Council gets look at jail ideas (04/10/08)

The first hard look at the financial impact of a jail expansion/renovation project was ... well, hard.

A consultant hired to do an analysis of Jay County's financial status did a quick run-through of preliminary numbers Wednesday for members of the Jay County Council.

And while it wasn't said explicitly, it is clear that a proposed annual bond payment of $610,000 to $860,000 for a jail project ranging from $7.4 to $10.3 million won't be painless.

Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group Inc., Indianapolis, is not only looking at the proposed jail project, but also the county's overall financial status.

Jay County Commissioners, who requested the comprehensive financial study at a cost of $26,000, have said they hope to do the jail project without increasing property taxes.

Guerrettaz said Wednesday that over the past few years, the trend of virtually all county operating balances, or cash reserves, is down.

And the financial impact of a new jail will not only come from the bond payments, but from personnel and other operating costs.

"I'm not as concerned about the construction, but I am concerned about the operations," Guerrettaz said. "I'm trying to keep you from hitting the brick wall (financially)."

While the bond payment would be more than $600,000 annually, the only new source of revenue the county has created in the past year is a local county option income tax (LOIT) expected to bring in about $87,000 a year.

Members of the council agreed to participate in a work committee regarding jail issues.

That committee, which is expected to meet approximately twice per month, will include council members Fred Bailey, Marilyn Coleman and Jim Zimmerman; Commissioner Faron Parr; Jay County Auditor Nancy Culy; and Guerrettaz.

"We've got to dig in a little further," Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. told the council. "We have to tell (architect Schenkel-Schultz) what we can afford to spend so they can design a jail to fit that amount."

Guerrettaz said the county should begin planning budgets at least three years ahead - especially with possible "circuit breaker" cuts in property tax revenue coming in 2010. Those cuts, which were part of the comprehensive property tax relief plan passed this year by the Indiana General Assembly, could trim available revenue by $300,000, he said.

Funding for jail bond payments could come from several sources - including general fund, local option income tax, the infrastructure fund, or economic development income tax funds.

The infrastructure fund is generated through a per-ton host fee paid to the county by the Jay County Landfill. That payment was negotiated during a landfill expansion about eight years ago and brings in more than $500,000 annually. It is currently used for roads and other capital projects.

A potential battle over the use of EDIT funds for the jail - at least from the perspective of one council member - was signaled Wednesday.

Gerald Kirby, a former sheriff who is running for Commissioner of the South District in this year's election cycle, told Miller he was opposed to the idea.

"It's not economic development," Kirby said.

Miller said that using EDIT funds would assure that all those who work in Jay County contribute towards the project.

Council members also received a brief report from Parr on the county's road committee.

Parr said that county highway superintendent Ken Wellman hopes to do maintenance chip-and-seal work on 100 miles of county roads this summer. Because of rising costs for the oil and stone for the program, Parr believes that a popular county-funded dust control program will not be done this summer.

The program, which has put down magnesium chloride on intersection-to-intersection stretches of stone roads, has averaged $150,000 annually.

Parr said the idea of having property owners pay for dust control in front of their properties has been discussed, with the county paying for an equal amount to double the amount of dust control applied.

Also Wednesday, council members Judy LeMaster, Mike Leonhard, George Meehan, Bailey, Coleman, Zimmerman and Kirby agreed to have Culy prepare additional appropriations to distribute EDIT funds to the county's six incorporated cities and towns.

Since the inception of the EDIT tax in the 1990s those funds, which are distributed based on share of assessed value, have been held by the county until requested by Portland, Dunkirk, Pennville, Bryant, Redkey or Salamonia.

Culy was recently told by a field representative from the State Board of Accounts that as funds are distributed by the state bi-annually, they should be distributed to each city or town.

Bill Bradley, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, said Wednesday that the method Jay County has used to keep and distribute EDIT funds is "unusual."

Bradley said he will be coming back to commissioners and council in the coming weeks to make several recommendations on reforming the EDIT process.

In other business, council members:

•Approved a lease between Jay County Community Corrections and the owners of an office building located on North Commerce across from the courthouse. Community corrections, which has been located on the third floor of the courthouse since its inception, is moving into the former office of attorney Brad Burkett.

Jay County Sheriff's deputies Todd Penrod and Mitch Sutton own the building.

•Approved a five-year abatement on an addition for a Madison Township manufacturing company.

The abatement was approved for a lean-to expansion proposed by John Fennig, owner/operator of Cross Road Precision Tool Inc., 7747 East 800 South, Union City, in southeastern Jay County.

•OK'd a lengthy list of additional non-tax funds related to the move by the county community corrections department. The additional funds from a project income fund generated by user fees included: $35,045 for a new computer system; $265 for security system maintenance; $1,315 for a security system; $5,400 for office rent; $1,800 for telephone service; $4,770 for utilities; $4,200 for miscellaneous supplies; $23,700 for office supplies; and $5,000 for Taser units that will be carried by corrections personnel.

•Allowed two additional appropriations within the budget of Jay Emergency Medical Service: $2,000 into a radio equipment line item; and $1,080.01 into a medical equipment line item. The $2,000 for radio equipment will be reimbursed when grant funding for the purchase arrives later this year.

•Gave approval to three transfers within the cumulative bridge fund. The transfers were from bridge repair to design of Bridge 604, $45,000; bridge repair to bridge 270 design, $35,000; and bridge repair to bridge 129, $5,000.

[[In-content Ad]]He came looking for answers.

But Jay County Sheriff Ray Newton found only more questions and a testy reaction from one member of the Jay County Council.

Newton, who recently talked with Jay County Commissioners about the issue of a growing liability for compensation time among jail, dispatch and sheriff's employees, outlined the scope of an issue that has seen current employees accrue $55,000 in compensation time pay over the years.

It is an issue that has grown as employees have stayed on the job longer. When deputy Greg Franks retired recently, he was paid about $11,000 in compensation time and vacation pay.

Instead of being paid overtime when their work hours exceed federal limits, employees of the jail and sheriff's department are allotted compensatory time - equal to 1.5 days off for each day worked.

But if that time has not been taken, the value of the compensation time must be paid when the person leaves employment.

The solution, said Newton Wednesday night, could include a combination of more pay or more staff.

"Our workload has increased and our staff hasn't. Is hiring more people going to cure comp time? ... I can't promise that," Newton said.

"Finding people to do that job over there is hard ... we can't find anybody to work. We need to try to solve this problem ... and keep this overtime down. We cannot cut services, because we'll be in trouble. I guarantee it.

"I don't like coming up here and asking for money, but we've got to pay our people," Newton said.

Councilman Gerald Kirby, a former sheriff and Democratic candidate for commissioner in this year's election, was the first to answer Newton.

"You have to understand the frustration at this table, too," Kirby said. "It's a management problem ... you need to come to us with a solution. You're asking us to micro-manage your department. We need to know where you want to go with it. I don't think that's unreasonable."

Councilman Jim Zimmerman, a Republican who will face Kirby in the fall commissioners' race, said a short time later, "I don't think trying to demean somebody in a left-handed way is going to help."

But council president Marilyn Coleman backed up Kirby's reaction in a softer way, asking Newton to come back with specific ideas or proposals the council could vote on.

"Basically, I'm just bringing this to your attention," said Newton, who said he was asked by the commissioners to talk to the council.

Former Sheriff Todd Penrod, now investigator for the sheriff's department, said he talked to the council about a growing problem with compensation time in 2005. "We're still there," Penrod said Wednesday.