August 25, 2003

BOARD OF FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

The Board of Commissioners met in a regular session with Chairman John E. Taylor and Commissioners Fred E. Ferguson, Donald R. Stottlemire and Donald E. Waymire present.  

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Taylor at 8:30.

Harry Bowen with KCAMP discussed hail damage to Courthouse, Law Enforcement, Jail, Court Services, Ambulance, Record Storage and Annex.  Insurance estimated damage is $207,080 plus additional items that they have not received estimates on such as Lady Justice, guttering and awning.

Wynndee Lee discussed Neighborhood Revitalization Program, the proposed additions to residential and commercial areas.  John Dowell said he would prepare a resolution to make the additions to the program.

Commissioner Stottlemire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to approve payroll change 03-354 for Sarah Hollow with the Sheriff’s Department.  All voted “yes.”

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to approve the minutes for August 20, 2003.  All voted “yes.”

John Dowell discussed reimbursing the Sheriff’s Department for the certified mailing of summonses for tax sale #31 in the amount of $62.17.  Board agreed to reimburse the Sheriff’s Department from the Commissioner’s budget.

Karen Rugg and Mary Lois Yates discussed using the Annex meeting room at no charge for the community volunteer group that is meeting to discuss homeless shelters.  Board agreed to allow them to use the meeting room at no charge.

Dennis Brown with Welborn Sales and Robert Meinzer with Contech discussed aluminum box culverts.

Board discussed engineering firms for the 26 mile chip seal plan.  Ray DeJulio said that Taylor Design has only one engineer, but they are local.  Cook, Flatt and Strobel has a lot of engineers and employees.  They are not local and sometimes don’t respond in a timely manner.  Ray said he recommends Taylor Design Group.

Dennis Woolman said if we could get low interest revolving funding from the State, the County should use the funding, because it is a good opportunity.  Ray said that the interest rate is currently 3% and that a loan could be for up to 6 million dollars per year per entity.

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to accept Taylor Design Group as the engineers for the 26 mile chip seal plan.  All voted “yes.”

Vicki Johnson with Franklin County Volunteer Firefighters Association asked to park a fire truck at the Annex Parking Lot on August 30 for the boot drive for the Labor Day Weekend.  Board agreed.

Bob Thompson, Debbie Hough, Barbara Conus, Steve Brown, Ray DeJulio, Keith Clark, Ethel Wallace, Larry Walrod, Craig Davis, Ted McCurdy, Kristie Stinebaugh, Arlene Udelhofen, Brad Gilges, Darrell Wadkins and John Dowell in per Board request to discuss the proposed pay periods starting January 2004.  Board discussed bi-weekly pay and monthly pay being the 21^st of the month through the 20^th instead of the 1^st of the month through the end of the month, which requires the county to pay for time worked not yet submitted.  Debbie Hough discussed paying a one time transition pay of 56 hours if paying monthly or 24 hours if paying bi-weekly.  Debbie said she has budgeted to pay employees for 2080 hours in 2004 and paying for actual hours worked in 2004 would be 2024 hours if paid monthly and 2056 if paid bi-weekly.  A large majority of the department heads said they felt their employees would like to stay monthly if there was some transition pay.  Board agreed to discuss and let the department heads know what their decision is.

Chairman Taylor closed for lunch at 11:55.

Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 1:00.  Chairman Taylor, Commissioners Ferguson, Stottlemire and Waymire present.

Don McMican discussed his survey of Courthouse for hail damage.  Board agreed that Don McMican needs to get with the counties insurance company.  Don McMican discussed the sign for the Annex Parking Lot, water proofing the foundation at an estimated cost of $120,000 and applying for a grant to install a water sprinkler system for the Courthouse square.   

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to go into an executive session for 15 minutes at 1:45 for real estate acquisition with Board, Bob Roberts and John Dowell present.  All voted “yes.”  Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 2:00 and reported no action taken, no decisions made.

Rodney Burns discussed the 2002 audit.  He reported that in July of 2002 the Ambulance Department submitted a bill to the Clerk’s Office twice for payment in the amount of $220.00 money has been returned, in December of 2002 the Treasurer’s Office was short $61,000 on pledges at Peoples Bank, the Register of Deeds Office is not depositing money to the Treasurer’s Office in a timely manner and should be doing deposits daily, the County Attorney’s Office only made four deposits in 2002 and should be making them more often, all departments should be giving the Commissioner’s a monthly report of collections, delinquent bills from 1999 for the Hospital and Extension Council have been written off, Town and County Realty and CASA didn’t pay their phone bills in October and Jason Parks is looking into it and giving them a bill, Noxious Weed Department billing software needs to be changed so billing can’t be changed after printed, overall Rodney said the county is doing a good job.

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to go into an executive session for 30 minutes at 2:30 for attorney client privileges with Board and John Dowell present.  All voted “yes.”  Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 2:45 and reported no action taken, no decisions made.

Board discussed hiring a county counselor and moving $40,000 to $42,000 out of the County Attorney budget into the County Commission budget.

Board discussed with John Dowell that they were going to hire a county counselor and take $40,000 out of his budget for 2003 and ask him if he would continue as county counselor for this year and if not if he would give them $14,000 from his budget this year to pay for a counselor.  John said he would like the Board know on Wednesday.

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to adopt the 2004 County budget in the amount of $18,038,029 with ad valorem taxes in the amount of $9,234,598.  All voted “yes.”

Board discussed with Shari Perry, Kristie Stinebaugh and Debbie Hough the 2004 payroll proposal, transition pay and increases for 2004.

With no further discussion the meeting was adjourned at 4:00.

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                                         Clerk                                                                                           Chairman