It took two tries for the Merrillville Town Council to pass an appropriation ordinance that’ll end up funding building inspectors at least until the end of the year, among other things, after previously passing it unanimously on first reading.
Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6, at the council’s Monday night meeting made a motion to bring the ordinance allowing the council to move $149,500 into the town’s general fund — a move the council approved at its October 8 meeting. The money would give $70,000 to the building department, including $45,000 for building inspectors, $75,000 for contractual services, and $4,500 to Merrillville Court Administrator Chanda Flowers for the longevity and back pay for which she’s been asking the council to pay her for months.
None of the other council members, however, seconded the motion, allowing it to die.
Planning and Building Director Sheila Shine, seemingly frustrated by the inaction, listed several projects going on currently that need to be inspected, and those don’t count future permits that will happen. At the Silos project on Mississippi Street, two of the four buildings — the Amazon and Panduit warehouses — are completing massive upgrades, for example, and Anthem Church sat down with her last week to talk of its proposed $1 million renovation for 6439 Broadway, she said.
“(Merrillville Community School Corporation) did massive upgrades to every school; if you haven’t seen Miller (Elementary) or Fieler (Middle), they put in new air conditioning, furnaces and new roofs,” she said. “In buildings, there are the Nuvo Apartments and Liberty Estates. There’s the 61st Avenue storage with nine buildings, and Grant Street Storage with nine buildings. You have Savannah Cole, Savannah Ridge, the Merrillville Villas and Waterford.
“All those buildings, by law, have to be inspected.”
Merrillville Town Manager Michael Griffin said he hoped Shine’s explanation, along with paying Flowers the money she’s owed, would help the council to reconsider voting on the motion.
“In every other way, (the appropriation ordinance) is legal, it’s lawful and it’s consistent with best practices that go on all the time, so I’m just not clear why there are reservations about it,” Griffin said. “Basically, the budget that’s posted, for the entire general fund, in a number, there’s $12.8 million; then you have income that’s supposed to support that ($12.8 million). Based on encumbrances we do know, there’s a substantial amount in the undesignated fund balance that has no other purpose, and we’re just asking for you to give us permission to spend it in some of the areas that are needed.”
Financial consultant Trista Hudson, of Cender-Dalton, wondered if the council had somehow construed that the three departments were funding each other.
“The only commonality among these three topics is that they’re on the same piece of paper,” she said. “There is nothing intermingling or crossing between Planning and Building, the Parks Department and the longevity pay in the general fund. They just happen to be on the same paper for efficiency purposes and advertising in the newspaper.”
Town Attorney Ricardo Hall said the council could reintroduce the motion without penalty; Councilwoman Rhonda Neal, D-1, reintroduced it and Councilwoman Marge Uzelac, D-4, seconded. The motion then passed unanimously.
Shine said she was grateful Griffin stepped in and explained the process to the council.
“Here’s the problem: We never know what projects are coming in. For example, (the school upgrades), that requires inspection,” she said. “We have all those big buildings, and two storage centers with massive upgrades from October of last year. The budget has to cover it.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
