Montgomery County Council - Regular Meeting

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Very good. Heavenly Father, we thank you uh for this day. We thank you for this time together to discuss the people's business. Um we do ask for comfort and prayers to the families that lost people yesterday and that were injured as well our first responders that had to deal with that situation. Jesus name I pray. Amen. All right. First item up is our uh consent agenda which be acknowledgement and receipt of the November auditor report, the same series transfer report and the cash balance report. Should have received those. Second.

Have a motion, a second. There any discussion or questions on those items? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? All righty. Any public comment on an agenda item. All right. Moving on to money matters. First, we got uh quite a few transfers to deal with here. Uh I'm sorry. Wait a minute. My screen keeps moving on me. I'm sorry. Uh yeah, measures. We got two transfers, dues and subscriptions, insurance reimbursement. Sorry, that got messed up a little bit. But yeah, it's in the middle almost to the end. Sorry, it's a little out of order for some reason.

Okay. Okay. So, that's different than that one. Is that the old agenda? No, this is the new one. The weights and measures. It's okay. Yeah. Blame the attorney. Sorry. Okay. So, yeah. Sorry. Clerk's office is the first.

Good morning, Sandra Sbury with the clerk's office. um just have the part-time positions and we're kind of throwing money back and forth from one to the other and um I'd exhausted one of those funds due to a maternity leave and so I need to move from the one part-time to the part-time person that's working in our office now to make sure we can cover her for the rest of the year. Have a motion second or discussion or questions on that. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? Thank you. And the assessor.

Morning. Sherry Bentley, county assessor. Uh I have four today. Um the first one kind of hinges on uh where I'm at later in the agenda for splitting the positions. Um the other three have to do with Earlier in the year, we had salary deductions and I moved uh services line to cover those and a new vendor service that was um the contract was approved in late 2024 which was after the 2025 budget was already kind of um set up. So the the last three lines are to cover those shortfalls. So on your operating expenses that you've got more money at the end of the year pull out.

Yes. So our operating expenses was always in kind of one line but we had to split that between a 2000 series and a 3000 series. So this is just moving it from one series to the other. So yeah, have all of that with the first with the first one. That's that's

well um it is it kind of hinges on your approval of my um item later in the agenda. However, if you disapprove that, even if you transfer this, um, it would come out in the Washington year, then it would be a deal changer. Wouldn't cause me to go short in that line. So, if you wanted to approve it, but then not approve the other, it would be okay. Move to approve. Second motion, a second. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor signify by say I. I. Any oppose? Thank you. See court.

Not anything more than what we have written down. Okay.

Yeah. There's no representative here, but it's for some open invoices that they have. There's no money on the payments. So, office clerk funds and travel expenses for office supplies. They're kicking a law clerk away for furniture. I believe they bought a laptop and carpet replace. That is the line that they that you that they um move money around out of all the time. They haven't used and they've agreed to go to zero next year. So

second motion a second. Any questions or discussion on that? All those in favor say I. Any oppos? I sure.

Good morning. Sherry Hill, McGomery County Central Communications Center. All my transfers are in relation to salaries, uh, lines falling short, and we had some several people move from different lines due to people leaving and whatnot, uh, promotion. And then also the HSA line was short. I'll entertain a motion.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion for Sherry? All those in favor sign by saying I. I. Any oppose? Thank you. Uh, okay. Now we're wait. This was some open invoices and 2020 sticker decals. I assume those are the fuel pump. Yeah, the fuel pump stuff and like Kroger and all that stuff. Move to approve. Second.

Have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion for that? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Okay. Highway department. I'm covering highway today. Okay.

Um these were all requested from our office to they there was a shortfall in their HSA in group insurance lines. Um those are lines that we struggle to to budget properly at the beginning of the year. It's always a guesstimate. So we asked them to cover that and that's what these are. Okay. Yeah, Mindy, I know that they've got they're down cut truck drivers, so you're pulling money out of the empty positions. Yeah, they they have some extra money in in some of their driver lines. Yeah.

And then part time, if we get some part time, we have enough if we have part time on this part, if we need it, we have enough cover. Yeah, we only have two more paychecks in this budget. So, we should be fine. They still have money to move around if needed. Motion to approve. I'll second motion second. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor sign by saying I. I. Any votes? And last,

I guess. [cough and clears throat] speak on this also. Oh, I didn't see Adrian back there. Sorry. You don't want me to go ahead? Okay. Um, there were changes, I'm guessing, in the way the lines were distributed from the time we got the grant to now. And we just need to cover that is the way I understand it. But

yeah, we split that. Sorry, Andrea died, chief probation officer county. I also serve on the McGomery County drug free leadership board. So I'm involved with it from that standpoint and we divide the funds into four categories at the beginning of the year and then we need to come back when the grant award committee identifies where the money is actually going to be spent. It's not always evenly amongst the four categories. So this is a correction in regards to moving that over. Okay. Second a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion on that? All those in favor sign I. I. Any oppos?

All right. Moving on to additional appropriations. First up is the commissioners.

Um again a shortfall in the insurance line. Um I guess how are we missing insurance by that muchbody? That's a hard one to answer. Um, we don't do those budgets. I would I understand, but yeah. Well, no, I just a question. I mean, 342,000 isn't

No, it's nothing to sneeze at. Every year we have to come back and ask for more in these lines. Um this year uh one of the reasons the budget increase we talked about it was because of the insurance and that's because we asked that we take a look at that um a little close more closely. We have been taking numbers from what I understand from our insurance company as to what we should budget um and not the real numbers as to what we've been spending. So that is that we would like to have a little bit more control over moving forward so we don't have these issues at the end of the year. I looked at the last five years and every year we've had to increase those budgets.

[snorts] You're self-insured, so your claims experience influences what your actual payments are. You only really pay insurance for the uh your overage, so you know, you have stop loss. So, the way it's structured, you don't have a you don't have a conventional health insurance plan where you just pay premium and you know what it is. You're self-insured, so you're going to have fluctuations uh in your actual cost. So, what you have at the beginning of the year is merely an estimate. This is you should watch. But that's the answer why you see var fluctuations is because you are really your own insurance company on the everything except catastrophic claims.

You say you're borrowing this money right now. [clears throat] This is the This is the county side of it.

So, somebody paid this already. No, it's it's to get us through the next two pays. Now, you're confused. You have you have pending claims. So, you get you your your insurance system is all based on an estimate of what will be not covered by your stop-loss carrier. So you have uh depending on how many claims employees file for insurance, what you guys budget is just an estimate of what those claims will be. You have no way of knowing what those claims will be until you have that experience. So my guess is you have pending claims. Well, these are premiums, but Jennifer is going to talk about these are premiums.

I've been messing with this since we went self-insured. So I'll just explain a little bit how our insurance works. Um every year we re assess with the insurance company what we need to withhold from the county side of insurance withholding at every pay for every tier of insurance. Okay. And so, um, whenever somebody signs up for say a family plan or, um, a employee spouse plan, you know, what we pull out of the commissioner highway and CCC budgets is dependent upon what people have signed up for. So, these lines that we're we're looking for are just the county side based on what the insurance company told us we needed to withhold. in order to cover what they estimate. Um, basically the worst case scenario of claims would be when we do payroll every month, we pull those out of those three budgets and they go into the self- insurance fund. The self- insurance fund has a budget, too, which that one's a lot more hit or miss um because that's based on the claims that Dan was talking about. We have to pay a monthly premium and we have to pay every week we get a bill for all of the insurance claims that have been filed by our employees. So, um it's a twostep process with our budget as far as making sure that everything's covered on group insurance. So, we're not sure exactly how the insurance company comes up with what they tell us to put in our commissioner highway and CCC budgets to cover those the county portion of the premiums that

get pulled each payroll. I don't know how they do their math. Um, but what I do know is that based on the number of people we have signed up, based on the tiers they're signed up for, and based on um, you know, just historical data, we've been underbudgeting it forever. their estimates are probably looking at actual claims whereas we're looking for what we need put in the self insurance fund to make sure the worst case scenario is covered. So there's a little bit of a difference there and I think that's why it's always underbudgeted because fortunately we don't hit the worst case scenario every year which is a good thing but it does mess with the county side of the budget. Did I say that right?

Much better than I did yesterday. And when do people enroll? I'm sorry. When do people enroll in our plan? They enroll They just enrolled the week before Thanksgiving. Yeah. after after you do budgets, then people enroll. Yeah. And choose their coverage.

And with turnover over the course of the year, I mean, you you you kind of want to plan again for um the highest that it's going to be pulling from the county side into the self insurance fund. So instead of basing it on the assumption that everybody who signs up for insurance is going to use the lower cost tiers like employee only. Um you know trying to come up with something more middle of the road because but we pull we pull out about $700 every day on the commissioner side for one employee only plan but we pull out almost two grand for the family plan. It just depends on what they sign up for. And we have no earthly idea of what that's going to be in July the week before when we start working on budgets. And then when the insurance people give us our estimates, again, my theory is that it's just based on actual claims, not what we what they've told us to set up for each tier that people have signed up for. So, I know it's confusing and weird, but the insurance fund is healthy. We have well over $2 million sitting in that fun place, and we have uh what, 2.5 more coming in based on what was budgeted for next year.

And that is an option. we could um ask the commissioners to do a holiday on their side as well because we do have the cash balance there. Um this is just an appropriation. Um the cash balance is healthy and if they chose to do a holiday for the last two on on their side for the last two pays we would not need this appropriation or wouldn't need as I don't think we would need it at all. Do we? I don't remember the numbers. We we ran those numbers and it would be much smaller if we needed anything at all. So, so it's something to think about

that that is another option and that has been submitted. Moving forward then, how do you think we should fix this? Because we're already behind for next year in the budget, right? No, this next year

I'm Jennifer Andel, chief. But this next year, we did budget more uh than was recommended by the insurance company. So hopefully we'll be closer to what we need to. I mean, like I said, I'm not 100% sure how they come up with their numbers, but we're just basing the numbers on historical data. Um, and um, what they've asked, you know, historical data will take you only so far. We don't know what the future holds for the health of our employees, obviously, but um, you know, I I think we're looking better for next year. Yes, there still may be additionals needed depending on, you know, people who are signed up for employee only things may change in their life and they change tears to being family coverage and you know it's it's it's like trying to hit a moving dart board you know um but I think we're living better.

Yeah. So my original question was, was this because of [clears throat] shortfall or is this because of payments that were making on insurance claims didn't come up to keep the fund help? This is shortfalls due to the payroll process.

That's the insurance of that's the insurance paid premiums paid for insurance. It's the county's portion of what is supposed to be put into the self insurance fund every payroll. That's what fall short. [clears throat] It's about 60,000 every payroll in the county side. So, um and and we just put that in the self insurance fund to keep it fed, you know, to keep ourselves prepared for whatever kind of claims come down the road. So that's that's where we've been under budgeting on on that side of things. Does that make sense? I don't know if that answers your question.

Yeah, it's getting clear. Okay. So you're saying this money is not necessar we're not writing a check for $342,000 to it's going to No, this is just our internal process for making sure we have the coverage we need. Yeah. Jennifer, is that balance in that fund about where you would like it to be? I refuse to turn my mic. Is that fund about where you'd want it to be? 2.6. I I think so. Don't you think so? I mean, and I think that's what Pat that's what the people from Apex are telling us, too, is that that's a safe that's a safe space. We want to stay above about 2

an hour with this 42,000. Um, I didn't see the cash report, but it's fun 4700. Whatever the cash balance is at 4,700, that's that's really our that's how much money we have sitting there to play. 10 million. And I don't know what that means. But yeah, that's they always want us to get between I don't know between 2.2 and 2.6 million. I think last time I looked we were brought in more 2.5. I don't know if you want to say that. And then we have another 8.6 coming in next year. So,

also just so you know, we get a quarterly report from our insurance company or our insurance consultant. January to August, our surplus and premium equivalence was $527,000, which meant we brought in more than our cost $527,000 that went into self insurance. So, that goes the question, do we really need to put this money in that fund? That's why I shared that information. If we put it in that fund, it is earmarked for a specific cost. If we leave it in the county general, it could be used for a merits.

That is where the commissioners would need to put in a holiday, but too late for that. I make a motion we t this until the commissioners can talk about that. If if they do not approve it, then we don't have the appropriation to pay. Yeah, I'm okay with that. We got money to fund, but we have to have the appropriation. No authority to spend. We don't talk. They They couldn't write a check. That's a different That's a different issue. Well, because it's payroll. Payroll is one of the things Go ahead. Yeah,

payroll is one of turn on your mic. Really [laughter]

payroll is one of the processes that we can go ahead and continue doing without your permission. Okay, that and basically whether the council gives us permission to or not, we're going to meet the county's requirements for these things. So, um, we have, so we've been trying to work with people to get these appropriations to happen once we noticed they were going getting low, going negative, blah blah blah. And um, but we had to continue processing payroll and part of the payroll process is to pull that money every time. So now you have a negative balance in those budget lines and we're asking for that resolution at the end of this year to move money into the lines that are negative, but there's not enough money in the other lines of the commissioner's budget to move into those lines to fix the negative. This is just an appropriation cleanup issue more than anything. The money is still staying at the county and we're we've already processed the transactions that put it into the ledger of the self insurance fund. This is just to clean up appropriation lines.

I agree with Jennifer. This is an appropriation. This is just authority to spend money. It's needed because the budget was wrong last year. [laughter] I agree, Jennifer. It's needed because the budget was too low last year. It's a correction.

But without an appropriation on most expenses, she she can't do it because it's payroll. She'd be required to do it whether you offer us or not. When Gary, your idea that we need more information to me is the other issue and that is uh what should our budget be next year because you can you've just adopted your budget but you can change your budget. You can change your budget anytime. And uh going after January one, you can you can make changes to your budget. You could have a discussion with the commissioners about what the appropriate amount should be and what is our cash balance and is that the right amount of our cash balance and what's their strategy about dealing with that issue. But that's really not the issue for this and I think Jennifer stated it actually very well that this is merely an appropriation additional appropriation is not can I have more money. That's not what it is. It is merely can I have authority spend money and because the budget was too low she has no authority to to spend it although she actually does but she's asking

she's asking nicely. Yes. Yes. And that way we can have we can end the year with our budget tied up in a neat little bow and no dangling negative appropriations which the state of council does not like to see you end the year with negative appropriations. It's illegal. Yeah. It's not so much for payroll things, but it it uh we just try to keep it that way across all budget lines.

Ask questions like this every every year. Is the amounts comparable to

I actually printed that out. Um, we adjusted and 24 258,000. I'm rounding. So, and 23 103,000 22 46,000 21 108,000 and 290,000. So, this is the highest, but it's it's not um historically shocking. future

and and that's what we did for next year's budget. We we worked really closely with um Tom, Lori, and Patty and of course Jyn was involved in that. Um she was here at the change to self- insurance, so she's kind of the guru. Um and I I feel like we're in a much better place for 2026. Not saying that we won't need it need appropriations. We have no idea what 2026 is going to look like. You know, people getting married, having kids, whatever. Um, all the good things. Um, but I do feel like we're in a better place, a starting point for next year, which is why the budget looked a little higher and felt a little more uncomfortable. based on the motion track my motion.

Okay. Okay. So motion's been retracted.

So do we need to make we need to make a motion that if the commissioners work it out they can pull it out of that account. If not, then you pull it out of this account. Is that how does they have the opportunity to Is what you're saying to to take it out of something else or do something else?

Well, again, you don't need to do that. If the commissioners decide to do that, it'll just be an unspent appropriation. You're only deciding on an appropriation. So if the commissioners do that, some of that some or all that appropriation may not be needed, but then that would just be uh and then on December 31st that appropriation disappears. motion. Second motion second.

Any other questions or discussion on that? It's a lot of information. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Okay.

We could do the last We haven't Oh, we're in process of payroll right now. Sorry. Um, she hasn't done it yet. I can still switch it off. Well, but not before the meeting. Any Yeah, it doesn't unfortunately. Sorry.

Yeah. Um, I mean, that's we we can talk about it off offline. Um, but maybe they start off the year with a holiday and save some of that back and make us in a better place for next year or something. I don't know. We can talk about options for sure. Um, we it is too late. to turn it off for this one. Well, it's not too late to turn it off or but we don't have the permission to do so. So, um but we do have we do have some options. Maybe we can look at it with the balance that we have to do it next year.

Okay. Uh next up, EMS uh contract 47798850. Talk about this one. That was a good one. Yeah, this is her second payment. So, it is really the commissioner's executive assistant. Uh, I'd like to withdraw that request. What? What is that? Yes, we don't need it. Once we get the full settlement, we'll have that 25 payment and we're good. We have enough appropriation in there. Yes. All right. All right. I think that's the whole reason we asked for this is because the the money is there. The cash is going to be there after some cash, right?

But the appropriation won't be um because we paid all those extra training payments this year and that took the cash away from this took I was excited for a while. I'm sorry. Yeah, I was going to see a full wire. Yes, that's why. Never mind. We need that. Yeah, this is this second payment of our agreement with [laughter] all provid [snorts] We did

and I can tell you exactly what happened. Um part of the agreement was Do you want to hear the whole details or just we just some details. Just a short [laughter] there is no short there was uh an agreement and in the agreement we paid training. Okay. Uh for two years they didn't bill us for the training. They said we weren't they weren't going to do it. Changed your mind said nope we want that money. So we paid all three of the training this year which was 150,000 which we only actually budgeted 52,000 because that's all we were supposed to pay every year for training. Now the contract had a cap in it. Yes. Per year, right?

They just didn't bill us in a timely manner. Yes. In 2026, our bill for the emergency services will be uh 1 million4,27. Does that include training? Yes, it does. Motion second. Any questions on that? All those favor say I.

I [laughter] need 20 bucks a computer crew. It looks like it's a big request. Big ass. All right, Heather Lef treasure. Um, so this is coming out of our portion, our treasures portion of the county dog tax and putting it in a line so that I can spend for their lunches. [snorts] Happens twice a year. Well, I asked for $100. [clears throat]

I asked for $100 and um for both tax seasons and it wasn't enough. I didn't want to ask for too much and then have to. So I'm coming to the second establish.

Thanks. I have a motion in a second. Any other question or discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Thank you. I know. I don't know if I want to follow all that. The same argument we did.

Sure. See, see. [laughter] Yeah. Right. So, my department pays our side of the employees, the employers insurance, if you will. So, we kind of fell into the same trap um as everyone else and two life-changing events. And I know I had a few in my department. It makes a huge difference. Like, I have myself on my insurance. My husband retired. I had to pick him up. And now, instead of $80 every payroll, it's several hundred. And that really takes a big dent when especially when you have, you know, under 20 people in your department. Um, anyway, we hired a few people that had to do family insurance and that makes a huge difference versus just employee or excuse me, insuring yourself. So, I need $18,500 to get out of the hole.

Second motion, a second. Any questions for chair? All those in favor sign I thank you

sorry about that. So [laughter] the two overtimes are just what what we've been doing um for the school. Last month we were just behind and getting that in. So that's why there's two on there. It's just the payment for south month that we're looking to put back in the overtime line. Um for the SR bullying um the jail bond, there was still $19,000 left in there. Um it was suggested that we use that to pay for part of the jail roof that that was repaired. Um so that's all that is. It's just appropriate that money to help cover that expense. Okay. Motion to approve. Second motion a second. Mr. Chair. All those in favor say [snorts] any

thank you. Thank you. and looks like your contact.

Good morning. Adrian, chief probation officer. Uh we do our little best to look for grants to help offset our program. And so the next several lines consists of 10 grants that the provation department has written for and those are for 2026. and that covers our problem solving courts, drug courts, family recovery court, veterans treatment court. It also um gives funding to cover probation officer salaries and to do a juvenile expansion this year to offer an alcohol drug education program. And we're partnering with the usurps bureau to that. I do have a question for you.

I do have a question. Does any of this have anything to do with the $3,300 treadmill that you guys purchased? Does any of this grant this?

No. The treadmill was purchased at 2100, which is user expense. Okay. Um, so you purchased a $3,36263 commercial treadmill along with a three-year membership to High Fit Pro. Um, and then you spent over $200 for like a taco. um before we get this other you know you see what we're spending for other things it's not us and you know the taxpayers I think I don't know how these people feel I don't think it's the place foration department to be buying $3300 and spending money for when I went out to the highway department the other day they had a pitch and they yourselves. Um, so I think uh we need to discuss this a little bit and discuss on pay because I don't think my taxpayers in my district would agree with you have spent that much money and spending for those kind of things. And if anybody else did,

I would feel the same way.

I hear what you're saying and I'd like to clarify some of that. The taco is associated with the family recovery court program. It's associated with grant funds or donated funds. Has nothing to do with taxpayer funds in regards to that. That's totally separate. The commercial treadmill is for use within the probation department for all staff in regards to using it. It's to help destress employees. They have to do it on their own time in regards to utilizing it. and a treadmill that is a commercial grade to be able to get a long-term use actually cost $8,000. And so we did take the lesser option associated with it um to do that. And that's specifically then for staff in regards to de-stressing. It's supposed to be a mental health component in regards to that.

Well, you don't think there's stress in the highway department? Not stress. So, we're going to have we're going to have 50 treadmills that we're going to spend $4,000 for. I I I think it's a I I think it's an expense that the taxpayers of the county should have to pay for. That's my opinion. And uh but so, you know, you're saying that there's no stress in the uh 911, there's no stress in the commissioner's office, our office. So it's there's you know I'm just saying you know you guys need to think about how are you spending the money on because it's taxpayer money. I hear what you're saying this is not taxpayer money.

Well it's all taxpayer money somehow it's taxpayer money. It's all county wherever it comes from some taxpayer pays it a user fee paid. Well then it's still money that's coming from the tax taxes or penalties or whatever. I'm just saying it just does not look good for us to be spending money on that kind of thing. Go out to Planet Fitness or go somewhere and if they're doing it on their own time and go there and uh I'm sure there's places you can go to the uh Boys and Girls Club, you go to the city building, there's places that people can go without the county having to buy.

So, what's I hear what you're saying. My caution with that is you now asking a probation officer who supervises the public in a manner and now you're asking to go work out in that public situation and on a regular basis we are approached by individuals that we supervise on our own time in a situation that not necessarily is always safe let alone if it's detriment then to the mental health component of what we're trying to achieve. So, I'm going to argue still that the treadmill was a good purchase. It was a reasonable purchase. It was given consideration in regards to the cost of it. We went with the lesser option and did not spend the 8,000. And I will say that we did try for grants in the past 2 years to find money to cover that treadmill and we were unable to do so. The problem solving courts do have additional expenses that do seem odd and unusual and may call attention like the top of our conversation and and I understand that. I totally understand that. But we don't spend taxpayer money in regards to that. That is why we get these grants to help support these programs. them out of hand. We got all these grants they need to do appropriate.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Any other discussion or questions on the grants? All those in favor signify saying I. I. Any opposed?

Thank you. Uh moving on to new business. Uh first up is final reading of ordinance 2025-4 which is our compensation ordinance. So I need a motion to approve that. I'll entertain a motion. I don't think we have copies of that. I think that's from last month we did the first reading.

Have a motion to second. Any other questions or discussion on that one? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? And then ordinance 2025-5, the final reading of the McGomery County solid waste appropriation ordinance. Motion and a second on that. Any questions or discussions? All those in favor signify saying I.

And then again 2025-6 final reading McGomery County Solid Waste District Compensation Ordinance. Have a motion to second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor of signify by saying I. Any oppose? Okay, next up is the first reading of ordinance 2025-7, uh, our updated investment policy, which Dan will address here.

Yes, this ordinance is a readoption of an investment policy. You're required to do this every four years. You last adopted your policy in 2022, so our plan is to introduce it, then have you uh adopt it in January so that we're under that timeline. The investment policy is a state law which uh restricts the way our treasur uh invests money. It's designed to try to not put county and money into risky investments. This year in the legislature there was uh really only one big change and that is on page eight and you can see that they changed they placed a limitation on final maturity in um that will apply that would make that investments must be um stated at maturity. not more than four years. This material, as you can see, is very dry. Um, but uh in making these technical revisions to your investment policy, we're picking up changes. The legislative changes been made in the last four years. I would represent to you that this would make your investment policy compliant. This is first reading only. You can vote on it next time. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Dan on that?

One comment. Thank you, Mr. Treasur, for the job you do. Invest in our uh Okay. Next up, resolution 2025-10, transfer and reduction of appropriations. Uh this is a yearly thing that we do to help the auditor clean up uh the books, basically. Yeah, there it is. We just need a motion. Have a motion, a second. Is there any questions on that? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? Okay. Next up, moving into public hearing, designation revalization area for the tax payment for cargo.

Yes. Today you'll conduct a public hearing and hear um statements regarding the request by Cargill to designate uh their primary site as an economic revitalization area and also their request for tax abatement. A month ago you did a declaratory resolution which said that um you were willing to so designate that property and consider tax abatement. The uh you can the which is attached. This is a real estate only abatement request. It's a 10-year abatement. It is not exactly uh the traditional abatement. Uh Cargill does not want to ask for 100% abatement in the first year. They'd like to pay some taxes to the county. That modifies their schedule slightly, but it adds up to the same as a traditional just with a difference in the first year being less and then um the second year is higher. But otherwise, a very traditional abatement. Uh Cargill is planning, as you heard at your last meeting, their intention is to move their regional office to Lynon and uh to make other very expensive improvements that would help their site handle uh their business faster and even alleviate some stress on our roads. And so um today you will conduct your public hearing first and then at the close of that you will have a chance to vote on resolution 20259 which would make the designation uh designation formally and would approve the tax abatement request.

Okay. So it's a public hearing. Is there any public comment on this item? Okay, hearing none. I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Second motion a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Moving on to the confirmatory resolution 2025-9 which Dan just went through. We have a We have a motion and a second. Is there any other questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any oppose. Okay. Next up is the compensation request for probation. I believe you all got an email for this.

I did send in an email in regards to this an opportunity to review it. We are in a situation where I'm coming to you for help. Um the probation department has been short staffed since May. We have gone through multiple hiring processes. We have offered positions on four occasions. Of the four occasions the position was offered, only once was it accepted. That person started November 4th and they quit December 1st. I have at will shortly be four vacancies. I had two people come in the same day resignations. When it comes down to it, um, NFP, which is a compensation, um, entity up in Indianapolis, they did a probation officer salary compensation study. That study determined that the starting salary for a probation officer in the state of Indiana on a 35hour work week should be 49,8.99. We work a 37 1/2 hour work week. That calculation out is 53,464. We currently start uh probation officers at 42,000 and change. So what I'm asking is to be able to amend the probation officer salary to the adhere to the NFP um [cough and clears throat] study that was completed specifically for probation officers. Not asking for any more than that. Keeping in alignment with the study. There's been some additional information shared with you. All three judges are in agreement with this request. The current case load with probation department is over 800. And if you look at the individuals that will qualify to be sitting in jail and more in doc if they weren't on probation, you're saving approximately 28,000 per day. So that's

the option. We can have probation. We can put people in jail. We have to do what's best for our community in supporting our community. The other aspect of it is is I ask a lot of our probation officers, our judges do also. We can be a probation department that does the bare minimum. You want to pay the bare minimum, we can do the bare minimum. The difference is, and I have an example, and I share that in my email, we have a situation where juveniles have done. We could say, I'll deal with that tomorrow. Oh, wait. It's Thanksgiving weekend. I'll do a gun on Monday. Well, that gun will be gone before then. So, no, my officers leave their home, leave their family, their children, and then go get that gun. It's not a simple matter. You're not getting the same from every county. And when we have when we ask that of our employees, we should compensate our employees as such. So really I'm here arguing the fact that I can't keep the department sustained and maintained without some considerations. So specifically I'm asking permission to be able to pay according to the NFP wage study that would be approximately if I were to keep every employee if which I'm not. If I were, it's 102,000. That 102,000 I'm saying I'd like to pay from fund 2100, which is user fee funds. It's not asking the county for any additional funds. I know I'm not going to end up spending 102,000 because I already know I'm not going to keep every employee. They're going elsewhere. They're making more money. And then potentially they're doing less. So that's my request today. Go ahead.

Yeah, Tom, the uh committee that we had, so I know Steve's not here. I wish Steve was here. Uh for the salary committee, we set guidelines and certain things that needed to be done and criteria that needed to be done. And uh I think we need to follow that because if we don't follow our criteria that we set up then we wasted our time which I had talked to Gary about sometimes you have to say no and follow the guidelines because if you don't be out of whack real quick what do they need to do to follow the guidelines for our committee

well if you guys recall you uh when you adopted the compensation study you also uh later adopted a resolution to the commissioners to amend the um policy regarding compensation and it established a process where if a department had a um change in job classification of an employee, there was a process to go through for that. Or if a reorganization of the department, they would submit those two to me and then we would determine whether or not to have the county's compensation consultant review the position. Since this request does request does not meet either one of those conditions, then the policy says that it has to come to the council to decide whether or not you want to have the county's compensation consultant review the request for comp a change in compensation.

Well, I'd like to make the motion to send it to them and have them take a look at it and let us know what you think. That's my opinion. Second. Okay. Motion on a second. Um I guess as far as discussion goes, I guess my question is why was this not addressed during the budget time? It was the NFP study was shared with your consultant and they chose to exclude from probation from that consideration not from whether or not they would pay it from they would even look at it because probation is set by the state is what their thought process is. So they didn't even take into consideration the NFP.

So I feel like I've done Well, they don't set your budget. You you make the budget request. Correct. Why did you not request additional salary the budget process? Because I did my absolute best to play knives in the sandbox. Meaning I am as aware of you in regards to salaries and the budget concerns and I did my best if I can't maintain my department as such then I have a problem. I think it should have been brought up in the budget. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I mean I I get what you're saying but we literally just approved the budget two meetings ago. I mean, this problem obviously was apparent before two months ago. Agreed.

But you didn't

I I've been asking for years for this and we're in a challenging spot. And so what I've given consideration to is rather than asking the county for any additional monies to be able to pay it out of the user fund. But is that practice sustainable or is it even are we able to do it that way? I've spoken with the auditor's office as far as how the actual process would work and there are two options regards to it. So yes, it's feasible. As far as the sustainability, we do have funds within those would be fun. In addition, I know it sustains us for multiple years. Um the other aspect of it is we looked at with our current consideration of where we're at, do we start closing programs? Do we start reducing our level of commitment and start doing away with programs? And so the failure recovery court program is one of the programs that's currently on the table for discussion on whether or not we close it. And once I start closing programs, I'm going to start losing funding because in order to get funding, you have to prove that you are going above and beyond and working towards doing the absolute best in evidence-based practices. Promise part of that evidence based practices. So bottom line, we may start losing those programs by default. We start losing grant money and then suspicious cycle. The concept of what we're helping to offset county cost from salaries with grants. we're going to start losing those opportunities if we go this other route and start closing programs. It's a bad situation if you're damn if you do your damn if you don't. And I attempted to do the best for the county council because you didn't want to see those pay increases. You didn't want to see them. I did my best not to put them in there. Let's come back to 59.

So clarification on the motion. Is the motion to have the compensation consultant review the NFP study to determine if that's appropriate? Are you asking WIS to do their own compensation study for the positions? I send it back to them to take a look at take a look at it.

Look at how do you study? I I uh your motion was to send our advisor. Yes. Our advisor look at the NFP whatever. Well, I think they need to look at anything. Anything you can give them anything they need to look at and then uh make the decision. It's not about whether we want or not want. No, it needs to be consistent within the county.

If we're not then we monies come from all over the place for different things. Yours is a big example of lots of grant money. We appreciate your hard work on the grant. We know too much about that. However, so it's uniform across the county. We need to work with this company that we would recognize and it is my opinion. So they you want them to look at the NFP study to determine if that's the appropriate amount.

Sure. and then then go ahead and have them do their work as well. And anything that we can do to get the knowledge we need to see where we're at and I think that's the way we do get as much information as we can get there. I mean, that's going to take a tremendous amount of time. Well, it depends what you're asking them to do. If you're asking them to just review the NFP study and say, do you deter do you feel this is appropriate amount? is different than asking them to do a new compensation study for the position. Wouldn't we what would we do if it was someone else? Wouldn't we say do a compensation study on this request? The last time the same thing wouldn't we do the [snorts]

Yeah. I just want to make So I'm going to tell them you guys are asking them to do a new compensation study for the position. Taking into account all the information they have. Okay. Just like you would Okay, we have a motion. Oh, go ahead. You did the compensation study and the consultant. They've had access to the Yes, they did. I was I was advised that they did not they were not looking at salary from that standpoint to reset anything or adjust anything because they were simply adhering to the minimum guidelines that the state provided.

Mr. I do agree with that. Yes. Doesn't mean we have to take your advice. It means

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any more questions or discussion on that? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. Any opposed? Thank you. We'll take an advisement. Uh, next up, establishment of 2026 council meeting dates. Is this time date everything work for you guys? Yep, that work for everybody. Do we need a motion for that or

resolution next? Okay. And then last but not least, the assessor. She's still Oh, she's still here. She wants to split a person in two.

Morning. Um, in light of the um difficulty of filing finding qualified people for some of these positions, I have a person I'm going to bring in full-time. I have one employee that has been kind of she she left and she's been working under that line part time. So I would like to move a senior employee she's indicated that she also would like to work part-time. So if you between the two of them they have 55 years of accessing assessing experience and I don't want to lose that. So, I am asking to change one full-time line to part-time to pay those two out of and then bring I'll be bringing the new person in to the GIS line as a full-time employee so that that person can gain the benefit of the knowledge of those people that have been here a very very long time. So, I would hate to lose that. Uh the money is already appropriated. It does not require any additional appropriations. It's just splitting fulltime line into two part-time ones

and and you're you're going to follow the guidelines on the part-time pay that and everything. We we did this with uh Sixberry, right? We did a did this same kind of thing. So, correct. We can kind of follow that. Yeah. As well. Sherry and I have already spoken. She's just she's going to use the same um hourly rate for the two part-time people. Um it's just going to be two part-time lines as opposed to one full-time line. and no benefits. So being consistent with that. Yeah, we're doing it the same way. Will I make a motion to approve? Got a motion of a second. Any other questions?

I might add just before you have your discussion. Just for full disclosure, if these two um employees decide to go ahead and retire, it may very well be that I ask at that point to come back and combine that into one because I would prefer it be a full-time position. But I don't I'd rather this person have the benefit of their knowledge before they leave me. So um but it wouldn't again the salary would be the same. So I wouldn't ask for anyone. Okay. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? Thank you. Staff and elected official reports. Anybody? I think I stole your notes, Tom. You got those here for somebody. Damn.

Um, just a reminder, Joe Ellis is retiring this month. Um, we are having a lunch for Joe, a pitch-in lunch on December 18th right here in the in the community meeting room. So, you're all invited to attend. And then there is a retirement celebration for him on December 20th at the American Legion at I think it um if you give me a second. I put it on my calendar. Sorry, I meant to write and then Dan stole my paper before 3 p.m. 3M at the American Legion.

Um So, just a reminder of that. Just want to thank Joe for all his service as well. Another uh person that's retiring from service too is Ron Dickerson from the redevelopment commission. So, just want you guys to be aware of that. He's I think been on it since the beginning and he's really appreciate all his service to the county. So, we just want to recognize that. And then, uh last uh Jennifer and Judge Petri have birthdays next week. So, we have to sing. So, I think it's tradition that Jennifer has to stand up. We have to sing happy birthday to her. So, happy birthday. Okay. Any other elected officials?

Uh, just real quickly, um, I wanted to thank you guys for the radios. Those were came in a lot sooner than than expected. They were installed last week with the last one being installed tomorrow. Um, it's I mean, I know the staff is very appreciative. Um, I know there's been some flack on social media um which I don't care but I appreciate your willingness to work with us and you know to see the the issues that we have and uh you guys took the step to to resolve that. Um the other issue um I just wanted to make myself available. I know that monthly newsletter that I send you, I I sent um the call from service sheet um regarding the Lover Recovery Center. And if you guys have any questions about that, I just want to I just want to address it. Um it's an issue. Um it's an ongoing issue. I don't think it's sustainable issue. Um I'm not really sure how to fix it. Um but we're up to 94 calls since last November. Um nothing's changed. Nothing has changed. I don't see anything changing. It's a revolving door and we cannot continually respond to that location to deal with the issues that they're giving us. To the best of my knowledge, none of the residents there are McGomery County people. These are people that are coming from 2, three hours away. They're taking up our time. They're taking up an enormous amount of time at the fire department. They're taking up an enormous amount of time at the dispatch center. and they're certainly taking up a lot of time at the hospital. Um, but in my opinion, we're funding for people that aren't ours. Um, I'm not anti-reovery in any way, shape, or form, but the issues I think are the majority are

preventable. Um, but they're not it's not changing. So, I want to make you aware of it. I want to make the public aware of it. Um, and if you guys have any questions, I'll I'll be happy to try to answer those.

Well, I thought initially the media would do that. Um, and it did for two weeks. Um, and then it slowly just went back. Um, I mean, I think when I met with the commissioners in the spring, I said, "We're on pace to be at 100 calls for the year, and and we're almost there." Um, I'm going to make noise. Um, be it beyond these walls. Um, to try to get it to stop. Um, I have declined meetings with the director down there. Um, I'm tired of meeting with them and they're telling me they're going to do this and they're going to do that and this and that doesn't happen.

I I don't have time to waste time meeting with the director down there for him to tell me that they're going to change this and they're going to change that only for it not to happen. So, um, is it a lack of medical care?

I think it's a lack of an intake process when you take anybody and everybody regardless of issue. Um I mean the vast majority of calls are EMS and fire calls. Um there's a whole lot of suicidal calls that warrant our response as well. Um that in turns, you know, I mean involves an ambulance that involves a trip to the hospital. Um, so I mean it's just that trickle down effect of I mean it's affecting so many public service agencies and and just using so much money. Um, I mean, I don't know how the contract works with with the city for for county fire, but I don't know if it was based on runs they thought they were going to have, but I mean I mean eventually I mean if I'm the mayor, I'm going to be coming to you saying, "Hey, I mean here's 100 additional calls that we didn't expect to have. We're going to have to look at these rates." I don't know how that works, but um it's just beyond that. Is the center in the town of

children's home? It is. Yeah, I agree with you. I know for our uh volunteer fire department. Absolutely.

Uh you've got to remember that their volunteer fire department. So is New Ross. Um and the people in Logan, the people in Clark Township and around see it, feel it. And uh I know they tried to throw a little money toward the uh the guys at the fire department, but the big thing is just the number of calls and how that's just bleeding on our part-time guys. I mean, they're they're getting to the point where, you know, they can't even go to dinner or or go out to eat or be at home, go to sleep without getting a call down there. So, there is there's a lot of stress and strain. And then like you say, Crawford'sville, they're they're dispatching and going down there as well. So they're traveling from from Crawford'sville down there.

And it's it's a couple times a week at least. So yeah. No, I know. I And yeah, I mean, you've got to you you've got so much manpower involved and but it's not just manpower with full-time people. It's it's our our part-time guys, the volunteers that I'm afraid they're going to get burned out. Is there an another group of people that need to put pressure on this facility? I mean, you know, you've done your due diligence trying to reach out to them.

I don't know. I I would probably defer to Dan on that. I mean, I you know, I mean, I mean, our hands are kind of tied. I I my understanding is I mean really the medical

licensing is is the issue. Um I don't know that I have much say in whether somebody keeps or loses medical license. Um and I'm sure they're going to they would tell you that they're following a protocol um based on their policies and procedures. Um and I would argue you need to change your protocols. You need to change your intake procedures. You need to limit who you're accepting and who you're allowing to come in the door because the moment they come in that door, they're theirs. And if they become a problem, they call us. And now instantaneously, they're they're no longer Lova Recovery's problem. They're McGomery Countyy's problem. And that's what's happening time and time and time again. Um they said they're not going to have violent people in there. They have violent people in there. It's not a secure facility. something bad will happen. You can walk out at 2 p.m. You can walk out at 2:00 a.m. and they've had very violent people in that facility. We haven't had issues, but it's coming. And my aggravation is it's just taking up way too many resources needlessly. Um, so I don't know. Uh hopefully this I mean like I said it changed it a couple times you know for a couple weeks the last time. Um I'm going to reach out to Indianapolis media as well. I mean I've had some other calls um where they're looking at you know opening up another facility. Um those places have reached out to me saying we don't want it. You know I mean so um I want to make you aware. I mean, at the end of the day, you guys control the money and we're throwing a whole lot of money at this problem. That's not ours in my opinion.

Appreciate the information. Absolutely. Any other elected officials, any funded organizations, department heads? Quiet today. Uh, start down there, Brett. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. Please. Oh, that's right. Yep.

Good morning. Um, my name is Dr. Justice. I'm the coalition director for Drug McGomery County Youth Service Group. Um, Mr. Klein invited me here today to share some good news with you guys regarding our food settlement funds. Um I'm here on behalf of the drug for McGomery County leadership team to share and highlight the 2026 opioid settlement funds mini grant recipients. Um for 2026 we are proud to announce that we've we've expended every cent available in this fund um across the categories of prevention education, harm reduction, intervention, treatment and recovery as well as justice services and first responders. Um awarding a grand total of $147,19762. And again, that's every cent expended in that account. Um, and I'm going to go ahead and read off the following 14 uh recipients with their agency title, project title, as well as the amount that we awarded them. Um, so up first we have United Way of McGomery County funding their four first door project at 21,43212. The Crawfordville Police Department for their 2026 DARE and SRO training at 5,900. The Boys and Girls Club of McGomery County for their youth health and wellness programs for prevention at $1,200. The McGomery County Sheriff's Office for their 2026 school resource officer training and drug abuse prevention education program at $7,187.50. Um our provision department for the juvenile diversion expansion grant for $4,500. Our through the gate um agency for their program support associate program at $15,000. Integrative Wellness for their emergency needs funds at $1,500. Valley Oaks Health for their expanding peer recovery for uninsured and underinsured valleys patients at $20,000. Our local recovery coalition to fund their peer recovery coaches at $39,520. Um United for equality for their alphabet soup coaching and recovery program at $5,488. McGomery County Drug Court for breaking

down the barriers for successful recovery through drug court. $7,500. Uh recovery coalition program again for their director's salary at $7,500. And then our F FRC, our family recovery court, I'm sorry, uh for support of that program for $6,500. And finally, our veterans treatment court, um they call it their mission and possible program for opioid abuse prevention at $3,970. Uh we just wanted to share this this information with you as good news for these funds. Um as of yesterday at the commissioner's meeting, we were able to conduct a check presentation and a photo op. um to congratulate these organizations and with that we always like to thank them for the good work they are doing at McGomery County and thank you all for your time and never with us.

Thank you and thanks for that information. That's that is good news and a lot of those programs really appreciate that. Thank you guys. I'm going to brag on her for just a quick moment and she didn't brag on herself. The state actually reached out and said, "Hey McGomery County, you guys are doing a fantastic job. Will you come speak about what you're doing with your view?" So, good job. Thank you. [applause] Ready for me?

Uh, first of all, I want to uh thank Cargill for doing a good job up in the north part of the county. Uh, farmers are really excited about the what you're doing and trying to make it easier on them. Uh, also Lyndon's excited and uh, not only for you, but dare I say it, Dollar General. coming to coming to Lynon. So, I don't know if they're more excited about Dollar General or you guys, but I just want you to know most of everything I heard was really positive and everybody's excited about it. So, uh thank you and thanks to all the uh county employees, department heads for a really hard year. Uh looking forward to next year. Hopefully, this Senate Bill one will work its way out. But, but we want you I want you to know and I know everybody here feels the same way. We appreciate everything you do and everything you've done to try to make it our job as easy as it can be. And have a merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year. Looking forward to next year.

Thank you. [laughter] I will say the exact same thing to all the county employees out there. Thank you for a great year. Also, thank everyone My first year on the council a good one.

Thanks county for all your hard work. We appreciate it. And thank you council. Been one of the more active councils I've worked with. This is my ninth year. I appreciate all your hard work. Appreciate all the department heads and hard work. Wish everybody a merry Christmas. Thank you, Carill. We like to work with you and others. That's exciting to me. I want to thank Joe. Hope he has a great retirement. And Ron Dickerson, he's just kind of worked behind the scenes, has for years, and done a great job.

It gets to me and so it would be redundant for me to everything, but I certainly um want to echo what they've all said. And as a partner in agriculture, welcome you to to um add more to our county. You've already been a presence, so um getting the trucks off the road. That's huge. Huge. Um hats off to the county highway. They've already had to work hard this year. Let's hope mother nature doesn't throw too much more at him. But um merry Christmas to everyone and looking forward to next year and solving some of those problems that have been discussed today.

No, no, no, no, no.

I was sitting here thinking, thank God he didn't say anything. I too appreciate everybody's hard work this year. It's been a busy challenging year for us. Uh Cargill, thank you for the investment in our community. U we welcome you to the community expansion and um I just want, you know, like we've all said up here, thank you to the county employees for hard work this year. You know, the budget was kind of challenging this year. Um hopefully next year we'll get a little more um relief or guidance, I guess, from the state side. Um, again, you know, thank you to Joe Ellis. I know he ducked out a little while ago. Uh, probably didn't want the recognition, but uh, he's done a lot for our community, for our veterans. I know Nick Kashan's coming on board. I've known him for years, and he'll be a good addition to the to the county for our veterans as well. And, uh, thank you to the sheriff's department, uh, and our first responders. Yesterday was a tough day. I know I I've worked those calls before, so I know how that uh, affects a person afterwards. Uh, so just all my best to them. Uh, next meeting January 19th or I'm sorry, January 13th. My glasses on. Same place, same time. Uh, merry Christmas to everybody. Hope the last part of your year is and apparently Dan wants paid again. I'm sorry.

We do have one more claim to approve. Uh, 2877 for Taylor Manette, Sch Snider, Clutter, and whoever else they want to add to their lame. So moved. Have a motion to second. Any questions? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed?