FRANKFORT — At its Nov. 10 meeting, the Clinton County Council held off on a pay increase for a long-serving health department employee and on a $300,000 server appropriation. It approved several job descriptions, two salary ordinance corrections and an ordinance creating a fund for seized law enforcement assets.
The meeting ran just over two hours. Most of the debate centered on how county pay policy applies to positions that the department heads say have grown beyond their classification.
Health Department Pay Request
The council voted 7-0 to approve a job description for a new public health operations manager. The position replaces the department’s office manager role. The county’s job description committee recommended the description but made no recommendation on Health Director Melissa Hudson-Osler’s request to pay above the midpoint and start the new rate before 2027.
Hudson-Osler said the role is the department’s second in command and that Deanna Lukes, an 18-year employee, already does the work.
“If I disappeared from the earth today, who is there to run the ship?” Hudson Osler asked.
The position stayed in the COMT pay classification, not the higher PAT (professional, administrative and technical) category. According to the county’s human resources representative, the COMT D midpoint is $26.91 an hour, rising to $29.78 under the new salary survey. The PAT rate would be about $32.02. Hudson Osler said her department has already set aside the money and is not asking the council for more.
A council member moved to table the matter until December. The motion died for lack of a second. Other members said they wanted more information first, including how many nearby health departments have deputy positions and what those jobs pay.
“I don’t feel like I know what I would be voting for if we made a change other than I want it to be higher,” one council member said.
Hudson Osler said she will come back with comparison figures and two options: pay above the midpoint, or pay at the PAT level.
Server Costs Spike
The council voted 7-0 to table a $300,000 general fund appropriation for the Spillman central dispatch server. The county and the city of Frankfort share that system. IT staff said the original quotes were good for only five days. Server prices jumped about $46,000 during the approval process.
“Technology prices were fluctuating so much with data centers, AI stuff that RAM and storage costs were in a major flux,” he said.
The server was installed in September, but the county has not yet been billed. Council members want to ask the city to share the extra cost before approving the money.
Salary Ordinance Corrections
The council found that an EMS assistant director had been paid at about $102,000 instead of the recommended $95,000, because the salary ordinance was never formally amended. Members voted 7-0 to make the $95,000 rate effective Oct. 17. That means the employee will not have to repay about $533 in overpayments.
“That was our oversight and he shouldn’t be penalized for our oversight,” one member said.
The council also voted 7-0 to lower the salary ordinance for the QMA position at Parkview to $20.80 an hour. The position previously required a registered nurse.
For 2027, the council approved EMS raises of 3% for EMTs and paramedics and 2% for shift supervisors. The office manager will move to the midpoint plus 2%, the assistant director to $102,192, and the director will get no raise. EMS Director Steven Deckard said the department’s 48/96 shift schedule makes hourly pay a poor measure of total pay.
Other Business
- The council approved Ordinance 2026-18 7-0. It creates a non-reverting law enforcement seizure fund under the auditor’s control, which the State Board of Accounts directed.
- A health department “rainy day” fund holding $133,539 will be moved into a certificate of deposit. The money is set aside for a future building, and the interest stays with the health fund.
- Auditor Jacque Clements said $646,000 in personal property tax money, going back to 2013, will be sent back to taxing units.
- Opioid settlement recommendations totaling $29,000 were presented: $9,000 for Healthy Communities and $20,000 for Valley Oaks. The appropriations will be advertised for December.
- Community corrections cut its GPS unit costs from $325 to $270 each, saving an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 a year. That deal still needs board approval.
- Highway Superintendent Rick Campbell reported a new dump truck that cost $264,460 once fully outfitted. He also said reduced Community Crossings funding shortened a planned repaving of County Road 200 East.
- EMA Director Renee Crick said Homeland Security approved a radio grant. She has also applied for a study of hazardous materials moving through the county.
- EMS plans to use a $274,036.88 reimbursement grant to buy a Chevrolet Tahoe and a cardiac monitor. Assistant Director Tim Grandstaff was named the 2026 Indiana Paramedic of the Year.