Morales
Because of a Republic error, Councilman Jorge Morales’ vote was mischaracterized in the original story and has been corrected in this updated story.
All Bartholomew County employees and elected officials will be getting a 3% raise in 2026, as approved in the salary ordinance.
The Bartholomew County Council approved the raises on Monday. There was an amendment for the ordinance that would put court services in the same group as first responders. The final vote for the amendment was 6-1. Councilman Jorge Morales, R- District 4, voted against this amendment.
For years, court services were classified as a separate organization, and Morales said he does not see court services being first responders. Court services includes employees who work in adult and juvenile probation, Community Corrections and the youth services center.
In the amendment to the salary ordiance, it states, “prior to filling any open employment position in the county, the department head seeking to fill the position shall notify the auditor’s office of the vacancy and the department head’s intention to fill said vacancy. The auditor shall then promptly notify the members of the county council, giving the council an opportunity to provide input prior to the vacancy being filled. The only departments exempt are: Youth Services Center, Court Services, E-911, Sheriff, Jail and Emergency Management.”
Morales said by putting the exemption in the ordinance, those departments can go ahead and fill a job regardless.
“At some point in time, we may have to do a layoff if we don’t have the money. Instead of having a layoff, I’d rather have a reduction of workforce by attrition. That doesn’t hurt anybody financially. That’s the key thing to me,” Morales said.
Morales believes that the council needs to be careful with its fiscal responsibilities with the changes coming from Senate Enrolled Act 1. This act will change the structure of the local income tax and property tax in Indiana. It will go into effect in 2028.
Because of these changes with SEA 1, Morales says that there are too many unknowns at this point in time.
“If we do not have people managing probation, the adult detention, the work releases, those types of things, the sheriff’s going to be up here asking for more headcount because he has too many people in jail,” said Council President Leah Beyer, R-District 2.
Morales wants to hold the court services accountable for their grant dollars that pay for headcount, Beyer said. If they have a probation officer or adult detention employees leave, he wants to say, “Do you actually need that (replaced)?”
