Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Check. Check.

[clears throat]

I call Brad of Commissioners meeting. Start the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Any additions to the agenda or changes? Uh, I think I'm going to do it when we get to the minutes, but I'd like to talk just a little bit more about our claim about the Thrive Alliance. also at some point. Okay. And then we've got in the get to public comments. I know the pumpkin ridge folks. John Miller asked to be on the agenda. I think Bob, if you want. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. So, got that. Okay. First thing we have to do is Julia. Yeah. Do we do the elections first or do we do the Can we go through the Did the elections first? Who are we electing? President, Vice President.

Oh, yeah. Thank [laughter] you. You're the sergeant-at-arms, aren't you? Yeah. Keep forgetting this is the first first we got to actually Yeah, you would want to do the elections. So, I would say that you need to um vote for your president. Okay. Nominations. I'll move that Tim continue as president of the board. Any second? I'll second. Ron, how do you vote? No. Tim, how do you vote? Yes. Kevin, how do you vote? Yes. [snorts]

Can I nominate Kevin Patrick for vice president? Any second? [panting] I'll second that. Tim, how do you vote? Yes. Kevin, how do you vote? Yes. Ron, how do you vote? No. All right. Approval of minutes and claims.

Okay. On We'll just do this art thing real quick. It states in the minutes and I asked if this was good enough. And it says the claim for arc had no information on it. Well, we had conversations after that and this was furnished on the distribution of I don't know 9/10 of the money we're going into. U I still in the future want to see that rectified. uh I can get a hold of the art people and the Thrive Alliance, but yesterday in the admin meeting the situation come up and Thrive Alliance might have been able to help the people we were talking about. So it sound like that kind of fell through the cracks, but I'm hoping that Thrive Alliance may be able to help some people.

They are in your budget for 26. Both those items, both of the items are in. Well, yeah. And I just would kind of like to get it taken care of early in the year instead of waiting late because then there's going to be almost a two-year lapse in them getting money. See, um I would have them go ahead and come in with their invoices and everything early then so we can get the auditor's office on that. Okay. Get it paid. I have a comment on that.

The invoicing that you provide has no details. It just basically states it's an invoice for $750. So I would prefer to basically bring them in and sit down and have a conversation with them and do like we've done with a lot of the other places like the Humane Society and others where they're providing services or where we're giving them funds detail what they're providing and then set up like we do with Centerstone and a report of what services they're providing to and what's being in in the time frame of it. That's fine. I just I think it was $10,000 not $750. It was $750 a month. No, it was a,000. It was $10,000 flat. Yeah. Total.

But $750 of it was paid each month. And you had the records of it. I give you that before the that meeting. So would that be something where the commissioners would want that on your agenda to have them come and speak at Let me get a hold of them and see when they can. Are you going to talk to Thrive Alliance, too, or just I like Centerstone be involved also because we pay what 166,000 for mental health support out of centerstone. So, I'd like to see if there's any overlap between Mad and ARC. So, contact them also. Okay. All right. Anything else? All right. Approve minutes and claims. Yeah. I make a motion to approve the minute and claims. Second.

Roll. Kevin, how do you vote? Yes. Ron, how do you vote? Yes. Tim, how do you vote? Yes. Okay, Commissioner Science, got the same ones we had last year. Is that good with everybody? I see no need to change them. Uh, just one thing. Um, District 8, was you able to do anything with that? Did you

We've had a couple of meetings basically quarterly. So, they have actually an update on that is that they're actually going through a huge shuffle in the number of districts that are actually in the state. So they're reducing them down to I think an estimated 12. So in the process of doing that there's some push back on the part of the district. Okay. Well, you still going to deal with that? Yeah. Okay. Down to our appointments, reappointments. No, I think we do. I think we basically go through the exercises. I'll make a motion to keep the appointments for the commissioners boards as presented on the agenda.

Okay. That's the ones where we are in point words. Correct. Okay. You made a motion. I'll second. Okay. Okay. Um, see who's next. Um, Ron, how do you vote? Yes. Tim, how do you vote? Yes. Kevin, how do you vote? Yes. [clears throat] Okay. Down to appointments, reappointments, uh, versus well, for Highway 2 and Eric Burton. Have a motion. I motion that we reappoint Eric Burton as highway superintendent. Okay. I'll second. Okay. Tim, how do you vote? Yes. Kevin, how do you vote? Yes.

Ron, how do you vote? No. Okay. Next is EMA director Chad Davis, a letter presentation effective February 2nd. He'll be missed. Um Chad was the coordinator on a lot of the weather most of the weather related issues we had in the county when it came to changing conditions and the tornado the flooding the interface with FEMA which takes a few years off your life the reimbursement. So um he'll be miss so again he'll be leaving February 7th. We'll be announcing the position and [clears throat] going through the process to hire a new EMA director. You say February 2nd or February 7th. I give you a copy. Okay. February 2nd. Yeah. Misread it.

Thanks. [snorts] Okay. Do I have a motion to reappoint Chad for? Make a motion to appoint Chad getting up to the point of his date of ter [clears throat] date of departure. February 2nd, 2026. Okay. I'll second. Kevin, how do you vote? Yes. Ron, how do you vote? No. Tim, how do you vote?

Yes. Well, Teresa, this next one I'll be fresh in your mind. We talked about the 2026 budget changes. Um, there's a working session with the council tomorrow from 9 to noon. Um, it's going to be looks like a full house of council commissioners, some of the department heads. Tracy, you want to give us kind of a rundown? Um um right now what we have identified was that there was a million dollars worth of movement in the budget that pertains to the commissioners. Um we we can understand some of the change this is you guys know we can understand some of the changes that were made because they make sense with the IC codes and how money can be spent. There are a couple items that were um inflated that don't necessarily merit the inflation and there were um several IC code items that were not included in the budget. Uh we I worked with Eric yesterday to go over his items. It his was not as bad as we thought, but the three that we identified are IC codes and how we can spend money in restricted funds. So, they will have to be fixed. Um, we've requested Jackie to come tomorrow to make sure that what we're proposing, if council approves it, can be done.

Jackie Clemens is the adviser for the auditor. Okay. And um hopefully we can get everything squared around and still save the county a significant amount of money. So, well, Trice, thanks for all the hard work on that. I know you talked with the council members this afternoon to tried to explain it cuz I I I knew I wanted tomorrow to be productive so that they weren't I mean I've sent them everything but I wanted them to understand. Yes, sir.

Um I keep hearing million here, million there. It's been moved around. Uh I think it was stated that a council has a million dollars. So, they got plenty of money that they can uh if they decide to and it works out to possibly buy the Nashville Police Department. U then I heard there was I had no idea about that. I mean, Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Just hold up. Okay. And then I keep hearing that you just said a million dollars that got moved around the wrong way. Is that the same million dollars? No. No. Okay. So, yeah. I know nothing about the million dollars you just brought up.

Okay. Well, said council had a million dollars. I'm trying to figure out where we're pulling this million dollars and if it's just 1 million or 2 million or what it is. I understand that we're probably going to get the uh budget fixed and commissioners will probably get their money back. But there's also an issue with the highway department. Their money evidently seems to be kind of messed up. Um hopefully that can be fixed. Well, it it truly hinges on what Jackie tells us we can do and what the council because if if the what we're proposing can't be done lawfully, then it's all a moot point anyway and we're just going to have to I don't know what we're going to have to do.

Go back in for additional appropriations. We're going to have No, because it would be cash reserves we would have to tap into. So, I'm not really sure. It all hinges on what Jackie tells us. And with Eric's case and his budget, his is probably going to be the easiest to fix. If we can't make any moves lawfully, Eric has enough cash reserves so that we could put that covert money back in where it and you would have you would have an inflated amount in 1173, but he could tap into cash reserves in 1176 and still provide covers for the public. So, we'll figure it out, but it's just

Okay, now that kind of sounds like Eric's problem might be taken care of. But on the commissioner side, our [snorts] cash balances, so that means we have to go in and hit the riverboat fund. No, no, no, no, no, no. Um, no. We don't want to mess with any of that. The county is on a good road with riverboat and rainy day. We don't want to mess with that. How much cash is in cash reserves?

Our cap has some cash in it, which is why when I said that some of the moves that were made should stay because educational wise, it makes more sense to put that money in that fund and spend it out of there than wherever it was. It frees up some of the department money and uses cocap to it. Uses cocap is better. It's a it's better use of our funds. Yeah. The biggest question is going to be the health trust fund that was not health trust fund the health fund that was inflated unbeknownst to you and if we can stop that money from going in there like a million dollars

$700,000. Okay. Are you up there Stephanie?

Yes, sir. Let me You weren't here when this this other thing happened. When we did the contract with Barnes and Thornberg in that contract, it stated, now I'm not going to quote it word for word, but you all might want to look at it. We have been allotted the 48,000 for retainer that it sounds like to me that's it. And in that contract, it states that if Barnes and Thornberg sees that we can't pay it or they question whether our money is there, they can ask and I might not have the right word here or not, but I think Yins can ask for it to be escrow meaning put in an account and at some point if we can't pay Yens in a timely manner, uh I believe Yens can even put like a 6% interest on top of it. So, I'm not wanting you to really answer a question. I want you to take a look at that contract and talk to your superiors and see if there's a problem or you guys can give us a little time to get this all worked out.

We'll do. Thank you, Teresa. We were funded for the 48,000. Correct. That didn't change. Okay. All right. It's just all the legal bills we've been paying here lately is uh every time you have to run to county council and trying to figure out where your money's at. Okay. Sorry about that. All right. Let me just kind of summarize this budget process kind of what we did. Can I see that one paper you showed me a minute ago with the numbers on it? Thank you.

That's our budget. We reviewed our budget that was approved by the council and submitted into Gateway by reading. Uh we compared the approved budget in in gateway to what we submitted on our form one. That's the original request. We developed a spreadsheet for each fund and then a summary recap that totals that the million dollar totals that up. That's the changes. The changes and proposed solutions was discussed with president of the council Pat Needlander, Julie Reeds. Now you also talked with Darren and Scott. So covered a big portion of the council. let them know what we did and and how we got to where we got. And then, as you pointed out, before any action can be taken, we need advice from Jackie is what we can and can't do because it's not as easy as reversing the changes that were made and and shifting the money around. There's there's more legal requirements that may be we may have to consider. So, that's part of the agenda tomorrow.

Huge part as the other [clears throat] department heads look at. They weren't informed, none of us were informed that our form ones were were changed dramatically. What was approved was changed dramatically. So I I'm assuming each department head needs to look at their form one what was submitted and yeah that is the I forgot to tell the council that but um Gary somebody from council's here if you guys No one is no one is here um they need those department heads that were invited to that meeting tomorrow need to make sure [clears throat] they have their original form ones with them can you okay okay good that's going to it wouldn't do us any good to talk about these numbers with the without them having that information and That's not information we're privy to because they're not our form ones.

Okay. Thanks, Tesa. A lot of good work on on doing that. So, to clarify, too, the other part of that was there was a request to have a meeting with more than just one commissioner. So, I don't think we've got that worked out. So, it's now going to be a single body. Correct. Um, in order for you guys to have a voice at tomorrow's meeting, um, with two commissioners there, it had to be a joint session. I just asked why that email was ignored and they did not understand my question. Yeah. So, um, I talked to Stephanie yesterday and let her know that

it's not going to be a joint meeting. It's the council meeting that we are on the agenda of to discuss the budget. Right. Correct. So I just want to make sure to clarify this because Tim is the one that's been repres basically attending those meetings and again that's Ron or I have not because again it's a conflict of quorum being president. So, yeah. And um yeah, so you you guys can't be there, but um Tim and I sat down and made the spreadsheets and went through he listened to all of my line by line items. Okay. For the whole budget and um so I would rather have him there with me because he knows. Yeah,

I will admit that I am not as indepthly informed as the two of you are. And Tes, it shouldn't be any surprise for tomorrow. I think you kind of pre-brief the council. you got involved. We sent the council um the rei gateway approved budget. We sent the council the readi um November their November meeting um report where we identified DEVCON 5 and we sent them our spreadsheets with the itemized request and what we need back in the budget that you and I did. And [snorts] what else?

I think that's all I gave them. Okay, those three items. It'll be a busy meeting then, huh? It will be a busy meeting. Be a busy meeting. Okay. I hope it is. If Jackie says we can do what we want to do. Thanks, Teresa. The next item is the review of 2025 accomplishments and plans. Um, what I'm going to do is Bill, if you pull that up. We're just going to scan through it and and then we had a question. I want to go back before you jump to the next one. Can I Okay, this is a very interesting topic.

I want to make sure I understand what you just said to me. Do you have that on? You can't hear my big mouth. Hard to believe. Anyways, I want to make sure I understand what you just said. You guys submitted a budget to the state. Is that correct? I got that part right? And somewhere um you got your budgets for the year and those numbers didn't match. No. Great. Help me out. Okay. So, we all turned in our form ones. When I say we all, that's every department. We gave all those to Julie. Julie had all of those numbers. I had them all uploaded.

She had them all uploaded. Keep going. This is the public's money. Do not be afraid. So those numbers were changed in gateway by the financial company and the state then came in and made their own changes and kept the changes that the financial company made. So that is what we have discovered. So basically basically screwed up to fix them. Everybody needs to be held accountable. Julie, who is it?

Well, according to the public money, we know that. But and according to timelines and submissions and the way things were handled, um, every you it's a timeline. Things were submitted when they were supposed to. I mean, I can't answer your question totally. I can tell you what I know. The rest of it's above my head, but um we looked into what you're saying and every timeline was met. I get that. Um I guess my first question is going to be is how a consultant had access to change your budget numbers.

Yeah, that [laughter] thank you. That was actually a mistake. They should have had just reading issued only and it was actually give they had access to and then they were given the okay to enter things into gateway but not by me. By whom? Council. Yeah. Council. All of council. This is the public's money. The public has a right to know what has happened. That should be We're still fishing all that out. I mean, we're still teasing all of those questions you have. They're very good questions. They are. The public has a right to know these answers.

Exactly. That's why we have we're saying Defcon 5. This is a problem. We're identifying the problem and we are having a special agenda tomorrow to to identify that and get more of your questions answered because we don't know either. I have another question. Is it a crime? Not so far because of the timelines. Yeah. The fact that you had a consultant able to adjust these um budget lines. Is that a crime? So, not when I gave him access. You gave it to him? I gave him access. [clears throat] I didn't realize I gave him access to put it in there, but I gave him access. Thank you for being honest. You're welcome.

Mrs. Mitchell, let me see if I can put this in layman terms to where see if I'm correct here. Everybody thought they were on the same page with the budget. Okay. And Julia thought that was the numbers they were uploading. But at some point, they changed the numbers and uploaded it and county council approved it without reading it again. They thought they were voting on the one they'd been working on all that time. They didn't. I believe. Oh, she's shaking her hand. We don't know. We can't We can't say what they were thinking, right? So, I mean, I don't I don't want you to throw that out there.

Well, I don't want to speak for them either. Yeah, we I don't want to speak for them either. That's fine. You can ask them, but I was just saying that's that's what it looked like to me. They thought they was doing the same thing and it changed. That's a better and they change. It changed. They didn't change. It changed and they weren't aware of the change. So, all of this explains, I don't know if you remember the October meeting where Julie came in and she said, "Hey, our budget, me and Jackie discovered $360,000 off." Yeah. That is the product of this two. And that was a true statement. Yeah.

Well, let me just say that, you know, everybody makes mistakes. This was a big one. Well, what it has well for us is as the commissioner's office for us what it did was it it helped us understand what KOMCAP is. I mean we have been for years this county has had things in budgets for the departments that absolutely did not need to be there which explains all of these cash balances that we've never been able to use. So for us, huge eye opening. I wish they would have included us to educate us rather than us finding out the way we did, but now we know. Yeah.

Um this whole thing with Jackie's question about this $700,000. If we can if we can capture that cash before it gets into the health fund where it gets trapped, that will be huge. It will help the county with their salary. It can do lots of things. Pretty much puts your budget back. But again, that's out of our purview because that's council discretion. So, well, in addition to that, we spent weeks on that budget and we took out a lot of legacy. We did. We all did. I I budget money to squirrel away in different accounts for different things. We spent weeks re-engineering that one. So, then we got to the point where we got a further improvement, which which is helpful. So,

and and another outcome to that is the highway department now doesn't have a ridiculous amount of departments in their funds. We got it down narrowed down. Eric Eric um confirmed that yesterday. Um we had another eye opening thing yesterday where we learned he's he's got better options on how to spend 1173 money rather than continually tapping out 1176. So I mean it's a bad thing that happened. Very bad thing. I don't like it. And I am going to say we are learning from it. So Well, I would hope. Well, that's not always the case in the past. If you need somebody to take flame, I'll take blend if that's what

I don't need it. I want to know. I have a right to know. Um I'm pretty petty in case any of you didn't know that about me. Um county council will be paying for all those department head bills tomorrow morning, right? From 9 to noon. They'll be doing what? Pay paying those salaries out of their own budgets for their mistakes. They're gonna pay for this. Like I said, I am petty. I don't think you could call somebody into a meeting in a department and and do that. I don't think that's we can't do that. Can you have them reimburse the commissioners for the expense then submit it as a claim?

It's just a mistake that we work through. That's all. Try not to repeat as a future. So, anything else? No. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. uh 2025 accomplishments. Um what we did is we sat down and kind of brainstormed went through a list of of everything that we that happened the year. I think that Democrat does a super job of summarizing our meetings in their articles and also if you look on the website that's where you can sign up to get the agendas regularly and we put minutes and and links to audios and stuff there. So a lot of information as to as to what we do. So what I want to do, Bill, if you'll pull that up. I just want to scan through this. We're not going to we're just going to spend a few minutes and kind of hit the highlights and and go through the year and and then some of the priorities for next year. Um if you look at the meetings I guess what's new I guess uh for this this group of commissioners is so we have an admin meeting every week and that's where we go over the agenda. That's the focus is what are we going to cover and we want to be as efficient as we can be at these meetings. Do as much preparation individually that we possibly can so they're kind of efficient. So that's what we do on that one. The monthly meetings you're probablyware aware of. We have two. First one's an admin meeting. Um no major votes there. And then the the third Wednesday is at 6:00 and that's where we make the make votes. Um on the new um we're having a new working group that's going to follow this meeting at 3:30. It's a management intro control program. It's kind of working group. We're just starting. Ed volunteered. I've got another volunteer. We're just trying to get a handle on I know Ed's got the commercial experience and intro controls. I got the federal experience. some knowledge of what we've done for the state. So, we're going to mind meld and figure out what's the best plan for the county uh that we can do with the resources that we have. Um executive sessions with attorneys, we meet second Wednesday of every month on that. Um we go over issues, policies, resolutions, ordinances. As I mentioned, we had a new state requirement that requires the cont the commissioners review and approve all contracts. We're up to over 44 now. So, so we apply a template to all those all

those kind of contracts. Uh, the personal advisory committee, um, that's where we have a meeting, the president of the council, uh, another council member, Judy Swift. We got the auditor and and the president of the board of commissioners, that's me. We go over the personnel issues. It's personnel policy handbook. Uh, we're near final on that one. And, uh, and it took that group. So if there's a change in this or that then we all three of the principles are there to reconcile a change. Too often the commissioners make a change to a benefit not tell the council council may make some not tell the auditor and you had kind of a a mismatch and no one really knew what was going on or what version of the man we working from. So we fixed that. We went out and recruited a new personnel uh specialist to help us expert consultant to help us go through that and to design. Not only do you have to have a personnel policy manual, you have to have the training go along with it and that was a huge gap this year on great we didn't a lot of confusion is what version of the personnel manual we're working on and absolutely no training uh for new employees for for on the manual for different aspects of personnel policies and it's just it's kind of a fresh year. So, we're tackling that one if we get funded. Funny. The key priorities we had for personel we didn't get

personnel reform, capital improvements uh were defunded. So, yeah, you just got to laugh at this stuff.

Um on our budget, I kind of mentioned that was it personal. That was the last meeting. Uh the budget, we kind of beat that one to death at this meeting. Theres has been the the main main person to go to on that one for us and she coordinates with other departments. you change something one aspect of the budget, it hits other people. If they change ERICS, that hits our budget. So, it's kind of a, you know, you've got to manage the different conflicts and associations. So, thank you, Teresa, for that one and and getting us to this point um going forward. Um, and then general obligation. Kevin, you might want to hit a few points on that one between that and the owner's technical rep.

So, the biggest thing is we basically executed most of what was covered under the bond. There's one project left outstanding prosecutor's office. We had a public meeting on Monday with the town of Nashville to have conversations about the interest associated with the police department in their building because that's something that was still raised and discussed. We gathered some notes and some information from there. But as far as completing it, there's work starting next week to put the LEC HVAC systems on the jail that have been pending for years. I don't know how many years, at least a couple. Um then the move to the cameras and digital storage solutions and then an update in the LEC to take care of some issues with the water heater or boilers. Uh and then looking at additional things regards to the courthouse. There's [clears throat] some minor fixes that have taken place and spend on that. Um the next biggest thing that's being considered but we have to have the prosecutor project addressed is consider looking at windows for reacing there in the courthouse. And then obviously then there's questions as to if there's anything that's left. If we don't and we are able to do a better job in getting the prosecutor's office solved, it may be looking at additional assets as far as bridges and things that nature because as you go back later on in here and if you look at Eric's road his update, we've actually had a couple bridges that are now identified as critical which require much more attention, much more frequent inspections than what we would normally have. So and then obviously the last part of that which is covered is the firewall that was replaced in our system desktop replace which was part of it and then the backup system that was replaced as well. So

technical rep.

Yeah. And again they act a lot of this activity is taking place with the owner's technical rep basically our representative in coordinating all these projects identifying the work that needs to be done and then basically coordinating any activity on site that needs to take place and instrumental. We developed an inventory of our buildings. We got a lot of book and then we started tackling the maintenance repair issues. So, we started tackling that one and eventually once we've got that inventory and we've got a needs for maintenance, repairs of all the different buildings, the next challenge is is really go for the funding and priorities and then uh then putting it in the spreadsheet for the state board of accounts. We've always got hit on capital assets and and capital improvements. We've never had one before. This is the first ever that I'm aware of that we actually took on the capital asset inventory, started addressing maintenance repairs. So, we don't even know what that total bill is going to be, but but we're working on it. That's one of those things that that we focus on next year on on the legal. I mean, it's been pretty busy with with uh we found a lot of ordinances were out of date. We found a lot of ordinances, a lot of issues that should have had an ordinance and uh and wow, we've just there's got to be at least a dozen of those surprise things that we needed uh that we had to get uh legal advice on and support. So, it's been pretty pretty intense. Uh, especially the contract reviews being the being the biggie. We're still on that one. We got to figure out the scope. So, if we got a rep review and approve of all contracts, now it's like, okay, at what dollar limit, you know, what authority do you give a manager and what authority do we need to commissioners and no matter what you do is can we sustain it? Is it something we can execute without worrying about it? Because one of the issues on on on uh on internal controls, if you have a policy, you need a checklist to make sure you're executing policy. So when the state board of accounts comes in and say, "Hey, we got it. Here's our policy." They go down and say, "Okay, well, does anybody know you've got a policy?" Are the key players, do they know? Are they doing what they're

supposed to do to make sure you're meeting the requirements of your policy? So major change culturally. uh we're going to take it a step at a time and take those issues that we got repeat findings from state board of accounts and address those first and then kind of work other areas. If you're familiar with the issues we may have had with the surveying thing that was another issue that that's not even covered by the state on intro controls for the surveyor's office. So that's something that that you know we might look at as well when they develop a new. So um a lot of lot of workload involved in that one but critical thing is that as you're well aware critical thing to have in in an organization and the one thing I found in the federal level um it's not only the financial side which is what the state focuses on they just focus on financial controls on the federal side they focus on operations as well. So any area that spends taxpayer money, guess what? You know, they want to see your mission and functions. They want to see your your your procedures, they want to see your outlines, they want to see your internal control, and they want to see an annual review that you're doing that. And that's fine. If if you've got a gap, you don't notify it, identify corrective action plan, and and send it forward. So, um, a little more robust in the federal side, but you're dealing with more money. Um, so anyway, we'll figure out what works for the for the county. We again with the resources that we have and and maybe reach out, get even more volunteers that have accounting backgrounds maybe. But that that's going to help. [clears throat] Um, what else? New hires. Um, IT director was new. Um, and then we we kind of changed job descriptions in the commissioner's office and we split one of the duties on the commission's office between the auditor and between the commissioners. So when it comes to payroll and benefits, that's back in the auditor's uh realm where it used to be historically. So it's it kind of made no sense if you're managing timekeeping, but yet you've got somebody managing your benefits over here. It's huge. Those two go hand in hand.

So we fix that, plug that gap, and then we that frees up time for the assistant we have in that position. And that's what we call a shared resource. So when other organizations are short somebody or need temporary help or this or that, then we have a shared resource. we can share those other departments. So, that's kind of the first official shared resource position description with Pat and the county. So, that seems to be working out so far pretty well. Um position description changes, that's another huge thing. We had to update all the position descriptions and we approved them. What's new for the county is though those include classifications. So even though that system has been around the federal side and state side since about the 1950s it was kind of new new to the county where we had 35 pay rates. We kind of eliminated those pay grades. We called classifications the classification has a pay ban.

So now we're in the process that pay ban affects salaries. So now we're in the process of of integrating that system in and that's that will have its challenges as well. You can almost guarantee it but got to be open for next year.

This is a start. So so we're doing that. So if you're a a clerk, you know, your payment scale is that. So it's called classification. So we approve the the descriptions. We approve the classification that's on the description, but the council approves the money. And I know on the federal side, we always got by law, they always went back and did those salary comparisons and always said the feds are underpaid and Congress said, "Thank you very much. Here's what we're paying based on available money." So that's how that process works. Uh the appointments was another surprise. I mean, we we we just started taking a fresh look at that. It's almost like in the budgeting terms, you go zero based budgeting. We're almost going zerobased policy. It's like, are those assignments linked to in Indiana code? In Indiana code on the boards and commissions have all these things outlined and I think Kevin and I, we spent a couple hours trying to figure out one of them. And then between Kevin and I and Mike Mog, we had a heck of a time as a math problem to make sure some of these positions didn't overlap. So, we fixed that one. services, the staggering of terms,

staggering of terms. Yeah. And that was something that was never done. Um, and so we we changed that one. There's a couple others that people weren't aware that we weren't meeting that particular requirement. So that was an interesting process all by itself when you balance out. And then Mikey had to go back and look at the legislation that supported the change in the law that some of these things just weren't clear. So, a lot of lot of interesting stuff. Uh, the comprehensive planning and zoning. We didn't approve the draft plan that we came up with. There wasn't enough public meetings. So, we're working to resolve that and and look for a a plan going forward. U miscellaneous infrastructure. Uh Pumpkin Ridge, I think you're familiar with. I think I have it on the agenda every time. Let you know what the status is. Indian Hill, we're still at it. Um we got turned down in January for a $ 1.9 million grant to bring it up to the standards INDOT's expecting. Then we applied for $400,000 grant to do a a preliminary engineer report and uh that will give us the money we need to do a plan in order to bid it bid it out for work once we find the funding. So that one we're waiting to see what the status on that is. Um I've been in contact with our legislators. I've talked to Dave Hall, Eric Cook, Matt Pierce from Bloomington. Uh he he's involved in the trails in Indian Hill Road cut off access to Cumy Trail. So, we got a dozen stakeholders that call me every now and then, want to know when we're going to open this thing up. So, we'll see. I mean, once we get the plan, we see if we can phase it in [cough] and then [clears throat] and then up it for the vehicles, but then that's a communication with the railroad as well. Um, health insurance costs. I won't touch on that, but a lot going on there. We took a fresh look at it. We changed the health insurance system about what was it two years ago? A whole new system. And and if you recall from previous folks that have been to meetings for a few years, it was always around October that we were like 600 or $700,000 short. And it was always in July where we always said, "Well, I need

700,000." But they took it out so they could bounce the budget. And that's something we fixed. So we really never took a systemic look until you had that team go through and reook that whole insurance thing and and and and do something different, which it tends it's working out pretty well, it appears at this point.

Yeah. Um, and then that brought back a lot of things because we added a lot of things, a lot of patches and fixes to the health insurance program under the old one. And so now we're thinking, okay, what makes sense? And uh, is there is there options or opportunities in that one? And again, when we talk about change to the health insurance, that's why we have these monthly meetings with department heads. Anything we make from a personnel side, there's no surprise. I don't want any department head to be surprised by anything we're doing. We have the meeting, we tell them, here's what we're looking at. And unfortunately, we looked at the HSA, the the the $1,000, and that was intended to help people defay the cost of increases in insurance premiums from the old provider. Well, the old provider went away. We got a new provider. We got additional uh uh benefits to cover those long-term costs, but then we had $1,000 a year per employee. So, we looked at that and unfortunately, you know, it was taken as like, let's take it out of our own budget. We never got to that point. Um we got some pretty good feedback from the department heads. We say, "Ah, we're not tackling this at this point. We're look at it the next year in in in light of the other changes we made from pay." And I tell you, when you change people's pay systems, that's the number one on their hit parade. You mess with people's pay, you got their interest, you better be squared away on on what you're doing and be able to explain it. We weren't there on anything when it came to health insurance. So, but we'll take a time out and see how this thing goes forward. So So, yeah. And then uh

just a list of the remainder of those. If you go down through there's quite a list and a lot of it's been basically focused around contract and putting in ordinances and captiv aspects of it because one of the first things we dealt with was Combs Road. Oh, that was a fun as far as

going through the exercise that one of the first things that we also did this year was actually taking our yearly biders that we supply with us and put them under contract. So there was a lot of work taken to capture the actual agreement and what the scopes were and deliveries to us. Um the other aspect of that was an interlocal agreement that had been not addressed with regards to the sewer waste as far as sharing the asset as far as the building where solid waste and the garage are. So that was clarification done and renewed there. Redistricting was a big part of that. We had been out of balance with regards to our council districts. Those are required by populace selection. So we brought within brought ourselves within compliance with the redistricting with you did and those new maps were passed earlier in the year and then other aspects relating and working on ordinance related to credit cards courthouse parking ordinance and then like you said earlier contract reviews and after we sat down and actually took a particular look at this there's a lot of capital improvements a lot of that happened with regards to the highway along with the other one. So, sewer station uh update with regards to the town of Nashville, replacing obviously the bridge of country club road, doing the paving for the detour related to the bridge of country club road. Um actually getting ourselves in good position and a federal grant which is not easy to get for Alensville bridge replacement. Uh rehabilitation work um that's going to take place this year for the bridge at Hoover and Sweetwater. and that was done through the CCMG program led by Eric and the the team there. Um we've got under design actually the Mount Liberty bridge replacement that's in process that was actually started in again target probably the latter or part of construction maybe LA late this year early next is the organization there paving is planned now we prevented us from getting the paving done but paving

has been approved and have funds in place for the Grand View count Grand View Road County Road 400 Sawmill and Grandma Barnes um today there's actually work being done on Orchard road bridge which went from a went down to a 2,000 ton or two ton weight limit because of some piling. So that's all being taken care of emergency authorization HVAC system replacements that took place at the solid waste and health department. Um air quality in you know testing the air quality and that with regards to the prosecutor's office flood damage repair done to on Hoover Road in Salmon with regards to Culberts for the flood that was done earlier in the year getting under contract the replacement for the sighting in the Sycamore Valley or the I can't remember it's [clears throat] called the cap office but I forget it first part of it. uh court services as far as moving them out of the actual facility here and then them merging in with the department down in the courthouse. Um fixing the issue at the security area at the courthouse for drainage and then clerk's office improvements with regards to security. So quite a bit to take place.

Let me you done go u I already touched on the arc and private alliance. I'll revisit that on contracts. I know I'm pretty sure it used to be that the county council had to approve the trustees later. So [clears throat] we need to be looking at um trustee contracts also. Just a question. No, they're not listed as one of the officials in the in the statute. Okay. So they're not along with the prosecutor nor the judge.

Okay. The other thing is we cut the employees. We they didn't get the 3% raises in this year. If we had the money, I understand that we thought we were in dire needs and that was probably the reason it did and didn't get it. But this coming year, I think it would be time to put it back on there, just raising something. We can go down that path, but again, that's a council.

That's fine. But they need to I mean, if the money was there to cut, you know, the inflation raise and I talked to some people and they said they were never even notified about that and that was just recent. Uh, and you tried explaining this to me, but I'm still just dunce on it about why we cut the retirement for four people for 10 months and then reinstated it in October. I don't need an answer. I just um I just thought that that wasn't really good. That's not bad. I looked at the prosecutor office yesterday after leaving the meeting and I told you that there might be some room to add on to the front of the building.

I just stepped it off. You know, I thought there was eight or 10 feet there. I walked it off and I think it was about 10 feet in the front of the prosecutor's office before you actually get in the parking lot. So, if this don't work out with the town, I think we can go forward enough. 10 foot's enough for an office width. I think [clears throat] and then the length of the building. And then if you go up to the roof, you could probably raise the roof out depending on what pitch you put on it, provide more space or you might even want to put a whole floor up front. I don't know. I think there's something we could look at if you know it comes down to it. We have the money to do something there and that's what the money was borrowed for. I originally said if we weren't going to use that money, we should spend it back to the bank and give the taxpayers a break. the LEC on the uh AC units I that's been going on ever since I've been here.

Yeah. So, originally the number we had a number of $640,000 but basically we didn't have any money. That was the case on a lot of this stuff like the water heater, the boiler and all that. Once we actually got some money, then you can do things when you actually have money. But uh the AC that 640,000 didn't originally uh include the crane and it didn't include the startup. I think it was like $2,200 a unit for startup for units, but that is actually included in the current contract that they're getting ready to execute. I think starting Monday at the jail. So they've already been on site doing some preliminary um coordination activities.

So the 12th they're actually going to do the first day of prep, meaning just go inside and bring the equipment [clears throat] and that kind of thing. And I think the first set of four they're looking at four facing four units. Two on Tuesday and two on Thursday. I almost thought that college at all in two weeks, but this time of year that's going to be hard to achieve. Yeah.

I don't know if they're going to leave a crane on site or not. So then we've also been working on the cap office and community corrections. We've been working on that. Some things got slowed up. U money for one thing, moving the community corrections down to the U courthouse [clears throat] and then we everybody wanted to get more bids, at least three bids, and we in the end we still ended up using the original contractor and um but anyway, it's been a lot. Hold on. Thanks. I just want to want to confirm one other thing too is that the sheriff um our representative our um technical rep confirmed this morning Dan with the sheriff that he'd basically gone through and all of the personnel on site had been processed and confirmed. That was one of the key things with regards to start of that project.

I seen something in an email about the tools. They wanted confirmation of the tools that they brought in there. Yeah. That nothing gets left behind, right? Don't want no prisoners escaping. Thanks, R. Just sum up summarize it.

Goals and initiatives for next year, some of priorities. The capital asset policy. Uh that's on that's a repeat finding my state board of council take on. Then the capital improved plan budget. Again, as a goal, I'm assuming we get funded. Uh the personnel contract support another one another priority for us is the not only the policy but the training goes along with it. Um again we expect that to be refunded. Uh finance and accounting want to provide more frequent updates everybody let you know where we're at. I think I can do it on one or two slides. I've just got to get the information in a way that I can communicate it to everybody. [clears throat] So um we'll keep on that one. The management in control program I talked about uh public safety needs and funding. We're looking at that. Um, guess yeah. And then approve the 2027 budget process. I think we all agree with that. And then again, I think something new is at least an anal update from the appointees to boards and commissions because we appoint people to boards and commissions, but never really get a formal feedback as to what we what what they did or what their experience has been. So, we'll try to work that one in. And then just to kind of summarize, you know, how do you how do you how do you coordinate all these kind of things? If you go back to our agenda on the back, I always put a I say reverse. I always have a task list out here that we review, you know, in our admin meetings. So, any of these things that we've got a to-do kind of thing. This is probably 80 to 90% of them on the back of our agenda. And then then we have the meetings. Um, if you look at how we do our meetings, those meetings we use to coordinate all these different changes and assess priorities. So, that's that's our system for for for managing the office and trying to get things done. And it was a busy year. I think it surprised us all on the amount of challenges we had and the things that need to be done. So, u appreciate everybody's support on that one. All right. Um that moves us down to no service contracts. That's got to be the first time in forever.

Um county office department. Teresa, anything to add? No, I don't I probably, but I don't can't think of anything right now. I tell you the budget thing burns you out, doesn't it? Yeah, [clears throat] Eric, I really don't have anything normal business. Um, the bridges that were critical finding, we had six of them. Um, on the new report, on the report that I sent you guys, we had six. Okay.

Uh, so that's total six critical finds. We've taken care of all, we've addressed all their concerns. Um, one of the bridges is getting repaired done today, like you said. Uh, the other one on bridge 20 on Hoover is CCMG. That'll start here real soon. So there's two out of the six. The third one, Mount Liberty, we're under contract. So there's three out of the six. Uh one of them is on Al Creek. That's going to be a complete replacement. Um it's the abupments are bad. The the beams are bad. It's it's all bad. So we're looking at that, getting a cost. And then the other one on Mount Mariah we looked at this morning. The abupments are good, the deck's good. That looks like it could be a beam a beam replacement. So we we'll have to cut the deck off. Uh the biggest issue with Mount Mariah is it's a dead end. So we've got to get a workaround. So it it wouldn't be closed very long, but long enough to where someone had to get out, they they need out. So we're looking at cordury. Maybe cordury has access up there at their spillway like an old road we could open or put in a temporary struct, you know, culvert and and make a a round, but we're working on that. So Okay. So, we we've addressed all the issues and we're in compliance with INDOT.

Great. Thanks, sir. Um, you went to school and I thought you was going to check on I don't know if you had a chance to or not on what the other counties was possibly doing. I think Kevin, I think it was our last meeting said that we thought we would have a value on our bridges in February. And I didn't know if you had a chance when you were up there to see what county how we could value our roads so we can complete the assets.

It it's a challenge. I did speak with several. Um it's a challenge to do that because the data doesn't go back. You don't know, you know, we've got those little cards, but those are kind of hard to read. You don't know the dates of the roads trying to get when they were built, when they were done. I am working with one of our consultants now who's kind of doing a a a good deed for for us. He's working I I sent him all the information and he's actually going through the miles and the lane miles and he's looking at the bridges and the years because they actually the book has you know build dates. So I'm hoping to have a rough idea within two weeks of of value. Okay.

So but it is difficult. The date is just not there. And even INDOT when I endot is doing their own the the data is just not there. So what about the uh equipment like road grader? I have JCB. We also got a JCB and the the John Deere grader. I I haven't spoke with them since late December. I believe we're still on track for early this month. Okay. Like the 12th or something. You might want to give them a call. Like I said, I'm not all tore up about the JCB with the roads, gravel roads and stuff. That grater would be nice to have.

Yep. We're we're hauling stone daily. That's like 90% of our workload right now is hauling it in and hauling it out. So, we've got guys hauling from the shop out. We've got guys hauling from the Corey out and we've got guys bringing from the Corey to the shop. So, it's a it's mad house right now with stone being moved. Wow. Okay, that's all I have. Thanks, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay. The uh ongoing business I kind of already covered. I'll open it up to public comments. I John, you want to be on the agenda? Sure.

Appreciate it. Appreciate all the work everybody's doing. There's a lot going on. Uh my name is John Mueller. Um my property is on Hoover Road. Um I border Pumpkin Ridge Road. And what I wanted to address was among other things I guess is just really regarding Pumpkin Ridge Road. There's been a great deal of discussion and input on this issue. Uh clearly uh DNR and INDOT would have ripped an $ 8.4 million mon monstrosity through there with no consideration to the residents and local inputs. Um it was residents that pointed out the serious flaws in the initial project. through this all uh Commissioner Patrick has seemed to be in favor of this project at all costs. I've asked a couple of times why why that's the case. For whatever [snorts] reason, I never got an answer to that. Um I think I've maybe have some insight into why that may be. Uh, Commissioner Patrick's family has a logging company, and in my opinion, this clearly puts the commissioner in conflict with state forest projects and tendered logging contracts, either through their family companies or those they work through. DNR has made it clear that Mountain Te will be timbered again based on control burns historically and recently. Um, this is inevitable. It's been confirmed by DNR and I ask Commissioner Patrick to recognize this conflict and recuse himself from the vote on that Pumpkin Ridge Road project. If you do not, I ask the board to pressure you to recuse yourself. If the board refuses, I ask the community to demand that recusal. Imminent domain has three legs. its

public access, its fair market value, and its due process. And in my opinion, this conflict threatens due process in this case. I'll leave it at that. And well, I'll make a motion that Patrick refuses. So motion didn't carry a second. All right. Thanks, John. Anybody else? Public comments. No, Pumpkin Ridge.

It's not about Pumpkin Ridge. Is that okay? We talk about something else. Um Tim, I uh I'm going to publicly tell the world that um what you've done in your first year has been pretty amazing. Um they were things that we talked about for five years. So, congratulations. Um, it's awesome to see that and I think you're cleaning it up quite nicely. Thanks, Shar. Got a hell lot of help. [applause] I I mean that lot of help.

I mean, we talked about it every day for five years. So, thanks. Especially the internal controls, the SOPs, the um excess monies going into health insurance and on and on and on. and of course the elimination of that dog tax which I asked for multiple times. So, thank you. Okay, so enough of that sugar.

Let's get to the soul. Uh I want to know why it is that we continue to look for a new prosecutor's office when the entire reason for getting a new prosecutor's office was asbestous and mold, which Kevin, thank you for testing, and is not there. So, why do we continue to move forward, especially knowing we have such critical issues in Eric's department? I mean, you know, I I I'm sure the prosecutor would like a little more elbow room, but I'm sure the residents would like to be able to get back and forth to their homes. Um, and I also understand that council has passed something. I'm assuming a resolution on how to spend this budget

the four million sorry the GO fund go bond outside was that a resolution outside governed by an ordinance and the courthouse I understand it's governed by an ordinance Kevin I've read them multiple times ain't the first time ordinances ain't the ordinances in the county or do you mean the two ordinances in the county one created by the council and one created by the commissioner's office on how to spend that money specifically outlined Well, ordinances can be changed. They absolutely can. If you did it, I can undo it. And if the public's priority is critical bridge work, I would think that you should take a look at it. Sure. We made no decision on the prosecutor's office.

But you had a meeting on Monday. I did watch with the Nashville police to see if if that building is going to be available. And that money is not coming out of the gold bond. that has that source if if the Nashville Police Department becomes available, uh that money has to be found elsewhere in the budget, not from the Gold Bond. Correct. Yeah. It can't be used. And if that falls through, we'll look at all the options concerning the prosecution. There's no decisions made. There's no detailed analysis on any of the options. So, it's premature balloting. Our first step is figure out the prosecutor's office, Nashville PD. And until we get that decision, that that triggers things. Pardon me. Where are you looking? For

a new office for the prosecutor. The space. More space. It's more space. Uh more more security, more meeting rooms to fit to fit how they how they work in business. Ted reviewed that. We looked at it from a maintenance standpoint. He said it fit his requirements. Ideally, security is nice. Uh the parking around it is is nice as a benefit. So, there's a lot of pros to making that a prosecutor's office. if if all the different hoops or different requirements could be met by other ways and and we don't we just don't know. We're just looking at it as an option.

There was one other thing, Sherry, on that too was storage. Um if we got a different building, it would help with the storage of the Yeah. Um, but I watched that meeting three times and I specifically remember you saying Kevin that there was allocated two to two and a half million dollars in the go in the GO bond which is what you call it um to buy this new building. No to build a building to build it or renovate a building. Never was it mentioned buy. No, I see. But obviously um go bonds can be used for real estate purchase. Not this one. Are you sure about that?

Yes ma'am. Had to look at it by our attorney. Yeah. Okay. So um you would have to take out a new loan then of some flavor. Basically would be going through exercise and conversations and looking at what's available in cash reserves if it is. Okay. So if you don't do that then how do you allocate the other two 2 and a.5 million?

So as it stands with that ordinance right now if any of that money is to be spent outside of the project list. So the project list has to be completed first. So all the work that we've done to date has been doing that with the law enforcement center with the courthouse with regards to it. The one remaining is a prosecutor's office. And then we as a county, and I don't know the the intricates of this, this is a question for council. Council specifically designated that the prosecutor's office is one of the projects that must be completed and that money must be used be on it before anything else can be considered. And again, ordinances can be undone just as easily as they were made.

I don't know that that's as easy as you think it is with regards to a bond. Um, it's not sure. So anyh who um another question I had was did you say that we just cited sycamore? No we have not cited sycamore. We are under contract to have it fixed. Am I um crazy or did that was like two or three loans ago that we were going to fix that according to Diana Biddle. Am I nuts? I swear that was on our list. We finally got Do you remember? We finally got a new roof on it. Yeah, we did it last year. I was thinking the sighting was on there. No, I don't think we cited it. We haven't cited it. It may have been on a former

I want to say it was actually one of the projects on a previous Go back and look at one capital improvement bond. It very well could have been. Good lord. Okay, thanks. Let me uh jump back in here for a second while we're still on the topic of the pumpkin ridge. and you gave me an explanation the other day, Kevin, if you could share the explanation with people from pumping range, I'd appreciate it.

But what I have been seeing is there's been something like 300 INDOT projects counledled and I seen something about the governor saying that he wasn't going to follow the same agenda as Eric Oak did. And you, I believe, told me the other day that that $8 million wasn't INDOT's money, that it was DNR money. That's correct. So, it's DNR that's uh paying for the $8 million. So, you guys already knew that. Did you understand that? We were told by DNR that they requested INDOT improved road.

That is not INDOT's money. It's DNR's money. Is that correct, Kevin? That's correct. Yeah, because if it's DNR's money, then with all these projects by end up being cancelled, that may not even be affected or even on the radar up there. Does DNR have imminent domain privileges? INDOT does, but it's not an INDOT project. You just said INDOT's the project manager for the road. The funding is coming from DNR. Then I get back to my question and DNR have imminent domain correct privileges.

Correct. [snorts] Huh? Sorry. Bob or I think you're next. Dwayne. Yeah. Dwayne Parsons. Alcohol and Tobacco Commission. You were talking about appointments earlier. Uh, how are you coming along on on the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission? Have you got any anybody on the roster to to look at or N? Don't believe so. And it's it was advertised as I recall. Correct. Okay. I'll try and help you if I can. Okay. You've got Ross Benson on there now as an appointee. I don't know his intentions. I haven't talked to him. I'll see him. Okay.

On the I think the 26th is our next meeting. And you spoke uh very briefly about you'd like to I think if I understood it right you wanted to be more kept a breast of what the appointees are are doing and my agendas that I get from the state always come tomorrow always about a day after the Wednesday I get them on Thursday so I try to deliver them to you three and although he didn't appoint me I tried to as a courtesy give them to you three and to Teresa I was appointed by the uh council and I give them all one too. So, is there anything else I can do on my end to keep you better informed?

No, we appreciate that, Dwayne. That's one of the exceptions on on reporting, you know, and you do a super job on doing that. I think Andy Alexander from the veterans, he he's pretty extensive, too, and he sends us back. 99% of ours are automatic removals, meaning no violations, no problems, or not new or or anything. So, if there's anything at all that I can help with, uh, assuming I get reappointed, I'd be happy to keep you in the loop and I'll try to get the forms to you the day after I get Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

My name is Bob Cle. I'm a property owner on uh Pumpkin Ridge Road. I've owned the property. My wife and I have owned the property. 47 acres initially we purchased in 2001. And then we also purchased 146 acres uh of that formerly owned by the the Nature Conservancy. First of all, I'd like to express appreciation uh to Tim and that um I really felt strongly that since there's a big part of that project basically is bordered on my property that I wanted not to look at maps, paper maps, but to actually see what are the construction boundaries that potentially could be in my mind confiscated from me. Maybe I get some sort of compensation from that. I don't know. But if that in fact that staking is I think going to start this week. My wife and I will be down there on Friday. And what I want to do is walk that entire edge of my 47 acres and be able to see how much property would be impacted by that. [snorts] Uh and even look at the number of huge trees that are going to be taken down. Is it going to be 10 trees? Is it going to be 100 trees? Are you taking 8 feet or 10 feet or is that going to go 50 ft up in into my property? So, um this is something that I had requested some time ago for for Tam. I appreciate getting the support because I believe that this week the uh construction boundary is going to be staked off and that would be a nice visual not only for me but for others to see how much is going to be impacted by the project. Secondly, uh and in related to that point, um I went and uh sent a a note to um Tim as well and I said, you know, I remember when we bought the

property, uh someone had said that there our septic system is located just to the north of Pumpkin Ridge Road. And I had sent a note to uh to Tim and also Nick Ba who I've been somewhat critical of in the past. and not being very helpful or responsive. And I say, I'd really like to find out where my septic field is, you know, the the the the tank, the finger system, and so on. Um, so I know whether or not this project is going to basically impact my septic system. And so, uh, Nick, Nick, to his credit, he he said, "Look, I know that that information, the septic permits and so on are down at the health department." And so, he went the extra mile and not just said, "Here's the number that you call." He actually contacted and sent me the original septic permits that were filed back in May of 1993. So, some 20 plus 30 plus years ago, right? Um, and an interesting thing just as a visual, you probably can't see this, but it stunned me to find out that here is our home. Here is a initial septic tank, a $1,000 tank. And here is the line, the sewage line that goes from that tank all the way through and under Pumpkin Ridge Road. and in fact found out that the finger system is on John's property.

Wow. Now, who designed that? Why did that make any sense?

I have no idea. No idea. But uh just to read you a comment from Nick. He was going to uh consult with some additional people in terms of septic the septic field and so on. And here's just a a sentence I'll read to him. If indeed the septic line crosses Pumpkin Ridge Road as it appears, it will almost certainly be in conflict with the project. An appraiser would need to get estimates from local septic tank contractors in using those compensate you to hire one to install the new system fully on your property. This would all happen this would all need to happen prior to any construction and you will be involved in those discussions. So, first of all, I'm I'm glad that I raised the issue. I appreciate Tim your support and because initially my request was just to stake that off, but now we've got even a better outcome to really identify whether or not that entire line would need to be relocated. And I I know there's a lot of pressure to get on with the project, but he's saying you you can't start doing work on Pumpkin Ridge Road until we understand right that and it's going to impact my my septic field. One final comment uh I would make I appreciate John uh pointing out a potential conflict of interest. I spent my entire career with Eli Lillian Company. I'm not an attorney by background. I do have a masters in business. Spent my entire career with Lily working around the world. Um and a lot of my experience was in human resources and routinely we dealt with issues like conflict of interest. Um Kevin, what uh I understand John to say is that your family has got a basically a logging business. Is that correct?

That's correct. Do you have any direct or indirect compensation with your family business? No, I do not. You do not. Did you not used to work for your brother? Don't you work for That was two years, three years ago. Do you receive any compensation uh direct or indirect from that business? When I worked for him after I got here from California in 2017 and 2018. Okay. I thought you told me at one point that you actually do still run a temper jack from time to time. That's not happening now. do not have not ran it in since 2020.

But you you would not view this to be a potential conflict of interest in terms of you making a vote on whether or not to proceed with the project and the outcome of that project could be timbering a bunch not only of the the property along the road but then access into Mount T street forest. You don't see it's a conflict of interest that your brother could potentially bid on those. It's a bid process. Sure. But you don't see that as a conflict of interest that your brother in bidding on that and you having a decision on whether or not that project would proceed? No. Okay. I think others would view that differently. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you for your time. And I might point out um when it comes to logging um that that's I don't get the the comment a logger can get back there regardless of what we do with the road. No my there's a favoritism issue here. And before you vote on on on that recusal Tim you should know a little more before you cast your vote. I did that needs to be I knew everything that needs to be understood clearly. Knew everything Kevin mentioned. It's a surprise issue came up. So anyway, let me I know I also think don't DNR law

absolutely they they didn't they just buy X amount of number millions in tenders on the mountain tea property? They have before. They finished one eight years [clears throat] ago, nine years ago.

They they have controlled burns going on now. They just finished a large one last year. And that and what follows those controlled burns is is timbering. And Jack Seaffort has confirmed that they will be timbering that property. Wow. And isn't it odd that we're going to really widen this road now and a commissioner had his family associated with logging company and is voting and and has been absolutely in favor and completely quiet about why he has been far at all costs. That is strange. Going back to the also going back to the septic thing. Uh I don't think even if this was to happen they won't start before 27 because on septics typically here in this county I'm not saying that it would affect yours exactly [clears throat] but most of the time that works done in the fall when it's really dry. Um, and then the systems nowadays are so expensive. When you had yours put in, it probably didn't cost $30,000. Now they're 30,000 plus.

Yeah. Yeah. They're expensive. Let me clarify a couple issues on this whole issue. As you recall, previous commissioners made an agreement with uh with DNR and INDOT to get the funding for the governor, and we learned of that back in March. Our initial vote was was uh I think Kevin voted initially on on their on their agreement that we saw and then Ron and I was a no. Uh and then the next month I think we had another meeting on that agreement. We got a unanimous vote to table this thing until we got more information and that's what we've been doing for 6 months now and we appreciate that.

Okay. And and it it will continue and we [clears throat] always like to throw out the headline the $8 million. Well, as we've explained before, when when NDOT proposes a project like that, they went big. They went they went to Cadillac roads. I mean, they're putting an interstate back there and they and they were and they were and the and they were going up on the ridgetops on the construction limits. So, they went about as massive as you could possibly get for a road. The intent of that is when you talk government and you talk funding is you want to make sure that you've got the money that you need to finish the project because you never know what what intricacies you might have with a particular project. So they went high they went big and they got that I think it was 6 million million and a half for for design or whatever based on a grandiose scientific wild ass kind of guess as to what might happen but that's been paired down. They've got they've went smaller. Instead of 22 ft, it's 18 ft. Um they've asked for two exceptions to end on design requirements for the road. And again, when we talked about that when it talks to to to land, uh the construction limits may be one thing. Uh because the requirement from the residents is we want to be able to transverse that road coming and going, so it has to stay open. Well, if you're m improving a road, but yet you want to keep it open, they're going to have to add additional uh uh land to put a road in there. So you can get in and out. So when it comes to the final decision, that's why they're they're staking this stuff now. And then they'll have the on-site visits with you guys as well.

Let's stake Salt Creek. If the money is in INDOT's pocket, they have access from Salt Creek. And none of this headache has to happen. And I sent that to them for consideration. And I think it was a a funding kind of kind of issue. They got funding for updating a road to go to recreational area versus versus a new road. So they'll explain that the next time we have them here at a meeting. They'll explain it. I sent them your letter. I saw the paper. Send them your letter. They they've got it and and we'll get your response.

And so we don't have a final plan. When we talk about cost, we don't know what it's going to cost. Um until we get that final plan and that final design. Um then we have a cost. And then the other option came out says, "Well, the county ought to do it." Well, don't have a plan. And if the county was do anything with that road, guess what? Eric wants them would have to have a plan as to what we're going to do. And so, uh, we're not there. We don't have the data yet. We don't have the information and we don't make a decision until all the information is there. And we're in no rush. Said that we've been at this since March.

And, you know, I update you guys on the on the agenda. I put on the agenda every month. So, there's nothing new. There's not going to be surprises. And Bob, thank you for the kudos to to Nick. I think he I loved the information he provided. I think initially we had a communication thing with the emails and and addresses and that's a a perennial problem in this county. I think we fixed that.

Nick's been great for us to work with. When I ask him stuff, he responds and same way with the induct team. So, um uh it's all getting to the point where we're collecting the information you need to tee it up and then make a decision. And and we're not there yet when it comes to all the information. So, appreciate the input, appreciate the concern. I'm I hear you. But again, we have our attorney online. We taught all this stuff with our attorney. We have monthly meetings on this stuff. So don't think conflict of interest is going to be relevant to this particular case. So anyway, that's where we're at. But it's DNR money is management.

Correct. It's not their funds. Correct. Okay. Um, open that up to legal. Stephanie, anything? Hold on. Typically, we uh ask if there's anybody in the audience that has anything else. We just we just went through that. Anybody else? Y'all done? Going once. Going twice. Done. [clears throat] Stephanie off to us. No update. Okay. All right. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Okay. Second. Meeting's adjourned.