Dubois County Council continues to feel finance squeeze
Dubois County Council President Greg Kendall has been saying for months that economic belt tightening would have to occur if something isn’t done to put a stop to the slow decrease in state funding and an increase in county expenses.
He sounded a more serious warning Monday night during the final council meeting of 2014. “And then when they start cutting taxes that feed into your system, and those revenues aren’t there anymore,” he stated during the meeting Monday. “You know you can’t fire everybody [to overcome the shortfall] because in order to do the job right, you’ve got to have certain amounts of funds.”
He cited the $1.3 million dollar shortfall in the county budget that had to be filled with reserve funds on hand for the 2015 budget as an example of the lack of funding. Kendall places the blame on lower assessed property values and the tax caps that are in place. Previous story here.
Kendall says that if revenues do not increase to meet demands of running the county, at the very least they will be forced to pass the 2016 budget with similar spending constraints as 2015.
Kendall and the council listened to a request from Brenda Sermersheim of the Solid Waste Management District and Judi Brown from the Dubois County Soil and Water Conversation District for approval to combine two part-time positions into one salaried, full-time position.
Even though the council heard that there would be no increase in pay from the county, they would not approve the request because the Commissioners have not approved the combining of the two positions into one.
They rejected the concept on principle due to potential problems it might cause among county employees regarding the disparity in pay.
They also asked that the issue be taken up with the commissioners before being forwarded to them for a final decision.
The council also heard from Dubois County Health Department Executive Director Donna Oeding who asked for a suspension of the 90-Day rule on giving a new hire a full salary instead of the 90% established in a policy by the council several years ago.
Oeding explained that the hourly rate that has been accepted by a new hire for a nursing position with the county jail is well below the entry-level pay for nurses at other organizations, like Memorial Hospital.
She said that it is difficult to expect a new hire to have to accept 90 percent of the pay for the first 90 days when it makes that gap even wider. Oeding explained it is already difficult enough to get applications for the positions due to the lower pay.
The council stood by their policy and refused to exempt the new employee stating that past decisions to waive the policy for new hires has set a bad precedent.
Kendall worried aloud about the quality of services for county residents if competitive pay isn’t offered. “In order for these people that are elected to do their jobs right, they’ve got to have money,” he said. “And if we don’t give them certain amounts of money, then, they’re not going to do their job right. They’re not going to have good employees. And they’re also going to get a whole lot more complaints out of the general public because things aren’t going the way they need to go.”
Also in the meeting, the council held a public hearing on the tax abatement request for Temple-Inland, now International Paper in St. Anthony. No one came to the meeting to speak about the request, so the hearing was closed without public comment.
During the meeting, the council voted to approve the tax abatement request.
Finally, Kendall congratulated and thanked council members Mark Brescher, Shane Lindauer and Barb Mathies for their service on the county council. Brescher and Lindauer decided against running for re-election and Mathies was defeated in the primary in May.
Kendall said it was great working with them. “It’s been an absolute honor and a pleasure to work with those three people. Brescher has been with me for 20 years and he’s been a godsend,” he said. “And, Shane and Barb were really good at what they did and they’ve done a great job. And I appreciate what they’ve done for the county. And hopefully they do well wherever they’re headed and I wish them the best.”
The three new council members, Craig Greulich, Charmian Klem and Becky Beckman will be sworn in today (Tuesday) at 4 p.m. in the Superior Court chambers.
