‘Absolutely, let’s keep spending:’ Trafalgar council, clerk-treasurer spat over new position

Discussions at the Trafalgar Town Council’s regular meeting Thursday got catty at times as elected officials disagreed over how the town’s money should be spent.

A majority of council members at the meeting approved by a vote of 3-1 to move forward with hiring a community development coordinator. Jeff Eisenmenger was the only council member against approving the position.

At the same meeting, the majority of council members present also rejected a request from Clerk-Treasurer Donna Moore to hire a part-time deputy clerk. This was a spending request Eisenmenger did support.

The meeting soon spiraled into Eisenmenger and Moore — who does not vote on council matters — making at times pointed and passive-aggressive comments throughout the remainder of the meeting about the rest of the council’s priorities for spending money.

Thursday’s meetings also started over 30 minutes late because only two members, President Jessica Jones and Jason Ramey —who joined on Zoom — showed up on time for the council’s first redevelopment commission meeting at 5:30 p.m. Three members are needed to attend in person to legally hold a meeting. Council members Jerry Rafferty and Eisenmenger did not arrive at the town hall until around 6 p.m.

New community development job

During the meeting, Jones presented the proposal to create a community development coordinator position. She first presented this idea to the council at its April 20 meeting.

The position would essentially act similar to a town manager in overseeing the needs of the town and its residents full-time, Jones said. They would serve as a primary liaison between the town, its residents and other communities. This person would administratively assist the town on projects, activities, growth, code enforcement, resident issues and other duties as needed, Jones said.

“They’re like a Swiss Army knife. They can do so many things, and they can be utilized in a beneficial way to the town,” Jones said.

A lot of issues the town faces — from flooding yards to some residents not following zoning codes — are rooted in a lack of oversight and an employee to consistently keep up with where problems stand, Jones and other council members have said.

All issues in town are typically brought to the town council now, which many members have long said is a steep workload for five people with day jobs to handle 24/7.

“I’ll be the first one to admit, I leave here every month with a long to-do list, and it’s hard to keep up,” Jones said. “I work full-time, I have a family. As much as I enjoy serving and doing my best, I fall behind sometimes.”

Jones envisions this position to have similar duties to what Whiteland’s community development director, Carmen Young, does there. Young works largely on bringing new development to Whiteland, helping developers with plans, and crafting staff reports to present to town boards. She also is a contact between the town and residents, among many other duties. Young’s salary in 2022 was $54,000.

Jones tentatively proposed paying a community development coordinator for Trafalgar either $25 an hour, part-time, or $23 an hour, full-time with benefits. Ideally, the position would be a full-time job, but Jones said she was open to either part-time or full-time, depending on what the council wants. The proposed salary at full-time would roughly be $47,800 annually.

Nearly every municipality in Johnson County, aside from New Whiteland and Prince’s Lakes, has some form of a community development director.

Eisenmenger has been against creating this position from the start because he said he does not see a way to fund it. Eisenmenger has said several times recently that the town is spending down nearly all of its revenue, especially after the council approved hefty raises for most employees in the 2023 budget.

“I would never vote for this because I raised people’s water and sewer rates last year … We can’t do more spending,” Eisenmenger said on April 20. He also pointed out the town also continues to transfer $70,000 annually out of its wastewater and water funds to the general fund to supplement general spending.

Jones said over the last three years, Trafalgar’s revenue has trended up, bringing in more money than it did in years prior. Jones’s presentation showed the town has brought in around $460,000 more into its general fund between 2022 and 2021. But much of that new revenue has come from the American Rescue Plan Act funds, and also the county’s new Economic Development Income Tax, so that is not general fund revenue.

The town’s projected revenue in its general fund for 2023 is around $729,000, and the town’s 2023 general fund budget is around $784,000. Trafalgar’s beginning cash balance in 2023 was $980,285, according to financial reports.

She said the upward trends in funds could justify paying for the new position, which she proposed could be funded out of the general and wastewater funds. She also said she believes the position could pay for itself in the end as the community development coordinator would be charged with helping the town grow and maintaining oversight of bills and fees that can often go left unpaid by residents.

Moore, as the clerk-treasurer, expressed concern about appropriating money for a job in the middle of the year that was not budgeted for in 2023. She mentioned how significant raises were already approved last year, and also how she cannot predict what the town spending will look like by the end of the year.

Resident Pam McQueary at the meeting also voiced concern over creating a new position. She said she’d rather see the money go toward lowering the wastewater rates the town increased last year to pay for a $7 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade.

“And I guess I don’t understand why some of these things that you want done, you the board itself is not doing,” McQueary said. “I understand you have family and you have full-time jobs, but you accepted this job too.”

Jones said if the council were to split up the proposed roughly $50,000 for this position among residents, it would amount to about seven cents per person.

Jacob Bowman, town attorney, also clarified the sewer rate increase was calculated by a rate specialist to generate enough money needed to pay for the loan Trafalgar had to take for the wastewater project, which costs five times the town’s budget. The likelihood of the rates coming back down before the loan is paid off is slim, he said.

The council ultimately approved moving forward with creating the community development director position. The exact details of the job are still to be worked out. The council will have to hold votes to amend the salary ordinance, create an official job description and appropriate the money.

“We just spent money we don’t have, folks,” Eisenmenger said after the vote passed.

Deputy clerk discussion

After the development coordinator vote, Moore asked if the council would authorize funding to hire a deputy clerk part-time to help her out.

“Absolutely, let’s keep spending,” Eisenmenger remarked as Moore presented.

Moore said she works typically seven days a week in her job, and she has no one to help if she needs to take time off. Moore manages the town’s finances, payroll, and filling out required financial reports, as well as taking minutes at town council meetings. She also said she manages other duties outside of the clerk-treasurer job description, such as managing the town website and insurance.

She doesn’t mind the extra work, but she said she wants help. Moore said she’d like to split some of her duties off to a deputy clerk, such as payroll and other items. The towns of Bargersville, Prince’s Lakes and Whiteland have deputy clerks, while the rest don’t.

Moore proposed hiring the deputy clerk at $18 an hour for 30 hours per week. She added she has $7,500 in the clerk-treasurer budget for part-time help.

“I have asked for help numerous times,” Moore said.

Eisenmenger supported adding the position. Adding that if the town is going to grow so much with the new community development director, then Moore would need help.

Other council members disagreed. Jones said the community development director would be able to help with Moore’s workload. She said she did not want to hire two people to do the one job of clerk-treasurer.

“You do so much for the town, and this position we are hiring would help you,” Jones said.

This led to a back-and-forth between Moore and Eisenmenger and Jones. Eisenmenger asked why Jones didn’t think Moore deserved a deputy clerk.

“You’re saying I don’t deserve a deputy clerk, but we deserve a community development coordinator job,” Moore said.

Moore also criticized Jones for not having a job description for the community development coordinator before voting to fund it. She also said she took issue with the proposed salary, which is more than her $46,000 salary. Eisenmenger agreed with her.

“So your new community development coordinator will be paid more than your current clerk-treasurer here in the town of Trafalgar,” Moore said.

In other nearby towns, the development coordinator typically makes less than the clerk-treasurer, according to Indiana Gateway. In Edinburgh, Clerk-Treasurer Scott Finley’s 2022 salary was $54,000, while Community Director SaraBeth Drybread’s salary was $44,000. In Whiteland, Clerk-Treasurer Debra Hendrickson made around $64,000, while Young made $54,000 in 2022.

Eisenmenger made a motion to approve hiring a deputy clerk, but it failed due to lack of a second motion from the other council members.

“Now you know what they think, Donna,” Eisenmenger said.

“I do,” Moore responded. “Thank you council.” She added the clerk-treasurer’s office will no longer be available after 3 p.m.

Moore then said the council is pushing her to resign. Jones said no one on the council has ever said that.

“Why would you think that?” Jones said.

“Because of what just happened here, Jessica,” Moore said. “I think this council is actually wanting me to resign … the council didn’t vote me into this office. The people in this community did.”

Passive-aggressive comments

Throughout the rest of the meeting, Moore and Eisenmenger both made passive-aggressive comments, directed mainly at Jones, about the previous votes not going the way they wanted. The discussion became so heated at one point that Jones stepped out of the meeting room.

Later on in the meeting, Jones gave an update on the new signs the town purchased from a local business, which included welcome signs, parking signs and crosswalk signs. Though the money was approved at the last meeting without pushback, Moore recommended Jones should have used a vendor the town had used in the past that would give a discount municipal rate. She had not brought this up in other meetings.

“We’re spending taxpayer money. We should probably be cautious how we’re spending those funds,” Moore said.

At one point, Ramey disconnected from the meeting on Zoom, which he later said was because his phone ran out of battery. Another council member noted he was no longer connected, to which Moore commented, “Jason probably left not long after that community development coordinator vote.” That prompted a loud laugh from Eisenmenger.

After that, as the council discussed plans for a community cleanup day on June 10, Jones brought up that Eisenmenger had suggested giving a donation to the Boy Scout troop that planned to help out. He had said the town has an ordinance allowing it to purchase gift cards to donate to an organization.

There was confusion on whether his initial suggestion was for the town to pay for some donation or if he personally would. He then said he wouldn’t mind buying the Scouts pizza.

During that discussion, Moore remarked, “they probably wanted you to pay for it because they’re already spending so much.”

Correction: The story has been corrected to remove some inaccurate financial data. Jones’s presentation showed the town has brought in around $460,000 more into its general fund between 2022 and 2021. But much of that new revenue has come from the American Rescue Plan Act funds and the county’s new Economic Development Income Tax, so that is not general fund revenue.