No FEMA money for county flood clean-up
Council preserves road money
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

Francis

Carroll County Highway Department has been virtually unscathed by recent budget decreases aimed at aligning county disbursements with income. This is due in large part because the department is mostly funded with money from the state gas tax, grants for federal highway projects and Economic Development Income Tax, which is controlled by county commissioners. Highway money discussions have mostly been concerned with the lack of gas tax money for road repair.

However highway superintendent Ron Francis was singing a slightly different tune at the Monday morning county council meeting. While requesting a transfer from the Major Moves account to a new line item called "Flood damage and clean-up," Francis announced that, as a municipality, the county will receive no reimbursement for the cost of road repair and debris removal associated with the two floods in January. He estimated the cost to the county for the work at approximately $280,000, which the highway department will now have to absorb into its operating budget.

Francis explained that although the county qualified for reimbursement, the state as a whole did not.

"We can't continue to endure this," council member Steve Ashby said. "Little surprises like this are killing us."

Council member Ann Brown questioned the wisdom of spending the money for cleanup efforts for which the highway department would be responsible. Council consensus was that had the clean-up responsibilities been left to property owners, they would be, and are being, reimbursed for their expenses.

Francis replied the county could have left the clean-up for residents to do, noting that suggestion fit in with the loss of emergency workers and law enforcement due to a reduction in funding for the services.

Council member Ron Slavens said he was against spending Major Moves funds to pay for trash transfer fees because that was not its stated use. He suggested a transfer be made from dust control for the needed money.

The council approved a $27,171 transfer from dust control.

DLGF report

Slavens, Ashby and Brown, along with auditor Beth Myers, treasurer Jane Brewington, commissioner Loren Hylton and State Senator Brandt Hershman, met with Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) representatives last Friday in Indianapolis. Finance committee chair Brown read a prepared statement to summarize the meeting, which was scheduled in response to the DLGF press release of the week before. The statement noted the county over-reported the amount of available money in the general fund in 2004, which led to budgets being approved the county could not afford.

Brown's report indicated DLGF commissioner Cheryl Musgrave noted that she "understood that communication problems (between council members, commissioners, auditor and other county officials) can be very frustrating and lead to very serious problems if not corrected."

"The biggest stumbling block (for Carroll County) is communication," Brown said.

She said county leaders did not share financial information in public meetings. Brown said she did not know why council was not informed about the error when it was discovered.

"Why were we not advised of the error and why did we learn of it in the press release?" she asked at the meeting.

According to the report, Musgrave said DLGF thought the information "had been passed on to the council."

Brown blamed "lack of sufficient leadership" for the miscommunication. The report stated that in the meeting, Myers said she shared concerns and financial information "numerous times with the leadership and it was not acted upon or obviously not relayed to others."

Brown concluded the bottom line was that all accounts are not balanced between the auditor and treasurer's offices.

"The reason we didn't find the error is because the books didn't balance," she said. "They still don't balance."

"This isn't acceptable. We've got to get that done," Brown continued. "It's not acceptable that this goes on. If we don't balance, we really don't know where we stand. Unfortunately, that's where we still are."

Auditor's report

Myers responded to the DLGF report with a written statement. See inset for the content of her statement.

"I don't believe the investment mistake was understood," she added.

She explained she was a new auditor in 2003 and there were new council members and one new commissioner at that time. She said she would like to move forward together with the council and other county leaders.

Budget

As discussion turned to paying county bills, it was decided to only pay payroll for April out of available county funds because it became difficult for council members to find additional money for claims.

"We can sit here all day but we're never going to pay this because we don't have enough money,"Ashby said. "We need at least $1 million to get to May."

Council voted to apply for a tax anticipation warrant for $1.2 million from Lafayette Bank and Trust. Council member Carl Abbott volunteered to make initial contact with the bank to set the plan in motion. Ashby said he would also discuss arrangements with bank representatives.

Financial report

Hired to provide a summary of past activity and begin development of a recovery plan, H.J. Umbaugh and Associates representative Paige Gregory advised short-term financial solutions included reduced expenditures, deferred capital costs, institution of a hiring freeze, delay of seasonal hires and consideration of adoption of the local option income tax as an additional revenue stream. She suggested re-appropriation of expenditures from the general fund to Rainy Day, Riverboat and EDIT funds.

No new options not already under consideration were offered for cash flow needs. However, privatizing some services, such as Carroll Manor, was recommended.

Slavens noted the numbers used in the report were provided by the county and were not necessarily accurate. Council members requested Umbaugh and Associates make LOIT taxpayerspecific (what it would mean to different classes of taxpayers) projections and for an effectcomparison with like-counties (with little industry) to support the tax and generate revenue.

Other business

A request to extend the employment date of one deputy leaving county employment due to budget decreases was granted. The deputy is in a refresher town marshal course, but must be employed by a law enforcement agency when the course ends. The employment was extended from April 4 to April 18.

Slavens will develop a plan to present to the Carroll County Redevelopment Commission in order to borrow from the surplus Tax Increment Financing fund.

An inter-fund loan from Local Health Maintenance account to the health department for $43,657.83 was approved. According to Brown in a follow-up interview Tuesday, the measure was needed because DLGF shifted a portion of the tax rate for the department to help the general fund balance remain positive. The council was not given the information during budget time.

Health department clerk Mary Jones was directed to communicate with the state group that provides funding for restaurant inspections about hiring a parttime worker for the position.

Council recessed for lunch and re-convened at 1 p.m. to discuss further budget reductions. No revised budget was adopted. Another meeting was scheduled for today, Wednesday, at 5:30 p.m. It is expected for final budget numbers to be achieved. The final budget meeting will be Thursday morning, April 3, at 8:30 a.m. to adopt the revised budget.

The Comet will post the revised budget with explanations at www.carrollcountycomet.com after adoption. The information will be posted on the 'County Government Meetings and Agenda' page found under 'links' in blue on the left of the home page.