Breakdown Of The Washington County Commissioners Meeting

MARIETTA, OH — This week's county commissioners meeting looked pretty routine with the exception of a liquor permit application. Sitting President Kevin Ritter explained all the items on the agenda.

Washington County Commissioners
AGENDA
9:00 am, April 8, 2021
9:00 Business Meeting
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None

NEW BUSINESS
Approve Agenda
Approval of previous meeting minutes
Bills from various departments

Additional Appropriation – Family & Children First

Ritter explained that this was just them approving grant money. "For a program called help me grow."

Additional Appropriation – Board of Elections

Ritter says this is a cost having to do with the Board of Elections, it was a $1,000 appropriation. "This is an issue with the May election dealing with ballots."

Additional Appropriation – Behavioral Health Levy

This appropriation was for approximately $6,100. "That's fees associated with the Behavioral Health Levy."

Additional Appropriation – Various Purpose Bonds

This appropriation was for about $8,000 from six different funds. "These are also fees that are collected."

Transfer – Treasurer (2)

There are two different transfers taking place here. "One is a $28,000 transfer one is a $264 transfer. Those are moneys that were held in an interest-bearing account that are being moved out of that account."

Transfer – Board of Elections

This is a monetary transfer of roughly $3,700. "They're moving from one line item to another. So moving from the discretionary merit line item to a salary line item."

Transfer – Family & Children First

This is a transfer of $1,700. "They're moving from a mileage line item to a marketing line item. There's no new money being introduced into their budget. They're just moving their money around. They need our approval to do it."

Then & Now

These are bills that were already paid. "This is them coming to us after the fact and saying we followed all the rules, we did everything right, but the state says we still need your approval."
Travel – Children Services

"One of their employees has 10 home visits that she's making." Commissioners approved her travel.

Marietta Municipal Court – Annual Report

They send their annual report to the commissioners as a courtesy. "We're just acknowledging that we've received it."

WMCAP – 2021 CHIP Proposal

WMCAP – Letter of Intent for 2021 CHIP Program

This is a housing program. "Moneys flow in from the state, that's used to either rehab homes or build homes. They're the organization that administers those moneys and we're just giving our approval for them to do that."

Jail Contract – Village of New Matamoras

This is a contract that allows Washington County to incarcerate for the Village of New Matamoras. "We have a number of contracts with villages, municipalities, counties, we accept their prisoners. There's a set daily rate of $68 a day to house their inmates at our jail and this is the contract that allows us to do that."

JFS – Mandated County Share FY2022
Family & Children First – 4th Quarter Projected Expenditures

There is a projected $31,000 of expenditures. "This is not county money. Almost their entire budget is state money. But the state requires us to review their expenditures."

Sheriff – Monthly Report on Care of Prisoners for March

The Sheriff reports to the county every month on the care of prisoners. "We get that report, it has a list of names. It's telling us how many visits to the infirmary, how many disciplinary actions, that sort of stuff."

Liquor Permit Application for Par Mar

The commissioners didn't immediately approve the liquor applications for Par Mar. They tabled it this week. "Any time there's a liquor permit we've traditionally, commissioners going back decades, have not acted on it the day presented with it. They like to leave a period open for public comment." Ritter says in his time, there's never been a public comment. "This probably goes back to an earlier day when people were genuinely concerned about morality and drinking. You'd probably get people standing up and saying 'not in my county.' The tradition is still here."

Covid Taskforce – Request #2021-10

This has to do with CARES Act money. "We got roughly $3,300,000. That came with stipulations. You can spend this money, but only in certain ways. So we put together a task force made up of people from the county that would receive requests for spending, for reimbursement. They would look at the rules and say this is an allowable expense or not. Anytime we have a proposed expense that's approved it comes to us. We look at it and decide whether to approve it or reject it." This is basically a double approval.

Engineer – Change Order #1-Final for C-3 Landslip Repair
Engineer – Change Order #1-Final for C-59 Landslip Repair

These are change orders to the initial contracts. "There were two landslips he [the county engineer] was dealing with. One was on County Road 3, the other was on County Road 59. Somewhere along the way there were changes to the initial contracts. Those changes have to come to us for approval." The first change saved them $2,500, the second cost them $1,600.