The Perry County Council met for their monthly meeting on Thursday night. This was a meeting that saw numerous interruptions, shouting from the Council to those in attendance and vice versa, heated discussions, wild accusations being thrown, and more. Just shy of the two hour mark, the public comments portion of the meeting was closed and the Council began going through the items on the agenda. Here are some of the highlights:
- Susan Cowan, a representative from Baker Tilly, an advisory tax and assurance firm that works with Perry County spoke to the Council about some corrections to past and upcoming budget items. County Auditor Kristina Hammack passionately spoke to the Council stating that when she took over, it was a new staff and new software and mistakes were made but they did their best to catch them. Hammack implored the public to come see her, contact her via phone or email if they have questions involving County funding or reports instead of making assumptions or involving Baker Tilly or the State Board of Accounts which costs the County money every time they have to get involved. Tell City Mayor Chris Cail came forward and publicly thanked Hammack for the transparency and the hard work completed by her and her staff to make these corrections and publicly acknowledge them.
- Kris Wheeler, former Director of Perry County Solid Waste District, came before the Council to speak as she saw on the agenda that grants were being discussed for the Solid Waste District. Wheeler stated last time she came before the board months back, while still employed by the County, she asked for money because they ran out of funding. Wheeler, visibly frustrated with the Council shed light on the reason the Solid Waste District still has employees right now is because she held back on sending bills to keep the employees working due to lack of funding. County Commissioner Randy Cole, who was in attendance, was name-dropped by Wheeler as part of her frustrations, speaking on her public firing by Cole. Things quickly got out of hand as members of the Council told Wheeler she was out of line and inappropriate as she left the Courthouse Annex room.
- Jeff Hagedorn, attorney for the city of Tell City, once again came forth speaking on the manner of the Local Income Tax Rate that was the sole purpose for the special meeting held back on May 6th. At that meeting: “Hagedorn stated that Perry County had established a Local Income Tax Council back in 1990 which consisted of the fiscal body of the county, meaning the council, but it also consisted of each city or town that resided in the county which included Tell City Common Council, Troy Town Board, and Cannelton Common Council. By Indiana Law, the Perry County Council is required to give notice to the affected municipalities of the reallocation of funds. Hagedorn stated that Tell City had received no notice of this and that any action by Perry County Council would be invalid. If the Council decides to move forward, the city of Tell City is prepared to take any steps and actions to prevent these EDIT and LIT funds from being moved. Those in attendance welcomed and cheered on the attorney as he spoke. Hagedorn finished by stating that Tell City was open to discussions and communications to work on this issue. The Council stated that they talked to the Perry County Attorney and assured them that they weren’t in the wrong in the decisions they were making.” To the best of everyone’s knowledge the attorneys for Perry County and Tell City have not met or spoken yet. Haegdorn came forward with new information and legal statutes, showcasing that this discussion would be moot as Perry County had not followed the proper steps during the required legal timeframe to adopt a resolution for the LIT Funds.
- For the second time in three weeks Tell City Mayor Chris Cail came before the Council talking about the LIT Rate modification once again. As before, Cail was passionate about communication being key and Tell City, the city of Cannelton, and the Town of Troy working together with Perry County to figure things out. It was emphasized by Cail and Auditor Hammack how this situation has driven wedges between the County and the City and Towns. “JUST CALL THE CITY SOMETIME!” was Cail’s passionate closing remarks to the Council.
- John Paulin, the City Clerk for Cannelton, spoke that a small city like Cannelton cannot afford to lose its EDIT Fund money. This echoed the statements earlier in the month by several residents of Troy and Cannelton specifically as while this would hurt Tell City they would be able to withstand this loss of funds better than the smaller cities and towns. Paulin stated that Cannelton does not have the reserves to proceed operating as a City of these edit funds move and basically asked: “What do you want us to cut? What do you want us to shut off…the street lights? Cut out a police officer?” Communication and transparency between the County and its cities and towns were again emphasized.
- Once the agenda portion of the meeting finally got underway, normal housekeeping such as approvals and appropriations were made and discussed on different financial line items. The agenda eventually led to the hot button issue these past couple months: the ModificationThe Local Income Tax Rates of Perry County. Despite all the comments and back and forth between the Council and County residents the Council still considered the adoption. From the audience in attendance, soon to be 84 year old Perry County Resident Gail Goffinet spoke up and said: “IF YOU PASS THIS IRRESPONSIBLE RESOLUTION TONIGHT, KNOWING THAT THERE IS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LEGALITY OF IT, THEN THAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE MOST IRRESPONSIBLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT I’VE EVER SEEN IN THOSE 84 YEARS.” A motion was made to adopt but with no second it died. A motion was then made to table the adoption again and was seconded to a welcoming approval from County residents in attendance. County Commissioner Randy Cole spoke to the Council about a grant for Solid Waste for $100K that they would like to apply for and was approved. Cole then spoke to the Council about Solid Waste EDIT funds that were already set aside and budgeted for 2024 in the amount of $200K to “clean up things” as they had invoices that had not been sent in the past for services provided, bills that had not been paid, and other things Cole informed the Council he would rather not speak on which somewhat alluded to Wheeler’s statement earlier in that night that she had not sent out bills because the Solid Waste had no money.
Just a little over three hours after the meeting began it was adjourned. The next Perry County Council meeting is on Thursday, September 19th at 5PM CST. You can view the full live stream from Thursday night’s meeting by visiting the Perry County Government’s Youtube channel.
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