 |
PORTER COUNTY COUNCIL
Members present were Michael Bucko, Jim Burge, Karen Conover, Dan Whitten, President Bob Poparad, and Rita Stevenson who was not present at roll call. Also present was Auditor James Kopp, Attorney Dave Hollenbeck, Alizabeth Bailey and Jan Noll. Mr. Poparad call the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Poparad, Rita’s going to be a few minutes late. Approval of June 24th minutes? Mr. Bucko moved to approve the June 24, 2008 minutes as received. Mr. Whitten seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote.
GENERAL COURTS 01.78 Mr. Poparad, General Courts, we have a transfer of $6,050 from Juror Expenses to Law Books. I told the Judge he didn’t have to come. He’s getting heat from the vendor, they won’t sell him anymore law books. Mrs. Conover moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by General Courts 01.78, the amount of $6,050 from 1350 Juror Expenses to 2430 Law Books. Mr. Whitten seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. FIRST READING At this time Mr. Kopp read the Notice to Taxpayers.
CEDIT 23 - 260.30 Mr. Poparad, CEDIT Plan 23, $150,000 additional for the consultants from the Commissioners to work with the Auditor and the Assessor. Any comments? Questions? Mr. Burge, This is Beth? Mr. Poparad, Yes, and Crowe Chizek, and everybody else. Mr. Burge, No problem. Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by CEDIT 23 - 260.30, the amount of $150,000 to 0001 CEDIT Project #23. Mrs. Conover seconded. Mr. Poparad, Anymore discussion? Everybody on board with this for the Commissioners? Mrs. Conover, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
COMMISSIONERS 01.30 Mr. Poparad, We have a $2,500 transfer from Sewage & Water to Overtime, since they abolished comp-time. This is in their budget. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Commissioners 01.30, the amount of $2,500 from 3520 Water & Sewage to 1130 Overtime. Mr. Bucko, Do you want to do the second one?
Mr. Poparad, No, we’ll do them one at a time. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Oh, okay, you want to do the other transfer at the same time? Mr. Bucko, Yes, there’s another transfer. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten moved to include the transfer of $10,000 from 3440 Unemployment to 3430 Workmen’s Comp. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Both transfers carry. Will that workers comp get you through the end of the year? Com. Bob Harper, Melissa thinks it will. Mr. Poparad, Okay. At this point, Mrs. Stevenson joined the meeting.
ANIMAL SHELTER 01.45 Mr. Poparad, Animal Shelter. We have a transfer of $15,000 from Salaries to cover Hourly; $232.86 from Postage to Hourly; and another transfer of $18.88 from Postage to Maintenance Agreements for the copier; 297 from 3750 Other Rentals to Hourly. Mr. Whitten, Things seem to be going pretty smoothly out there, so I’ll make a motion to approve. At this time, the Councilmembers, Com. Harper, and people in the audience burst out in laughter. Mr. Poparad, All of them? Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Poparad, All the transfers? Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Commissioners 01.30, the amounts of, $15,000 from 1110 Salaries to 1120 Hourly, $232.86 from 3230 Postage to 1120 Hourly, $18.88 from 3230 Postage to 3610 Maintenance Agreements and $297 from 3750 Other Rentals to 1120 Hourly. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got four transfers. Mrs. Conover seconded. Mrs. Conover, And I’d also like to say to this animal lover here. Mr. Poparad, Okay? Mrs. Conover, Okay. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you, Bob. MURPHY PLAN Mr. Poparad, Okay, we’re going to rearrange things. Mr. Murphy, last meeting, wanted to talk about the Murphy Plan. Come on up, Jim. We thought we’d give you a few minutes, and if anybody’s got any questions or comments. Jim Murphy, I have copies. Mr. Poparad, Relax, would you. You’re not on TV, he’s just recording you, and he will hold it against you, so. You’re going to pay dearly for that tape, you know that.
Mr. Murphy, The reason that I wanted to visit with you folks about this is that you’re some of the people who are, you are the voting members of the folks who are responsible for the disposition, and the uses of the hospital proceeds interest. And I have been talking about this, I’ve been thinking about it for some time. Bob, you came up with this idea. I was able to get some numbers put on the first part of it, which is the paying back the taxing, all of the entities in the county for all of the discomfort that we have caused them, at least in the year 2007. And also the plan to increase, to accelerate the imposition of the 1% caps from 2010 to 2008. All of the figures are available here. It’s all, you can see the, all of the entities and the amounts of money that all of them would be receiving, and you can see in the last two columns on the right-hand side of the fine print from the LSA, these are the amount of dollars it will cost for the year 2008 to implement this plan, and for 2009. Mr. Whitten, I don’t necessarily have questions, but I have a few comments. But why don’t we get to the questions. Mr. Poparad, No, I don’t have any questions. I don’t know if the numbers on the back page are accurate to a certain extent, Jim, because of… Mr. Murphy, Because of lots… Mr. Poparad, Trending. Mr. Murphy, Exactly, a lot has happened, and trending isn’t taken into consideration. Mr. Poparad, Yes, the trending isn’t in here, and that whole discussion about… Mrs. Conover, Well, is it true though, if trending was implemented and the AV went down these numbers would be lessened. Mr. Murphy, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Well, trending will increase the value, raising the AV, i.e., raise it. Mr. Whitten, As will growth, correct? Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Murphy, Exactly, lowering the amount of money that we would need to fill in to do this bridge between 2008 and 2010. These were the best numbers that were available… Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Murphy, In March or April, whenever they were gathered by the LSA. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Burge, As far as the reimbursing of the various municipalities, etc, to handle the shortfall we had because of the tax bills not going out, I think we have a person in the audience representing both the City of Portage and the City of Valparaiso as their financial advisor, Karl Cender. I’d like a little bit of input from him as to what impact he would envision on both of those cities. Mr. Poparad, Hi, Karl.
Karl Cender, Members of the Council, thank you for allowing me to speak tonight representing both the City of Valparaiso and the City of Portage as their financial advisor. These communities would like to endorse the proposal that you are considering as far as reimbursing or to fund their borrowing costs that they had over the last several years, due to the, they’ve had to go out and borrow money, what they call tax anticipation warrant borrowing, to cover their operating cost, because of not getting the tax revenues in on a timely basis. Mr. Poparad, The last several years? Mr. Cender, Yes. I think they were questionnaires that were turned in asking for, going back to 2000… Mr. Bucko, Six. Mr. Cender, 2006, I believe. Mr. Bucko, Yes, 6, 7 and 8, an estimate for a, according to, unless my mind fails me… Mr. Poparad, We have had that discussion. Mr. Bucko, Haha. In 2006, there wasn’t any tax delays or anything in 2006, right? Everybody’s came out at the same time, right time; the taxes went out in ’06, in May and November. Mr. Murphy, There were two collections, one was in July. The first one was in July. Mr. Bucko, Based on the numbers that I got from the City of Valparaiso, they borrowed $94,000 less in ’07 than they did in ’06. If we were to give money back to the City of Valparaiso we’d give them back money for less, for TAW’s that they really didn’t need, well, that they didn’t borrow that would have occurred to, that may have, I’ll say may have, because I’m just looking at the numbers. Mr. Cender, Sure. Mr. Bucko, Alright, there were, some cities would get nothing, because they borrowed equal, equal amounts each year. I used 2006 just to try to get a handle on what the impact might be. Portage and Duneland Schools, and maybe even Portage Schools, were the three big ones. Okay? But then there were, I think three or so others that got a little, it came to a total of 1.3 million dollars of new money borrowed in ’07, as compared to what was borrowed in ’06, which is pretty much a non-issue, a kind of a tax year that everything worked well. So, I don’t know. It’s, you know, we’ve got to get, people have got to get numbers that agree first. Mrs. Conover, Well I guess we have to get numbers, and we have to kind of dissect this even further, Mike. We gave the taxing entities zero money in 2007. And it’s not so much as what they borrowed, and then also what they didn’t earn on interest because they didn’t have their money. And we can, you know, we can run that across the board too. Mr. Bucko, Well I did raise one other question too in addition to that, you know, and this is good discussion. How much of this problem was the County’s? I mean solely the County. How much of it had to do with… Mrs. Conover, About 20% of it… Mr. Bucko, The DLGF… Mrs. Conover, Was the State’s. Probably about 20% of it was the State’s. Mr. Bucko, You think that much? Mrs. Conover, Yes. Mr. Bucko, You think that little? Mrs. Conover, Yes, I think that… Mr. Bucko, I get the tax, I get the news articles from counties all across the state, just to see, just to try to get a feel for that, and I mean it’s, it’s a mess. There’s no doubt about that, and the guy that comes to the top in every one of them is the DLGF. Mr. Whitten, I guess… Mr. Bucko, I mean I don’t know. You know, I don’t know, I’m a… Mr. Whitten, I guess I’d like to, I mean, I think you’re right, Karen. We have to dissect it and dissect it and dissect it. I mean I respect what you’ve done, Jim. I do. I just don’t happen to agree with you on it, but that’s what makes the world go around. I don’t think you can quantify 20% or 30% or 10% to the State. I will tell you this that we had lots and lots of meetings as a County, because I know I was chairing the meetings, and we were saying things like, let’s get provisionals out; we’ve got to do these provisionals because people are going to lose out, and I think we even talked about the loss of interest on money; the interest that’s being incurred on borrowed money, all those things were being mulled around, and I think that, Jim, you and I agreed on one thing and that was, we had to get the State’s approval, and they didn’t give it to us. Mr. Murphy, Right. Mr. Whitten, You know, had they given us the provisional go-ahead we could have avoided a lot of this. Mr. Bucko, Yes. Mr. Whitten, So I think we really, I think our county dug in. I mean we were meeting Saturday’s, weren’t we. I mean you have to admit we all got involved here, and we were seeing the train was coming, and we got no help from the State. Mrs. Conover, This year. Mr. Whitten, Two years running.
Mr. Burge, And it, well to that point, we did a little bit of digging in some numbers that the DLGF provided. Looking at the problem that we have, and the depth of the problem in getting these tax bills out, and in ’06 payable ’07, there were approximately only seven counties below us, in terms of getting all the paperwork in on time, and where we stood as far as trying to, like, get everything completed. And in, so that puts us at what, 85th, 85 out of 92 counties, in terms of efficiency in getting this done. And if you look at where we are at today, and I have those numbers I can share with you--you can pass these down. Today, for ’07 payable ’08, instead of moving in the positive direction, we’re actually getting worse. We’re now 87th out of 92 counties in terms of how efficient we are at getting the tax bills done. Mr. Whitten, Well I guess I would disagree that we are moving in the wrong direction. I think that when I was trying to go around and figure out what was going wrong in the years prior, I think we had problems built on top of problems, built on top of problems, and I think that we are in the stage now, we’re trying, it’s like peeling an onion, we get a layer, we get a layer, we get a layer, and I think everybody’s had to dig in and realize that this has been going on a long time, and we’re trying to fix it. So I think that we’re moving in the right direction in that regard. Mr. Burge, Well I think the Council, we’re doing, I think, everything that could be expected with the limits of our authority, but it’s the county mechanisms from, you know, the Assessor, the Auditor, through the whole process to get this done. I mean that’s where we have some improvements to make. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, and every Monday at 7:30 we’re down here beating them over the head with a stick. We moved that now to Friday at 1:00 so you’re more than welcome to come down and beat up on Uncle Jim and Uncle Jim and Uncle John over there, the whole bit. Mrs. Conover, Well, and some of the problems have been going on for years in the State, and we’ve hired the consultants to help us to get on some kind of a track here, and we’re still falling way behind the timeline, and in the meantime every other taxing entity has suffered. Mr. Poparad, Uh huh. Mrs. Conover, And it has suffered greatly. We sit on roughly $500,000 a month in interest from the hospital proceeds money, and why should not that interest be shared to the taxpayers. It’s not our money. It’s the County’s money, and all the taxing entities, and why not should that interest money be shared, and we return it to the taxpayers or should we keep it for little pork-barrel projects. Mr. Poparad, I agree. Mr. Whitten, I agree, Karen. And if I could, Mr. Chairman, I’ve got some thoughts. Mr. Poparad, Okay.
Mr. Whitten, And I voiced some of my concerns with the Murphy idea the last time I was here. Again, Jim, I respect what you have done here, I just don’t happen to agree with it. And I told this body the last time I don’t think it benefits everybody. I agree with you, Karen, to a certain extent. This money does belong to the taxpayers, but not necessarily to the taxing entities. I think under Jim’s plan there are people that are not invited to the table, and I think that’s a problem. I think that this money does belong to all the taxpayers, and I’ve got some thoughts here. Here we are faced with the suggestion that the interest should be handed out to the political subdivisions throughout the county on what I believe to be estimated numbers that are not accurate. They are unsubstantiated. They don’t take into consideration things like trending and growth, in a clear attempt to avoid placing constraints on spending in anticipation of the 1% cap on residential property taxes. Let’s forget about the commercial. Mrs. Conover, Well, local government does need stability as does the property taxpayer. They need to know about when their bill is due. They need to be able to guesstimate on their own how much their bill is going to be. And with a 1% cap, we’re just escalating what the State wants to do in two years, and Dan, you talked about the AV, and if the AV goes down, so does this proposal. You talked about, you know, an extra homestead credit. What better way than to do it, I think if we said rebate checks, this man is going to lose the rest of his hair. It was a nightmare this year. That’s another reason that backed up regular work in his office. We can’t be issuing 14,000 checks. Mr. Whitten, Sure we can. Mrs. Conover, Yeah, we can, and it comes at a cost. So why not just give it, give the 35, 40 checks to the taxing entities. Mr. Whitten, I’m not going to turn my back on South Haven, unincorporated Porter County. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to look those people in the eye… Mrs. Conover, We’re not turning our backs on anybody. Mr. Whitten, And saying, you built up the money in the hospital, you were part of it, it’s your money, but I’m sorry, you don’t get to come to the party. Mrs. Conover, And how is it that they don’t benefit? Mr. Whitten, Because they are already under the 1% cap. They don’t get it. Mrs. Conover, Well they are under the 1% cap because, because the State raised from 30-some thousand to now $45,000. They already got their benefit, which brought them in lower last year when everybody… Mr. Whitten, Everybody got that. Mrs. Conover, When everybody else paid more. Mr. Whitten, You know, just because they don’t live in a big house on the hill, we are not going to… Mrs. Conover, We’re talking about $150,000 home. Mr. Whitten, We are not going to turn our back on them. I pulled off several… Mrs. Conover, Oh, please. Mr. Whitten, I turned, I pulled out, excuse me. I pulled out several houses out of South Haven, several in unincorporated Porter County, not one that I pulled out, not one, would benefit from this plan. Mrs. Conover, Well they benefited from the plan when the State did what they had to do. Mr. Whitten, This is their money too. Mrs. Conover, And the eight years I sat on this board prior to the vacancy here, I’ve never heard so much political grandstanding as I have in the last couple of months sitting on this board again. Mr. Poparad, Jim.
Mr. Burge, Four points. Overall, the basic plan that Treasurer Murphy has outlined is a reimbursement for what the cities and municipalities and school boards were all shortchanged in 2007, because we did not get the monies out to them. So it’s, there’s not one penny of new money. There’s no increase in the local budget by one penny. It’s all reimbursement for what they should have received, and did not receive from this County. Mr. Kopp, It’s 44,000 checks. Mr. Burge, Well, but there’s 14,000 households that would be in this plan that would get reimbursement. Mr. Kopp, Okay. Mr. Burge, Or you can send out 42 checks to each of the schools, municipalities, etc. So overall, I think Treasurer Murphy is on the right, on the right track. So I would move that we adopt Treasurer Murphy’s plan. Mr. Burge moved to adopt Treasurer Murphy’s Plan. Mrs. Conover seconded. Mr. Whitten, First of all, we have discussion. Jim, I don’t think you are right. I think that the plan does call for an early 1% cap. I don’t think it’s merely to reimburse. I don’t think that’s true. Mr. Burge, But there’s two elements. Mr. Whitten, There’s two elements, right Jim? Mr. Murphy, Exactly. You know the first is a stand-alone. Mr. Whitten, Right. Mr. Murphy, It’s two separate ideas put together on the, in the same… Mr. Whitten, Yes, I think you spoke to the one. But I think when you said that it doesn’t, it’s not new money, I don’t think that’s… Mr. Burge, On the reimbursement. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mrs. Conover, And let’s take labels off of it. Let’s not call it the Murphy Plan. Let’s call it the, Let’s Reimburse the Taxpayer Plan. It’s a Poparad Plan; it’s a Murphy Plan. Let’s just call it the Reimburse the Property Taxpayer Plan. Mr. Whitten, Except for the guys that don’t get any benefit. Mrs. Conover, They got their benefit when everybody else, well most everybody else got their taxes raised last year, Dan, because they got the benefit of what the State did for everybody. Mr. Whitten, Okay, so we’re going to punish those people… Mrs. Conover, They’re not being punished. Mr. Whitten, That finally got something from the State that everybody got. So that makes no sense to me, it just doesn’t. And I know that you think is all political grandstanding, but I don’t much care, Karen. Quite frankly, I may be a goner in eight months, and that’s just the way it goes. But I’ve got to tell you something, that’s the least of my worries, the fact of the matter is, I don’t think that this body ought to be voting for something that gives out money that belongs to everybody that not everybody is going to benefit from. I just think that’s poor planning. And by the way, you, I’m okay with not touching it at all. But if we are going to touch it, everybody gets a piece of the pie. Leave it where it’s at.; let’s start doing some real planning about attracting some sort of growth this county can be proud of: medical research facilities, alternative schooling. Something that will help this county be a trendsetter. If that’s the last thing I get to do, I think that’s a pretty good thing we’ve done. That’s all I have to say. I’d like to call the question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bucko, Excuse me. Mr. Poparad, Go ahead, Mike.
Mr. Bucko, I was just going to say that they did call it a plan when I talked about what I did, but my plan was to try to do a little bit for everybody concerned, to be fair about the whole thing. My main objective, in relationship to being on the proceeds committee, and being co-chair with past Councilman Murphy was simply to maintain the integrity of the dollars that came from that, from the sale of that hospital, because we had people come in here, and they gave a wide list of reasons what they thought the money should be used for, and there was some very significant ones out there. Mr. Whitten, Call the question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Poparad, Well I just hope everybody realizes that this is not just our decision. Mr. Whitten, No, it’s the Commissioners. Mr. Poparad, And actually, I think, David, jump in right away, isn’t it the other way around, the Commissioners come to us. Mr. Hollenbeck, I don’t know if… Mr. Poparad, If I remember reading the document… Mr. Hollenbeck, I haven’t thought through that much, that certainly would be a mirror of how CEDIT and other things work where… Mr. Poparad, Alright. Mr. Hollenbeck, The Commissioners put a plan together, and come to you, and you, in a sense, appropriate the money. Mr. Poparad, So I don’t know if the motion… Mr. Hollenbeck, And that may well be the model that makes the most sense. Mr. Poparad, So I don’t know if we’re jumping the gun. Mr. Hollenbeck, You know, I think to not reconfigure the motion, but I think that if there is a consensus on the motion, the motion could be to recommend to the commissioners that this is an appropriate expenditure of the interest from the hospital proceeds, and then pursue the commissioners in some dialogue and see if they agree. And if there is a consensus between the two bodies, then there’s action you can take. Mr. Burge, I’d be willing to make that amendment, if the second is agreeable. Mrs. Conover, So moved, yes. Mr. Burge moved to recommend to the County Commissioners that the Murphy Plan is an appropriate expenditure for the hospital proceeds interest. Mrs. Conover seconded. Mr. Bucko, To adopt the plan or to sit down and consider a consensus? Mr. Burge, To adopt the plan. Mr. Poparad, Well… Mr. Whitten, Could we please have the question? Mr. Poparad, Yes, I’m not, you know, now it’s my turn. I threw this out a few weeks ago in an effort to help the municipalities. If appears everybody has picked it up, and they’re all running for the goal line. I don’t know if we, I don’t know if I, the whole thing, I have not, I don’t know if I like the concept on a certain level. I understand what everybody is trying to do, but I just wanted to help a little bit, and now it’s gotten away; typical government, it’s gotten blown out of proportion, everybody’s jumping on the float, so. Call the roll, please. Motion failed on the following vote:
Conover-YesPoparad-No Mr. Poparad, It ain’t over, Jim. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your effort. It’s not going to go away, so. Mr. Bucko, It definitely ain’t going away.
JUVENILE DETENTION 01.80 Mr. Poparad, Juvenile Detention, we’ve got a 144, Administrative Services Manager, slash, Standards from; we’re going backwards? Judge Harper, Well, we’re even Steven. Mr. Poparad, Okay, does everybody understand this? We’re moving the one down, and the other one up. Everybody on the same page here? Mr. Bucko, I’m sorry. Mr. Poparad, We’re moving somebody down, then somebody back up, so the dollars wash out. Mr. Whitten, I like it. Mr. Poparad, And we also have a transfer of $5,000. Nah, we’ll do the 144 first. Mr. Whitten moved to amend the 144 Form submitted by Juvenile Detention 01.80, Administrative Services Manager/Standards Compliance Coordinator at $33,873 to Administrative Assistant at $28,633, Secretary at $23,393 to Training & Standards Compliance Coordinator at $28,633 and Clerical from $11 to $15 per hour. Mrs. Conover seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Juvenile Detention 01.80, the amount of $5,000 from 1110 Salaries to 1120 Hourly. Mrs. Conover seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you, Judge. Judge Mary Harper, It’s a pleasure to see you. Thank you.
PORTER COUNTY SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNCIL 73 Mr. Poparad, Porter County Substance Abuse, you don’t do that. Judge Harper, Right here. Mr. Poparad, Oh, come on up. This is the yearly grants: 48,965 to Education; 50,000 to Treatment. Mr. Whitten, Are these all for, these all grant money. Mr. Poparad, This is all what they’re handing out. Mr. Whitten, Okay, I make a motion on all these additionals. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Porter County Substance Abuse Council 73, the amounts of, $48,965 to 0001 Education, $50,000 to 0001 Treatment, $61,430.16 to 0001 Justice and $36,345 to 0001 Council Office. Mr. Poparad, 61,000 to Justice, and 36,000 to the Council Office. Sharon Cawood, I just have thing I want to say, or maybe Michelle. Mr. Poparad, To our office. I’m sorry. Ms. Cawood, That’s our office. Mr. Bucko, That’s what I thought it was. Ms. Cawood, We do have, Michelle might want to talk about this, two new programs this year that we haven’t funded before, and we wanted to speak to you about one real quickly. Michelle Volk, Right. I’m Michelle Volk, I’m chairperson for the Substance Abuse Council. There are two new programs that asked to receive grant money this year. The one was, the first one was with the Prosecutor’s office for their fatal alcohol accident testing and testimony. And then the second one was the Probation, slash, Health Department, for testing for their Antabuse program, and Sharon knows a little bit more about that. Ms. Cawood, Neil Hannon will be here to talk to you about that when he comes before the Commissioners and you for his programs this year, his budget. But they are looking for two new, they’re about the size of the printer over here, two Antabuse touch machines. One for the Valpo office here, and one for the Portage Health Department, and that will speed up the timeline between testing. Right now they are using PVT’s, and there’s like 15 minutes in between the PVT’s, so this will give them five minutes, and the people who come into Antabuse can do this themselves. They, each one of them are $9,950, and they are renting them right now, because they don’t have the dollars for this. So they are wanting the County and for us to give them money for that. We have approved money for one, so when Neil comes before you in the next month or two, he’ll be asking for money for the second one. And just to let you know, if he doesn’t get money from the County for the second one, then he will give this money back to us because they need to have two. Mr. Poparad, They need to have two? Ms. Cawood, They need, he says they need to have one for each government complex. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Ms. Cawood, For each health department. Mr. Poparad, Okay, I agree with that. That would be nice. Ms. Cawood, I agree too, well… Mr. Poparad, But if he can’t have two, he’s has none? Ms. Cawood, No, one’s not enough. Mr. Poparad, That makes no sense. Mrs. Conover, Well he has a lot of user fees, I’m sure he can afford it. Mr. Poparad, I agree. Ms. Cawood, You’ll have to talk to him about it. Mr. Poparad, Alright. Mr. Whitten, I moved on all of these. Mr. Poparad, On the additionals. Mr. Whitten, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Is everybody on the same page? I need a second. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you. Ms. Cawood, Thank you. Ms. Volk, Thank you.
DRAINAGE BOARD 01.26 Mr. Poparad, Drainage Board, $5,000 to Boards, an additional. These people get paid for attending? Mrs. Conover, Yeah, the big bucks. Dave Burrus, The big bucks, right. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Bucko, A whole $50, hehe. Mr. Poparad, I need a motion on the additional. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Drainage Board 01.26, the amount of $5,000 to 1340 Boards. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Burrus, Thank you very much. Mr. Whitten, Just like that. Mr. Burrus, With nothing said. Mr. Poparad, Thank you.
CORONER 01.07 Mr. Poparad, Coroner. Mr. Whitten, Well good evening, how’s business. Mr. Poparad, We have a transfer of $25 from Per Diem to Memberships. It appears your membership in whatever organization you are in went up by $25. Mr. Whitten, Coroners have like an association. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, it’s Body Bags R Us. Mr. Whitten, What do you do.
Mr. Hollenbeck, They get together and socialize. Mr. Whitten, Now that’s something. Mr. Poparad, What do you guys do; what do you sit around and talk about, seriously. Ms. Deppe, Coroner’s gone wild. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, okay. Unable to transcribe, due to the humorous remarks the Councilmembers were making. Mr. Poparad, Hey, did you discuss body bags, the reusing. Ms. Deppe, Yes, and they were surprised that I didn’t have more body bags. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, but you also have like 19 people in your office, and they have three. Ms. Deppe, Oh, come on. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of fund submitted by Coroner 01.07, the amounts of, $25 from 1240 Per Diem to 3940 County Memberships, $130 from 1240 Per Diem to 2110 Office Supplies and $575 from 3140 Medical & Hospital Service to 4410 Office Equipment over $100. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion, and a second from Mike. It’s just so much fun to have you come up here. Ms. Deppe, I’m glad you enjoy it. Mr. Poparad, All in favor of the transfer, say aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you. Ms. Deppe, Thank you very much.
UNION TOWNSHIP 01.58
ASSESSOR 01.09 Mr. Poparad, Union Township, this is a continuation of last week or last month or whenever we had the joy to meet together. We’ve got 10,000 from Salaries; 1,800 from Hourly; 267 from Travel; and 900 from Office Supplies. This is being transferred over to the Assessor’s--the County Assessor’s budget. So we’re calling this a reduction appropriation. Mr. Whitten, Why didn’t we do this the last time? There was a problem. Mr. Poparad, Yes, what? Mr. Kopp, It wasn’t published. Mr. Poparad, Yes, it wasn’t published. So all in favor of the reduction appropriation, let’s take the vote on this. Call the roll, please. Wait, we need a motion. I’m sorry, I’m speeding up here. Mr. Whitten, I’ll move. Mr. Poparad, Where, Lake County. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for reduction appropriations submitted by Union Township 01.58, the amounts of, $10,219.64 from 1110 Salaries, $1,887 from $1120 Hourly, $267.60 from $3210 Travel, $900 from 2110 Office Supplies. Mrs. Conover seconded. Mr. Whitten, So many are there. Mr. Poparad, Alright, we’ve got a motion from Mr. Whitten. Karen, did you second it? Mrs. Conover, Yes, I did. Mr. Poparad, Karen seconded it. Call the roll, please. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Alright, now we have an additional in John’s budget, the 01.09 of $10,000; 1,800 for Hourly; 200 for Travel; 900 for Office Supplies. We need a motion on that additional to get it in his budget. Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Assessor 01.09, the amounts of, $10,219.64 to 1110 Salaries, $1,887 to $1120 Hourly, $267.60 to $3210 Travel and $900 to 2110 Office Supplies. Mr. Whitten seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
ASSESSOR REASSESSMENT 08.09 Mr. Poparad, Okay, we have an additional of $152,900 to Cleminshaw for trending and ratio studies. Did that get approved? John Scott, Yes. Mr. Poparad, It did, the ratio study got approved. Mr. Scott, Yes, that was approved. Mr. Poparad, Okay, good. 5,000, do you want to do these together or one at a time? Mrs. Conover, Can we do them together? Mr. Poparad, It’s up to you. Alright, we’ve got $5,000 for Xsoft; 14,000 for the website. We have 148,000, which is half of the Xsoft software; 26,000 for Crowe, which is working on the Hamer and Xsoft; and 25,000 for the rest of the year for Xsoft. Mr. Scott, And I do an explanation of the 20, 26-5, I think it is, Contractual on 3950. When we had our meeting, I had talked to the vendor, the one that you have up on the top here at 3950, which is $5,000, and I made a statement there, and want to clarify that that money there was offered by Crowe and Beth Henkel, I believe, and so does the vendor that I hired for $5,000 that he can do that without touching that, and they said at that time if they didn’t need to use the money, they would not use it. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Are we doing all these… Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Assessor Reassessment 08.09, the amounts of, $152,900 to 3950 Contractual Services, $5,000 to 3950 Contractual Services, $14,000 to 3950 Contractual Services, $148,500 to 4510 Data Processing Equipment, $26,500 to 3950 Contractual Services and $25,000 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, All the additionals at the same time. Mr. Whitten makes the motion, and Mr. Bucko seconded it. Questions? Mr. Burge, Yes, I have. On the 148,500 for the Xsoft software, I have some fairly serious problems with that. Overall, it goes back to the original discussion that went on last year concerning the Hamer software, and this Xsoft software. At that time, this board approved the monies for Hamer, the idea being to have the Auditor, the Treasurer and the Assessors all on the same page, all using the same software. After the State made the moves to eliminate the Township Assessors, and roll them into the County Assessor’s, it seems like we kind of revisited that, and then the whole thing with Xsoft came back. After, I guess it was two meetings ago, I spoke briefly with Sharon Lippens from IT, and I wanted to get an explanation from her as to why; why wasn’t the Hamer working. I was led to believe we had problems with it. Well, I asked her if there are technical reasons, very specific, you know, how the software functions, any hardware issues, anything like that. And it’s just I got back from her is that that was not the case. It was more that the assessor’s office really did not want to work with it, therefore, rejected it. Mr. Scott, No, you’re wrong, totally wrong. Mr. Burge, Well, I’m just telling you the conversation I had with Sharon. Mr. Scott, Sure. Mr. Burge, That being the case, to me, that throws up huge red flags. Mr. Scott, No, you’re wrong, so that can’t be the case. Mr. Poparad, John, John. Mr. Burge, Because we… Mr. Poparad, John. Let him speak, then you can respond. Mr. Burge, We put forth all the money for Hamer, and went through all those hoops to try to make that happen then. Now, we’re incurring another $148,000 just for half of this software, additional costs to the Porter County taxpayer, when, with maybe a little extra effort we could have made that Hamer work since we already had it. To me, it’s just fundamentally wrong. There is no… Mr. Scott, I said it… Mr. Poparad, John. Mr. Scott, Oh, okay. Mr. Burge, Technical reason, according to Sharon, it was a verbal discussion we had after that meeting, and I specifically said it there, will it not function, what’s the deal, and she said, no, it was more of an issue of the assessors not wanting to work with it. Shirley LaFever, That’s not correct. Mr. Burge, So with that, I think it’s an injustice to the Porter County taxpayers, and I will vote no to the whole measure because of this one line. If you wish to make that a separate item, vote on it separately, fine. Otherwise, I’ll have to vote no against the whole thing. Mr. Whitten moved to withdraw his motion. Mr. Whitten, I withdraw my motion, we’ll do them one at a time. Mr. Poparad, Okay. John, you want to respond. Mr. Whitten, No, let’s, can we go through these, and then when we get to that one, can we have some discussion, because that’s not exactly what I was told. But I’d like… Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Burge, Well if you’ve heard something else I’d like to hear it. Mr. Whitten, Yes, it’s very confusing. As you may recall, I voted no to that Hamer software, so I’ve really been trying to follow through with some of the stuff. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten, But, let’s get, can we, can I withdraw my motion, and we’ll do it one at a time. Mr. Poparad, Alright. We’ve got 152,000. All the motions are withdrawn. We have 152,000 to Cleminshaw for their trending and ratio. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations, the amount of $152,900 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mrs. Conover seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we have $5,000 to Contractual for Xsoft data. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations, the amount of $5,000 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any discussion? Mr. Burge, It ties into the other one. Mr. Poparad, Right. Mr. Burge, I would be voting no against it. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Call the roll, please. Motion incomplete on the following roll call vote:
Poparad-YesStevenson-Yes Mr. Whitten, You know, I’m going to vote no on this, just because I’m dying to hear the explanation. Motion incomplete on the following roll call vote:
Poparad-YesStevenson-Yes Mr. Kopp, Motion’s four to two. Mr. Whitten, Guess I don’t get to hear it. Mrs. Conover, I didn’t get to vote. Mr. Kopp, I’m sorry. Mr. Bucko, Who did we forget? Mr. Poparad, Karen. Mr. Kopp, Mrs. Conover. Mrs. Conover, No. Motion failed on the following tie vote:
Poparad-YesStevenson-Yes Mr. Kopp, Four to two. Mr. Poparad, Alright… Mr. Whitten, Now I would like to hear the explanation. Mrs. Conover, Yes. Mr. Poparad, No, no, I will take this discussion because I sat here… Mr. Burge, It’s three to three. Mr. Poparad, Now obviously, you know me and John are not exchanging Christmas cards, but the bottom line with Hamer is it was not going to be certified, probably next year by the State. It wasn’t going to happen. I mean I’m the one that, you know, I’m the one that picked the fight with him, and the bottom line is, the only one, did Xsoft get certified this week? Mrs. LaFever, I’m not aware of that. Mr. Poparad, They were supposed be this week. Close? Mr. Scott, They’re, I don’t know if they have. I don’t know if anybody’s been certified. Mr. Poparad, Well, according to Beth they’re close. According to the consultants, the only people that was going to have a remote chance of getting certified is this Xsoft. That’s it. His other, Tru Automation wasn’t going to make it. Hamer wasn’t going to make it. The bottom line is, a year from now we’d still be talking about software that was not certified by the State. Now, I am not saying the State does not share a whole bunch of this blame, but the bottom, because they haven’t even made up specs yet, but the bottom line is, it wasn’t going to be certified. That’s it. And since I’m the one that picked the fight, I’m the one that’s got to sit here, and eat the pile of, you know, whatever I got to eat. But it wasn’t going to be certified. Mr. Burge, Well you shouldn’t have to. Others sat before us, and absolutely guaranteed that everything would work fine. Mr. Poparad, Yeah. Mr. Whitten, Yes, but as I recall, as you recall, I voted no and said we shouldn’t do, we shouldn’t force this on the Assessor, because then it becomes, really, our move, and we made the wrong move. Mr. Poparad, Correct. Well I’m the one that led the charge, and I’ll sit here and take all the bullets. But even if we were right, and we forced him to use it, it still wouldn’t be certified by the State. Mr. Whitten, There you go. Mr. Poparad, It wasn’t going to be certified, period. And Tru Automation was in the same boat basically, because they’re from Texas, and this whole Indiana thing, both of them were pretty much behind the eight-ball. Mr. Whitten, And I think we were misled. But here’s the thing, Bob, or Mr. Chairman. I think I’d like to have… Mr. Poparad, Call me Bob. Mr. Whitten, Alright, Bob--what about Bob--I’d like to have the IT representative here at a meeting. I mean she told Jim one thing, and apparently others… Mr. Poparad, Well technically, I don’t think there was a technical issue or hardware issue. I think it was a State issue. Mr. Whitten, Yes, but she apparently indicated to Jim that it was a cooperation issue. Is that correct, Jim? Mr. Burge, It was the gist. Mr. Whitten, Yes, and I think we need… Mr. Burge, Not maybe the whole, but a good part of it. Mr. Whitten, I understand that you’re maybe, but I think we need to get some information. Mr. Burge, But, Bob, before we go any further, I guess a point of order on the vote, I think it was a three-three tie, therefore the measure would fail. Mr. Kopp, Yeah. Mr. Whitten, That’s right. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Alright, John. Mrs. LaFever, Can I respond to this? Mr. Scott, Okay, let, let. Mr. Poparad, Go ahead, John. Mr. Scott, Okay, at that particular meeting I think you were all here, including Mr. Carmichael, and at that meeting I said that I did not agree with you, and you said that you didn’t agree with me, and that’s fine, and that was the way it went. But you were all here, and at that meeting, I said, if and when it was ready to be used I would use it. So anybody telling you that I was opposed to it is totally wrong. I said I would use it, when it was ready to be used I would use it. It never came to be, it never was ready, and I didn’t do anything to try and stop it. I didn’t go to the meetings to be a hindrance, so. And I talked to Dan Whitten about it, who didn’t vote for it. I talked to Mrs. Stevenson about it. And I talked to, I think I talked to everybody about it. Mrs. Conover, I wasn’t here. Mr. Scott, The thing about it is, I didn’t say I would not use it. No, I didn’t talk to you because you were not one of the people that voted. But Beth Henkel was the one that investigated the whole thing and everything, and it was her recommendation, not mine. Not mine, not my recommendation. I was hoping it would work, so we could get going with the thing; 11 months of sitting around waiting for this thing to happen, and when we asked them to come in and do a demonstration of, could they convert our stuff, they refused to do it. And it, I could say, yes, I’m wrong. I could have been wrong about Tru Automation, we don’t know. That one was never put into play so we don’t know. Xsoft has been put into play, and they do work. They’re working in other counties right now. Whether they can make that jump from Hamer to this, Xsoft says they can do it. They know they can do it, and they know that they can do it for 20, I mean for the $5,000, not the 26-5. Mrs. Conover, Is the Xsoft creator, did he not belong to Plexis or break off from Plexis? Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Scott, He was Plexis, but he was not the money part of Plexis. He was the originator of it. Mr. Whitten, Can I ask a question? Mr. Scott, He had, he held a license. Mr. Whitten, Now, if I may. There were different elements of the Hamer software. One was for the assessing; one was for the treasurer and auditor. Are they working? I mean is Hamer up and running for the treasurer’s office and the auditor’s office? It’s a complete… Mr. Scott, No. Mr. Murphy, No, they’re waiting until the end of this tax season waiting… Mr. Poparad, They’re waiting for the tax bills. Mr. Murphy, To install, and get up and running, and have Hamer print the reconciling one. Mr. Poparad, They didn’t want to do it in between the provisionals. Mr. Whitten, I just was curious. Mr. Scott, I hope they work. I hope for the County’s sake… Mr. Burge, So it will be still functioning for those other offices. Mr. Scott, It works. Mr. Burge, Why is it, it can work for two but not the third? Mr. Scott, Because the assessor’s side is… Mr. Poparad, According to Beth... Mr. Scott, About ten times more complicated than the other side. Mr. Poparad, And really you should. Hang on, John. According to Beth, and maybe you should have a conversation with her, most of this stems back from the certification by the State, of getting certified by the State. That’s where a lot of this stems from. It just, and a lot of it was Hamer, they had, they have never assessed in Indiana. Maybe I’m the one that was naïve, but it wasn’t going to work. Mr. Burge, But we had a whole litany of people telling us that, in fact, that it would. Mr. Poparad, I agree. Mr. Burge, And ultimately it’s the Porter County taxpayer that… Mr. Poparad, When we… Mr. Burge, Takes the slam because of… Mr. Poparad, Well lost 40… Mr. Burge, That information, and the deficiencies of county government. Mr. Poparad, We lost $42,000. That’s what we spent on Hamer. Mrs. Conover, So by approving these tonight, we’re not going to lose some more money. Correct? They’re in the process of being approved for this year, where the others may or may not get approved for next year. Mr. Scott, And this is coming out of my fund that it should have come out of originally instead of the cagit money. Mr. Poparad, Okay, so the $5,000 died. So we have $14,000 to Contractual for the website. Mr. Scott, Yes. Mr. Whitten, What happens if we don’t approve these tonight? What happens, we’re delayed more? Mr. Scott, It, that’s the original setup on it. I think what is it. Mrs. LaFever, Can I tell you what the $5,000 is for, Bob. The contract that you just voted down. Mr. Poparad, Yes, go ahead. Mrs. LaFever, That was recommendation from Beth Henkel, that was her contract with Brian Booker to help us do our roll to the auditor’s office, and now you just voted it down, and you want us to roll to get the values to Jim. And without Brian Booker’s help, it cannot be done. You voted it down tonight. Mr. Whitten, Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion to reconsider the $5,000. Mr. Whitten moved to reconsider the $5,000 request for additional appropriations to 3950 Contractual Services. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, This is on the $5,000 to Contractual for Xsoft data. Call the roll, please. Mr. Burge, So this just to get what work you’ve already done, done, regardless of the rest of the software issue. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mrs. LaFever, Thank you. Mr. Poparad, We have 14,000 to Contractual for the website. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Assessor Reassessment 08.09, the amount of $14,000 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mrs. Stevenson seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Poparad, We have $148,500 to Data Processing Equipment, which is half of the Xsoft software. Mr. Whitten, I’m going to make a motion, because I want some more discussion. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Assessor Reassessment 08.09, the amount of $148,500 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion and a second. Which counties are using it now, Madison County? Mr. Scott, No, they don’t, they’re not up and running either. We checked with them. Mr. Poparad, Which one? Marion? One of them were using it, I thought. Mr. Scott, What’s that? Mr. Poparad, Which county is using Xsoft? Mrs. LaFever, I think it’s Grant, Bob. Mr. Poparad, Which County? Mr. Bucko, Isn’t it Marion? Mrs. LaFever, I have it in the office, I think it’s Grant. Mr. Poparad, Grant. I knew one of the counties down south was using it. Mrs. LaFever, Two or three, yes, but I think it’s Grant. Fulton might be too. Mr. Poparad, Okay, any discussion? Mr. Whitten, So I guess my question then is, we took a chance with Hamer, I voted no, and we lost. Now is this chance? We’re not taking a chance here, are we? Mr. Scott, No. Mrs. LaFever, I don’t think so. Mr. Whitten, We apparently aren’t in the business of being lucky with our chance taking. Mr. Bucko, It was the same way at the last meeting that I was in, we talked about what they had to offer. Beth Henkel had done the investigation on that, and Beth Henkel, our consultant, found out that, you know, that they are in fact able to do it. The Plexis individual, and all of our, what do you want to call it, marrying the two different databases and all this stuff, and is able to happen, and I don’t think it’s a loss either, so. I mean I’m going to support it because… Mr. Scott, I says I wouldn’t put my name to it but I didn’t believe it would work. We went down there several times, we’ve talked with these gentlemen. We’ve seen their work before, we’re working with his work right now. So that, the only thing that we could have continued to work with, his stuff right now, if Manatron would have had the license to upgrade it, but they didn’t have it, and he split off and went with another company, and now he’s Xsoft. Mr. Poparad, Like Xbox 360, that’s what I keep… Mrs. Conover, Yeah. Alright, we’re not, I mean I don’t want to be sitting here seven months from now, and hear, well we wasted $148,000 because of blah, blah, blah, blah. Mr. Scott, No, you won’t. You won’t, I’ll guarantee you. Mrs. LaFever, It’s working already in other counties, Karen. It’s proven itself already. Mr. Burge, How many? How many other counties? Mrs. LaFever, I’m not for sure, Jim. Okay? And I know it’s working in one or two right now. Mr. Burge, Okay. So, of the 92… Mrs. LaFever, It will work. Mr. Burge, There’s one or two. Mr. Bucko, Yes. Mrs. LaFever, Yes, Manatron’s got most of… Mr. Bucko, But it’s the only one… Mrs. LaFever, The state. Manatron’s got most of the state, and they’re not even near being certified. Mrs. Conover, So if we approve this, then you have the tools to get your work done so we’re not 85th on the list, possibly next year. Mrs. LaFever, We’ve got our, he gave us our training manuals yesterday, and we’re training August 11th, the whole week. We’re ready to go, and we’ll, if we get approved by the State, we will go live August the 18th with Xsoft. Mrs. Conover seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any more discussion? Call the roll, please. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Bucko-YesBurge-No Mr. Poparad, We have 26,500 to Contractual Services for Crowe to work with Xsoft and Hamer in the auditor and treasurer’s office. Mr. Bucko moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Assessor Reassessment 08.09, the amount of $26,500 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mr. Scott, And that’s the one I spoke on before. Mr. Poparad, Yep. Mrs. Conover, Might not need it. Mr. Poparad, Might not use it. Mrs. Conover, Okay. Mr. Scott, Okay, so that there’s a clear understanding that I didn’t ask for this particular money. They asked for it, and we had a long meeting, and Bob, you were at that, and I told them at that time, the 5,000 is adequate to do it. They shouldn’t need anymore. Mrs. Conover, Okay. Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mr. Burge, Now this will cover the Hamer that’s already been used in the auditor and in the treasurer’s? Mr. Poparad, Right, they’re trying to get, just put them all together if he needs it. Call the roll, please. Motion incomplete on the following roll call vote:
Burge-YesConover-Yes Mr. Poparad, Okay, we have $25,000 for support for Xsoft. Mr. Kopp, Mr. Bucko didn’t. Mr. Poparad, Oh, I’m sorry. Mr. Bucko, I’m sorry, yes. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Burge-YesConover-Yes Mr. Whitten, He’s still thinking; thinking about what color that shirt is. I’m sorry, Mike. Mr. Bucko, No, you’re not, no you’re not. Mr. Poparad, $25,000 for Contractual for the remaining support for Xsoft for the rest of this year. Mrs. Conover moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Assessor Reassessment 08.09, the amount of $25,000 to 3950 Contractual Services. Mrs. Stevenson seconded. Mr. Poparad, Any discussion? Call the roll, please. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Conover-YesPoparad-Yes Mr. Poparad, Thank you. Mrs. LaFever, Thank you. Mr. Scott, Thank you.
HEALTH CRI GRANT 319 Mr. Poparad, Health CRI Grant 319, we have a transfer of $1,020 from Contractual to 2220 Uniforms & Clothing. You get different colored vests or what; does it say something like Health Department or what. Keith Letta, It’s FBI, ATF, whatever. Mr. Poparad, FBI, alright, I’m looking for a motion on this. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Health CRI Grant 319, the amount of $1,020 from 3950 Contractual Services to 2220 Uniforms & Clothing. Mrs. Conover seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote.
Mr. Poparad, Alright, now we have an additional for $15,000 to Contractual Services, 1,800 to Uniforms & Clothing, for preparedness activities, planning, training, supplies, equipment and related expenses. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Health Bioterrorism 238, the amounts of, $15,000 to 3950 Contractual Services and $1,800 to 2220 Uniforms & Clothing. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, We’ve got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mrs. Conover, Just… Mr. Poparad, It’s grant money. Mrs. Conover, Just to add that I saw your department’s presence at the county fair, and that’s really neat. If there’s government entity that needs to be at the county fair, it’s the Health Department. Mr. Letta, We did that a number of years ago. Mrs. Conover, Yes, I remember. Mr. Letta, Then things got a little tight, so we didn’t do it for a while, but we started this year. Mrs. Conover, All the visitors that you get, and to know what services are available. I just think it’s great. Mr. Letta, That’s the idea. Mr. Burge, Anything we can do to prepare for disasters, we need to enhance. I still think we’re still woefully inadequate in this county for handling large casualties, but most estimates that I’ve seen, if anything more than 100 casualties at a time, we’re not prepared on any level, let alone, biohazards. It’s just something we need to take a serious look at as a county. Mr. Hollenbeck, Karen, the food inspectors were… Mr. Poparad, Hey, hey, nothing from you yet. Mrs. Conover, Really? Doing their job. Mr. Poparad, Alright, anybody else, except the attorney. Call the roll, please. At this time, many of the Councilmembers were chuckling. Motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
LEPC 18 Mr. Poparad, LEPC, we have a transfer of 5,000 from Hourly to Other Supplies; 5,000 from Training to Other Supplies; 5,000 from Travel to Other Supplies; 3,000 from Data to Other Supplies; 4,000 from Office Equipment to Supplies, to buy… Mr. Whitten, I don’t think he’s reading that right; for self-contained breathing apparatus.
Mr. Poparad, You buying scuba gear? Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by LEPC 18, the amounts of, 5,000 from 1120 Hourly to 2250 Other Supplies, $5,000 from 3130 Training & Education to 2250 Other Supplies, $5,000 from 3210 Travel to 2250 Other Supplies, $3,000 from 4510 Data Processing Equipment to 2250 Other Supplies and $4,000 from 4410 Office Equipment over $100 to 2250 Other Supplies. Mrs. Conover seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Thank you, Russell. Mr. Shirley, Thank you.
PARKS 01.85 Mr. Poparad, Parks, we have a $1,500 transfer from Gas, Lube and Fuel, to Buildings & Structures; 1,000 from Disposal to Other Supplies. We are buying something, new maintenance building, etc, etc. I need a motion on the transfer. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Parks 01.85, the amounts of, $1,500 from 2110 Gas, Fuel & Lube to 3620 Buildings & Structures and $1,000 from 3920 Disposal to 2250 Other Supplies. Mr. Burge seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote.
PARKS OPERATING 127 Mr. Poparad, Parks Operating, we have $1,500 to Advertising; 1,470 to Event. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Parks Operating 127, the amounts of $1,500 to 3340 Advertising and $1,470 to 3980 Event Expenses. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Ed Melendez, Thank you.
AUDITOR 01.02 Mr. Poparad, Auditor, 26,800 to Maintenance Agreements, this is for the updates on Hamer, and $30,000; we do these together or one at a time? Mrs. Conover, Together. Mr. Poparad, Do them together; 30,000 for interest on the TAW’s. Mrs. Conover moved to grant the request for additional appropriations submitted by Auditor 01.02, the amounts of, $26,800 to 3610 Maintenance Agreements and $30,000 to TAW Interest. Mr. Bucko seconded. Mr. Poparad, Discussion? Mr. Whitten, With Hamer again, huh. Mrs. Stevenson, Can I ask… Mr. Poparad, Uh, she is here. Mrs. Stevenson, I guess I have a question about the interest, because I had Jan look back and at some point, were we always paying interest on the TAW’s? Mr. Poparad, Well they don’t loan money for free. Mr. Bucko, They won’t loan us… Mr. Kopp, We pay it, whatever we pay them off. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Whitten, Unless Poparad’s lending the money. Mrs. Conover, Are you. Mr. Poparad, No. Mrs. Conover, Are you in a position to do so. Mr. Poparad, What, lend them money or what. No. Mr. Kopp, If he is, we can all get in line. In the past, the Auditor has always come to you for the interest, when we go to pay them off, we didn’t get them in place in time to pay them off the last time, so I had four days, roughly at $420 a day. I have a million out now, when we do an advance next week, I want to pay the million back, and then we’ll be able to go in and out, but I need the funds to be able to pay interest when we go in and out. Mrs. Stevenson, Okay. Mr. Kopp, This might take us through the end of the year, it depends. Mr. Poparad, Any questions? The left side of the table okay? Mr. Whitten, Yes, we’re perfect over here. Mr. Poparad, You think. Call the roll, please. Motion carried on the following roll call vote:
Whitten-NoBucko-Yes
TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT 241 Mr. Poparad, Okay, the Sheriff needs a transfer of $16 from Overtime to PERF. Mr. Kopp, Wait a minute, I’ve got a couple other things. Mr. Poparad, Well we’re not there yet. Mr. Kopp, Okay. Mr. Poparad, Let’s get done with this. Mr. Whitten, $16, that’s an outrage. Mr. Bucko, Who does he think he is. Mr. Whitten, Yeah. Mr. Poparad, Close the building down. Mr. Bucko, We should just pass the hat. Mr. Poparad, I need a motion on the transfer. Mr. Whitten moved to grant the request for transfer of funds submitted by Traffic Enforcement 241, the amount of $16.10 from 1130 Overtime to 1230 PERF. Mrs. Conover seconded, motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
INTER-FUND BORROWING SALES DISCLOSURE FUND DISCUSSION Mr. Poparad, Okay, Jim. Mr. Bucko, We should have denied it. Mr. Kopp, Okay. As you’ll recall, last month we put 150,000 into 217 of CEDIT money from the Commissioners. I have $70,868 left in there. That will not cover the next payroll for the Sheriff. I have two payrolls I have to get through. I understand there’s going to be a meeting in a couple of weeks, but nobody here seemed to know about it, so I don’t know what the status of that meeting is. Mr. Whitten, Which meeting, Jim? Mr. Kopp, On what we’re going to do about 217. Mr. Whitten, Well I had one meeting with the Sheriff. I think he was going to try to get with you, Jim, and have a second meeting. Mr. Burge, Nobody’s contacted me yet. Ms. Noll, It’s on your email today. Mr. Burge, Oh, it is. Mr. Kopp, I need an authorization to pay payroll, basically, and drive this account in the red. Mr. Whitten, Well I mean, and if I may. I had a meeting with him, and I asked him to meet with Jim, and they said they would try to get in contact with you, Jim. So I apologize it wasn’t sooner, because this meeting was like two weeks ago, a week and a half ago. And 217 is in some real trouble, and I’ve asked for a couple of things from them. I’ve asked for numbers to show me what it has cost losing the prisoners. I’ve asked for numbers on what it would cost to open the last bay. I’ve asked for all kinds of things from them, a whole laundry for this board so we can make some real educated, well-thought plans on where that jail ought to be going. So, I think, Jim, they were going to get some thoughts for you so maybe that will be the next phase of it. But they told me they wouldn’t make it until the end of the month. Mr. Kopp, That’s right. There’s different numbers going around from what they can get for federal prisoners, to whatever cost to open it. We might be able to make a million, or a million and a half. Mr. Poparad, Well, I don’t want to take the discussion down that road, because, first of all, we don’t know if we’re going to get an increase. I’m just wondering, how far can you go? Mr. Kopp, I can’t make the next payroll. I’ll be close, but I can’t make to the end of the month. Mr. Whitten, I think we need to get them through one more month, and I think we need to mandate that the Sheriff meets with Councilman Burge. I mean that was the idea, wasn’t it? So we can come back and advise this body on what’s going on. Mr. Poparad, What are they spending that on, besides salaries? Mr. Kopp, Medical, food, there’s five or six of them. Mr. Poparad, Should we stop, should we request the Auditor to tell him not to spend anymore other than salaries to keep this thing going on a little longer. Mr. Whitten, Can we do that? Mr. Kopp, Yes, we could probably get by for another payroll if I just limit it to salaries. Mr. Whitten, I mean, don’t get me wrong. When I met with the Sheriff it wasn’t an acrimonious meeting, he was like saying, whatever thoughts, ideas we can throw out there. I mean they’re open to just about anything, except for the 12-hour shifts, so. Mrs. Conover, Well he doesn’t want to talk about 12-hour shifts; he doesn’t want to talk about opening the third pod with indirect supervision, so what do we want to talk about? Mr. Whitten, Well, no, you’re right, but I mean the fact of the matter is, I did ask him to get all those numbers together. You know, and the idea here is, maybe we at some point want to, and I don’t even know who this person would be or this entity would be, but somebody to come in and give us an analysis on all this stuff. I mean instead of having the Sheriff come here, you know, we went through it with the last sheriff and this sheriff. Not that their numbers aren’t correct, but maybe we want a different kind of perspective, I don’t know. Mr. Burge, So you’re suggesting an independent audit type of situation? Mr. Whitten, Sure. Mr. Burge, I think that would be a marvelous idea. Mr. Whitten, Not that, you know, it’s not that I don’t trust him, but I mean, because I do trust him, but I think maybe having a third party look at it and say, hey, maybe there’s some different ideas, and this is what you really can do, this, that and the other. Mrs. Stevenson, But if he’s not in agreement to do anything, then we’re right back where we started from. Mr. Whitten, Well, at least we would have an independent audit. Mrs. Stevenson, Hahahahahaha. Mrs. Conover, Maybe to back up some of what we might suggest. Mr. Bucko, Well, that could very well be. Yes, you’re absolutely right. Mr. Whitten, And I think he’d be open to that. I don’t think that he was even, because I threw that out at him, and he was like, sure, we’re an open book. I mean maybe there’s different ideas. Mr. Kopp, Their projection was that they need 850,000 to get through the year, and they… Mr. Poparad, That’s assuming… Mr. Kopp, Will generate 150. Mr. Poparad, Correct, but that’s assuming they continue spending as they had in the past. Mr. Kopp, Right. Mr. Poparad, I’m just throwing out for discussion, they sort of stop spending out of it. A novel idea, I know, heaven forbid. They just, you know, stretch it out as far as they can go. Actually, when I met with the Sheriff a month ago, two months ago, something like that, he had $600,000 in cash down there between all the funds. Mr. Whitten, Well, how much, if we just pay the salaries, how far can you go? Mr. Kopp, I can get through the next payroll, plus a little bit, if I just pay salaries. Mr. Whitten, So that won’t get us to the next meeting though. Mr. Poparad, He’s looking for permission to go in the red on the salaries, until we figure what we’re going to do. That’s the bottom line. Mr. Whitten, Can I get an illegal opinion on that. Mr. Poparad, Illegal opinion. Mr. Whitten, Uh, yeah. Can we do that? Mr. Poparad, Can we ask him to go in the red until we figure out something. Mrs. Conover, On that fund. Mr. Hollenbeck, The answer is, you’ll have an audit finding, the State Board of Accounts will find… Mr. Poparad, Yeah, but he’s going to prison by the time his term is done, so what the heck. At this time, the Councilmembers burst out in laughter. Mr. Whitten, You’re being taped. Exhibit 1 in federal court. Mr. Bucko, I don’t think it’s right, allowing somebody to spend in the red isn’t… Mr. Poparad, I know, well, okay then. Either that or we, the only money we have in our control right now at this moment is casino money, and we transfer $100,000. That’s the choice. So whatever we want to do. Mr. Hollenbeck, Yes, the transfers do not require advertisement. Mr. Poparad, I mean that’s the choices we have. Mr. Whitten, Okay, well I mean it just seems… Mr. Bucko, It will give us the, that, that, yes, I understand that. I understand. Mr. Kopp, If you transferred 50, that would probably get us… Mr. Bucko, What I’d say, does it makes sense, is there a possibility that we can take that as a loan out of there? Mr. Hollenbeck, Yes, I was going to say, I think the proper mechanism under the statute would be an inter-fund transfer of whatever you want to transfer out of the casino money. Mr. Bucko, That guarantees it coming back to that. Mr. Poparad, Yep, I agree. Mrs. Stevenson, Yes. Mr. Whitten, How much is in there? Mr. Poparad, That’s the employees’ longevity in the fall, so. Mr. Whitten, We’ve got to get it back, I mean… Mr. Poparad, I agree. But I guess we need, and I think, and I love this comment from the left side about an audit, independent set of eyes, whatever. I’ll pay for the damn thing myself, and see what’s going on down there. Mr. Burge, I think it would be a huge benefit to the sheriff’s department to have, a professional set of eyes that does nothing but work with figures all the time to give them insights to look for other ways, maybe they can be more effective, more efficient, so they can make their dollars stretch further. Mr. Whitten, And I think quite honestly, I think they are frustrated too. I mean I think they realize 217 is in some real trouble, and they want some, they want some, you know, guidance from us. I think that falls right in line with it. Mr. Burge, Could Mr. Bennett be of assistance with that, as he’s been… Mrs. Conover, Probably. Mr. Burge, With some of the cities. Mrs. Conover, Probably. He’s reasonable. Mr. Poparad, How much does Mr. Bennett cost? Mr. Whitten, It doesn’t matter, you already agreed to pay for it. Mr. Poparad, I don’t care. At this time, many of the Councilmembers burst out in laughter. Mr. Poparad, Seriously, I mean… Mr. Burge, You’ve got a good point. Unable to transcribe, due to the numerous remarks being made by the Councilmembers. Mr. Poparad, I mean it can’t cost that much. Mr. Bucko, A hundred bucks an hour. Mr. Poparad, How much? Mr. Bucko, Probably 100 an hour. Mrs. Conover, And also… Mr. Burge, I think it’s money well-spent given the volume of millions of dollars going through that department. Mrs. Conover, Uh huh. And is it in the realm of possibility that we renegotiate this contract with the feds? Mr. Poparad, She’s… Mrs. Conover, Can’t that be raised too. Mr. Poparad, I heard that’s being worked on. Mrs. Conover, Okay. Mr. Poparad, Yes, when we found out that Vegas was paying, or getting $72 a day. Mrs. Conover, Right, yes, we’re getting like the least amount of dollars we can get. Mr. Poparad, Actually, there’s other counties, what did you tell me tonight? Mr. Kopp, $65 an hour, other counties are getting. Mr. Poparad, A day. Mr. Kopp, A day. Mrs. Conover, A day. Mr. Poparad, In this state, not Vegas. Mr. Whitten, Yes, and that was one of the things he was going to get for us, you know. Mr. Poparad, Well, I think Gwenn was working on that, starting to process it. Mrs. Conover, Okay, great. Mr. Poparad, It probably is not going to be 20 minutes, but. Mr. Whitten, Right. Mr. Burge, So it will be in action. Is somebody contacting Mr. Bennett to see if he could give us a quote? Mr. Poparad, Raise your hand. Mr. Whitten, Jim, do you want to… Mr. Poparad, No, no, wait, wait a minute. Are we going to do this? Because if we are going to do it, let’s do it. Like get a hold… Mrs. Conover, Let’s do it. Mr. Poparad, Of him. You, can we do this, just do it and be done, because we… Mr. Whitten, Well I guess I’d like to, yes, I think we should do it, but I’d like to hear from Mr. Bennett, if that’s who we decide to go with. Mr. Poparad, No, we just tell him we have a cap, his cap. Mr. Whitten, You know, how much it’s going to cost; can he do it; is it something that, what kind of, what can he provide; what kind of service. I mean we’ve got some… Mr. Bucko, I think, yes. I agree with him. I think we have to have an idea of what we think we’re looking for. Mr. Whitten, Right. Mr. Bucko, Maybe what his expertise might be, what to look for in relationship to the sheriff’s department. Mr. Whitten, Well I think the bigger picture, and the longer picture, and we talked about this for a while, this all falls into the short-term and the long-term going plan. Where do we want that jail; do we want the third pod to be, you know, indirect supervision? Mrs. Conover, Yes. Mr. Whitten, Is that where we are headed, I mean, and that might very well be where we are headed, so. Mrs. Conover, The trusted of the trusted, as far as the inmates go. Mr. Whitten, Some, I mean these ideas I think all falls into what we want to do. Alright, that’s all I have to say. Mr. Poparad, Alright, first of all, let’s back up. We’ve got, are we going to take 50,000 of the casino money and transfer it to 217 so he can make payroll. Mr. Whitten, 50,000. Mr. Poparad, Is that, are we going to do that? We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do. Mr. Whitten, We’ve got to make payroll. Mrs. Stevenson, Is it going to be as a loan? Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mrs. Stevenson, To make sure we get it back. Mr. Bucko, As an inter-fund. Mrs. Conover, Get it back from where? Mr. Bucko, Yes, I would agree with that. Mr. Poparad, From 217. Mrs. Conover, 217, the one that doesn’t have any money. Mr. Poparad, And they stop spending out of it, and you can call them tomorrow and say, you’re done, no more, no more widgets or whatever they are buying out of it, bullets, bedding. Mr. Kopp, I’d like to be involved with, like when Jim meets with them, so that I know where we are going too. Mr. Poparad, We don’t know where we’re going. Mr. Kopp, I understand that, but I’ve had some meetings with them, and I think… Mr. Whitten, By the way, I’m willing to meet with them again, Jim, and I would’ve been happy to meet too. Mr. Kopp, That I would, we need to be all on the same page with them. Mr. Poparad, Why don’t we, what’s wrong with the evening. Would that work better for both of you guys? Mr. Whitten, I mean, Jim, I’ll work around your schedule, and Jim--me and the two Jims. Mrs. Conover, Jim, Jim and… Mr. Poparad, Okay, we need a motion to transfer $50,000 from our casino money/longevity to 217. Mr. Whitten moved approve the inter-fund borrowing of $50,000 from the Council Casino 234 Fund to the Jail 217 Fund. Mr. Bucko seconded, motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, that stops you bleeding. Mr. Kopp, Okay… Mr. Poparad, You’ll talk to him about no more spending. You know, I mean, that’s it, they don’t incur anymore expenses, and we’ll see where that goes. You will get with Mr. Bennett; maybe email us a proposal or something. We can’t take any action without another meeting, can we? So now it’s going to be a whole… Mr. Bucko, If it’s not, ask him if he’s got anywhere special he can’t get it. Mr. Poparad, A whole another month. Mr. Whitten, We could have a special meeting in there. Mr. Poparad, Yes, we could call a special meeting. Mr. Burge, Could we do it during one of the budget hearings? Mr. Poparad, Well that’s two months away almost. Mr. Whitten, Well, it’s August 12th. Mr. Poparad, Yes, we could do it during budgets, absolutely. I think we ought to do something. Mr. Bucko, First reading. Mr. Burge, First reading do it. Mr. Hollenbeck, August 11th is your public hearing. Mr. Poparad, We can do something. I think we need to move in that direction to get a handle on all their sources of income, expenses, etc, etc. Okay? Mr. Whitten, Okay. Mrs. Conover, Okay. Mr. Poparad, Are you done, Jim? Mr. Kopp, No I have one more thing. Mr. Poparad, More? Mr. Kopp, The sales disclosure fund with the State, which we’ve been going back and forth with. The settlement is $80,489. We got it this afternoon. That will come out of the sales disclosure fund that the assessors use, so we’ll be taking 80,000 out of that fund. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Kopp, And we’ll do that tomorrow to make the State happy, so that’s one of the problems that are gone. Mr. Poparad, Now, referencing that, Jim, on your timeline, and I sat through this all year with why we are behind. You realize, some of these issues are five years old. Mr. Burge, On? On which? Mr. Poparad, Like this, 80… Mr. Kopp, This goes back to… Mr. Poparad, No, no. Mr. Burge, Oh, I understand, I mean there’s… Mr. Poparad, But this is how the State, that is why they are holding stuff against us from 2002 pay ’03, data, like the sales disclosure form, from five years ago, that’s sort of the stuff why we appear how we appear. Actually, we are getting on track, and I don’t want to say this publicly, we might be on track by the end of this year. I mean actually back where we should be. I don’t want to say that publicly. Mr. Burge, And I hope so, it’s just that one… Mr. Poparad, Yes, this is… Mr. Burge, It says we’re one year behind. Mr. Poparad, Right, the document is misleading, because the, if the sales disclosure from ’03 is not done, they still say we’re non-compliant. That’s what I’m saying, they still say, you know, there’s all these, there’s a whole laundry list, and the other problem is, and all our esteemed legislators are invited Friday to our tax meeting, because they keep changing the list almost daily of what needs to be done. Mr. Burge, I understand there’s a lot of challenges, it’s just that we are 87th out of 92. Mr. Poparad, Well yes, I agree, and some of these problems are eight year’s old, actually. Now we found some stuff from 2000, but we don’t want to talk about that. Okay, are you done, Jim? Mr. Kopp, Yes. Mr. Poparad, Alright, Attorney’s Report.
ATTORNEY REPORT
Mr. Hollenbeck, I’m passing down, if Dan would take one, and pass it down to you. We spent a significant amount of time this evening talking about how the spend the interest and earnings from the hospital sale proceeds account. Councilperson Bucko and I have had discussions concerning the investment side of the equation, and the need to focus some expertise on that process to assure that we are, in fact, maximizing the taxpayers’ return on the money. Mr. Whitten, I’d like to be on that group if we do it. Mr. Bucko, Me too, I would be happy to serve. Mr. Whitten, I guess my question, and I want to make sure I didn’t miss it, but, the idea of this isn’t to advise us on how to spend things, like… Mr. Hollenbeck, It has nothing to do with spending. Mr. Whitten, Nothing with expenditures at all. Mr. Hollenbeck, Right. Mr. Whitten, It’s only the investment side. Mr. Hollenbeck, But the only thing is, this person will have to have some idea of our intentions to know how liquid things have to be. I mean, if all the money was taken and put in two-year CD’s, and I’m making this up, that would obviously prevent you from spending any of it for two years. So there’s going to have to be a correlation, but no, this person does nothing--a big thing--but this person advises us on how best to maximize the return on our investments. Mr. Bucko, That’s correct. Mr. Poparad, Okay, is that all you had? Mr. Hollenbeck, That’s what I have. I guess I’m looking for a consensus that this is something you want to do, and I need… Mr. Poparad, I need a motion. Mr. Hollenbeck, Two people from the County Council to serve. Mr. Bucko, I would, let me just say one thing that I like, that I really like about this direction is, is because most of all of the financial investment institutions, in fact, all of them do have departments that provide this type of service, and it also us to consider, independent financial consultants for this, and in doing that in this way, it kind of offers us a cafeteria type of selection on the style of investment opportunities that we want to compare and consider. I think that’s the best way we can maximize a lot of our investment opportunities, so you know, I move. Mr. Bucko moved to accept Attorney Hollenbeck’s recommendation authorizing the issuance of request for qualifications, with a committee comprised of two County Councilmembers, one Commissioner, and the County Treasurer to evaluate the proposals. Mr. Whitten seconded. Mr. Poparad, Okay, you both are on the committee. Mr. Bucko, Please. Mr. Whitten, Well, unless I mean does somebody else want to be. Mr. Burge, I have time constraints, so I wouldn’t be able to. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Mr. Whitten, Karen, do you want to be? Mrs. Conover, I just would like to be kept informed. I don’t know when… Mr. Poparad, Well you can email. Mr. Bucko, We all have emails. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mrs. Conover, I don’t have a lot, you know, time in the day, and I’m imagining you guys are going to be getting together during the day. Mr. Poparad, Okay, Dan and Mike, all in favor of the motion to have Mr. Hollenbeck and that little committee formed, say aye. Motion carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Poparad, Okay, at least we’ve done something. Mr. Hollenbeck, I will function accordingly. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we’re not done. Go ahead, Jim. Mr. Burge, Just one thing to add to that in thought. Bob, you and I had this discussion probably a year ago, that when it gets down to the final, determining what interest rates, that sort of thing that are going to be given to us, I’d like to see them done in the form of a sealed bid process with a public opening. They’re, to try to get those institutions to put their very best foot forward when they don’t know what, obviously, their competitors are doing. I think we’d get our best bang for the buck in that regard. We do that for equipment all the time, we should probably do bids for this for the financial institutions as well. Mrs. Conover, Probably a good idea. Mr. Bucko, That makes sense. Mr. Hollenbeck, We’ll consider that, and figure out how we can do that. Mr. Burge, Yes, there’s some logistics to work out there, obviously. BUDGET SCHEDULE Mr. Poparad, Okay, the budget schedule, everybody look at it. We’ve already made a couple of changes if you want to grab that, because based on conversations with Jan, we’re going to take the 25th, everybody on the 25th for Second Reading, August 25th, and do that August 21st, because it appears this whole township assessors turning in budgets is like, what is that about, Dave? It’s like they were told by the State to turn them in. Mr. Hollenbeck, They’ve been told by the State… Mr. Poparad, But half of them have it, so we’re, August 21st and 25th, all them groups, them budgets are going to be done on the 25th. Mr. Bucko, Everything there is on the 21st? Mr. Poparad, Yes, we’ll do that on the 21st, and then we will move final adoption up to the 25th, that way we’re done by September and it gives us a break before we start our municipal review of everybody on September 18th. Mrs. Conover, Jan, will you send us those corrections? Ms. Noll, Sure. Mrs. Conover, Thank you. Mr. Bucko, Final adoption becomes 25? Mrs. Conover, August 25th? Mr. Poparad, Yes, go ahead, Jim. Mr. Burge, On this second reading for, scheduled for Thursday, August 14th. Mr. Poparad, Uh huh. Mr. Burge, Are you locked into that or is there anyway we might be able to do it the day before? Mr. Poparad, It’s a room thing. What’s the room look like? Ms. Noll, That’s the Planning Commission in here on Wednesday night. Mr. Burge, Do you think they would be willing to flip-flop? Ms. Noll, Uh… Mr. Burge, If… Ms. Noll, Highly unlikely. Mr. Poparad, I would be willing. I think that’s fine. That’s a good idea. Ms. Noll, I can ask. Mr. Poparad, No, no, we don’t ask. This time they have to accommodate us for the budgets, and if Mr. Thompson says anything he can call me. Ms. Noll, They have… Mr. Poparad, So you want to do the 13th. Would that help you? Mr. Burge, That would help me, otherwise I’m fine with… Mr. Poparad, Okay, what about you guys? Mr. Bucko, It would help me also, quite honestly… Mrs. Conover, That’s fine. Mr. Bucko, Because I’ve got an engagement on the 14th also. Mr. Poparad, Okay, we’ve got two that want to go the 13th. I think the Plan Commission can move to the 14th, and we do the 13th. Mrs. Conover, I’d like to see all council people accommodated for this process. Mr. Poparad, Absolutely, yes. Mr. Hollenbeck, The Plan Commission does have some legal notice requirements. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, well. Mrs. Conover, They’ve got plenty of time. Mr. Burge, That would be great if you could do that. Thanks. Mr. Poparad, Jan, you’ll fix that in the morning? Ms. Noll, Pardon me? Mr. Poparad, You’ll fix that in the morning. Ms. Noll, Uhm, I will… Mr. Poparad, No, no, you’ll fix it, thank you. Anybody else got any, will the days all work? Other than that, are we on the same page? Everybody? Mr. Hollenbeck, I’ll be here. Mr. Bucko, Yes.
Mr. Poparad, Okay, that’s going to be the schedule. Second reading, please.
ANY OTHER MATTER Mr. Poparad, Okay, I have one issue. We threw out this whole settlement, hey. Mr. Whitten, You have lots of issues. Mr. Poparad, Yeah, I know, I’m getting help for it. Is that tape still on? Alright, we talked about the settlement clerk/budget director, are we going to move forward with that? Are we going to advertise? Are we not going to do anything? What’s the consensus here? I personally would like to move forward with that as soon as possible. Hopefully, whoever we hire is in place by the budgets, which probably won’t work, but this is my feelings. Mrs. Conover, Budgets in two weeks? Mr. Poparad, Yep. Mrs. Conover, I think we should follow our own rules and appropriate and approve the person in our budget. Mr. Poparad, Okay. Well, so then the guy we hired last week or last month for Juvenile Detention we’ll fire him then? Because we hired somebody in the middle of the year, that’s all I’m saying. What’s everyone want to do here? Mrs. Stevenson, I think we should wait until budgets. Mr. Poparad, Okay, that’s two. Mr. Bucko, I don’t know. In talking to the auditor’s office, the consensus, and even the conversation I had with Beth Henkel, it seems as much as that person can absorb in the amount of time they have to absorb it, the better off we may find ourselves starting next year with. Mr. Poparad, Okay, that’s three for next year. Mr. Bucko, I say, the better off we would be in starting next year, so the sooner the better. Mr. Poparad, Oh, you want to hire right now. Mr. Bucko, I would say the sooner the better. Mr. Poparad, Okay, Jim. Mr. Burge, I’m torn. I mean the business person in me says, you know, get the person in place as quickly as you can and let’s start making some things happen. But I see where Karen is coming from. But the process would suffer if you try to rush it through that quickly. Mr. Poparad, Alright. Well I just said budgets. I just don’t want to wait until the end of the year, that’s all. Mr. Bucko, I say we do it now. Mr. Burge, No, I don’t want to wait until the end of the year, at budget session we could. Mr. Poparad, Dave, we’re allowed to interview ourselves, correct? The Council? Mr. Hollenbeck, Are you allowed to interview yourself. At this time, Councilmembers burst out in laughter. Mr. Whitten, That’s the issue. Mrs. Conover, You need another job, Bob. Mr. Hollenbeck, Back to the issue, can we interview prospective employees? Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Hollenbeck, Like in an executive session? Mr. Poparad, Correct. Mr. Hollenbeck, Absolutely. Mr. Poparad, Dan, well let’s, alright we’ll just talk about it at budgets. We’re not going to, obviously we’re not going to… Mr. Bucko, I was going to say, it’s almost a moot point. Mr. Poparad, Yes. Mr. Bucko, Is there any reason for not putting an application out there and… Mr. Poparad, Well we’ll post it. We will post it, we agree to post it. We’ll post it and see what pops up, then we’ll decide who we get after we get the applicants. Mr. Bucko, That’s fine. Mr. Poparad, I need a motion to adjourn. Oh, sorry, Jim. You want something else. Mr. Burge, One other item I feel the board should address, not necessarily this evening, maybe we do, maybe we don’t. But at least the RDA appointment I think comes due in like August. Mrs. Conover, Ah, yes. Mr. Burge, So I, with Gus being on there, he’s our current representative, he probably needs some indication if we’re intending for him to stay so he can plan and act accordingly. Mr. Hollenbeck, That again is a joint appointment. Mr. Burge, Right, but if not, he needs to prepare, we’ve got to have time to interview and select… Mr. Whitten, Why don’t we, that’s not a bad idea, Jim. Why don’t we first of all ask Gus if he is intending to stay on, because I’ve actually heard some mixed feedback. Mr. Poparad, I think he wants to be reappointed. Mr. Whitten, But if he does, then maybe can discuss the possibility of either reappointing him or seeing if anybody else is interested. I don’t know if he’s done a good or bad job, but I mean to see what’s out there or just leave him on. Mr. Burge, Yes, I personally, I think he’s done an excellent job, and is a good person for the position, but either way, we need to let him know what direction to go in. Mr. Poparad, Yes, I thought he wanted to, you know, yes. Mr. Whitten, My pick is now a state senator, so. Mr. Poparad, Whose that? Mr. Whitten, I wanted Ed Charbonneau. Mr. Poparad, Well, I think Gus has brought a strong voice of Porter County to that board, which has to be a… Mr. Bucko, He has been a good steward. Mr. Poparad, Which has to be a fight in it of itself, but. Mr. Whitten, Sure. Mrs. Conover, Maybe with that caveat, maybe we’d like to hear just a 15-minute presentation from some RDA board members, and the executive director. Let’s see where they are going and where they are at, then… Mr. Poparad, At our August meeting? Mrs. Conover, Why not. Maybe it’s time we hear from the RDA. Ms. Noll, We don’t have an August meeting. Mr. Poparad, We don’t have an August meeting? Ms. Noll, No, we have budgets. You have the public hearing… Mrs. Conover, Okay, the public hearing night. Mr. Poparad, Okay, will you get a hold of people. Mr. Hollenbeck, And if… Mr. Poparad, Are we nodding towards reappointing Gus? I mean… Mrs. Conover, If he would be interested I would love to make the nomination. Mr. Bucko, If he’s interested in going… Mr. Poparad, Okay, that’s three. Dan? Mr. Whitten, It makes no difference to me, that’s fine. Mr. Poparad, Can you convey, Dave? Mr. Hollenbeck, You have to have two of the three commissioners too. Mr. Poparad, No, no, we can recommend to the commissioners though, and they can, you know, they can always shoot it down. Mr. Hollenbeck, Yes, it, the first time we did it we had a joint meeting of all ten. Mr. Poparad, Alright. Ms. Noll, Who am I supposed to notify? Mr. Poparad, Gus. Tell Gus we want him back on the RDA. There being no further discussion, meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
Michael Bucko Attest: James Kopp, Auditor |
 |
Please enter a search term to begin your search. |
July 22, 2008