PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2014 1:00 P.M. The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 in the Commissioners Chambers of the Administration Center. Those present were: Commissioners John Evans, Laura Blaney and Nancy Adams; County Attorney Betty Knight; Administrative Assistant Melissa Hartig and Recording Secretary Vi Wagner. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE President Evans called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. Com. Evans Before we get going I want to express my gratitude and that of all the citizens of Porter County to our Highway Department for the job they have been doing in this winter that is never quitting here. So, Al, thank you very much for everything. (applause). Mr. Hoagland (inaudible). Com. Evans How many weekends in a row? Eleven? Eleven weekends in a row. We do appreciate it and the fact that we got six inches yesterday and it doesn t seem nobody missed a lick today getting around. Thank you very much. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Com. Adams moved to approve the minutes of December 17, 2013 and January 7, 2014, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. APPROVAL OF PAYROLL Com. Adams moved to approve the payroll of February 10, 2014, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. APPROVAL OF CLAIMS Com. Adams moved to approve the claims of February 6 and February 13, 2014, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. CHANGE ORDER FROM BERGLUND CONSTRUCTION FOR PLUMBING IN B-POD, PORTER COUNTY JAIL Mike Jabo, DLZ Com. Evans Not seeing Mike, Sheriff, I guess you are up. Sheriff Lain Well I haven t talked to Mike so I don t know what this entails. Com. Evans I have had discussion with him about that. Let s just hold on and see if he shows up and we will go from there and we can come back to it. APPOINTMENTS Jail Museum Advisory Board 1
Com. Evans We had done one at the first of the year and we only had one application, and that was Jon Miller and we asked twice more to get more people involved and we got eight applications so now we ve got to make that choice. Recommendations? Com. Adams moved to appoint Kevin Kerr and Bjorn Henderson to the Jail Museum Advisory Board, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. that. Com. Evans And thank everyone for applying that did apply. We appreciate OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS Alison Cox, Juvenile Detention Center Director *Washing machine quotes Mr. Steen Alison has asked that I be here on her behalf. Com. Evans You want a new washing machine? Mr. Steen Two, we had a request for two machines. Com. Evans Two new machines. Okay, are they industrial strength? Mr. Steen They are commercial strength. The industrial strength, we got a quote from one of the larger stores was extremely extensive. The quote we had and before you is $8,000.00. These are more commercial quality, they are not commercial technology. The technology seems to be on the lighter side of machines and that has been our problem in the past. These are more commercial strength with steel bearings, belts, etcetera and we are looking more at the quote of $1,474.00. We ve had this type of machine in the past, it s worked very well for us and we still have one that is still running. The projection of the sales quotes are going to say things, but the project that they have on this is that there is no reason it shouldn t last us ten years with proper care and things like that. As far as money wise, I like the quote from the first company on the top of your list there, Coinmack. The thing with that is they are Speed Queen; there is also depending on the delivery, it will either say Speed Queen or Unimack, it is still the same machine, the only difference is one the product code there is an s instead of a u. If it s the Unimack it is a u instead of an s, but the spec sheet is still absolutely the same. Com. Evans Is there a warranty associated with them? Mr. Steen I am disappointed that they did not send that. There is but I would have to get them to fax that, but there is. Com. Evans Questions? What is your pleasure? Com. Adams moved to approve the quote from Coinmack for 2 washing machines in the amount of $1,474.00 to be taken out of fund 2020 account 4340, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. Capt. George Gonzalez, Sheriff s Dept. *Receive and open bids for 2014 Ford Interceptor Sedan and 2014 Ford Interceptor Explorer Sheriff Lain This is Captain Gonzalez forte so I will let him present. Com. Evans We are going to buy new cars, are we? Capt. Gonzalez Correct. 2
Com. Evans How many of each? Capt. Gonzalez Three of each. Sheriff Lain Three SUV s and six of the police Interceptor, they don t call it the Taurus anymore, but it s a Taurus. Com. Evans Okay, you ve got one bid, that s it? Okay you have one bid from Lakeshore Ford. Sheriff Lain We ve had a good relationship with them in the past. Com. Evans You want to look it over and come back or Do you have a copy of it there? Sheriff Lain No. Com. Evans Utilities for the Explorer, pre-option price $25,655.00 and then your options are broke down after that and the sedan pre-option price $23,046.00. The sedan prices out with the options you asked as $24,288.00 and the Explorer at $27,306.00. Is that in the range of what you were thinking? And that will still let you get the number that you need. I will let you have that to look over. So we need to approve the bid from Lakeshore Ford. Sheriff Lain That will have to be worked out because we have to buy equipment for the cars so it will be depending on the numbers. We are open to it being in the range of $325,000.00 Enbridge Pipeline discussion regarding off duty police officers Com. Evans And so everybody doesn t think we are just giving these guys a gift, we charged the Sheriff s Department for years with what is called one for one, in other words, they get a car, they get rid of a car so that their fleet isn t just burgeoning and growing. They are very gracious in the course of doing business with the other county departments that they have got vehicles that are near the end of their life but are still useful in other ways and they are dispatched to other agencies and units of government and taken off of their roles to work in other parts of government. So they have been good in that respect. I did have a question for you, Sheriff, while you are here, and I have had this asked of me about 20 times in the last 2 weeks. The Enbridge Pipeline people are going through Porter County and we have squad cars and other departments have cars that are sitting on the roadside and have the lights go on as a great safety issue and I know they block traffic for them for when they need it. I am told that they are not compensating the County for the fuel that these cars are using, is that true? Sheriff Lain I have to tell you, that I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago in that regard with Major Chayhitz who is kind of coordinating that. I know he had been in contact with them to look and see if they were going to enter into that sort of compensation. I don t know frankly because of everything else that is going on, I haven t gotten an answer yet, but I will find out whether that has been the case and I will get back to you. That project is wrapping up by the way. And that is not taking away anything from the street, I might add, that is all off duty employment for the officers. Com. Evans I see all kinds of department s cars out there. Sheriff Lain Yes, other police departments are also involved. Com. Evans And I understand the officers are compensated pretty well, but we should still be receiving some kind of stipend for the fuel that is being used. Sheriff Lain Yes, that is why the conversation came up and I apologize, it s been a little busy lately so, we will get back to you. 3
CHANGE ORDER FROM BERGLUND CONSTRUCTION FOR PLUMBING IN B-POD, PORTER COUNTY JAIL Mike Jabo, DLZ Com. Evans Thank you. You want to sit still and we will bring Jabo back up since he snuck in. Michael, we are going to do the change order regarding plumbing on the B-Pod, the infamous third pod we are trying to get open. Mr. Jabo Good afternoon, Commissioners. I do not have a change order but what I am seeking today is your approval for a not to exceed fee. During the course of the investigation, we found more plumbing once we started taking things apart, there is reason to believe we have to replace a lot of diaphragms, valves, etcetera. It is hard to tell what the cost is but we feel very good that the cost would not exceed what I ve got in front of you in your packet from the contractor for $68,326.74. We are proposing that it be done on a time and material basis rather than a lump sum cost not to exceed this amount, that way we can direct and replace things as they are found. The contractor did give you something, that is his change order form but we have a change order form we have been using with you in the past. So today I am simply asking your approval of that not to exceed and I did discuss this last week with the county attorney. We felt this was the best way to go and then we would prepare the formalized change order once the work was done and..(inaudible). Com. Adams Was it for new toilets too? Mr. Jabo It is all the plumbing in the B-Pod, toilets, sinks, there s water closets. Com. Adams Is it possible to do what we were talking about with the drainage issues we have out there? Mr. Jabo With the hooks on the other matter? Com. Adams Yes. Mr. Jabo We ve looked into that, the problem is you ve got a fair amount of toilets that do not have chases in them, so you can t install..(inaudible) for the cost you would expend putting all those hooks on the remaining ones. Com. Adams I didn t know since you were working on the B-Pod if that.. Mr. Jabo No, unfortunately not. Com. Evans We probably ought to look at the cost of the doing the lift station that they were talking about. Mr. Jabo That is another subject matter we have looked at and we didn t think it was a fair price, the range was somewhere between $300-350,000.00. They did give four alternates and we did look at the alternate that we would recommend. Com. Evans We need to look at them a little closer and see where we are at as we wind back down on the money from the refinance bond because we need to do something out there. Com. Adams moved to approve the change order from Berglund for the B-Pod plumbing at the Jail in a not to exceed amount of $68,326.74, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. Sharon Lippens, ITS Director *A/C maintenance proposals for IT, Print Shop Ms. Lippens This is a preventative maintenance agreement only on the four specialized A/C units that are used. Two of them are in the IT Server Room, one of them is in the Print Shop, and one is in the Server Room at the Courthouse. We were 4
originally looking at including the unit at the 911 Center but my understanding is that will be replaced and we removed that from the original quote and had re-quotes. Three quotes came in; Johnson Controls came in the lowest by quite a bit so that would be the one I would recommend. They were the ones that had been taking care of it last year when we discovered we never had a contract in place when we all thought we did. Com. Adams moved to approve the maintenance agreement with Johnson Controls for $3,380.00 for the A/C units in the ITS Department, to be taken out of fund 2040, account 3610, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. Michelle Smith, Memorial Opera House Director *Heating system quotes Com. Evans You have how many quotes? Ms. Smith Two. One from Mechanical Concepts and one from Johnson Controls. Com. Evans What s your recommendation? Ms. Smith Mechanical Concepts. Com. Evans Questions? No doubt this needs to be done so I guess it is pretty cut and dried. Com. Adams moved to approve the repairs and maintenance to the hearing system for $3,458.00 by Mechanical Concepts to be taken out of fund 2040 account 3610, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. Ms. Smith I also put a call in to Mechanical Concepts to see if we can do something for sponsorship or donation as far as the..(inaudible) Com. Evans Okay, thank you. Mike Anton, Employee Health Insurance Plan Fee notification Com. Evans Do you have one thing or two things on the insurance? Mr. Anton Thank you for giving us this opportunity to come before you today. About eight months ago I presented before the board and we just in conversation talked about the Affordable Care Act and some of the fees/taxes that are incorporated into that program, and that day has come that the County owes for 2013 tax for the PPACA, comparative effectiveness research fee. This is a fee that was incorporated into the Plan to promote research for better outcomes nationally. That fee is a dollar per person participating in the Plan. It is estimated that we have 1,281 people averaged in 2013 so we need authorization to pay $1,281.00 for 2013. It will be a two dollar levy for 2014 so that will be $2,600.00 that will be due sometime around this time next year. And just for the sake of discussion so that there is planning involved, this program also includes, ACA the program, a re-insurance fee that we have previously talked about, that $63.00 per participant in the Plan and in your case for 2014 that is for three years, but that fee for 2014 that will be probably be billed in November of this year payable in December will be $81,900.00. So I just bring that as an alert that you are aware of that. But today I am only asking for $1,281.00 to be paid to the government. Com. Evans Can we do like the president does and issue an executive order and exempt ourselves? Mr. Anton Pretty confident the answer is no. Com. Adams And what is $1,281.00 for? 5
Mr. Anton This is for what is referred to as the Comparative Effectiveness Research Fee. If you go to the website for that and they have all kinds of announcements where they talk about different treatment approaches for different conditions so that they are sharing this like in a blog with medical providers so they can get collaboration as to what the best way, and one that has been recently talked about, is this issue as to the effectiveness of outcomes on mammograms. That has just been in the news within the last week or two as to are we overdoing mammograms because they are showing, and I shouldn t even be in this conversation because I had this conversation with my wife and it didn t work, what they are saying is the annual mammogram approach is not saving lives. So I am not supporting that, I am just repeating it. Com. Evans So it is still $1,281.00. Mr. Anton Yes, it is still $1,281.00 and that has to be done on a payment voucher referred to as a 720-V, which I have a copy of here. Com. Evans Obviously we can pay the $1,281.00 but what scares me is the eighty some thousand dollars next year. Mr. Anton At the end of this year. Com. Evans I hear all these exemptions are out there, is there some place we apply? Mr. Anton Maybe we should ask our congressman. Com. Evans That s a good idea. All right, entertain a motion on the Comparative Effectiveness Research Fee for $1,281.00. Com. Adams moved to approve the fee of $1,281.00 for the Comparative Effectiveness Research Fee, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. Mr. Anton Do you want us to bring up the smoking cessation? Com. Evans Yes, do that. Smoking Cessation Program Ms. Westergren Yes, Commissioners, our agreement with Fagen Pharmacy that we went into in 2011 allowed members who were going to participate in the smoking cessation program to receive Chantix directly from Fagen Pharmacy. Instead of running through the insurance as it wasn t covered then, the County after being billed by Fagen would pay them the $150.00 per prescription no more than 3 per person per year. This is a discontinued program, we are not sure where the disconnect came but the County did not receive a bill for Fagen for these services until just recently, Monday February 10 th actually, I received the bill from Jim Spanopolous so I am asking for your approval that the County pay Fagen $2,550.00 for the Chantix that was disbursed to county employees through that program. Com. Evans How many of them quit smoking or are still not smoking? Ms. Westergren Well, that I do not know. Com. Evans Well, if we authorize the program and we authorize them to give the prescriptions and I know there are physicals and other things that had to go with those before the prescriptions are issued, then we certainly should pay our bill. I will entertain a motion. Com. Adams moved to approve the payment in the amount of $2,550.00 for the Chantix prescriptions issued to county employees for the smoking cessation program, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. 6
Ms. Hartig Where will you take those out of? Com. Evans Insurance. Ms. Westergren Commissioners, in that vein we are working on a program with Porter right now on a new smoking cessation program and they are looking at pricing which I will bring for your consideration. But, one of the things that they are talking about building into the program is a 6 month follow up test after the smoking cessation program has ended to ascertain whether that person is still a non-smoker and if this is the case, with Commissioner approval, then we would have the rewards built into the program hinging on those results. Com. Evans Well as long as we are kind of doing truth and verify, I would be kind of interested in the next time we do this insurance bidding and looking at drug testing in a random sense for our employees as part of it. Ms. Westergren And I think you are aware that I have been working with Sharon Lippens to include a health and wellness insurance segment on the county website. I believe, I don t know if you have had a chance to look at that yet, but we ve got all the forms updated, we were able to put on the monthly newsletters from Porter Hospital, the wellness screening schedule and things of that nature. So that is to be the main portal of communication with employees on their health insurance. So whenever anything comes up I will email the employees and say go to this place and you can find this information. Com. Evans I did look at it but I am still having a difficult time printing my W-2 s from the website, I am not moving around that screen too well, but we will get to it. Thank you very much. Relocate Early Voting to the new Administration Classroom Com. Evans I need a motion to approve the moving of the early voting from the room it is currently held in, what is the name of that? Com. Adams Voter s Registration. Com. Evans Voter s Registration to the newly finished Administration Classroom is what it is going to be called and the early voting will take place in that room rather than in Voter s Registration. I need a motion to that affect. Com. Adams moved to approve the early voting from the Voter s Registration office to the Administration Classroom, Com. Blaney seconded, motion carried. Appointment to the Gary Airport Board Com. Evans moved to appoint David Fagen of Portage as the Porter County representative to the Gary Airport Board, Com. Adams seconded, motion carried. REPORT FROM COMMISSIONERS All Districts: Indiana Department of Transportation-Local Public Agency Contract for Porter County Bridge Inspections, recommend approval. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Adams seconded, motion carried. 7
CENTER DISTRICT: LPA Vouchers #14 and #15 for Division and Smoke Road Intersection Improvement to reimburse the County $1,283.35 and $3,726.00, recommend approval. NORTH DISTRICT: Indiana Department of Transportation-Local Public Agency Project Coordination Contract for Porter County Bridge #156, Porter Avenue over Coffee Creek replacement project, recommend approval. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Adams seconded, motion carried. LPA Vouchers #33, 34, 35 and 36 for Porter County Bridge #156, Porter Avenue over Coffee Creek to reimburse the county $11,085.63; $2,398.95; $4,400.00 and $7,371.20, recommend approval. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Adams seconded, motion carried. SOUTH DISTRICT: Porter County has been awarded $2,179,200.00 in federal highway administration bridge funds for Bridge #62-County Road 625 West over the Kankakee River. Funds are available for construction in the state s 2017 fiscal year. Com. Evans That s good, that s a lot of money. Com. Blaney That s great. Recommend approval, I guess. Com. Blaney moved to approve, Com. Adams seconded, motion CORRESPONDENCE Weights and Measures monthly report for Dec. 16, 2013 to Jan. 15, 2014 is on file. 1.)Request for transfer of funds: Highway Dept. Fund 1176 0000 $8,000 from 39510 contractual attorney Into 39500 contractual (Item entered in wrong line at budget time and approved by county council) 2.) Request for additional appropriation-highway Dept. Fund 1176 0000 $50,000 to 1130 overtime hourly (overtime hourly account depleted due to extreme weather events) 3.) Request for additional appropriation-highway Dept. Fund 1176 0000 $105,564,60 to 12200 medical/life insurance 8
(Auditor s mistake in reduction, previously approved by County Council that must be re-entered to meet budget needs) 4.) Request for transfer of funds-commissioners Fund 1000 1030 $1,800 from 2350 building maintenance Into 2220 uniforms and clothing (purchase jeans and steel toe boots for facility service/maintenance employees) Approved at Co. Council meeting 01/28/14) 5.) Request for transfer of funds-commissioners Fund 1112 2050 $50,000 from acct 3130 training and education Into 3120 consultants (to cover consultant agreements for MS4 assistance) 6.) Request for additional appropriation-commissioners Fund 1138 0000 $13,694.22 to 3750 other rentals (to cover office space lease for North County Health Dept.) 7.) Request for additional appropriation-commissioners Fund 1000 1030 $6,350.00 to 1110 salaries (to cover Kevin Pazour s salary increase)-at Porter Co. Museum 8.) Visitor Center Redesign Partnership Share Contribution to Lorelei Weimer, Indiana Dunes Tourism for $10,000 PLAN COMMISSION Robert Thompson, Planning Department Director RFQ s for construction inspection work on the Calumet Trail Mr. Thompson This is for selection of a consultant to do the construction engineering work. There is no monetary number inside of those, this is just qualifications, it s a qualification based selection. Again, it is construction and inspection for the Calumet Trail, which if all goes well, will be let for construction in July of this year. 9
Com. Evans The first one is from Possey & Associates of Michigan City, Indiana. SEH of Indiana of Munster, Indiana; Climera of Chicago, Illinois. And those are your three. You will take those and Mr. Thompson We will take those and we will go through the scoring of it and who we select as the number one we will go ahead and do the INDOT agreement with them and bring that back. All this is under the federal funds that we do have. Com. Evans Thank you, Bob. Anybody wish to address this body? Anyone wishing to address this body? We stand in recess. With no further business to discuss, the meeting was recessed at 1:35 p.m. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA John A. Evans Laura M. Blaney Nancy A. Adams Attest: Robert J. Wichlinski, Auditor 10