08-21-17 Personnel and Finance (#2)

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He went on, On the Engagement and Economic Empowerment front, we've boosted the funding for the Neighborhood Resources Connection. They were already under-funded and their leaders were taking a lower salary than what a modest salary would be. We also have $100,000 to address the lead issue through abatement. That money is excluding the federal funds we are also looking at. By having the $1.3 million for neighborhood development, we've now potentially freed up some of the federal dollars that could be used to go toward our housing in order to do some of these other types of programs. We are hoping we will find more funding for that down the road. We are also setting aside $100,000 to build capacity for quality early childhood education. This program is not fully formed yet and it is still in the early stages of discussion. On the Business Development side, there is $529,000 coming out of COIT and EDIT that helps with the Workforce Development program as previously mentioned as well as small business development. We also have a$115,000 contract with the Chamber of Commerce to help with business recruitment. He showed a slide that depicted the Federal Funds the Department receives. He continued, The Community Development Block Grants are in Fund#212. We are assuming roughly steady funding at$2.5 million. Our current President of the United States threatened that existence, but both the Senate and the House wanted it to remain in the budget. Committeemember Williams-Preston thanked Mr. Mueller for his presentation and asked, Were there any salary changes this year? Mr. Muller replied, There were. The Assistant Director position was at$95,000 and now with the proposed title and responsibility change it is at $79,000. So there were savings there, but we simultaneously increased a few positions at the lower levels to even it out and show consistency. Councilmember Broden asked, For 2017 accomplishments, is one (1) of them the relocation of the South Shore? And what are the dollar amounts for that? Also with regard to the homelessness recommendations, where is that process and when are those dollars of the plan going to be identified? Is it within this budget? What was the rationale for the Historic Preservation merger? When will the report be available from the Workforce Development project audit? Mr. Mueller replied, Starting with the Workforce Development question, I think we should have enough to report sometime in October or November. The South Shore agreement with the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District(NICTD) has not been finalized yet. We entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the County in May for the City's Relocation Project, as well as committing $25 million to satisfy South Bend's role in the arrangement. The final and full details have not yet been hashed out. There have been talks of different tracks and there are a lot of options on the table. The homelessness piece brings about significant investment for the Gateway Shelter. The shelter was going to be the City's contribution to move that issue forward. The rationale for the Historic Preservation Commission merger has a few factors behind it. One (1), the County's finances are worse than ours. Second, the City has more historic preservation interest than the County does. The County approached the City really wanting to think about the cost-sharing model. The City responded by proposing gaining control of the Commission if any increase to the cost-share model was imposed. We have consolidated many of the functions of the Commission and now the City has more control over the function of historic properties. 6