County Council - Regular Meeting

ready? Yep. Hey, we'll call this session of the Cal County Council in order. Uh today is Wednesday, November 12th, 2005. We'll begin with an opening prayer by Councilman Bob Craft. Let's pray. Father God, we just thank you for another day of life, another day to be here to serve you. I just pray that you would uh give us wisdom, give us uh discernment as we do the business of the county and the taxpayers. We just pray that we would make wise decisions as we discuss the topics before us today in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Would you please stand for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nationyice for all you?

Okay, we have three sets of minutes here. We have uh minutes for September 3rd and fourth meeting. September 24th and October 8th. Does anybody have any additions or corrections on those three sets of minutes? Okay. Hearing none, we can do this all in one. Do we have consensus from the council to approve them all in one? Looks like we do. Okay. So, all those in favor of approving the minutes from Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. Uh, all those in favor of approving the minutes from the September 3rd and 4th meeting, September 24th and the October 8th M meeting, please signify by saying I.

I.

Oppos. Motion is carried and the minutes are approved. Uh, moving on, we have some additionals and transfers. We will take a look at the um additionals first. The first one we have is coming from probation. And let me find the the letter. It is from the general fund fund number 10001 account number 34190. The account title is care of inmates. The amount requested is $10,000 and it says ACJC has raised the amount charged for detaining juveniles and the third quarter invoices well beyond our current balance. Was this included in the annual budget request? And the answer is no. Uh the reason ACJC changed uh their charges in September of 2025. How will this appropriation be used? It'll be used to pay for detention to juveniles. specific cost of items is is now $200 a day. How was this determined determined by the detention facility? Is this a reoccurring expense? And the answer is yes. Will other expenditures be necessary? The answer is yes. And the reason for other expenditures invoices as received was it discussed with the leazison and that is yes. And that was Dave Yard. Do we have any further discussion on this?

I had a question. Did ACJC did they was that not known that they were going to raise? Well, that was kind of a a last minute my understanding there. Otherwise, it would have included it in the budget. That's Allen County trying to balance their budget. The It's the Allen County Juvenile Distriction Center. So there was no 30 days, we're going to do this or two months. They just did it on their budget, their budget meetings. Yep. They had to react. They did some pretty radical things there. Any further discussion? Do we have a motion for approval? So moved.

Okay, we have a motion by Rick Ring. Do we have a second? Is that Amy Devki? Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for the question. All those in favor of the $10,000 additional to probation signify by saying I. I. Motion is carried. Dave, one one other thing um for everybody's information. This actually is the less expensive way to go. the court, the local court has the option of mandating that we build our own juvenile detention center,

of which it would put us right back into the same issue we've got with the jail. So, paying paying them to take these people does save us money in the long run.

Okay, thank you, Rick. Moving on, the next one coming from the probation department. Fund name is supplemental adult probation user fees. Fund number is 2000. The account is 223000. The account is supplies. The total amount requested is $22,000. Was this included in the annual budget? No. And the reason it was not an anticipated expense. Uh how will this appropriation be used to pay for body armor vests for all probation officers and judges? Specific cost of the item is $1,150 plus $270. How was this quote determined? It was u received from mees. Is this a recurring expense? No. Uh will other expenditures be necessary? No. Was it discussed with the on? Yes. And that was Dave Yard. So this was necessary for the um probation officers and judges to have body armor to wear. So and it was not anticipated earlier.

Well, who determined that the judges and probation officers had had body armors? Is that I don't I don't know who they did. They do because they're not wearing this in the facility. They to have it so that when they go out and do home checks and they're out and about. Well, I I understand the probation officers with the judges think they could make house calls. They've all they've always had theirs. They're just they expire though. Yeah. Five years. All judges have always had them. Oh, I didn't know that. Why wouldn't it come out of their funds?

Say that one more time. Why why would why would it be coming out a probation fund instead of their own funds for um actually I'll have to look at that when the invoice comes. Um but they were working on trying to get possibly a grant or some extra help like to do everything like as in one big option, right? Um but when the invoice comes then I'll be able to because the judges they have um they would have money in their budgets for their portion of it. So when the invoice comes in that will split and I will have some from each judge and then probation will have the majority of it. So I

this is coming this is being done from their user fees. So not from their tax money but from their user fees is what it says. Right. It's coming from the supplemental not coming out of general fund adult probation user fees. Correct. there been some kind of instance or something that recently sparked this idea that they needed body armor. This seems they've talked about it multiple times. Um if you want Michelle to come up, maybe she can come up, but I say it's been discussed both here and commissioners multiple times.

Um so this isn't um a new practice and it isn't really anything new. It's just that the body armor has all expired and it has like a useful life. Sorry. I would say that for the probation officers and for those of us at community corrections, um we've gone a little bit past what police officers normally go because we don't wear ours daily like they do. Ours is just when we're out in the community. Um it's just for safety. is to make sure that when we're going out because when we're in the office, we have to think like we're bringing the offenders into our environment into our territory and we have some kinds of controls that we can put in safety practices, but when we're out in the community, we're kind of going into their environment and we don't have so many controls and we're going into unknowns and things like that. So, this is really just a safety thing and it's just because they've expired and we need new ones. Um, and when we contacted the body armor um, companies, the two that we contacted, one in Fort Wayne and one's in Indianapolis, both said that they expect those prices to be going up next year and it would be better to get it done this year. Now, they are salesman. They are trying to get us to buy something. So, how true is that? I don't know, but since the price of everything is going up, it seemed pretty plausible. Um, the other thing is there is a Bureau of Justice Assistance has a program where we can turn in our invoice after we've ordered and it's on specific models. They have to be sized to each individual person in order to qualify for the program and the ones we're looking at do fit. There's a list and we've uh made sure that they're on that list. And then what we do when we get the invoice is we turn it into them and we can get up to 50% reimbursement up to so it's not guaranteed 50%. Um but we've already done all the background work on that. We have our account set up. We've been approved. They've placed us into a category uh different things that we have to do. And so we really just need to invoice at this point. That window opened on October 20th and it closes

December 19th to turn your invoice in for the reimbursement. Quick question and maybe you know or don't know but the expired vests and armor what do they do with it? Is it traded in or do you um dispose of it or what? We can dispose of it. Sometimes there are other agencies that like to take it as a donation for their reserve officers because they don't hire they don't um generally buy um specific vest for reserve officers. So that's kind of up to um those other departments if that's something they're interested in. I have a little bit of a concern with that. That is if we're passing on equipment that's been expired. Yeah,

could probably answer this question. Are we liable if it doesn't function? Yeah. Yeah. And this is actually something I know um that the health department has been working on. um with Mr. Cruz on AEDs

um because uh for example, we had a few AEDs at um community corrections that were not expired and we'd actually just replace the batteries when the health department decided to get everyone on the same models and units. Um so our question was what can we do with these because they're perfectly functioning and in fact have new batteries in them and he um is working with them on what to do with those. same idea like if we're giving these out, are they taking them with the understanding they're asis kind of a thing. So I think that's uh same idea that we would run past him and kind of say yes, no, how do you want to do this? Is there something they need to sign whatever it might be? ly in discussions with the state right now on the 80s

what yeah the process and Michelle if these are sounds like these are reoccurring expenses they're usually just in your budget right

um well they would have been if I had realized that ours were expired so obviously these are purchases that happened before I came and um when I took the time to open the cover, take the panels out and look and realize that it was time. And then knowing that the uh then finding out the prices were going to go up and that the windows open from October to December. It's like, can we get this done in the window, turn the invoices in, and hopefully get some reimbursement so we're not paying the entire cost of the vest. Glad that you were being active.

Great. No problem. Any other questions for Michelle? Thank you, Michelle. Do we have any further questions on this uh additional hearing? None. Do we have a motion for approval? So moved. We have a motion by Rick Collins. Did Amy, did you second that? Second by Amy Proer. Any further discussion? Not we'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the 202 $2,000 additional for probation signify by saying I. I. I. Oppos.

Motion is carried. And the last one we have comes from Sunny Meadows and uh there are three. And if we have consensus from the council, we can do these all on one motion. Do we have consensus? Thank you. We'll go through these. Okay. The first one uh from the Funny Meadows donation fund fund number 4111. Um the let's see the object is objective object objective number is 22256 and that is for $445.93. The next one is number 22257 residential needs $10,51765. And the next one is number 34340 contractual services slice consultant $1,31. Total amount requested is $12,26458 and it's uh purchases made for residents that are relocating for things such as beds, dressers, chairs, down payment for facility depending what the resident needs. The activities purchase was used to celebrate a resident's birthday and they did a fun tie-dyive activity for the residentsclud. Was this included in the annual budget request? And the reason was no. The reason it was not included was it was missed. How will this appropriation be used for all residents needs mostly help with relocations? Specific cost of the items they differ. How will this cost uh how was this cost determined? Depends on what needs purchased. Is this a reoccurring expense? The answer is no. Will other expenditures be necessary? The answer is

yes and the reason for other expenditures is there will be more relocations to discuss with the leaison and that is yes and that is Bob Craft. So that is the donation fund for Sunday Meadows and um I just totally didn't budget it for this year. And so um with the relocation of all the residents um all of this money that was donated obviously is to go directly for the residents needs, anything that they're wanting. Um so as things happen and people move then um items are purchased and that's where they're getting paid from. And there's still money in it too in it or side.

Yeah. I mean the donations. Yeah. I mean there's not a lot because we're almost to the end here. But this takes a good chunk of it. According to according to the fund report, there's $6,800 in there. Yeah. Except for since then would have been probably at least four residents that we would have been purchasing things for that wouldn't have been paid yet. Yeah. We can't have this money left because it was donated to the public. So, it needs to go out to

Absolutely. where it should go. That's true. That's true. I just wonder is there enough money in there to cover this? there is um it's going to be close and um if we get to the end and there's not enough money in the donation part there um is plenty of money in their budget right now that if we need to pay for something from county general then we will to make the residents get what they need.

So you're saying that right now there's enough in the donation fund to cover the $12,264 Oh, there has been I mean that's the full amount of appropriation like the those accounts many of them right now if you actually see an account report they show as negative because the appropriation wasn't there to offset that but no that's the exact balance of what was there

there were $13,000 13464 donated during had that much going Who's overseeing the um purchase of these items that the residents need and making sure that that everybody's getting taken care of? Is that the committee? It's between the committee, the Sunny Meadows committee, staff, Lita, and myself. and Commissioner C Commissioner Kellen Commissioner Douly is the commissioner that is the lead head on the whole sunny med meadows transitions and with the committee

Lita I want to ask you to get up you can just shake your head you if you want to stay there but you can come on up if you want um from what I understand also that you from some emails I've seen you are also soliciting donations of some of that stuff so we're you're working beyond just this fun well ask that's different. Well, sure. Okay. We did solicit for certain items because there's some that I don't want to have to deal with that come no not sure where they come from. Um the one project that we I just put out would be like the one we've always done for Christmas.

Mhm. only this is for the ones the the five that are moving out into community living. They're going to be living on their own. Um so we need to fund we didn't purchase household cleaning stuff, the small stuff. We got them the big things to be able to sleep and do do that kind of thing. The thing that we're going to do through my office is cleaning stuff and and the list went out. Um,

so for the public listening, I want to make it very clear the email that we're discussing was an email from Lita, not as a recorder, not as a committee, not as a county employee. Correct. As on her own to request donations of certain items for these employees or these residents. the and this much like when we would do adopt a resident at Christmas time has absolutely nothing to do with county funds, county money, county anything. Exactly. So, I want to make sure that's clear. That is not part of anything to do with the county funds. Right. It's just for the employees to show their generosity, which they the employees have been very generous in the

very Yes. Thank you Susan for clarifying that and that's part of why I wanted to say that now because it's there is something beyond what we're doing as a

county do this um but we kind of made it adopt we still adopting a resident but it's basically the ones that are going out into the community living in their own apartments for sometimes the first time in their lives. So, trying to make sure that we're setting them up for success, not just putting in an apartment. Here's your bed, here's your dresser, and we're done. That's not That's not I can't I can't do that. Um, and the people that donated to that restriction fund, that's why they did it. They did it to go for them. And so, I'm being very diligent about, you know, the ones that are going out. And we've gotten a few things for the ones that are going into another facility. Um, two went to another county home in the south part of the state. Um, they couldn't take anything with them. Nothing, only what they were wearing. So, uh, for them, they got all new clothes and they had to go from my car to the transport. Um, so every every one of these, uh, residents, their needs have been different. Um, some need nothing. So, um, but some need quite a bit. So, that's where we're at. We're we're getting there. But, uh, yeah, Walmart loves me.

We certainly appreciate the all that you do. Thank you, Lita. You're welcome. Any further discussion? Move to approve the additional motion to approve. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Amy Proer. All those in favor of approving the Sun Sun Sunny Meadows uh uh transfer or additional $12,26458 signify by saying I

I motion is carried. We are complete with TR additionals. Now we're going to go to transfers here and we do have several. First one comes to us from the auditor. Uh it is from other fees fund number 32780 to computer equipment 44420 for $844 and it's to purchase a new PC for my employee. Any further discussion? Move to approve. Move to have a motion approved by Bob Craft. Do we have a second? Second.

Second by Rick Collins. All those in favor of of the uh transfer of $844 signify by saying I. I.

Transfer is granted. The next one comes to us from Superior Court One and uh let's see it is uh from part-time fund number 10750 to licenses for software fund number 34620 for $8,000. And I'm trying to find this one Susan there. Anything else we need to discuss on that? Isn't anything is there anything further to discuss on that for um superior court $8,000 the transfer

I it's just because they're doing new licenses stoages and they're doing a different um like backup products and it has some other features to it they're just transfering so they pay for it this year. Any further discussion? Any questions? Hearing? None. We have a motion. Have a motion by Amy Demsky, second by Rick Ring. We'll call for the question. All those in favor of the $8,000 transfer for Superior Port One signify by saying I. I. Oppos.

Transfer is granted. The next one comes from title 4D tribal training education fund number 34295 to office supplies fund number 22110 the amount of $200. Do we have any further discussion hearing? None. Do we have a motion? We have a motion by Amy Demsky. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Rick Collins. All those in favor of the $200 transfer signify by saying I I opposed. Transfer is granted.

The next one comes to us from the lit safety county sheriff public safety lit fund.

Okay. Uh that's number fund number 1170. It is we have two of them here and if we have consensus from the council we can do these in in one motion. First one is travel, training, education fund number 34295 to holiday pay 11100 in the amount of $3,000. And the next one is equipment repair and maintenance fund number 33620 to holiday pay 10000 in the amount of $10,000. So we're looking at a total of $13,000. Susan, anything you want to add to that? No,

that was quite a large miscalculation there, but that would have been I mean that wasn't the auditor's office. That was that was the um the department's catch and we didn't catch it either. So, and is holiday pay uh just extra a higher rate when they work on a on a paid holiday? Well, they get paid if they work and then they get paid 12 hours. I mean, it's not like time and a half, but any further discussion hearing? None. Do we have a I'll move we approve.

Okay, we have a motion by Rick Coll or Rick Ring. Uh, do we have a second?

A second. Second by Bob Crafts. We'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the $13,000 um transfer to Holiday Pay from Central Communication signify by saying I. I. I.

Oppos. Motion is carried. Transfer is granted. Next one comes to us from the auditor's office. It is from equipment out number fund number 44420 to other service fees fund number 32780 in the amount of $1,670. Do we have any questions or further discussion? Hearing none. Do we have a motion to approve? Have a motion from Bob Craft to approve. Do we have a second? Second.

Second by Amy Proer. We'll call for the question. All those in favor of the transfer of $1,670 uh in the auditor's office signify by saying I

opposed. Transfer is approved. Next one comes from the SDI TIFF fund fund number 45501. We have three. If we have consensus from the council, we can do these in one motion. We do. Thank you. Okay, the first one um miscellaneous expenditures fund number 99500 to Auburn hazmat project 32783 for $75,000. The next one is miscellaneous expenditures 9 fund number 99500 to equipment. That fund number is 44430. That amount is $50,000. And the last one is a miscellaneous expenditure fund number 99500 to police equipment fund number 44520. So the amount is

130,000 130 130. Thank you. Further discussion, questions from the council. What's the Auburn Hazmat project that's on all three of these tiffs?

So, for the next three, I say you've got three funds and this explanation will go for the next three funds. Um the hazmat training facility is uh the training facility but it's here in Auburn but like all different entities even different parts of the state are going to come and train at that facility. So that is broken up among the three different tiffs. Um the redevelopment have has done three getting ready to do the fourth resolution this year on different projects that they're doing. Um the Butler Police Department, they were able to get um a couple Durango, some AEDs, uh like traffic sign that's like lit up, um a drone, um a con the Concord Township Fire Department. They were getting a like Polaris ATV and trailer to transport it. Um and that's so they can get different places. It'll have the all the capabilities like to help with the fire and for rescue with like the what's that thing called like the stretcher like all that capability. Um let me think the butler fire they are getting um a brush truck and a anchor like the big fire truck um which those payments come different times. We've done a down payment for half of the brush truck and the um let me think there's one other

is it 37 tonight they're getting ready to do another resolution which will actually do some um items for the county sheriff's department for the SWAT team. Um, but these 375,000s that we're looking at in these three tiffs are to help operate the hazmat training center.

So the resolutions they approve, they approve not to exceed a certain dollar amount. So those happen to be what the dollar the remaining amount that can be spent on that resolution broken up into the three. So that's just putting those appropriations there in case I have more invoices through the end of the year. which is the same with all of them. Now, the police equipment, the butler, so the butler, anything for Butler and Wilmington Township, those were just split between the SDI and the new Millennium Tips, not part of the American Heritage. They just went between the two.

The U training facility that's being improved is for all the departments. It's it's here in Auburn. It's managed by the Auburn department, but it's for all departments in the county train. There is this my understanding that the major SDI tiff district expires this year.

So, this is funding that we don't get to approve or disapprove. The RDA did that already. Uh but this so this money is being distributed out next year with the tiff district expiring. Those taxes that were over the last 20 or 25 years captured by the tiff district will now get distributed to the regular taxing unit within that area. whether it be Wilmington Township, the county, Eastside schools, they it will go directly to them and will not run through the tiff district.

So, correct. And I don't know how much money they have to dispose of before it expires, but well, um they don't have to dispose of it like they they can keep it.

They can keep keep that and be able to use it for projects in that area. Um, so they don't have to get rid of everything. I mean, obviously the big fire truck is going to take a lot of it. Um, and not every I mean, they didn't keep 100% of those um of that increment anyway. So, currently like those entities and the schools are getting part of it. Um this year I believe between the SDI and the new millennium tiff um they agreed to keep a combined net of like 500,000 in with the RDC. Otherwise everything else was passed through to the units.

The the the good part of this is the tiff is ending and the money is going to get distributed to the normal taxing period. Well, and and to speak to the 75,000 for the hazmat training. I mean, when you consider the amount of heavy industry manufacturing that we have in this county along with railroads and highways, interstates, that's a pretty big need for us to be highly trained in responding to those kinds of emergencies. So, I think that's money well spent for our departments in all the areas to get trained. So, the um hazmat facility they approved for the um up to $350,000 for different needs for that project.

Yeah. And electric cars, start a fire. Okay. To avoid any confusion, these three tip districts here, SDI, American Heritage, and New Millennium, we're for all those we're talking about 13,000. generated and where it's going to go. I mean, this is not three separate $130,000. There's three. There's three separate. No, it's separate. It's separate because So, like that one hazmat. There's $350,000 that divided into three. So, whatund whatever. Okay. So, we need to act on each one of these then. Yeah. Each Yeah.

Okay. which we've already agreed to do with the SDI TIFF. Do we have Do we have a motion on that one? We have We've agreed to act on it as one. Yeah, but we need a motion on the I'll make a motion that we approve the um 130,000 130,000 from the SDI TIFF district. I'll second that motion. Okay, we have a motion by Rick Ring and a second by Bob Craft. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for the question. All those in favor of the approval of 130,000 for the SDI TIFF signify by saying I. I. I

opposed. Motion is carried. The next one is the American Heritage TIFF and uh it is a miscellaneous expenditure 99500 to Auburn Hazmat Project 32783 and we've heard the explanation and the amount is for $75,000. Move to approve. Okay, we have a motion by Bob Craft to approve and a second by Rick Collins. Any further discussion? and that the the new millennium and the SDI are tiff districts that are located on the east side of the county. American Heritage is actually over here in the uh by township in it. Yeah. Mhm.

Uh any further discussion? We'll call for the question. All those in favor of of uh approving the $75,000 transferred American Heritage Tiff signify by saying I. I

motion is carried. The last one is uh the new millennium tiff. Uh the first one is miscellaneous expenditure number 99500 Auburn hazmat project 32783 in the amount of $75,000. Next one is a miscellane miscellaneous expenditure fund number 99500 to equipment fund number 44430 for $50,000. Excuse me. And the last one is a miscellaneous fund number 99500 to police equipment fund number 44520 and that total is $130,000. Do we have any further discussion?

Do we need a consensus? Pardon? Do those together? We'll do all three of those together. Yes. Do we need consensus? Do we have a motion? I'm sorry, Rick. I didn't know if you asked for consensus yet. Um, I did on all of them at the very beginning, but we'll we'll do I thought you were just asking for the SDI at the beginning. My apologies. We have consensus. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved. Motion by uh Rick Ring. Do we have a second? Second by Amy Demsky. Any further discussion? We'll call for the question. All those in favor of the $130,000 transfer to new Millennium TIF signify by saying I.

I. opposed. Motion is carried. Okay, that completes the transfers and you see a list of nontransfers uh that do not require action from the council. We're going to move on to the airport update and Randy Fox. Great to see you. Great to hear from you. Good morning all.

Good morning. Brief again. Um the uh taxiway project is pretty much complete. Uh pavement's down, lights are up, painting's done. Uh according to our engineer, there are a few things that'll be uh followed up in the spring, but we now have taxiways for the entire 7,000 ft of the runway. Up until this point, 2,000 ft had no taxi way. So, if an airplane, a jet, wanted to use the entire 7,000 ft to take off, he would have to taxi backwards, the plane would be going forwards, but he would taxi 2,000 ft on the runway, turn around, and then use all 7,000 ft to leave. Now, they can taxi all the way down. The uh taxi ways actually are only about 40% as wide as the runway because they're on the ground, they're driving, they don't need uh a little extra room. If you've ever watched some planes come in, um, light planes especially, uh, when I was flying, we could come in at 30 degrees angle to the runway till you get down within about 10 ft and then you'd kick the rudder around, drop a wing a little bit, and touch down. So, you had to have room to play with. You don't need so much of that on the taxi way. So, they're not as large as the runway, but it's complete now. T- hanger bids. Uh we're going to put up three eight position T- hangers uh at the next board meeting week from Friday. Uh we intend to accept the bid just under 3.2 million. Um and that will include removing the old B and C rows. Uh when I took my training back in the early 80s, those were some of the major hangers that were on the runway. They're built like a pole barn. Uh dirt floors in some of them. And so those will be

taken down. Uh we had a problem where the I think the sea hanger actually extends out into the runway protection area and the FAA has wanted that gone anyway. Uh so that's going to be a part of that project as well. We uh are looking the engineering company BFNS is planning for a full depth reclamation of the original 5,000 ft of the runway before the extension. Um originally they were going to mill down about 4 and 12 in and replace it. My understanding is that now they're going to go down through the entire depth of the runway. They'll mix some concrete in with the sub soil to to firm it up and then lay a whole new layer of of runway. Um, we probably could have got this done years ago had Russ and Jason not been so diligent about going out and patching the runway. our when the state does their examination of our runways, they give it a score and our score stayed up because the guys did a lot of work on the runway. So, our runway has lasted longer than it's almost been 30 I think the early mid 90s is the last time that anything was done at the original 5,000 ft. And Russ and Jason go out and patch and and do that annually. So, the runways lasted longer and it's it's in definite need of uh some repair replacement really and then we are done with the runway extension project probably the end of 2027. Um and then and then the uh they had the trunk retreat this airport at the runway and they they said they had good attendance at that. With that, I'll take any questions. And

Randy, what's the anticipated shutdown time of the airport during that? Um, there's there's a big difference between Yeah, it's going to be grinding it and going to full surface.

Yeah, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 days um that they'll mill all that out. And again, they'll reuse a lot of the material that's been milled out to produce the new runway surface so that the uh I think the state requires a certain percentage. You guys can probably know better than I do of reintroducing that material that's been milled out so that it's not we don't have 5,000 ft of 150 foot runway going to some landfill somewhere. But it could be up to 30 days that the runway would be closed. Again, that could be much dependent upon weather and and uh who knows what supplies are available and all that. So 30 days I think is the target.

So those hangers that are going to be removed that's been the FAA has been pushing that a little bit. They're not we're not just going out there and tearing down buildings because we want new pretty buildings. It's no it's mandated. If you've been by the airport, these are the three at the west end originals

and they're painted blue and they really need a a severe amount of maintenance. Uh their doors are hung almost like your bathroom door, you know, your bathtub door where there's a rail on the top and you slide the doors out and they keep falling off and um yeah, so it's it's kind of a maintenance nightmare to maintain those. And again, the the longer one of the two the FAA says extends into the runway protection zone, which would be for airplane wings or turning radius to where you would possibly impact those because they're sticking out there and they want that gone. U the new uh the new hangers are actually going to be in the vicinity of where the church was. So that reclaimed property is going to be put to use.

So lose lose storage for how many planes versus we're building for how many? Yeah. It's a probably we're probably going to gain about four places. Those are all rented, correct? Uh most of them. Yes. Some revenue generated, right? There is some revenue generated, but these are these are 50-year payoff. We're we're not gonna we're not going to cash flow these in three years and have them paid off. They're a long-term investment. Didn't think we would, but we are going to have revenue coming in.

Right. Um so the uh uh the guys are very intent upon not having airplanes that sit in the hanger for 18 months and never fly. They call them hanger queens. If the airplane is not functional and not flyable, we don't want them taking up hanger space. We would like them to sell the airplane, move it to somewhere else where they can store it offsite and bring in aircraft that are going to be flying and being used regularly so that we do continue to generate because it generates fuel sales, it generates maintenance, it generates all kinds of things instead of just rent for a hanger that's storage. And some of them you'll find not only airplanes but there'll be cars and furniture and all

any museums. Yeah. So uh the guys are really intent upon keeping operational aircraft u stored in the hangers rather than stuff. Any further questions for Randy? Randy as always thank you for an excellent informative report. Thank you. Does the council need a break? Anybody please? Yeah, let's take five break. 510 whichever comes

Moving on, you're up or go ahead and get started. Okay. So, I'm just kind of here to um talk about Sunny Meadows and to go over the is it an ordinance, Susan? That presenting um and the ordinance. So, the ordinance that I've presented to you is for the four um named workers that are out there right now to get them a stipen. They've done a fantastic job with helping to transition the uh facility and all the residents out there. Um they've moved shifts around. they've picked up extra hours, picked up responsibilities and all the things like that. So, the Sunny Meadows committee is recommending the $6,000 per the four employees for all the work that they've done. That roughly comes out to about two months worth of pay for them. We did that number because about two months of pay, you'd have to take the taxes off. You're really getting just over a month or so of pay. So, any questions on that? Then I'll do an update for Sunny Meadows. They're all they're all staying till the last knowing that their job's not going to be there anymore. So, they've been

showing a lot of loyalty to the county and the residents that way instead of just saying, "Well, my job's going away, so I'm going to go find something else." So, we really appreciate that loyalty. Yeah. And they picked up extra responsibilities. They've switched shifts around um they've sh um gone to midnight now instead of to 10. And they've really kind of did everything we've asked of them to help with the transition of the resident. Ellen, these are all our employees, right? Not the contractor. It's none of this none of the temp agencies. This is just the four employees that we have. Okay. You have before you copy the ordinance and I would like to read through this here with the council. You want me to read it?

Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Thank you.

Okay. Ordinance number 2025- OCC-13. Whereas the Decal County Commissioners have decided to close the county home known as Sunny Meadows. Whereas the commissioners hired a consultant in April of 2025 to begin transitioning the residents into other housing that would meet their needs. Whereas the county has had four employees who have remained with us during the transition of the residents to care for their daily need daily needs and well-being. Whereas the four employees have remained with the county and will remain with us until the last resident has been relocated with the knowledge their employment with the county will cease when there are no longer duties to be taken care of at the county home. Whereas the Sunny Meadows Committee that was formed and assisted in many different ways to help see that our residents would be in great care once they left and helped find housing and be sure the resident had any items that were needed to get them on their feet for new locations along with the Dub County Commissioners request the four remaining employees to receive a stipen of $6,000 each when they are officially relieved of their duties as a county employee. Whereas the stipen will be paid out on the employees last check of employment. It is hereby ordained by Dub County Council that Skyler Boyd, Robin Burkart, Ashley Wilkerson, and Michelle Smith will each receive 6,000 a $6,000 stipen as a thank you and appreciation for their faithful contributions, work ethic, and care of our residents and for remaining with the county through the end of a legacy.

Did you say $600? 6,000. And I would like to point out that that's not an additional. So, there's plenty of money left in the Sunny Meadows budget for this year to pay that easily. I mean, and then quite a bit more. Are these all full-time employees? There's three full-time and one part-time. So, even the part-time will get the same amount. That's what manage committee decided on. Yes. She works every weekend of the 12-h hour overnights on the weekend. and she switched her shifts from Saturday and Sunday to Friday and Saturday to help out.

How did the committee come to the that they needed two months of of pay instead of it's fairly normal in the work world to give like one month of severance. Why two? It's not really a severance. It's going to be a stipen so they have a little higher tax pay rate on it. So we went with two months at $1,500 which they get paid per pay period and times it by four. So that way if some of the taxes will be taken off, they're still getting over a month worth of actual takehome knowing that their job will be long be lost. How long have they known that they're not going to have a job? They've known since the uh decision to transition Sunny Meadow was

back in April. They decided to stay to help out with the residents and help us to make sure it doesn't it goes smoothly as possible. But during there was we there was no way that we could force them to stay. Nope. They did this voluntarily knowing that they were going to lose their job and probably missed opportunities where they could have gotten another job. Yes, there was some res um some employee employees have left during that time frame. These are the four that have stayed the that have stayed. Ken, what's our estimated timeline with the remaining residents that are there now?

So, we have five residents that are remaining as of right now. One is supposed to be transitioned today. One is supposed to be transitioned on Friday. Um, so that leaves us down to three. Um, one has um accepted at a facility already. We're just waiting on a move out date. Another one has to do a redetermination for some paperwork and then she'll be moving out. And the other one is going to be the one that we're processing in the current process of evicting. She will not her court date is sometime in December. So sometime in mid December is when she'll actually um have finished the eviction process. And that it appears that she'll be the last one out. So that's probably the timeline that we're playing with is that sometime middle of December is when um the last resident will be out and that's when I even I've let the staff know that that when the last resident goes out that's when the staff will be let go. the um I think they should be commended for saying and I am in full support of doing this this ordinance that in accepting the $6,000 each that they wave the right to unemployment which would cost us additional if they were to file for unemployment when they left.

And that's going to be a question for Stucky on that. I don't know if we can that legal done.

Well, you can make it as consideration for them accepting that they wave the right to unemployment. Now, they can still probably apply for unemployment, but then you have a defense to the unemployment at least for the period of several weeks, was it four weeks, six weeks, whatever it is, months, whatever it is, at least to that. But based upon this, they could take the $6,000 immediately file for unemployment even though they're getting the 6,000 stipen which extends their pay for four months, two months, whatever. I don't know. Well, it'll be a lump sum, right? But it's essentially payment for it works out to about

it's not a severance. We cannot call

severance but beyond the the period of the of the pay it's a real question of whether the you can do that but you do have a defense if they apply for unemployment compensation if you if you if you do a severance package you also usually have that they wave the right to sue their employer so on and so forth. So that's would have the right to sue you uh for age discrimination, for example. That's the only thought that I would have. I'm more concerned about that. The unemployment compensation seems that if they're getting they shouldn't be able to apply for unemployment compensation if they're getting several weeks pay in addition at least until that

until that's gone. So that's gone. But that's a that's a policy decision. Yeah. Maybe HR, could you weigh in on that a little bit? Do you have some thoughts on that?

I'm I'll be honest. I'm not sure. Um the unemployment office will ask uh did you receive any extra funds? Are you still receiving money? You know, when will that end? Um they'll probably do a little more investigation. This may not be a severance, but the unemployment office may actually consider it a severance. Um, and then maybe the um the person will not be able to receive unemployment until, you know, several weeks. They'll figure out what the person made um hourly wage $18.99, figure that out, how many weeks is that, and then won't start unemployment until then. Um usually what happens when an employee files for unemployment um we have a notice and then we are uh we protest that generally um or at least we provide the unemployment office with as much information as we possibly can um about their wages, how long they were employed, you know, things like that. Um and then it goes to the unemployment office and if they want to um escalate it into um you know a judicial you know a judge to actually call and we have a hearing about the whole thing you know it's it's almost I would say sometimes it's a crapshoot you know if they go toward you know if they lean more toward the employee or the employer. Um, and then something else I would like to mention, we hired actually two of those employees that you're talking about. Um, when Morgan was actually talking to them during their onboarding, they knew upfront that their jobs were shortterm. So, kudos to them for they actually took the job and it's like we're going to stay here to the end. and

governmental units. The way we do unemployment, we don't pay unemployment insurance. There will be a an invoice sent to the to the county to pay for the um unemployment that would be going out. Is that we get is there there's a fund you pay into? Yeah, we pay into the fund and then it gets distributed. Yeah.

Eddie, I think the other question is are we Are we setting some kind of precedent in this type of situation? Um, and then two, and and maybe this is a committee question of um I'm struggling with the idea of how fair is every person's. We have one that's part-time, others were full-time. Do we give them the same amount? Some of them were there seven months, some of them maybe four months. So, I'm trying to figure out the most fair way to compensate them for job well done. Um, and two, $6,000 is um a really big stipen. We've never given anything like that before in the past. So, I'm worried about a precedent, I guess. So, maybe you can speak to all of those topics as HR,

right? Um, I mean, there's there's no set um rule about doing a stipend. Actually, at the uh uh Association of Indiana Counties HR meeting, we joked that we thought that stipens were being thrown out like candy at Halloween. Um, from the HR standpoint, you know, counties seem to be doing more of that to reward employees for things. um in this case um HR wasn't a part of the uh the decision to make um you know whatever the the amount was. So I really can't speak to how they came to that. Um but to me it would seem that it would be a little more fair. Uh we have one employee who has been there three years and he's getting the same amount as the person who was hired in in May. Yeah. May of this year.

So for me it it doesn't quite seem fair. I mean I I appreciate the fact that they've stuck around that that is true. But is that amount truly fair? Yeah. Are they all on the same wages? Are they getting all paid the same? Uh they are. Yeah, they're all at um $18.99.

I give them credit for sticking around. I mean I I would presume that some of them missed opportunities. and everything. I don't know how you'd make it fair. That's that's up up to um the committee on the thing if they want to change it. I I mean, I see this going forward. Vote. I mean, I'm in favor of it because I give them credit for saying, but like like she said, maybe you should adjust it a little bit, but if they're pay getting the same pay, two months is two months. you know, give them the salaries for that two months so they have opportunity to do something and work with it and find another job. I mean, I give them credit. I mean, they all could have walked away when they when they saw the end coming, but they did say. And as far as a president, I mean, I don't see any futures any place where we're going to close down another another deal like saying I mean, we're not going to close down HR. they're so important anymore and we won't have to give them severance pay. You know,

I think the issue with and pro and probation, we're not going to close it down. So, it it is one time a one-time deal. So, I don't I'm not worried about that. I to to your point, I I think it it was more about an amount um as well as and I understand that we're saying stipen, but the state looks at as severance. So, there is a little bit I think in how the state will look at that. That's that's my concern there.

As far as the fairness for longevity, I mean, we do have a longevity pay system, but they hadn't qualified yet, but we do have a longevity pay system in place. So, had they been there that long, they would have been getting paid differently because of that longevity. And again, you know, just it does need to be emphasized that they are they are benefiting the county. Um they could all walk tomorrow and then where would we be? Probably a few council people and maybe a commissioner or two and then the recorder would have to be staying out there to manage the uh residents that were still here. So, um I'm I'm not opposed to I'm not opposed to giving them a stipen

at all. Were they informed ahead of time that that this was a possibility? Like, hey, part of the hiring process, we want you to stick around. At the end, we will pay you a stipen. Was that a given?

We didn't talk about a stipend at all. Um the let's see we had we have the one employee who's been here three years and the next is for a year and then the other two uh the part-time and then another full-timer um were hired since the decision was made to close Sunny Meadows and they but they were told during their onboarding or even before when we were doing um the uh uh the interviews that we would be closing the facility facility and that we had until May of 2026 was was our goal. Um, but there was no promise of any, you know, stipend or any, you know, any carrot to hang on.

When you say part-time, how many hours a week are they? Yeah. 16. Mhm. And we have they're working they work 40 and Friday and Saturday nights which in other in other worlds that might be considered full-time or the week being the weekend and being third shift and nighttime that that could be considered fulltime. 16. But the the person that was hired three years ago and the person hired for one year didn't know about the closing when they were hired.

No, of course not. just the two that that was hired and and so they knew that it was coming and they they also said it was going to may go out to May of 26, right? So, we're cutting it short what we had said that we should be at. So, of course, at the time wasn't guaranteed. That wasn't guaranteed. That was just a potentially even the part-time the new people that came on there was no guarantee to them who may have you know there's never I understand what you're saying Bill and that's correct that that was the possibility but there was no guarantee.

Nope there's no guarantee. Um we even mentioned that you know it depended on how you know many residents were uh moved on you know so how quickly that would um you know we would actually flow dy out of the four employees and how many possibly would be eligible for unemployment I would say all of them part-time too and just to be clear we're we're suggesting that we pay the part-time same $6,000 as we are the full-time. That's what I understand from the committee from the ordinance.

I guess I struggle I I struggle with this idea. Um I'm happy to be generous to people out of my own pocket. This is taxpayer dollars and I'm I'm happy to be fair and I do I am in favor of giving them some recognition, but I feel like 6,000 is overly generous and I hesitate to be overly generous with taxpayer dollars. I'm happy to be fair and I think a fair severance package in today's world is a month of severance. they it's not a surprise that their job is shutting down and so um they do have time to go in the next four weeks to look for something um and that is a way to reward them for their their time with us. So I would actually prefer to look at something lower than success.

That's just my discussion point. Not making any kind of a motion, but I think like to make that a discussion point. Yeah, I'm hearing a couple different things from the council. One is on the amount of pay and possibly including the no eligibility or whatever there. I would like to throw out a question just for discussion. If you got got four people, you got two full-time, two part-time. Leave the two fulltimes at 6,000 and cut the timers to 3,000 that three full time one

three. Okay. So do the do the three fulltime at at 6,000 and do the part time at three. I mean that's still a lot of that's two months separate.

It is. But you know the um I I think it's something that I think even as a whether you're a public employer or private employer going to do what you can to to help your employees. for one being on the committee and for one working with Sun Meadows for many years now. Um I've witnessed what it takes to run that and the people that need to work there. Um I don't think and I'm going to go out on limb. Um Kellen can voice this. He was out there a lot when we didn't have enough employees. We had a director last time that had to work three shifts. All three shifts. Just because you have less residents is not less work. And yes, you know, your job's ending, but there the goal was May of 26. These people may have given up a lot of opportunities to go find a job. $6,000 is nothing when you start taking the taxes out of it. And how quick are they going to be able to find something? And it takes a special person, and I'm not one of them, but it takes a special person to work in that environment. They could probably go to any nursing home and make a lot more money than what they're making, but they're out there because they believe in it. And I don't think I if if the Sunny Meadows budget was really strapped, I could really see this discussion. But it's not. And we are we have made great progress. We're going we're going to possibly be down way before our goal was. And I think and and I'm not for putting a restriction that

they can't draw unemployment. Um we owe these people a great debt of a great amount of um gratitude because like was brought up, how many of us want to go out there and work? How many of us want to be out there on a third shift? I don't want to be out there third shift in the basement doing laundry. Sorry, but it's what these people are doing for us and for the people. And I don't I think um the amount of money is a drop in the bucket. Be honest. Just my opinion.

Thank you. Okay, we're going to try and narrow this down because I'm hearing a couple things here that possibly are legal concerns. First of all, Rick is wanting to look at they would not be eligible or could not come back on the county for unemployment. I don't know if that's a Don, this is where we need your expertise. If we can do that, well, you'd have to pay them the $6,000 on a by like we do now. They get it would be part of their pay, additional pay. It would be a uh paid out as a u um severance, not one lump sum. You'd have to do it over several weeks and they wouldn't be certainly wouldn't be eligible during that period. After that, if they're unemployed, you're probably probably going to be paying unemployment additional monies into the fund if they apply for unemployment compensation. Does this ordinance need to be rewritten?

Well, yeah. We'll have to adjust it when you guys decide what your on the pay and whether then we need to vote on an amendment on Rick's amendment if it's going to go. We don't we don't have a we have nothing. We don't have a motion. We have a motion to pass a motion, but nobody made a Oh, I didn't even hear your motion. We don't have anything currently on the ordinance as far as a motion is concerned. The all right the payout there is the difference between paying it out as one lump sum versus over the two o over the regular pay periods. Why that difference? What's what's the

the it gives you a much better defense to the unemployment. You know, let's say they end their employment January 1. They get their check for $6,000. They could immediately apply for unemployment. And admittedly, the unemployment office will ask them certain questions about did you receive additional? They say, "Well, I received a stipen." I don't know how that fits into the unemployment compensation law. I have I haven't researched that. I haven't seen that term as the unemployment compensation law. And as Doy said, unemployment's you have a hearing officer. The joke in the legal community is I got this hearing officer, I don't have to do anything because we're going to get unemployment and you got this hearing officer and you get the feeling no matter what you do, they're not going to get unemployment. So uh uh so it is a it's kind of what hearing officer you receive is so I I think if you want to keep them from drawing unemployment during that four weeks or five weeks or whatever it is you would have to pay it out as a severance pay over several weeks.

That would not have to be included in the ordinance. So that would have to be included. It would have to be. Yeah. Because I have it being paid out. Okay. Yeah. And if you and if you pay it out over the course of pay periods, can you turn off the additional vacations and the other things that go along with getting a paycheck every two weeks? If they work after the first of the year one day, they're entitled to their uh vacation pay for that year. No, our vacation pay is by um anniversary date, not yearly. Okay. So, your ordinance does it by anniversary date. Okay.

Another problem you might run into with that problem is going to be ghost employment. If we have everybody done working by say the 15th, I'm just choosing the date out there 15th and you want to do the pay periods over the next four pay periods. I will have no work for them to do out there during that time frame that you're paying out the extra because they're there to take care of the residents. They wouldn't be working. How many pay periods would we have? They get paid even though they're not working. Yeah. But we can't pay them and have them not working. So if you do it with the ordinance, you can. Yeah.

Another thing. And then I wanted to speak on Amy's about the part-time. When I worked at the hospital, we had a Baylor shift that you got considered full-time position with benefits and everything when you worked every Saturday or Sunday over the weekend and you worked and you only allowed to miss one, I think it was one weekend per quarter. Um, and so that that's considered within the private sector, they consider that a full-time position because it's covering that Friday and Saturday every Friday and Saturday. How many hours was that count? When I worked, no, at the at Sunny Meadows at Sunny Meadows when she worked to be 16 hours. Oh, 16 hours. So, she's physically working 16 hours, but she's set up I'm looking at it as a Baylor shift that she's working every weekend, Friday and Saturday, stuff like that. So,

just my weekend shift 16 just weekend shift. That's the only thing she worked nothing during the week or nothing like that. She covers the weekend shift. Okay. Here's some she was hired to do or that for that wasn't something that hey, if you want to stick around, you got to shift to this. No, but she did shift from Saturday, Sunday to a Friday, Saturday. Right, sir. That was her original agreement. I will work weekends. Work weekends. Yes. Hours. Yep.

Okay. All right. Here's some numbers for you. I just did average of these four people on their own pay for how many pays they've gotten paid. Then I figured it if you go with paying them for four paychecks. So if you go with paying them for four paychecks, we would have the amount this would be the gross amount. So, like for one, the gross amount would be $6,578.20 and that would net back to him at 4,78536

for one month or two months. I said for four pays if you do for four pays. So, that's two months. That's basically the same gist for the other two full-time, give or take. Um then the part-time gross is 232267 and that would only net 202532. I mean only I just met. Were there other options that were discussed um in a way to reward these employees besides a stipen? I don't know. I'm sorry. That's

Yeah. not mine given at the sunny meadows committee. That's just what the committee recommended. That's why I'm bringing it to you now. Um on a personal note, I will be writing letters of recommendation for all four of them for the work that they've done out there. That's me personally. That's nothing to do with commissioners and Sunny Meadows. The ordinance in front of you is what the commissioner Sunny Meadows committee agreed upon. That's what I brought to the count uh commissioners. They supported it. Bring it to you guys. Scotty, unemployment is based the length of unemployment you receive is based on your units of service. Correct. Uh it's actually by quarters. By quarters. So basically, how long would these people be eligible to draw unemployment? Have you looked at that?

Uh let's see. They would be eligible um 18 months. Oh yeah, I think it's 18 months. They could draw 18 months of unemployment. Yeah. It's it's just changed drastically since co uh you know co changed a lot of the rules. It used to be that you had to um and you still have to look for uh a job during that time but it has to be you can't just take any old job. It has to be sort of similarly situated to what you had previously.

I think we got lots of questions. I'm seeing a lot of heads bobbing yes and a lot of heads shaking no. I don't think we're ready to act on this. This needs to be cleaned up, rewritten, redone. What do you want? Well, it was well that's brought for the disc. That's why you're having it. If the stipen is paid out all at one time as a lump sum of 6,000, it could possibly put them into a higher t tax bracket and they would pay more taxes and because it would be an addition to their pay. So if it's including let's say my paycheck for this week and you're putting 6,000,

they're going to pay more taxes than they would normally pay when the initial check is but it could even out over the course of a year. actually file their depends how you file. It's not anything we can control individually. They're not getting out of the 12% but depends on what their spouse makes too. If their spouse makes a lot of money, they could be move up to it.

But one thing, if it's paid like December 15th and they're done by December 10th as they are projecting, they throw this lady out of you know that'll just be one set of paychecks. You will not you will not get the sheriff's department enforce an eviction order in the month of December. I guarantee you that will not happen. I guarantee you all four of these people may still be working in January. You have to remember that if they're done, huh, if they're done work, say they're done working today, today's work is not paid out for another two weeks. Yeah, I know. So, that's not going to be an issue.

All right. I'm as representing the committee, I'm just going to call for the question to vote on this ordinance as it's written right now. I'll make a motion that we consider this whether we're going to pass this as Okay, we first of all have to read and pass it on first reading. I I'll second. Well, we need a we need a motion and a second. First reading. Make your motion clear because there's been about 10 different motions. I make a motion that we pass this as is written on first reading. We have a second by Bill Van. So, any further discussion? Going to call for the question. Pass the ordinance as presented as written.

We have a roll call voice vote requested as well. All right. Just a second. Okay. Collins. No. Presser. No. Yes. Craft. Yes. Van Y. Yes. Ring. I I think it'll be cleanest if we do it this way. Yes. Yard. Yes. Five to two.

Okay. Now, we're going to make a motion. We need a motion to suspend the rules for second and third reading. Do we have such a motion? So, move a motion by Bill Van White to suspend the rules on second and third reading. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Bob Craft. Any further discussion? We'll call for the question. All those in favor of suspending the rules on second and third reading, you want to roll call vote. No. Okay. Um signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion is carried. Rules. Can't do it. Has to be unanimous. Oh, okay. So, we have to bring it back next month.

Thank you. Good catch. Sorry. So this will come back next month. We are done with this ordinance. Okay, moving on. We have Mr. Ron Dicki here to present us some information regarding the sheriff's mayor board and pension. Ron,

you need to turn your mic on, please. It's not

that worked. Okay. Uh I'm a proactive person, not reactive. And in the sheriff's merit board situation, there's three legs. There is the financing part which is the bar corporation, our money arm. Then there is the actuary which is Mcken King and then there is the bill paying part which is co America. And I uh keep con close contact with um particularly the bear group because they represent numerous and sheriff's departments throughout the county. And so I um use that as a listing board to see what what other departments are doing as far as their employees and benefits and things like that and also where the problem areas are being. For some time we've been monitoring the co America which is the the bill paying part of the plan. Uh there are some departments that are having some real problems with them. Uh there is one department a large department that is thousands of dollars that have been overpaid that should not have been paid and now there's a big action as to who's going to take and do what. right now uh there appears there's about uh recently here's about eight eight company eight country uh counties that have um taken and ceasing to to take and work with uh co America and they're changing to a different firm to take and be paying the bills I had been keeping my board advised as of what was going on and I informed them in September that we need to have a meeting to discuss this and be proactive on it. Uh we couldn't have a meeting right away. We meet the second supposedly the second Tuesday of every

month, but if there's nothing really going on, we don't meet. And uh we have we're going through a hiring process. So that took care of September, October, everybody has something going. And so we were scheduled RA is trying to get a meeting scheduled up for November to discuss this issue. I got a call from our u from Bay Group and said, "Hey, this thing's really heating up. Uh the state's starting to get looking at what's going on as to what's happening and uh it appears something's going to be happening pretty soon." I called Brady and we he got the members and we're going to meet November 21st. I got a call Thursday and Co America is being sold to Fifth Third Bank as of 1. Now what's going to happen with Fifth Third Bank? I don't know. I'm going to speak personally. In my past experience in dealing with banks and their trust departments, what it has to do to pension plans has not been very favorable. I don't know what they're going to charge. uh what's going to be the situation in the process. I requested Barrett to take and give me some options. Barrett is an extremely large finance firm. They have many, many entities that they own. One of them is a trust department. And so I asked uh Chris Callaway, our rep, to get me a quote from them as to what they would charge us to take and take over our account. Currently, we're paying.14 of our account balance uh to uh Co America and then for every check that they write uh we pay $4. Uh currently we have 25 people that are collecting retirement funds. Then we have to pay for the disability insurance and the

health and the life insurance and then whatever the fees are from mud and king and so forth. Uh that's as of now. We have nine more members that'll be coming on probably this next month. That'll make it up to 34 checks a month that we would be paying them. And that's at $4 a check. If we would switch to the bar trust, their fee is going to be.14, which is 3,000 of 1% more, but no no check charges. That's just it. just a flat flat fee if you take and I tried to put a pencil to it and I can't put a real accurate pencil because I don't know how many checks they write in addition to what the retirees are but we're talking if we look at just out of pocket expense we're talking probably less than $1,000 overall to make to make the switch. We think that we should be proactive and we should go ahead and get switched to co America because we don't know what kind of skeletons going to arise once they get into doing some research. We ourselves have not had a problem as far as our account. But that's not to say that there isn't some problems that we don't know about and we want to be proactive instead of reactive because I don't know what fifth is going to be. So our feeling the the board's feeling is uh that we make make the switch

and that would be a switch to who? Pardon? That would be a switch to who? Bearded trust. Bayard trust. Right. Now there's there's paperwork that goes through that has to be paperwork signed by you folks and uh the paperwork by the merit board and then all that has to be filed. What you need is council approval to make the switch. Bared trust. That's correct. Why did you pick that particular trust? Why did you pick that particular trust? That is it be you said. Why did you pick that one?

Because the remember we've had such a good relationship with the overall bar group overall there. The bar is they are just really a large operation. They have they have a lot of arms. Bear trust is one of the arms. They have another firm called Strategis which is the number one analytical firm for stocks and bonds and so forth in the last 5 years ranked number one in the world uh there. So we've had such good success with those folks that and we have a relationship with them that we just think that it'd be wise and being that we're not talking about really make a big financial change by it. uh and then to go out and try and get quotes right away in a short period of time isn't going to happen. There's no way it's going to be done before the end of the year and end of the year that's when fifth is taking over. This all came about I trying to be proactive but it just happened just boom. So

is this something we need to do today? Yes. Yes. Yes. What what we need to do is start the process. There's no paperwork I think signed day but start the process need the approval to go ahead and start and get the paperwork around to take and make the process. Okay, I'll make a motion just what he said. We have a motion by Bill Man uh to grant Ron and the board permission to um switch to merit trust and we have a second by Bob Craft. Any further discussion from the council hearing? None. We'll call for the question. All those in favor of granting the switch to bear a trust signify by saying I.

I.O.S. request is granted. Thank you, Ryan.

What? No. Thank you. Just as a side note, just to let you know what's happening right now. U we are consistently operating above what the market benchmark is. Uh right now we're at 1015 U on that. We have to be at six and a half to act to keep our self sound based upon what the state has said we had. Um when this day I came on during Don Carl's regime and and there was times where this fund was in real real trouble. Rick knows that for sure that and we were lucky we've been paying our bills on that. Uh we've been working hard to get this fund. Right now our fund balance is 9 bill774,000. And the reason why I tell you that because by getting this fund balance up we are now at 78.4% of being fully funded. Our goal is to get this fully funded and then you won't have to be paying large annual amounts. All you'll be paying is just the m maintenance fee. And that's where our goal is. We expect to be over 10 million next year. Ron has always kept us very um up to date and has always been proactive on on this fund. Um, we had to meet a few times back when Don Lowour was was sheriff kind of get us out, but he's continually moved us in the right direction.

So, just good to have you there, Ron, doing that for us. I thank you for your support, too, because we had to have your support to take and get these things done, but we we're trying to be proactive as much as we can be. So, thank you. Thanks again for your leadership, Ron. You've always been great physically responsible for the county. doing a great job. Thank you. It's going both ways. Wow. Okay. He said you've been around for a while. You're here with a

Okay, Lita, thanks for allowing us to do a little juggling here on the schedule. Greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, we have with us Lita Haulinger here. Now your presentation requires no action from the council. Correct.

Correct. It's just kind of anformational thing. Um because of our cyber incident of Fiddler that I use as my main vendor that protects our images. They back up our images and they offered a program called Bastion which would also back up our financials as far as our recording fees, that kind of thing. Um, it was offered to me a few years ago. Um, but I consulted with our IT, make sure I was backed up anyway, and I was. Um, my bad for not asking more questions. Um, if we had not regained everything, I would have lost all the financials and not a way to rebuild them. They would have been lost. So, Fedler was here the day that we found out we were hit. And, um, after things started going, we got things up, um, I decided to go with Bastion to never have this problem. Um the initial setup and the urgency to get it set up, they called a special team in um and it was in the contract that was signed was $13,500. Um I have went to the commissioners feeling I should not have to pay out of recorders funds or any of my funds the 135 if I was backed up like I was thought I was. um that money wouldn't have been expended and I didn't go with them before to save money uh thinking we were backed up anyway. So now with Bastion um I am now on Iowa servers for everything that has to do with

recording. Uh our local drives are here and um I've taken proactive measures on our local drives as well but through Fiddler I will pay the same maintenance fee. uh it might be a little bit higher, but that's not the amount that you'll see coming through from the commissioners. You'll see 135 coming through from the commissioners. And so, it's just giving you heads up when you see that, you'll know what that is and why I went with them. The financials are just about as important as the images. So questions for

just a comment. I appreciate her taking initiative is uh what I understood and what talking to her and several other people real estate business came to an end in county until we got involved

and we do have some employees of the county that their personal uh real estate progress stopped. Um, we had people that lost construction contracts. We have people that could not get construction loans because they could not prove they owned the ground, which the deed had not been recorded and couldn't be recorded for 26 days. So, um, we could have been possibly back up and somewhat running if I'd have been on Bastion. So, we're not going to let it happen again. Thank you, Leo.

Mhm. information and update. Thank you. Um we have with us today from probation, Michael Anam um to possibly address any questions on the ACJC uh expenditures here if the council has any. He's graciously stuck around here uh to make himself available for any questions that we may have. I learned that too. I thought I saw but uh I had a conversation with um their financial managers just to uh set the record straight. Now they deal with counties um constantly. So it was hey we pay this out of a care of inmates fund. Um obviously we're used to the quarter takes some time if we um juvenile um um placement and security detention is not a predictable animal. Okay. Something happens and we just have to become reactive. Um so it's not though we have a care of inmates fund and there's a base level. Um it's not

something I can predict year to year, month to month or quarter to quarter. This is something that we have to take care of. Um, so I tried to inform them of that and say, "Hey, this amount, if I need more or I need an additional, I'm going to have to go back." You're aware that I'm going back for an additional now to pay the bill that's currently on. Are there any penalties? Are there any changes to how you deal with that? I was concerned that there was a possibility that they may say, "Hey, if you can't pay your bill, no new placements, things of that nature." I was notified no, they completely understand that that each monthly bill if we're unable to pay that that we have to go back for an additional it'll just stay on there notified that we're delinquent and ultimately they know that we'll get it paid um because that's um the expectation and that there there shouldn't be any changes. Now the I apologize. The other thing I just wanted to let you know um with a distinction of juveniles, there's a statute or or several that have to do with both waiver and automatic waiver. Um and that has to do with serious offenses for children and there are some age gaps in there. Just to let you know, um level one, two, three are listed in there. And that if they're waved either automatically or otherwise, that becomes a bill for the sheriff. a sheriff actually pays that bill regardless of the fact that they are still a juvenile being held in Kalen County Juvenile Center. Um, so they may have that issue with you as well. They would have been notified that they'll be paying that bill monthly and not quarterly as well. Um, and those can be long-standing bills obviously because you're talking about uh significant cases. So, but then again, any questions? Anything I can help? How many how many uh juven Allen County at any one time?

At any one time. It's I mean it depends. Um right now I have none. Okay. There is one being held but it it's on a waiver case and that's a sheriff case but I have none at the moment. Um uh and this seems now if if they come back out they are they under probation under your charge or when are they released from down there is there a different process and what they do with the adults or

uh depends it depends on the disposition. uh obviously you know they go through the same court process but yeah uh they have the possibility upon release to either be placed in my chart or if they go to you know department of corrections uh it's called wardship Indiana boys or girls school upon release they usually go to parole but they have the ability to be placed back on me with me if if the judge determines that but secured detention is for um uh here I would say predominantly for pre-trial hold Okay, we do a risk assessment that we, you know, we are determining that outside of individual discretion. We do a risk assessment determined both by classification, prior involvements, things of that nature. It's it's it's extensive and then ultimately um if placements determined that that's necessary with um the communication between law enforcement and pro uh probation, then ultimately placed in secure detention. Those are only on um cases which are for uh juveniles and the crime that's committed if you were an adult. Okay. So non-status offenses. Status offenses are things that you can only do when you're under the age of 18.

Does what did the rate go from? Uh like 150 to 200. It's not a significant amount. Um there are therapeutic placements that uh go through things like our Department of Child Services pay that are, you know, $1,000 a day. But uh our detention placements um throughout the state are close to that average. Um, obviously you guys know in the past I've I've notified you that um, juvenile detention. There have been times when we didn't have those beds at ACJC, which is a bigger issue for the sheriff than it is for me because they do transportation, but we've had to go south Indie, but those payments are about about 15.

Okay. Yeah. Anybody else have Michael? Thank you for sticking around. Absolutely. That's great. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Uh just a reminder to the council, our next meeting is December 10th. I have a couple things. Yeah. At uh 8:30. And Susan wants to go over the appointment list here with you briefly.

Well, I have a few things. So, the appointment list I'm just providing because that will need to be um dealt with at the December meeting so that you all are aware which um boards, committees, whatnot, um need to be addressed as well as your liaison appointments. Um if you guys are keeping, changing, whatever, we'll need to know that at the December meeting. The 2026 council schedule, I'll bring that at the next meeting. Also, um I intend for it to basically be a mirror of 2025. Um, and are you guys all okay with staying the second whatever this is Wednesday of the months and like we did this year? I just kind of want to get a feeling so I'm not redoing it when I bring it to you guys in December.

January. January. I wanted day day. It'll be earlier because I'm in conference the rest of the week. arm conference, but that's the only thing. So, January, well, it doesn't matter. January 1, we won't be here. And that's a Wednesday. Um, and then No, I mean the Tuesday before, not the week before. Oh, like on the 7th, the day before. The Wednesday that'll leave for St. Louis right after. Um, that doesn't matter. Okay. I will make my name off any ballots.

Let's let's let's do it after he leaves. We make him president next time.

Well, I will I'll have to see what all if there's anything other boards whatnot. So, I will bring that back next meeting. Um hopefully so we can get that approved. Um the other thing that I have is your county email addresses. I spend a tremendous amount of time trying to get responses from you guys, make sure you guys are seeing your information because you're not all accessing county email addresses. I need you to access the county email addresses regularly and if you can't, I need you to get with it because things there's so many things that are changing and I'm no longer going to be using personal email addresses. I I mean there's some of you I send to four different email addresses hoping I can get an answer and I just I don't feel that I'm doing a good job getting the information or a good job for you guys. I waste a lot of time trying to track you all down to get an answer or to get a response. So I am requesting that you get on the county email very regularly. If it is a crucial emergency, yes, I will send you guys all a message saying, "Hey, I need this." But I just I can't continue tracking everybody down. Also on the county email addresses is where you're all going to be getting your no before training, and that is also very crucial. That needs to be done. Um, most of you basically didn't do them. Um, there's a few of you that did some. Rick was the only one that maybe was in the 90%. Um, that is very crucial that you guys are all doing those. You may have to do them for your other jobs as well. Um, I know somebody that has to do them two different times for this job and a different job, but that is where all your information is

going to come from. Especially with HR, there's going to be new different trainings, different um what do I want to say like sexual harassment um different things like that that is going to come through. Also, we are going with a steel benefits company and all of your benefit renewals, whether it's the ancillary policies or health insurance, all of that will come to your county email and it's all going to be web based. We're not going to have papers going all over. So it is it's crucial like you have to start getting in those emails. I would say daily but I'm not your mom. Um so anyways please get with it if you cannot.

No there um you know this is very it can be troublesome. I mean let's face it. I mean there's a lot of stuff we all have to do and then having to get on there all the time can be a problem. there are some ways that you can fix it to make it easier for you, but I we can talk about that offline. Um, but I do know that in some of the discussions that I've had in other counties, they're not even allowing their employees or their council or their commissioners to use their personal email, their personal laptops. They have to have a county laptop that's issued to them. they're not allowed to connect at all. And I don't know that we want to get to that point. Although, if what just happened to us continues because it's happened to a couple other counties, uh that might be the that might be the case as to as to what has to happen. Well, you know, you ought to have three different accounts like I do and have to worry about, well, did I look at that one or I know I read that email, but I don't remember which account it was in. So, it is a it is a problem. Yesterday I got in the house.

Anything else? Susan, anything else? for the council. Amy, you want to do the honors? Amy number two hearing. Okay. All those in favor of adjourning signify by saying I. Opposed. We are. Thank you for a great meeting everybody.