County Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] Please stand for the pledge of allegiance by Mr. Harper 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. [Music] Okay, before we do the first reading, I just like to say we did the pledge of allegiance twice and three times. Well, this is true. Three times. So, what I would like everybody to focus on is just those words that we all said. We said it three times, but let it really sink in on exactly what it means. And that just, you know, that just came to my mind. I didn't throw it out here.

Okay. Roll call, please. Here. Present. Here. Here. Here. Here. Seven.

First read. Sir Arlene. [Music] The following appropriation and adjustments of the budget are hereby presented for your consideration tonight. In the general fund reduction salaries of 3,191 additional salaries of 2,644 legal services 90,000 insurance restoration fund building structures 385,000 building structures 288,631 [Music] personal property restoration 1.5 million. Cumulative bridge safety $11,935.72 CCD motor vehicles $13,400 expo operating fund FICA 7 grand householding 4 grand building liability 7 grand safety data tech 19,500 FICO 1,244 bucks 1,700 veterans donation funds other supplies 2300 DEA proceeds maintenance agreement 17,000 Geminis brand other supplies for brand.

Thank you. [Music] First up tonight is our commissioners. [Music] Let me see if I not here. They were here. I'll make a motion to move the um jailer $1,000 over second. Just a transfer. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Voice trans.

Voiceful. I got roll call. Voice vote, please. All in favor say I. I. Oppose says sign. Motion carries [Music] curior court facilities. [Music] I don't see Joe. Yes. I'll make a motion to approve the appropriation for repair damage. This is the insurance refund from Travelers Insurance for the water damage at 157 for 385,1.5 million. Second call.

We have a motion with a first and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Stone. Yes. Yes. Bozac. Yes. Rita. Yes. Motion carries. Supreme Court report three. Judge Trent. Get your glasses on. I'll make a motion to transfer to pay for competency evaluation from Dr. Karuna. It's a $300 transfer from interpreter to consultant.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Mr. President, point of order real quick. Yes, sir. We need to approve the additional 1.5 million in that uh in insurance restoration fund as well separately than the first one in regards to facilities. Yep. Yep. You did the you did the 385,000.

I did. My motion was for both. I can change it. I have a problem with it. We can do both. We're not arguing. Okay. Y Thank you. Thank you, sir. [Music] Public defender. [Music] Good evening. Question. Are we doing D? We did. We did. Yeah, that pass. I I made that motion. Andy made the motion. I believe I second. You second and voice vote and carry. Okay, ready to go. Here we go. Good evening, sir.

Good evening, council. Uh the uh appropriation for legal uh services is for the following reasons. The Supreme Court mandated rule 2.6 in 2022ish. Uh all six courts in Porter County are doing them multiple days a week uh up to 5 days a week. So the defendants that are still in custody need to be assessed by pack and then a hearing is held again multiple every day during the week. Uh in 2022 we secured a grant from the department of corrections which covered most of the cost of these hearings. Uh probation got some pack got some. Uh we got some prosecutor got some. The department of corrections cut the grant from Porter County in 2024. We attempted along myself, Judge Jenn Tammy O'Neal from PACT and and Melanie from probation attempted to get the grant back in 2025 and we were attempting to get it retroactive to January 2025. Just found out maybe 3 4 weeks ago that DOC cut the grant entirely, Department of Corrections. And so these costs are required by law and must be covered by the PD budget. The second component is the appeals. Um, under this prosecutor, Mr. Herman, appeals, there are a lot more trials, which means there are a lot more appeals, which is great for law and order. Uh, but these defendants who qualify for public defenders are required to have by the constitution to have the a public defender appointed to handle these appeals. So, that's the other reason for the cost. So, I was hoping I was going to get 60,000 in grant money, which is why I didn't ask for it last year in the budget, but this is why. And I talked to some of the

council members last fall knowing that the grant had been cut in our attempt to get it back. And uh so that's that's why I'm here. Is 90,000 enough to come till the end of the year? I certainly hope so. I mean, there's a there's staff members that attorneys that do appeals for me and other staff members that have been waiting since June. Um, yeah, but the math we've done, we can't anticipate how many appeals, but certainly if it's the appeal is signed in November, we can, you know, kick it 26. Uh, but yeah, I hope so. I think so.

And you have nowhere to move this within your budget. We've already uh um taken money from training and ed um we never spend all that but we did I had a a deputy take the restoration court judge Judge Buckley ordered him to go to this conference and then same thing with drug court. So I paid for their uh conference fees in part the court's budget covered part of it but I never depleted all. So we our last payment came from that. U Mr. President, I'll make a motion uh to move 90,000 to 13 um 13110 legal services. Second.

Have a motion and a second. This is coming out of general fund. Yes, I believe so. Any discussion? See how it's mandated? Yeah. Mandated by um roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes. Thank you. You have something else for us, sir? Is it I thought you wanted to do a transfer, too.

I don't think I need that, but if I do, I'll come back because I think that's what I was commenting on. and we were transferring from training and editor already ended up paying those claims I believe. If there's still money in there, I'll move to to train. Yeah, I got a call just before coming here. That's right. That's that's my understanding. Okay. Is it better to just do it? Well, if you don't need it. Uh yeah, I understand. I'm not we like to see you, so you might as well come back here on the I know. Uh they they called before uh they they called just before shortly I got up here and it was something that was an oversight whether on their end or our end and so when he came up I was going to ask him but if he doesn't need it right now Claire's not here so I think he screwed up.

Okay good for us. I bet those wheels hurt juvenile detention center. Hi. Hi Alison. How you doing? I'm good. How are you all? Good. I'll make a motion to approve the Approve the additional for the increase needed for the supervisor prohibition pay already approved on the 144 and the July 22nd meeting44. I'll second it. Have a motion in a second on the approval. Any discussion hearing? None. Roll call, please. Yes. Stone. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Thank you. Probation Department Director Chris Ber make a motion to approve the reduction to 3,191. I have a motion. Can I get a second? I'll second it. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Always love to see a reduction, sir. Yellow department. You're not caring. No.

Sorry. I'm trying harder. I make a motion to approve the 4,000 the grant for the Geminis and autism and safer receive care program. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion about this grant real quick? Yeah, that's what you want to meet. Did you guys met him yet? Yeah, it is. Hold on. Could you introduce yourself for those who have not met you as to this point? Matthew Paul. I'm the new administrator for the Border County Health Department. Nice to meet all of you. Uh this is Why does your last name sound familiar? My wife was the administrator here. Now she's the administrator in Lake County. What was your last name?

Paul. Yes. So, um I'm I'm the lesser of the Paul's. So these are for uh autism alopment kits which help to some autistic children uh like to run and like to sometimes get out of their homes. This is helps keep the doors closed. It has alarms for windows and doors and that sort of thing. And then the safe center program. Yeah. So I'm the safe center instructor. We teach to sixth grade and up babysitting essentials and we use like high lift maneuver stuff like that. 4,000 for that. Okay. We've had a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

Keep the grains coming. Hearing none. Roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Veterans at the last second decided they uh did not want to uh take up the cause here. So we'll move on to development and storm water management director Mike Jbo. I know he's here. [Music] Good evening Mike. Good evening.

Make a motion to approve the additional for $11,000 935 for appropriate appropriate funds from insurance claims reimbursement for guard real second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We have a form 144 65,199 to 47349 transportation engineer. A total reduction of 17,850 in salary for transportation engineer. Tell us what's going on. I want to make a motion to cut someone's pay and not Yeah. No.

Uh this was approved last year. It came to you in the budget. We had a target salary 95,000. We found an individual that would serve the purpose, but they're not quite at the level with their engineering degree and all that. So, we offered what was the market value for where he was in this point in his career. Any approve, please. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you, sir. [Music] Porter County Expo Center Lorie Daily. Welcome. [Music] Additional 7,000 to 121 FICO. I have a question. We can do all these together. for the household settings that's going to be done separately. Additional has to be done by itself transfers can be done.

Okay. So all the additionals of $7,000 to 121 FICA 4,220 23300 household bedding supplies and 7,000 234 200 building liability and compensation coverage. additional needed to get through the remainder of the year. Let me get a motion. Can you explain it? Which one? Well, why why FA? FICO was a mistake that I didn't catch. Motion to approve seven. Did you say we can do them all together? How to do them individually?

You just do you want to tell us about housing and bedding supplies? Housing and bedding is the line item that we use for cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels. So, as everybody knows, prices have went up quite a bit. So, I was just curious that myself and Tenny, how do you think you were putting people up for the night? There's a campground. Oh, this is true. And insurance just went up. Yes, insurance went up quite a bit. And does the fair take part of that front? Do they does any of it do they pay for any of the insurance? Do they pay a portion? Well, so is it nothing to do with them? Am I asking a weird question? Is the society taking care of Yeah, that's Yeah, that's a good question.

No, that's a good question. Um because it's county owned, we cover liability on the grounds and all the buildings. They take care of the maintenance of those buildings. They do get um an insurance policy for the month of July and the commissioners in the county are held harmless. So, they do have that. Yeah. So there's a lot of lawsuits unfortunately that come out of the fair. So they I get notification of those but that's that's the extent of where it goes. We're no longer bull writing right? I don't know what that is but we should do that motion to approve all three.

We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We have a transfer $8,000 from 35100 power to 35200 water and sewage transfer need to cover increased water and sewage cost. Move to approve. I have a motion to approve. Second and a second. Any discussion? Is that higher building? Yeah, we um and not a lot of additional consumption. It's it's pretty scary how much it went up this year.

Yeah. And I haven't even got the fair in the way. So that's going to be I we don't pay that. But you should see that one. I have a concern though and and tell me if I'm wrong. You're taking 8,000 from like Nexco and moving into it to water and sewage. Is not going down. Our power is pretty padded. So I averaged it out over the last 5 years. Yeah. And each year I usually leave that padded and use if I need to compensate water or disposable disposal I move it from that power. Now with the recent increase even though you p it you think you still got I think we're okay. We have NIPCO as our gas. Okay. So you have RMC that you're okay.

Did IMC not go up for electrical? Not as much as the NIP. What the heck? Yeah. And we won't see those big NIPCO until January. Well, if I'm not mistaken, RMC draws their power from the store, do they not? Or they buy their power? They do. They buy it from they buy themselves. But they the co-op did something, and I apologize, I don't have it in front of me, but it's now based on what time of day you're pulling the power, and those rates are based on the time of day. Um, the demand charge did go up quite a bit, which the fair board has split with us since it went up. So, I think they'll pay the county $12,000 for that annual um split cost.

Okay. I have a motion. Do I get a second? Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. You're welcome. [Music] For County Sheriff, Mr. Jeffrey Bell here. Come on down, sir. Sure. Jeffrey, how are you? And company. Thank you.

And Jeffy, we have a transfer of $5,000 from 11 100 series to 11200 hourly. Pass need to cover the cost of new hire control that was hourly temporarily. Question meta monitors. These need to be done separately. No. No. Okay. Transfer 20,000 from,00100 salaries to 22200 uniforms clothing transfer need to cover the cost of an increased pricing for uniforms. Transfer 20,000 from,00100 from salaries to 31300 training to approve all three. Okay, second.

Motion second. All in favor any discussion? All in favor signify saying I. I oppose saying sign. Motion's carried. 4144 88,429 to zero. We're changing some uh uh people run, are we not? Yeah, we're explain that. We're restructuring. We're restructuring.

Yeah. Make things more uh flow even. I am doing away with the major position. Uh we had the uh major transfer out and we are going to uh use that money to put that major back into his final tested rank which was last tested rank which was a captain. And we are then moving a lieutenant over to pick up those uh responsibilities for fleet management, insurance, quarterm uh that kind of stuff, different administrative duties. So, we're going to transfer the lieutenant over or we did that left opening on the road for lieutenant. So, we're going to have a promotion which we anticipate then having a sergeant promotion and uh then we've got some other people that are uh leaving the agency and we'll be adding some additional promotions in process. So, just house cleaning uh house cleaning making things run more efficiently.

So, basically a $1,500 house uh savings reduction. Okay. Oh, so it's 1,500. You did the math. It's 1,500 less. Yes. Trying to figure it out. Okay. That's because I'll make a motion. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Rea, yes. We have an additional 18,36100 maintenance agreement appropriated to cover the cost of maintenance on bomb robot.

Make a motion we approve the 18,000. Have a motion. Can I get a second? Second and a second. Any discussion? I have one second. The the robot, is this something that you do manually? Is it something that comes with a warranty or No, these are up uh that robot. Tim, can you have you have that answer on that one by any chance? Yeah, it's lost. It's uh we're running out of fiber optic off the u the robot to the handler. It's normally remote any fiber optic cable, but because it went down lost that connection,

okay, thank you. Been a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Is that put into good shape after that? Yeah. Better be. Yes, sir. I agree. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Yes. Jones, yes. Harris, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. We need an additional 13,400 to 44200 motor vehicles. additional needed to restore funds from the 2024 sheriff's auction sale.

I make a motion we approve the $13,400. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Zone. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We got a transfer 30,000 from 11100 salaries to 11300 overtime tester needed to cover the cost of overtime due to short staffing. Can I get a motion? I'll make a motion, Mr. President. I have a motion. Can I get a second?

Second. And a second. Any discussion? I have a question, sir. Um, you're doing 12 hours. No, this No, this is that's for the road. That's not gel. Sorry, never mind. I corrected myself. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Jill public safety data tech fund additional 1,224 to 12100 FIA 19,000 to 12400 per DM reason appropriation needed to cover cost of switching patrol from EO days to pay for DM. [Music] Madam Auditor, can they both be done together? the additionals. Are you talking about that in Yeah.

Okay. I make a motion we approve 1224 and and 19,500. Have a motion in a second. What is EO days? What does that mean? Uh just basically uh time off right patrol to legally $19,500. [Music]

Yep. So we paid the different specialties. $1,000 is on the 144s depending on which specialty it is. The canines obviously get quite a bit more, but the bomb guys and squat and all of them. So, we had switched most of them over last year, but there was one unit that we did not switch over and so this was additional. We've also moved guys around, added to the team so that they weren't

So, they used to get time off when they did this and now you're just paying them per game, right? Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none. Roll call. Stone. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Move to approve the appropriation for the law 2000. Have a motion to and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. here. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Still Andy, for this last one for the prisoner DOC, I actually made a typo. It says to transfer from ammunition to overtime. Yeah, I'm curious about that. Yeah, that is not correct. Uh, it is supposed to be to medical and hospital services. Karen, can I can we change that or do I need to do that next month because it wasn't advertised properly? You're doing additional transfer transfer can be done without advertising. And that's medical, right? It is medical and hospital services. The code is 314.

31400. Make a motion to approve 10,000 from 22540 ammunition to 31400. Second. We have a company. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Thank you for the clarification. All in favor said signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Have a good night. [Music] E 911 Director Debbie Gun. Good evening Deb. How you doing?

Hello. Thank you. We have a transfer 40,000 from 12300 perf to 11300 overtime. Motion to approve the 40,000 and 15,000 transfers. Second motion and second to approve the transfers. Any discussion? Are we we're not shorting like approve or anything like that? No, I have numbers. If you have if you have to let them sound and you guys agree. Yeah. that them being short on salary throughout the year. That also equates to them being short on her part so they can transfer it over to other funds. And this will carry over to the end of the year. Yeah.

Where are we short staff? Like are you like you do you not have enough regular dispatchers? Is that we actually had those numbers? Um we are if you recall last year we dropped to 32 and right now we are at 29 and we have three part-time. So we're actually three short, but of those 29, four of them are in training. So essentially they're they can't function on their own. So when we have a minimum staffing on days of six on days and five of on nights with vacations and and um holiday times, things like that, we just have the need for other people to to we have to meet our mandated minimums. Yeah, that makes sense. So are you guys planning on going to 32? Are we still trying to hire to get to that number?

Yes. Yes, we are. Absolutely. How many in training right now? Because we had talked about this before. people. We have four that are currently in training. Uh, actually, I'm sorry. Yes, we have four that are in training. One is coming on September 8th. That That was going to be my next question. Thank you for answering that. So, what did somebody do on September 8th? How long before the other three do you know?

Um, it is phase training. So, one of the four that are currently on the floor is um a little bit advanced. So, she just finished up the first phase. Um, she's working on fire and EMS. They anticipate if everything goes smoothly that should be of another few months. Um once you pass your second phase you can technically be used in a position for shortages which gives us some flexibility with that. And the final phase is PD. Once you pass that phase you're you're completely released. The other three um came off came out of the academy about 2 weeks ago. So they're still in a call taking phase. That means they're literally tethered right next to the CTO. So they're essentially two people are working one position and they usually our our training time for that is about 8 months you know and all of them are new no experience so we're gauging probably anticipating about 8 months um the person that's starting on the 8th has a few years of experience it's a smaller center so we're hoping that that will translate into kind of an expedited training for her um and then we'll be um I I I'm actually I you I've shared with some of you at the meeting that we had our my budget meeting last month or this month earlier and I just want to really thank the council because I know last year you did something very special for the 911 center and um I know that the wages and and increased wages are kind of a point of contention at times, but I just would like to give statistics. Um we've had one person this year, one full-time person, it's now the end of August leave. It was on wonderful terms. She got married. She had life talking about wood, man.

She she I am too. She had she had life circumstances changed and she's looking at other opportunities. But um I attribute that to a great deal to your consideration last year as well as I think you know there is a change in culture which that's certainly going to keep people as well. I think it's a combination. But I just want to make that um even with the raises we are we are behind where we would be with our overtime. So that's just a testament to that we're keeping people and and we're we're doing what needs to get done. So with the addition of these four people, will that bring you up to stuff in regards to what you see personnel wise?

Um we're well we're we're budgeted for 32. So when we have these four I mean even with I'm considering everyone that we have hired now we're at 29. So we're technically three people short still. Um, but once they're released, I mean, you'll significantly see the overtime drop if we don't have, not Andy, any redepartures. Um, I'm with you. So, that will, you know, our overtime will drop, our numbers will increase. We'll have three more that we're looking to still hire to be at at um fully staffed and follow right along.

Okay. Thank you. How's the CAN administrator, all that stuff's going? Are we catching up? Are we almost caught up? We're not We're not in any more trouble. We are. Well, that's an interesting if um there are I I I have um I discussed it briefly when we had our budget meeting. I am still really pushing for a full-time administrator position um for many reasons outside of just CAD administrator. Right now, there are some considerations that we need to look at moving forward. um one being the ambulance committee and I won't get into the weeds but some changes that we're anticipating will require provisioning reprovisioning CAD um and that is significant as I explained previously. So that's one thing we also kind of have in the 911 department silos. Um Rich Howard, we all are probably familiar with Rich. He is just a he's a real go-to in this county, but he is a silo of information. And I really think that this CAT administrator position, he's got less than two years. He's he's made it very clear he's going to be retiring. So, we need to get somebody in there who can really mirror him and learn what he's doing over

and I appreciate it. But that's not talking about next year. I'm talking about what did this we gave you money. Did that fix the problem? Are we caught out? I get the the fix the long-term fix, right? But how are we now? Are you I I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful that we we have that. I mean, he's, as I said before, what he was doing was worthy of compensation caught up. That's right.

Um, no, he's still he's still working through some things, but that's to be expected with the amount of responsibilities that are associated with the position. I mean, and just the CAD provisioning, it's all it's a brand new system. So, um, he's working through these things. Some of them we discover as we as we have a structure fire and we're seeing that the box cards aren't aren't correct and he has to go and reposition reprovision. So yes, we're in better shape than we were. Absolutely. 100%. 100%. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing no further discussion. All in favor say I. I post same sign. Motion carries. Thank you.

Have a good night. Have a good night. Thank you very much. Sorry you know not to ask questions. I'm going to give you a long answer any I wasn't at that right there. Call me. Call me. I'll get you. Auditor's office. Madam Auditor 35,000 transfer from 37200 software to 39500. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Still like Dave comes. I'm joking. [Music] Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I.

I. Oppose. Say sign. Motion carries. Second reading. The following adjustments to the budget have been approved here tonight by the council. General salaries reduction of 3,191. Uh increase in salaries of 2,644. Legal services increased to 90,000. Insurance restoration fund. Buildings and construction repair maintenance $385,000. 288,631. Personal property restore 1,500,000. Cumulative bridge safety an additional $11,935.72. GCD motor vehicles 13,500. Expo operating fund FICA 7 grand household vetting four grand building and liability 7 grand public safety data tech an additional of 19,500 FICO 1,244 log book 1700 EA proceeds may agreement and visual 17,000 Japanese grant other supplies second read motion and a second any discussion hearing None. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Harris. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. Attorney's report. Caroline, I believe you say you had something really unique for us here.

Well, it it's not necessarily unique. It was uh just talking about some of the things that were on uh the the uh any other matter section of the agenda. The local income tax lit uh entry that's on the agenda. We don't have to I just wanted to let the council know that we do not need to vote on that. The statute required that if there was going to be a uh [Music] a consideration of an increase to the lit that uh notice be given to the local taxing units of that possibility and that was already given. Um it does not need to be voted on tonight. It's it's moreformational than anything else. The notice that was required by statute was already given. So that's number one. um to the levy limits and tax cast section of the agenda, the any other matter uh portion of the agenda. Um there there's a uh statute in Indiana that requires that the council, and this has been the case for a while, uh ever since I've been on representing the council, but that the council uh at the first meeting in August review the DLGS um reports that they give to uh that they that they issue on the uh levy limits for uh the county and for the local uh taxing uh bodies uh that are also in the county and uh also the any tax caps uh that are the effects of any

tax caps on those levy limits and um that was uh I believe Joy had provided that to everyone uh by email uh and so provided everyone has reviewed those. Uh it's just a question of uh you know that a vote on the um the fact that we've the council has reviewed those uh and that uh there's two options that the statute provides. Um, after the review, we the council can typically um issue a uh I can't remember what the statute says specifically, but um a written recommendation is the is what the statute says to the local um taxing units. Um after the review and and uh what's happened in the past is that the council has just prepared a written recommendation. It's pretty generic to all the um uh local municipalities, townships, schools, libraries, the West Porter uh fire that said this uh and this was included should be included in the packet that you all have in front of you. But um as part of the review, the Porter County Council issued the following recommendation. The council recommends that when preparing their 2025 budgets, taxing units should stay within the maximum levies estimated by the DLGF and they should recognize the impacts of the funding loss losses due to the tax cap credit. Taxing unit should work to avoid property tax increases 2026. I'm sorry. Thank you, Joy. Um, taxing unit should work to avoid property tax increases. Oh, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Uh taxing units should work to avoid property tax increases as the county government has done and um so I just wanted everyone to be aware of

that. Uh and uh so the council can decide whether to issue that written recommendation. Uh the alternative would be for the auditor to submit the minutes of today's meeting to all the local uh taxing units. And in the past what the practice of this council has been just to uh submit this uh written recommendation. So just wanted everyone to be aware of that. Thank you. Yeah. This this came um the archer's office got it on the 30th or 29th of July at the very last minute. Uh I came in have received my email and we had to have it done by August 1st to municipalities and taxing by state uh code which was uh didn't give us a whole lot of time. And so we just went ahead and um wrote everybody and let them know that by law we had to let them know that not that we're going to raise it, not that we're not going to raise it, but we had to let you know it was under consideration. And that's basically all that said if I I'm summarizing

the the yeah the uh the the levy limits were issued late um but the lit notice uh was required to be uh issued on or before and I don't remember the date but yes August 1st the 30th July

and uh the there was a question with some some of the um local some of the councils uh the attorneys for the council didn't feel that it was um mandated to issue that notice but to air I my opinion was is just air on the side of caution and and issue the notice to all the uh local taxing units and then the levy limits um uh that's a separate issue uh the uh the council's review of the DLG's um levy limits for the uh upcoming year. Do you need a motion on that? For not for the limit, but for the levy, right?

Yeah. I'd make a motion to say that the council review the levy limit. Is that correct? I think that's and send out this correct. I'll second that. Andy motion and second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

I. Oppose. same sign. Motion carries. [Music] [Music] Okay. Any other matters coming before this council? I believe we have something. Ryan.

Yes. I'm Ryan Key from the Florida County Auditor's Office. As part of the August uh first meeting each year, we at the auditor's office are to um notify the council of the tax cap impacts and losses and revenues. So getting into that, in 2025, he the county had a 3% total cap loss which equated to $1,690,000. In 2026, we are expected to see a 6% increase to 9%. Which will equate to 4,983,200 in tax cap losses. As you can see, they are broken down for all of our levy based funds and how they will hit. You can see the comparison from 25 to 26. On the bottom, you will see the max levy that can be applied to each one of these funds and what 2026's looks like. So, we will actually be bringing in less revenue in 2026 than we did in 2025.

So, looking at this, it's around 800,000 less the general fund. Is that I mean approximately that kind am I reading it right? So, we the county will bring in on the levy, meaning property taxes, 800,000 less than we did in 2025 this year. Now one thing to consider when you do this equation you have to take the property tax cap loss. So say from the general fund 37 3,715,909 and then subtract that from the 38 million12342 and that's what we're actually going to collect. So we will actually only collect $34 million next year.

And you would do the same thing for 25 too. Yes. Is there any questions? So, all this information is estimated by the DLGF and is available on their county website and we just verify and double check that everything is accurate. So, how come it's that big a difference between 1.6 to 49? SP1. It's all related to SV every bit of it. Thank you. Thank you.

Before you go, any other further questions? Okay, fair enough. Thank you, Mr. President. I I did forget to to mention that the uh statute about the levy limits does require uh the council to if there's any representatives of any of the local taxing units that do want to comment on the uh levy limits and uh the DGF DLGF um report that they be given that opportunity. I don't think anybody's here but I would that would include townships. that would include townships. We if there's anyone that wants to comment on that uh as it pertains to the levy limits, want to make sure that we give them an opportunity to do that.

Do we have anyone here from the townships by chance who would like to comment on that? We're all looking at you. We're all over you, gentlemen. Mr. Topple. Not at this. Not at this time. Well, not at this time. We're we're still trying to figure it out. It's uh very confusing. Um would you like to come up sir and bring your uh associates? Come on up and introduce yourself please while you're seated.

You might have to turn on your mic. Green light. There you go. [Music] Well, as um as you for those who don't know you. Okay. My name is George Toppel, Union Township Trustee is Porter County, Indiana. And you, sir? Sky Gilbert, Washington Township Trustee.

Okay. Thank you. As as I started to say, it's a very um uh interesting process and uh even though we've had some time to look at this, we don't know what the guidance is in total and what the total impact is going to be on the townships. We see that it's going to be u an issue along with the other we have small budgets to begin with and we have cemeteries and we have parks and we have poor relief and we have a number of fire departments that have to be funded and with cutting in funds it makes it even more difficult with the additional mandates for um meetings requirements for AI um we are getting some help out of the state for uh for websites and things like that for the staff of me, myself, and I and and Scott himself and I makes it very difficult to do all the different things that are required. Uh plus trying to operate without a city or a town to fall on. So, we're essentially um having to do a number of things and coordinating with the county uh sometimes is u well not always easy to do, but I want to compliment the council and commissioners and everybody for working with us trying to give us more information and making it possible for us to make some progress on our budgets and try to figure out where we are and where we're going with this thing. Uh the answer is we don't have the information that we would like to have to be able to know where we stand and where we're going. I know it's a little confusing on what I just said, but it is confusing.

So, how how would you get ahead? Isn't there I feel Ryan is Ryan here. Y Ryan, in that um website that spreadsheet you shared with me where there's the drop down boxes. Yes. Have you seen this spreadsheet with their drop out boxes? What? So, basically like I have it projected up there on what we are going to lose within the county. It will also show you what you're going to lose within the township. Correct. And where would they uh find this at? Exactly. How would they get to it?

It's on the DLGF website, but I can also email to them specific. We we've seen those, but sometimes those numbers seem to change and we don't know we don't know from day to day and there's a lot of uh uncertainty and that's one of the questions and concerns that we have. I believe you agree. No, I completely agree with that and that's the first I've heard. I matter of fact I met with DJ just Monday and they respond they really don't know what the impact is going to be. Even though you have estimates, we still don't know what the total impact.

Uh this, uh this Friday, um um Julie Olaf, the state representative, is meeting with her townships, which includes Union Township. We have three precincts in her district, Porter Township, and Winfield Township to discuss the impact of Senate Act One. So, we hope to have a little better handle on what we're doing and where we're going and some possible solutions that we may be able to come up with. I know that u the Indiana Township Association has been doing some research and study and we're having a meeting in September September 21st to the 24th which many of us will be attending to kind of figure out where we're going in the future with suggested legislation. what that is right now. I can probably better tell you next week after having meeting on Friday with Representative Old.

Is there any um do the townships meet at any time during the year as a as a whole? Yes, we have a township board and includes three township. I mean that the council would be is there like a regular meeting? Typically every quarter we meet the the township couple board members. We can't all be like you guys as well. Uh the township trustes we together made a couple board members show up with Commissioner Barbre that's present there and that's once a quarter. I think we need to get in November. So basically you're offering us invitation to come and see if we want it. Yes. Okay. Well, thank you during the day.

Oh, so there's many other things that the evening like about 5:30. But in regards to the letter, I'm just curious. This letter really is just saying stay stay within what the DLGS tells you to stay within, right? That's all we're doing is telling it's a it's a very generic. We're telling them what they should already know and be following

essentially. And the alternative is is the I I I I think the statute was my guess is when they drafted this statute that required it, um they wanted to leave the option open uh so that if the council wanted to in a unique situation, maybe unique recommendation to a particular local unit or otherwise, they could do that. But in the absence of that, they just would make a general recommendation. And in the absence of making a recommendation, the alternative provided by the statute is that the auditor just provide the minutes from today's meeting to So it's very It just seems very generic. It is very generic.

This isn't going to help you is what I was trying to get at. No, that's not going to help them.

Well, we're concerned also that what is going to happen when this um when the body is split up? Are we going to get a certified chair for the townships? Um, we have other things that we have to worry about. We can't fix our cemetery fences in our township. Uh, we have uh invasive species where we need uh need help with that without the support of doing it and not the money to be able to go and say we have a 40 acre farm that has 20 acres of Canadian thistle. Um well, according to the statute, we're responsible for making sure that that's enacted and we give a notice for 20 or 48 hours and then we're supposed to take care of it. Well, we try to work with the people that when they don't understand it, we don't have the knowledge to do something like that or the resources to go and eradicate the problem and then file a lean and then wait several years and never get our money back, possibly money that we don't have. Uh those are it's just one type of issue that we run into. Not to mention the fact that uh last year last not this Easter but last Easter someone took out the whole front end of the cemetery that we have in in Wheeler of James Cemetery. Uh we couldn't find the person. The person drove off of the whole cemetery was wrecked. It's a 18 early 1800 cemetery that has Civil War people in there and we haven't been able to have the money to fix that. Uh trying to enlist the Eagle Scouts to come up with a project so that we can get save the sign the letters from the Jane sign that was there for over 100 years anyway. So we're going to try to resurrect that and make it you know better. But we we have a number of issues that people don't see about and I'm sure that each township has their own issues that we don't have the

ability to raise funds to be able to take care of it with donations and volunteer work. Well, when you when you say invasive species, I don't know if uh the council is aware of there's something called Joe pie. Are you all familiar with that? Every part of that thing is poisonous. And uh if you rub up against it, it can't make you itch really bad. Some who have a really bad reaction even have to go to the hospital for it. Now Joe pie wheeed grows pretty well everywhere and uh a lot of our farmers uh they grow corn, soybean and so on. This is one of the big reasons why they uh spray their farms with these pesticides. But it it's pretty it's pretty nasty weed. And if you are responsible for the maintenance and um kids go out there and play in there and come back and get sick, yeah, you you can face some uh retribution from the parents. I'm pretty sure

there are a number of invasive species that it's hard to keep up with, especially for somebody that isn't trained and hasn't been a farmer all their life. People come from Chicago, buy a 40 acre 40 acre parcel of land that was a horse ranch and they think they're raising hay but they're raising an invasive species and that affects the farms around it too and it becomes very very much of a problem and quite frankly we can't react fast enough on a situation like that to take care of the issue and the resources responsible because the homeowners are not responsible for the

well they're responsible but they don't know either that they work in Chicago. Their their relative is living on the property. They bought a 48 40 acre parcel because they thought it was full. They live in Chicago and they don't understand what's going on. So, they try to do something else. They cut the grass along the sides and they think they're complying with the law cuz they think they're raising hay. Well, maybe this is a question for Harold. Legally, can we hold the homeowner responsible if the township put that cost to the homeowner? Well, yes, we can, but we have but we have to pay for it. We don't have the money out of pocket first and then we have to file and you may or may not get the money back.

Okay. And it could be very substantial, especially when you're talking with many acres. Okay. And then there are other issues too. I'm just using one example. It's not one. It may be, you know, three or four or five or six. And I don't know about the ones that don't get reported. Well, thank you for the township's point of view. anytime. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. [Music] Any other uh that come before this uh council any events or anything like that?

Uh president was ma'am contacted by SPOA with reference to our audit. As of this point in time, we are missing minutes for 31 meetings. Since 2023, we missed five. 2024 we're missing 18 and so far this year we're missing eight 31 meetings with no our meetings. Yeah. Okay.

Also at this point in time this week Jeremy Reeves came to the author's office and created a hostile environment and proceeded to use abusive language and profanity addressing an honor's employee. His physical actions were aggressive and created office disruptions. HR has been notified and for the safety of the auditor's office, Mr. Rivas must make an appointment and I must be present for all future meetings. Okay. Well, that's that's a uh subject for the HR and we should have been contacted. Yeah. Untrue. The aggression was started by the auditor's office. [Music]

Just throw out there. we will uh let you work that out and uh have HR involved and we'll see what we have with that. Okay, moving along. Anything else? Okay, we'll close for uh public comment. Yes, we're all looking at it. Any public comment? Anyone for wants? Can I just ask this is not public confidence question for Ben just curious are we these laptops we're going to have our software on to see all the budgets correct sir will we be able to access that from home or is it only when you're here once

you got to be on the county domain so it'll be better if you're internal um we can always email it to you and stuff like that you might have to work out something easier then is there a reason we can't let them use duo is there a reason just complications maybe it might just be a little bit tricky Yeah, I think I think having a a Dropbox might be a little bit easier for everybody. That's more Well, I I'm just saying that they can have access to their home. I just was asking cuz we all need to be on the same page is how we're utilizing this. So, B basically I can do payroll from home then without having to come in here. I I come in. He said no.

Yeah, you can't. I do believe that they wanted um them to stay off of Duo for whatever reason. Um I was going to set it up. I couldn't ask Lee if it could be everybody on Duo. So that's good my back. Is Duo like a shared drive? No. Duo would be software that gives you um connection. Yeah. Yeah. You're at home, you're on your Wi-Fi. You have to get a verified number on your phone and then you have the verified number and then you have

you're at home, you're on your Wi-Fi, click on this thing, you'll sign in. It'll trick it'll it'll print a VPN over here. So you'll be at home, but your computer thinks you're in the building on our internet. And then you'll have access to, you know, county drives, that sort of stuff. Blah blah blah. So that's always that's always possible, but it is it's a little bit complicated. It's a little not super user friendly, but we could always make we always think it might be easier for a place to have a a Dropbox or something like that, one drive or something like that. I was just asking cuz if there's really I can't access that stuff at home, it just makes sense to leave it here in the council office. You'll be able to pull a lot of home even with people. You can look at like anything that they send you an email. You'll be able to open up and look on like a story sheet on. Right. Yeah.

Thank you for your time. I'm sorry I put you on the spot. Any other public comment going on? I'm glad you asked that question cuz that actually was a question. I was concerned so many that would qualify for public comment. We got a rule. No further public comment. I have a motion that goes without second. Got a motion second.