She’s asking for 20,000 in Overtime, which she’ll have to transfer back into Salaries. Ms. Fish, Eventually, yes. Mr. Poparad, But that doesn’t, that ain’t going to happen anyway. Mr. Kopp, Not until we get approval. Mr. Poparad, Right. Ms. Fish, But we desperately need the money now. Mr. Poparad, How much though? Ms. Fish, I mean we have… Mr. Poparad, $40,000. Ms. Fish, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Right, so we take 20,000 from Salaries and move it to Overtime. Ms. Fish, Right. Mr. Whitten, Okay, what’s going to pay, do you have enough in Salaries to pay salaries? Ms. Fish, No, we don’t. Mr. Whitten, No. Ms. Fish, Not to the end of the year. Mr. Whitten, How far will you get with what’s in it? Ms. Fish, Maybe October. Mr. Whitten, October. Mr. Poparad, But the, I mean based on what’s in front in of me, you’re asking for $40,000 to be put in Overtime. Mr. Bucko, That’s really what she’s wanting to do, yes. Ms. Fish, No. No, no. Mr. Bucko, But the end result is the same. Mr. Poparad, But the additional should not go to Overtime. It should go to Salaries later in the year to replace the Salaries, if I’m reading this right. Ms. Fish, No. Mr. Bucko, No, no, no. Ms. Fish, It all depends upon how you look at it. Mr. Bucko, I understand what you’re saying. But she’s saying she will need $40,000 in Overtime, because of the voting and everything else. She has not yet to go back to ask for the additional to come back… Mr. Poparad, For the Salaries. Mr. Bucko, To repay Salaries. Ms. Fish, To cover the Salaries. So I guess, in essence, I understand what you’re saying. Mr. Poparad, Well you’ll get 20 for sure, because that’s already there, the Salaries. Mr. Whitten, If we just moved 20 from Salaries to Overtime tonight… Ms. Fish, Yes. Mr. Whitten, That would do you until October? Ms. Fish, Yes, it will. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten, That’s my motion. Mr. Whitten moved to amend his motion, and grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Voter Registration 01.22, the amount of $20,000 from 1110 Salaries to 1130 Overtime. Mr. Burge seconded. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we’re just doing the transfer. We are denying the additional, for lack of a better word. Mr. Whitten, Right. Mr. Bucko, There’s no sense in doing it. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we’ve got a motion. I got a second? Mr. Whitten, Yes, I was the motion. Mr. Bucko, He was the motion, he was the second. Mr. Poparad, Okay, are we all on the same page? Ms. Fish, I understand what you are saying, but we don’t have any line item right now for Overtime. There is no Overtime in our budget right now, that’s why we’re asking for it. Mr. Poparad, Do you have a line item? Ms. Fish, Yes, but there’s nothing in there. Mr. Poparad, Right, but we’re moving 20,000 from Salaries to Overtime. Ms. Fish, Okay. Well whatever you guys say. Mr. Poparad, You see what I’m saying, the transfer? We’re moving 20,000 from Salaries to Overtime. Mr. Whitten, How much is in Salaries right now? Ms. Wilson, I can’t get in here. Mr. Whitten, You can’t get in there, alright. Ms. Fish, Wait, wait, I’ve got it. Are you talking about for Voters Registration? Mr. Whitten, Yes, what we’re moving this from, yes. Ms. Fish, $116,364. Mr. Whitten, And how much of that a month do you burn? Ms. Fish, I’ll have to… Mr. Poparad, Well if they’re burning it all now, then they’ll burn it in the fall. Mr. Whitten, Right, I just want to make sure that we’re going to be able to get… Mr. Poparad, Although, they are going to have to come back, because of the whole Jane thing. Ms. Fish, I don’t know if anybody has a calculator to divide that number into 12. Mr. Whitten, How much was it? Ms. Fish, $116,464 divided by 12. Mr. Poparad, $9,600 a month. Mr. Kopp, 9,613.66. Ms. Fish, So about October. Mr. Whitten, Alright. Mr. Poparad, But we all knew that. Mr. Whitten, So we’ve got a motion and a second. Let’s call the question. Mr. Poparad, Alright, all in favor of the transfer, say aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Motion carries. Ms. Fish, Thank you very much. Mr. Poparad, We’ll get you settled out in the end. Welcome to Government. Ms. Kubacki, Thank you.
MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE 158 Mr. Poparad, Memorial Opera House, we have an additional for $10,000. Mr. Whitten, Our Commissioners approved the contract.
Mr. Poparad, Yes, this is for the contract. Mr. Whitten, The show must go on. Mr. Poparad, Motion and a second. Any questions, any comments? Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
PLANNING/BUILDING DEPARTMENT 239 Mr. Poparad, Planning/Building Department 239. You want 7,000 for Overtime. Mr. Thompson, Correct. Mr. Poparad, You have it all in your own budget, of course. Mr. Thompson, Correct. Mr. Poparad, How is that running? Mr. Thompson, So far so good. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Thompson, I mean things have been a little slow this year. Mr. Poparad, Your permits slowed down. Mr. Thompson, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Planning/Building Department 239, the amount of $7,000 to 1130 Overtime. Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any discussion? Mr. Burge, This is to cover? Mr. Thompson, The four employees that are required to attend the Plan Commission and BZA meetings, such as the deputies to record the minutes. Mr. Bucko, Yes, the same as our people. Mr. Thompson, Also for staff that are required to report. It’s just strictly, and I told the staff that it’s just, the overtime is just going to be strictly for meetings, and that’s it. Mr. Bucko, Like Jan. Mr. Whitten, Call the question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Poparad, Call the roll, please. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Carmichael - No Poparad - No Mr. Thompson, Thank you very much. Mrs. Stevenson, Bill, did you understand that it was not a general fund budget? Mr. Carmichael, Yes. Mrs. Stevenson, Okay. Mr. Carmichael, What are they going to do when they run out of money? Mr. Whitten, Quit planning. Mrs. Stevenson, Yes. Mr. Bucko, They won’t be able to pay the overtime. Mr. Carmichael, Send them home.
PARKS OPERATING 127 Ed Melendez, Yes it is. Mr. Poparad, We’re going to do that again. Okay. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Parks Operating 127, the amounts of, $1,500 to 3310 Printing other than Office Supplies, $1,500 to 3340 Advertising, $1,940 to 3950 Contractual Services, $1,000 to 3980 Event Expenses, $1,500 to 1120 Hourly and $1,470 to 2250 Other Supplies. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, Motion and a second. Any conversation? Any discussion? Mr. Bucko, Is this the way this was broken down before? Mr. Poparad, Yes. I tried to get it done last year, but we didn’t get it done. Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Melendez, Thank you.
CONVENTION, RECREATION & VISITORS COMMISSION 93 Mr. Poparad, Lorelei, come on up. Plead your case one more time. Lorelei Weimer, We can do the easy stuff first, which is an additional for $700 to Tires & Tubes, and $4,000 to Maintenance Agreements for snowplowing. You want to do those first? Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission 93, the amounts of, $700 to 2310 Tires & Tubes and $4,000 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements. Mr. Poparad, Where they at? Ms. Weimer, They’re at the bottom of, there’s the 144. Mr. Poparad, No, no, we’re not going to do that. We’re starting at the top. Motion died for the lack of a second. Mr. Poparad, On the 144 you want the Director of Finance to get a $7,000 raise--round numbers. Ms. Weimer, $6,000 for the Director of Finance; 4,000 for Marketing Director; 2,505 for Partnership Development Director; and 2,811 to Public Relations Director. When I addressed the Council a month ago, it was decided to come up with a compromise, and this is, after some discussion, this seemed to be the compromise we were discussing.
Mr. Poparad, What was the original request? Mr. Poparad, Yes, I don’t think anybody had any problem with the lower ones. It was the big jump with the big ones. Ms. Weimer, Yes, the Director of Finance, what we are trying to do is, in essence, she’s going to become the Assistant Director under my title, and would be taking on additional duties, in addition to what she’s already doing. One of the things with the Director of Finance is that currently where she’s at, she’s actually given an administrative assistance position, and that position hasn’t been like that probably since day one. So already she’s behind, and then we’re moving her up to additional responsibilities. Mr. Poparad, Okay, you guys heard her request. Mr. Bucko moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission 93, Director of Finance & Administration from $33,323 to $40,073, Marketing Director from $36,878 to $41,628, Partnership Development Director from $33,745 to $37,000 and Public Relations Director from $33,439 to $37,000. Mr. Carmichael seconded. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion to approve; we’ve got a second. Any discussion on the 144? Mr. Burge, I, for myself, I have a little bit of a problem with it. You guys do a wonderful job, don’t get me wrong. But the growing on the bureaucracy part, the part of the cost of providing the service, and especially at this time, rather than at budget time, I have a little bit of concerns with. Ms. Weimer, We did come at budget time, as well, so I know that… Mr. Burge, I know. Ms. Weimer, That’s becoming problematic, as well. And really, we have really tried to follow for years, just coming in and getting, you know, when there was no raises for three years for the employees, we really did adhere to that. It’s just that it’s become so problematic for us, especially when you’re turning over staff, and having to train them, as so forth. So that’s just been a real problem. And unfortunately, we are competing with the private sector, and that’s the reality that I face. So that’s, you know, I don’t want to come every year, certainly. If we get this we would like to just go back in line with… Mr. Bucko, This is not any way, shape or form, demeaning towards any other county employees. It is simply a fact that there are those areas when you compete in the private sector, that you are just more marketable. Therefore, they can’t keep them, well, you understand. Mr. Burge, Oh, I understand it completely. Mr. Poparad, See now, Speros told me from Lake County he could do it cheaper. At this time, many of the Councilmembers burst out in laughter. Mr. Poparad, Call the roll, please on the 144. Ms. Weimer, Thank you, Bob, I appreciate that. Mr. Poparad, Go ahead, call the roll, please. Motion failed on the following roll call vote:
Stevenson - No Whitten - No Mr. Kopp, It’s three to three. Ms. Weimer, Thank you. Mr. Poparad, Don’t leave. Ms. Weimer, Okay. Mr. Poparad, You’re not going anywhere. So we got a tie. Mr. Kopp, You got a tie. Mr. Poparad, Okay, that means all the additionals below it… Mr. Whitten, Except for the… Mr. Poparad, Fail. Mr. Whitten, Except for the Tires & Tubes. Mr. Poparad, Except for the Tires & Tubes, which is outside of the 144.
Ms. Weimer, And the 4,000 to Maintenance Agreements. Mr. Burge moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission 93, the amounts of $700 to 2310 Tires & Tubes and $4,000 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements. Mr. Whitten, seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you, Lorelei. Mr. Auditor. Mr. Bucko, Can we discuss what the major problem is here? I mean really, it isn’t fair to have them come back, and then compromise, and cut it in half, and we just say no, and it’s only because we don’t like to do this at budget time or we think we have to pay $750. I mean there’s gotta be some reasoning here. Mr. Whitten, You know, Mike… Mr. Bucko, It’s just not right, I’m sorry. Mr. Whitten, You want my reasoning. My reasoning is that we had a lot of our government employees that came here looking for raises that are feeding their families. They could go out and get jobs in the private sector too. I don’t agree with the notion that just because they work a county, they are somehow not suitable for private sector work. Mr. Bucko, Well I’m tell you… Mr. Whitten, And I’m telling you, Mike, you asked a question, I’m giving you an answer. Mr. Bucko, You haven’t got a clue. Mr. Whitten, I do have a clue, Mike, I happen to be a business owner. I do have a clue. Mr. Bucko, I doubt that. Mr. Whitten, Well you would be wrong, Mike. Mr. Bucko, Well I… Mr. Whitten, You asked a question, I’m giving you an answer. Mr. Bucko, Well it’s not the one I want to hear.
Mr. Whitten, And you may not like it, but that’s the way it goes. I don’t think you have a clue. Mr. Poparad, Okay, Mr. Auditor. Mr. Kopp, Last month we transferred or we got an additional appropriation for $20,000 from Overtime, half for the Auditor’s office, and half for the Hamer system. I would like to transfer $10,000 from Salaries to Overtime to pay the Auditor’s office overtime that we have accumulated so far this year, and what we will continue to accumulate, and I’ll withdraw the Hamer part of it at this point in time. Mr. Poparad, So you want to transfer $10,000 from Salaries to Overtime. Mr. Kopp, Right. Mr. Poparad, Do you have that much in Salaries to move around? Mr. Kopp, I don’t have that to throw around, but I need to pay the people who have been working overtime, and we have an overtime additional that will be going to the State when they act on it. Mr. Poparad, Alright. How much have they accumulated? Mr. Kopp, There’s about 4,500 accumulated the last time I looked. Mr. Poparad, Think we got a handle on it now with the Consultants coming in? Mr. Kopp, Well, we’ve got a handle on what we’re doing, yes. Mr. Poparad, That’s what I’m saying. Do you think the overtime will go down with the hiring of the Consultants? Mr. Kopp, Well the overtime has been for other things, but the overtime is getting under control with what was tax bills mainly was the overtime, and the CAR report. Mr. Poparad, Alright. Any questions? I’m looking for a motion here. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted and amended by Auditor 01.02 , the amount of $10,000 from 1110 Salaries to Overtime. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion. Is there a second?
Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mrs. Stevenson, How long will this carry you through? I know it’s from… Mr. Kopp, It should carry us well into, past the summer, depending on what we do with tax bills. It’s hard to tell when we don’t know where we’re going with the tax bills yet. We’re working on that. We’re going to do a provisional bill, and it probably won’t be til. Mr. Poparad, Okay, all in favor of the motion, say aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Motion carries. Mr. Kopp, I have one other thing we need to discuss. The Commissioners discussed the postage part of mailing out these homestead refunds. I need another $11,000 in round numbers, 10,634 is our current calculation, to cover checks, toner, envelopes, RDS software, and the cost of getting the checks folded and stuffed in the envelopes, and I need some direction as to where we should take this money from. Mr. Whitten, Well we can’t take it from the refund. Mr. Poparad, No, we can’t, refunds can’t pay for themselves. Mr. Bucko, Let me ask you this question. The 300,000 that was the TIF that was given to us by the Commissioners, you know, CEDIT? Mr. Poparad, Yes, and we got the money. Mr. Bucko, We can’t do additionals, that might be a place to take it from. Mr. Poparad, Well that’s the problem, you need the money right now, don’t you? Mr. Kopp, Well it’s, we have everything here and we’re writing the checks next week, so. And I’ve got bills I need to pay. Mr. Carmichael, Take it out of the money they sent us. Mr. Kopp, I thought the Commissioners were initially going to handle it all, but they said they would take the postage, but the rest of it should come back here. Mr. Poparad, Well we can’t do an additional. What have you got, like, I wish I had your budget. Mr. Kopp, I don’t have anything in my budget that can cover this. Mr. Carmichael, How much money did the State send you? Mr. Kopp, They sent us $9,300,000, roughly, and we refunded… Mr. Poparad, How much interest did we earn on that, Mr. Murphy? Mr. Carmichael, Take all the expenses off the top. Jim Murphy, 3%. Mr. Poparad, How much? Mr. Murphy, 3%. Mr. Poparad, Dollars? Mr. Murphy, Don’t know, it’s mixed in with… Mr. Poparad, Well, we use the interest off that to pay your costs. Can we pull that out? Can we pull 11,000 and change out of the interest from this money to pay the cost of this? Mr. Murphy, You’ll need some kind of, get it out of the total monies into a budget, that requires some paperwork that has to be approved by you folks. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Murphy, I don’t know… Mr. Poparad, Is that, I mean… Mr. Whitten, Dave, do you understand what he’s asking? Mr. Hollenbeck, The question is whether we can use the interest that’s been earned on the money the State us for the rebate to pay… Mr. Poparad, The cost… Mr. Hollenbeck, Postage. Mr. Poparad, Well the printing, and he’s got 11,000… Mr. Whitten, The paper. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Hollenbeck, Certainly, I’m not aware of any legal obligation we have to send out more than what we are told to send out, which is what they sent us. So to the extent that interest is earned on that money, I don’t know why that money couldn’t be appropriated and spent as you would deem it to be spent, with the caveat, to the extent that there are timeframes in getting that money out, and I take it we are printing it this week, and we’re distributing that money this week. Mr. Kopp, Right. I’ve had the checks and the envelopes for 45 days, roughly. We’re going to print checks all next week. We think it’s going to take 60 hours to print the checks, because we can print about 6,000 checks in eight hours. We’re going to have to let the printer cool off in between, and some other things. Mr. Whitten, Wow. Mr. Hollenbeck, How long have we had the money? Mr. Kopp, We’ve had the money for, what, Jim, about three months? Mr. Poparad, We’ve got enough interest money. We just need a mechanism to get it out, to get it into his budget so we can pay for these. I’m sure there’s enough. I’m sure we’ve earned $11,000 in the bank. Mr. Murphy, Since the middle of November. Mr. Poparad, Yes, I’m sure we’ve earned that much money. So what’s the vehicle here? Mr. Hollenbeck, We’ll figure out the mechanism to get it to a point where you can appropriate it to pay his expenses. Mr. Poparad, Alright, so we’ll handle this at our next meeting. We’ll figure out the paperwork. Mr. Hollenbeck, Yep, I’ll work with Jim and Jim… Mr. Poparad, Kopp. Mr. Hollenbeck, And we’ll figure out how to get that interest out of wherever the Treasurer has it now, and probably into the general fund. Mr. Poparad, Yes, just that dollar amount though. Mr. Hollenbeck, Right, whatever it is. Mr. Kopp, Yes, and we’ll have a firm dollar amount. Mr. Poparad, Do you have a line item for like Office Supplies or something? Mr. Kopp, Right, I have a couple thousand dollars in that line item. Mr. Poparad, Well we could put it in there or something. Mr. Carmichael, Don’t put it in the general fund. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Burge, This is money coming back, going back to the taxpayers. Mr. Poparad, Right, the homeowners, the state refund, the rebate checks. Mr. Burge, So we’ve been sitting on people’s money for three months, we’re going to keep the interest, instead of the people getting interest on their money. Mr. Poparad, I agree, but I don’t know if we could ever figure that out, Jim. Mr. Burge, I understand. Philosophically, there’s something wrong though using the people’s money, we’re taking the interest… Mr. Poparad, The whole thing is philosophically wrong. Mr. Burge, When they can be investing it and making the interest themselves. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Kopp, This whole thing is a nightmare. Mr. Burge, It’s fundamentally wrong. Mr. Poparad, They’re giving us back our own money, and acting like they’re doing us a favor, so I have a hard time with the whole thing. He’s going to send out a check for how much, 17 cents? Mr. Kopp, Yes. Mr. Poparad, That’s how ludicrous this formula is. I mean… Mr. Carmichael, Seems impossible. Mr. Poparad, But whatever. Mrs. Stevenson, That’s why we need you down there. Mr. Poparad, Alright, we okay, Jim? Mr. Kopp, Thank you.
SUPERIOR COURT 6 - 01.39 Mr. Poparad, Superior Court, we have a transfer of $400 from Maintenance Agreements to Interpreters. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Superior Court 6 - 01.39, the amount of $400 from 3610 Maintenance Agreements to 3131 Interpreters. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Motion carries. Mr. Burge, It’s fundamentally wrong.
SURTEC Mr. Poparad, Surtec. Is anyone here? Dave, is this in one of the zones we just brought back to life? Mr. Hollenbeck, Yes, you still have one more zone to bring back to life, but that zone is not where this is. Mr. Poparad, Okay, alright. Okay, everybody has the application. Is this the Washington Schools District? It should be, isn’t it? Michael White, I believe it is. Mr. Hollenbeck, Yes it is, it’s actually East Porter. Mr. Poparad, East Porter, that’s what I thought. Okay, anybody got any questions? Are you going to have any job growth or is this just job retention? Mr. White, There will be new jobs created from this project, that’s correct. Mr. Poparad, Approximately? Mr. White, We’re anticipating ten jobs. Ten new jobs, that’s correct. Mr. Poparad, You have eight people now from what I understand? Arthur Schmidt, Actually, we’re at nine right now. Mr. Poparad, Nine. Okay. Mr. Burge, That’s almost the doubling of your size. It’s a positive. Mr. Carmichael, What do you do out there? Mr. White, I’ll let the gentleman from Surtec explain that, they’d probably be better off.
Mr. Schmidt, We manufacture polymers and organic chemicals. Mr. Schmidt, The contract that’s going to pay for most of this is, actually, it’s oxygened air that goes into water bottles, polyethylene terephthalate water bottles, it’s going into packaging. It will have FDA approval. Gentleman with Surtec, Our main customer manufactures, produces plastic products for packaging. Like you would see a ketchup bottle or mustard bottle at the store, that plastic container, we manufacture a component that goes into that. There are plastic compounds that when they manufacture those bottles, actually, it adds to shelf life. The oxygen barrier prevents oxygen from penetrating, extending the shelf life of the product. Mr. Poparad, You’re going to spend… Mr. Carmichael, Raw materials? Mr. Schmidt, Yes. Mr. Poparad, You’re going buy $2,500,000 worth of equipment; $3,500,000 worth of building, and spend $100,000 on the existing building. Mr. White, That’s correct. Mr. Carmichael, According to the Plan Commission, you’ve got some clean up to do out there. Are you aware of that? Mr. Schmidt, Yes, we are. Gentleman from Surtec, As soon as the buildings are finished, we put the equipment in the buildings. Mr. Poparad, What did you just say? Gentleman from Surtec, As soon as the production building is finished, the equipment that’s out in the yard can go inside of it. It’s gets mounded up. Mr. Poparad, All that stuff that’s outside? Gentleman from Surtec, Yes. Mr. Bucko, I guess I want to ask a question. I’ve got some pictures here from them, and most of that doesn’t look like anything that would go back in the building. Mr. Poparad, Whose who here? Mr. Bucko, That’s right out in front. Mr. Poparad, Wait a minute, stop. Whose who here? Who are you? Mr. White, I’m with Appraisal Management, we’re working with them on their compliance. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. White, And these two are with Surtec. Mr. Poparad, Okay, you’re the front guy. Mr. White, Yes, exactly, the liaison I guess you could say. Mr. Poparad, Yes, I mean it appears you’ve had some issues. Bob, do you want to expound on any of these plan commission issues, or just leave the packet as what it is. The Building Department, I guess might be the better word.
Mr. Thompson, I guess I’ll explain my end of it. In this situation we did receive complaints from some of the residents out there. There’s quite a bit of industrial because it’s right next to the airport. There is a lot residential, close to 400 E, in that area. We did receive some complaints about the residential, about all the, what they were referring to ask junk out in the front yard of Surtec. Mr. Poparad, What is the timeline for all of this? Gentleman from Surtec, It’s going to be another three to four months when construction is completed. Mr. Poparad, I take it you have financing in place already? Gentleman from Surtec, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Financing is not contingent on tax abatement? Mr. White, On what? Mr. Poparad, Financing is not contingent on the tax abatement? Mr. White, No. Mr. Burge, With that, Mr. Chairman, I do have a bit of a problem with connecting the two issues. It seems like the abatement should be judged upon if they meet the criteria established for tax abatement, and then the financial impact, positive impact, to the County. The issues of zoning and building, those are kind of compliance issues, and should be an issue just with Bob Thompson’s department, and marrying the two, I don’t think is needed. It’s almost like it’s using the abatement as a weapon to try to force zoning, which is not the intent of why there is an abatement. Mr. Poparad, I don’t disagree with your analogy, but I’ve got to be honest. From what I seen, piles of old pallets, I don’t think are quite valuable enough. You know, I guess, and don’t get me wrong, I own a business, and I have my own mess, but I keep my mess in the back. The mess in the front is what gets everybody’s attention. If you keep your mess in the back nobody would see it. Gentleman from Surtec, Can I… Mr. Poparad, No, no, I’m not done. My point is, these letters go back to November. Is that when it started, Bob? Mr. Thompson, Correct. Mr. Poparad, Has anything changed? I don’t think anything has changed. Even if you just move the stuff around, you know, it would have been an improvement. I agree, your analogy is, yes, we shouldn’t marry to two together, but by the same token, they have an obligation to the community to present their best face. And if this is their best face, I have lost my enthusiasm. It appears there’s a lot of room around back, so shouldn’t the stuff be around back, that’s all I’m saying. I mean I’ve got a mess, but I keep my mess in the back. I don’t know, go ahead, now your turn, I’m sorry. Gentleman from Surtec, My turn? Mr. Poparad, Yes, go ahead. Gentleman from Surtec, The contractor who has been fired, the general contractor, was given a timeline on the project, and we agreed on costs, sequence of events, etc. The equipment was in the back, and it was supposed to finish the production building, and we had an agreement to get a permit on the left side of the property of the production building. The production building was finished, moved it out of the yard in the production building. He had a great idea, he thought he could do it better, so he put it in the back yard so he could build the simple things, the warehouse, that was not very competent, the contractor would understand how do it, that’s why all the equipment is in the front yard. He’s fired, we’ve got a much better industrial contractor that’s going to finish the job, but we still need the production building finished, because I know they look like junk to you, but those are stainless pumps, and we do have trouble because whoever is stealing things thinks they’re worth piling that junk, because they can scrap the stainless for $3 a pound. So we want them inside the building more than you do. Mr. Poparad, Not to cut you off, but you keep saying, this stuff is valuable. You ain’t even got a tarp over it. |
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March 20, 2008