Council approves additional $20,000 for mapping software

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Putnam County Council approved the final piece of funding for the county's upgrade to a digital mapping system at their monthly meeting last week.

The final $20,850 for software from the mapping system was unanimously approved in an additional appropriation to the plat office at the recent meeting.

County officials believed the funding for the transition to a geographic information system (GIS) was all taken care of in May, when the council approved a $46,000 expenditure on the project -- a 50-50 cost share with the state.

However, that cost share was only for the conversion to a GIS system. The state funds could not be used for software, and this information was somehow not passed along to county officials by representatives from WTH Technology.

New WTH representative Tony Shriner informed county commissioners and councilmen of the oversight a couple of months ago, apologetic for the previous representative's mistake.

With $92,000 in local and state funds already committed to the project, the council approved the additional money to continue the conversion.

Money to pay annual fees associated with the upkeep of the system has been built into the 2014 budget for the plat office.

With the end of 2013 approaching, the council approved a number of other additional appropriations and transfers for various county departments.

* The county highway department requested and was granted five additional appropriations, most of which spring from more surtax money being collected than expected, highway administrative assistant Radene Varvel explained.

"We have received more wheel and excise surtax than anticipated," Varvel said, "and we would like to use the excess amount for road work."

These amounts included $75,000 for stone, $50,000 for resurfacing, $30,000 for road oil and $50,000 for fuel.

The council also approved $3,900 additional for laborers.

* The council approved an additional $2,000 to the commissioners budget for legal publications.

* County 911 Dispatch Director Dave Costin requested a pair of transfers in his budget.

Still short on part time dispatchers, Costin requested $8,000 be moved from the part time fund to the overtime fund.

He also requested $419 from insurance to utilities, as the latest light bill is higher than expected.

Both transfers were approved.

* With $44,000 left in her office's ineligible homestead fund, Auditor Lorie Hallett requested that a portion of the money be used to grant bonuses to her employees.

An extended discussion ensued, with the council debating whether or not they even needed to grant Hallett permission on how to use the money.

The question lies in a legal gray area. On the one hand, a county auditor has the discretion to use the fund without council approval. On the other, no department head can change a salary without council approval.

A bonus would amount to a salary change in the eyes of the law.

Hallett made it clear that she was unwilling to grant the bonuses without council approval.

Eventually, councilman Larry Parker made the motion for approval, which was seconded by Gene Beck.

Parker acknowledged the busy year the office has had in transitioning to a new auditor.

"Knowing what you guys went through and how hard you worked, I'm going to make a motion to approve the bonuses," Parker said.

However, the motion failed 2-4, with councilmen Keith Berry, Roger Deck, Phil Gick and Dave Fuhrman all opposed.

None of the councilmen expressed disapproval of granting the bonuses per se, but chose not to do so because they cannot grant them across the board.

"The only problem I have is that other office holders don't have this pot of money," Berry said.

* The council also granted Treasurer Sharon Owens a $7,400 transfer from repairs and maintenance to office supplies for the purchase of three new hardwood desks.

The furniture will replace three laminate, pressboard desks in Owens' office that are growing increasingly worn.

* In a final piece of business, the council discussed replacing Elizabeth South, who will be stepping down as the council's attorney at year's end.

A number of possible replacements were discussed, with individual councilmen volunteering to contact individual candidates prior to the December meeting.

A choice will be made in time for the council to have a new attorney for its January meeting.

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