04-23-18 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING April 23, 2018 Ms. Meyer confirmed, Yes. I would also like to provide information for the question that was asked this afternoon by Councilmember Oliver Davis. Based on 2017, the total amount received was $734,817 dollars. Of that, sixty-two percent(62%) is based on the allocation that would come to South Bend and that number is about $454,000. This being the time heretofore set for the Public Hearing on the above bill, proponents and opponents were given an opportunity to be heard. None from the public wished to speak in favor of or opposition to this bill. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to adopt Bill No. 18-16. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded this motion which carried by a roll call vote of nine (9) ayes. 18-17 A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, APPROVING RENEWAL OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS ORDINANCE INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT Councilmember John Voorde, Vice-Chair of the Health and Public Safety Committee, reported that they met this afternoon and send this bill forward with a favorable recommendation. Lonnie Douglas, Director of the South Bend Human Rights Commission with offices located at 319 N.Niles Avenue, South Bend,IN,served as the presenter for this bill.Mr.Douglas,I'm asking the Council to please extend the Ordinance we had with St. Joseph County in terms of the Commission investigating charges of discrimination in St. Joseph County. We are asking for this to go through December 31St, 2018 and, at that time we will reassess to see how far along we will be. Right now, we are not able to say we have enough cases to justify a further extension with them. We will ask them to put money in the pot, though, so that if we do find a way to get these cases we will have the ability to look into the cases.By the end of the year we hope to have enough information to make a firm decision. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked, What kind of numbers are you looking for that will help justify the needs of the County? Mr. Douglas replied, I believe the numbers were provided to you at the earlier meeting but basically we are keeping track of the number of intake cases and the number of cases by which we've increased. Our intake has gone up and the number of cases in the County has gone up.Based on the information we provided, we now have fifty-seven (57) cases in our files and last year this time we had less than forty(40). We are making that push but a lot of these cases are coming after the notoriety the Commission has received. We are also planning to do more advertisement in terms of what we do and how we are doing. We are working with various news and media agencies to get that word out. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated,I understand all of that but is there a specific number that will justify your opinion on how much money the County pays? Mr. Douglas replied, We do not have a specific number because there is no anticipation of how many cases we will have. If I had to give a number, increasing our case load by twenty-five or thirty percent(25% - 30%), that would be great. Councilmember Oliver Davis then asked, And then you could take that kind of a number and turn it into the position we had open and argue for the County to come in to help us with that? Mr. Douglas replied, Correct. We have also, along those lines, brought in a part-time person to assist us. We moved the person that was at the front desk into intake, and that shows us the intakes are going up. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated, I appreciate what you're doing and I just want the County to add their dollars to it. 4