01-10-11 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 10, 2011 Councilmember Oliver Davis stated that he was aware that this ordinance has been on the books since the 1970's however, it was not clear then and that is why he is asking these questions now, because they are not clear to his constituents now and it doesn't seem very clear to the Council either. Councilmember Henry Davis, Jr. applauded Councilmember's Puzzello, LaFountain and Kirsits for their efforts on this bill. He stated that this is something that was a concern of his the past couple of years concerning the Housing Authority and how their property was being maintained. He stated that it was the same scenario that they would clean off the sidewalks and the street department would come by to plow the street and pile the snow back onto the sidewalk, so it was people working against each other. So he commends the Councilmember's involved in getting a bill together. However, he stated that he has some concerns regarding his district. He stated that in the 2nd District there are a lot of housing facilities and elderly that live in the district, so when priority areas were mentioned earlier, what does priority mean and how is it defined for this particular ordinance. Catherine Toppel stated that priority is not mentioned in this ordinance. She stated that they base priorities on pedestrian traffic, bus routes, schools, where the sidewalks are getting the most use. Ms. Toppel noted that clearly is you have a street that has vacant lots and that there is not a lot of need to use those sidewalks then they are not a priority. She noted that the police department has compiled lists of high pedestrian traffic areas and it is from those lists that they base their priorities on because of the high pedestrian traffic use and need the most attention for the pedestrian use. Councilmember Henry Davis, Jr., thanked Ms. Toppel for that clarification and stated that the 2nd District should be a high priority because they have Transpo bus routes, five schools in the district and noted Harrison Primary which borders the 2nd and 6th District and the many snow routes; Sample Street, Western Avenue and Lincolnway. He stated that these are great reasons to make them a priority, however, there are many things in this bill that make him a little apprehensive of voting in favor of it. He noted that there are vacant lots owned by the City of South Bend that have not been cleared and questioned whether or not the City fines itself. Mr. Toppel stated that clearly they do not fine themselves; she makes phone calls to the various departments that are required to have the snow removed to get the snow removed. She used for example where all the trees were planted at the south west corner of Main and Jefferson, was missed for clean up of the sidewalks for the first year that the City acquired the property. She had to make the proper phone calls to put it on the list to get the snow removed. Councilmember Henry Davis, Jr. stated that his concern was that the intent of the bill mentioned a specific area of the city and noting student housing/rental properties, so that is why he is asking these questions. To make sure that it represents the aggregate of all the districts within the city. He questioned how many vacant and abandoned lots are in the city? Because children will have to walk past these areas to get to and from school, so do we know how many there are and where they are located? Because to him it is those kinds of areas that are going to need a lot of attention. Councilmember Kirsits stated that he cannot answer how many vacant or abandoned lots or homes there are. However, it had come to his attention through the Community Campus Advisory Coalition (CCAC) that a lot of students were ignorant to the requirement by the city to shovel their sidewalks. He stated that it was through the CCAC that they made them fully aware that the students and their landlords are responsible for clearing those sidewalks with a 24 hour period and that they could potentially get fined if not doing so. It was totally about creating awareness, and then it came up about students having to walk through high trafficked area having to walk in the street to and from school because the sidewalks were not being shoveled either by residential homeowner or commercial businesses. He noted that they have an obligation to clear those sidewalks in a high trafficked area especially when children need to use them to go to school. He stated that the registry of volunteers is for helping to get to 7