VANDERBURGH COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MARCH 1, 2016

Transcription

1 The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 1 st day of March, 2016 at 4:01 p.m. in Room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Bruce Ungethiem presiding. Call to Order President Ungethiem: Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners meeting for March 1, Attendance Roll Call President Ungethiem: Madelyn, will you call roll please? Commissioner Kiefer: Here. Commissioner Melcher: Here. President Ungethiem: Here. Pledge of Allegiance & Invocation President Ungethiem: I would like for you all to please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then remain standing for the invocation. (The Pledge of Allegiance was given.) Commissioner Melcher: Father God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, please be with us tonight as we do the county s business, and make us always put this forward and make sure that this county is treated fairly and the people about it. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen. President Ungethiem: Thank you, Steve. Commissioner Melcher: You re welcome. Grow Southwest Indiana Workforce President Ungethiem: Do we have any students in the audience? You couldn t talk them in to staying from the last meeting? Commissioner Kiefer: Right. President Ungethiem: We had five or six students, and Joe invited them and they had other, more important things to do, I m sure. Okay, we ll move on to action items, the first item is Grow Southwestern Indiana Workforce. Angie Sheppard is here to give us an update. Angie Sheppard: Jim Heck is going to do the presentation. Jim Heck: Yeah, thank you, my name is Jim Heck, I m the Executive Director for Work One Southwest. Grow Southwest Indiana is the Workforce Development Board that

2 Page 2 of 13 operates those in a nine county region. I just wanted to give you an update. We try to get here at least twice a year to tell you about what s going on in the workforce system. You ll see the first card there is a Save the Date. By law we re required to have two meetings a year for our local elected officials. This meeting will be on April 29 th in Ft. Branch, at the Vincennes University campus in Ft. Branch. We ll do breakfast that morning. It starts at 8:30 a.m. Central time. That s also our normal Workforce Development Board meeting schedule. So, we will be going through all the finances and everything that goes through with the Workforce Development Board at that time. You re all invited, I hope you can attend. Please just let Angie know if you are able to make that. We would love to have you there. The next page is just a snapshot. Our program year runs from July 1 to June 30 th each year. This is a snapshot of Vanderburgh County through the first six months of our program year. If you look at it in Indiana Career Connect, which is our job matching system, during last year at that same time you had about 1,100 people that are, or 1,100 job orders inside Indiana Career Connect. This year you ve got about 1,700, which is a big increase over last year. You had about 4,600 unemployed last year at this time, you ve got about 3,700 this year. So, you ve got more job openings and less people unemployed to fill those jobs. The number of active job seekers inside Indiana Career Connect in Vanderburgh County are about 9,000. So, about 9,000 people have registered and are looking for jobs inside Vanderburgh County that live in Vanderburgh County. The contiguous counties looking for work inside Vanderburgh County, there s about 4,000 people looking for work inside Vanderburgh County. If you look at the top five job orders, you ll see the office of administrative support is the number one for this county, but when you look at transportation and material moving occupations, we see that moving up in every county. In all nine of our counties that is one of the top five job openings currently. We ve got a great number of truck drivers that are retiring in our region, and we are trying to concentrate on filling those jobs by getting more CDL classes and getting more people into that pipeline. Some of the highlights for Vanderburgh County, you see that we created and you ll see distributed, especially in this building, a Hot Jobs List. We did that with the Mayor. It s been a good partnership for us. It gets our jobs out among people that are seeking jobs, we hope. The Tour of Opportunity where we took school age children into manufacturers to look at the types of jobs, and the type of classes they need to take in school to get ready for those jobs. We took 120 middle school students from Vanderburgh County to Anchor Industries, Berry Plastics, Deaconess and Flanders to talk about those jobs. That was the first time we ve done it in Vanderburgh County. We ll do that again this year, and probably increase those numbers from 120. The 2 nd Annual STEM Challenge is coming up. That s always a great challenge where we take high school age children, groups of four, to compete in problem solving contests that are created by companies. Those companies then award cash prizes for the 1 st and 2 nd place winners in those categories. That s coming up on April 7 th, I believe. So, if you re able to attend that, it s always a nice time to watch those kids compete in those contests. Then the Work Ethic Certification, we have piloted that at the Career and Tech Center this year. We hope that by putting it where we, our Workforce Board has created an online version, or is creating that through Axiom, and we hope to make that easier for teachers to utilize so that we can spread that from just a pilot program there to all of the schools in Vanderburgh County. Very good. Commissioner Melcher: I have one question, and I might have brought this up before, but as a veteran, I always bring up veteran things. There s a lot of veterans that are getting out that s drove semi-trucks all over the world. So, do they have any kind of advantage, since, you know, do you do anything with them? Jim Heck: We do. As a matter of fact, veterans are given preferences by most companies that are looking for drivers, especially if they ve driven while they were in the service. That is now a little easier for them to convert that into a CDL in Indiana. So, we try to work with them to make that crossover. Then we re also specifically trying to recruit veterans in all jobs. We re doing a monthly five day seminar for veterans coming out of the service, to help them take what they learned in the service and translate that into the civilian world and how they can create a resume that employers can read that doesn t have all of the military jargon in it. We just completed one last week, had seven veterans go through that last week. We ll do another one each month for the next,

3 Page 3 of 13 however long, we ve got $70,000 we can spend on that. So, that s what the State has funded us to do. We re also having a military breakfast, or a veterans breakfast this Friday at Golden Corral. Any veteran can come in, we ll feed them, from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., I think are the times. We ll use that, Steve, to try to recruit for those kinds of jobs. Commissioner Melcher: How did you get the word out on that? Jim Heck: Well, we can t do, we can t spend our money on marketing. So, you ll see that we do press releases. We have gone to radio stations and t.v. stations to try to get Public Service Announcements out. We re kind of at their mercy because we can t pay for those, but you should see it. We have released it in the papers. We have a new electronic sign up at the Work One and it s up on that electronic sign, and everybody that comes in to Work One is able to see it. Commissioner Melcher: Well, Evansville is unique compared to other counties. We have a Veterans Council. The Veterans Council is deemed up of veterans from every organization; the VFW, American Legions, Forty and Eight, Purple Heart, you know, they all have delegates to that. So, there s like 35 or 40 of them. If you could get some of that information to us at the Coliseum Jim Heck: Okay. Commissioner Melcher: -- you know, early, we could pass it out to the board, which meets once a month, and we have a full membership meeting once a month. We could get that out, but we ve got to have it about weeks early or a month early to get that out. Jim Heck: Okay. Commissioner Melcher: Because we could also be an arm. If you could get a hold of Mark Acker or Sheila Acker at the Coliseum, we could get that out. Because I know we re working on our 100 th anniversary right now. Jim Heck: Yeah, we would be glad to do that. Commissioner Melcher: Okay, thank you. President Ungethiem: Okay, any other questions for Jim? It looks like 2015 is better than 14. Are you projecting a 2016 even better? Jim Heck: Well, we hope so. We have seen a number of layoff notifications recently. We re able to place a lot of people, because there are a great number of jobs out there right now. We hope that that s not a pattern moving forward. Very good. Thank you, Jim. Jim Heck: Thank you. Local Drug Free Community 2016 Grant Funding President Ungethiem: Next on the action items is Drug Free Community grant funding. Crystal Sisson is here. Crystal Sisson: Good evening. How are you guys? President Ungethiem: Good. Crystal Sisson: Good. Alright, each year the Substance Abuse Council of Vanderburgh County has the privilege of distributing and selecting the organizations who will be receiving the grant awards for the Drug Free Communities Fund. These funds are collected through the counter measure and interdiction fees that are incurred by drug and alcohol related offenses in Vanderburgh County. By the State statutes we make sure that these fees go back out into the community so that we can support local law enforcement efforts, prevention initiatives and also supporting those who are in treatment as well. So, this year we have submitted to the Commissioners, what we have is the approved Drug Free Communities Grant Fund information. It s initially been

4 Page 4 of 13 approved by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute in Indianapolis. They re our oversight agency. So, we re submitting this information to you all for your approval as well this evening. The grant funds that we ve selected this year come from 27 different projects. We feel that these are some of the best initiatives for our community, in terms of local law enforcement agencies, putting forth more patrols or having equipment, and we re supporting treatment agencies to be able to serve their clients so that they can be successful in recovery efforts, or even just educating the community. Not just youth or at risk individuals, but the community as a whole as well. So, we hope tonight you re able to approve that funding for us. Do you guys have any questions? President Ungethiem: And, based on what I m reading here, this is $137,000? Crystal Sisson: It is. Any questions? Do I hear a motion to approve? Commissioner Kiefer: I ll make a motion to approve. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second. Any other comments from the audience? Marilyn, roll call please, or Madelyn, roll call. Why do I keep calling you Marilyn? President Ungethiem: Alright, thank you very much. Crystal Sisson: Thank you so much. County Clerk: EViD Voting System License Renewal Agreement Purchasing: Permission to Advertise for Vehicle Batteries Barnes & Thornburg State & Federal Lobbying Engagement Letter President Ungethiem: Okay, moving on down to contracts, agreements and leases. We have a lease agreement from the County Clerk, an EVid voting system license rental renewal agreement with RBM Consulting and VR Systems. Debbie Stucki is here to explain. Debbie Stucki: Hi, good afternoon. It s the same contract that we ve had in 14 and 15 with this company. Just renewing it for this year. No election next year, so it wouldn t have to be looked at again until 18, 2018, but it s the same contract. The prices are the same, all of the services are the same. We ve worked very well with this company. President Ungethiem: How many years have we used them? Debbie Stucki: This would be the third. President Ungethiem: This would be the third year? Debbie Stucki: Uh-huh. Any questions on this? Commissioner Melcher: No.

5 Page 5 of 13 Commissioner Kiefer: I ll make a motion to approve. President Ungethiem: I have a motion and a second. Roll call please. Debbie Stucki: Thank you. President Ungethiem: Thank you. The next item is from Purchasing, permission to advertise request for proposals for vehicle batteries, RFP Debbie? Debbie Spalding: Good afternoon. I m here to ask for permission to advertise for those vehicle batteries. This will be a request for proposal and it will be advertised in the paper, if you give your permission to do that, on March 4 th and March 11 th. We would then seek to open the bids at the Board of Public Works. This is a city-county request for proposal that we re doing. That date would be March 24 th. President Ungethiem: Any questions about this? How many batteries are we talking about? Debbie Spalding: Well, it s for all equipment and all vehicles. So, Sheriff vehicles, the County Highway backhoes and dump trucks President Ungethiem: So, hundreds? Debbie Spalding: -- all the city Police cars, a lot of batteries. Commissioner Kiefer: I ll make a motion to approve. President Ungethiem: I have a motion and second. Any other discussion? Roll call please. Debbie Spalding: Thank you. President Ungethiem: Thank you, Debbie. Next item is Barnes and Thornburg, LLP engagement letter for state and federal government relations services for This fee was $7,500, I believe, last year, and we ve reduced it to $5,000. Or it was $7,000 and was reduced to $5,000, for a total of $60,000 this year. Anything to add, Joe?

6 Page 6 of 13 Joe Harrison, Jr.: No, they, Barnes and Thornburg helps the county out with various projects and legislative issues throughout the year, and other legal matters when needed. They do a good job. They ve been doing it for many years. Any questions? Commissioner Melcher: No, I ll make the motion to approve it. Commissioner Kiefer: Second. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and second. Roll call please. President Ungethiem: Okay, that s the end of the action items. County Engineer President Ungethiem: We can move on to department head reports. I see John, he s usually first. John Stoll: The first three items weren t on the that I sent you earlier, but they all three deal with the Maryland Street Bridge. The first item is an agreement between the county and Lochmueller Group for design services for some design modifications on the Maryland Street Bridge. These design modifications have come about as a result of the on-going construction. The contract amount is $27,000. The contract has been reviewed by the County Attorney, so I would request approval of the design modification, the contract for the design modifications. President Ungethiem: Any questions about that? Commissioner Melcher: Move for approval. Commissioner Kiefer: Second. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second. Madelyn, roll call please. John Stoll: I forgot to mention that Mike Schopmeyer is here also to help answer any questions you might have. The second item is also about the Maryland Street Bridge. This covers a construction inspection agreement with Lochmueller Group. This is for an amount not to exceed $18,000. This is just a preliminary amount. We will have to supplement it at a later date. We ll have to get another appropriation to cover the

7 Page 7 of 13 funding needed for a supplemental agreement, but this will at least cover roughly a month s worth of inspection services. Again, the County Attorney reviewed the contract and found it to be acceptable. Commissioner Kiefer: I ll make a motion to approve. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Roll call please. John Stoll: The third item is a request to terminate CHA s construction inspection contract on the Maryland Street Bridge. This would be replaced with the Lochmueller agreement that you just approved. Commissioner Melcher: So moved. Commissioner Kiefer: Second. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Roll call please. John Stoll: Next up, I ll go back to the items I sent you earlier, the first item is a request to award the Heckel Road contract, which is contract number VC to Blankenberger Brothers for the amount of $3,782,000. They provided the low bid on the project and their paperwork is in order. So, I would request approval to award the contract. President Ungethiem: Any discussion? Commissioner Kiefer: Only comments are that I know they just had finished up a project at the Convention Bureau, CVB baseball fields, and I understand they did a good job. They came in under budget and on time, and, obviously, this project is right in front of there. So, they re familiar with the site and the work that has to be done. I ll make a motion to approve. President Ungethiem: There s a motion and a second. Any other discussion? I just wanted to make a note, I think they were also the successful bidder and contractor on the Broadway Bridge project, and I understand that that went well, as well.

8 Page 8 of 13 John Stoll: It s not finished yet, but we haven t had any problems to speak of. Madelyn, roll call. John Stoll: Next I have an inspection contract with the Lochmueller Group to oversee the construction of the Heckel Road project. This contract is for an amount not to exceed $420,000. The County Attorney reviewed that contract and thought it was also acceptable, so I would request approval for that inspection contract. Commissioner Kiefer: I ll make a motion to approve, and with that I would like to make a comment that I think Lochmueller Group, I m glad to be able to give this contract to them. They do a good job and they re familiar with this particular work. So, I feel comfortable with them moving ahead with this oversight and inspection work. So, that s my motion, to approve. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? John, just for clarification, this is for the entire project, all the phases? John Stoll: Yes. President Ungethiem: So, this will be the complete inspection throughout the project? John Stoll: Yes, it runs from this month through an estimated June of John Stoll: The project will have four phases. The first phase will be from the CVB ballpark entrance east to Green River Road, and we expect the contractor to start moving on that here very shortly because it is slated to be completed, I shouldn t say completed, that section is slated to be open to traffic by, I believe it s July 1 st. So, they are ready to go, and Lochmueller is well aware of the specifications since they put it all together. President Ungethiem: Okay, very good. Any other comments? Roll call please. John Stoll: The last item I have is a request for street plan approval on Cambridge Village, Phase II. This is an expansion of Cambridge Subdivision out near Volkmann and Old State. This expands the subdivision east to provide another access into the

9 Page 9 of 13 subdivision off of Old State Road. I ve reviewed the plans, the consultant made the changes that I had requested, so I would recommend approval. Commissioner Melcher: So moved. Commissioner Kiefer: Second. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I have a question. This is the Cambridge Subdivision that has the very long cul-de-sac? Does this resolve that cul-de-sac issue? John Stoll: It meets the current requirements. They got primary approval with that layout. I don t remember all of the details, but it did receive its primary approval. President Ungethiem: Right, it was approved. My question here is the access point on Old State Road, is that coming off of that long subdivision? John Stoll: There s a long road that comes out of the existing phase and heads east towards Old State, but there still are cul-de-sac roads south of this connection. So, it s not a loop like had been discussed. Okay, understood. Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second. Roll call please. John Stoll: That s all I have, unless you have any questions. President Ungethiem: Thank you, John. John Stoll: Thanks. President Ungethiem: Any other department heads? Seeing none. New Business President Ungethiem: Any new business? Commissioner Kiefer: Yeah, I have some discussion I would like to have under new business. This past week I met with a group that included Area Plan, MPO, the University of Southern Indiana, several engineering groups; Lochmueller and Morley, and the discussion item was University Parkway and us potentially extending that out to Highway, I mean, I-64. The reason that we met is because Joe Harrison and I, earlier, I don t know if it was this year yet or late last year, but we had met with some INDOT officials and they basically said if you want a partnership with the State on building University Parkway you re going to need to get a lot of support oh, and I forgot, the City of Evansville was involved in this meeting too. They said you re going to really need a groundswell of support. It can t just be the Commissioners asking for this road to be built. All of these entities unanimously said, hey, we support getting this Parkway built and would like to see the State of Indiana help participate in it. One thing that was suggested was that the county might look at going ahead and starting a study on the environmental aspects of it, an environmental report, because they said to get the federal 80/20 match that we would need to do that ahead of time. So, I would like to have the Commissioners permission that we direct John Stoll to look into this and see

10 Page 10 of 13 what it might cost to maybe get some bids or estimates. Then, I also wanted to ask Brian how much money do we have in TIF funds out at University Parkway? Brian Gerth: I might need to look that up. I can send it to you when I get back to the office. Commissioner Kiefer: Okay, I was thinking we had several hundred thousand dollars in that. President Ungethiem: I was thinking it was around $300,000. Brian Gerth: I m thinking between $300,000 and $400,000. Joe Harrison, Jr.: It keeps coming in each year, and there are funds that are committed for, you know, the sewer extension and all that that s separate. Commissioner Kiefer: Right, right Brian Gerth: Yes. Commissioner Kiefer: -- but, the idea is that we would need to have this, some money set aside to do this study. I sent out an to you guys detailing out some of this, but I would like to, you know, have the Commissioners recommend to John Stoll that he at least go out and get some bids or ideas on what it would cost to have this study done so we can determine whether or not we can at least have that much work done and be ready a little bit quicker to eventually get a project started. President Ungethiem: You mentioned that IDEM wanted us to get community involvement and support. Commissioner Kiefer: Right. President Ungethiem: Is there a mechanism that we re going to use to convey that support to IDEM? Do we have to send them a letter? How do we go about doing that? Commissioner Kiefer: Well, one thought was Joe Harrison, Jr.: Or, INDOT. Commissioner Kiefer: Yeah, INDOT, but one thought was that, I think the Chamber is coordinating, helping us coordinate this. So, they would probably get us, maybe we would do a letter or resolution or something like that, and then we would have that from all of the separate entities. But, then, they would like to coordinate a direct face-to-face meeting with the Governor to present these things, and tell him that, at least so the Governor knows that this is something that we want done here. I forgot to add that even Posey County attended this meeting, and they are, you know, to the extent that they can help us, they want to, you know, encourage this as well. President Ungethiem: Is that something we want to do prior to doing the environmental study? Or, do we want to go ahead and proceed with the environmental study before we Commissioner Kiefer: Well, my thought was, you know, maybe we could run parallel tracks with this, because, you know, by the time the Governor gets here in June, I mean, it would be nice to be able to say, hey, we ve got estimates, we know what it s going to cost to do this work. Commissioner Kiefer: At least John could get pulled together some work for us so we know what we re talking about, how much dollars we re talking about. Commissioner Kiefer: Plus they, everybody thought and the Chamber of Commerce reiterated that, you know, an important part of this is us having some skin in the game. So, even if the State did do this project, you know, it s good to show us, show that we ve got skin in the game, we re not just another group saying, hey, we want you to build this

11 Page 11 of 13 road for us. So, this would absolutely indicate we do have some skin in it, at least paying to have a study done, but at the very least, I just want John to start working on this and put together some bid process to get some estimates on this. President Ungethiem: Okay, would you make that in the form of a motion to do we need to pass a motion for that? Joe Harrison, Jr.: I think you might want to pass a motion to have John try to communicate with some local engineering companies on a possible study that would be needed from, I guess, it would be from Diamond up to I-64 there at Highway 65. Commissioner Kiefer: Right. Joe Harrison, Jr.: Just to start that ball rolling. Joe Harrison, Jr.: I think they want to try to meet with, I think the Governor maybe in June. Commissioner Kiefer: Right, right. Joe Harrison, Jr.: So, maybe we can get some things in place. President Ungethiem: Get some preliminary numbers in place by then? Commissioner Kiefer: Right. Joe Harrison, Jr.: And maybe even get a contract awarded by then. Commissioner Kiefer: Right, so, I would make a motion to that effect. Commissioner Melcher: I ll second that motion. President Ungethiem: Alright, we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Roll call please. Commissioner Melcher: Yeah, I meet with the Chamber once a month in the morning, and usually that s kind of what they re talking about is that and the bridge. We re talking about all of this. It s more than just one project. It s getting the bridge across and everything. So, I know they re really pushing for it. So, I ll vote yes. President Ungethiem: So, John s back. Joe Harrison, Jr.: That s what he gets for leaving. President Ungethiem: You left and we gave you another job to do, John. Jeff Mueller: I brought him up to date. Commissioner Kiefer: That s, what I would like to do is, we have, I would like to, if it s okay with the group, I ll serve as the Commissioner representative in this committee that has all of these members that I just mentioned and detailed in an . If you re okay

12 Page 12 of 13 with that, I ll continue to serve in that capacity and attend those meetings and see if we can get something going on this. President Ungethiem: Okay, that would be good. Commissioner Kiefer: Okay, thank you. President Ungethiem: Any other new business? Old Business President Ungethiem: Any old business? Public Comment President Ungethiem: Public comments? Does anybody want to address the Commissioners this evening? Seeing none. Consent Items President Ungethiem: Madelyn, please read the consent items. Madelyn Grayson: The consent items for the March 1 st meeting are as follows; we have approval of the February 16, 2016 Commission meeting minutes; employment changes for the Commissioners approval, we have two for Burdette Park and three for the County Highway; Weights and Measures has a monthly report; the Treasurer has the 2016 year-to-date investment form, and the January 2016 monthly report; the Sheriff s Office has a surplus request for four vehicles 1 ; the Auditor has approval of the February 2016 A/P voucher; the Commissioners have a quitclaim deed for 916 West Tennessee Street; and the County Engineer has a department head report and pay request number 12 for U.S. 41 Expansion for the sum of $45, President Ungethiem: Alright. Commissioner Kiefer: Move to approve. President Ungethiem: We have a motion and a second to approve the consent items. All of those in favor say aye. All Commissioners: Aye. President Ungethiem: Opposed? They are approved. Adjournment President Ungethiem: That s the end of our agenda for tonight. I want to make sure that everybody realizes that the next meeting for the County Commissioners is March 22 nd. So, there will be two weeks before the next Commissioners meeting. Joe Harrison, Jr.: Three. President Ungethiem: Three? Twenty one days, three weeks before the next Commissioners meeting. So, there s no meeting two weeks from this week, there s a meeting three weeks from this week. With that said, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. 1 Should be two vehicles.

13 Page 13 of 13 Commissioner Melcher: So moved. Commissioner Kiefer: Second. President Ungethiem: We are adjourned. (The meeting was adjourned at 4:34 p.m.) CONSENT ITEMS: Commissioners: Approval of the February 16, 2016 Commission Meeting Minutes. Quitclaim Deed: 916 W. Tennessee St. Employment Changes: Burdette Park (2) County Hwy. (3) Co. Assessor (1) Circuit Court (1) County Clerk (1) Sheriff (1) Weights & Measures: Monthly Report. County Treasurer: 2016 YTD Investment Form. January 2016 Monthly Report. Surplus Requests: Sheriff s Office: Two Vehicles. County Engineer: Department Head Report & Claims. Pay Request No. 12: U.S. 41 Expansion: $45, Those in Attendance: Bruce Ungethiem Joe Kiefer Stephen Melcher Brian Gerth Joe Harrison, Jr. Kristin Comer Erika Miller Madelyn Grayson Jim Heck Angie Sheppard Crystal Sisson Debbie Stucki Debbie Spalding Others Unidentified Members of Media Bruce Ungethiem, President Joe Kiefer, Vice President Stephen Melcher, Commissioner (Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)