Council cuts its own pay (09/13/07)

Jay County Council members decreased their proposed pay increase for next year before adopting the 2008 budget on Wednesday.

Councilman Jim Zimmerman made a motion for members to amend the county pay ordinance for 2008 to provide a $250 raise instead of the original $750 approved last month. Members will each earn $5,395.37 salary in 2008.

Councilmen Gerald Kirby and Mike Leonhard voted against the measure.

"If we're going to have to tighten belts, this is a way to show we're willing to do that," Zimmerman said. "In the whole scheme of the whole budget it's not that much money. It's just the idea of the example you're setting."

Without making a change from the first reading on Aug. 23, council members approved, 5-2, a county budget of just more than $13 million.

Zimmerman and President Marilyn Coleman voted against approving the amount because they disagreed with how the developer position of Jay County Community Development will be funded.

During last month's budget hearings council members agreed to fund county community developer Ami Huffman and the community development wing of JCDC for the first six months of 2008.

Council members said the rest of the money would be provided if sufficient progress is made with county communities that work with Huffman for grants and other projects.

"I still don't think that's the way the council should manage that position," said Zimmerman, who also voted against the initial motion to fund JCCD and Huffman for six months.

Huffman has been accused of being difficult to work with in a Salamonia school renovation project. Other communities also have indicated dissatisfaction with projects completed or worked on under the community developer.

The council also made some emergency appropriations for 2007. It allowed $622,332 worth of bonds to be sold to pay for contractual services and other bills for the Jay County Regional Sewer District. Members also approved a $2,000 appropriation to pay for backhoe parts, service and repair for equipment used by the county surveyor's office.

Jay County Surveyor Brad Daniels reported the additional $2,000 should "carry us for the rest of the year."

"This year we've had a lot more expenses than I could have predicted," he said.

Council members also approved an additional appropriation from the Jay Emergency Medical Service fund to a patient account reimbursement line item.

The money is from accounts that have been double charged by the county and Medicare, and will be returned to rightful patients.

Separately, Jodi Scott, interim chair of the county's Economic Development Income Tax Advisory Committee, told members of the council that more information is needed before a decision can be given for a $100,000 EDIT loan to a Holiday Inn Express project in Portland.

The council chose to table the loan issue until more financial information regarding the project is obtained. Scott Daniels, president of Stay Jay Hotels LLC, requested the loan.

Also Wednesday, the council acknowledged county engineer Dan Watson's written protest regarding his 2008 salary, but took no action.

Watson expressed dissatisfaction with a $750 raise approved by council members last month. He wrote a letter to the council in which he alluded to his credentials and increased workload as some reasons for a bigger raise.

Councilman Gerald Kirby acknowledged Watson's skills and dedication but said the money was not available.

"He works hard and does a great job, Kirby said. "Unfortunately, he feels he's been slighted."

In other business on Wednesday, Jay County Council:

•Approved sending to the county tax abatement advisory committee a request for a 3-year tax abatement from DZ Farms Inc. Darrin Zimmerman, rural Redkey, plans to construct a swine operation in section 28, Jefferson Township.

•Sent formal notification to the Indiana Department of Revenue about the upcoming income tax increase in Jay County.

The increase, approved by the council in July, is set to take effect on Oct. 1. It will increase the county's income tax rate from 1.5 percent to 2.6143. It will drop to 2.45 on Oct. 1, 2008. A portion of the money raise will be used to help offset increases in property tax bills in the county.[[In-content Ad]]Jay County officials are standing by their assessor.

During the Jay County Council's monthly meeting on Wednesday, assessor Anita Mills received an informal vote of confidence from some members.

The backing came just days before Friday's public hearing in which the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance will gather information regarding whether to a order a reassessment on commercial and industrial properties.

The hearing is being held to investigate the small percentage change in values for commercial and industrial properties, according to the DLGF.

Friday's hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in the auditorium of the Jay County Courthouse.

Jay County Council President Marilyn Coleman said she believes county assessor Anita Mills has done nothing wrong and deserves backing during this time.

"I think we need to support our assessor," Coleman said.

Auditor Freda Corwin agreed with Coleman during Wednesday night's meeting. But after meeting with DLGF representatives last week in Indianapolis, she thinks a reassessment could be likely.

"We're just expecting that we'll have to reassess those," commercial and industrial properties, Corwin said.

DLGF has said that 85 percent of commercial properties had unchanged assessed valuations in the current reassessment, while 73 percent of industrial properties were unchanged.

Corwin, Mills, county treasurer Robin Alberson and State Rep. Bill Davis, R-Portland, Dist. 33, attended the DLGF meeting last week.

There they met with representatives from the DLGF and Ad Valorem Solutions, Kokomo, the company that completed assessments for Jay County.

Davis said this morning that during the meeting Ad Valorem representatives defended their methods for calculating changes in property values.

A senior partner in the company, Brian Thomas, has previously told The Commercial Review that Ad Valorem used the same methods for calculating values for multiple counties. Results for some counties were approved by the state while others were not, he said.

Friday's meeting will be an opportunity for elected officials and residents to give their sides of the story, Davis said. He encouraged all interested people who are able to attend to show up.

Davis said he wasn't sure what the outcome of Friday's meeting would be. He explained that he would be in favor of a reassessment if results showed it would have large benefits for taxpayers.

Davis warned that costs associated with a reassessment, including resending bills and refiguring information, could be costly.

If the benefits resulting from a reassessment were shown to be marginal, he added, he would be less likely to support a reassessment for 2007.

"If it's going to have a major impact, which at this point I don't think will be the case, then I think you've got to look at it," Davis said.