i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america and to the
republic for which it stands one nation
under god indivisible with liberty and
justice for all father we do thank you
for this day
Amen.
And there's a process for.
There is a process for amending the
agenda.
All right.
We have a motion from time to approve
it as it stands currently.
Okay.
To go by the agenda confusing enough.
Aye.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Aye.
Tony?
Opposed?
Mr. Paul Humphrey?
No, there.
Mr. Westmowers?
Aye.
That be you.
That be me.
Come up and yell.
I have several questions regarding this
project and the conditions surrounding it.
I've been told it is the intent
used in the BOT contract.
I understand that the BOT,
which stands for Build, Operate,
Transfer process,
was designed for the traditional use for
large-scale projects such as the Lewis and
Clark Bridge.
This bridge project is easily
understandable how the contractor assisted
with construction funding and recouped his
money through the toll bridge until
requirements were satisfied,
at which time total control and ownership
of said bridge was transferred to the
government agency.
It's unclear to me why this contracting
model is the kind of go-to approach for
larger construction projects within
Washington County.
Applying to the project in question,
is it the intent of the county for
the chosen contracting firm to operate at
least or take possession of the four-h
building,
or is it the intent of the county
to lease the newly constructed four-h
building from the chosen contractor?
According to information obtained from the
Indiana County Commissioners with the ICC,
the following guidelines must be followed
using the BOP contract involved.
For those who are unaware,
the ICC is a nonprofit organization tasked
with training, education,
and advocacy for commissioners throughout
the state of Indiana.
When using the BOT contracting model,
the governmental community must solicit
proposals to the RFP which must include
the following.
Factors and criteria to be used in
evaluating proposals.
A statement concerning relative importance
of price and other factors.
A statement concerning whether proposals
must be accompanied by a certified check
or other evidence of financial
responsibility.
The statement concerning earlier
discussions may be conducted with offerors
for the purposes of clarification to
ensure full understanding of and
responsiveness to the RFP.
And a notice of the RFP must be
published two times one week apart with
the second publication at least seven days
before the proposal is produced.
With these requirements in mind,
I would like clarification on the
following questions.
It is apparent the county forage building
project has been discussed by our county
commissioners on more than one occasion.
Did these discussions occur during a
public meeting or in an executive session
and are these meeting minutes available to
the public?
Number two,
do construction plans or project scope
exist for the forage building project?
If so,
who develops that plans or scope and are
they available to the public for project
bidding purposes?
Number three,
have engineering or construction firms
Number four,
is it the intent of the Washington County
Commissioners to solicit or request for a
proposal via public notice as required by
Indiana code?
If so,
where and when do commissioners intend to
release said RFP?
Number five,
have any county funds been dispersed
relating to the four-H building
construction project?
Number six, and lastly,
while I understand that demolition and
reconstruction
building the size of the four-inch
building is a large and costly project i'm
sorry what i do not understand is why
this project would use the bot contracting
model it would appear that the
construction of the single building would
be better served by the conventional
paying process
which a minimum of three bids are taken
from technically and financially qualified
bidders,
where the low bid is the work of
the contract.
This would allow for the certainty of a
quality project while ensuring the best
use of taxpayer dollars.
If the commissioners did not want to spend
the money for the engineering construction
plans,
the project could also be done in the
same manner using the design-build process
based upon the requirements and scope of
work developed by the commission.
I would greatly appreciate the answers and
clarifications to the questions I've
posed.
And I would like to thank the
commissioners for their time and allowing
me to speak here today.
Thank you.
As of right now, that being oldest,
I don't know.
Well, I can answer his questions.
Put his mind at ease.
First of all,
I don't know where you're getting your
information.
We are not doing a BOT.
It's not a good fit.
For this project,
we're going to do a design build.
We will be taking bids beginning about the
first of April.
And deadline would be you're going to have
thirty days to submit your plans and
that's basically all there is to it.
for new folks as far as what you...
Yeah, well, that will be provided.
Yes.
Yeah, so it'll be, it'll be, of course,
we don't have a newspaper, unfortunately,
anymore.
I understand we might be getting a
newspaper again.
Thank you.
Which is a good thing.
So, yeah,
it will be in every publication that's
available to us.
website, all of the above.
And when did you say you expect them?
Around about time,
I'm not holding you to a date.
Yeah, we're kind of on a timeline.
So, yeah, around the first of April.
The one in April or at the drop?
Yeah, around the first of April.
We don't have an exact date yet,
but it will be,
It'll have to be public notice for thirty
days.
That's what I need to mention.
Again, I apologize.
I'm going off what I've been heard.
I would encourage you in the future.
That's what I was getting ready to say.
Anytime you'd like, our phone numbers,
everybody's got our numbers.
Believe me, they do.
Any time you want to call any of
us, if you have any questions,
I don't care if it's a non-question,
feel free to call us.
No, I appreciate that, definitely,
but I was just looking for the
clarification.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Questions?
Pardon?
Hi.
How are you?
I'm just fine.
I've got just a few sheets left.
We'll go ahead and let you just go
ahead and take one.
All right, three minutes,
so this is gonna be quiet.
David Lyons is not a Democrat,
never has been.
Also,
Laurie Gilstrap voted as a Republican this
last election.
So effectively, and we've had an argument,
I love Adam to death.
We had a little argument in the way,
but you know, look,
Laurie Gilstrap voted as Republican in the
last primary, and as,
picture of the agenda before had the plan
commission putting forward a comprehensive
plan and i see that it's been taken
off which is excellent because uh i've
written down all the laws regarding it
also as far as like having a ten
day public information you know open to
the public for ten days and then having
the hearing just like with the ordinance
now uh it can be argued that
The planning board has been illegal for
eight years.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been
spent on this organization that has not
provided legal hearings,
has not provided support for the
community, and been a drain on our public.
I'd really like you to go ahead and
dissolve it.
But if you're not going to dissolve it,
you may really want to follow the law.
Because what you're taking on is you're
dealing with people's property.
This board can have people's property torn
down on a whim.
You're such a drain on our local economy.
I can't see why you wouldn't shut this
dumpster fire down.
But do you have any questions?
Do you have any questions?
Bill?
Not this time.
All right.
Are we good?
Okie dokie.
Thank you, brother.
Thank you.
Adam, number four.
I'll yield my time for the moment.
That's me.
How are you?
Better than I deserve, actually.
Well, you look nice.
You're ready for it.
It's a bright morning.
Thank you.
No snow.
We're ready to go.
I've got a nine-year-old dad who's on his
way out, sadly,
but every day above ground is a good
day.
And I appreciate y'all being here.
Time to start?
Awesome.
Let's see.
Four score and seven years ago,
wrong speech.
We're here to talk about the bundle of
rights and the attack on citizens with the
current iteration of the zoning ordinance
and document.
People talk about taxation without
representation.
Well,
taxation with representation pretty much
sucks too.
We have the right under the Constitution
to be secure in our property and in
our papers.
We have the right to not have an
unlawful taking of our property.
which is why we have eminent domain laws
that require that people be compensated
fairly.
Now those of you that passed government in
high school probably know that fascism is
defined as the private ownership of your
property, but with the public control.
The government has control of your
property.
So there's not much reason to own property
if you're not in control of it,
and that throws us right into fascism.
We've had issues on this board.
As Rhonda just brought up,
with two people that I was told in
this board meeting were actually Democrat.
And when looking at the public records,
we find out that those two people,
Ward Gilstrap and David Wells,
are actually Democrats.
Our planning board requirements, by law,
require that at least two of those people
be of the opposite party.
That clearly hasn't happened.
Now,
I don't know if the young lady in
front of me, I believe, April,
Are you an attorney for this?
Yes.
Okay, there you go.
So you told me that you had researched
this,
and you reassured me two meetings ago that
Maury Gilstrap and David Wiles had both
voted Democrat.
And I felt kind of personally attacked,
like you thought that I was lying when
I said that they were Republicans,
but the public records clearly show that.
I know David Wiles personally.
I texted him and asked him if he
was Republican or Democrat,
and he failed to respond to that.
But I agree with Rhonda that the planning
board has been illegal for the last eight
years.
Todd,
am I wrong in saying that Andrew Cot
or Cat is your son-in-law?
Yes, he is.
So is that a violation of the Indiana
net racism laws?
No,
because there's no compensation for board
members.
Oh,
so it's okay to get your family voting.
I mean,
I can't get my family voting here in
the county whether I paid it or not.
So I'll do a little bit more investigation
on that before I make any accusations.
That point is moot because due to all
the
borderline death threats because of what
some of this community tried to stir up.
He resigned from the board.
Well, I'm sorry to hear that.
You should have resigned from the board
much earlier.
And I think the death threats are
terrible, obviously.
That is not nepotism.
I looked into it before I asked you
to serve on the board.
Okay, I'll look into it as well.
My main concern for the good people of
Washington County is that there are
that are normal and ordinary and that you
would seek to create obstacles or even
outright prevent people without
permission.
Such as me,
I have a little plant nursery.
I sell medicinal, edible,
and culinary plants.
But other people who might have a barber
or a beauty shop are going to face
limitations.
Auto vehicle sales repair,
freight trucking, heavy manufacturing,
restaurants, salvage yards,
You know, strange things.
I don't know if any of you have
Airbnb or Furbos.
Those seem to be okay according to the
ordinances.
While somebody operating your bed and
breakfast is required to live on site and
have that as residence.
And then other restrictions,
even if they have a commercial kitchen,
not being able to offer dining service to
the public,
but only being able to offer dining
services to the bed and breakfast.
So with your comments in between,
thank you for the little bit of latitude
since Todd took up so much of my
time.
I'm just here to protest and say, hey,
You know,
the good citizens of Washington County
deserve all of the rights that come with
our property and not to have any of
those rights separated.
I don't want to see us as a
fascist state.
I escaped Fishers to come here and look
for freedom.
This Fishers ain't free,
but I was hoping Washington County is.
You're welcome to ask me any questions.
No, thank you.
Thanks.
OK, approval of the minutes.
Is that February eighteenth or the
twenty-fifth?
That's March fourth.
Say it again.
March fourth.
Make a motion.
I'll make the motion.
Second.
Tully has made a motion.
Todd second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Approval of claims in favor?
I'll make that motion.
Second.
Todd made a motion.
Tully second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Motion carried.
Myra?
How are you this morning?
I'm good, how are you?
Good, morning.
Hi,
I'm Myra and I'm representing the
Washington County Community Corrections
and Washington County Probation Department
this morning.
I had presented to you previously before
this meeting the annual report that was
prepared for the Washington County
Community Corrections that was sent to
Indiana Department of Corrections.
Do you have any questions?
I know.
Questions?
Do what now?
Did you have any questions about the
annual report that you received for the
Washington County Community Corrections
prior to this meeting?
I haven't received it yet.
You should have had it on your email.
That's what I said.
Email don't get sent to me.
I've been nice about this shit and now
I'm getting mad about it.
I can't do my job,
but people supposed to do their job in
front of me.
Sorry.
No,
I looked at it and we're in good
hands.
Myra does a great job and looks good
to me.
So the other thing I'm here today for,
as you're aware,
the Washington County Community
Corrections operates by grant from the
Department of Corrections.
and it is time to apply for the
twenty-twenty-six Department of
Corrections grant.
I'm also working on applying for a grant
from the Indiana Office of Court Services
to run our South Central Indiana Veterans
Treatment Court, Washington County.
That has been running for quite a few
years as well.
So I'm here today to request your support
for my applying for these two groups.
May I have that letter please?
i'll make a motion that we accept the
grant proposals that myra has submitted
second time mr carmel this was sent to
you on march eleventh you want to double
check your email okay thank you all favors
say aye aye aye
Good morning.
How are you?
Appreciate the opportunity to talk with
you this morning about public safety
concerns that I have regarding a
communications tower that we have here
some of the information regarding this
communication tower that sets out east of
Salem and sets on private property.
There are three guy wires that come off
the communication tower that also are
grounded on private property.
We were contacted a couple of years ago
by ECS who is our radio company that
takes care of our maintenance of our tower
and our equipment that
We needed to look into some maintenance
issues on the tower.
Several of those maintenance issues have
already been addressed and been corrected.
One issue that remains that we have not
been able to successfully get corrected is
the trimming of trees that are in close
proximity to this tower.
The tower has been there for a number
of years.
It's been neglected.
I have begun well over a year ago
in talking to the property owners
that are involved in this to see if
we could get this situation taken care of.
I've not had a whole lot of luck
in dealing with the landowners to get this
taken care of.
That's when I contacted a couple of the
commissioners.
And I do appreciate the efforts that you
guys have put into this and trying to
get this taken care of.
There are currently quite a few projects
going on in the county.
There's going to continue to be those
projects going on.
Public safety has to be a top priority
for everyone.
With every passing season,
I keep wondering about this tower and
whether something or not is going to
happen to this tower.
In the wintertime,
we worry about freezing rain causing limbs
to fall out of trees and potentially do
damage to a guide wire or the tower.
As of today,
the National Weather Service confirmed
that there were ten tornadoes in the state
of Indiana this past weekend.
Our EMA director posted this morning that
we were going to have another wind
advisory tomorrow,
and with every passing day,
we don't know what could or could not
happen to this tower,
and it needs to be addressed in a
very timely manner.
We as elected officials, including myself,
must make this a top priority and do
more to bring our citizens to the table
to work this out sooner than later.
We can't allow the situation to sit idle.
At any moment,
something can take out the communication
tower.
And not only is the equipment on that
tower supporting Washington County
emergency services,
but it also supports part of Scott County
with eight on radio service.
wouldn't want to affect our neighbors in
Scott County as well.
Again,
I'm going to say I appreciate the effort
that Commissioner Marshall and
Commissioner Ewan has put forth at this
point.
We simply haven't been able to resolve
this public safety issue where every
second of every minute is important.
If a citizen is having a heart attack
or stroke, every minute counts.
If a citizen has a house fire,
every minute counts.
If a citizen is having a physical
domestic,
it requires a police every minute counts.
Police, fire,
and EMS rely on radio communications to
respond to emergencies of our citizens,
and we cannot allow this to sit on
the back burner until something
catastrophic happens.
I come to you today and ask that
we all work together to resolve the public
safety issue before it's too late.
Not one person sitting here today wants to
see something happen over communications.
Tired could be a major delay of emergency
services to our citizens.
We all say public safety is a top
priority from Washington County.
And actually speak louder than words.
I'm asking that the Board of Commissioners
to take the appropriate actions necessary
to bring those to the table to resolve
this issue so that we can get this
taken care of in a timely manner.
In all honesty, Britt,
not bypassing anything,
we had been working on it.
This contract, when trees were small,
this was first done,
we didn't have a problem.
You don't only sweat, we sweat.
We don't want it to happen.
We've got a couple owners of ground
surrounding and kind of got our hands
tied.
This contract really needs to be re-looked
at and redone.
I know when this first started out.
Here we started developing problems.
Now getting somebody and Todd's been
working on that with.
Timber cutter.
We've got.
Stop really compliant.
We're working on that.
Trust me, we're not dropping this.
This comes up every week.
And we've instructed April to look it over
and try to get it going as fast
as we can.
That's a poor excuse,
but it's the damn truth.
We have an agreement with the northern
property owner.
I spoke with you yesterday.
I know you understand this.
Everybody else doesn't because they
haven't heard it.
But I have an agreement,
a verbal agreement right now,
which April is working on getting it
written out.
which naturally has to precede anybody
going on his property in the form of
an easement.
The old easement was not adequate.
It did not address enough of an area
for us to allow us to have access
to keeping these trees down.
These trees grow fast.
We got about a dozen that need to
come down and I honestly think that that
will happen in the next two to three
weeks because
There is a sense of urgency.
The property owner to the south is another
matter.
You and I also spoke about that.
He seems to understand the urgency,
but I guess we've not been forceful
enough.
I don't want to get attorneys or a
judge involved, but if it comes to that,
we will, because if that tower goes down,
someone could lose their life.
We're all aware of that,
and he is aware of it.
But once again, just what you said,
you know,
actions are louder than words and not
getting any action out of him yet,
but hopefully he'll come around.
With all that being said,
permission to these two,
would you care to take me out there
and we can talk to the other gentleman
over this?
See if we can get this done in
a quick fashion
I'm going to be honest with you,
I'm not sure that that's going to take
care of it.
I know that they have been making
conversations with them and I'll say that
some progress has been made and I
appreciate that.
You can take me back there.
We don't have to.
With a map on here,
we are restricted on where we trespass.
And I realize we've got license.
There's other things that come into play
here.
And that's what we're trying to go legal
to keep us out of lawsuits.
And we do squint every storm that comes
up.
The southern property owner has told me he
is working on getting us a price to
clear that off.
And I'm basically waiting on him to give
us a number so we know what it's
going to cost to take these trees out.
We've got the money for it.
That's not the problem.
It's getting him to move.
That's our pride.
well aware of that and i again i
appreciate your efforts i just i know that
i i did not have any luck trying
myself to get this resolved that's why i
turn to you guys to get you involved
to try to move this along a little
quicker to try to get it done in
a timely manner it's not i've been working
on it well over a year and i'm
not making any progress on it myself and
time is important we're not making much
better progress to be quite honest with
you
We did talk to the state at one
time.
The state's tried to buy up some towers,
but the state don't want no involvement
with it because of the condition right
now.
If we can get it cleaned out,
hopefully we can go ahead and proceed with
what you said.
The state.
Trust me, we are working on it.
It's a poor excuse,
but that's the best I can do.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Reading two point old project late
paragraphs.
Yeah.
The Washington County Economic Growth
Partnership director, Angie Buchanan,
who had started the fairgrounds project as
a project lead to basically facilitate the
grant money we're receiving for the new
community building extension office at the
fairgrounds she resigned a couple weeks
ago that kind of put us in a
little bit of a bind because she had
hit the ground running and was moving
forward with this so we were going to
have to have someone else to be the
lead on this project because there are a
lot of hoops to jump through anytime you
Anytime you do a grant there's a lot
of paperwork and she has agreed to do
it on the side as a separate contract
since she is no longer a county employee.
The contract amount is fifty one hundred
dollars and it will last through the whole
process of the four H extension building
project which
would start after the fair this year.
This time,
I would ask for a motion to approve
her contract to be the lead on this.
What's this?
This is her contract.
I'll make a motion.
Okay.
I'll second it.
I don't know what I'm about to tell
you, Blake.
If the project on Reddit two point O
comes into play,
it's somebody that's going to oversee the
process.
Right.
And that's about all I got to say
on that.
You want to add anything?
I don't know what else I can say.
As of right now, that's about it.
You might ask Chris Fordyce,
our RDA appointee,
if he has anything he'd like to add
about the forage project or any updates
that would relate to this maybe.
Do you have anything, Chris?
The only update I can give you for
Ready II money,
before any of it can be spent from
the state,
the Ready I money had to be,
our threshold was sixty-five percent.
We met that last week.
So now, as these projects move forward,
they could be invoices submitted.
And reimbursements can be made now.
So that was a good part there.
So that way,
a lot of these things can get started.
Chris, could I ask you,
for people who don't know,
Ready two point O,
the money coming from Ready two point O
to Orson County, how much is that?
You mean the total amount?
Yeah,
the total amount we'll receive for a
benefit to the county on progress.
It was, I'm ashamed to tell you,
but it's like seven point eight million.
It's almost eight million dollars coming
to the county.
I know about twenty years ago,
fifteen years ago,
everything went to northern Indiana.
Southern Indiana didn't receive very much.
And with Ready, when Ready come into play,
southern Indiana did start benefiting out
of some money coming to southern Indiana.
That's correct.
Redding, one point O,
did give us a pretty good shot in
the arm.
That's like Community Cross,
they gave us a shot in the arm,
we didn't use it again.
I mean,
we have the same problem as Northern
Indiana's got.
And this has finally given Southern
Indiana a chance to benefit from the
state.
And Redding, two point O,
through the four H benefit, the kids,
we've got the same kids as they've got
up there.
and i commend you on your work to
help the county out and it's crazy not
to take advantage of this excuse me well
i certainly think you know the the rda
which was the five counties we received
forty two and a half million dollars and
so i think we've done a good job
of spreading it out
as equal as we could.
I mean, it wasn't equal dollar for dollar,
but it was awful close.
So I take pride in that.
And I think there's some very viable
projects and four-H filling being one of
them.
I think it's good not only for four-H
kids,
it's good for a community center that I
feel like is needed.
And so needless to say,
it continues on and gets taken care of.
It's something we can all be proud of.
Thank you.
So with that motion, let's pass.
All right.
Mr. Engler?
You, Greg, want to come up?
Do you need a bodyguard?
Maybe.
We've got a date out at the highway
garage office building.
I've had Ronnie Wolf come out and inspect.
I think he came out on Thursday.
Did all the rough-in inspection.
Liked all that.
Basically told me I'm ready to go.
except i do have to do a little
bit of bracing that he required uh he
saw some bracing needs in there and i
got to build a wall that rick and
i went over for uh i guess the
it closet so uh once that gets done
we'll be able to insulate and proceed with
some of the other finishes on the office
ronnie also has a inspected design shed
the big lean tube they're ready for
electric
Rick and I and Mr.
Carbo are out here at the end of
the day kind of going with the electric,
kind of discussing the electric with the
electrician.
I'm supposed to be in tomorrow to get
the final, hey, this is what we want.
I think that'll just continue on.
The sign shed has the doors up,
got another secure building out there now.
So that's pretty comforting, I guess,
for that.
The mechanics garage,
I think we have worked through our two
issues with the state fire marshal.
We do have to resubmit on the firewall
and also what we're doing with what they
consider hazardous materials,
the oils and stuff.
We'll get that submitted here just
shortly.
The septic system out there and the mixed
salt storage building will be submitted
today.
foundations that my understanding that
because they are unoccupied buildings um
the local inspector which will be running
will have the final say on on that
design um ability to talk to duke energy
they want to upgrade that road a little
bit for their easement work which we will
do this week
We also talked to Midwest Gas about
bringing the line down from
one-thirty-five.
The guy bore all them driveways there with
Corey Baker,
but he's finishing up his work with
Jackson County RMC bringing the fiber
optic over.
So as soon as he's available,
we'll start punching all them driveways to
allow Midwest Gas to just go overhand for
a moment.
Have they run that mark?
i remember uh jackson county i think they
were working on it last week when i
saw them out there i don't know if
they've finished yet okay i will i will
get with uh you gave me the contact
yeah we'll get with him now okay that's
the highlights so are you ready to start
bone and grass i'm ready to start bone
and grass maybe where the septic goes but
that's about it
Everything looking all right out there,
Rick?
Yep.
Coming along pretty well.
All right.
What do you think?
All right.
Coming along.
Appreciate it, Paul.
Thank you.
Mr. Boyles.
We didn't stay around you either, did we?
No.
Got a few updates for you here.
Nothing much.
A little windstorm over the weekend.
Guys cleaned up approximately forty trees.
Repaired pretty well.
Surrounding counties, I think,
had a little worse than us.
No complaints there.
Bridge one eighteen on Shorts Corner is
finally paved and open to the public.
There's a little settling there on the
northwest corner we're going to keep an
eye on.
They have to do a little spot paving
later this spring.
I think the cat's out of the bag.
Community Crossings,
form twenty-five dash one,
we did receive a one point five million
dollar grant.
When we started getting that about six,
seven years ago,
it was a pretty big deal,
and now we just kind of take it
for granted,
but it's still a very big deal.
Here's a copy of the roads that are
included on that.
I think I handed one of these out
to you when we submitted our application,
but you may have misplaced it since then.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Regular county paving will begin the first
of June, not necessarily June first,
but the first of Monday in June.
Community crossings,
I can't tell you when that'll start,
that'll be up to the contractor.
We're fixing up our ditching,
all our road prep,
getting everything ready for paving.
Is that all the news I got for
you?
I have to talk to you.
Down there on the short corner road at
Martinsburg Road,
At an intersection at Mount Horsham
Cemetery?
Just waiting on the weather.
Is that what it is?
Did they move the electric poles for you?
Not yet,
but they're supposed to be in the process.
They're waiting on the weather, too.
Couldn't get equipment on the inside.
Okay.
And, uh... Pardon?
Pardon?
Uh, all I was talking about?
Yeah.
I'll do a picture of that if you'd
like to see it.
Well, the whole of the measurements.
We've got a complaint.
A hole fell in the lady's yard.
As you know,
we're kind of learning as we go to
Cartersburg.
It's different than our normal day-to-day
operations.
Had a call from the lady and a
hole had appeared in the yard.
So after investigating it,
It's an old storm drain, you know,
metal culvert,
but it runs the entire length of your
yard.
It's about a hundred and sixty-five feet
from Run Fifty to Bearcat Street.
And it's,
you can shove your thumb through it
anywhere, it's just gone.
So we need to be deciding if we're
going to take care of that or if
Ardenburg is going to take itself over.
This is just one of many examples of
what we're going to get into.
But right now,
I do not believe we have a right-of-way
because we haven't adopted the roads.
So that's something we can decide and I'll
look for guidance from you all in your
opinion on that.
What's the estimated cost on that repair
of that?
Best I can figure without getting in there
digging,
it looks like it's going to be around
seven,
seventy five hundred dollars roughly.
So let me ask you,
with this business that you know this
area.
Yep.
With this sewer when it is,
how many of these are we going to
have there?
I have no idea.
I mean are they all going in about
the same time?
I don't think anybody knows it for
anything, to be honest,
from what I can tell.
As far as your fiber optic and your
water,
they're pretty good other than the sewer
system down there and the drainage system.
Yeah,
there's not actually a sewer system there.
It's the drainage system.
That's there that you...
Right, there is the gas station.
Yeah, so it's like Cattywampus over here.
Cattywampus?
Well, the whole country read that.
I know what he meant.
Over yonder.
Yeah.
It's kind of like cockeyed.
Yep.
Both sides.
That's all I've got for you unless you
have any questions.
Okay.
Thank you, Rick.
April?
Kyra?
Come in.
Yeah, I got one thing here,
but I don't know if we need to
amend the agenda or how you do that.
Well.
You're going to change it, isn't it?
You're going to have to do something.
Well, I guess so.
Well,
you're going to have to ask for a
vote to amend that agenda.
All right, we need to amend the agenda.
We need a motion and then a second,
and then a discussion and a vote.
All right,
I'll make a motion to amend the agenda.
I'll second that out of curiosity.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
amended it for to talk about the uh
planning commission actually got a
resolution here adam would you mind coming
sitting up there me and adam have been
talking working together okay just to read
this procedure we have a motion to amend
the agenda to add
so that was to amend it now we
need to make a motion on your agenda
item so is there you want to make
a motion whatever your motion might be so
you want to i guess it's really now
we're going to make it on calendar four
so you go to second that yeah i'll
second that all right all right
So after a strict investigation on all the
planning and zoning stuff,
we figured out that the board is kind
of illegal,
not for the facts of what some people
said,
but after digging into it and all this
and that,
Any board that makes a decision on behalf
of the public's gotta take an oath of
office.
And after digging around,
we found out that the oath of office
has never been taken for the planning
commission.
Would you like to invite more on that,
Adam?
Well, basically,
Article XV,
Section IV of the Constitution that's
stating in the air,
requires that every person elected or
appointed to any office under the
Constitution shall,
before entering on the duties thereof,
take an oath or affirmation to support the
Constitution of the United States and also
an oath of office.
This is an oath pertaining to the office
itself.
So for example,
person appointed by the county council to
the planning commission takes a oath for
the county council as an elected official
but they have to take another oath
pursuant to the office of the planning
commission and the same with the board of
commissioners so those two the the
basically the commissioner's oath of
office doesn't work on the planning
commission the councilman's oath of office
doesn't work on the planning commission
they also have to take another oath
pursuant to the planning commission
And then Indiana Court of Appeals,
I believe Tony probably has it listed on
the resolution that he authored,
in the year of twenty-one made a ruling
that plan commission members are officers,
thank you,
that plan commission members are officers
required to take the oath under IC.
five four one one
and that would include all positions of
authority and exercise governmental powers
of best benefit to the public.
So, and this also includes the BZA.
This was a twenty twenty-one appeals court
ruling that made this,
I mean you can look it up in
Just Deal Law, this is the law now.
So,
this was not the case in two thousand
ten through two thousand seventeen when I
was on the planning commission.
I didn't know about this.
and therefore we never did this back then
because it had never been ruled on until
one had become law so um and uh
pursuant to ic five four one one point
two d if an individual appointed elected
to an office of a political subdivision
does not comply with subsection c the
office becomes debated so basically
the it's not you know whether this
resolution passes or not doesn't make the
planning commission legitimate the entire
membership is actually just vacant the
board is legal because it was adopted by
legal resolution in in back when i was
part of the planning commission it was a
legally created board
But because this has never been complied
with since twenty twenty one,
when this appeals court ruling was made,
the board is actually just taking forward
right now.
There is only actually one legitimate
member, and that would be Andrew Davidson,
who was reappointed at last last council
meeting.
If he has gone within thirty days and
filed his close of office with the clerk
of the circuit court,
which is where it has to be.
And I checked,
I went down there and checked to make
sure that there was something that hadn't
happened that I didn't know about.
And there was no,
the clerk of the circuit court didn't even
know what I was talking about.
They were like,
we don't have anything for the planning
commission down here.
There's no oath of office.
So,
and I checked with the auditor's office to
make sure that, you know,
something maybe wasn't just filed in the
wrong place.
So, in any way,
that's just the long and the short of
it,
is that the board is just vacant because
they've never complied with the
Constitution stated in Indiana under Title
V. So, if I'm not explaining well enough,
if anybody's got any questions,
I'll be happy to answer them.
So you're saying that I have to have,
to get an oath of office for every
one of the nine boards I sit on?
Not necessarily,
because if you read the ruling,
and you probably need to read the whole
ruling,
that's the Indian appeals court ruling.
It's a one-sixty-four N-E-three-D,
one-thirty-one,
twenty-twenty-one is the date.
Case number twenty-eight C-T dash eleven
ninety-seven.
If you actually read that appeals court
ruling, that officers,
including persons who hold positions of
authority and exercise governmental power
to benefit the public.
So that's why the ruling,
the court ruling was specifically for
Jefferson County, Indiana, Madison.
over their plan commission.
And the ruling was specifically, you know,
because plan commissions,
a lot of plan commissions around the state
had not complied with this thing,
so eventually someone took it to court,
and the judge ruled that plan commissions
and BZAs were required to take the oath
of office.
Now, whether any other boards are or not,
you have to see if you,
on that board,
exercise governmental powers.
See what I'm saying?
for the welfare of the citizens.
If you don't,
then you're not required to take the oath
of office.
And in that ruling,
if you read the ruling,
the judge ruled that everything done by
every planning commission up to that point
was de facto legitimate.
Because they said, look,
we're not going to let this lack of
an oath of office undo everything done by
every planning commission in the state,
because hardly any of them had ever
complied with it.
So, like I said,
moving forward from twenty twenty one on,
this needs to be done so that the
planning commissions are legal.
Otherwise, people can come in and say,
by what authority did you do this?
Because you're not,
you don't have an oath of office,
then the board is vacant and you don't
have the authority to do it.
So moving forward to make sure that the
planning commission does things legally
that cannot be just instantly overturned
by judges, this has to be addressed.
That's easy enough.
Any other questions?
So you're saying,
you're saying that is the only thing
that's pretended to is the planning is on
the board?
And the BZA.
And feel free to do your own legal
research and read the appeals court ruling
listed on that.
Because to answer Todd's question,
every board that you're on does not
necessarily require this oath.
There are specific things that the judge
ruled that were criteria for needing to
have the oath.
And there's even a standard form for the
oath that is taken to be on file
at the clerk of the circuit court.
um and bcas and plan commissions fall
directly under that not only do they but
the specific ruling was over the plan
commission and bca of jefferson county
began so it's pretty cut and dry
made up a resolution here and this would
be a uh would actually be a fix
all for that so we can proceed right
with the planning commission right and the
planning commission would have to be
reappointed right because it's that the
board is thinking there's no one on the
board that is a legitimate officer at this
point except andrew davidson and that's
well it's not been through
I would suggest before we get to the
cart before the horse here,
we simply need to get a copy of
those forms from the clerk and swear
everybody
You can't put everybody in because they
haven't done this within thirty days of
their appointment so that their seats are
vacant according to Indian Act.
Well,
if they're vacant according to the law,
then they can be re-appointed.
They have to be re-appointed before they
take the oath.
So, yeah,
just going and filing the oath isn't going
to cut it.
Did I give you a copy of the
oath form?
I got it.
Yeah, no, look.
We've got it somewhere there.
I've got it.
I've got the actual form.
You fill in what the office is.
And that's, as you just,
everything else is pretty,
pretty kind of got it.
For me, it's the closest to everybody.
Clerk, commissioners, who ever.
Well, that's right.
Yeah, there's several people.
Doesn't even need one night.
Yeah.
unfortunately our former former attorney
didn't mention this to us and naturally
had we known it was the law of
the land we would have complied we looked
to our attorneys for guidance and he
didn't point that out so that's all we
can say would her like to table this
we have a motion
in favor of tabling it for now?
I think before we table that,
we need to read it, though.
Right,
there'll need to be a motion for
something.
We'll make a motion we table it for
now so we can investigate, read it,
see what the law actually says.
You know, Rhonda, I hate this.
I don't want to bring it up.
It's our age thing.
I'm the old man in the room.
I've been involved.
But at this point,
I really would like some time to read.
I've heard you say it,
thirteen years anyway,
about what was wrong and that.
And we don't try to be.
I know.
I need some more time on this.
And I appreciate you.
I appreciate you.
I know.
I'm not.
I want to do it right.
I'm part of this fight.
Back and forth,
saying we got something wrong.
Let's get it right.
That's what this is for.
I don't want to make the decision today.
I'll sit at his table today.
I need some time.
I'll help you with this later on.
There's some things that can happen that
will actually bring the community closer
to its government and actually be able to
deal with it.
And it was passed in twenty ten,
connect the community.
And it can actually be something that can
be brought forward and have some clarity
with government and actually save your
behinds instead of me just laughing up
here.
in the row but yeah no there are
ways to deal with this and it's a
lot of I've just had a lot of
things going on this year and a lot
of things just bunched up but I'm going
to try to get you up and going
the intent of this is to bring the
community together and get in behind us
and ride behind us instead of against us
that's the whole purpose of this to show
that us as board of commissioners is
working in unison for something for the
public
My intent behind that is to make it
right.
And I don't care right now the way
it's going on.
If you try to pass a one-line ordinance
on the planning and zoning or two hundred
patents, you're gonna have an uproar.
You're gonna have one.
It's that gone simple.
This right here would help men and get
it fixed and for us to move forward.
I ain't saying we're going to solve it.
We're going to vacate it and reappoint it
and get some people in working together
and doing this and doing this right.
That's my intent behind this.
Shouldn't it be written into record for
the live streamers?
I don't think the live thing is up.
I'll read it.
Article fifteen six for the Constitution
of the state of Indiana requires that
every person elected are appointed to any
office under the Constitution shall before
entering on the duty therefore take an
oath or affirmation to support the
Constitution of the state of the United
States and also an oath of office.
Whereas the Indiana Court of Appeals one
six four North E three D one three
one twenty twenty one case number two A
twenty A that C T that one one
nine seven.
has recently affirmed that plan commission
members are officers required to take an
oath under IC five dash four dash one
one and that officers included persons who
hold positions of authority and exercise
governmental powers to benefit the public.
Pursuant to IC thirty six dash seven dash
four dash nine hundred series,
the definition of officer applies to
members of a board of zoning appeals.
Whereas pursuant to IC five dash four dash
one dash one dot two,
an individual appointed or elected to an
official of a political subdivision must
take an oath required by section one of
this chapter and deposit the oath as
required by section four of this chapter
not later than thirty days after the
beginning of the term of office.
Pursuant to IC five dash four dash one
dash one dot two,
If an individual appointed or elected to
an office of political subdivision does
not comply with subsection,
the office becomes vacant.
And whereas no member of the Washington
County Planning Commission or the
Washington County Board of Zoning Appeals
has an oath on file in the office
of Washington County Clerk of Circuit
Court.
Now, therefore,
it be resolved that the county
commissioners
of Washington County, Indiana,
declares that all the seats on the
Washington County Planning Commission and
Washington County Board of Zoning Appeals
are vacant and need to be reappointed,
reappealed,
paying strict attention to the
qualifications of future members as to
knowledge, experience,
awareness of area problems and interests
in serving, as to resident requirements,
as to political party affiliation,
as to oath of office,
and as otherwise generally required by the
statutes of the state of Indiana.
Adopted by the county commission.
I'm surprised you got read through all
that.
Had to have a speech class all week.
Pretty good.
Yeah.
Thank you, Adam.
Appreciate it.
Appreciate your hard work.
Anything else?
I do have one thing.
Believe it or not,
this is something we can all get on
board with, everybody.
I don't know anybody in this room who
likes taxes.
I hate taxes.
There is a bill in the Senate,
Senate Bill,
allowing the state of Indiana to
strong-arm counties into adopting a wheel
tax.
Every vehicle you own will be taxed based
on the number of wheels it has.
No one on this board,
since I've been involved in county
government for going on eleven years,
has ever indicated to me that they want
a wheel tax.
Nobody wants it.
I don't want it.
Nobody wants it.
What they're trying to do is to tie
it to our community crossings grant money
that we use for paving and culverts and
bridges.
We currently get, we just got,
we got one point five million dollars of
community crossings money from the state
of Indiana.
And our highway department people,
Rick Boyle and Tiffany in the office work
very hard on getting these grants through.
There's a lot of paperwork.
as there is with any grant,
but the state of Indiana has this bill
tying this,
that if you don't have a wheel tax
in your county,
then you're not gonna get this one point
five million dollars.
And I don't know of anybody in this
room who would agree with that.
Not even Lucy or Rhonda.
So, please call your senator,
is it Gary Burns that's on the committee?
Well, get on the phone,
because it's ridiculous.
And I'd like to say something on the
highway department's behalf.
We don't like taxes either,
and we don't want a wheel tax.
So I think when that time comes,
we should at least give it a thought
to tell them to keep their money.
And we don't want a wheel tax,
and we'll talk about it.
I would agree.
Go ahead.
Can I ask something on that?
Can you clarify what we're talking about
here?
There's a,
for businesses and larger vehicles,
there is a heavy highway tax that already
exists.
Is this personal, you know,
a Subaru is going to have a wheel
tax on it now, or how does this,
I don't understand.
Everybody who has a licensed vehicle in
Washington County will be taxed per wheel.
state but i'm not understanding it goes to
the county is it right back to it
it gets collected by the state but then
it comes back we're just trying to
understand basically the state's saying
you're not taxing your citizens hard
enough right and we're going to make you
tax and work so to push back i
think we should consider when that time
comes on the people so figure it out
on our own that's all i have on
that but we got off that
What are you doing with the plant
commission?
I already made a motion to table.
I'm going to vote to table.
I made a motion to table.
I second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Aye.
Opposed?
I need a motion for adjournment.
So moved.
Second.