The Porter County
Council has a full plate with projects ranging from establishing a
Foundation for investing the principal from the sale of Porter Memorial
Hospital, to building a new Animal Shelter, to finding solutions to the new
pension plan for the Sheriff’s Police.
The Council said it
will address all of these items at a series of joint meetings this summer
with the Board of Commissioners, starting next month on Tuesday, June 3.
Council President
Dan Whitten, D-at large, said he wants the Council to have its “feet on the
ground and running hard” by July 1, when legislation takes effect giving
counties like Porter with capital sale assets to have a variety of
investment options.
No motions will be
made at the June 3 meeting since not all of the Council and Commissioner
board can attend, which is why Whitten thinks they should meet multiple
times. To do anything with the $159 million in sale proceeds, unanimous
votes are needed from both bodies.
As for the new
Animal Shelter and its relocation to an area just northwest of the Expo
Center, Council member Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, said that the three
commissioners are “not all on the same page” and proposed the topic be
discussed with the Council for its input.
Part of the
discussion will include what the municipalities in the county would be
willing to pay of the costs related to Animal Control. Council member Jim
Biggs, R-1st, said the only one that has been making payments is the Town of
Chesterton.
Council member
Robert Poparad, D-at large, said the Council should ask if it wants to
impose a fee on municipalities when it’s “a free service” to those living in
the unincorporated areas. He compared it to the scenario of charging town
police departments every time they bring in an inmate to the County Jail.
“When Chesterton
Police bring in somebody, do we tell them to bring $100?” he said.
Biggs said the
County is bound by law to provide Animal Control, while cities and towns are
not. The Commissioners this week had originally considered creating a fund
to collect fees but pulled it from the agenda for more consideration.
Meanwhile, Poparad
and Biggs were given the task by their peers to research the Sheriff’s
pension plan to learn if the funds there could be moved out of the County’s
general fund.
Approvals
During the business
portion of the meeting, the Council approved 7-0 a transfer of $46,400 for a
new contract with CBM Managed Services to provide kitchen services at the
jail with full time employees. The contract is for three years.
Sheriff Dave
Reynolds said the employees are replacing those who were previously working
in the kitchen, so these are not new positions.
Poparad questioned
if the price for the contract would increase due to the use of food away
from home consumer price index rather than the typical CPI formula.
The contract can be
canceled with a notice of 60 days if costs do spike, Whitten said.
Other approvals
included $9,500 in grant money the Juvenile Detention Center received from
the state for its alternatives initiative program.
The Council ended
up approving a request 7-0 for a transfer of $24,000 to process the
Sheriff’s deferred compensation plan and a $1,617 transfer for an insurance
provider invoice submitted by the Parks Department.
Both were tabled
last meeting because they came in as requests for additional funds and the
Council is now asking for all requests to be transfers.
The Commissioners’
request for $1,600 in additional funding to purchase uniforms for the
maintenance department was shot down 7-0.
“We don’t have any
money for additionals,” Council member Karen Conover, R-3rd, said.
Poll book request
bumped to June
The Council was
prepared to hear a request from the Election Board to transfer $40,000 from
its Ballots and Coding budget line to Equipment in order to cover the first
installment of the new electronic poll books.
Council
administrative assistant Joy Blakely said the request was pulled right
before the meeting Wednesday due to “an emergency” with one of the Election
Board members.
“That’s probably
not a bad idea considering the speech I had in store,” Whitten said in light
of reported problems experienced with the equipment on Election Day.
The board made the
request last month but it was shot down on a 6-1 vote with Council members
pointing out they did not receive approval beforehand from the County Board
of Commissioners. The Commissioners subsequently voted in favor of the
contracts the week before the election.
Election Board
President David Bengs told the Chesterton Tribune this morning that
the request will be made again at the Council’s June meeting.
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