Meetings, negotiations and consultations led Carroll County Council members Scott Ayres, Jerry Hendress, Marion Huffer, Nancy Cripe and Ann Brown to reach a unanimous decision to approve a 2010 budget for $5,637,552 at the Tuesday morning meeting. Council members Carl Abbott and Ron Slavens were absent from the meeting and the voting.

Before voting on the bottom line for each department budget, department heads were given one last opportunity to express concerns about proposed line item spending limitations. Council members were swayed by some comments to change some numbers before the final vote was taken.

“The council takes this very seriously,” president Brown told the department heads in the audience.

She explained that roughly 75 percent of the budget was devoted to employee payroll.

“There are only two ways to give raises,” Brown told them. “We either have to increase tax rates to produce more revenue or decrease service costs. We did not eliminate any county positions this year.”

“Thank you for working with us,” she added. “We were able to give one percent raises when many counties in Indiana were not able to give any raises.”

In a follow-up interview, Brown said the council was able to “keep the budget at nearly the same rate as last year.” The appropriation for employee health insurance was increased by $45,000 and a third ambulance was able to be funded.

Brown said the increase in the appropriations was made possible because the county no longer has outstanding loans to repay and Carroll Manor was removed from the general fund. The facility is expected to essentially function with income from resident fees.

“The council members did a lot of the budget work in committees,” Brown said praising the team. “They dedicated a lot of hours which made the adoption process much more efficient.”

“I appreciate their effort,” she concluded.

LOIT

Council members decided it was necessary to consider an increase in the Local Option Income Tax to no more than .2 of a percent to ensure continued adequate revenue for the county. A special meeting will be held Oct. 30 at 3:30 for public input and to vote on the measure.

Other business

Council members adopted an ordinance which will allow sheriff Tony Burns to charge fees to sex and violent offenders for county registration. Burns said the state now allows counties to assess up to a $50 fee to register in the county of residence, which is required by the state. A $5 charge to change their address, also required reporting information, is also approved by the state. He explained the sheriffs department is mandated to track all offenders registered in the county. Burns said some offenders are only monitored once a year and some every 90 days. He said the state will receive 10 percent of all fees collected.

He advised there is a software program, for approximately $3,500, for unified offender data with the ability to be shared with other counties. Database information would be put online for instant notification of offender whereabouts. Burns said it is expected that the Indiana Department of Correction will purchase the software for counties with their portion of the fees collected.

An additional appropriation for $20,800 from the sheriff’s misdemeanant fund will be used to purchase all of the hardware and software needed to digitize jail records. Burns said there are numerous boxes of paper records stored in places not conducive to long-term stability. He said an independent service would direct the work and jailers will help scan documents into a dedicated server. A $1,320 annual maintenance fee for the service will also be paid from the misdemeanant fund.

$5,995 from the Riverboat Gambling Fund to codify county ordinances was approved. Twenty ordinance booklets are included in the cost.

Transfers approved:

Probation - $3,500 from drug testing to mileage/surveillance;

Reassessment - $800 from maintenance/new construction to mileage and assessor level 2;

Highway - $2,500 from foreman and equipment operator to hardware tools, $2,1500 from mechanics to telephones, drainage assessments and uniforms and testing, $31,650 from truck drivers for utilities, custodian, safety supplies, unemployment, repair parts and workman compensation, $14,390 from calcium chloride/ salt to other road equipment and $33,496 from bridge management system/ repair to emergency culverts/highway;

Custodians - $2,000 from building repair to heating/air and $700 from batteries/bulbs to supplies;

Treasurer - $971.15 from office supplies, miles and meetings, computer software and printer/paper/toner for seasonal help and $6.32 from office supplies to maintenance contracts;

Soil and Water - $130.28 from postage for mileage and office supplies;

4-H Building - $1,500 from repairs to utilities;

Joint courts - $33 from transcripts to psychiatric/expert witnesses; and

Commissioners - $434.60 from building structure liability to workman comp.

Additional appropriations

Approved were:

E-911 - $10,000 for parttime communications; and

Sheriff - $20,800 from the misdemeanant fund for document imaging.

The next business meeting will be Nov. 17 at 8:30 a.m.