Administration and Finance Committee Meeting - August 25, 2026
Administration and Finance Committee Meeting - August 25, 2026
The Administration and Finance Committee of the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council met on August 25, 2026, to consider three bond proposals and hold budget hearings for four agencies. The meeting included presentations on bonds for a Department of Public Works (DPW) operations facility, an IMPD North District station, and parking garages at the Community Justice Campus (CJC), as well as budget presentations from the Treasurer’s Office, Auditor’s Office, Office of Corporation Counsel, and the City-County Council Office.
Discussion Items
Proposal No. 244, 2026 – Authorizes the issuance of Metropolitan Thoroughfare District bonds in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $15,000,000 with a maximum interest rate of 6.5% for a term not to exceed 20 years. Proceeds would fund the design, planning, construction, and equipping of a new DPW operations garage at 1735 S. West Street, consolidating existing disparate facilities. Joe Glass of the Indianapolis Bond Bank presented the project and tax levy projections. Councilor Boots asked about the city’s overall bond debt and capacity. The committee approved the proposal (one dissenting vote).
Proposal No. 246, 2026 – Authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds of the consolidated city taxing district in a principal amount not to exceed $12,500,000 with a maximum interest rate of 6.5% for a term not to exceed 20 years. Proceeds would fund a new IMPD North District police station at 38th and Sherman Avenue, including community space and improved facilities. Presented by Joe Glass. The committee approved the proposal (one dissenting vote, together with Proposal 244).
Proposal No. 245, 2026 – Authorizes the issuance of up to $35,000,000 in facility revenue bonds to refund interim financing for two parking garages (approximately 300 and 1,000 cars) and a pedestrian bridge at the Community Justice Campus. The interest rate was amended from 5.5% to 6.5% via a motion by Chairman Mascari (seconded and passed unanimously). The garages serve court staff, public defender/probation staff, and paid public parking. The bond bank presentation noted a build-operate-transfer agreement with Garmong from 2021. Councilor Kelley questioned why the garages are not under the Building Authority like the rest of CJC. The committee approved the proposal unanimously.
Budget Hearings
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Marion County Treasurer’s Office: Treasurer Barbara Lawrence and Chief Deputy Rodney Shine presented. The office has 25 filled positions (2 vacancies), collected $1.8 billion in property taxes in 2025, manages an average monthly balance of $466 million, and distributed $2.7 billion to 48 units. Highlights included sending 7,500 courtesy letters to delinquent taxpayers, generating $8.7 million in earlier payments as of March 31, with an estimated $30,000 in extra investment income; a new call center; and unbanked outreach. The 2027 budget proposes a $318,000 increase (9.1%) primarily for COLAs and health insurance. Investment income is projected to increase by $1.1 million. Councilor Cahill praised the ROI on the courtesy letters.
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Marion County Auditor’s Office: Auditor Milo Eldridge and CFO Tiffany Matthews presented. The office has 33 positions (2 vacancies) and focuses on accounting, payroll, and real estate tax functions. Progress includes implementing ACH for employee reimbursement and select vendors (e.g., Bell Technologies, Core for fuel), with plans to expand using net terms and cash flow analysis. The office is also pursuing a homestead deduction sweep using new software (Xoft). The 2027 county general fund budget increases to $15,107,764, with personnel costs rising due to COLAs and health insurance. Councilor Cahill expressed support for the ACH expansion and noted it improves cash flow; Councilor Lewis praised the team’s work.
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Office of Corporation Counsel: Corporation Counsel Brandon Beeler presented. The office has 46 FTE positions (31 filled, 15 vacancies, particularly in litigation). Litigation caseload: 118 cases filed last year, 65 so far this year. Efforts include reducing liability through early settlement, non-economic resolutions, and internal training. Opioid litigation has yielded $17 million received, with $70 million projected. A preliminary final settlement in the Kia/Hyundai lawsuit was noted. The 2027 budget increases by $38,622 to fund outside counsel due to litigation shortages. Attorney starting salaries were raised to $92,000 (litigation) and up to $101,000 for senior roles. Councilor Boots asked about the cost-benefit of hiring in-house vs. outside counsel.
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City-County Council Office: Chief of Staff Doran Moreland and CFO Candace Harris presented. The office has 12 staff (2 vacancies: Chief Communications Officer and Legislative Policy Manager). The 2027 budget is approximately $3.4 million, an increase of $86,000 (2.6%) but down 3.3% from 2025. 82% of the budget is personnel. Councilor Mowery raised concerns about unused laptop voting devices at full council meetings, suggesting they should be eliminated. Councilor Lewis thanked the team for tangible priorities.
Key Outcomes
- Proposals 244 and 246 were approved together with one dissenting vote.
- Proposal 245 was approved unanimously after an amendment to increase the interest rate to 6.5%.
- Budget hearings were informational; no votes were taken. The committee will consider the budgets in subsequent meetings.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. Welcome to the Admin Finance Committee meeting. We'll start the meeting with our introductions to my left. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mike Dill, District 24. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Brian Mowery, District 25. Thank you. To my right. Thank you, Mr. Chair Renee Allen, District 15, Far East. Thank you, Mr. Chair Nick Roberts, District 4. Good evening, Chairman Miss Gary. Crystal Wells, District 11, Far West Side. Good evening, Maggie Lewis. Frank Mascarry District 19. And Mr. Cahill. So thank you, Mr. Chair, Derek Cahill, District 23. All right, thank you. We we have uh three proposals and uh four budget hearings. Um first is proposed proposal two forty-four. I understand all these proposals are you're gonna bring them together at once. Yes. So we need to vote for one at a time or not. Proposal two forty-four, four-five, and forty-six. Do you have a break in between them? Yeah, so um uh two uh this is a little confusing, but we'll we're gonna present two forty-four and two forty-six first because those require a public hearing. Um, and then if it's acceptable to you, Terminus Gary, I believe there's a uh proposed amendment for 245. Okay. All right. Uh thank you, Chairman Scary and members of the committee. My name is Joe Glass. I'm the executive director and general counsel of the Indianapolis Bond Bank. Um we have uh three proposals for you tonight. Um are um uh property tax bag general obligation bonds, and the other is a facility uh revenues bond. Uh proposal 244 uh will be an issuance of the Metropolitan Thoroughfare District, and it is for a maximum amount of 15 million dollars uh for the construction of a new um operations garage for DPW at their current site at uh 1735 Southwest Street. And then moving to proposal 246, uh that would be a general obligation bond issuance of the consolidated city taxing district, a maximum amount of 12.5 million dollars for the construction of a new IMPD North District Station. Um and then finally, proposal 245 uh would approve the issuance of up to 35 million dollars in facility revenue bonds uh to refund interim financing for um two parking garages um as well as a pedestrian bridge at the community justice campus. So proposal two forty-four, um, like I said, is for a new um operations garage at um the current uh DPW campus south of downtown, just east of the river. Um this would be a maximum amount of 15 million dollars, uh max interest rate of 6.5 percent, and a term not to exceed uh 20 years. Um this would allow uh DBW to consolidate a lot of disparate facilities that they have currently on that campus to um uh streamline operations and uh allow for improved storage and maintenance of their um uh street maintenance equipment and vehicles. So here you see their current garages. Um many are out of date and uh they're you know scattered along the campus, and so this would allow uh this new garage would allow DPW to streamline um a lot of their um uh operations operations. Um here you have um uh something that that uh the issuers required to do um uh by the DLGF, which is to present um the uh projected changes in levy and uh tax rate for the taxing district uh here, the taxing district being the Metropolitan Thoroughfare district. Um these are very conservative projections and uh any um increase in tax rate would be offset by um uh consummate decreases in uh uh other taxing districts of the city.
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