County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Before we start, I'd like to say something in regards to the

storms that we've had.

Do I do a roll call first?

Oh, that'd probably be a good idea. Mr. Bozak, I don't know what I would do without you. Roll call, please.

Andy Bozak. Present. Michelle Harris. Here. Brett Stone. Here. Andy Vazquez. Here. Rick Nerg. Here. Greg Simp. Present. Jeremy Rivas. Here. Devin Presley.

Now that we know we're all here, in regards to this storm that recently hit us, basically a series of storm, if you will, For those of you who do not know, it's called a derecho, and it's hurricane force winds that hit us. And this derecho happened to be about 125 miles long, in some places more severe than others. Unfortunately for Porter County and the northern end, they got beat up pretty good. So we need to get something done for all our citizens here. And Redstone, myself, Ed Morales, Mike Jabo, and Carrie from the The recycling department met, and we wanted to try to figure out what to do with all the debris. So after that meeting, we got together, we got a process going, and we'd like to read the following. And it says, before anything else, we want to acknowledge the hardship that so many of our residents and businesses have endured since the retro that struck Porter County on August 11th. The storm affected communities across the entire county, but its impact was most severe in the northern half with damage increasing as you travel toward Lake Michigan. We know these past days have been challenging and we deeply appreciate your patience as we work through the recovery process. Immediately after the storm, our first priority was clearing roads so emergency services, utility crews, and the public could be moved safely. This required rapid action and resulted in a large amount of storm debris, trees, limbs, and other vegetation being pushed to the roadside. In many locations, fallen power lines were entangled with trees and our crews could not proceed until NHTSCO confirmed those areas were safe to enter. We thank the residents for understanding these necessary delays. The state of Indiana and the federal government now recognize the state as a disaster area. We hope that this declaration will open the door to additional resources and funding to help offset the significant cost of recovery. To protect our eligibility for federal reimbursement, Porter County must follow all required state and federal procedures. This includes careful documentation, proper contractor selection, and strict oversight of debris collection and disposal. We are now fully in the cleanup stage, and there's still much work ahead. Total cleanup will take weeks and in some several certain cases months. Due to the severity and widespread nature of this storm, our compost sites throughout Porter County are nearing capacity and cannot accept additional storm debris at this moment. To relieve this pressure, the county will be announcing additional drop off sites within the next one to two days where residents can bring storm related vegetation. Because of the sheer quantity of debris along our county roads, we will be requesting proposals from qualified contractors to assist with collection and disposal. This will supplement the efforts of our county workforce and accelerate the cleanup process. Rest assured, Porter County is taking every necessary step to clear debris from our roadways and to keep our recycling centers available for storm-related materials as capacity allows. We also want to make residents aware that many contractors are currently offering electrical roof beams and structural repair services. We urge everyone to remember that contractors must be registered, bonded, and insured in Porter County. Our offices are expediting all registration and permits requests to help us forward with repairs as quickly as possible. For those dealing with damaged aerial electrical services, please note that the county must inspect the work of your licensed contractor before NIPSCO can reestablish electrical service. This inspection requirement is in place for your safety and to ensure compliance with state electrical standards. As recovery continues, the county will keep residents and businesses informed of revisions, updates, and new information as it develops. We are committed to transparency and timely communication throughout this process. In closing, we again express our sincere appreciation for the public's understanding and patience as we navigate these extraordinary circumstances. Porter County is committed to restoring normalcy as quickly and safely as possible, and we will continue to stand with our residents every step of the way. Now, Hopefully we'll have more information on our website, county website, also the EMA, emergency management, good resource to go there. If you have friends and neighbors who are affected by this, please have them do so. And thank you for your time.

President Vasquez, I had a question. I've been getting a lot of questions from community members asking, so we are going to pick up their logs, their tree debris on the side of the road. If they bring it to the road, eventually the county will get it picked up.

Mr. Stone, if you'd be so kind.

So we had a conversation with Mike Bocari and some other people on the phone. I think the first thing we wanted to do was make sure that our compost sites are open. And I think they're at capacity right now. And I asked Carrie, what What's it going to take to reopen them dollar-wise? And it was somewhere in the vicinity of three-quarters of a million dollars to have somebody come out, haul it away, get the compost so people can keep bringing the debris. So there's going to be some. some requests coming up that are going to be some big requests, but we have to fund them because we want to make sure and keep those composts clear so everybody can keep bringing them. My question is, that's phase one. What is your question exactly? The two-pronged approach is, Mike Jables putting together probably within 15 to 30 days, a scope of work, lower than that, but less time. Okay. A scope of work, cleaning the debris for the county. So if you can get it off to the side of the road, 15 feet, we are going to take it and pick it up. That's what we're going to do.

Thank you. I had a few questions.

Do you have another, sir? Oh, I thought you had, okay.

Oh, no, a few different people have asked. There's actually a petition going around Grand Woods. There's a guy walking around, present something to the commissioners right now. They're gathering signatures to get it picked up. Now I can tell them, hey, it's already happening. It's already a little time.

Right, there's a process, and that's just unfortunate, but that's how it is, and we're moving as quickly as we can and getting the things that we can do to make the roads safe for all our crews, our citizens, and everything down the road.

You recognize Mike really quickly.

Mike Jabo, if you would come up, please, to add to this.

Have you gone to sleep? No, I'll tell you what. Thank you, Mike. This guy's a godsend. He's putting in a lot of time. He's the one looking for the scope of work and organizing. Right. I suggest maybe we put in for a recliner so he can sleep at his desk.

I already do that.

Yes, I know. That's why I said the recliner.

Go ahead, sir. Today, we had a meeting with a consultant who It's a three-pronged approach to this. You get the contractor to pick the stuff. We have to track it to get the FEMA money when it's available. If it's available, you've got to track your debris from cradle to grave. In other words, GPS and all that stuff is going to be used as part of this. The other part of the stool to this is in addition to the contractor, the person that helps with that, is the person who helps us make our applications to FEMA. We want a very high success rate so we can get 75 cents on the dollar for every dollar invested. The commissioner, I, Lance, Carrie, highway superintendent, assistant superintendent, had a phone call with a consultant who does that latter part. They guide us. They're the ones that make the submittals, make sure the I's are dotted, T's are crossed. Their cost, if we get FEMA money, is reimbursable 100%. And so we're hoping by this Friday or as late as next Monday, we will engage this consultant through the commissioners. And then we'll start the process. We found out that probably the stuff carries already a man, even though it hasn't been cradled to grave exactly. We could also get reimbursed for that. So I tell you all that, but don't take it to the bank because we've got to wait and see until Washington signs off and gives us that phase. We've got emergency, but we don't have to clean up money yet.

Excuse me, sir.

I thought when we had our discussion at that meeting, it was 75%, up to 75%. Yes. Except for the consultant, they'll pay 100%.

I'm willing to take 100%.

Thank you. So our aim is, and the commissioners will come up with a statement encouraging the residents to bring their stuff to the road. And if it's within 10 feet of the edge of the pavement, we can pick it up and we believe we'd get reimbursed for it. So that will keep it from going streaming through the compost site, which means you've got to handle it two times. We handle it one time and dispose of it.

Right.

Thank you. So that's the strategy we're looking for right now. So more will come in the next probably five, seven days. We'll definitely enter into contract with a consultant before.

Can you put something out to the population that we're working on?

Yeah, the commissioners will have to make a statement to that effect in a public meeting. So yes, we'll be prepared for that.

So one of the things I should do as well as EMA and our county website, look at the commissioners in particular for information. Okay.

And today, two of our, well, one person from the assistance highway superintendent and Chelsea Gordon, our stormwater manager, went up in a helicopter. And we did a survey of North Porter County. It's far worse than we thought that we can see from the roadway. Probably what we see in the roadway, you can maybe multiply that two, three, four times. So we do have a better handle on the awesome destruction that we're going to face that's not on the roadway.

You guys went in a helicopter?

Yeah. The sheriff's drone.

Yeah, drones everywhere.

Drones are useful, but the helicopter, we were able to do it an hour, hour and a half in days. But Lake Lance arranged for the Lake County Sheriff to bring the helicopter over to Porter County. Our staff went up so we could assess the team. There's a lot of places we can't get to.

Yeah.

So we are making the action quietly behind the scenes. The commissioner should be coming out with some major announcements. They did today as the start of it. And over the course of the next few days, they'll be making more. And we appreciate all your participation because we've got to go into this thinking we'll never get rehearsed. We just have to do it.

Well, thank you for handling some of the emails that we're getting. We didn't know where to go to for NIPSCO or Comcast Verizon. So thank you for jumping in and helping us.

Appreciate it. Any other questions?

And thank you for answering Mr. Kaminsky and his particular concern with Comcast.

I don't know if he's solved yet or not, but we're working on it. But he knows we're working on it and we're very aware of his concerns. Very good. Thank you. Our pleasure. And if anybody's got any questions, feel free to give a call or an email.

Thank you, sir. Mr. President. Sir. Kind of goes in the line of what we're talking about. We get reimbursed 75%. It's still gonna be a big number for us. What I'm concerned about, is you have Portage, Chesterton, some of the towns. And I've brought this up before, and I think it could be a good idea. I've talked to Scott McClure. I just want everybody to ponder this. I think if there's a good use for being able to borrow that money to municipalities from our foundation fund, over three years payback, Scott would tighten it up. Because what I'm concerned about is they're gonna be signing big contracts for removal. And I think they're gonna get stuck with the cashflow problem. You know, if you're signing a contract for two or $3 million, I don't think too many contractors are going to wait six months to a year to get paid over a certain amount of time. Just throwing that thought out there that it could be a viable source to help some towns that I think are going to have some cash flow problems because I think it's going to be a pretty big number. So that's it. Thank you.

And I agree wholeheartedly. Let's face it, we just haven't got the money. We're going to have to get it from somewhere. And if ever there was an appropriate place to pull it in time, I think this is it. However, we should also think about down the road as we go. I don't believe this will be the first situation that we're going to see this. In case, personal opinion, correct me if I'm wrong, later on at the end of this meeting, I think this is something we're going to see more of. And we've seen it happen more and more, tornadoes in our area, more and more wind damage. That's something to think about, but that's for another day. Moving right along, minutes, approval of the minutes, regular council meeting, February 24th. So moved.

Second. Second.

I got a motion second. All in favor? Aye. I say an aye. Aye. Motion carries. Animal Shelter. She was at present for the budget meeting, I believe. Yes. And felt that the council got everything that needed to know was coming down. So she asked if she could be taken off. But she also talked to the commissioners who more or less fill up with that. Okay. Porter County comp time report. You're missing the comp time report? Yeah.

Sheriff, are you guys getting a copy of this report now? The comp time report for all your officers? I thought we were sharing this with department heads over there.

Do you have any extra comments?

No, my question is, do we share this with department heads? We don't know.

Ryan, do you guys know? We'll make sure we distribute that.

Okay. Just so you guys can see it because some of your officers have gone up, some of them have gone down. Get it? I just want to make sure you saw it.

Thanks.

I looked over at the other day. I didn't see any massive ones. I think ours are still coming down, which is good. We're almost out of comp time for our department.

I'll give you about a minute or so to take a look at this. I saw it the other day and went through it. And if you take a notice, we have two sheets, one for June 23rd to July 27th, and July 27th to 8-19. Yeah. It would be good to also reflect and see who went up for the last time, what type of danger was, if any.

We're good.

Any members have any questions on the Comp Report? Hearing none, first reading, please.

Hereby notice is given for County that the following adjustments to the 2020 that are placed before you create a separation. The general fund salary is 71,000. You have an eight time salaries reduction of 18,000 over time, 18,000 uses and subscriptions of 125. Hourly, $5,000. $15,000. Power, $15,000. Building liability, $5,000. Travel, $5,000. Balance and coding, $55,000. Office supplies, $1,000. Other supplies, $2,000. Data processing equipment, $50,000. Insurance, restore, fund, buildings and structures, $129,000. Data Project and Equipment, $1,229,421.10. Sales Disclosure Fund, Contractual Services, $36,500. QO, the Bridge Fund, $2.4 million. Share of Donation Fund, Drug Task Force, Other Supplies, $12,000. Veterans Donation Fund, Other Services and Charges, $100. Thank you.

First up for the evening, SUNEF, assessor's office. We have additional 36508 to 39500 contracts for appropriation you can pay for annual support and maintenance for CAM8, computer assisted mass appraisal system and licenses. Good evening.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Rickner.

Yes. Simms. Yes. Rivas. Yes. Bozak. Aye. Harris. Yes. Don. Yes. Vasquez.

Yes. Zero. Thank you.

Ms. Neff, I had a question. On your email, it says there was a transfer to transfer for $1,000 to boards. Is that something we needed to do or tackle?

No. Yeah, that was no longer necessary.

I just want to make sure we didn't forget it.

Yep.

Have a good day.

Veterans Director Christian Molchan, an additional $100 to 22,500 are the supplies appropriation needed to purchase gift cards for veterans.

Make a motion to approve.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Was this the gentleman that just got a home imported? Correct. Awesome. Thank you.

Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Harris. Yes. Bozak. Yes. Rivas. Yes. Simms. Yes. Rick Nero. Yes. Vasquez. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Superior Court 1, Judge Fitch. Additional 125 to 39, 300 dues and subscriptions approach needed to dues increase and end dues.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Vasquez.

Yes.

Yes. Samuels. Yes. Yes. Bozak. Yes. Harris. Yes. Stone. Yes. 7-0.

An additional $15,000 to $3,100 legal appropriation for anticipation of the pauper appeals transcript. If I'm not mistaken, you only have about $3,300 in that fund, sir.

Yeah, it doesn't have very much money. We had seven trials so far this year. Two of those were murder trials. One of those transcripts was like $8,000. The other one was like $6,000. We have about, I don't know, seven more trials possible for the year with indigent attorneys. So... This would cover the need for now, but we may have to come back at the end of the year, depending on how things go. Second.

Motion to second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please. Simmons.

Yes. Biss. Yes. Bozak. Yes. Harris. Yes. Stone. Vasquez. Yes. Yes. 7-0.

Additional $10,000 to the 11-200 hourly part-time help needed in Superior Court.

Second.

I have a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I have a form 144 up to $25 for our part-time assistant.

Form 144 requests for hourly part-time assistant. Motion to approve.

Second.

Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please. Vazquez. Yes. Harris. Yes. Sampson.

Yes. Rivas. Yes. Bozak.

Yes. Harris.

Yes.

Stone. Yes. 7-0.

Thank you, Your Honor.

You have a good night. That's the same money for the 10 grand, right? Yeah. Okay. Thank you all very much. Have a great evening. Thank you. Yep.

Have a good night. Parks and Recreation. Jake, anybody from Parks and Recreation? Anyone?

Okay. I'll make a motion for the first additional for the appropriation due to insurance rates and utility rates, additional of 5,000 and 18,000 to power. I'll second that.

We have a first and a second. Any discussion?

Do you guys know, is it just increased costs that caused this? And have they rebudgeted for next year and adjusted? I was making sure. Yeah. I want to make sure we don't do it again.

Yeah. Pretty much. I talked to them and that's basically the case. Okay. Roll call, please. Yes.

Harris. Yes. Bozek. Yes. Rivas. Yes. Yes. Brickner. Yes. 7-0.

Additional $25,000 to $1,100, $200 hourly appropriation needed to cover seasonal staffing costs for the remainder of the year.

I think this goes into their busy time.

They should have been here to tell us what it was for.

Yeah.

I'll make a motion to table that.

Second.

I have a motion to table. Roll call, please.

Dumb. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Harris. Yes. 6-1. Soil and water conservation.

An additional $10,163.60 for 1,100 salaries, $777.52 to $1,200 FICA, $1,138.33 to $1,200 PERF appropriates needed to cover the cost of additional salaries for two employees. And this is just transferring the funds?

Correct. Transferring funds from our account into the local fund at the county.

From Peter to Paul.

Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Is your motion for all three of them together? Mine was all three together. Do you want them separate? Well, I'll read for all. How about if I just read for all three together and then we'll vote for all three for the sake of brevity. Sorry. Thank you.

Form 144.0 to 6,296. Hold on. Hold on. We got a vote on that one first. Oh, okay. So on the very first one.

$10,163. Then $777.52. $1,138.30.

Okay. That's the motion.

I withdraw my motion. I second hers.

Okay. Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Form 144-062-6980. District Administrator.

0 to 33. 9880 district conservation project manager appropriation needed to cover the cost of additional salaries for two employees.

What is this one?

It's all related. It's all the same thing. It's just the division of that 10. So it comes out of our account.

Line items? Oh, correct.

Motion to approve.

Second.

No county fund.

Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Sims. Yes. Rivas. Yes. Bozak. Yes. Harris.

Yes.

Stone. Yes. Vasquez. Yes. Harris. Yes. 7-0.

Development and stormwater management. Thank you. Mike Jabil. You look familiar.

Have a good night.

Additional 2,400 to 3,500 contractual services appropriation needed to cover continuing bridge projects and replacement of bridge 132 in County Road. 2.4 million.

Not 2,400. 2.4 million.

Hang on, Bruce. $2.4 million. I sit corrected.

$2,400.

If you can do it for $2,400, we'll do it right now.

No, we can't.

Okay, $2,439,000.

How much is in that fund?

I'm just curious.

I think we've got $1,113,000. And just an explanation, the reason it's so big is because bridge projects, especially when we get funding from the feds or the state, we don't dictate the schedule they do. So sometimes we've got to It goes up and down, and the reason this is much bigger, we had a bridge we didn't expect to fail. That's that one on South Babcock Road between 600 and 700. That bridge is somewhere between $1.5 and $2 million. We let that contract, so that's why we were before you. We always budget skinny, and then we pull the money out as we need it during the year.

Motion to approve. Do we have that already? Got a motion. I'm sorry. Seconded? Motion and second.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Rebus. Yeah, what was that? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you, council members. Have a good evening.

You too, sir. Thank you. Coroner's office, Cindy Dykes. Additional 5,000 to 3,200 travel appropriation needed for mandatory certification training, investigation hours exceeding past the 12-hour shift, and trainee scene calls.

Can we just, can we do the transfer first? Because that's for sure. Or no?

Why don't we just go ahead and order real quick? It doesn't matter, I don't think.

Okay. So, yeah, what are you doing here? I'm sorry.

We're keeping with the order here.

Don't you have money in training already?

We do, but we're, okay, we had the budget workshop. We're not quite sure where to put this money right now. When somebody is training and they go on a scene call, I pay them so many hours out of hourly. If they have to go down to Indianapolis for their CE flowers to maintain their certification, I pay that out of hourly. So when Ryan and I first sat down and talked about this, we weren't quite sure where to put it. So I'm not sure if, right?

Is it training?

I don't see. It's training, but I don't know how to pay it out of training. Well, either way, it's certification and training.

But we already have a line item for training. Can we pull her budget up, please? Right? Don't you have a line item for training already, Cindy? Can't we just pay it from there? Is there money in there?

Right. I can, but right now I've been paying it out of hours. It's training.

That's what the training budget's for, I thought. I'm just asking. I'm not micromanaging. I don't know. That's what I would assume.

That's what I've been paying it out of. I don't know. Out of right stuff. Oh, so you only have $2,000.

Unless the auditor's office has a reason. Is that not right? We haven't quite figured it out. Well, it's not travel.

But it's not travel, right?

No, it's not travel. We were just trying to figure.

So you have $2,000 in training right now, right? $655 left? Yeah, $344 left.

Oh, it's at the bottom. I'm sorry.

Okay. That was my question. You don't have it in training anyway to pay it out of there, so we'd have to move it somewhere. Why don't we just put it in training? Jeremy, what are your thoughts? You've been here forever. Where do you put it at?

We couldn't do it.

Do you want it in travel then?

No, I mean, if you want to do it tonight, it would have to go into travel. If you want to table it and do the next meeting into a different one, either hourly or training and education, we could do that as well.

Well, it seems like it should be in training and education. Second would be hourly, but it's certainly not travel.

Correct.

But the reason I think we did it is because she's Does she have the money in hourly to pay this out of hourly?

Is that the real issue? If she's been historically paying it from hourly, why are we trying to change it now? Is it because that fund's running out and she wants to move it? Okay.

Again, just thinking it would be best if everything was technically all put in its correct places. Travel should be in travel, training and training, hourly and hourly. The fact that it's commingled now by opening up travel, you're allowed to go forward, make it clean.

So basically it's housekeeping. Yeah.

So you're moving this for housekeeping, not because it's actually needed. It's more just like so that going forward, when you do have these expenses, it's coming out correctly.

Yes.

So the move is not needed.

But we're also building our budget because it's an additional $5,000. You're not taking $5,000 out of hourly and putting it there. So for next year, our budget will now be $5,000 big.

Well, yeah. I'm putting it in my budget, the $5,000. We just have to figure out where it needs to be.

You're taking it from the general fund. So that's the way it's worded, correct?

Because every, well. Let's take it from hourly.

If you're already been paying it from hourly, let's take $5,000 on hourly and put it in travel and then you've got your $5,000. And we didn't increase your budget and that's in the right fund now.

But I can't do that.

Why?

Why take it from hourly because I'm going to do extra.

$5,000 more an hourly. Why aren't you asking for that? Because that's what it sounds like you're asking for.

It's because we don't know where to put it right. But what I'm going to do every year. Take it out hourly and put it in travel. Every year I'm going to come back up and I'm going to ask for extra money because I don't know.

No, we're going to get this budget right. If you know that you're going to spend $5,000, you're going to budget for $5,000 travel, not come for additionals. That's wrong. You need to budget correctly to handle this. And what you're telling me now is that you want $5,000 extra dollars and you're not asking for it in the right way, in my opinion. I would take it out hourly, move it over there and let her have her travel money.

Can we do that?

It can't be taken out of hourly. Because then I won't have enough money to pay my deputy. You're paying it out of hourly now. I'm going to be coming up. Right now, we need an extra at least $3,500 to make it through the year. In hourly? Yes.

It's about four months left. There's a budget.

That's what we are trying to figure out.

And then when you ask us for more money, then come back to assignment. That's what I would do. And fix the budget for next year so it's right, so it's more accurate.

That's what we're trying to do. That's why I went to the budget workshop.

Yeah, that's great. That's what you should do. That's awesome.

I did. I went to that. Good.

No one's cracking down on you. I'm not mad at you. You just got to do it the right way, and it can't feel slimy. It feels slimy to me.

So do I have a motion?

I would let her keep paying it out of hourly. If she needs more money, come back to us. And if you want to fix it next year, let's fix the budget.

That's where I've been paying it out of. When we have a trainee, I pay her or him out of hourly. deputies have to go and get their hours to stay certified to be a deputy coroner i pay out of hourly okay so i don't know where this money i think it should go into hourly but i'm not sure yet we have to work this out how come when they were going down for the training how come that didn't come out of training

Like you said, when you send your deputy down for the mandatory season.

I have to pay them hourly to go to training for their hours that they have to go. So where does that, does it come out of training or does it come out of.

Are you paying them to be trained for their continuing ed?

Yeah, they have to be.

Then that's training.

Okay.

Right.

I would agree with that. Yeah, I would agree with that. That gives us an accurate picture of what she's paying out. Right. What's being trained.

Right, because there's a difference between being on the scene and hourly being at training. Like, then you know how much you're spending on training.

They're still paid hourly. I mean, they're going down whenever, during the week, knocking down, they're being paid. You're not just paying them.

But they're being paid because they're being trained.

It's mandatory training. Right, right.

But I mean, if it wasn't for training, they wouldn't be paid. Mr. Bell.

It might be as well for the auditor's office to reach out to the State Board of Accounts for further clarification. If that helps you guys at all, that makes you guys feel better. If you did decide to table it, I think that would be a good idea. Just to make sure our bases are covered.

Okay.

I'd make a motion to table. I'll second it.

I have a motion and a second to table. Any further questions? Roll call, please. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. We'll get this straightened out for you. How's that?

We'll figure out where it's going to be paid for.

We'll get it taken care of.

Right. That's all I need to know.

No, we're good. I'll make a motion on the 150 equipment to other vehicles. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you next month. Health Department Administrator Matthew Paul. Chemist Grant Fund, 4,022,500 other supplies, appropriation needs to purchase autism elopement kits,

Motion, it's a grant. Second. Motion and a second. Just real quick, what's an elopement kit?

It's to help make sure that a child doesn't get lost. Door locks, window alarms, that sort of thing. Cool, thank you.

And that's provided to the families. Okay.

Can I get a motion, please?

We already did. And a second. And a second. I'll get here eventually.

Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please. Bless you.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Harris. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

You're welcome.

Good night.

Porter County Recycling and Waste Reduction. Carrie, if you're here. Oh, I thought you'd be out in a loader. Last time I talked to you, you were at a loader taking tree debris out of the way.

That's been my life. Usually in steel-toed boots, it feels different to be in real clothes today.

Form 144, part-time up to $33.54 change.

Motion to approve.

We have a motion and a second, please. Second. And we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I'm just curious. So we're having trouble finding employees out there.

No, not at all. We had an employee go on leave, and this is an employee who went on leave, and this is taking a part-time employee to cover that full-time employee's position.

And then it'll switch back next year?

It'll switch back as soon as the leave is over. I guess I needed to know, do I have to come back? His pay rate will come back, but I presume on the 144, it just remains the same?

Do we need to change our motion and just make it for how long the person's off, or does it matter? Or is that a question for our attorney?

It's just establishing the number. It's part-time up to 33.

Okay. Will she need to come back next month and then revert it or?

No.

Okay. But at some point, let me ask this this way. If she, that person quits, they get a whole new person in there and she wanted to pay him 33, 20, 54. She could because of the way it's set up. So we probably do need to put a limit on that. No, but if you left in your replacement, you know, so I would maybe adjust the motion. Or not, Adam?

Well, it's up to, so.

Right, but I want this to go back to what it was when this person's back to work. I want it to go back to the 1825, not 3350. Yeah, they will.

That's up to her. I mean, it's part of it. I mean, because she could expend it. She's going to do it. Right? Yeah. All right.

We've got a budget to maintain as well.

That's true. And overspend in the hourly, right?

So we had a motion.

You already had it. You're good.

Okay. Yeah. Roll call.

Bozak.

Yes.

Harris. Stone. Yes. Vazquez. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Good luck. Jessica Bailey, Board of Elections and Registration General Fund Grant. Let's see. Not a grant. General Fund. Additional $10,000 to $21,100 off supplies. 2,000, all three at the same time. 2,000, 22,500 are the supplies and 5,000 to 22,520 ballots encoded. What did I say?

Approve 10,000, 2,000. I need new classes or something. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Karen, go ahead.

What's going on? Did we go over from this last election as far as monies?

No, we didn't go over from the last election. We're still recouping from the flood. We had a whole lot of ballot stock, and we lost.

Okay, so I know this is pretty much all. I knew the next three were all that, but this is also ballot stock and different things? Yes. All right.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call. This is an all three ayes, folks.

Rivas?

Yes. Simms? Yes.

Frickman?

Yes.

Vasquez? Yes. Stone? Yes. Harris? Yes. Bozic?

Yes.

7-0.

Additional 50,000. Yeah, I got the other zero. 50,000 to 45,100. Data approved. Data processing, election equipment replacement, and water damage. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Simms.

Yes.

Brickman. Yes. Vazquez. Yes. Stone. Yes. Harris. Yes. Bozak. Yes. Rivas. Yes. 7-0.

An additional $129,662.62 to building and structures appropriation to repair 157 Franklin's for water damage. Second. A motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Brickner. Yes. Vazquez. Yes. Stone. Yes. Harris. Yes. Bozak. Rivas. Yes. Sims. Yes. 6-0.

We have 1,229. 1 million. $229,421.10 to 45,100. I just want to not pay out that much. That's all it is. Data processing equipment appropriation for new election equipment. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Juvenile Detention Center. Allison. Did you switch jobs there, Jessica? Just out of curiosity. Additional $71,899 to $1,100 salaries. Additional appropriation needed for a full-time nurse to the JDC. We're going to do both at the same time. Form 144-0 to 71089, registered nurse. Form 144, requested additional full-time registered nurse. Would you like to, you already expounded on this, I believe, last time you were here.

A little bit.

Would you like to do a little more?

A little bit of some stats, if you'd like to see it.

I knew you had something, then you worked on it, so that's why I'm asking. You can do the work, might as well see it.

Might as well see it.

I love the staple list. Staple. I do. I do too.

Wow, that's kind of cool.

Staple's jammed. Copiers. We're in a copier.

What I have in front of you is some statistics in regards to the changes in regards to medical care for juveniles at the juvenile detention center between 2024 and 2025. What is not reflected on this is on call for our nurse. So this is primarily services that were done with our juveniles within the juvenile detention center on site. If you see in regards to medical care between 2024 and 2025, there was actually an increase of about 255 contacts with kids over just that year. So I just thought that this would be a good thing for you guys to see about some of the things that we do for our kids in the juvenile detention center. There's various things like our initial intake, our assessments, our rechecks, consulting with the doctor and things like that. It also, I have in here in regards to medication administration, which I know we've talked about in the past. Medication administration for our kids in the detention center is crucial. Having a nurse available to provide that service optimally, 24-7 facility, and we have juveniles that have to take medications early morning, midday, and in the evening. We have helped train staff that can do that, however, be more optimal in regards to nursing staff doing that. I have Jessica here because she can speak a little bit more to what that means for a nurse and the liability guarding that. We have In 2024, we gave a total doses of medication for kids 4,630 times. It did reduce last year to 3,300. But that just fluctuates. But I think that overall what we are requesting is an additional full-time nurse because the juvenile detention center is so different. Like for additional outpatient clinic, a nursing care, because we are seven days a week and we are 24-7. A lot of the kids that present to the detention center are very high needs, medical high needs. Many of them do not have primary care physicians. Many of them are behind immunizations. Many of them have significant mental health needs with the psychotropic medications. We are having to do medication administration, pregnancy testing, emergency medical response, hospital follow-up, provider coordination, finding providers for these youth, looking at insurances and making sure that we have them connected to providers that actually can provide these services to these youth as well. So in addition to those responsibilities, our full-time nurse is also on call 24-7. We have one nurse.

Is that registered nurse AR? It says AR, registered nurse.

A registered nurse. It's like a registered nurse, an RN. Okay.

No, but it says AR next to it.

Oh, it does?

Yeah, it says registered nurse is the new one. And then above it, it says registered nurse AR. Is that your current nurse?

Oh, Alex. Yes, AR. Yeah, that's Alex.

Just curious, why are you hiring a new nurse more than that person would be making? Exactly. That's already with us.

Because Alex actually comes out of two funds.

Oh, he makes more.

Yeah. So what I wanted to say- Didn't we talk about this at length last budget, right? That we were going to need a nurse? We did. Or was it the health?

We talked about an LPN.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, we talked about an LPN. But because of some of the significant medical issues that we've encountered in regards to the youth, an LPN is not going to cut it. What I wanted to talk a little bit before, and I'll have Jessica talk specifically about how to deal with this. We have our on-call nurse 24-7. give an example we have two full-time therapists they share rotation of on-call for emergencies i have three supervisors that rotate on call for the center as well as myself and the assistant director so we can rotate all that alex has no one he has absolutely no one when he takes a vacation Thank God we have a fantastic relationship with the health department and Jessica and that whole team. Because guess who comes over and does that work for us and helps? She does. And it's only because of that relationship that we've built together and cooperation. It's been helpful, but it's not sustainable. And frankly, this model is not sustainable for long-term retention for our nurses as well. Giving you an example in regards to one of the youth that we had recently, we had a critical type 1 diabetic who was non-cooperative, taking off his monitor, needed 24-7 care. Alex got, I'm not joking, in a 24-hour period he got 40 phone calls because our staff was so worried about what to do and wanted to make sure that this kid was safe. So again, how many kids do you guys average at a time? We can have up to 24. On average, we have about 14.

So the goal of having the second nurse, which apparently we talked about last year as an LPN, but because of the medication and because of the severity of the issues going on with the kids, we feel that an RN is going to be a better fit. Correct?

Yes. Okay. And I 100% agree with... this I just I'm just trying to recollect weren't we trying to do something with the health department to get them to use a nurse or something or trying we were we were trying to work on it was the grant that went away yeah for the LPN we were gonna fund it but we don't have that money anymore and we were it was gonna be a part-time okay because that's where I kept thinking yeah and we were gonna supplement that but we already settled yeah

Well, nobody would come for a part-time LPN for that.

Nobody.

Yeah. So I think a full-time would be better because that would offer more medical care at the facility from morning until at least 9 o'clock at night. And then not one person on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

I have a little question and maybe this is something that's, forgive me if this has already been discussed. You're fine. Are you guys able to bill insurance for any of these things, for these? You cannot? No.

That would be nice though.

That would be great.

Are you an LPN or RN? Me? Yeah.

I'm an RN.

Pardon me?

I'm an RN.

Okay. A regular.

Just a regular.

Just a regular.

Allison, I'm going to ask, I don't know the answer to this question. We cannot, if somebody comes into the center that requires medical attention above and beyond what we currently can provide, we cannot say we cannot accommodate or they have to go somewhere else?

At that time, we would have to get them medically cleared at the hospital. And at that time, the hospital would tell us next steps and then they would come back to the center.

Okay.

And that time our nurse would be telling us what the care plan would be at that time.

So you do have a protocol in place. Yes. So if we don't have the personnel to accommodate a medical condition, we cannot say they got to go somewhere else, this individual.

You've committed a crime. Right.

I mean, but.

So we can't have the second.

Because we're not a medical facility.

You know, for example, we have a kid that might have had an OWI and he was in a car accident. Okay. So obviously that's a pretty significant charge. So they would go to the hospital, get medically cleared. If they stay there because the hospital says so, that will happen and then that child will be brought to us after their.

I guess I'm looking at somebody that has a chronic condition that requires an RN. Yes. And we don't have an RN.

We do have an RN.

Well.

Full-time RN Monday through Friday.

But we don't have enough RN.

No, we do not.

Okay. Is there anything we can do to work with the health department, take part of this out of their budget, and they can help us out with some of that? Oh, Andy, that's what. I know that was the original.

That's what they said. We had the money.

That's what the original. But I thought the original plan was to work with the health department. It wasn't until they had the rug pulled out. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you lost your grant.

No, the health department lost theirs.

The health department lost big money. Yeah, the big, right. This is just, I mean, it's a big year for us. We've got a lot of big ass. We've got major things going on in the community. We've got our IT. We've got our roads. I'm not against it, but it's a big ass right now.

I know it is.

Would you be able to make a part-time work if the money was right? And would it help?

The problem with the hourly, because we looked into that as well. So you're looking at if somebody would do 28 hours a week at $50 an hour, it would actually cost more in hourly. Okay. And that's not even counting the on-call time. Okay. The kicker is with the full-time is obviously the benefit package. But it actually would cost more in the hourly. Okay.

Can you look at any grants to help this out? I know you guys are always looking at grants.

I'm coming in front of you next month with two grants.

I'm going to make a motion to approve this, see if we can get a second. I'll wait for it.

Any further?

I'll second.

Discussion. Discussion. Be 7180 United. We have to prograde it for the rest of this year and then approve 7180 United for next year.

Well, this is just the form. What's it called? 144.

Yeah. 144.

And the additional.

Yeah, the additional would be $71,000. That would be if we would hire somebody right now for a full year.

Now in January. Right. If it's not prorated, that's fine. But then for when I come in front of you for next year.

Next year, it would be $71,000. Right.

Absolutely. If that would be helpful.

That would be helpful.

Sure.

I will retract my motion.

Would you like to make an emotion, Mr. Stone?

Seeing that it's August, I just don't know what to do. Can someone do the math for me? No, because we're only repaying September.

Well, September. And that's if you hire us. If I hire right.

Is this a pretty easy position to fill or hard?

I mean, I think we lucked out with Alex, but then, I mean, okay. I have a question and I feel like I should know this.

So no, it's all good. Do the homeschools of any of these kids, do they provide anything for medical? I mean, I don't know. We have three nurses. I'm just asking, like, do they provide? No. so you're not getting greeners or no like we have staffing for psychologists social workers and all the things we i mean we have our therapists our nerves yeah so our schools are not coming in and no no no that was the only other thing i was thinking is if there would be 23 000. thank you i mean to me this this is a tough one because i can see the need it's just hard

Hiring a full-time person, and here we are, beginning of September, halfway through the year. I mean, that kind of set a precedent here, but we haven't been doing that.

Well, it sounds like this was a unique circumstance.

Well, that's where... Well, also, with just him, I mean, he's going to rack up that comp time, and I know you guys are looking at that, because there's no other way around it. There is no other.

So the extra amount you're looking for, like Joy did the math, would be $23,963.67. For the rest of the year. For the rest of the year.

You know, I'll make that motion to approve 23,963, and then we can look at this at budget time, and then Andy and whoever else, if there's any others that can come up with, because I think it is important, and we did talk about this two years ago, the importance of having a nurse instead of, I would say, maybe not fully qualified people handing out medication. So I think that was a priority to make sure to get that done.

I do want to point out, though, it's... you know obviously i will be bringing the annual budget here um but for me to be able to hire somebody between now and then if i can't guarantee next year no once we pass they're gonna i hire someone for i can't do that and then say by the way no i think red was just saying oh figure out where we're taking we're gonna figure yeah exactly yeah i really the exact amount for the remainder of the year so that's that's all good we're not second

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Yeah, I just got one question. I know the discussion's happened before, and it really doesn't matter with the care, I guess, but you said you have about an average of 14 children in there.

It could go up, it could go down, it just depends.

How many are they Porter County residents?

Is there a reimbursement? They're not Porter County residents. Oh, residents. Oh, okay. Makes sense.

We can't transfer them back, huh?

And then also, Jeremy, just so you know, we do contract with some counties to hold their kids, but we charge them.

Okay.

And so we get money. It goes into the general question.

You mentioned something about cop time, but I don't see you on our cop time reports. Does Alex not have cop time?

Is he not on our reports? We're not in the right stuff for the courts.

They're not what? They're not in the right system. Oh, so we don't even see his cop time. We don't have the ability to pull that.

I'd be more happy to share that with you. It's a number we need to know. It's not. We've been working really hard in regards to having him take some time off. Jessica helped him be able to take a couple weeks off, which actually burned the majority of that time.

Thank you.

So, yes, we're very cognizant of counseling.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Moving right along here. Hearing none, roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for the brainstorming session. Thank you.

Allison, set the amount. You bill, like, for county or something. Is that what? Are you adjusting that ever? I can't. I think you need to adjust that up.

Yeah, it needs to be 110.

And then we raised it about two years ago to 140. If it's a federal kid, it actually goes up to, I think, 220.

Oh, it needs to be 220. Maybe it's something to consider. Yeah.

Thank you, Alex. I appreciate it. Or 267.

Way to go, Bojack. Okay. West Porter Township Fire Protection District, Daniel Dalton, additional $40,000 to $44,300 of their mobile equipment appropriation to pay off remaining balance on engine loan. Are they here?

They don't want our money. They're just moving their money.

Yeah, they're moving their money. It's not ours.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion whatsoever?

I don't know. Parks operating fund was kind of parks money. We tabled that.

I'd like an explanation. And if you look at the next thing, additional equipment expenses for the next year. I don't have an explanation for that either. So I would table the next one personally.

I mean, I think if we're going to table it, I mean, I don't know. Table it all? Table both, yeah.

We should table everything. They're not here, they're not here. I'll withdraw.

We've gotten away from it.

I have a motion.

Withdraw my motion. Let's go in order.

Okay. I have a withdrawal of motion and a motion to table West Porter. Motion to table. We have a motion and a second. To table both. To table the motion. And any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Revis. Yeah. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Porter County Sheriff Jeff Bellen and crew.

Table. Table. Immediate.

Any further discussion? No. Jail general fund, $18,000 to $11,300 overtime reduction in federal prisoner fund to cover cost of overtime for the remainder of the year.

What is reduction? You're just not getting as many federal prisoners right now?

No, we actually did a reduction of $18,000 in a different fund. It's further down on the list. We're taking it out of the Fed money and putting it into the general fund.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call. Rickner.

Yes. Simms.

Yes. Yes. Bozak. Yes. Harris. Yes. Stone. Yes. Vazquez.

Yes. Zero. 59,000 from 11,100 salaries to 11,300 over time. Motion to approve the transfer.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Transfer $4,600.

Motion to approve. Second.

I have a motion and second for the furniture and fixtures over $100. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Sheriff General Fund. Transfer $4,800 from $1,200 hourly to overtime. $9,400 from $1,400 mayor paid to $1,300 overtime.

Motion to approve. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Hearing none, motion carries. I need, let's see, transfer 17,212.56 from 36100 maintenance agreement 39500, contractual services. Transfer needed to cover the increase of medical onsite services.

$15,000 more? Goodness. Motion to approve. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Next year, too? Higher?

Yep. I just have a curiosity.

Talk about it. It's like medical supplies.

That's what's primarily going up, medical supplies itself.

For the service. This one is all service. And aren't you guys looking into another? You're getting it.

Yeah, we're doing cost comparisons right now.

Okay. Any further discussion?

What's that? You can borrow our JDC on. Well, so ironically, that is a conversation we just had with one of the providers about she's not here to stop giving. Well, that's a conversation, right? So right now, that's a completely different conversation. building division, but that has been talked about. And we've mentioned to this group that you guys may want to get a cost on that.

Merged or to get sort of the same service at both.

Hmm. If you're out bidding, could you just ask what that cost would be? They would have to talk to JDC specifically, but we did with the one provider we just talked to, not who we currently have, but who we just talked to, we did bring up JDC in that conversation saying the county may want to have a... Can you talk to Ms. Cox if that conversation goes in?

Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, if it benefits, if it saves, right, and you get, I'm not going to rush, but you know, there's some continuity.

Yeah, we still enter department cooperation last year. Be great to see it again this year. Yeah. Thank you. We had a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Drug Task Force Fund additional $12,000 to other supplies. Appropriation needed to purchase safety shields. We're talking about plastic? Yep. Okay.

I'll take a motion to approve.

A motion and a second. Any further discussion? These are seizure funds?

Yep. I like the way you guys transferred and moved stuff around. No additionals right here. Thank you.

Yes, we thank you too. Thank you.

Okay.

Roll call. Right there.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sheriff Ballantyne, thank you. A motion to approve the reduction of 18,000. Oh, we got the federal. We still got to get our money.

Okay, let's get our money. I'll keep that. Okay. We have a federal prisoner DOC. Second. Reduction of 18,000 so Bozak can get his new toys. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call. That's good. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Federal Prisoner DOC General Fund, $20,000 from $1,100 salaries to $2,202 for uniforms and clothing, $10,000 from $1,100 salaries to $4,500 for equipment. Transfer needed to cover the cost of uniforms and new radios for jail staff.

I had a real quick question. We've done a couple transfers from salaries. Is salaries good for the end of the year? You're not going to need more? Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

If I may, I would like to address the comp time report. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you for providing that. We see that. When you go to the jail and jail crew, on that. Our jail officers bank 60 hours, and this is based on a 60-hour bank, not a 40. And when you look through that list, we only have two jail officers that are over in that comp time in a total of eight hours. So I'm just wanting to point that out, that out of 65 employees, there's only two that are over, and the total is eight hours, just so you know. And then moving on to the merit side, Their bank is based at an 84-hour bank. What does that mean? Where you can have that many hours saved in the comp time, right?

Oh, you guys are allowed to save comp time hours up to 84?

Yes, yes. And so with the merit side... There's 73 employees on the merit side. It looks like there's only seven merit officers that are over, and the total is 33 in comp time. So I just want to point that out because it kind of looks different and higher than based on the rest of the county employees, but that's because of a higher bank.

What happens when they hit 84? Do you make them take it? Yep. Speaking of the comp time report, who else, what other departments are missing off it? I mean, just finding out tonight. Are there other?

It's courts. Courts don't use the right stuff as well. So, I mean.

It's not stuff we have to monitor. They don't have big issues. Or it is something we should be looking at.

we would have to kind of work through how to get that. Yeah. Okay. You have to work through that, but we'll make sure that we get that clarification out there.

I just don't want someone with $300 leaving and then we owe this money. Right. That's a big hit.

Well, yeah, and then we have to wait to hire them and hire the replacement and things like that. Okay. But I just wanted you to know that and have it clarified. It doesn't seem astronomical, but our people, our supervisors definitely do a good job at monitoring where they fit and to keep those below the standards. And we'll get you this report. Okay. I appreciate it. All right. Thanks, everybody.

Thank you. Did they catch a guy yet? Roseanne set up the cops left.

Second reading, please. The following adjustments to the 2026 budget have now been presented for you for your consideration. Under the general fund salary, $71,889. Salary reduction of $18,000. Retirement, an increase of $18,000. News and subscriptions, $25,000. Outlay, $35,000. Legal, $15,000. Power, $15,000. Building liability, $5,000. Now it's $25,000. Office supplies, $10,000. Other supplies, $2,000. Data processing equipment, $50,000. Insurance restoration fund, buildings and structures, $110,662.62. Data processing equipment, $1,229,421.10. Sales disclosure fund, contractual services, $36,508. CC, or communal bridge fund, contractual services, $2.4 million. Careful. First man's 100 dollars drug task force under supplies 12,000 veterans donation fund. Other charges $100. Soil and water conservation fund salaries $10,163.60. Fight 772 $77.52. Per 1138 dollars. Since Jim's brand other supplies 1000. 2nd breed. Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Andy Voska. Yes.

Michelle Harris. Yes. Andy Bozak. Yes. Jeremy Grievous. Yes. Greg Simp. Yes. Rick Nerla. Yes. Mike.

Motion carries. Thank you. Attorney's report.

Nothing to report. Happy to take questions. Happy to take questions.

What is the meaning of life? Okay.

I don't have the answer to that. Okay. Well, then.

We're going to see now. We have nothing there. Okay. Any other matters that may come to the properly to before the council?

Anyone? Well, we got the levy limits tax cap thing. You want to tackle that? We can bring up.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see Ms. Natterway up.

Hi, Suna, Porter County Assessor. I just want to remind the public, everyone, from these storms we've had, there's a form available. It's called a Petition for Reassessment. It's a 137R. that any homeowner and property owner that experienced some damage, any damage that would reduce what they could typically sell their property for, they can apply or petition to the county assessor for a reassessment of their property. This is for some major structural damage. If you have some fascia that might be missing or that kind of thing, that wouldn't be something that would really reduce the value of your home. But if you have structural damage, fill out this form 137R It's available on our website. It's on the front page of our website, so it's super accessible. And you have one year from the date of the damage to apply for that. I know right now people aren't really thinking about next year's taxes, but it is something that's available to them.

Can you give an example, just so we all know, like what would be something that would be like a reasonable reason to apply?