Montgomery County Council - Regular Meeting

United States one nation under God indivisibley all pray with me. Heavenly father we just thank you for this day. We thank you for this time together as three people and we just ask for your guidance as we do business name. Amen. Uh first item up is the consent agenda which is approval of the December minutes, approval of the claims listed as well as receipt of commissary report and same series transfer report.

Have a motion and a second. Is there any questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right. And any public comment on any of the agenda items? Hearing none, we'll move on to election of the 2026 council officers, both president and vice president. Yeah. Uh given the uh fact that our present officers have done a great job, I would uh move that we retain the uh current officers, president and vice president, secretary. It's questionable motion, but we'll have a motion in a second.

All right. All right. So, we have a a motion and a second and the motions have Okay, let me back up. There's a motion to close the nominations, I guess. Let's vote on that first. We have a motion and a second to Was there a second to close the nominations? Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right. Now, to the nominations for myself as president and Joyce as vice president. All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? Had my time. All right. Thank you. I appreciate your questionable competence. Uh appointments. Uh these are the appointment list uh that the council has uh every year. Um Dan Dan Taylor as our county council attorney. motions on these or Okay. Okay. I'll just read through all these all at once, then we'll do them all as one batch here since they're all consistent. Uh Solid Waste District, Matt is on that. Uh the Paint Commission, Steve. Uh Alcoholic Beverage Commission is Dave Long. The RDC, Gary Booth and Brad Monz. The sewer district is Joyce and Mike Warren. Uh, the board of zoning appeals u is a mistake. That's doesn't actually end till this year. So, that'll be on next year's agenda. So, disregard that one. The property tax board of appeals is John Downey, Lindseay Hampton, and Patricia Richie. Uh, the economic development commission is uh myself, Mike Warren, and Jessica Bhart. Uh, economic development authority is the council president and council vice president. And then the CC governing board is Council President questions or concerns on any of those. I'll entertain a motion to approve those.

Second motion to second. Any other discussion or questions? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? Uh, and then our liaison. Uh, I guess I'll ask you all, are you everybody happy with your current appointments or any changes or concerns? Seems to be working out pretty well. Good information. So, highway sheriff EMS corner and trip is Gary Health is Brett. Soil and water. Joyce, commissioners, mapping, building surveyor, Steve, clerks, judges, probation, prosecutor, myself and Joyce, assessor, auditor, recorder, and treasur. And Wilford league is Brett. It uh Mike We don't have a budget committee. Internal controls committee Steve risk management Steve Tax payment committee Gary and Matt and the HIPPA compliance is choice.

I didn't put compensation committee. I wasn't sure if there was one anymore. I was a little confused about that one and the budget. So if it needs to be added here you go. Yeah it's kind of committee I guess.

All right. 2026 council home rule authority to approve transfers within the same series. What? U transfers within the same series in the 2026 budget. Uh there's an explanation there underneath. Any questions about that? I'll entertain a motion on that. Yes, it' be the same as last year with the exception of the 1000 series. Motion a second. Is there any questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? And then authority to sign the 2026 drainage board reconstruction loans. Um this is just something that when the drainage board does their loans and then sometimes refinance loans, we have to sign those to give them the authority to do that. Motion on that. Motion a second. Is there any questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Okay. Couple additional appropriations. Sheriff Needam first.

Good morning. With the mayor's interview last year, Major Marti's salary was changed when when we did that. Um when the budget sheets came out, I had paid close enough attention to it. Um so the final numbers came out for this year's budget and the percentages were were listed with each employees. I just noticed that match was of two and not 3%. Um, so that's all this is. It's it's a 1% uh the 1379 to to up his pay increase for this year to 3%.

Any questions for the sheriff? I have a second. Any other questions? All those in favor sign I. Any post? Thank you.

Good morning. Visiting the perpetuation funding and and I failed to get this into my budget for my part-time employee. I do want to report that we have been able to get 20,000 of our marriage license. um into the digital portal accessible to your fingertips at this point. We have about 8,000 more of those to go. Um I think we can probably get those uh in the next two years for sure to get those knocked out. As well as we've reduced the number of files downstairs. I think we have had four rooms when I started. We're down to three rooms. Um and we'll keep working on that. But I do need to to use the perpetuation fund to continue to fund my part-time employee that is doing such an amazing job with that work. So I would ask you to give me permission for that.

Okay. Motion to approve. A motion on a second. Any other questions? Yes. I did last year. You think a couple years of doing this? What the plan is? You think you have most of this taken care of? ears. Yes. Those in favor say by saying I.

Any post? And then moving on to transfers. Second. We just need to move money from Clarence Meyers. Um he was our processor for 36 almost 37 years. um September of October of last year, you guys gave me some additional funding to hire a second process server to basically learn the job before retired. He since he did retire on 31st of December. So, we just need to move money from his payline to the new process server's payline. Second motion to second. Any other questions? All in favor sign by saying I.

I. Any opposed? Thank you. Thanks.

And similar what we did last year with part-time employee in my office. um uh failed to split those into two different uh positions for my I think it's 11600 fund. So I need to split those again on parttime positions. One of those will actually be helping us with our website maintenance that uh is going to have to take place by the end of the year. So

money display approval motion a second. Any questions for sign? All those in favor sign by saying I. Any opposed? Thank you. And then the last one uh I spoke with coroner yesterday. Um, and maybe Mind you, you can clarify a little bit, but his intent was to spend some money uh out of the 25 budget uh to restock his uh disaster pouches or body bags supply and then that couldn't be done out of the funds. He wanted it done in more or less that accurate

semi. Yes. Yeah. um he was wanting to buy body bags out of a 3000 series, which is a service line, and it needs to be out of a 2000 series. Okay.

So, um we the only money he had was in a 3000 series in 2025, so we can't encumber that for a 2000 series expenditure. So, um he is transferring his 2026 autopsy fees to uh supplies line so he can purchase those uh body bags for 2026 and then he he will most likely be coming to you to replace that money in the autopsy fee line.

Okay. Like I said, his intent was to do that with 25 money. Obviously, we used to pay for the body bags out of the autopsy fund because they're required. But um so yeah, he will be coming back money at some point, but he left the money there in 25 with the intent to to try to get ahead of the game buying the supplies for this coming year. Uh it just didn't work out timing wise. So I just want to make the council aware of that. It is what it is. We'll just have to take that under when he comes back. He will most likely come back. for more money, but it's a necessary expense unfortunately.

So what happens to the 2025 fees that were not used? It just stay there. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to make you aware when he comes back earlier, probably earlier than usual. This is the reason why approve second. A motion a second. Any questions on that? All those in favor saying I. I. Any opposed? Uh then encumbering appropriations.

Okay. Um if it's okay with the council, u I'll just read through these. Let me do them all as one giant deal. Is that okay?

Yes. All right. Um, like I said, are obviously invoices that were done last year to pay out last year's budget. Uh, as you read through these, superior court has some equipment repairs, uh, EMHs, some phone, uh, circuit court, uh, furniture and pictures, treasure, mileage, emergency management, utilities, sheriff's permit, ammunition, health permit, several there under educational office supplies software training education repairs dues and subscription as well as equipment. So the total 10,8269 is the amount being encumbered out of the 25 budget to pay 26. I'll entertain a motion on those approved motion and a second. Is there any questions or discussion on any of those? All those in favor signify saying I.

Any opposed? All right, moving on to new business uh resolutions and Dan will help me out with these. U 20 26-1 the sheriff's compensation agreement. Yes, we have a contract model for the sheriff's compensation which means you establish his salary rather than salary being determined the old way where he kept certain parts of certain uh collection fees or meal money. And so each year both you and the commissioners and the sheriff have to sign an agreement reiterating that that's what you're doing. And so this is the 26 version. You do this every year. You're required to. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

It has been approved yesterday and has also been signed by the sheriff.

I have a motion and a second to approve resolution 2026-1. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right. And then resolution 2026-2 approving the attorney engagement letter. Since we already hired him, we guess we got to approve the contract. Yeah, this letter really has two important features. One just says that what the hourly rate is. That is uh 255, which is $10 or 4% higher than last year. And then Brett Kading made me say that you can fire me at any time, which is also true.

We got to go back and and reassess whether we wanted to keep you as attorneys now that we know what it's going to Exactly. Yeah. We did that backwards, didn't we? Yeah. You're you're free to Yeah. do it today.

Have a motion in a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor sign. Any oppose? All right. Then 2026-3, the commissary fund.

You are familiar with the commissary fund. You receive reports on it. You are required under statute to approve the types of expenditures which the sheriff can make from commissary. You'll see those on exhibit A. And these are what is allowed by law. And of course, as you can see, um this this saves the county a lot of money by doing it this way. And this is how commissary should be spent. This resolution just reaffirms your authority for the sheriff to do so. Second.

A motion to second. Any other questions about the agree with that? Any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? and then 2026-4 council meeting schedule which we agreed to in December. Yeah, this is just a vote to reaffirm what you said in December that your meetings be the same time, place, and dates.

Have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Okay. Amending the compensation plan for highway department. Jake,

when the compensation committee um or WIS came back with the levels for the highway department, actually they put in levels for the highway department, which hadn't been done before. Um there was a little confusion between Jake's department, my department. Um he's hiring them in. Everyone in at uh level one pay. um with an expectation to uh go to level two by year by the end of year one. Um but he was not hiring them in at a higher rate based on years of experience. And we weren't questioning that because they were also getting um their longevity. And if we go by the levels and give them longevity, then we have we're kind of double double paying them for that experience. Um Jake came to me and wanted to know if we could remove those levels. I have no problem because it's essentially what we're doing right now. So Jake would just uh like to go back to no levels starting everyone at the same pay and um our office is completely fine with that and continue with longevity.

Yes. Pay a motion and second. Any discussion or questions for Jake or Tomy? Just a question. How you doing on uh drivers? Um so I had four openings. Um I filled one. Hopefully I'm going to fill the other three by the end of the week. All a sudden we got a bunch of applicants in and they were really good. So

good deal. So hopefully we'll be fully staffed right before the snow or if it don't snow that. Yes. One one of the three. Any questions? Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Thanks, Jake. Moving on to old business ordinance 2025-7, the final reading of the investment policy.

Yes. Every four years, you have to adopt an investment policy. You've had one for a long time. This year, the legislature made one change, and that change uh is on page eight of your ordinance number 14, a limitation on final maturity. So your policy would remain the same except for this. Of course, it's required by law that we limit uh any maturity date to not more than four years. That's what the state legislature said. As you will recall, the purpose of the investment policy and the requirement that we have one is so that our money is invested in a way where we don't become Orange County, California, and go bankrupt. So no junk bonds basically is what it started out to be. and now it's grown into this big policy and so the legislature tweaks it every once in a while. So this these changes would uh bring your investment policy into compliance. This is second reading.

Okay. I entertain a motion on ordinance 2025-7 approve. Got a motion in a second. Is there any other questions or discussion for Dan? I'd just like to comment that uh Heather's done a great job investing our money, picked up another $2 million this past year. So, just want to say good job. Any other comments? All those in favor signify saying I. I.

Any oppose? All right. Moving on to any funded organizations, any department heads have sit there and stare at me. Any elected officials? I'll go. Go ahead.

Um just a quick note, we have um we estimated finishing the year in county general at 11.6 and we actually ended at 12.2. I'll get numbers to um we're going to start on the AFR here shortly, so we'll get final numbers too on everything. Um hopefully we'll have something solid um at the February meeting, but we did end about 600,000 higher than we expected in um or estimated in county general. So, it's good news.

I'm sorry. The AFR is the annual financial report that we have to do every year. Tom, you have anything? Quiet this one. Okay. All right, Mr. Hooser, let's hear it. What you got?

Matt. Well, we put a cut off switch down here. I can cut them off if we need to.

Carrie Joyce I too want to thank the council for your continued uh trust. Uh I do appreciate it. Um we'll keep moving forward and um as a Purdue guy, I am excited to watch the IU football game. It's been been quite a run and fun to watch. But u thank you to all the county employees uh you know for like I say, we're heading into a new year and look forward to what this year brings. Hopefully we don't have too many road bumps, but we'll we'll figure them out as we go. I think that's Is there any public comment? Sorry, almost missed a line there. Next regular meeting, February 10th, 9:00 am right here. Under a motion to journ