2020.04.13 Meeting Minutes

GREEN GARDEN TOWNSHIP
REGULAR MEETING (VIA CONFERENCE CALL)
APRIL 13, 2020

The regular meeting was called to order via conference call by Supervisor Nolan at 7:00 p.m.
The Pledge of Allegiance was omitted.
Roll Call
In attendance were Trustees Wagner, Newton, Standish, Hellriegel, Supervisor Nolan, Assessor Bushong, and Clerk Coffey. Commissioner Massat was unable to attend.
There was a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held March 9, 2020 as submitted by Trustee Wagner with a second by Trustee Hellriegel. Voice vote: Motion carried.
PUBLIC COMMENTS – None
PLANNING COMMISSION -Murday: No matter up for April and nothing on schedule for May. Nothing to report and no meeting planned at this time.
HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER’S REPORT – Nolan: Bob not on phone, so we’ll pass.
ASSESSOR’S REPORT – Assessor’s Report and bills submitted (via email). Bushong: More quiet than normal.
Still answering appraiser calls.
TRUSTEE’S REPORT – None
SUPERVISOR’S REPORT – Nolan: Closed out the books, get everything to accountant and auditor. Submitted all bills to Trustees with voucher statement, so they can be mailed out. Any questions? Wagner: We racked up almost $1,200 in legal fees. What’s the compatibility of offices? Nolan: How much? Wagner: $337. Standish: I think it’s in that being a Trustee and working in another unit of government inside the government of Green Garden. Nolan: Yes, it was. Me & Cherie had a conversation and I told her, best thing to do was get clear explanation from attorney on this one. “Whether we can be on payroll and paid Trustee, someone was looking into something. I told her, contact attorney. Wagner: February 19th & 20th, 3 charges of $56.25 each plus the $337, close to $500, and to be honest, you could have called TOI and got answer for free. They are subject matter experts on Township law, they have their own attorney’s, they help participate in getting our state legislators to write some of these laws. They’ll have the answers at the top of their heads, they don’t have to research it and pay for someone else to research it. If Mahoney was smart, he’d call TOI, get the answer from them, and we could do that ourselves for free. I guess suggesting procedural, we should go to TOI first, something contractual, like the bus thing, go through Mahoney. Procedural TOI more economical. Bushong:
I’ve reached out to TOI on more than 1 occasion (not in relation to this), and I do not get responses. Now, is it because I’m an Assessor, and not a Trustee or Board member? They act like they’re going to, and I never get an answer. Confusing to me. Nolan: I wonder if we pay dues for you for TOI, Assessor’s part. I’ll have to look into this. Bushong: Maybe that’s why I don’t get a response. Nolan: That may be why. All the Trustees and Sue’s with the clerks, is Clerk’s thing run by TOI? Coffey: I will have to look, I still have here, when we attest checks, I’ll submit my dues as well. Nolan: Bill, that’s a good suggestion. Contractually going through attorney, everything else, we should go through TOI. Jane, maybe cause we haven’t paid on you and maybe cause it’s only for Trustees and wasn’t, or we haven’t looked into it far enough for you guys. Standish: I’ve always gotten response. Mr. Crabtree will call back same day or next. Polite and put up with my lack of knowledge. Coffey: I have reached out also, they got back to me in 48 hours. Nolan: Jane, we will look into. Nolan: Back to attorney bill, anything procedural before we go to attorney, anything contractual – immediately to attorney, is that fair Bill? Standish: Who decides when to go to the attorney? Do we need more than 1 person? If I need, do I just consult attorney, or do I contact you and tell you I’m gonna call the attorney? Nolan: No procedures before, maybe a good thing to do at actual live board meeting, procedures on that. Would that be fair? Newton: I just want to say, I contacted them because Jim told me to. Nolan: Yes, Cherie, don’t take offense to that. Standish: I just don’t want to go off by myself and say “I thought important,” and they spend hours on, and we get $500
bill on it, and actually I should have known better. Nolan: Will put on agenda for New Business, Attorney
procedures, we’ll have to go back and see if we need procedures on that. Wagner: One more comment, if
we’re gonna get sued or anything, you can call TOIRMA, who will represent us in a lawsuit, and we’re paying, they’re our Insurance agent. That’s part of their service. Bushong: Does that cover Assessor’s Office as well? Wagner: Yes. Nolan: yes. Nolan: Did that answer everything? OK for you Bill? Wagner: Yes. Nolan: If no one has any other questions, we’re going to move forward with paying the bills, I’ll get with Sue and move forward.
NEW BUSINESS – Nolan: None, next meeting agenda under New Business: Attorney Procedures & TOIRMA.
OLD BUSINESS – Nolan: Vote for approval of Assessor’s Budget, I believe everyone saw, I re-sent to
everyone, several discussions at last couple of board meetings about Assessor’s Budget. Before vote, any
questions? Standish: Do we write checks for Jane’s budget, or does she have her own budget that she writes checks on? Nolan: It all comes out of Township, so we write the checks. Standish: Like she submits a check, like for the 255.52, that’s actually her budget that’s coming out of? Nolan: Correct. Standish: If we go over that budget, we can front her money until we increase her budget, the next time we bring that up? Nolan: If she’s going through a budget issue, she’ll bring up to board, we can do a budget amendment if we have to, assuming we have the money to do so. If she’s over, under, got big expenses, it’s going to be discussed and the board can approve to amend budget. Standish: She’s got a lot of stuff, I don’t know if I’ve thought about, or approved, or if I put enough into their expense accounts. I was just curious how we do that. I can’t remember what the budget was, but sometimes it comes up, some pretty big checks, so ok. Just wondering how that worked. Nolan: Anyone else? Wagner: I got a question, it was last year’s fiscal end of year, I think for Town Fund we had a Miscellaneous of like $53,000, what I think I’ll do is, it usually raises questions when you have a miscellaneous that high. $44,000 was to go from Town Fund back to Park District, I think I’ll just create another account, sub-account that says that’s where it’s coming from, and going into Park Rental/Park Donations, so it
doesn’t show up as miscellaneous. Nolan: Ok, I see what you’re talking about, ok. (Change in topic from
Assessor’s Budget). Nolan: I’m gonna ask for motions to approve Assessor’s Budget.
There was a motion to approve the Assessor’s Budget by Trustee Standish with a second by Trustee Wagner.
Roll Call Vote: Standish, yes; Wagner, yes; Hellriegel, yes; Newton, yes; Nolan, yes. Voice vote: Motion
carried. 5-0.
Nolan: Bill should I bring up now, or wait for next meeting? (Miscellaneous to Park). Wagner: I’ll probably just bring it up now, we’ll probably just go ahead and do it, I would think. It’s just the report, we’re not changing
anything financially. Nolan: That’s right, we just moved it over and I don’t think we had a thing set up for it, so we just called it Miscellaneous, so we paid into it. We just didn’t have a place for it. Wagner: I’ll just do it and I’ll run it by you , see if you approve it. Nolan: Ok. I don’t know if anyone has anything else from the public? Coffey: For record, is it Miscellaneous Expense? Or Miscellaneous line item? Wagner: It’s a Miscellaneous Expense category that has $53,000 in it, because we had been putting all our Park Rental money into that Town Fund and it should have been going into Park Fund. Coffey: Ok. Wagner: $44,000 of that Miscellaneous is coming out of Town Fund and going into Park Fund. Coffey: Ok. Nolan: When we created Park Fund/Donation Fund we should have had something in the general ledger marked as Park Fund not Miscellaneous. Bill, I thought it was originally marked Park Fund at least on Budget item, I thought it was, I could have done it wrong. Wagner: I think originally we knew that all Park Donations had to go to Park Fund to be spent only on park property. Nolan: Right. Wagner: We felt that Park Rental was something different. Coffey: $44,000 moved from the $53,700 to Park Fund? Wagner: Which we already did. Instead of being Miscellaneous, it’s gonna be Park Reimbursement or something. Coffey: You’re going to line item it out? Wagner: Yes.
Nolan: I’m assuming no one from public on phone still, any residents? Ralph Dietz in attendance. Murday: Question, I am assuming the Town Meeting is not going forward tomorrow. Nolan: That’s correct, Governor put a…. Not sure if it’s actually cancelled or postponed. At this time, no Town Annual Meeting. Bushong: Are we making mention of that on website? Nolan: Cherie put on website, also posted on Town Hall, this meeting and tomorrow’s meeting. Standish: Is County having any meetings? Nolan: I think some places are, all differently, some doing remotely, some live actually there, not sure what anyone else is doing. For our safety, I thought best to do this way. Standish: Just wondering about disposition of horse farm over there. Nolan: I do not know that. Murday: I can find out tomorrow and send email to everybody, they are still working, well might be remotely. Sue, what’s going on at County? Coffey: I received remote access Thursday, our managers are going to work everyday. Most offices are closed to public. Murday: Folks in Land Use respond right away to me, I thought they were in office, they might be working remotely. I will ask and send something to Trustees. Coffey: Most offices have skeletal staff working, I can look on Land Use website. Bushong: According to Assessor’s Office, they have 3 people only going in physically, everyone else working remotely, or not at all, not sure. My understanding of Land Use is there are people working remotely, but not going out on site, to do any inspections. Just like we’re encouraged not to go out onsite for good reason at this point. Dietz: I talked to Megan at Land Use today, and she called me from home. If I wanted to talk to Janine, I could get her mobile number too, she was working from home.
There was a motion to adjourn the meeting by Trustee Hellriegel with a second by Trustee Standish. Voice
vote: Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Coffey, Clerk