Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 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, Josh Garrett, Craig Melton and Bryan Traylor Absent: Joe Culp Also Present: Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Andy Pickell, Deputy Mayor; James VanGorder, Fire Chief; Lance Lantz, Director of Public Works; Cindy Poore, Director of Finance & Records; Jo Kiel, Director of Human Resources; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Presentation of the Colors and Pledge of Allegiance Led by the Weblo II Den from Cub Scout Pack 105 Plunkett All right, we’re going to change it up a little bit this evening. I will welcome everyone and call the meeting to order for the 11/6 Town Council meeting. If you would please stand as we have the Presentation of Colors and Pledge of Allegiance to be led by the Weblo II Den from the Cub Scout Pack 105. Marchinski Color Guard: Attention. Color Guard: Advance. Please place your right hand on your heart. Color Guard: Hold. Color Guard: Salute. Please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. Marchinski Color Guard: Advance. Color Guard: Post the Colors. Color Guard: Dismissed. Audience, you may now be seated. Page 1 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE OCTOBER 23, 2023 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett All right, great job. All right, up first on the agenda is the Approval of a Memorandum of the October 23, 2023 Regular Council meeting. A copy has been posted. Are there any questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I’d entertain a motion. Burk Move to approve. Choi Second. Plunkett I got a first by Vice President Burk, a second by Councilor Choi. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 6, 2023 CLAIMS Plunkett Up next would be the Approval of the November 6, 2023 Claims. Are there any questions from Councilors? I’ve got just, Cindy, and you don’t necessarily have to come up for this but I’ve got six different invoices from Barnes & Thornburg that go back to August that were all apparently invoice, open invoices as of October 11th from our retainer, Ordinance review, Ice America, Mayor vs. Town Council, totaling about $68,000. Do I need to give these to you or do you, do these not come directly? Poore (Inaudible off microphone) Plunkett Okay. Poore (Inaudible off microphone) Plunkett Perfect. Great. For those listening, she said we usually get those via email. So thank you very much, Cindy. I’ll make sure that we pass those along to you. Any other questions from Councilors regarding claims? Traylor I’d make a motion to approve. Plunkett I got a first by Councilor Traylor. Garrett Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 2 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. REQUEST TO SPEAK Plunkett Up next is a Request to Speak on Agenda Item. Amy, did we have any requests to speak? Lacy No, we did not. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett Very good. We’ll move along to the Mayor/Administration Update and I understand we have a couple bullet points from Deputy Mayor Pickell. Pickell Good evening. Plunkett Good evening. Pickell I just want to talk real quick – Baker Tilly has been in the house for pretty seriously the past two weeks they’ve been in working hard with our staff changing – our staff has been looking through finding any issues that we could come up with. There will be an update from Dan with Baker Tilly the next meeting coming up as well as we are going to ask for an additional. That’ll be a $20,000 not-to-exceed when they come up on the 20th and that’s to continue to finish the process. We figure that it’ll probably go, we should have detailed information close to the next meeting but the continuation of their work will help us transition all this information back into Keystone and then continue to track in Keystone so that we’re on point for the next Administration and next Council. Okay? You have any questions on that? Okay. Traylor Is that for the reconciliation? Pickell Yes sir. Traylor Okay. So that’s not the – Plunkett Internal control audit. Traylor Internal control audit. Pickell Right, yes. They are working on that actively too – Traylor That’s separate. Pickell And they’re nearly done. Yes sir. Page 3 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Plunkett Yes, appreciate you guys working with them on that. Pickell Yes, no worries. And then, the, well, I’m going to table my, my second point. I’ll wait on that, okay about the ARPA, the ARPA conversation. I’ll table that on our end until after the meeting. Plunkett Okay. Pickell Okay? Plunkett Fair enough. Pickell All right. Thank you. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE Plunkett Thank you. Anything from Councilors? Up next would be the Council Update. Anything from Councilors? Garrett So I’ve got, so we’ve got the ARPA Amended Plan we’re voting on a final reading and then working with the Administration I’ve got a proposed plan for the final ARPA money. I can either do that now or, I don’t want to be so presumptuous to say we will pass this ARPA plan. I can also do it during Other Matters. Do you have a preference President Plunkett? Plunkett I think we probably would be better to keep it separate from the existing plan so it would be – Garrett It’s no, there’s no vote today – Plunkett Yes – Garrett I’m just showing what I propose and we’ll have a dialogue about it and then that will be at the next meeting, an actual vote on it. So, if Other Matters that’s fine with me. Plunkett Yep, that’d be great. Garrett Thank you. OLD BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Town of Zionsville Traffic Code (Parking/Big-4 Rail Trail) Ordinance 2023-22 (Final Reading) Plunkett Thank you. Anything else from Councilors? Move on to the first item of Old Business – this is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Town of Zionsville Traffic Code. This is parking for the Big 4 Rail Trail, Ordinance 2023- 22. This is a final reading and we have Deputy Director, Lance Lantz, here to speak if there are any questions. Good evening. Page 4 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Lantz Good evening. You referred to me as Deputy Director, is there something I should know? Plunkett Oh, no – DPW. Sorry, DPW Director. Lantz I thought this was going to be a nice, fun evening. Plunkett That’s what happens. You miss a meeting and you forget it all. Lantz All right, now that we have that clarification made. You have before you a second reading of an Ordinance establishing a no parking zone in all directions from a recently created mid-block crosswalk that serves the Big 4 as it crosses Lemberger Drive in the Vonterra subdivision. I’d be happy to answer any questions but it’s a pretty straightforward No Parking Ordinance in support of this crosswalk. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? Garrett I’ll make a motion to approve. Melton Second. Plunkett I got a first by Councilor Garrett, second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance Adopting a Road Impact Fee Ordinance 2023-23 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next on Old Business is a Consideration of an Ordinance Adopting a Road Impact Fee. This is Ordinance 2023-23. This is also a final reading and we have Lance Lantz, DPW Director, here this evening as well. Lantz Thank you. This is the second reading, again, for an Ordinance that updates our Road Impact Fee that’s been in place since 2007. You have already adopted the Zone Improvement Plan into the Comprehensive Plan as the Plan Commission has as well. The Plan Commission held a hearing on this Ordinance and passed along to you a favorable recommendation. You introduced this at your last meeting and while this Ordinance is only an update, it is rather robust. Most of the content of the Ordinance is just reaffirming or confirming the processes that we’ve had in place since 2007. The substantive part of the Ordinance update is increasing the per trip fee from $106 per trip to $278.35 per trip. If you approve Page 5 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 this Ordinance update this evening, this will not go into effect for six months so the world will continue on at the current rate until six months from adoption. Plunkett Very good. Any questions from Councilors? I would make a motion to approve on final reading Ordinance 2023-23. 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 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you, Lance. Consideration of an Ordinance Approving an American Rescue Plan Act Plan as Amended Ordinance 2023-24 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Approving an American Rescue Plan Act Plan as Amended. This is Ordinance 2023-24. This is, as Councilor Garrett mentioned, a final reading and we have Councilor Garrett and Attorney Heather Harris here to speak and present. Garrett Yes, so I appreciate that. We passed this I think 4 to 0 at the last meeting. These are items that, for the most part, were in the budget proposal as we went through and whittled things down, we moved to the ARPA dollars. ARPA dollars are federal funds that we get and have to be at least contracted by the end of 2024 and spent by 2026. So, as a quick reminder, this is things like Public Works equipment purchases, some road projects, Town Hall maintenance, our Transportation Plan, Comprehensive Plan, some Fire Department apparatus for self-contained breathing units and then grants for zWORKS, the Chamber, the Zionsville Cultural District as well as a downtown bathroom study. So, I think this is a really good plan for the community. I think it’s money well spent and certainly endorse it wholeheartedly. I’m happy to answer any questions Councilors have on it. Plunkett Yes, are there any questions from Councilors or Heather, is there anything you’d like to add to that? Harris I can just clarify – there were a couple questions brought up at the last meeting about the use of the funds and whether or not you could use it in this category versus another category. I did share with the Council but for members of the public, we did go back and confirm that the Treasury Department rules implementing the ARPA program do allow for any expenditure that is eligible in any category to be used in, in the revenue/loss category. So what you’ll see from our initial plan is we actually took the premium pay as well as all these new additional expenditures and put them in the category for revenue/loss. That allows the Town to only have one reporting obligation which will make it much Page 6 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 easier for Cindy and her team to actually report to the federal government compliance. The other thing in keeping it in this category that it will do, we had the question come up of whether or not a grantee like the Chamber, for example, that’s proposed in this amendment would become a sub-recipient and, therefore, carry all the duties and obligations to report just as the Town would have the duty and obligation to report to the federal government. If you sweep it into revenue/loss, the reporting obligation is actually on the amount. So once the Town lets that amount, writes that check from the Town to the Chamber, for example, that is the end of that obligation. So they’re not considered a sub- recipient when they’re in the revenue/loss category. So Department of Treasury actually has been encouraging everyone to basically put everything in the revenue/loss category because it makes it easier both for the Town to be compliant as well as to the recipients in, in terms of their compliance. I think there will be and has been historically, I talked to Deputy Mayor Pickell who shared with me there is a contract that goes out from the Town when monies are spent in the Community Enrichment Grant Fund to make sure that the recipients use them for the intended purpose and I think that would be appropriate here as well but we wouldn’t be imposing any additional reporting obligations as we would have had if we were in a different category under ARPA in our plan. So, hopefully that’s clear as mud. I know lots of sub-recipient/recipient words but the short answer is we don’t have any additional reporting obligations that will be necessary for the recipients. Plunkett Any other questions or comments from Councilors? Garrett If not, I’ll make a motion to approve. Choi Second. Plunkett I got a first by Councilor Garrett, a second by Councilor Choi. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing the 2024 Budget for Non-DLGF Funds Ordinance 2023-25 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next is Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing the 2024 Budget for Non- DLGF Funds. This is Ordinance 2023-25. This is also a final reading and we have Cindy Poore, Director of Finance and Records here to speak if there are any questions. Poore We did make the change that the Council requested at the last meeting by adding those items under the Fund 176 ARPA for this budget. Everything else remained the same. Page 7 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Plunkett Are there any questions from Councilors for Cindy? Garrett I’ll make a motion to approve. Plunkett We got a first from Councilor Garrett. 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. Do I need to make a note on record that Alex wasn’t here for that particular vote? Harris Yes. Plunkett So, for the record, Alex Choi was not present for that vote. All right, thank you Cindy. NEW BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance of an Ordinance to Revise the Food and Beverage Tax Fund and Uses Ordinance 2023-26 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next would be New Business. The first item of New Business is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise the Food and Beverage Tax Fund and Uses. This is Ordinance 2023-26. This is a first reading and Heather, do you mind walking us through this one, please? Harris Yes, absolutely. Plunkett Thank you. Harris So this is fairly straightforward. This Ordinance would amend our current Zionsville Food and Beverage Tax Ordinance. Historically, we’ve had language in Zionsville that’s more restrictive than the state statute and narrows the groups of recipients that would be eligible to receive Food and Beverage Tax fund. So we’re basically going in and we’re repealing those sections and replacing it with state statute. The other change we’re making is there were still old references to Clerk-Treasurer in the Food and Beverage statute so we’ve replaced all the terms, Clerk-Treasurer, with Director of the Department of Finance and Records as this would set with Cindy and her team. We had language just to share back that said that the funds could solely be used for the creation and enhancement of any public facility or infrastructure improvement or to fund initiatives intended to Page 8 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 promote the Town and its businesses and for no other purpose. We felt this language was really too restrictive, created unnecessary barriers for applicants for the Town and we’ve been funding historically lots of projects similar to those that are proposed today for grants but we haven’t really ever gone back and cleaned up the statute. So we’ve repealed that section and replaced it with the statutory language which basically allows you to use the funds to reduce the Town’s property tax levy in any particular year or, more importantly, here you can use it for any legal or corporate purpose of the Town including the pledge of bonds, leases or other obligations. So, with this change, you can use those Food and Beverage funds really for any governmental purpose that would be appropriate. You’d still have the process, they would still come back before the Town Council for approval so you’d still have those checks and balances but this would simplify the process and allow more recipients to apply for those funds. Also, importantly, it would allow us to legally approve the ones that are currently before you. Plunkett Thank you, Heather. Are there any questions from Council? Burk Not a question – thank you, Heather. I really know those groups may not be with us tonight but they were here for the last couple of meetings, the nonprofit applicants who had diligently and patiently waited and applied for these dollars and, obviously, the right thing for us to do was to pause to make sure that we could appropriately fund those nonprofit charities while also following our own Town regulations and the laws so this was a step that we had to take and so I hope everyone appreciates the process that we’ve gone through and once this is done then hopefully we can circle back and make sure that those nonprofits are able to receive dollars that they need so it’s just a good lesson in good government and I appreciate everybody who played a part. Traylor I’d make a motion to approve. Plunkett We’ve got a first by Councilor Traylor. I’ll second that, President Plunkett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] For the record, Councilor Choi is back in the Council Chambers. Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of a Reappropriation Resolution (Fire) Resolution 2023-22 Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of a Reappropriation Resolution for Fire. This is Resolution 2023-22. We have Chief VanGorder here to present. Good evening Chief. VanGorder Good evening Mr. President and members of the Council. I come before you this evening regarding a Fire Department reappropriation in the 2023 budget. This is not new money. This is simply a reallocation of underspending in other lines Page 9 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 within the Fire Department. We are attempting to accomplish four financial needs of the Fire Department. One is provide the final piece to allow the Fire Department to purchase the self-contained breathing apparatus previously mentioned. That was split out in the ARPA funds as well as in the 2024 budget and the cost estimates that we have received are exceeding that so to accomplish that goal and allow us to purchase that equipment, we would require the approval of this resolution before you. It would also allow us to address needs in our protective clothing and uniform line item, vehicle maintenance and office, office furniture needs which are also items that were contained within the 2024 budget but had to be reduced and cut out due to maintaining positive cash flow balances. I’d be happy to answer any further questions you may have. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I would make a motion to approve Resolution 2023-22. Melton Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you. Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the 2023 Salary Ordinance Ordinance 2023-27 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the 2023 Salary Ordinance. This is Ordinance 2023-27. This is a first reading. We have Cindy Poore, Director of Finance and Records here to present. Poore Good evening. Plunkett Welcome back. Poore Thank you. This is to increase the salary for the Municipal Relations Coordinator who will be assuming the duties of manager over our Municipal Action Center. Currently, we have our Permitting Manager that is managing the MAC and with other responsibilities that she has taken on, we have decided or it has been decided that to kind of spread that out and so the management of the MAC will fall under the Municipal Relations Coordinator so it’s just to fix the salary in the Salary Ordinance for 2023. Garrett From, from an HR perspective, what’s the balance if there are two pressing needs? You know this role supports Council with timelines and there’s needs in the Municipal Relations Center or the MAC, what, how does that – have we thought through that as to start sort of having – I don’t want this to be like Office Space where someone has seven bosses. Page 10 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Poore I will let Jo Kiel, our Director of Human Resources, answer that. Kiel I’m assured that the balance of responsibilities can be taken care of. The situation is, obviously, the manager that currently has it has 10 direct reports which is way too many direct reports and because the Municipal Relations Coordinator – that’s tough, tough title – has, is doing some of that now anyway based on proximity, I’m assured that responsibility can be taken over without anything suffering. Garrett Ok. Plunkett So, I just have a couple of questions and maybe Heather you can chime in on this too – so the last one you just addressed it doesn’t take away or change any duties associated with the Council and the, and the only change to this particular job is just the supervision of the MAC? Kiel Yes – Plunkett Right? When we reestablished the Municipal Relations Coordinator position in Ordinance 2023-05 – Kiel Yes – Plunkett We put in there specific protections for that person. Does this modify that in any way? Like, does that remove those protections? Kiel I do not believe so, I’m not an attorney – But her title, the title hasn’t changed so it wouldn’t, I wouldn’t think – Plunkett Okay. Harris And that is the key. So in that Ordinance it uses the title Municipal Relations Coordinator and the title hasn’t changed. If the title had changed I think I would want to go back and amend that but I did take a look at that and I don’t have any concerns with the way it’s drafted. Plunkett Perfect. Harris And I don’t know why I moved so close to Amy. I guess I just wanted to give her some support. I’m very close to you right now. Plunkett All right, thank you. Are there any other questions from Councilors? Melton I’m just curious – so, is that a head of a department role? Kiel No. Melton That’s not considered a head of a department role? Kiel It is a manage, it is supervisory functions that have been added to a current position. Page 11 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Plunkett But because of the Ordinance that we put in, it reserves those protections specifically for that person, for that title. Harris Yes, you may recall the reason for that, Councilor Melton, was we put those protections into the Ordinance previously for the Municipal Relations Coordinator because when you go back to the reorganization, Ordinance 2014- 11, we split the duties when we created the Department of Finance and Records position. Originally it was in the Ordinance that created the Chief Financial Officer and then when we changed that, we sort of reestablished the duties. So we have Clerk-Treasurer duties which are financial in nature that have been transferred to the Director of Finance and Records doing all the claims for the Town and those responsibilities. Those were Clerk-Treasurer duties before reorganization and then we have the responsibilities to the Council serving as the Clerk of the Council which fall in the Municipal Relations Coordinator. So we really needed to establish both of those duties clearly to make sure that we have not missed any of the previous Clerk-Treasurer duties which would be required as part of the reorganization document. So those duties are protected and then there’s additional reporting directly to the Council which would have been required by the Clerk-Treasurer prior to reorganization back in 2011. Melton Okay, thank you. Plunkett Any other questions for Cindy or Jo? I would make a motion to introduce on first reading Ordinance 2023-27. Choi Second. Plunkett A second by Councilor Choi. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you, Cindy. Are you staying up here for this one too? Poore Yes Consideration of the 2024 Salary Ordinance Ordinance 2023-28 (First Reading) Plunkett All right. Consideration of – up next is a Consideration of the 2024 Salary Ordinance. This is Ordinance 2023-28. This is a first reading and we have Cindy Poore, Director of Finance and Records and HR Director, Jo Kiel. Kiel Actually, Cindy’s been excused. Plunkett Oh, all right. Page 12 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Kiel You have the 2024 Salary Ordinance in front of you or did. The Exhibit A includes a 4% increase salary – staff wide salary increase. It also captures the Municipal Relations Coordinator increase that we just discussed, two additional positions in DPW, updated stipends. Exhibit B is the holiday schedule for 2024. There are no changes to that other than dates for 2024 and then Exhibit C is the longevity pay, again, no changes to that. Happy to answer any questions. Plunkett Are there any questions from Councilors? Garrett Unh-uh. Traylor I’d make a motion to introduce on first reading. Garrett Second. Plunkett We got a first from Councilor Traylor, second from Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Kiel Great, thank you. Plunkett Thanks, Jo. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next is Other Matters. Councilor – Traylor You mind if I – I’ve got one – Plunkett Yes – Traylor Quick thing just to make mention of and then I know you’ve got more. We, just to remind the Council – we have an outstanding invoice from OpenGov for about $70,000 and I’m not as much, much to Councilor Garrett’s prior comments months ago, I’m not really interested in solving other people’s problems but it’s also not the next Council nor the next Mayor’s problem so I think we at some point over the next three meetings need to either pay it or make a decision as a group not to. So just bringing that to the attention of the Council that that has not gone away and they do continue to call to check on when that’s going to be paid. Garrett Okay, so I’ve got as, as you saw here we approved that ARPA Rescue Plan. Joe, if you’re ready I’ve got a few slides to, to run through just to go through a Page 13 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 process here. There we go. Okay, so as I mentioned earlier, the ARPA Plan, I’m sorry – the ARPA money that we got during COVID times does have a time horizon associated with it. In fact, I just got this email the other day from the National League of Cities – fun read – just reminding us that, that if you don’t allocate these dollars and have them contracted by the end of 2024, you will be asked to give them back and there’s a lot of things that you can use these for. They’re much more flexible than they were at first, which is some of the reason for the delay and some of it was getting input from a lot of different folks but I do think it’s important to make sure that these are appropriated accordingly. So, we’ve got about $2.4, a little over $2.4 million dollars left to spend. Just a little quick history – the first round was working with the Mayor on employee bonuses for COVID for those employees that worked through COVID, had to come in, our first responders, really everyone that had to come in when, when a lot of us were able to work from home. The second you just witnessed, which were budget items in 2024 that we moved to ARPA so that we have less of a deficit in that budget and create a sustainable budget. And so I’m now looking at things that were also in the budget that maybe didn’t make that first cut. And working with the Administration, sending out kind of the bat signal to all of the department heads, I really asked for, for, what are things that you may want for these ARPA dollars with sort of the caveat that I’m looking for one-time type expenses, cost savings, things like that. I’m not looking for recurring charges, I’m not looking for new employees that will create expenses down the line for, for future Councils, future Administrations. So, you can see here we got just a little over $10 million dollars in requests that came in. I’m going to go through how I – I’m going to do two things – I want to show you all the requests that I got and I’m going to go through how I recommend that we spend them. Now, this is just my recommendation. Because of Open Door Laws, I really haven’t had a chance to talk to you guys about this so this is the public discussion. If the way you think or the Administration thinks that this money should be spent differently, I think what I’d like to do is have that conversation here today and what to expect then is we’ll have another ARPA Ordinance with the final money that we’ll go through here in the November and December meetings. Some of my recommendations are, again, cost savings and I think this provides the next Council, the next Mayor, we know who the next Mayor will be but we don’t know what the next Council will be, some budget flexibility in 2025, so things that are perhaps long overdue, things that are needed in the community. We can pay for these now and give them then the flexibility for their budget to set whatever priorities there may be and I think when you look at these I hope that these priorities match up. Department heads are here, representation is here so Councilors if you see any of these things that I’m showing that have been requested and you’ve got questions on them, we can certainly go through that but, like I said, I’m going to go through everything that was requested and then what I have, have picked out kind of like old Wheel of Fortune style when you had to pick the stuff out from the rotating showcase, I picked that stuff out. Page 14 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 So, in no particular order, Zionsville, the Fire Department had three requests here and I’ll go through this really quick – certainly this is available publicly if anyone wants to review this and I’m happy to share it with all of you as well. It was really around future locations of fire stations, apparatus, design work – about $1.2 million dollars related to, to those types of requests. The Police Department was focused more on what they have today, a police station that is perhaps in need of some tender loving care here. So some flooring, drywall, some security improvements with a public bathroom, replacing some, some long overdue garage doors and a roof that is, that is leaking. Community & Economic Development had some requests here – a first floor redesign for their team to work more efficiently, buying out of a current vehicle and some small upgrades that just kind of, I would call them quality life upgrades for, for their employees. Wastewater had a, had a list here of a variety of different types of vehicles, system upgrades, backup replacement items to have on stock, just kind of general, general blocking and tackling and I think as you see me go through this list, there’s nothing in here that’s like really just like, I think, frivolous. I mean a lot of these things have been needed, a lot of these things have been on past budgets, they just haven’t made the cut for, for one reason or another and the asterisks one is just in case you’re curious, were notated as high priority by, by DPW. This is Streets – again, equipment, some pathway stuff that I know is important to, to many Councilors. I know certainly the Mayor has expressed interest in more pathways and so part of that is design and part of that is pathway. One of the other things to think about too is and I wasn’t necessarily going to propose this but I was just kind of curious. I was having a conversation with the DPW Superintendent Lantz and I said well what if I just gave you all the money to just do all pathways? You know, it’s kind of an easy thing, everyone loves pathways, why not just do that? And, part of this is, again, when you’ve got a hard date of when you have to contract for things you can’t necessarily guarantee that you’re going to be able to do it in that period of time. So a pathway, for example, there’s a lot of land acquisition that has to happen as a part of that, there’s design work that has to happen as a part of that and so doing that I think there’s a good chance that that money may be wasted. So here when you see engineering work and when I say wasted I mean sort of expired. When I see engineering work, well engineering work can get done that then effectively creates what I would call a shovel-ready project for the next Mayor or the next Council. There, there’s no obligation they have to fund it but certainly based on input we’ve gotten from the Pathway Committee, these might be the next logical pathways that they may want to get done. Parks had some vehicle needs – a dump truck, zero-turn motor, mower I should say, a Polaris and some smaller asks there as well as well as things for the golf course, which the golf course has its own budget, one of the non-DLGF budgets that we just approved, that’s part of the golf course budget because they’re self- sustaining, they’re not based on tax dollars – I’m sorry, yes, yes, they’re based on usage dollars, some Lincoln Park improvements, things like that. Page 15 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 IT – Joe had a lot of different requests for it, everything from an entire document management system to some overdue network security information or systems, not necessarily the most exciting kind of things because you can’t see them, you can’t, you can’t walk on a network switch but they are certainly important in terms of, of making sure that, that we are able to, to keep everyone functioning properly. And I sort of call this Other – one of them was my own and I just call this ARPA oversight reporting just to make sure that as we’re going through this, Heather has been very helpful on our end. Cindy has been very helpful on her end but just making sure we’ve got someone that can check off on all of this stuff, make sure that we are getting the reporting in that we need to so that a future Administration does not get a bill from the federal government because we forgot to file some sort of form and HR had requested some leadership training. So, I put all of this into a spreadsheet. You know, with $10 million dollars and $2.4 million dollars to spend and it goes pretty quickly when you look at it that way. I mean really I could only put in 24% of the requests. So, my priorities were, were kind of a couple of things. One was certainly department identified needs. These are not things that are pet projects that are coming from any Councilor, these are things that our department heads have said they’ve needed to do their job to serve us citizens in a better way and I’ve looked at things like cost savings. So, can we spend a dollar now to save three dollars tomorrow? That was a huge determining factor for me as well as connectivity. That is something I think that, that all of this Council has talked about pathways and trailways being an important piece for that and as I mentioned earlier, it provides that pressure release, I think, for the 2025 budget which I think will continue to rise in revenues and I think with the budget that we passed together with the Administration for 2024, I think we’ll be in a really good shape financially for, for that next Council, that next Administration. So, you had to listen to all of that to I guess get to the meat of what I am recommending and I’ll sort of talk through as to why. So for CED, the buyout of an Inspector vehicle lease – you know that obviously, we now own that vehicle. We save lease obligations there and I thought the quality of life improvements were, were needed and necessary to, to help them with their job. The, so there is a lot of money here being spent on pathways. Two of them are pure engineering and I mentioned earlier this is to give the next Administration and the next Council a shovel-ready project, whether it is through grant, whether it is through dollars that we have, federal dollars, whatever, they would be able to move forward with those. I’ve got a little asterisk there on that County Road 300 South pathway project. There is a, there is a development project for a senior living facility that is going through the PUD process and is going through the Planning Commission. They potentially proposed doing a TIF. Part of those TIF dollars would then go to connectivity along 421 on the east side as well as crossing 421 which I know has been a big piece. I know Vice President Burk you’ve been pushing for that. So, by us getting in front of it and doing the engineering, if and when that TIF is approved and funded and that we funded all Page 16 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 front-loaded so we’d get all the money upfront, we’d be able to effectively hand them the plans and say go build this. So that was kind of a no-brainer. I also included a pathway construction itself right there at County Road 875 and Whitestown Road. That is something that is what I would call shovel ready because of past design work that has happened and so I’d, I’d love to see that built and then also a hoist/crane truck for DPW/Waste. That was a high priority need for them, something that will be coming up in the next budget anyways. I thought leadership training is always a good thing from an HR standpoint. From IT getting a network switch replacement. This is page one of two so bear with me as well as upgrading these, these microphone systems for public access and also for the fire station so that they don’t have to leave the fire station to do training, they can actually do it in the training room at that fire station itself. I included the ARPA reporting oversight, although not at the dollar amount I had hoped for just because I ran out of dollars effectively. A couple of pieces of equipment for Parks including the tractor for the golf course which I know is badly overdue as well as the nature playground in Carpenter Nature Center. I picked that one because it’s got a matching grant so we can take those $75,000 and double them through that matching grant so that seemed like a good ROI there. For ZFD, for the Fire Department it was getting the land acquisition for the future fourth station. My rationale behind that was land prices will only keep going up so we might as well lock that down and in the future if we decide we don’t need that land or it needs to be in a different spot, if we don’t need that land we can just sell that land and reappropriate those dollars as needed or if it needs to be in a different spot we can do some type of trade and/or sell it and buy that other land so we might as well lock that land in now. And then ZPD, two upgrades that would, my understanding, by conversations with them, would extend the life of that building by, by a good 10 years so spending $200 grand now to not have to build potentially another police station or, or a new police station. Whitestown just did one and it cost $10 million dollars. I thought that was a really good use of dollars. So, if you look at all of those funds – that’s effectively the dollars that we have left. This is a terrible graph, I apologize, but this is sort of how it’s broken down by department and it’s a bit of a misnomer because in this case it doesn’t look like Parks is getting that much money but a lot of the Parks money is sort of kind of also trails but because of where it exists close to the roadway, it is in the DPW’s budget instead of the Parks’ budget and certainly prioritization for, for our, our public safety friends. So, I certainly want to discuss this plan. If there’s questions on this we can certainly go through this in more detail. Assuming we agreed or whatever we agreed on we would then create that Final ARPA Ordinance that would be in front of us hopefully at our next meeting, our second November meeting, we would pass that before the end of 2023 and then once those monies are appropriated, those department heads can start spending them, or at least contracting for them. If those monies, for some reason, are underspent those monies can be reallocated. So, if we end up getting land for $500,000 instead of $600,000 we can reappropriate those dollars. That’s just not going to be my problem. That’s the next Council’s problem. So they’ll just have to keep Page 17 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 an eye on that to make sure that we don’t, again, we can’t reappropriate it past that 2024, end of 2024 date. So, that was a lot to absorb. Happy to answer any questions or go back if you want to look at any more details and I will certainly send this out. Like I said, there is no vote today. This is just my recommendation. It’s not the Council’s recommendation and the department heads this is the first they’re seeing of this so if there’s something in there that, that they feel strongly about one way or the other for, for something I’ve identified that’s maybe of the same cost for something else, I’m certainly up for that, that conversation as well. Choi Well, first of all, I think, want to thank you for the work you’ve done on this. This is heavy lifting so appreciate it. I, one of the things we do need to do is go back to the department heads and make sure that the priorities that you set forth, and I think they’re all great priorities, are the ones that they would’ve chosen as well so. Happy to help with that conversation as I go through. Pickell (Inaudible off microphone) Choi Sorry – and, so, happy to help you with that conversation if you need to, to go back and make sure that these are the priorities that they want to, want to put forward as well. Garrett Sure, yes. Happy to, happy to include you in that conversation. Choi But thank you very much for this. Garrett Sure. Plunkett Yes, it is a heavy lift so I certainly appreciate you going through this just like Alex said, I’d like to understand the department heads’ priorities where they think that these fall. Certainly if there’s other folks that are interested, the new Administration perhaps or somebody else that would have some thoughts on how some of this stuff should be, should be spent but I mean, I think that we’ve had ARPA meetings in the past whether it’s been – Garrett Yes – Plunkett A separate public meeting or meetings, Council meetings where we’ve discussed ARPA and there’s not been any direction on what to do with this so certainly appreciate you taking the lead on this. Garrett It’s and I’m certainly, I mean I think that makes sense. I think from a public perception standpoint or, or the reality is and just so everyone in the audience knows, Open Door Laws, the majority of, of any public body such as a Council, cannot meet privately. So, I’m happy to do it, I just can’t communicate that back and forth in, in sort of over email because it has to be in a public forum. So, what I can do is, I can, Councilor Choi and President Plunkett, I can copy you on communication to the department heads and Administration and they can, we can sort of have that conversation and the rest of the Council will be somewhat blind to that until we then present that plan in, in two weeks. Which is not, I mean Page 18 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 that’s typically how we’d do something anyway so it’s not a problem. I just wanted everyone to see it now so if there was something on here that, that really stood out in terms of either being spent or not being spent it would be good to know that if any Councilor had a, had a thought on that just to include that as a part of the conversation. Burk I appreciate you doing this heavy lifting as well and I appreciate that you attempted to kind of build in a ROI around it as well in terms of how do we save money down the road or are any of these costs savings down the road and I think, I think a lot of it makes really good sense. I’m with everybody else. I don’t know that you’re going to get department heads to come up to the mic now – Garrett Oh yes – Burk And weigh in but certainly offline over the next two weeks – Garrett Yes – Burk I think that’s going to happen and I’d be curious how all that plays out but I’m happy to weigh in as well however I can but I think it makes a lot of sense and I, am pleased to see some of the pathways work in here that was presented to us back in August when the Pathways Committee presented to this Council. Thank you. Plunkett Anybody else have any comments or anything for Councilor Garrett? Melton Councilor Garrett, can you, can you forward this to us? Garrett 100%, yep. I will send this out. I’ll send it out to the department heads and Administration so they can all see it for sure. Melton Please. Thank you. Plunkett And event though this isn’t, this isn’t calendared, we still can’t, Heather, correct? We still can’t communicate back and forth on all this stuff? Harris You can share with Councilor Garrett what you want. I wouldn’t ask him for - (inaudible) Plunkett Yes – Harris I just think that generally that is the spirit of Open Door Laws. Traylor Avoid reply all? Garrett Yes. Plunkett Okay. Garrett Thank you. Page 19 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Plunkett Thank you. Thanks for putting that together. Any other matters from Councilors? Traylor Just kudos to our Scouts for sticking out an entire meeting. Plunkett Yes. Choi Thank you very much guys. Garrett Oh and I got one more – I got Lance, I got to give kudos to your guys. Every year the leaf collection. That’s a lot of work but thank you or thanks to them. Choi Did you know the City of Indianapolis is trying to replicate what we do up here? So congratulations. Burk It is much appreciated by the folks who live here. Plunkett Indeed. Burk And one final comment – Happy Birthday to our Council President – Plunkett Ahh – Burk Jason Plunkett. Plunkett Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. If there’s nothing else, just as a brief reminder, please remember to vote tomorrow at the Whitestown Town Hall, Hussey-Mayfield Library and Zionsville Town Hall from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. so. The next Regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 20, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Public notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you. ADJOURN Garrett Hold on one sec – can I make a motion to adjourn? Harris Yes. Plunkett Oh geez – Burk Second. Plunkett Yes. Did you make a motion to adjourn? First from Councilor Garrett, 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. Page 20 of 21 Zionsville Town Council November 6, 2023 Burk This meeting was just going to keep going on the record for two more weeks. Garrett It’s his birthday. Plunkett So, again, next regularly scheduled meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 20, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. in the Town Hall, Town Hall Council Chambers. Public notice will be posted in compliance with Indiana Open Door Law. Respectfully submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 21 of 21