County Attorney May Not Represent All Elected Officials In 2022
By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW – Before adopting the 2022 budget Thursday night, the Kosciusko County Council wrapped up discussion on legal services and Sheriff’s Office and Central Dispatch pay.
At the Council’s Sept. 9 meeting, the Council voted to increase the County Commissioners’ legal services budget for county attorney Ed Ormsby by 4% to $60,320. The Commissioners requested $131,000 for legal services for 2022, saying the previous county attorneys, Chad and Mike Miner, underbilled the county. Ormsby began as county attorney on Jan. 1 and worked under the same contract as Chad Miner at $200 per hour, $100 less than he normally charges.
Thursday night, Commissioner Cary Groninger told the Council, “We do have a letter of agreement from our county attorney we put together there. It just shows a little bit of what we’re looking to do for the year 2022. This agreement would not start until Jan. 1, so obviously we’re talking about the budget for this next year.”
He said what the Commissioners and Ormsby worked out was that they were doing away with their current contract and “everything that he’ll have moving forward is all by the hour. His hourly rate is the $200 an hour that we agreed to this year. But there’s no contract outside of that, so it’s all just billed by the hour.”
Groninger said the Commissioners were just requesting a 2022 legal services budget of $60,320. “And roughly that’s about six hours a week for an attorney over the course of the year,” he said.
He said they were putting things into place to make sure they’re getting an up-to-date bill and keeping track of where they’re at.
“If we’re starting to see we’ve had a lot of projects or particular legal fees, we can come to you before we spend any of that money and make sure that we get that approved by you guys before we move forward with that,” Groninger said.
Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell reminded Groninger that the amount being sought was the amount the Council approved in September so he was just providing the Council with an update.
Councilwoman Kimberly Cates asked which county departments were eliminated from using Ormsby’s services under the Commissioners’ budget. Groninger responded, “It actually states that under item No. 5 there. It talks about the assessor, the auditor, the clerk and then the County Council, sheriff and BZA. All of those, except the BZA, are elected officials. So what we’re trying to do is, the elected officials have control of their area. The Commissioners really can’t speak into that, so we’re getting to where those people who are elected officials have control of their budgets and don’t fall underneath the Commissioners per se. The BZA is the only one, but they have their own attorney already.”
Mitchell said the other important piece of that puzzle was that, “if the individual departments have their own attorney, that attorney is not making policy. He’s only giving guidance.”
Councilman Jon Garber thanked everyone involved and said he thought the result was a good solution.
The Council unanimously approved the legal services budget for the Commissioners.
As a result of the change in the Commissioners’ legal services, County Clerk Ann Torpy and County Auditor Michelle Puckett requested additions in their 2022 budgets.
Torpy requested two additions to her 2022 budget for legal services. One was for $10,000 for her office and the other was for $10,000 for the Election Board. Both were unanimously approved.
“Over the summer, I received some Freedom of Information Act requests regarding our election, and I needed legal services this fall, and I’m asking for it to be added so that way if it comes up again I have access to legal services to help me with those requests,” Torpy told the Council.
Puckett requested a line item be added to her 2022 budget for $5,000 for legal services for when she needs to attain an attorney for the auditor’s office. The request also was approved.
At the Aug. 26 Council meeting, the Council voted 5-1 for a 4% increase in 2022 wages for county employees, except public safety employees whose wages will increase by 5%.
Thursday, Cates said when a motion was at the August meeting that included a 5% increase for public safety employees, she thought that included 911 Dispatch. She wanted that motion to be amended Thursday to include 911 Dispatch because it wasn’t and she wants them to be included in the 5% wage increase.
Puckett explained that the words “public safety,” as determined by the federal government, do not include dispatchers. “It very specifically excludes dispatch,” she said.
Councilwoman Joni Truex said she wanted to revisit the wage increase for the Sheriff’s Office, which the wage committee approved but the Council turned down.
“Mainly because of the fact that we have 10 people leave, one way or another, from our Sheriff’s Office,” Truex said.
The increase for the Sheriff’s Office she argued for would have given that office’s employees a 14% hike over the next two years.
Sheriff Kyle Dukes said in his entire department, he had four openings. Two days ago, he lost a jail officer because the jail officer took a job at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office which pays $2 more per hour.
Councilmen Mike Long and Ernie Wiggins said they were against revisiting those wage issues at this point and no motions were made.
Puckett also presented a revised recommendation Thursday from the County Commissioners on the 2022 nonprofit budget requests. At the prior Council meeting, Puckett acknowledged she distributed information that was not completely correct. She and the Commissioners worked together to develop new recommendations to the Council on the nonprofit budgets.
Most of the nonprofits will get a 2-3% increase, though some stayed the same. The St. Joe River Basin went up about 6%, or $203, because the Commissioners felt it was such a relatively small amount.
The Council unanimously approved the revised nonprofit requests for the 2022 budget.
With all the 2022 budget issues covered, the Council approved the budget by a vote of 5-2. Truex and Cates voted against it because of the wage issues. The Council then voted 5-2 on the county salary ordinance.
In other business, the Council:
• Adopted the Turkey Creek Dam and Dike Conservancy budget for 2022 as presented at the September Council meeting. No one spoke against it at the public hearing for the budget.
• Adopted the Solid Waste 2022 budget as presented at the September Council meeting. No one spoke against it at the public hearing for the budget. Puckett said the budget total was $788,734.
• Heard a short presentation from Torpy about redistricting for the Commissioners and Council. It was the same information she gave to the Commissioners Tuesday.
• Heard the annual report from the Bowen Center, as was presented to the Commissioners Tuesday.
• Was introduced to the county’s new veteran service officer, Darryl McDowell. He officially began his duties Oct. 5.