Scott County councilors on Dec. 30 moved through a long list of year-end corrections and funding cleanups, approving dozens of additional appropriations and multiple large transfer resolutions while repeatedly pressing staff for clearer ledgers and explanations of negative lines.

The meeting’s most prominent single appropriation was ordinance 2025-98, which authorized a $60,835 payment from the new transfer-station fund for a compactor. Staff said the money had been received into a new fund but required an appropriation before it could be disbursed. A motion to appropriate the amount passed unanimously (motion by John Collins; second by John Miller).

Council members then considered scores of smaller additional appropriations across departments and grant funds, including Title IV-D child-support incentives, juvenile-justice (JDAI) contractual lines, and multiple health-department grant lines tied to COVID response and immunizations. In most cases staff described the requests as bookkeeping corrections — expenditures that had already posted to the wrong line or prior-year charges that now must be appropriated — and the council approved them by voice votes.

Several items triggered more probing questioning. Councilors and staff spent time on a coroner’s perpetuation fund that showed a negative balance; a hospital-reserve item whose prior spending and authorization staff could not immediately reconcile; and a nearly $63,622 charge in an auction/lease fund tied to sheriff’s office equipment purchases that some members said appeared to have been spent without a prior appropriation. One council member warned that “Indiana Code 36-2-9-1.3 says that every time an auditor knowingly violates this section commits a Class A misdemeanor,” prompting staff to pledge follow-up reviews and explanation for lines that appear to have been misposted.

After discussion about whether large community-crossing (CCMG) closeout entries should be treated as reimbursements between funds rather than additional appropriations, staff and members agreed to pursue a reimbursement ordinance where appropriate. The council asked highway and finance staff to confirm which fund paid which invoices before changing appropriations.

Budget transfers were the other substantive block of business. The council adopted a sequence of resolutions (2025-55 through 2025-67) allowing intra-budget transfers within departments to correct personnel and operating lines. Scott County EMS brought the largest requests: two transfers reallocating $150,000 and $110,000 within personnel classifications to cover a prolonged staffing shortage and to shift money from full-time paramedic lines to EMT and part‑time positions. Staff explained those moves were routine end‑of‑year balancing items that previously had been processed administratively; the county recently changed that practice so same-series transfers come before the council for transparency.

What’s next: staff will return with itemized ledger reconciliations and, where necessary, further ordinances to reimburse or move funds between accounts. Council members requested a deeper audit of recurring negative lines and asked the auditor’s office to document the source of large payments that appear without prior appropriation.

Votes at a glance

- Ordinance 2025-98 (Transfer station compactor) — Motion: appropriate $60,835; Mover: John Collins; Second: John Miller; Vote: 6-0; Outcome: approved.
- Multiple additional appropriation ordinances (series covering health grants, JDAI, community corrections, Title IV-D, etc.) — Passed predominately by unanimous voice votes; amounts ranged from under $500 to six-figure cleanups; Outcome: approved (see staff ledger for itemized list).
- Resolution series 2025-55 through 2025-67 (departmental transfers) — Included EMS transfers of $150,000 and $110,000 between personnel lines; voice votes passed the resolutions, typically unanimous.

Financial context and controls: council members emphasized that Indiana statute requires appropriations before spending and said staff should catch overspending earlier in the claims process. Staff responded that many of the adjustments correct historical posting practices and that new procedures — including clearer location coding in the ledger — are being implemented for 2026.