02-12-18 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING February 12, 2018 of the things we begin developing roughly one (1)month from now when we have the State of the City Address. Any feedback or questions from Councilmembers is certainly encouraged and appreciated. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge Councilmember Randy Kelly who announced his resignation from the Council. I would like to express my appreciation and the City's appreciation for the work he did. The work of a City Councilmember is often thankless, unglamorous but always important. Mayor Buttigieg continued, That being said, allow me to begin with some high-level numbers to give economic context with what we are working in right now. He referenced his presentation (available online and in the City Clerk's Office). He went on, We have seen about seven hundred (700)jobs connected to the economic development work that has been done since the beginning of 2017 with about $200 million of private investment going along with that. If you look at the overall number of jobs in our City, we are up about 7,000 since 2012. This has created a radically different set of issues and problems as well as opportunities. When we saw that double-digit unemployment we saw it get below four percent (4%) at one (1) point but that didn't adjust for seasonal fluctuation.Now we are hovering right around four percent(4%). We also see labor force participation pretty strong. However there are still concerns about people who are left out of the workforce all together and those are not counted in the unemployment rates. We continue to see estimates from the Census Bureau saying that City population is up.Again,these are just estimates until the 2020 Census. By the way, we are very closely following the process of the 2020 Census because, as a City that is right around the 100,000 threshold, a lot depends for us on making sure that every person is counted. We will continue playing a pretty active role in calling for the Census Bureau to get the resources they need to do a good job when they come to do that head count in 2020. Mayor Buttigieg went on, If you remember one (1) of the big topics last year, we were about to see dramatic growth in residential units. We have now seen about half of that large number of residential units coming online in places like LaSalle, the Studebaker Lofts and there are quite a few more in the pipeline. The former Chase Tower or the Liberty Tower, the Hibberd Building, Berlin Flats and quite a lot of others are still in the process. So far, the indication is the market is absorbing those pretty quickly. What we are hearing from developers is that especially those one (1)bedroom apartments that are flying off the shelves. Also,median income is up. This is a mixed story as our per capita personal income is lower than most people might guess. Our poverty rate is high enough that I would qualify us as a low-income community. But, we have seen that poverty rate decrease from twenty-seven point eight percent (27.8%) to twenty-six point seven percent (26.7%). That is a pretty big deal as that means about 1,000 people have moved out of the Federal classification of poverty. Mayor Buttigieg continued, Place-making has been one (1) of the key focus areas for 2017 and that will continue going into 2018. We have a major investment into our Parks, Trails and Sidewalks and that is largely thanks to the Parks Bond that Council authorized. That will impact literally every neighborhood in the City of South Bend. We have also worked to make sure we are an employer of choice and to make sure we are setting an example for employers in the area. With the support of the Council, we were able to not only lift the lowest wage of City employees to ten dollars and ten cents per hour ($10.10/hr.), but as of January 1, 2018 we have also established a parental leave policy as well. As of February 7, 2018, twelve (12) employees have already have had a chance to take advantage of that program. The Homelessness Working Group, which convened last ye , had seen the visibility of its work increase. I just had an opportunity to visit the FUSE Center. It is a housing-first facility which is working with some of the most challenging cases in the City, but I have met people there that were sleeping under the viaduct so it is good to see them with a roof over their head and to see them getting the right resources they need. We have also taken steps in terms of at least being able to measure our progress on diversity and inclusion. This includes our recruitment strategies as well as our ability to track in a more nuanced and sophisticated way than the EEO format, which, is all we've had to work off of in the past. Our diversity of purchasing is not high. It is below two percent (2%). We need to be very honest as a community about the fact that we are building off a base when it comes to the extent to which the businesses that we work with as a City reflect the community that we live in. But, we have better tools than ever to actually watch that number and see what's going on. That will give more people a chance to compete for City business. 4