County Council - Regular Meeting

This is a pain in the butt, Doug. It's a I'm sure there's like a million and one steps to it. Then you have the next day you have to host it and you have to name it. It's just like, you know, I'm not a person. Are they making just about every meeting be anything done in here? if you have to. Somebody was telling me that again it was some type of board meeting. They said they had to have it recorded. I I just thought that was a little bit too much. Anything that you do in this this room, you're supposed to live stream. So, yeah. We'll see. It's the state of work again.

Yeah. Well, why they care? I don't know. We knew it was coming. I mean, a couple years ago, they kept saying they're going to do this, and we waited till the last dang minute, too, to do it. Yeah. You're I'd say you're not in that. You're There were probably several that did that. Waited till the last second. I asked them for $30,000. I was going to connect it to this. They turned me down.

We just do it on the laptop. and everybody uses this laptop and sometimes I think Sue came in here one time and it switched to speakers and but we didn't have any sound and it's like so too many hands in the pot I think but I was telling Leah since I've been auditor they've never turned you guys council's never turned anybody down for an additional but me that's like ah that doesn't seem fair to does it I was always told you to take care of the officer cuz they're going to take care of you when I was off county.

That's funny. But I told her, I said, "Yeah, I've never known them to turn anybody down but me." So that's what it is. Oh goodness. So, how long did your surgery take you? Honestly, I don't know. Uh we went over Sunday night and stayed over at a hotel just because I didn't want to take a chance with that 50 thing and that. So we got there quarter after 7. Supposed to be there quarter till 8. So we was way early. Mhm. My phone had rang. I had it on vibrate. I looked I said well the hospitals called me for some reason.

No. Then the lady says, "They're going to be in they'll be out to get you real here real soon." So went back and the girl said, "Dr. Hudach's first two surgeries have been cancelled." Oh, we'll move you up. You okay with that? And I said, "Sure." So they take me back, get me prepped, IV and everything. I think it's last time I looked it was 8:17 and they I was scheduled at 9:10, right? So they wheeled me back to the operating room and them nurses got to looking at each other and looking at paperwork and talking and I'm like something's not right. I could just feel it.

And uh the one nurse that was in there, she her and my ex-wife, we all hung out together. Mhm. So she was by my side there. She goes, "Doug," she goes, "We need to take you back out of here to where you came from, and a doctor needs to listen to your lungs and heart. We forgot to do that. Oh my god. Okay. She goes, "Now you're going to come back. You're going to get your surgery." Well, when I get in there, there's this lady, doctor, she's just got this one that's not, you know, kind of a scary. You're kidding me. But and uh I said uh she first question she asked me goes, "Did you have a pre-op visit?"

Okay. Hi, man. And uh and I I did have before the first one, but not the second. They never told me to either. And I just said, "Yeah, I did." Yeah. She didn't ask me when, right? Just asked me if I did. I wanted to. You don't look like you lost the fight today. No. No. I'm a little bit better today. Then I think you today my uh mother-in-law passed away, so I'm off asleep. Oh, I hate to hear that. Her funeral was Wednesday. At least got it done. So, so I was off. I thought I can make it dedicated to public service. That's it.

Live streaming folks. We're already on. Oh, okay. Say anything bad about you then. Okay.

Well, I wish I were kill. I I tried that years ago and it my eyes just water and water and water. I can't stand them. I was kind of preparing for I won't be thorax anytime soon. And so my doctor suggested that I wanted to correct the bunny drug contacts first. Yeah. when I go to a house and he said prescription contact some people do that that's you know that what do they call it that laser surgery

instead of wearing do one eye for distance and one eye for I don't think that's not for me I think I'll just struggle along for got that wish she would have fun sex but she's got that kind of thing and you have to kind of train your brain takes that to do I take the rest. I'm a slow learner. Well, if you have like corrective put in instead of just not everyone can do that multif.

That's your back. stuff. This one I can see a little bit dark, right? Yeah. Good for you. Are you still going through treatments? You're still going through treatments? Yeah. Three more weeks. Except inject live. So, well, buddy, is it going good, Danny? Oh, so good. Is it working out pretty good?

Seems we find out in about three weeks. girlfriend. [Music]

How are you? I'm good. It's been a long process. About two years keep up. Oh, really? Having any success with that? [Music] steps to go through all [Music] [Music]

everything like 60s. I mean they didn't hit up all those DC. explored for they just tried to find something. [Music] He makes it sound [Music] [Music] years So

the sadness is never a good time to have that. We're going to wait till the clock starts tonight. We have to open and close the puppy here. I don't see that. Thanks for printing this out because you know I've printed out at home. Okay. How are you, sir? Good. How are you? I'm good. Are you the new solid waste director? Good. What's your name? Clark.

Adam Clark. Good to have you here. Sorry to bombard you with emails yesterday. Somebody called me and said, "Don't we have a solid waste meeting today?" I was like, "I don't think it's this month, but I'll double check." Yeah, Kevin shared with us yesterday. I think Kevin was yesterday. Yeah, he bring some tires with him to recycle. Hello, Miss Joyce. Good morning. How are you? What's your o'clock is striking morning. So, if everyone would on call this uh meeting to order. If everyone or the pledge of allegiance.

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

Thank you. As a recipient of federal funds in the support of Don Countyy's efforts to ensure non-discrimination and equal access to all citizens, the county gather statistical data regarding participants in county activities. Therefore, we have provided a voluntary title six public involvement survey at this meeting. You are not required to complete the survey. However, the form is anonymous and will be used solely for the purpose of long-term compliance with title six and ADA. probably ought to have that on recording for me. Yes. He said he he said he had this meeting on his agenda and I said you

so we need a motion to open the public hearing for the budget. Is there a motion are we permitted to take care of the other business first and get these folks out of here? Do we have to do it in this order? This advertised for months. Oh, we can open it. We can take care of it during Okay, great. Okay. Motion to open the public hearing. Is there a second? Second. Okay. But hearing is hereby opened. So we can go ahead with the but solid waste has to stay with the phone. So what the solid waste have to stay the whole 15 minutes because they're Yeah, they have Yeah, they have to stay the same amount as you've been having fun. Yeah. Are you trying out for the Olympics?

So you're talking about Joyce being able to go ahead. Okay. Good morning. Good morning.

Have a situation. Um, now I want to recap a little bit. So, last year, uh, you had approved that I take the, uh, $8,100 from my records perpetuation fund. I signed my sworn statement in compliance with state board and I put that into my operating accounts. Okay. So, because I spend it for operating, that's what I had to do. Um, my situation is that I now have a deputy that finally is fully trained and has suddenly found herself needing surgery and she'll be out from four to six weeks. And it's been a while to get her fully trained and get the office really. And now this has happened and my hope is that I can hire a part-time temporary person but pay for that out of my operating expense. So, if I, you know, tighten my belt, uh, I do have enough money in the line item of office expenses, and I was hoping to transfer that or appropriate that. It's $2,153 um, over for a line item to pay for this person for that four to six weeks. Um, I think we've spoken about I do have somebody in mind that actually can come right in and jump right into it with experience. and we were talking about the if it's appropriate the $18 an hour in L of the 16 because of her experience. So I'm coming to you for approval.

I move we approve the transfer. I'll second it. Have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I posted nay. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Thanks Joyce. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Do you have anything else or we just watching you go? Oh, Grant Circuit breaker minutes. Okay. And the health grant is for safe sleep environments for expecting parents, caregivers, including CPR certification. It's for 67,766 and 18 cents. And there's no county match. No county match. Yes, sir. Motion to approve the grant for the health department. Thank you. Does that be? Yeah. Second.

Any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I I n motion passes. We just have to say that we looked at the circuit record. Is that good? Yeah. Just acknowledge that you you've looked it over. I acknowledge that the font is too small on this. I said I got my glasses complained to the state. That's how I got it. So across all units or just counties? I think I think this is all the county funds. Yeah. So it's almost $2.5 million. So is this the supplemental homestead? Is that what this is?

No. This is regular circuit breaker. This is circuit breakers. Like when you go in certain buckets, you can't go above 2% 3% 1%. Right. And this is what you lose. This is what the county loses. So, Der County government looks like it lost $1,730,000, but across all units almost 2.5 million. Is there a motion to acknowledge that we've reviewed this?

We just need to say that we've reviewed it. We tend to review. Sorry. Yeah, I'll make a motion to acknowledge that that we have received and reviewed the circuit breaker losses. There are second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of acknowledging that we've reviewed the circuit breaker losses, not the circuit breaker losses, but I review them. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying none.

I post nay. Motion passes. Do you say minutes? Did you say minutes too or not? Yeah. Yes. I sent you uh those minutes, but budget hearings is just a just saying that we listen to Baker Tilly and the budget hearings adjourned on Wednesday, August 6th. Okay. Is there a motion to approve amendments? Move. Try to get you on the record here this morning. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I motion passes. Yes. For you and I get that. Okay. Thank you. system. Yeah.

I wonder why all of council don't sign minutes like the commissioners do. They're easier to use. You think put put a line on there for them to solve it. I could. It's just always been that way. Just leave it alone. Not that I care for me so much. We just hang on. I just caught myself doing that. Don't leave. Yeah, because I do want to turn in something.

Okay. Yes, we we've got time to just kind of visit and wait for the clock to tick, but I just did some math and this is mainly because of Senate Bill one. Dry County lost about one almost a million and a half dollars. And that's that's all I can reconile it with is Senate Bill one. We knew there was going to be a hit to our budget and for some what we opted to do was use some of our reserves to stay full like we you know not to have to make major cuts and I think we've tried to be lean over the years and most department heads a lot of times don't even come because they don't ask for anything more than what they got the previous year. So, I think we've been good stewards of taxpayers money, but for counties who uh have their back against the wall, I they're having to cut. But basically, Senate Bill one, according to my math, cost us about a million and a half dollars.

Is that starting in 26? Yeah. And we were thinking it was going to be eight or 900,000. Well, it's 800 some odd thousand in county in property taxes. And then when they Baker Tilly sent us an email with the uh projections for property taxes. Now this is still a little bit early so it could change but there was a loss of about $450,000 on the lit on Yeah. on local income taxes. So So between the two we lost how do we lose money on the lit? That's what Liz and all of us were wondering.

Right. Right. This they usually do a later uh this is DLGA. They usually give a projection in October and this was in August. So my hope is that because usually it's flat or you know slight. So I was not expecting a full $150,000 loss. I mean to me if you're losing money on the lit that would have to be less jobs or less income that right and that's that's not the case. Maybe had a downturn in the economy. Yeah. They they always end up making their projections on the conservative side for planning purposes. Significant.

I've never seen very like this set of thoughts. Yeah. I mean it people aren't get for the most part are are getting a raise every year and I mean there's no big industries in Dearborn County that close the doors. So I I don't understand how that's happening. So, the hope is that that $450,000 loss is just a preliminary number that will be changed in October in our favor. But the $88,000 that uh Baker Tilly presented, that's all Senate Bill one. That's probably the real pretty good number

because I did have another county reach out to me and said like they hadn't done their budget as early as I said and they're asking what what did you do and I said we kept things as tight as we could and we dipped into our reserves a little bit. But that's really not sustainable going forward either, right? In 2018 everything changes. So this is

2028. Sorry. But so this is for 26 and if we have to do the same thing for 27, I don't think it would be imprudent to to do it a second time and then everything changes in 2018 2028. But the legislature is going to tweak stuff this next year. So, but it's uh I think it's very disheartening when you try to manage your finances often as I think we have tried to do over the years for like at the stroke of a pen. All of a sudden, we're finding ourselves having to dip into reserves or having to slash. And we've slashed over the years quite a bit. So,

there's not a whole lot. Yeah. Comes with a whole bunch. I mean, it seems like um you know, every year the budget creeps. We have a lot of road and bridge projects understandably that Todd puts in there and Tim brings knowing that they're going to get cut and we cut. Feel like we kept a good amount of them in this year. Um which is why I felt a bit comfortable dipping into our reserves because it was for projects like that, not going not ongoing regular expenses. But a we can focus on that a little bit next year. Or at the end of the day, if we have to say we got to take a shave across the board and find 5% at every department, then that's a going to have to be the job of this council to make sure that we're

Well, the tough thing is you probably can't find 5% in every department. Some are going to take a 8% cut and some are going to take a two and a half or 3% cut. That sort of thing. And some are protected by the state to say you can't use this budget.

Exactly. But as a as kind of a refresher, we've got $5 million that is sitting in the Saint E pension fund that we doesn't get released until October of 2030. High Point Health uh with that transition county got a check for 15,800,000. 2 million was taken aside for expenses. All that won't be spent for expenses. It doesn't seem like 8 million was put into rainy day. So in our county general balance, 5.8 of that is actually hospital. It's not from regular tax receipts.

Okay. Um that's locked down. Well, the the five million is for until November 2030. How much money are we generating off of that? That interest goes in the county general. Do we know she have to talk to Yeah, the commissioners hand the commissioners and Haley are they've got a finance committee and they decide how much money is invested and and what funds and Baker Tilly does assist with that. They do contract. I mean, we should know what how much

there's going to there's there's a a place in here that shows how much interest you can look at stuff Susan gave you. If you look at the revenues from uh philer county general, it'll show investment income and it's it's down this year for 20 26. So earnings on investments, she's projected 1.3 for 2026 and it's 2.4 last year. Yes. 2.4 last year. In the year before that was 3.1. That's a big cut. Yeah, it is a big cut. But we also pulled a bunch of money out

because we shifted it to rainy days or Oh, that's invested. But uh rates were better. I think yeah, the rates were better. I was getting five on CDs not that long ago. Yeah. Barb had it in like two checks that were actually fair. I mean, they were one and after the Fed gets done today, who knows what's going to happen. But that's where that is. Liz, I had some people call me, uh, do you know anything about the 14% tax that's going in certain townships? I have no idea.

Supposedly, it's for the Bright Fire and EMS, I guess. And it's this fell or one of the fellas told me that if your assessed valuation was over 400,000, you didn't have to pay it. And they said that be and if the township trustees all approved it, it would go into effect. But I I told them, I said, "Well, as far as I know, any increase in taxes is supposed to come through council." Well, township trustees have their own uh elected officials. So, their budget doesn't come before us,

but do they have the authority to just they've got certain statutory authorities. They've got poor relief. They've got cemeteries. They've got fire they've got like a basic fire fund. Some of them have a community fire fund and then they've got um poor assistance or whatever. But the township trustee board works with the trustee and they establish what their um budget's going to be. But they're probably held with DGF through state. It's all we are. It's all monitored by the state bill has to go through DLGF. Yes. say word of account all

and they have to have multiple public hearings and whatnot for that too because Miller Township did it I think in 2022 maybe they they established a fire fund that generated a little bit of revenue for fire truck but I think I think a lot of us probably caught news of this in the last 36 hours because it's all new information to me but um it sounds like they're talking about a fire territory something completely different and I think it's Miller it' be Miller Harrison and and Logan because it's Brightfire who has had proposed it. But seems like it's really early and preliminary and

what I'm trying to understand is how everything with SV1 affects what they're talking trying to do. If they're talking about a fire territory, if that operates outside of what's happening with the rest of property taxes or if it's inclusive in what's going on, but think there's a whole bunch of us trying to figure out what that conversation's about because it came to us really quickly in the last 36 hours. Yeah, that's when this guy Paul pay was within the last 36 hours. But there'd be no way the exempt from house was over $400,000. You know, that's not that wouldn't be a card in the code. So, we have done our 15 minutes of due diligence. Is there a motion to adjourn our meeting? Motion we close the public hearing.

I'm sorry. Motion to close. Thank you very much. Is there second to close the public hearing? Second. Doug, I'll second it. Doug already second it. All those in favor Doug. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion passes. Motion to adjourn the whole meeting. Two or Okay. Motion to adjourn. Is there a motion? Thank you. Is there a second to go? Okay. And it's seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I Dennis post name both but Dennis was and that's one of his favorites

after fishing no after Mary Adam uh didn't want to pull you up here during the meeting but I know I believe there was a DGF budget hearing set up for you. Have you had that yet? Yeah, we had it off. Okay. Everything go okay for you? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good. Yeah. The sales district is going to experience