KENTON COUNTY FISCAL COURT

M I N U T E S

AUGUST 14, 2007, 9:00 A.M.

The regular meeting of the Kenton County Fiscal Court was called to order at the Independence Courthouse.  Present at the meeting were Judge Executive Ralph A. Drees; Commissioners Dan Humpert, Kris Knochelmann and Sara Voelker; County Attorney Garry Edmondson; County Treasurer Jerry Knochelmann; Human Resources Director Joe Shriver; Public Safety Director Bill Dorsey; Police Chief Ed Butler; Public Works Director Joe Murphy; Jailer Terry Carl; Special Projects Manager Ralph Bailey; County Engineer Charles Meyers; Assistant County Attorney Stacy Hege; Court Reporter Cathy Johnston; and Guests.

Deputy Judge Scott Kimmich was not present because of illness.

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance

The invocation was given and pledge of allegiance led by Commissioner ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Dan Humpert.

Approval of Minutes

Judge Drees asked the court for approval of the minutes dated July 24, 2007.  Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion for approval; seconded by Commissioner Voelker.  The motion was unanimously approved with the vote of aye.

Delegations

There were not any delegations present to speak to the court.

General Business

No general business items were brought to the court's attention.

Resolutions

Resolution 07-19

Resolution authorizing Kenton County Judge Executive Ralph Drees to enter into an agreement with the Governor's Office for Local Development for the Kentucky Body Armor Program, Chief Butler reporting:  This is a grant in the amount of $20,890.92 to finish equipping all of the county's police officers with the AR 15 rifle and associated equipment.  There are approximately 16 officers that do not have this equipment.  This money comes from firearms that we turn over to the state police from guns that are confiscated that are involved in crimes.  In past years, the county bought body armor but this year the county police are asking for this money to be used to buy firearms and related equipment.

Commissioner Humpert made the motion for approval with a second from Commissioner Knochelmann and the motion unanimously passed with a roll call vote of Commissioner Humpert, yes; Commissioner Voelker, yes; Commissioner Knochelmann, yes; and Judge Drees, yes.

Resolution 07-01F

Requesting approval of budget adjustments between appropriation accounts to provide necessary funding for listed items on attached schedule, Jerry Knochelmann reporting:  The county will be moving money to cover the cost of a van for the jail to efficiently transport prisoners.  In the past a car was used that had to make several trips and this will be an easier mode of transportation.

Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion to accept; seconded by Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with an aye vote.

Commissioner Humpert asked if budget adjustments would now be done on a monthly basis when they used to be done quarterly and Mr. Knochelmann said he hoped this would not have to done very much at all in the future.

Ordinances

Ordinance No. 924.39

First reading of an ordinance to amend the zoning map of Kenton County, Kentucky for an approximate 164.2 acre area formerly incorporated as the city of Latonia Lakes made up of various seven areas:  Judge Drees read the ordinance into the record.  Mr. Edmondson said since Latonia Lakes was no longer a city, there is a need to zone the property and the Northern Kentucky and Kenton County Planning Commissions were asked to make recommendations and these are the results of those.  It is essentially in line with what the zoning was in the past using zones the county has instead of what the city had.

Ordinance No. 924.40

First reading of an ordinance amending the text of the zoning ordinance for Kenton County regarding flood plain regulations:  Judge Drees read the ordinance into the record.  Judge Drees said the data in the ordinance came from the Kenton County Planning Commission deleting the current flood plain regulations and this is the new one required by the federal government.

Mr. Edmondson said this is part of the federal flood plain regulations to obtain federal insurance for persons who are in a flood plain area who wish to get insurance.  Commissioner Knochelmann asked how often this change occurs and Mr. Edmondson said this was the first time in forty years.  Judge Drees said the area planning commission staff said there is very little change in this for the county.

Commissioner Humpert asked if Mr. Edmondson had gone over the legalese in the document from the planning commission to make sure it is good for the county and Mr. Edmondson said that he had gone over it and it was good for the county.

Judge Drees said there are two new ordinances that were not on the agenda that needed to be brought up in court and asked Mr. Edmondson to introduce them to the court.  Mr. Edmondson said they had been passed out to the court.

Mr. Edmondson said that in 2006 some new language was adopted to create two new zones.  One was an eco-commerce park zone and the other was an agriculture two zone out in Southern Kenton County around the industrial park area.  In creating the text for those ordinances, there were some recommendations the county planning commission had made to that text and this was inadvertently left out of the actual ordinance adopting the text so this would be putting the text back in.

Mr. Shriver said the ordinances would be number 924.41 and 924.42.  Mr. Edmondson said the eco-commerce ordinance would be 924.41 and the agricultural two zone would be 924.42.  These will be voted on at the next meeting.

Ordinance No. 121.24

First reading of an ordinance amending the Kenton County, Kentucky Code of Ordinances regarding the Kenton County Policy Manual:  Mr. Shriver said that now payroll is run for three departments weekly and every other department is run on a biweekly basis, and for more efficiency and to free up some staff in the treasurer's office, it is proposed that everyone be paid on a biweekly basis.  While this change is being done, the county would also like to run payroll on a direct deposit basis and in this way we can do the direct deposit transfer instead of running checks.  This will not take effect until the first pay period in October which is on the date of October 4 and this will be before the holiday season.  Mr. Shriver said the department heads had been notified at staff meeting on last Friday to be prepared but we were not going to do anything until after the fiscal court meeting.  This week Jerry will send out a memo to all employees.

Commissioner Voelker asked if this worked with the county's schedule and Mr. Shriver said yes that this should serve as plenty of notice for everyone.

Judge Drees said that in the next month or so the personnel policy manual will be reviewed and probably changed and updated and the fiscal court will take a look at the changes made.

Consent Agenda

Claims List-County Treasurer Jerry Knochelmann:  Judge Drees said that he has not taken a salary for the past three years as the Judge Executive but has divided it between Carnegie and the Behringer-Crawford Museum.  He said he had talked to friends of Baker Hunt and that this time he would recommend a transfer of 25 percent of this half of the year to them and the other half to the Carnegie.

There being no objection to the recommendation, Judge Drees said warrants will be issued and the bills paid.

Administrative Actions

Handout No. 07-65

Request approval to rescind action of the fiscal court on handout No. 07-63 on July 24, 2007, and grant approval of award of depository agreement/banking services to U.S. Bank:  Judge Drees said there was a miscalculation and when it was reviewed after the last meeting, it was decided that the county had to go back and give it to the bank that had the better pricing.  Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion to accept; seconded by Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with a voice vote of aye.

Handout No. 07-66

Request approval to advertise and sell property located at 1530 Garrard Street, Covington, Ralph Bailey reporting:  This is a piece of property that because of taxes was taken over.  The county had to wait a year because the original owner had the right to come back and take over the property.  Commissioner Humpert made the motion for approval with a second from Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with an aye vote.

Handout No. 07-67

Request approval to advertise and sale various vacant lots located in Latonia Lakes, Ralph Bailey reporting:  These are lots the county inherited when Latonia Lakes went out of business and they are all vacant and of various sizes.  There are also approximately another 62 pieces of property that are behind on taxes that are not owned by the county at this point.  Commissioner Voelker asked if there was a list of these properties and Mr. Bailey said there was a map that had the properties on it.  Commissioner Voelker asked Mr. Bailey to get a list of the properties together for her.  Commissioner Humpert said he and the Judge had looked at these properties and there is a substantial number that are behind on tax bills.  Mr. Bailey said there are approximately 638 tax bills that run back to 1989.  Commissioner Humpert said when this was looked into it appears that people are buying these tax bills and are not in default.  Mr. Edmondson said if they have been purchased, they will not show up on the rolls.  In 2005 and 2006, the Kentucky Department of Revenue bought the bills so they own it, and so although it does not show they are delinquent on our books, they are because the Department of Revenue owns it as a third party.

Judge Drees said some of this property is really kept up in a nice manner and it would be nice if they could go ahead and buy it because it would continue to be kept up.  Commissioner Humpert asked if a letter could be sent to existing property owners to advise them that there is land for sale.  Mr. Bailey said it is usually advertised in the Kentucky Post, and Judge Drees said he thought this would take a little foot work but it could be done.  Mr. Edmondson said the properties that taxes are owed on would have to be treated differently to have a clear title on.  With all the work that has been done in recent months with the joint code enforcement board regarding the property maintenance code that is in place and operational, they would probably attack Latonia Lakes first.  There will be a lot of citations issued and a lot of threats so that may spur some things into happening.  The ultimate impact is that the code enforcement board can order the property to be cleaned up, liens to be put on the property and it be sold for the cost of doing this on foreclosure.

Commissioner Humpert made the motion for approval; seconded by Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with an aye vote.

Handout 07-68

Request authorization to enter into a contract with Bertke & Sparks, Inc. for sheriff's audit for 2006 tax settlements and sheriff's fees for the 2006 year, Ivan Frye reporting:  This is a result of the fact that the state auditor is so far behind in completing audits.  The sheriff goes into a new term in January and a term audit is supposed to be done by the middle of March and the state auditor cannot do this.  Permission has been asked to go outside locally and the state auditor authorized this to be done according to their standards.

Commissioner Humpert said it is frustrating that we have to go outside and pay for this to be done and Mr. Frye said we also have to pay the auditor's office to perform this service and this firm is doing the audit at a lower price.  Commissioner Humpert said he had just received the 2005 audit which means they are running one and two-thirds year behind.  This firm is saying they will have the audit completed at the end of year.  Commissioner Knochelmann asked if the county could not go out locally and seek firms to do the other audits that need to be completed.  Mr. Frye said this could be done three out of four years but once every four years the state auditor must perform the public audits.

Commissioner Humpert made the motion for approval followed by a second from Commissioner Knochelmann and the motion unanimously passed with the vote of aye.

Executive Orders

Executive Order No. 07-89

Approval of reappointment of William Terwort to the Northern Kentucky Area Development District Board of Directors, effective October 4, 2007:  Commissioner Humpert made the motion; seconded by Commissioner Knochelmann and the motion passed with the following vote:  Commissioner Humpert, aye; Commissioner Knochelmann, aye; and Judge Drees, aye.  Commissioner Voelker vote no because she said she felt there were other more qualified candidates for this board than this candidate.

Executive Order No. 07-90

Approval of reappointment of John Yeager to the Kenton County Airport Board, effective September 22, 2007:  Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion to approve with a second from Commissioner Humpert.  The motion unanimously passed with the vote of aye.

Executive Order No. 07-91

Approval of employment of Mark Kordenbrock as an advanced equipment operator for the Department of Public Works, effective July 30, 2007:  Commissioner Humpert made the motion for approval; seconded by Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with an aye vote.

Executive Order No. 07-92

Approval of resignation of Joseph Niehues as an employee of the Kenton County Parks and Recreation Department:  Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion to accept; seconded by Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with the vote of aye.

Executive Order No. 07-93

Approval of resignation of Bob Rains as an employee of the Kenton County Animal Shelter:  Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion for approval with a second from Commissioner Voelker and the motion unanimously passed with the aye vote.

Judge Drees asked Mr. Frye to come forward and bring the court up-to-date on the UPS overpayment to the cities.  Letters have been sent out over the signature of the occupational license inspector in July and gave the cities 30 days in which to make repayment to the county for two years of the overpayment.  The county was going to attempt to make an offer to UPS but money had to be in hand before this could be done.  The cities were asked to give back two years of the money with the understanding that if UPS accepts this we would not have to refund the first year which is believed to be out of the timeframe.  The deadline has come and gone and two cities have paid the money and there are 10 others that still owe the money that are mostly small amounts.  There is one city that has a significant amount of the money and the Judge and I went to the city and asked them to make their payment which is half of the total that is expected to be refunded.  We do not know the results of that city yet but the county should find out today.  Some cities have asked if they could make payments and this could be tried.  If the cities go along with the amount that was sent out, they would be refunding 71 percent of the money overpaid to them and they would be keeping 29 percent.  The cities have had this money for five years and they received the newest of the money two years ago, so they have had the opportunity to earn interest while having the money.  In view of the delay and the lack of progress and cooperation, the fiscal court is being asked to authorize the Judge to write a letter over his signature to those cities notifying them that the county is attempting to settle the matter and that they should refund the two years giving them some time to do this, say 15 days.  There are a couple of cities that say they should not have to refund the money.  If they do this they should have to get out of joint collection, because if they are not going to give the county the authority to fully enforce what the interlocal agreement says that the occupational license inspector is given full authority to carry out the duties of the collection and administration of the tax, they are not in compliance with the agreement.  UPS will file suit to collect the money because there is too much money involved for them not to file.

Commissioner Knochelmann asked if there were any formal notices from cities that they would not pay their amount and Mr. Frye answered no, but there were three attorneys that wrote letters to the license inspector insisting that we make no promises, no refunds, or withhold any of their money.  These letters came a long time ago before the letters we sent out.  Since our letter was sent out, two cities have paid and two others have inquired about the timing.  Judge Drees asked who the two were that had paid and Mr. Frye said they were Fort Mitchell and Crescent Springs.

Mr. Frye said a legislative body can only speak through its minutes and he would like it on the record that the Judge has been authorized to take this action so they cannot refuse his demand to return the money.  Commissioner Humpert made the motion for approval; seconded by Commissioner Knochelmann and the motion passed with a unanimous vote of aye.

Citizens Address

There were no citizens that had signed up to speak to the court.

Administrative Reporting

DEPUTY JUDGE EXECUTIVE-Scott Kimmich:  Absent.

COUNTY TREASURER-Jerry Knochelmann:  Nothing to report.  Judge Drees said he thought the biweekly pay schedule was good for everyone in the county and that they were getting a fair notice ahead of time.

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR-Joe Shriver:  Nothing to report.

COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT-Garry Edmondson:  Nothing.

Commissioners' Reports

COMMISSIONER DAN HUMPERT-Said he wished Scott well and the court needed to tell him to slow down and not come back too soon.

He also said that kids were going back to school today and he wanted everybody to be aware of this and to watch out for the kids on the streets.

COMMISSIONER SARA VOELKER-Nothing to report.

COMMISSIONER KRIS KNOCHELMANN-Nothing to report.

Judge-Executive's Report

Judge Drees made the announcement that the fiscal court meeting on August 28 would be changed from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.  Commissioner Humpert said he would be out of town on this date. 

Judge Drees also said the amount of $10,000 was received from Mr. Nie for the improvement on KY #17 and Mr. Meyers said he would be going to the meeting at 10:30 a.m. today.

Judge Drees said he also had a copy of the sheriff's audit and the county taxes collected were $12,357,000 and the special districts of which there is a large number collected almost $17,000,000 so they end up with more taxes than the county.  It was found to be somewhat alarming as to how the special districts amount up.

Commissioner Humpert said he wanted to give the sheriff credit since the audit shows that he collected almost 100 percent of the taxes and he wanted to commend him.  Mr. Edmondson said that part of this was because the state bought three percent of the bills and the sheriff received the check.

Executive Session

Judge Drees said the fiscal court would now go into executive session regarding KRS 61.810(C).  Mr. Edmondson said there is litigation pending against the sheriff's office and this needs to be discussed.

Mr. Edmondson also said Mr. Deters has filed a motion to withdraw his Buckner lawsuit against the county concerning the purchase of the property for the location of the jail and this will shortly come before the Judge.

Commissioner Humpert made the motion to go into executive session; seconded by Commissioner Voelker and the court's executive session convened with the unanimous vote of aye.

Commissioner Humpert made the motion to go back into regular session followed with a second from Commissioner Voelker and the court went back into session with a unanimous vote of aye.

Adjournment

Since there was no further business to be brought before the court, Commissioner Knochelmann made the motion to adjourn; seconded by Commissioner Voelker, and the court adjourned with the unanimous vote of aye.