Boc - Regular Meeting

good evening everybody uh welcome to the miami county council meeting uh this is tuesday september 15th seven o'clock at the guard room uh i'd like to start with a prayer from councilman sailors and then the pledge of allegiance for wisdom insight and direction father on the county's business father and uh

Lord, bless your blessing for everyone here in the county. In Jesus' name, amen.

I pledge allegiance 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. All right. Obviously, we've got some handouts for you guys.

It's going to be a longer meeting today. So hopefully that this kind of helps you follow along. And we appreciate everybody's attendance. And yeah, let's get this started. So I'd like to make a motion or I'd entertain a motion.

Approved the previous minutes.

Motion.

Second. With a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, I'd like to amend the agenda to put Ms. Mandy Maverick on there to go over with some probation stuff. And who else need to go on? I'm sorry, I'm drawing a blank. And the sheriff to go over a jail issue that arised.

Motion. Second. The motion and second.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Next, we have a request for audience. So we'll just start with Mr. Seitz and Mr. Tinkovich. Oh, I'm sorry.

We're just reading it off the sheet, Courtney.

I won't be offended. I do have more hair, so I'll take that.

If we were actually confused, I might be better.

i wanted to talk to the council about the project we've been working on for three or four months now to replace some equipment that's going to go outdated and also adds different features for the department these two there's there's several facets to it it's been a lot of hours but several facets to how this works we have a taser which i'm going to get out so nobody hold your fire i don't have the sheriff come up and i'll demonstrate how this works so this is the current taser that we carry this is the x26p taser which has this framework to it this is getting phased out by taser they have an end date of approximately a year when they're no longer going to produce this if any of ours break. They are going to continue to do the cartridge system and the battery for the Taser. But this frame model will go away, which these will not work on any other model. So in light of that, it's kind of pushed us into what are we going to do in the future for our division to have a Taser. We started into some talks with the Axon company. what we could do with the funds that we had. And that was one of our first sentences in our meeting. They asked, how much money do you have? And I said, none. So we started working our way from there as to how we were going to get this project done. We have several different things that we tried to work on. One, this fires one cartridge each time. And in order to, if you have a suspect coming at you, you have to retract this one a lot of time and somebody can be on top of you in just seconds and we know that that has been corrected not corrected but upgraded by the axon company so they came out with what they call the taser 10 which is their newer model and it fires 10 times on one cartridge we're a community in a county where our officers can be out there with extended period of time without backup okay so with that i feel like it's a huge officer safety thing if we can add to their tool belt a tool that will try to help them 10 times in a row versus one maybe two at best if they have a second cartridge and if it's readily available to them at the time on their belt we started out with this program talking about tasers and the second facet to it was The body cams. Body cams have obviously been a red button topic for the last year and a half of my life. The body cams, the liabilities, we're getting to the point where the Miami County Sheriff's Department is one of the few departments that don't have a body cam. A lot of our larger departments, maybe more funded departments, we're picking up body cams. I'm going to say 10 years ago, when you get down to Westville, Carmel, some of the, now we've gotten to the point where we're not just the 50-50, we're the black sheep without them. And then with that, we have, and I don't want to misspeak for the prosecutor's office, but when people ask, do we have body cam video of that? And they're told no, they kind of look at you like you don't. So we wanted to move into that for our future of the department. Axon is a very complex company. They handle several, several different items. They are getting to be, they're the lead frontier of a lot of the electronic devices and law enforcement, which what comes with that's a big bill. We all know that. The storage of the cameras is what's so intense on the funding part of it. You buy a camera, You think here's what I got, but now for them to maintain and store that within the capacity that a court finds to be justified and a chain of custody, it's very expensive to do it. So we've worked with them on a project that started out of a list price of, and this is a five-year contract, our list price started At $255,852, or $54.52, there's absolutely no way, no way we can afford that. What I'm asking for from them when we first went in was 25 Axon cameras, no bells and whistles. These are the state-of-the-art cameras, but everything's a la carte in the camera. So when you see an officer wear one, it'll record its video. But for extra funding, they can a la carte add things to a translation for language barriers. report writing. There's several things that they can do with that device. We're looking to get into a ground level, foot in the door, basic cameras for liability for the officers. I want to express very strongly, this is not to watch our officers. This is not because we have questions of the integrity of our officers. This is a liability of the officers in a suit to the county. And we have evidentiary product that we can put on them that will show what actually happened there. The body cams have came a long way in the last few years. You used to see the body cam and everybody complained, well, you can't really tell. It's kind of like a fish eye and you can't really see things well on the sides of the camera view. They've upgraded those. They've got this new Axon 4 camera that they're trying to push very hard. And my statement to them was, then show us how hard you want to push it. What can you sell it to us for? So we went back and forth off the table for weeks, working on the program from 255, 854 to right now they're giving us the opportunity to come into the program at 47.13% off for a five-year contract. The five-year contract, if approved, The transfer here, we're asking for $50,000 of the prosecutor's deferral funds to get the first initial down payment on it. That'll leave us with $21,317.58 for the remaining four years of the five-year. Now, what we get with that is we get trainers that come up. They train on the Taser 10. They provide the cartridges used. for all the training. The cartridges are very expensive for any of these. These are about $24 a piece for these. In order to train every year, every officer that carries one has to fire two during the training process. So we're burning about 50 bucks an officer every year annually just to get them on their uniform and certified out on the road. The Taser 10 is actually very comparable. They're trying to sell it. They want to get it out there. So we were able to work together to come up with the numbers that worked inside. Right now we have the Axon current line item of $21,000 a year, I think is where we're set. We're looking for that. We're hopeful to go to 30 on it. I want to make sure we're clear. These new tasers will be 17 of them. They will go to the road division. This is a beautiful photo that she's found. somewhere on axon yeah yeah so this taser will go on the 17 road officers that are out on their own working primarily by themselves doing traffic stops doing things of that nature we're not looking to man all of our division with the new tasers we have by taking 17 and putting them out We will then retain 17 of these that will go into our inventory. They will remain in the jail. They will remain on several officers of the administration. We will carry just our original X26Bs. We will not upgrade us. We will have one shot. The road division will have the 10. We'll put 17 of these back in our inventory because they've guaranteed us as long as they're in the field, they will maintain selling us these and continue to produce them along with the batteries. So if one of these breaks for some reason or fails to work inside the mechanism, we will have 17 that we can go back and get and refill our division with. And we're hoping that lasts several years to do that before we have to spend any additional funds to move off that. So we're trying to go in as lightly as we can. The body cams, which I discussed before or stated before, they will be very, very basic. Each officer will have one that works out on the road. Our transport officers will be available to have them as well. Our transports will then be recorded to and from as the officers go across the state. They'll be able to have one and there'll be a dash mount that we'll purchase where they can lock it into dash and that transport will be. So we're covering the liability in several areas by doing that. So what we're looking at, it started out at $255,854. It's now 135,270. And with the $50,000 proposal from the prosecutor's office on the deferral fund, we're going to be working very close to our current budget. This is only going to cover the front part. We have additional money that comes out of that. For our training in the rear, the jail section, anybody else that carries the X-26P, we still have to get our cartridges to certify people every year. So there's still additional money that comes out. That's why we're looking at, If we're able to get to 30,000 in that, that will cover all of our Axon products, including storage. It's 100% on the new ones and the camera's 100% warranty. If they're dropped, broke, jump in a river, whatever it is, they may as well spend 24 hours to replace it. So that comes with a full warranty on the new product, not on the ones that we already maintain. Anybody have any questions? That was quite a spiel, but I want to explain to you where the published money's going. And that's why we had to make this move. We had to make a move sooner than later. And with this new Axon or this new Taser 10, and then wanting to push that out along with this new camera, they were willing to work with us to get that money down.

The other thing, the other agencies that we work with all use Axon currently. So as far as, you know, this company versus another company, state police, police department, I mean, the two larger, other larger agencies that work here in Miami County, they are both equipped with Axon. So it's the same system for our purposes. Everything is then web-based. We have access to it at the prosecutor's office where we, once they share it with us, we have access to everything. So it's the same. It'll be consistent between all agencies. And for sharing with each other, I think Axon is the logical place for them to be looking. We've had great success with the other agencies. I don't think he's underestimating kind of the shock that people have when they say you don't have body pans. Not only does it protect the officers, it protects the civilians. And frankly, it makes for really, really great evidence from the prosecution side of things. It also can make great evidence for the defense side of things. You get to see it for yourself. There's no questioning what happened that night. It puts you in as almost another witness. So I don't think there's any question how important and vital body cams have become. And I think this is the best move that the Sheriff's Department could be making at this point.

I understand in this program, acts on the sky's limit. You could spend a billion dollars with them if they'd let you. They'd take it. They don't have any problem taking your money. There's several other things. I mean, you draw your weapon, it turns on your camera. We're not asking for any of that. We are getting foot in the door, basic start for liability reasons for the department and the county.

That's where we're at. Yeah. So, um,

With the storage then, it's all on AXM then, or does county IT have a part in this, or is all the deployment with them?

They maintain all of it. Okay.

And then is your intention, so the total contract is $135,270. Is your intention then to pay all that up front? No.

My intention is to do the $50,000, which will go in, we'll sign the contract, By the end of September, these numbers are locked in through the end of September. Myself and Sheriff Hunter talked about this in detail, great detail. We'll sign that contract. It'll go to effect January 1st. You'll see them on the officers in 2027. And then, so the 50,000 will be the 2027, then four additional years to finish the contract. So when do you have to have the rest of it? So each year, then we'll take out of our Axon account, we'll pay them the $21,317. each year to finish our contract, which should be on our line item already.

I noticed on the user fee fund that there was already $50,000 for public safety equipment and training. So this is this is outside of that. Correct.

Correct. This is a kind of a one time transfer appropriation from that account to the Sheriff's Department for the purposes of effectively a down payment on down payment of the first year.

Yeah, so this will be the launch of the program and then the Sheriff's Department will maintain it inside the budget.

Do you get anything coming in on deferral?

Yes. Yes, we are still moving in that direction. But it depends on what the legislature does in the future on how healthy that program is going to be. We have a healthy balance right now.

$380,914.

So we have the money right now. If there are changes at the state level, there are changes that amount coming in to get depleted quickly. But for now, this is not an issue on our end.

And we realize that the prosecutor's office helps many other agencies inside the county. So that's why we're just asking for the 50,000 transfer from them to launch it and stay within our scope here to complete the project and not try to drain them. There's many other people, I'm sure, that need your money as well.

So this transfer then will happen essentially this month in so that you can get started with it and have it implemented by January 1.

Correct. It'll move into our Axon line item and then out of that, we'll be able to get them started with the contract and get it in place for January.

You mentioned a dash adapter, because you don't have dash cams either in the car, right? Correct. We have no audio. So that's going to be essentially a body cam and a dash cam that's in the car.

This will just be their camera. If all that works out, which it appears it will, we're going to come up with the amount that goes on there so a transport officer can take it off their vest and put it on so it faces back in the car. Does that make sense? Yeah. So there's not two separate items there.

It's just one that will snap into a holder. But the standard procedure for a deputy is that they would have it on them.

Correct.

Okay.

Yeah. And we're going to finalize a policy, myself and Detective Freeman and sheriff have been looking at policies and we just want to make sure we get that place that gives us a couple months to get that all lined up and ready to roll out in january just out of curiosity then i assume once you have this technology is there also then a policy if

somebody that you're on a call with wants to request that i assume then there's some other policy if the public wants to request that or how does that follow up but like i assume then you we have to develop some some process if somebody wants to query that data i would say it's it's really no different than you know if someone gives an interview with any other evidentiary product

If there is an active investigation, then a lot of that gets filtered through our office for what qualifies as a public record, what doesn't, what gets sent as discovery through the court process. All of that, the discovery process, we do all online, evidence.com. We can share it to defense attorneys and they can get it pretty well.

Did you guys make that up?

Sure did. I wish I was that clever. No, it is literally evidence.com, so they got to jump on that. It's all very quick, very smooth, but it would fall under any other evidence. It would be the same as any other evidence that would be collected, whether that be photos, other video at the scene. So, you know, if it's a public record, if it's a public record, if it's not a public record, then it's not. But we would handle that, I would say, the same as any other evidence.

Right, which we're already utilizing the Axon still photo program, which goes down to the prosecutor's office. So it'll be handled the same way as far as disseminating to attorneys or however that goes.

And you're already doing that with the other agencies.

Yes.

So it's not. It's all brand new. It's something that's already state police, city police, business as usual.

Any more questions?

Well, I will entertain a motion for $50,000 from the Prosecutor's Deferral Fund 2501 to the Sheriff's County General 1008. Motion? Second. The motion in a second. I'll do an individual vote. Mr. Wallace. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Motion carries. Thank you guys so much. Yeah. Thank you.

Sure. Yeah. Sure. If you're ready. In addition to what Chet had to say in reference to the

Body cams, we've talked a lot about that. I'm in full support. I've had no issue with that. The reason we have not gone body cams up to this point is due to the expense. We've not been able to look at the deals that they've, things have changed a lot since then. So I'm in full support of it. I told Chet, I gave him permission to go ahead on it, to look into it. I think it'll be a good thing for the department. What I'm here to bring to your attention tonight is I'm going to be next month, I'll be asking for additional appropriation for medical to the expense of $35,000. We have a medical group that takes care of the jail and inmates, quality correctional care. They have saved us an enormous amount amount of money, along with the cooperation of the courts, all three courts and the prosecutor's office, have helped tremendously in situations where inmates have become very seriously ill, would be hospitalized for a period of time, provided the offense isn't too serious. The prosecutors and the courts have worked with us to get these people out for the time being so that we keep expenses as low as we possibly can. So still things happen under the circumstances. You know, you can't, you can only do so much. And so we're going to be a bit short this year. We think 35,000 we're hoping should take us to the end of the year. So next month I will be coming and asking for an additional appropriation.

Do you know where that line item's paid at right now, the medical?

Yeah, I looked at that earlier today. I think that is what we talked about earlier. I think it's special purpose. It's going to be 11-14.

I think it's 11-14, yes. But I can't say that right now.

Any questions?

might be out of jail bread yeah i don't it's not in a special purpose although i would agree with your if you're thinking to pull it out of there yeah that's what when the sheriff brought it up so i uh my two thoughts were coming out of county general or um out of special purpose and i think special purpose would be um the way to go i'm just pulling up the fund report right now for it

We try to be as conservative as we possibly can, but when you're dealing with medical issues, it's not always easy to do that.

So things come up. Yeah, they do.

yeah it's coming out of uh we're just looking at it's coming out of public safety 1170. but i would i would maybe i agree with your recommendation to maybe pull this out of the operation out of 1114 lit lit special purpose which is there for to fund the jail operations so we ended off with 3.1 at the end of the year million in that account and last year we budgeted 1.9 so we're gonna have more than enough money in there i'll make a motion to advertise the appropriation next month out of 11 14 special purpose i have a motion second to advertise 35 000 out of lit

Special Purpose 1114.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Sheriff.

I appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right, Mandy, you ready?

So I am just here to ask if I can change the title of one of the positions in my office. We currently have what we call a case manager position. Community corrections also has a case manager position and they positions and they are paid on the probation officer salary scale. So in order to clarify that, so there is a confusion, I just want to change the title of that position to probation officer assistant, because we do not pay that position on the salary scale. And when I looked at the job description that whoever came when they redid the job descriptions, it reads almost exactly the same as community corrections. And in fact, there's a lot of the same, it says community corrections throughout the job description. So I updated the job description, but I just would, I just think it would be cleaner if we changed it. So it's not confusing as far as we're not paying my case manager on the salary scale, which makes no sense because salary scales for us. So. if that makes sense so i'm just asking to change the title from case manager to probation officer assistant no change in money same job same everything um just a title change just to clean it up is there any is there any comment from the auditor's office are you guys okay with that change it's up to you guys but We'll do whatever you guys tell us.

What was it going to be changed to what?

Probation officer assistant instead of case manager. It's all the same.

Basically, it's to stop the confusion of which pay scale.

I just think it makes more sense because since community corrections, they're also not probation officers, but they're getting paid that. And I have somebody with the same title in my office who is not. So I just think we need to change the title.

Any issues from the commissioner's standpoint?

You guys are the ones that have to... Yeah, I did ask them and they seemed okay with it.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I didn't ask them formally in the meeting. I talked to Fred after.

I'll make a motion to approve the title change.

I got a motion and a second for Mr. Saylors to change the case manager position in probation to probation officer assistant. The motion is second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Motion carries. Thanks, Mandy.

All right, next on the agenda, we have additional appropriations ordinance 9-15-2026. We will do this one at a time. So the first one, we'll start with EMA fuel. This was talked about last month with Mr. Hunt. This will get them through the end of the year. Does anybody have any questions? or 20,000 going into EMA budget for fuel.

So we're appropriating that out of the EMA fund then?

Or it would be out of county general into EMA.

Appropriation EMA fuel. Yes. Yeah, County General 1026.

Do I have any questions on that?

No question.

I will entertain a motion to approve 20,000 for EMA fuel. So moved. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second. All right.

We'll do this vote one at a time. Mr. Wiles? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. Thank you. Next is what we tabled last month with dispatch part-time. for $25,000. All the information was sent from the auditor's office to the council about two weeks ago.

Does anybody have any questions on that? No questions. A motion to approve. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second.

With my motion and a second to approve $25,000 for the 911 part-time. Mr. Wiles? Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. All right.

Last appropriation we have is for animal control to catch up on invoices. This was also sent out in the email. I also have additional copies here. This is for $30,000 to uphold our end of the contract.

This is the back pay, if I remember right. This is the back pay.

Make a motion.

Second.

I have a motion for Mr. Saylors and a second for Mr. Fruth to approve 30,000 for the animal control building. Mr. Wallace, how do you vote? Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

All right.

Next, we have the budget reading. So the sheet that we passed out this kind of chronological events. Oh, this is gonna go. I tend to talk fast, so I'm gonna try to slow it down. I am going to read the advertised 2027 budget. I'm not gonna go line item by item like we did during budget workshops. I'll just read the fund, the fund name and the total and go through. And then after that, I will open up the floor for public discussion on that.

So with that being said, I will start. Thank you.

All right. Fund one, clerk of circuit court for a total of $338,008. Fund two, clerk of superior court one and two for a total of $200,000. $136. Fund number three, clerk of election, $143,100. Fund four, clerk of voter registration, $54,992. Fund number five, auditor's office, $288,228. Fund number six, treasurer, $217,614. Fund seven, recorder, $119,310. Fund number eight, sheriff, $2,562,016. Fund number nine, jail, $1,308,822. Fund number 10, surveyor, $106,591. Fund number 11, drainage board, $6,100. Fund number 12, extension office. $182,510. Fund 13, coroner. $263,870. Fund 17, prosecutor. $73,255. Fund 17. About 14 assessors. Yeah, I got 14 assessors.

One second. Did I miss the assessor?

Okay.

Bear with me. Fund 14, assessor, 73,255. Fund 17, prosecutor, 377,920. Fund 18, IBD trial support, 312,216. Fund 19, circuit court, $202,791. Fund 20, Superior Court. $198,736. Fund 21, Probation. $564,590. Fund 22, Courthouse. $364,098. Fund 23, Planning and Zoning. $282,687. Fund 24, Veterans Administration, 60,229. Fund 26, EMA, 297,726. Fund 27, Weights and Measures, 19,528. Fund 28, Soil and Water, 81,162. Fund 29, Commissioners, 5,535,652. County Council, 136,103. Fund 32, CASA, 112,344. Fund 33, Public Defenders, 891,181. Fund 34, Superior Court II, 193,891. FOR A COUNTY GENERAL GRANT TOTAL OF $15,495,406. ALL RIGHT. FUND 1104, USER FEE, DRUG AND ALCOHOL, $45,750. 1112, this is LIT Economic Development, $566,566. Fund 1112.03, LIT Certified Shares, $721,302. Fund 1114, LIT Special Purpose, $2,009,644. Fund 1119, Clerk's Perpetuation Fund, 32,976. Fund 1122, Community Corrections, 331,933. Fund 1131, Sales Disclosure, 3000. Fund 1135, CUNE Bridge, $1,223,550. Fund 1140, CUNE Courthouse, $541,000. Fund 1148, Drug Free Community, $30,000. Fund 1154, Enhanced Access Fund, $20,000. Fund 1159, Health, $985,616. Fund 1160, ID Security Protection, $7,500 Fund 1161, GPHC Funding, $509,258 Fund 1164, Jury Fees, $32,500 Fund 1169, Local Road and Street, $713,000 Fund 1170, Lit Public Safety, $1,384,646 Fund 1173, NVH Restricted, 2,316,240. Fund 1175, Misdemeanor, 23,349. Fund 1176, 201, Motor Vehicle Phase 1, 276,463. Fund 1176, 202, Motor Vehicle Highway Phase 2, 1,627,629. Fund 1176-203 Motor Vehicle Highway Phase 3, $518,755. Fund 1181 Flat Book, $16,000. Fund 1189 Recorder's Perpetuation Fund, $112,614. Fund 1191 Riverboat, $250,000. Fund 1200 Supplement Public Defender Services, $30,972. Fund 1202, Surveyors Perpetuation, $17,200. Fund 1216, Auditors Ineligible Deductions, $5,000. Fund 1217, County Elected Officials Training, $5,000. Fund 1222, Statewide 9-1-1, $491,898. Fund 1224, Reassessment, $453,094. Fund 1235 Lit PSAP, $668,741. Fund 1237 Opioid Restricted, $132,092. Fund 1238 Opioid Unrestricted, $30,000. Fund 1242 Lane Mile, $459,971. Fund 2000 Admin Fee Probation, 17,483. Fund 2001, adult probation, 149,879. Fund 2050, juvenile probation admin, 14,350. 2501, deferral, 135,655. Local source 911 funding, 49, or fund 4940, 172,947. Fund $49.57 Miami County Wheel Tax, $1 million. Fund $46.59 Drug Court User Fee, $25,000. Fund $49.61 VaxCare, $10,000. Fund $81.14 Local Emergency Planning, $16,365. Fund $81.21 Victims Advocate, $43,112. Fund 9113, Soil and Water Grant, $47,218. Fund 9108, Community Corrections Grant, $273,034. Fund 9146, Problem Solving Grant, $10,500. Fund 9149, 2021 DOC Grant, $104,373. Fund 9162, probation service dog grant, $1,500. Fund 9163, probation incentives grant, $6,000. 9189, 2025 preparedness grant, $25,000. For a total of $18,645,676. Oh, and I got the last two, I apologize. Solid waste, $677,205. And Hidden Hills, $59,950. For those two, a total of $737,155. You said $18 million what? $18,645,676. So that is what we went through during budget workshops in the beginning of August. We advertised for a 3% raise on top of what we went through, because you can't ask for more after we advertise. So with that, the Budget and Wage Committee met with some of the departments to kind of go over their budget. We have some recommendations that I would like to present to the council. to vote on the first one is we did advertise for great changes with that it will help free our county budget our county general budget up so it would be the budget wage committee's recommendation to move the entirety of the sheriff's budget which would be a thousand and eight except for the three line items and other personal services, which is retirements, bonds and insurance and attorney fees, equaling $321,550. But everything else would move into LIT income tax 1170 public safety. Do I have any questions on that?

Yeah, I know that was a total of, do you remember how much the total movement was?

Sir, the total movement, we started the sheriff's budget, but the total movement out of there have been $2,207,793 coming out of County General.

Yeah, I would just reiterate that the budget that we just read, my notes here again, as Councilman Scott said, the budget was advertised at $15,495,406.

Our county levy is just below $10 million. So that is not balanced. So this is a move. and we're going to talk about some lit change recommendations this is a move to use lit income tax to help fund those departments as the primary general fund property tax as those caps are coming into into place there so there's no other discussion on this i would uh entertain a motion

to move what was discussed from the Sheriff's budget into Lit Public Safety 1170.

Motion. Second.

With a motion to second, Mr. Wiles?

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. All right, motion carries, thank you.

With that going into the Sheriff's, also into the Sheriff's budget, we did meet with the sheriff and his team, Mr. Seitz and Mr. Freeman. It was an amazing conversation during budget workshops. They came to...

They did not bring their tasers, though. No, no tasers.

There were no tasers. The ask was for two new deputies. After speaking with the sheriff's department, the I don't know if you guys want to speak on this real quickly about the transports the state is putting on the county where you guys are losing an officer, maybe going up to Mishawaka. You know, I know you're better with the details than I am. And they're having transports down to Evansville. Yeah, if you want to.

Yeah, I'll speak to that.

Yes, we have a number of transports that are required by our department. Court-ordered transports people who are sentenced to prison, whatnot. We get court-ordered transports, many from Fort County Mental Health, which we're going to be having a meeting with the judges in Fort County in the morning to try to curve some of that a little bit. We started out with one transport officer a number of years ago. And so those transports increased and increased and increased. And so we thought, well, we'll take another officer from the jail and use a part-time transport officer. And this officer has turned into a full-time transport officer also. We're going all over the place, all over the state of Indiana. And most of the time, sometimes we're going out of state. We're going to Kentucky, we're going to Illinois, Michigan. to house inmates or maybe even juveniles. And we may have to take them one day and a day or two later, we go back and pick them up and bring them back. And so the reason because of that is because there's no place in Indiana here to take them. Everything is full and you hear over and over constantly all the time, well, we've got all these places, you can take them anywhere. I'll try to get them in someplace. It just doesn't work. So we wind up going someplace else, a farther distance, which takes our manpower. We've got a person going that whole time. It takes a tremendous amount of time. It takes manpower. Sometimes two people. Sometimes it's an overnight detail. It's farther away. I don't really want people to push it all that much. I try to go down and come back at the same time. You may go uh, eight or 10 hours in the days in, in one trip, I wouldn't come back that same day. That's just really not safe. So these things take a lot of time, a lot of wear and tear on the vehicles, a lot of fuel, not to mention the overtime, uh, you know, the, the cost of, uh, of an officer.

These are issues that we have and they're increasing, they're increasing. So just. So, you know, for the future.

We don't like it. I don't like being a taxi service for somebody else.

But we don't always have anything to say about that. What's the reason you take them out of state?

No, we can't place them here in state. They're full or they won't take them for one reason or another or they're violent or they might have medical issue or it can be a very various reasons. So, yeah. And we may have to take them one day, drop them off. We might have to go pick them up the next day or a couple days later. And we might have to go pick them up from that facility, take them to another facility.

And then maybe go back and get them from that facility and bring them back here for court. There's just nothing local.

And if there is, they're full or they'll find some reason to not accept. These are issues we're up to. We're up against right now, so I appreciate you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. After talk with the sheriff's department, we have it in the sheet we gave out into the public safety. The one deputy as described, but I would entertain a motion to add this one deputy. So I believe the original ask was for two. So for two. Yeah. So I have a motion to have it as one deputy going into the 2027 budget.

Motion.

One deputy said. One deputy.

Aye.

With a motion and a second, Mr. Wiles. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Well, I don't have it on the sheet, but this for to have it on there because I forgot to put it on. With that, we do have some room in the advertisement to update the Axon contract from 21,000 to 30,000 with this movement. So to get them off on the right foot 27, I would entertain a motion to increase the Axon contract from 21,000 to 30,000. for 2027 out of lit public safety.

Motion.

Do we have a second? Second. With a motion and a second, Mr. Wiles? Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

Next recommendation is also is the biggest fight is the bringing up the County General. So another fund that we also are able to move into a LIT fund for public safety is probation. So the ask is to move County General 21 probation into LIT 1170 public safety for the entirety of the budget, which is a total of $564,882. Motion to approve. Second.

with the motion and second, Mr. Wiles. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

Next, we got some clarification on the commissioner's budget, which is County General Fund 29 commissioners. Their line item had Microsoft 365 Councilman Ruth during budget workshops. I asked Mr. Dennison to look into that. He gave us an answer that they will be only spending $25,000 out of the original $105,000 asked at budget workshop. So I would entertain a motion to approve the change from $105,000 to $25,000 for Microsoft 365 in the commissioners budget.

Motion. Second. Motion and second.

from uh mr sailors mr fruit um and without any discussion um mr wiles all right all right all right all right all right motion carries thank you um staying in the commissioner's budget the same thing mr dennison gave us a concrete answer on the computers um in the line item the original last was 77 800 um That is now 52,400 for 17 computers.

Motion.

With a motion from Mr. Fruth and a second from Mr. Saylors. Mr. Wiles? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Another big obstacle that we had was the

dealt with it last year we're going to be dealing with again is being a self-insured county is the health insurance um it's just it just is what it is but um after some good conversations um we thought it'd be a good idea uh to present to the commissioners but i want to vote i want to council vote on to create a uh a seven person uh benefits committee um for the start of 2027 with one council representative one commissioner the auditor's office, and then we would have the four employees from the courthouse more of the day-to-day on more of like a benefits committee. I don't know if you want to speak on that more, Brad.

Yeah, we had great conversations with the benefit administrator, and there was some conversations about, especially in 27, looking at the ratio of what the employees pay, and it's been I think some time since that's been looked at. And so there was a recommendation from them to kind of look at bringing a committee together that could help with those types of decisions as we move forward. So it would be our recommendation to the commissioners. Ultimately, it's up to them and it's in their purview as they're in charge of administering all the benefits. But we felt that was a good recommendation to review those costs and what that share is.

So I would entertain a motion for a formal recommendation to the commissioners to form a benefits committee for one council member, one commissioner, the auditor's office, and four employees. Motion. Second. We'll have a motion for Mr. Fruth and a second for Salers. Mr. Wiles. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. Thank you.

Okay. Next, we'll have to send the details of the exact fund numbers. I got to work with Mr. France, but there is the planning and zoning. I know Brad can speak on this a little bit better, but they have to do as a creation of a non-reverting fund for their liens, I believe. We have to create that fund for 2027. That's coming from the state. Another fund would be a benefits fund. This is more of, we see that the commissioner's budget is so high, that $5,535,652. Getting the benefits portion out of that and getting into a non-reverting fund, I think, would just be a little bit easier to... have to be able to see a total number instead of a big number on there. And then the second one would be, we'll discuss it more, but during the lit rate changes that we are going to present to the council would be to establish an EMS and fire fund also.

So with that being said, do you guys have any questions on that?

Motion.

Second. With a motion and a second from Brad and Brian. Mr. Wiles? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

This is, again, a recommendation to the council from the Budget and Wage Committee. We advertise for a 3% raise for county employees. But as you see with the draft financial stability plan, it's going to be tight for the next couple of years, but also the cost of living is not going down also, which is a tough spot to be in. So it would be the Budget and Wage Committee's recommendation to propose a 1% raise for the 2027 budget year. with the exception of no raises for the county council and no raises for the commissioners.

That would also, do you want to clarify any part, is that including part-time?

So part-time on the salary ordinance on there, I haven't had any recommendations from department heads on their part-time. I know we have a baseline on that and the part-time fluctuates on that. It's not everybody does get the minimum. So I haven't had anything from department heads requesting an increase on their part-time. So I would say to leave it as is.

Yeah, I would just add, you know, this was in the Budget and Wage Committee. This was a much discussed item. We're very appreciative of the county employees and the work that they do. I think as we'll get into the Next five year plan you know we're probably going to be in a position next year where we're going to have to ask departments to cut their budgets so. that's that's where I think we kind of landed on the 1% to still try to do something for the cost of living, but it's very, very tight with the with the new rules that are in place in the new CAP, but I think if you do.

the math roughly about 90 percent of our budget is payroll so when there's a cut in funding you know there's not a lot of levers we're pulling all the levers that we can so make a motion to approve that recommendation for second reading i have a motion from mr pruth and a second mr sailors uh do you have any discussion on that With that, Mr. Wiles.

What was the figure now? It would be a 1% raise. 1%? We advertise for 3%. So with a motion and a second, Mr. Wiles, how would you vote?

Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, if you guys go to the sheet with a bunch of colors for the

the draft for the lit tax distributions.

So if you guys and Brad, please jump in any time if I'm getting this wrong, but I'm just going to go down. It's in the middle bottom row in the middle says local income tax current. I'm going to read each one and the percentage. So is on for.

That's going to be coming up here, too. I don't know.

So the local income tax at the bottom

For how it currently stands is the CAGIT slash COIT shares is 0.59%. Seated is 0.95%. EMS is 0%. Public safety, 0.32%. PSAP or 911 is 0.06%. Lit correctional rehab, 0%. Special purpose is 0.25%. and property tax relief is 0.37 percent um totaling um a local income tax of 2.54 percent um so again you know as we were working through the county general budget to get to a balanced budget um utilizing lit was a big focus um four years ago the council adopted to start phasing out the PTRC credit from the state that we've had since 2008. So that's where you see on the left-hand side, it going from 0.37 down to zero. So our recommendation is to zero that out for it to be done this year. 2027, the CAGIT and COIT shares will stay the same at 0.59%. We don't have any crazy economic development projects going on. So we felt it was appropriate to recommend go from 0.95% to 0.8%. And then as discussed, creating an EMS and fire fund, we have that at 0.06%. Public safety, As we move probation and the sheriff's department into this, that's the 1170 fund we are talking about to cover those costs. We'll go from 0.32% to 0.7%. 911, we just had an appropriation to move the part-time, cover part-time. So we have that at 0.1%. Zeroed out on lit correctional. Special purpose, I believe this is already maxed out. This is just for jail use only, but this is 0.25%, and then the PTRC is 0%, with a new local income tax rate of 2.50%. So even with these moves, we were able to lower the local income tax rate, not much, but some.

Yeah, so I'll just mention the PTRC, again, as Thomas said, that was started about four years ago. The state has instructed the counties that still have that, that has to be phased out. I believe they've moved that due date now, maybe out another year, but that was really started about four years ago. The other thing I'll just mention, when you see these numbers for the shares and see that the top part of that, that doesn't all go to the county. That gets dispersed to the other units of government. So the cities, the townships, and I believe the other taxing districts like the Converse Public Library and the Peru Public Library. So that's not all just directly into the county. That is what, that affects the shares that go into each of those. So that calculation is up top there. So as Thomas said, this is a it is a little bit of a movement. We've lowered some rates, we've increased others. The overall net is that it's going down to 2.5. And so it's a little bit of a movement here as we're trying to balance those funds. This is all going to change again. in 2028 moving into 2029. We're being told that there will be legislation again in the state house to fix this. We're not sure what that's going to be. So, but we have heard, so 2.8 is the max that a county can have as a rate. We're very well aware there are multiple counties that are just maxing this rate out right now. We're trying not to be able to do that. And when we get into the five-year plan, we'll kind of show you WHAT SOME OF THE THOUGHTS ARE THERE. SO WE'RE TRYING TO KEEP THAT LIT RATE AS LOW AS POSSIBLE AND STILL BE ABLE TO FUND ALL OF OUR EMPLOYEES THAT WE HAVE AT THE IH COUNTY. SO AGAIN, JUST KNOW THAT AS WE'VE ADVERTISED, THIS IS OUR DRAFT FOR NEXT YEAR AND PROBABLY INTO 28 AND IT'S GOING TO CHANGE AGAIN IN 29 INTO 30. This is aside from the whole township discussion. There's also discussion about rolling up all the townships and fire. So this is about enough fun as we could have for this budget session but um we're thankful to darren at data pit stop who is one of the vendors that helped put this uh together here we do have the clerk treasurer and the mayor have reached out from the city we're meeting with them i think in two weeks just to kind of talk about because again this does affect income for all the different taxing units so we want to be aware of of those changes that we're making there so So I believe if the council would like to move forward with this, we're not going to adopt it tonight. This would be the draft moving into second reading until we have an opportunity to talk to those other taxing districts.

Also, one other avenue we want to look at also to make a recommendation for the council is we didn't move the jail into public safety because we didn't have a definite if we could or not. So if once we get the, you know, if we can or not, they would be putting in, as you can see at the bottom for 2027, we have 5,887,000 $312 going into 1170 live income tax. If we move the jail fund into there, if we can, it'll give us about 5.2 million coming out of there. So it'd be almost a balanced budget using every bit of that. Living of some room for God forbid, if there's any breakdowns, radio issues. It's your time. Yeah. You know, that's just, you know, it's very important to have, as we learned, you know, with some things is,

have some in the back because everything's extremely expensive um we're also uh the other little tidbit for those of you that love to talk about lit taxes um we're being told that the current legislation is once you set your rate in 29 for 30 they're going to lock it potentially for two to three years and you won't be able to change it so there's a lot of gamesmanship that some folks are playing uh knowing that once you set some of this stuff and that's all proposed legislation um about how some of this stuff is now going to move to using lit funds instead of property tax income yeah and that's you know i think you know as a recommendation it's just very you know i've been in this for two years and it's

It is, I think we're starting a good framework and it's, you know, obviously everything's always going to need a lot of work. Things change all the time. But I feel a lot more comfortable than I did back in July, you know, about this budget moving forward. So with that.

Mercy, what the deadline is for the LIT? I know we already advertised. I don't remember when. I think it's the adoption.

It's the adoption of the budget.

I couldn't remember.

I know there was a deadline. I believe that's November 2nd, I believe. We're moving to 1170. Are we going to be able to keep up on that for... Yeah, we're going to have, so if we can move the jail also in there, we're going to have just a little bit left over, but I think we'll be able to maintain that moving in, especially how the state is going to into 28, 29.

Yeah, so this essentially with this lit change, it would be $5.88 million would come in. Yeah. The other thing about lit is that the money has to be used for those purposes. You can't just copy it or copy it. You can't just move it into general funds. So that's why when you mess with the rates, the definitions of what's covered is very important because it's not like county general where you can appropriate and move stuff around. It has to be for those statute purposes. So. Yeah, so it's overall. we're going to take in $336,000 less. However, we're basically with the property tax credit coming off and a decrease in economic development is how we're going to be funding that for next year.

That's the proposal. Does anybody have any questions on that?

I like seeing it go down instead of going up. That's not much, but we're really trying.

We're a small county and I really believe living in our means and it's just, we're trying on this. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to informally adopt these rates to final adoption in the October meeting.

Make a motion.

A motion from Mr. Druth and a second from Mr. Saylors.

Mr. Wiles, how do you vote? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries, thank you. All right, next on the agenda is I would like to open the floor to public comment. I know there was a lot of information, so if anybody... Just briefly, I want to thank you guys. I know you guys have put, some of you have put countless, countless hours, including three numbers to figure it out. Thank you.

I know Keystone is closing in a month here, the co-op for gas, and I know that got brought up at budget. It's a budget where it sucks quite a bit. Has that been worked out yet? Like what we're supposed to be doing for fuel or?

Yeah, so we had some discussion. I know Mr. Watson from the highway department, because they deal with Keystone, is working on that to get card readers. um then if we get credit cards to be able to track uh fuel usage and mileage and whatnot um but as moving forward i'm not too sure yet i'm guessing it would be more of a uh appropriation for next year at some point um whenever that if we have some update on that yeah he's still working on that to make sure i mean the rate at which the highway department has bought fuel is absolutely amazing and so yeah so we're we're trying to uh work with eastern on the best way of

of how that will be essentially charged back internally. And can their tanks support it, and what's the policy?

Yeah, right now, that particular, I mean, that's the only place where we can get gas without that co-op, and they're down to one component. So I'm not sure where we were at on that.

It's going to be a big issue, I think, next year moving forward, especially when that other pump goes down.

Yeah, they're closing at the end. They're done at the end of October here. Yeah.

Does anybody else have?

What's the museum in there?

who are seated for the workshop, yes.

Thank you.

I'd like to address Hidden Hills if now's the time.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, public comment.

The Hidden Hills Board has nominated you all to answer questions with respect to any issues because they don't have a quorum. I feel uncomfortable asking. I can't imagine how you would know, but Have you received an extension of the proposed district plan from the DNR?

I'll speak for the council, unless otherwise, I have not.

One was not issued in July?

No, for the president of the council, I have not received anything or have any knowledge of that.

I can speak to that if you'd like. Okay.

Jeff Hicks, the president of the Conservancy. We did receive an extension to 12-1 of this year for our DNR, Indiana Department of Natural Resources plan for the Conservancy. And we're working towards meeting that deadline. But I didn't bring any documentation. That's fine.

That's fine. I think we're just getting more of addressing the council on this. Am I correct, sir?

Well, I have some issues that leads into the budget as well. Have we retained a new engineering company to complete the district plan?

I have not, as president council, I've not heard anything on Hidden Hills on that.

So the answer will be no?

No. And the state, well, I don't want, you know, then you guys, you guys hold your own meeting as the, as the council on this, I'm just going to be honest with you. I haven't heard anything about Hidden Hills and regarding to your budget other than what was presented.

and i can read through it line by line there's 21 line items on there um well no one's discussed it with any of the residents and and the communication we've had is to address it with the council because our board doesn't have a forum mr france you want to comment on that i mean we're just we're not the one that drafts the budget we don't even really approve it yeah it's it's on ours but it's essentially a pass-through

so the money comes to us money goes to the conservancy district so i think the council would have no information on any of that at least the two things you've asked for already i'm going to assume probably the rest of the questions you might have i don't have anything for you sir so if i found deficiencies in the budget i wouldn't address it with the council maybe address it to the president of the conservancy is what i would guess i don't know what's that for the courts

why i would have to refer to mr france on that because i i don't have to tell you you need to get your own legal counsel for that but potentially yes well it's it's it's deficient from a statute standpoint okay okay i've had enough time okay thank you sir sorry i can't answer your questions um anybody else yeah um i just wanted to update

this board that I relate on the proposal that you brought up, voted on, and Purdue was very pleased with that. So I've been working with the auditor's office to make sure we've got the same figures and everything. So I think from our standpoint, it looks like we're full steam ahead. Awesome. I really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. We appreciate you as well. We know it was a really bold ask, and I don't know if it was because of this body, but then they came out with the with a two- and three-year option for a lot of other companies. So we appreciate it greatly.

Are we going to get compensated for that consulting service?

I'll check for it. Maybe free tickets to watching great football. Nope. We're good. We're good. We're good. Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

Nope. Nope.

Nope. Anybody else? Okay. Well, I appreciate everybody coming tonight. went a lot better than I expected. So with that, I will close public comment and entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion. Before we do that, are we, so we've, the changes that we made, are we able to get updated individual budget sheets then with those, with the raises and the movement on the commissioner? I'd appreciate it updated. The spreadsheet with the little tatty things at the bottom, that would be. So the one that has the scroll thing at the bottom where you can hit every budget sheet, that would be.

But the 1170, that's completely updated for what the recommendation was on there, so that's good. And then the probation budget and also the sheriff's budget is all up there. What's that?

The 1% raise.

No, that's not on there. So the 1% is not on there, no. And then I will let you guys know as soon as possible on the jail when we hear back from that. So I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion. Second. With a motion and second, all in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you, everybody.