Welcome to The Timesheet. This column is a report of work done on behalf of the people of Hamilton County. It will be an informative place to learn about projects and how county government works.
As a body, the Hamilton County Council deals with large volumes of information. We are responsible for approving budgets, financial plans, and personnel financial decisions among several other areas. The information we review is often confidential. Protecting the confidential information is part of the job and a responsibility that I take seriously. This column will not share confidential or sensitive information.
As your employee, it’s important that you know what is being worked on and it’s just as important to be transparent in government. You hired me as your Hamilton 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. on 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.
Month two is in the books. Personnel Committee meetings consisted of new hire approvals, compensation adjustments, new positions, and lots of detailed discussions on benefits and county Human Resources procedures. Highway Committee meetings included detailed reviews of pending projects and approvals of funding for several.
I’ve learned that the public meetings are a product of hours of work behind the scenes. To serve well, one must be informed well. Keeping up with the reading, email, helping taxpayers with issues or questions, meeting with department heads, committee meetings and conversations with other council members all require time.
This month, in addition to the County Council public meeting, I attended Cicero and Noblesville town council meetings. I also attended the Indiana County Council Association meeting in New Castle. The ICCA serves as an educational and legislative service to county councils across Indiana. This session focused on council best practices and a comprehensive legislative update on 44 bills moving through the statehouse that have potential impact on county government’s ability to provide services to citizens.
Unfortunately, the construction climate is such that two bids this past month both exceeded budgeted estimates.
Frankly, it’s ugly. Government has strict procurement guidelines so one of the projects must be rebid because the bids were too far beyond the project’s estimated budget. The second project could be awarded but it still came in millions of dollars over estimated costs.
This left the county in a trick bag. The sunk costs exceeded the cost overruns by a three-to-one margin, leaving the county very little choice. We can incur the bigger cost, unwind the project, and still have the traffic problem, or suck it up and find a way to cover the new higher project costs.
These are very tough choices, in part because they can put pressure on the budget and harm our ability to pay for future needed projects. Let me be clear here, what’s happened to these two projects is not an unforced error, rather it’s a product of vendors having plenty of work and increasing their bids to manage their risk of future cost of labor increases between the time they bid the work and the time to start project execution.
This month’s work also included an evening shift ride-a-long with a sheriff’s deputy and learning more about the challenges faced by our police first responders.
Additionally, I had the privilege to spend time with the team at the Heart and Soul Clinic in Westfield, learning about their free healthcare services and touring their facility.
I spent several hours meeting with the county attorney and representatives from one of the consulting firms the county presently uses to finance debt. Topics included debt financing, our strong AAA bond rating, the county tax rate, and how to keep it flat, as well as how it compares to the various school tax rates around the county.
Lastly of note this month, I spent time with the executives from Bastian Solutions, congratulating them on their decision to remain in Hamilton County, keeping over 600 jobs here at home.
This is my timesheet. This is where my time went during month two. There are several 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, my 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.