City Council Hashing Out Details Of Having Its Own Attorney
November 19, 2019 at 3:43 a.m.
By David [email protected]
By the end of the 35-minute discussion, it was decided that Councilmen Mike Klondaris and Ron Shoemaker, along with Council President Diane Quance, would keep meeting with city attorney Scott Reust to hammer out the details of a contract with Wabash attorney Doug Lehman and how a council attorney would work. The matter would then return to the full council at its Dec. 2 meeting.
The council previously voted 6-1 for the council to have its own legal counsel for advice separate from the city attorney, who reports directly to the mayor. Klondaris, Shoemaker and Quance are on the committee tasked to make that happen. At the Nov. 4 council meeting, the council also discussed for over an hour when a councilperson may consult the council’s legal counsel and if they may do it on their own or if the full council had to be on board with using the attorney.
Quance began Monday’s discussion by explaining that between the last council meeting and Monday’s, Reust did a “great deal of research” and conducted interviews with other cities and the Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM) attorney. She said the committee, Reust and Lehman also had a conference call to discuss what might be done.
Reust said Lehman hadn’t been through this process before and didn’t know what other cities have done, so Reust reached out to attorneys with South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis (class 1 & 2 cities) and Indiana Municipal Lawyers Association attorney Jody Woods. Warsaw is a class 3 city.
Reust explained to the council – and often had to repeat it to Shoemaker and Klondaris throughout the discussion – that “what I’m learning is, no other class 3 cities hired outside council. I think the real reason for that is because, from what I’m learning – the statute is Indiana Code 36.4.6.24, which says, ‘this legislative body’ – and that’s the key term there, legislative body – may hire a contracted attorney and legal research assistants on terms it considers appropriate.”
He emphasized the words legislative body and “it.” Reust said the other attorneys he spoke to were “pretty clear” that “legislative body does not mean providing consultation or advice to councilpersons. It’s providing consultation and advice and doing work for the entire legislative body.”
While Shoemaker argued that they had a legal opinion that said otherwise, when asked to name that legal counsel he only said Lehman. But Quance and Reust said Lehman never said that.
Klondaris wanted to charge ahead and be the first class 3 city to have its own legal counsel, perhaps forcing the state legislature to write legislation to address the matter. When Quance brought up a concern of that ending in Circuit Court, Shoemaker dismissed her and said she was coming out of left field.
As the meeting edged closer to two hours, Mayor Joe Thallemer finally stepped in and suggested Reust and the committee continue meeting with Lehman and be on the Dec. 2 agenda.
Before that discussion, Thallemer delivered some good news to the council about the city’s tax rate.
He said the city received its 1782 Notice Monday. The 1782 is the notice from the Department of Local Government Finance that sets out by fund the final information proposed for taxing units. It includes proposed revenue, levy and budget adjustments that resulted from the application of final assessed values as certified by the county auditor. The city has until Dec. 2 to respond by either stating no changes are requested or by making changes to its 2020 budget.
“Our tax rate, based on the increased assessed value that we were fortunate to experience – again, through TIF districts and through the growth strategy that we’ve employed for the last eight years – has allowed us to drop our tax rate today 9.75 cents. That’s almost a dime,” Thallemer said. “That’s going to reduce taxes, for everybody that owns a $100,000 house by $100. And that’s just based on the city tax rate. There’s other tax rates involved, but we’ve done our part. We’ve kept our tax rate flat, and now with the growth that we’ve experience because of the growth strategies we’ve employed through TIF districts and through other growth strategies, we’ve been able to grow our assessed value.”
He said the city’s tax rate “hasn’t been this low” since 2013. “So I’m proud of where we’ve all come. All the work that the council has done, the Redevelopment Commission has done, our city planner. The entire team at the city has worked hard and we are experiencing the fruits somewhat of our labor with the reduction in the tax rate,” Thallemer said.
With that being said, he said there probably wasn’t much for the council to do in regard to a response to the notice.
He added that there are two funds where the reserves are less than the 15% that city policy stated would be there. Thallemer said the city sent the DLGF its figures with the minimum reserve, but DLGF changed some revenue numbers and took some money “out of the reserve fund to cover the reduction in revenue. These were figures that they had. They were not significant numbers, but they put us down to 14% in the parks and 11% in the cemetery (funds).”
Thallemer said Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen contacted the DLGF Monday and found the city can’t raise the levy, “there’s no levy room left. We’re at the max levy. We can’t shift reserves from the general fund to other funds.”
He said the city submitted its tax forms to the DLGF with the 15% in reserves, but it was changed by the DLGF and the city had no way to change it back. The DLGF did not contact the city when it reduced the figures.
“It’s not going to change the rate. The rate is still $1.1822, but the reserves in those two categories are low. They’re 14 and 11%,” Thallemer said.
Councilman Jerry Frush asked if the council could make budget cuts at Monday’s meeting. Thallemer said Frush could propose cuts. Frush made a motion to remove $3,500 out of the Warsaw Police Department budget for a motorcycle. Klondaris seconded the motion, and it was approved with Frush, Klondaris, Shoemaker and Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins voting for the budget cut.
The council scheduled a 4:30 p.m. Nov. 25 special meeting to discuss the 1782 Notice further.
In other business, the council:
• Approved 5-2 a resolution creating two residential TIF districts. Shoemaker and Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins voted against the resolution. The Redevelopment and Plan Commissions previously approved it unanimously. The Warsaw School Board must also approve it, and then the Redevelopment Commission must give it one more approval. The residential TIF districts are tools for the city to help foster residential development within the two districts – one in the Eisenhower Elementary School area and the other near Harrison. Four public meetings were held with less than two dozen people in attendance at all of them.
• Approved on first reading an ordinance amending the city’s employee personnel policy handbook. A new employee will receive one vacation day after 90 days and two vacation days after 180 days, Human Resources Director Jennifer Whitaker said.
By the end of the 35-minute discussion, it was decided that Councilmen Mike Klondaris and Ron Shoemaker, along with Council President Diane Quance, would keep meeting with city attorney Scott Reust to hammer out the details of a contract with Wabash attorney Doug Lehman and how a council attorney would work. The matter would then return to the full council at its Dec. 2 meeting.
The council previously voted 6-1 for the council to have its own legal counsel for advice separate from the city attorney, who reports directly to the mayor. Klondaris, Shoemaker and Quance are on the committee tasked to make that happen. At the Nov. 4 council meeting, the council also discussed for over an hour when a councilperson may consult the council’s legal counsel and if they may do it on their own or if the full council had to be on board with using the attorney.
Quance began Monday’s discussion by explaining that between the last council meeting and Monday’s, Reust did a “great deal of research” and conducted interviews with other cities and the Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM) attorney. She said the committee, Reust and Lehman also had a conference call to discuss what might be done.
Reust said Lehman hadn’t been through this process before and didn’t know what other cities have done, so Reust reached out to attorneys with South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis (class 1 & 2 cities) and Indiana Municipal Lawyers Association attorney Jody Woods. Warsaw is a class 3 city.
Reust explained to the council – and often had to repeat it to Shoemaker and Klondaris throughout the discussion – that “what I’m learning is, no other class 3 cities hired outside council. I think the real reason for that is because, from what I’m learning – the statute is Indiana Code 36.4.6.24, which says, ‘this legislative body’ – and that’s the key term there, legislative body – may hire a contracted attorney and legal research assistants on terms it considers appropriate.”
He emphasized the words legislative body and “it.” Reust said the other attorneys he spoke to were “pretty clear” that “legislative body does not mean providing consultation or advice to councilpersons. It’s providing consultation and advice and doing work for the entire legislative body.”
While Shoemaker argued that they had a legal opinion that said otherwise, when asked to name that legal counsel he only said Lehman. But Quance and Reust said Lehman never said that.
Klondaris wanted to charge ahead and be the first class 3 city to have its own legal counsel, perhaps forcing the state legislature to write legislation to address the matter. When Quance brought up a concern of that ending in Circuit Court, Shoemaker dismissed her and said she was coming out of left field.
As the meeting edged closer to two hours, Mayor Joe Thallemer finally stepped in and suggested Reust and the committee continue meeting with Lehman and be on the Dec. 2 agenda.
Before that discussion, Thallemer delivered some good news to the council about the city’s tax rate.
He said the city received its 1782 Notice Monday. The 1782 is the notice from the Department of Local Government Finance that sets out by fund the final information proposed for taxing units. It includes proposed revenue, levy and budget adjustments that resulted from the application of final assessed values as certified by the county auditor. The city has until Dec. 2 to respond by either stating no changes are requested or by making changes to its 2020 budget.
“Our tax rate, based on the increased assessed value that we were fortunate to experience – again, through TIF districts and through the growth strategy that we’ve employed for the last eight years – has allowed us to drop our tax rate today 9.75 cents. That’s almost a dime,” Thallemer said. “That’s going to reduce taxes, for everybody that owns a $100,000 house by $100. And that’s just based on the city tax rate. There’s other tax rates involved, but we’ve done our part. We’ve kept our tax rate flat, and now with the growth that we’ve experience because of the growth strategies we’ve employed through TIF districts and through other growth strategies, we’ve been able to grow our assessed value.”
He said the city’s tax rate “hasn’t been this low” since 2013. “So I’m proud of where we’ve all come. All the work that the council has done, the Redevelopment Commission has done, our city planner. The entire team at the city has worked hard and we are experiencing the fruits somewhat of our labor with the reduction in the tax rate,” Thallemer said.
With that being said, he said there probably wasn’t much for the council to do in regard to a response to the notice.
He added that there are two funds where the reserves are less than the 15% that city policy stated would be there. Thallemer said the city sent the DLGF its figures with the minimum reserve, but DLGF changed some revenue numbers and took some money “out of the reserve fund to cover the reduction in revenue. These were figures that they had. They were not significant numbers, but they put us down to 14% in the parks and 11% in the cemetery (funds).”
Thallemer said Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen contacted the DLGF Monday and found the city can’t raise the levy, “there’s no levy room left. We’re at the max levy. We can’t shift reserves from the general fund to other funds.”
He said the city submitted its tax forms to the DLGF with the 15% in reserves, but it was changed by the DLGF and the city had no way to change it back. The DLGF did not contact the city when it reduced the figures.
“It’s not going to change the rate. The rate is still $1.1822, but the reserves in those two categories are low. They’re 14 and 11%,” Thallemer said.
Councilman Jerry Frush asked if the council could make budget cuts at Monday’s meeting. Thallemer said Frush could propose cuts. Frush made a motion to remove $3,500 out of the Warsaw Police Department budget for a motorcycle. Klondaris seconded the motion, and it was approved with Frush, Klondaris, Shoemaker and Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins voting for the budget cut.
The council scheduled a 4:30 p.m. Nov. 25 special meeting to discuss the 1782 Notice further.
In other business, the council:
• Approved 5-2 a resolution creating two residential TIF districts. Shoemaker and Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins voted against the resolution. The Redevelopment and Plan Commissions previously approved it unanimously. The Warsaw School Board must also approve it, and then the Redevelopment Commission must give it one more approval. The residential TIF districts are tools for the city to help foster residential development within the two districts – one in the Eisenhower Elementary School area and the other near Harrison. Four public meetings were held with less than two dozen people in attendance at all of them.
• Approved on first reading an ordinance amending the city’s employee personnel policy handbook. A new employee will receive one vacation day after 90 days and two vacation days after 180 days, Human Resources Director Jennifer Whitaker said.
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