Meeting of December 12, 2023
Fiscal Court Meeting - December 12th, 2023 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Hardin County Fiscal Court – December 12, 2023
The Fiscal Court held its regular voting meeting, opening with the usual roll call, invocation, and pledge of allegiance. Routine business included approval of the November 28th minutes and a full consent agenda covering claims, financial transfers, 2024 meeting dates, engineering and EMS personnel agreements, committee membership changes, the 2024 holiday schedule, a CDBG grant application for Family Scholar House/ECTC, and grant funding for emergency management radiation detection equipment.
Animal control and emergency management gave detailed monthly reports, including adoption and euthanasia statistics and a report on newly acquired safety equipment (streamlights and a radiation detector) obtained largely through grants at little or no cost to the county.
The most significant and contentious items were the second readings of two ordinances: Ordinance 337 (expanding the industrial tax district's boundaries to unincorporated areas of Hardin County) and Ordinance 338 (an occupational tax amendment tied to that district, capped at 1% per state law). A citizen speaker voiced strong opposition, arguing that once enacted, such taxes rarely end and unfairly burden county residents. Several magistrates, including Larry Hicks, also opposed the measure, citing timing concerns and its impact on county (non-city) workers, while others defended it as necessary due to existing budget shortfalls and to protect county tax resources from being lost to city annexation. Both ordinances passed 7-1, with Magistrate Hicks voting no both times.
During the consent agenda vote, Magistrate Whitehead requested that one specific voucher be set aside for further review rather than approved immediately; the court agreed to exclude it from the vote. Whitehead also raised concerns about a resolution being added to the agenda only five hours before the meeting, calling the short notice unacceptable, though she still voted in favor of it.
The meeting closed with standard reports from the county clerk (reminding residents of the December 31 deadline to change party affiliation and a temporary shutdown of vehicle registration services in early January) and comments from magistrates on upcoming committee meetings, holiday safety, and the reason for the season. The court's final meeting of 2023 was set for December 21st, and the meeting was adjourned.
Agenda (11)
- 9:16
Roll call and invocation
The court called the meeting to order with a roll call of all magistrates present, followed by an invocation from Magistrate Muse and the pledge of allegiance led by Magistrate Yates.
- 11:34
Approval of November 28th minutes
The court approved the minutes from the November 28, 2023 meeting.
- 12:27
Animal control monthly report
Mike McNutt presented November animal control statistics including adoptions, returns, euthanasia numbers, and shelter live release rates.
- 16:08
Emergency management monthly report
Richard (filling in for Joey Scott) presented fire department run statistics, activity report, emergency responses, and community outreach, including new safety equipment obtained via hospital coalition grants.
- 26:05
Written reports (Planning, Public Works, Road Department)
Written reports were made available; a question arose about engineering now reporting directly to Vicki rather than through Public Works.
- 27:35
Citizens concerns and comments
Bobby Alexander spoke against the proposed occupational tax, arguing taxes rarely end once enacted; another citizen requested improved audio/video equipment for meetings.
- 33:34
Second reading of Ordinance 337 - Industrial Tax District expansion
The court discussed and voted on the second reading of Ordinance 337, expanding the industrial tax district to unincorporated areas of Hardin County; extensive debate occurred over fairness and timing, and it passed 7-1.
- 49:34
Second reading of Ordinance 338 - Industrial Occupational Tax amendment
The court voted on the second reading of Ordinance 338, the occupational tax ordinance amendment capped at 1%, which also passed 7-1.
- 50:06
Consent agenda
The consent agenda included claims, resolutions on financial transfers, 2024 meeting dates, professional services agreements, personnel changes, committee memberships, holiday schedule, CDBG grant application, and grant for radiation detection equipment; one voucher was set aside per Magistrate Whitehead's request.
- 58:13
Comments period
County Clerk reminded residents of party affiliation deadline and vehicle registration downtime; magistrates gave holiday and committee meeting reminders, and Whitehead raised concern about late agenda additions.
- 1:01:45
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned with a motion and second, no objections raised.
Motions & votes (5)
- 11:42
passedApprove the Hardin County Fiscal Court minutes from November 28, 2023
unanimous
- 35:38
passedApprove the second reading of Ordinance 337, Series 2023, amending the industrial tax district boundaries
8-1, Magistrate Hicks opposed
- 49:39
passedApprove the second reading of Ordinance 338, Series 2023, industrial occupational tax ordinance amendment
8-1, Magistrate Hicks opposed
- 54:37
passedApprove the consent agenda items, with voucher number 1653 (P number 8573) set aside from approval for review
unanimous
- 1:01:45
passedMotion to adjourn the meeting
no objections
Transcript (43 segments)
- 9:01
check my own here so uh let's go ahead and get started uh this this is uh the December 12th uh 2023 Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting and let's begin and uh call this meeting to to order and let's go start with a roll call Squire clim here Squire Hicks here Square Muse here Square Pennington here Squire suzman here Square Thompson here Squire Whitehead here Square Yates here judge tall here uh next our invocation by magistrate Kenny Muse and Pledge of Allegiance magistrate Chris Yates yall please stand in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit dear Lord we thank you for this day we thank you for this great country we live in and the Privileges we enjoy we thank you for giving us this opportunity to gather today to make decisions to improve our County help us consider all Alternatives and work together to make the best choices possible help us all remember
- 10:16
this is the Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of your son Jesus Christ amen we pray that you protect us all during this season especially those that protect our country here and abroad we humbly ask that you bring peace to our country and throughout the world in Jesus name we pray amen amen amen I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible in justice for all all right well thanks again for uh joining joining today uh again just to review the agenda it's um uh again fairly typical uh we have U our minutes that we'll look at here in a moment have some presentations um today and uh have some time for Citizens concerns comments we do have our um second reading of a couple of ordinances that we'll review here in a little while and then finally our consent agenda and then our typical
- 11:29
comments at the end so um moving on will we um we need to approve our Harden County Fiscal Court minutes from November 28th 2023 is there a motion to approve so move second second okay discussion all right roll call please Squire Clen yes Squire Hicks yes Square Muse yes Square Pennington yes Square Salzman yes Square Thompson yes Square Whitehead yes Square Yates yes judge tall yes motion passes all right next um we uh just move on into our uh reports uh first up on presentations is uh animal control Mike mcnut please afternoon Judge Tom members of the Court good afternoon in the month November we adopted 36 dogs and 58 cats um we returned 15 um out of the shelter we've actually been able to work on our computer system
- 12:42
to where now it tracks the ones that we returned in the field um so I know that we returned 15 dogs to their homes out in the field so the offic ERS picked the dog up and was able to get the dog back home without bringing it into the shelter we sent 30 to rescue and we had to euthanize 21 for the year to date dog adoptions are at 297 that's up 29 from 2223 uh returned is at 108 which is up 19 from 22 23 uh for the year to date rescue sits at 11% that numbers on the rise we'd love to see it back up around the 37% if we could ever reach that again it' be a great thing um for the year to date dog euthanized are at 12% uh dog adoptions are at 57%
- 14:03
return to owners um are at 21% that's a a big reason for that is the dogs being microchipped uh complaints investigated are at 786 that's for the year to date that's up 146 for the year to date so the complaints uh the officers are investigating are up quite a bit uh the November pie chart unincorporated is at 32% Incorporated is at 68% and for the year to date unincorporated at 41% Incorporated at 59% uh for the year to date shelter live release rate is at 92% the cat live release rate is at 95% the the monthly Shel shelter live release rate is at 86% and the monthly cat live release rate is at 94% that's just for the month we saw 845 visitors that were either looking to adopt or had lost
- 15:15
pets uh 123 dogs and 84 cats came in during November and 232 surgeries were performed is there any questions all right well thank you m appreciate it thank you sir thank you all right Emergency Management um we have a Richard dwit instead of Joey today right first of all it says Joey Scott don't get confused I'm not Joey I'm judge m u thank you en jooy being here this one this this is only the second time I have presented but this one has started out much better than the last there was no speeding tickets involved in getting here on time just so y'all all know that that's good okay first we'll start out with the Harden County Fire Department of November fire runs they had a total of 199 runs and the breakdown of that there were 29 structure fires medical assist there was 54 grass and woods fires there was 26 motor vehicle accidents there was 43 hazardous mitigation
- 16:29
there was four vehicle fires there was four active alarms there was nine Landing zones set up there was three agency assist there was five smoke oder there was six of those okay okay activity report uh this month we attended a her Coalition meeting Emergency Services committee meeting snow preparation meeting lepc meeting opioid settlement funding meeting Kentucky Emergency Management Regional a meeting safety committee meeting and a Lincoln TR area development District meeting all right emergency responses at the 102 mile marker on I65 there was a semi accident with fluids leaking assisted Harden County Sheriff's Office with in person in Upton lower kber there was a hazardous material complaint and on Cory Road Upton an air quality uh complaint community outreach spoke at
- 17:44
the the Cecilia raran Club monthly meeting wqxc monthly County report attended Meed regarding future homeless shelter with warm blessings now here's one that I really like uh the hospital Coalition we had put in a grant we actually put it in with another group and got turned down we have received two streamlights that total almost $2,700 these lights will last for several hours and they will light up to 380 yards these were through uh the hospital Coalition Grant and we got them 100% there was not a of County money that was spent on these now through this uh there is another County that had received radiation detectors because of having interstates through their County well we got to lobbying with them and said hey you know we with the interstates and the the railroads that we have coming through the county you know we need one as much as they do so one of the resolutions that y'all will be seeing today is that you know with I don't know if convincing or they got tired of hearing it or what that they