Commissioners add fairground cameras, Brenton says BOT information will go to Rokita

Commissioner Phillip Marshall

Compared to recent meetings, the February 17 commissioners meeting was a relatively straightforward one. The commissioners approved the reappointment of Greg Zink to the Planning Commission and added security cameras to the fairgrounds. However, they also heard comments from a resident who raised concerns about the B.O.T. (build-operate-transfer) project (the new highway garage at the intersection of S SR-135 and the bypass) and indicated that she planned to send information to Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita for review.

After the meeting began, the commissioners invited Lucy Brenton forward to express her concerns.

“Well, my document pile keeps getting thicker and higher, but I'm going to reduce that amount by three pages that I'm going to deliver to Kyra, the county auditor,” said Lucy Brenton. “These are my official written records requests that are in writing. Since these are now public documents, I will load those up to my Facebook so that anybody can see exactly what I requested. We have a real problem here, and I'm going to echo the words of Thomas Massie and say that I, Lucy Brenton, am not suicidal. I am in good health, and I desire to live a long and productive life, just like my father who turned 91 yesterday. But I am seriously concerned with what's going on in the county. There may be an obstacle. There may be real dangers here.

“We know that funds were approved for the B.O.T. project at a commissioner-council meeting around January 7, 2023, and there are some documents that I hope to get through the records request so that we can track whether or not there were any change orders made to the project, because those have been actually denied here in these particular meetings,” Brenton continued. “Now, when I sent an email to April Geltmaker, our county attorney, my specific question to her was: are you, the commissioners, allowed to lie to the public? Are public officials allowed to lie to us as constituents? And what April's reply to me on February 10 was is that public officials are expected to speak truthfully. But there is no general criminal law in Indiana that makes it automatically illegal for a public official to lie to the public in every circumstance. Whether a lie is unlawful depends on context, intent, and consequences. Now, I was appointed to the Plan Commission and I had to take an oath. I remember that oath very well. And each of the commissioners is also supposed to take an oath. So, Todd Ewen, I'm going to ask you directly: will you, in your position here as a county commissioner, agree to always tell the truth to the public?”

Lucy Brenton

“Well, of course,” said Commissioner Todd Ewen.

“Do you assert or affirm that you have always told the truth to the public in your position as county commissioner?” asked Brenton.

“To my knowledge, yes,” he said.

“Who else's knowledge would come to it?” Brenton asked.

“I said to my  knowledge,” Ewen replied. “I’m not going to sit here and banter back and forth with you.”

“Okay, then I’ll go to Phil,” she said.

Brenton then proceeded to ask Commissioner Phillip Marshall the same question.

“Phil, do you agree to tell the truth in these commissioner meetings?” Brenton asked.

“As far as I know, but there have been changes made,” said Commissioner Phillip Marshall. “Certain things were promised to the B.O.T. agreement from Jackson County REMC and from Mainstream that did make some changes to the original bid.”

“Did those changes include something like changing a three foot stem wall to a one foot stem wall? Because those were changes that were made,” said Brenton.

“I don’t think I can report on that,” said Marshall.

Brenton then turned to Commissioner Tony Cardwell to ask the same question.

“Do you agree to always tell the truth in these meetings to the public?” she asked. “And have you told the truth to these meetings in the public in the past?”

“By all means,” said Cardwell.

Commissioner Tony Cardwell

“Very good,” she said. “We're going to hold these men to their word that they will continue to tell the truth to the public. And when we find that they have not–”

“Does that include you?” interjected Ewen.

“Absolutely,” said Brenton.

“Yeah, I bet,” Ewen said.

“I'm sure I've probably just about reached my three minutes here, but there are things in there that are anomalies,” she said. “Those are the things that I put in the public records request, which people are certainly going to be able to look at on Facebook. Because we want to get those original RFPs (Request for Proposals) and RFQs (Request for Quotations) so that we know that those things are actually followed.”

“Your time is up,” said Ewen.

“Well, that’s good because, Todd, you're not running again. I didn't see you in the primary,” concluded Brenton. “Just in parting, I would say that those who turn in state's evidence first will probably be treated most favorably. So, for those that I believe that may have colluded together, it's probably a good idea for you to be the one to go to the officials first because everything here is going to Todd Rokita, our attorney general.”

Commissioner Todd Ewen

The commissioners then moved on to the topic of installing security cameras at the fairgrounds. After brief discussion, the commissioners unanimously decided to approve the installation of eight security cameras at the fairgrounds at the cost of $7,938.75. In addition to this, they also reappointed Greg Zink to the Planning Commission.

Paul Eckart was then invited forward to provide updates regarding the highway garage project.

“Rick Voyles and Ken Temple went through the highway department property,” said Eckart. ”They came up with their punch list, and we're working on that now. Some of the items justified, some of them haven't been installed yet, but we're starting today on that punch list to get them brought up to speed. For instance, in the office, we still need to put the three exhaust fans in the bathrooms. We're going to relocate the window, Rick wanted it relocated. They're going to put the ice guards on the front and back of the office, on the metal roof, and actually on all roofs that need it. They're going to put in the gutters and downspouts there on the truck lean-to building and the sign shed. Hinderliter, which is your all's fuel station contractor, they had talked to the fire marshal about the fuel center and everything. Had a little punch list item. They're going to deal directly with the fire marshal on that to get that resolved. A couple of outlets needed attention. Emergency stop, things like that needed attention. So, they're going to get going on that.

“In the mechanic's garage, the HVAC will be hooked up [Wednesday],” he said. “We're going to add a door that Rick wanted to add and some windows, and I did ask the plumbing contractor that ran the gas lines. Currently, each building is not isolated. So, I did ask him to put in the isolation valves on each building. Otherwise you would have to shut down each building. So, I think [Monday] he was going to put in some isolation valves to kind of isolate each building so we don't have to shut the whole system down. After this freeze and thaw, I'm sure we're going to have some dirt work to do. Just a little bit of site work, but we're going to let it thaw and let all the water drain off. And starting this week, the local building inspector is going to start going building to building and make our own punch list. Anything that needs to be addressed, we'll address it building by building.”

After Eckart’s comments, the commissioners made the motion to adjourn the meeting.