Welcome to the Timesheet. This column is a report of work done on behalf of the people of Hamilton County. It’s to be informative, too – a place to learn about projects and how our county government works.
As your employee, it’s important to me that you know what is being worked on as transparently as possible in government. You hired me as your County Councilman, and my hope is that you’ll choose to be informed by regularly reading this column, getting involved, and by asking questions. Council meetings are at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of every month at the Judicial Center in downtown Noblesville. They are also available to watch online for those unable to attend in person. Here is where my time this past month has been spent.
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Month five is in the books. The newbie label has vanished and I’m diving deep into spending on highway projects, parks, not-for-profits, and personnel. Citizens continue to reach out with questions or advocating views on issues that come before the council. Candidly, it’s rewarding to help, and listening to stakeholders helps me frame my own opinions.
This month the personnel committee meeting consisted of 11 requests from seven different departments. We reviewed adjustments in position classifications, new positions for approval, changing employee responsibilities and how they fit within a compensation matrix, and we reviewed adjustments to compensation as merited. These requests will be voted on by the full council at our June 7 meeting.
The Highway Committee meeting was canceled this month as there were only two items up for discussion. Those items are added to the full council agenda. Many improvement projects continue and the 146th Street and Allisonville Road project has a website for interested parties to get updates and information. Visit streamline146.com.
In addition to the County Council public and committee meetings, I attended Cicero and Noblesville town council public meetings. This month also included a meeting with State Representative Chuck Goodrich, a luncheon hosted by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership where we focused on employment in central Indiana, meeting with city law enforcement leadership to discuss public safety, multiple meetings with HEPL board members, as well as with voters regarding Council library board appointments.
Of note this month was a tour and an introductory meeting with leaders from Janus Development Services. The county provides funding to Janus, and we partner with them on the Hamilton County Express, affordable public transportation. I had the opportunity to meet with two of our Judges and listen to their thoughts on future court needs, present caseload metrics, efficiencies, and current juvenile caseloads. Based on county population growth, additional courts are in our future. New court(s) require state legislative approval.
With much data from the team in Human Resources (hat tip to their great team) I presented the concept of a new employee benefit to a County Executive. The benefit would use affordable housing dollars to assist tenured county employees with home ownership in Hamilton County. With over 1,200 employees, approximately 250 don’t reside in the county. If accepted and enacted, the program would help retention, assist in recruitment, and offer home ownership support to county employees.
This month’s work also included a loss in attempting to save taxpayer dollars. I like the train and its programming, having been an advocate for the train for many years. It is a wonderful not-for-profit organization that has been financially supported by the county through our tourism department. The folks from the Nickel Plate asked the county to repair the tracks at the intersections of county roads. That’s absolutely a county responsibility. Train leadership also asked for the council to pay an additional $650,000 to repair the balance of the tracks. In my opinion, that is not county taxpayer responsibility but that of the track users. Under questioning, Train leadership were on public record in response to my questions, agreeing to repay the county the additional funds from their net operating proceeds. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the Council voted 5-2 to give the train the additional funds rather than agree to recover the taxpayer dollars.
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This is my timesheet. This is where my time went during month five. There are quite a few projects in the queue for 2023 and while my job is primarily the financial oversight of the county budget it is important to understand the Board of Commissioners’ priorities and balance them with the stewardship of taxpayer dollars. That is the job, and I am excited to do the people’s business.
As a taxpayer myself, and listening to so many of you, our employers, it’s important for the taxpayers to have access to all the information you want. I work for you and although you may not choose to do a deep dive into what your County Council does, it’s important that you always can do so.
Feel free to contact me at (317) 832-1104 or mark.hall@hamiltoncounty.in.gov with questions, feedback, or if you would like to talk about county business.
Mark, thank you for these. Of course the “fiscal conservatives” that make up most of the elected HamCo Republicans shoveled money into the train.