Rainy Day Fund used for Feb. bills
Council urges commissioners to act on personnel policy changes
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

Carroll County Council urged commissioners at their Wednesday morning meeting to amend the county's personnel practices as soon as possible. Council members were forced to address compensatory time owed to E-911 employees as well as anticipated future comp. time issues. Commissioners set personnel policies for county employees.

E-911 director Jay D. Cree requested to hire a replacement fulltime dispatcher. However, after noting the department owed 300 hours of comp. time to employees, which carries the threat of forced payment in the future, the request was tabled. Council member Carl Abbott made the motion to table the matter due to the uncertain 2008 budget and the prospect of workforce reduction if budget reductions are required by the Department of Local Government Finance.

The Carroll County Personnel Policy allows for salaried department heads to receive 1.5 hours of comp. time for each hour worked over 40 hours.

The exact nature of the policy and the wording was questioned by council member Ron Slavens.

"Is it clear that department heads are entitled to comp. time?" Slavens asked.

Abbott turned to commissioners' president Loren Hylton in the audience and asked him if the commissioners had taken any action to review the personnel practices and specifically the comp. time issue as requested by the council several months ago. Hylton said they had not.

"You can see how it (the issue of comp. time) trickles down, don't you," Abbott said to Hylton.

Council president Nancy Cripe urged Hylton to act "the sooner the better."

Auditor Beth Myers asked for an explanation of the difference between taking comp. time and getting paid overtime.

"Taking comp. time is one thing," council member Jerry Hendress said. "But if they don't take it, we've got to pay it."

Myers reported former museum director Phyllis Moore was claiming 832 comp. time hours. Some of those were accrued during Old Settlers events over the years. The question arose whether Moore had received permission to work the overtime or not.

Although Abbott said the comp. time issue was already discussed with commissioners at a previous joint meeting, Myers was directed to put the matter on the agenda again for the next joint council/commissioner meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.

Tioga Bridge

Council members and commissioners did not see eye-to-eye about the Tioga Bridge project. Commissioners agreed with highway superintendent Ron Francis at the Feb. 4 meeting to ask the council to transfer money from Bridge #129 to two other bridge projects. A bill for one of those, the Maxwell Bridge, was unexpectedly presented years after the closing of the project. Council approved a $15,811.24 transfer for that obligation.

However a request to transfer $44,000 to the Tioga Bridge project was tabled by unanimous vote. Francis said the project was a joint federal aid project with White County. He explained residents in the local area wanted the project to be funded.

"The purpose (of the project) is to keep the county from having to pull it (the bridge) out," Francis said. "That's the issue."

Francis explained the bridge was to be rehabilitated and raised to become a walking bridge over Lake Freeman into Monticello.

Slavens said he thought Monticello would be the principle economic beneficiary of the project.

Francis said he would be requesting an additional appropriation at the end of the month to pay a Lancaster Covered Bridge renovation bill that was presented after encumbrances from 2007 were made, which prevented him from setting the money aside from the 2007 appropriations.

Other transfers

The council transferred $200,000 from the Rainy-Day Fund to the general fund.

A request from the Carroll County Parks Board to transfer $149.70 from the French Post Park restrooms account to park attendants account was approved in a five-to-one vote. Jerry Hendress voted against the transfer. He said gasoline was used by "someone" and he believed the $149.70 had been "paid in kind" to the park attendants.

Assessor Doris McLeland was granted permission to transfer $12,000 in the reassessment fund from maintenance/new construction to the AdValorem firm, which will provide reassessments for flood-damaged structures and land.

The county health department was granted permission to hire a food inspector for $9.55/hour, with no benefits, paid out of the tobacco and health maintenance funds.

Auditor's report

Myers provided council members a packet of information council transferred

the Rainy-for review that included a comp. time report and the monthly report that compares current financial standing with past years' during the same time period.

Myers reported that all funds are balanced with the treasurer's office except for county general. The difference between the auditor's office and the treasurer's office is now minus $2,902. This number represents a fluctuation from a positive of nearly $3,000 at the end of 2006.

She said the tax rebate money was no longer in county general. Myers further indicated checks to taxpayers would be issued in the next two weeks. Myers said her office is looking for delinquent property tax payments before sending out the checks.

Consensus was to mail a statement to a county employee who owes the county $712.16 for personal charges on a cell phone provided by the county. It was noted the situation became an issue in 2006 and has gone unresolved since that time. The employee initially paid $25 toward the personal use cost of the cell phone, but nothing had been received since the initial payment.

Finance committee

Committee chair Ann Brown reported the treasurer continues to not balance with bank statements. She said treasurer Jane Brewington was directed to make an appointment for Monday with a representative of the software company which is used in both the treasurer's and auditor's offices, who will be hired to assist Brewington to properly reconcile the accounts. Brewington had not accomplished that task by Wednesday morning.

"She's working at it, but not hard enough to suit me," Brown said.

Brown said the county will also pay the software consultant to work with the auditor and treasurer to help them understand the use of the computer program and how voided checks are processed. The understanding is necessary between the two offices so that voided check transactions are recorded properly.

At the urging of Myers, council voted to use money from the Rainy Day Fund to pay February bills.

"I'm not writing a check in the red anymore," Myers stated. "I'm just not doing it."

"Well good," council member Steve Ashby replied.

Myers cited the reason for her decision was due to "all the publicity" she had received for the former practice and that the finance committee "put me through holy heck." After she made a second similar statement complaining about the finance committee, Slavens told Myers that if she worked any place else, she would no longer have a job.

Brown recommended taking out a loan from a lender until the spring property tax settlement is received. She said a lender might give the county a loan while it still had some money in reserve accounts. She said if those accounts become depleted, it would be more difficult to convince a lender the loan could be repaid.

Slavens agreed that the council should pursue a bank loan at some point, stating that "citizens don't understand" the money the council is currently using to pay bills "is borrowed." He maintained that if an actual loan is made, a repayment plan would have to be developed. Currently the council has no plan to repay the cumulative bridge account from which $675,000 was recently borrowed or the $200,000 transferred from the Rainy Day Fund, although legally that fund does not have to be repaid.

Ashby also recommended a bank loan. He said if the bank would not approve a loan, "then we'll have to come back and think about it."

Cripe said money was needed by the end of February for payroll.

"You can't not give people their paycheck," she said.

The finance committee recommended the council refer to the 2003 budget appropriations, $5,816,303, the amount of revenue likely for 2008. It was noted the cost of personnel is the largest item in the budget. According to the written report, a reduction in the number of county employees will effectively reduce county operating costs overall.

The report read in part, "The fact is...our county population is pretty much static and has been for over 100 years. We absolutely cannot increase services to the taxpayers without bringing in revenue to pay for those services. We must live within our means. Without additional population or increase in businesses and industry to provide increased revenue, we must continue to operate county government at the same fiscal level (without any significant increases). The DLGF is not going to permit us to increase taxes over and above what the people can afford to pay."

Other business

Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Vice President Dick Bradshaw presented the Carroll County Economic Development/ county chamber five-year plan for economic development projects, using an increase realized from an Economic Development Income Tax increase. He said the plan was for EDC and the chamber to administer the funds.

Slavens questioned how the commissioners have chosen to spend EDIT in recent years. Council member Rob Baker suggested EDIT money be spent more wisely before the tax is increased.

Ashby questioned how the county has benefited from the use of EDIT in the past several years.

"Our books don't balance," he said. "We borrowed $675,000 to pay the bills held over from the end of 2007. We need to know what actually goes into the county coffers."

"Tourism will not propel the county," he continued. "501(c)3s (not-for-profit organizations) will not propel the county. Now we've got to be fiscally responsible to make everything work."

He said people have the misconception that when the county grows industry, it acquires significantly more income. He said that is not the case. For instance, if a company generates $1 million in employment taxes, the county realizes approximately $11,000. And if the factory or business was built in a Tax Increment Financing District, such as Indiana Packers, the county receives no more property tax than prior to the development. Additional tax revenue stays in the TIF district to repay loans for infrastructure and for future development.

A joint meeting with commissioners was scheduled for Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. The next council meeting will be Feb. 29 at 8:30 a.m.

Meeting with DLGF

Council members met with Dan Eggermann from the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) to begin to develop a financial plan for the county to remain solvent in 2008.

Myers said she did not want to process property tax bills until assessed land values were more clearly defined. When asked, McLeland was unable to approximate the value of reassessed property due to flood damage. She said her office has processed approximately 214 claims, but she could not give an average value for them.

Eggermann recommended the county process the property tax bills immediately so that a budget order could be made by DLGF. He said although the flood-damaged properties could be assessed lower, the tax rate would be adjusted and the loss would be redistributed to other taxpayers. Eggermann developed a rudimentary time-line for the county to follow in order to receive the property tax settlement in May for the county to use to pay the bills.

Although the end of the year report was provided by the auditor, Slavens clarified to Eggermann that the county lost approximately $800,000 in the general fund in 2007, which was not apparent from the report. Eggermann was to take auditorprovided information with him after Myers corrected the information to more accurately depict the true county fiscal picture. He said he would likely be able to advise council members about a plan of action by the middle of February.