Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2023 AT 7:00 P.M. EST ONSITE MEETING This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Alex Choi, Joe Culp, Josh Garrett, Craig Melton, and Bryan Traylor Also Present: Dustin Meeks, Town Council Attorney; Jo Kiel, Director of Human Resources; Jarod Logsdon, Parks and Recreation Superintendent; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett I will now call to order the Tuesday, January 3, 2023 Town Council meeting. If you would please, stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. Election of Officers - President Plunkett Up first on the agenda is the election of the 2023 Town Council officers. Up first would be President. Garrett I would, if you’re willing, I would like to nominate President Plunkett to continue for another term. Burk Second. Plunkett I would do that. So I got a first by Councilor Garrett and a second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Page 1 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Election of Officers – Vice-President Plunkett Up next would be the election of Vice President and along those same lines, if you would be willing to do so, I’d like to nominate Vice President Burk. Culp Second. Burk It’d be a privilege. Plunkett Second by Councilor Culp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE DECEMBER 19, 2022 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Up next is the approval of the memorandum of the December 19, 2022 Regular Town Council meeting. A copy has been posted. Are there any questions from Councilors? Garrett I’d make a motion to approve. Plunkett I’ll second that. First by Councilor Garrett, second by President Plunkett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE JANUARY 3, 2023 – 2022 YEAR-END CLAIMS Plunkett Up next is the approval of the January 3, 2023 Claims. Are there any questions from Councilors regarding claims? Traylor Is there anybody here to answer them? Plunkett I do have a couple of questions about claims too that would require moving claims around. Traylor Yes, I guess my only real, well my biggest question was we had taken off the Ice Miller invoice for $3,000 waiting for some explanation of what that was for. I Page 2 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 didn’t see that added back in to these claims so I’m just curious – I want to make sure that it didn’t get paid and see if it’s going to show up on a future claim. Plunkett Yes. I also had a question – there’s in the general account 9 –101 and then 999 non-department legal fees it has Barnes & Thornburg legal fees of $15,500. It also shows a Nooning & Whitsitt claim in there as general matters. I’m assuming that that should be our retainer. I think we’ve had that in the past because it’s not in our Town Council line here but without knowing that that’s our actual retainer – I mean, for, for what it’s worth, if we don’t have anybody answer, I’m comfortable continuing this to the next meeting. Traylor Yes, I’d make a motion to continue. Garrett Second. Plunkett First by Councilor Traylor, second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. REQUEST TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEM Plunkett Up next is Request to Speak on Agenda Item. Amy, do we have any requests? Lacy No, we do not. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett Very good. Up next would be Mayor/Administration Update and I did not receive anything from the Mayor. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE Plunkett Up next would be Town Council Update. I did just want to let members of the public and the Council know that we are working on, I shouldn’t say are working on – we’ve completed a list of appointments to Boards and Commissions. Vice President Burk and I met last week to finalize those. They will be on the next meeting. So we will vote on those at the next meeting and I appreciate all those in the public that gave input and certainly those on the Council that did as well. Up next is Old – Garrett Hold – Plunkett Sorry – go ahead. Page 3 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Garrett Well I just noted or noticed as I was looking back on meetings that we haven’t done any encumbrance of money for, from 2022 to 2023 and I don’t think there’s anyone here to answer that but I’m just curious – did we not have any funds that we had to encumber over or did we forget to do that? So, that’s just kind of an open question that I would like answered at some point. Traylor And I would like to know if there is any update on the claim for, the insurance claim for Chief VanGorder’s legal fees. Plunkett Yes, as of the last meeting, I was informed by the defense attorney for Zurich that we are not to speak about this in a public meeting and that they would be reaching out to the Fire Chief’s attorney and legal team and I have invited them to attend, or him specifically, to attend the Town Council meeting. He denied that request for this meeting so I will be asking him to attend the next meeting. Traylor Does he have any authority to tell me what to speak about? Plunkett It’s just simply a process of the – Traylor I mean from – Plunkett Insurance company. Traylor I guess from – Plunkett But the answer is no. He has – Traylor I’m just saying is there any legal precedent for why I can’t ask a question? I mean if he wants to tell me what to do, I’d love for him to come here and tell us what’s going on. All we’re looking for is an update and we can’t get one. Plunkett I would agree and as I’ve shared with the Council in the past, I’ve been in on a couple of conversations with the insurance company as well as our attorney trying to understand why the claim has not been paid and why the process is taking this long and, again, I would say, the defense attorney who is working on behalf of the insurance company has shared they have been in communication with the legal teams for the Mayor, the Fire Chief and our legal team and I can tell you from our perspective, they have not been in contact with our legal team. Garrett OpenGov told us not to speak about that problem too so – Traylor Yes – Garrett I would encourage you to keep speaking about it. Traylor Well I did just, for the record, I did do a public records request. I only did that, I think it was four days ago now, so nothing on that yet but my hope is to have more information by doing a public records request than I can get just by asking. Plunkett Yes. Page 4 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Traylor Another update that I’ve got – at the last meeting I had asked about the $19,000 appropriation or misappropriation, depending on what comes back, for a theater in Lebanon coming out of the Food and Beverage Fund. I’ve gotten no update on that. Every, everybody was copied saying that I’d get an update. No update on that either but I am supposed to get an update from the Deputy Mayor on Thursday, so I’ll let you know at the next meeting. Plunkett Very good. Any other updates from Councilors? OLD BUSINESS Plunkett Moving on to Old Business – there are no Old Business items. NEW BUSINESS Consideration of Approval of Job Descriptions (Director and Deputy Director Finance & Records) Plunkett Up next would be New Business and the first item up is the Consideration of Approval of Job Descriptions. This is for the Director and Deputy Director of Finance and Records. HR Director, Jo Kiel is here. Jo, I’ll actually let you introduce that and then I’ll kind of talk a little bit about what I think we should do here. Kiel Sure. In the 2023 Salary Ordinance you approved the changing of the title from CFO to Director of Finance and Records back to where it was maybe three years ago and requested to approve the job description. I submitted updated, redlined job descriptions for both that and the Deputy Director of Finance and Records. Plunkett Yes, I appreciate that and I think is something that the Council talked about wanting to do. In full disclosure, our legal counsel hasn’t had a chance to review The job description yet. I think if it’s okay with this Council and Jo with you, what I’d like to do is continue that to the next meeting – Kiel Yes. Plunkett That way we can have a reviewed redline version and we can make what appropriate recommendations at that point. So – Traylor Can I, just based on what I read, can I make a couple of quick points? Plunkett Yes, Yes. Traylor So one – and I’ll make this as easy as possible – in the Duties and Responsibilities, let’s see – last bullet on the Director of Finance – I pulled up the Deputy Director, give me just a second – sorry. But on the last bullet under Duties and Responsibilities, it says with input from and in coordination with other Directors and the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, this person would develop, implement and administer the annual budget. I would like to have the Town Council added to that line since we are the fiscal body. And then my other Page 5 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 question was I did notice that the pay grade – oh maybe I, maybe I saw that wrong – I’m sorry. Give me just a second to make – oh, never mind. I saw the numbers wrong. I thought they were both at the same pay grade. One’s a 36, one’s a 26. My mistake. Kiel Okay. Plunkett I think moving this to the middle of the month would give us a chance to even make that change if we wanted to so if you guys are open to it I’ll make a motion to continue the Consideration of Approval of Job Descriptions to the mid-month meeting. Choi Could I just ask a question or – Plunkett Yes. Choi Just some clarifications. I think we’re aware but so that the public’s aware what happened three years ago in terms of going from Director of Finance to CFO what the reasoning behind that and why we’re going back now again at this point. Kiel I wasn’t here when it changed from a Director to a CFO so I don’t know specifically. I think it was designed to – well, I can’t even speak on that because I wasn’t here. I do know that the reasoning of taking it from a CFO back to a Director is it’s more in line with municipal finance. I don’t know anybody that has a CFO, any town, and when you look at qualifications for a CFO, the education, the experience, that type of thing, it is difficult to find somebody that has all of that in addition to municipal finance knowledge and that is the reason. I don’t know that municipalities are set up in that same sense that a private corporation would be. Choi Were you going to say something Councilor Traylor? Traylor I was just going to say that we were kind of sold on it being a cost saving measure that we wouldn’t have to lean on a financial advisory firm like Crowe as much. That we would have that knowledge in-house and it didn’t work out. So, we’ve spent more money on Crowe to try to fix – Culp Twice. Traylor Yes, twice it didn’t work out but we’ve spent more money on Crowe to try to help fix all the problems that this has caused. We should’ve never gone with a CFO strategy but we – Choi I think we knew that. Melton I’ll second the continuance, Jason. Plunkett All right, so we got a first by President Plunkett, a second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Page 6 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Thanks, Jo. Kiel Thank you. READI Grant Overview and Zionsville Gateway Area Update Plunkett Up next is a READI Grant Overview and Zionsville Gateway Area Update and we have Corie Sharp. Sharp Good evening Councilors. Plunkett Good evening. Sharp Thank you for giving me a little bit of time. Plunkett Yes, Corie could you just, for the record, could you just introduce yourself. Sorry. Thank you. Sharp Okay. My name is Corie Sharp. I am an urban planner and landscape architect and have been working on redevelopment strategies for municipalities for a couple, couple years and let’s all just be kind and say a couple. I own a company called Innovative Planning and I have been working with the Redevelopment Commission over the last six months to basically fill the gap from when the Director of Community and Development, Planning and Development left and I was just basically a, a gap filler but since that time we have learned a lot about the Redevelopment Commission and the opportunities with the, with the community and with developers and opportunities to have separate departments, so to speak. The, so to get into the nitty gritty – a Redevelopment Commission is actually underneath a separate statute from the Plan Commission and the Redevelopment Commission has a very clear purpose. It is a public purpose that’s focused on replanning of redevelopment areas in a specific need that, for which public money may be spent and private property may be acquired. So that’s kind of the planning, the thinking part of it. And then the other aspect of Redevelopment Commissions is the actual arm of the development. You have had a great arm of development in your Redevelopment Commission because Creekside is their baby, and your baby, and so you have been driving private enterprise through that development arm. Redevelopment Commissions have the capability to work in the entire geography of, of any municipality. Zionsville’s Redevelopment Commission, obviously, is working within the framework of Zionsville but it can’t be just anywhere. It has to be in areas needing of redevelopment. It has to be focused on redevelopment projects or urban renewal areas, more specifically or more appropriate for the Page 7 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Town of Zionsville, economic development areas, which is really what Creekside has been for, for the community. My role as it’s proposed to the Redevelopment Commission is to serve as the Redevelopment Commission Director. Mr. Dale is the city’s Plan Commission Director and that operates under a separate statute and he is a staff person of the actual city that is within your city budget, town budget; whereas I am a consultant and working underneath the – it is proposed that I work underneath the redevelopment budget specifically. They manage their own budget and I’ve got a budget at the backend of this. Garrett Hey Corie – Sharp Yes – Garrett What’s the timing of that happening? Sharp So – Garrett Because I think it’s very important that that does happen. Sharp It, yes – it will be on this month’s agenda for January – Garrett Okay. Sharp January 23rd is the next Redevelopment Commission meeting. Currently, my contract is with the town and the Mayor had executed that. We will terminate that contract and then flip this over to me being, having the reporting board of the Redevelopment Commission as a whole rather than reporting to Council or reporting to the Mayor. Garrett And does the budget have to flip over then to support that change? Like, do we need to reappropriate money from contractual services to the RDC so that they can then pay your, your fees? Sharp Can we hit pause on that one? Garrett Yep! Sharp All right. Give me a couple minutes. So it takes a team and Mike Dale, Director Dale’s team, Owen Young and Zach Lutz, have been fantastic support of the Redevelopment Commission in years past and, luckily, we’re able to continue on with their support but that is The core team that will be focused on the Redevelopment Commission efforts over the next couple years. Zionsville has some existing TIF areas today. They include areas just on the west side of the border by the Adler/Hy-Vee, the area on Whitestown Parkway, then there’s Holliday Farms has a big area, Creekside which is – and then there’s also a Zionsville EDA area. I’m going to blow these up but this is just a, an overview. You have a handful of, of, of areas that are generating tax increment. So, TIF areas, just to back up a little bit, are areas that have been established in an area as Page 8 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 an economic development area then you can issue TIF bonds where you basically take out a mortgage on that, that piece of property and you lay flat the assessed value of that property in year one and then all of the growth on that property because of the new development that then pays for the mortgage payments, the debt service, against that base value. So it, it really is a per area cycle fiscally. It is not, unless the bonds are structured very complex, it is a geographic area where the bonds stay in a specific area. So the blue area of Holliday Farms – that is a Holliday Farms area. We can, any money that comes in from that has to be paid towards the Holliday Farms’ debt obligation or to pay for projects that Holliday Farms committed to or it can pay for public projects within a quarter mile of that. It is a very small, small area. Garrett Hey Corie – go back. If you don’t mind going one back one. Sharp I don’t. Garrett Isn’t the Pittman property there at Sycamore and 421 – isn’t that a TIF? Sharp Yep. It’s right here. It is highlighted there. Garrett It is? Sharp Yes, it’s kind of shaded in but – Plunkett It’s light pink. Sharp But we’ve got it in. This is coming from the GIS and so – Garrett It’s not really highlighted. That’s just the – Sharp Yes, it’s kinda like a – no, it’s got like a brown color to it. It is – Garrett That’s just the Google Maps – Sharp Okay, well I – Garrett Like that’s just field. I just want to make sure it was – Sharp Yes. Garrett Or was not a TIF. Sharp It is a designated area. Okay, a couple areas that I want to specifically talk about – it is the Oak Street Area. I just want to mention that, these couple projects coming up because there are activities that the Redevelopment Commission has been working on over the last six months that I want to highlight. So the Oak Street Area includes Town Hall here where the red button is. Then this piece of public property right here, which the Redevelopment Commission has offered for sale. There is a public process to put a piece of property up for sale. We received no bids on that property. We have waited 30 days and continue to not have any discussions on this property. Now the state statute will allow us to discuss with Page 9 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 any interested party. We do not have to issue this property out for public bid again, but so you’ll see some future conversations around what we have been calling Lot 2 in front of Town Hall just opposite The eye doctors’ building. Plunkett Corie, when you put that out for public bid, do you put a, a value, a, a perceived value on that? Is that how that works? Sharp Yes. We have to put it out in the public notice twice to the paper then we have to have two appraisals for the property and we have to advertise it for the average of those two appraisals. Plunkett Okay. Thank you. Culp Quick question – Sharp Now that doesn’t mean that – I’m sorry to cut you off Councilor Culp – go ahead – Culp Oh no – I was just going to say is, is there something in writing that says where the parking lot can be? Because if they use, is there any of that property out front here that is designated for more parking? Sharp To my knowledge, there is not any parking agreements today. Anything that we would propose on Lot 2 would either need to be self-sufficient for parking or we would have to have a shared parking agreement. Culp Yes. Sharp Of which I know that parking is a high demand all over town so. Melton Corie, can you mention what the price is on that? Sharp You know what Councilor Melton, I will follow up with you on that. I do not recall what that was. Perhaps I could send that via email and it could just be included in the notes. Okay, the next area that I want to highlight is Creekside. Creekside is special because not only is it a tax increment area, an EDA area, it also is land that the RDC owns and so we have been going through the process of trying to sell this property and have some clear economic activities. We had some success in the last, last part of the year. We have sold Lots 10 and 11. You’ll see that on blue. That is, that has been – well, we haven’t closed yet – but the deal has been struck with Graham Rahal Racing – GRP, Graham Rahal Performance Racing. So, lots that we are going to focus on this upcoming year are Lots 9, 4, 5 and 8 specifically. Lots 2 and 3, the Redevelopment Commission did enter into a letter of intent with Lauth Development at the, in the fall and that just didn’t move anywhere. You may remember in the fall construction prices spiked and construction loans now are, you know, we have to have, they want full occupancy. I will tell you that I have had a lot of interest from small business owners that want to move their business into Creekside and so what I would like to take the Redevelopment Commission and the leadership of Zionsville as a Page 10 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 whole, through in the first quarter is a visioning exercise for what, what does Creekside evolve into and how do we get this place filled with businesses? Culp Quick question on that – I know at one point when the current Administration came in they were going to give those lots for free just so we could get the tax dollars. Are they, are we still giving these away for free or? Sharp Councilor, I will answer it like this – free is an option but it’s not my preferred option to start with. Like any negotiation, we certainly would like to strike a public-private partnership that’s win-win for both parties and, obviously, one win is jobs and tax and people and the culture and overall fill through economy that free land would come and deliver that. If we evolve into looking at not having big corporate headquarters but having smaller businesses there, we may want to look at selling the land. It doesn’t need to be for market rate. It can be for an, an immense discount or a small discount. My strategy as a negotiator is to always come out of the gate at market rate and see where the pro forma shakes out. The, one of the great advantages of Redevelopment Commissions is that we have the capability to fill gaps, financial gaps, in a development pro forma. That’s not something that can easily be done by a Town Council or a Administration and so we can structure these public-private partnerships either through bonding elements, through or through land acquisition as well. Garrett So did Lauth not close then on the ground? Is that, is that off the table now? Lots 2 and 3 they were going to put a medical center there. Is that off now? Sharp It, it I would say – Garrett Or ongoing discussions? Sharp It’s ongoing discussions. I wouldn’t want to – there’s active interest on it. I would not want to close any other opportunities that came, came along, especially when I’m talking to these, an insurance agent or some of these one or five employee shops that might fit perfectly into a Lauth project but they need signed leases and so in that, in that realm I’m serving as a communication funnel to help the private developer fill his building. Garrett Have you explored a master lease for the town for a speculative building to backstop that and let them build it and fill it up if we think the demand is there? Sharp The Redevelopment Commission has the capability to build a building and – Garrett I don’t want to build a building, I just want to be like the master lease – Sharp Master – Garrett Lessor of the building – Sharp Yes. Garrett I’m not even saying I want to, I just potentially want to. Page 11 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Sharp Yes, I have, I have not explored that – Garrett Okay. Sharp I certainly can. When I worked with the City of Carmel the Redevelopment Commission owned a building and then did a master lease on, on, on the building similar to what you’re talking about. Garrett Well but I don’t want to own the building, right? Sharp Yes – Garrett I just want to be the – Sharp No I understand. Garrett Master lessor for a fixed period of time to let them get the financing – Sharp Yep. Garrett And build, if we think the demand is there, and maybe that’s a discussion for another time but – Sharp Absolutely. One community that I worked with they had a structure where they wanted arts type businesses but arts, the arts industry couldn’t pay the market rate rent and so the RDC basically functioned as a subsidizer. They, they held the master lease and then let’s say the master lease was $100 per square foot but then they sublet it for $60 a square foot and they covered the cost because they were filling that gap of arts and culture. Again, a strong vision is needed – Garrett Sure. Sharp For, for us to establish something like that. Garrett Yep. Burk Corie, I agree that the climate has certainly changed in the last decade for corporate headquarters to locate here. I think that’s part of the new kind of strategy and vision and even to some degree the conversation that took place with GRP. You also mentioned that Creekside may be “for sale” and does, does that mean all the remaining lots would potentially be given to a private developer and then they would develop and own those assets? Is that what you were suggesting or? Sharp No, although there, the great thing about this is that – Burk Anything’s possible? Sharp Anything is possible and I love that in my world. I do not live in a black and white world. This is a very grey and pink and blue project. So, if a developer came to us and said we want to master develop the rest of Creekside, we would Page 12 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 work very closely with them to make sure that their tenants and the project architecture align with what Zionsville is expecting out of this project. So we would be in lock step with that, almost like a JV kind of thing but, but, again, my initial thought is continue down the path of individual lots but there has been – Burk No, no I hear ya. Sharp There has been conversations about joining some lots, like 2 and 3 – Burk Okay. Sharp Joining Lots 2 and 3. I’ve had conversations with splitting Lot 9, just, just so that we can continue to hit today’s market. Burk Yes, understand. That was kind of my thought – you, you had anticipated the follow-up question that was if we, if we did kind of restructure our vision for this and there was kind of a, a corporate interest that wanted to kind of master plan it and own that, would they be restricted by our vision, and I guess that could be part of the purchase agreement that they would be bound to that other than selling it and then they maybe go in a direction that may not be consistent with what the town might want. Sharp Yes, we would definitely have a, a project agreement that would put in a, a lot of partnership structures that basically secure the town’s vision for this. So one idea would be that we have first first rights of purchasing if they’re going to sell. Another option would be that if they don’t perform there’s a claw back clause. Another – a million different ideas – Burk Yes. Sharp I mean, so, yes. Burk But there’s ways for us to have input into that development strategy? Sharp Yes. Burk Perfect. Thank you. Sharp Okay, so the next area is the Zionsville TIF Area. This area to me when I first started digging into Zionsville was the most confusing area because it’s referred to in lots of different ways. It is the 106th Street. It’s called the Zionsville TIF. It includes the Creekside TIF. It’s also the Downtown Area TIF, the Village – so this is a really big area. It stretches all the way down to 865 and then stretches up through the Village. So it is the largest area of possibility for economic development and greatest TIF gain because it is your oldest TIF and so it actually is set to sunset in 2030 so. I want to highlight the Downtown Area because during COVID the Administration and the community went through a planning process for the Zionsville Gateway Area and that basically is Sycamore and Main Street and First Street and the area along the creek. This area is, it, it unfolded as a result of Page 13 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 those apartments that came through about three years ago. So now there is a, a plan that the Planning Department recognizes and it, it basically highlights the yellow area as mixed multi-family use but at a smaller scale and it would also include single-family residences up against the existing single-family. So it has some nice transition areas. Then it also includes more commercial activities on the other side of Main Street and First Street. The orange rectangular areas are commercial/other mixed use so office, restaurants, things like that. One of the key projects here is actually realigning First Street. There is a lot of movement through this area for traffic and the, this is Main Street today as it comes through the Village all the way down and across the bridge to Bubs. This dashed area in this master plan is proposed to become an, an urban market. A streetscape that is multi-purpose and can really function as a pedestrian plaza. Main Street then from the south would be re-routed just north of the creek and jog up and connect to First Street and the Redevelopment Commission just approved a proposal to complete a utility survey of this area because there’s a couple key really, really big projects and I just want to highlight them. So, actually I’m going to go back to this screen. So the city, the town received a $1.9 million-dollar READI Grant as a part of a $20 million dollar award to the White River collective and the ideas around this Zionsville Gateway, and the great thing about being a planner and a designer in my head is that I have the opportunity to generate ideas and then you have The follow-through of getting something built and it’s not a plan sitting on a shelf. I mean, a lot of community members put effort into developing this Gateway Area and so this READI Grant allows us to get the projects off the ground. So some of the projects that would be included would be realigning that road. Another idea is burying the overhead transmission lines that are there. That is a Duke project. It would be a partnership with them and would take, multi-year project. Realigning a road, designing, that all takes time. We are working with the IEDC to have our, our READI Grant Agreement approved. We’re in those last signature steps and once we get that approved, we will be able to start pulling projects out of that. The key projects that we are hopeful to use that funding for is engineer, pre-engineering for the road realignment and design services for the pedestrian plaza. Yes sir? Melton Corie, I have a question – so we’re talking about that Zionsville TIF Area being the largest in Zionsville and it’s set to sunset in 2030, you mentioned that previous slide. Sorry to kind of go back to that, but what are some of the examples of the benefits that we’ve seen from that TIF over the years in that TIF money? And my secondary question is if these power poles or this partnership with Duke – can we use TIF dollars that we’ve already had generated, can we use those funds to potentially move the power poles? Sharp Yes to your last question. We can use the Zionsville 106th Street TIF dollars for these projects within the Zionsville Gateway sub-area. The, the TIF has been generating funds and I can touch on that here in a little bit because you’ll see how much has been accumulated overall and we can use those dollars specifically for this. Melton I think it’s important for the public to know what those funds have been used for in the past if we decide to pursue a, an additional TIF Area after 2030, right? That’s a potential option to renew a TIF District? Page 14 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Sharp I would have to ask legal counsel for “renewing,” however, I do know that for this Gateway Area, what we would do is pull these parcels out of that TIF Area and create a brand new TIF Area because we want those funds isolated in this specific area because so much infrastructure is needed that the public cost needs to have that dedicated funding by establishing a specific TIF. Melton Thank you. Sharp Yes. Garrett Corie, what’s the, what’s the timeline for having to spend the READI Grant dollars? Sharp Um – Garrett Like, for example, we got CARES Act money and we’ve got like 5 years to spend it. Sharp Yes. Garrett I’m assuming there is a ticking timer on the grant once it’s awarded? Sharp Director Lantz, do you recall? I should know this but I don’t. Garrett Okay. Sharp But I will tell you we’re going to have this, this money spent within by, by the end of 2024 which is within the grant framework so. Garrett So talk to me about – you’re saying you’re going to get that spent. Who controls that money? Who’s awarded that money? Is the RDC awarded that money? Sharp No, the RDC is not – the town has been awarded that money – Garrett Okay – Sharp And I believe what will need to happen is that Council will need to set up a specific allocation – Garrett Like a fund? Sharp A fund. Garrett Yes. Sharp And you will receive that and then there will be claims that get drawn out of that fund. Garrett Well, hold – I don’t know that you can draw claims out of a fund. It has to be budgeted first. Page 15 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Sharp Yes. Garrett We have a bad history here of spending money that’s not been budgeted. I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page which is where I want to find out when this money expires. So if you could get back to us that would be helpful. Sharp Sure. Garrett Because that money will need to go into a budget or an appropriation before a contract was signed or before it is spent and shows up on claims and then, so – what I’m saying, I guess, is the Council needs to have a seat at the table for how this is spent. This can’t just be spent and come to us for approval. Sharp I actually have the Grant Agreement on my computer and if we were going to go down a rabbit hole I would pull it up now but I’m not going to let that happen. I will follow up and – Garrett That’s fine. Sharp Answer up all, all your questions. Garrett If you follow up and then we can – Sharp Yes – Garrett Maybe during the Town Council Update one of us can update the public of the answers at the next meeting. Sharp Yep. Burk That’s a great point. I mean I think we want to be, we want to do this. I mean this is, this is something that’s advantageous to the town we just don’t want it to get in the way of The process that we need to have. My understanding the way you answered the previous question about spend is your intention is to begin spending some of this money in 2023. Sharp Absolutely. Burk So, therefore, to Josh’s point, I mean, we need to make sure we’re aligning the process so that you don’t have any problems spending the money that we deem that – Sharp Yes and I can – Burk We should spend. Sharp I can get with the Finance Department and work with them to understand what the next steps are and bring a proposal to you on getting that done. Burk Right. Page 16 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Culp All right, so I have a couple questions on this. First of all, $1.9 million will be gone real quick. Sharp Yep. Culp I mean, what’s a roundabout? Sharp Well we’re not, we’re not going to – Culp No, no I’m just asking – what’s a roundabout? Plunkett Cost? Culp Cost? Plunkett 2 million bucks. Culp Right, so, I mean, are we going to use this $1.9 to spend with consultants – Sharp Yep. Culp Or are we going to spend it on – Sharp Consultants. It’ll be, it’ll go towards surveying and all pre-construction services. So, it will go towards the engineering, the surveyors, the environmental, the phase 1 – I mean all, all of the due diligence things that are necessary as part of a project. But, Mr. Culp, that aligns with the potential spend on this project. I mean – Culp Yes. Sharp This, this could be – this does not have a budget okay? So don’t hold me to this but this could be a $10 million dollar project and spending $2 million on, on design services may not make sense but it could be a $50 million dollar project and then spending $2 million dollars for consultants may make sense. And the consultants will help us put together that final budget. Culp All right, so you’ve been through this in other communities and – Sharp Yes. Culp Timeline, I mean is this a, is this realistic in the next 20 years? Sharp Oh, absolutely. No, this is, this is realistic. Have, having, when we put the project schedule together, as you’ll learn I’m an optimist so I tend to set a path that just is The, the hardest to achieve. So, 2023 we’re going to spend the entire year doing design and due diligence then the first quarter of 2024 we can go out to bid for construction, then we can do construction, then 2024 through the summer of 2025 and have it, the road realigned in 20, open in 2025. Duke Energy, on the other hand, takes a lot longer. I did this exact same thing in Carmel and it took 18 Page 17 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 months just to fabricate the transmission line fiber line that, in Germany, just so that’s 18 minute, 18 months just to construct the – Culp Yes. Sharp The utility and then you have the design in front of that and then you have the Duke red tape. I mean, that will take 5 years but it’s not a 20-year project. Culp Do we have anybody that wants to be in the yellow or orange? Sharp Actually, yes we do. Culp Okay. Sharp Um – Culp Did I steal your thunder there? Sharp Yes. Culp Sorry. Sharp But that’s okay. I’ll jump right on it. So these three lots are in discussion today. These two bubble areas have been purchased by a development team called the Zionsville Gateway Partnership and this property here is owned by Simplicity. Simplicity is in conversations with a development team that is interested in purchasing their property so that can all go together. This property has been purchased by a gentleman that is interested in developing the property and has real estate development experience. They have brought on their team a, a, a development partner that can help assist them complete it. The area just north of Sycamore – this property is owned by the town – Culp Yes. Sharp It’s the PNC parking lot. It’s all parking actually and we need to cast a vision for this, this property on what it needs to be. There is a parking demand in downtown and so we need to understand if it needs to self-park and park public and then we can decide what type of building can go on there because the affordability of concrete and the availability of concrete right now is not really practical. This property probably will take a little bit longer. This property here I met with the property owners. Both property owners are willing sellers so I am working on just connecting them with buyers. I’m not a broker, this is just me connecting interest to interest. Does that count as a legal disclosure? Meeks So real estate law is not what I do. Sorry. Sharp Okay. Page 18 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Culp All right, so I just want to make sure I understand – so the two yellow bubbles on the left have been purchased from the same individuals that were trying to sell it for Sycamore Flats, correct? Sharp No. This is a new buyer. Culp No, no, no. The person selling. Burk Selling. Sharp Oh Yes, the sellers? Those are, they are – Culp They’re out. Sharp They’re out. Culp So they weren’t waiting to get approval for whatever they’re going to build before they bought the land? Sharp Right. Culp Okay. Burk Corie, on these, I mean these are obviously all private individuals who own this land and we’d like to direct how this is all comes together. When, if we move that First Street realignment, that’s obviously currently land owned between those two, would that be eminent domain or would that be part of an agreement to sell that that they have to give so much? That’s quite a bit a chunk of property to give to the town to build that road through there. Does that make sense? Sharp Well that’s what Dr. or Director Lantz keeps telling me too but I would like to think that redevelopment and the Redevelopment Commission is structuring public-private partnerships. So, eminent domain is an option. That is not the option that we are pursuing. We are pursuing a joint partnership. Actually, depending on what the survey tells us, we may be able to align this where the old railroad tracks were and it’s where There’s kind of a, where Simplicity has their drive. It’s not, it’s next to their building so theoretically if we were to move the road, Simplicity could still be in operations and do that. Will it impact The quantity of land? Yes. I don’t know if it will impact the quality of the land detrimentally. I think this is a positive impact and that the developers would see this as a net win of us realigning the road. Culp All right, I’ll, I’ll try to make this my last question. So, sorry everybody but I was originally on this group so this is why I’m asking all these questions and I haven’t heard anything in two years so – Sharp I’m here. Culp So, we’re obviously going to have a new Mayor starting in 2024. Can that Mayor just come up, walk in here and blow this up? Page 19 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Sharp No. And I’m pretty confident on that because this is public-private partnerships. These are private properties that are coming to the community, and in seeking a public incentive – whether it be a road, parking or whether it be bond dollars but whatever it is – a trail. This, this project will go through the Redevelopment Commission and the Mayor has three appointees on the Redevelopment Commission, the Council has two appointments on the Redevelopment Commission and my job is to educate on, on the project. This project is going to run through the Redevelopment Commission – Culp Okay. Sharp Where the appointment, you all have representatives on, and the School Board also has one representative on that as well. Then If bonds are issued, then that, those bonds would come to the Council for approval. If department funds are allocated, then, obviously, that is with The Administration administering that but I would say that it’s not a, a straight out no, you can't blow it up because it is a team effort that’s legislatively bound together. Garrett Corie, I was under the impression this TIF didn’t have any bonding capacity left. Does it? Sharp I can’t answer that. I don’t know but it wouldn’t matter because, again, we would pull this out and create a brand new TIF. There, the TIF – Garrett You’d pull the TIF out of the existing TIF? Sharp We would, so that, those bonds are almost paid off for the obligations. Garrett 2030, right? Sharp Yes, and so it, we would not start that date until all of those obligations have been met for any obligations within the Zionsville TIF Area and because we’re so close, we’re going to – Garrett It’s 7 years. That doesn’t seem that close. Sharp It really is close because in – Councilor Traylor is giving me the, a grin of I know this – when we structure the bonds there is the lead time of construction and then there’s a lead time of, of interest payments and then you start the bond obligations at the back end and so there’s usually like a 5-year window to get going on this. It will take us a year to structure any public-private partnership, so right there I’m, we’re already at 6 years for structuring a deal and having bond payments due. Are you following me? I wish – Garrett Well I am following you, I’m just worried – and maybe this is the way of the world, right? But if you issue bonds year day 1 and you aren’t making payments until year 5, I’m assuming they’re not delaying the interest you owe on it for those 5 years? Sharp That’s correct. Page 20 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Garrett So I’m just – we’ve already had our debt downgraded twice – Sharp Yes – Garrett So our credit rating is worse so that’s going to impact rates. Obviously, interest rates are generally very high right now anyway. I am just worried about what is an expensive process, what is the actual bonding capacity and then having to pay interest on it in high interest environment for 5 years before we start making any principal payments. I’m just – Sharp Yes. Garrett Nervous about that. Sharp All very good questions and those are questions that we would vet during our due diligence process. Any project that comes out of here as a public-private partnership needs to be financially viable first. Not only on being able to pay the debt service but also on being able to complete a construction project in today’s construction climate with high dollars. I just had a conversation a week and a half ago and they were very surprised at the cost of square foot for an office building and I think that the teams that we have, have been having conversations with are strong, fiscal companies that don’t tend to lean on commercial lending or broader equity partners so, completing this project in a fiscally responsible way, I think, is our path forward. It’s the only path forward really. So, I understand your concerns. They are concerns that we will be asking as the projects unfold. Garrett Well, Yes, and I won’t even be here to vote on any of this stuff but like the lever is going to be, it always is, what is the percent of the TIF revenue that the town is able to capture and retain versus give to the developers. They’ve got a fixed ROI they want so I’m just, I’m just worried if we’re doing this in a high rate environment that for them to make it work that goes from call it a 50% capture to them to a 90, 95, 100% capture to them which may make economic sense but all of the revenue, all of the services we’re offering to support the new project are not being backfilled by the revenue outside of the original revenue we got from just the base land and, obviously, a facility with visitors and stuff there’s a much more demand so, it’s just something to bear in mind future Councilors, future Mayors to make sure that it is a right balance of what does the developer get? What does the town retain that’s going to have to support it. Sharp Correct, Yes. Thank you. Melton Corie, you mentioned the Redevelopment Commission having 3 appointees by the Mayor, 2 by the Council and 1 by the School Board – is the School Board member a voting member? Sharp They are not. Melton So it’s literally 3 to 2. I just want to make that clear to the public. Sharp Okay, you know what, I’m just gonna skip right ahead to the budget because I know you all have more business to do. So – Page 21 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Plunkett Corie, I know you’re skipping ahead to this but I think that, that last one you skipped over there – so, we’ve had a lot of conversations with folks in the Village about this Village Business District and how it is, it’s got its own TIF Area and I see here that that’s part of the 106th Street TIF. If we, If we’ve got, if people in the Village, if businesses in the Village want to utilize that revenue for the Village, can we carve them out of this total, The rest of the 106th Street TIF? Sharp Yes you can. I don’t know that it would be necessary though because we’re such a small community and to go through that legal effort would, would take a lot of time and money. I think that one, one of the great things about having a team with the Redevelopment Commission is that Zach and Owen are research experts in delivering data so that we can make decisions like, for instance, I had asked Zach to pull all of the assessed value for all of the parcels in the Oak Street TIF. I can ask that same type of data to be gathered for the Village Area and so we can understand how much increment is coming in off of those Village parcels and then as you’ll see in the budget, we have the capability to structure this budget a little bit more loosely than what a Council budget is. So, if we needed to have a Village line item, then you would, we would see a Village TIF expenditure and Village TIF income, both lines. So, I don’t know that we need a special district. Plunkett You said you could ask that. Could I ask for that like just for the businesses that are in the Village just to have? Sharp Yes. Melton Corie, did you mention earlier that the TIF can be used up to a quarter mile and surround of the TIF? Sharp Yes. Melton So it can be used outside the TIF Area up to a quarter mile? So doesn’t that incorporate what you’re asking, President Plunkett? Plunkett Well Yes, I mean, it could. It could, right? I mean, I’ve had a lot of conversations lately with business owners in the Village. It’s like listen, we’ve got a lot of stuff we want to do in the Village – infrastructure is breaking down, sidewalks, even some things that aesthetically. I mean, if we want to put a restroom there, the little pocket park that’s at the corner how do we, and my concern, I guess, would be if there’s all this revenue that’s being generated in the, in the TIF that is, there’s a few hundred businesses in just that Village stretch and it’s like if there’s a lot of revenue being generated there, if there’s money there that’s not being used for them that’s going to be used for out on 106th or even all the way down to 865, I think, I think it would be, personally I think it would be better to allow them to have their own area to have their own money, their own revenue to, to support that but that’s probably a different discussion so. Sharp Definitely a different discussion and I wouldn’t call it “their own money” because really it’s the public’s money – Plunket Sure. Page 22 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Sharp And it’s used for public infrastructure projects, all of which benefit the greater economic activity of the Village. For instance, when I was in Carmel, I had a sub-fund for Main Street in downtown Carmel and I facilitated a grant process where when new businesses came in they’re often mom and pop shops, they think about everything except the sign and so we did a sign grant. So we would pay, they would come to us with a design, we would approve the design, we would pay for the sign and that, that’s how that worked but that was all with TIF money. Plunkett Sure. Sharp So I’m gonna, I broke down this budget into two different pages. The first page here is receipts. The second page is expenditures. Basically, our beginning balance today is just over $3 million dollars. That is how much is in our, all of our TIF buckets. Councilor Melton, I think, somebody asked about this. So, there are, I like to break this down into, you can’t think about the fact that we have $3 million dollars because we really don’t. Councilor Garrett, you were getting just right to this point. We have debt obligation and that is our first priority and so you will see expenditures here in Lines 4 through 11 that equal $1.5 million dollars basically in debt obligations and/or agreements to other taxing entities. So net receipts is $1.3 million dollars. Then we also have two other receipts that are non-TIF, a Town Council allocation of $180,000. This is actually in your budget today for – it has a line item, I think it’s Economic Development Department that was created new and so that funding is already there and then we have the capability to sell land and you can see that I’m planning on not giving away any land for free but bringing in $500,000. So we would have total non-TIF receipts of $680,000. Then on the expenditure side of things, we’ve got a group of professional fees. These fees, this whole top section can be paid for with TIF dollars. TIF dollars can be spent for professional fees and construction projects. It can't be spent towards operations. So if the Redevelopment Commission actually had an office, we could not pay rent with TIF dollars. We would have to have another source of funding to pay that rent. So you’ll see that we have expenditures associated with professional fees. Construction line item, I actually put zero there because I figured this entire year we’re going to spend our year doing planning, visioning/design. We’re not going to be building anything. We have bond issuance fees. There is an economic development incentive existing today for one of the entities in Creekside for $100,000 annually. I’m working on gathering the paperwork associated with that to understand where that, when that sunsets. And then a CDC grant. This is the Community Development Corporation. They are currently a sub-committee working within the community. They are working on their independent 501(c)(3) designation and this also could be a bucket where Village partners or businesses can seek funding through the Community Development Corporation. So TIF expenditures of $1 million and then – excuse me one minute – non-TIF expenditures $180,000 for our Redevelopment Commission administration and then these latest expenditures. So total year-end balance of $3.8 million. You can see we’re starting the year at $3 million. We’re looking at bringing in some money, paying some debt, spending some money but ending the year up. My goal is for us to really get the foundation set for the RDC Page 23 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 so that it can be successful in the future. January meeting is going to be an RDC 101. I would encourage anyone that is interested in Redevelopment Commissions or wants to know more, how they function, we are going to spend some time learning and hopefully your appointment will be able to attend that meeting. Garrett Corie, before you move on there – you’d ask me to sort of table a question I had. Sharp Yes. Garrett You had mentioned that the RDC would be moving your contract so you reported directly to them in January. Is that in this budget or? Sharp Yes, it’s in this budget. Garrett Okay. Sharp You’ll see – Garrett Because I think we had budgeted for consulting dollars for you. We don’t need to move those over to cover that? Sharp You won’t, you can do either. You can move it over or you can, it – Traylor Deappropriate. Sharp It may be easiest for you to move it over. Garrett Yes, because we’d have to deappropriate, Yes, exactly – deappropriate it and reappropriate it to the RDC. If they’ve already got the money to pay for you great, I’d rather just deappropriate that money and save it and bank it for later. If they’re expecting with you comes the money, which I understand, I just want to make sure we go through that process in a timely manner. Sharp Okay. Were there any other questions that I didn’t hit for your tabling of questions? Garrett No, just the READI Grant timing – that was something you were going to get back to us on. Sharp Yes. So, then for February at the RDC meeting we’ll go through a very detailed overview of the READI Grant. Then in March start talking about the ZGA and then in April I want to push out a 5-year TIF forecast and working with Crowe to do that. Crowe, the state mandates that the Redevelopment Commissions report out annually and you have an annual TIF report but there’s no mandate for a 5- year forecast or anything like that. It’s something that we have the capability to look at. Construction projects and public-private partnerships take a long time and so it, I think it’s important that we have a 5-year outlook rather than a year- to-year outlook. So I’m going to work with Crowe in this first quarter and then in April we’ll be able to roll out a, a fiscal vision for TIF. Page 24 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 So, that concludes my presentation. I know we covered a lot of questions during my presentation. I’m happy to take more. As a, just as a conclusion though, there are, the things that I have to follow up on is: • The price that we were offering Lot 2 on; • What fund, what TIF funds were used for in the past; • A grant expiration date; and • Appropriating the funds from the city’s budget to the Redevelopment Commission. Plunkett Corie, what was the date of that January meeting again? Sharp January 23rd. It’ll be here at 6:30 p.m. and that’s a Monday. Plunkett Thank you. Sharp Yes. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I do appreciate you coming. We, as Councilor Culp mentioned, for many of us this is the first update we’ve had on any of this stuff ever. Sharp I’m happy to return anytime. Plunkett All right. Thank you very much. Sharp You’re welcome. Traylor Thank you. Choi Thank you. Consideration of a Resolution Regarding 2022 Year-End Reappropriations Resolution 2023-01 Plunkett All right, moving along – we have up next a Consideration of a Resolution Regarding 2022 Year-End Appropriations. This is Resolution 2023-01 and we have all Department Heads present for the various reappropriation and questions. Garrett I guess the only – we have done this, I’ve looked back, we’ve done this year after year after year and I get, I have mixed feelings on this because I get that things change, right and that you overspend in one area and underspend in another area and it’s too bad we don’t have sort of Finance represented here because I’m just really curious if there’s like, if there’s a best practice on a threshold, right? You know, if you’ve overspent 1,400 bucks on office supplies and you can find it from travel like one of the requests were, all right, I don’t have a problem, I mean, it is what it is. When you start talking about tens of thousands of dollars, at some point should you have to come before the fiscal body and say oh, by the way, we’ve now realized X is going to happen and Y now needs to happen – is that okay? Right? Sort of like at the point of time, rather than just sort of – I just Page 25 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 feel like we’re just doing a bunch of cleanup and like we’re always seeming to be doing cleanup on stuff and I want a seat at the table to say like you know what, I don’t really think now’s the right time to spend $50 grand on X, Y and Z. Deal with the budget you’ve got versus just this kind of, like I feel like this is a beg for forgiveness on an ask for permission and that kind of bothers me a little bit. I, I get we’ve done it in the past and it is what it is but that’s just the – as I’ve been looking through all this stuff what keeps running through my head is, is there a dollar threshold that, at what point do you overspend a million dollars and come back and say well, I needed to pull a million dollars from here which is totally not really in the spirit of us being the fiscal body. Not really a question, just kind of a rant. Plunkett Dustin, do you know is that something that we could do as, as Town Council? Like because these, these year-end reappropriations, could we establish some ordinance or resolution that says listen, anything above a certain amount has to be – I mean, how do we avoid this is, I guess, where I would go? Meeks I’m going to have to confer with Heather – Plunkett Okay. Meeks On that one. Plunkett Yes, fair enough. Meeks I did have answers actually to some of the questions that came up in the TIF thing if that’s, if that’s helpful. My understanding on the READI Grant is that it’s, those are ARPA dollars so it should be 2024 obligation, 2026 spend it. Plunkett The READI Grant money is ARPA dollars? Meeks Yes, they’re state ARPA dollars. Garrett Oh, hmm. Meeks And then, the state does a really good job of rebranding the federal money and then to the question that if you can redo a TIF – you can take, you could basically just take it out of an allocation area and then put it in a new allocation area so you can’t, you can’t “per se” re-up it but you can, you can take it out and put it in again. Plunkett All right, well – Meeks And I apologize on the – Plunkett That’s good to know. Meeks I will get an answer on that. Page 26 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Plunkett Yes, that’s good to know. I’m kind of with you, right? I mean, I don’t like that it is something that we do every year. I will say this – I know that it, it certainly probably didn’t feel good to have to write out the reasons for it but I mean we had one year-end reappropriation that was like $1.3 million dollars and now getting the explanation it’s actually only a couple hundred thousand. Like I think there’s value in asking the questions. Garrett Yes, Yes. Plunkett Right? So that we get it. Because, I mean, what happens if you approve that all of a sudden and you don’t even need it, right? I mean, that’s a weird situation to be in too so. Yes, I mean, I’m with you. Garrett I mean, I think it’s unfair to ask for it in retrospect but now that I’ve seen it and given all the problems we’ve had with Finance, again, maybe that’s a going forward kind of thing to benefit future Councils, future Administrations, that hey if you’re hitting this threshold, you need to come back and just explain why, right? Plunkett Yes. Garrett It’s taxpayer dollars. If you don’t spend it, you’re just saving the money, right? So it’s not like you have to spend it and I don’t feel like our Department Heads are spending willfully out of control but I think it is good to at least have that conversation of why are you so over budget in one category and why do you feel you should be able to use it in the other category and if we all agree it’s no big deal and if we don’t, we don’t. Plunkett Yes I think and I don’t know if this was included in the packet online so folks could certainly go back and look – I mean, in full disclosure, some of this you just can’t control, right? Fuel expenses go up, cost of ammunition goes up. We’ve, we’ve got some of this stuff you just can’t control. So it’s not, I don’t think that this is, we’re looking at this and saying man, this is all ridiculous. I think the reality is there are some things that you have to, you do have to address and go back and fix so. Burk Some of the, I mean, yes but we just passed the budget what two months ago? Plunkett Yes. Burk And so sometimes it just, it feels like maybe there’s just a miss as opposed to something as dramatic can change in those prices in the last two months if that makes sense. Traylor Well, we passed the 2023 budget a couple of months ago. This is all 2022. Plunkett Yes, this is all fixing the – Traylor This is, Yes, this is fixing 2022, not ’23. Burk Hmm … okay. Page 27 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Plunkett Yes. Melton President Plunkett, you mentioned that there are some expenses that we all have experienced – fuel, you said ammunition. I haven’t experienced that one but I have experienced fuel cost increases. Are there any of these that stood out to you that were things that should’ve been appropriated or should’ve been budgeted properly? Plunkett I mean, I think that you get into looking at you’ve got an appropriation for office supplies, CED Municipal Action Center experienced increased levels. They start talking about having, having things, having services for the town that people utilize certainly is going to incur additional expenses and sometimes it’s difficult to understand. I understand that. I think some of this stuff, you look at even with The, the Parks Department – parks are being utilized more, the golf course was being utilized more, I mean, there’s some part-time staffing that’s on there that I don’t know that you could’ve necessarily planned for, right? So, I think it’s, again, I would go back to this number was significantly larger a month ago and I don’t know if it was just because of an accounting error or we had an extra zero somewhere we shouldn’t have but, but just by having this and, again, Department Heads, I know it was difficult to go back and go through this but I certainly appreciate the memos and the explanation because, for me, that was helpful and certainly I appreciate seeing, seeing The changes there so. Garrett One that’s, Jarod, can you just explain real quick the Parks bond? If you don’t mind coming up because those are pretty big numbers. I’m assuming those maybe were mis-categorized and they needed just to be moved to a different, a different fund but I just want to confirm that because I didn’t see it in your summary. Logsdon Yes, so, when the bond was created in 2019, there was a certain split of contract services and construction and along the way certain construction invoices were coded to that contract services so it was just a lot of cleanup and Cindy and I putting our heads together and getting that fixed towards the end so. Just something that didn’t get caught or did get caught and then didn’t get corrected within OpenGov that we caught at the end here. Garrett And I’ll let you verify but I’m assuming this is for everyone, just for the public too, these are not new dollars spent. These are dollars that were budgeted in one fund, underspent, another fund was overspent and we are truing it up but not spending additional dollars? Logsdon Correct. Garrett Correct? Logsdon So – Garrett For Parks I know. Logsdon Surplus in some lines – Page 28 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Garrett Yes. Logsdon Deficit in the other. Garrett Yes, okay. Logsdon Trying to minimize that. Garrett Yes, no, I appreciate it. Thank you. Plunkett Which, which, Jarod, on parks, The number basically at the end of the day the number comes down to about 14 grand? Logsdon Yep. Plunkett Yes. Yes. All right. Are there any questions from Councilors or additional discussion? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion. Burk Move to adopt. Plunkett We got a first from Vice President Burk. Culp Second. Plunkett A second by Councilor Culp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next are Other Matters. Are there any other matters from Councilors? Traylor Just one thing that I noticed on the claims again – sorry, I keep going back to that but on the claims I’m sure this inaccurate but it looks like all, all of the claims were paid prior to this meeting. I’m sure that’s not the case because it shows them all being paid at December 23rd or December 31st. Maybe that’s just an accounting thing because it’s the end of the year but I just want to point that out and, so we can confirm that those have not already been paid. Burk This showing that they have been paid? Traylor Yes, Yes – when I pull up the claims, the final – let’s see – Yes, the January 3rd claims register there’s a payment date and they’re all paid in ‘22 so I just want to make sure that that’s maybe, maybe it’s just an accounting thing? But I want to make sure – are you seeing what I’m seeing? Page 29 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Plunkett I’m seeing it. Traylor Okay. All right. I thought the way you were laughing I thought maybe, maybe I’d misread it or – Burk Or maybe they’ve been paid? Traylor Or maybe they’ve been paid but I just want to clear that up and – Plunkett I mean, surely they’ve not – Traylor I, well, I – who knows? Also, I will beat this dead horse one last, well, maybe one last time. I hope one last time and then, then hopefully don’t have a reason to address it going forward but it was I read it and maybe you guys did too but we should not expect to see the Mayor at any of our meetings going forward per an article in the Lebanon Reporter. She, The latest reason for not attending is that she doesn’t want to attend because we complain about her not attending. So, I just wanted to make sure nobody was expecting her to come. Garrett Can we keep complaining? Plunkett Any other matters from Councilors? Traylor Oh, we got a hand in the audience. Plunkett Oh. Dale Mike Dale, CED. There was a question about whether these claims have actually been paid and I can't answer certainly for the long list of, of claims in the register but there is, items certainly in my department $25,000 plus for a new vehicle and that has not been paid. Traylor Okay. Dale So that is still pending. Traylor So maybe it’s just an accounting thing because it’s the end of the year. I don’t know. Thank you though. Dale Thanks. Choi Thank you, Mike. Plunkett Thanks, Mike. Anything else? ADJOURN Page 30 of 31 Zionsville Town Council January 3, 2023 Garrett I’d make a motion to adjourn. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. I’ll second that. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. The next Regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Please note the date shift due to the Martin Luther King holiday as well as the time adjustment from 8 to 7:30. Final notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you. Respectfully Submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 31 of 31