JCDC, county at odds over ’24 contract

In August, Jay County Development Corporation agreed to a contract with the county through the end of the year.

Amidst high tensions, details for 2024 are still being hammered out.

Jay County Commissioners met with JCDC executive director Travis Richards and board member Barb Street during a special session Monday to hash out specifics in a contract for 2024.

County attorney Wes Schemenaur walked through items in the one-year service agreement, which lists services JCDC would provide to the county. Commissioners and JCDC representatives spent more than an hour discussing JCDC’s role.

Per discussion about the proposed contract Monday, JCDC would not be serving as a “liaison to Jay County municipalities for securing grants,” with the role instead falling to community coordinator Nate Kimball, who is employed through commissioners’ contract with East Central Indiana Regional Planning District. Both parties shared grievances Monday with one another over issues that have been brewing for more than a year.

Richards expressed his frustration with the county for not coordinating a meeting between himself, commissioners and Kimball, pointing to an administrative meeting commissioners had with Kimball recently. (Per Indiana law, commissioners are able to host administrative meetings with employees for “‘administrative functions’ (which) means only routine activities that are reasonably related to the everyday internal management of the county or town, including conferring with, receiving information from, and making recommendations to staff members and other county or town officials or employees.” The meetings are open to the public but don’t require notice. Commissioners spoke with Kimball following a regular meeting Nov. 1.)

Richards noted Kimball has been visiting businesses to discuss their needs, a role he thought JCDC was meant to fill. (It is also included in the proposed contract.) He requested direction for JCDC’s responsibilities and also voiced a need for another employee in the office.

County officials approached JCDC’s board in October 2022 requesting changes to the organization’s bylaws, which included permanent seats for a county commissioner and county council member on JCDC’s executive committee. On Monday, commissioners Brian McGalliard and Chad Aker referenced a two-year contract from 2013 between the county and JCDC, which stipulated “JCDC shall maintain within its organizational structure an executive committee the members of which shall include a member appointed by the Jay County Commissioners and a member appointed by the Jay County Council.” McGalliard countered comments from JCDC members who referred to the act as “government overreach,” noting the 2013 contract.

“It was something we (were) trying to do that was done in the past,” said McGalliard.

Richards said he didn’t believe that encompassed the entire discussion, and Aker noted that was what made The Commercial Review’s headline the next day.

“We were demonized for that, just trying to do what had been done in the past, to try and get a little more involvement,” he said.

They also discussed funding. Commissioners have decreased the county’s contribution toward JCDC’s budget for 2024, allocating approximately $130,000 — that’s $105,000 less than 2023 — for next year. Aker explained after looking at the organization’s finances and taking into account the Jay County Community Developer position — it was paid approximately $63,000 — would no longer be occupied, they chose to contribute $130,000. He also said council members Harold Towell and Cindy Bracy were in agreement with that amount at a previous meeting but later chose to bump the amount to $140,000.

(During the budgeting process, Jay County Council OK’d bumping JCDC’s allotment to approximately $140,000. However, because the dollars are from economic development income tax (EDIT) funds — those are under commissioners’ jurisdiction — and the organization is now paid for through the contractual services fund, which does not specifically list names of each service or organization involved, commissioners chose to stick with the $130,000 budget and keep the extra $10,000 for other projects or services.)

Part of the budget cut also stems from whether JCDC has additional dollars in the bank — Richards and commissioners disagreed about whether JCDC received this year’s allotment for the unfilled Jay County Community Developer position. (The job has been replaced by Kimball, who will utilize East Central Indiana Regional Planning District connections to write and secure grants.)

The proposed contract also stipulated JCDC would “provide marketing of Jay County through existing projects such as Make My Move, Yodel Calendar, and social media posts through other such projects as the parties may from time to time agree.” Richards expressed hesitancy to provide those services, with Schemenaur noting he included the item because he noticed JCDC did those services already. Richards admitted social media is not his strong suit and said he would feel more comfortable if the organization hired another employee or intern to handle it. Both Aker and McGalliard told Richards they could hire a marketing firm for that purpose if needed.

McGalliard said he would like to wait to approve a contract until Richards discussed marketing with his board, which likely won’t meet again until January. Richards said he understands JCDC would not get funding from the county until an agreement has been signed.

Pointing to similar sentiments shared by Street, commissioner Rex Journay voiced a desire to work together in harmony.

“The most important thing is, we have to be unified,” he said.

Richards shared his frustration.

“I guess what I’m getting at is I’d love just to be treated fairly,” said Richards. “I asked for a conversation about this, commissioners meeting and having a conversation with one organization, not both, and that just feels, it doesn’t feel good. For a lot of reasons. I’m sure everyone in this room can understand that.”

McGalliard responded.

“Chad and I can because we tried to have a conversation about a commissioner being on your executive board for numerous months, and it never happened,” said McGalliard.

Richards and McGalliard began arguing back and forth before McGalliard made a motion to adjourn.

In other business, commissioners heard from Sean Hofherr, senior project consultant for SES Environmental. He explained it appeared some fuel had leaked from the underground tanks at Jay County Highway Department, which was noticed while they were being removed just before Thanksgiving. (Representatives from SES Environmental were on site while the project took place.) About 5,000 gallons of water with traces of gas and diesel were removed from the site. 

Hofherr noted readings recently came back with low levels of contamination in the area, coming in well below Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s requirements. He anticipated the county wouldn’t need to do more testing — the county had anticipated a $15,000 fee to do a more in-depth investigation into the problem — and doing a report for IDEM should wrap up the issue.

Commissioners signed a 2024 contract with LifeStream Services. The agreement, which allots more than $1.4 million toward the transportation service, is funded partially with dollars allocated from the state.

They also signed a $26,000 claim for insurance coverage of a totaled vehicle from Jay County Sheriff’s Office, which was damaged beyond repair in an Oct. 15 crash in Portland.