By KEN ALEXANDER
Council Minutes
Happy New Year! I am not sure how long we can continue to use that salutation, but at the time I write this, it still feels appropriate because for most of you, this is the first time we have communicated since the turning of the year. I have always looked at this time of year as an opportunity to take stock of your life but never at the expense of understanding the important things like family and friends.
Usually this is a somewhat muted time of the year with respect to the County Council, but this year it has been extraordinarily busy with county business. Whether it be holiday functions, ARPA funding meetings, close of business for the fiscal year, meeting with several agencies/departments, or meeting with others to discuss the coming year, it has been a full schedule. I will try and cover many of these activities in the paragraphs that follow.
Before I get into the overview of the January Council meeting, I want to bring you up to speed on the ARPA grant program that we initiated in the summer/fall of last year.
As a Council, we use the committee’s recommendations to initiate funding from the money granted to our county by the U.S. government. I am a rotating member of that committee, and when my time came to participate in the meetings in December, I carried the message that we needed to focus on the business and charity applications that had not been acted on by the committee. To date, our focus has been funding projects that met the requirements of the legislation and paying bonuses to government and public safety personnel that worked through the pandemic.
We had two ARPA meetings in December. The first reviewed some general approvals for projects, and the second focused on reviewing the business and charitable applications. The follow-up to the second meeting is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 14, where I intend to push for some decisions that will allow us to distribute funds to some of the businesses and charities that had devastating damages from the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down our economy and closed businesses. I hope to provide an update next month.
Regarding the regularly scheduled Council meeting, the actions that we can take in January are limited, but we do have several procedural items to address. This month’s meeting was no different with the election of our 2022 President and Vice President and the approval of board appointments for the several bodies that we support.
This past year was a highly productive year for the County Council. We accomplished a great deal and continue to drive and support this county. Before I get into the election of the Council’s leadership, I must thank Councilor Amy Massillamany for her leadership over the past year. While this role is administrative in nature, it was a difficult year with many activities that required a great deal of time, and she did an outstanding job in that role and deserves our appreciation.
For 2022, our Council elected Steve Schwartz to serve as the President and I was elected to serve as the Vice President.
My goals for this year are to maintain the decorum of our meetings but to also develop tighter processes and procedures that improve the transparency of the Council, continue to educate the community about what we do and provide better information to Councilors to allow for them to make more informed decisions. This will include creating a methodology that provides for a process to select professional support to the Council whether it be legal, financial or other service that we require. I am excited and looking forward to the coming year.
The other procedural item was an issue I made a big stink about several years ago, the Council Board Appointments. This has traditionally been a rubber stamp of the individuals that served the previous year. This is one of the best ways for people to engage in county business in the community. Last year we put some new people in these positions, and I hope to continue to provide new opportunities for citizens in the county. I recognize that we need to do a better job by advertising these opportunities, educating of their importance, and allowing new people to get engaged in our county government. We have improved some in the past few years, but we have room to get better.
This year we asked existing appointees to submit a letter of interest to the Council. I do not believe we did enough to highlight these opportunities to the community as I received only one email from the public expressing their interest and it was for a position that was not up for appointment. Like I stated above, I will work this year to create a better process.
There was only one major action addressed in the January meeting. Over the past few months, we have all seen the need to “hire outside of the salary range” for several positions. Many of these positions remain unfilled as they compete with the private sector, which generally pays higher wages. Government is not nearly as nimble, which is not all bad, but in this case it causes some real problems. This month our personnel committee brought forth a recommendation to change the Labor, Trade and Craft (LTC) pay scales to be more in line with the private sector. We hope this helps our ability to fill LTC positions and voted unanimously in favor of the recommendation. If you are interested in pursuing work with the county, you can find job postings on our website.
As many of you know, I work in the construction industry and meet regularly with hotels and service industry groups. They are all experiencing similar struggles to fill these types of positions as well. In some cases, people have sought new jobs and left LTC careers or they have left the workforce all together.
It is part of the reason why the Council’s seed investment in the Hamilton County Center for Career Achievement (HCCCA) is so vital. Since our decision to support this venture – which will repurpose millions of dollars in federal grant money into our communities and schools – our program is beginning to take shape with programs in healthcare, cybersecurity, civil engineering, and advanced manufacturing starting this spring in some schools. The intent of the HCCCA is to offer programs across the county this fall.
We are also anticipating 15 new course offerings kicking off in the fall of 2023 and are beginning the conversation with college and universities about integration into their learning curriculum. Businesses interested in getting involved need to reach out to our Executive Director, Carrie Lively at clively@hamcocareers.com or catch her at our county-wide Architecture, Engineering and Construction Trades Job Fair at Hamilton Heights High School on Feb. 16.
I am excited for the coming year. While we all hope that COVID-19 will stop impacting our lives, we know that it most likely will continue to disrupt. Elections are important, and I think we have learned that over the past few years.
When I first ran for office, I stated a few principles that guided me. I believe in the importance of partnerships to achieve better results, I believe in the importance of public service, I believe that the government sector has a lot to learn from the private sector, and I also believe in term limits.
After the craziness of the past couple of years I must add another principle, which is I believe in the power of personal responsibility. I stated a few months ago that I was going to run for re-election, but understand that a campaign will not get in the way of me doing the job I was elected to do. I made my commitment to seek re-election official on Jan. 7. This will be the last time I mention my campaign in these articles until after the primary in May as I believe this communication is intended to educate and not be used to promote any agenda.
Congratulations to the new leadership of the Hamilton County Reporter. I am excited for Stu and think the world of this local paper. I am pleased that the Hamilton County Reporter will continue to allow me to write a monthly column. A special thanks to you, the readers, and residents of Hamilton County, for reading it and being engaged in the discussion. Our county is better because of you all. I welcome your questions at ken.alexander@hamiltoncounty.in.gov.
Ken Alexander is serving in his first term on the Hamilton County Council, representing District 4, which includes Adams and Washington townships, and part of Clay Township.
Editor’s note: This column was updated at 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2022