Common Council - Regular Meeting

Today is June 2nd, 2025 at 6:35 p.m. We'll begin our meeting as usual with the pledge of allegiance. Please join. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Tonight, our invocation is provided by Pastor Nen Mlen from North Charletown Church of God. Pastor Mlen, old hat for you, but come on up. You know the drill. Okay. you all agree with us in prayer here tonight. Lord God, we thank you tonight, Lord, for the opportunity to come here and pray up over this city meeting here tonight. I just pray, God, your directions and guidance, wisdom and understanding. I pray for encouragement and strength to do whatever needs to be done to help the city to grow for the right things. And we pray your blessings and peace upon all in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Appreciate you. God, take care. Sure. Good to see you. Thank you for coming. Let the record show tonight's meeting is being live streamed by under production multimedia. We'll have a roll call. We have a couple members that were trying to get on by Zoom, but if they're not able to join us, we will continue um regardless. So, um screens is currently not with us. Shannon Elder here. Brian Hester here. Chuck Deon currently not with us, but we do have a quorum. An agenda has been provided. I need to entertain a motion to The meeting's been start Shannon makes the motion. Yeah. How do I get it on the screen? Second by Brian Hester. Any edits or questions on the agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I mean, it's on a window on the computer. How do I get it on the TV? Right. Floyd,

it's okay. We'll just progress. All right. Agenda's been approved. Our standing business includes our prior meeting minutes from May 7th, 2025. our current claims in our payroll allowance docket from April 28th to May 25th. Entertain a motion to approve as provided. Have a motion by Shannon Heler. Was there a second? Second. Second by Bo Mertram. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. That is unanimous. Uh, no one has signed up for public comments. Our leg is summer, so our legislative youth adviser doesn't always make it in our summer meetings. We understand that. Um, as far as the mayor's comments, I just want to make sure everybody is aware I put open house um, invitations at your site for showing off our newly renovated arts and enrichment center on Sunday, June 22nd from 3:30 to 5:30. I encourage you to come early and participate in our group trivia. It's really fun. It grows every year. We have more and more people that come and and do the trivia. So, it's really a good time. And, uh, all of our Founders Week activities are posted on our parks page. to charletown parks.com. You can click the link and it has everything lined up and I believe they're going to run it in the News and Tribune tomorrow so that we're getting that preview out mostly. I really want you guys to publish in your neighborhoods and hope your neighborhoods to do a float for the parade. So the theme this year is beautiful day in the neighborhood. The one and only Donna Kumer is going to be our official grand marshall as a thank you in celebration of her many years of service to the city of Charles Town. Thank you. So we'll put her right up front and center for everybody. But but I um we're hoping that people in their neighborhoods will get together and decorate their floats to represent their neighborhood and participate. So I kind of want to get that and get that out there. Um are there any council comments at this time? If you get a chance, go tomorrow night and watch

Charlestown girls softball. They won their sectional first time in several years. Um and they get a chance to play the regionals from Franklin County. Are they doing any kind of send off for them or anything? Not I haven't heard they may, but I haven't heard anything. Um, it'll be six o'clock. It's about almost two hours away. So, we'll check WPMQ and see. So, be a good chance to see the girls are doing a great job. They play hard. They work hard. They deserve support. So, yeah. Any other comments? All right. At this time we did have um a public hearing advertised for sewer capacities. Donna and you confirm with your staff nearby that that was advertised as appropriate through cross talk. Correct. All right. Um so at this time I will officially open the public hearing on the increase in sewer capacity fees. If there is anyone here to make remmonstrance on the sewer capacity fees, this would be the time to speak. Since there is no one in the gallery that's speaking, we will officially close the public hearing portion of this meeting for the sewer capacity fees and move on through our agenda. First up, we have two items under old business. The first on our list is ordinance 20259, the sewer capacity fees on its second reading. This passed on first reading at our last meeting. As a reminder, this is an increase only in new user capacity fees from 2100 per EDU to 3,100 EU. This was done after a study by Baker Tilly um found that we were within range that need a motion to motion by Brian Tester. I'll second second by Shannon Elder. Any other questions on this one? 22509 hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Passes on second reading. Next up we have second reading of

ordinance 20258 amending the parks ordinance on its second reading. This is to allow for the use of alcoholic beverages during private rentals only of the arts and enrichment center for events like weddings. Uh utilizing a licensed bartender with adequate insurance for city coverage. Need a motion to approve. Make a motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. Do I have a second? Second by Bo Bertram. Any questions on this one? I do. Okay. Um in the ordinance it says to sell alcohol Right. So, the reason being that sometimes people won't have an open bar at their event. So, they might have a licensed bartender there and the events, the people who are attending that event would still have to purchase that from that bartender. So, the city's not selling it, but the person who provides it might sell it to the events at that to the people attending that private event. Can I play that with that? You always do and it's always welcome. Uh, I rent it out. I sell alcohol. I have a big band, a big party. Why can't I make money from that? Why don't I do that every weekend? It's not the purpose of the Arts and Enrichment Center rental agreement. And I think that I think that comes down to the to the rental agreement. We do have groups that use it that make money off of it. So, for example, um the critter convention that's coming um as a in conjunction with Founders Day, they have small animal critters like reptiles and whatever that they come and they show, they charge a ticket price. They are a nonprofit. They charge money for people to come in and do that. They make money off of that. Um, and honestly, if they're paying our rental fees and they're respecting the property, as long as it's open restriction, that career commission is probably going for a fundraiser for

something instead of a person making money to make money. Okay. I just wanted to say that Tony Jackson is building commissioner. He could probably provide some feedback on that. Yeah, most part uh there's they're scheduled out for the rest of the year. So that's highly unlikely. Okay. So I can schedule it in 2027 every weekend. No. And I'll speak to that. We do not allow That's one thing we do not allow. We do not allow long-term permanent rentals anymore. We've we've done that in the past with churches and we have found it to be extremely problematic because it ends up removing it from the people in the community that it's designed to serve. So, we actually only allow long-term rentals like that for events or people that are benefiting the entire community. So, for example, the senior citizens use it every Tuesday. We have a lease agreement with them where they're allowed to use it every single Tuesday. Um the again, I'm playing devil's advocate. I have a party every weekend. Why can't that benefit the community? It's not open to everybody. This is for private events. It we actually do not allow that. We will not allow the alcohol for public events. It's for private events only. And when I when I was studying that Dora, one of the things that it talked about is when you have events where they have an open bar, you're more likely to have more trouble. If you have a cash bar, people are less likely to to overdrink because of the cost. So, it's actually pretty good if it's a cash bar. I promise you there's people go to cash bars and get it. Oh, yeah. Oh, I know that. But I'm just saying over the limit and what they should be for the most part. I'm just saying that's playing devil's advocate here. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for answering my questions. You're welcome. Any other questions? All right. Hearing none, call for the vote. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I. So that passes two to one.

All right. Next up, moving into new business. Um there was a resolution 2025 R8. Um, this was sponsored by Councilman Ronnie Blevens and he's unable to be here tonight and so out of respect for him, I'd actually ask for a motion to table that until he's here to introduce this resolution on his own. Motion to table by Shannon Elder. Second. Second by Brian Hester. Any questions on that? Hearing none. All in favor of tableling say I. I. I. Any opposed? And then the final item for business is um a resolution that I am sponsoring or an ordinance sorry that I am sponsoring. So let me explain what this is. Um, since February, well actually back before February, Chief Eric Cruz, who's here tonight to answer any additional questions you might have, and I have been meeting with staff at the Riveridge Commerce Center to talk about the service agreement for police protection within the Commerce Center on our end. Um, and you've obviously noticed the uptick in activity at the commerce center since they started building. So in 2022, that's when the gate came down. Remember that area up until 2022, that area has been behind a private a fence, a barbed wire privacy fence and had some private security up until that point. And then between then and now, there really was nothing being built on it that needed additional police protection. So we haven't asked for any support up until now. The CTDI that is open now currently employs 500 people in multiple shifts almost 24/7. They have they have a few shifts where they're not working. They deal with a very high dollar, high value product and they have specifically indicated to me in a meeting a need for business checks, police patrols regularly through their area of the commerce center. We have the

Census Bureau that's under construction right now and will hire 650 people coming online next summer. Um there was a recent sale to a spec speculative building that's being it's already turned dirt on it. It will lease, I'm sure, very quickly based on this company's reputation. And then, of course, Cheesecake Factory will be breaking ground hopefully by August. And they want to come on board with 200 people their first phase. So, we're looking at when I did the numbers, it came to between 17 and 20% of our existing population on the north end of the plant within the next 12 to 24 months. So, a a great significance. I've had Chief Cruz and his guys tracking our traffic flows, our license plate counts through the flock system. And I don't want to get these numbers wrong, Chief, but in January of 2024, we looked at the traffic reads for both our both of both of our cameras on 3 and 62, and they were around 169,000 reads. for April of 2025. So just a little over one year later, we looked at just the traffic reads for Highway 62 only and it was over 200,000. Just that camera in a month. Yes. So to say that things have started booming here would be an understatement. So far, we've not been able to successfully negotiate that service contract, but based on my conversations and meeting at CTDI and the understanding that they need this protection and we need to be able to provide that by providing an additional police officer for our community. Um, I've looked into the Indiana code that allows the city as a unit of government serving the commerce center to adopt a pilot payment in the blue of taxes is what it stands for. This pilot

allows us to capture the tax that we would receive only from those properties owned by the commerce center, not those that have been sold. Um, just as if we were to regularly receive it. So, I Perry look into it. um he drafted this ordinance for us. The reason that there is not a specific amount listed in this particular ordinance is because the amount will fluctuate every year. The amount every year is going to depend upon our tax rate, the valuation of the property. So the assessed value of the properties in the commerce center that are owned by Riveridge on our end of the plant and any that they sell. So as they sell them to private companies, those will come off. So that's why there's not a hard fast number attached to this. So my request is that we pass this on first reading tonight. And that will allow me then to go to the River Ridge board and meet with their attorney, Greg Feifer, and say, "Here's here's the pilot. This is what we were doing." And I have a list of parcel numbers that I had obtained through the assessor's office. I need to get them to confirm that those are in fact the parcel numbers that are in the Charles Town city limits portion of the Riveridge Commerce Center that I haven't missed any or that I haven't included something accidentally that's not. We tried to scrub them as best we could and pulled out like the 4 fairgrounds and those things, but we want to make sure we've got an accurate list. As a part of this, they also have to report personal any personal property, business personal property that they have. And so we will need them to report that to us as well. Am I missing anything, Perry? No, I think that's um Yeah, I think the statute's pretty straightforward. It was really simple to read. Um as mayor stated, the pilots do not exceed the amount of property taxes that would have been levied by the fiscal body for the unit of pontical property described in

subsection D if that property were not exempt from property taxation. So basically it's that rate that we have and then once we um if we pass this particular ordinance um set that rate then the reuse authority has to provide us with that values of those properties so we can then um ask that it be paid and so pretty straightforward. Um I I kind of when I'm talking about it trying to figure out what what the responses would be and from statutory standpoint I don't really see anything at this particular point no case law on it. There's very few there's only a couple military bases out there and this is probably the most active in the state. So and in the statute did you see anything that listed a remmonstrance process for for the commerce? It did not. and and basically the the the statute has the legislative findings of why they believe this should should be available to the municipality or the unit which we qualify as. Um so no I didn't see any type of remmonstrance provision uh whatsoever. So when the reuse authority was created, the the statute that was used to create that reuse authority acknowledged that when a reuse authority is created within a unit of government, that unit of government is going to have the burden of providing those governmental services like police protection to that unit. This has not been an issue for the city of Charles Town ever since we annexed the plant in 1960 because it's always been it's always had its own private security. In fact, the ordinance that annexed it in 1960 acknowledged that and it says at some point, you know, not right now, but at some point the city will have to provide these government services and so we are annexing it because of that. Um, that annexation has stood through trials and

tribulations. It's been challenged legally by the county as well as by the city of Jeffersonville and it has stood the test of those challenges. In fact, the US Army gave a a letter confirming that the annexation was done properly back in 2020 in 2002 when it was challenged. So, um, everybody around here knows that ammunition plant has always been Charles Town. Um, and now with that fence is down and the businesses are coming in, we have to drive protection. It's no different to me than if some of these, you know, we're building these, we're not building, but they're building these apartments and they're building single family homes. And as those homes come online, we've kept pace with that by hiring additional officers. Since 2020, we've hired two additional officers, um, taking us from 16 to 18 to keep up with that growth. Well, the growth that's coming in the ammunition plant is happening monumentally fast. And I don't want us to get behind. For me, policing is infrastructure. Relaying roads, for laying sewer lines, we're laying water lines. We have to provide for the public safety as well. So, I believe enacting this pilot is the way that we can stay ahead and keep up our public safety and make sure that our residents are not suffering because our police are responding to calls within the commerce center. Um, but also that the businesses coming to the commerce center have adequate protection. With that, um, we can put it on the table and ask any other questions there are, but I need a motion to advance it. Make a motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. There a second. Second. Second by Brian Hester. Happy to answer any questions. Okay. Um, what is the tool to uh enforce payment? Is it I mean, who does the does the state government does the county government who who polices that that

payment? Harry, I will turn to attorneys for that. Well, it looks like it says um it's in the ordinance or in the statute says that pilot shall be deposited general funable. Pilot shall be set due and set forth in the ordinance and bear interest if unpaid as in the case of other tax on property. Pilots should be treated in the same manner as property tax for purposes while procedural and substantive law. And so it's a collection action that would occur. So um from the city from us from the city because it is our ordinance and it's what's due to us or due to the city not to us but the city itself. So there's an enforcement mechanism that's set forth in in this particular Okay. Like any property taxes if you if you don't pay your property taxes we put a loan on your house and take you to court. Right. Okay. So there is an enforcement mechanism. Okay. So anyway that was advocated. No it's a good question. Yeah. I mean, what do you mean? No, it was not. My next um you have in partnership with River Ridge and and it seems like we trying to work with them as much as possible if we're forcing them to pay this now, how does that does that hurt a relationship? That's a question I can't answer. I don't know why it would. It's allowed by state law. Um, I will say this that in the in the statute again, it indicates that the reuse authority may consider these payments to be operating expenses for all purposes. I'm not saying that we don't deserve them. No, I'm just saying that they can they can it's has benefit to them because they can then use that as an operating expense, right, if they're having to pay that amount. Does that Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And it it may pee them off that you know you're doing this to us because I think of the dialogue that's been going on back and forth at this point where the resistance is there. But I mean I think this is a good way to open the door and say what do you what are you offering? If not this is what we're going to do. No, I agree that it needs to happen. I'm

not uh just for the record where does the city limits go to? The city limits goes to Paul Garrett. Paul Garrett. Okay. down to the mouth of the 14 mile creek all the way to the river. And what what do you all patrol? All of that. All of that. Yeah. Yeah. So, wait a minute. That is that that is the city limits though. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's the city limits. So, even though it's a property owned by the state park, the area it's really kind of strange the way it's done. Even though it's a property owned by the state park and DNR down at the boat dock, it's actually within the city's jurisdiction. So, for instance, our police officers when they get a call down at the boat dock, they have to go all the way through because the rest of the park is county jurisdiction. So, we have to go all the way through, but we're not This does not affect the state park at all because it's not a property in question. It's just the River Ridge Commerce owned properties. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, I I could explain a little bit more of that because uh so the portion we're talking about, you know, State Park borders the river all along behind River Ridge, too. So we go straight back from 62 all the way to the river to Paul Garrett and then um borders there goes all the way up to the 14 mile creek. So previous to last 8 months we've never had to patrol because like you said it's been behind a gate and in the 60s7s 80s it's it's had its own police protection and stuff. So we've never had to operate back there but now we do. um especially with these businesses coming online and CTDI they've had the their portion in Jeff as long as well as the Charlestown portion has already had robberies of upwards of millions of dollars worth of products and um we just that's kind of the reasoning for this as well as preparing for the future growth itself I think it's needed I'm not I'm not arguing it's needed I'm just trying to cover all the bases here and you know to be clear you know I will fully acknowledge and put

out that I sit in a place where I am not only a member member of that of River Ridge board, but also the mayor of Charleston. I mean, I carry that dual role by appointment. But this benefits both. Absolutely. And I and I will say and I will say that over and over and over. It benefits both. We have a duty to answer calls within that commerce center right now. If there was a 911 call right now at CTDI, we would be in there. I mean, we're going to provide service to that. Um, I just want to make sure as we grow that River Ridge is protected. And as a board member, that's critical to me, making sure that River Ridge has that protection, especially when we're talking about companies that have such high-end product like CTDI and others that may come in there. Um, or sensitive, you know, confidential, you know, material like the Census Bureau. We need to be providing protection for them, not just in active responses to 911, but in regular business checks. We are about preventing crime in Charles Town and we cannot do that with only 18 police officers. We to provide if our population within the city residential area was growing by 17% within 12 to 24 months, we would absolutely capture that tax increase or not increase but revenue from those new homes and new construction and we would hire another police officer. We have a history of doing that by the two we've hired since 2020. This is no different except that with it being wrapped up in a perpetual tiff through redevelopment over there, we get no tax revenue from them. They are authorized to enter service agreements with municipalities. Um, and in this situation, in lie of waiting for them to reach the conclusion that it's time for that, we can use what the state has already given us to enact this pilot payment so that we can stay ahead of our needs and not get behind in meeting their needs.

I'm bored. I'm I am I just want to make sure we cover everything. There have been any other municipalities that asked what we asked. So, the only other municipality that is affected by this directly is the city of Jeffersonville, and they successfully negotiated a service contract in January of 2023 at the board's public meeting um in January 2023. The board's attorney, Greg Fefeifer, mentioned in that meeting to the board that it was time to begin negotiating service contracts with the city of Jeffersonville and the city of Charle Town to provide for police protection. You see, it's the city's responsibility to set the speed limits within the commerce center. They're used as public roads. The commerce center themselves, they don't set those speed limits. The cities do. and he he initiated that conversation because of that need. Now, since the Jeffersonville portion of the commerce center was more fully developed at that time and because they had not negotiated something with that, they asked to do Jeffersonville first. They got that done. Um, we seem to have stalled out on getting the Charles Town side completed through a traditional service agreement. And when I realized that the pilot was an option and I understand the need that we have here and how we develop very differently than the city of Jeffersonville, um they have 92 police officers. We have 18 only 12 of those are regular patrol officers because two of them are SRO and some of the others are admin or detectives. So, it's a very different very different development process, especially when you consider that Charles Town's economy has always been tied to that land. When the plant closed, our local economy declined as much as it boomed when it first came on. And now that it's booming again, our economy and growth is actually happening

again, too. And what I don't want to see is the the mistakes of the past repeated because in 1940 when that plant came online, we had one police officer and it feels like we've been playing catchup in every form of infrastructure since then. With the help of the Riverbridgeidge Development Authority, we've gotten ahead of on our wastewater needs. That's obviously critical infrastructure. We've worked with MDOT and county on making some road improvements. We're doing our own drainage improvements. We are staying ahead of infrastructure in every way. This is also critical infrastructure and I think that it's best to stay ahead of it rather than get behind and constantly been trying to play catchup. So yes, there is precedent. I mean, like I said, in the state, the the when the very state code that created the reuse authority explicitly acknowledges the burden that local units of government will face when it's created, there's no stronger argument for me that it's time for this to happen because the creators of it themselves acknowledge that there would be a need for it at some time. And we we are here. We've reached that point. So, okay. So, this is so that we can hire another police officer. Yes. Which we all know are fully back our police department. Um, the money is going into the general fund. Yes. Are they paid out of our general fund? Okay. I wasn't sure. I just wanted to make sure that almost all of our policy. So, our general fund um what was the percentage I had um just over half when Deborah ran the numbers for me of our general fund goes for public safety. Okay. So, I just want to make sure the money will be there whenever and it'll be appropriated as a part of the budget when we you know we we will

know after tonight if it passes I will again like I said I'll go to them and I'll say hey this is coming we will figure out what that payment would be for next year. Um, I'll have that number so that when I present it at second reading next month, I can give that to you. Um, then like I said, every year it will change depending on what's sold, what our rate is, what their property values at, because their property goes up in value just like everybody else's does. It's assessed. It has to be assessed every year. The statute makes that clear that the assessor has to assess those properties as if they were paying taxes. Um, so there is an assessed value attached to every single one of those properties. Okay. So there is a contract with Jeffersonville. Yep. There is a service contract. It's not a pilot. Now the contract with Jeffersonville is not a pilot. It's just a service contract. We did ask and we were denied. Yes. Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. So, I'll bring that back at second reading with some additional information at our next meeting. All right. With that, I have no other items unless the attorneys have anything for us or Donna has anything other than needing signatures. No, that's all I have. Thank you. So, we just need a motion to return. Make a motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. Second. Got to let us go home. I'll second out the door. All in favor say I. I. That's unanimous. Yeah, I'm saving it for pass on second reading. and real good access to your staff to help