CROWN POINT — The three-member Lake County Board of Commissioners revealed some of the inner workings of county government vendor payments after the Indiana Public Access Counselor asked members for more public transparency.
Commissioners Kyle Allen, D-Gary, and Jerry Tippy, R-Schererville, held the first of 20 special meetings to publicly vote their approval and sign more than 40 financial transactions involving more $2.9 million in taxpayer funds.
Commissioner Mike Repay, D-Hammond, was absent Tuesday, but Allen and Tippy read aloud pages of vendors' names and the dollar amounts they are being paid. These payments normally wouldn't have been disclosed until their next meeting Aug. 16.
They include expedited payments for government vendors who cannot wait the usual two weeks for a county government check. Some of the payments approved Tuesday involved U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development federal grant money, which requires prompt payments.
Other payments Allen and Tippy approved were electronic fund transfers and contract offers. This includes a $74,250 payment to the Arsh Group Inc., of Merrillville, to compose a comprehensive plan for future development and zoning in the county's unincorporated areas.
Tippy said this includes a last-minute revision for the creation of a website providing information about the development planning process.
The two commissioners also approved a $1 million county subsidy to the Regional Mental Health Center in Merrillville, the payment of $952,235 to medical providers for health insurance claims, as well as earmarking $415,000 in federal and local funds to improve traffic flow through the 101st and Sheffield intersection, in St. John Township, a route used heavily by Chicago commuters.
Commissioners delayed action on two measures to investigate, at Tippy's request, whether the county obtained at least three competitive quotes from vendors to save public costs.
In the past, commissioners would have signed almost all of these claims, purchase orders, electronic fund transfers and contracts behind closed doors between their regularly scheduled monthly meetings and later given them a cursory ratification vote.
Earlier this month, Public Access Counselor Luke H. Britt wrote an opinion that commissioners and the county council violated the state's Open Door law last April when they updated a county ordinance putting restrictions on where telecommunication companies can place electronic hardware in public rights of way.
Britt said Tuesday of the new special meetings, "I appreciate they took my guidance, but there are other creative ways of approving those expenditures. They could be interpreting that opinion too narrowly," he said.
Dull said commissioners may refine their approval process further. "We are working our way through a process we have never done before. I'm trying to be a purist," Dull said.