BRADFORD, J.
In this interlocutory appeal, Appellant-Defendant the City of Indianapolis challenges the trial court’s denial of its motion for summary judgment in Appellee-Plaintiff Olive Duffitt’s tort action against the City for damages arising out of certain injuries sustained from her fall on the sidewalk. Upon appeal, the City claims that Duffitt’s tort claim is barred on discretionary function immunity grounds under the Indiana Tort Claims Act (ITCA). We reverse and remand.
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The Indiana Tort Claims Act (ITCA) protects governments from liability in certain circumstances. Peavler v. Bd. of Comm’rs of Monroe County, 528 N.E.2d 40, 42 (Ind. 1988). One such circumstance involves a governmental entity’s or employee’s performance of a discretionary function. See id. Specifically, “A governmental entity or an employee acting within the scope of the employee’s employment is not liable if a loss results from … [t]he performance of a discretionary function.” See Ind. Code § 34-13-3-3(7) (2008). The issue of whether an act is discretionary and therefore immune is a question of law for the court’s determination. Peavler, 528 N.E.2d at 46. The question may require an extended factual development, but the essential inquiry is whether the challenged act is the type of function which the legislature intended to protect with immunity. Id. This determination should be made by the court. Id.
Discretionary immunity must be narrowly construed because it is an exception to the general rule of liability. Id. The governmental entity seeking to establish immunity bears the burden of proving that the challenged act or omission was a policy decision made by consciously balancing risks and benefits. Id.
The Indiana Supreme Court has adopted the “planning-operational test” for determining whether a function is discretionary for purposes of the ITCA. City of Terre Haute v. Pairsh, 883 N.E.2d 1203, 1206 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008) (citing Peavler, 528 N.E.2d at 46), trans. denied. The standard for this test “„dictates that a governmental entity will not be held liable for negligence arising from decisions which are made at a planning level, as opposed to an operational level.?” Id. (quoting City of Crown Point v. Rutherford, 640 N.E.2d 750, 752 (Ind. Ct. App. 1994)). . . .
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Here, the City’s designated evidence demonstrates that there were limited funds for sidewalk repair by the City, that many projects competed for these funds, and that as a result of such limited funds, the City implemented a policy prioritizing sidewalk repair and renovation. Under this policy, sidewalks with the same priority were generally repaired in the order in which they were entered into the system. Sometimes, however, the DPW Operations or District Managers further prioritized or de-prioritized sidewalk repairs by conducting a cost-benefit analysis with due consideration for budgetary concerns and competing projects. The delegation of this prioritization task to operations managers was similarly based upon a conscious policy decision. Apart from designating evidence of the existence of a different prioritization plan, which, as the Engineering Division’s sub-plan, does not contradict the City’s evidence, Duffitt points to no evidence suggesting that the City’s broad prioritization scheme is not the product of budgetary and cost-benefit policy decisions. Given the budgetary considerations and cost-benefit analyses which produced the City’s prioritization scheme, the City’s designated evidence demonstrates that its decisions are discretionary under the “planning-operational” test as it is interpreted in Pairsh and Rutherford.
Duffitt argues that the City’s delegation of certain prioritization decisions to its managers demonstrates that its decisions are more a matter of professional judgment than a discretionary policy decision. . . .
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Here, if the City’s delegation of decisions to its managers had simply permitted the managers to make decisions within the context of a pre-determined policy, these decisions likely would not be entitled to discretionary immunity. But the designated evidence demonstrates that the decisions delegated to the City’s managers were similarly based upon cost-benefit analyses and budgetary considerations, demonstrating that they too were policy decisions in nature. This is so regardless of the fact that these decisions were delegated to single employees. See Greathouse, 616 N.E.2d at 367. Accordingly, we reject Duffitt’s contention that the mere fact of delegation by the City demonstrates that the decisions are non-discretionary. . . .
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Duffitt additionally claims that the City cannot support the terms of its alleged policy on the basis of affidavits alone, that it must substantiate its policy with official documentation such as records or minutes. While the City designated certain official documents relating to its budget and budgetary constraints, the City’s institution of a sidewalk-repair policy based upon its budget and other policy considerations was supported by affidavits alone. It is well-settled in Indiana that boards and commissions speak or act officially only through the minutes and records made at duly organized meetings. Scott, 659 N.E.2d at 590.
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. . . [W]e are inclined to adopt the Pairsh court’s view that in cases where certain policy decisions have been delegated to individual employees, discretionary immunity may be established through affidavits. Indeed, affidavits may perhaps be the best means of demonstrating the decision-making process in such cases. We reach this conclusion especially in light of the Peavler court’s discretionary immunity analysis, which suggests that information regarding the decision-making process at issue, from persons privy to the process, is relevant evidence for discretionary immunity analysis determinations. 528 N.E.2d at 48 (listing “testimony of commissioners regarding the decision-making process involved” as relevant evidence for determining whether decisions are based on policy considerations); see also Gerbers, Ltd. v. Wells County Drainage Bd., 608 N.E.2d 997, 999-1000 (Ind. Ct. App. 1993), (assessing board’s decision-making process on the basis of board members’ affidavits when the necessary evidence was largely absent from the minutes), trans. denied.
We recognize that other panels of this court have reached the contrary conclusion. . . .
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To the extent Scott and Madden dealt only with alleged policy decisions entrusted to a governmental entity, and not also to a single employee, they are distinguishable from the instant case. To the extent they suggest that official records and/or minutes are required in all cases, we are convinced that they are unduly restrictive. See Ind. Code section 34-13-3-3(7) (providing for discretionary immunity for governmental entities and employees). Accordingly, we follow the Pairsh court’s lead and conclude that the affidavits in this case were adequate to establish discretionary immunity.
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We have concluded that the City is entitled to discretionary immunity from Duffitt’s claim and that her individual challenges to the City’s evidence do not alter that conclusion. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s denial of summary judgment and remand with instructions to enter summary judgment in favor of the City.
The judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the cause is remanded with instructions.
MATHIAS, J., and CRONE, J., concur.