Marion County Commissioners Meeting - December 17, 2024
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Marion County Commissioners Meeting - December 17, 2024
The Marion County Commissioners met on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at approximately 2:00 PM in Room 260 of the City-County Building. President Joseph O'Connor called the meeting to order with introductions. The meeting focused on reappointing members to various boards and approving one land abutting property transfer.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes from the November 19, 2024, meeting were approved unanimously with no corrections.
Discussion Items
- Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals Reappointments: Greg Rathnow (24 years of service), Kevin Robinson (approximately 8 years), and Steve Adjime (since 2020) were reappointed. They described the board's work hearing appeals and exemptions, noting they often have disagreements but reach fair decisions. The board has five members, three appointed by commissioners and two by city council.
- Alcohol and Beverage Commission Reappointment: Tyler Grace, serving as board president, was reappointed. He discussed the commission's work covering new permits, transfers, and renewals with violations. He also addressed the topic of "pop-up parties" and potential DOR (Designated Outdoor Refreshment) areas being considered in Marion County, referencing similar programs in suburban communities. He expressed the position that he is "not terribly concerned with it" and believes adults will make sensible decisions.
- Health and Hospital Corporation Reappointment: Carl Drummer was reappointed. He provided updates on the corporation's progress, including outstanding contracts for leadership (Dr. Kane, Dr. Harris, and CEO). He highlighted the community public health work and the new East Side location. Commissioner Barbara Lawrence praised the East Side facility and shared her personal experience as an Eskenazi patient, expressing full support for the organization.
- Poor Relief Township Assistance Hearing Officer Reappointment: Jackie Butler was reappointed. She described the appeals process for township assistance denials, noting that 90-95% of appeals are filed timely. She highlighted the implementation of telephonic hearings during COVID, which has increased participation and reduced waste of trustee time. She noted an increase in appeals, particularly from Washington Township, which saw 400 additional applicants in the past year, and the corresponding rise in appeals.
- Land Abutting Program: Ryan presented one property (parcel from the Marion County Tax Lien sale, assessed at less than $50,000) with an encroachment issue. The property is located near Fletcher Avenue, with about half of the house on the adjacent property over the line. Staff recommended declaring it surplus and transferring to the abutting landowner with the highest bid received. The gross revenue from the offering is $600.
Key Outcomes
- All reappointments approved: Greg Rathnow, Kevin Robinson, and Steve Adjime to the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals; Tyler Grace to the Alcohol and Beverage Commission; Carl Drummer to the Health and Hospital Corporation (approved with one abstention); and Jackie Butler as the Poor Relief Township Assistance Hearing Officer. All appointees were sworn in together after the meeting.
- Land abutting property transfer approved: The single parcel was declared surplus and approved for transfer to the highest-bidding abutting landowner.
- Next meeting: January 21, 2025, at 2:00 PM in the same room. The meeting was adjourned with holiday greetings.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order. My name is Joseph O'Connor, and this is the Marion County Commissioners meeting. I'm the president of the county commissioners. It is December 17th, uh Tuesday at approximately 2 p.m. And we are in room 260 of the city county building. The first order of business will be to have introductions starting on my left. Good afternoon. Umdridge serving as the um well serving as the Marion County Auditor, but also for the secretary for this great commission. Thank you. Good afternoon. I am Barbara Lawrence, Marion County Treasurer and serve as the vice chairman of the commissioners. Thank you. The next order will be to approve the meeting minutes from our November 19th, 2024 meeting. Do we have any additions or corrections? No objections, I move approval of the minutes as presented. Second. Okay, we have a motion to approve and a second all in favor. Please signify by saying aye. Aye. Pose, same sign. Minutes are approved. Looks like we have no correspondence today. Madam Auditor. No. So we'll move on to our business items, which will be our appointments for uh some boards that we have appoint appointees sitting on. Um so this will be for the 2025 year. Um so starting, we'll do the first three are all uh our appointments to the property tax assessment board of appeals. So we have Greg Rath now, we have Kevin Robinson and Steve Adjime. If you guys can come up, um maybe just say kind of what you do on the board, a few minutes, give us an update and over. Good afternoon, afternoon. Good afternoon. Yeah, we give them away. Okay. I'll take I'm Steve Adrame. I'm Greg Rath now. Kevin Robinson. I've been on the board since probably two twenty thousand or two thousand two year two thousand two zero zero. President for president of the board, and we hear appeals, uh exemptions. I think we get along pretty well each other. We have disagreements, but we all kind of agree at the end that uh worked well. We worked out pretty well. Good. How many members of the board are there? There's uh five. Okay, three appointed by you and two by the city council. Okay, and two of us have to have our certified assessors appraised or license, which I do, and Kathy Go does on a county commitment or not city council. And I think I think we do a good job as a board of kind of balancing you know tax individual taxpayer interests um and then city interests, and I think we're very thoughtful um when we have sometimes you know difficult cases, and um we ask I I feel like um you know, as Steve said, we get along really well. We ask some I think good questions, some pointed questions, and um I think make pretty good decisions most of the time. And you've been a little busy with the board for COVID the past couple of years as assessments to rooms. Yeah, so I just started on the board.
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