County seeks outside help

With big financial decisions looming, Jay County has decided to get some outside advice.
Jay County Council voted Wednesday evening to use economic development income tax (EDIT) funds to hire Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group Inc., to review its finances after all three county commissioners spoke in favor of the idea.
The contract calls for Guerrettaz, who has worked with local government entities before, to be paid no more than $17,000 to assess the county’s financial situation. He would get up to $5,000 more for working with the county to implement a plan based on his findings.
Also Wednesday, council agreed to allow the use of funds to pay for refurbishing voting machines and transferred $5,000 to help cover jury costs through the end of the year.
The agreement with Financial Solutions Group calls for Guerrettaz, who assisted with the creation of Portland’s tax increment financing (TIF) district, to perform a “sustainability analysis” that will include:
•A review of the revenue and expense from each fund in the county budget from 2010 through 2016.
•Projecting the ending cash balance of each fund with the estimated impact of property tax caps.
•Developing a three-year financial model with projections through 2019.
•Recommending changes to improve the county’s financial health.
“When you’re talking about a budget that we deal with … $22,000 is not a whole lot of money to have a second set of eyes basically giving us their opinion,” said council member Ted Champ.
“To me, a second set of eyes could be very valuable. … There’s a very good chance that things are going to stay tight and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions in the years coming up, and it wouldn’t hurt to have someone that does this daily for a living make suggestions.”
Council has faced financial struggles in recent months, voting in September to freeze wages and asking department heads to cut their expenditures by 10 percent because of a projected $631,000 shortfall in the 2016 general fund budget.
While some departments made cuts, many did not, and in October council voted 4-2 to approve a 2016 budget in which $500,000 from the rainy day fund will be used to cover the gap.
Nearly $1 million has been spent from the rainy day fund over the course of the last two years, with its current balance at $1.82 million
With the likely need for budget cuts to be made next year in order to avoid dipping into the rainy day fund again, commissioner Faron Parr said it seemed logical to get some outside advice.
“Greg (Guerrettaz) is probably the best expertise guy in the state of Indiana that can help us with finances and understanding, because he works with several counties,” added commissioner Jim Zimmerman, with commissioner Doug Inman also supporting the proposal. “He’s a numbers guy. That’s all he does. He really understands that stuff.”
Council president Mike Leonhard said he felt bringing in an outside consultant amounted to stepping on the toes of elected officials. Champ and Inman disagreed, saying the intention is only to get some expert advice in order to help council make good decisions with taxpayer dollars.
Leonhard also expressed concern about spending the $22,000 when money is tight, but commissioners pointed out that the amount will be paid from EDIT funds and not effect the county general fund. The county currently has nearly $900,000 in EDIT money.
Council members Bob Vance, Mike Rockwell, Jeanne Houchins, Cindy Newton and Champ, with Gary Theurer absent, voted to hire Guerrettaz.
Council also agreed to let county clerk Ellen Coats use some of the approximately $15,000 she has saved by not replacing an employee who left her department earlier this year to pay for refurbishing of 10-year-old voting machines.
MicroVote will refurbish 48 machines, a process that will include new hardware as well as easier-to-read screens. It will guarantee the work for 10 years.
The project will cost $50,420, and the county will get a $10,000 credit for trading in 10 machines. (The county has consolidated precincts since it bought 60 machines a decade ago, and no longer needs as many.)
The remaining cost will be paid with $37,000 that is still in the election fund, with council agreeing to transfer the rest that is needed from the clerk’s office budget. That transfer will be made at council’s December meeting.
Coats also plans to sell two of the machines to Greene County for $2,500 each, with that money going to the county general fund.
Council members also transferred $5,000 from the rainy day fund to cover jury fees for the rest of the year.
Auditor Anna Culy reported that the county has had more jury trials than usual in 2015, resulting in the need for more funding. Seven cases have gone to trial, and there have been several more in which the trial was canceled after jurors reported. (Jurors still have to be paid in those situations.)
The jury fund currently has less than $2,300 remaining for 2015 with two jury trials still on the schedule.
Culy recommended adding $10,000 to the fund, but council decided on a 4-2 vote to move half that amount and revisit the issue in December. Champ and Rockwell voted against the measure, saying they preferred to wait until December to get a better idea of how much additional money would be required.
In other business, council members:
•Approved additional appropriations of $4,125 for LOIT Public Safety for work on a grant in an effort to purchase body cameras for Jay County Sheriff’s Office, $15,000 for repairs at Jay County Retirement Center, $10,000 for adult probation services, $8,301 for Jay Superior Court to pay expenses for work completed by Meridian Services, $250 for veterans’ service and $50 to reassessment for reassessment.
•Heard from Zimmerman that county commissioners are working with city officials to develop a plan to alleviate flooding in downtown Portland. He said requests for quotes have been sent to seven engineering firms to research the problem and come up with possible solutions. Quotes are expected to be in next week, and Zimmerman asked that EDIT funds be used to make a hire.
•Approved transfers of $5,453.33 from the jail utilities fund to the jail meals fund, $5,000 to paramedics from Jay Emergency Medical Services overtime, $3,000 to surveyor labor from surveyor gas, lube and oil, $2,969.29 to Jay County Retirement Center farm/seed from retirement center machine hire, $1,628.08 to wages claims coordinator from JEMS EMTs, $500.81 to farm/seed from retirement center farm expense, $181.49 to superior court law books from superior court furniture repair.
•Learned from Inman that the county’s road committee, of which he is a member, is working on prioritizing a list of roads for conversion from stone to pavement if money for such projects becomes available. The plan is to use a set of criteria to score each road and make recommendations by the end of the year.