Two Pulaski County employees would lose their jobs and one county department would be eliminated entirely, under the county council’s current budget proposal. Council members voted four-to-three Monday to cut all funding for the Microfilm Department out of the 2020 budget, presumably eliminating Janet Onken’s position.
Council Member Rudy DeSabatine felt the work didn’t need to be done anymore. “Isn’t most of the records stored now in the computers and in the tablets and in the clouds?” he pointed out.
That was in spite of concerns from Circuit Court Judge Mary Welker, who worried about the effect the decision might have on the preservation of records.
Council members then went on to remove funding for Community Development Commission Project Coordinator Krysten Hinkle’s position, prompting CDC Executive Director Nathan Origer to storm out of the meeting room. Brian Young was one of the three council members who opposed the measure. “What about our economy?” he asked. “You want to bring jobs here? Nobody’s going to come. This is a joke. You just cut out half our economic development staff. You don’t want to develop the economy!”
The extra room created in the economic development budget would be used to move the county’s contributions to the 4-H Fair Board and Pulaski County Human Services out of the General Fund budget.
Council Member Ken Boswell felt that while a workforce reduction could be a viable option, it has to be done in a wise manner. “In 2009, when we did the workforce reduction by 13 people, I can guarantee you we didn’t do it this way,” he said. “We did not sit down one night in a room and go, ‘This one’s gone. That one’s gone. What do we think?’” But DeSabatine argued that the budget has been discussed at several meetings, but up until now, the cuts haven’t gone far enough.
As for some other adjustments, the amount of money budgeted for courthouse security was cut to $60,000, down from the $110,000 that had been previously suggested. Council Member Mike Tiede proposed lowering that all the way down to $20,000 by creating a security checkpoint that would only be staffed if someone were to set off a metal detector, but that idea didn’t get much support from the rest of the council.
Council members voted to cut their own pay, as well as that of the commissioners and county boards, by 10 percent, with Tiede casting the lone opposing vote. They also cut 10 percent out of all non-wage line items in the part of the Sheriff’s Department budget funded by the jail income tax. That funding will go away entirely after next year. Five percent was cut out of several of the Maintenance Department’s non-wage line items, and 10 percent was cut out of the commissioners’ professional services line item.
At this point, the budget is still preliminary. It will be up for adoption during the October 14 council meeting. Then, it goes to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for final approval.
