Prosecutor asks council to fund short-term APS staff ahead of vendor transition

Ken Kotter, St. Joseph County prosecutor, asked the county council to authorize budget transfers to continue Adult Protective Services (APS) civil investigations through a planned handoff to an out-of-state vendor. Kotter said the vendor selected by the state will not be ready by the prosecutor’s grant expiration, creating a potential gap in civil APS services affecting elder safety.

"I'm asking for six weeks for three workers," Kotter said, adding the immediate cost for those investigators is $19,112 for six weeks. He also requested funds to maintain a financial investigator and other staff time for the remainder of the year, which he calculated would bring the total needed to roughly $47,339 before internal adjustments. Kotter said he would offset part of the request with a $5,265 transfer from the prosecutor's overtime line and that his plan relies on reassigning existing positions rather than creating new salaried posts.

Auditor staff and the budget controller explained that pension (PERF) and FICA accounting affect how funds can be shifted and that removing FICA/PERF from the calculation reduces the net county cost to about $41,000. The auditor described the request as a budget transfer of funds already appropriated rather than an additional appropriation.

Kotter said the state previously funded APS hubs and the county supplemented that funding; with APS work moving to an outside vendor, the county’s role would shift. He stressed the prosecutor’s office would continue to handle the criminal side of exploitation and fraud investigations while the civil APS work would transfer to the vendor. He also said the new vendor expressed interest in hiring existing APS employees for continuity but would not cover the hub responsibilities in Elkhart, Marshall and Kosciusko counties.

Committee members pressed for clearer, fund-by-fund numbers; Kotter and auditor staff agreed to reconcile the line-item figures before the full-council hearing. Committee members then voted to send the funding transfer request to the full council with a favorable recommendation; the committee also voted favorably to forward a separate form D request of $5,366 to cover legally owed paid time off for affected employees.

Kotter said some of the funds requested would be used as a stopgap to ensure continuity of civil APS services and to allow a transition period with the new vendor. He also said severance or PTO for affected employees would be handled separately and that he intends to seek additional authority for severance from pretrial-diversion funds later.

The committee’s favorable recommendation moves the requests to the full St. Joseph County Council for final approval.