A significant step toward rebuilding Bartholomew County’s information technology department has been completed with the hiring of a new IT director, the county commissioners said.

“It’s a great time to reboot, reassess, move forward and start a new era,” said Scott Mayes, who began his new position Monday.

Since the August 2015 departure of former county IT director Jim Hartsook, seven employees have resigned from the department, including two replacement directors. The final employee resigned in late August, leaving the county to farm out its IT operations to contractors.

Most of the former county IT specialists cited higher salaries and better benefits available in the private sector as a prime reason for their departures.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Mayes will be paid $94,000 a year. That’s the same amount offered to Robert Scott Henry during the summer. Nevertheless, Henry left the position Aug. 31 after three days to accept a similar position in his hometown of Franklin.

That’s 45 percent more than the previous two IT directors — Hartsook and Jeff Wehmiller, who resigned last April after six months — who were earning $65,000 annually when they stepped down.

But aside from salary issues, remaining workers in the IT department also were uncooperative with both of Hartsook’s successors, displayed a sense of entitlement and openly said they didn’t feel supported by elected officials, commissioner chairman Rick Flohr said in August.

The position was offered to Mayes after he agreed to follow specific guidelines that includes working with all elected officials, the Bartholomew County Data Board and an outside managed services firm, commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.

Accepting the position is somewhat of a homecoming for Mayes, 42, who managed the county’s IT staff from 1997 to 2005. However, he understands that home hasn’t been occupied for a few months.

For the past few months, the commissioners have stressed they will not make permanent decisions regarding the future of the IT department until a new director is given the opportunity to provide input and guidance.

“We’ve got to get a director on board, and I’m glad we decided to pull the trigger here,” commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.

But it will likely be December before Mayes is prepared to sit down with the commissioners to begin discussing permanent changes, the new director said.

While Kleinhenz said a second county-employed IT specialist may be hired, all three commissioners are advocating a hybrid staff of both county and outside specialists.

Mayes said he believes it’s a wise and sound strategy.

“Having that hybrid is going to be an important part of business continuity,” Mayes said. “We want to be in a position where, if we lose staff, we can rely on vendor partners.”

After Mayes left the county’s employment 11 years ago, the 1992 Columbus East graduate accepted a position with Indiana Bank and Trust Co. as information security officer and infrastructure manager before becoming a consultant for the Poshard Drive office of Indianapolis-based Tls.Net Inc. in 2012.

While admitting the systems being used today are different from when he last was employed by the county, Mayes emphasized that his own professional knowledge has continued to evolve over the past 11 years.

“I’ve been consulting for almost five years, so I’ve had the chance to see several different types of technology,” Mayes said. “The county has systems I’m very familiar with.”

On Monday, Mayes expressed confidence in the current IT consultants now working with the county’s computers.

Sharp Business Services employee Danny G. Harman, who worked as a systems administrator for the county from January 2006 to February 2011, has been managing the computer systems for the past few months.

Besides employing a rare mixture of skills and knowledge of the county’s computer systems, Mayes is also well-liked and easy to get along with, Kleinhenz said.

“We’re taking slow steps, but we’re getting better every day,” Flohr said.

Mayes’ hiring took effect about a week prior to Tuesday’s election.

People who depend on the county’s website for updated election results should anticipate nothing worse than normal hiccups on Nov. 8, Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps said.

That’s because former county IT director Jim Hartsook, as well as computer specialist Craig Pekar, remain under contract in an effort to ensure the smoothest possible operations at all of the county’s 18 voting centers, as well as the posting of real-time online results, Phelps said.

The original contract approved in early 2015 included the securing services of both information specialists for this year’s presidential election, as well as last year’s city elections, county elections supervisor Shari Lentz said.

Since there will be no election in 2017, Mayes and Lentz’s staff are expected to be trained in handling the election software. That way in the future, they can handle any potential election-related problems themselves, Phelps said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Scott Mayes ” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Age: 42

Education: Columbus East High School, Class of 1992

Training: Certified Information Systems Security Professional

Experience: Business Information Security, TLs. Net., April 2012 to October 2016; Information Security Officer/Infrastructure Manager, Indiana Bank and Trust Co., June 2004 to April 2012; Director of Information Services, Bartholomew County, April 1997 to May 2005

Hobbies: Animal lover

Family: Mother, Linda Mayes; sister, Beth Cordes

[sc:pullout-text-end]

Cold weather seems to warm hearts when it comes to the local Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle Campaign.

So Capt. Alan Sladek hopes for a crisp chill in the air by Nov. 12 when the local social service agency kicks off the 2016 seasonal kettle campaign at a projected 32 sites in Columbus. However, many more volunteer ringers are needed.

The organization’s campaign goal for this year is to raise $115,000 by Dec. 24, Sladek said.

Historical statistics show that the heaviest days of giving since 2010 — when he and his wife, Capt. Jodi Sladek, began spearheading the fund drive — surface when the temperatures dip into the 40s or below, and especially if there is snow.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

“The last two years have been gorgeous early on (in the campaign),” Alan Sladek said. “And it has not been very cold.”

That has meant substantially lower donations, since the Sladeks say people don’t think of Christmas amid warmer days.

This year marks the earliest kickoff date since the Sladeks assumed leadership of the citadel. They both agree that the campaign that funds the outreach’s food pantry, summer camps, utility bill assistance program and much more needs all the time possible to reach its goal.

Last year, the campaign surpassed its $110,000 goal to hit $111,000 on the last day of the drive.

“God always manages to come through,” Alan Sladek said.

Columbus resident Jim Hutson said he and his wife Mary Hutson first agreed to volunteer weekly at the kettles in 2012 when their son, Robert Hutson, was deployed overseas. They wanted to channel their concern toward concern for others.

They even sang while they rang the bell, since Jim Hutson is well known to southern gospel music fans as a vocalist with the nationally touring Woodsmen Quartet.

“We just fell in love with it,” Jim Hutson said. “There were so many people saying thank you.”

Some listened nearby in a parking lot with their car windows down. Others brought them hot coffee on cold days.

So now the couple has progressed to bringing the granddaughters along for the volunteer sessions.

“Now, when I walk into some local businesses, I find out that that’s how people know me — from the ringing,” Jim Hutson said.

Alan Sladek said 88 percent of the donations go directly to programs that help the poor and struggling.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Red Kettle history” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

In 1891, Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee was distraught because so many poor individuals in San Francisco were going hungry. During the holiday season, he resolved to provide a free Christmas dinner for the destitute and poverty-stricken. He only had one major hurdle to overcome — funding the project.

He wondered where he would get the money. He lay awake nights, worrying, thinking, praying about how he could find the funds to fulfill his commitment of feeding 1,000 of the city’s poorest individuals on Christmas Day. As he pondered the issue, his thoughts drifted back to his sailor days in Liverpool, England. He remembered how at Stage Landing, where the boats came in, there was a large, iron kettle called “Simpson’s Pot” into which passers-by tossed a coin or two to help the poor.

The next day, McFee placed a similar pot at the Oakland Ferry Landing at the foot of Market Street. Beside the pot, he placed a sign that read, “Keep the Pot Boiling.” He soon had the money to see that the needy people were properly fed at Christmas.

— From salvationarmyusa.org

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”You can ring in the season” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

You can help the Salvation Army by volunteering to ring a bell at one of 32 projected locations throughout the Columbus area, includes outlying areas such as the Edinburgh Premium Outlets, beginning Nov. 12.

Organizers are asking volunteers to consider a shift of a minimum of two hours.

People can sign up for shifts at registertoring.com.

[sc:pullout-text-end]

A former Columbus Police Department narcotics division supervisor has pleaded guilty to two felonies and a misdemeanor relating to missing drug evidence from the department’s evidence room.

Jeremy R. Coomes, 39, who lives on the northeast side of Columbus, pleaded guilty Thursday in Bartholomew Circuit Court to Level 3 felony possession of methamphetamine, a less serious Level 6 felony official misconduct and Class A misdemeanor theft as part of a plea bargain agreement.

The agreement, which leaves sentencing up to Judge Stephen Heimann, contains no sentencing recommendation from the prosecution.

The parties agreed that prosecutors will not object to Coomes’ referral to the Veterans Court of Southern Indiana for supervisory purposes only as a special term of probation, if the court finds it appropriate and the Veterans Court agrees. Successful completion of any Veterans Court program will not affect Coomes’ convictions nor automatically waive any executed portion of the sentence Coomes may receive, the plea bargain states.

The Veterans Court is a specialized court for veterans in the court system seeking treatment for alcohol/substance addiction or serious mental health illness to provide rehabilitation and a return to society. Coomes served in the Navy before joining the police department in January 2005 at age 27.

Coomes and his attorney Edward Merchant of Indianapolis had no comment on the plea bargain when approached after the hearing. Special Prosecutor Cynthia E. Crispin of Connersville also said she had no statement after the hearing.

Coomes, who resigned from the police department on Oct. 22, 2015, was accused of obtaining narcotics out of the police department’s evidence room under the guise of using them in educational programs, court documents state. He was accused of checking out drug evidence in as many as 10 cases from the Columbus Police Department’s property room. But when that evidence was returned, some of it was missing, some of it had been replaced with other substances and evidence packet seals had been tampered with or altered, court documents state.

During the hearing, Crispin read a statement into the record detailing the dates that Coomes was accused of checking out evidence, beginning in 2014 and again in 2015, which included evidence bags of methamphetamine, oxycodone, marijuana and heroin, which were to be used in presentations before the department’s Public Safety Citizen Academy, where local residents can sign up to learn more about how police do their jobs.

The Columbus Police Department began an internal investigation Oct. 12, 2015, after the department’s property room sergeant could not find one narcotics item that should have been in the room, Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde told The Republic in an earlier interview. The police department had conducted an audit of the property room in September 2015 as part of its accreditation process.

The department’s property manager contacted Coomes to ask where the missing item was, and Coomes said it was in the narcotics vault at the police department, court records state. Police later found a container in the vault marked “Public Safety Academy” containing multiple evidence items, including the missing one, court records stated.

However, when compared to lists from Coomes’ check-out requests, there were discrepancies, including missing pills, drugs not packaged as originally submitted and different evidence weights.

Coomes admitted to having a substance-abuse problem during a meeting Oct. 10, 2015 at his home, when Rohde, two other city police officers and a police chaplain spent more than two hours with Coomes and his wife, at Coomes’ request. Family members, with the chaplain’s help, attempted to find a treatment facility for Coomes, court documents state. Afterward, Rohde asked the Indiana State Police to take over the investigation.

After the investigation was complete, Coomes was arrested and booked into the Bartholomew County Jail on March 30, then released after posting $75,000 bond. On paperwork filed with booking documents, he listed his employer as a local construction company.

Charges against Coomes that would be dismissed as part of the plea bargain include felony possession of cocaine, felony theft, felony possession of a narcotic drug, another felony possession of methamphetamine charge, misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor possession of marijuana and another misdemeanor theft charge, court documents state.

In the felony theft count, Coomes had been accused of taking methamphetamine and/or cocaine with an estimated street value of $50,000, court documents state.

The felony methamphetamine conviction carries a fixed term between three and 16 years in prison, with the advisory sentence being nine years, according to the plea agreement. The felony official misconduct conviction carries a prison term of six months to two-and-a-half years with the advisory sentence being one year. The misdemeanor theft conviction carries a fixed term of not more than one year.

The court may assess fines of $10,000 each for the felonies and not more than $5,000 for the misdemeanor conviction, court records state.

The Bartholomew County Probation Department will complete a presentence investigation report on Coomes prior to sentencing.

Prosecutors said earlier no pending or closed local cases were affected by the evidence-tampering allegations in the Coomes case.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Sentencing” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Former Columbus Police Department narcotics division supervisor Jeremy R. Coomes is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 29.

[sc:pullout-text-end]