Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
For the Kosciusko County Council's first meeting of 2002, numerous appointments, transfers, additional appropriations and salary ordinances were approved Thursday.
Transfers approved included: county jail, $2,654.11; county sheriff, $2,660.85; county coroner, $794.26; sheriff's department AD grant, $5,000; courts, $1,307; emergency management, $1,200; Area Plan Commission, $744; county prosecutor, $9,136; and Victim's Assistance Victims of Crimes Assistance and STOP (Violence Against Women) grants, $7,000.
Salary ordinances were also approved for the auditor's office, courts, Area Plan Commission, probation department and prosecutor.
Since both of the two new probation department employees have master's degrees and an existing employee obtained a master's degree, the salary ordinance had to be amended to reflect the employees' increased training. The judges have agreed to pay $40,000 from the adult probation user's fees to the county general account to support these positions.
The council will need to do an additional appropriation at the February meeting to allow for the spending of the $40,000.
According to county administrator Ron Robinson, by statute, when a probation officer obtains a master's degree, their salary has to be increased by 5 percent.
"The judges are taking all the money from the user's fee" to support the probation officers. As for their salaries next year, Robinson said, they don't know what will happen because the state may take over the probation departments in the state much like they took over family and children's services.
Additional appropriations for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and property reassessment were approved.
The council preliminarily approved $339,000 in 2001 for the CVB's 2002 budget. The CVB's 2001 account receipts totaled $328,093.44. The budget was approved for $335,000. Only the actual collections from the innkeepers' tax are distributed. Thursday, the council made the final adoption of the CVB budget.
Appointments approved included: Joe Banks and Marie Tom, Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors' Bureau; Gerald Bitner and Howard Woodward Jr., Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals; councilman Larry Teghtmeyer, Kosciusko Development Inc.; Kenny Johnson, Alcoholic Beverage Commission; councilman Tom Anglin, Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District; councilmen Jim Tranter and Brad Tandy, wage committee.
The council also elected Tranter as chairman and Tandy as vice chairman for the second consecutive year.
In other business, the council directed Robinson and county auditor Sue Ann Mitchell to get the central purchasing for the county departments going.
"At this point, I think the council needs to direct" Robinson and Mitchell to have the department heads do their purchasing for their offices through central purchasing, Tranter said.
Robinson began looking at central purchasing for the county approximately six months ago.
Robinson said central purchasing is not going to change the process too much. Comparisons of various vendors were departments can place their orders and the materials will be sent and billed to the department that ordered them.
"Now that we've gotten into it, there's tremendous savings," Robinson told the council.
As for the Justice Building expansion project, Robinson said the county will get to move into the new part of the building the second half of February. Some small details still need to be completed.
"Things are moving, just not as fast as a lot of us would like them to be," he said.
Members of the county council are Tranter, Tandy, Anglin, Teghtmeyer, John Kinsey, Maurice Beer and Harold Jones. They meet at 7 p.m. in the county courthouse on the second Thursday of every month.
