By David Slone
Times Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY – On the first day of its 2025 budget hearings on Wednesday, Aug. 14, the Kosciusko County Council went through more than half of the department presentations in four hours.

A second day is scheduled for Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and the final day will be about salaries. Salaries will not be discussed during the presentations of the draft budgets by the department heads.

A third day of budget cuts is scheduled for Wednesday, August 21, at 8:00 a.m.

Non-profit organizations

During County Administrator Marsha McSherry’s presentation of the county commissioners’ budgets, she mentioned that the state’s required budget for the Bowen Center is $809,000 in 2025. The Bowen Center is a nonprofit organization.

Councilwoman Joni Truex asked what sparked the county commissioners’ discussion about continuing nonprofit budgets. “I’m just curious because it was very interesting,” she said.

Council President Mike Long asked if she was referring to the discussion about the county not providing more funding to nonprofits, and Truex said she was.

“The city of Warsaw and some personal views,” said Long.

McSherry said some have stronger opinions on the issue than others.

At their July 16 meeting, commissioners recommended to council that seven nonprofits receive the same amount of funding in 2025 as they did in 2024. An eighth nonprofit, which applied for funding for the first time, was recommended not to receive funding. The Bowen Center is not one of those nonprofits because the state requires the county to provide them with funding. Commissioners also discussed the possibility of ending the nonprofit funding after 2025.

Long said Wednesday that it’s just talks at this point, but ideas are floating around to freeze funding for nonprofits because it’s taxpayer money and not every nonprofit receives funding.

He said the county decided a year ago not to accept any new nonprofits.

“There have been talks about potentially cutting funding. So that’s all just talk. Nothing has been decided yet. So I’m in for full disclosure,” he said.

Truex said it was disturbing for the nonprofits to learn about it through the newspaper and the commissioners’ comments. She said the commissioners should have held a meeting with them before the meeting.

“These discussions are happening, and I think at some point they will be addressed. And I have no idea what will happen next,” Long said.

Truex wanted to know what other counties were doing to support their community’s nonprofits. She wasn’t interested in what cities were doing, but rather what counties were doing.

She also wondered what it would take for the county to take over some of the functions of nonprofits if they no longer existed, such as the Beaman Home or Kosciusko County Senior Services.

“I think these are things we need to investigate thoroughly,” Truex said.

Long said those discussions are currently ongoing, but some are beginning to ask, “Is this something we want to do with taxpayer money?”

Legal services

Funds for legal services are included in many department budgets, including the Cumulative Capital Development Fund in one commissioner’s budget. For 2025, McSherry said there will be a $9,000 increase for CCD legal services. She said no increase is planned in the 2024 budget.

“This is largely in line with the requirements of House Enrolled Act 1158, which went into effect on July 1. That governs all contracts that are approved by the commissioners,” she said. “I think we’ve already talked about this a little bit. Any contract with Kosciusko County has to be in the name of the county.”

District Attorney Ed Ormsby must review all of these contracts within 21 days.

Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell told McSherry she requested legal information and found that only one round of money had been spent. “The 6/24 was the first bill that appeared to come from the appropriated funds,” she said.

McSherry said they were up to date. Wednesday was August 14th and the bill is due by the 15th of every month.

Councilwoman Kimberly Cates said $29,480 was spent this year. Mitchell said the county does not receive regular bills. McSherry said commissioners are aware of that.

sheriff

In June, Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith spoke to the council about improving medical care at the jail.

On Wednesday he presented a significant increase in the prison budget.

“We knew this was going to happen and that it would increase our medical coverage in the prison to 24 hours a day. Currently, the nurses leave at 9 p.m. and we don’t see them again until 6 a.m.,” Smith said.

In general, he said, people with higher medical needs – drunkenness, overdoses – come in the middle of the night when there are no nurses around. He noted that most lawsuits against prisons are due to inadequate medical care.

Instead of requesting four new prison guards for next year, he reduced that request to two to mitigate the increase in health insurance costs.

NET43

The Kosciusko County Narcotics Enforcement Team (NET 43) began operations on February 14, 2019. It was officially established through a Memorandum of Understanding dated October 22, 2019. NET 43 is a collaborative, specialized unit comprised of officers from various local law enforcement agencies, according to a letter of support for NET 43 signed by the heads of all law enforcement agencies operating in Kosciusko County. Smith’s signature was one of those on the letter.

At Wednesday’s budget hearing, Smith said he fully supports the Attorney General’s Office taking over budget planning for NET 43 because only with third-party oversight can NET 43 be successful.

“It’s just a cleaner way of doing things, so we’re very supportive of it,” he said.

The sheriff’s budget includes $13,222 for law enforcement asset seizures, which will be transferred to the prosecutor’s budget for NET 43. These funds were added to the fund relatively recently.

Dan Hampton, deputy director of public prosecutions, said many of the increases in Fund 23015 for the prosecutor’s office were due to an increase in the NET 43 budget. The prosecutor’s office has absorbed much of NET 43’s expenses.

Poor Advocate

Superior Court III Judge Chad Miner said the largest item in the 2025 budget proposal for Superior II and III courts is the $750,000 cost of the poor relief program, a figure he mentioned at last week’s council meeting.

He said they really did not have enough lawyers, so they were pulling lawyers from Plymouth and Fort Wayne to act as pauper advocates.

Cates said nearly $410,000 had been spent on legal aid for poor people through June, and he was asking for $750,000 for 2025, but she asked if that was enough. Miner said he believed that based on the numbers he had reviewed.
Mitchell mentioned that money from the public defender fund could be used to offset the increase.

“If we don’t continue to use the money to offset the increase, we can’t use it for anything else unless – and this is the other thing we’re considering – we increase the amounts awarded to public defenders,” she said.

Miner said if the council wanted to provide $725,000, it would be more than it has been provided so far. Mitchell suggested lowering the $725,000 amount, perhaps to halfway between last year’s $525,000 and the $750,000 requested. That would be the amount provided from the general fund, and the remainder would be taken from the supplemental public defender fund.

The council discussed setting a budget of $650,000 for the Poor Advocacy Service in 2025 and then making a match from the Public Defender Fund so that no additional funding would be needed.

Judge Torey Bauer of Superior Court II said, “We no longer have enough public defenders that we can assign cases to and still meet the parameters set by the state to get the 40% (reimbursement). So at some point you’re going to have to make the tough decision to give up that reimbursement because we can’t keep the numbers up in a way that satisfies the state and/or” have a public defender position. He said an additional public defender fund could help get a public defender position up and running. Bauer said some tough decisions will have to be made.

Bauer said most attorneys in the district would much rather do the work of a public defender.

Judge Mike Reed said the downside of that is that the county would have to have as many public defenders as prosecutors. The assistant public defender would have to be paid the same salary as the assistant prosecutor. They would also have to have staff.

Bauer said he currently has 12 public defenders working for him, eight of whom are from other counties because he cannot find enough lawyers locally.

Miscellaneous

Other departments that the county council heard from on Wednesday were the District and High Courts I and IV, the Probation Service, the Public Welfare Department, the Surveyor’s Office, the Clerk’s Office and the Treasury Office, the Soil and Water Department, the County Council and the Redevelopment Authority.

Departments that will present their proposals Thursday include highway, coroner, Kosciusko County Convention and Recreation Commission of Visitors, land planning, assessor, recorder, emergency management, health, Purdue Extension, auditor and veterans affairs, followed by recommendations from the wage committee.