After months of configuring, and sometimes yelling, the Porter County Council approved the 2010 County Budget proposal, but not without more configuring and yelling.

The council members found themselves in the red with the general fund budget at the start of Tuesday night’s meeting before a large audience, some of whom were county employees who were anxiously waiting to hear if they would be receiving raises next year.

Alizabeth Bailey, office manager the Porter County Auditor’s office, showed the county’s 2010 general fund budget tallied in a near $60,000 deficit, roughly the same figure where the council left off last month.

Suggested cuts were made to various parts of the budget, including a line in the sheriff’s budget for $100,000 but the cut could not be made because it was state controlled.

A cut was also made out of fuel payments for county vehicles in hopes that gas prices will remain low next year. The line was overestimated this year because of the high gas prices in 2008.

The election board represented by Voter Registration Office directors Democrat Kathy Kozuszek and Republican Sundae Kubacki told the council they could ax $5,000 from a line item for paying the highway department for transportation of ballots and voting booths.

Porter County Commission President Robert Harper also offered to shave $40,000 for the county phone system from the general fund. Harper said the phone system would receive assistance through a separate fund from the County Economic Development Income Tax instead.

At this time, the general fund was still in the hole by $11,848. Harper then chipped off an additional $1,000 from the phones.

The election board also agreed to additional cuts and ultimately turned the tables in balancing the budget. Kozuszek told the council her office could eliminate $40,000 in printing extra ballots for next year’s election. She pledged to the council she would watch the ballots carefully to avoid reprints.

“Just don’t bother me when I’m printing ballots,” Kozuszek joked.

The additional cuts made by the commissioners’ phone and the election board put the general fund budget in the black at $39,535. Council member Dan Whitten, D-at large, thanked the commissioners and the election board for their assistance in settling the budget for the county’s general fund.

The final budget for the general fund totaled $34 million. With the 2010 general fund budget balanced, the council quickly read all other budgets, which were already balanced.

Even though Whitten expressed praise for the balanced budget, his disagreement with the auditor’s portion (see below) prompted him to vote no on the final budget. All other council members, Council President Bob Poparad, D-1st, Karen Conover, R-3rd, Mike Bucko, D- 4th, Sylvia Graham, D-at large, Laura Blaney, D-at large, and Rita Stevenson, D-2nd, voted yes.

The 6-1 vote means that all county budgets will now be forwarded to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance by the Nov. 1 deadline, along with the 2010 Employee Salary Ordinance, which passed unanimously.

To little surprise, the county council backed away from pay raises for nearly every employee of the county with only two exceptions.

Council member Rita Stevenson was firm in addressing why the council was withdrawing so many requests for more pay. She said the current state of the economy was a major factor in the council’s decision and that employees should find themselves lucky to even have jobs.

“It would not be fair to give some individuals pay raises and not to others who are working just as hard,” Stevenson said.

One of the two pay raises granted by the council went to County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger. Last month, the council voted 6-1 to increase Rinkenberger’s salary next year to $95,000 from $83,000 this year. The other went to an administrative assistant in the county’s Soil and Water department of about $6,000.

The council was unanimous in its decision. Graham further lauded Rinkenberger’s efforts for saving various departments many hours of work in getting out the property tax bills and working to solve hangups with the Low software system used by the auditor and the assessor’s office.

During the budget discussion, County Clerk Pam Fish brought to the county council’s attention a letter signed by six county judges stating more labor is needed in the county clerk’s office as it is falling behind in its paperwork.

Fish said there are currently six cheif deputies who are staying after hours and doing the work without any overtime pay. She was concerned with the possible legal issues and asked the council to provide resources by paying for overtime or granting raises.

“I don’t know if we can legally not pay them,” Fish said.

Fish also suggested hiring more part-time work or adding a full-time employee. The council cautioned that giving raises and bringing on part-time workers are two separate things and that giving raises won’t necessarily make the work get done faster.

The council pondered various resolutions, reluctant to grant raises as well as the possible full-time employee due to the additional funding that would be needed for the health care benefits. The council ended up moving an additional $5,000 of part-time pay towards the clerk’s office for next year.

One of the reasons why the clerk’s office is currently under resourced is due to the 22 percent increase in court cases this year, many of them being traffic tickets, according to Fish.

After seeing a “bump in the shuffle,” Whitten asked why the salaries had been adjusted in the auditor’s budget. Porter County Auditor Jim Kopp said he has restructured his staff in order to make the office operate more effectively. However, he never notified or got approval from the county council.

After a short recess at Tuesday’s meeting, the council had Kopp explain to them exactly what adjustments he made to his staff. Kopp said he got rid of a GIS data assistant and instead of hiring a replacement, he merged the job with a real estate deputy position and failed to create a job description.

Whitten voiced his frustration with the efficiency of the auditor’s office as 2009 tax bills still haven’t gone out. Kopp’s adjustments seemed to have influenced Whitten in saying no in his vote to approve the final 2010 county budget.

Posted 10/28/2009