Meeting of January 10, 2023
Fiscal Court Meeting - January 10th, 2023 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Hardin County Fiscal Court – January 10, 2023
This was the first regular meeting of the newly elected Fiscal Court, with Judge Executive Tall presiding for the first time and seven of nine magistrates being new to the body. The meeting opened with introductions, thanks to staff, and recognition of department heads, followed by routine approval of the December 29, 2022 minutes.
Department reports covered Planning & Development (record 22 zone changes in 2022, concentrated in Glendale, along with rising construction costs and permit activity), Public Works (erosion control, code enforcement, and solid-waste event schedules), and the Road Department (paving progress, staffing shortages, winter-storm response, and the high cost of paving and bridge replacement). No citizens came forward during the newly created public-comment period.
The Court approved several routine resolutions: four-year reappointments of Road Supervisor Dwight Morgan and Treasurer/Finance Director Lisa Pearman, two succession resolutions naming a line of authority (Deputy Judge, then Magistrate Fred Clem) in case the Judge Executive is unavailable, and a resolution establishing four standing committees (Public Works, Resources & Community Support, Finance, and Emergency Services) with assigned chairs and vice-chairs. A consent agenda covering payroll, claims, employee reappointments, and EMS personnel changes was also approved unanimously.
Magistrates used their comment time to thank constituents, pledge cooperation as "Team Hardin," and discuss plans to attend Frankfort's Legislative Day to advocate for road and infrastructure funding. The meeting adjourned with the next regular session set for January 24, 2023 at 5:30 p.m.
For residents, the practical takeaways are: new committee structures and meeting times (5:30 p.m.) aimed at increasing public participation, continued strain on road funding given rising paving costs (~$100,000/mile), and a court emphasizing unity and transparency as it begins a new term.
Agenda (12)
- 2:05
Call to order, roll call, invocation, and opening remarks
Judge Executive Tall opened the first 2023 meeting, conducted roll call, led invocation and pledge, and thanked staff and department heads for helping prepare for the transition.
- 12:29
Approval of December 29, 2022 meeting minutes
The court voted to approve the previous meeting's minutes with one correction (BRAC acronym) noted by Magistrate Clem.
- 13:59
Planning and Development Commission report
Adam King presented the 2022 year-end report, noting a record 22 zone changes (mostly in Glendale), rising building permits, and increasing construction costs.
- 23:18
Public Works Department report
Stephanie Gibbons reported on erosion control inspections, code enforcement cases, rainfall data, and upcoming solid waste/shredding events.
- 28:26
Road Department report
Dwight Morgan discussed paving progress (about 23 miles completed, 30 more ready), staffing shortages, winter storm response, and the high cost of paving and bridge replacement, urging support for legislative funding efforts.
- 49:05
Written departmental reports (Animal Control, Emergency Management)
Written reports were submitted with no questions raised by the court.
- 49:41
Citizens concerns or comments
No citizens came forward to speak during this newly added agenda item.
- 50:31
Ordinances, resolutions, and agreements for vote
The court took up several resolutions including reappointments and succession plans, introducing the voting process for the new term.
- 56:32
Resolution establishing county government committees
The court approved formation of four standing committees—Public Works, Resources & Community Support, Finance, and Emergency Services—with assigned chairs and vice-chairs.
- 1:05:40
Consent agenda approval
The court approved a bundled consent agenda covering payroll, claims, financial transfers, employee reappointments, and EMS personnel changes.
- 1:07:30
County attorney update and magistrate comments
County Attorney Jenny Oldham reminded officials about volunteer agreements and gave an office move update; magistrates then offered introductory remarks about their new roles.
- 1:19:42
Adjournment
The court voted to adjourn, concluding the first meeting of 2023.
Motions & votes (8)
- 12:39
passedApprove the December 29, 2022 Fiscal Court meeting minutes (with a noted correction changing an acronym to BRAC)
unanimous roll call vote
- 51:32
passedApprove Resolution 2023-002 reappointing Dwight Morgan as Road Supervisor for a four-year term
unanimous roll call vote
- 52:28
passedApprove Resolution 2023-004 reappointing Lisa Pearman as Treasurer/Finance Director for a four-year term
unanimous roll call vote
- 54:06
passedApprove succession resolution naming Deputy Judge, then Magistrate Fred Clem, to act if the Judge Executive is unavailable during an emergency
unanimous roll call vote
- 55:32
passedApprove second succession resolution naming Magistrate Fred Clem to preside directly if the Judge Executive is unavailable for a meeting
unanimous roll call vote
- 1:02:01
passedApprove Resolution 2023-008 establishing the county government committees (Public Works, Resources & Community Support, Finance, Emergency Services) and their chairs/vice-chairs
Moved by Judge Tall · unanimous roll call vote
- 1:07:07
passedApprove the consent agenda covering payroll, utility and recurring claims, financial transfer resolution, employee reappointment resolution, and EMS personnel change resolution
unanimous roll call vote
- 1:19:44
passedAdjourn the meeting
no objections stated
Transcript (64 segments)
- 1:44
so I just wanted to say good afternoon and welcome to everyone it's good to see all of you here just a note that there are some copies of the agenda up here in the front if if anybody needs one okay so this is the January 10th 2023 Hardin County Fiscal Court it's a regular voting meeting and uh just a reminder if you've got some cell phones you might want to turn those off or put them on stun or something like that okay so that would be very helpful all right so I want to begin and we'll call this meeting to order we'll start out with uh with the roll call Squire Clem here Squire Hicks here Square Muse here Squire Pennington here Squire Saltzman here Squire Thompson here Squire Whitehead here Squire Yates here judge tall here well thank you Mr Smith our first roll call and we got successfully done successfully thank you
- 2:59
okay so let's all stand and we'll have the invocation by magistrate EG Thompson and the Pledge of Allegiance by magistrate Larry Hicks would you join me in prayer father God uh we we're so blessed to be able to just at this time pray and lift up to you our concerns we thank you Father that you are mindful of what goes on in our very individual lives Lord we thank you that you are in control and that you do have the paths laid out for us father we know this is an exciting time of opportunity and we pray Lord that as you open those opportunities up for us that you would fill us with your wisdom that we might act in a way that honors and glorifies you Lord we lift up to each one who's here today each one who hears my prayer we know Lord that you hear our prayers and we pray a blessing on this County the communities that we're a part of even Beyond this county father we pray that you direct us guide us and continue
- 4:12
to bless us Lord we dare not move on with that mission until you uh that we thank you Father for those who place their lives on the line for us constantly for our law officials for um those who serve Us in military for those who'll step forward in leadership positions in government that is necessary in a town such as this Lord we pray that you would just continue to bless us as we seek to serve in this community in Jesus name we pray amen amen foreign all right so thank you uh I just wanted to take just a few moments uh mention a couple of things mostly thank you for what these first
- 5:26
five or six days of of preparation for this for this court meeting I it was uh people jumping in and helping out as we have as we've been preparing um so thank you for being here today and participating and and being a part of your County Government and it's exciting times I and we have a lot of work ahead of us as we move forward we um I know it's uh I I feel the weight already and the responsibility of of serving you all of you the citizens of this County and working with a whole body a whole lot of very smart people in this in this County and in our state uh to you know prepare for what's about to come in the next several years it's exciting because it's all growth it's um you know it's it's stuff that's heading our way infrastructure changes and all the things that we need to be looking at for this County and and you know the workforce things that will that we'll be facing
- 6:41
what what does that need to look look like and how do we need to support that and make sure that we have people trained and plenty of people to work in all these jobs that are are going to be coming available so a lot of I could go on and on of all of all the challenges we have ahead and they're good challenges and exciting challenges for for all of us in Hardin County so I hope you feel my excitement and for the excitement that's that's coming our way I know it's a big change after 20 years of seeing a different face up here but you know sometimes it's uh um you know it's okay we're going to get through this meeting without you know too much consternation I think and there's been a lot of people that have helped put this together I just want to kind of give them a shout out Megan McDougall who's started here she's unfortunately not going to be a full-time for a long time but she was nice enough to step in learn how to do this how to get prepared for it and lean
- 7:55
on a lot of different people to help her and so I just wanted to thank her she's sitting right over there so thank you Megan I also wanted to thank Lisa Lisa Pearman our Treasurer and also of course our County attorney uh Jenny Oldham right here next to me they were probably um you know uh some of the spit most a lot of time and they're very busy people but to help me and to help Megan and help others to prepare today so I just wanted to show my appreciation by saying thank you very much for doing that I appreciate it um so I I also wanted to mention that uh and of course there are others that were very helpful and I've beginning to know some of the department heads of the different different groups here that are working for you in this County and if if if you guys wouldn't mind all of those that are department heads that are here today would you please stand up and just let us recognize you just stand up just for a minute here
- 9:09
okay go ahead stand up all right yes thank you very much we also have some folks that are from I see Josh is here Pat is here our sheriff is here would you guys stand up so some some people may not know you anybody else any others okay thank you very much [Applause] so just uh a note about the agenda we've we've made a couple of changes to it and so I just wanted to point uh just a couple of things out um we have the um we have I think the previously the the previous meeting minutes have been in the consent agenda we pulled those out I think Mr Clem pointed that out to me and I agreed with him that that's probably something that shouldn't be just in the consent agenda and we should should vote on that separately so we'll get to that in just
- 10:20
a moment and bring that up for vote we also have a time here after the department reports that is open for any concerns or comments by our citizens so any of you that have some something that you want to address with one of the specifically one of the items that we have here to vote on today you know you're welcome to come up and we'll have a three-minute kind of Maximum time for for anyone that wants to do that so um so that's a little that's different than what we've had before I think the rest the rest of the agenda is is pretty pretty standard okay so that just wanted to go over that and then one other announcement um some of you may not know that I have been able to talk a previous County engineer Vicki Meredith into coming on board with us at least for some time and to help me with some different projects that I've