09-05-18 Personnel and Finance (#6)

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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK likely to take advantage of that and begin dumping. And once you start getting dumped upon, unfortunately, others may join in. She continued, In regards to 2018 accomplishments, as aforementioned, we installed some 'No Dumping' signs in areas frequently dumped upon. We've coordinated with local businesses to fence off a dangerous make-shift trail near the Ironwood Bridge. Right across the street from the Oaken Bucket on the State Farm side of the street, there's a very dangerous make-shift trail that would go down to the water. We had many homeless residents living there under the bridge. Thousands of pounds of debris were collected over there in the last couple of years or so. We worked with the Fire Department,Police Department and the local businesses to abate the property and also to permanently fence that off Since we've done that, we've not had any problems at that specific location this year. We've implemented an electronic document storage system and we've began scanning files. If you haven't visited our office recently, I encourage you to do so because we got rid of a bunch of filing cabinets and we are very excited about that. We added two (2)new inspectors and also transitioned to 311. We meet on a monthly basis with 311 to work out any kinks we may be having. Knowledge Based Articles have been created and made accessible to citizens and 311 and we've demolished thirty-seven (37) unsafe properties, twenty-seven (27) vacant and abandoned and ten (10) garages and/or sheds. We also added two (2) new full-time inspectors and one (1) part-time historic preservation inspector to our team. We regularly attend neighborhood and community meetings and whenever we are invited we make sure someone attends and comes back to the office to share the information they gathered. She went on, We've purged closed housing files and have sent many to archives for storage. That has freed up space and subsequently has made a better working environment for our team. We've continued to update our aging car fleet with pickup trucks to increase functionality of vehicles for inspectors. It is much easier to go down an alley and get to difficult spots if you're driving a truck that can access those areas more easily. We continue to cross-train staff. Some of the training provided to our staff includes asbestos training,diversity and inclusion, customer service, seller in government,NIMS training,project management and active shooter active aggressor training. One (1)of the things that is not on that list is the fact that we've worked pretty regularly with the Police Department to identify nuisance properties that are brought to our attention. She continued, Some of our goals and challenges include dividing our inspectors into two(2)focus groups, those being housing and environmental. We have increased special assessments, processing for civil penalties and demolition invoices. We continue to build our community outreach programs. Often times we are invited to neighborhood cookouts, which we love. I think we are building good communication with our community. We look forward to meeting or exceeding our goal of two (2) outreach community contacts per month. We are converting our current brochures into Spanish and that is pretty much completed. We are also creating a database of resources available to people who need help with Code environmental issues. Often times we find that there are resources available to people who struggle, however, they are scattered throughout the community and we don't know exactly where to direct people to. We are continuing to provide additional training and employee development to our staff. She went on, Some of the challenges and opportunities we have to face includes resuming the vacant and abandoned property registration. We are restructuring the environmental inspections to be of a ten (10) day cycle that is immediately followed by abatement crews. This will increase efficiencies and reduce the cost of abatement crews. We are trying to increase revenue through the EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 (574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 3