Meeting of October 12, 2021
10-12-21 Ohio County Fiscal Court Meeting · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Ohio County Fiscal Court – October 12, 2021
The court opened with routine business: approval of the September 28 minutes, payment of bills and claims, and acceptance of the September financial report. The court also completed the second reading of a budget amendment (removing a $1 million line item that hadn't yet been approved) and passed a resolution formalizing the county's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) budget allocations, plus an annual resolution naming the county's Industrial Development Authority representative.
A notable change was made to the county's administrative code: the requirement that employees hold a GED or high school diploma was struck and replaced with language allowing consideration of 'education level or experience,' giving departments more flexibility in hiring given ongoing staffing shortages. This passed 5-1, with Magistrate Small opposed.
The Sheriff's office brought several items: a bid from PEI for new radio towers and repeaters (to be installed at Fordsville, Centertown, and near Kirtland) to fix ongoing radio dead zones for deputies, which the court approved; bids for two new Dodge Durango patrol vehicles (about $68,418 total, funded partly through an insurance claim and partly through the drug fund), which were approved; and a new interlocal agreement joining the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force, funded through the Sheriff's drug fund at roughly $8,000-$11,200 per year, which the court approved to help combat a surge in drug activity.
OCEDA director gave an extensive annual update on economic development efforts, including job training programs, manufacturing expansion projects, a new workforce-attraction video, an award-winning economic development website, and a detailed labor market study showing the county's labor draw extends across a 60-mile radius. She also raised the issue of upgrading her assistant's title/pay to reflect her actual economic-development duties, for future consideration.
The court also approved a routine three-year services bid renewal with GRADD, heard road department updates on paving progress and a stalled boat ramp structure purchase, and discussed setting up a joint meeting with regional utility partners regarding power needs for economic development projects.
Agenda (16)
- 0:01
Call to order, prayer and pledge
The meeting was called to order with a prayer led by Phil Blair and the Pledge of Allegiance.
- 1:20
Approval of September 28 minutes
The court approved the minutes from the September 28 meeting without corrections.
- 2:01
Bills, claims, payments and transfers
The court approved payment of bills, claims, payments and transfers with no discussion.
- 2:39
September financial report
The clerk's September financial report was presented and approved.
- 3:12
Second reading of budget amendment
The court completed the second reading of a budget amendment, with a $1 million item removed pending approval.
- 4:03
Resolution for American Rescue Plan Act budget
The court passed a resolution formalizing the ARPA budget allocations for listed items.
- 5:07
Resolution 2022-17: IDA designation
An annual resolution designating the county's Industrial Development Authority representative was passed.
- 5:56
Second reading: administrative code amendment on GED requirement
The court discussed and amended the administrative code to remove the GED/high school diploma requirement, replacing it with consideration of education level or experience, then passed the amended second reading 5-1.
- 11:20
Sheriff's radio tower and repeater bid (PEI)
The Sheriff's office presented a bid from PEI for new radio repeaters at Fordsville, Centertown, and near Kirtland to fix radio dead zones; the court approved the bid.
- 21:01
Sheriff's vehicle bids (SUVs)
The Sheriff presented bids for two Dodge Durango vehicles totaling around $68,418, funded partly by insurance and partly by the drug fund; the court approved the purchase.
- 27:40
Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force agreement
The Sheriff requested approval to join the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force, funded through the drug fund, to help combat rising drug activity; the court approved.
- 33:32
Introduction of new county employees
Two new maintenance employees, Jerry and Jimmy Cantrell, were introduced to the court.
- 34:45
OCEDA annual economic development update
The OCEDA director gave a detailed annual report covering job creation programs, manufacturing expansions, a workforce attraction video, an award-winning website, and a labor market study, and raised the issue of updating her assistant's title and pay.
- 54:52
GRADD services bid renewal
The county renewed its required three-year services bid with GRADD; the court approved after review.
- 56:00
Committee reports
Magistrates reported on the roads committee meeting and discussed scheduling a joint meeting with utility partners regarding power needs.
- 58:41
Road department and magistrate comments
Magistrates discussed ongoing road paving projects, a stalled boat ramp structure purchase, and needed quotes for House Bill blacktop funds.
Motions & votes (11)
- 1:32
passedApprove the September 28 minutes
Moved by Sam Small · seconded by Joe Barnes
- 2:08
passedApprove bills, claims, payments and transfers
Moved by Larry Kim · seconded by Larry Moore
- 2:42
passedApprove the September financial report
seconded by Joe Barnes
- 3:36
passedApprove second reading of the budget amendment
unanimous roll call, all yes
- 4:00
passedPass resolution for the American Rescue Plan Act budget allocations
unanimous roll call, all yes
- 5:29
passedPass resolution 2022-17 designating the IDA representative
Moved by Jason Bullock · seconded by Joe Barnes · unanimous roll call, all yes
- 6:55
passedAmend the administrative code to remove GED/diploma requirement in favor of education level or experience consideration, second reading
5-1 roll call, Small opposed
- 19:53
passedAccept the PEI bid for radio towers and repeaters
unanimous roll call, all yes
- 26:06
passedApprove purchase of two Dodge Durango vehicles for the Sheriff's office, totaling $68,418
Moved by Jason Bullock · seconded by Joe Barnes · voice vote, all in favor
- 31:12
passedApprove joining the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force agreement
Moved by Camp · seconded by Joe Barnes · unanimous roll call, all yes
- 55:34
passedApprove the GRADD three-year services bid
Moved by Claire Moore · seconded by Larry Camp · voice vote, all in favor
Transcript (51 segments)
- 0:01
[Music] call this meeting of the oh i came to the court to order i'm going to ask justin count the least of the prayer and pledge to the flag phil blair it's uh lord thank you as always first and foremost for all the blessings that you've provided to us your grace is overwhelming your love is everlasting we ask that you be with all those that are sick and dealing with these covet issues we ask that you be with the magistrates and the judge executive today as they take on uh the various issues uh of a lot of importance we ask that you that you uh that we acted in your will and for it's in your name we pray amen amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation
- 1:13
under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all before you have the uh uh september 28 uh minutes uh in motion to approve those so sam small take with joe bond is there any discussion corrections or additions to the maintenance any corrections discussions are anything to be added to members if not on paper say i like saying the minutes are approved before you have the bills claims payments and transfers so motion by larry kim thank you second but larry moore for you any discussion on the bill's claims and payments and transfers any discussion there's no discussion
- 2:25
uh all in favor say aye close life sign uh the bills are paid we have uh the clerks not here do we have her uh uh september report financial report so move subject to uh spokesperson second with joe barnes uh any discussion being none on favor say aye opposed black sign uh that is proof subject uh we have a we we have the uh this is first three again the second reading of budget amendment second second this says surgery which i'm sorry this is second reading this is the budget amendment that y'all did last meeting so we need a motion to approve the second reading of this award i did have to remove the million dollars they wouldn't let me admit that in until it was approved so i have motion for a second one will
- 3:40
amend it we'll have to when it doesn't do another reading barnes yeah johnston yes yes yes small yes yes um larry uh cam uh youtube you're out okay i want to entertain a motion for resolution for the uh american rescue plan act our budget will call it uh for the items listed on this sheet here let's tell is there any discussion any discussion uh since we it's a resolution let's roll call it barnes yes johnston yes cam yes yes small yes yes i will i guess you make that appointment for the other people to come in and speak by the next
- 4:53
meeting or one of them oh we'll do one at a time one at a time yeah all right thank you thank you okay resolution 2022-17 [Music] tba [Music] it's just a resolution we have to do every year with regard to designation of who will be our ida okay would someone make a motion i'll make emotional motion with jason bullock second by joe barnes um again it's a revolution i believe that's next a resolution so let's go barns yes johnson yes camp yes warfield yes small yes yes and as you remember last meeting we did do a first reading on the admin code amendment and [Music] we didn't get unanimity on that don't
- 6:07
have to say that we're again but we did so it's up for discussion if uh it sends its second reading there could be a change made to it if that was someone's request to do well if it would give us i just think that i just think judge that that the issue that was in question i think about the ged or whatever ought to be just completely dropped from the administrative code and anybody that has experience and knowledge of doing any individual tasks or whatever the employee's capable of doing ought to be uh up not to be tied down to his weather his education i agree with that so i'll put that promotion that we amend the administrative code to to allow that well it would be a change on the second reason okay okay and so this when we make the change we make the change now and when we pass this then it'll become i think you've been noted that the reason this was put in the beginning is because we were looking for the work
- 7:21
ready program in the state of kentucky and it required stuff like this to become a work ready community well work ready communities kind of fell by the wayside and it's really not a thing anymore so it's not needed and we're kind of short-handed on the staff and keep in mind uh our leadership team would call the department heads and myself or over the judge executives as they put one up you can still use that for consideration for a certain job if you had if you had three that didn't have a ged and one dead and that was the only thing that changed the game it could be done or or certain things in certain offices that required it so i don't think this is going to hurt us any and like you said we did have it in the beginning for the uh to try to become work ready and now they know when no one coming soliciting uh here is asked forever uh if we're work ready have they uh as a jody of fact it hurts us to have the work ready uh certification out there so we just don't even need to focus on that at all yeah it's kind of a thing of the past
- 8:35
and like i said the it's not just us everybody's having employment problems trying to find somebody so okay we will change the wording in this order it's reflected so we don't have to start over okay so this change is done in the second room we were just going to strike it basically there would be no ged requirement but it could be considered on each individual job it could be required for a certain job but not across the board to be a county so how are you going to put that in there how are you going to put it just exactly like that i would suggest that you say education level or experience in there rather than specifically ged or hospital diploma education levels all across are really irrelevant if you have somebody that's experienced in the job unless the job unless you need to be a heart surgeon and you have to be you know licensed it's a it's hard to find people who have the education that also have the experience and you can have it go forward in many jobs that would be my suggestion to you well there's certain departments jody that if we