The Marshall County Commissioners briefly discussed advertising budget and legal fees for the Marshall County Plan Commission during their meeting Monday, August 19.
The Plan Commission budget for those items has been depleted and permission to spend any money for those purposes must receive approval from Marshall County Council President Jesse Bohannon before any action can be taken.
Commissioner Kevin Overmyer suggested to Plan Commission Director Ty Adley that he meet with Commissioner Micheal Burroughs, who is the commissioner representative on the Plan Commission, and Plan Commission President David Hostetler to discuss the future of the Plan Commission meetings.
“I would suggest that maybe we just suspend them until you have some funding in place to pay for your advertising and your attorney fees because for one person to sit here and dictate who gets a hearing and who doesn’t get a hearing is not what this county is about,” said Overmyer. “So, if you don’t have funding and as Mr. Lebbin [Marcel Lebbin, Marshall County Attorney] explained it that if you expend money without having money in your budget it’s a felony. I don’t want to see anybody get cited for a felony. I know we can’t make a motion here to do that, but it’s just one of my suggestions that you guys look into that and just suspend until you get money because we cannot continue to operate in this fashion.”
Later in the meeting, Overmyer asked County Attorney Jim Clevenger if County Councilman Jim Masterson had arranged a meeting with the attorneys to begin to find a resolution to this issue. Clevenger indicated that he has not yet had that conversation with Masterson.
Adley was initially before the commissioners Monday regarding a public hearing on a rezoning case, but Adley said the case will need to go back to the Plan Commission because all of the letters notifying neighboring residents about the rezoning petition were returned to the office. In all, about 30 letters were kicked back to the county, which is abnormal, according to Adley.
Adley said the advertising of the case was done properly and the letters were sent out, but Plan Commission Attorney Derek Jones advised him that the case should go back to the Plan Commission to hold another hearing. The neighbors need to be properly notified. The case will be heard in September.
The commissioners unanimously approved a motion to send the case back to the Plan Commission for review.
