The Marshall County Council took time during their meeting Thursday, August 8 to discuss the Plan Commission’s budget for 2024, specifically legal fees.
Plan Commission President David Hostetler appeared before the council for discussion. Council President Jesse Bohannon stated that the Plan Commission has exhausted its budget on a number of items and wanted to find a way to move forward on the matter.
As previously reported, on June 13, the Council denied an additional appropriations request made by Plan Director Ty Adley for legal fees and advertising. The Council did create new line items within their own budget to fund those expenses with the stipulation that they be pre-approved through President Jesse Bohannon before expenses are incurred.
Since that decision was approved, Commissioner Attorney Jim Clevenger and the Commissioners have discussed the legality of that decision.
Also since that decision additional expenses have been incurred that were not pre-authorized by Bohannon including attendance by Attorney Derek Jones at a Plan Commission meeting on June 27.
During last week’s meeting, Hostetler commented that when there are legal requests to the council members then those requests need to be answered in a timely fashion. He said that the council will let them do their jobs as they have a responsibility to the public.
Marshall County Council Attorney Marcel Lebbin pointed to a topic of discussion during the Marshall County Commissioners meeting August 5 about who the Plan Commission answers to which Hostetler said was the commissioners. Lebbin said that was only partially true and that the commissioners and the council govern over the Plan Commission. Hostetler said Indiana Code states that he responds to the commissioners and proceeded to have a heated exchange with Lebbin before leaving the room. He later apologized for his outbursts and said that was not becoming of him or a reflection of any of the members of the Plan Commission.
Following Hostetler’s hastened exit, Councilman Tim Harman commented that the guidance given during the commissioners meeting, without Indiana Code citation, was “atrocious”. Harman said since the county’s Plan Commission is an “advisory” Plan Commission and according to Indiana Code 36-7-4-308(a), the fiscal body of the county may make appropriations to carry out the duties of the commissions. He also stated in that chapter, in section 401, each Plan Commission member shall supervise the fiscal affairs of the commission and submit and prepare a budget in same manner as other departments in the county; as the case may be and be limited in all expenditures to the provisions made for the expenditures by the fiscal body. In 2023, Harman said the Plan Commission spent $3,003.77 in legal fees and the fund set for fees in 2024 was set at $8,500. Harman stated that the budget was exhausted within the first half of the year.
With that, Harman stated, “We have the right as the fiscal authority to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars by saying ‘no’.”
Council Attorney Lebbin said that if there are continued requests to attend meetings and unauthorized permission to attend meetings there will be related legal actions to take.
Harman further stated that the voters have spoken to deny large industrial solar energy arrays. He commented that the lawsuits that could come to the county are because two county commissioners will “not do the will of the people to stop this debacle.”
Bohannon said he asked Hostetler to come to the meeting to hear the statutes to clarify the role of the council in the checks and balances pertaining to the Plan Commission.
Councilman Jim Masterson suggested that the legal representatives of the county council and the commissioners meet with members directly involved in this issue to come up with a plan.
Masterson stated, “If there’s a communication problem between what representation of one board has over the other, I think the attorneys from both bodies need to get together, they need to talk, we need to work this out. I don’t think this is anything that should go to a court system. We are all here for the betterment of Marshall County and I think we need to be adults about it.”
He added that personalities should not come between what is best for the county and “who has what power over what”. He said Plan Commission Attorney Derek Jones was hired as a vendor to be at the meetings and he should be paid.
Councilwoman Nicole Cox said the Plan Commission did not know what they had in their budget and recommended that Plan Director Ty Adley relay that information to the commission going forward in a meeting held with him earlier. She recommended that the council support paying $540 to Jones as he gave a service to the county. A motion was made to support paying that bill and it was unanimously approved by the council.
