[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[15:00] Right here, right? And according to the position we heard at the last meeting, county employees don't get to bargain over any of it. So I think the county workers deserve to know. When a member of the council says the county never recognize, recognize the union and if they are not recognized, they don't bargain anything was he speaking for just himself or was he speaking for all of you because nobody said otherwise. Thanks. I'll respond to that. It's made.
[15:29] that was speaking and the county hasn't ever recognized the union and we have looked
[15:33] out for the county employees ever since I've been on council I have fought for every county
[15:37] employee every year for pay raise, a bargaining unit or a union, period.
[15:45] I'd like to add to that it also goes back to Indiana statute regarding unions in Indiana
[15:50] for public safety and non public safety employees and I'd like to add that we have given on average
[15:57] over 3% pay increase every year for the last 10 to 12 years.
[16:02] So I think that we do a good job of taking care of our employees.
[16:10] Thank you for your comments, though.
[16:12] One quick question for again, is someone keeping time or do I keep that myself?
[16:16] Okay, fantastic.
[16:17] Good evening, Justin Woodward, 46807.
[16:20] I'm a resident of North East Indiana and Allen County for almost 20 years.
[16:24] And this is my first time to come before the council.
[16:27] I'm here tonight to address the Mass Warrantless Surveillance Program.
[16:30] facilitated by ALPR cameras and to call in the county to end this violation of our civil rights.
[16:36] The American system of government with regards to the privacy of citizens is built on the
[16:40] premise and spirit that government has to prove before a judge that they need to know information
[16:44] about individuals based on suspicion of evidence or wrongdoing. And that outside of that,
[16:49] they do not have the rights to know a single thing about us without our consent.
[16:53] Our rights, including the right to privacy, are inherent to the people
[16:57] and laws exist to restrain the scope and authority of any government body.
[17:01] The presence of ALPR cameras, microphones and the nationwide artificially intelligence
[17:07] supported data network behind them grossly violates this spirit and provides opportunity
[17:12] for a myriad of abuses.
[17:14] It grants power to monitor and collect information on residents that secret police and totalitarian
[17:19] states of the past could only have dreamt of, and our county has turned it on without a
[17:24] single independent constraint.
[17:25] As a resident of Allen County, I drive past an average of eight flock cameras on a daily basis and I'm subjected to a potential pattern of life surveillance without ever having been convicted of or charged with anything worse than a speeding ticket.
[17:38] The favored buzzword for the conversation regarding the mass surveillance program in our county has been safety.
[17:44] We hear claims that these intrusions on our privacy are not necessary for our safety, but I would remind the council that safety is an ill-defined and ever changing illusion.
[17:52] and I refuse to surrender my rights in exchange for it.
[17:56] Furthermore, the greatest threats to the safety of mankind
[17:58] have not come from the actions of individual citizens,
[18:01] but from the actions of governments,
[18:03] and often in the name of some unattainable greater good.
[18:06] The duty of counsel does involve protecting
[18:08] the citizens of Allen County,
[18:09] but firstly from the overreaches of government.
[18:12] Thomas Jefferson gave excellent advice on this
[18:14] when he wrote these words in questions of power then,
[18:17] let no more be heard of confidence in man,
[18:19] but bind him down from mischief
[18:21] by the chains of the Constitution.
[18:23] ALPR surveillance systems have tipped the scale of power between the power of government
[18:27] and the privacy of the citizen wildly in favor of the government without a single independent
[18:32] constraint.
[18:33] This is not a dispute over the efficacy of these tools or the potential ability for crime
[18:39] to be solved, but whether or not the government's mandate to protect should allow it to mass
[18:43] surveil everyone in the county.
[18:46] We are told that cameras only capture plate images, but somehow flock managers to collect data
[18:50] on speed, and the make, and model, and color, and independent markings, and unique to each vehicle.
[18:57] A common refrain has been if you have nothing to hide, but this is the siren song of sheep who do not know the history of human government.
[19:04] I'm an American citizen, and public servants do not have a right to monitor my pattern of life without cause.
[19:09] I call on the council to end the warrantless mass surveillance program and
[19:13] protect the privacy of Allen County citizens from the intrusions of the government that you administer.
[19:18] Thank you.
[19:19] Thank you.
[19:20] But
[19:23] I just can't wait for you to do it.
[19:27] I'm going to document with me that you would all recognize if you had any, I'm going to refer
[19:31] to that here as an objective evidence later.
[19:34] But I'm John E.S.
[19:35] I live in the town of Leo Cedarville, I live at 11428 Grable Road, Leo, and the animal.
[19:41] But those of you that are wise, and I think you probably are all wise, listen and perhaps
[19:47] even add to your learning as I talk about a couple of things here this evening, because
[19:51] Because I'm concerned about where property taxes are going here in Allen County and
[19:57] reference more specifically the fire district costs that we are in the process of incurring.
[20:03] And so I've got some comparisons for you because we know the property taxes are rising in terms
[20:09] of reality because of assessed values which are beyond our immediate control.
[20:13] So I'm not throwing stones in the process, I'm simply saying with where the system is,
[20:17] that's an issue and I think you all know that.
[20:19] some of the names and percentages, and I'll refer to them.
[20:22] So 110.19%, 71.06%, 98, 58.95%, 32.22%, and 82.53%.
[20:35] Now, what might I be talking about here?
[20:37] Well, I'm just a plain country boy from Whitley County and Alwyn County,
[20:41] so I'm going to try to make this even so that our esteemed attorney can get his head around this too.
[20:46] So the 110.19% represents my comparison off of this document in terms of what we pay in property taxes for
[20:54] fire district, our current fire district in Leo Cedarville and Northeast Allen County, okay?
[21:00] And so that 110.19% is a comparison to what it costs to run an operate the entire town of Leo Cedarville.
[21:07] I submit to you, that's expensive.
[21:09] The
[21:12] 71.06% is a comparison of the Northeast Fire District that we currently are supporting for
[21:20] fire service and EMS service as compared to the East Allen County school systems cost of operating their entire system for the year.
[21:30] That sounds expensive to me, just being a simple country boy.
[21:33] The 58.9% represents an East Allen County school system and I keep using that one because I live and pay taxes in East Allen County schools.
[21:43] That's the percentage that the fire district that we support is compared to the debt service budget for East Allen County school system, okay?
[21:54] And when you combine the operating system and the debt service of the East Allen County school system, the 32.22% is the comparative cost to run the fire district.
[22:03] My gosh, that's the third of the cost of operating that entire fire district.
[22:07] That's expensive, ladies and gentlemen, that's expensive.
[22:10] And the last one, the 82.53% represents a comparative cost to Allen County government.
[22:18] I submit to you that this is very, very expensive and a big deal.
[22:23] And so I'm calling on those of you to really think long and
[22:28] hard about when this budget comes forward for this new district.
[22:31] because of lack of tax cap.
[22:34] That is not financial prudence and wisdom
[22:37] and discernment if you approve that.
[22:39] That is sloppy government, if it's approved
[22:43] as is currently forming.
[22:45] I believe the commissioners, if they get this,
[22:48] if you turn that budget down and let that go back
[22:50] to them and let them reform this process
[22:53] to a more reasonable way, I think we will all be better off.
[22:56] be careful that you don't drive people out of Allen County because of the cost.
[23:02] I don't know where I'm on time, but I've been closed.
[23:05] Yes, you are. Thank you, John.
[23:07] I mean, I have a privilege of response.
[23:09] I'm just a country boy, too.
[23:12] I'm from New Haven, and we always slept with one John to die toward Fort Wayne on the lookout for anybody who's coming this way.
[23:19] And I grew up at a time when Buggies would still come in to New Haven on Landon Road and
[23:24] Hitch up in front of Blackwells and Gilliams, which is just two doors away from us.
[23:32] You might as well never mind about this building, but I didn't have the privilege of being
[23:37] born in Whitley County, so I'll can see that.
[23:42] Any other public comment?
[23:48] My name's Scott Conley.
[23:49] I'm the Cedar Creek Township Trustee.
[23:50] I live in, I also live in Leo.
[23:52] I just asked the council to look at this budget again with no tax cap.
[23:57] I've seen the district, the territory go through multiple times and I've seen it rushed
[24:02] from the beginning, and I still feel like it's being rushed.
[24:05] And I ask you guys, all of the gentlemen and ladies, to re-look at it.
[24:10] And just with a closer eye, I think the comment of, we'll fix it later, is a problem.
[24:15] And no tax cap is really going to be hard and hard for everybody to explain across the county.
[24:23] I congratulate you Lindsey for sharing as much as you have on Facebook about it.
[24:28] But I ask all of you to please look at it again and vote it and vote it down until we until we have a great
[24:35] Road map to to correcting it
[24:38] Thank you
[24:40] My
[24:49] name is Frank Fisher. I live at one. Oh two three four milter to have a new Leo Indiana
[24:56] I've got a degree in firefighting or in fire science. I was a firefighter for 40 years and I had an NFPA in struck him for about 20
[25:04] I know the fire service
[25:06] I don't understand why the district has a bookkeeper that costs the tax payers to
[25:14] around $240,000 plus dollars in fines and late fees and why after I was in here
[25:24] when you explained to the districts that were being set up, how to set up the
[25:28] districts and whatnot and why our district decided to go and borrow half of what
[25:34] they needed for the first year and then how my trustee who I happen to think I got a good trustee
[25:42] and berate him and harass him until threatened him to stop ambulance service until he
[25:49] give them $900,000. Now that needs to be paid back to the township out of the district's money.
[25:58] That was stupid on their part not to borrow $2 million. And I'd like to know when you guys
[26:04] are going to make them pay that money back when you're going to do something about the bookkeeper,
[26:09] who knows what state the books are in out there now since Scott took over and he paid what he
[26:15] could up until the district started. When you go to those district meetings, they don't even have
[26:23] financial reports. Those guys don't have any clue what's going on. The problem with Leo Cedarville
[26:30] is the good old boy club. The good old boys are in power out there. They don't
[26:35] like it. Every time township has a meeting, a whole bunch of them come from
[26:39] other townships. They cause problems at the meetings. They demand this. They
[26:44] demand that. And I don't understand it. And I don't understand why nobody does
[26:50] anything to help this man out and stop this crap. I'm tired of the harassment of
[26:55] my township meetings. There's no reason for it. And all that money has to be paid back by somebody.
[27:01] I would suggest you go after bookkeepers bond and get that money back. And I think something
[27:07] ought to be done. And you ought to go after the people that were in the territory to start with
[27:14] for not overseeing what was going on out there and stopping. That is ridiculous. 200 and over
[27:21] $240,000 worth of fines and late fees, a fuel bill that hadn't been paid in over a year.
[27:31] Gas bills that weren't getting paid, electric bills that weren't getting paid, when the
[27:35] trustee asked for the records they brought in a box of receipts and threw it down on the
[27:40] table.
[27:40] What kind of bookkeeping is that?
[27:43] I don't do that at home.
[27:47] I got a receipt.
[27:48] I've been in the fire service for a long time.
[27:50] If you had a receipt if you paid for something you had to have a receipt and had to say on there what truck that money went for
[27:57] You couldn't just go out and spend money and say well, I needed it
[28:01] So I I had pleaded with you to do something about this. They're asking up and up and up more money more money more money and
[28:10] It's being wasted. I don't have that kind of money to pay
[28:15] You know, I'm retired. What do I know?
[28:20] My tax bills go up, the VA won't even cover my taxes anymore because they went up so much.
[28:29] So, thank you.
[28:30] Thank you.
[28:31] Appreciate.
[28:32] All right.
[28:33] Any other public comment?
[28:39] The next item before council would be economic development, consideration of resolution, approving
[28:49] a statement of benefits.
[28:50] Let
[29:00] me struggle with those chairs, Rachel Black, Allen County, economic development.
[29:07] Matt, Rob, CFO of NIA LLC.
[29:11] All right, so good evening for your consideration.
[29:14] This evening is a resolution approving a statement of benefits for NIA LLC.
[29:19] They're located at 13010 Bluffton Road.
[29:23] The company plans to invest $3.9 million in new manufacturing equipment, logistical
[29:29] distribution equipment as well as IT equipment. The new equipment will increase the capacity of
[29:36] their current line, which includes 30-foot tanks, cranes, infrastructure, and additional tooling.
[29:42] The IT equipment includes automation, technology, to maximize the line's processing efficiency.
[29:48] So the project is estimated to be completed of December of next year.
[30:00] They also plan to retain 128 employees. This project, they plan to create 36 jobs with salaries estimated at 1.5 million. The company does offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid vacation, sick leave, paid holidays, health, life, dental and vision insurance, as well as employee training and a 401k plan. So they also stated on their
[30:29] application that they are willing to contribute 5% of their tax savings to the tax
[30:35] abatement development fund, specifically towards economic development.
[30:40] So, based on your point system within your tax abatement policy, the company is eligible
[30:46] for a five-year tax abatement on the personal property investment, as well as a one-year
[30:52] tax abatement on their special tooling equipment.
[30:55] If approved the company is estimated to save around $80,000 and they would still pay an estimated $100,000 in property taxes.
[31:09] So if you have any questions for either Matt or I, we'd be happy to answer those questions.
[31:16] I just, Mr. Ruppie, might tell us a little bit about what your business does, and I hope
[31:20] it's understand that a little bit for folks that may not fully understand that as well
[31:25] as what your footprint look like, I noticed that you don't do business necessarily here,
[31:31] but beyond Allen County a lot, maybe I hope it's understand that a little bit.
[31:35] Sure.
[31:37] We've got our VP of operations that can probably explain andodizing better than our CFO, but
[31:42] What anodizing is is the highest level.
[31:45] It's a controlled corrosion on raw aluminum.
[31:50] It provides a protective sealant on a aluminum.
[31:54] I would say about 90% of the aluminum we see in the world
[31:58] has been anodized by some anodizer out there.
[32:03] It's the final process in the aluminum production process.
[32:11] So, Arf, sorry, your question was footprint.
[32:16] Yeah, so there's a whole lot of extruders out there, and the extruders are the ones who
[32:21] provide the aluminum and the shapes that their customers need it.
[32:24] There are not a whole lot of anodizers out in the market, which is why we're actually
[32:28] sitting here today because we're one of the few that are still up and running.
[32:32] A lot of them are shutting down and the demand has become greater on us.
[32:35] Therefore, we're trying to expand and meet customer demand.
[32:38] Why are they shutting down?
[32:40] It's the cost of upkeep and the cost of reinvestment,
[32:43] analyzing facilities and notoriously hard on themselves.
[32:47] They tend to eat themselves.
[32:48] The process is very eats itself,
[32:50] so you have to keep reinvesting.
[32:52] The problem is the cost-sense COVID
[32:55] is almost tripled from what our initial investment was,
[32:58] even if we were just gonna replicate our own facility.
[33:02] In the footprint, yes, our customers are,
[33:05] that we have a wide variety of customers
[33:06] is ranging from, we have some in Northern Michigan, a lot from Northeast Ohio, very much significant
[33:14] portion coming from Elkhart. We have some in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. We're starting to dabble
[33:19] with East Coast customers as well as customers in Texas. Again, all of them needing this because
[33:26] 90% of all aluminum that you guys see out in the world has to go through this process. Otherwise,
[33:32] aluminum-like steel would rust in its own way, so these customers are looking for a solution.
[33:40] We are the solution we I was telling Rachel earlier, we are one of the youngest
[33:44] analyzers out there. There are other facilities. Every facility is different. We have 30 foot tanks and
[33:50] six foot tanks, so we have two separate lines. So you can see anything from four foot tanks all the way up to 35
[33:57] 5-foot tanks, but the industry is somewhat shrinking in that regard.
[34:02] I mean, there will always be investors that try to solve the problem, but that's kind
[34:07] of where the industry is today.
[34:08] And again, why we service such a wide variety, not just Indiana, but we have several customers
[34:14] outside of Indiana as well.
[34:16] The biggest challenge for the business, what would it be?
[34:19] It's always labor, I would say.
[34:21] Right now, the demand is high, labor retention and finding labor that this is the right fit.
[34:28] It is a physically taxing job for a lot of the general labor jobs.
[34:32] That is probably one of our biggest barriers to the market, and the other one would be just
[34:38] rising costs and a lot of the equipment.
[34:44] And what am I missing my word there?
[34:47] infrastructure that would make it so that we can continue growing and servicing the market.
[34:54] Thank you.
[34:55] Thanks.
[34:56] Councilman Fries.
[34:58] I have to tell you Matt, when I vote no, it's not because of you or your business, it's
[35:01] because of the property taxes.
[35:03] Until we get the property taxes worked out and get it off the homeowners' backs and
[35:06] more in businesses, I vote down every abatement.
[35:09] I'm just interested.
[35:10] Appreciate that.
[35:10] Thank you.
[35:12] Questions?
[35:15] I'll just make a comment.
[35:15] I get by your business quite often living out in that area of Allen County, Matt.
[35:21] Business seems to be good, and just, it's a full parking lot.
[35:27] You're doing some things right with not only your business there but the neighboring business.
[35:32] So appreciate the effort, appreciate the bringing employment to folks here in Allen County.
[35:38] Thank you, and we appreciate you guys as well.
[35:39] Well, with a, I'll go ahead.
[35:47] Councilman Fries and I were at a community event last night.
[35:50] We were meeting with taxpayers and hearing about the struggles of people and their taxes
[35:54] going up.
[35:55] And we're trying to figure out how to pay for a consolidated fire district and not overburden
[36:00] our taxpayers right now and there's already struggles and the legislature is trying but hasn't
[36:06] quite figured it out yet. But what they have done is cut into our net assess value that we get to
[36:13] base our growth in our tax revenue one. So just for context, the 6% growth this year
[36:21] translates into 1.71% for us this year. And so with every, I mean, in my opinion,
[36:28] And until we get that fixed, I mean, when you're giving tax abatement, you're essentially
[36:36] shifting that tax burden over to homeowners.
[36:39] And until we get a good fix from the tax pay or from the legislature regarding homeowners
[36:44] and their property taxes, I can't in good conscience vote for a tax abatement.
[36:50] I guess my one question for you, well two questions actually.
[36:57] Is this a deal breaker for the project?
[37:00] Would it not go forward without the tax abatement?
[37:05] I don't know that I am the correct person to answer that.
[37:09] We do have a board of directors, and I report back to them.
[37:13] I can't tell you one way or the other if that will shift their opinions or not,
[37:17] and I am not a board member that gets to vote on that matter.
[37:21] I appreciate that.
[37:22] And also, the 5% going to economic development, I mean, the entities that, I guess, lose out on property tax revenue when we give an abatement would be, you know, the school and the fire district and the municipality and the township and the airport and the library.
[37:40] It's not just the county, but one of those entities is the fire districts that we have.
[37:45] And right now, like I said, we're trying to figure out how to provide enough revenue
[37:50] to operate a consolidated fire district.
[37:52] So I guess my question is why did you guys choose economic development over the public
[37:58] safety option for fire and police?
[38:02] I would say consistency, especially with the countenance.
[38:06] We've done this before.
[38:07] We've been here before.
[38:08] So I wanted to make sure that everything that we've done just kind of followed the person
[38:15] I guess I just asked that in the future you consider putting that towards the public safety since that is actually what loses out on property taxes more so than economic development would.
[38:32] Any further questions?
[38:34] I just mentioned the fact that once again, Council, we've got a business in front of us that's followed our process.
[38:43] They go through our hurdles to determine should they be eligible or not.
[38:48] And they've done that and this represents 128 employees already at $5.8 million in salaries.
[38:57] They're wanting to grow, and this gives us an opportunity to continue to help this community grow, as well as
[39:06] making sure that these employees are not harmed by a decision that's made even though they followed our process to become eligible to receive this tax agreement.
[39:16] And so, and this is a tax phase and they'll be paying $90,000, I think it's nearly $100,000,
[39:24] approximately $100,000, even with this vote, they'll still pay $100,000 in taxes.
[39:29] So, for the public to understand, it's not that they don't pay taxes, they'll still pay taxes.
[39:37] It's a smaller portion, but they'll be investing $7 million into the community through that process, I believe.
[39:45] So with that, I'll move for approval of the consideration of resolution number 2026,
[39:52] 109, 109, 109, 101, approving the statement of benefits for N-I-A-L-L-C.
[40:01] Seconded that.
[40:03] We have a motion and a second, any further discussion?
[40:08] And I'm motion to hold for one month, it's already been a motion.
[40:15] and both
[40:21] we shoot it down if we voted down it dies for a year.
[40:29] We're tied on corn that's why.
[40:32] He wants to know if we can hold it for a month.
[40:35] That's very short.
[40:36] That's very short on the second.
[40:36] Can I motion to hold versus
[40:42] voting it down?
[40:43] And yes,
[40:51] does it?
[40:52] Yes.
[40:53] Well, I think the reason he's saying this because we have to have four votes to pass it.
[40:57] And right now we'd only have three.
[41:00] So when we don't have three votes for so we wouldn't pass.
[41:05] It's not a parade of motion and the chair can recognize that.
[41:12] I mean, we have, I should we vote on the motion that we have first.
[41:15] I mean, well, that, obviously, if you do it dies, just to clarify, it's for votes or majority.
[41:24] It's for votes, it requires for votes.
[41:26] Yeah, it's a majority of council, regardless of how many are here.
[41:29] Would one of those who made the original motion desire to withdraw the motion?
[41:43] For the sake of this business and this emotion, I would draw the motion.
[41:49] We'll make a motion to hold the vote until the October meeting.
[41:55] I would second that.
[41:58] We have a motion and a second to hold until next month.
[42:08] Any further discussion?
[42:09] I'll just say that I'm doing that for the 128 employees that pay taxes every day and all the time and they just need their job.
[42:17] and we don't want to discourage investment into this community.
[42:21] I think it would be dangerous for this community to start sending that message.
[42:24] If Council is going to use this tool against businesses, we need to change the tool.
[42:31] I agree.
[42:33] Change the rule.
[42:34] Change the tool.
[42:36] Okay.
[42:37] We have a motion in a second.
[42:39] No further discussion?
[42:42] All in favor?
[42:43] Say aye.
[42:44] Aye.
[42:44] Aye.
[42:46] And hold.
[42:48] Opposed?
[42:49] Aye.
[42:50] Opposed?
[42:50] Same sign?
[42:51] Aye.
[42:53] So that is 3, 2, 2.
[42:56] And held for a month.
[42:57] Yeah.
[42:57] Yeah.
[42:58] It's being held.
[42:58] 3, 2, 2.
[43:01] Hold that.
[43:02] Thank you for being here.
[43:16] Treasure.
[43:17] You're representing our treasure.
[43:20] Good evening.
[43:21] All right.
[43:23] So the next item of four council is the auditor.
[43:26] Auditor in for the treasurer I'm here to request for the treasurer they would like a resolution
[43:36] to establish a cash change fund they got a new property tax between didn't we talk about
[43:47] this last month no no that's slightly different they have they have their their tax payment
[43:54] it.
[43:56] ATM for lack of a better word at their office, but they've bought a second one that will
[44:01] be available 24-7.
[44:04] It will be like in the vest bill when you walk in where you can go to the right to go
[44:10] to city police that are there 24-7 and it will be right there that can make payments at
[44:16] any time the building does not need to be open.
[44:18] So in order to do that, they need a $1,200 cash change fund to get to stock it to get it started and that's what their request is.
[44:29] Madam President, I'll move for a consideration of resolution 2026-09-09-02 establishing a cash change fund for the Allen County Treasure Office in the amount of $1,200.
[44:41] Second.
[44:41] Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Say aye.
[44:50] Aye.
[44:50] All opposed, same sign. Okay, passes five.
[45:02] Okay, next item up is the county assessor and the auditor subbing in again. So the county assessor is just asking to transfer some money from their 300 series schools and seminars and travel into their health insurance line in their sales disclosure fund. They pay a couple employees out of there and we don't really, we don't establish the health insurance rate that is going to be
[45:29] charged for the employer portion.
[45:32] We don't know those numbers until January, so frequently if they didn't budget an increase,
[45:39] they just percent accurately, especially for those that only have a couple of employees,
[45:44] they can't absorb a difference.
[45:46] So they're just asking to transfer, to cover that health insurance employer portion for
[45:50] the rest of the year.
[45:52] She had sent a note to me, and unfortunately I didn't get back to her early enough, but
[45:56] But I'm glad that there was communication made on that.
[46:01] So, Madam President, I'll move for the schools and seminars of $9.98 and travel of $3,886
[46:08] to be moved to health insurance for total $4,884.
[46:13] Second.
[46:14] Okay.
[46:15] We have a motion and a second.
[46:16] Any discussion?
[46:19] Jackie, I do have a question.
[46:20] and did she include this, did she increase her budget for next year to reflect this?
[46:31] So we have a motion and a second. No further discussion. All in favor say aye.
[46:36] Aye.
[46:37] All opposed, same sign.
[46:39] Motion carries five.
[46:41] Thank you.
[46:41] Zero two.
[46:42] Thank you.
[46:43] Next item before council is the Allen County Juvenile Center.
[46:48] I'm
[46:57] Judge Brent Dackenberger, Allen Sparer Court, the Family Relations Division, out at the
[47:02] Allen County Juvenile Center. With a few items for the agenda for the Council tonight,
[47:07] I appreciate your listening to us. First item is that the Friends of the Allen County Juvenile
[47:13] Center account, that is a partnership organization that you suggest that our organization has been
[47:19] dissolved, and we have a check from that organization. This has been deposited into the general
[47:25] We're asking that to be allocated to the Allen County General, excuse me, ACJC's general fund to build for a light refresh, essentially the lights right when you first enter the building, showing the flag from the building has been inoperable since I've been at the building, the same cost for that.
[47:43] that French VACJC check will basically cover the cost of that light refreshing.
[47:49] Larger item on the agenda is that we are asking for additional allocation to finish
[47:54] out in 2026. We have adjusted as far back as we can and I know you are in front of you
[48:00] in July to request moving additional funds into the expenditures. It was not enough to cover
[48:07] the expenditures that have been incurred and are expected to incur.
[48:10] I appreciate your patience going through this process with me.
[48:13] I took the bench in September, so I haven't gone through a budgeting process with all
[48:17] of you yet.
[48:17] That's the fun is to come in the next couple of weeks, but my understanding is that historically
[48:22] we've been asked to budget at a flat number going forward and that has not reflected the inflation
[48:28] that we've have for several of our contracts, including for cleaning electronic monitoring utilities
[48:35] and our kitchen services and here have more of the history on exactly what
[48:41] those costs entailed but we do believe that the $364,745 additional dollars for
[48:47] that will cover us through the end of the year based on our monthly averages
[48:50] for the year so far and if you have any questions I'm be happy to answer them.
[48:59] Questions? I have a couple. Councilman for you. You're on to use the light on the
[49:04] flagpole has not been working since you were there?
[49:06] Yes sir.
[49:07] If that ever happens again, make sure we get that fixed right away, whatever it costs.
[49:11] I mean, that should never happen on a government building or on the American flag.
[49:15] So, as far as I'm concerned, that one's a done deal.
[49:17] The number we had down there for you though, the total is 371,753 is that?
[49:23] Yeah, the other 7,088 was the flagpole one or that's just the main balance for that.
[49:30] What was the amount, I'm sorry, what was the amount that was given to ACJC?
[49:35] You said there was a check written to you from that was the 7,000 oh that is the 7,000 so that's quite a
[49:43] Miss on the the budget
[49:46] How do we miss it that much and I wasn't part of the budget last year? I can tell you we are
[49:51] As doing an appeal budget this year that would be more in line with what the actual expenses are
[49:57] I don't know if Greg would like to ask anything regarding that also. I just I'd like to speak up and say
[50:02] Okay. We had a previous administration as the judge explained. I was instructed to just
[50:09] submit the flat budget and not deal with the appeal process. That's what we've done
[50:13] the past two years. Did you hear that from council? Just submit a flat budget? No, I believe
[50:21] that was from the previous administration and just through talk with council. That was
[50:27] the message I was given and I went with it and I've done things a little differently as
[50:32] far as you've seen me here before with salaries to cover certain things, that's not going to
[50:39] keep up moving forward. So we are prepared next week to submit an appeal to you. It'd be
[50:46] more reflective of our true budget. Yeah. That's one of our challenges. What's the population in the
[50:55] building at this point. Currently, today as of right now, 75, we've been at a
[51:01] percentage population, total population. You've got 75 is that 75% or 75
[51:09] people. 75 people in how many and what's that is a percent of total beds.
[51:15] That's almost we can hold 114. So we're we've been rising every pretty much
[51:24] every month with our numbers.
[51:26] You have a lot of county?
[51:28] Yes.
[51:28] And I've spoke on this before.
[51:30] We did raise the per-dem rate.
[51:33] We're looking, Judge Econbarger and I will talk
[51:36] about raising that again.
[51:37] We're in very high demand.
[51:40] I try to keep that number 10 minimum.
[51:44] So we do help all the other counties.
[51:47] What's that mean, 10 minimum?
[51:48] 10 residents from out of county.
[51:50] We make $200 a day off those residents and we've kept the price now in county the same.
[51:59] We've not raised that price.
[52:01] You know what?
[52:01] You know what it costs to house the juvenile per day average.
[52:06] Average is about, I'd say about $350 a day.
[52:12] So can we bump that up to $350 for the out of county places?
[52:15] That's something I would have to reach out to all the counties. That's what I did previously and they all we're in such high demand
[52:21] They all agreed to the raise so because we're the only facility in the Northeast region, right?
[52:26] Thank you
[52:31] Any other questions
[52:32] I kind of I cut you off or were you gonna?
[52:37] We're good and if you heard something different from the state in terms of housing are they is the the mandate not
[52:45] mandate the direction is to use your facility more. Use facilities like yours more or are they
[52:53] changing directions again and saying maybe we shouldn't put youth in these kinds of facilities?
[52:59] So the state hasn't really made a comment as you're aware there's the JDAI initiative is to keep
[53:06] kids out of incarceration due to recent trends in arrests, it tends to be trending towards
[53:15] more violent offenses. So we are, we're one of 17 detention centers in the state. There's a
[53:22] high demand right now for beds. There's also a big mental health issue among young people, so
[53:30] there's nowhere for these kids to go. So we have to help each other out and find places for them
[53:35] until they find residential treatment
[53:37] or the state hospital, things of that nature.
[53:42] So long story short, yes, we kind of are stuck
[53:45] with some kids.
[53:46] I have nowhere to go.
[53:48] I just think it's from a council perspective,
[53:51] we need to be careful in terms of telling the departments
[53:55] just to give us a flat budget,
[53:57] unless we're going to hold that forever.
[53:59] We simply push that problem off
[54:01] till they can't take it anymore
[54:03] and then we're faced with having to deal with these fees.
[54:07] But with that, Madam President, I'll move for approval of $371,753 for these items listed.
[54:18] What is it? 49, 55, 231, 13.
[54:23] I would second that.
[54:25] Give a motion in a second. Any further discussion?
[54:28] I have a discussion that 7,08 is listed within that 371,753.
[54:37] And again, we have to check for that.
[54:38] Is that 371 enough?
[54:42] The 371 753 is the true number we're asking for.
[54:47] The seven down is going into the general fund.
[54:49] All right.
[54:49] From that check.
[54:50] Yeah, check one in the general fund.
[54:52] All right.
[54:52] I'm good with that then.
[54:54] Thank you.
[54:56] Any further discussion?
[54:59] Seeing none, all in favor, say aye.
[55:02] Aye.
[55:03] All opposed, same sign.
[55:05] Motion carries 502.
[55:07] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[55:11] Next item before council is the circuit court.
[55:16] I
[55:23] think she asked me to take care of her.
[55:34] What do we do if someone isn't here? Do we hold it?
[55:37] I'm still voting on it. It is just a transfer between us.
[55:41] Yeah.
[55:43] I'm going to set a precedent. It's been making a motion to approve this without them coming
[55:47] here because the rest of us are going to say, hey, let's not show you.
[55:50] But I will do it anyhow.
[55:52] I'll make a motion to prove a transfer with any adult probation from a total of $55,000
[55:55] from maintenance, agreement, contractual drug testing to general supplies and extra deputy
[56:00] hire.
[56:01] I'll second it.
[56:02] 60,000, right, though.
[56:05] Say, 55,000.
[56:06] Yeah, I'm sorry.
[56:06] 60,000.
[56:07] Yeah.
[56:10] Oh, yeah.
[56:12] Okay.
[56:13] We have a motion in a second, any discussion?
[56:16] Seeing none, all in favor say aye.
[56:19] Aye.
[56:20] All of those.
[56:20] Same sign.
[56:21] Motion carries.
[56:22] 5-0-2.
[56:25] All right.
[56:26] Next item before council is superior court.
[56:35] We have set precedents.
[56:38] Didn't take well.
[56:39] I'll do it.
[56:41] I'll make a motion to approve then superior court transfer the domestic violence court grant.
[56:48] $3,652 from consulting to promotional supplies, the same amount, $3,652.
[56:55] I want to read them all.
[56:55] These are all grants, so there was just, just, do you want to just do them all?
[57:01] Sure.
[57:02] And included in that's appropriation within the mental health court grant, promotional supplies,
[57:06] $7,400, it transfer within the mental health court grant fund.
[57:11] Here's one of the, one of the second that are just going to second them all.
[57:13] Just keep.
[57:14] Okay.
[57:15] Transfer the metal health court fund from travel, $882 to promotional supplies, $882.
[57:21] And appreciate appropriation within the family recovery court grant fund from promotional supplies, $2,325 to transfer the family recovery court grant fund from consulting fees, $3,158 to promotional supplies, $3,158.
[57:38] Highway, do you want me to take you to?
[57:40] No.
[57:40] second. Okay. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye.
[57:48] Aye. All opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. Five. Zero, two. Leslie did ask me to take care of that.
[57:57] Oh, now we come up with that. Sorry. Okay. I didn't want to throw her under the bus. She did say, ask me and I said, okay.
[58:05] The next item before council would be the highway department. Good evening.
[58:15] Good evening, Bill Hartman,
[58:17] Director Allen County Highway and our controller, Kimi Agatinski.
[58:23] Before you, we have
[58:28] liked to transfer money for sidewalk improvements along Winchester Road about 10 years ago or so
[58:36] in Northeastern Indiana Regional Court, Ian Council came to us and had a study that showed that
[58:41] students were walking along Dunkelburg Road and Winchester Road and also Wallin Road within
[58:49] Fort Wayne Community School District. And we put together a consulting with JII to design
[58:59] putting this all together. We just recently completed the sidewalk along Dunkelburg Road
[59:04] and we'd like to continue this process long Winchester, the project on Dunkelberg was about 1.3 million dollars.
[59:15] We've got 1.5 in this. It's about a mile of sidewalk. In this case, it was on Dunkelberg.
[59:24] Any questions regarding the sidewalks?
[59:28] What side of the road is that going to be on Winchester?
[59:32] It will be on the west side of on the west side.
[59:39] questions regarding the sidewalks. Do we want to take these separately or do we want to have?
[59:46] Yeah and I'll move for approval of the appropriation within the highway fund for sidewalk
[59:50] improvements of $1,500,000. Second. Have a move.
[1:00:00] Question in a second, any discussion? Just I think, you know, we talk a lot about public safety. In this kids to walk to and from school as bus shortages become a bigger factor. This is a great idea and a great project. Thank you.
[1:00:17] further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye.
[1:00:22] Aye.
[1:00:22] Both same sign. Motion carries 5-0-2.
[1:00:29] Okay.
[1:00:30] Okay, I'm going to let Kim speak to the next request.
[1:00:34] The next request is an appropriation within the lit and economic development fund for additional
[1:00:39] money for health insurance over time and extra deputy hire.
[1:00:43] Last year, when we completed our budget, we kept our budget amounts flat.
[1:00:48] As Jackie said, with the health insurance, one of the things that happens is we budget
[1:00:54] the same as we did the year before.
[1:00:56] We have more movement in our budget, so we'll transfer lines from unused salary lines for
[1:01:02] people maybe who transferred out and we had a lapse or a gap in the time when we rehired
[1:01:08] a new person.
[1:01:09] And so we'll take those dollars and move them.
[1:01:11] This year, luckily, we haven't had as many of those transfers or moves or empty positions.
[1:01:18] So we've come up a little bit short in our health insurance line.
[1:01:22] So even though we kept it flat with last year, with having more of those positions filled,
[1:01:26] we had less money that was left over.
[1:01:29] So we really should have budgeted more last year and then by keeping it flat, we didn't
[1:01:33] have enough this year either.
[1:01:36] The overtime line, in the highway department, we have a couple different kinds of
[1:01:41] overtime. We have overtime for emergencies, which would be snow removal, trees are down,
[1:01:47] flooding, that type of thing where we have to send out our crews in its emergency type situation.
[1:01:52] Then there's other overtime that we have for employees who may just be out on the job site,
[1:01:59] and we may have people there already. And we just ask for volunteers to say maybe an hour or two
[1:02:05] extra to get the job done, rather than packing everything up, going back to the barn,
[1:02:10] and then the next morning deploying those same people and resources back out to the job site.
[1:02:15] So we have in the past used money again from extra lines that we have
[1:02:21] when we don't have positions filled to kind of supplement that.
[1:02:24] Well, without those extra dollars there, there's not as much money to transfer around.
[1:02:29] And so there's a possibility if we have some emergency situations throughout the end of the year,
[1:02:35] we may not have enough money to cover those.
[1:02:37] And so we'd like to have that money appropriated now and that's why we're requesting it so that we can be sure that we're covered in the event that we do have, you know, emergencies for the rest of the year.
[1:02:49] If we don't spend the money, you know, just by appropriating it we're not saying that we're going to spend it necessarily.
[1:02:55] It's just it's available there for us to spend should we need it any money that we wouldn't spend on that overtime we get returned to the fund.
[1:03:05] The extra deputy hire, that's our part-time employees.
[1:03:09] We use those people to supplement our regular staff during the summer months, especially.
[1:03:16] And we've had a lot of those positions filled this year.
[1:03:20] We don't typically always get all of the people that we want to work in those positions.
[1:03:24] But they come from colleges, they come school bus drivers, that kind of thing, they'll work
[1:03:29] for us during the summer.
[1:03:30] And so, again, we budgeted that flat, and we did increase that for the COLA increase now that goes to the part-time employees, so we should have done that, and we'll do that in our 2027 budget.
[1:03:45] Questions?
[1:03:49] I just want to ensure that you did increase your 2027 to account for that.
[1:03:54] Yes. Our budget is about $8 million, so with a 3% increase, I should have budgeted.
[1:04:01] This is 200,000. I should have budgeted more than that, but this should get us by if
[1:04:05] we need to use those over time dollars.
[1:04:07] Thank you. Any questions?
[1:04:12] Move for approval of the economic development fund for $200,000 for health insurance over time
[1:04:19] and extra deputy hire.
[1:04:22] We have a motion in a second, any discussion?
[1:04:25] Seeing none, all in favor say aye.
[1:04:28] Aye.
[1:04:28] All opposed, same sign.
[1:04:31] Motion carries, five, zero, two, no, I can't say that as well.
[1:04:36] Thank you.
[1:04:37] Bill, make sure the north part of guys know we noticed them out there mowing, it makes a
[1:04:41] big difference.
[1:04:42] They've done a great job.
[1:04:43] I saw them out there again today up north and it makes the, it's a lot safer for us on
[1:04:48] bicycles.
[1:04:48] We can get over the edge, and it looks so much better, and we appreciate it, let them know.
[1:04:52] I'll be glad to do that, thank you.
[1:04:54] I'm going to question, notice the improvements on Flutter Road that's happening right now, and wanted to find out Flutter's still ours, right, Stoney County, yes.
[1:05:06] And why that improvement is that happening because there's something that needs to be improved, or is it on a time schedule that it's just you get that improvement.
[1:05:17] That's just that time. Yeah, that's come up that needs done. Yeah, I mean, you know, we had to deal with the traffic. That's everybody has to deal with traffic and construction. It's asking might sometimes us in an eight to 10 year cycle, but, you know, depending on how much traffic is involved or, you know, deterioration had a lot of rain this year. And so sometimes, you know, payments don't quite as long as we think.
[1:05:45] I understand that time frame in that church because it didn't seem all that bad anyway is where I was at
[1:05:51] I didn't see a road falling apart, although I'm not an expert to know if it was or wasn't, so I'll try to get ahead of that if we can
[1:05:58] I thank you. Okay. Thank you. Take care. I have an inquiry along the lines of sidewalks
[1:06:04] So I live outside of Harlan and we have two housing additions, which are you know kind of I would say they're on the outskirts of town
[1:06:11] and there are we don't have sidewalks for those you know for people that
[1:06:16] want to come into Harland to say go up to the gas station or you know the
[1:06:21] pop stand or the ice cream place like or go to the park is there I mean is
[1:06:27] that on your radar at all? Are we talking about along 37? We're 37 comes in to
[1:06:32] be part of the endots project on 37 extent sidewalks as well. They didn't say
[1:06:38] anything about. They're not okay. We can certainly put you in touch with them and figure that out.
[1:06:45] And if that project for some reason doesn't go forward, because there's push back against it
[1:06:50] right now, is that something that would that be something that the the endot would handle because
[1:06:55] it's along a state road. It wouldn't be counting. It would not. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.
[1:07:06] That concludes our business for tonight. Now we just have a disco. Here comes Jackie.
[1:07:13] They weren't a discussion and other business before council, but Jackie may have something first.
[1:07:18] Nope, I'm just here for that. Okay.
[1:07:21] Wait a minute for Leo. See the real sewer district. We appointed him last year with a one-year
[1:07:29] appointment but it should have been four so we just need to appoint him again. Who's him? Tom
[1:07:37] Cotrell. Is that how you say it Tom? Yes. Yeah it's T-O-M.
[1:07:46] Not the Tom part. Thank you.
[1:07:51] I knew numbers were elusive, but it was a make-a-motion tool.
[1:07:57] Thank you.
[1:07:58] Second.
[1:07:59] All right.
[1:07:59] We have a motion in a second in a discussion.
[1:08:02] Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
[1:08:04] Aye.
[1:08:05] All opposed, same sign.
[1:08:06] Motion carries five, zero, two.
[1:08:12] Okay.
[1:08:13] Now.
[1:08:14] So then the next part is your appointments to the fire district.
[1:08:18] If
[1:08:22] you recall, I had to let you know that it is set up in three different time frames.
[1:08:35] So you'll need to specify when you're making a motion and
[1:08:42] two, we got two for two.
[1:08:46] When you're making the motion, which one that you want to put that candidate in, one is
[1:08:55] through December of 29, one is through December of 28, and one is through December of 27.
[1:09:05] So with our process, we did a little bit different than the commissioners.
[1:09:10] we had put together an application packet and any interested parties could request that from
[1:09:18] the auditor's office or express their interest to receive one. They had until 5 p.m. on August 31st
[1:09:25] to submit them back to the auditor. We received 14 applications. Two of them were disqualified based
[1:09:34] on residency because they live inside Fort Wayne City limits. One was disqualified for not having
[1:09:39] the base statutory requirements of experience with fire in EMS or related activities and that
[1:09:47] left us with 11. 11. And because statutorily we are only allowed to
[1:09:55] appoint one per existing district area and the commissioners did not appoint anyone in west central
[1:10:03] or Northeast, that is where we started with the first two of our three, just to explain
[1:10:10] a little background and how we got to where we are tonight. For full disclosure, we did
[1:10:15] have an executive session to evaluate all of the applications that we received yesterday
[1:10:22] morning. And I appreciate the process. Lindsay did a lot of work getting the applications
[1:10:27] out in Jackie to the great job of getting them to people and getting them back in for us.
[1:10:31] So, it was a process that wasn't just ad hoc, I mean, we went through them and talked
[1:10:38] about them.
[1:10:38] And what we're looking for is people that have the knowledge, the ability and the test
[1:10:41] law fortitude to do what's right for the public, the firefighters and the EMS, not what
[1:10:46] we want done, but what their knowledge, what they know needs to be done.
[1:10:51] And so, that's what our overarching theory was, how do we come up with these candidates?
[1:10:55] And I'm going to nominate the first one. I'm going to nominate Roger Beatty for Northeast.
[1:11:02] Going over his application, I've known Roger for many, many years.
[1:11:05] He is probably one of the most dedicated firefighters I've ever met.
[1:11:08] So I am going to nominate Roger Beatty for Northeast for three years term.
[1:11:12] Thank you. I will second.
[1:11:14] Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
[1:11:18] Seeing none, all in favor? Say aye.
[1:11:20] 5.5.
[1:11:21] I'll oppose same sign.
[1:11:24] 5.0.2.
[1:11:26] The motion carries for Roger Beatty to have our three-year board appointment.
[1:11:32] So kind of the public understands a little bit more because Lindsey touched up on this.
[1:11:40] We had 11 applicants after the ones that were disqualified.
[1:11:44] I think we had, and I'm trying to remember, I think we had five that were from West Central, and four that were from Northeast.
[1:11:52] So because we are statutorily only allowed to appoint one per existing district, the remaining candidates for West Central, we can't appoint them to another position.
[1:12:08] and so we're just for northeastern.
[1:12:15] So kind of to kind of understand that it's not like everybody's,
[1:12:20] you know, it's not like at large or everybody's just eligible all over the place.
[1:12:24] So every time we make an appointment, it kind of makes the remaining pool smaller.
[1:12:32] So, but based on that, that we've filled more central, you know, we felt in our discussions
[1:12:42] that every district needed to have at least one representative caring over for this
[1:12:47] first term.
[1:12:48] So the next one that we talked about was was less central, had a bunch of great candidates,
[1:12:56] and I appreciate everybody for applying, but with that I'm going to nominate Chris Forbing for the two-year term.
[1:13:05] I'll second that.
[1:13:07] Sure, a second.
[1:13:09] So we have a motion in a second, any discussion?
[1:13:13] Seeing none, all in favor say aye.
[1:13:16] Aye.
[1:13:16] All opposed, same sign.
[1:13:19] Motion carries, five, zero, two.
[1:13:21] And you did mention that he was for the two years.
[1:13:23] Yes.
[1:13:24] Okay.
[1:13:25] Yeah.
[1:13:26] And just to reiterate, there were two, when the commissioners made their appointments,
[1:13:31] they left two current districts without any representation, because they appointed two to Northwest, and two essentially to the, well, two to three, depending on the way you look at it, to the East Central Eastern part of the county and one to Southwest.
[1:13:50] West, right? Is that in cover it? So we decided to start with Northeast and West Central
[1:13:58] just to make sure that there was proper representation throughout the county on the board. And we
[1:14:03] also looked for something that, you know, above the statutory requirements, something, you know, unique
[1:14:08] that they brought to the board because we're looking for a well-rounded governance board.
[1:14:15] In the spirit of just the overall transparency and communication, after we had these two positions
[1:14:20] questions for these districts discussed.
[1:14:24] Then we had a robust discussion on our last vacancy and had that conversation in the
[1:14:30] end.
[1:14:31] I would like to nominate Scott Adam for the third vacancy as the one-year term.
[1:14:39] Second.
[1:14:40] The motion in a second, any discussion?
[1:14:43] Seeing none, all in favor say aye.
[1:14:46] Aye.
[1:14:47] All opposed, same sign.
[1:14:49] Motion carries 502, so Scott will have, Scott Adam will have our 1-
[1:15:00] Senator Bill one. And we didn't. On Tom, control. We didn't. Oh, I thought we did. Yeah, we voted.
[1:15:12] I haven't written.
[1:15:17] Do it again. You voted. I wrote it down. Um, and you want me to go into the next piece of or do you have anything else? Okay. Um, so at our last meeting,
[1:15:31] We discussed the must meeting that is upcoming.
[1:15:38] I think that's scheduled with the municipalities on Monday, September 14th.
[1:15:43] We originally thought that we would be able to have an executive session to kind of discuss our strategy and go over scenarios.
[1:15:51] and it looks like AIC reached out to us last week and informed us that that was not that
[1:15:59] did not fall under executive session. And there's different county councils that have handled
[1:16:05] this different ways. I reached out over the weekend. But we just decided that this is our last
[1:16:09] meeting before September 14th and before the October 1st deadline to deal. So we should probably
[1:16:15] have that discussion tonight. So what is being presented? And this changed from SEA-1
[1:16:22] past in 2025 to what was worked into the DLGF bill, like the 11th hour of this session,
[1:16:33] changing it used to be that we would only adopt for the municipalities that had less than 3,500
[1:16:41] residents that could not adopt for themselves, they're 1.2%. That has grown into we can adopt
[1:16:49] for anyone in the county, so any of the municipalities can opt into the county. And so we would collect
[1:16:55] that on everyone throughout the county, and it's called a municipal service tax. And my understanding
[1:17:01] is that maybe 75% the first year, but then the following year 100% of that would just go to the
[1:17:07] municipalities. So we would
[1:17:09] essentially correct me if, well, I'll
[1:17:13] go through the numbers. I've got
[1:17:14] two examples to kind of show you
[1:17:17] not a recommendation, not anything
[1:17:20] just how it looks differently from if
[1:17:23] we don't adopt the over 3,500
[1:17:29] municipalities and if we do just
[1:17:32] just a and this is nothing binding
[1:17:35] right now. This is nothing binding
[1:17:36] I mean, we're just kind of trying to arm Jackie with what our proposal would be to go in and meet with the municipalities and then we have to send a report to the DLGF, you know, either where unanimous and what we're going to do or we're not, it does not commit us to anything is just sending a report because the Newlett structure will not be adopted until 2028 to the fall of 2028 now to go into effect January 2029.
[1:18:02] And honestly, I do not know and we'll get more information on what the cities that are what they're thinking.
[1:18:13] There's four that are over 3500 population that can adopt their own rate, city of Fort Wayne,
[1:18:23] city of New Haven, Hunter Town and Leo Cedarville.
[1:18:26] So the top here is our current lit.
[1:18:32] Now the lit distribution model that was distributed out to all the county auditors
[1:18:38] did not include property tax replacement as part of the current year distributions.
[1:18:47] So it only pulled in these top lit that we currently have the distributive shares, the economic
[1:18:54] development, public safety, and jail correctional.
[1:18:58] So our current 2026 distribution is just under 180 million, county-wide to all units.
[1:19:07] They did not include the property tax replacement, because it doesn't, it is right now a credit on a property tax payer's bill.
[1:19:16] However, we do indirectly receive some of that 53 million dollars because those folks
[1:19:26] at the circuit breaker, if they are at the circuit breaker, this lit distribution is
[1:19:34] lowering their circuit breaker amount.
[1:19:37] So indirectly, our circuit breaker is lower because we're getting property tax replacement.
[1:19:42] So through a lower circuit breaker credit, we do see some money from that property tax replacement credit, not a hundred percent.
[1:19:54] Yeah, I do. How much?
[1:19:57] So right now, if you would distribute that $53 million, the county's portion of that would be like just under $20 million.
[1:20:07] I am thinking we are, right now, we're getting around 10 million probably of that through less circuit brick or less.
[1:20:19] So I just wanted to, at the top, show you the breakdown.
[1:20:23] So when I'm in that lit distribution model, it's saying that our current rate is 1.22 to 1.
[1:20:30] And folks are actually paying 1.59 on their income tax because of that property tax replacement.
[1:20:39] So down below, the first scenario is if those four cities and towns adopt their own income
[1:20:50] tax.
[1:20:53] So that this 179 million is what we're currently getting with these rates that I plugged
[1:21:00] in here we're going to get actually 215 million from those rates. The second column is the amount
[1:21:08] over what we're currently getting. So I personally would want us to, I would recommend we adopt a
[1:21:19] rate that creates more than we're currently getting because of that property tax replacement. We're going
[1:21:25] to lose, people are going to be hitting their circuit breaker more because when that credit
[1:21:32] goes away on their taxes.
[1:21:34] And more folks probably will hit their circuit breaker because right now that credit and
[1:21:39] then the system will say, okay, you 1% of your tax bill and then do the circuit breaker.
[1:21:47] So if we don't have that property tax replacement credit in there, it's going to push more
[1:21:53] people into the circuit breaker.
[1:21:58] So with this rate, with the county's portion would
[1:22:03] be 0.4, the municipal rate is 0.4, that's all the under 3,500 population municipalities,
[1:22:12] the fire EMS rate, 0.06, township rate, 0.01, library 0.04, the transit airport is 0.01.
[1:22:23] one. Those are all part of the rate that is non-municipal rate in the breakdown of
[1:22:32] statute. And then we've got Fort Wayne and New Haven at the max and then Hunter Town
[1:22:40] and Leo Cedarville at .5.65. So then down below here, that will show you what folks would
[1:22:48] be paying. So the folks in unincorporated would be paying 0.97. City of Fort Wayne and New Haven
[1:22:55] folks would be paying 1.73. Hunter Town 1.03 and Leo Cedarville 1.18. So everyone would be paying
[1:23:04] less than their paying now except within the City of Fort Wayne and the City of New Haven. And again
[1:23:11] And I don't know what their intention is, like, are they going to recommend to collect more than their current distribution?
[1:23:22] This has the city for when collecting about 20 million more than their current distribution.
[1:23:28] Their portion of the circuit breaker is, I believe, 25 million of that 53 million if it was fully distributed.
[1:23:43] So in that scenario, I live out in the county. In corporate area, I'll be paying $0.97 instead of $1.59.
[1:23:50] Correct. Yes.
[1:23:51] And this is with Fort Wayne collecting just within their own boundaries.
[1:23:56] Yes. This is them adopting their own rate.
[1:24:01] Well, is your lower my taxes? I'm happy.
[1:24:03] And did you say that Fort Wayne was going to be collecting more than they are now?
[1:24:06] Yes. Yes. They will.
[1:24:08] Okay now also another piece of this is the fire rate so the fire rate under the
[1:24:18] new statute says we must consider population and square miles and then we can
[1:24:32] decide how we want to distribute that fire rate? It does not say that we have to distribute
[1:24:40] on population and miles, but we must consider it. So under this scenario, I split the fire
[1:24:46] rate 50-50. 50 percent go into the city, 50 percent go into the fire district. Where's that
[1:24:53] add on your sheet? You can't really see it within there because it's in the lit model.
[1:25:01] You have to
[1:25:02] you would you say you did 50 50 50 yeah so if you decide to display you all well like county council
[1:25:09] yes correct we shall consider population square mileage run data whatever and I think we can actually
[1:25:19] base it on like run data per fire station to I and break it down that way it's just basically you can't
[1:25:28] You you need to look at all that stuff, but they're not giving you a set formula on what you have to
[1:25:34] Population-wise the city of Fort Wayne's about 68% of the county's population, but obviously square miles
[1:25:42] What are they not even 20%? I don't think of the square miles. So I
[1:25:48] Just use 5050 just for
[1:25:51] Demonstration purposes
[1:25:52] and that's additional 4.4, right, an additional 0.4 and the max rate for any given tax payers,
[1:26:01] what, 2.9? Correct. 2.9 is the max that we can do. The fire and EMS rate can go up to 0.4
[1:26:09] under the new statute. This is just at 0.06. I see you only put 0.06 and then split at 50-50. Yes,
[1:26:16] and that split in that 50-50.
[1:26:19] So obviously, this additional money, additional column,
[1:26:25] it would just, this would go down if we did some other,
[1:26:29] we did 40% to the city, 60 to, it would just.
[1:26:33] But at this point in time, this meeting
[1:26:35] is to take place on Monday, right, in the,
[1:26:38] and you don't have to give me any direction whatsoever.
[1:26:41] But in other words, have you been given any indication
[1:26:44] of what these communities want to do. So, and will that happen during that meeting? Is that
[1:26:49] the sense? Yes. So, I'd like to touch on that. Andy Downs sent us all an email about a month or
[1:26:56] so ago stating that the municipalities have already been meeting together and that they've all decided
[1:27:02] that they want to opt in to the county rate, which goes into that municipal service tax,
[1:27:07] that instead of collecting their own, they get into the entire county pot and then we're
[1:27:13] charging everybody in the county and then it will go to the municipalities.
[1:27:18] That would actually bring in more revenue for them because they're obviously
[1:27:22] tapping into the entire county, but I was surprised when Jackie actually said
[1:27:27] that they're going to be receiving even collecting their own at the 1.2 max,
[1:27:31] they're going to be collecting more than they currently are, or receiving more than
[1:27:35] they currently are. So that tells me that they don't need to tap
[1:27:41] So we're receiving from AIC could be different than what they're seeing from AIM potentially.
[1:27:47] But I'm just understanding this process so the meeting takes place.
[1:27:51] They're going to give you an indication of what they'd like to do.
[1:27:54] Then you're bringing that back to us for a consideration.
[1:27:57] Yes, and if you all want to give me information like hard guess, hard no, we don't want to do that.
[1:28:05] That's fine, and I'm happy to take that to the meeting.
[1:28:08] Is there a time frame that once you bring that back to council, that we have to act on that?
[1:28:14] No, the only thing that needs, I believe the state wants to come out of this, can you all come to agreement if you can what is it?
[1:28:24] And then I would send that to the DLGF saying we met the cities and towns want to do this, we're okay with it.
[1:28:33] it. It's not binding. I think the state just kind of wants to get an idea of what's going
[1:28:41] to happen. And there's, but there's no time frame that we have to make that.
[1:28:45] The report's supposed to be sent to DLGF by October 1st. So there can be multiple meetings,
[1:28:50] but obviously we're not going to have Jackie could send us an email telling us how the
[1:28:55] meeting went, but we're not going to have another public meeting after that. So we believe
[1:28:58] But the first meeting had to happen by October 1st, but we can continue to meet the report
[1:29:04] isn't due to November 1st.
[1:29:06] We're having budget hearings on the 17th next Thursday.
[1:29:09] Oh yeah.
[1:29:10] So we can have that discussion about what you found out on Monday, we'll have that discussion
[1:29:15] on Thursday at that point.
[1:29:16] And this is for pay 29, correct?
[1:29:20] Right.
[1:29:21] Yeah, this isn't binding because we're not going to adopt anything until fall of 28.
[1:29:24] The legislature just wants to see county by county, can you come to some unanimous agreement on how you want to do this?
[1:29:32] Because, you know, if we don't, then that forces a legislature to have to address it.
[1:29:37] And how do we not know that the legislature is going to change that?
[1:29:40] I'm going to change it again.
[1:29:41] I mean, this next session.
[1:29:43] I mean, it's very convenient that they created a problem that they now want us to fix.
[1:29:47] And in January, and in the next session, they're going to change it all again.
[1:29:52] Well, I've got to change the answer.
[1:29:54] There is an under...
[1:30:00] We're understanding that they recognize that this is needing fixed. So it would make me want to say put the brakes on until they get done messing around. But this in my overarching theory always has been county residents should not be paying city taxes. We can't vote for the mayor. We can't vote for city council. Everything else to the side. We should never pay more taxes that go to the city's period. Well, for demonstration purposes. So this set this over here. So this is us.
[1:30:29] doing a single rate. And only adopt in the municipal rate at 8. However, the way
[1:30:40] this works, the municipal rate, if we don't adopt them in, we keep a portion of
[1:30:51] that municipal rate for those lower than 3,500. Part of it goes to the
[1:30:56] county. It's a 16 step calculation. However, because the city of Fort Wayne's population
[1:31:04] is so large, if we adopt them in, we get none of that money. So this point eight rate
[1:31:12] that is going to be paid by everyone in the county, none of that would go to Allen County.
[1:31:19] It would all go to the cities and towns, but everybody would be paying it. But they are
[1:31:25] All paying, the 1.59 more, all paying now, goes to everybody.
[1:31:32] So, do you know who those communities are?
[1:31:34] They're less than 3,500 that we'd be collecting for?
[1:31:38] Or remitting to?
[1:31:39] Zane'sville.
[1:31:40] Zane'sville.
[1:31:40] Woodburn.
[1:31:42] Monroeville.
[1:31:44] I'm sorry.
[1:31:45] Monroeville.
[1:31:46] Not incorporated.
[1:31:47] Not incorporated.
[1:31:49] Monroeville.
[1:31:49] I think there's four or five of them.
[1:31:56] and trees.
[1:31:57] Yes, great.
[1:31:58] A hundred town.
[1:32:01] No Hunter Town is over.
[1:32:05] It would be it.
[1:32:07] Anybody that's not these last
[1:32:08] four so
[1:32:12] if you see over here.
[1:32:14] We wouldn't it would burn the city.
[1:32:18] We would have to increase depending
[1:32:21] rate and we would still be collecting less.
[1:32:27] We would have to increase the, well we didn't
[1:32:30] have to, but I increased the fire EMS rate. The rest have stayed the same. So I wanted
[1:32:38] to get the grant total collections similar. So we would need to charge 1.47 and everyone
[1:32:46] would pay that. So City of Fort Wayne and New Haven folks would pay less under this model,
[1:32:53] but everyone else would be paying more to collect a similar amount of dollars. So the county would
[1:33:02] be getting less, the actually City of Fort Wayne would be getting less, not because I up the fire
[1:33:10] an EMS to get them.
[1:33:18] So it's just a good visual to show, to collect the same amount of money.
[1:33:29] Some folks would be paying more, some folks would be paying less. So under this one we would have
[1:33:35] four different rates, under this one we have one rate. In scenario two, the city residents is
[1:33:39] the Fort Wayne and Haven pay less, but get more.
[1:33:42] Correct.
[1:33:43] Makes a lot of sense.
[1:33:44] Correct.
[1:33:46] Call the meeting, I think.
[1:33:47] And the county rate would have to go up for us to collect what I think we would need.
[1:33:54] Because that municipal rate under the other model, with the separate rates, we get a portion of that.
[1:34:00] But if you pull the city in, there are populations too high and we don't get a portion of that, so we'd have to up our rate.
[1:34:07] I'm not in favor of this next statement, but the fact that the City of Fort Wayne will find itself in a tough position from taxes and losing money they're trying to figure out how do we make up for that and those City of Fort Wayne citizens are also county employees.
[1:34:26] So, or county employees, county citizens as well, so that is something for consideration that the city of Fort Wayne may not have enough funds to do what they want to do, which means that there could be some pain, if you will, place for a city of Fort Wayne residents, which are county employees, county citizens as well.
[1:34:48] So I just consideration yes, but you're also asking people in unincorporated areas to pay that same tax they for a tax where you do you have no representation?
[1:34:58] Again part of this for instance 18 million here is the fire rate I think right here so depending on how we do that
[1:35:12] that could even increase or decrease the city of Fort Wayne's additional collections depending on how we split up that fire rate, which that isn't anything that's not really part of these must meetings, but you kind of have to think about it because that will factor into what rate the city of Fort Wayne needs, depending on how we allocate the fire in the MS rate.
[1:35:39] And I'm sure they're going to want a portion of that as well.
[1:35:42] And I'm not saying they shouldn't have a portion of that either.
[1:35:46] I mean, their folks will be paying it too.
[1:35:48] So just to reiterate to Tom's point, I think Jackie said that even with Fort Wayne only adopting
[1:35:55] their 1.2%, they would still get more in local income tax than what they're currently receiving.
[1:36:01] So I mean, it may not offset what they're losing in property taxes.
[1:36:05] But again, that's something that the legislature should have to look at, right?
[1:36:08] They should have to look at how they fixed the problem that they created, essentially.
[1:36:12] Mitch, you had a point you want to make?
[1:36:14] Yeah, for what Councilman Frees said, one other point ought to be made is that Fort Wayne City Utilities is expanded greatly into the county.
[1:36:24] And is the utility for a lot of county repairs for water and sewer.
[1:36:30] By discretion of the city, they can pay the city of Fort Wayne payment in lieu of taxes.
[1:36:36] None of that goes to Allen County because it's discretionary entirely with the city.
[1:36:41] There's nothing that the county can do except maybe request it.
[1:36:44] But I will tell you that I reminded members of the city council that when they're sitting
[1:36:51] determining rates, the state law considers them the board of directors for the city utility.
[1:36:56] And they're setting the rates for people who get city utility services in the county.
[1:37:00] I mean, I'm not new Haven who negotiates with them, kind of, but none of the City Council
[1:37:07] members that I for a member took that idea into account that they were sitting as a corporate
[1:37:13] body for the welfare of all the rate pairs of four.
[1:37:19] Well, I like the idea that you're going into that meeting, but I also like the idea that
[1:37:30] But we gain information, particularly going into our budget discussions next Thursday
[1:37:36] that you can bring information back to us for consideration or no action or whatever.
[1:37:43] But we have to act before October 1st in order to have October.
[1:37:48] Did you say October, November 1st?
[1:37:51] The first meeting was supposed to occur before October 1st, which were in compliance with that.
[1:37:58] you can have more, the final report is due November 1st.
[1:38:03] I see, okay, good.
[1:38:05] You had to have the first meeting before October 1st.
[1:38:08] But it would give us an opportunity to possibly discuss
[1:38:11] some of this during the budget session.
[1:38:14] And it's going to be a complicated decision.
[1:38:18] There's so many numbers and you change it and it takes a lot, so.
[1:38:26] So, I think I'm thankful for the portal from AIC.
[1:38:30] Yeah, I think that made it much easier.
[1:38:32] It really did.
[1:38:35] For the city of Fort Wayne, this extra 20 million, it would only be 11 if they weren't
[1:38:41] getting fire in EMS.
[1:38:43] So, that brings it a little tighter.
[1:38:46] I mean, we grow generally the lick goes up every year.
[1:38:52] of course it should also as your residents get raises or you get more residents or that
[1:38:59] would the collections would go up.
[1:39:01] They're just more confined obviously within their borders or growth.
[1:39:10] Is that a public meeting?
[1:39:12] It is.
[1:39:13] Yes.
[1:39:14] It will be live streamed.
[1:39:16] What time will that?
[1:39:25] I'll send it to all of you. I think I have a meeting at one o'clock in
[1:39:32] Ligonier, so I wouldn't be able to be here for it. But if you could send that link to me, I can watch it on my way up there.
[1:39:39] Is there anything you all want me to bring to the meeting or do you have any other questions about these couple examples or
[1:39:46] I think maybe just presenting them, you know, what we have from AIC and seeing how that differs
[1:39:51] from what they may have received from AIM and just having this be more of an informational
[1:39:56] tight meeting.
[1:39:58] If we have until November 1st, there could be a couple meetings and then if you bring information
[1:40:02] back to us like, okay, like Councilman Harris said, you know, update us next Thursday.
[1:40:07] That would be great.
[1:40:09] Anyone else?
[1:40:10] If they ask me how you're leaning, how would you like me to answer that, or I'm just here for information?
[1:40:20] I don't speak for everybody, I'll say, I would say lean right, so I'm just saying.
[1:40:28] That's how we lean.
[1:40:29] You know my feeling.
[1:40:31] Yeah, I got cans, got that one.
[1:40:33] I mean, at this point, I feel like it's a mood exercise because the legislature passed
[1:40:38] and passed something in 25, and they already changed it in 26, and we don't even adopt this until 28, right?
[1:40:44] And they have more bills.
[1:40:45] Yeah, it could be, I mean, lots of changes since I'm told.
[1:40:49] And I'm of the opinion that they, I mean, they're going to continue looking at it every legislative session and just let them fix it.
[1:40:57] Or make it worse through.
[1:40:59] Yeah, they could make it worse.
[1:41:02] This time, we made it worse.
[1:41:03] I think we're putting the scenarios together.
[1:41:06] Hopefully that helped to get a visual of how it's going to look different on how you
[1:41:12] adopted.
[1:41:13] Okay.
[1:41:14] It would be interesting to see what they have on their side.
[1:41:20] Okay.
[1:41:22] Any other business?
[1:41:25] We've got AIC is coming up, right?
[1:41:28] Is that here in Fort Wayne?
[1:41:31] Two weeks from now, the week of the 20th.
[1:41:36] Is anybody planning on going?
[1:41:39] I'm going to register.
[1:41:40] I have some meetings out of town on Monday and Friday, but I'll be here Tuesday, Wednesday,
[1:41:45] and Thursday, and I was going to try to pop into the meetings.
[1:41:48] Back in the tier in Fort Wayne.
[1:41:52] Makes it a little bit easier.
[1:41:54] Easier and maybe be good for some representation from Allie County to be there, I guess, right?
[1:42:01] Okay.
[1:42:06] Any other? Okay. So I'm I do have other business. Not not to take a
[1:42:13] lot of time because I know we're approaching two hours in our meeting. But last
[1:42:18] Monday, just so we're all aware because we just appointed our board members
[1:42:22] tonight to the fire district board. And I was I didn't find out until after the
[1:42:28] fact. So I wasn't sure if you were aware that they had they had the first
[1:42:33] meeting of the fire district board and they voted on the budget and levy on the 31st the deadline
[1:42:39] to upload everything into gateway was September 1st. The public was not aware of that to my knowledge.
[1:42:45] I was not aware of that when I reached out to some media sources to see what the notice looked like.
[1:42:51] The meeting it basically looked like they put two notices in one but there was an agenda for the
[1:42:56] budget and levy but it was it talked a lot about executive session and because it wasn't held in one
[1:43:02] of these two public chambers. It was held in the conference room over by the building
[1:43:07] department between the building department and DPS. I think the media did not put it out
[1:43:13] because they assumed it was just notice of an executive session. So I wasn't aware of that.
[1:43:19] I'm not sure how many of you were aware that they were having a budget meeting. But part of that,
[1:43:27] Part of my notes. Part of that, they were talking about, well, I thought it was pretty interesting
[1:43:34] when they were talking about future meetings, and they said the commissioners choose a location
[1:43:37] for their meetings, but they chose the date and the time. But also the word quote, if Council
[1:43:47] does us dirty, how do we fund this thing? So if Council votes down our budget, and that's
[1:43:53] what they were tending to say, but the exact words where if council does this dirty,
[1:43:57] how are we going to fund this? And it was brought up that they would seek or pursue
[1:44:04] a tax anticipation warrant, which I don't know how they would do that because you have to,
[1:44:10] I think you have to have a levy, a tax levy, or tax revenues coming in in order to do that.
[1:44:16] And that would be their way to sidestep council on our fiscal authority.
[1:44:23] So, I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that, that that is on the table
[1:44:30] and that they did have a meeting.
[1:44:33] And one of the, they still don't have a levy, and that was part of the meeting as well.
[1:44:37] They still don't have a levy approved by DLGF.
[1:44:40] I think DLGF is having issues with the fact that the district, the countywide district
[1:44:46] wouldn't go into effect until January 1st.
[1:44:48] So, they are currently trying to appeal Northeast Levy for the entirety of the new-
[1:45:01] And so I'm not sure what the, again, that was over a week ago. I'm not sure what the status of that is right now. But I want to make sure that we were all kind of aware of what was going on. I would have appreciated it if they had let us know that they were having a meeting or the public had known since it was a public meeting. And the agenda said, you know, public comment is welcome. But the room they had it in, I don't know how they could have even accommodated public if they did decide to attend the meeting.
[1:45:28] So I think we need to, I mean we obviously are budget hearing is next week and just things for us to be aware of but our three board members, you know, obviously didn't and they were not involved in any of these discussions because they were not currently seated.
[1:45:44] So and once again the commissioners didn't appoint theirs until July 17th, which made it impossible for us to have ours appointed by the August 1st deadline that was set by the legislature because we didn't have time to even have a special meeting for August 1st and until they passed the ordinance on July 10th, we had we had no heads up that we were that when that timetable was to begin.
[1:46:13] So now that we do have our members seated, I don't think they're planning to have another meeting.
[1:46:20] What was it? September 28th will be the next meeting. So we need to make sure that our new appointees are aware of that.
[1:46:28] We're going to notify them. Are they sworn in or what?
[1:46:32] They swore them in at the meeting. And they swore they are three. I'm not sure. But they did swear in their six and they voted on the budget.
[1:46:40] but then the list that that Jackie had as of yesterday morning only reflected five and I think we came to the we had Jackie check and one of them is
[1:46:50] ineligible because he lives and he's actually technically inside Fort Wayne City limits as well.
[1:46:59] So I don't know where that leads things they still had a quorum because they had five.
[1:47:03] You need to find out what happens with our three guys. I mean if that gets worn in somebody's got to get a whole of them and say this is where you have to be when you have to be.
[1:47:09] Yeah, and who would who would do that, Jackie? They had the attorney for the fire district do this wearing in I think that was part of their feed.
[1:47:18] I didn't I didn't see where the executive session ended and the official meeting started when I was watching the recording.
[1:47:27] So I'm not sure if they did that in the executive session or they did it.
[1:47:30] Yeah, you can find out that actually you can swear a man.
[1:47:33] Yeah, I can swear a man, but as far as notifying on the meeting, I'm not notified of the meeting.
[1:47:41] So I wouldn't be able to let them know when they happen.
[1:47:45] But yeah, I can swear them in.
[1:47:47] So we need to also notify the commissioners who are three picks are.
[1:47:50] They should know from the meeting, but hopefully they're watching.
[1:47:52] I'll send them the the sheets.
[1:47:55] I have a feeling they may be.
[1:47:57] Yeah, just remember the budget hearings. You don't actually that's not the final vote. That's October
[1:48:04] The budget hearings is just your discussion your thoughts any direction that Nathan. I need to make changes
[1:48:13] So there's still time to
[1:48:16] Yeah, there are facts if you need to but you won't actually be voting next week
[1:48:21] I've notified Roger to use pick. I don't know who's gonna get hold of the other two and let him know I think
[1:48:27] somebody in the audience probably already do but what about Scott?
[1:48:36] I think it's numbers
[1:48:39] on the application. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure everyone was here.
[1:48:43] Then Jack you'll get in contact with those three with the next couple of days and let
[1:48:47] them know anything about swearing in. Yeah, I can do that. Thank you.
[1:48:54] Um, who would like to, well, any other liaison reports or are upcoming meetings?
[1:49:04] Obviously, next Thursday we have our budget hearing.
[1:49:09] Should we do liaison reports? No, sorry.
[1:49:11] We have our budget hearing and then our next meeting will be October 7th in this chamber at 5.30 p.m.
[1:49:21] Any leaves on the board?
[1:49:23] The budget hearings are in the other room.
[1:49:27] Oh, in the discussion room.
[1:49:29] I'll move for approval to wait.
[1:49:30] The second reading of any matter approved today for which it may be deemed necessary of kind of council meeting of September 9, 2026.
[1:49:36] Second.
[1:49:38] All right.
[1:49:39] We have a motion and a second.
[1:49:41] Any discussion?
[1:49:43] Seeing none, all in favor?
[1:49:45] Say hi.
[1:49:46] Hi.
[1:49:47] All opposed. Same sign.
[1:49:48] Motion carries 5-0-2.
[1:49:54] Okay, now I guess I'll read this part.
[1:49:56] Our next regular county council meeting will be held at 5.30 p.m. Wednesday, October
[1:50:02] 7 in this chamber of this building.
[1:50:08] Motion to adjourn.
[1:50:09] Okay.
[1:50:10] I adjourned.