Common Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Good evening and welcome to the Monday, September 14, 2026 meeting of the Marksville Common Council. The meeting is here by call. At this time, I would like to ask Pastor Lord Swopes to come forward with tonight's prayer. So please stand and remain seated for our pledge. Thank you.

Father God, we come before you humbly today just in awe of who you are. Thankful for this opportunity to lift this city up before you. And we just pray that during the time of this meeting that the council will be not wise in their own eyes, but make wise decisions for this city that honor you and bring glory to you with everything that we do. God, we pray for unity. in our city, and we thank you so much that we live in a country where we're able to do this, where we're able to serve our community and lift our community up to you. We pray all of these things in the powerful name of King Jesus. Amen.

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

Mr. Miranda, would you please call the roll?

John Badger. Present. Susie Lips. Present. Ben Mahan. Present. Josh Varen. Present. Ann Miller? Present. Jonathan Collier? Present. Phil Decker II? Present.

We have a quorum. Thank you. Prior to tonight's meeting, you were sent minutes from the Monday, August 24th council meeting. Any questions or comments?

Ann Miller makes a motion we approve the minutes from August 24th, 2026. Second.

A motion made and seconded to approve the minutes from the August 24th meeting as presented this evening. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. You're also sent claims to review prior to tonight's meeting. Any comments or questions about the claims?

I will accept the claims, Ann Miller will accept the claims, with the exception of APB number 68069, Block Group Incorporated, out of the Economic Development Department, $18,000 for block cameras.

Pulling that out. Pulling that item out. I'm sorry? Proposal without that item. Are you making a proposal without?

With the exception of that.

Second. It's a motion made and seconded to approve the claims as presented except for the $18,000 for the flock cameras. Any discussion?

And what is the purpose of not including that one?

I don't remember ever accepting a contract from them approving it. Did the council approve this expenditure or is this something the Board of Works did?

I want to say it was the council because it was part of the opioid funds, wouldn't it have been?

It comes from EDIT. I'm trying to get logged onto OneDrive so I can tell you. I believe it was over a year ago that was presented to us. Yeah, we've had this agreement for a few years now.

And really this should come out of the police department's budget, not economic development.

Well, as far as the funding source, that'll be tied to when the agreement's approved. The funding source usually is established once the agreement is approved. So we'll establish that, but it can come from different areas.

Do we already have the cameras?

This was a multi-year agreement. I can't remember what year we're on.

It's a contract, but it's presented through the council and we agreed to do it. I don't know if the funding's wrong or not. That's why I'm asking because this is not new.

So then if this does not get paid, does this nullify the contract? No. It will nullify the contract?

Possibly.

So if we are under contract for this for X number of years and we're in year Y, the time to not renew the contract or agree to pay would be when you determine the contract. Yeah. Is that accurate?

Yeah, I mean, once we renew it, it'll come back before... Is this the renewal? This is not the renewal. This is just the annual payment of it.

You know when the renewal will be?

No. I'm trying to get logged in there so I can pull it up.

And are you more against the flock cameras themselves or where the payment's coming from?

Definitely where the payment is coming from. I think this needs to be revisited as far as this contract is concerned as far as public acceptance. Constituents' acceptance of it.

On the opioid money, I thought that was part of the body cams and everything body cams tasers yes and did it not include that no flock cameras that was presented by chief lang back when they came up i did find it was in it's from 2024. but i remember he he presented how to get it and how to pay for it because that's why the council approved it I just don't remember which fund.

Yeah, the opioid was to pay for the body cam's license plate readers. Okay. Flock was designated to come from edit from day one. I just can't tell you for certain when exactly that was approved or which body.

But this body approved it then, correct?

It was a board of works contract.

so ben you blew this the the board of works approved this in 2024. i'm not sure what date it was but i think it was okay i think this kind of expenditure you know definitely should have been presented to the council

Yes, I did find the minutes. So it is from May 13th, 2024. It was Board of Works and Safety. It was designated at that point to come from the edit fund. $3,000 per year per camera, total six cameras, so $18,000 annually.

For how many years?

That's a two year agreement. So this would be the final year of that agreement. So this wouldn't be the joints to renew now? I have not seen anything on their renewal. I don't know. Maybe the police department is here that would know that. Deputy Chase Brown, do you want to comment?

I came out for a poll on the Arizona Renewal Remuneration Fund recently. I just heard about the $18,000. So I need to do some research to figure that out.

Council Coffey, is that contract one that would normally fall under the Board of Works, that type of contract? It is. It's for public safety. That's what I thought. Which then the only, and to your question, then the only thing to do would be is the only thing we have is to deny the payment. But they approved it, and it's under their, They're lame. It's not ours. But I mean, again, we don't want to prove it. But I hate to see us. We've been doing it. It's been coming from there. I'm really not sure if this is the right timing.

If this is the second year, does that mean, Ben, we've already paid one year of $18,000 and this is the second year? Correct. Okay. So we've paid $18,000. We've approved that claim. What fund did it come out of when we approved it last time?

When it was approved in the minutes, it was designated from that.

The board of works passed it. They put it through the edit. It was approved. We approved that claim when it came to us the first round. This is round two.

And a line item was still taken out of economic development.

Is there a penalty stated within there for breach of contract on that? I just found the minutes.

I didn't find the actual contract itself. So I'd have to look at the contract itself.

Council, would we have legal recourse on that?

I have not identified the contract. My guess is if you don't pay it, they're probably going to file a suit for breach of contract.

So they may or may not just go out and think, if they terminate your service with us then, then we no longer have that service of using them. Because I know you listen to the media. There's a lot of different things. I know there's been a violation of it. It's been dealt with in those agencies. You've got to think about the good that it does for our community. Station on Picking Up, and we have Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts and many others. That's how they track and find the vehicles coming through your area. That's... Again, that was under the presentation that it was Chief Lane that presented to us.

I mean, I don't disagree. It does a lot of good. It does do a lot of good. But I'm not comfortable with it coming out of economic development at all. And I think really this really needs to be discussed a little more.

Well, would it be appropriate to have Deputy Chief Brown review the contract and then bring it before you all the next council meeting so that discussion going forward or.

Well, I think it'd be beneficial for us to find out the legal ramifications if if we were to breach this contract, what legal ramifications does the city of Martinsville face on that? Because I mean, if it's the last year of the contract, then there's a chance to open up legal ramifications. I'd like to know what those would be facing so I'd be okay with that.

It's a situation too that falls within the budget but even if you want to bring back a contract the contract for public safety is going to go before the board of works not this body.

Correct.

and so to end uh councilman miller's point there's that was already stated within the budget so there's not much that that could be done to remove or to move that payment correct since it was directed or any approved within the budget as presented

No, I mean, I guess one thing you could do is you could move the appropriation that's coming from. Knowing that that appropriation was not intended to take on this, that hit this year. But yeah, you could.

If we don't pay a light penalty fee?

I'm not sure without looking at the contract what it is if you do not make the payment.

Well, can't we just approve the claim without this and just not pay this until we get more information?

Yeah, that's what we're discussing. Yeah, I mean, that's what's on the floor. And the discussion is what we're talking about as to whether we penalize or do they cancel the contract or what. Because again, we can't control what the Board of Works does except let them know that we're not going to approve it.

I seriously doubt that they would cancel the service ASAP.

I wouldn't have to agree with Ann on that. I would assume it was net 30. And we messaged Scott within the last two weeks where it had been on the 24th. So we could put this off until the 28th and still fall within their net 30.

Yeah, delaying it two weeks is probably not going to cost you anything because we typically pay pretty quickly.

so with that being said there's a motion on the floor in a second to approve the claims that's presented minus the eighteen thousand dollars from the flock of camera any further discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no no motion carries six one

and different chief brownfield look into that house of information yeah yes sir uh just got an email from chief manly here uh it appears that There's a system error on their part. That's why the photos were sent out so late. So we will have some time to make that discussion. So I believe that it's late, but it's based on their internal processing system that caused it. So I don't think there will be any issues that get our dogs to come out here.

And if you would come to the Board of Works also. Yes. Since that is the body that would have to create the contract. We'll let them know the council was kind of concerned where the funding was coming from. So everybody's on the same page.

So will you, the executive, pass that on to them then?

Or do we need to? I'm going to ask Ben to come on the agenda. Okay. And ask Deputy Chief Brown to be there for our chief panel. Okay. Before we get to the Clark Treasurer's report, this was not on the agenda, but I'm going to throw it in here right now. Got some good news from FEMA. FEMA has approved our levy. We are in a 90-day public levy. information public uh questions that they might have whether they think that it's not legit or whatever but there's 90 days and that has started so by the first of the year they've already sent us maps of what it's going to look like and matt dunn has those down his office so if you want to go and look how they've taken all of the that was in the floodplain out and probably mid of January, middle of January, people should be able to start calling their financial institutions and their insurance carriers and tell them, I'd like to go through the process of getting my flood insurance removed. So that's a bit of good news. Mr. Merriman.

I will actually turn it over to Brandy Simpson. So Brandy is our payroll HR director for the city. And we'll have her do her presentation tonight.

Good evening, thank you, Mr. Merida, Mr. Mayor, good evening, council. Tonight I'd like to share a little bit with you about my role as the HR payroll clerk, specifically focusing on the HR aspect of my position. In that role, I support the relationship between the City of Martinsville and its employees by facilitating the policies and procedures that are put into place by the Mayor and his administration and subsequently adopted by the Board of Works, as well as adhering to the annual salary ordinance and other relevant ordinances passed and approved by this legislative body. In December 2023, I earned Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional Certification. And since earning that certification, I have attended workshops, seminars, and taken courses to earn the necessary professional development credits to maintain that certification. I make every effort to utilize best practices in carrying out the policies and procedures adopted by the city's administrative and legislative branches. From time to time, our office will review those practices in place to determine if there might be a better way to do things. One tool that's been extremely valuable to that process is participating in the AIM affiliate group known as IMPACT, or the Indiana Municipal Personnel Administrators for Cities and Towns. Easy for me to say, right? This is a group of human resource professionals for local government. We have quarterly meetings where we discuss a variety of topics that specifically impact employees serving in municipalities. It's incredibly valuable to connect with other municipal HR professionals who experience similar situations and challenges. It's been my privilege to serve as the impact president this calendar year. Later this week, Impact will have our annual meeting where we will cover a variety of topics including hearing from the Indiana State Board of Accounts on best practices for municipal HR, the future impact of AI on HR, an employment law update, and a discussion about leadership as well as several other important sessions. Additionally, Mr. Merida and I have been asked to host a workshop session detailing our experience in opening the municipal health center in partnership with Morgan County government. We'll be joined by our proactive MD clinic representative to discuss why opening a clinic was a priority to us. We will discuss the benefits that the clinic offers to our employees by providing easier access to preventative care, chronic condition management, and healthcare resources close to where they work, all while helping the city to manage continued growth in healthcare costs. Being asked to speak to our clinic development is an honor in that our city is being recognized for putting a strong emphasis on employee health and wellness, as well as the fact that it is being done in a fiscally responsible and forward-thinking manner. In addition to supporting our employees and their utilization of the clinic, an additional aspect of my HR role is the administration of the health benefits for our employees. I act as a liaison between the employees and the insurance carrier to facilitate enrollments and cancellations, life qualifying events, annual renewal and open enrollment periods, and assist our employees in resolving any issues that might arise that relate to their benefit coverages. Currently, the city of Martinsville has 13 departments, all serving in different locations around the city, performing a variety of functions. At this time, we have 104 full-time employees and 44 part-time employees. That includes the 33 board members. The operation of city services would not be feasible without each of these individuals. The ability to offer an appealing benefit package is vital to being able to hire and retain quality workers. Thank you for putting into policy things that are not only fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of our city, but also policies that support our employees, and by doing so, communicate to them that they are important and that their services to our community are appreciated.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Brandon. Another new business, A, will be removed and will be put on the agenda for the September 28th meeting. So we'll start with the second reading, consideration of Ordinance 2026-1924, the 2027 budget. Mr. Mayor?

nothing to add from last meeting just a reminder ordinance 2026-1924 the 2027 budget is a surplus budget so we do anticipate putting cash reserves back into the bank account at the end of the year the dlgf has given their full support of this budget they are very pleased that we are able to trim our budget compared to last year by four percent so good budget everybody seems to be pleased with it and no changes from our budget workshop though so it's it's the same same information the same data as the june workshop any questions for mr merida i i was just looking through the um

uh salaries here is the uh uh board of works um and safety they are there um is the city council paid the same amount as them are you looking at the salary ordinance i'm sorry yes okay we're just talking about that budget right now so i'm sorry we're just talking about the budget right now yeah different ordinance number

I'll make a motion to approve the second reading, consideration of ordinance 2026-1924-2027 budget. Second. Motion made and seconded to approve the ordinance 2026-1924, the 2027 budget. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Opposed no. No. Motion passes 6-1. Next item on the agenda is the first reading of Ordinance 2026-1922, the 2027 salary ordinance for elected officials. Mr. Merriman.

All right, so before you tonight, for the first reading, we won't be taking any action tonight, but Ordinance 2026-1922, this is the salary ordinance for elected officials for next year. As discussed at the budget workshop, we are increasing full-time employees, and we'll talk about this in detail when we talk about Ordinance 2026-1923. But full-time staff will be getting an increase of $2,080 next year. But if you're an hourly employee, that equates to $1 per hour. And part-time are $1,040. So we carried that throughout on the elected officials.

Going back to my earlier question about Mr. Meredith, So the Board of Public Works and Safety, are they paid the same as the City Council?

So the ordinance for appointed officials, which is 2026-1923, and that one, yes, the Board of Works, the proposed increase for next year would be to an amount that matches the City Council's pay. It's the same? Correct. I just want to make sure we're talking the same ordinances, though. Yes. Ordinance 1921. Per meeting? It's per month. Well, I mean, it used to be a certain fee per meeting. So now it's more of a salary? It's an amount per month. We changed that a couple of years ago just because of some meeting, some boards meet more than once a month, some fewer. It's just not tied per meeting, because what happened is, like in your case, if we called an executive session, you'd be getting compensated for an additional meeting. That's been in the last three, four years. That is not a new change, though.

I do have one question. For the certified salary on page 44, I think for the police and fire pension is set at 85. Is that correct or did that get adjusted?

Yes. I hadn't talked in specifics on the appointed just because I was trying to follow the agenda but yeah so for the 1923 ordinance which is the appointed the changes for that would encompass taking the 10-year matrix from 10 to 7 as we talk to the workshop it will be taking your certified salary from 82.5 to 85 I will tell you in your copy of that particular salary ordinance there are a couple typos which I will fix. Your chief and deputy chief for both fire and police both say 10 year. That's obviously not correct. The amounts are correct so it's not a mathematical difference but I did not catch that. So we kind of did a combo of C and D there.

Any other questions? Let's take the first one, 2026, 1922, the salary ordinance for elected officials. Any other questions for Mr. Merritt at this time? If not, again, that's the first reading. We'll have the second reading on for the 28th. Then the second ordinance, 2026-1923, the 27 salary ordinance for appointed officials and employees. Been kind of went over that. Any other questions on that one? Again, this is the first reading, so it'll be back on the agenda on the 28th for a second reading. Moving on under D, consideration of purchase of real estate. Mr. Coffey.

So the city of Martinsville has a road, a street, Tulip Drive. It sits down off of Bill's Boulevard. It's a road that travels from Orange Street to the high departments. We have discovered over the last six, eight months that the actual street itself is privately owned. The city never purchased the property in which it sits. Even though it is within our road street maintenance system. So we have the opportunity to purchase that. The landowner wishes to receive $7,500. We did receive two appraisals and that is within the realm of, it was appraised value. So that's what we're asking consideration tonight to approve purchase of the street known as Tudor Drive.

Where's the location of this again on Tulip Drive?

It's off of Orange Street and travels to the Pine Apartments. So down behind Rural King.

Okay.

And where are we pulling that money from again? General fund?

I apologize. I was walking around. What's the amount again on that one? $7,500. So that one will come from edit.

The owner wants $7,500, and that's around the appraised value?

That's in line with the appraised value, yes.

I make a motion to purchase real estate Tulip Drive for $7,500. Second.

The motion made is seconded to purchase the real estate there on Tulip Drive for $7,500. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motion passes. Any comments from the council this evening?

Mr. Mayor, what's our fee? Are we still paying with the Humane Society? We still pay for them and taking our calls?

Uh, we do pay an annual fee of $4,000.

It was in our budget. Is it $65,000, Mac? I want to show you $60,000.

Yeah, I think it's $60,000.

I was going to say, I know they've been extremely packed. And they've been responding to our calls here in the city. And I'm thankful for that service. I just want to make sure to see what we're at, showing that. Number two, and I know the settlement's been tabled. I want to see, I think the council, I think we need to look at it. I know I've not been shy about saying I would like to have a city engineer. on staff, and I know that's not guaranteed permanent employment. That goes with the election years, and it's tough to do it, and I understand how we're doing, what we're doing, and I'm good with that, but using our company, and it gives us a wide range of engineers and their certifications, and I do like that, but I think we need to get or establish or somehow check some balances for this division, subdivisions coming up again, I'm still at all at how it could have been vetted through our departments, police and fire as they said they had, and so forth, and building inspectors, I don't know who does it. And then if we're to go to the planning commission and speak to a couple of planning commission members, they thought everything was set up too. And then we asked if everything was met by the city specs before. And then come the first reading. And then come the second reading. I mean, we want to say the 23rd hour and getting ready to pass it. And then... Fire Chief Green says, wait a minute. They're not supposed to be in a line. They're not supposed to be 10 feet apart. I'm just trying to figure out, how can it get through all of these steps? Because if we would have approved it, then it falls on us. And I just don't like the idea of that. And I don't know if there's something we need to discuss about getting checks and balances on these subdivision things. And I know the city engineers, we don't have that. That's what I'm saying. If there was one on staff, it would be someone that would be checking all those things. But I understand how we're doing it. I like it. But since we don't have one full time I think we need to find something, a checklist or something to go through that so that doesn't happen again. I know I was hoping tonight we'd get answers on those things which that'll be coming.

But

And I will say, you lead me right into the comment I want to make. We have a workshop for the plan commission that is September, what is that?

22nd at 530. 22nd at 530 here.

You need to be involved with that workshop, be in the educational process of how the Planning Commission works, where everybody falls in line and what the responsibilities are. So your comment flows right into what we're saying. So we can streamline some things and do some things a little different, but this is where you're going to start with this process.

Yeah, I have that at 530, correct? Yeah.

So I would encourage all of you to be here if at all possible. But I will say that we did have discussion and I think we came to an agreement on the subdivision.

And to answer your question on the Humane Society, it's $30,000 per the agreement annually. $30,000 not $60,000? It's $30,000. and then that went up from 25 and then went up to 30 in 2025.

I think that's something maybe we should look at then if it's that low. I know I think some of that issues with the county. I'm not sure if they're taking it. I know they told me that they weren't receiving payment from the county. I just want to make sure we still have Animal Patrol responding to us. Chief Brown, this is Chief Brown, have they still been?

Yeah, as far as Unconserved and Potato Hour, they're going to be paying for us. I've heard the complaints from the Bureau Officer.

okay yeah if you check i just want to make sure we are being serviced and things we picked up and all that i know they're burdened they've got a lot up there and then mayor back to yours and so with this workshop then i and i understand the lanes that's why i say that wouldn't be our lane being in but will that and i know you said you had some debate or questions about that discussion

will that help us to understand or we have something where we've got we know that it's being looked at a case like this subdivision or i i think we'll be able to take comments and suggestions and see what we can construct out of that meeting so it's not just this lady is not just going to come in and blah blah blah blah you know two hours it's going to be an interaction and she's going to show us how if we can maybe be a little more concise in the process that we're doing. Okay, thank you.

I got a comment real quick, if you don't mind. I'd like to know if there's anything you can do about the speed limit downtown. People are racing from one stop light to the next stop light. I was coming over here this afternoon. I was pulling out an alley. It would have been a north-south alley on Washington Street, moving very slowly, because it's hard to see around the cars. But a lady, she probably had the green light back. Washington and Maine. She about hit me trying to get up to the stop sign on Washington and Mulberry. And I just think if we could slow them down in town on the square, that might eliminate some of that. Do you have a suggestion? I'd like to see it drop to 15 miles an hour in the forest and not give them five. 15 is 15.

And I'd like to make a, oh, we're done.

Deputy Chief Brown, will you take that back?

Yeah, we can do a little bit more research on that. We have a speed trainer that we can go to other places in that area. And we can pull the data from that that will show the average speeds of vehicles throughout that area.

What happens all the way around the square is it's either Washington or Main Street.

Okay Could Cheyenne from Maple Hills

the information that she was going to share tonight, could she send us an email with that information, whatever it was? I know we've had various topics and questions come up. And if she was going to kind of give a summary about some of those various matters or issues.

She can't do that because you're going to be in violation of your open door law. She has presented it to me. She has presented it to a public hearing, a public meeting. It's not because it's all of us, it's just... Well, it's because it's the body making the decision. She cannot send things directly to you.

But she can talk on the phone.

Well, she's not supposed to. But you're not supposed to have contact with her. See, she's supposed to work through our city departments in order to get information.

Kind of piggybacking off that, I see Chief Green and Fire Marshal Fraker here. I know that we've had some correspondence back and forth regarding Maple Hills. I saw that there was an email saying that if there are two homes that are within the 40 foot in width that we've talked about making it to where they'll have to have additional fire protection, do you know what that would entail? I know this is for the 28th, so... If that's for the 20th, I just didn't know if we could have a better understanding to study it up before we have it on the 28th.

Before we say, there's a lot of different things we talked about, and she needed to take things back to her side. I don't want to muddy the waters. I would prefer that if we could wait for the 28th and then let us hear from her what has been decided on their side so we all have an agreement. I just think the confusion part of it that There are several different things and options, and I feel more comfortable now after having meetings with Deputy Chief Bregner, or Carmichael Bregner, and then Deputy Chief, we talked to him and with her and the mayor and others. I feel like we're in the right position. She's waiting on a couple answers from the people that she answers to. And so once we have that, then next meeting we can address everything.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to give a plug for the Met. I went to the Blind Toasters this weekend. It was a fabulous show. We've got a beautiful theater here. I'm upset I missed Tombstone on Friday night. It's only $5 to get in for the movie, $5. And the popcorn is wonderful. Love the popcorn. Very, very good. And, you know, so they've got some good movies coming up for Halloween and for Christmas. So I really encourage everyone to look at their Facebook site and go to the Met and enjoy the upcoming holidays.

Thank you. And anything from the public this evening? If not, the next regular council meeting will be on Monday, September the 28th, 7 o'clock here in the council chambers. We are adjourned.

Thank you