County needs to adjust salary ordinance

The county’s salary ordinance will need a slight adjustment.

Jay County Council learned Wednesday that it will need to vote next month to adjust its 2020 salary ordinance because of an error in the wages approved for Jay County Community Corrections.

The Jay County Community Corrections board approved salary increases for its employees for 2020. However, there was confusion when the minutes from that meeting were presented to county council as part of the budget process, leading to employee longevity pay being inadvertently omitted.

County auditor Anna Culy plans to present an amended salary ordinance to council next month to fix the issue with salaries for Jay County Community Corrections, which is in charge of overseeing those who are sentenced to electronically monitored home detention.

Also Wednesday, council members Jeanne Houchins, Ted Champ, Gary Theurer, Amy Runyon Barrett, Faron Parr, Cindy Newton and Mike Rockwell approved an additional appropriation to allow Jay County Community Corrections to use $9,000 in user fees to hire a consulting service to help prepare for its next Indiana Department of Correction audit. (The user fees are paid by department of correction prisoners who utilize Jay County Community Corrections services.)

In other business, council:

•Re-elected Houchins as president and Champ as vice president.

•Kept department and board appointments the same as in 2019. Those include Champ on plan commission, Parr and Houchins on the Jay County Development Corporation board, Theurer on the road committee and Rockwell on the Jay County Solid Waste Management District board.

•Encumbered $490,090.42 in funds from 2019 that will be used to pay salaries and benefits.

•Approved a total of $6,181.49 in additional appropriations for Jay County Emergency Planning, allowing funds left over from 2019 to be spent this year.

•Appointed Ron Dashler and Ruby Morehous to the property tax assessment board of appeals.

•Discussed the need to appoint a new member to serve on the Jay County Board of Zoning Appeals replacing Steve Fennig, who is leaving the board.