County Council gets good news at monthly meeting

Saturday, January 28, 2017

County councils are not generally in the business of fielding good news.

While holding the figurative key to the county coffers is certainly an important job, it also means plenty of reports from department heads, hat in hand, who need more money for a new project, unexpected expense or just to stay afloat.

And so it was joy and perhaps a touch of surprise that the Putnam County Council fielded a pair of good reports during its brief January meeting last week.

The first may at least be a temporary solution to a problem the county has been dreading for several years now, funding jail staff without Department of Correction funds.

Formerly the recipient of DOC dollars for state inmates housed at the Putnam County Jail, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department saw those funds dry up following a change in the law that took effect in July 2015.

Earlier that year, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law in which Level 6 felony offenders were no longer housed in DOC facilities, but were the responsibility of their counties of conviction.

For Putnam County this caused a twofold problem. First of all, the county now has to house its own Level 6 felony offenders. Secondly, the change minimized overcrowding at state facilities, meaning the DOC inmates — and the $35 a day that came with them — were no longer coming to the Putnam County Jail.

The challenge for the sheriff’s department has been paying for jail staff, as part-time jailers have been paid from these funds.

Sheriff Scott Stockton told the council that while a reserve of the old DOC money remains, it has been being spent down, with a more permanent solution still needed in the future.

Through a proposed agreement with Marion County — now a victim of overcrowding itself — the life of that fund could be extended.

Stockton said his department is looking into a partnership with Marion County that would bring some of its inmates to Putnam County for the same $35 a day price tag as the old DOC agreement.

Stockton said that while this will not completely make up for the lost DOC income, it will certainly help the county continue to pay part-time jail staff.

The second piece of good news came from Coroner Dave Brown, who will now not need further funding for a three-body cooler being installed at Putnam County Hospital.

During its December meeting, the council agreed to advertise for a $7,000 additional appropriation in order for the coroner to purchase the cooler, with a final decision to come this month.

Brown came to the meeting to report that he would not need the funds, an announcement he had made to the Putnam County Commissioners two weeks earlier.

Instead, Brown reported that the entire $6,223 price tag was being covered thanks to the Putnam County Health Department.

Health Officer Dr. Robert Heavin and administrator Joni Young, who also works for Brown, found the money from a couple of sources in their budget.

The money includes $1,000 from the Preparedness Fund, which comes from state grants to the county to prepare for large health and safety events.

The remaining $5,223 comes from the department’s non-reverting fund for health supplies, which has seen a recent influx of funds since the county started accepting insurance for the services it provides.

The savings to other county funds was noted by Council President Darrel Thomas.

“Well, thank you,” Thomas said, adding with a laugh, “you ought to come more often.”

In other business:

• Sheriff Stockton and Chief Deputy Phil Parker reported that their department received a $26,478.83 settlement check for the department SUV totaled in November when it was T-boned by an Operation Life ambulance at U.S. 231 and Veterans Highway.

This comes up about $5,000 shy of the cost of a new Ford Explorer, so PCSD is requesting the settlement money be reappropriated from the county general fund to its vehicle fund, with the additional money coming from the department’s forfeiture fund.

Such a move will have to be advertised and is a likely subject of discussion for the February meeting.

• The council voted to re-elect Thomas as president and Keith Berry as vice president.

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