The first day of the 2010 county budget hearings got off to a rocky start Tuesday, when the Porter County Council found itself at an impasse over the very first budget.

The Porter County Public Defender’s office requested an increase of $14,525. While that may seem small compared to some other departments, the request nonetheless represented a hike, at a time when some council members adamantly want to hold spending increases to an absolute minimum.

“We’re not off to a good start,” noted council member Sylvia Graham, D-at large.

As the hearings progressed, though, things went more smoothly. By the end of the night, the council cut some budgets and increased others, resulting in a net increase to the property tax-dependent general fund of just under $100,000.

Operating on the premise that county government will get $1.2 million more in its tax levy in 2010, the increases approved still left a sizeable cushion.

The public defender’s budget increase included a $10,000 pay hike awarded in April to one of the attorneys who took on more cases. “We can’t complain over spilled milk,” said council member Rita Stevenson, D-2nd. “Yes, we can,” responded Dan Whitten, D-at large.

Council President Robert Poparad, D-1st, suggested a compromise to leave only the pay hike while cutting $5,000 elsewhere in the budget. That failed on a 3-3 vote with Graham, Whitten, and Mike Bucko, D-4th, voting no and Poparad, Stevenson, and Karen Conover, R-3rd, voting yes. Council member Laura Blaney, D-at large, was absent.

Chief Public Defender James Tsoutsouris rejected as “inappropriate” the notion that the county council granted the higher pay earlier this year, but now might back off from that decision after-the-fact. He said he has a constitutional responsibility to ensure an adequate number of public defenders, and noted that at this time last year, the county didn’t yet have the Portage drug court.

“We must do this,” he said.

After more discussion, Bucko changed his vote, and the overall budget increase of $10,000 passed 4-2.

Another 4-2 vote was cast over the Juvenile Probation Department’s total salaries. Because of a state-mandated salary schedule, the pay for some probation officers automatically adjusts, resulting in a total increase of just over $52,000.

This time, Poparad and Stevenson were the ones to vote no on the increase.

On a more upbeat note, Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper outlined a plan to shift a home detention grant to the Prisoners and Community Together agency. In turn, the county will pick up the costs of three home detention officers that had been funded through the grant.

Harper said the change is a good modernization of the program, since the grant funding was limited. “There are needs we aren’t addressing,” she said.

With PACT’s current resources augmented by the grant, the county will be able to place about 30 more people yearly on home detention, Harper said, in turn cutting costs for housing them in the jail.

The move won’t cost the county’s general fund. At Harper’s suggestion, the council agreed to fund the three salaries, totaling just over $77,000, through probation user’s fees instead of the general fund as originally proposed.

In two other budgets reviewed Tuesday, Harper offered to cut her own court budget overall by just over $50,000, while Porter Superior Court Judge David Chidester was commended for submitting a budget $2,089 lower than this year’s.

Stevenson, an employee in the county clerk’s office, opened Tuesday’s hearing by reading a statement from County Clerk Pam Fish that outlined a new $25 fee that the office can impose on those who are late in paying court fines.

The amount that could be generated for the county’s general fund just from those late in paying traffic fines is estimated at $183,500, she said.

Stevenson asked the judges in attendance if they would approve of the new fee. Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa predicted that the new fee will pass at the judges’ meeting next week.

Posted 8/12/2009