Perry County government guide: who handles records, taxes and meetings

If you need a property-tax answer, a meeting record, or the name of the official who can move county business, Perry County starts at 2219 Payne Street in Tell City. The county’s own site makes the chain of responsibility clear: the auditor keeps the financial records, the commissioners run county business, and agendas and minutes show where decisions are made.

Where county government sits

Tell City is the county seat, and Perry County’s main offices are listed at 2219 Payne Street, Tell City, IN 47586. The county says Perry County, Indiana, was organized in 1814 and was the last county organized in Indiana, and it traces the name to War of 1812 hero Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Office hours shown on the official site are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST, which makes the courthouse area the place to start for in-person business.

The county website also lists the departments residents most often need to sort out by name, including Assessor, Auditor, Circuit Court, Circuit Court Clerk, Commissioners, Council and EMA. That list matters because it shows the county is not run through one general office. Different questions belong to different offices, and the county site is built to help residents find the right door before they make the trip.

Who handles records and tax questions

The Perry County Auditor’s Office is the clearest stop for property-tax paperwork and county records. The office says the auditor is the county’s chief financial officer and is responsible for all documents, books, records, maps, and all state and federal reporting. Its listed phone number is 812-547-6427, and the office page gives the same 2219 Payne Street address and weekday hours.

That office also posts a $20 fee per sales disclosure, a detail that matters for anyone tracking a property transfer. On the county’s older website pages, the auditor area includes links for Property Tax Information, Judgments List, TIF Tax List, Staff and Select Parcels, which gives residents a direct path to tax and parcel records without having to guess which office owns them. For routine county finance questions, the auditor is the first name to know.

Who decides countywide business

The Board of Commissioners is the county’s legislative body and, as the county puts it, is also known as the county executive. Perry County identifies the elected commissioners as Randy Cole in District 1, Rebecca Thorn in District 2 and Pam Jamniczky in District 3. The same page says the board is responsible for the administration of all county business, which is why countywide issues end up in commissioners’ meetings.

The county council matters too, especially where planning and budgeting are concerned. A comprehensive plan adopted July 6, 2015, shows that Perry County’s planning work involved both the Commissioners and the County Council, and it lists earlier commissioners Bill Amos, Larry R. James and Randy Kleaving, along with council members Jim Adams, Danny Bolin, John J. Taylor, Jody French, Ron Crawford, Sr., Steve Goodson and Dianne Rudolph. That record gives a practical snapshot of how county leadership has shifted over time while the same two bodies remain central to county decision-making.

Where the paper trail lives

Perry County’s Agendas & Minutes page is one of the most useful pages on the site because it turns meetings into searchable records. The county directs residents to view meeting agendas for the Commissioners and Council, and to use the minutes log for Council and Commissioners meeting minutes. If you want to know when a vote was scheduled, what was discussed, or how a decision was recorded, that page is where the official trail begins.

This matters because county government often moves through meetings rather than one-off announcements. Agendas show what is coming up, and minutes show what actually happened. For residents trying to follow tax issues, planning decisions or other county business, those two links are the easiest route to the public record.

Township trustees still matter

Not every local issue is handled at the county level. Perry County’s township trustees page lists Sarah Kleaving, with Rick Kleaving shown in parentheses, Ashley Seifrig, Michelle Duncan and Deana Hubert, each with local addresses and phone numbers. That page is a reminder that township government still carries part of the load, especially when a problem is more local than countywide.

The trustees are part of the same public-service map as the county offices, just at a different level. When a matter does not belong with the auditor or the commissioners, the township trustee page gives residents another official contact instead of forcing them to start over from scratch.

Tax-sale notices show how county process works

Perry County’s tax-sale notices are some of the best examples of county government in motion. A 2025 notice says the real property tax sale begins at 10:00 a.m. local time on September 3, 2025, in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room. The same notice says the county auditor and county treasurer will apply on or after August 15, 2025, for a court judgment against delinquent tracts or real property.

That notice also says that, because of a change in law, publication will appear only once in newspapers and later notices will be posted on the county website. A separate 2025 notice sets the Commissioners’ Certificate Sale for 10:00 a.m. local time on May 1, 2025, also in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room. Together, those notices show how the auditor, treasurer, commissioners and court process can all intersect around delinquent property.

How to use the county site without guessing

The county’s older site and current pages work together as a practical directory. Between Property Tax Information, Minutes, Ordinances and Resolutions, Board Appointments, the Agendas & Minutes page and the department list that includes the Circuit Court Clerk, Assessor and EMA, residents can usually tell whether a question belongs with records, meetings, taxes or another county office. The address, hours and phone number are posted plainly enough that a resident can move from a question to the right office without chasing rumors or dead ends.

Perry County government is easier to follow when you know the map: the auditor handles the records and tax paperwork, the commissioners control county business, the council appears in the budget and planning record, and the meeting pages show how decisions become official. For anyone trying to understand who does what in Tell City, the county’s own paper trail is the guide.