County Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Is this our recommendation? Is that how that works, or do we approve this?

This is what they have entered. This is their budget, what they've entered, and you have to say whether you recommend anything different.

Okay.

Any changes?

Anybody see anything?

Who sets this? Trustee or...

each each um department yes does their own budget we we're approving this greensburg schools now too you're not approving you're just recommending if there's anything on here that you see to entertain a motion to recommend

The rates and the money. I didn't have this email to me, so I really didn't know.

Why was some of them not reported?

Pardon?

Point not submitted.

They just haven't. They haven't had their meetings yet. I pulled this from the public site, all of their numbers.

Is this what they put in Gateway, though? Yes. Same way with the library?

Mm-hmm. With the library, that budget number should be reflected in the Greensburg Public Library, I believe. And then the Decatur County money funnels into that.

Yes, it does. Yeah, correct.

So their budget, several of them are above what their levy is proposed to be. I'm assuming they're using existing balances then to cover that? We have no way to know, do we? We really don't.

But just like ours, they go through all the same steps that we do with the state and on whether or not they get approved if they have sufficient funding.

All of them must have nice balances then. Look at St. Paul's. Oh, Westport's too.

So how do they cover that? In the budget, not in the levy.

Because then it must be existing balances that they have that we can't see on the sheet.

The State Board of the Council has already been there, right, and by.

Or we're just recommending and then State Board reviews it? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, so they haven't even.

No. No, these are just the numbers that they've submitted. Local government finance, they'll look at it, won't they?

Yeah.

DLGF?

Any other questions? I think we do this every year, don't we?

Yeah.

I'll entertain a motion.

I'll make the motion.

Deanna makes a motion.

I'll second.

Ashley seconds. Any other questions? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Transfers. At 2. From the Health Department. Nursing supplies, 4,700 from Board of Health. Education and public information to truck and maintenance. Any questions on those? Ashley makes a motion to approve.

I'll second it.

Bill seconds. Any other questions? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Let's go back and redo the minutes real quick. Everybody get a chance to read them? I didn't see anything from either one of them.

I'll make a motion to approve them.

Bill makes a motion to approve.

I'll second.

Ernie seconds. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Additionals. Did we have some additionals? Oh, here we go. Everybody get a copy of those and get to see them?

Yeah.

Take it it's for the building. Is that what you're using the money for? It's from solid waste, correct? Is this remodeling a building? Yes. Is that what it is? Yes, it is. Okay. $1,813,000 to other services and charges. Everybody get a copy of it? And is there two of them on here, one for $800,000 and one for $1.8 million? Yep. Is that what I'm seeing? That's what I'm seeing. Got one for $1.1 million, $813,000. Another one on the back side for $800,000.

So 2.6 million?

I'm not sure. I did not talk to her.

Okay. 1.8, 1,813,000. It just says other services and charges.

There's really not an explanation on here.

what it's being spent for. Am I reading? I don't really see an explanation of any kind for why it's being spent.

That's all I thought was this.

I was thinking it was the $1 million for the

There will be 1.6 million. Well, if you've got 813,000, 800,000. Another one point.

So you think the 800,000 is for the remodel? Yes. But we don't know what the 1813 is.

Something's got to be for the lease.

That's what I thought.

Yeah, but it does. It's just what they have. There's not an explanation.

I mean, um, can we come back to that? I'm trying to give her a call.

Went to voicemail. We can do these separately, correct? Yes. I move that we would approve the $800,000 of the additional appropriation for the construction remodel of the building.

I second that.

Rick makes a motion to approve the $800,000, the end of seconds. Any other discussion or questions? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, I only have one sheet. For. Both yay and nay and. Name. Should there be two one for each of these?

So you're saying to do him separately? Yes, we need separate.

You want me to use it? Let me see. I can use this one for the 800,000 if you want. Yes, OK. Okay, we'll put that one on hold for a few minutes. We got one here from the Health Department. 45,000 total, 20,000 for administration, 25,000 for supplies, description and reason additional. Everybody got a copy of that? Health prepared grants supports a portion of payroll and supplies for employees at the health department. Any questions on that? I don't see anybody here that can answer any questions we have.

So one of them, the $20,000 must be for payroll and $25,000 for supplies.

That's the way I'm taking it. Okay.

I'll make a motion we approve it.

Bill makes a motion to approve. I'll second. Ashley seconds. Any other questions, concerns? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Print and sign. This is $15,668.56 for track funding. Implement safety and injury prevention in the community. Any questions on that one? Entertain a motion to approve.

I'll make that motion.

Deana makes a motion. Ashley seconds. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? This one here, we're going to wait on?

Yes, I believe. Reach down to her.

Okay. Okay, let's move on. Public hearing. We'll come back to that in a little bit.

See if I can...

Or through these trees. Let's see what I've got going here.

See what? Oh, yeah.

I don't think salaries have been completely established. Am I correct? I missed a meeting on the 31st. I apologize, but things of more importance were happening that day. So a choice was not mine to make. So let's open up a discussion. Where are we at?

Well, I'm getting started, Danny, if you want me to.

Head right off, Ernie.

Looking at the salaries, I'm not big on percentages, but I can live with a 3% raise across the board. And then I think we need to go in and look at the individual salaries by themselves and see if we want to increase them or not. to what is the recommended base, which I don't agree with a lot of the bases, but I think 3% is a good raise, and I think anything above that should be limited to another 3%, which would be 6% overall is the most they could go up. On a $50,000 salary, that's $3,000. I think that's pretty good, especially when nothing's really changed other than the cost of living. I don't think the jobs descriptions have changed, so I would be willing to look at it that way. and adjust salaries accordingly. I think the sheriff has some ideas how you want to pay your people. We need to look into that, I think, and see what you come up with and how we also. So I guess the best thing we do is just go through them and figure it out. I mean, that's what we're elected to do. I don't think we're elected to hire somebody else to do our thinking for us. So I think we need to do it ourselves and come up with the right amounts.

No, we will. We're going to have to go through it one at a time. That's all we have to do.

That's what we got to do. We got to do.

So, anybody else?

I disagree. I think that we hire experts to do other things. That's what we have done here. We got that chart put in place to take the ambiguity out of what hiring rates should be. And if we don't get people up to base salaries, you can't enact that system and you're just going to get a year farther behind than we already are. I think the 27th pay period in 2027 gives you some cushioning in the, um, base budget for 2028 to where possibly in 2027, you could at least get everyone to base. And then in 2028, get them into the longevity. If you feel like adjustments need to be made here and there, I think that's worth looking at. But I don't think you hold everybody back because of a few that you're concerned about.

I also think we're not HR experts. We don't have the facts that the company that did this research does. We're not experts on income.

I mean, they do these services for more than 80 counties in Indiana.

And if we do it ourselves row by row, then we're opening ourselves up to being subjective, depending on a person, whereas if we're listening to their suggestions, we're following their guidelines. There is no personal involvement in it.

So your suggestion is bring everybody up to base, like we talked about?

which is what this yet is on the stipend I column I'm assuming Christy yes that is correct well you're only wanting to use one side of the of the study you're wanting to use the side that raises prices but you don't want to use the side that lowers prices so how expert are they I mean I think we need to I think we've done a good job at filling these positions At the salaries we paid last year and the year before, you know, you've got to take into account the health insurance, days off, 35-hour work week. There's a lot of things that aren't factored in to come through the paycheck. Vehicle to drive. So, you know, I disagree with a lot of the bases. Some of them we're pretty close on, which we can work with that, but I cannot see giving some people a 15% raise and the others only get 3%. I don't think that's fair to the employees. I don't think it's fair to the taxpayers.

I know I was on the salary committee, and our suggestion was bring people to base. Anybody over was a 3% stipend. That's where I was or where we were on our committee. Correct, Ashley, Rick? Am I correct in the thinking there?

I wasn't on the committee at the very start, so I would say that that's...

And to clarify the base, and I'm not on the study anymore. I was in the beginning. The base is based on the job description and what someone in the public sector, not just the government sector, but out in general, so that we are competitive with all jobs, not just within the courthouse.

And I know me and Ernie and Bill sat down and had a discussion on it not too long ago. And I understand where they're coming from and I understand. But also after I went through and I thought, we're kind of kicking the can down the road. That's just me. Everybody else has their own opinion. Eventually we're going to be up to base. If we get them up to base now, next year you give a three percent raise and go on down the road well we talked about at our budget meeting or whatever percentage the council comes up with.

That's just me. We talked about at our budget meeting getting it up to base this year, using next year as a review period to go over those one-offs that don't feel like they're being described the right way and or the ones that you feel may be the other direction. So using that as an adjustment here is what we talked about at the budget meeting.

Because we as a council did vote to use Wagner, Irwin, and Shealy to do this for us. We really did.

Well, I think some of the bases are out of whack. About 10 or 12 of them are given 12% raise to some of them. That's kind of an insult to the old council, because we've set these wages over the years. And actually, we've done a pretty good job of filling these positions that are not paying the top rate. Whether we should have been or not, I don't know. But that's the way it's been here in Gator County. And we've always got the job done. And I think everybody's been fairly pleased. We're not having trouble filling these jobs.

Are you all fairly pleased?

That's what it gets you into

Well, I have not sat in the offices, but I've been around here a long time, and I kind of know what goes on, what doesn't go on, and who gets the job done.

I don't feel like you know what goes on in the office. Because a lot of people probably don't have any idea that much.

I mean, and when we first started this payroll study, those of us that were on the committee split up the departments and sat on each department and talked to them about who they had in that department and what those roles are. And I think that needs to be what happens again next year to kind of compare it to what we have here.

I have a couple questions. You get extra money for election years. Is that included in your 2026 salary here?

No, I did not include that. It's it's OK. Everybody is based.

OK. Another question for Christy. You're getting 2500 more. Is that included in your salary?

That is the same with 911, sheriff, detention center, child support. I mean, it's strictly base is what's listed on here. Right. Assessors. There are so many departments that.

Not included in yours, correct?

No.

not required to have our certifications. So when I was hired in there, that was not part of my salary at all because it wasn't required until five or six years later. Then it was required to be a level one and level two. Well then, a couple three years down the road, they threw in level three, which is five different classes and so many hours of continuing ed so was your pay adjusted accordingly by the levels that you received right well that's part of my argument some of these jobs nothing's changed i get that but it's also should not be part of our salary it should just be like ours is certification it's mandated by i mean it's a state thing

And Patty and I clarified with WIS that it is not part of what they are recommending. What they are recommending is just the base, not anything on top of. So their dollar amount that they are recommending is not with all of that included. We did clarify that question.

So to run for your position. Do they know going in, you knew going in you had to be qualified for this?

You didn't.

When I ran for assessor, I had to be a level one and level two.

To even run?

To even be on the ticket. And I also have to own property and to care. That is, to run for the job. But that was, I have not been the assessor the whole time I've been in. But like my deputies that are in my office are supposed to be at least a level two and three to do reassessment work. And most counties do not put it in with their base salaries.

The base should be put in for your certain position.

If somebody knew where to walk in the door and replace you, that's where they would start. And then they would earn their upgrades.

Just for clarification, has Patricia been in your office the longest of all of your deputies?

No, she started .

OK. Is she a level three because she is an election deputy and provides that additional opportunity?

I have never spoken to her when she leaves.

Or have I?

I don't know how they made the decision because that's where the issue is. I think they were hoping to start with next year figured out because I don't feel like any of our job descriptions

No, you turned in information for job description, so didn't you?

We turned them in, and they sent it back after they typed in, and we would correct them and send it back, and they would send it back the same way again. We tried to turn three times, and they never got it right.

So is that an indication the whole study may not be correct?

Excuse me?

Is that an indication the whole study may be incorrect? I can't speak about it.

We've got to solve something here because today is, you know, I don't want nothing put off until October.

Yeah.

26 page would be 6 million 173. 20 so that's what we need to look at.

Well, we need to get this done, cause there's a couple other departments we need to go through. Board of Health, one of them. And to get that kind of looked at. So.

It just goes into the fund.

There are those, and I'm not going to use any names, but they're on the second floor. Anybody that's been around this place long enough knows kind of where my mind's at on that. Some employees that, and I get it, you learn new skills as you do different jobs, but for all you folks that were involved in job descriptions and all that kind of stuff, A COMOT 4 that was doing work on the first floor that is now a COMOT 2 or 3, is there significant difference to that upstairs to have their base that much more than a 3? Something I kind of, I don't want to say struggle with, but just don't know how that was all derived. How you got in each bucket.

There are points that are assigned for each level of responsibility that was reflected on the job description. And based on your overall score, you were assigned into your classification. So when we developed the job descriptions and when you look at them again, it's going to be really important to make sure that the responsibilities are spelled out explicitly so they can be scored to the best.

And when you look at job descriptions again, if we do whatever we do, everything going forward needs to go through ADDIE, It cannot go any other way because you open up that door for things to get more out of balance rather than be balanced. I was looking, just picking somebody at random. If they gave, and this would be a CM, this would be a level three. person, I believe. Yeah. Currently making $42,400. They did a 3% raise across the board, as Ernie talked about. Then you did a 3% to those that are under base in an effort to get them to base. That takes that person's base is $42,400 Yeah, 46,831. And a 3% and a 3% is going to get them to 45,014. So that's, and to your point, Ashley, if we've got that 27th pay in 2027 as a buffer to pull that chain again, then in 27 we likely get the majority of those under base to their base.

Which is what we did with our three-year plan last time, and we're behind again.

Well, and we may always be slightly behind until there's a windfall maybe of something that we can find. I don't know.

Well, the only risk with being slightly behind is you lose employees and then have to start their training all over again.

Yeah, I get that. And I don't know that folks are unhappy with what they do here at the courthouse.

It's not that they're unhappy of what they do in their job. It's just they can go somewhere else and have less responsibilities. And then you go.

or they're closed.

I think the applicants that I think we're seeing a turnover of the, I want to say this correctly, the older ones that always worked here and moved from job to job or moved from department to department, I think we're seeing younger people come in and they're the ones that want, the older generation I think just knew, you know, they did the job for the good of the job in the community. Not saying that the younger ones coming in aren't, but that's the ones that you see leaving are the younger ones that need to have more money to support their families in this day and age when two people in a household have to work. So I've seen it. I've seen the younger generations coming in.

I agree that elected officials I always thought were underpaid compared to the deputy. And I can see every deputy should want to be the elected official in every office. But for $4,000 or $5,000 or whatever it is, you're not going to do it. I agree. That needs to be raised.

Okay. Can I just bring up? what we're quibbling over sure so based on 2026 salaries which are at 10.2 if we gave a three percent across the board it would be 10 million 572 thousand dollars and 34 cents

It says 3% across the board.

3% across the board. To get everyone to base, including the stipends, we're looking at $10,637,000. Like, we're not even talking about $100,000 here difference. To get people into a system that we paid for that you can then evaluate when there's more time with the ones and twos that you really have concerns about.

How many new hires have we had to have separate meetings for because we weren't offering enough to draw new hires in? Almost every one of the last few we've had, we've had to have separate meetings to up their pay. This is part of that issue.

I'll agree with that statement. We're looking at trying to

The stipend is only for people that are already over base. Over base.

It's like 40, 50 people. And that's something that they would... No, it's a one.

No, it doesn't add to their salary.

The stipend is paid out, but it does not add to the base salary number for the following year. Does that make sense?

To say thank you for your work, but we want to try to get everybody lined up.

Danny? Go ahead. What if we would do like a 5% across the board?

then we'd probably be above the number that we were trying to get to for base.

I just don't think it's fair to give some a 12%, 15% raise and some want to get 3%.

Well, that's because some aren't making what they should have been, and the other ones already are, so they were already at an advantage.

That's basically what you were doing when you gave people a flat rate. Some people were getting 3% of their salary, and some people were getting 6%. So it's never going to be perfect.

I mean I believe it or not I went home studied all this stuff and it finally my brain thought I know we're gonna disagree Ernie and I know what what's going on but I thought if we get them up get it over we're not kicking the can down the road or where we ought to be we paid a company to do this job for us, and we all voted to do it, next year, whenever you sit down for salaries, if you want to give a 3% raise across the board, without looking at longevity or anything else, I don't think you're going to see anybody complaining. Because somebody on here is going to be not happy as they want to be. Someone's going to walk out of here dancing the jig. I mean, that's all it amounts to. And then the next year, in 28, Hopefully it all balances itself out. Am I making sense?

Your number, Ashley, when you said it was $10.6 million to get everybody to base, did that include and a stipend, which that's another thing.

Are we talking about county general or total? Total. Total?

But that was just getting everybody to base. That was not giving anybody the 3% raise across the board. Does that include that?

Not across the board. No, it gets people to base. So the 10.6 is if I'm over base, I just get what I get. The stipend, yes. The 3% stipend.

Well, and some of them on here are going to be moved up to base, and they're only going to get a $500 stipend.

Yeah.

You've got some of them in line to get $14,000.

That means they've been underpaid for how many years? That's what that means.

That's what they say, but I think it's wrong.

Well, I know Scholey's on there to get $14,000. I'll mention names. I don't care. And I'm... Expect more out of him. Maybe I'm wrong. And I will tell him I expect more out of him. Sorry. It should be open to the public. It doesn't matter to me. I got nothing to lose.

I'll make the motion that we get everybody to base and pay out the stipend as recommended on the spreadsheet. I'll second that.

I have a motion by Ashley to pay the base. Anybody over base gets a 3% stipend. And I have a second by Deanna. Any more discussion?

I think this type of thing is going to bite us in the ass one of these days. Who what? When it comes around next year and we don't pay $1,849.72 to somebody for a stipend, that's just pulling that rug right out from under them, and they've effectively stayed. I don't know. It just doesn't seem like that's the – to me – a good way to do that.

MS. Well, then they'll be getting a raise depending on the raise. MR. I know. I know.

But are you going to include that $1,849.72 in the calculation of the raise, whatever you give them the prior year? Hey, you're giving everybody, I'll just use a number, I'm giving everybody 3% in 2027. Well, then you're not giving me 3% because I'm not getting part of my 3% is the $1,849.72 I got last year. I'm a little thick in the head so I may not understand it.

Everyone understands that it's not base building and it's a one-time thing.

I mean, we could have not done the 3% at all and just said, look, you're already at base.

That's exactly right. We could have. We could have. I'm not saying we should have. That's not fair. Yeah, that's not fair. But that's what you could have. We could do a lot of stuff. And I guess at the end of the day, if we pay the stipend, we just eat our... You don't think the tax department would call you and ask me why you're giving somebody a $14,000 raise?

How are you going to explain that? Some expert in payroll that's does it all around the country the state over 80 counties use that I honestly think Ernie that I get it that that big of a jump is

Crazy. I think we need to be reasonable with some of these. But if we have to take the medicine on those to get us to where the majority is in the right place, then we just have to expect more. If the commissioners manage that position, you have to extract that $14,000 or $20,000 more value out of that position.

The unfortunate part is it's an elected position.

Well, not on a couple of these.

Yes, a couple, yes.

I get it. Electric, you have no control over.

The specific one you're talking about.

But there's a couple of them on here.

But also when there's a vacancy, you may attract a bigger pool of more skilled candidates as well.

That's, I guess, how I would explain it if somebody asked me about it.

Well, I mean, if you want to do a performance-based going forward, that's what this is setting it up for. So if you really want to get invested and do performance-based raises in the future, these descriptions are setting you up to be able to do that. It depends on how strongly you feel about it.

The person that you're struggling with here, the $14,000, three years ago, four years ago, he was the one that was really underpaid then, and you were giving him the three years to catch him up. So he was going to get a large raise this year anyway had you have stuck with the one, two, and three, had you finished out that third year. This number is a little bit higher, but it's because it's – 2026 2027 numbers before we were going off of 2020 3 numbers 24 numbers. So he was because from that last study that many years ago he was going to get a large jump this year anyway.

We have what position go from part-time help. 78,000.

You know I've got different outlook on that and I've told you my outlook when their money's gone they're gone I

I have a motion and a second on the floor.

So explain that dollars.

With the 3% and to bring us up to base is only $100,000 difference, right?

Correct. Less than.

With the stipend.

With the stipend. It was closer to $70,000. And by doing that, you're going to have better control.

It does get us to a space that coincides with the study and gets us all set. It gets us down the road to the future. That's a standard, I guess I'll say. It may not be the very best standard for everybody.

It will. It will.

It will.

It will. I'm not, I'm not, I just, I've kicked this around for, after you guys' 31st meeting.

It's a struggle. I mean, you want to do the right thing. You want to, you know, on both sides.

So if I understand this right, you're willing to accept what this company is recommending without any negotiating on what these base pays are. Is that correct? So you're taking the council knowledge, possibly clear out of it. You're going completely with what this company recommends.

On every... Well, what's on these sheets.

Everybody. So they know more about this county than we do. Just want to be clear.

They ran a comparison is what they did. I'm not sure how many counties they used, but it would have been counties within... OUR POPULATION AND OUR INCOME, I BELIEVE. IS THAT CORRECT?

LIKE, MULTIPLE CITIES AND MORE THAN 80 COUNTIES USE THEM FOR THESE SAME SERVICES. THEY KNOW INDIANA.

YEAH, WELL, WE HEARD, I THINK, ONE COMPARISON OF COUNTIES, DIDN'T WE, SOMEWHERE THAT WE HEARD?

YEAH, THEY LOOKED AT COUNTIES SURROUNDING US, AND THEY LOOKED AT COUNTIES OF SAME GEOGRAPHICAL AND TAX BASE, AND THEN THEY LOOKED AT THE PRIVATE SECTOR WITHIN REASON. NOT LIKE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES,

And they do this for 80 counties out of the 90. So, you know, 79 other counties use them for the same reason.

As a matter of record, maybe, this motion that's before us now is basically what Councilman Hooten had suggested at the last meeting that we had. Correct. While Kenny's not here, you're still kind of following that track.

Correct.

That was the salary committee's recommendation. Yeah.

Kenny was pretty adamant about it in the meeting. You weren't able to attend Danny, but he was on board with the plan.

I just think if we don't do this, we're going to start all over again next year.

I agree, Danny, but I think some of these need to be adjusted.

Take a look at them next year.

I'd be too late once you give it out. You say you can't take it back. That's part of the advice you're not taking.

You know, Ernie, back in the old days, we had some issues with the insurance back in those days, and we couldn't change anything. what had already been offered to current employees. But our policy, and Christy, tell me if I'm wrong, if you were a new hire, you had to do X, Y, Z. And where commissioners hire an individual or the council has to approve it when that person leaves, certainly that is a time that you could evaluate value and redirect that at some point. And if things... go south from a financial point of view from our monies coming in. The elected officials and their staff will have to try to manage that within their budget that they've provided. So I think if we can afford it. The motion to Danny's point gets us down the road a bit.

This is minus the council and the commissioners getting a stipend.

Absolutely.

Minus the council and commissioners getting a stipend.

Another question. What are you doing about the health department?

Health department? We're going to have to go back through it here in just a few minutes and go and see what's in it. There's nobody here to ask questions to, and I really have got quite a few to ask, just to be honest with you. Okay, I got a motion and a second. Christy Kolomov.

Okay, Ernie Gauck.

No. Nay.

Deanna Burkert. Nay. Bill Metz.

Yes.

Rick Nobby.

Yes.

And Ashley Hungate. Yes. Four to one. Four to one.

Four to one? Okay. Salaries are done. Okay.

I don't think they're down. I think they're never. Well, they're here.

Now, can you put, anybody got time to put county generals together while we're here in case we need to move something around?

Already here. County general is the second number. And then... That's what we got here, though. Total and then let me go to budget projection that because it puts you at 14 million 14 million for County General Okay You try to get something put something up there so we know where we're at.

Okay? Okay. I want to go here to Health Department. Nobody's here from health, correct? To answer some questions. Because. He is. 460,000 over. My read now, right? OK, some of these have been transferred to. The Health Department from the grants. I'm not too thrilled because I have a couple things that have been done in the Health Department. Oh, you look at it, see what direction you guys want to go. I'm not. I'll be the first one to bring it up. Some of these salaries were increased through the grant. And. Quite a bit to increase. We're not getting any. You reckon we ought to call him in? Yeah.

Don't know if we're going to find out.

Christy, you want to get somebody here?

I wonder how that compares to other counties.

Look on here. Directly.

Yeah.

Do what?

We don't really have a comparison, do we?

I should have brought my county book.

Pardon?

I should have brought that county resource book. I just got one, a new one.

That'd have it in it. Nobody's got one.

I think it got sent to... Did you guys get a fact book? Yes.

I think you have my fact book that you get with all the companies in it.

There's what he's supposed to be making.

That's with the study.

I'm going by the study here.

Does that mean we propose to give him a 3% raise then too?

Well, I just want to answer why we're giving ourselves that and answers on some of these other questions on here.

Did anybody call him? Yes, our office called him. It's calling. What he's done is the healthy first grant is moving is being over. He's moved a lot of that into. Yeah, they've moved a lot of that to this their health fund.

Well over there, let's go to park. Let's get Chris there to answer a few questions here. Jump up here, would you buddy? You think you can cover? 1.387 million. I mean, they're showing on here, you know, you need to reduce by $456,000. And I'm not, I'm asking them. I'm on your side now. I'm going by what he's saying the income is, what your money's coming in. Okay?

I mean I think is I mean you guys have seen our our scope of what we've done in the last year I mean that's with adding a new employee so you had her if insurance benefits like that you're adding a community pool into that I mean is your is your pool some of your pool maintenance and stuff you think inflated just a little bit yeah it is and like i said that's just because we did some um comparison to some other pools so i'll use columbia city um sullivan ones that were comparable in size to us And it was we just we don't know. I don't intend to use all of that for sure. And that's also with money that will be coming in as well to put back into another question.

What maintenance are you going to have on it this year?

In 26.

On the pool, in 26.

26.

Is that included in anything?

No.

For this, I mean, because you are going to have some maintenance this year, aren't you?

We already, so like our concessions equipment, all that, we've already bought all that. So we have all that already that I paid for.

Well, I'm talking about electric bills, gas bills, or anything.

That was actually already in the 26 budget, REMC, all that. That was already in there. So we already had that taken care of. I understand.

Anybody else have any questions for Chris? You're paying your new maintenance guy half out of park and half out of the building or the. Any other departments we need to go through besides health? Thank you, Chris.

Find anything?

Here's the number of employees. Public health, right? Five in Clay, 11 in Decatur, six in Posey, eight in Ripley, and four in Wells.

I know. He's hired a bunch out of that grant, and that's the questions I have that's going away.

The number of employees in the department.

Hey, Danny, are we at a spot That we're waiting on.

Pardon?

We're waiting on a health department . So Brian reached out to Stephanie Westbrook and I did as well. The paperwork that we got that is the $1,813,000 appropriation thing was total. So $1 million of that, the $800,000 one that we just approved, should have been part of this $1.8 million. So $1 million is going to go for the lease of the facility, $800,000 for the construction that we already approved, and then $13,000 was for operations to go when they open it up in October, November. So...

Yeah, so that $800,000 shouldn't have been separated out. That's right.

Okay.

Well, we signed the other one.

We signed the other one, and I would make a motion, and maybe this is the right way, Christy, to amend the appropriation to be $1,013,000. Is that right? Or just disregard the one we signed? I think so. Okay, so we'll rescind the one we signed. Motion to approve $1,813,000.

We need a motion to rescind that one. We need a motion to rescind that one, and then we'll come back, correct? Let's just do it. You understand what I mean?

I move to rescind the $800,000 additional appropriation that was previously signed and approved.

I'll second that.

Deanna seconds it. Everybody got that? All those in favor?

Aye.

Anybody opposed? Okay.

I move we approve $1,813,000 additional appropriation, $1 million going to lease, $800,000 going to construction, and $13,000 of that going to operations.

Okay, got a motion by Rick.

I'll second that.

Bill seconds it. Any other questions on what we're doing? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We already signed one sheet. Do we have to sign another one, or do you just want to pass that down?

That was the wrong one.

No, this, well, we signed.

It's not attached to it, though, is what he's saying. Do what?

You're saying it's not attached to it. Throw that away and attach this one to that one down there.

Okay.

Is that okay?

That's fine.

Without getting any trouble? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Coon Bridge says it's 395,000 over. But it said it needs to cut. All right, let's look. Trying to find it. Got anything else to go in it?

That'll be the next call out.

Look around.

I'm looking.

I'm looking.

I think it's an excellent one.

Here's a little different one. They're all different, yeah. Coon cap.

We already took 500,000 out.

You what?

We already took 500,000 out.

Jim Bridge. I'm just going by what it says here.

What's it say? How much?

It says 390. Reduced budget, $395,000. Mine's got 500,000 now. 50. Maybe it's down.

We did 100.

There we go, Coon Bridge. We take $100,000 out of bridge replacement repair. Is that what we did? Brought it back down to $500,000. So it should be $295,000. He's projecting $754,529. Okay Put that back to 754 529 Well, it's only shown you're spent 200 come up here Tim I get people yelling at me I I'll get a text or two telling me. I'm looking at.

That's fine.

You've only spent $251,000, $259,000 out of there. Is there more coming out? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, there's, yeah.

You had $900,000 budgeted. We left it at $900,000 last year.

I guess we're probably sitting somewhere around $150,000 worth of claims, I'm guessing. I mean, yeah. Yet this year.

On top of what?

What we already spent, yeah. $250,000.

Yeah. You said 150, is that what you said?

I'd say every bit of it right now, yeah.

That's still only 400,000. Yeah.

But it should be split between culvers and bridges. Yeah, it should be split between both. I mean, there will be a lot more culvers going in this fall once crops come and stuff out. So, I mean, the culver will start getting hit harder as we go.

I just don't want us to go to the DLGF and them kick it back and say. Yeah, like I said, if we have to, like I said.

You know what I mean? Because I think last year was the first year we raised the levy. Is that correct? Raised it back up or is it this year? I don't know.

It was in effect. I remember talking about it because it was going to run out if we didn't raise it.

Yes, yes. That's why we raised it. So I was thinking it kicked in this year. But like I said, if we need to back up, if the levy don't support, the levy don't support.

We could probably back it up to $800,000 and be all right.

So like I said, wherever we need to be at, like I said. that'll get us that all right christy so take it down to 400 in each or do you need more than that whatever you think i mean if anything i'd leave the bridge up and pull the culvert down 100 000. well we got to cut it 300 okay i mean yeah but yeah about 295 to be exact 295 if you bring it back to 800 total yeah that's gonna be 500 300. yeah yeah yeah let's let's do that that's what we got down there anyway

Good.

Okay. That'll work. All right. Thank you, Joel. Okay. Okay. I see. Sean, you here? Yes, sir. Okay. According to our recommendation sheet, $408,000 needs to be cut out of your budget. Now, public health assistant, was she in the grant last year, this year?

Yes.

So you want to transfer her over to you?

Yes.

Same way with operations manager.

That, yes. That was actually a title change, so. And accounting? Accounting, we can cut that. That's on the HFI. I still haven't gotten the approval on it, but I'm, it'll be fine. Do what? We can count, we can cut that. Which one, accounting? Accounting is actually a contract position anyway.

How much of it, was everything zero? and 26 in the grant last year, correct?

Yes. The only real difference there would be the vaccinations.

Are they on there?

I don't even see it on there. Oh, there you go. So the vaccinations was the one that we will receive reimbursement for those.

100%?

Actually, we should, yes.

You'll get 100% back on that? Yeah. So you're just trading dollars?

Yeah. Yes, that's what's weird about making an expense, because if you're going to get it back, is it an expense?

Well, we have to pay for it first. Yeah, it has to be, unfortunately, yeah. What's your grant cut to next year? $124,000. $124,000?

Yeah. What was it this year?

It was the same this year. So this was the two-year grant, but it went down from $500,000 the previous year. So we've spent down that $500,000, unfortunately.

Okay, I've got another question. Going into next year, some of these salaries you've paid out of that grant, Some of them. Yes. I mean, and some of them. Right. Some of them have been given, like yourself, grant administrator.

Yes. Pretty good.

Is that going away? No, not. That's not going to go away? No, sir. That's a pretty good chunk you're giving yourself there, Sean. Well, that's what. And then, but with a, if your grant started out at 500 and some thousand. Maybe I look at things different, okay? Right. What you gave yourself was about 6% of that grant, correct?

Now, you mean, with the cut?

From a $500,000. Right.

Okay.

Don't get mad at me. I'm going back. I'm not getting mad at you. I'm going, okay, it dropped down to $250,000. Yeah. You still gave yourself the same as you did once, $100,000, $500,000. Why didn't we go by percentage on that sale? I'm only going to get this much. I've only got this much to administer. Why didn't I get 6%?

I understand where you're going on that. See where I'm going? But here's my counter to that. My workload didn't go down. As a matter of fact, my hours have gone up with these cuts because it takes a lot more to figure out how I'm going to keep this department running with these grants. And administering the grants is every bit as much labor-intensive as as it was and You know we actually and you and I admit and we talked about what this came out to and I have been tracking my hours like you guys asked me to it has actually you know when I add those hours in as extra hours over my normal work week and my hourly rate is actually less on this than it is on my county budget what do we do when this grant's all gone well then there's the then the extra labor goes away that is tied to this grant so that would that would be gone and your salary that part of it yeah the the grant part of any of the salaries i mean that just is gone there's no There's no money to pay for it.

I'm just looking at what you're getting in a grant next year. And if you're giving yourself that, it's like 30% of the grant. Am I thinking right?

I don't have it pulled up right now. It's the same as it was this year. Yeah. Yeah.

The money is, but if it was on a percentage.

The grant's the same. 2027 is the same as 2026, and my pay is this.

What was 2026 this year? Sorry. How much did the grant bring in this year? I thought it was $250,000 or something like that.

No, it's not that much. I wish it were. I think it's $100,000. I think my computer doesn't want to cooperate. That's what I think. There we go. Grant total is $154,393.73, which is the same, the 2026 and the 2027 are the same. And then, of course, the hope is that, you know, 2028 is going to go up. We don't know that, and that's where, you know, so many, as I've explained to everybody there, and includes myself, obviously, with this, If it goes away, things change a lot, so.

Well, you just added a lot to your budget. That's what I'm, we're trying to figure out what, I don't, can you sustain it?

Can I sustain it? No. Can I do it for next year? Yes. And that is all I'm trying to get through is for next year. I mean, yes, I'm hoping that the HFI grant comes back for 2028. If it doesn't, things change drastically for the health department. That's just the bottom line. I don't like it, but it is what happens. It changes for everybody there and for the whole community, but we can't, no, I can't sustain the budget that I've been requested in any way, shape, or form beyond next year, so.

Do you have, Sean, an impact report of what those funds have done for our community that I know you had to report back to the state, like different parameters?

Yeah, so there's a couple of things we have on that. And I had reported a couple of those earlier. So we have all of the areas that we track. And we actually have four what are called our KPOs now that are, those are the main goals that we have, but those are just things that are included in all of the state goals already. We have all that information available. In addition to that, the IU Fairbank School of Public Health did a study on, and all they did was they picked four different ones, but four different areas, and the return on investment to each community on those dollars. And I don't have that information right in front of me, but it's certainly something I can get to you. It's pretty impactful, and I did calculate it for Decatur County, and I might have that

And do you have, like, a list of initiatives that you're hoping to accomplish if you got this budget passed? Like, are there improvements that you're hoping to make, or what does the next year look like?

So, yeah, one of the main things is the, in that line item, the $100,000. That's one of my main focuses right now, is the fact that we are now going to end up purchasing our own vaccines and billing our own vaccines. And that's where I'm going to be able to pay that back at that 100% that you asked about, because... We actually are going to make more. What we're doing right now is our vaccine.

That's a cost saving. I'm sorry. In the long run, is that a cost?

Yeah. Right now, our vaccine is owned by a different company and they pay us an administrative fee every time we give a shot. So it's like 10 bucks, which is a little bit of nothing. So we will be able to, we actually have already started, we're billing insurance and we're billing Medicaid, Medicare, and we're able to bill both the Plan B and the Plan D at this point. So that will bill not only, first of all, our vaccine inventory costs went down because this company was charging a surcharge on top of the normal manufacturer. So we're buying direct from the manufacturer, instant savings right there, not going through the distributor. Plus, we're able to bill at whatever rate. It's a given rate. We don't get to set the rate. It is what it is on that. But we'll get a small profit on the vaccine itself as well as the administration fee.

And then instead of... Cut out the middleman, basically, the contractor.

Yeah, very much so. Yeah, we're buying direct. And it obviously saves us a lot of money there. You don't have any projections?

And what financial impact will that have? What's the number on that?

As far as the profit level on that or the financial?

The difference between what you're doing now and what you're planning on doing. Yeah. How much extra?

So we are looking at about $34,000 a year on projections. Now that's if that's $34,000.

How much more administration is going to go into that? Because you're going to have extra costs in that. So are you going to spend $35,000 administering or trying to collect?

So actually, no, because we're still paying an administrator. It's a different company. They're called MyVisit. They're contracted through the state to offer this to local health departments. We don't pay anything for their program. What we do pay them is a 7% commission on every vaccine. What we're paying right now is obviously way, way more than that. So rather than getting that 93% of the administration fee, which varies by vaccine, so I can't give you a list of that. they were keeping almost all of it and giving us the $10. So we'll get almost all of that back and then again, 93% of that profit. That's where that $34,000 comes from. Now, the $100,000 that we're asking for, we probably are not going to need that. Because it's not $100,000. It's probably in that $50,000 range, but it's variable. We don't know what next year is going to bring for sure. And the other good part about it is, good dad, we started this process already. So right there is going to reduce next year's costs on vaccines. I'm paying for them this year. So that's hurting me because I didn't really have a line item in my budget for that for this year. So if we looked at something that could be cut, that is probably a place that could be cut down to 50 pretty easily. How many employees do you have out there now? Nine. Well, eight. Eight in the contract.

Since COVID, you've added employees? Since COVID?

Since COVID. Prior to COVID, we had four employees.

Well, they maybe count my interns and had unpaid interns.

I had an intern that was paid by the state.

I'll take 11.

But no, we have nine full-time. We don't have any part-time.

You're saying the vaccinations come down to 50? I'm sorry? You're saying the vaccinations can come down to 50?

I feel confident with that, yeah. At the time I made the budget, I didn't. But just based on the things that are going on, I think we could do that easily.

This is awesome stuff. How many vehicles do you have?

Four.

Are they all take-home vehicles?

No, just mine. I say that, not just mine. So we have the deputy preparedness person, too. She sometimes has to take it home just to be, if I'm out of town, that kind of thing, because one of us has to be on call all the time. But those are the only two that are allowed to do that.

Very much.

Down to $358,000. I'll take that $10,000 out, so. What, $10,000, Danny?

The accounting. Pardon?

I was going to ask if you could add that, Christy. Oh, it's out.

Yeah. $10,000 on accounting can come out. Put vaccinations down to 50.

Yes, she did that.

I just don't want to kick back from DLG F. Do something with it, you know what I mean? I know a lot of it's been sustained by your grants.

Are you basing a lot of that request off funds that you already have?

That's based on how much funding we actually have sitting there. So that's why I say that this is good for a year, and it's not sustainable. I don't have enough income coming in every year to sustain this beyond this. It's just in there. Even with the vaccines, it won't be there.

These grants go away. There's probably going to be a couple of positions go away. Correct. If not two or three.

Have you been brought in on any discussion for this coming session?

Yes. If you ask me how I'm feeling about it, it's... That's what I was thinking. No. Okay. The governor has promised to restore the funding, but it has to get to the governor. So I'm not holding my breath on anything.

I haven't heard anything about it, so I figured you probably had. Yeah.

I apologize if I was supposed to be here.

Anybody else have anything on any of this you can think about?

County general total up there Please Fourteen million four thirty one nine twenty three fourteen four thirty one nine twenty three recommendation is thirteen one We're all right. Okay. Go to jail. Okay. Whatever we did with the jailers, we'll move them over to special purpose. Is that okay? Along with PERF.

You're moving $1.1 million of special purpose?

Well, the jailers along with PERF and FICA. See what that does to us.

How much do we have to cut?

$1 million. We need to get $13,000. We're $14,400. We get down to $13,000.

There it is if you take out the jailers.

We take a million out of there, and that will pass.

It takes you down to 13-1.

Pardon?

Just taking out the jailers takes you down to 13-1.

That's right on the money. We want to make sure you keep Perf in that right. You need to keep Perf and Fike in there so you don't have to jump back and forth.

Correct.

Correct.

Really we ask that it goes with the pay. Yes. So I will figure because just that amount, I'll figure it and move it to, I'll get that figured. It'll be on top of this. Correct.

We're right on the money.

Okay.

Anybody else in audience got anything for us?

on a much lighter note and we are hosting leaders and loggers tonight and the Small Business Administration is going to be able to join us and just give a brief update about the recovery from the August 11th disaster with the severe storms and flooding so Cynthia Wolbright will be with us if anyone is interested in hearing how that affects small businesses and what they can do through the SBA encourage you to join us this afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. at the tap following her presentation again just a couple of minutes we will be featuring Lisa Tressler with RBSK partners talking about different things that small businesses need to look for as it becomes and as we're looking at tax season encroaching upon us so two great presentations in in one event this evening from four to six at the tap. We do have a couple of ribbon cuttings coming up. You can look at our website for more information on that cash bash tickets went on sale. Um, those help us fund the small business grants that we donate back to the business community at our annual dinner. So if anyone is interested in those, please see a board member. Um, and we can help you, um, with that, you know, dinner tickets will go on sale probably at the end of this week, if not the beginning of next week for the November 20th event.

OK, any questions for me?

Thank you, thank you Ryan.

When I was a young boy, I sent all you guys the copy of the first draft of the tax abatement process overview that Danny was requesting. I'm sorry if some of you guys couldn't open it, but it is the first draft. Look forward to further conversation. Kind of based it on three principles. One, maximize community benefit, ease of process, and objectivity. to try to kind of improve what we have, what we lack on the side of the table. The city has something in place, and I think we can learn and build on that too. So if you have any questions or anything like that, let me know. Any suggestions, we can add them in. But I look forward to working with you on that.

Thank you, Brian. I know we've been working on that for six months. So it's kind of a guideline for abatements is what it is. I want everybody to go over and read it. It kind of gives you a point system Brian came up with. And once it's looked at, if you've got any additions or something needs to be kicked out, then we'll probably have to have our lawyer look at it and make sure the ordinance is okay. Thanks. I'm not trying to overrun you, but I mean, you know, I want to make sure it's all legal. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, we got part-time pay. We're at $18 right now. What do we want to do on part-time pay? I forgot it. That was on my brain, too. I don't know.

I mean, currently I make part-time payers. I don't know. You know.

About half of them are making more than 18 bucks anyway.

Yeah, we raised a bunch, I know.

The one I would really like to raise is Jake. He needs to go to about 19. He really does. You want to raise everybody? Oh, you want to do...

I mean, it doesn't matter. They budget for a certain amount in their part time anyway, right? And once it's gone, it's gone. Right.

Once it's gone, it's gone.

Can we leave that up to the?

Aye, we need to set one. OK.

I'll make a motion we move it to $19.

Got a motion by Rick to move it to $19.

I'll second that.

Bill seconds. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

OK. It looks like about $244,000 will come out for FICA and PERF out of County General. So that's putting us under quite a bit from this 13.150 target. So we don't want to go too far under.

Do what?

We don't want to go too far under, so we continue to get the growth.

OK. Well, would we move to public safety?

Jailers.

No, we didn't.

Oh, I'm sorry, public safety.

1.1 million was to public safety from jailers.

No, we went to special purpose.

Special purpose is what I meant.

But if there's something we can move out of public safety back into county general.

If I understand this right, if we move it out of special purpose, then that's the monies that we can use to pay the jail off in the 11th year. I would very much like it if it can be put back in special purpose to put it back in there because our minutes reflect that we had $3.75 million. We have a $1.5 million payment for the jail, and we already took like $1. like a million out of there, which would have left $400,000 that we could have moved from special purpose for the jailers. So if we can put that back in special purpose to achieve Christie's recommendation, that's where I'd like it to stay, because I am passionate about paying that jail off. At the very earliest time. How long we got? Is that special? Should be 2028, right, Christy?

No. Is it 2028? I thought the first payment wasn't.

2028 is when the 10 years is. I thought we didn't. We did the first payment. Okay, so the agreement was signed in 2018. We did the first payment in 2020. But everything I can find. I'm not 100% sure, but everything that I'm finding says that the 10-year starts at the 18 mark.

So the bonds were sold in 2020. So it would be 2031 before you can make a payment on it.

That's just not what I'm seeing, but we'll definitely go back and look that up.

I think it goes by when the bonds were sold.

Okay.

Because I know we started making... We started making payments. We paid $4 million of it ourselves. And then we bonded $20 million. And the bond was in 2020?

I would have thought it had been prior to that. I can check that.

Maybe it's 19.

Agreements were done in 2018, April of 2018. Yeah.

And I think the bonds, I think it goes by when the day the bonds were sold. Okay. That year, I think.

Well, I've asked Christy to put something together to get a trail on all of that for the future. And I just want to bring it up just to have it on the record that we can't just keep reaching back, I don't think, into special purpose if we can.

So the cleanest way to do that, looking at this, is to put...

and then one matures the end of this month, and then like three more next year, and it's all of those hit like 5% as far as . I've been talking with Dave, and he's wondering if we can't move more of the special purpose over into, he's saying the CD, but we have to be careful on the IC code. .

. .

.

How much are we under?

So I think if we put prisoner meals and medical and dental.

The what?

Prisoner meals and medical and dental out of special purpose back in.

To the jail?

Yeah, that would be $440, which would put us just over where we want to be, which would show a little bit of growth, but it would only be two line items.

Take group insurance back over there. I bet you're doing it just two things. Two things, yeah.

How much is group insurance? Okay, so which one did you want what one did you decide on?

Prisoner meal pardon you decided on prisoner meals and then what was the other one I?

Here we go. 13.5? We're all right. That's OK. We're supposed to be at 13.1. I know we can absorb 400 real easy. OK. Anybody have anything else? Anybody in the audience?

OK.

I entertain a motion to adjourn. Ernie makes a motion to adjourn.

I second it. Ashley seconds it.

Anybody all in favor of that? Aye. Anybody oppose it? Okay. Okay, you got the book. You have 30 seconds. I didn't give you 30 seconds.

That's okay.