Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022 AT 8:00 A.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Josh Garrett, Craig Melton, and Bryan Traylor Absent: Alex Choi and Joe Culp Also Present: Dustin Meeks, Town Council Attorney; Mayor Emily Styron; Sheriff Mike Nielsen; Police Captain Drake Sterling; Tim Berry, Crowe LLC; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator, and other Town Department Staff. OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett I’ll call to order the June 21, 2022 meeting. If you would you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE JUNE 6, 2022 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett All right. Up first is the approval of the memorandum of the June 6, 2022 regular Town Council meeting. A copy has been posted. Are there any questions from Councilors? Garrett I make a motion to approve. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. Burk Second. Page 1 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 5 in favor, 0 opposed. CLAIMS Plunkett Up next would be the approval of Claims. I didn’t get claims in my packet. Did you guys see claims? Burk I did not. Plunkett Okay. Garrett I did. Plunkett All right. Garrett I saw claims. Plunkett You did? Lacy Yes, they should’ve been in your packet. Garrett They’re in my packet. TC Claims 06-21-2022. Plunkett All right. Garrett 06-15-2022 is the date. Traylor Yes, they’re there. Plunkett All right. Traylor It was in the first – Plunkett Oh, I’ve got it. Traylor Email. Because there was a revision to the agenda. Burk Yes. Traylor Yes. Plunkett Very good. Garrett Do you want time to review it? We could – Page 2 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Garrett Can we move it to the end of the, well – Plunkett Yes, if you wouldn’t mind, let’s move it to the end of the meeting. Garrett Yes. REQUEST TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEM Plunkett All right, up next would be Request to Speak on Agenda Items. Amy, did we have any requests to speak? Lacy No, we do not. Plunkett Very good. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett Up next would be the Mayor/Administration Update. Mayor Styron. Styron Morning. Plunkett Good morning. Styron Let me rev this up here. Something top of mind for many of us is the security of our Town’s public spaces. This includes our schools, our public safety buildings, our wastewater treatment facility, Town Hall, and our parks facilities. Furthermore, as the urban district of our Town has experienced significant growth in population, homes, businesses and visitors, I believe it is time for our Town’s public safety resources are evaluated and increased to meet current urban Zionsville needs. Over the last month, Chief Spears and his team have examined staffing and funding necessary to increase security in these areas. Based on the Police Department’s findings, I recommend that we add six sworn patrol officers to increase the authorized strength of the Zionsville Police Department from 38 to 44. While this is a significant increase, the following reasons support this request: ZPD’s sworn strength has not increased since 2018 and at that time staffing was increased by three with these new positions assigned to the schools to join two officers previously assigned to SRO duty. The assignment of those three officers in 2018 did not increase field patrol or investigative strength at all. In the meantime, the size of Zionsville has grown 17% since 2018. The population is estimated at that time at 26,209. The most recent census population estimate for Zionsville is 31,702 and all signs, as we all know well, is that that growth will continue. So what this means is that Zionsville PD today is understaffed compared to neighboring jurisdictions and national standards. A comparison of neighboring police agencies finds ZPD has a much lower number of police officers per 1,000 inhabitants than any other Boone County Police Department. Chief Spears will provide you with more details supporting this request later in this morning’s meeting. Page 3 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 In April 2022, the Zionsville Town Council and the Mayor’s office worked together to provide premium pay bonuses to members of public safety. This initiative received support from all members of the Council and administration. I suspect a high percentage of our residents supported spending ARPA funds in this manner as well. The work of fire and police is readily understandable. The average person can envision how these workers and their families were impacted during the past two years. We called them superheroes and put posters in our yards celebrating them. This public and private outpouring of love and appreciation is well deserved. There are other employees who were deemed essential during this time. They had no choice to report to the work, they had no choice but to report to the worksite and continue to do their normal work and more. IT staff quickly obtained cellphones, laptops, and other equipment to allow staff to work from home. They went to employee homes to help install needed equipment. The heightened level of support employees needed in adjusting to a work-from-home, zooming environment lasted throughout the past two years. Parks and Recreation staff experienced frequent in-person attendance and interactions with the public and coworkers. The parks and golf course achieved record numbers of visitors during the timeframe. Regular cleaning and sanitation of the Nature Center, golf cart – golf course facilities and park restrooms were required. DPW staff continued to report to work onsite interacting with the public and coworkers – first responders of another sort. Building inspectors answered 5,400 calls for service during that period of time being present in homes and job sites, interacting with public and coworkers. Facilities, a team of one, was at work every day cleaning facilities, sanitizing every piece of mail, acquiring supplies and a hundred other things that no one notices – the true mark of a great facilities manager. I would like to meet with you all to determine the premium pay bonuses we can deliver to these employees in a future Town Council meeting. Municipalities all across Indiana are evaluating municipal redistricting options to adjust to local population growth. In preparation for this 2023 activity, it’s important that Zionsville look at growth patterns in each council district to determine how they equate to one another. Zionsville has grown 201% since 2000. It is growing faster than 93% of similar sized communities over the last 20 years. Population density is estimated at 1,400 per square mile. Today our population estimate is nearly 34,000 and by the end of 2023, we are expected to surpass 35,000. Our Town’s primary responsibility through this process is to maintain an equitable distribution of population across each council district. I would welcome the opportunity to work with a subgroup of councilors to evaluate redistricting options and to assist with getting the necessary assistance from consultants to guide that, those efforts. We continue to have critical gaps in our Planning Department. At the next Council meeting, we will present you our immediate critical gaps in staffing and our plan to solve that. In the Planning Department, I can share with you more staff is definitely needed, specifically an inspector, permit technician, director of redevelopment and another planner I position. We would also like to create an official building commissioner role and perhaps another division under the department which would be more in line with our neighboring jurisdictions. It’s been a long time coming and it is unfortunate that perhaps many of you will receive this information as new, but we have an entire department that’s Page 4 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 drowning in work and we’ll look forward to working with you in terms of addressing those issues going forward. I would also like to make sure that the community knows that this is the 25th year of the Zionsville Farmers Market. I would like to recognize Barb Munson who presented her idea of a farmers market to Zionsville to the Town Council in 1997. I had the pleasure of sitting down with her last week to talk about the early days of our farmers market and how it has evolved over the last 25 years. We will share this look back on the past 25 years of our farmers market after it is completed. In closing, I realize that we are entering reelection campaign times. I am committed to working with each of you to keep momentum going on so many opportunities we have in front of us as local leaders. There is more that unites us than divides us. Zionsville is an exceptional community and I believe every one of us as elected officials are step, will step forward to continue to serve what makes this Town unique and to grow with consideration of what our community desires. I may be a unicorn in this room of elected officials but like each of you, I serve in this role because I care deeply about our Town. I am encouraged by the great conversations I have had with many of you over the last month and I look forward to working with all of you on the issues and opportunities in front of us. Thank you. Plunkett Mayor, I have just a question. I – Styron Yes. Plunkett I’ll reiterate as we’ve talked about publicly and privately Planning Department, Finance Department – if there’s a plan and we know where the money’s coming from, I think you’ll find this Council open and supportive of – Styron Fantastic. Plunkett Of doing that. Specific to the police and fire, I know last year in the budget process we had police officers removed, – Styron Huh. Plunkett From the budget and the Fire Department had requested – Garrett Hold on, we, we didn’t – Plunkett Well, correct. It was removed. Styron Right. Plunkett They were removed by your team. Styron Right, right. Right. Page 5 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Styron But it was to get you a balanced budget. Yes. I mean, in order to be able to fund the budget, we had to give you a revenue and expenses that matched, right? Plunkett That’s not entirely correct. I mean, we are at an operating deficit as it relates to the budget, we discussed that a year ago. I think the point, the point that I would make, while I appreciate increasing staffing for police the Fire Department, obviously, in the event of some type of a mass casualty event or something of that nature, they would be the first ones potentially on the scene as well to help and be equipped – Styron Yes. Plunkett Medically to help with things. Is there a plan to increase the staffing for the Fire Department? Styron I think the staffing for the Fire Department is something we should review as well at the same time. It’s my understanding that there has been a number of increases in the same timeframe that has not happened for ZPD so we’re trying to kind of get ZPD matched up closer to what the ongoing year after year staffing growth has happened in the Fire Department. Plunkett That was part of a sustainability plan that initially was going to be for understanding the staffing needs. Have we completed that sustainability plan? Is that something we have at the, at the start of this year the whole point was we have a sustainability plan, we’re waiting on that to understand better how to staff or, or where are with the sustainability plan? Styron We are still working with our current financial guru, our financial consultant. So we anticipate having more information with you, for all of you as it relates to both current year, future year and a sustainable kind of look into the future for our budget. As I said to you all last – a month ago at the last meeting – we have an issue with regard to our LIT tax and that’s something that we need to really understand what’s the what’s the impact and what do we need to shore up as it relates to LIT from other sources of revenue and we are actively working with that. We discussed some of this at our last financial our finance committee meeting, but we’ve got work to do in terms of understanding where those dollars come from. Plunkett All right. And the last question I have – Styron You bet. Plunkett You mentioned the growth of 201% since 2000 and the idea of the Zionsville Police Department taking over or controlling, helping – correction – with some of the urban Zionsville needs. Do we know how much of that growth has taken place in urban Zionsville compared to rural Zionsville? Styron No, but I’d love to get that number for you. I’m certain the majority of it is in the urban piece just because there’s more housing permits that come in for those, that area and they’re development oriented but we’ll get you a full picture of the difference between urban growth and rural growth over that period of time. Page 6 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Traylor I – okay. I look forward to getting that number because I would disagree that I think that most of the permits probably come in in the rural area and then are at some point much like Fieldstone and Brookhaven were just a few years ago brought in after they are developed they are brought into the urban area. Styron Sure. Exactly. I mean it, they are, the growth is now in the urban area. It was transitioned into the urban area so that’s where the growth is. Traylor But most of the permits come in for the rural area? Styron And the housing and humans that live in it are now in the urban area because of that transition. Traylor Is Stonegate urban? Plunkett We’re rural. Traylor Stonegate’s been there for – Plunkett Yes. Traylor 20 years? Plunkett I was going to say 16 years probably. Traylor Yes. Garrett We haven’t don’t one of those in a long while. Plunkett I’m sorry? Garrett We haven’t done one of those in a long while. Plunkett No. I think the last one we did was the Enclave, right? Garrett Yes. Mayor, it is reelection season and you’re coming to us for six new officers which I think I’m interested to hear about – what are you planning on cutting now that this is your new priority? Styron Well, I think that’s something we all have to talk about and that’s something we need to bring forward. It is something that we need to figure out how to how to fund and I look at that as a joint effort for us to take a look at what can we cut or what can we look at in terms of the revenues coming, coming out of the years to come, particularly as it relates to LIT. Garrett Yes but that’s the balance, right? Because if you’re projecting revenues that can be wrong. If we’re looking at actuals this year that is right. Officers are great but officers are recurring charges versus one-time – Styron Yes. Page 7 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Garrett I just want to make sure we aren’t getting – I mean, you talk about six new officers, you talk about five in Planning, I know Finance needs some – I mean, you’re talking about 13, 14, 15 people. That starts adding up real quick and if do that every year– Styron It does. Garrett And the projected revenues don’t match up – Styron We’re going to have to make some choices – Garrett Right. Styron For sure. And I – Garrett So – Styron And I definitely am going to say I lean into public safety as being where we make those choices. That’s something that we need to make sure we have the police resources necessary to keep our community safe. Garrett I don’t disagree it’s hard to understand how we make these choices when we still don’t understand where the finance system is. For two months now you’ve been telling us we’re going to have an executive session so you’re going to tell us where the finance session is, is that coming, that meeting? I’d love to learn like what the hell’s going on. Styron I think our attorney has been working with your attorney to talk through that executive session. I’m afraid I don’t have details in terms of what those conversations have yielded. Garrett But it shouldn’t take two months, like let’s do it this week. I’m around. I – Styron Again – Garrett We don’t need to go through attorneys. Like you talk about having conversations with us like, this, this should – Styron Yes. Garrett This should take days to set up, not two months. I still don’t understand the finances and we keep getting asked for more and more and more. Even if I’m supportive – Styron Sure. Garrett It’s hard to even evaluate those if we don’t know where we’re at. So, I’m just asking like and if it’s on our attorney or your attorney, whatever, like, let’s get on it. Page 8 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Styron Great. Garrett So. Burk Mayor, just a quick clarifier, on the six officers and the other department staffing needs that you’re proposing today – that would be for 2023 budget, all of these positions or are there immediate needs that you feel like you have now that you’re asking for? Styron I think we needed, I think the needs were needed in the past, so I think it’s an immediate need, but I think realistically we have to work through all the things that Josh and Jason have outlined in terms of make sure we have the recurring revenue to support our staff. That’s fundamentally a part of this discussion. Burk Thank you. Traylor Quick question – you’ve mentioned that Chief Spears was going to be presenting later and I’m happy to hold my questions for Chief Spears because I have a couple, but I don’t see it on the agenda. Styron I mean, it may not be on the agenda but he’s available to speak to it in more detail but I was thinking maybe there was, is there a police commissioners meeting after this? Yes, yes. He may be bringing it to you – Garrett I’d love to hear it now. Styron At the next police commissioners. Traylor Okay. Well then in that case because it’s not on the agenda and I do have a couple of questions, I’ll direct them to you and if you want to turn it over – Styron Yes. Traylor To Chief Spears – Styron Sure. Traylor That’s fine. Styron Yes. Traylor So obviously if we need police I’m all for it but we’re talking about adding six and we need the – you’ve already addressed, we need to better understand where that 17% growth is coming from, urban or rural, but also before we add six police officers to patrol the urban area because the rural area is, is patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department – Styron Yes. Page 9 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Traylor I think we need to pull back our police officers from patrolling the rural area if we’re, if you’re saying we don’t have enough police for our current coverage area then quit trying to cover three times as much territory. Styron I think that we are responding and dealing with calls for service in the urban area. If our Police Department finds themselves on a country road I don’t know that that means that they’re necessarily spending their entire patrol period there. Traylor They are. Styron Okay. Traylor Because I live in the rural area – Styron Yes. Traylor And I cross, I pass 32 and 421 every single day multiple times a day – Styron Yes. Traylor And they sit there and patrol that intersection. Styron Okay. Traylor Two of them at a time. Styron Two at a time? Traylor Two at a time. Styron Is it a dangerous intersection? Traylor The roundabout? No. Styron Okay. Yes. Traylor No. It’s very rare that – Styron Well I’m sure that the Chief is happy to hear you share that information and we’ll look into for you, for us. Traylor I just think before we add six to patrol that we should maybe quit patrolling the areas that we’re not in jurisdiction of. Plunkett Yes, I mean I think to that point it would be good to know what we need to patrol the areas we’re supposed to be patrolling, right? Garrett Chief Spears may have a presentation if we want to hear it. I don’t mean to jump you President Plunkett but – Plunkett No sure, by all means. Page 10 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Styron Yes, do it. Awesome. Spears Well good morning. I appreciate the chance to come before you and talk about this proposal that I sent to the Mayor. I think some of you might recall last year I submitted a five-year plan for the Police Department which included staffing. In that five-year plan, I recommended growing the Police Department by 12 positions over five years and before I get into this in a little more depth let me say I can tell you right now the funds for this proposal don’t exist in the Police Department. They may exist somewhere else within Town government, and I think, however, though, it’s my responsibility as Police Chief looking out for the interest of not only our police officers but the citizens of the Town to bring forth that recommendation relative to general safety in the urban area of the Town of Zionsville. So last year in the budget, I placed in the budget three positions to begin this, this five-year plan of growth of 12 officers. One of those positions would be assigned to the new Trailside School and two would go to supple, begin supplementing our patrol shifts. Those three positions were removed from the budget and I’m not, I’m not complaining about that, I understand that there are financial needs and responsibilities to balance the budget and, and be sure that we’ve got the revenue to pay for the responsibilities in staffing that we have but how, recent national events have caused me and I think many others to consider overall safety and staffing and certainly these events trigger a lot of emotions and I’ve tried to remove the emotion from it and just present you with some factual information. So I brought forth this proposal to the Mayor and some of it she summarized in her presentation, but I’ll try to walk you through this and then answer any questions that you might have. So the proposal recommends the prompt addition of six officers and by prompt I mean we probably should not wait, in my judgment, we should not wait until next year to begin this process because the addition of six officers for a department this size is, is rather significant and I would probably recommend that we do it in a staggered fashion so we don’t overwhelm our field training officers in their ability to train these officers. As the Mayor mentioned, there’s not been a, an increase in staffing in the police since 2018. At that time, three officers were hired but they all went to the schools, so we haven’t, we haven’t seen an increase in field strength. And at the same time, the Town of Zionsville has continued to grow and while I don’t have a breakdown of population relative to urban and rural, the overall population has grown rather steadily and significantly and in this packet I’ve given you on the front page there’s a, there’s a clip of population of Zionsville and some local towns and one of the attachments in the back is the more detailed summary of a Zionsville staffing from the United States Census but just very generally the most recent estimate from the U.S. Census for Zionsville is 31,700 people compared to other Boone County towns like Lebanon with 16,800, Whitestown with 11,000 so we’re clearly a larger town than those other two municipalities and if you look on the, on the second page, I’ve listed the population of those towns along with the number of police officers they have to prepare a ratio of police per 1,000 residents. So Whitestown with a population of about 11,000 has 35 officers so their ratio is 3.16 per 1,000, Lebanon is 2.49 per 1,000 and Zionsville I’ve broken that two ways: one with a total number of officers we have which is 38 and per 1,000 that’s 1.19 officers but six of those officers are assigned to the schools so for all intents and purposes, we have 32 officers which puts our per 1,000 ratio at, right at 1. Page 11 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Burk Can you real quick – Spears Yes. Burk When you’re comparing the other communities do we also break out, I mean I’m sure they have the same scenario where the school resource officers are included in their overall? Spears No. Burk It’s not? Spears If you look at the asterisks there neither Whitestown nor Lebanon has assigned police officers to their schools. So those officers are in patrol or investigative assignments. Burk Gotcha. Thank you. Spears Sure. So actually, when I said at the beginning we haven’t increased since 2018, we’ve actually gone the other way. We’ve gone down because of the new Trailside school we’re actually down to 31 officers or actually that’s wrong. We’re down to 32 because we lost one to Trailside. The next the next exhibit I have here is and there’s a copy of that in the back as an attachment as well but regularly the FBI prepares a report with a variety of topics and information relative to law enforcement and one of the reports they prepare is titled Full-Time Law Enforcement Officers by Region in Geographic Divisions by Population Group Study. So there’s a link in there if you’re interested in reading more about that and there’s a summary of that on, on the back page of this this handout. What the FBI found, and this, this report’s interesting because it's not just police departments, it’s broken down by region so within the Midwest for police department size 10,000-24,900, which would probably be our, our, our urban area, they recommend an average of 1.7 officers per 1,000 and for populations of 25,000-49,000, the average is 1.5 officers per 1,000. So if we use the higher average, Zionsville should have 54 police officers. If we use the lower average, we should have 48. We currently have 38 with six assigned to schools so we really have 38 officers compared to the numbers that the FBI recommends of 48 or 54 depending on the population size you select. just as a summary of where those officers are assigned, six are at the schools as I said earlier, 23 are in patrol, six are assigned to investigations and three, we have three administrative officers. I think the six new officers being requested are necessary for a variety of reasons including improving and increasing safety in schools, an addition of an officer at the high school and to supplement staffing at the school as necessary and as equally important is to increase the size of the patrol strength in the, in the Town. It’s very important to have officers in those schools but at the same time a responsibility to the people of Zionsville. So as we lose officers to other assignments, to schools and so forth, the field strength begins to diminish and that means neighborhoods may not get the same amount of patrol attention that they deserve. Now, it’s expensive. I’m not going to sugar coat it and I’ve tried to break that down. The recurring cost for an officer is right at $122,000 and I’ve listed all those things that that provides for us – salaries, 401 health insurance, all Page 12 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 those things and you can read those for yourself I’m not going to read them to you but the total recurring costs for six new officers is $730,000. Our one-time costs would contribute to this and those are about $74,000 per officer and those include things like vehicles with equipment radios, weapons, body cameras, all those kinds of things. Now that figure can be reduced somewhat because many of these items we already have in stock we won’t have to buy some of the vehicles could be retained a bit longer and reduce that price but again, there are significant one-time costs. So when you add those altogether, the recurring costs and the one-time costs, it’s $1,174,000 to add these six new officers. And to get those officers quickly is a challenge because we are, we are competing with neighboring departments who are also recruiting, Indianapolis is recruiting, Carmel, really everybody is looking for police officers right now. So if we hire officers that have not been certified by the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy we’re looking at a long period of time before they’re available for assignment. They would come to us, we’d hire them, they’d go out on ride alongs with our officers until the training academy opens up, they’re in there for several months and then they come back for field training for several more months – it’s a long time. So my recommendation is that we should begin to aggressively recruit for lateral candidates that will significantly decrease the amount of time necessary to put these officers into service and if it’s approved we have a great opportunity now to recruit because we’ve got some officers who have some time off this summer from the schools that could help us with that recruiting process. The next page shows the organization of – Burk Hey Chief – Spears Yes. Burk If we do hire a candidate that’s not been through the academy – Spears Yes. Burk I’m not sure what percentages there are even in our department or others of folks who have completed that training or not, that’d be interesting to know but, if, if you hire someone who’s not, it sounds like you can – Spears Yes. Burk Are they then considered full-time employees during the ride along period and during all the training and everything else that you just, just – Spears Yes, yes. Burk So you’re just, you’re just absorbing those costs while they’re doing the training but – Spears Yes. Burk Any guesstimate in terms of either your department or just law enforcement in general in central Indiana what percentage of new hires have been academy certified and those who are then sent through the academy after being hired? Page 13 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Spears This last time we hired three and one was certified, and I think that was true to the last time as well. We had I’d say about a third of the officers we hire are already ILEA certified. Burk So if someone is interested in becoming a police officer, they can go out on their own dime and go, go into the academy? I mean, how, how do we make sure are, are they coming from other departments? How are we hiring folks who are already certified because some other department has already paid to send them through? Spears Yes, then we would not have to deal with the cost of that training time or the delay in getting them out into service but it’s a, it’s important that if we recruit on a lateral basis that we do it with a lot of scrutiny because we don’t want anybody coming to our Police Department who’s perhaps disgruntled where they’re at now. We want someone that understands what the work in Zionsville is like, that’s it’s much more service oriented and we want to make certain that they would be a good officer for us. Burk Yes. Thanks for clarifying. Spears Yes. So the next page shows the organizational structure of the Police Department and in red is where I propose that these new officers would be assigned. As you see, two go to the schools and one, we, our patrol shifts are 12- hour shifts and there are two sets of days off in each shift. So we have four squads, if you will, and I would assign one to each of those to begin that growth in patrol strength. Now the nice thing about that is if we have more strength, particularly at the daytime, then those officers can also supplement the schools if there’s a need – if an officer is ill or has a doctor’s appointment or, or whatever, we have officers available to reassign to the schools. They can also patrol in and around the schools during the time that schools, the traffic comes in and traffic comes out of the schools, and they’ll do dual duty. So, again, in summary it, it, it increases our strength from 38 to 44 and I don’t bring, I realize this is expensive, I don’t, I don’t I don’t bring it to you lightly, I bring it to you with belief that our Police Department is, is under, understaffed, particularly compared to other departments and I think even if you look at just the urban population, we’re that, we’re understaffed as well. Traylor What is the urban population? Spears I don’t know. Traylor Then you can’t know if we’re understaffed. Spears Well, I can, I can, I can make a great guess on that. If you go back to the first or the second page – if, it’s, I would guess we’re at least, at least the size of Lebanon and certainly the size of Whitestown and, and their officer ratio per 1,000 is significantly higher than ours. Traylor Don’t get me wrong – if we need police officers, I’m happy to do it. I just think these numbers should come back reflecting urban population – Page 14 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Spears Yes. Traylor Not total. Garrett Yes. Spears I don’t disagree Councilor – Traylor And – Plunkett Yes, I agree. Spears And, in fact I prepared this. I don’t think I put it in your packet, but I did look at staffing per 1,000 officers for a variety of population sizes. So if our, if we, and, and I honestly don’t know how I would find the urban staffing. I don’t know how it breaks out. I looked at census materials and I can’t find it. But if we look at a population of 10,000, the per with, with 32 officers, a ratio is still below where it needs to be. And if we look at with, with 38 officers, we’re still below those other two towns. Melton Chief, I have a, I have a question regarding three questions – one, SROs, you mentioned Whitestown, and Lebanon don’t supply any SROs, is that correct? Spears My understanding is Lebanon has a standalone school police department. Melton Okay. Spears Is that right? Garrett Whitestown doesn’t have a school system. Spears Whitestown school kids come to Zionsville. Melton Yes, okay. So with that being said, that’s something I’d like to look into, and I’ll have some discussions with Whitestown’s Council and kind of understand and interpret they do have a burden on the, on the school systems because some of their kids go to Lebanon and some of their kids go to Zionsville schools, so I’ll take that on the side. There were two other things that you said – one of them was regarding the municipal sizes when you were talking about the FBI reports here and I guess my question is this is based on population and density is it, is it, excuse me it’s based on population. Is it based on density and square miles of coverage and I guess we really need to kind of look into the FBI reports to kind of interpret that but I think that’s an important key to Zionsville, especially being Zionsville is one of the largest municipalities with a huge rural area so I think that’s just something that if you have a Whitestown that has 10,000 people compacted into a, a small, dense populated area versus Zionsville which has maybe three times that population but spread out within 62 square miles, I think that’s, I think that’s something that should be considered. Something else along those same lines I do support hiring more police officers. I don’t know that I can be on board for six, especially at the cost of one point $1.1 million when we’re Page 15 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 already over budget but you, you mentioned that Zionsville is a more service- oriented community. What is that? What, what role does that have in hiring police officers for the dense, you know, as the population is a certain density we talked about that but what, what does that mean with the service-oriented versus, I don’t know, I just want you to elaborate on service-oriented officers. Spears Yes, well I think the run load and the crime rate provides a unique opportunity for officers in Zionsville to become much more involved in the community, to become a big part of, a working with the neighborhoods, working with the community by that I mean spending time visiting with, with store owners, with faith community, with the church or with the schools and being able to provide that service and, and support that the people of Zionsville seem to crave. Melton So, so that’s different than, than some other municipality, say Indianapolis, who’s going on calls for, you know, domestic – Spears Right. Melton Domestic, drugs – Spears Right. We’re not booking, you know, a large number of felonies that require extensive manpower but at the same time we don’t want to get in a position where we have to book any felonies and we have a very, very high rating for safety in the state or in the country for that matter and I’m proud of that and I understand that doesn’t just happen. It happens because of the hard work of our police officers but it also happens because of the support that the community has for the Police Department and the way they interact with us. And I’m fairly confident that if we had a serious crime people would, would help us, provide us with information and ideas that we could use to solve that. So we want to keep that rating extremely high. It’s important for a lot of different reasons and not just the bragging rights of our Police Department. I think it’s important for economic development, people want to locate businesses here people want to live here, people want their kids to go to school here and we want to maintain that, that high level of safety and security which, which provides a lot of not just pride for the Town but incentive for people to want to be a part of the Town. Melton Thank you. Spears Yes sir. Garrett Chief, if you, it’s interesting Zionsville is one of the safest towns, you know, rated nationally, safest towns and yet based on these statistics seems like it is under policed. If we chose to move forward and take the schools out of it because I think that’s a different conversation that is, maybe an easier conversation but let’s say we chose to move forward, you know, there’s a lot of other demands on this Council for funding, right? I mean I would argue that Fire is also understaffed, clearly Finance is understaffed, I’d say Economic Development is understaffed you know, if, if and probably other departments I’m not mentioning too so if we say all right forget all of their needs, we’re going to focus on police and to, to accomplish that we’re actually not only going to, going to ignore those needs but take away potentially from some of their requests as well to fund this, Page 16 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 if, if we’re already rated one of the safest places in town, in the country what does this get us? Does this make us even safer? Does it make us feel better? I’m having a hard time because statistics can tell you anything, right? And I think the socioeconomic numbers in Zionsville also probably drive crime statistics both as crime prevention and maybe possibly crime attraction too, right, as people look at high income areas to come in so can you help make that case as to why we should either go into a deficit spend and hope that we can grow our way out of it with revenues that are very unknown right now given all the macroeconomic things going on or cut from other departments that have just as high a needs and also, I think, the community provides just a high value on, you know, parks and roads – can you kind of talk through like what do we get? Spears Right. It’s expensive and I feel like I’m just playing my position. My position is not necessarily to say I agree that all that money is there to be spent for the Police Department but to bring forth what I think is a reasonable recommendation for staffing. Some of our staffing has gone to some assignments that were we, we pulled out of in the past, things like the Drug Task Force. We have an officer assigned to that which I think is important and they do a lot of good work to bring us information and possibly keep some of that problem out of Zionsville. We have assigned an officer to the new state Gun Crimes Task Force which is also important I think. They help bring information to us and unfortunately, we’ve, we’ve been given some information about some, some links to people in situations within Zionsville so I think those things are important. When, with regard to how does it make us even a safer Town I think it provides us with opportunities to assign officers to different types of patrol assignments that they may not have been able to do in the past a lot of our officers are very interested in working to interdict problems before they get into Town and I think Councilor Traylor that’s what you might’ve seen up in that neck of the woods you’re talking about. I think some of those officers look for problems coming into Zionsville and one of those officers, in fact, did find a case like that, had a case like that a few months ago and made a significant arrest for a, a large amount of narcotics which were traveling right through Zionsville. We only need to look to the south to see much higher rates of crime and particularly violent crime and it’s not that we’re trying to put a fence up around Zionsville but at the same time I want to be mindful of the problems which might come into Zionsville. I think that’s one of the things that concerns me the most about Zionsville, it’s not the people of Zionsville but sometimes the folks that might want to come into Zionsville to take advantage of the people and places in the Town. Zionsville you can get in and out of it fairly easily and you can get a great distance in a, in a short period of time by access to the interstate and to other fast-moving roads and one of the ways we tried to help deal with that problem is the installation of these flock cameras and that’s done a lot. We get, wet get fairly regular hits on stolen cars and wanted people and I think that’s helped improve safety in the Town a lot so I’m fully aware of the cost and I wouldn’t bring it to you if I didn’t think it was necessary to keep pace with the growth of the Town and prevent problems from coming into Zionsville. Traylor What was, what was the number of non-school resource officers that you said we have currently? Spears Number of resource officers? Page 17 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Traylor Non, non. Spears 32. Traylor 32? All right from looking at the five-year plan that you submitted in August of last year and the goal was, do we have any openings currently? Spears No. Traylor No? All right, so the goal at that point was to have 33 for 2022, so we’re one off but then your plan was to add two officers per year for ’22, ’23, ’24 and then in ’25 to add three. What, why the change in the plan that you submitted in August to now? Why, why the sudden jump because it, I mean the numbers I don’t think have changed that much and I’m not trying, I really am not trying to beat you up but like we in August of last year I pointed out the rural/urban issue that it was going to be something I questioned and is something I question and for your new proposal that was not addressed so I think I’m not going to beat you up anymore but I think before we ask or before you ask for anything that you need to come back with numbers that accurately reflect because even with the suggestion that okay at 32 and 421 we’re catching people coming in, that’s not the Zionsville urban district and it benefits me as a, as a citizen to have double the coverage with the Zionsville Police and Sheriff’s Department but where I sit today as a Town Councilor responsible for spending and things of that sort, I’m seeing that you’re using the rural population numbers to ask for additional officers, I’m guessing the Sheriff’s Department uses a lot of the same individuals to ask for additional officers so we’re, we’re double dipping on that population. It’s no different in my mind than if we were to start patrolling down to 71st Street in Indianapolis that would help us catch people coming towards Zionsville I get that but, but that’s not where those tax dollars pay for people to patrol. Spears Yes. Traylor And so I’m if we need officers I will be right there but the numbers that you’re providing aren’t reflective of the the urban district that the Zionsville Police Department is responsible for. Spears Well here’s, here’s where the numbers came from Councilor. Last year I was going to ask for three, ask for three – one for the new elementary school and two to begin the growth in the patrol. The next year I would’ve asked for two and the third officer that makes the six, the total of six if you add those two years together and this is a conversation perhaps it might be best to have in an executive session because that, that officer would go to, to the high school for a variety of different reasons that probably ought to be discussed a little more confidentially. Burk Okay. Plunkett Any other questions? Garrett Thanks Chief. Page 18 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Melton Thank you. Plunkett Thanks Chief. Spears Yes. Plunkett I will say just real quick. Mayor, you might remember we met in March on March 18th actually and you’d made the comment that the budget was the Council’s or the fiduciary body, we approve it, we control, etc., etc., I think this just brings to light we need a budget process, I see Tim’s in the room and I believe you’re going to be working with the Town on this I mean I’d like to have every department head come to a Council meeting individually and present what they want and then Tim, revenues, projected revenues we can back in to some of that stuff but if, if we’re in a spot, I think expensive is a relative term, right? I mean, when we’re talking about adding police officers and needing other Town staff we’re going to have to find money in this next budget. The only way we find money is to know exactly what needs to be spent and the only way we know exactly what needs to be spent is to have whoever is presenting that budget, the department head, come up and say I need this many people, this much money for equipment, this much money for staffing, this much money for whatever it is so that we can then audit that and do our jobs and accurately find money if needed. I don’t know, I know the last couple of years we’ve been kind of backed up into the budget cycle where we kind of had to approve it or lose it this is, you know, June 21st and I’m certainly hopeful that we can start that process in the next month or two where we can have, obviously with the task force and the Police Department, the Fire Department and that kind of stuff it may not make sense to start there but if the Planning Department is something that we know we need help in, the Finance Department is somewhere we know we need help in maybe that’s kind of from a budgetary perspective where we start. I’d certainly welcome input or is that acceptable to you, can we do that? Styron Yes, I think that we’ll sit down and – Melton Can you – Styron We will drive all this through the finance committee. Yes, I don’t see why we can’t have, you know, a budget presentation. I feel like we’ve done that in the past. I mean absolutely but I suspect that we would be bringing to you all (inaudible off microphone.) Garrett Well – Styron (inaudible off microphone) budget presentation with each department (inaudible off microphone) Plunkett Could you come up to the podium please? I’m sorry. Garrett We’ve had a budget presentation, but I feel like that’s after all the sausage has been made. Page 19 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Plunkett Right. Garrett I’d like to understand, you know, Chief Spears wants six officers, but you know, I don’t know, Kellie wants six people in Finance – Plunkett and we-- Garrett By the time we get it we see, all we see is six officers for, for police and we have no idea, sort of through hearsay what else has been asked for. I mean, if we own the process, I want to know by giving six officers we’re giving up this – Plunkett Right. Garrett And, you know, okay that makes sense to me or no that doesn’t make sense. It should be three officers because I don’t want to give up all of that. I mean I think that’s part of the thing that I feel has been missing the last couple of years is the sense of by the time it gets to me what are we, what, what else has been asked for that has been not moved forward. Styron Sure, yes. I will say that as Mayor and the executive in the community it’s my job to go through our budget requests in advance with each department head and make sure that it is balanced and that it reflects our priorities and it’s, that process will continue in that manner but then we do bring it to you all with those, those priorities of the administration and the Town for you all to go through and to determine how does that match with what your expectations are, what your understanding is and the direction that you want to go in. I don’t see us having a double budget hearing in terms of each department head coming to the process that I have as the Mayor and then bringing it to you in a separate component because it first gets built in the administration and then it, we go through it to determine how is this funded, how does this mesh with our, you know, our four- year plan that we have and then you all come through and I would expect three of you to participate in that particular process. It’s not like you’re not a part of going through those initial conversations but in terms of having each department head come up and ask you all we would like X, Y, Z and then you all whittle down the budget to that number that, that is not the approach that we’ve used in the past – Garrett And I think that approach in the past has been bad. Plunkett I would agree. I would agree with that. It’s not been what’s been used in the last couple of years. Styron That’s right. Plunkett It is what has been used prior to that – Styron That’s right. Plunkett And we never had any budget concerns or any problems. In fact, the Fire Department had surpluses, the Police Department had surpluses and we’ve never had those problems before. Page 20 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Styron We have surpluses in both of those ares now in their funds. We have lots of dollars in each of the funds, it’s the appropriation that has been you know, that we’ve been looking at and appropriation tied to incoming revenue that is regenerative, that is every single year, it’s added to the budget. As you, as we’ve discussed, that fund balance is that one-time investment and it’s been the restriction associated with mostly local income tax that has restrained the annual budget in the last couple of years, which I believe we could ask Crowe in terms of what they see some of those revenue projections looking like in terms of recurring revenue. Plunkett I mean I think we’ll get there, right? I mean eventually we’ll get to Crowe to ask that but my, my problem is when we, this, this budget process when you go to build a house you sit down with the builder, and you pick out everything you want and if you’re over budget you start taking things out. Styron Yes. Plunkett What we get is the house and then we’re told well find whatever you need to take out. Well we weren’t involved in the building of the house; we weren’t involved in the building of the budget, so we don’t know where the money is. Traylor Well and I think the really funny part is you’re not, you don’t want this Council to hear from the individual department heads ahead of time about their needs that you’re going to handle and that’s fine if that’s the way you want to do it – Styron Yes. Traylor But then don’t have them come to a Council meeting mid-year and ask for more. If, if you’re going to be the go-between then you come to the Council and ask for more because you cut that off at, before it ever made it to us for budget. Am I making sense there? Plunkett Yes, our, our involvement in the budget process case in point last year when Chief Spears comes and says he needs new officers, we, our engagement and involvement in the process was we’re removing this officer, and this is an optional officer. If we need him or her we’ll ask for an appropriation. We’ll – Styron If you recall, the reason those were taken – Plunkett We were never given the opportunity to look at that from the beginning. We may have found money to find or pay for that officer. We were never given that opportunity. Styron We did talk about those things and the issue with the Council has, was and continues to be, is my understanding, is if it’s not funded for through our recurring revenue stream then we can’t invest in that because it’s not it isn’t sustainable and we talked about that during the budget process and what we’ve, what we’re bringing to you today is we’ve got new revenue numbers, we can see where we can afford these now – Garrett We, we do? Page 21 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Traylor This is the first we’re hearing about that right now. Plunkett Who has the revenue numbers? Styron We have, we have had a, a growth in those income tax. Traylor So – Plunkett But we don’t have numbers, we just – Traylor You should’ve led with that when you’re asking for more money because hey we’ve got more money and now here’s how we’d like to spend it not hey we want to spend more money and not tell us about it. Styron I think what we wanted to do today is introduce to you a response and a plan in regards, with regard to school safety. We did not, we did not have a budget request. We wanted to share with you these ideas that the Police Department has as it relates to growing their strength and in terms of being ready to prepare for growth in the schools and where we’re going to have potentially new growth in the areas around the schools. Garrett What are the new revenue numbers? We’re the fiscal body. No one sends us new revenue numbers. Styron I think that what we’re talking about is the intention, the growth that we intend to see with regard to changes in patterns of population and development. Garrett I don’t know what that means. Do we have new revenue numbers? Styron No, we do not have new revenue numbers to share with you. We are just talking about the Police Department going forward and what we are seeing and recommending for growth in our school system which he, the Chief broke down, and growth in our urban district. I think that something you might, would probably need to make sure you all are aware of is when an area that is rural transitions into urban do you all have a sense of when that happens? Do you get that information? Plunkett We do it. Traylor We do it. Plunkett We do it. We just did that a couple of years ago with the Enclave. That’s what we were talking about earlier. Styron Okay. Traylor Yes, we’re the body that does that. Plunkett I mean the whole point is if it’s $121,000 to hire a police officer, given the budget – let’s say the Police Department’s budget is $6 million dollars. If I knew Page 22 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 what was in that budget every single dollar and what we could take if I was able to sit down with anyone and say what can we take out, what can we add, what can we do whatever with? We could’ve found $121,000. We were never given that opportunity. And all I’m asking for now is to have that opportunity. And we’re in agreement here. You think we need more officers; I think we likely need more officers. This Council if we can prove that it’s needed in the urban area, likely needs new officers. We’re all on board but we gotta find the money and if we can’t find the money, we can’t pay for them. Styron That sounds great. Garrett So, hold on a sec. Four minutes ago you said we have new revenue numbers, two minutes ago you said we don’t have new revenue numbers. So we do not have new revenue numbers? Styron I think that what I’m saying is that we have projections for revenue that have, show growth and I don’t want to say anything specific because I don’t have anything in front of me to share and I don’t want to mislead you in terms of those numbers but I do know that we are looking at growth in the future and when we bring forward a proposal like the Police Chief has today, we are responding to you and the, and the larger community about concerns for school safety and how Zionsville is approaching that situation and at the same time looking at growing as our urban footprint grows and as our population grows, as visitors grow. I support 100% our Police Department and the Police Chief’s efforts but I also understand that we have to understand, that we have to come up with a plan for how do we fund that with recurring dollars. First step to share with you the need and the next step is for us to work with Crowe and the finance committee to find the revenue. Garrett So here, here’s my ask because you, you mention a lot you’re, you’re, you like, I shouldn’t say you like, working with us on these sorts of things, so we talk about the budget. If I think about the way that the budget has been going on the last few years, is that your professionals, Chief Spears, Chief VanGorder, Mr. Lantz, Superintendent Lantz, they come up with plans based on what they see as needs so Chief Spears said I need three new officers – Styron Yes. Garrett Sort of behind the curtain you work with all of them and say yes, no, yes, no, yes, no until by the time it gets to us it’s balanced – Styron Balanced, that’s right. Garrett I appreciate it. That’s what we’ve asked for – Styron Yes, yes. Garrett But we don’t know that Chief Spears needed three new officers. And so for me then it’s very hard for me to say listen police is a, is a priority but when I see that it’s come to, from Chief Spears with 38 officers I’m sort of assuming that he’s, he has the staffing level that he feels is necessary. I don’t know that there’s a gap Page 23 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 so it prevents me from making two decisions: one is should we go in a deficit because it is public safety and that’s an important thing or should I pull from somewhere else because public safety is more of a priority than roads? And I’m just making that up, right? I’m not saying it is or isn’t. Styron Right. Garrett I don’t have a seat at that conversation so when you say the Council that needs to insert their own priorities into that, I don’t have the experts telling me what they need and then me being able to make an informed decision. If you’re telling me this budget process I’m still not going to have that that’s going to be a really big problem for me and I’m probably just going to ignore your budget and I’m just going to come up with my own budget and I think that’s bad for you. Styron Yes. Garrett So, I’m willing to work with you but I need you willing to work with me. I’d like to hear from those, those department heads to see – we have $5 million dollars more in requests than we’ve got money coming in from and what is, what is the priorities that you think should cut, what is the priorities Council thinks should cut to get to that balance? Styron Yes. Garrett Some of the things you’re not going to like, some things I’m not going to like but that’s part of working together as we figure out, all right you can have that thing, I can have that thing and let’s get this done. I don’t want to speak for you President Plunkett but that’s kind of my expectation in a budget process – Styron Yes. Garrett Is I’d like to hear from all these folks and then I’d like to work with you and your administration to prioritize together, if it happens to be police, and I can see that being a possibility, great then we’ve, we’ve figured that out, but I also want to understand what else is being asked for that’s not being funded that comes at a cost of that. Styron I think that’s fair. I’ve, what we want to present to you is a balanced budget and we can also share with you some of the things that were requested and not seen as priorities for this administration. Garrett Absolutely. Styron That sounds good. Garrett That’d be great. Styron Great. Thanks. Melton One last thing, Mayor – you mentioned in your presentation earlier about redistricting. Can you elaborate on that? I just, I caught the, a piece of that – Page 24 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Styron Yes. Melton You said, you said redistricting options. Styron That’s right. That’s right. So this – Melton Is that politically or – Styron It’s legislative bodies redistricting across Indiana and so what that means is each of your, some of you are, are Town-wide and some of you are assigned to a specific district. For example Craig, which is your, what’s your council district? Melton District 3. Styron District 3. So today District 3 has a certain amount of population in it and a certain amount of square miles in it and that’s the same for every one of you who are not an at-large district. So that doesn’t, this doesn’t count for Brad, Councilor Burk. This year each legislative body is required to look at your council districts and assess population and if there are gaps or things that are outside of an equal kind of population among those different districts, there needs to be lines redrawn so that to the best of the ability every council district has an equal level of population. So some areas have grown tremendously over, you know, several years, a decade – I don’t know how long it’s been since the last redistricting effort was – was that 10 years? Is it every 10 years? So over the last 10 years we’ve seen tremendous growth and I would expect that we’d see some changes in terms of those district lines but I’m sure your attorney can help you with all of that and they, she’s very well, I mean, Heather, I know – I don’t know about this guy – I’m sure you’re really good at this too. Styron Heather’s great at this stuff. Burk Mayor, I would just make one comment to kind of wrap back up with the budget ask I appreciate the Chief putting this together and coming forward and I think we all agree, I certainly agree that public safety should be a top priority for us moving forward. I think we have to justify paying for a lot of that. My concern is that we’re, we’re proposing $1.2 million dollars today as it is presented. Like this is, this is priority that you would like us to consider. But it’s a siloed component of the budget. It’s not comprehensive at all. We’re not seeing a balanced budget. You said your goal was to present to us a balanced budget – Styron Yes. Burk And there was some discussion of the process whereas some people like to make the sausage, you like to present the packaged sausage I guess to some degree for the Town to vote on, you’re proposing that we add $1.2 million dollars, but we haven’t heard from the other departments so it – Styron I just want to be – Burk It’s premature – Page 25 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Styron No, yes. Burk To say that within a balanced budget, you’re, you’re telling me, I’m just listening to you, that what you would want is $1.2 million dollars of new budget spend – Styron Yes. Burk Here – Styron Yes. Burk Whereas I haven’t seen the comprehensive budget. You haven’t gone through that process so – Styron That’s absolutely true. I’m not here to go over a comprehensive budget or to really talk about the next year’s budget specifically. This request for school safety, resource officers and more just more general requests from the Police Department is with regard to an immediate need that I believe we should have in terms of shoring up our current Zionsville Police Department. That’s why it came today. It’s not necessarily a preview for the 2023 budget, although we’ll certainly happily take that during that time if that’s what the Council decides. Burk That’s what my first question was. Is this a 2023 budget issue or is this an immediate need you’re asking for now because if it is a 2023 need, you may very well come back to us after you’ve condensed your entire department and sat down, and you figure out what you want. You may very well come to us even though we’ve now heard $1.2 million, you may present to us in September half that, a third of that, right? We don’t know because you have, you have to take a look at your entire Town budget and then you’ll present to us what you think your priorities are as an administration so this may not be there unless you are saying we need some of these dollars now, it’s not part of the budget process – that’s a different question. Styron After Uvalde I asked Chief Spears to take a look at what do we need to really work towards not having a situation where we couldn’t manage a active shooter event, if we couldn’t manage a situation like that and he said it had been something he also was top of mind and he had been working with his team to start thinking through what does the next iteration of the Zionsville Police Department need to look like. Where do we kind of reinvent ourselves in terms of from where we have been in the past and this is the presentation that he provided you today and he provided data, he provided information, you know, what the needs are – Traylor Inaccurate data. Styron And I stand by what he has provided and – Burk Yes. Styron Support his request. Page 26 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Burk Yes, I appreciate it. In fact, I think if, if we move forward with the new public safety task force that Jason has kind of called into order at the last meeting and Chief bringing some of this forward because I do feel like some of these are more timely and some of these are maybe things that are going to be part of 2023, which you’ll have to vet with your team to figure out – Styron Yes. Yes. Burk What you can actually afford. Styron I appreciate that so much Councilor. I think that’s the type of, you know, dialogue that the Chief is looking forward to getting into. Burk Yes. Styron Thanks. Burk Absolutely. Traylor And just so the public is not misunderstanding or misled, this proposal that’s in front of us is for six patrol officers. It is not for school resource officers. Styron All school resource officers are patrol officers, just FYI. Garrett Since we’re sort of well protected here and the Sheriff is here as well, I, Sheriff, I know you’ve been listening to this, is there any, if you don’t mind coming up, is there any comment you have sort of talking about urban, rural and staffing and schools – your department is a good partner of our department and of our community and I think sometimes people don’t realize that, that you service a large part of Zionsville as well, correct? Nielsen We do thank you Councilor, thank you Mayor, Chief. It’s awesome to be here today. I’ll be brief I do want to make a comment and that comment is I moved to Zionsville in 1983 and I made a commitment to the Town of Zionsville and that commitment is still there. What I can tell you is I became a police officer in the early ‘80s here and so I’ve been around for a long time. I’ve been around through the reorganization committee. I was part of that with Candace Ulmer, Jeff Papa and all those and we made a commitment back then to take care of the rural areas from the Sheriff’s Office perspective and I just want to assure this Council the Chief of Police the Mayor that that commitment still stands and will stand not only with me when I finish out my term this year but with Sheriff-elect Harris so you have our commitment for that rural area coverage. We are in unprecedented times from a law enforcement perspective. It’s hard to keep people, it’s hard to find people and we have those challenges every single day, the same challenges that the Zionsville Police Department have but we’ve been great partners with you, you guys have been great partners with us, and we’ll continue that commitment and anything that we can do for you in the future please reach out to us. Page 27 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Garrett Sheriff, can you just sort of talk about as there has been growth in the rural area as well, how do you accommodate that from a staffing perspective within your own department? Nielsen Yes, so with the public safety LIT tax that we enacted in 2016 took effect in 2017, we were able to hire people deputies to take care of those rural areas and the rest of the county. This clearly, Whitestown, Zionsville, is the most populated area in our county and we, we try to staff our deputies the best that we can in these areas. If you look at our response times, our response times are very good. Our deputies cover 454 square miles, we split it up in areas but what I can tell you is that our response time is very good not only in the rural areas of Zionsville but throughout the entire county. So we do that, again, it’s hard to find good police officers, it’s hard to find police officers today and frankly some of the young folks now are chasing paychecks so everybody has that challenge across this across the country. We do the best we can to do that, but I think we do a very, very good job at taking care of the rural folks in Zionsville like we, we made that commitment years and years ago on the reorganization and that commitment stands. Garrett Thank you Sheriff. Nielsen Thank you very much. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE Plunkett All right, up next is the Town Council update. Any updates from members of the Council? Garrett So I got a quick update on behalf of Councilor Choi – I think you guys know he’s leading up this public safety task force along with Vice President Burk and myself just a quick update – sort of the first thing that we did, we’ve got a mission statement we’ve put together and I’ll just read that here so folks are aware it’s very, very well timely with, with the Mayor’s discussion today the public safety task force is set up to assess public safety in Zionsville so we’ve got a good start here. This group will look at current practices for police, fire, and mental health in identifying needed changes to support our growing school system and overall community. The goal is to make best practice recommendations and support upgrades in staffing, training, equipment, communication and other public safety needs to the Town Council and the Mayor. So I think what Chief Spears has put together, what the Mayor has put together here on the police side what we want to do is set up and it will initially be an executive session just because we don’t want to talk about sensitive, strategic items or tactics that may, you know, somehow endanger folks. We wanted to set up sessions with Chief Spears, Sheriff Nielsen, Chief VanGorder, the Boone County Health Department the schools, so Superintendent Robison and Associate Superintendent, soon-to-be Superintendent Coffman and CFO Adams here with the Town as well as Crowe do that in conjunction with the Page 28 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Mayor to really just have an understanding of what that is with the eventuality of hopefully coming back with here are the overall needs, here are the overall budget implications of that and we can certainly have a public dialogue around that so it’s sort of an assessment gap and then presentation on that so more updates forthcoming but I just wanted to let you know where we’re at today. Plunkett Sure. Anything else from Councilors? I would just say real quick, I think it’s always been a priority of this Council to come back to the essential employees that, you know, the Mayor had to identify early on in the pandemic I have the numbers for those. I believe the number is around $129,000 total we would I’m not comfortable taking action on anything today given we’ve got a couple of members gone but that’s certainly something that I want to make sure we, we address in the coming months as Councilor Melton has mentioned a number of times and I think as Vice President Burk has said, you know, we, we’d like to hold some, some town hall meetings about how the community feels like we should spend the money and invest the money I know the administration is going to have some ideas and I think we’ll have some ideas and it’s important just to make sure we get feedback from the community so you’ll, you’ll see some of those dates come out soon and locations and we’ll certainly forward that to the Town to push out on their social media platforms and I would assume we’ll put it on ours as well and you know, if we need to have an official public meeting because we’ll have more Councilors there so be it but I think it’s just important to get that, get that feedback. CLAIMS Plunkett All right, if you guys are okay with it we’ll circle back to claims right now. Any questions on claims? Garrett I make a motion to approve claims. Plunkett I believe we would have to make two motions on the claims because we’ve got – Garrett Oh because of multiple claims? Plunkett Yes, so. Go ahead Councilor Garrett. Garrett Well, all I’ve got is the motion to approve the June 21st – Plunkett 21st, yes. Garrett Claims. Plunkett Sorry. Yes. Melton Second. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett, second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 29 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 5 in favor, 0 opposed. OLD BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance Authorizing the Town of Zionsville, Indiana to Become a Member of the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority Pursuant to Ind. Code 36-7.7 (Final Reading) Ordinance 2022-07 Plunkett Up next on Old Business is Consideration of an Ordinance Authorizing the Town of Zionsville, Indiana to Become a Member of the Central Indiana Redevelopment Authority Pursuant to Indiana Code 36-7.7. This is a final reading. This is Ordinance 2022-07 as you guys recall, we went through this at the last meeting a couple of meetings ago we had Mayor Jensen come and talk about it as well. Are there any questions or any, any follow-up on that? Burk I think we all have been supportive. The question we don’t know is, you know, will there be you know, a financial component to this at some point. I hear there is, but I don’t – is there anything for 2022 – Plunkett Right. Burk Then we would have, we’d have to worry about for budget reasons. Is that right, Mayor? Okay. Plunkett If there’s nothing else, I’ll make a motion to approve Ordinance 2022-07. Traylor Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Traylor. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 5 in favor, 0 opposed. Page 30 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 NEW BUSINESS Consideration of Resolution of the Town Council for the Town of Zionsville, Boone County, Indiana Adopting a Preliminary Strategic Economic Development Plan for the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority Pursuant to Ind. Code 36-7.7 Resolution 2022-08 Plunkett First up on New Business is the Consideration of a Resolution of Town Council Town of Zionsville, Boone County, Indiana Adopting a Preliminary Strategic Economic Development Plan for the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority Pursuant to Indiana Code 36-7.7. You guys will recall this is a resolution, an accompany resolution that’s, that’s required for the ordinance we just passed. So, any questions on that? I’ll make a motion to approve Resolution 2022-08. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 5 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Additional Appropriation Resolution ( CJI Small Equipment Grant – ZPD) (Public Hearing) Resolution 2022-10 Plunkett Moving along. Up next is a Consideration of an Additional Appropriation Resolution. This is CJI Small Equipment Grant for the Zionsville Police Department this is Resolution 2022-10 and Captain Sterling I believe you’re going to present? Sterling Good morning Council. So in front of you is a resolution to appropriate $5,000. This was obtained from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute in the form of a grant for small equipment specifically for tasers. It’s in the amount of $5,000 and we’re requesting that be appropriated into the Police Department fund so we can begin to use that to purchase new tasers. Garrett So this was a grant we won that just needs to be then spent? Sterling Correct, yes. It’s in the general fund now unassigned, we’d like to appropriate into our fund. Garrett Have we had tasers before? Page 31 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 Sterling Yes. Every officer has a taser currently. Garrett Oh, okay. Got it. Plunkett Are there any other questions for Captain Sterling? This is this is a public hearing. I have proof of the publication and the notice of public hearing. I will open the public hearing. Any members of the public who would like to comment? Having heard none, I will close the public hearing. Any further discussion for Captain Sterling? All right, I will make a motion to approve Resolution 2022-10. Garrett Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 5 in favor, 0 opposed. Thanks so much. Sterling Thank you. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next is Other Matters. Any Councilors have anything else they’d like to go over? Garrett No. ADJOURN Plunkett All right. I will make a motion to adjourn. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 5 in favor, 0 opposed. The next regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 5, 2022 at 7 p.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice will be posted Page 32 of 33 Zionsville Town Council June 21, 2022 in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Please note the date change due to the 4th of July holiday. Thank you. Respectfully Submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 33 of 33