Montgomery County Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for taking the time to come to these budget hearings and uh we will get go ahead and get started with uh oil and water is first. Hang on a second. Do you want to explain? Sure.

Real quick. Um the new forms in front of you, they just they're in order by presentation tonight and I just added a couple things, made it a little bigger so it wasn't such an eye chart because I was starting yesterday as well. Um also the in the top right corner of each page, you will see the um comparison between 25 and 26 as well as any adjustments that were made from 25. um when we talked yesterday about the 25 adopted budget versus the 25 total budget. So if there were any adjustments made there as well. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Hi everybody. Uh my name is Leah. I'm the conservation director for the Montgomery County Soil and Water Preservation District. Um and I was told I'm supposed to talk a little bit about what soil and water is. Um for a little recap. Uh so a soil and water conservation district is a subdivision of state government and we work to conserve the natural resources of the county. Um so we do this by providing technical, financial and educational resources. Um so some of the things we do are um site visits for anyone that lives in the county. Um and that can be their gardens, their landscaping, um and invasive plants and species. Um so we're a resource for the entire um county. Um so my budget I've done for 2026. Um I think I'll start with the reductions I've done. Um, so I've reduced our overtime uh grind item to zero because Sam, who is our program coordinator, um he's non-exempt and he chooses to take uh compounds and not overtime. So I reduced that to zero because we don't need it. Um and social security I reduced down to zero. I actually deleted that line entirely um because we no longer pay. Um the the other position, same position I just mentioned, um used to be grant funded, so we would pay social security out of our district fund. Uh but we no longer do that since he's county funded. Um so that's been reduced. Um I deleted our cleaning uh line item because we we don't need uh cleaning supplies typically. we had used that or most of that line item in the past. So, I just

got rid of that. Um, and then our off storage uh line I also reduced or totally deleted because we haven't used that either. Um, and then as for additions, uh the program coordinator and the conservation director positions, um, I gave those the 3% raise that we were advised to do. So, that's that. Um, and then everything else is the same except for two lines I added for repairs. Um, $1,000 which we will use in the case we buy a vehicle in 2026. So that's something that my board has kind of discussed. Um, currently we use the um NRCS vehicles um the USDA um NRCS vehicles. Um but just in case if we needed to buy a new truck um for just the district, I put in $1,000 for repairs. Um and then the other line is for rent. So currently, soil and water is housed in the USDA service center with NRCS and NRCS um covers our portion of the rent. Um but with you know new administration and some restructuring and NRCS um there's been talk that soil and water may need to cover their half of the rent. Um that's kind of up in the air. So I just added that preemptively. Um and then if we end up not needing it, I will do a reduction. So, those are my changes. Um, any questions? [Applause]

Any questions? Who was talking to me about

camera? Yeah, that's been um kind of some rumors floating around. So, in Cass County um so there's a soil and water district in every county and Cass County had to um start covering their portion of the land. Um I'm not sure the exact details, but we were advised from the Indiana Association of Soil Water Conservation District to just have a backup plan um just in case we're asked to decide.

Well, if if they do start talking about want to do that, let me know. I deal with the farm. So, and I know he does, too. So, it' be nice if they would work with the Sure. Absolutely. We appreciate you being ahead. Tom, is there a place to put them here? We actually walked our building and looked at a few spaces. We have a few vacant offices that might be available. So, we talked about that. Yeah. And that would be another option as well. Um, so if those offices were still available, we would probably go down that route, but I just wanted to add this in there. You know, worst case scenario. So,

okay. Thank you.

Thanks, [Music] Good afternoon. I'm Monica Nagel with the Purdue Extension Office and Joyce gave me a little heads up on that I'm supposed to share something about myself. So, I'm prepared. So, I just first we are kind of a little odd being Purdue Extension. Most people are like, I don't understand why you are a county department. So, I thought I would explain that a little bit. Um, so the Cooperative Extension Service is created through the Smith Liber Act of 1914. and we are here to deliver research based information from the university that came from the land grant universities um in the moral act that happened way back in 1862 and 1890. Um so that's why we're here. Um we provide agriculture, health and youth development in our community and we are funded from a three-pronged approach from the federal, state and local levels is how we get our funding. So I thought I'd explain that a little bit more to you guys. Um but overall we provided over 400 hours of education uh to 6,000 contacts this year. Um and we also managed 3,000 three volunteer groups. We have our 4H volunteers, master gardeners, and extension homemakers. And they provided an additional uh 2,000 hours worth of service and education to our community. And our master garden has actually donated 500 pounds of produce to students and um the fish food pantry through their Nicholson garden that they manage um through a grant program that they have there. Um but then I also want to point out that Trisha provides I'll just point out one thing so you guys don't talk too much. Um but she provided um pesticide applicator desertification program which is something all farmers have to take um every year to 115 different farmers um and they average 44,000 acres of farmland um that she was able to help make sure it's being done properly. Um one thing I thought I'd point out for myself is I do a lot of uh nutrition education, but one of the services I provide is I help the jail do

their uh menu creation and approval. And this is a process that is required uh by the state that they have to have their revenues approved every year to make sure that they're meeting the proper nutritional guidelines. And I provide that service just as being here as Purdue Extension where that's something that they would probably have to pay. Where else would I if I did provide that and I do it for McGomery County along with other counties as well. Um and then our 4 program served 560 youth this year. We had 91 first-time participants. Um so that was an exciting number um to have start for us this year. Okay. So, that's what we do. Um, as far as the budget goes, um, I just did the increase of 3% for our, um, office manager, uh, as was told to do. Uh, we have a 3% increase in our contractual service, which is the, uh, contractual service we have with Purdue in order to have a Purdue extension office here in, uh, the community. I do have an increase in my travel expense, but, you'll notice I also decreased the cleaning expenses to try to make up that difference. Um, but we're spending more money than we have in mileage. Uh, so we need to decrease that a little bit. And then I also was able to decrease our computer software only slightly because things got a little cheaper there, ironically enough, but otherwise everything is the same.

Any questions? All right. Thank you. I guess I know we're not voting on anything tonight. and we're just taking all the advice and we'll review the budget as a whole.

Good evening. I'm Steve Grasser, the county corner. Um, you know, our office is charged with the determining the cause and manner of deaths within the county and then working with other agencies to ensure that the disease is served. um turned over to their final final arrangements and and circumstances. Um come to you tonight reviewing our budget for next year. Um salaries we increase 3% as as we were instructed. Um I did ask to increase uh staffing to have one additional deputy um as our case load has increased um quite a bit where last year we had um 84 calls of ser for service for the entire year. Um this year we're already at 70 and our autopsy number has also increased which we all know can vary from year to year depending on on what's going on. One thing that we've noticed in the last uh 18 months to to two years is the number of our deaths have not only increased but the the age has decreased in our deedence which we all know when when somebody young unexpectedly passes away that that automatically triggers more in-depth investigation. Um, one thing that we have noticed is our drug abuse deaths seem to have decreased and as a direct result of the support you guys have given our office and and the law enforcement partners and and EMS and everyone in the community to help reduce that. Um, but with that, I have asked for an additional person to be brought on staff to to help with that case load because with all of us working other full-time jobs, we we try to make sure that that we have someone in the county at all times to cover calls and release remains, uh, transport autopsies as needed, things like that. Um, everything else I I pretty much left the same except our our office supplies. I did ask for for an additional amount

of funding to to pay for a new printer. our printer is is kind of on its last leg and I want to be able to replace that after the first of the year. Um and then increasing our autopsy budget from 30,000 to 40,000. The vendor that we did use the company we use for our autopsies up until a few months ago u changed their business model and they're long no longer traveling to us. So to continue using that company, we would have to travel to Marian County and then pay the Marian County Corner's office fees. So we come with fuel along with with the service or the facility fees for Marian County. Um we went to a new company who was slightly more expensive in my opinion. They do a much more thorough job. They're much faster in their responses and uh providing uh final autopsy reports and they continue to travel to us. Um which saves us from having to to put wear and tear and burn fuel going to Indie all the time. Um and then our our local facility that we use has has a much more palatable cost for their facility fees. But like I said, other than that, the the remainder of our budget I pretty much left alone except for those few things.

So, do you feel that that's enough to cover in for that 10,000? You feel it's be comfortable with that? If if if it was a perfect world, I would ask for 100,000 and know that I would never have to come back to you and ask. I feel like I feel like another 10,000 would be a reasonable expectation to get us through next year to to increase by $10,000. I'm worried this year.

Right. Right. And and some of that has been we had a couple of cases that I had to pay for autopsy twice because I got my results back from the previous autopsy company and they came back undetermined. when we reviewed things and we just weren't comfortable with that, we went and paid for this company to review the same data and they came back with a list of things. So that right there, I paid for one autopsy twice and those are things that I feel like with this new company we won't be running into any other questions I know from experience fun every year. Sometimes you get back quite a bit of money and sometimes you're kind of casting a little more.

Absolutely right. Is what you presented. So thank you. Thanks. Uh next is treasure.

Good evening. Heather Leoon from the treasur's office. We collect property taxes, hand keeper tax, excise things like that from the state dog tax as well. And um our office has two extremely busy times of the year and the rest of the year we're doing more collection than what you realize. So we receive annual money for the county. So whether it's on a monthly basis or a daily basis. So for my budget um we did the 3% increase. I'm not really sure why the part-time is showing up as a 13% increase. So I have two seasonal helpers that come in and help. Um, I'm just not sure where that 13% I really don't I just saw that it was 13%. Um, I'm just needing the 3% increase for the part-time health on their hourly rate. So, um, and then there have been some reductions, but if you go down to dues and subscriptions, that amount has gone up $150. Our Indiana County Treasures Association has notified me that instead of my dues being 5% of my salary, it's going to be 75% of my salary. So, that was $423 just for myself. But then I have to also pay dues for my two deputies. Okay. So that increase is because of the dues that I'm required to pay to be part uh Indiana County Treasures Association. And then seminars and trainings I reduced in county general by $150, but I've increased it in dog text. So, um, two times a year in order to keep my staff close on tax day, I provide lunch.

In the past, my husband and I have done that. And this is just asking for like an orange salad and a pizza for my staff. Um, and instead of coming to you guys and asking for an additional preparation out of dog tax, I'm asking for it at budget time. So, that's what the 150, it's 10 meals total. No extra dressing, no soda. You drink water, you bring your own drink. Sorry. So,

should I bring forgetting? You're you're welcome to come in and volunteer in our office during tax day. And I'm going to get you lunch as well. that in my bucket. All right. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause]

Hello, Nancy Fox, county recorder. And the recorder's office is tasked with the perpetuation of our records. So in Montgomery County, we are not by me, but by all the people before we bless to be way ahead of most counties in Indiana. Our records are digitized from 1823 on. We still have to books. That's our that's our main thing. We try not to um take care of a book unless it's truly deteriorating. It costs $5,000 to like renovate one book. But right now, our books are in good shape. We are going back and adding details to each record so they're more searchable, but they are out there and searchable for anyone who looks. Um, and I have a report of collections to pass out just for information. The recorder's office right now in Montgomery County is funded almost 100% on the fees that we charge and the fees we charge our state statute. We do not set the price. The state does and every county charges the same amount. Um, we are one of few counties that fully fund ourselves. Boone County, the the recorder and the chief deputy are funded out of the general fund. Fountain County, the recorder and the chief deputy are funded out of the general fund. Right now, because we are so far ahead in our scanning scanning, which costs a lot of money, we are able to do that ourselves. So, until we get behind, we can continue to fund ourselves. Right now we overspend what we collect slightly but our we have a pretty good hefty budget or um balance still. So right now we're okay. I'm going to give you a copy of this just to show you not only we fund ourselves but we the fees that we collect again not set by me but by set by the state. Some of it goes into elected officials training. Some goes into the general fund some goes into surveyor perpetuation. So, we are dishing into all of those funds and funding ourselves. So, I'm going to give you that.

I think there's two there. I'll let you guys.

Okay. So, as far as our budget this year, we increased the 3% out of the perpetuation fund for um payroll. And then I did decrease I was able I think I'm pretty good to decrease our spending out of our office supplies. Our big contractor, our big big vendor that we use is remaining very nearly the same. So I think we're good with that. No other comments really on the budget.

Thank you. [Applause] And then sir, do we have her drawn up yet? Mindy Buyers, County Auditor, uh, reporting for Sherry Bentley, the county assessor. She is at conference right now. So, she is has sent me a little note. I'll just read to you. Um she has three funds uh county general reassessment and the sales disclosure fund. Um county general and reassessment salaries are up 3%. Um she can fund she funds all of her deputies out of her reassessment fund. So again it's like the recorder it's it's uh kind of pays for itself. Um but she's unable to pay for her salary out of the reassessment fund. So she pays for it out of county general. That's the only thing that she has in county general. Um she puts her sal her GIS expense which is the aerial photography through Eagle View. She puts that in her sales disclosure fund. Um and then she um gave all of her deputies the 3%. She has one deputy, it looks like, um, to be filled. She's kept everything else pretty much the same. There was an increase. Um, she said the RS consultant for appeals includes Tyler, her vendor, contractual due plus attorney or appraisal fees due to appeals. Um the RS software conversion she's

oh line 4441 um that is increased. She said she's not sure why she increased that. So she's going to bring that back down or we can bring that back down. Um the GIS is up 7,000 but she is asking for additional uh services. Um and I think she spoke to you guys about that. she was looking at some oblique photography um that was going to help like the sheriff and and people like that look at the buildings in a different way. So that's the reason that went up. I might be able to answer questions. Anybody have any questions? Okay, they've had to step away. Okay, moving on. Thank you for that. Mindy surveyor

Tom Cumins of the county surveyor. Uh county surveyor's office is responsible for overseeing the maintenance construction of all the county regulators as well as section quarter perpetuation throughout the county. Uh currently we have one full-time employee besides myself. We do have a line for a part-time position currently in it. Hoping to fill that soon. Uh so you can see on the surveyor's budget the increase of 3% toward the salary lines. Uh the part-time line is it represents a 3% increase to the per hour rate for that that part-time position as well as an increase in the amount of hours per week that I expect out of that position in 2026. Um salary enhancements went up $110. Office supplies are an additional $100. That's just based on the additional staff. uh travel expenses of $50 from $100 last year or this year. Uh the other big one is the printer maintenance $600 for 2025, it's 1,500 for 2026 and that's because of the purchase of the lease on a new copy of the sheet. So that represents the monthly payment for that lease. And then dive subscription is up $100 that represents all the changes in survey budget. move on to the report. So this is very budget. There is no change. All these numbers are still the same. 225. So any questions you might have? Any questions? Okay.

Speaker one. Any [Applause] buyers? County auditor. Judge Buyers.

Judge. Wouldn't that be nice? Give me a robe, please. Um, I'm just kidding. I would not take that job. Uh, Heather couldn't. Judge Baras couldn't be here tonight. So, um, we're looking at Superior One's budget. Um, I think you guys all know what Judge Barahas does if somebody would like to that has more knowledge about that. Um, I know she does adoptions and that's really cool. So, that's my favorite part of her job. Um, she gave her people uh her staff 3%. Um, and pretty much left everything else the same. Looks like we have a decrease in interpreter fees. Um, and a couple decreases, uh, drug court treatment and dues and subscriptions. Um, I do not have anything to read from her, but um, looks like she's maintained a pretty static budget for this year. Um, it's actually down about a half a percent. So overall,

okay, well since she's not here to ask questions to, we'll thank you for the information. Uh, Spir 2, Judge Petri,

Glad they finally let you out. He did. Yeah. How many days a gift in the elevator? Yes. Yeah. Fully charged phone and you give me five bars with ATG service in the elevator. I will notice on a Sunday evening as a dedicated civil servant I was in on the weekend and then had to get the firefighters to let me out of my elevator. Now you're getting your steps. We are it's um we're looking for it's not included in this but a decrease in health insurance. employees who are increasing cardio.

We already used that joke yesterday. I'm doubling down. Um, so I am the judge of McGomery County Spirit Court 2. I preside over misdemeanors, small claims, traffic court, probate, termination of criminal rights, general civil jurisdiction, so personal injury cases, court cases, split divorces with the other two courts, and I preside over the marriage court and family recovery court. And then to add on for spirit one who didn't get to that uh divorces, adoptions, um every level six felony in the county as well as the government county drug court. Um on my budget, I'm asking 43% increase from the staff and I believe everything else says unless I miss something on my own budget. spot.

I know. Any questions for all and last but not least is Chad. [Applause]

Good evening. I'm Darren Chad with the circuit court. uh for those of you who don't know I guess what Peter just described we we share civil type of cases can be divided among the three courts outside of that in circuit court we handle all of the juvenile cases that would include both juvenile chins or children in need of services and our juvenile delinquency cases circuit court also handles our more serious criminal case serious felony crimes with that in terms of budget I think I've only requested a couple of changes from last year I've included the 3% raise for staff and then I've included a little bit extra money or additional money to get some furniture for our jury room. I think we've talked about that in the past. We held off on that given the renovation project and see what we're left with, what kind of room we're going to have. So now I'm in the market for a large table to hopefully be able to accommodate a jury and some chairs have to answer any questions. I think those are the only real changes from before. Next up, Good afternoon. It's our sixth grade network and we do a lot in our office and I'm still learning some of the things we do. Um, we do all the court filings. Keep track of that. We do all the monies in from judgments and money back out from those. We do marriage license. We do passports. Actually, we're one of the only uh county offices that does passports still. We get people from multiple counties coming into McGomery County, which does bring some money into the county. Um, so we do all the election stuff. We're doing campaign finance stuff at this point. Um, and gearing up for next year. So we we stay

very busy. Um, so I know Mindy, I had a note to you. Did you get things squared away for me? No, I did not.

Okay, that's fine. Um, just wanted to go through the payroll part of our budget. We did ask for a 3% increase on that. I believe I had one line item that I left out of here. Um, I'm not seeing it at all on that one. The part-time court deputy that we had uh somehow got left off. Um, that's my error. And I think part of that it was a full-time position at one point and then we split it into two part-time positions. And so there's a little muddling there, but basically on that we're looking at 33,000 uh to fill that part-time split between two people. We'd like to continue to do that approach. We'll be losing one of my part-time people uh here at the school starting. Um so I'm not sure I'll be able to fill both those positions, but that would still be the intent. So we'd add add the 33,000 on there. um office supplies asking for a little bit extra on the office supplies. Uh we've had some um out of pocket expenses with the move. I have a safe that I'm going to have to replace. I think it was a bowl to begin with and uh so that's going to be about a little bigger amount than I was hoping to spend. Um on the dues and the seminars, I would like to put those back down what we had before. Uh I thought we might need more of that. We had 1,500 last year. You guys gave me an increase. I don't think we need that much. So we'll drop that down to a th00and on the seminars and training for the election. Most everything we left the same as 2024. We'll be in a midterm election. So we should be able to drop some of those. I doubt we'll use all those funds. However, I think many if I looked on the and I apologize. I'm kind of new at reading the budget um software and I believe the absentee voter amount was left off. So we're doing tomorrow election. So we have the precinct board members with the absentee voter board which is is uh all the early voting that is done falls under the absentee and

that was 25,000 in the last goound and that's probably going to be somewhere close to that. The precinct board is election day voting and that stays the same. I've seen an uptick in some of the election supplies that we've had to purchase and so some of those numbers that are going up there are reflecting what I've seen from what I've been given janitor and rents we have we're losing our space at the courthouse uh where we've done early voting in the past so we're hoping we can move to the government center but the event we would have to rent something in early voting I wanted to be prepared to to do that other than that I believe that should stay close to the same questions on the election budget.

Question part time. Yes, sir. Okay. So, that was funded last year, too. So, it's not all new money, right? Yes, it was funded. Funded last year. But the interesting thing was somehow it went from 2024 was a full-time position because I moved someone in. We didn't have anybody in there and I moved somebody in those who work part-time. That got dropped down to a part-time position. I think when when we had the turnover in 2025, that was a full-time position and I think that probably should be it would be in the best interest of the office. So, we live full-time. Um, at this point, I'm not sure that I would hire someone full time. I probably split between two part times. So, that's what we did all summer. It's not an increase.

No. No. Well, there'll be a 3% increase, I guess. Any other questions?

I guess I need to deal with my perpetuation fund and I was asking for uh 30,000 in in that to be um set aside. Um that would fund my part-time perpetuation scanner that we'll we'll still be using. We've made a huge dent in in those endeavors this summer. Um and then also some of the uh software that we'll be needing to use for our digital transformation for that question. [Applause] And yeah, I think the two additional deputy prosecutor spots that I added in here, you would request it from [Applause]

Good afternoon. My name is Jason Moore. I'm the deputy prosecutor with the prosecutor's office. Uh just brief description uh our office and I've handed you guys out some numbers reflecting our case total filings from 2017 all the way through projected 2025. We've also included some statistics for our search warrants. Uh our office enforces prosecutes cases where individuals within the community work where they violate the law within the community. We prosecute them. We also uh participate with search warrants, help out law enforcement if they need to enter into a building, a vehicle, access records from an online database. We're we're helping them addressing those and that's really exploded over the past couple of years. Uh that is not limited to just accessing houses and vehicles in here looking for controlled substances or uh physical evidence. We're looking for evidence of child pornography and Facebook's record, Snapchat records, all the way to financial fraud. trying to identify cryptocurrency schemes, things like that. Uh people that are defrauding our local businesses. Um additionally, we process and handle red flag seizures. So if someone's having a mental health crisis, if they're in danger to themselves or the community, we can seize their firearms, assist law enforcement with that paperwork as well. So our office handles a little bit more than just enforcement of the criminal code. And as you can see, our numbers uh have just pretty much grown fairly steadily uh since 2022. This year is looking to be a pretty busy year for us. Um, our budget, we've asked for the 3% salary increases. Um, I will highlight for you guys, additionally, our copyear lease has increased. Uh, what we're requesting there, that's a set term with the vendor that we use. Uh, their their rates are what they are. We don't have much ability to to negotiate with them. Uh, additionally, we've asked for a $2,000 increase with our law books. Um, it's just an increase that we've had. I will also note there are four four spots, the dues and subscriptions,

seminars and trainings, furnitureures and fixtures and office equipment. We've requested slight increases in all of those. I will note that our office has not requested an increase in those four categories since 2022. Uh we've been trying to hold steady with those, but with us expanding, getting more space in the courthouse, uh then hopefully getting some interns next year, we're going to need some more equipment spaces, have to pay for continuing education, uh attorney registrations, and the like. Um as I mentioned, um and unfortunately there's a hiccup. Uh we had requested two additional deputy prosecutor spots. um when I was here earlier in the summer uh and you guys graciously allowed us to fund a intern which was a great success over the summer but our office is looking to have about 60% turnover uh within a 6 to 8month period starting at the end of 26. So out of the five criminal prosecutors that we have three of those will be retiring. Um it we're going to be in a lurch. Uh you guys can see from the numbers that we're looking at if we drop down to two deputy prosecutors or three deputy prosecutors or total prosecutors, we are not going to be able to keep up with the workload that our excellent law enforcement provides to us. Uh and so we're going to have to start cutting back on some of the things that we do. So, we are asking for those two additional deputy prosecutors positions to be funded with the anticipation of getting interns in uh the summer and then having licensed attorneys come in in October after they're sworn in and try to have a stop gap there. That way, we don't have a total loss of institutional knowledge and uh performance within our office. on the two extra positions you're asking for once everything gets back to normal you're going to go back to the

so 2027 we're going to we are not going to be requesting those two additional spots continue this is a very shortterm we're finding ourselves in a pretty unique situation thankfully we've had a lot of consistency in the office which has allowed for the development of that institutional knowledge and the efficiency that we've had we're going to try to have as smooth a transition as possible And then the other thing that's interesting here on all this is this pressure from outside in with with our uh numbers going up or is it pressure within the county illegal? What I mean what are we seeing on this paperwork here uh that's causing all that extra pressure? So it I mean it kind of es and flows. Uh as you guys can see 2017 to 2021 for misdemeanors that's the largest volume of of fences that we're looking at that stays fairly consistent bouncing between the upper 700s uh to upper 900 uh cases per year or upper 800s I apologize. And then 2022 we have a pretty strong jump and that stayed consistent at 12 to 1100. This year we're projected at 1300 misdemeanor violence. So, in my opinion, we're seeing a lot of uh marijuana paraphernalia coming across uh the Illinois border. Um, additionally, this year it seems that there's been an uptick in OWIs. And those aren't those aren't limited to alcohol related to operator while intoxicated. Uh, someone is ingesting marijuana over in Illinois and they come over here, they're intoxicated, they're putting the community at risk. So, we're filing those cases and pursuing those to ensure that we're we're maintaining some sort of public safety here for for our citizens and motorists.

Okay. So, are the two additional positions included here? They are not. I there there was a hiccup and I apologize for that. Those getting added on. So, those would be uh added in at the uh the base rate. I believe it's 78,000 and change there. And again, those we're not looking to hire into those until October of next year. We just want to have that allocated for so we're not stress.

Yeah. Because we want to make sure that we're we're having some sort of transfer of that institutional knowledge. We can acclimate people, new attorneys to the community. Again, I I'm fairly confident our intern from this summer is going to locate here. He'll be a nice addition, but we still need another one cuz they're going to come in at what rate? Yes, it would be that base rate. Uh the lowest paid deputy prosecutor, deputy public defender, I believe it's 78,000 and change is that base rate of pay. 78972 is what from that point it would be that 78,000 minus what they had for the year. Correct. one two.

Yes. Yeah. Because we're going to be losing two at the end of 26 and then one in the middle of 27. So ideally we can hold that together as best we can. So increase your budget about

interesting ourselves. I will say that the quicker our office is able to process cases, get things filed, the faster we're getting people out of custody, either through resolution of their case, assigning appropriate charges, because sometimes what people are arrested for isn't necessarily what our office files on. So, if we can get people moving through the system, getting them out of custody or going to the Department of Corrections, and that's ultimately where they're going in a faster faster time, it costs the sheriff less money housing that those people that don't necessarily need to be there. Happy for any other questions. Any other questions? Thank you.

Hi, I am Angely. I'm the administrator of the Montgomery County 4D Prosecutor's Office under Mr. And uh we established support paternity medical orders uh for non-paying against non-paying non-custodial parents. And we do various things like uh hit their taxes, hit their bank accounts for really delinquent cases and uh enforce the support in rears. So, we bring them in to see the deputy prosecutor if they're not paying and then make them explain why they're not, try to get them on a road to pay. Um, it's free to any parent in Montgomery County that has children in their care and uh we're able to if it hits all the criteria, give them support, work on getting it to them and just making their life a little easier as a parent. In past, we've brought in like $3 million a year their collected total child support and a lot of that stays in the um community but of course some of the mothers have moved off to San Antonio or someplace so there's a little bit of it that does go outside the community we are covered by the state by the first uh 29,000 is paid 100% reimbursement from the state and every dollar after that is paid back at 66 cents. So if you see my budget, we have the 3% okay on the salary. But then on uh social security and what was the other line? Mindy

and purse Medicare.

Uh yes, and the uh Medicare. We have to put numbers in there, but it's not really going to be taken out of our budget at the end of the year. it's there to get that money reimbursed to the commissioner's fund. Um for any money paid for the health insurance, all the taxes, they're um returned at 66%. So, and I don't think I had any increases outside of that. We do uh supplement a little bit for our copier out of other funds we have to the amounts that we're able to. And if any of our supplies go over, we usually hit the incentive funds. The money that we get from the state for our performance, which we're always re I think it's 13 years. We always score in the green is what they say. So we're high performers for, you know, mediumsiz county. So that's all I have. Do you want to address the pre-trial diversion fund?

We didn't talk about that. The Yeah, the Yeah, the 4911 there. Pretion.

So pre-trial diversion just uh for the community at large, that is a discretionary fund that's run through the prosecutor's office. Um there's defer diversion and deferral monies we collect from participants in that uh program traffic deferrals and then criminal pre-trial diversions. Uh and that money is then acrewed and we can fund some of the expenses that our office incurs through those funds saving the general uh balance from us asking for that money. Okay. We've also purchased law enforcement equipment. I think most recently we purchased two drones, one for the city and one for the county.

Okay. Is that the big is that the special kind of big increase? I think that's what we put that money into when we're going to expend it for a specific purpose. Okay. Make sure.

Okay. Thank you. [Applause] Next up, uh, I'm Brian Donald, chief public defender, and our office, the public defender office, uh, represents folks who are charged with crimes that cannot afford legal representation. The we don't make those appointments. The courts make those appointments. They send us the assignments and then we represent uh criminal defendants who cannot pay for their own attorney. We also represent parents in uh Chin cases, child needed services cases when department of child services gets involved and and either removes children from parents or uh just believe they may leave them in the home but they believe that there are services that the parents need. Uh unfortunately most of these parents that involved in those cases don't have sufficient funds to uh pay for their return either. So we get appointed to uh most parents and unfortunately these cases typically have at least one mother and sometimes two or three dads. So, we end up with, you know, sometimes three or four different attorneys and then I have to go outside of our office to rep to find conflict attorneys to represent the additional uh parents when those situations arise, which is not unusual in in Jim's cases. Um, as far as the budget goes, uh, you're all probably tired of seeing me the last few months here. Brett's already made way to to tell me that. Um so as as you'll notice the it looks like we're asking for a big increase uh in our budget uh which in a way we are but it's technically what's already been approved by by the board the council here. The three big items we had to move if you recall one of our we were funding one of the deputy uh public defenders out of the supplemental fund state knows

we couldn't do that. So we've had to move that into the county journal proposed to do that for next year 2026. Uh and then the increase of the once we with your gracious approval to get into the commission, we had to increase the chief salary and the chief deputy salary to be in compliance with their rules so we can get the reimbursement which will in the end if we come back a year from now that budget will look a lot different when you consider the reimbursement that we're going to get back from the state. This is the plan. um that Brian might explain a little bit people that might not know that we're going to be saving quite a bit of money by doing this,

right? That's that was the whole purpose. Uh there is a state program that now 70 out of the 92 counties are are in uh that the state reimbures us up to 40% for expenses incurred in representing persons charged with felonies. Um not misdemeanor. We don't get reimbursed for that. But in in essence, out of our proposed almost $900,000 budget, we will anticipate getting back 200,000 roughly in the calculations we've done and the state's done uh if all things go as planned next year. So that would obviously go back in county general and we'll reduce our total budget then to probably 700,000 or so. Um, so that was the whole point of bringing it to the commission several months ago and and and getting the council's approval to do that, too. So, um, otherwise, uh, salaries for my staff and and my two uh deputy public defenders, I put in the 3% raise. Um the only other items that were increased from last year I added uh requesting an additional 10,000 for the conflict uh attorney line item. That's that's the fund that we pay out of a couple of contract attorneys and also when I have to go outside of those folks to hire individual attorneys to do individual cases. Um, and we pay for appeals and uh transcripts to do along with appeals. Um, and I'm hoping that'll be enough. Uh, we're going to spend over that amount this year in that fund. But now that we're settled and hopefully not will be fully staffed for next year that that number that hopefully will be sufficient, but I can't promise that. But one it depends on the cases. One of the one of the

appeals that we're paying for this year, if you may recall, my office did a 3-week jury trial at the end of to the end of last year, last November. Um, and that appeal is still going on, but at this point, we've had to pay or will have to pay at least 15,000,000 fund just for that case. So, when uh typically if there's any criminal trials that go all the way to a jury and lose, those typically get appealed. uh CHIN's cases that turn into termination cases where where the parental rights are removed from from the parents if they do not get with the program do the services and if if the courts find the children cannot be returned to those parents those cases almost always get get appealed also and so we just never know how many those are each year so and then also I believe there's we plugged in the 13,000 for the for the intern uh it was more indicated we had one that you approved obviously this year that went very well. Um if I had a spot open or if I have a spot open next year when he's available he would definitely be somebody I would look at to hire but we'd like to have another intern for for next year and he's not process.

So you're full of staff now? Yes. Say that out loud. At least for the positions we have out now. Can we use more people? Sure. We always use more people, but I believe this will keep us uh and we can I believe be in compliance with the state to get the reimbursement with people we have enough. Mindy, I have a question on that one. On 3115, his conflict, he raised it 10,000, but it didn't show a percentage increase. Should it?

It's pardon me, it's looking at the to the 2025 total budget. So, he had already raised it. um from 90,000 to yeah so it's it's looking at that to column J if you're looking at your computer you're welcome when we split if you recall a couple months ago we split one of the full-time positions into two part-times we took the amount from the two part-times which was 60,000 and put it into the the other fund the public defender contract fund that pays for contract attorneys but then that left at 10,000 so we put that into the conflict because I knew we were going to need into so it's not new money instead of money that was already bud.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. Andrea, chief probational Montgomery County. Um I oversee the in essence court services now. So we've branched out to the point that we have pre-trial program which helps service individuals who are pending cases in the criminal uh justice courts and we are helping them in advance of them going into court helping to offset and hopefully get them on the right track at an early stage. We also do adult and juvenile probation. We do um a drug court program, family recovery court program and a veterans treatment court program. And so instead of having individual budgets for all of those programs, they're all incorporated underneath this one big budget. So you get multiple different conversations because we are dependent upon grants as you know. Um so these steadily write grants to be able to support all of those programs. So in the 10,00 I did have a comment to Mindy on this previously. The percentage is not reflecting correctly in those columns. I'm not getting a 55% raise. Although if you would graciously give that, I would accept it. Um, so all employees are a 3% pay increase. The only difference is if they had a different bracket based on uh the minimum schedule being put into that and that's that based on how many years of experience they have. Otherwise, it was at 3%. Um, the county general only pays for most physicians and then the rest of the funding either comes from grants or from user fees. So, jumping into the within the user fees, it's pretty um standard as far as what I've been doing over the years. We do have three vehicles that we utilize um for field work and we try to do rotations to keep those spread out so that I'm never having a problem with all three vehicles at one time. So, this would be on the rotation concept of the next year that we would be looking at replacing the Jeep that we currently have.

Grant-wise, we have been awarded, although we don't officially have the award letter, so I'm always hesitant until I have it in writing, but we've been told we have received um what I refer to as our major grants, the ones that cover five salaries. So, that is the good news. We did see some hits in regards to those. The percentage loss um was relatively low for us across the state. Um difference, every county got a hit. um depending on which grant we're talking about as far as what funding source it was, but they took out jail treatment programs, they took out uh prosecutor diversion programs, and next year we're anticipating more hits. Um so probation department saw those hits, but I even anticipate in 2027 that we'll see some additional hits. Um so we continue to be cautious in regards to what we do, hopeful and prayerful at all times. Um, so pleased with what the rewards we or the grant awards that we have received and I'm waiting on one grant for 2026. I don't anticipate hearing from it from probably November, December and it pays half of the salary. So this year I have five and a half salaries paid off. Go ahead.

No, that's okay. So is this the state cutting back on you? The feds cutting back? Not just cutting back. the state and the feds cutting back on these grants. Yes. Do they explain why they're cutting back on these? Because I know the health department had the same thing. The health department was saying this exact same thing. So is this just pushing more pressure on

standpoint of the federal government came back in and said, "Okay, you can't spend it on what it was awarded on because we no longer will allow you to permit to spend on barrier busters." And so we keep getting these significant cuts within specific categories that the federal grab rent will no longer cover. The state by default gets federal money by default. We don't get it at the lower level. So with the cuts that they did when I was talking about earlier of the pre-trial uh programs and the jail treatment diversion programs, all of those cut pre-trial firms got cut across the state. So Marian County is an example. They had a program pretty significant money for them and they got cut completely and they had to give up the entire program because they don't have that kind of money to come up and cover that. Monroe County is another example I have personal knowledge of and they were able to get some additional funding from the state for a one-year period to help offset that. Problem is when that money was announced that they're going to get that money, that's that money I'm hoping for in December. So now I'm anticipating us not getting that. So there's always a trickle effect. Every time you cut here, it trickles down. So

So pre-trial diversion helps workloads, right? It's going to be more loads, right? Say that again. You need more of a workload on the courts, more case load. When talking about probation standpoint on the pre-trial aspect, once we get the case, it means it's already pending. It's going before the courts. What we're trying to do is to help that individual get things back on track so that we can hopefully avoid um have to go to Duke City or something of that nature. Helps them get back on track within the community, get into treatment, whatever it is that they need to do. It's truly a savings to the county if we can prevent that from getting to the extent they're going to see.

Is this an additional? No, this is simply replacing the system. money worth anything? It will be. You will have a trade in value associated with it. Is that included in this? It is not because until I do it, I won't know. That would the price that I received as a quote for an the actual cost of a vehicle, but then it's going to be less our trade in value, which will be in my opinion a good trade in value. Is it going to be worth it? Is the vehicle going to be worth it? Trade. Yes.

Any questions for you? Thank you. Thank you. Like to take a minute to recognize Mr. Bickle back in the back who's going to leave us at the end of the year after a distinguished

October even quicker. Not that you're counting. Yeah. So, yeah, just thank you for all your years of service to the community. [Applause] And next up is me, I guess. I'm David Hunt from the county council. I think you guys know what we do. Hopefully. I don't have to describe that. Tom didn't give me that part of the deal. Um our budget we basically kept the same thing as last year. The special appropriations line is our placeholder. That amount obviously will be drastically reduced to help us balance um that will include if correct me if I'm wrong Tom the our appropriation to the early learning center comes out of special appropriations. Is that right?

Comes out of the that comes out of the commissioner's budget. Commissioner's bud. Okay. Okay. I thought we had that in ours, but okay. So, that's kind of where that sits right now. And then longevity, is that just part of the how we distribute amongst the salaries? Yes, that's for um all the full-time employees of the county that you guys pay for that. Okay, that's what I thought. Any questions on that? Obviously, it looks like we got a lot of money over there in the special appropriations, but that's going to go away. That is that yeah, that is always a buffer that we put in there um for advertising purposes because something always gets forgotten. So,

yeah, as you can see, last year we dropped it down to the 267. So, and we've not used much of that even. So, okay, moving on.

Uh Mindy Buyers, McGomery County Auditor. Uh the next one is for no department which also could be called multiple departments. Um both of them managed by our office and the first section under county general. Um a few years back we decided as a council I guess like the um for all utilities to be paid through our office. all the utility bills, light, water, everything um was going to all the different buildings and the departments within those buildings. And um the back and forth of people getting those claims um on time and then getting them submitted to us on time, we were incurring late fees and we cannot as a county pay late fees. Um so we made a decision to take all of those on and so all of the all of the claims for every building come to our office and we take care of those now. So, um that is why it's under something called no department because it's really everybody um but we handle it out of our office. The other one is the county elected officials training which is collected by the recorder but we just kind of manage the budget for that and there's a handful of elected officials that can use that fund for the state called training and it's very specific on as to who can use it and what can be um claimed against it. So, um, again, it was kind of being it was a little out of control with a different department. So, we just decided to put it under a zero department and manage it through our our office. Any questions? All right, let's keep going.

Um, these are Well, you just sit down. Hey, I have Yeah. Yeah. You can't hear me. I could go without a microphone. Y'all could hear me.

Yeah. I um I'm gonna get a little nerdy for a minute um and brag on our office. Our office has five and a half people, myself included, and we do a ton of work. Um, and I talked to the team today a little bit about what all they do. And a quick overview is every single bill that gets paid comes through our office for this county. Um, every single receipt, every piece, every penny that comes into this county, um, we have to recede into the appropriate fund. A lot of this is, um, requires back and forth between department heads across the county. We are our deputies are in constant communication um with all of the departments. I think we are unique in that situation um to do the receing and the claims. Our payroll, everyone gets paid through our office. We have over 200 full-time um people at the county and our payroll deputy does not just the payroll. She checks everyone's vouchers against their sheets. I mean, there's a lot that goes into just the daily payroll, let alone she is the main contact with all of our healthcare benefits. Um, she handles all the bin admin questions. She does all the end of the year processing. Um, anything you can think of with with payroll, um, which clearly has not come to me right now. Um, pays all the federal taxes. She pays the impers and the pensions. Um and then our property deputies do we have um every transfer every sale of property that happens comes through our office. Every deduction gets applied in our office. And one of the unique things about the property deputies is I mean

they have to understand the law of this SB1 with all the changes with the um property deductions. We we have to be able to not only understand it, know how to apply it, but we also need to explain it to people who don't understand it. And that is can be very difficult. So there's there's a lot of um there's a lot of nerdy cognitive thinking in our office. But there's um I just kind of wanted to give you guys I think you understand what Jen and I do. I mean we do the certification of the nets. We settle with the state twice a year. We do the abstract of taxes, which means we calculate all those. We make sure the abatements and the tips are on. I think you have an idea of what we do. But sometimes I think our deputies are overlooked. And there's all this work with five and a half people. That's that's a lot that goes through our office. And the reason I bring this up is I'm not asking for um more people today, but I really anticipate our office needing to grow in in the near future. Um especially with the changes that are being made, it is very difficult to function when someone's out of the office. um with internal controls alone being the financial hub of the county, we can't have an accounts receivable person doing the same thing as an accounts um payable person. They you just can't touch it twice on both ends. So um those are some things that I kind of that's what I get um kind of excited about is what we actually do in our office and we have an incredible team. Um but it might need to grow soon. So, I just kind of want to put that on the radar. As far as our budgets go, we did um

we did try to lower everything um kind of across the board with the exception of the 3% raises. Um we shifted as much as we could out of county general into we have a couple ancillary funds that we use and you can um see that we've shifted some things there. Um, I did we did have a couple things with new legislation last year that we talked about and I had put 15,000 into legal services last year because we are now allowed to um have our own attorney. Thankfully, this year we have not had to use that. So, I'm crossing my fingers that we don't have to use that next year either. So, I dropped that down to five,000 um to again that sat in county general. And the other is the um it's under additional duty pay and that is the new legislation that allows for 2500 for the elected official for the additional um things that have been added to this position. Um and we had talked about that last year, David, but I I took that out of county general and put that into one of our ancillary funds. that um everything else we dropped. We're going to run a pretty tight ship next year, but I think we can do it. Something the only other thing I want to put a bug in your ear that we have talked about um before that um it would be a huge project, but something that I think would save the county money. Um we feel pretty strongly that we should have a um purchasing agent that would um we have some offices that bring pens from home and some offices that buy pins by the gallon. Um stuff

like that that could just little things that we think about in our office where we might be able to save some money. Um but um that is all I have I think. Okay. Any questions from Indie? Next year.

No, I'm not asking for that for next year. I'm just I'm just putting on the radar. Um and and I we we don't have anything. I'm I'm thinking more along a fiveyear plan, three-year plan maybe. It's just it's getting to me a lot especially it it really the internal controls throws a throws a wrench and what we can do when someone is out. Um so right now we have a team where Jennifer has one AP person and one AR person and I have one AP person and one AR person. So and that kind of started with um co when we had to we were in a central office and we couldn't stay home. So to try and keep it down like I said she took a team and I took a team and that was how we split up. So we were never without like a lead in accounts payable and accounts receivable and we kind of keep that but that's right now we only have one person that can do accounts receivable and um so it's it's going to be it's going to be necessary sometime down the road. Any other questions? All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Last but not least, good evening. I was trying to speed this process again. Right.

Brian, sheriff from McGomery County. Um, by stat, you were officers of the courts. Um, which means we hand out the wars, we handle the civil process, provide security to the courts, um, as well as run and maintain the jail. Um, in addition to that, obviously we respond to all the 911 calls, we enforce criminal law, traffic law, um, respond to accidents, handle any emergency, non-emergency calls can request for service for law enforcement and several others um because there's nobody else to call. So, um, that's in a nutshell what we do. Um the budget um just going through the same sort of yearbook. Um as far as the sheriff budget um it's kind of chopped up a little bit with pay lines. Um you guys approved the matrix for us last year. So some you will see there's a raise, some you see there there's not. It's based on that 2-year matrix. um not have I mean and just going off what you guys suggested at the beginning of doing 3% across the board. If somebody was maxed out on the matrix, I just gave them the 3%. I don't know how you guys want to handle that. Um there were a couple lines that we did increase um equipment and radio equipment. Um mainly our our car radios are just I mean they're about 20 years old. Um and we're we're having issues um ongoing issues with um social media. Um we're having ongoing issues with with people um with apps on our phones following us around putting out too much information on social media. Um, that's just not necessary. I would like to change that. The problem is our

radios are so old that I can't put that technology into our radios. Um, and make that work right now. And Ryan, explain how much portable and how much, you know, one for a vehicle is expensive these things. They are expensive. I I just got close. Um, three weeks ago, uh, a mobile radio right now is $7,400. Um, a portable radio, um, is about 4,500. So, um, I mean, and they're not the ones the kids use. These are

Yeah, they're they're not the ones kids use. Um, they're they're equipment. Like I said, most of them are 20 years old. So, I mean, you know, they they've served us well. Um, they last, but again, like anything, it's technology. Um, the new ones can do far much more than what the old ones can do. Um, they work right now, but again, I mean, I just think it's an issue. We had an incident a couple weeks ago where on a weekend um you know we responded to to wait one for a domestic call. We picked two people up at the gas station that that were dropped off there that were victims. Our deputy was transporting them back home. Um and notices the suspects following in the car. I mean following the deputy. Um so he calls the other guys working there getting stopped. Um, of course he's not compliant um, you know, in the middle of the night and um, we got the situation resolved. Um, but you know, I mean, he's in jail. Um, and you know, when when they got him, I mean, he had the scanner app on his phone. He's listened to everything we're saying. Um, I think it personally should be illegal. Um, I mean, that technology, I just don't know of what benefit that is. Um, but it's just it's putting our officers in harm's way. And for the ones that aren't doing that and stay at home and post every single thing we do and every single name on social media, I just don't think that's right. I don't think it's fair to our citizens. Um, I wouldn't want my family's information post all over social media. I trust you would either. Um, so that that's why that request is there for equipment and radio equipment. Um, the other equipment. Um, our things just continue to go up. our our body cameras. Um I think it's the cheapest insurance the county probably provides, but between our incar cameras and our and our body cameras, they're expensive, but they have mitigated so many things. Um and I think you could ask the prosecutor even

Brian. Um I mean, it just makes things easier all the way around. You know, there there's no question. It's not my work versus theirs. Here's the video. Here it is. Here's what happened. Um there's just a necessary evil anymore. Um but I will tell I mean from an administrative standpoint our complaints we we just don't have I can't tell you the last time we got a complaint that was even semi valid. Um we get a complaint and we find that they give us a false statement. We will pursue that. Well, we just don't have our guys. I mean, my guys, girls act appropriately and they do the right thing and and it's all documented. You know, 99% of the time we're dealing with somebody.

You guys have any questions on the sheriff budget? You looking at replacing all the radios? No. What I'd like to do, I mean, I would like to do that all at once, but I mean, that's a very expensive cost. What I would like to do is just start replacing those with our cars. So, if we get five new cars next year, we're going to get five new radios. That's going to be going to be fast enough.

Not really. Um, you know, but to come and ask them, you know, we've got 30 approximately 30 radios. Um, you know, $7,000 a piece. I mean, I don't really want to come and ask for $200,000 for the council in a year where you guys are trying to, you know, keep things quiet. And as you and as you get the new ones and then you can get them staggered where you don't get hit all one time need new new ones again they'll be staggered all Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's just I mean, I would like to have the money today, you know, and get those orders, but um I see that when you talk about social media,

people I got to go along. That's officer safety. You got everybody in your county knows what's going on.

It is. I mean, it's officer safety and it's just common decency. I mean, you know, I mean, the stuff that some people are posting on there about, you know, victims of crimes, um it just we have nothing to hide. I mean, everything we do is recorded and can be seen by anybody. I mean, whether it's probable cause affidavit or the police report, it's not trying to be deceitful. It's just trying to be do the right thing for the community. And I there's I don't there's other things to do other than sit home and post everything here on the social media. Um, so you want to replace the car radios first and then the portables or

our portables right now? well handled it. Um they they're not encrypted right now, right? They are encrypted. Um so like when the city went encrypted, our portables work, we can we hear them on a portable. The problem is is if you're off duty driving your car through Crawford'sville and something happens, you don't hear the CSville City Police because our radios are that old. I mean, it just it won't work. Uh officers can't talk to one another in departments. Not on the city frequency because they went encrypted a few months ago. Um they have to change their frequency.

They have to change their frequency. Um so the technology is there. We can go to a different channel. But if dispatch dispatch is something just accomp I think we're looking to $250,000 to replace it.

I'm just thinking out loud. very I'm just thinking out loud, but if you take five years to replace all that or you go get it all and and bond it or use a 5year payment plan, it's about the same and the we can discuss that, but that we need information if we and I don't know if I've never done I've never been in that situation with Raycon or regular provider. might even be it might even be a lease. Put a lease together that you lease and then you change it out every so often. Yeah. And I'm not opposed to keep it's going faster and faster all

I mean at the end of the day I've I've got a year left, you know, but I would like to get that process started. Um because it it it does it affects all the all the men and women that we deal with. We don't want to find out that the the person who was endangered and or was and and injured were the ones without the radio. I mean, if you do if we only do half of them. The other question, Tom, is can this be bonded? Can we do a bond on these radios?

I think I think we looked at doing bonding for other radios from the dispatch center. So that's that could be a possibility or a lease or there's some if you just put together some numbers for us so we can just at least look at that as we're putting our budget together to Yeah. At least lease to own just like you do with a piece of equipment for the highway department. You could do a lease to own with these. I'm sure I've got somebody in the back of the room that would love to work on that project. So starting tomorrow and and and while we're talking about this stuff, the the roof You've got the bids for the roof and we've got that coming in too. So, we need to remember that. Is that going to be a this year bill or a next bill?

That is going to be a next month um additional preparation request. Um the amount requested um we had a Joe Bond Corporation meeting um t Monday. Um there's $19,000 left in that. So, I'm going to be able to reduce that request that I'm asking for by 19,000 and some change. Um Our goal right now is to get that started in midepptember and um be completed by the end of October. All right, keep going.

Security um stayed the same. The only difference there um was pay lines. Um the jail, there were a couple um increases on the jail. I don't have my sheet in front of me, so I'm trying to go off your book. It was with equipment. I think All right, there it is. Um, we're just having continual I mean, you guys have done like a great job with me and I appreciate that. But again, the I mean, we just have continual things that need to be like replaced. Um, one thing that we need to replace early next year is our generator. The I forget what the terminology is. It's transfer box. Um, that transfer box is outdated. So, if anything goes wrong with that transfer box, the generator will not be able to provide power to the jail. Um, and that's about a $24,000 replace.

Yes. Yep. Um, it's a Caterpillar. Um, but you know, it runs the majority of the jail and it's just one of the I mean, there's there's nothing we can do with that. I mean, you know, Cat told us that you need to replace it. As long as it works, it's great. But if goes down with it, there's nothing we can do. Um I just assume get that replaced and not wait until it goes down. Um other than that, I mean, it pretty much stayed the same um across the board on the jail. It was just a 3% pay raise. And then the user fee funds, I don't know if you guys want me to go through. I mean, they are what they are. Um if you guys have any questions about any certain fee fund. I'd be happy to try to answer that.

Any other questions for sheriff need them?

Thank you. I think we're good. But yeah, if you get us those numbers on the radios and we'll we'll at least consider that when we're putting together the final budget. And I'll apologize for Mindy again for not letting me get up here five minutes earlier. Nice try, though. All right.

What's that? Please pin. Was there any questions.

Um, it's not perf. It's it's separate than that. Um, the way that is funded and estimated, I mean, it's it's a formula I I can't even sit here and begin to explain. Um, but it's I mean I don't want to put it in the wrong terms, but I mean that number is going up because of what you guys have done. I mean, this is the first time in the existence um that we have multiple people that can retire from the sheriff's office. That's never happened. We've had one or two here and there. Um, but McGomery County, as as some of you know, um, was a training ground for years. I mean, we would get people they would get three or four years on and they would leave. Um because not only the work that you guys have done, but you know, previous councils, um this is a good place to work. They're decently paid and they they've got great equipment. So that number um unfortunately, I mean, it's just going to continue to rise. Um but that's simply because we've kept people here. I mean, we're not losing people. Um It's based on I mean they do a again it's a very complicated formula that that I can't even begin to explain but it's essentially based on the demographics of the department um who can retire um who's eligible to retire and they just I mean that fund is to ensure that if the county dissolved today that everybody vest within that system would be paid on their estimated lifespan. We can probably we can probably start with chief deputy salary. We can probably start there. Um

and the other one that Yes. Yes. Right.

Yes. by far. By far and then factor in potential lawsuits, um you know, errors in judgment, I mean, when we can keep people, um and get a career out of them, it's beneficial to the to the entire community. Um and again, I want to stress that's that's never happened before. I mean, you know, I I think when Mark and I came in, I think there were five people on the on the pension plan that that were drawing some sort of pension. Um, that number's double. Um, and it's going to continue to grow because of what you guys have done.

Last call. Any other questions for the sheriff? All right, now you can go. Thank you again. All right. Well, that concludes our budget hearings. We'll take all this under advisement, start looking at some things, and our next regular meeting, September 9th, 9:00 a.m. right here. Anybody have any last thoughts, questions, comments? Not even Steve. Had to call you out.