County Council - Regular Meeting

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Okay, we call the meeting to order. Say the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation with liberty and justice for all.

I call for a vote on president, please. I'll nominate Taran Bird. A pleasure. I'm willing to do advice, help him along. Anything else? Can I have a second? I'll second it. Now you got a vote. Ready, Darren? Yes. Scott, yes. Gary, yes. Patrick, yes. Joel, yes.

Jim, no. Is this a continuation? You know, you got to have one. Okay. So, that's taken care of. President switch seats. I nominate Scott Red.

Oh, my charging device. Okay, let's get ghost. So is it you got to handle that I guess Darren it's going to be separate what I sort of threw them in at one do president you can figure it out now but figure out your own one at a time or you want to open up to several nominees nominated Scott red need a second if that's what you want

I'll second why All right. I have a nomination and second for Scott RD as vice president. Darren, yes. Scott, yes. Gary, no. Patrick, yes. Joel, yes. Jim, yes. Did Judy vote or she nominated? Okay. I don't know if she's voting. Are you voting Judy?

Um, not at this point. Okay. Congratulations.

Now, what are we going to do? Did you approve the minutes? Any additions or changes to the agenda? Nope. Uh, approval of minutes. Motion for second. All in favor say I. I. Aaron? Yes. Scott? Yes. Gary? Yes. Patrick? Yes. Joel? Yes. Jim?

Yes. Do you want me to elbow you? Okay. Okay. All the business now ready. Uh put the uh parks on record budget back into the general fund. much merit back into the general fund. Yes, we have you need to vote on whether to do that discussion and comments. Do you have anything on it?

My understanding is some parts of the budget still may end up in CB CBC depending on if they have a meeting and discern if that's possible. Actually, what when we discussed it, it was we put it all back into the bud the general fund and then CBC would would come in and you would take and figure out what can be spent for tourism there, right? They will pay us. Yes. All right. Good. They were reimbured. Yes, that's clarity. That's better clarity than what I was saying. Need a motion on it? I make motion.

Oh, I'll second it. Darren. Yes, I'll wait. See and get some detail on the meat on the bones here. What? So the entirety of it which is the whole budget that the whole parks and recck budget go back into the general fund 180 180 something,000 yes 184 like 184. Okay. It's going back into the budget the way it had been. And then Kevin agreed to talk with Mark.

Yeah. And then one of you guys would be a part of that meeting and find out what can be spent on tourism. I think Scott, you're going to be part of that. Yeah, Brian, we should you in because I think you've already done some work on that. And then they would reimburse.

Any other discussion? Yeah, Kevin. Um, I don't have documentation on this, but I believe I read somewhere that the CVC fund that the revenue that goes into that fund cannot be transferred into any other fund. So, it can't be transferred like you can't make the you cannot take

we can make a transfer though. No, you cannot take revenue out of the CDC fund and I you know I don't have the documentation with me but if my memory serves me correctly you cannot as part of the statute you cannot take money out of the CBC fund and basically you know journal it over to say the general fund. So, if there are expenses, if that statement that I just made is accurate, which I believe it to be, um, you're going to have to move line items, whatever those line items are, out of the general fund for parks and wreck that you want to pay and transfer those back into that CDC fund.

Well, the way we've handled things like that in the past is we've physically written checks. like I we don't write the checks the auditor's office but a claim is submitted and a check is written to that we've done it with the treasur's office to offset cost that they've incurred so and it's an actual physical check right but would there be wouldn't there be need to be line items within the CDC budget to cover those claims I think more importantly there just needs to be documentation supporting its compliance you're going to have to have an accurate an accurate accounting that's in alignment with the state board of accounts and the state statutes. Right. So, I'm just just a disclosure. That's all.

Yeah. Yeah. Jim, I think the other thing that I saw was you can't transfer into the inkeepers tax fund other funds as well in or out. Yeah. Yeah. my interpretation which makes sense that you've you know you've got an isolated fund that that CBC fund and you can put all sorts of different line items in it but you cannot transfer money in and out of it from one fund to the other which makes sense from an accounting standpoint a motion to second correct Mhm. Okay. Aaron, yes.

Scott, yes. Harry, yes. Patrick, yes. Joel, yes. Jim, no. removing money from commissioners line 12600 to fix errors in my book.

Yeah. which us would be what would generally go into the health fund to take to take some of that money and then fix the uh funds that were taken out of that they have to have. What was the total on that? I think 700 is what they were talking about. Okay.

The first of all, I believe it was the economic development fund is what we're dealing with. Secondly, there was 405,000 in the original uh form one that was submitted. Um I got accused of overinflating the health insurance premium, which is an absolute mischaracterization of the truth. um because the 2.7 million that we that I allocated uh for the crew medical for 2026 in order to do that we had to bump the 405 in the economic development fund by 700 grand we'd have a million 105 in order to be able to get to that magic number of 2.7 million which by the way was that that came from uh Apex and that was based on a 50/50 probability if you run a standard deviation of what the medical claims and the total cost would be projected for 2026. So, and also keep in mind, you know, we as, you know, since I took office in 23, I have had to fight for 24, 25, and now all of a sudden because we somehow um didn't have the claims, thank goodness. Uh whereas the commissioner's office, I think they've got healing powers because they kind of took credit that we didn't have the claims for 25 because they were somehow able to to had control over that. But anyway, because we didn't have the claims, we ended up with about a million in reserves. Thank God. But now here we are again. We got some reserves and so we're proposing to cut it back. We're going to cut it. We're going to cut the premium back to 2 million and underfund it for 2026 because apparently the commissioners have got want to spend that 700,000 on something else. Uh which I have no idea what they've earmarked that 700 grand to

go spend that 700 grand on. But you know that's what you're dealing with. That's what you're voting on. So there you go. Question. Yeah. Um, I think we said we would leave that funding where it was. Can you describe that process of Yes. Leave the money into the economic development fund and use it as needed. Take it as needed, not take it all out of there at once, which is normally what we do.

Yeah. So, in other words, once we take that 700K out, it can't go back in. And I think what we said was instead of transferring an all lump sum, do what Jackie suggested a quarterly kind of trickle it out as we monitor the health expenses. And if those expenses stay low like they were last year, which I'm I'm not sure they will, I'm not there is then we see what is left and until we see what is left and an additional is requested,

we there's no you know there's no action there. The underlying assumption is that the commissioner's office won't come to the council. And so, for example, we all know the commissioner's office has been in negotiations with the town of Nashville over that police department building. Correct. But the one thing that's never been discussed, just like it was never discussed when we did the million5 project or million3 on the Sallyport for the courthouse or just like for example when we voted to or you guys did, I didn't vote for it to spend $300,000 on this quarter acre lot next to the library. We never discussed on how we were going to fund it. So they're in negotiations. are having conversation with with the you know Nashville on buying that building and so there's never had a conver unless you guys one of you on the council have had a conversation about it but I'm not clear on how they're going to pay for that building considering the fact that that building cannot be paid out of the general obligation bond. So your assumption, I get what you're saying. Your assumption is though that that 700 grand will continue to stay in that economic development fund unless the commissioners decide to go spend it on something else and then it's gone.

Yeah. That I asked that question at the last meeting and and in order to move money out of that fund or spend it on something other than what we budgeted for, they would have to come to the council and get council authorization. So yeah, it's frankly when has the council ever said no. you just did. I think you're going to say no on everything.

So, actually, I think the action is to ask you to quarterly transfer from the edit fund into the budgeted health fund moving forward. And I would ask that before we get to the third quarter, you consult with the council and give us a balance update before we continue to push money into that. If that makes sense. I think it was discussed the quarterly review as to what to do with that money.

That's not a problem. The this is a whole different thing. The commissioners, they talked with you on the last meeting we had about everything that was taken out of their funds or what they say was taken out of their funds. They need that stuff put back into those funds. This is where the issue lies or what I'm talking about now. Is that the song? That's okay. It's the right song. Um, well, why don't we start with this because not seeing a list of those items in front of us. One thing I do recall is it is is the HSA amount which was HSA amount for 120. So Darren, if you want a motion

that I'd like to and are we this is where Susan may be helpful. I mean are we transferring additional transfer their fund into other funds not out of the edit fund? The edit fund is going to go straight into the health fund. This fund is coming out of their general fund budget out of the commissioner's general fund budget in line uh 12600 to shore up what to transfer instead of asking for appropriations. What what was the total on that?

There's what that total was 1,100,000. And I just want to make sure we got vote I mean to vote on it because we all that they sat in here and spoke about it the whole time in the last meeting. Could we one suggestion? You know, could we um I think we need a list of the amounts from and to accounts purpose and maybe at our next meeting, you know, go through that and make sure we to the penny get this right from the right fund to the right fund for the right reasons and that we all see what we're doing. But I think that's the way we we really need to be operating. Let me just send you instead of one line on the agenda.

Yeah, we'll do that. Do you want to just approve the uh help the HSA fund then? We do need that, don't we? That would be one. Is that one that would be in Yeah. needed now? Yes. Yep. So, and that's 112,000 12 from where to wear. It's out of the general fund. It'll be out of their fund from the 12600 to go into the HSA fund to fund it.

Anybody want to make motion on the $120,000 transfer from the HSA account? I'll make the motion. Second. All right, I have a motion. Second. Darren, yes. Scott, yes. Gary, yes. Patrick, yes. Joel, yes. Jim, what are we voting on? The 120. Just the 120 HSA. Yes.

Take a photo upstairs. We said it. He took it. Clark said he was going to get rid of the HSA. Yeah, we're that's right. We said we have to remember. Yeah. Darren, would you take this suggested amendment agenda change to move all the folks who are here to speak tonight up to the next now so they don't they can go? Yeah, I was going to I was I was to consider that instead of we're going to get into the salary of that's going to be a big issue. So, yes, I would like to get it to move up everybody who is here for board appointments. We'll start just for the presentation you people. Yep. Start with the library board. Yep. For the library board, we have Dan Floren.

Um well, thank you. Uh my name is Dan Floren. I live in Vanderan Township. Uh, I grew up in Trapower and lived in Columbus for a while and then my wife and kids and I moved to Brown County in 2021, the beginning of 2021. Um, we have eight kids. They're age 13 down to one. Very, um, my wife homeschools. We homeschool. Um, we utilize the library a lot. They do a lot more than I do, but u I, um, see the need to, um, be involved in the community and, um, help out where I can. So, I'd really like the opportunity to, uh, help with that serve in that position.

So, we know there's one council has one appointment. It's a four-year term. And Darren, are we going to choose tonight or just Yeah, I think what we've discussed, we're going to uh have everybody come up and listen to make the presentation and uh tomorrow's meeting the commissioners are going to make their appointments, I think. So, no. No, they're they're doing the same. They're interviewing tomorrow and they'll make their appointments on the fourth. They're doing the same thing. Oh, the 5th.

Yeah. So, we're going to we're going to hear a presentation, have everybody come up and speak, and then we'll and then we'll make our appointment. I would um suggest one one slight amendment to that is if we have one candidate and there's one position then maybe instead of losing a month of time for that person to engage we I think we got a couple of those here tonight where we have one applicant in one position you know rather than kind of push you know it's the beginning of the year but that's to kind of get people into if we've got if we've got a if we've got a board that has one vacancy. We had one applicant. Yeah,

everybody's okay. We can we can fill that one just so there isn't a gap in any of the other boards. So, we got So, thank you. Any questions or uh anything you'd like to know about me or any questions? We got your letter here. So, appreciate that. Great background and frequent library user. It sounds like uh we have one other candidate maybe that if you want to um thank you and of course we've asked for if you're interested in these positions you really have to be here tonight to present and introduce yourself and if you're not here tonight it it kind of kicks you off the consideration. This has been our traditional

right approach. So we have we have historically made exceptions for sitting board members because we have interviewed them and they're and they're an actual city board member if anybody wants to remember that but we have we have done that. Okay. Um, we have another letter of interest for the library board for uh, Timothy Kelly and he's not here because there is a library board meeting right now. That was one of the issues we faced before that they're actually on a board. So, and he he is our current

pointy on board. Yes. Yeah. I didn't see that. So, We take those considerations for the vote for the next the next meeting. Yeah. Sorry. This person has withdrawn. She's withdrawn. Okay. Oh, that's called back. Um, that's

there's an RDC. I think we got one. Let me see one of those. Oh, they already see we're supposed to have two appointees this year. I have one applicant. It looks like you will see council folks in your agenda. one applicant who has withdrawn and so um email from Sandy who has withdraw.

Okay, we have a letter of interest from James Norris. Um he present

he is Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My interest in serving on the Brown County Redevelopment Commission comes from a lifelong commitment to public service. I spent 35 years in the military, which taught me leadership, accountability, teamwork, and the importance of making thoughtful mission focused decisions. Today I serve as the vice president of support for helping veterans and families where I work to improve stability, housing, and quality of life for veterans and their families. That role has reinforced for me how policy planning and the redevelopment decisions that we do today can make changes in the lives for all those in Brown County. I see the redevelopment commission as playing a key role in shaping the future of Brown County by supporting economic growth, strengthening local businesses, and improving infrastructure, all while protecting the character and natural beauty that makes this community unique. I believe in responsible growth and being a good steward of public resources. If selected, my approach will be simple. Listen first, gather the facts and make decisions based on data, fiscal responsibility, and community impact. I value collaboration, respectful dialogue, and I believe in transparency and integrity are essential in public service. My goal is to contribute my experience from both the military and nonprofit sectors to help support balanced redevelopment that benefits current residents and future generations. It would truly be an honor to serve Brown County in this way, and I appreciate your consideration. Any questions? Thank you for having a prepared statement. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

Yeah. How many? That was it for that one. We have uh Matt Hanland for the Brown County Regional Sewer District. Hello here. Appreciate the time. Uh this will actually be my second time running. So I I was here four years ago uh looking to be on the sewer board. So, the last year I've been the treasurer of the board, so looking to continue that. I was actually just reappointed as treasurer. Um, so you have my letter. One thing I wanted to add that I noticed I did not put on there was the last uh year that I was working as the super board's treasur, we actually were audited by the state board of accounts for the uh calendar year 2023 and 2024. And if you go to our website, one of the things you can actually see is they had no findings. So, all of our accounts were in good order. Uh, and that was during the time that there's treasure. So, uh, again, I hope you would consider me be on the board again and I appreciate that. And if you have any questions, uh, you can either go to our website where I try to post all of your notes and minutes or be happy to answer anything right now.

Lots going on with the sewer district right now. Yes. And just could you just give us a thumbnail update? It sounds like good progress. Yes, a lot's going on. And not sure how much we can share yet. I'm looking back at Clint, see how much we can share. Looks like nothing but

So, um, we we will have a lot of news very soon. Um, but we're doing a lot of work in the Bean Blossom area, working with our engineering firm and the state revolving fund, SRF. Uh, we have a big project that has a lot of that engineering design, uh, completed right now. Um, so all of that design, uh, we basically have it on paper and now we're trying to get to that next phase. So once we have the design done, the next phase is getting quotations done to try to get something in the ground going forward. So that's going to be more funding, more work with uh state and federal agencies and working with the community at large to make sure that we're designing something that is right for the area. So

and your quick again just quick background when you Yeah. So uh my background uh I'm currently an engineer at Cummins. I've been there 12 years. Uh my background in uh water is very limited. So I interned at the EPA uh back in 2006. Uh and I'm just very interested in trying to help out in the community. So I actually was in the office of water. Um so I did a lot of stuff with the wastewater area and learned a little bit there. And it was a place where I saw in the community where I could help. So, I have that background in engineering where uh when we're working with our engineering firms, uh I can ask uh really good questions and challenge them on why they're doing a certain design one way or another. And then uh with the work that I do now at Cummins, having that financial background where I can do a lot of our financial reports that helped with the SBOA audit. Thank you. Yes.

Yeah. Darren, I'd like to make an editorial comment that several weeks ago I well actually to the whole board I sent out a document on board appointments if you remember and to the best of my knowledge we as a council do not have a documented policy that we can follow when it comes to board appointments. One of my major concerns for the process both for the council and for the commissioner's office on board appointments is that when I look because I've got history going back to 2017 with the Brown County Regional Sewer District and I'm going to throw this anecdotal number out there but I think that's could be somewhere in the neighborhood a $45 million project and it's the challenge is that We shouldn't take board appointments lightly because to me the last thing I would want to do is disrupt the continuity when you finally can get a board of five people that go through the process of the learning curve because the assumption is when we appoint someone to the board that they're competent that they have the skill set required to be able to serve on that board. So when they do get appointed, I'm assuming there's a kind of a lengthy process to kind of get up and running. It's like with the redevelopment commission. I mean, there's a manual about that thick. Uh there's a lot involved. And so for us to be haphazard when we go to appoint board members and then make decisions based on emotions rather than being very objective, being very fair-minded, being very rational and while at the same time make those

decisions while we understand the context of that current board, how long that board has worked together, how well they function together, so that these people can ask the right questions, make the decisions that are in alignment with getting that project in the ground, you know, regardless whether it's the CDC, whether it's the RDC, whether I mean, we've the health board, we've got all sorts of boards in this county. So, I just I wanted to felt compelled to share my thoughts on that subject that we you know, there's a lot of responsibility at this and we should not take it lightly. I agree. How many appointments do we have on the super board? Just the one most aren't the same

and RDC. I think we have two on the RDC. It's one four years and we have one. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean I I would be interested to make a motion if you'd like one. Anybody have any objections to it? No to reappointing Matt to the sewer board so they can continue. Not at all. So moved. Second. We have a motion in a second to reappoint Matt Henman to the Brown County Regional Sewer District Board. Darren, yes. Scott, yes. Gary, yes. Patrick, yes.

Joel, yes. Jim, yes. And we have a letter of intent for reappointment to the alcohol and tobacco commission from Perkins. It's the only one we have for

Yeah. Yeah. I think we got one one appointment. I think it was one appointment for one year term. Hello persons. Not to muddy the water too much before I ask you for my vote, but it was my interpretation back in November or so that we had to have our letters of intent in by January the 6th and that the movement would be made on January the 20th. I don't remember whether that was in the paper, but it was supposed to be that was what I was told. That's what I recall. That's why I put my letter in back in November. But anyway, aside from that, uh because a lot of the boards, mine included, we have meetings. I have one next week and others have other meetings and and by statute or by law, we're not on the board as we speak. We need to be reappointed. And to throw a little bit more at it, uh, a couple years ago when we had, uh, uh, the commissioner change over, uh, they they expressed, uh, discontent over the fact that the outgoing commissioners were appointing, whereas if they'd waited a week, they could have appointed their own. And I kind of understood that. But anyway, back to what I said on the on the 6th of January and the 20th was my interpretation, but I'll give you a brief synopsis here. Uh, I have a one-year term on the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission. I've been on the board since 2020 or 2019, been president of it for since 2020. Uh, submitting my letter for another year. I enjoy working with it. Uh I uh served a a federally approved

apprenticeship for two on die trade which uh retired tool and die maker from Rolls-Royce. My goal I'm kind of skipping through because you don't a lot of that you don't need to know. Uh my goal is I am interested in having input to help the county grow and prosper through additional business opportunities within the guidelines of the alcohol, beverage, and tobacco commission and in turn adding more jobs to the community. With more businesses would require more housing opportunities also. All of this would mean additional tax dollars going into the county and in general help the county to grow in a positive direction. I feel that I have the time, the interest, and the experience to be an asset to the alcohol, beverage, and tobacco commission as I am retired. So, I spend quite a bit of time going out on the in the community and reviewing people that are have new new uh petitions put in and I'd appreciate your consideration. Got any questions from anybody?

Did you also submit to the commissioners for appointment? Not this year. No sir. Okay.

I uh I used to be until last year when when this board uh approved my uh my letter of intent and put me on the board. I was appointed by the commissioners and then I elected to through uh Jack Chryser's uh he withdrew from the board that you had you you guys had appointed. that left a void on for your appointments and it looked like a good opportunity for me to kind of jump the fence onto the greener side at the time. Without going into a lot of details, I just felt it was more positive atmosphere over here than what I had over there at that time.

Wow. We don't hear that very often. Kind of consider the the variables there. If you'd take a motion, it sounds like uh I'd uh like to reappoint Dwayne Parsons to the alcohol ABC committee. I'll second. We have a motion to second. Darren, yes. Judy, sorry, can't be seen, so I can't vote. Okay. Scott, yes. Gary, yes. Patrick, yes. Joel, yes. Jim, yes. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Again, you guys are my eyes and ears. If you hear, like I've told the commissioners also, if there's things that you hear out in the community, we want good moral standing of the of the petitioners. So, if you if somebody has and I give you my agenda every month, so you'll know what's on it. If there's somebody on there that you say want to come to me and say, "Hey, I I know this or that." And things that you might want to review in your decision on voting for their license. I need to know that because I I can only hear so much and see so much but appreciate that. Anything I can do for you, you come to me. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you.

CBC, two, three, five, six. Okay. And we have two two seats. Three three appointments for two chairman CBC. Yeah. Okay. You can start here if you want to. Okay. them up here. We have Andy Scale. These are all for the CDC commission or CDC.

Hi. So, my name is Andy Sakali. I've been here 15 years and had a variety of roles during that period of time. Uh, I've served on the CBC currently and in the past. We currently have three lodging establishments. My major concerns are number one that whatever we do on the CBC it's legal and it helps that I have that experience and also that um we don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Currently, with regards to the inkeepers tax and the fees that get paid to credit card companies and booking companies, most of our lodging loses 20% of every dollar that comes in before they get anything. So, I have submitted my application not only to you gentlemen, but to the commissioners. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to serve again. Do you have any questions? So, you've got a 7% sales tax. There is an 8% inkeeper tax.

And so, what I'm assuming, you just use the number of 20%. So that other 5% makes on Yes. Your 3% let's say on credit cards. Credit cards. VBO. Uh there are booking fees that get paid as well. Yeah. Yeah. Is are this and this this question may be above and beyond you know tonight's meeting but I'm going to ask it because you're standing there. Occupancy rate it's down. Any any any idea why our economy sucks? Excuse me. It's a bad economy right now and I

You think households are feeling the crunch on discretionary spending and so they're cutting back on discretionary? The last quarter of this year was 20% less than the same quarter the year before. Was it really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, that's a concern, right? I have been happy that we've been able to put together a very good contract between the CBC and the CVB with a whole lot more oomph um oversight. So yeah, um let's face it, we without tourism, we wouldn't be talking about the things we're talking about. Correct.

Any other questions? Why? Why do you want to go through this again? You know, I love that question. I I should have figured it come from you. Um yeah,

I kind of have a model in my life and it's I ask two questions whenever whenever anything comes. Why and why not? Uh the why is I mean I've got a stake in this personally and my training experience is helpful. Um as I'm sitting here I'm remembering a whole lot of meetings in this room over the years and it takes a whole lot of patience to do what you're doing and to be on any of these boards. So the answer is um I I think that's my duty. Any other questions?

Thanks for your consideration. Thank you. Thanks.

He submitted this. Yeah, he submitted this afternoon. Yeah. Accepting You want to do that at the end then? Yes.

Your next one. Yeah. For the same the same uh seat we have Jim Schultz. Hi. I think most of you know me or I know most of you. Um, I've been in Brown County uh since 72. Uh, I've lived on Greasy Creek on property in Greasy Creek since 78. I was on um probably the first economic council that we had. It was back in the early 90s. Um, I coached little league for 11 years. I did Boy Scouts. I did PTA. I've done other boards and commissions uh in Brown County. Uh I have business interest. I would be a business appointee. I'm not a lodging guy. I I have short-term rentals, but I don't have or I have long-term rentals, not short-term rentals. Um, you know, I I I I am definitely behind the tourism thing and have been here for a very long time, uh, as a support to, you know, the community through the taxes and the economy that it raises. Um, Brown County has been singularly supported or primarily supported by the um, tourism and the arts since it began. And um I'm particularly fond of the level of tourism that's going on right now because of the amenities that it provides myself and my friends uh in close proximity to where I live without traffic and on and on and on. So, um

I've um I first got involved with the CVC or CVV probably I don't know 14 15 years ago when I was asked uh um at that time I asked some money questions and the answer was well we don't share that and my the my question to them was is that my policy by statute and they said by policy and just this last month is the the first time I think we've got some really decent looking paperwork that's been in orderly file so we can see you know people can speak to the fact that we're down quickly uh because the data's available Brown County is not down as much as a lot of people places are off 30 35% %. So our our 20% down is actually good. And and this whole thing is ours to keep. You know, kind of like the lady who's a state uh has state tourism said to me that she said, you know, if you knew how much money other communities, other cities, other towns are spending trying to get what we have, you'd be shocked. And so that is, you know, there's a lot of responsibility in just maintaining what we have and potentially generating more revenue to help globally, how we can make that work out. So I'll take questions. I didn't realize you got here until 1972, but I thought you dated back a lot longer. I may have looked at them.

Anybody else? Yeah. So, why why do you want to Well, you know, I mean, uh, Andy just spoke to it. Why did I coach Little League? Why did I do this? Why did I do that? I, you know, I feel like in order to be a good human, you have to be of service. And, you know, I'm still functional. So, you know, you wouldn't want some old It's incompetent. I mean, I've got a pretty good handle on how it works and whatot. Anything else? Thanks, J. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Same same position. Next up, we have Audi Bartell.

Yeah. Um, I'm Auntie Bartell's. I was born and raised in Brown County. Um, went to school here, graduated from school here, volunteered as a high school student here. Um, I went to college in Ohio. My husband was also born and raised here and he went to college in Florida. And we always knew we both wanted to return here and raise our families here. And, um, that's what we've done. So, uh, we've lived in we've we've lived where we're at for probably 20 almost 25 years, um, out in, uh, Pastori. So, we've been there for a long time. I've been a school teacher. I was a school teacher for 19 years. I taught here at the middle school for five years. And then I taught um, in Columbus for a little bit. I was an art teacher and I taught in Columbus for a little bit. And then my last teaching position was at the high school. I taught there for four years. And um while I was in the middle of teaching um at the high school, my um father passed away and I ended up deciding to keep some of his properties. And so for three years I was a high school teacher and I was running two restaurants at the same time. So I gave that up after those three years of it being madness and now I'm doing that full-time. And I also joined the CBB. I'm the vice president of the CVB board currently. Uh I joined that about a little bit over a year ago. And I've been working really hard there with the other um board members to help incorporate our community into what we wanted CVB. We held um open meetings for community members to come in and tell us what they wanted to see because the CVB can be, you know, it's for tourism,

which is super important, but a lot of that stuff bleeds over into the community as well. And that's one of the reasons that I'd like to be on the CBC because I see that um possibility of of more intertwining of the two. Um it's going to be an important year this year with the new 3% um raise in the um room taxes. It's going to be important to really figure out what we as a community want and what we can do with that extra 3%. And I would love to be involved in that. I feel like I have a good perspective on business owners and residents and um and growing the community in the way, you know, it should be grown. And I I think that I would be an asset to that conversation. I've been going to all the CBC meetings and I've also been um helping with the um contract for the CBC and CBB. And I've come to realize that um it's great how the CBC is holding the CBB accountable. The CBC needs to be accountable for some of those other grants and monies that they give away, too. It should all be checked on the back end and all of that. So, any questions?

You're not currently serving. just maybe just tell people more about the types of businesses you have in town that are tourism related, maybe not tourism related. Oh, okay. Um, restaurants, huh? Sorry, we have your letter, but just to kind of

Yeah, I have two restaurants. Um, the NS, the Ferguson House. I also have um 17 rental properties in town. I have 15 shops that I run out in Antique Alley to different artisans and um and boutiques. And I also have I own the Nashville House. So I have I rent out the space to the Thai place, which has been an a great addition to our community and also Spears Pottery there. Uh my husband and I have some long-term rentals and I I'm sorry. Go ahead. Um, I've been involved in my

Ste. Go ahead. So,

I've been involved in my in-laws businesses as well. They own Explore Brown County um, at Valley Branch Retreat and I've helped out with weddings and events there as well as I was a zipline guide there for three summers while I was teaching. So, I I've been in and out of all different aspects of our tourism community. I've been involved in the art community. I've served on the IHA board. I've served on the guild board. I've helped put together shows for them. Um, I understand the importance of art in our community, uh, for our for our tourists and for our locals. We have a great community. Music is a great part of our community. I think it's growing and getting better. Um, I at both of my restaurants, we do live music and I've offered a lot of opportunities to local musicians and um, so I that's that's the stuff I do.

Do you have any lodging properties? I have two Airbnbs in the upstairs of the Ferguson house. What do you do in your spare time? Well, right now my daughter is 14 and she is doing travel volleyball and it is consuming my life. So, I do that too. Arts and Entertainment Commission. Arts and Entertainment Commission. Yes. About the Parks and Rec board. Um, speak of Parks and Wreck. You brought it up. You just walked right into that one.

I mean, you know, we've got this, you mentioned the 3% inkeepers tax and you've heard us talk about, you've been in lots of meetings. I mean, what's your take is that how does that work with this with the parks and wreck and 3% like what's your I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to use that in a responsible way that still follows all of the the rules but also contributes to the community as well. Um looking at the budget for the um parks and wreck,

we certainly have areas there that need infused with money that benefit our locals and tourism. So there's ways that we can do that. There's other areas in the community that I think we could do that as well, but it has to all be looked at really carefully. It can't just be a whole move the budget from one entity to another. It's got to be kind of dissected, I guess, and and looked at a little closer.

Have any questions? Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you.

Same position. Next up, Brian Tedlock. Good evening everyone. My name is Brian Tadlock and I currently am the chairman of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. I'm a lot newer to town than everybody else. So, um, my wife and I have lived here for eight years. We currently own a cleaning business. We own five short-term rentals and a retail shop in Nashville. um my um experience and wanting to serve on the CBC um really is from a place of where I've gained a really good understanding serving with CBB on the systems related to tourism funding in Brown County and how it works, the compliance requirements, the community expectations around tourism. And through our work at the CVB, we've really focused on the accountability within the organization, strengthening the governments there and ensuring tourism investments yield positive impacts for the visitors and residents alike. And I would really like to bring that to the CBC on uh on that level. Um more of my professional background, prior to coming to Brown County, I served as a multi-unit retail executive. Uh so I bring a lot of strong um operational experience with strategic planning, financial oversight, um advanced problem solving skills and most importantly of all uh forming a consensus among many individuals with various and strong opinions. Um something else that I've also embraced uh more recently than anything which has tremendously helped uh the CBB and also

the quality of life work group is uh it the ability to take vast amounts of data and information and condense it into easily digestible information so that we're able to make really good decisions and um have the ability to um have very transparent material materials available to everyone to move work ahead. Um, I think it's always nice that we're able to talk about a lot of things, but I've always taken a lot of great pride in being able to be the doer and get things moving forward uh in order to achieve our objectives. Um, I think Andi has brought up a very strong point about the uh increased inkeepers tax and the capability for our community to really leverage that. Um, and I think that a strong CDC is essential in order to help uh govern and uh make use of those funds. And I think that my ability, which I've proven within the CBB, allows me to take that governance piece within the CBC to the next level so that it remains fair and consistent for everybody um applying for grants uh of our inkeepers tax dollars. Um, I very much do care about our community and want to see it flourish and have a great economic benefit. Um, and through a lot of the use of um, the data analytics that we have through the CBB, we're able to make a lot of more and better strategic decisions. I know that Andy uh, talked briefly about um, us being down in tourism. We're actually only down about 8% in overnight stays. Um, and that just comes from some advanced Placer AI information that we were able to get. Um, when you look at the same Placer AI information, we're actually up in day trips, just down in overnight trips. And um really what we have to be able to do is leverage all of that data

and information in order to put our strategic advertisements, our uh decision making in order to to leverage our tourism in order to bring dollars in to Brown County. So any questions, Mr. Again, this may be above and beyond. Um if a let's consider not quite sure how to language this but let's say a hotel room whether it's Brown County or it's the seasons and then we have the tourist rentals. I mean, there's all sorts of different types of even let's let me you okay if I refer that to a unit because you could have a unit that could have one person, two people, 10 people, 30 people in facility. Do we know exactly how many individual units there are in the county and what our capacity is for overnight short-term stays? I'm going to say yes because the zoning department right behind you has a comprehensive spreadsheet that shows every single short-term tourist rental in the county, every single home stay in the county, every single hotel in the county,

right? But what I'm after is just, you know, top down big picture. I mean, do we have 500? Do we have 400? We have I mean I've been told that we have over 200 short-term rentals in Brown County alone. But that doesn't include the hotels. No. And I think that doesn't include probably close to 700. Is that what it is? 700 approximately. Thank you. That's all I Yeah, that was my question. Thanks. Any other questions? Uh why not take from Andy like why wouldn't you want to do this? I mean is there is there what's the drawback? like have you thought about that? I it's a trick question kind of but yeah.

No, I don't see it as a drawback. I see it as a great benefit to be able to leverage, you know, what I can bring to the table in order to help continue moving the ball forward. U you know, once again, we want to use this money for for awesome and and great things for not only our residents, but that would serve tourists as well. And I think it's essential that we continue pushing it forward um and getting things done. Um, but I the CDC has to have a lot more clearer uh governance documents in place on how the money is handed out once they receive the money, how is it brought, how's the information brought back to the CDC, and once again, how are those organizations held accountable to the money they do receive from uh public funds?

Would you would you continue to serve on CBB?

Yes. company brought up the new contract and would you talk about what it requires in terms of representation? So the new the new contract requires a CBC appointment to the CBB. Um and so we all feel that that was essential in provide into ensuring that the oversight body that funds the CBB has a say in what we're conducting and what we're doing and how we're meeting. Um so that was essential to provide that continuity between both the that the commission and then the board as well. And aside from that it it lists um um different data and analytics that we have to bring to the CBC each month. It talks about the the money uh that is brought into the CBB each month. And so it really is a great comprehensive contract that allows us to get very datadriven and analytical with the information that we're providing. And then in turn how we're using our paid advertising to promote overnight stays um just this month for example uh for the first time in the county's history uh we will have continuous social media paid blasts the entire year. That's never happened before. We have the ability through our cross display device ads to be able to track actual visitors for the first time ever. So if I service you an ad within your weather app and you're in Louisville, Kentucky and you walk into Brown County, I've captured you. And um also too, for the first time ever, we actually have a dedicated groups campaign. So, we're going to leverage the whole convention piece that exists within our name but was never really gone after before. So, um those are very exciting things that we're we're doing this year aside from a very

contentdriven website that provides videos that provides much more unique little flavors that you can get within Brown County. So, the sky is the limit.

Other questions? Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you. Same position. Next up, we have Kevin. Good evening. Kevin Holtz. Um, I have served on the convention business commission for over 20 years. um as your appointment. I've served as the president of the commission probably for at least the last 14 or 15 years. Um it's been, you know, we've had our challenges over the last few years and um with a change in leadership at the CVB, it's made it kind of fun moving forward to see those changes and that leadership change and and yes, we've gone with a contract and we've had a contract, but you know, one year, a couple years, the contract was a two-page contract and then it went to a one-page contract. cont. And now we're at a six- page contract. So, um, and it does have a lot more teeth in it, but it has more information that gets shared with us and with the public. And um and now with the new 3% um added on, that just is it's more pressure put on us as a commission to look at our government governance documents and I know that council has asked for those and we are working on those. Um it's something you can take lightly and just throw some stuff together. We are we are working on those. So, um, and it's and it's it's kind of it's kind of come twofold

because we're also involved in the quality of life board and so there's documents that are coming out the quality of life board that are going to assist the CDC also because there's there's grant documents and things that we're creating there um that we will be able to use at the CDC level um because in essence the quality whiteboard is a is a is a group that will then be a recommending board to the CBC for for funds as they as they come to come needed. So um through that whole grant process and we'll still have our own grant process within the CBC for some smaller things I'm sure. So, um, we're moving forward in a very positive manner and I hope that I can continue to serve on that commission. Um, I do own two lodging establishments and a restaurant in town. So, um, I've always been a lodging a lodging appointment. Your your three positions. Two of us have to be lodging appointments and one can be a business appointment. And we're all two-year appointments. the commissioners are all one year

the grant process you're referring to is being able to leverage CBC if funds right the new 3% right yeah

so uh so what excites you about another two years

oh I think uh moving forward with the quality of life and the the new 3% % and seeing what we would be able to do for the community and tourism with that additional 3% is um is going to be it's going to be fun. It's going to be a fun next couple of years and hope and hopefully the next 20 years, you know, as this tax is just taking place and uh we're just really starting to collect those funds and um so it's going to be interesting, but it's going to be fun to see how that that plays out. question. You you keep talking about quality of life. Um quality of life for who? The younger folks in this county because most of the people that pay the taxes are older and what what quality of life does this affect for the people that actually pay property tax and those kinds of things?

I think it's it's going to affect everybody. We're looking it's not it's not just for one group. You know, the quality of life board will entertain um ideas and grant requests from multiple organizations looking at different quality of life improvements. And what what define the quality of life? What what what do you mean by quality of life? That's pretty broad.

And you're right. But what you have to look at is this has to be tourism related. and local related. So, what can we do for the local people that still helps with tourism? Because it's tourism dollars. It's the inkeepers tax dollar that's going to pay for these quality of life improvements.

So, I understand let's let's take the fairgrounds for in instance. You know, the county fair has struggled. Um there are lots of opportunities at the fairgrounds that meets for all people for all ages. Um including Yeah. including helping the fair. But what can we do with those fairgrounds other than the two weeks that the fair is used for the fair? What can we do for the local people to be able to use those facilities and make them ready to be used? Make make them safe. make them user friendly. Do we need more paving so that the older people can get around? Do we need more sidewalks so the older people can get around? In the same way, how do you get to the fairgrounds and parking? Um, Deerrun Park. Same thing. You know, you got grandkids, you want to go see your grandkids, but how can I get around the ball diamonds? Where can I park? Are there sidewalks? Are there paid parking lots?

Do you consider I know, you know, I brought this up before where I'm going. Do you consider public safety for tourism in the public um a part of that quality of life? I know there's some resistance to providing uh more law enforcement, more emergency services, those types of things. And that is tourism related. Um that that would may be an objective thing on your part or my part. Um, but as far as something that's related, not concerning grandkids and those kinds of things that to me overall, and I was in law enforcement for 38 years, um, this is not a safe county. It it just isn't. If you only have two police officers working the county that are county officers and in a town that, my understanding, and I don't know this for a fact shuts up after closed up their police department uh, for the weekend basically. um how and you have 3 million visitors, how is that not a quality of life issue? Or if someone gets injured or or if your kid gets injured, say a catastrophic type of situation in the park or on one of the bike tracks and you don't have an ambulance or something to take them uh to get them the care. Uh recently, quality of life, we had a shooting at the dollar general store and it took my understanding um not as secondhand information, but it took over an hour to get an ambulance and and and I hear the rationalization that well that's part of living in the county. That's not acceptable when you when you have um runs and things are tied up and you have 3 million visitors a year. Um, I would think that tourism in that aspect should also be looking at some of the quality of life for um, safety.

And I think that would play into it. I think you have to be careful because the legislators said directly this money cannot be used for public safety. But you look at events. We host a festival some let's use the fairgrounds. who hosts the festival. We can pay for security for that festival down there out of tourism dollars or out of those festival dollars, however it works out to keep that area secure so you're not having your sheriff's deputies or town deputies, whoever has to be down there. Um, I think I understand what you're saying, but we have to be very cautious about how those So, our goal would be what can we do to offset expenses within the county's budget. So, that frees up dollars for the county to put more money towards public safety because there again, they've said we cannot use this money for public safety. and and I I'm aware of that situation except for the fact that the the consult that we have that's an attorney stated under certain circumstances that's not necessarily correct

and the certain circumstances are what I was just saying we can fund security for particular events but we can't pay for a sheriff's deputy to patrol the roads yeah we can't pay for ambulance to be available all the time paying on being on that committee from the beginning Everything you brought up is very integral to that committee. They just can't touch it directly in a lot of ways because the state has bound their hands. So they are trying to facilitate that in any way they can. So because we we value and talk about it regularly, but safety is an integral value to getting tourists here,

right? But but there again when you bring in more tourism and which is more profitable for the owners and I understand the economic factor back business as well. um even though I was in law enforcement, but that takes away from the community. It is the bottom line is if you have everybody tied up at the park there, what is left for the people that live here when you when you bring in more to say next year it's 6 million people you bring in just as an example. So where does that leave the county? Where does that leave the law enforcement, the emergency services, all of that? Where does that leave those folks as far as say even even the people that visit here to me it seems like that should be whether we work it out this way or another way that seems to be a a basic need in every county every county. I I don't know how we compare in this county with with uh law enforcement. I came from Marian County obviously it's a whole lot different there but for here like say at night sometimes there's

two police officers for an entire county. I don't know how many months. Yeah, we have two or three deputies. Depends on there's an overlap at night and the town does have somebody seven days a week. Now, there was there was a time period they they had they were shortage of officers and there was some issues within their town police. They have a wonderful town marshal and they've got they've got a force in place now. So, it's Kevin, I want to interrupt real quick. Yeah.

So, part of the quality of life committee's work is to work more with the health needs assessment that the foundation did. I don't know if you've had a chance to look at that in depth, but that really addresses a lot of what you're talking about, Patrick, but our our goal is is to leverage our our partnership with sustaining hooser communities at IU in order to broad that implement that because that will require some fundamental changes with how we do emergency services more for like ambul ambulatory because a lot of the residents here use the ambulatory services as a doctor's visit. it that's

or as or as you know that that that that urgent care clinic that they do and so um there's some good recommendations in that we just need some help from you know higher brain trust in order to how to implement that. So that is something that we are working on. Brian, you led into what I was going to address is through that same that same program we what we have right now is, you know, we all understand that, you know, tourism uses local services. We don't know that breakdown yet. I mean, everything we have is speculation and guessing, anecdotal evidence. Um, what one of one of the projects we have through sustaining your community HSC. No. Yes. FHC.

SHC. Too many acronyms. Yeah. Anyway, one of the one of the proposed studies we have in that is to actually address uh find out how much of an impact tourism has directly with concrete numbers on our emergency services. You don't know exactly how that's going to happen. at one time the methods for finding that because you know what we can do is we can look at the sheriff's law which is I mean it shows us some things but it doesn't show us everything because the sheriff's law will show a run to a house but if that house is a tourist rental it's going to show up as a residence in Brown County and they're paying property tax

and they're paying property tax so

higher higher than paying twice as much property tax as most most counties uh based based on response times. Now granted just the terrain here I understand would likely be a longer time but I bet the response times if there's that in those studies it it overall no matter how you cut it I no one can show me and Jim's always bringing up these thing no one can show me there's nothing available because you just said it how safe is this county everybody seems to focus on everything but how safe this county actually is you know I mean it's just common s with all the things that are going on in business world and and and just to give you my background, I I did work as a contractor for Marshall Service. So, I I do understand this, but what if there's something the way the world is going today at at what a basketball game? That's tourism, right? I'm sure you bring your family in. It could be tourism, they stay here, whatever. How safe is this county? What what is the response time? If it takes just for one shooting on one given day, for an hour for an ambulance to get here and no volunteers show up for about that period of time, um how can you rationalize that as safe and and and and it becomes so ambiguous that that that aspect of the safety of this county is actually left out. That's just Can I step in here?

Yes. Okay. I understand your argument. Yes. And I appreciate your argument, but for me the reality, you know, to answer your question, it's 316 square miles is what Grant County is. So to me, I chose to move to the county and I understood what the county is and that's a rationalization. What? No, no, it's not. Let me let me let me just let me speak.

Okay. And we can then go outside and fight. But, you know, for me, um, I know that if I'm on my property and even if I have my cell phone and I'm out on that property on the zero turn and I have a massive heart attack, even if I can dial 911, the probability is is by the time the emergency services get there, I'm gone. I'm expired. And that's the that's the price you pay. That's not the price. Yeah. And it's is if we can talk about conversation and then well because it's a part of this

and no one and you and everybody here in the tourism business puts this off. Everybody rationalizes you have not provided. Hold on. You see there again now we're going data. There are two police officers in this county. Maybe three. That's and and an hour to get an ambulance. Tell me that's wrong. But you don't but you don't have that data either. Right. So, and I think this is not the spot to work that out. You're trying to make appointments to boards. And I can't I can't solve that. It's going to take more than the CDC and anybody else to solve that.

And that 3% is not going to solve that because that's $750,000 on a good day. And you're not going to be able to solve it with that. If you took all that money, you're not going to solve that. And that's gonna give you two police officers and one ambulance. That's all it's gonna give you. Yeah.

And Patrick, I want to say one last thing. Recently, just recently, I had a conversation with a prosecuting attorney, and I never thought about this before, but when I had this conversation with the prosecuting attorney, and keep in mind when you look at our budget, the annual budget for the, you know, Brown County, when you look at the justice system, the amount of capital that we spend that it takes, that's the that's the largest expense. as a county because there's like 12 different components of that. And where I shifted is that to have a prosecuting attorney get confronted with a felony case or with a case, a specific case, and then that individual has to go look at their budget to determine whether or not they have enough money to even think about enforcing the law. Because that was the question because this case had some specifics to it. it was going to be very expensive. It required an interpreter. And the question is is do I have enough money to even enforce the law? And that was the big shift for me because I never looked at it from the perspective of okay, you always thought you have the law and the sheriff deputies do their thing and we arrest them and then it goes to the prosecuting attorney and it goes to the circuit court. So it I appreciate what you're saying, but that whole, you know, law enforcement, that whole what I refer to as a justice system is extremely expensive.

Well, and it's putting a squeeze on us, but I think that's where you're coming from.

And I think it's not all tourist related. And a tourist is somebody I would say that comes here, visits for the day, or spends the night. We have a two major corridors that come through this county. 46 comes from Columbus to Bloomington, Bloomington to Columbus between two interstates. And then you got 135 that connects to those. And the arrests that are made on those corridors are not people who are even here. They are driving through and drug lords, whatever. I mean, they're there and that's where these arrests and they have in this county and then they go to our courts and they're taking our, you know, our legal system, you know, to the cleaners. It's an issue we don't have answers to. We hope to get

Yeah. And one thing I'll say to all of you on the CVP and the CVB, I appreciate everything that you do because for me, my perspective, um, that when you look at that tourism, uh, that Brown County supports. Um, I don't view that as the with the state park and the tourism sector within Brown County. When I look at that, I look at that as something that really is an asset not to just Brown County, but to Bartholomew County, to Monroe County, to Jackson County, to Johnson County, because I know for a fact your publicly traded corporations who are trying to compete to bring in top talent, actually leverage Brown County to try to get people to even look at a flyover state, which is what Indiana is. Uh so we that tourism sector in a county is extremely important. Um and not only is it important to the county, but I think it's important to all the five surrounding counties. Uh because those surrounding counties also help support our county because that's where people work. So okay, next up we have Handy Hand for the same CDC appointment. We're gonna limit you to we're gonna limit you to 27 minutes.

I'll keep it brief. Hi, my name is Andrea Swift Hanlin and um I think that I would be an asset to the tourism commission because of my background in entertainment, hospitality, and the travel industry. Um I currently own a travel um agency uh and I also own my own marketing consulting firm. Um, I am a graduate of Indiana State University, uh, with a degree in theater and marketing and I have over 25 years of experience in entertainment as an actor and also, uh, in administration as well. Um, a little bit of my background professionally that's been um, contributed here in Brown County um, is that I from very early teens to even now have worked in various businesses. uh including shops, restaurants, things like that here. Um I have a nice side hustle at uh Big Woods Pizza Company now, so I get to see a lot of wonderful people in and out and tourists and tourists and um community members. Um from April 2019 to April 20 2023, I was the director of operations at the Brown County Music Center. So I have um a good thumb on what the inkeepers tax is, how it works, how things are dispersed. Um I during that time um I was an integral part of writing and implementing standard operating procedures, handbooks, and the management of multiple staff members and volunteers. Um I've also worked for various theater companies around the world uh in performance as well. Um, my travel company specializes in um, Disney destinations, Universal theme parks, and all-inclusive resorts. But how that can contribute to our community is that I have a really good heartbeat on what's happening in the travel industry

globally, locally, um, and state and like and within the Midwest as well. So, I get a lot of data, um, also working with clients. Um, you may ask, how does that benefit Brown County? Well, my my industry fills the cup of those who are filling the cups of our tourists. So, when our shop owners are ready to go on vacation, I'm there to help them by uh helping them, you know, go on vacations and things like that. Um, so I also was a property manager for Regency Multifamily uh based out of um Champagne, Illinois, but I was managing properties in Bloomington, Indiana. Um, and I uh worked for them as a property manager and a leasing consultant for over five years. So I have a good sense of looking at budgets and things like that. Um, and understanding of like occupancy and and those items. Um, I currently serve as the president of Leadership Brown County. Um, we are, uh, our mission is to get people networking within our community and learning about things like the CVB board, the CBC, um, the music center, the Playhouse, restaurants, and um, other businesses and get networking and getting and gaining knowledge for uh, uh, becoming ambassadors for our community. Um so I believe that this knowledge and experience of my hospitality experience, marketing, travel and tourism and the arts would serve me well as a partner. Any questions?

So uh you know why do you want to be involved? What excites you? What's you know you'd have two years in this appointment. What's what's your what do you think you would want to tackle? My why is that I I love our community. Um I was born and raised here, sixth generation. I moved away and returned because my husband and I wanted to raise our son here and he's seven. And um I see now as being a homeowner and and living and working in this community, things that I want to uh build and help contribute to to maintain the uh this beautiful culture that we have in Brown County for my son and and future uh generations. That's very important to me. I have a very good skill of collaboration that I believe in. Um, that's something that we work in and believe in on Leadership Brown County is collaborating and being able to get to a mutual consensus. Um, and that's something that I know that I could bring to the the board. I also feel like that I have a lot of creativity and ideas from my background in marketing and entertainment to be able to meet people where they are and discuss the needs for when grant applications come up or needs come up. you think about putting funding towards parks and wreck, cover bridge, you know, Pioneer Village, and just really in general, the 3%,

you know, what what do you see happening there?

It's not black and white. And we have to be able to document clearly with clear standard operating procedures, clear guidelines, making sure that we are following the rules of the statutes and the laws to ensure that, you know, we're following the law. But I also believe that we have to find a happy medium where tourism and community can meet together and that whatever we're doing for tourism can also benefit our community. um the keyboard cowboys and the people on the internet of our community, you know, have a lot of important things to say that they want to make sure that the things that are coming to the community they can utilize as well.

Keyboard cowboys do about you not qualified. Oh yeah, it's worse than that, Jim. That's any further questions? No. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you said we had one other appointment or one other name. Jim. Jimmy. Jimmy. Did we get a letter? We did. Yeah, we did. Did we get a before cut off?

I got it today. What day was the cut off?

I don't I don't we have a cut off.

Think we wave cut off thing. Okay. I don't believe we had a cut off either. Okay. Well, that was my question. paper said January 16th. There you go. At 4 p.m. Well, we don't follow the suggestion. Oh, there's Jennifer.

Did you get here? Been here. She's been sitting up here. Oh, missed him. Eyeball. I didn't even say it.

Hello, my name is Jimmy Tilton. I am currently serving on the convention visitors commission started in September of 2024. I was a vacancy and I was able to take that and um I I served with a lot of uh good folks on the board as well and we made a lot of good progress. Um, when I came on the board, uh, the CVB was about to be gone away with for funding. And so, we had some triage to do, some decisions to make, some policies and procedures to think about as we're coming up with a contract. And it did take a while for us to get there, but I think we are we've made enough progress. We do have a contract now in place. Um, I do have, by the way, I do have u resumeumés. If you want, if you have any interest in my resume, you can see all my background and qualifications. You hear me? So, my family's been um in tourism and Brown County. They started off in 1890 and um I'm also a sixth generation in

Brown County. I went away to college. have a degree in computer science and a degree a degree in economics with minors in biz management and mathematics and I do own a hotel. So I qualify under the hotel motel appointment. Uh my hotel is right next door here at Brandonwood Suites and also own um some other businesses in town. I am heavily invested in the success of our community. Um if our community does not do is not successful, I am not successful. Um I own several parking lots. I own several um retail shops and buying an additional one here soon. Um my biggest reason for being wanted to continue on the board is I want to continue the work that we started um in September when I started with is get the foundational pieces established like how how do we operate as a board? What are the objective tests for grants? So we have a a a firm road map of here's the definitions of what is tourism, what is development, so we all are playing on the same the same board, same same page and and if if that's my only legacy on this board, I'll be happy. I do see a lot of opportunity for partnering both private sector and public sector coming together to multiply the limited resources we have to do something that's far better than any one one group could do on their own. And that does mean partnering with with outside organizations some uh there's just a number of of opportunities that we don't even see today because they haven't come about. But like the um the sustaining hooser communities would be is as an

example from the um quality of life advisory board and I see the quality of life advisory board is just being that it's just advising it's not usurping the authority of the CDC. The CDC must maintain its authority in final decisions but is but I think it should also be open to uh the opinions and advisor advice from others from the community as well. Um any any questions uh from me?

Yeah. I mean just two years. What do you want to accomplish? I mean I think you just answered Why? Why? What's your driving force for being interested?

Well, I would like to see I'd like to see the money be well stewarded and that is the primary role of this board is is not to develop this thing or that thing. It's it's it's economic. It's being a good steward of this resource to allocate it towards the right the best the best things. You may have 50 great things on your on the on the board. We may not be able to get to them all in the first year, but being able to prioritize is important. Multitasking, too. I see. Yes. Yes. Some things are more important than others, right? You can take that if you need to. It's not as important. Okay.

Um, talk to us about the distribution at 3%. your position on that? What do you fundamentally? And I will not I will not budge from this is we need to use the dollars that aligns with the Indiana code if it if it meets the the definitions of tourism has has to satisfy tourism requirements. It has to be development It has to follow everything that's in this in this Indiana code, which is rather broad. You you can you can do quite a bit, but we have to satisfy the legal requirements first. And it I don't mind if it's 4%, 5% or whatever the dollar is. You It's all money that has to be stewarded equally, not just a 3%. Every dollar must be wisely allocated.

Let me ask you this. whe you agree with this statement. I'm going to make a statement and I'm going to ask you whether or not you agree with it. Okay? If the Brown County Foundation, let's assume the Brown County Foundation has 15 million under management and they gift out 4% of that 15 million each and every year. That would be 600 grand. The revenue coming in off the 8% based on the historical occupancy rate going forward is going to be an estimated little over 2 million a year. In my professional opinion, I'm speaking for myself, is that today I view the CDC much the same as I view the foundation. And actually the CBC is handing out a lot more money than what the Brown County Community Foundation is handing out. So you got two million versus 600,000. And I've heard several people today in the context of the CDC use the phrase grant. So in essence, we're issuing grants is what the CDC is doing. And so therefore, it's extremely it's imperative that the CDC board creates the governing documents and the CDC defines the statute in the context of Brown County because that statute is so broad. Do you agree with what I just said?

I agree 100%. Okay. Thank you. Good answer. Um, I'm done. Anything else? Any questions? One question about the deadline. When When did you submit the letter? I submitted it this afternoon. Okay. I was not I was I was not told that there was a deadline. So, I was make sure I got everything together. Was it in in the submission process? Was there a deadline for submitting according to other than the paper? I mean when

I'd also try the paper I think we already submitted at a certain time and we had a paper I think you read when we opened it up that it should be I I would say I don't know if S is Susan on the line. She's not. I think my my prior experience tells me that it's kind of like bid openings. You can set a four o'clock day of deadline, but if a contractor shows up to the meeting with a bid in hand legally, I think you have to take it. So I I think we just keep in mind that you know he submitted.

Yeah. So the deadlines this evening very much like beginning of the meeting is what I would legally have a very get a lot of push back from me if the we all arbitrarily decided to enforce something that I wasn't even aware of because there was no internal communication whatsoever on any kind of deadline with regards to um with regards to you know these applicants for these boards. So, right. And this this is not this I this I'm leaving faces and everything out of this. I'm just looking strictly at our policy. If we had a policy for a deadline and we don't follow it, that's our that's just as arbitrary as arbitrarily coming up with a deadline.

Tonight could be the deadline. So, I don't recall having a deadline. We did. We did. I'm not saying we didn't meeting so clear for us clear for him, right? And that's kind of what I'm leaning at. If we didn't have anything, I'd have to go back to I would like to clean up this process in the I mean, if we're going to if we're going to set a policy, I want to follow the policy. I don't want to set a policy and then say, well, so we didn't has to be in writing and we have to follow. That's what I'm saying. is that

if it's going to be in writing, if it's going to be on the website with the application process, then we have to follow. If we didn't have it clearly spelled out on the web page for the submission process, I don't know how we we can't follow. So, what is the what's the consensus of everybody on council? There's no deadline. It's too I don't know. I don't know. It's ambiguous. Okay. Yeah. I'll make a motion that we set a deadline uh at the adjournment of this meeting. Well, I mean that point anybody else would come in here and say I want to be

right. You want to set it at the beginning of the meeting when we started. That was the motion. You don't have to second it. I just anybody else. Are we doing it for right this this year or for future reference? Well, are we my would be just for this right now? Yes. This year, right? This year is one thing we should discuss it and put it solid. We have to create a policy and we have put it in writing for the next time. So we don't have this issue that policy. Okay. So you can put that on the agenda for our work session. Are we good for accepting this? Yeah.

Yeah. I think Okay. Should we take a vote and just make official? You made a motion. I made a motion. Second motion. What was the motion? I'll accept that. I'm going to make a motion for Wait a minute. Let me back it up. make a motion for board appointments for the fiscal year of 2026 that the effective deadline is this evening at the adjournment of this meeting. So I'll second it. All right, we have a motion to second. Darren, yes. Scott,

no. Gary, yes. Patrick, please. Joel, yes. Jim, yes. Would you take a motion? I think we need to reopen the RDC. We only got one application and reason I'm voting no is kind of just poke at Jim a little bit, but also because we need to revertise the RDC. I think it's just the RDC. We'd have two openings and one applicant. So, and then maybe we set a Well, here's the thing about library board, too. Oh, was we need Well, we need to we we got There's two one that was one that's here and then library we had

but one who did not appear is actually at the library board meeting. Yeah. Did they notify anyone of that though?

I That's a He's at a board meeting. So, that makes him unable to Okay. So um readvertising for the RDC I think we need to do that. Do we need to readvertise to the library? We had a person who sent a letter but was not present or do we accept that person give them another do we need to reach out to them and ask them to attend? What's the will of the council? we at least need to readvertise for the RDC. And I would say if we are going to set a policy that we allow somebody to walk in the door and apply with zero prior kind of like time.

We're not we're not setting that as a policy. So that was a motion made for this meeting and this meeting alone. But I think we do need like time to read what they submit and understand or have the deadline be at council, but then we don't make a decision because we haven't had time to even think about who it is or they may just literally walked in the door, you know, and so we probably need to not make a decision two minutes later, you know.

Well, let me add to that. Um, you know, there's a lot of stuff I'm unconsciously incompetent on. I mean there's a lot I don't know and one of the things I don't know is for example right now I don't know off the top of mind of how many boards are there in the county the county council is specifically responsible for appointing members so that I've got a document that I can look at know you know that spells it out and then having to find a process that we can follow every 12 months right because I don't have that.

It's on the Brown County website to the county council on the left side. So, it's available, but whatever. Yeah. So, I think we need to readvertise the RDC. And and for that one, we probably will want to make an appointment so it's not sitting vacant for more than two months.

And so, maybe we try to get, you know, we've already had one submitted. You don't have to come back, sir. You've already we've heard you. We've got your information, but probably need to raise a motion. I I move we readvertise the RDC on the website and um set a deadline for two days before the meeting 5:00 p.m. or whatever it is, midnight, so that we can at least have time to review probably and two days. You're going to have to turn that around real quick so we can see um February meeting or February regular Februarying library as well. Uh I think we're okay with library. We don't have a Yeah, we've already got

We have one seat to fill in the library. Correct. Yeah, we have two We have two. Yeah. So, we have two already see we have two seats to fill. Yeah. And one Yeah.

So, yeah. Let's make it public. Now, I think we did this last time. The third Thursday in February or excuse me, the third under your Tuesday. That'll be a Tuesday. February 17th would be your meeting date. Regular meeting. Thank you. So, let's set the submittal date. That's a Friday the 13th. 17th is a Tuesday. Is that Monday's a holiday? Monday's a Monday president. Um, so let's have it Friday the 13th committee at noon so we can get it over the weekend at least. Friday, February 13th by the end of the end of the day.

Yeah. All right. So restate your motion. I move we revertise the RDC openings on the county website to be due February third to the council or to the auditor's office by 13 by close of business Friday the 13th. Second. A motion to second. Darren, yes. Scott, yes. Gary, yes. Patrick, yes. Joel, yes. Jim, yes.

I just say if anybody wants to go now would be a great time to do that. Well, we have we are we have we should we've made we made the appointments. We have one session. Are we going to try to make some additional? Yes. We're going to make a decision then you guys council way think try to make some decisions at the work session

that'll be the commissioners mayors some of these are for us

thank you everybody for coming in I motion to adjourn. No, please. Motion to second update on salary. Oh, yeah. That's it. Let's do that. You got a quick update? Yeah.

Hey, I've been meeting with all the office holders or elected officials to go over their some of their issues uh for the salary organs or um I've still got a few more to go uh to work with and uh it's going pretty good but it's slow process hoping be done soon. They were productive meetings too, right? They were very productive meetings. Very productive. Out there was there and some of them and then Gary was in some of the others. So

yeah, we've done a lot of a lot of talking and a lot of telling them how they work and how how it what you guys actually did in them and you know just explaining a lot of explaining. Yeah. Thank you. Have all of of the concerns, all of the all of the major concerns been resolved for right now? Yes. I still have a few more people that want to meet with me, but uh for right now, yes. Are they major concerns? Are they minor? I I don't think they're really major concerns. There are just some minor concerns. Um

a lot of it seems to be around the salary ordinance and adjusting to the WHIS terminology. Yes. and what it really means. I'm sorry. Everybody got paid and there was no discrepancies. Oh, everybody's paid. That's for sure. You don't not pay people. I'm telling you. But yeah, it's it's going to be a process to What kind of a time frame do you think we have on it? I'm hoping I'm not going to actually tell you that it's going to be done, but I'm hoping for the next meeting. Not not the day meeting but the actual next meeting. Actual. Yes. A regular rescheduled meeting. Correct. Okay.

Yes. Okay. So you promised then no promises. No promises. Thank you. That's it. Motion to observe. Second. Third. Good job, dude. Feel me now.