City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone this evening.

City of Bedford Common Council, Bedford Municipal Hall, 1617 K Street, Tuesday, August the 18th at 7 p.m. Larry, would you please lead us in prayer?

Yes, Mayor. Y'all bow your heads, please. As we come here this evening to make decisions for our community, the city of Bedford, please watch over the council, the mayor, so we can guide this city to the best place we can have it. Please watch over our our employees, our firemen, our policemen, keep our streets and our cities safe. Please watch over all of us in the world today to keep things moving forward and keeping us all where we need to be. Pray in Jesus' name.

Brad, would you lead us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, for God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Following our meeting to order, we have approval of minutes from July 21st, a regular meeting.

Motion to approve as presented, Mr. Meyer. Second.

All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? New business of Ordinance 13-2026, Ordinance Adopting Social Media Comment Policy. Denise?

Thank you.

I have before you an ordinance that is... hopefully we're going to approve that ordinance with the exhibit policy attached to it so if the council will approve the ordinance over tonight and next month's meeting um i will take the policy to the board of works for the final approval on it but this the purpose of this policy is basically give us clear guidelines as far as being consistent with our social media pages The page is a platform for residents to express their opinions, share concerns, and have conversations, including criticism of the city. At the same time, we've had situations where comments have been inappropriate, discriminatory, or completely unrelated to a post. For example, if the police department asks for help identifying someone and there's response with discriminatory comments, this policy would give us a clear standard for addressing those comments. But if someone simply criticizes the police department or disagrees with what they're doing, that comment would stay even if we disagree with it. So we're not trying to wash anyone's opinions. We've also had posts where the city would put on the Facebook page celebrating a ribbon cutting for a new business. One person might post 40 unrelated memes underneath that, and that basically takes away from the original post. And it kind of takes away the attention from the purpose. So right now, our ability to moderate those comments is very limited. And this policy would give us a consistent standard for situations like those while still protecting people's rights to express their own opinion. So we also, on a side note, partner with Civic Plus for social media archiving. So any comments that are hidden or removed are still there. retained so we just want to make sure that our pages are consistent with the purpose so questions I'm happy to answer Denise is there any current moderation taking place I know you said there are abilities limited basically what we do is we can hide or delete comments that have extremely vulgar curse words in them and that's about it

And this just applies to Facebook? Is there any other formats or platforms?

I think it's all social media. So if we have Instagram or other platforms that we post on, we can also moderate those comments.

One of the biggest concerns that we've had lately has been, as she stated, whenever we put a post, a ribbon cutting or something for a business, and then we will have someone that will get on there and talk about something completely unrelated to the post. It has nothing to do with it. It's not even criticism or anything. It's just they're talking about stars in the sky. And they may put a few posts up, and I think we've had two that's had 20 or 30 posts on something like that. They just post stuff that has no relation to anything about it, and it's completely off the page is what anybody's talking about. So I think that's the standpoint of being able to help our social media, be able to regulate some of this stuff, and also not only the city itself, but whenever we do ribbon cuttings for businesses and stuff, be able to benefit them from the standpoint of some of the, like you said, but off-the-wall stuff that some people are posting on there, nothing to do with anything. I know council has weighed on this in somewhat also, It can be kind of iffy, but I think what we're looking at stuff that we're wanting to be about taking off is just that a lot of that stuff is something that's vulgar, of course, but just some of this stuff that's off the wall where they're putting multiple, multiple posts up, and there's no rationale to why they're doing nothing there.

Denise, this is a complete new ordinance.

This is not replacing something we currently have, correct?

Correct. currently don't have an ordinance that would cover this, and there's really no place to put it. So I think it might go under general, establishing 101 or whatever it is in the book.

How much time would you think or expect to, whether it's you or whoever, will be spent

I think Sarah is our main person that handles all of the social media outlets, and it's not looked after 24-7, but she'll be able to come in in the mornings, look at it throughout the day when she has time, and we'll be able to handle it at that point. There's three of us that are over the face.

I guess just for, you know,

say the city posts something and there's just like a deluge of stuff coming in at once, is she getting notified as it's happening?

If there is a potential problem, she would see it.

And I guess another purpose is when we post something and then you have those people that come along and say, ooh, watch this video, here's the full, we can take those things off too that are clearly spam and unrelated, and they're meant to try to encourage people to... I don't even know what the purpose of those posts are. I'm sure it's bad, though, on those links. But we can kind of try to moderate that. And I know, like, the fire department, I think the other day they had a post and someone commented on an old post that said, buy your fire department T-shirts here. You know, we can moderate that kind of stuff with a policy like this.

Other discussion? If not, I would entertain a motion, if so.

Mr. Mayor, I'd move for the first approval of Ordinance 13-2026.

I'll second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? I would entertain a motion for a second passage.

I'll make a motion for the second passage. I'll second.

All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? We will be back next month with the third final package. Thank you. Ordinance 14-2026, amending Ordinance 11-2026, imposing a municipal wheel tax, excise surtax, and creating municipal wheel tax fund. Greg?

Mayor, we've Approved the prior ordinance and of course we were trying to stay consistent what the county's charging didn't increase any tax on citizen after Our treasurer got the ordinance and looked into a little more carefully. There was a mistake in under Municipal will tax be number four should have been five dollars Then under her tax We looked at the BMV's information a little more carefully, and what we passed was exactly what the county was, $25 for each. We looked at the BMV's spreadsheet they had, and it showed $750 for military vehicles, $750 for collector vehicles. So I checked a little further and learned that Registrate the registration for a collector vehicle. They're charging five so I got with the BMV made sure that The problem was and they said that they had a mistake what they had in their spreadsheet What they were collecting was correct. What was in their spreadsheet was incorrect. They updated that and then They advised us to add the exception for a trailer under vehicle collector vehicles and military vehicles so that the trailers would only be charged $750, but the vehicles themselves would be charged $750. I added that. I sent it all up to the VMV.

They've blessed it that it's consistent with what they're collecting. They did their spreadsheet for the county and it's correct.

I need to pass this tonight so we can submit it by September 1. The change is all reduced the tax, not increasing anything to make it

Consistent with the county. Consider passing all three times tonight.

Any questions or discussion?

I would move to pass ordinance number 14-2026. Second.

All those in favor signify by aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Entertain a motion for a second passage. So moved. Second. Larry and Brad on the... Brad on the second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Since we need to pass this to the three times, I would ask for a motion to suspend the rules.

So moved. Second.

All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Entertain a third and final passage.

Move for the third and final passage of Ordinance 14-2026, Mr. Mayor.

Second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Ordinance 15-2026, Ordinance Amending Ordinance 7-2026 regarding Operation and Maintenance Fund for Sewers. Misty?

When we redid the ordinance, we combined everything. There were so many changes in our sewer use ordinance. And when we had industrial users, we created a whole new ordinance that was passed in May, which was Ordinance 7-2026. In realizing the very last page was left out of our new Ordinance 7-26. Our old ordinance had two separate funds that basically is the fund that's created that accepts our money for sewer. So there is no new, anything new in the ordinance itself, but we are adding back in the fund that was taken out and was not put in the new ordinance. So there is no change. It's basically our Operation and Maintenance Fund and then our Sewers General Motus Reimbursement and Contribution Fund. So both of those were created, were in the previous ordinance, but did not get into the new Ordinance 7-2026. I would ask that you approve the amendment to that ordinance for 7-2026.

This is already in place. So there again, this evening, I'm going to ask if we can do a free passage. As Misty stated, the part of the last page that was left out of the new ordinance was actually in the old ordinance. So it was already established in that area. So basically, it was just left out of the new ordinance. We've already passed everything in the new ordinance. So that's why we're going to see if the council's in favor of going in and doing the three passages insert.

Do you have any questions or comments?

I'd make a motion we approve ordinance number 15-2026. Second.

All those in favor, signify by aye.

Aye.

One opposed. I would entertain a second passage. So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. One opposed. I would accept a motion to suspend the rules. So moved, Mr. Mayor.

Second.

All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. I would entertain a third and final passage.

So moved.

Second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed?

Thank you.

Thank you. So now we have an update from Linda on Stonegate.

Thanks. First and foremost, we have a new board member who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now he's president of the board. He's joined as our president of the board. As you can see on the revenues, we continue to be doing very well with revenue compared to this time last year. We're ahead of schedule. Some grant updates. We did receive the Duke Energy Foundation grant of $3,000, and that's for the skilled showcase. And the Indian Arts Commission, we received $4,000 to do the American Revolution with Flair in 40 minutes. That will be in the spring. That will be part of our 250 celebration. The biggest news at StoneGate right now is the Trilogy Health contract, a potential contract with Trilogy Health moving into StoneGate. The StoneGate board approved a lease that Greg drafted for us, and we sent that to Trilogy on Friday. We thought they were going to approve it Friday, but apparently they're not going to approve it until this Friday. We thought we had to really move fast and everything. So hopefully... That will be approved at the end of this week or next week and we can move forward. There will be a number of changes in the building. We're having to add a laundry service space. I'm going to have to purchase a portable sink for Vincent's class and for our art classes to make adjustments. But Trilogy will be buying out two classrooms and two small classrooms, two small offices. So as I told the board on Friday, And we've got about four weeks in the spring with the virtual schools and trilogy in the building that we will have no space to rent. The only thing that will be available will be the black box. Space will be very tight for about four, which is a good problem to have. That means it's paid for. So any questions about the trilogy before I move on? Or Sam, did you want to make a comment about the trilogy?

No, I mean, there was, I talked to one of the representatives a couple of times today evidently there was some confusion. It was our understanding that they were wanting this to take to their board the same day that it went Stonegate board to sign. And then later on, it was advised that they actually wanted it the Friday before, which the Friday before the contract wasn't even done. So that was not anything doable. So my understanding, it sounds like their board will meet this coming Friday is what I understood. And at that point in time, then they will either accept or, deny that. It's with their legal department at this time, of course. They're going through it to make sure to give it their blessing or if they have any concerns with it. So hopefully the end of this week or the first of next week, we will have some additional information if they agree to the contract or if they have concerns with it and they want to address those.

That's the status quo.

Complaints? Nobody? Okay.

Collaborations are pretty routine. We're collaborating with the Growth Council and with Indiana Westland to offer a lunch on AI for the business community, and that's scheduled for November the 4th. We don't have a flyer together yet, but I should have one two years shortly. We're excited about that. We're also expanding our collaboration with the Lawrence County Art Association, the Wiley House. And then a new collaboration, Joe Vorce and I met with the representatives from Little Theater last Friday, looking at possibly then coming in to use the black box to do a production in the spring. I think around Valentine's Day, a murder mystery or something like that would be appropriate. So that's a new potential collaboration for us as well. Community engagement, we've got pretty much the same non-profits using the building on a regular basis. The media, Stonegate YouTube channel, working with Amy Voorhees to put together a podcast on election, absentee voting that we will record that the first of September and get that out to folks. And then we're also going to be doing a podcast about the clerk's office, the different aspects of the clerk's office, probate, and as a community service to educate citizens about what the clerk's office actually does. And this is sort of a pilot. We may do this with all the offices in the county and put that up as an education piece for the community service. Workforce Development, we are working with Indiana Wesleyan, offered the Leadership by Design class. That'll be in the spring. The Skilled Showcase, that's October the 1st, and that's from 9 to 2 out at the fairgrounds. And if you've not been to the showcase, I'd encourage you to come out and walk through. And if you come close to noon, we may feed you. But last year we had about 400 high school students out at the fairgrounds. We have about 12 skilled trades represented at the fairgrounds. And I actually got an email from Brownstown. They sent 20 students last year. They're sending 50. So it's becoming, people are getting to expect the showcase.

Brian, do you have anything to add about the showcase?

We have a lot of, our arts advisor group, we've really expanded, getting more, we have a representative from the The Lawrence County Art Association, we've got two additional ladies that have joined us, and Penny May is back on the Arts Advisory Board, and so we're really moving forward. Our schedule, we've got something every month for the rest of the year. Starting September 14th, we have Introduction to Keyboard for youth and for adults. starting September the 14th. We had that last fall in spring, and we actually had a waiting list for both classes, so we're looking for that. We also, I just learned today, we'll have an introduction to guitar that will start late September or first of October. I don't have the dates on that, but the keyboard class starts the Penny May has written a program on ghost stories of Lawrence County and beyond. She's unearthed some really interesting stories around the county, and that production will be October 23rd and 24th at 7 o'clock. at Stonegate and you'll be able to purchase your tickets online. I'll give you more information in closer time. Last year we hosted a sing-along before the the Christmas parade and we had roughly about 50 people show up for that. We are going to host that again this year at 4 30. Of course the parade I think starts at 6. So for about an hour as a holiday sing-along. And then I mentioned American Revolution with Flair. That will be in the spring. And then the little theater collaboration. They're meeting with their board this week. We kind of talked about logistics and what we would charge and for them to utilize the building. And so their board's meeting. And if all goes well, they'll be doing their production in February in Black Box.

Any questions?

Thank you, Linda.

Next, we have a must update from Billy.

On August 15th, the Lawrence County Council had an informational municipal unit strategic task force. The municipal unit strategic task force was established through ATA 1210 to formalize a collaboration around local income tax decisions. Members are representative of the county council and the city or town fiscal officer. Results are non-binding local income tax plan for the county that is shared with the legislature prior to December 1st of 26. Baker Tilly presented the information overview. My opinion that contracting with Baker Tilly to provide the guidance and the options for the new lit structure is in our best interest. The county would be the entity responsible for contracting with Baker Tilly with the municipal share of the cost. Baker Tilly's cost is not to exceed $30,000, and that always depends on how many meetings they have to have to come to an agreement. Their share would be based on population or the percent of the tax limit. My estimate, the city's share would not exceed $14,700. That would be the high end.

It would be up to the council whether they want to go in with the county, look at all the options.

What would you say our share would be?

It should not exceed, this is my calculation, it should not exceed $14,700. That'd be based on levy.

I sat in on that meeting. Did they, to my knowledge, they didn't really articulate

how that is aged, how much that, you know, up to that 30 grand. I mean, they spoke about other counties where they'd get it done in one meeting and others where it stretched on farther than that. Did you have any kind of idea? Like, you know, if you guys knocked it all out in one meeting, is that?

It would be less money if we knocked it all out in one meeting.

But we don't know what that rate would be.

I think she said two or three meetings is what it's taking on some, and some up to five.

Depends on how big the county is. And it's non-binding, and it doesn't start, I give you all of the handout that we, you have to pass tax 2028. Take effect in 2020.

But there's potential that not all could be changed in 2027.

It could change next year.

And I don't know if I misheard you, cut off or something. Did you say your recommendation that we do anticipate in this?

What the legislature is doing is trying to get all the, to see how well the counties and the cities will work together. And this report goes back to them, and then they will look at how they will change or rewrite any legislation. It'd be up to the county whether you want to, or, all right. at the council, whether you want to join in or not.

When you say it goes back to them, who is them?

The legislature. We have to send it back to the DLGF so they can provide all the reports back to the legislature.

Indianapolis is wanting the station to come back, as Billy said. We respond with our report that we're going to work with it.

I'm not saying that's the case, but if that would go back to them, then that's something that they're looking at, as Heath just mentioned, because then they may look at changing some legislation. So they're wanting input from all the governmental agencies involved in it to see how their counties are working together, see if they are. The other good thing with Baker Tilly is the fact that if we didn't have Baker Tilly and we go over and negotiate some of these numbers and stuff, then Billy's going to have to work to come up with all the county numbers, politics numbers, Mitchell's numbers. Baker Tilly has access to all of that information as far as being able to pull it up. And as far as I believe, of course, that the information will be very accurate with the numbers that we're getting. And I think having a third party, but having another neutral party there to help with this discussion who has the the numbers and all of the information going to be discussed, I think will be a huge benefit for the city to feed. Now, granted, you hate to spend this money, and then in 27, they change everything. But I think we also have to look at it at the same time. If they don't change anything, we want to be sure and have everything out there that we want out there to be able to deal with what this may take place. Because, I mean, we're talking about It's lit money and it's not something that's just going to affect us the next two or three years. It's something that's going to affect the city forever whenever this takes place. So we just want to make sure that we do our due diligence, have everything in place to represent the city the best at the county meetings, and then also send whatever information we have to go to the state.

Currently, county passes and we get our portion. This is changing it to where we can go in with the county or we can go out on our own. From some of the numbers we've seen, if we do it on our own, it just taxes city residents and we lose money.

It's in your form there.

They have a representative thing there as far as to if you go with the county, what your income, basically revenue is going to be. And if you go on your own, what your revenue is going to be. And there again, they have the information with the numbers they provided. It's a benefit for everyone in Lawrence County to go in with the county and do this as a group.

The rate could be less. Right now the rate is 1.75. It could go up to 2.9. We hope they would tell us, if we kept it at 1.75, how much it would generate.

I'm assuming all this stays how it's going to be. It doesn't change until 2027. I'm assuming that's going to be a vote that comes before the council at some point.

In 2028, you will either have to vote to go in with the council county or do your own lit tax.

I wasn't the mean, but I didn't miss the part as far as where the data is estimated.

distribution that they have here, that to you is fairly accurate?

On the two different scenarios here, like the mayor just addressed, you know, if we went out on our own, we'd make significantly less.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, we would. Because you're only taxing the residents in the city of Bedford. If you spread out, you get the population and a half, I think. And then you have all county residents paying into the city, and they also share in parks departments and privacy.

That's kind of how some of the county people pay for the way it is currently. And the department does not even, or is not even ready for this.

I mean, they're getting ready because When they do, they do by county. They don't do by who lives in the city limits or political limits.

So they're working on that for every county to try to get that information.

Do you need vote from us to enter into this agreement, Mayor?

I need something to tell me whether I can go to the county and tell them, yes, if you agree, we'll agree to pay our portion.

Just so you're aware of it, some of you may. The legislature set this up that at these must meetings, the clerk treasurers are the ones that represent the city. So therefore, Billy is the one that's on that board and is handling this discussion with the lit money and everything. So that's why I've kind of turned some of this over to her because she's the one that's actually in charge of representing the city at the trust.

And I'm assuming we want an answer by the next meeting.

They tried to schedule meetings next week, but the council is not voting on it until next Tuesday.

But this all has to be done so we can get it turned in to them, I think, sometime by the end of October.

So they're trying to get the meetings scheduled.

I'm assuming, yes, checking to see what they want to do.

Because the county advised there's no need to start scheduling meetings until we see if we're all going to get this together, if Baker Tilly's going to handle this for us, and then go from there. And Baker Tilly's the one that's done all the city's, basically all of our finances on a lot of things since I was put in office. So they're very familiar with all of our numbers for the last several years as to where we've been and also where we're looking to go.

So they are very familiar with our numbers.

Can we even pass anything tonight without it being listed on the agenda publicly?

Well, I think with the must update on there, This may be a council question. I think that she just needs the consensus. And I guess it could be a vote as to move forward with Baker Tilly.

And then if we need to put a dollar amount in it or not. Council? Without the dollar amount, does the dollar amount need to be in there?

Well, you can say not to my estimate. 14,700 is my estimate. That's based on the levy.

Say it like that, how you have to present it to the council, the county council?

Well, not necessarily. Well, I would. I'd say we won't go over this amount if you base it on the levy. And that's how they're going to do it because that's the way the city pays the most because their levy is the largest.

And they had two options how to do it. So it's pretty much, in my opinion, if we're going to join and do this, it's pretty much cut and dried to a point what our dollar amount's going to be.

I'd make a motion we approve for Billy to proceed with agreeing with the county for not to exceed $15,000 for the must meet.

I second.

Motion and a second. All in favor signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Discussion? Anything for discussion?

I want to thank the fire department for their speedy response to the apartment fire this month.

Anything else? I will mention that we have been in the process of going around the city making sure exactly what size flags we have at different locations. We've accomplished that. We have put an order in for flags. So whenever those flags come in, then we will get ready. And my goal is, if we can do it in one day, is to put all of them up in the city in one day. So at all of our locations, we'll have our city flag flying. So I will keep you kind of posted on that. I wouldn't have a date yet. whenever those flags come in and we'll get ready to look at a date and start that process once you've accomplished that mayor will those be available to purchase i'm going to leave that up to the council that there will be a discussion on that probably maybe our next meeting if you want uh to see how the council wants to handle having a city flag out in the public uh i mean from the standpoint of We might have someone that buys a city flag and then does something inappropriate with it. So we just need to look at all the possibilities, and I may have to have council weigh in on it to get some information from that side of it, and then we can have a discussion and see what we want to do. Okay, if there's nothing else, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion.

Go ahead.

He's got the motion. Judy has the second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Anyone opposed?